Category Archives: Palo Alto Home Care

Exercise Your Brain

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We at Home Care Assistance Palo Alto recognize the many benefits of reading in a digital age. In our book Happy to 102, we share the secrets to living longer, healthier and happier lives. One of the behaviors linked to healthy longevity is mental stimulation. Exercising your mind is just as important as exercising your body and one of the most enjoyable ways to keep your brain active is by reading.

Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, tells us in Benefits Of Reading, “Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight.” When we watch TV, perhaps the most common pastime nowadays, we often become drone-like while reading requires our full concentration and often involves reasoning.

Dr. Geoff Kauffman, an author for Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, speaks to our involvement while reading stating, “When people read a fictional story, they vicariously experience their favorite character’s emotions, thoughts and beliefs in the process.” Imagining something happening is just as good at activating the brain as actually participating in the event in reality; our brains simulate experiences. When we allow our brains to press pause and become wrapped in a story, we are building and strengthening neurological connections.

In addition to keeping your mind sharp, reading is also correlated with reduced stress, a benefit we think our Palo Alto home care clients appreciate since maintaining calmness is also linked to longevity.

Home Care Assistance Palo Alto encourages you to keep your brain young by picking up a book and putting down the remote or computer mouse. Take your grandchildren to the library to choose books together. It’s a great way to bond and promote the benefits of reading.

Super Food Highlight-Avocados

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Did you know that our Palo Alto caregivers are trained at Sur La Table in healthy meal prep? With our focus on healthy diet, our caregivers often seek to incorporate super foods in the meals they prepare for our Palo Alto home care clients. One of the most powerful superfoods is avocado.

Avocados are considered one of the healthiest foods on the planet because they contain over 25 essential nutrients, including vitamins A, B, C, E, and K, as well as copper, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium. Avocados are also packed with fiber and protein and are correlated with reduced rates of various diseases and illnesses. Here we list 5 health benefits of incorporating avocados in your diet:

1) Promotes heart health. Avocados contain vitamin B6 and folic acid, which help regulate homocysteine levels. High levels of homocysteine are associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Avocados are also high in heart-healthy unsaturated fat.

2) Reduces the risk of stroke. The high levels of folate in avocados may protect against stroke. Those who eat a diet rich in folate have a lower risk of stroke than those who do not.

3) Protects against cancer. Research has found a correlation between avocado consumption and reduced risk of prostate cancer. The oleic acid in avocado has also been suggested to play a role in preventing breast cancer.

4) Protects the liver. A study in Japan found that avocados protect against liver damage. When changes in the levels of specific liver enzymes were measured, the avocado showed the most potent activity among fruits in slowing liver damage.

5) Cures bad breath. Avocados naturally neutralize bad breath by cleansing the intestines.

For more information on Home Care Assistance Palo Alto and our focus on healthy mind, body and spirit, call a care manager today!

Seniors and Sleep: Tips For Getting a Good Night’s Rest

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You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” While the wealthy part is still up for debate, numerous studies have confirmed that getting a good night’s rest is essential for older adults who want to stay healthy and wise. Lack of sleep has been linked to a number of health problems including obesity and diabetes, while quality sleep has been shown to enhance cognitive function. That’s why at Palo Alto Home Care Assistance, we’re dedicated to making sure our clients are not among the millions of seniors who say they don’t get enough sleep.

So, what should seniors who are struggling with insomnia do? The Palo Alto Medical Foundation has a number of helpful recommendations. First, set a sleep schedule, where you go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Next, don’t eat or drink (especially drinks with caffeine) too close to bedtime. Help yourself relax and get in the sleeping mood by engaging in some transitional activities, such as reading or meditating. Do these for about 30-60 minutes before you’re ready for bed. Once you do go to bed, make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool. Finally, resist the urge to look at the clock. Knowing how late it is will only increase anxiety and make it harder to get that much needed rest.

Still having trouble getting to sleep? Well, you’re in luck. Right here in Palo Alto, we have one of the world’s foremost sleep centers, The Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine. You can schedule an appointment and speak with one of their sleep physicians. You can even arrange to participate in an overnight sleep study, where doctors will watch how you do (or don’t) sleep in order to develop an effective treatment plan. They can help with insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and more.

And of course, we’re here to help too! For more information about Palo Alto home care and how our professional Palo Alto caregivers can address the specific needs of seniors with sleep troubles, call us today.

Are You at Risk for Lewy Body Dementia?

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The most promising dementia research focuses on interventions to prevent or slow the progression of the disease rather than reverse it. In order to assess the efficacy of these interventions, we must first be able to identify individuals on the course for developing dementia. As we’ve seen with many of our Palo Alto dementia care clients, there are many forms of this disease which makes early detection even more challenging. It is particularly difficult to discriminate between Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia, the first and second most common forms of dementia respectively, especially in the early stages. With this in mind, new research from the Mayo Clinic has researchers, clinicians and us at Palo Alto Home Care Assistance buzzing and hopeful.

