When a legislator visits, it’s easy to get caught up in the celebration and forget to talk about both the challenges and opportunities that come with helping older adults. That didn’t happen at the Good Samaritan Society’s nursing home in Manson, Iowa. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) visited the organization last week and he got an [...]
: skip to main skip to sidebar GeriPal Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog Your source for Geriatrics Palliative Care News and Collaboration Home About Links Tweets Videos Wednesday , August 25, 2010 Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease : An Idea Not Ready for Prime Time Generally , Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed only after patients have progressed to major levels of cognitive impairment that results in substantial problems in daily functioning . But the brain changes that result in cognitive impairment start years , if not decades , before patients become symptomatic . So , wouldn’t it make sense to try to diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease in patients who have the brain changes , before they have clinical symptoms The answer would be yes if two conditions were met . First , there needs to
skip to main skip to sidebar GeriPal Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog Your source for Geriatrics Palliative Care News and Collaboration Home About Links Tweets Videos Monday , August 23, 2010 Some Random Thoughts on Geriatrics in Scotland from a US perspective by : Bree Johnston For the past two months started July 2010 I have been in Scotland working in various geriatrics and palliative care settings Most of my geriatrics as opposed to palliative care work has been at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Liberton Hospital in Edinburgh , and Western General Hospital in Edinburgh . My many hosts here have been extremely lovely and generous with their time and tea and I can’t thank them . enough Here are some thoughts on geriatrics , presented in no particular order . Some of what I will say
If you talk Washingtonians about long-term care in the area, their responses will likely include the “Hebrew Home in Rockville” (also known as the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington). Either they’ve regularly passed the community’s 30-acre campus in Rockville, know a friend of loved one who’s lived there or read about it in the newspaper. [...]
The cognition-enhancing drug memantine (Namenda) slightly slowed declines in overall clinical status and behavioral symptoms in patients with Lewy-body dementia -- but the drug failed to help those with dementia from Parkinson's disease, researchers said.
skip to main skip to sidebar GeriPal Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog Your source for Geriatrics Palliative Care News and Collaboration Home About Links Tweets Videos Thursday , August 19, 2010 Palliative Care Prolongs Life Thanks to Wikimedia commons for , picture A puffer fish kissing the . glass No intentional relationship to the , post Just loved the . picture A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine by Jennifer Temel and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital MGH showed that patients with advanced lung cancer treated with early outpatient palliative care lived longer than patients randomized to usual care . nbsp What A randomized controlled trial of outpatient palliative care showed a survival . benefit Palliative care prolongs life Really REALLYFor the first time, researchers have found pathological evidence that repetitive head trauma -- such as that experienced by football players -- may result in a motor neuron disease similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or "Lou Gehrig's disease."
(Source: Alzheimer’s Society – UK)
“Achieving personal goals can help people in the early stages of dementia manage their condition, Alzheimer’s Society research has found.
Researchers at Bangor University, Wales found that people who received cognitive rehabilitation felt their performance of daily activities improved. Carers of those receiving the treatment also noted an improvement [...]
Summertime is a time for travel, and if you’ve taken any road trips with friends or family, you know that personal preferences quickly come into play. Determining what music you will listen to, how high to blast the AC, where you will stop to eat and – actually – whether you stop at all, are [...]
: skip to main skip to sidebar GeriPal Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog Your source for Geriatrics Palliative Care News and Collaboration Home About Links Tweets Videos Monday , August 16, 2010 NEED YOUR IDEAS : US Preventive Services Task Force Topic Nominations The US Preventive Services Task Force is soliciting nominations for clinical preventive health topics . nbsp Nominations can be submitted by individuals or organizations . nbsp I think it would be great to submit a GeriPal topic . nbsp Can you think of Geriatrics and Palliative care issues in preventive terms There are recommendations for cancer screening in the elderly mostly age based cutoffs hearing and visual loss , but nothing about screening for chronic pain in the elderly other than counseling for low back pain falls ,Designing public health interventions to prevent diabetes may be an effective way of reducing the burden of dementia in the absence of a cure for cognitive impairment, researchers found.Poor cardiac output, even at the low end of normal, may accelerate the brain volume losses that come with age, researchers said.