Dear Friends,
As you are aware on 10thApril 2008,we launched Silver Innings www.silverinnings.com ,A dedicated and most comprehensive website for Senior Citizens and their family members.
The website is full of useful content with regards to Elders but useful for all.We don't want you to miss out anything,so we have decided to undertake a awareness series and this msg is first in this regards.
We will explain various menu and sub menu's for your benefit.
So lets start our First series with - Ageing:
Main Menu: Ageing
Sub Menu: Ageing Defined : here we have defined ageing,the common term:
"Trees grow stronger over the years, rivers wider. Likewise, with age, human beings gain immeasurable depth and breadth of experience and wisdom. That is why older persons should be not only respected and revered; they should be utilized as the rich resource to society that they are”: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Sub Menu :International Approach : This section has various aspect with regards to International school of thought and also talks about UN and WHO view and action.
Sub Menu: Indian : This section talks about Indian Govt. policy and Indian view point.Also here we have Interesting article - Should India Promote Scientific Research on Ageing? by our very own Prof. Kalluri Subba Rao.
Sub Menu: Facts and Issues : This section covers various issues related to Ageing like Elder abuse,Myths of ageing etc.
Sub Menu: Successful Ageing : This section talks about New Mantra for ageing ,this is our Vision of ageing.
Also note most of the section have Important links in the bottom and the site is best viewed in 1024x768 & above resolution of your screen.We will update the site every 15 days,from 1st May.
Hope this will Help you to surf each and every section,we request you to read each article,it will add more colours to your Silver Innings.
Next Series: Health & Fitness
Did you join your own website,join here: http://silverinnings.com/primary%20individual%20form.asp
Happy surfing.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
India Himalayas Trek: Support Dementia Cause
India Himalayas Trek
11 - 21 October 2008
Trek in the foothills of the majestic Himalayas, visit the home of the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala and get the opportunity to visit the famous Taj Mahal!
Take part in this adventure of a lifetime and at the same time raise funds to help people affected by dementia.
Get Details :http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200259&documentID=457
11 - 21 October 2008
Trek in the foothills of the majestic Himalayas, visit the home of the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala and get the opportunity to visit the famous Taj Mahal!
Take part in this adventure of a lifetime and at the same time raise funds to help people affected by dementia.
Get Details :http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200259&documentID=457
Elder 'No Help' Line : SHAME ON MUMBAI POLICE
Ever since its launch in 2005, the Elder Line (1090), a dedicated helpline for senior citizens run by Mumbai Police, has received positive reviews from most Mumbaikars. However, 84-year-old M Ramesh, a retired businessman from Mahim, begs to differ.
Ramesh, who lives in his seventh floor flat in Suraj Venture building in Mahim, has been trying in vain to register with the helpline for the past two-and-a-half months.According to Ramesh, he has made dozens of calls not only to the helpline but even to the local Mahim police station requesting for a registration form. But his repeated requests have only fallen on deaf ears.
Ramesh, who is unable to walk without support, first made a call to the helpline when he read several newspaper articles praising the helpline.Senior Inspector at Mahim police station, V M Latpate said, “I am not aware of this and cannot comment as I am out of station at present.”
Read in Detail : http://peopleforsocialcause.blogspot.com/2008/04/ever-since-its-launch-in-2005-elder.html
Shame on Mumbai Police - Helpage India should inquire in this matter and if required get themselves out of this mess.The Elderhelpline was stared with big bang and it was much publised event for Mumbai police.
Why not there be 4 digit National Elder Helpline run by NGO in association with police and other agencies.
Write to: cp.mumbai@mahapolice.gov.in and show your concern.
Ramesh, who lives in his seventh floor flat in Suraj Venture building in Mahim, has been trying in vain to register with the helpline for the past two-and-a-half months.According to Ramesh, he has made dozens of calls not only to the helpline but even to the local Mahim police station requesting for a registration form. But his repeated requests have only fallen on deaf ears.
Ramesh, who is unable to walk without support, first made a call to the helpline when he read several newspaper articles praising the helpline.Senior Inspector at Mahim police station, V M Latpate said, “I am not aware of this and cannot comment as I am out of station at present.”
Read in Detail : http://peopleforsocialcause.blogspot.com/2008/04/ever-since-its-launch-in-2005-elder.html
Shame on Mumbai Police - Helpage India should inquire in this matter and if required get themselves out of this mess.The Elderhelpline was stared with big bang and it was much publised event for Mumbai police.
Why not there be 4 digit National Elder Helpline run by NGO in association with police and other agencies.
