What to look for in a Medical-Alert system

If you’re in the market for a medical alert system (expect to pay around $30 a  month for the basic service), experts for Consumer Reports said the best ones meet all or most of the following criteria:

  • It works for a user’s specific disability.  For example, a stroke survivor may need a device he or she can activate with one hand.
  • It offers a choice of a wristband and/or neck pendant.  Cords worn around the neck can pose a strangulation risk; wristbands might irritate people with skin conditions.
  • It includes help buttons that can be wall-mounted near the floor in multiple rooms in case the user falls and isn’t wearing the pendant.
  • It offers multiple choices for whom to contact if the user needs help, from emergency services to a friend or relative who lives nearby.
  • It has a battery backup in case of a power failure.
  • The base station can be contacted from anywhere on the user’s property—even in the yard or at the mailbox.
  • The company has its own monitoring center, located in the United States, and employs its own trained emergency operators (rather than contracting that function out).
  • The monitoring center has been certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a nonprofit safety and consulting company.

About Cleansing Water, Inc.

Cleansing Water, Inc. is a Warrenton, Virginia home health care agency offering professional geriatric care and serving seniors, individuals recovering from surgery, individuals with long-term disabilities, and other clients throughout Fauquier, Culpeper, Gainesville, Haymarket, Middleburg, Prince William, Rappahannock and other Piedmont Virginia communities. We provide in-home companions, certified nursing assistants, and geriatric care managers to assist with the tasks of daily living, monitor health and medications, and ensure clients are well cared for, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

For more information about Cleansing Water’s short-term and long-term home health care services, Call (540) 341-0212 or our toll-free number, (866) 294-4665, to schedule a consultation and discuss your geriatric care and home health care options. You can also visit CleansingWater.com for more information.

The healing properties of honey

The use of honey for wound healing has a history that dates back 4000 years, long before bacteria was discovered.  The recorded use of honey has been noted in both the ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures.  Modern researchers began investigating the medicinal use of honey in the early 20th century, but the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s halted further research.

Recent concerns about antibiotic-resistant bacteria have sparked renewed interest in the alternative and complementary use of honey for wound healing, especially when conventional treatments have failed.  Reported to inhibit 80 species of bacteria, honey has a broad spectrum of antibacterial properties.  An antifungal action has also been noted on yeast-cultured wounds.

Honey’s therapeutic action is osmotic; the high sugar content of honey draws moisture out of the bacteria cell, dehydrating the cell and inhibiting growth of microbes due to intracellular water loss.  It has an osmolality sufficient to draw fluid from wound exudate.  When sugar is evaluated on its own for a therapeutic agent for wound healing, the results aren’t significant.  It’s thought that the combination of ingredients in honey provide an unsuitable environment for the growth of bacteria.

Honey contains an enzyme that produces low levels of hydrogen peroxide when diluted.  The low level action of hydrogen peroxide helps to cleanse and debride the wound bed, thus contributing to the healing process through granulation and epithelialization and increasing blood and oxygen supply to the wound.  Hydrogen peroxide has a notoriously bad reputation in wound care due to its potential for tissue damage and inflammation; the hydrogen peroxide effect of honey is significantly diluted so as to exhibit a beneficial effect.

Honey provides a moisture barrier, which keeps the wound hydrated.  This nonstick barrier helps to decrease injury and pain to the wound site during dressing changes.  Honey is also credited with decreasing wound healing time due to its anti-inflammatory effects.  The reduction in wound exudate reduces inflammation, which, in turn, reduces the patient’s discomfort and pain.

Medical-grade honey can shorten healing times and reduce pain, scarring, and wound odor.  Perhaps it’s time to consider the practical use of medical-grade honey for wound healing.

Managing the descent into dementia

A new book on Managing the descent into dementia

‘A Caregiver’s Guide to Dementia’ by Gitlin and Piersol

This book offers advice on managing a loved one whose brain has stopped keeping up with the demands of a daily life.

Sometimes, when you feel that life and its complications are completely out of control, you just want some plain, uncomplicated advice.  Not explanations, background or analysis – just simple suggestions for what to do next.

That is the goal of this book.  Though, some of its introductory language uses the jargon of the health-care world, most of the book consists of brief, straightforward advice on managing a loved one whose brain has stopped keeping up with the demands of daily life.

Here are some examples they recommend: (taken from the book)

  • Use a one-step verbal command.  Example:  Turn on water.  Pick up your toothbrush.
  • Limit clothing choices, and lay the clothes out in the order that the person with dementia will put them on.
  • Present food items one at a time.  Use a white plate to eliminate distractions from patterns on dishware.
  • Watch for signs of frustrations, such as fidgeting, restlessness and loud talking.  Consider staying at arm’s length; if you come too close, the person may feel threatened, become angry or strike out.

