Time.com: How to live 100 years

 Time Magazine has a great online feature on their website called "How to Live 100 Years" featuring advice from Dr. Mehmet Oz from the Dr. Oz Show and Oprah. We are living in an age of unprecedented longevity as more and more seniors live gracefully well into their 100s.

Link: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1963392,00.html

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Eat Right and Get Active - Tip #1

Start running or jogging. A Yale University School of Medicine study reports that people who run for at least four hours a week melt more calories than non-runners, even when they are at rest.

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Five signs of stress to watch out for

Your body reacts to stress in many ways and when you are stressed out, your general health is diminished. Here are five of the most noticeable signs that stress has taken over your body.


1. Sneezing or sniffling: It may be the common cold, or a weakened immune system. Thus, your sensitivity to various allergens has heightened.

Solution: Exercise. Taking a brisk walk every day for at least 20 minutes gets your blood pumping and your heart rate up. Both are important for your immune system to rebound, as well as bring your stress level down.

2. Breaking out: A stressful situation causes your body to emit adrenaline, which can help you act quickly physically if needed. Unfortunately, it can also prompt an excess amount of sebum, the oil found in facial pores.

Solution: Keep your face cleansed twice a day. Purchasing a new cleanser for medium to high oily skin can further help combat your pimple outbreaks.

3. Patchy scalp: With high anxiety, stress hormones tend to affect hair follicles, interfering with hair growth.

Solution: Up your mineral and vitamin intake to jump start hair growth. Omega-3 fatty acids like those found in salmon and vitamin B12 all provide nourishment for healthy hair.

4. Painful jaw movements: Some people tend to grind their teeth when stressed-out, even during sleep.

Solution: Relaxing your muscles before bed may also naturally keep your jaw relaxed. Using a warm compress on your jaw can also help. If the grinding persists, your dentist can provide a specialized mouth guard to keep your teeth from being damaged.

5. Strong appetite for junk food: In addition to adrenaline, your body also pumps out cortisol, a hormone responsible for craving sweets and other unhealthy foods for energy purposes.

Solution: Tying these random cravings to any stressful moments you may have recently experienced can help you resist the bag of chips and instead turn to a healthier alternative like Wheat Thins or sugar-less gum until the craving subsides.

These five symptoms are only a few of the many reactions our bodies have to high anxiety. Stress can harmfully affect all aspects of our lives, from eating habits and appearance, to mental wellness. It is important to identify how your body changes during and after stressful situations so that you can begin to develop better reactions to stress, and therefore, a better state of living.

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Caring for caregivers

By the Numbers
66: Percent of family caregivers who are women
20: Hours of in-home care family caregivers provide each week (often unpaid)
4 to 8: Number of years caring for an Alzheimer’s patient can shorten your life
46: percent of caregivers who are clinically depressed

Roughly 65 million people in the United States are caring for a chronically ill, disabled or elderly family member. The vast majority of these people are also raising kids and holding down full-time jobs and consequently they’re burning out.

“So many caregivers suffer from stress and health issues,” said Susan Baida, 42, co-founder of eCareDiary.com, a website that offers online tools to help caregivers understand the diverse aspects of their duties, including medical legal and financial issues.

Baida’s father-in-law, who had Parkinson’s disease, saw his condition worsen in his early 80s. Baida and her husband, John Mills, took intense care of him the last few years of his life. He died in 2007. Now, Baida’s 92-year-old grandfather is living in a nursing home with dementia.

“My husband and I both have experience in the healthcare and technology fields, and we were stunned at how decentralized the services are. The hospitals don’t talk to the long-term care service providers who don’t talk to the insurance companies. The caregiver becomes the CEO.” -- Susan Baida

To prevent burnout, Dr. Kathy Johnson, founder and chief executive officer of Home Care Assistance, suggests a number of steps caregivers can take to protect their health and stress levels. She recommends that caregivers stay involved in personal hobbies, eat a well-balanced diet, join a caregiver support group, and rotate the caregiving responsibilities (bathing, eating, medication) among family members to vary the duties. If you feel guilty for taking time for yourself, stop. “The best role you can play is that of son, daughter, loved one and to rekindle the original relationship you had with the person you’re caring for. There is no guilt in that,” said Johnson.