Write to: cp.mumbai@mahapolice.gov.in and show your concern.
Sustaining relationships can be difficult
I taught social, psychological and medical gerontology for more than 25 years and occasionally even now walk into the classroom as instructor. I often used films in my classes, and I still keep up with the latest videos being offered to university professors and students. One of the most interesting and relatively new ones is called "For Better or Worse." It introduces the viewer to five couples who have shared 50 or more years together and who vary by race, class, cultural upbringing and religion, among other things.
As the film shows, sustaining long-lived relationships is becoming more difficult as we all live longer and sometimes find that we can end up spending several lifetimes with the same person. This works very well for some folks, but others come to look on the long years as better spent with perhaps several mates, rather than just one.
Sustaining long, intimate relationships requires commitment, skill and perseverance at any age. Some people are very good at communicating and have a lot of pleasing personality traits and an optimistic attitude that they can bring to their relationships. This positions them well for creating positive relationships and meeting life’s challenges successfully, but even these traits don’t help with everything life hands us. Gender, race, ethnicity, social class, education and sexual orientation also are important determinants of life’s opportunities and constraints. Purely personal strength sometimes isn’t enough to cope with everything, and long-standing habits are hard to give up or change even when they don’t really apply to, or solve, the problems of growing old together.
On the positive side, intimate relationships can be a source of mutual emotional and social support, shared interests and companionship, as well as the development of good communication skills. These well-developed life skills can be carried forward into the experience of widowhood and perhaps even second or third marriages.
We are discovering that there is a higher risk of divorce or separation during our later years. When we combine this with the ever-growing numbers of those who will lose their mates and become widows or widowers, we have a lot of single folks out there who are restructuring their lives.
Uncoupling in later life has real implications for our psychological well being, as well as our social involvement. Even though a lot of research is coming out that tells us something many of us already knew, namely, life gets better as we age, still, loneliness, life satisfaction and economic issues do raise their heads and can often be the real reasons behind the disruption of long-term marriages. This is especially true when one of the partners must become a caregiver. Our economic welfare and holdings in old age are very important, along with many other things related to old age, like an ever-changing physical structure and loss of friends and family.
The thing that sustains us through life difficulties is often our ability to accept change and adapt quickly to different circumstances. It has always been a source of some amazement to me to see how well human beings adapt to suddenly reduced circumstances. This can take the form of sleeping on the ground during an extended camping trip, to losing a home to flood or friends and kin to famine.
If our older years teach us anything, it’s how to adapt to change, often very quickly. Older folks get amazingly good at it. This can be observed if you work with them on a daily basis, as I have, or watch their behavior very closely.
It is one of the lessons they have to teach us and as we move through our Third Age, we need to keep the ability to change, modify our behavior and adjust to whatever life hands us, if we wish to survive in health and happiness.
By ANN GOWANS
Source: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Apr/20080428Feat002.asp
As the film shows, sustaining long-lived relationships is becoming more difficult as we all live longer and sometimes find that we can end up spending several lifetimes with the same person. This works very well for some folks, but others come to look on the long years as better spent with perhaps several mates, rather than just one.
Sustaining long, intimate relationships requires commitment, skill and perseverance at any age. Some people are very good at communicating and have a lot of pleasing personality traits and an optimistic attitude that they can bring to their relationships. This positions them well for creating positive relationships and meeting life’s challenges successfully, but even these traits don’t help with everything life hands us. Gender, race, ethnicity, social class, education and sexual orientation also are important determinants of life’s opportunities and constraints. Purely personal strength sometimes isn’t enough to cope with everything, and long-standing habits are hard to give up or change even when they don’t really apply to, or solve, the problems of growing old together.
On the positive side, intimate relationships can be a source of mutual emotional and social support, shared interests and companionship, as well as the development of good communication skills. These well-developed life skills can be carried forward into the experience of widowhood and perhaps even second or third marriages.
We are discovering that there is a higher risk of divorce or separation during our later years. When we combine this with the ever-growing numbers of those who will lose their mates and become widows or widowers, we have a lot of single folks out there who are restructuring their lives.
Uncoupling in later life has real implications for our psychological well being, as well as our social involvement. Even though a lot of research is coming out that tells us something many of us already knew, namely, life gets better as we age, still, loneliness, life satisfaction and economic issues do raise their heads and can often be the real reasons behind the disruption of long-term marriages. This is especially true when one of the partners must become a caregiver. Our economic welfare and holdings in old age are very important, along with many other things related to old age, like an ever-changing physical structure and loss of friends and family.
