Companions from Elder Care Agency – An Alternative to Nursing Homes

A fit and healthy lifestyle always leads to much alert sense in the elderly. A fit lifestyle includes healthy and nutritious meals, regular exercise and stimulating the mind with mental activity. With the aid of elder care services, a senior member of the family can get the support they need to keep up with their physical and mental health.

A well controlled nutritious diet not only contributes to the physical health, but also has a great role to play for mental stability. Five times consumption of fruits and vegetables in a day would suffice, with fish once or twice a week. Fats of any type should always be avoided. A companion from elder care services can make sure that someone living on their own will continue with their healthy eating, and not skip meals.

Physical activities that take care of cardiac fitness and vascular health can also take care of brain required for mental stability. For senior members, thirty minutes of exercise every alternate day allows for cardiovascular benefits. This vascular health and maintenance translates into a sharp mind for seniors. An elder care companion to visit an elderly person will make sure that a patient keeps up with their exercise routine.

Engaging an elderly person in mentally challenging activities can also help them keep their minds healthy and quick. Reading novels, solving crossword puzzles, games, brain teasers or learning a new language or musical instrument keeps the mind active and occupied. These activities can be good pastimes for an elder and a caregiver sharing these pastimes can be a positive experience for the seniors.

Personalized care for seniors from non-medical care agency can be a good alternative to assisted living facilities or nursing homes. A senior member will stay more active physically and mentally if they stay more at home rather than in a nursing home. Companions provided from elder care agencies can help an individual with their routine and assist in their activities. It is a priority for a patient to continue to live a healthy lifestyle.

Ideally, once you find a senior care provider you’re happy with, you should provide the newly-hired caregiver with a detailed job description outlining job title, purpose, duties and responsibilities.

Using resources available, elderly care in the home becomes a viable option. Elder care does not have to mean you have to do it alone. Becoming knowledgeable about elderly care issues make the aging transition an easier road to travel.

55 Plus Communities: The Ideal Communities To Relocate To When You Retire

Today’s 55 Plus Communities or Retirement Communities mean more than a collection of residences in the same neighborhood or geographic area. Communities set a yardstick for design and development and provide an impression of sureness your investment will be protected and preserved. It does not so much concern the community being gated as much as it concerns the fact that they are planned.  Whether you have a guard house or gate or not, inhabitants feel more protected living in a community with compatible individuals with similar interests and these are becoming very popular especially with retired individuals. Most all communities are deeded real estate. These days, there are many different sorts and modes of communities which have different kinds of amenities.

An Active Adult Community is an age-restricted community requiring that at the least one household resident is age 55. No teenagers or children can live permanently. Residents are normally occupied with community pursuits and are retired, occupied in some fashion, or run their own business. Many Adult Communities do the maintenance of the property for the residents. I choose to refer to them as Active Lifestyle Communities since, essentially, the spotlight these days seems to be more on lifestyle and conveniences, and not on age. Several communities concentrate on horses, boating, golf, fitness or some other outdoor activity. They have some dash to them.

Private Residence Clubs are deeded real estate ownership (fractional ownership) devoid of the added responsibility of owning. The cost changes with the dwelling and number of weeks in your plan. With Destination Clubs you don’t own any of the real estate and for only a membership fee and year on year charges, provide access to houses throughout the world. The 2 categories present premium accommodation at resort destinations with first-class services.

“New Urbanism” communities tightly bunch together a wide variety of home types, encourage interface with people living there that are diverse, starting from the retirees to young families. These communities present accessible Main Street shopping, eating establishments and a mix of commercial development. They discourage the use of a motor vehicle, and maintain undeveloped shared “green space” and attract people of all ages and social classes.

New Ruralism fosters a link with nature, solitude, and community involvement only as wished. Houses are large and segregated by farm land, nature sanctuaries and natural features. It is distinguished by unbuilt areas shared by everyone.

“Co-housing” is a fresh sort of community real estate where people are committed to helping each other and getting accepted by the age-group that were responsible for the commune. Residents have a townhome or condo and share in a common house, join in the design, operation and maintenance of the community. The common facilities frequently include a living room, a room for kids, a kitchen, recreational facilities, meditation room and workshops.

There are plenty of different types and modes of communities. Whether you’re a retiree or want to relocate to your fantasy home, communities provide an extensive range of lifestyles. There is no better method to find out more about communities than going on a tour to visit them. Several of them present discounted weekend packages. Also, many provide a videotape or digital tape of their community.

Visit www.PlacesOfValue.com for more articles on best places in North Carolina and South Carolina, relocation and/or retirement made easy, top retirement communities, cost of living, and designing and building your Dream Home.

