Chicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence – Since 1991 • in home care for seniorsChicago's Geriatric Care Manager Center of Excellence

Why Mister Rogers Was Right
Mr. Rogers Told You…but were you listening? And it wasn’t just once that he shared the message; it was...
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August 2, 2022
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Why AND Is the Most Important Word
Do you recall the 1991 movie called City Slickers? It was another great role for Billy Crystal, but it...
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July 19, 2022
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Looking Out for Your Older Parent 24/7
There will come a time for everyone with an aging parent that the question will arise, “Is it still...
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July 11, 2022
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When Being in Demand Isn’t Healthy
If you’re a musician, you want to be busy, because gigs represent a better living. If you’re an actor...
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May 17, 2022
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Heavy Drinking Helps?
Let’s take a short quiz. Question: Who prefers coffee…and who prefers tea? Which is healthier for you? Answer: ...
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April 19, 2022
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Making Your Holidays Happy Again
Yes, “holidays” is a plural word here. Please allow me to digress on this plurality and simply point out...
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November 16, 2021
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Not Just Spring…
We’ve heard of Spring Training for those who follow baseball teams like the CUBS or the SOX, and we...
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April 13, 2021
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Can I Have A Hug?
I doubt there is anyone who does not have something that they have not been able to do during...
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March 4, 2021
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Until the Vaccine?
We have all been following the news on vaccine rollouts, and frankly you may have been as disappointed as...
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January 26, 2021
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Distance Caregiving Through a Wall
I’ve written numerous times about distance caregiving, and one of the observations I have offered is that distance is...
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May 19, 2020
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In the Caregiver's Words

Recent Client Praise

We all hear the phrase used as an excuse for a bit of memory lapse … that it’s just a “senior moment.” It doesn’t seem to be ageist, because in older adult communities the phrase gets tossed around about as frequently as “hello” or “goodbye.” But it’s wrong. This time of COVID places us all at risk for the “Memory Moments,” because they’re not caused by age. Yes, short term recall issues are something to which we all are susceptible, but they are not caused by age. Memory issues like dementia are not caused by age; they have organic causes. There are steps we all can take to stay more mentally sharp no matter our age and despite COVID. During this time of sustained pandemic quarantine – for those of you following the state and local mandates, that is – memory lapses can seem to become more common. Even these “COVID moments” are not inevitable, however, if you keep your mind engaged and active. Here are six tips to help fend off the cognitive impact of COVID 19:
1. Do Something New – We all have heard about “lifelong learning” as it may describe someone who seems always to be pursuing new knowledge, a new language or a new craft. Your brain still has a lot of room to expand what you know, so keep at it.
2. Don’t Cram – Just like the tests when you were back in school, the best learning cannot happen the night before the exam. Spread your learning of a new language or a new musical instrument over a number of sittings and days, and it will more effectively take root.
3. One More Time – The learning takes place over time, and you need to go over the same ground over and over. Repetition is important so that the new language you’re studying becomes like a new habit.
4. More Senses Make More Sense – When you are working a new recipe in the kitchen, you learn by reading, tasting, smelling, touching, etc. With learning a language, you learn by seeing, hearing, writing, saying, and so on. Use as many senses as you can to maximize your cognitive process.
5. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff – It’s okay to let your devices or your habits free up your brain to work on the new things you want to learn. Make a written list of your “to do’s.” It will free up the brain space to actually determine how to do what you want to get done.
6. Yes You Can – Don’t ever call it your “senior moment,” because that means you have lost confidence in you. While you are practicing what you wish to learn, practice having confidence in your learning. If you don’t believe in a “senior moment,” you are far less likely to have one.
Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
I left off last week with the first five (of ten) tips to healthy aging. Before I continue with the five that comprise the rest of the list, I want to point out that this is not meant to be an onerous list that no one can ever complete. It is about your loved ones doing their best on as much of the list as possible. And as with Rome, it will not be all done in one day. Picking up where we left off, here is 6 through 10:
1. Filling Out an Advanced Directive – In 1990 Congress passed the Patient Self Determination Act which allowed adults to have a say in how their life decisions would be managed if they were unable at a particular moment to have a say. Talk with your older loved one about “what they would want if.” Some states have the form on line, but an attorney can easily be consulted to help dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s”.
2. Be active – Your older loved one does not have to join a gym, take a course in Pilates or run a marathon unless they wish to do so. But they do need to keep the parts moving so that they will work better. Regular exercise such as long walks or swimming also helps stave off high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and depression. Or if they say they would rather read a book, show them how to do that … on a stationary bike! It’s worth the sweat.
