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Study: Caring for dementia caregivers

Dorothy L. Tengler Mental Healthcare

Worldwide, an estimated 50 million people are living with dementia. These numbers are projected to reach 82 million by the year 2030 and 152 million by 2050. Dementia, which is not a normal part of aging, is overwhelming not only for the people who have it but also for their caregivers and families. Dementia behaviors, such as wandering, sundown syndrome, anxiety, and hallucinations, are huge sources of stress. Now, a program of therapy and coping strategies for caregivers and family members with dementia promises to improve the caregivers’ mental status for a least a six-year follow-up.

Chronic pain: We are adding to our patients’ suffering

Lisa Cole Medical & Allied Healthcare

I started my professional practice in chemical dependency. Now, many decades later, I find myself advocating for chronic pain patients just to get them the drugs they need to continue functioning. More and more, they are erroneously considered “addicts” and being titrated down, cut off or given inadequate substitutes to what had been working well enough for them. Most simply want to attend to their activities of daily living without being immobilized by pain. This current prescribing practice only contributes to our patients’ suffering versus offering relief.

Why meatless madness won’t be going away any time soon

Dave G. Houser Food & Beverage

There’s no doubt about it — we Americans love our meat. We eat more of it per-person than any country in the world except Luxembourg. Health experts and environmentalists tell us this is not a good thing. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that meat — red and white — contributes directly to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and various types of cancer. The heavy environmental impacts of conventional meat production are a major concern as well. Under such circumstances, it should come as no surprise that vegetable-based burgers that look like meat and taste like meat are winning over millions of skeptical consumers, taking Wall Street by storm and prompting Big Ag to jump into a potentially lucrative business that began on the vegan fringe.

Preventing chronic pain in lab mice

Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied Healthcare

In the U.S., chronic pain affects more people than cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. When pain is chronic, signaling persists over time and can lead to biochemical changes in the nervous system. Options for treating chronic pain include oral and topical therapies. Other options include physical therapy, exercise, acupuncture, relaxation techniques, and psychological counseling. Effective drugs against chronic pain are not necessarily forthcoming. However, researchers have recently identified a protein as a future potential target for medicinal drugs.

How you can provide a healing environment at your workplace

Lisa Cole Business Management, Services & Risk Management

When I think about a healing environment, rest, beauty and love instantly come to mind. Yet, how often do we encounter any of these three qualities in a typical healthcare encounter? Or in any workplace? Kate Strasburg and Traci Teraoka, co-founders of Healing Environments, spent 15 years creating environments conducive to healing. Let's take up their torch and put on our thinking caps.

If you’re too much of a people-pleaser, here’s how to fix it

Victoria Fann Mental Healthcare

Are you a people-pleaser? Do you have a difficult time saying no? Do you put others' needs first and yours second? Do you have a difficult time being honest about what you want or need? You're not alone. We all do it to some degree. Because we are part of a family, a community and a culture, there is a lot of pressure to fit in, conform and not rock the boat. This can become a pattern, and it can feel daunting to change it because it feels normal, even if it’s also harmful. These simple steps can help you move in a new direction.

Viral infections among organ transplant recipients may be influenced by…

Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied Healthcare

A study recently presented at the American Transplant College shows that the gut's microbiome plays a significant role in whether a transplant recipient will develop a viral infection of not. "Our results confirm and extend the novel association between the gut microbiome and the development of viral infections from stem cell transplant recipients to solid organ graft recipients," Dr. John Lee and colleagues wrote in the abstract. "Altogether, these findings support targeting the gut microbiota as a strategy to prevent and/or treat viral infections."

Is your nursing career close to sunset?

Keith Carlson Medical & Allied Healthcare

As the baby boomer generation ages into retirement or semi-retirement, many aging nurses are facing the potential sunset of their nursing career. Having potentially worked decades in the healthcare arena, leaving the work that has held so much meaning for you as a professional can be a painful crisis of identity. But what if your career as a nurse didn’t have to completely end and you could simply change channels and enter an entirely new iteration of what it means to be you?

What you don’t know about growing old — and why

Patrick Gleeson Medical & Allied Healthcare

Americans haven't always faced our national shortcomings very well, although we're probably getting a little better at it. While we have a long way to go to achieve perfection, we've made substantial strides in some areas. However, despite the best efforts of various institutes devoted to the subject, such as the National Institute on Aging, growing old is something we don't want to hear about. This seems particularly strange when you consider that it's one of the few things in life that will certainly affect everyone who doesn’t die young.

5 ways to help your patients follow a home healthcare plan

Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied Healthcare

As a physician, you know how important it is for your patients to follow your instructions when it comes to carrying out health recommendations on their own — and you also know a lot of folks simply don't do it right. Whether they ignore your instructions, follow a care plan incorrectly, or lose motivation to keep up with their meds or healthy practices, you have more control than you think when it comes to making your orders clear and keeping your patients motivated. How? Follow this advice.

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