According to the recent study, one of the strongest indicators of whether someone is developing Lewy body dementia is whether he or she acts out dreams while sleeping, a condition known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder. Researchers examined MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, brain scans and diagnostic histories of 75 patients diagnosed with probable Lewy body dementia. The correlation is strongest in men who are five times more likely to have Lewy body dementia if they experience the sleep disorder than if they have one of the risk factors currently used in diagnosis (e.g. loss of brain volume, hallucinations).

These findings are promising in the context of early detection and interventions since the sleep disorder can appear three decades or more before the dementia diagnosis in males. In addition, because only 2-3% of patients with Alzheimer’s have this sleep disorder, we can discriminate between the two forms of dementia with greater certainty and assign therapies accordingly.

For more information about our Palo Alto home care and how our professional Palo Alto caregivers can address the specific needs of those with dementia, call us today.

 

Stressed About Stress?

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At Palo Alto Home Care Assistance we dedicate every March and April to raising awareness about caregiver burnout. Both our professional Palo Alto caregivers and community members providing Palo Alto home care for their loved ones must balance multiple responsibilities, often leaving little time for them to care for their own health. Recognizing the health risks of chronic stress is an important first step in preventing burnout. Here we address some of the ways in which burnout can impact your physical and mental wellbeing:

  • Hindered immune system. Chronic stress weakens the immune system, increasing susceptibility to infections and disease.
  • Increased risk of hypertension. When you are stressed, your body is at a heightened level of activity and blood pressure can spike—prolonged stress leads to prolonged high blood pressure.
  • Memory loss. Chronic stress can result in confusion, difficulty concentrating and memory loss.
  • Weight gain. When you are stressed, the body reacts in a self-preservation manner, hanging on to fat.

It’s important to take steps to create a more relaxing lifestyle—if you are healthy, you will be able to provide optimal care for your loved one or client. Some tips include:

  • Seek and maintain social ties. Having a strong social network has been linked with mental and physical wellbeing and longevity. Our relationships provide emotional support, make us feel connected, and help reduce stress and depression. Caregiver support groups are also great resources as you can share concerns and seek advice from those with similar experiences.
  • Take care of your body. Maintain a healthy diet and exercise for at least 20 minutes, two or three times a week—a quick walk around the neighborhood is enough.
  • Include “me” time. Make time in your schedule for activities you enjoy. Go to the movies or dinner with friends and you’ll have the added benefit of socialization.

Some Things Get Better with Age

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An unfortunately large percentage of people tend to think of aging as a progressive process of loss—of loved ones, memory, flexibility, etc. However, although age may bring challenges to the body and brain, it also brings a number of noteworthy benefits—benefits Home Care Assistance Palo Alto wants to emphasize for our Palo Alto home care clients and the community. As you age you can expect to see improvements in:

  • ·         Mental health. As we age, we generally become selectively attentive to the positive (a “positivity bias”) and better at regulating our emotional health—we stop “sweating the small stuff” and start cherishing simple pleasures. In addition, as time becomes more finite, we begin to focus on what is most important and meaningful, tailoring our experiences to increase well-being, a phenomenon Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen termed “socioemotional selectivity theory”.
  • ·         Happiness. More effective emotion regulation strategies and a positivity bias naturally result in a decrease in the frequency and duration of negative emotions and an increase in the positive. A longitudinal study conducted by Carstensen followed participants aged 18-94 for 10 years and found that those in their 70s and early 80s were happiest. Additional studies have replicated these findings.
  • ·         Wisdom. Experience affords an abundance of social and emotional knowledge that allow older people to make more sound life decisions. According to a study led by social psychologist Igor Grossman, older people tend to demonstrate more “wisdom-related thinking,” as evaluated by six categories including allowing for compromise, seeking multiple perspectives, and admitting uncertainty.
  • ·         Migraines. According to a study by the Headache Center of Atlanta, those age 50 and over get less severe migraine attacks and symptoms than younger counterparts.

Don’t let frailty or chronic illness stop you from experiencing these benefits. Our professionally trained Palo Alto caregivers can help you live independently and healthfully.

Facebook for the Brain?

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Most, if not all, Palo Alto residents have heard of Facebook, the social networking site that built its empire from an office on University Avenue (not too far from our Palo Alto Home Care Assistance office), but many think its single benefit is in facilitating communication between young people. Preliminary research presented at the International Neuropsychological Society Annual Meeting, however, suggests that Facebook may have a pertinent benefit for seniors in boosting cognitive performance—and many of our Palo Alto home care clients use Facebook to keep in touch with grandkids.

The study looked at seniors ages 68 to 91, a demographic whose social media behavior has not been largely investigated though according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project 1 in 3 online seniors use a social networking site. Participants were randomly assigned to 3 groups of 14: the first group learned how to use Facebook and posted daily, the second group learned how to use an online diary site where daily entries were kept private, and the third group was told they were on a waiting list for Facebook training.