3. Input affects output – We all have heard that we are what we eat. It’s true. Steer your older loved ones to something new and delightful like fresh foods over processed foods or organic produce over the old alternatives. Encourage new recipes and portion control. Regarding portions, a rule of thumb is to target eating until we feel 80% full.
4. Active Applies to the Brain – Some cognitive decline is just part of the aging process, but encourage your older loved one to not just give up on their brains. And this is not limited to just doing the Sunday crossword puzzle. Anything that stimulates the brain is good for the brain. Think of the brain as a muscle that needs to work out to be its best.
5. Aging is Not a Solo Act – More than one in four older adults lives alone, but that does not mean that they need to consider their residential status to be some sort of “solitary confinement.” Getting out for coffee is not about the coffee, it is about the company they keep.
I said this last week, but please allow me to repeat myself when I say that all of these tips are great counsel for anyone at any age. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
Excess weight is not healthy and obesity definitely is not healthy, right? When it comes to your older parent or loved one, the answer is a bit more ambiguous. Picture you have been going to the physician with your older mother for a number of years, and mom has been “robust,” BMI 29, but not what would strictly be termed obese. (BMI, or body mass index, is calculated from a person’s height and their weight, and technically 30 or higher is considered obese.) This year, however, mom’s BMI is up to 30, yet she has not gained a pound. So, by the book she is “obese?” Not necessarily…this is part of what is termed the “obesity paradox.” As a person grows older, there is a tendency to lose muscle mass, and it can get replaced by body fat. There is also a tendency to lose height while maintaining a stable weight as in the case with “mom” above. As people age, they may accumulate more “protective weight,” weight that can be a reserve against unintentional weight loss. Among the young obesity is associated with adverse health impact in the form of risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers and a negative effect on most organs of the body…and reduced life expectancy. Yet, some older people who are patently obese have dodged these ill effects. These are also part of the “obesity paradox.” The fact is that a lot of their younger cohorts may already have succumbed to disease before they got so old, not unlike the octogenarian who has smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and continues to smoke without any seeming impact on their health. So, should mom lose weight? If it is all weight around the mid-section, weight loss is called for. Appreciate that any weight loss regimen is likely to result in loss of muscle as well as fat and therefore deconditioning. The rule is that weight loss in the 5 to 10 percent of body weight range tends to have positive effects. Also, weight loss that owes to real life style changes such as diet and exercise are positive. This kind of program should also include sufficient intake of protein to be safe. The American College of Sports Medicine also recommends exercise at least twice a week. This exercise should include strengthening exercise and resistance training. They identify what some call “muscle confusion” training which simply means changing up the regimen frequently to encourage a more nimble and flexible gait, balance and core strength. It is also helpful to involve your older loved one’s primary care physician to assure that their medications do not introduce issues of balance or body hydration. But beware of the physician who cautions against exercise for a “person of this age.” Don’t let them discount mom because of birthdays. Get a second opinion. And remember that it ultimately is about quality of life…and a healthy weight. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.
Caregivers to loved ones with any of the many forms of dementia deal with their loss quite poignantly on special holidays like the one on our calendars for this Friday. While a loved one who is suffering from dementia may not remember what calendar date it is, they likely will have at least some distinct memories of past Valentine's Days just the same. So, if you are a caregiver to a loved one with one of the forms of dementia, there are ways to still share a special moment...even special memories with your older loved one. You doubtless have photo albums of moments shared with your loved one, and some of those photos may evoke a genuinely positive emotional response from your loved one. A walk down that memory lane can be surprisingly positive for both of you. Staying in the moment also can have its rewards. You can make it a point to bake festive cupcakes or cookies with a Valentine's look, or if your loved one is willing and able, you can even arrange flowers for the date. And maybe the flavor of chocolate will evoke "taste bud memories" in your loved one? Because more distant memories will be clearer than what has happened even earlier today with some patients, you can make Valentine's Day an opportunity to talk about first meetings, first kisses or first dates. And if you have special memories of a specific romantic movie that you had enjoyed with your loved one, you may find that a viewing now will evoke some of those good feelings again. Or at the very least, even if they do not remember the film, it may elicit similar positive feelings now just as it had back when you both first viewed it. In a similar vein, you and your loved one may have had "your song" or a number of songs that you enjoyed in an earlier time. If the song is one that you all learned the words and tune, you may find that your older loved one still remembers enough to sing along with certain refrains. Finally, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, hugs and gentle touch are every bit as important to an Alzheimer's patient now as they would have been before the onset of the condition. Alzheimer's patients also will respond to gentle talk as well as good humor...just as long as they do not feel they are the object of a joke. And while we are talking about caring for your loved one who may be wrestling with a fading memory, please remember my cardinal rule. You will do a better job of caring for your loved one if you also are caring for you, the caregiver. Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to info@creativecaremanagement.com.