To get your FREE REPORT on Affordable Best Places In The Carolinas, and find your Best Place to Live in the Carolinas: http: http://www.PlacesOfValue.com/page/best_places.php

Retirement – Where Will You Live

There are many things that people plan for when planning their retirement. They plan for the travel they wish to do, to have money for gifts for the grandchildren they hope to have, and all kinds of wise and practical thing. In the process, however, many people neglect to plan for where they wish to live upon retirement.

We are seeing a growing trend of retirees moving to certain communities. This is all well and good. It’s nice to be around people of similar ages and interests and live in communities that cater to those interests.

However, one thing is often overlooked during the process. The prices in these communities, and the average cost of living are quite likely to be different than the cost of living where you are. This is true unless you plan to retire where you live.

The fact is that there is a growing trend among retirees to migrate to certain population centers. The entire coastal region of Florida would almost qualify though not all communities in this area are equal when it comes to being retiree friendly.

The problem is that most people who retire live on limited budgets and can’t afford the high dollar real estate that is part and parcel for these areas. One solution to that is to decide where you’d like to retire and buy real estate in that area early.

There are all kinds of housing communities being built around the nation as we speak. In addition to these communities high rise towers and condominiums are being built to cater not only to time-share renters but also retiring baby boomers that are moving into these areas.

The earlier you buy the better, as property values do tend to increase gradually over time. There are trends and twists and turns but for the most part, property will gain in value given enough time in which to do so.

The good news in these ‘time share’ and popular destination areas is that you can own the property and rent it out for a little extra income while you are biding your time waiting for retirement.

Once you’ve purchased a property in the area you can make the rounds and get a good comparison for the value of goods and services in the area compared with what you are accustomed to.

You can add the difference in your calculations for what you will need when making your retirement plans. Failing to do this can result in some very sad situations many retired people find themselves in.

These could include living in sub standard and unsafe housing and not having enough money left after paying the rent to cover the cost of food and medication much less other needs that may be encountered.

You should also make sure that you add the little cushion of money into your planning so that you can occasionally through caution to the wind and do something fun. After all, what good is it to be retired if you can never afford to live it up a little?

Make sure you have enough money set aside to take that cruise every spring or fly up to see the grandkids two or three times a year. You want to make sure that you can enjoy your retirement or you will find endless days of staring at the television. What fun is that?

The costs of living in this country from one region to the next can be significantly different. If you do not consider where you will be living upon retirement when calculating the numbers you are doing yourself a great disservice.

This is definitely something you will want to discuss with your financial planner before it is too late to make the changes that will affect your future and retirement needs. It is good to have dreams of where you’d like to retire but it is even better to take the steps necessary to make your retirement dreams a reality.

Senior Care Homes Help Elderly to Live Independently

It is not only the physical weakness that dawn once the old age arrives, but a feeling of insecurity in general also creeps in. This insecurity pertains to residence, finances, fulfillment of basic needs and other such things. The most important concern of the elderly at this age is their dignity and thus it becomes the duty of the children to see that their parents have that self respect and comfort in plenty.
As the times have changed and almost every member of the family is working, it gets a little tough to provide the elderly in the house with that special attention and care that they require at this vulnerable age. It is always a point of concern while you are at work if they have eaten right, if they have slept ample and if they are content with the way you take care of them. Also, their security is another thing that is of utmost concern when you are not at home. If you think that the elderly in the house need far more attention and security than you are able to provide them with, you can avail the services of the hospice care for elderly.
The hospice care for elderly pertains to the independent living for seniors away from your home, yet in an environment that is most secure, entertaining and has other contemporaries of their age. These assisted living facilities California help the elderly in your house to live independently and with immense dignity. The adult home care California are dedicated to serve the needs and the requirements of the seniors and their families offering the elderly with a very domestic and becalmed environment to live in, residential neighborhoods, luxury private/ semi private room accommodations and other such facilities.
The adult care centers are also gaining popularity as they render the children and relatives of this elderly stress free about the senior’s health and well being. The seniors are provided with familial environment, special dietary meal, social security helps, Medicare and various activities to keep them busy and active. The birthdays and other events are celebrated with much zest and special outings and day trips that are organized provide them with great refreshment. This home modification for elders proves to b quite beneficial for the aged people.
The services of these adult home care California also include companion care, independent living for seniors, assisted living/ group home, skilled nursery facilities, personal assistance, errand and transportation, home making service, post-surgical care, medication reminders, Alzheimer’s and dementia care and feeding assistance. In fact, they also hold sessions to teach the elderly how to escape the falls, be more confident about themselves, feel healthier, energetic and relaxed, balance their movements, joint care, strength training and stretching.
Home healthcare for seniors is a growing concept and is being availed by a lot of working people and those elderly who want to have an independent abode. Some elderly are actively involved in senior financial planning since the very beginning so that they do not have to homeless when the old age dawns on them and so they opt for the independent senior housing themselves. At the Senior Adult Day Care Arizona Colorado they experience great joy and have great time as all their needs are catered to well and thereby they remain to feel dignified about themselves.