A series of questionnaires assessed levels of loneliness, social support and cognitive abilities at the beginning of the study and again eight weeks later. Those in the Facebook group showed a 25% increase in cognitive performance while the other participants showed no significant change. Further analysis will determine the impact of the social aspect of Facebook (compared to the non-social diary group) and the relationship, if any, between number of posts and performance.

At Home Care Assistance Palo Alto we know how important mental stimulation and social ties are to healthy longevity—they are part of our Balanced Care Method, a unique approach to care based on scientific research of the longest-living people on Earth, in which all of our Palo Alto caregivers are trained.

Keep It Off!

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Losing weight can be hard, but keeping lost weight off can be even harder.  While obviously undesirable, this phenomenon may also be harmful. New research suggests that the cycle of losing and regaining weight can increase one’s risk of cardiovascular problems. In observance of heart month, Home Care Assistance Palo Alto would like to share this research with you so that you can take preventative measures to protect your heart.

Researchers at Wake Forest conducted a 17-month study of 80 postmenopausal obese and overweight women. After five months of controlled dieting, the women lost an average of 25 pounds. The researchers evaluated the women’s health six months and then one year after the experimental diet period was completed.

After a year, 70% of the women had regained some portion of the weight they had lost. Notably, they had mostly regained fat and lost lean muscle mass. Most importantly, however, researchers found that many of the women who regained weight ended up with higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes than their baseline risk factors—meaning they were now less healthy than before they lost the weight.

Experts say this study shows that people should not focus on diet fads, or quick weight loss programs. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight are important, but we should be aware of the healthy ways in which we can accomplish these goals.

At Palo Alto Home Care Assistance, we know that healthy diet and regular exercise are important in weight management. Our professional Palo Alto caregivers are trained in our exclusive Balanced Care Method, which uses scientifically proven lifestyle behaviors like smart eating and physical activity to promote healthy longevity. They prepare healthy and delicious meals for all our Palo Alto home care clients as well as assist with exercises.

Stress-fighting Snacks

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Palo Alto home care clients, what do you do when you’re stressed? We’ve all seen movies and read books where stressed or upset characters turn to food to squelch their unpleasant feelings—most often a personal pint (or quart) of ice. While a number of these fat-laden, high-calorie foods do increase production of serotonin, the “feel good” hormone, their effects are only temporarily and can be strongly outweighed by resulting weight gain and associated health risks. In an effort to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors, Home Care Assistance Palo Alto would like to share some foods that have stress-reducing capabilities but are also nutritious:

  • Tea—Green tea contains theanine, an amino acid which has been shown to boost mood, reduce anxiety and promote restful sleep. Similarly, WebMD reported on 2006 findings that black tea promotes relaxation and boosts our ability to respond to and recover from stress. Chamomile tea contains antioxidant flavonoids which have been shown to possess mood-enhancing properties.
  • Dark chocolate—This is one treat you don’t have to feel guilty about indulging in daily! Chocolate contains many of the same relaxation-promoting flavonoids found in tea and the darker the chocolate, the more flavonoids present. Results of a clinical trial published in 2009 found a correlation between dark chocolate consumption, namely 1.4 ounces per day, and reduced levels of stress hormones.
  • Citrus fruits—Results of a 2002 German study suggested that vitamin C (ascorbic acid) helped people recover more easily from stress; blood pressure, cortisol levels, and subjective experience of stress were lower in people given the vitamin C supplement than in those given the placebo.

Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice taste. Our Palo Alto caregivers are trained in healthy meal preparation and often make healthy adaptations of our Palo Alto home care clients’ favorite meals using our Comfort Foods Cookbook.

Siri, Do I Have Parkinson’s?

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Palo Alto Parkinson’s care clients, new research suggests that we may soon be able to monitor Parkinson’s disease using our cell phones!

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system. As the disease progresses, it results in tremors and trouble with movement and coordination. More than four million people around the globe currently suffer from the disease, the majority aged 50 and older.

Just a few months ago Dr. Max Little and the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative announced that they had developed a computer program that could detect voice disorders—one of the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is dysphonia, or impairment in the ability to produce vocal sounds. When initial tests indicated an 86% accuracy rate in disease detection, Dr. Little and his team decided to extend research to voice recordings taken over the telephone. The group is now analyzing over 10,000 recordings to test the potential use of telephone monitoring to detect and monitor progression of Parkinson’s.

Palo Alto Parkinson’s care patients know the current test for Parkinson’s is expensive, slow, and not always reliable. Thus, the ability to detect the disease with an object we use every day is invaluable. Little believes that if his test does work, they could inexpensively test almost ¾ of the world’s population. This breakthrough would especially benefit poorer areas where having adequate healthcare to perform various tests may be unlikely. While not a cure, the ability to efficiently detect the disease will allow early intervention to slow disease progression.

If you or a loved one suffers from Parkinson’s, consider contacted a reputable Palo Alto home care agency like Home Care Assistance. Our  Palo Alto caregivers are trained to address the specific needs of those suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other neurological and mobility disorders.