The thing that sustains us through life difficulties is often our ability to accept change and adapt quickly to different circumstances. It has always been a source of some amazement to me to see how well human beings adapt to suddenly reduced circumstances. This can take the form of sleeping on the ground during an extended camping trip, to losing a home to flood or friends and kin to famine.
If our older years teach us anything, it’s how to adapt to change, often very quickly. Older folks get amazingly good at it. This can be observed if you work with them on a daily basis, as I have, or watch their behavior very closely.
It is one of the lessons they have to teach us and as we move through our Third Age, we need to keep the ability to change, modify our behavior and adjust to whatever life hands us, if we wish to survive in health and happiness.
By ANN GOWANS
Source: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Apr/20080428Feat002.asp
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Management of Alzheimer dementia
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly. Currently, 4.5 million individuals in the United States are estimated to have AD, and that number is projected to increase to at least 14 million by the year 2050. AD is a major cause of disability and mortality, and its impact on health care costs, including direct and indirect medical and social service costs, is estimated to be greater than $100 billion per year.
Medications
No current treatments can either cure or permanently arrest AD; however, AD-specific therapies are available. The current AD therapies can be divided into two types: (1) symptomatic approaches based on enhancement of neurotransmitter systems and (2) neuroprotective strategies using antioxidants. The most successful AD medications to date are the acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which enhance the brain’s cholinergic system. Acetylcholine is believed to play a major role in the expression of cognitive, functional, and possibly behavioral symptoms in AD. Cholinergic treatment probably does not alter the progression of neurodegeneration, however. The acetylcholinesterase inhibitors reduce the metabolism of acetylcholine, which is deficient in the AD brain, thereby prolonging its action at cholinergic synapses. Three cholinesterase inhibitors are currently marketed for the treatment of mild to moderate AD: donepezil (Aricept®), galantamine (Reminyl®, Raza-dyne®), and rivastigmine (Exelon®) ( Table 5 ). As a class, these agents have demonstrated measurable, albeit modest, effects on cognition, behavior, activities of daily living, and global measures of functioning versus placebo in clinical trials The main adverse effects are gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, weight loss), and, not surprisingly, the drugs are better tolerated on a full stomach. Insomnia and vivid dreams have also been reported. In the absence of head-to-head comparisons of the cholinesterase inhibitors, the main differences appear to be their side effect profiles, titration schedules, and dosing regimens. Although studies have found modest benefits, cholinesterase inhibitors should be considered in patients with mild to moderate AD.[1] Further studies are needed to assess possible long-term benefits such as delayed institutionalization, decreased mortality, and economic savings in the cost of patient care.
Read in detail: http://yassermetwally.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/management-of-alzheimer-dementia/
Medications
No current treatments can either cure or permanently arrest AD; however, AD-specific therapies are available. The current AD therapies can be divided into two types: (1) symptomatic approaches based on enhancement of neurotransmitter systems and (2) neuroprotective strategies using antioxidants. The most successful AD medications to date are the acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which enhance the brain’s cholinergic system. Acetylcholine is believed to play a major role in the expression of cognitive, functional, and possibly behavioral symptoms in AD. Cholinergic treatment probably does not alter the progression of neurodegeneration, however. The acetylcholinesterase inhibitors reduce the metabolism of acetylcholine, which is deficient in the AD brain, thereby prolonging its action at cholinergic synapses. Three cholinesterase inhibitors are currently marketed for the treatment of mild to moderate AD: donepezil (Aricept®), galantamine (Reminyl®, Raza-dyne®), and rivastigmine (Exelon®) ( Table 5 ). As a class, these agents have demonstrated measurable, albeit modest, effects on cognition, behavior, activities of daily living, and global measures of functioning versus placebo in clinical trials The main adverse effects are gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, weight loss), and, not surprisingly, the drugs are better tolerated on a full stomach. Insomnia and vivid dreams have also been reported. In the absence of head-to-head comparisons of the cholinesterase inhibitors, the main differences appear to be their side effect profiles, titration schedules, and dosing regimens. Although studies have found modest benefits, cholinesterase inhibitors should be considered in patients with mild to moderate AD.[1] Further studies are needed to assess possible long-term benefits such as delayed institutionalization, decreased mortality, and economic savings in the cost of patient care.
Read in detail: http://yassermetwally.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/management-of-alzheimer-dementia/
Stop drugging dementia patients, urges report
Ministers should step in to stop inappropriate prescriptions of powerful antipsychotic drugs for Alzheimer's patients, an influential group of MPs in UK said today.
