Tag: Cancer

Finding caregivers for people with Alzheimers disease

One of the most dreaded diseases in old age is Alzheimers disease. Although unlike cancer and heart problem, this is actually not fatal. In fact, people with Alzheimers can live for a long time with proper care. That is actually the problem most of the time.

With Alzheimers disease, the patient need to be taken cared of all the time. This is because the memory loss will often render the patient incapable of thinking and reasoning. Some will even forget how to do the simplest of tasks, like brushing their teeth and even eating with a spoon and fork.

Alzheimers is a progressive and degenerative disease that affects the brain. The problem often leads to massive memory loss not only in terms of ones memories but also ones learning. Patients will forget everything that they have learned even routinary tasks that they have learned when they were just tots. Some people will also find it hard to learn new things and may even lose their language abilities. They will have difficulties in their speech and in their writing.

Because of this, caring for a patient with Alzheimers disease can be extremely difficult. It is actually like caring for a newborn babe but while a baby will slowly learn to function independently, patients with Alzheimers will lose what they have learned and will slowly become more and more dependent with their caregivers. Thus, it is important to find a caregiver that is both professionally-capable and caring as they will determine the progress that the patient will have as well as their over all condition and behavior.

Here are some tips in finding a good caregiver for an Alzheimers patient.

Choose a professional

It is good to look for a person that is already well experienced in caring for people with Alzheimers. Not only will their experience come in handy when it comes to dealing with the patients medicines and medical routines, they will also be more patient because of prior knowledge.

One problem though in hiring these kinds of people is the money that you will shell out for their salaries. Private nurses and caregivers are expensive enough as it is without adding the burden of a specialization. If you just cannot afford to hire someone with enough experience, try one who has worked with old people and then give him or her materials that will make them familiar with the basics of the disease.

Choose someone you know

Nothing beats hiring someone that you already know or someone that you have already seen working. Patients with Alzheimers will have a lot of quirks and behavior that can be extremely irritating and difficult to deal with. Thus, it is important that you choose someone that you know will have a lot of patience and care.

Of course, if a member of the family can spare the time for the patient, that is good. If not, you can ask for recommendations from people that you know. Chances are they know someone who can take care of a patient with Alzheimers.

Choose someone strong

Although this is actually not a major issue, it is also important that you choose someone who can deal with the patient and the often back breaking tasks. Remember that because the patient is full- dependent on the person, they will sometimes need to carry them or guide them when walking.

Keeping people with Alzheimer’s busy

Alzheimer’s disease is considered the 7th leading cause of death in the United States in 2004. The death toll continues to rise every year. The disease is the third most costly in the U.S. Heart disease and cancer are the first and second most costly respectively. It is recorded that there 24 million people with dementia worldwide, the figure will more than double by 2040.

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that is irreversible with no known cause or cure. The disease affects two major types of abilities. Alzheimer’s affects the very simple everyday activities such as dressing, eating, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, and even walking. One needs to be assisted in order to accomplish such tasks.

The other ability affected by the disease are the performance of more complex tasks like managing finances, driving a car, preparing and cooking meals and working in a job. It is normal for people with the disease to experience problems with complex tasks first which later on move to the more simple everyday jobs as the disease progresses.

Treatment is vital for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Treating a patient requires the conglomeration of the expertise of a family doctor and various medical specialists like psychiatrists or neurologists, psychologists, therapists, nurses, social workers, and counselors. Because the disease affects not only the patient but the whole family as well.

It is very important that family members work closely with the doctors in administering the treatment. The family should be informed of activities that are dangerous for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Some of these activities include driving or cooking.

Treating dementia related symptoms of Alzheimer’s vary. But such treatments can only be effective if the dementia is caused by factors like medications, alcohol, delirium, tumors, depression, head injury and infections. There are, however, some treatments that are being used to “cure” the well being of a person afflicted with the disease.

Activities like playing music, personal interactions, playing videotapes of family members, walking and light exercise and pet therapy have been found to be successful in helping people develop friendship, mutual support and spiritual connectedness with the people around them.

However, one should remember that such activities can be beneficial to one but could be detrimental to another patient. The best activity for a person with Alzheimer’s varies. Former hobbies or points of interest of a person could also be used to help people with the disease and their families to cope.

One could assist the person to engage in activities like supervised gardening, singing, cooking, painting and drawing as long as routine is established. It is very important to engage in these activities on a regular basis for this could help the person establish a sense of stability.

Some therapies combine various activities and have proved to be fairly successful and garnered some favorable results. Such programs combine music, exercise, crafts and relaxation which obtained the best results.

Some even add various structured sessions like meditations, sensory awareness and guided imagery in their attempts to calm and pacify the already unstable behaviors of patients with Alzheimer’s.

Aside from daily physical exercise and social activities, some of the things that you also need to consider in treating a patient are proper nutrition and health maintenance; daily activities that will give the feelings of accomplishment for the individual; keeping the patient out of harm’s way; and knowing the physical and emotional limitations of the patient, the care giver team and the family.

