Wi-Fi Tablets for Elderly People

Posted in Alzheimers, Technology

According to http://www.alz.org/facts/ , a new American develops Alzheimer’s disease every 67 seconds. It is believed that close to 5.5 million people will have this terrible disease in 2015, with over 5 million of them being 65 years old and older.

It has been estimated that within the next ten years, there will be more than 7 million people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, as the number of US citizens aged over 65 continues to grow. In the US, about two thirds of the affected people are women.

It’s not a surprise that under these circumstances, more and more elderly people, especially the ones that have Alzheimer’s and an early-stage dementia, are interested in finding out what are some of the easiest, least confusing ways of accessing their emails and the Internet, for example.

The first idea is to use tablets built especially for seniors. And while there are various tablets that could do the job, it may be an even better idea to use a tablet that was built for elderly people from the very beginning. A good tablet example, along with a detailed review, can be found here. That particular tablet is in fact a Google Nexus, but its operating system has been specifically tweaked to match the interests and abilities of the elderly.

It’s a bit surprising, but the mentioned tablet – GrandPad – comes with a full, unlimited 4G data plan from Verizon, so there’s no need to use a router and/or have internet access. Of course, if the signal is weak, a router, especially one with an antenna cable adapter and a high gain antenna like these could be a more than welcome addition, as it is usually a one-time setup device, and then it can do its job for many years in a row.

It is important to know that the GrandPad doesn’t have a web browser. I can understand that this will reduce the risks of getting the tablet infected with viruses and/or other forms of malware, but many seniors are interested in accessing the web through a browser and even use Google every now and then. This could be a problem for some people, but it may go unnoticed for others.

One more thing: the tablet is insured, so if its owner loses it or breaks it, he or she will get a replacement for free. At $60 per month it’s not a cheap tablet, but the good news is that it won’t force anyone into long-term contracts. And when you factor in the unlimited 4G data plan, the price starts to seem very reasonable.

Healthy Aging Tips

Posted in Aging

The way people age depends a lot on the daily things they fill their days with. For the huge majority of people, aging means nothing more than rusting, getting sick and losing the pleasure of living. But once you decide to dedicate your life to living healthier, things can change for the better.

Every part of your body can be helped to work in a healthier way, depending on several factors that you can become aware of. Basically, healthy aging is a success if you follow the instructions in the “maintenance book”.

Aging should not mean reducing your physical activity. New scientific discoveries have proved that exercises cause the blood to flow faster in the veins, and this causes the release of several internal medicines which determine the decrease of the blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. In order to benefit from these internal medicines, people need to keep practicing healthy physical activities.

A healthy diet has a positive impact on aging as well. Specialists say that smaller, but more frequent meals are the perfect thing to do if you want the diet to positively influence the general health of the body. When you eat less, but more often, the body is helped to absorb nutrients and burn calories, allowing you to keep the personal weight in control as well.

Fruits and fresh vegetables should accompany you throughout the entire day. In fact, a good idea would be to prepare fresh smoothies, enjoying them several times each week. Get some berries, bio yogurt, grapes, oranges and all the fruits and vegetables you can think of, blend them, and then drink a full glass at breakfast; this will provide vitamins and energy for several hours, also helping you with the digestion.

The weight has to be kept under control. Simply stay away from any sort of junk food! It is already proved scientifically that people who eat healthy foods live a longer and better quality life. Processed food has a negative impact on your health, so the idea is to eat pure, less transformed meat, fruit or vegetables.

Your diet should contain beneficial oils, like fish oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil and nut oils. It is highly recommended to eat smaller quantities of partially hydrogenated oils like sunflower oil, palm oil, soybean oil etc. Research shows clearly that these healthy types of oils are directly related to living a longer and happier life.

Meat should be replaced (at least partially) by fish, which is considered to be a lot lighter and healthier not only for aged people, but also for every other member of the family as well.

The specialists have discovered a direct relation between the measure of your waist and some of the worst medical problems, like cardiovascular diseases. Having a correct weight will many times offer the warranty of a healthier and longer life. As there are exercises created for people of all ages, consider setting aside at least a few minutes a day, in order to tone the body and get rid of the fat on the abdomen, which is responsible for the measure of the waist.

Getting old is not necessarily a bad thing, provided that you prepare for this period in your life ahead of time. Start applying these principles today, even if you are not an old person, and you will lead a long, happy life.

Preventing Alzheimer’s disease

Posted in Alzheimers

As with many other diagnostics that people receive, there are many things that can be done in order to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease is currently getting a lot of the specialists’ attention, because at this point there isn’t an available cure for it. Nevertheless, as the number of people that are diagnosed with Alzheimer is getting bigger and bigger every year, there are countless efforts directed toward finding a cure, or at least delaying its onset. The good news is that after several years of research, analyzing the patients and their symptoms, there are several things that can be done in order to prevent (or at least delay) the very first signs of dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is responsible for about half of the dementia cases which are diagnosed every year. And out of these cases, about forty percent are persons diagnosed with vascular dementia.
All the specialists agree that the brain needs to be constantly stimulated; when this happens, the risk of suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease is diminished a lot. There are some factors, like the genes, which are out of our control, of course, but still there are many other aspects which we can influence in a positive way, thus helping our brain fight this terrible disease.