To help manage their own health and stress levels, Baida and her husband exercised together. “It got to the point where there was so little time for any focus on ourselves as a couple—we couldn’t take vacations—that exercise was our respite. We would go to the gym and work off our stress and anger.” Baida’s husband also sought counseling, which turned out to be a saving grace. “I couldn’t be his sounding board because I wasn’t a neutral party,” Baida said.

Diane Kelley, 55, a resident of Germantown, is caring for her parents, both in their early 80s, who live on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. Kelley made the nine-hour trip once a month this past summer after she noticed her mom and dad, who both suffer forms of dementia, struggled to manage their daily activities. She called them daily until it became too much. “I was trying to coordinate their medical care, their calendars, and help them with their meds.” Her parents would get confused and often forgot the conversations Kelley had had with them just the day before. Kelley solicited the help of her siblings and her parents’ grandchildren. This winter, the family came to a mutually agreeable decision to put Kelley’s parents in a temporary care facility.

Now, Kelley wishes she had talked about long-term care issues with her parents in the past, when they were able to make rational decisions. Baida thinks that’s a good idea. “If there is a history of stroke or heart disease in your family, ask your parents what their wishes would be if they were afflicted,” Baida said. And get legal documents in order. Called advanced directives, the documents allow people to dictate who they want to be in charge of their health care if they become physically or mentally incapacitated, and allows people to choose what life-sustaining measures they do—or don’t—want. Finally, Baida recommends long-term care insurance. “The earlier you sign up, the less expensive it is.”

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

6 signs that your cough could be more than just that

Many of us cough periodically throughout the day and don’t think anything of it. But, a cough can be more serious than you think. An article on caring.com shares six important questions to ask yourself or a loved one, to figure out if there may be more to your cough than meets the eye:

1. How long has the cough been going on? A cough may occur for various reasons – a blocked airway, the common cold, or more a serious underlying disease – and it may last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. If a cough lasts over eight weeks, it is considered “chronic” and should be treated. Most of the time, when the problem is treated, it will go away.

2. When does the cough occur? Seasonal allergies can cause coughing at certain times during the year. Nerves can cause habitual coughing before you speak and even sometimes, the body will cough involuntarily, which can be a sign of an underlying disease. Taking certain medications can also cause coughing, but will usually go away once the body adjusts to the medication.

3. Is the cough productive – meaning, do you produce anything when you cough? Cough production can range from absolutely nothing to greenish phlegm to bloody mucus. Usually, the more colorful the result, the more serious the cough. Consult your doctor if you see greenish phlegm. It can be an indication of a bacterial disease. Blood-streaked mucus can also indicate pneumonia, tuberculosis, or other serious diseases.

4. What does the cough sound like? A wheezy cough can be a sign of asthma and a loud, barking cough occur in smokers. And a “whooping” sound can indicate a very severe and persistent cough called the “whooping cough.” Adults over the age of 65 and small children are more susceptible to this kind of cough and are advised to get boosters in order to protect them from the disease.

5. Do you experience other symptoms along with the cough? Symptoms to look out for include, but are not limited to, fever, shortness of breath, chest pain and heartburn. These can be signs of another underlying disease that may require additional treatment.

6. Now what? If a cough is persistent, or if you feel that the symptoms are abnormal, always check with a physician. They will be able to determine if your cough is more than just a cough.

By Dr. Kathy Johnson
Source: Home Care Blog

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Can Meditation Increase Your Pain Tolerance?

One scientist from the Université de Montréal seems to think so. When performing a study on long-time Zen meditators, Joshua Grant and his colleagues discovered that their tolerance for pain far outweighed the tolerance of the subjects in the control group. This was a result of the thicker layer of gray matter in the area of the brain that processes pain sensory, most likely the result of sustained activity of the brain – much like working out a muscle. Not only does old age work against the thickness of gray matter, but also the lack of mental activity for those in their middle ages. Therefore, seniors who are consistently doing things like meditation, crossword puzzles and other “thinking games,” have improved memory and mental capacities.

According to a study conducted in 2008 by a team from Harvard Medical School, additional benefits of daily meditation include lower stress levels, eased blood pressure and added cell protection from aging.

Therefore, try adding meditation to your daily to do list. Whether it’s an exhilarating AM wake-up call or much needed time to unwind, meditation offers irreplaceable health advantages. Not to mention, it is also a nice bonding experience for you and an elderly loved one.

By Dr. Kathy Johnson
Source: Home Care Blog

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton, Toronto, York Region, and surrounding areas.