Over 55 Retirement Community – Pick A Community To Suit Your Wants

Over the past decades a huge change has been seen in the life expectancy rate. Many incurable diseases have literally been wiped out and drugs have worked wonders. The retirees have found a second youth through the fitness regimes and the Yoga centers, thus making them believe that truly ‘Life Begins at forty’. People above the age of 55 now dare to experiment something which they could not attempt earlier, and hence they are seeking active adult communities. An over 55 retirement community is quite easy to find these days. One can easily make their searches according to state wise, county wise and area wise at a search engine. However, you will need to be careful when selecting your community because you need to ensure that the one you are selecting is the right one for you.

Most such communities try to provide not just suitable living quarters for their members, but much more than that knowing it well that retired people these days are no longer interested just in soaking the Florida sun. Suitable outlets are required for the seniors to use up their energy. There are the modern clubhouses made especially for them. Games like shuffleboard and bocce will add zest and gusto. Seniors also have other outdoor options like golfing, swimming, fishing, bird watching and many more like this.

But the truth is that, not all over 55 retirement community will present you with every facility. One community may provide you with golf and swimming, while the other may offer activities like horse riding and fishing. This is why one should initially decide what he/she wants to do, and only then search for the suitable community. While some seniors crave for staying somewhere near their friends and family, there are those who would want to opt for a place that they have always wanted to stay at. You have to quickly decide about this, prior to selecting your property.

However, communities face the biggest challenge in offering the properties at a reasonable cost since all retirees are not rich like John D Rockefeller or railroad barons. Mostly, the budget is a constraint. The retirees do not feel this problem anymore because the developers have lowered their prices and are offering affordable options now.

The National Association of Home Builders sponsors the International Builders’ Show every year that mostly caters to those looking for an over 55 retirement community. These annual trade shows highlight the featured events and programs that concentrate on such housing options.

This Ruins Money Market Investors’ Plans For Withdrawal

You may need to be concerned about being able to withdraw your money from Money Market Funds during times of an economic crisis or meltdown.  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows Money Market Funds to suspend redemption under “extraordinary circumstances”.

Most all of us have some money in such a MM Fund.  In accordance with your financial planning for retirement, you may have an IRA or 401(k) and if so, you most certainly do have money in that type of fund.  As an investor, you have your money working for you in stocks, bonds and you have some sitting in a such a fund.  

Such a fund is usually a “sweep account”, used as a holding account for cash.  When one purchases stocks, stock funds, bonds, bond funds or other instruments, money is transferred from your sweep Money Market Fund to pay for them.  When stocks, bonds or funds are sold, the monies received from the sale are placed in your sweep account.  Most investment firms do not have a “cash” account available that is separate from a MM Fund.  The end result is that most of us do have some money in such funds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows the suspension of redemptions from MM Funds under extraordinary circumstances, such as a financial crisis.  

It is unclear as to how pervasive this suspension would be applied during a meltdown.  Would all such funds suspend redemption?  There may be some that do not suspend, but every MM Fund has the authority to suspense redemptions.

What does that mean to an investor?  It means that an investor may not be able to withdraw their own money when he/she wants to. If you are retired and normally withdraw from your MM Fund for living expenses, then you may not be able to do so.  Even if you are not considering financial planning for retirement, you will be impacted. If you have all of your money in stocks, and you decide to sell part of your stocks to withdraw the cash, you may not be able to so since that cash has to go through the sweep Fund.

The SEC indicates that suspending redemptions may impose hardships on investors who rely on their ability to redeem shares.  It seems like the hardships that they pushed upon the investors are completely irrelevant to the SEC.  The just want to protect the banking industry so there will not be a run on the money market accounts during a meltdown.  It looks like the investor comes last.  

Investors should always communicate with their investment firms and advisors to ensure they understand financial choices.

Home Care a better alternative to Nursing Homes

Home Care a better alternative to Nursing Homes

If there is one thing in this life that we can be sure of, it’s the fact that we all get older and reach a point where we need assistance with our every day activities. For the lucky ones amongst us, loved ones and family members will be around to help. But in a fast evolving and ever strenuous society counting on the help of our loved ones in old age is a luxury we can not afford.