The authors address a wide range of situations, including incontinence, inappropriate sexual behavior and repetitive questions.  They say their strategies have been used in both research and practice, and have been found helpful.

 

About Cleansing Water, Inc.

Cleansing Water, Inc. is a Warrenton, Virginia home health care agency offering professional geriatric care and serving seniors, individuals recovering from surgery, individuals with long-term disabilities, and other clients throughout Fauquier, Culpeper, Gainesville, Haymarket, Middleburg, Prince William, Rappahannock and other Piedmont Virginia communities. We provide in-home companions, certified nursing assistants, and geriatric care managers to assist with the tasks of daily living, monitor health and medications, and ensure clients are well cared for, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

For more information about Cleansing Water’s short-term and long-term home health care services, Call (540) 341-0212 or our toll-free number, (866) 294-4665, to schedule a consultation and discuss your geriatric care and home health care options. You can also visit CleansingWater.com for more information

Which immunizations do adults really need?

Vaccines are recommended throughout your life to help prevent certain illnesses.  However, adult adherence to many routine vaccine recommendations remains low.

 

Tdap/Td

One of the most important vaccines Tdap/Td, which protects against three bacterial illnesses: tetnus, diphtheria and pertussis.  Tetanus affects your nervous system and leads to painful muscle stiffening, especially of the head and neck.  With diphtheria, a thick gray coating forms on the throat, making it difficult to breathe.

Pertussis, known as whooping cough, is extremely contagious and causes severe episodes of hacking- and cases of it are on the rise.  Babies under the age of one are especially vulnerable and can die from it, so it’s important to be vaccinated if you’ll be around any babies or children.

As an adult, you may have gotten a Td shot – the booster that protects against tetanus and diphtheria.  Regardless of when that was, you should get Tdap if you’ve never received it.  And keep a record of the date.  You’ll need one every 10 years after that.

Pneumococcal

The benefits of this vaccine are that it protects against the bacteria Streptococcus pneumonia, a bug that causes serious illnesses like pneumonia and meningitis.  This vaccine is currently recommended for all folks 65 and older, but younger people may still need to get this.

Schedule a shot if you have any condition that makes you “high risk”, like heart disease, diabetes, or chronic respiratory issues like asthma.  The CDC also recommends smokers of any age get it, since they are more at risk of developing respiratory illness.  Smoking damages the lining of your lungs, which makes you more susceptible.  It damages your normal defense system.

There are several other vaccines that may be recommended for you, such as HPV, and Hep B vaccines.  Check with your doctor to see what is recommended and at what intervals for you.

About Cleansing Water, Inc.

Cleansing Water, Inc. is a Warrenton, Virginia home health care agency offering professional geriatric care and serving seniors, individuals recovering from surgery, individuals with long-term disabilities, and other clients throughout Fauquier, Culpeper, Gainesville, Haymarket, Middleburg, Prince William, Rappahannock and other Piedmont Virginia communities. We provide in-home companions, certified nursing assistants, and geriatric care managers to assist with the tasks of daily living, monitor health and medications, and ensure clients are well cared for, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

For more information about Cleansing Water’s short-term and long-term home health care services, Call (540) 341-0212 or our toll-free number, (866) 294-4665, to schedule a consultation and discuss your geriatric care and home health care options. You can also visit CleansingWater.com for more information.

Facts About Lupus

Lupus is an autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue. There are several types of lupus, but the most common and referred to is systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE.

 

1.5 to 2 million Americans have some form of lupus, with 16,000 new cases reported annually.  The prevalence of lupus is about 40 cases per 100,000 persons.  Women are diagnosed 9 times more often than men, usually between the ages of 15 and 45.

Although the cause is unknown, most believe that lupus results from both generic environmental stimuli. Environmental factors that have been known to cause lupus include extreme stress, exposure to ultraviolet light, smoking, medications and antibiotics in the sulfa and penicillin groups, some infections, and chemical exposure to compounds such as trichloroethylene in well water and dust. Read more »

The coming storm in caregiving

In 1930, the average life expectancy in the US was 59 1/2.  Today, it’s about 81 for women and about 76 for men.  The fastest-growing part of the population today is the oldest old, those over 100.  They say that the person who will live up to 120 has already been born.  That is at once, both exciting and daunting.

An AARP study said that in 2010 there were seven potential caregivers for adults older than 80.  But by 2050, that ratio may drop to 3 to 1.

Unpaid family caregiving was valued at $450 billion a year by AARPs Public Policy Institute in 2009.  That is more than federal and state Medicaid budgets combined.  To help family caregivers, legislation was introduced in Congress late last year that would guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave annually that would provide partial wage replacement for working caregivers.  The past three to five years has shown that businesses are recognizing the need to help employees who are also caregivers. Read more »