Loneliness is Bad for Your Health

Here is a press release from the Association for Psychological Science about the negative effects of lonliness.  And this isn’t just for seniors – everyone can be impacted by isolation.

The press release, from the APS,  shows the importance of having a caregiver i the home for the elderly because being left alone for long periods of time can actually have a detrimental effect of their health.  Just another reason why the services of Home Instead Senior Care can help the elderly get well, and stay well.

Two University of Chicago psychologists, Louise Hawkley and John Cacioppo, have been trying to disentangle social isolation, loneliness, and the physical deterioration and diseases of aging, right down to the cellular level.

The researchers suspected that while the toll of loneliness may be mild and unremarkable in early life, it accumulates with time. To test this idea, the scientists studied a group of college-age individuals and continued an annual study of a group of people who joined when they were between 50 and 68 years old.

Their findings, reported in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, are revealing. Consider stress, for example. The more years you live, the more stressful experiences you are going to have: new jobs, marriage and divorce, parenting, financial worries, illness. It’s inevitable.

However, when the psychologists looked at the lives of the middle-aged and old people in their study, they found that although the lonely ones reported the same number of stressful life events, they identified more sources of chronic stress and recalled more childhood adversity. Moreover, they differed in how they perceived their life experiences. Even when faced with similar challenges, the lonelier people appeared more helpless and threatened. And ironically, they were less apt to actively seek help when they are stressed out.

Hawkley and Cacioppo then took urine samples from both the lonely and the more contented volunteers, and found that the lonely ones had more of the hormone epinephrine flowing in their bodies. Epinephrine is one of the body’s “fight or flight” chemicals, and high levels indicate that lonely people go through life in a heightened state of arousal. As with blood pressure, this physiological toll likely becomes more apparent with aging. Since the body’s stress hormones are intricately involved in fighting inflammation and infection, it appears that loneliness contributes to the wear and tear of aging through this pathway as well.

There is more bad news. When we experience the depletion caused by stress, our bodies normally rely on restorative processes like sleep to shore us up. But when the researchers monitored the younger volunteers’ sleep, they found that the lonely nights were disturbed by many “micro awakenings.” That is, they appeared to sleep as much as the normal volunteers, but their sleep was of poorer quality. Not surprisingly, the lonelier people reported more daytime dysfunction. Since sleep tends to deteriorate with age anyway, the added hit from loneliness is probably compromising this natural restoration process even more.

Loneliness is not the same as solitude. Some people are just fine with being alone, and some even see solitude as an important path to spiritual growth. But for many, social isolation and physical aging make for a toxic cocktail.

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Author Contact: Louise Hawkley hawkley@uchicago.edu

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Are You Prepared for an Emergency?

A recent article from the NewsMax.com website showed that a town in Alabama is beginning the process of reopening its fall-out shelter, a building once only used during the Cold War when a nuclear attack was greatly feared.  So why reopen the shelter fifteen years after the federal governemnt stopped funding such causes?

Fear, perhaps.  But in an unceratin world, where tensions remain high with countries like Syria and Iran, and an ever-fumbling Russia, the truth that our country could be attacked again is a real threat.  So the question I pose today is this:

“What would you do if your city was attacked by a nuclear or biological weapon?”

Would you know where to go?  Do you have a plan in place?  I fear that for most seniors, that answer would be a resounding NO.  Here is an excerpt from the article found at NewsMax.com:

Alabama City Reopening Fallout Shelters

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — In an age of al-Qaida, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the nation’s most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.

Others would hunker down in college dorms, churches, libraries and research halls that planners hope will bring the community’s shelter capacity to 300,000, or space for every man, woman and child in Huntsville and the surrounding county.

Emergency planners in Huntsville _ an out-of-the-way city best known as the home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center _ say the idea makes sense because radioactive fallout could be scattered for hundreds of miles if terrorists detonated a nuclear bomb.

“If Huntsville is in the blast zone, there’s not much we can do. But if it’s just fallout … shelters would absorb 90 percent of the radiation,” said longtime emergency management planner Kirk Paradise, whose Cold War expertise with fallout shelters led local leaders to renew Huntsville’s program.