Up to 105,000 people with dementia in Britain are wrongly being treated with the drugs, which are used to control behavioural symptoms such as aggression, they claim. Research has shown that the medications have side effects which can accelerate mental decline, triple the risk of stroke, and double the chances of premature death.
They are intended for psychotic patients suffering from delusions, paranoia and hallucinations. Yet the drugs continue to be used as a first resort to address the challenging behaviour of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, according to the MPs. A report from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on dementia demanded Government action on the problem and urged the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the health watchdog, to carry out a review.
The report, A Last Resort, points out that no audit or regulation of such prescriptions exists. Jeremy Wright, the group's chairman, said: "Antipsychotics can double risk of death and triple the risk of stroke in people with dementia, (can) heavily sedate them, and (can) accelerate cognitive decline.
"The Government must end this needless abuse. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure antipsychotics are always a last resort. We need to include families in decisions, give people with dementia regular reviews, and equip care staff with specialist training."
The inquiry was told that 150,000 people with dementia were prescribed antipsychotic drugs in British care facilities. Psychiatric experts said 70 per cent of these prescriptions were inappropriate.
Neil Hunt, the chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said more than 70 per cent of dementia patients exhibited challenging behaviour.
"More often than not this is an expression of unmet need, not a symptom of dementia, and there is no excuse for reaching for the medicine cabinet," he said.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/28/ndementia128.xml
Up to 105,000 people with dementia in Britain are wrongly being treated with the drugs, which are used to control behavioural symptoms such as aggression, they claim. Research has shown that the medications have side effects which can accelerate mental decline, triple the risk of stroke, and double the chances of premature death.
They are intended for psychotic patients suffering from delusions, paranoia and hallucinations. Yet the drugs continue to be used as a first resort to address the challenging behaviour of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, according to the MPs. A report from the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on dementia demanded Government action on the problem and urged the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), the health watchdog, to carry out a review.
The report, A Last Resort, points out that no audit or regulation of such prescriptions exists. Jeremy Wright, the group's chairman, said: "Antipsychotics can double risk of death and triple the risk of stroke in people with dementia, (can) heavily sedate them, and (can) accelerate cognitive decline.
"The Government must end this needless abuse. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure antipsychotics are always a last resort. We need to include families in decisions, give people with dementia regular reviews, and equip care staff with specialist training."
The inquiry was told that 150,000 people with dementia were prescribed antipsychotic drugs in British care facilities. Psychiatric experts said 70 per cent of these prescriptions were inappropriate.
Neil Hunt, the chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said more than 70 per cent of dementia patients exhibited challenging behaviour.
"More often than not this is an expression of unmet need, not a symptom of dementia, and there is no excuse for reaching for the medicine cabinet," he said.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/28/ndementia128.xml
Free Talk: Make the most of your silver years - Aging in Style
HELP (Health Education Library for People) is organizing a free talk on "Make the most of your silver years – Aging in Style " on Monday 5th May by Mr. Sailesh Mishra- Silver Innings at 3.30 pm sharp at HELP, Fort, Mumbai. To Register Call: 022- 65952393/94 , 22061101.
Regarding Silver Innings: Its an no profit no loss initiative of People for Social Cause forum. www.silverinnings.com is a dedicated and most comprehensive website for senior citizens and their family members.
Address of Event:
Dr.Aniruddha Malpani, M.D.,H.E.L.P.Health Education Library for People,National Insurance Building,Ground Floor, 206, Dr.D.N.Road,
Near New Excelisor CinemaMumbai - 400 001.Tel Nos.65952393/ 65952394/22061101
www.healthlibrary.com
Free Ask the Librarian service for all your health queries at http://www.healthlibrary.com/information.html
For complete details of our free health talks check our 'HELP TALK' google calendar at http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ciugckkj8jvnk97j6dbiioaghg%40group.calendar.google.com
Do Visit : www.silverinnings.com
Regarding Silver Innings: Its an no profit no loss initiative of People for Social Cause forum. www.silverinnings.com is a dedicated and most comprehensive website for senior citizens and their family members.
Address of Event:
Dr.Aniruddha Malpani, M.D.,H.E.L.P.Health Education Library for People,National Insurance Building,Ground Floor, 206, Dr.D.N.Road,
Near New Excelisor CinemaMumbai - 400 001.Tel Nos.65952393/ 65952394/22061101
www.healthlibrary.com
Free Ask the Librarian service for all your health queries at http://www.healthlibrary.com/information.html
For complete details of our free health talks check our 'HELP TALK' google calendar at http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ciugckkj8jvnk97j6dbiioaghg%40group.calendar.google.com
Do Visit : www.silverinnings.com
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