Caregivers

HONOLULU -- Home-based caregivers of ill or elderly family members are under enormous physical and mental stress, but daily meditative yoga may be a simple, effective strategy for maintaining health, according to a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn . UCLA researchers Helen Lavretsky and Michael Irwin conducted an eight-week, randomized trial on the effects of meditation exercise on 49 people who...

Getting an early diagnosis of dementia could lead to finding ways to cope - and it could mean feeling bereft at what the future holds. So do you want to know? The early diagnosis of and intervention for Alzheimer's and other dementia has become an increasing priority, but that means the patients and their informal caregivers are left facing many issues regarding their futures that need to be considered, researchers said Tuesday. The researchers, from several British universities, reviewed 102 studies from 14 countries to consider the ramifications on patients and caregivers of a dementia diagnosis.

If you're caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's, you're in plenty of company. Nearly 11 million people take care of the 5.3 million Americans with the disease, a number that's expected to grow to almost 16 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Assn. The demands of care-taking often place enormous pressure on a family's time and resources. A 2009 AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving survey found that caregivers — most commonly middle-aged women caring for a parent — give more than 20 hours of their time per week.

Jimmy Fallon had a vision: Three men stood at a bar, as men often do, but then they turned around and lo, it was revealed that each wore a Baby Bjorn, with an actual baby. He would call it "Guys With Kids," which after a sneak preview earlier this month premieres in its regular time slot Wednesday. It's not much to build a comedy on, as the pilot for NBC's "Guys With Kids" makes abundantly clear. But perhaps Fallon can be forgiven for viewing the fact that some men take care of their own children as earthshaking news because we keep treating it as such.

Getting an early diagnosis of dementia could lead to finding ways to cope - and it could mean feeling bereft at what the future holds. So do you want to know? The early diagnosis of and intervention for Alzheimer's and other dementia has become an increasing priority, but that means the patients and their informal caregivers are left facing many issues regarding their futures that need to be considered, researchers said Tuesday. The researchers, from several British universities, reviewed 102 studies from 14 countries to consider the ramifications on patients and caregivers of a dementia diagnosis.

A yoga meditation program could reduce depression symptoms and boost mental health, a study finds, and that's not all - it may also show benefits at the cellular level. The study, published recently in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , involved 49 caregivers ranging in age from 45 to 91 who were taking care of family members with dementia. Caregivers are at risk for high stress levels, often with no outlet or relief, which can lead to health problems. The participants were randomly assigned to two programs: Kundalini yoga Kirtan Kriya meditation or passive relaxation with instrumental music.

More than two decades ago, Congress set out to stop dangerous or incompetent caregivers from crossing state lines and landing in trouble again. It ordered up a national database allowing hospitals to check for disciplinary actions taken anywhere in the country against nurses, pharmacists, psychologists and other licensed health professionals. On March 1 -- 22 years later -- the federal government finally plans to let hospitals use it. But the long-awaited repository is missing serious disciplinary actions against what are probably thousands of health providers, according to an investigation by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times.

The House voted 419 to 0 on Wednesday to approve new benefits and financial support for the primary live-in caregivers of seriously wounded veterans who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure, which would cost about $1.7 billion over five years, is part of comprehensive legislation that would permit the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand its assistance to family members of veterans generally. Among other things, the bill also calls for seven days of post-delivery care for female veterans' newborns and more accessible healthcare for veterans living in rural areas.

The article "Cancer's Toll on Marriage" (July 16) by Judy Foreman clearly outlined what stress in a medical crisis does to a marriage. Caregivers may survive emotional strain but their physical health suffers. They have been found to have lower activity levels of immune cells that kill infectious intruders and destroy tumor cells before they become full-blown cancer as reported in Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Studies have found that people caring for ailing relatives also tend to gain more weight and have higher cholesterol and blood pressure than non-caregivers.

For 11-year-old Halleijah Franklin, it was an honor to serve a pre- Mother's Day brunch to Joyce Griffis. "She's so caring, so loving. If she wouldn't have taken care of me, I probably would be in the system," Franklin said of her maternal grandmother. "She buys me clothes and takes me places and loves me just like she's my mom." Griffis was one of dozens of grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members who were thanked Saturday for stepping in to care for children when their parents could not. The event, held in South Los Angeles, was sponsored by the Community Coalition.