A healthy brain is a result of regular physical exercise, a healthy diet, a stimulating environment, good sleeping, a healthy way of managing stress and an active social life. When a person starts targeting each and every one of these six aspects, there are big chances for the brain to function well, keeping dementia at bay.

Regular physical exercise is responsible for reducing the stress levels in the body, improving the general mood of the person, improving the memory functions and increasing the energy levels. Statistics show clearly that exercise reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s by fifty percent, which is a huge number. In fact, physical exercise can prove to be useful even when cognitive deteriorations have already occurred; the brain will actually start to work better due to the special physical exercises.

There are special gymnastics programs especially designed for older people, or persons that have not been doing exercises at all. This means that no one should be afraid of starting to exercise on a regular basis. People that are interested in helping their brain work better should try to do about thirty aerobic exercises, five times a week. Gardening, cleaning or simply doing the laundry in the house are also useful and can count as physical exercises. Weight and resistance training has proved to be very useful for the brain at any age; people older than 65 should add two strength classes to their weekly physical program.

Changing the diet may also prove to be useful. Specialists advise to opt for the Mediterranean diet, which means that you should add fish, nuts, whole grains, olive oil and a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables to your daily diet. Trans fats and saturated fats are to be completely avoided. Add omega-3 fats and drink green tea, as it has proved to be directly related to memory boosting and alertness. White and oolong teas are also very good for the health of your brain. Specialists have discovered that the glial cells in the brain should be protected as much as possible; their role is to remove the debris and toxins. Ginger, green tea, fat fish, soy beans and blueberries play a very important role in protecting the glial cells in the brain.

Louis Kraml, an Innovative Rural Health Leader

Posted in Louis Kraml

Louis Kraml is the CEO of Bingham Memorial Hospital, a small project initiated by a group of people living in Bingham County, Idaho. It started as a local 60 bed hospital back in 1950, but now it has become a modern medical facility that has budgets of about 250,000,000 dollars each year.

It wasn’t an easy effort, but it looks like Louis Kraml has managed to push Bingham Memorial Hospital in the right direction. In the beginning, BMH couldn’t afford to hire more than 15 doctors, but nowadays the medical staff has grown to about 200 people. Not only that, but many other local residents have been hired by the hospital, so the total number of area residents that work for the hospital is close to 750 people now. Believe it or not, this makes the medical institution led by Louis Kraml the fifth employer in the entire county of Bingham, a premiere when it comes to rural hospitals.

As Louis Kraml admits on his personal website at louiskraml.com, these impressive results wouldn’t have been achieved if it weren’t for this team, a team in which Kraml has invested a lot – and it shows! There is a strong set of core values (teamwork spirit, honesty, mutual care, etc to name just a few) and they are fully embraced not only by the management team, but also by the medical staff.

During his first few years as BMH’s CEO, Louis Kraml has focused his energy on attracting the best doctors in the area. Sure, having an impressive hospital building is a good thing, but if the doctors aren’t skilled and compassionate at the same time, the health care act suffers. Kraml is constantly hiring doctors, and the details of his recruiting campaign that can be found at playwhereyouwork.com, a clever way of presenting Idaho’s beautiful scenery as a bonus for all the doctors that are interested in working in a top of the line hospital and spending their free time practicing various sports in Idaho’s beautiful mountains.

I am not sure if Louis Kraml’s efforts have something to do with this, but Idaho is now one of the best places in the country when it comes to practicing medicine. It looks like the doctors really know how to do their jobs here, so Idaho is one of the states with the fewest complaints in the entire US. Couple that with the great salaries, which often times exceed the ones that are paid even in some of the largest American cities, and you have got the recipe for success.

Bingham Memorial Hospital has been constantly growing with Louis Kraml at its helm. Today it’s not just a regular hospital anymore; the finest birthing center in the area was added to BMH a few years ago. Even some of the larger rural hospitals are sometimes unable to serve their patients, because they lack the needed equipment; fortunately, Louis Kraml has focused his energy on building a state of the art emergency medicine section as well. It is a very welcome addition for all the Bingham County locals, who don’t have to spend hours driving to a large city hospital because they can’t get the needed help at their local medical center.

Weight management is a major problem in the US at the moment, and Louis Kraml is well aware of that. Recent studies show that about 35% of Americans suffer from obesity, and this condition is also a trigger for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, etc. Due to Louis Kraml’s initiatives, BMH has started to offer effective weight management programs, which offer the benefit of making the people healthier, while lowering the overall medical costs per patient with about $1,500 per year. It’s a win-win situation, and Kraml has successfully implemented it at Bingham Memorial Hospital.

The hospital also offers surgical services and patient rehabilitation services. Heartburn relief, a condition that affects about 45% of the American citizens, is an important part of BMH’s activity. According to Louis Kraml, the new therapeutical massage clinic can also server people that need to stay hospitalized for a while, helping them maintain their strength even if they have to remain immobilized for several days.

Louis Kraml proves that the American rural health has a good looking future. This makes you wonder how many small, rural hospitals which are now closed would still be serving their local residents if they had a Kraml-like manager.