Friday, May 23, 2014

'Smart-Spoon' Makes Miracles Happen For Parkinson's Sufferers


Perhaps the most commonly recognizable symptoms for people with Parkinson's disease are tremors. These frustratingly sporadic movements make life's most simple tasks difficult. I have memories of the way my grandmother's hand used to shake when she attempted to lift a coffee cup to her mouth during breakfast.

For many, these tremors are more than just embarrassing. The tasks of personal grooming and feeding oneself can become virtually impossible in some of the more severe cases.

Enter Liftlabs.

Liftlabs is a San Fransisco based company which has developed a remarkable new device to assist people with Parkinson's or any other tremor inducing conditions. While the concept may not be new, the application is revolutionary. Consider that most newer digital cameras are equipped with motion cancelling technology; microprocessors which detect and counter any movements by the picture taker in order to capture a clear image. Liftware is similar device which applies the same idea to a more commonly used daily apparatus- a spoon. When using a Liftware spoon, patients who would normally toss their food all over the plate and table are now able to bring the food successfully to their mouths.



http://www.voanews.com/media/video/1830213.html

To read the entire story click here.

To learn about how Home Instead Senior Care is able to assist the senior in your life click here.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

http://aprillindnerwrites.blogspot.com/2013/09/golden-retrievals-dog-hospice-and-poem.html


"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with the song still in them."
-Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

For most, there is still an opportunity to live a life of purpose. It is no small task to be continually intentional regarding who you are and what you were created to do with your life. Life has a not-so-funny way of throwing distractions into your field of vision which, while they may be good and worthwhile things, may nudge you slightly off course at critical moments. 

I often think of the movie Far and Away. The main character, a poor Irish tenant farmer, comes to America with dreams of owning his own plot of land. Like so many of us, along the way he loses track of the dream that drove him to the land of opportunity in the first place. While riding a train back east, he spots a caravan of settlers heading west. As if awakened from a sleep, he grabs his belongings and leaps from the train to join them. His fellows on the train call after him- "Mick! Mick! Where are you going?!" "I was on the wrong road," he answers back.

Unfortunately, many will reach the end of their journey with heavy regrets that they no longer have the time to correct. It is helpful to hear some of them as a cautionary tale. On my final day, I hope to be able to echo the words of the Apostle Paul who declared:" I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith."(2 Tim4:7)

Here are the top five regrets of the dying as recorded by Bonnie Ware in her new book, The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing.

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

How many of us have fallen into this trap? It is easy to conform to the expectations of those who care the most about us but ultimately, it is not their life to live. Make it your own.

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

This regret was shared by an overwhelming number of male patients during their final moments. Go home and through the ball with your kids.


3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Bottling up emotions is not a new art form. The results of hiding your thoughts and feelings are well documented on every possible level: physical, mental, and emotional. In the words of Elsa, let it go.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Creating true community is a VERY intentional task. As lives get busier, carving out time for the people in your life that matter is not automatic. How many of us have people on our list that 'we just lost touch with somehow?'

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Perhaps the most surprising of the top five, this is not an easy fix. Happiness and joy are choices that we make throughout our lives despite our circumstances. It is far easier to become mired in whatever difficulty we are currently facing than to celebrate all of the remarkable aspects of the life we have been given along the way.
So....


For more information about the way Home Instead Senior Care can help your loved one live the life of their dreams visit www.homeinstead.com/106.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

"Franken-mouse" Experiment May Hold Keys To The Fountain of Youth



I really wonder where some of these studies start.

Recently, scientists have discovered that injecting old mice with blood from young mice reverses some of the effects of the aging process.

"Old mice who were injected with the protein or who received a blood transfusion navigated mazes faster and ran longer on treadmills. They easily outperformed their control peers, who were given only saline."

The other side of that coin was the polar opposite scenario. Young mice injected with the blood of old mice showed signs of premature aging.

Beyond the obvious hopes and implications of these discoveries is the bizarre genesis of this experiment. Scientists first conjoined an older mouse with a younger mouse to study the effects of sharing a blood supply. Let me put that another way. Scientists stitched two mice together to see what would happen. Bueller? Bueller?

The Stanford scientists who conducted the "Franken-mouse" experiment said that the young mice used were the human equivalent of people in their 20's. I suppose they were able to make that assumption by observing the mice's poor taste in music, regrettable dating choices, and seemingly fearless approach to dangerous situations...like being stitched to another mouse.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/frankenmouse-marita-mcveigh.html
I digress.

There are a multitude of systems within the human body which breakdown as a result of the aging process. Cognitive ability, organ function, stem-cell activity and the ability to fend off diseases are just a few of the questions to which scientists are hoping to find an answer during the human trial portion of this study; a trial which they hope will begin immediately.

To read the entire article regarding this study, click here.

For more information on what Home Instead Senior Care is doing to change the face of aging in Chapel Hill, click here.