It sounds futuristic, but telemedicine - the use of telecommunications technologies to diagnose and treat patients - has been hotly anticipated at least since 1993, when the American Telemedicine Assn. was established. But in the last two years, it has finally "taken off" thanks to better technology and lower costs, says Jim Linkous, the association's CEO. "Today 20 million Americans get some part of their health care remotely," and that number will grow as telemedicine will expand its reach, he says.

Many of John Adams' scores pursue the big ideas. His subjects have included the U.S. relationship with China, Middle Eastern terrorism, the L.A. earthquake and riots, caring for the dying, the Nativity, the bomb. On Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, he tackled perhaps the biggest of all when the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiered Adams' "The Gospel According to the Other Mary. " Taking on the most monumental narrative in Western civilization, Adams' part-opera/part-Passion is - in subject, meaning, emotion, relevance, historical resonance and musical ambition - huge.

Asserting "we are at an exceptional moment" in the hunt for an Alzheimer'sdiseasetreatment, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins on Tuesday promised a raft of new research aimed at stopping and reversing the memory-robbing disorder by the year 2025. In unveiling a first-ever "national strategy" on Alzheimer's disease, Collins launched several new projects and clinical trials--including a whole-genome sequencing effort to identify genes that confer vulnerability to--or protection against-- Alzheimer's, and a trial to explore whether an inhaled form of insulin will slow progression of the disease.

Clarence Ayers was baffled. At 73, he was raising his great-granddaughter in rural Fresno County. He relied on $334 a month in public assistance to help cover the teenager's expenses: new shoes when she outgrew her old ones, transportation to the after-school activities she enjoyed. But last summer, county officials said they were slicing his CalWorks payment by 10% and for the most perplexing of reasons: Over the years, they had mistakenly sent $10,000 to the girl's mother and grandfather.

A yoga meditation program could reduce depression symptoms and boost mental health, a study finds, and that's not all - it may also show benefits at the cellular level. The study, published recently in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry , involved 49 caregivers ranging in age from 45 to 91 who were taking care of family members with dementia. Caregivers are at risk for high stress levels, often with no outlet or relief, which can lead to health problems. The participants were randomly assigned to two programs: Kundalini yoga Kirtan Kriya meditation or passive relaxation with instrumental music.

My 82-year-old mother has been accusing family members of spying on her, listening in on her phone conversations and entering her home when she's not there, among other things, off and on for about 10 years. She told her doctor she won't talk with us. Is there anything we can do? Are there resources and/or free counseling services to help us work out issues with our mom so we can talk with her doctor? You can try to contact your mom's doctor to discuss her condition, particularly given that you're concerned she may be suffering from dementia and unable to properly care for herself.

Taking care of somebody with a chronic health problem is like running a marathon, a long and grueling experience. "If you give it all your energy upfront, you exhaust yourself," warned Debra Cherry, a clinical psychologist and the assistant director of the Los Angeles Alzheimer's Assn. "You just have to pace yourself."

I want to thank you for your coverage of the developmentally disabled and their resources (or lack of them) in your articles, "Without a Net" and "The Great Divide" (Feb. 6 and 7). The issues are so complex, and you presented many of the issues in an objective light. My husband and I have served the disabled of all ages and disabilities for over a combined 60-plus years, as teachers and administrators in public and private systems. We are "retired," but I currently direct a small agency in Redondo Beach that offers day activities to adults with developmental disorders.

The first sentence in Dean Takahashi's e-mail was a relief. "Those stories were hard for me to read," he wrote, "but I thought you handled them well. " Then he gave me pause. "I wish you had more room to describe my brother. " Dean had a point. He'd just read my recent two-part series that looked at the state's first prison hospice. There, dying killers, rapists and thieves are graced with a profound compassion, much of it coming from a group of murderers who live in other parts of the prison and have been trained as caregivers.

Five disabled residents of a care facility in the Monterey County city of Marina died in a fire late Saturday night, authorities said Sunday. The two caregivers escaped from the single-story house, said Lt. Rick Janicki of the Marina Police Department. They were treated for smoke inhalation, as were three police officers and a firefighter. A sixth disabled resident also got out, but remained hospitalized late Sunday afternoon, Janicki said. It does not appear that anybody else lived there, he said.