Huntsville’s project, developed using $70,000 from a Homeland Security grant, goes against the grain because the United States essentially scrapped its national plan for fallout shelters after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Congress cut off funding and the government published its last list of approved shelters at the end of 1992.

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Your Senior Advisor: Tips Can Help Seniors At the Doctor’s Office

By Shannon Wygant, Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and owner of the Waterford and Walled Lake, Michigan franchises of Home Instead Senior Care. 

Q.    Since my wife died last year, I’ll be going to the doctor alone for my annual physical this year.  I’m nervous and don’t know what to ask.  And, at age 78, I’m hard of hearing.  Do you have any suggestions?      

We thought you might find the following information helpful.  U.S. Preventive Medicine, a private company that works with hospital and physicians groups, recently released tips to help consumers get the most from their annual physicals. 

Prioritize and verbalize personal concerns and goals.  Before you go to the visit, identify all of your concerns and what you expect, and write those down. 

Review family medical history.  Many diseases are hereditary.  Make sure you know your family history and provide a detailed outline to the doctor. 

Get an examination the old-fashioned way.  A thorough physical must include a thorough examination, no matter how uncomfortable, for early detection and prevention. 

Find out about metabolic syndrome.  Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease and is easily diagnosed through a cholesterol or lipid profile, blood glucose (sugar), blood pressure readings and measurement of waist circumference.  Metabolic syndrome is not routinely addressed by many doctors during a physical. Take the initiative and ask if you should be assessed. 

Ask about screening for chronic diseases.  Early detection leads to improved prognosis for many of the most common chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.  Talk to your doctor about a schedule of recommended preventive screenings. 

Review the list of prescription and over-the-counter medication you currently take. While medications and supplements may have life-saving benefits or provide symptom relief, all may induce detrimental side effects in some individuals under certain circumstances.  Provide your doctor with a complete list of all prescription and over-the-counter medications, vitamins, herbs or other supplements that you are taking or have   recently taken. 

Another suggestion, from the non-medical caregiving company Home Instead Senior Care, is to take a trusted friend or family member with you to the doctor’s appointment.  That individual can help you understand what the doctor is saying if you can’t hear his/her comments and instructions.  If you don’t have anyone like that, consider hiring a professional caregiver, who not only can accompany you to doctor’s visits but help you maintain a healthy lifestyle as well. 

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care, contact Shannon Wygant at 866-922-1400 or visit www.homeinstead.com. 

—Editor’s Note:  This is the second in a weekly series which will be emailed every Monday to regional press affiliates to help promote health, welfare, and advocacy for our senior population.  Bert Copple, Director of Community Relations, can be reached via email at dcrcommerce@inspireseniors.com, or via cell at 248-953-9916.

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Your Senior Advisor: Sore Feet One Problem of Aging

By Shannon Wygant, Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and owner of the Waterford and Walled Lake, Michigan franchises of Home Instead Senior Care. 

1. My 83-year-old mother, who lives alone, complains that her feet hurt more.  Is this a common problem for seniors and something we should be worried about?

The wear and tear that comes with aging can indeed cause foot problems for seniors, according to experts.  “Signs of foot trouble may include pain; excessively dry skin; thickened or discolored nails; swelling; redness; and unusual sensations,” reported Joshua Kaye, D.P.M, a podiatrist in Los Angeles, in an article written last year by Michelle Meadows for the FDA Consumer Magazine. What’s worse, foot pain can trigger other problems such as pain in the legs, hips and back, according to the article “Taking Care of Your Feet.”  Because foot problems may be potentially serious for seniors, the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) suggests that people take their socks off when they go to their primary care physician for a regular checkup. In a recent APMA survey of more than 600 people, 73 percent said their feet were not routinely inspected at doctor visits. 

Following are common foot ailments:

• Fungal nails—Infections that can quickly spread to other nails.
• Ingrown toenails—These can be caused by a variety of problems including improper nail trimming.
• Bunions—Misaligned big toe joints that can become swollen and tender.
• Hammertoes—Toes that are bent like claws, often caused by muscle imbalance or tight socks and shoes.
• Corns and calluses—Calluses appear on the soles and corns on the top, often caused by skin rubbing against shoes.
• Plantar Fascitis—Stretching or tearing of the plantar fascia, which runs along the bottom of the foot and supports the arch of the foot.

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