Tests and Examinations for Adolescent Girls

Adolescence is the time when girls face many changes as they not only become physically mature, but sexually, too. In order to maintain good health, they need to consult gynecologist, adolescent medicine physician and obstetrician. Adolescents who are sexually active need to get some test done like pelvic examination, Pap test and test for checking sexually transmitted diseases. This helps the early determination of conditions that can affect reproductive, gynecological and sexual health.

Schiller test is conducted where the iodine solution is used to cover the cervix. In colposcopy, colposcope is used to check the cervix and the vagina. Cancer is checked by biopsy. In this a small quantity of cervical tissue is removed and a pathologist checks the tissue for abnormal cells.

The most important test is the Pap test or a pap smear. The cells from the mouth of the womb or the cervix are collected to check for cancer, abnormal cells, infection or inflammation. The detection of abnormalities shows signs of cancer. Therefore it is recommended that every female must take Pap test regularly to check out for invasive cancers in the early stages itself. And if invasive cancer is detected, it can be successfully treated in the early stages. Apart from detecting invasive cancer, other changes, such as cancer cells or dysplasia and inflammation, of the vagina and cervix can also be determined. Inflammation can be caused by pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, hormones, trichomoniasis infections, viruses, bacteria, yeast infections, and other medication.

The repetition Pap test will be suggested by the gynecologist. When a girl becomes sexually active, she will have to test for cervical cancer after three years of becoming active because it usually takes many years for the significant development of cancer or abnormality. Usually there are some cervical cell changes and transient human papilloma virus infections or HPV infections which are very common. Therefore, a Pap test for cervical cancer is recommended every three years. But women who are under thirty years are at a higher risk of getting HPV infections of higher risk. It would be more feasible if every individual takes advice from her doctor about when she can begin screening, the frequency of the test to be taken, and when she can discontinue the tests.

In a Pap test, if abnormal cells are determined, usually more tests are recommended to detect abnormalities which will require treatment. Abnormal Pap test will be handled differently for adolescents when compared to adults. Usually the low grade cervical lesions will not require any treatment and will go away on their own. That is the reason why the Pap test is repeated after a gap of six to twelve months, after the original Pap test which identifies abnormalities. But this repetition will vary from individual to individual depending on her health status and kind of abnormalities found.

A replacement of the Pap test is thinprep test. It involves new technique for testing cells from the cervix for abnormalities. But the cost of getting a thinprep test done is double the cost of getting Pap test done. The advantage of getting a thinprep test is that it requires to be re-done less number of times and detects lesions in initial stages itself. The cervical cells, instead of getting smeared on a slide, are introduced into a liquid vial. After the filtration of the liquid, the cells from the cervix are examined by being placed on the slide.

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The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture

It is surprising to many people that a large and growing number of traditional physicians support the use of and practice of acupuncture techniques. The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture was organized by physicians who want to further the use of acupuncture in regular medical treatment. The Academy was founded nearly twenty years ago by a group of physicians trained in acupuncture, which graduated from courses sponsored by the UCLA School of Medicine.It used to be that acupuncture practitioners had vast knowledge of the traditional acupuncture techniques and philosophy, but little or no training in traditional western medicine. At the other end of the medical spectrum were physicians, who knew nothing about traditional Chinese medicine, and looked with some doubt on the claims of acupuncture treatment. However, a number of studies and experiments showed that acupuncture gave consistently good results in a number of areas, and so physicians started referring their patients for particular problems, such as persistent pain. After some time traditional physicians starting learning and using acupuncture techniques as part of their own methods of treatment. In addition to the techniques, they learned the long history behind the current acupuncture techniques.

The Academy (known as AAMA) is important to both physicians and patients, for members of the AAMA meet the highest standards for both traditional medicine and certified acupuncture practitioners. Most patients implicitly trust physicians, both for their extensive training and for their high standards of practice. They extend both of these to the practice of acupuncture within their offices.

One of the goals of the AAMA is to spread knowledge and appreciation of acupuncture to other physicians and health professionals that presently know little about its use. Most physicians in hospitals have heard of the possible use of acupuncture instead of anesthesia, but it is also becoming more accepted in other areas, such as minimizing pain and nausea for the patient once the operation is over and the patient is in the recovery room. Acupuncture also has some interesting uses possible in emergency room treatments.

The AAMA is also very dedicated to pursuing research and studies into new applications for acupuncture in both the hospital and physician office settings. It is especially interested in researchers to look into the fundamentals of why certain acupuncture techniques are as successful as they are. In other words, many doctors want a traditional medical explanation of the process that the acupuncture treatment starts. It seems that a simple insertion of a number of needles is a mystifying way to accomplish the results, and there is a good deal of research into how to exactly explain the mechanisms that occur. Doctors who do research into these areas may publish their results in a magazine called
Medical Acupuncture, the official journal of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture. These magazine presents authoritative papers, case reports, and research findings that integrate concepts from traditional and modern forms of acupuncture with Western medical training. This publication covers the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in pain relief, cancer, stroke, pulmonology, urology, OB/GYN, gastroenterology, and much more.

The existence of a large and growing numbers of qualified physicians that are also trained acupuncturists guarantees that the benefits of each discipline will continue to make current American health practice better for the patients.