StayHealthy. StayHome. Issue 79

Care Receivers Caregivers Nutrition Movement Wellness Aging In Place And One More Thing

December 12, 2024

This will be the last issue of the newsletter for 2024. We will be back in your mailbox on January 2, 2025. We wish you all a blessed holiday season and thank you for your continued support!

As we announced earlier, the newsletter has considerably more content going forward and will now be published every two weeks. There is a large amount of information available for the subjects we cover and it will be more efficient to provide the most relevant content over a two week period of preparation. Please see “Click Here To Learn More” at stayhealthystayhome.net for more detailed information. Feedback and suggestions are appreciated and can be submitted to: [email protected].

We will introduce you to affiliate relationships over the next several weeks, beginning today, with vendors who will provide valuable, relevant products and services to our subscribers. As we discussed earlier, in the next 60 days, we will develop a site with a store offering fitness and wellness products. A rebate program will be offered for all purchases made from the store by SHSH subscribers.

Other features and changes will be announced as we go forward.

Mission Statement

To provide information, products and services regarding home based living in a way that preserves the wellbeing of those in the 45-85 year old demographic who want to stay healthy and remain in their homes for care recipients and for their caregivers.

If you have difficulty reading the newsletter in the color scheme below, please click on “Read Online” in the upper right hand corner for black print on a white background.

Care Receivers

Nutrition

From Chefs For Seniors, advice on identifying12 food additives and chemicals. Artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, preservatives and flavor enhancers are listed along with some chemicals that are found in many processed foods. Reading food labels is a habit that I have tried to develop. While it can be difficult in a busy grocery store to take time to read labels, it can be beneficial to our health and worth taking the extra time to check.

 

From Stanford/Lifestyle Medicine. Metabolic psychiatry is an emerging field that explores the connection between the our metabolic health and mental health, especially the role of metabolism in psychiatric disorders. This is an in depth look at how our mental health and physical health are connected and how our nutritional habits effect them. Mental illness can contribute to obesity or diabetes and the opposite can also be true. The bottom line is what we consume is maybe the most important factor in maintaining our wellness.

Medical News Today provides us with information describing the benefits of a vegan or vegetarian diet. Studies show the chance of reduction in cancer and cardiometabolic diseases is greater when following diets such as these, even on a part time basis. We have discussed this before. Planning two days a week that feature vegan and vegetarian meals and reducing meat intake can be a start to a healthy wellness plan. There is information for meal planning as well and we will continue to feature meals prescribed by registered dieticians.

Movement

Senior Fitness With Meredith brings us a brief lower body workout for beginners and intermediate seniors alike.

Our friend Dr. Jo has a 6:30 minute video today on chair yoga for all of us, seniors, caregivers and all family members. Enjoy our latest entry from Dr. Jo.

Staying on Your Feet, a site dedicated to preventing falls, brings us excellent information on how to be able to enjoy the outdoors during the winter and remaining safe with an article titled Safe Winter Walking. Those of us that live in a winter climate can use this information so we don’t get stuck indoors and, as the article states, become deconditioned. There is also information how to handle a fall if you have one and methods of recovery.

Wellness

Chris Voirin, PT, DPT, TPS, brings us an article that explains arthritis, a condition that many of us deal with as we age. Chris does an excellent job detailing the disease, methods of treatment and how to manage arthritis and live our lives on a daily basis. Chris has a practice in Oak Park, IL, if you are looking for a physical therapist who can help you with arthritis issues and anything else you may be dealing with.

Three Keys to Aging Successfully from Dr Leslie Kernisan. This is a 35 minute video that is worth your time when you have a chance. Dr. Kernisan is a valuable source for us and appreciate her contributions to our newsletter.

Coping With Anxiety: Can Diet Make A Difference. From the Mayo Clinic, the effect of our diets on a condition we hear more about all the time. This is some very good, practical information that can help us on a daily basis if we deal with anxiety.

Aging In Place

Homebound Seniors, by Kaiser Family Foundation. By most accounts, 17% of seniors 65+ live independently and this number will grow in the near future as our population ages. I live alone and, to date do fine, but this could change at any time and there are many seniors living alone who have one or more chronic diseases. We will feature more information for this demographic going forward.

This article is followed by a New York Times article titled, Aging In Place or Stuck In Place. This article describes how difficult it can be to find a suitable place to live if seniors decide to downsize and sell their home. This is difficult information but important in our country right now.

Caregivers

Many caregivers are currently in the workforce and have employer sponsored health insurance. The Commonwealth Fund provides us with a survey regarding the state of health insurance in the United States. There is a lot here but good information to have as we age and this issue is so important to us.

An article titled Caregiver Crisis by Harvard Health gives straight forward information about how the role of a caregiver can effect us over time. If you are currently a caregiver or could be in the future, this information will be important for you.

Caregiven provides 6 things from caregivers they wish they had known when they began their caregiving role. Good things to keep in mind as we navigate this important service.

A wealth of information from Family Caregiver Alliance. From caring for another to caring for yourself to a list of FAQ’s, many of your questions can be answered. Another source to archive for future information.

Penn State College of Medicine has information here that is intended for cancer patients and their caregivers, but it applies to all care receivers and caregivers. It is basically exercise information that applies to both groups. See the left column for different categories of information that might interest you or your receiver/giver.

Palliative Care, by the Mayo Clinic. This is not a cure for serious illness, but a specialized form of care that addresses pain and suffering that accompany these illnesses. This article is directed towards those who are ill but is valuable information for caregivers so they can recognize when those in their care or a loved one may need palliative care.

Careyaya is a great organization that recruits college students to become caregivers while completing their educations. Here is a list with 10 ideas for supporting the caregivers in your life.

And One More Thing

It’s the holidays and Betty Crocker is here to bring us some great recipes for holiday treats! Enjoy and have a great holiday season!

As always, SHSH earns no income from any pop up ads that appear. We do earn a small commission on any purchases made from affiliates on our site.

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