Please consider what I am sharing with you here to be the raw material side of recommending some recipes for your upcoming Thanksgiving feast. By raw materials, I mean that these recommendations are not recipes, strictly speaking, but I am recommending your feast this week have ample quantities of vitamins D and E. In fact, you might carry these doses over into your regular diet after this week. If you are like most folks who have been following advice on healthy eating, you already appreciate that vitamin D is very important for bone health and vitamin E is central to heart health. But what you may not have seen is that both of these also are important to brain health. Separate studies have shown that vitamin E can help to keep Alzheimer's at bay and vitamin D can lower the risk of cognitive decline. Starting with the case for vitamin E, researchers at New York State University have studied the effect of regular quantities of walnuts (rich in vitamin E) on what they termed "Alzheimer's-susceptible mice." Granted, these are animal studies, but the nutrition needs of mammals can be generalized to some extent. And their results published just this month were quite striking. The group of mice in their experiment who consumed regular doses of walnuts showed statistically significant improvement in learning, memory, motor skills and even anxiety levels over the mice who received no walnuts. (How do they measure anxiety in mice?) No surprise that walnuts contain Omega-3 fatty acids as well as other antioxidants which have been proven in other studies to ward off cognitive decline. And then there is vitamin D. This was a study among older Italian adults rather than mice. The researchers tracked vitamin D levels of nearly 2,000 adults whose average age was 73.9 years for over four years. They found that those individuals with vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency (measured by their serum 25OHD) were more likely to have declining cognitive skills as measured by a standard test called the "Mini-Mental State Examination." This was compared to their baseline test at the outset of the study which showed all participants to begin at comparable and robust levels of mental ability. It is important to note that this second study simply noted the differences among individuals based on their blood serum levels and did not control what they ate. More testing will be needed to see if vitamin supplements can make a positive difference versus in mental capacity. And, of course, the first study was on mice, so it would be helpful to move this up to humans. And by the way, the amount humans would consume to give the equivalent dose for what the mice ate would be only about 1-1.5 ounces of walnuts daily. So, if you are a caregiver to an older loved one this holiday, these two studies may not include any recipes, per se, but they do suggest what you may wish to add to your Thanksgiving spread as well as the dinners that will follow. And you don't have to choose between these two vitamins; cover your bets by adding a bit of D and a bit of E. Charlotte Bishop is a Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. Please email your questions to info@creativecaremanagement.com.
We’ve heard Doctor Fauci say it many times…that we have to deal with this pandemic on the virus’ terms, not on our own terms. But if you are like me, you get a bit weary of that and you would just like to take control of the challenges you face not feel like a victim of these challenges. I have some good news on that front. For quite a few years we have heard more and more about Alzheimer’s disease and the risk factors, but sometimes it seems the only thing we can do to avoid this cognitive beast is to choose parents with better genes…and yes, I know that is not the way it works. Well, the good news comes from researchers in our own Chicago who are reporting that there are concrete steps all of us can take to lower our risk of succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease…steps we can take even under quarantine. The researchers analyzed the data from the 1,845 people in the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) and the 920 individuals in the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP). They did this by defining five categories of healthy lifestyles that allowed them to score and follow these individuals for about six years:
1. Smoking versus non-smoking
2. Vigorous Exercise 150 minutes or more per week versus less
3. Light to Moderate alcohol consumption versus more
4. Mediterranean – DASH diet (upper 40% of all subjects)
5. Late-life cognitive activities (upper 40% of all subjects).
This was all like on/off switches with a person either qualifying for the activity category or not – smoker versus not, upper forty percent engaged in cognitive activities or not and so on. So the possible scores were anything from ‘0’ to ‘5’. Six years into the study, they found that people reporting two to three activities were 37% less likely to manifest Alzheimer’s than those reporting only one or no activities. Those with 4 or 5 of the healthy activities had a 60% lower risk than the 0 and 1 activity group. So, if you ask me what I will do with whatever remains of our quarantine, I am going to be sticking to the healthy list. Even during a pandemic, a clear focus on being as healthy and active as possible will offer substantial benefits, some we may not even have thought about. Charlotte Bishop is an Aging Life Care Advisor, Geriatric Care Manager and founder of Creative Care Management, certified professionals who are geriatric advocates, resources, counselors and friends to older adults and their families in metropolitan Chicago. She also is the co-author of How Do I Know You? A Caregiver’s Lifesaver for Dealing with Dementia.