While back in the day, old parents used to live in their children’s homes but things have changed. This is not because children no longer care about their old parents but in fact it has to do with the fact that we live in a society where both the husband and wife have to work to earn a decent living. Therefore, taking care of one’s aging parent is ever more challenging.

What are the options available for Senior Care

Traditionally most children or parents themselves have opted for Nursing homes or Assisted living facilities when independent living is no longer possible. While this has been the choice for many people, a great number of seniors prefer the comfort of their home. This has led to the need for In Home Care services. In-home care service is similar to assisted living with one exception. Instead of going to a senior living facility, care is provided by a professional caregiver inside the residence of the client.

A professional Care Giver will enhance the quality of life by providing the following services:

Personal hygiene
Food Preparation
Medication reminders
Transportation
Dressing
Range of motion exercises
Companionship
Help with Mail
Reading
And Many other quality services…

It is important for seniors to start talking to loved ones about preferences for care so that everyone is prepared when the time comes. An important factor to consider in this decision is whether or not it will be possible to continue living in the comfort of ones own home with the help of a professional caregiver or moving to a Nursing home is absolutely necessary.

Easily Search To Find Active Adult Communities Across The US Today

The good news is, you can carry on leading an active lifestyle even after retirement. In order to do this you will need to turn to Active Adult Communities, which offer wonderful residence options too. And luckily, when you want to select such a community, there are hundreds of them in the US today from which you can make a choice. Because of the fact that the demand for these have picked up in the recent past, today, several big real estate companies are also in the business of developing them. You should seriously consider these projects.

With the increase in demand for senior living needs, the competition has also gone up. Today, it is not mandatory that you have to move to sunny Florida if you are retired and want to enjoy a good life.

You can pick an active adult community to remain close to a golf course and enjoy the game if you have always wanted to play golf. But even if you are not a big follower of the game, then you are sure to love the greenery and the undulating meadows of these places. Of course, if you are staying at one of these places, you could get engaged with fishing, boating or swimming.

Most people who are above the age of 55 usually have a bigger house than what is needed. Now is the time when you can leave your big property behind and come and stay in a community for an active adult like yourself.

As mentioned before, these Active Adult Communities can be found today all across the US – so are you keen to find one? However please do consider the following issues before you decide on a particular adult community.

So make a decision about your location preference. For example, would you like to stay close to a sea or a hill resort, a suburban location? Maybe you want to stay close to shopping malls, a place where it is warmer, or perhaps you prefer to remain closer to your friends and family.
3. Before deciding to move in, always check the amenities that are being offered – this is important because not all places will offer everything.
4. You need to decide whether you want to stay in the same state or whether you want to move into a new one.
5. Of course you will also need to decide on the budget.

You can search across the country if you are OK with moving to another state. So, conduct a search for these Active Adult Communities so that you can make a final decision.

Ten Tips for a Safe Hospital Stay

We’re going through a sticky patch in hospital care. Patients and their loved ones often feel that there are too many doctors (and you rarely see the same one twice) and too few nurses (and it’s hard to get their attention). Worse: it’s hard to figure out just who is in charge — or whether anyone is. Here’s why:

Too many doctors:

Many hospitals are Teaching Hospitals. That means that medical students, young MD’s not yet licensed to practice, (Residents), and practicing doctors who are earning a Subspecialty degree (Fellows) all contribute to patient care. And all of them work under the supervision of a fully qualified Specialist or Subspecialist. Many patients have complicated conditions and a resulting profusion of doctors in various stages of training.

All these doctors may appear at your bedside, individually or en masse. They rotate in shifts that are shorter than they used to be; your daytime doctor is unlikely to be your nighttime doctor. And they change crews as often as week to week.

Nobody in charge:

If you have only two doctors, they need to communicate only with you and with each other. If you have three doctors, there are six crosspaths for communication. If you have six doctors, there are potentially 720 types of doctor-doctor communication. Nobody checks that every such communication takes place and is accurate.

Medical specialists often vie with each other for decision-making power. Who decides if the lung abscess needs antibiotics, or surgical drainage? The lung doctors, the surgeons, or the infectious disease specialist?

Just to top it off, many hospitals now employ their own Hospitalists — physicians who are charged with being the final decision maker at the patient’s overpopulated bedside, able to overrule a Specialist’s and or a Primary Care Doctor’s recommendations.

Too few nurses:

We are coping as a nation with a severe nursing shortage. Even if lots more people were eager to become nurses, there are fewer and fewer expert Registered Nurses around willing and able to teach them.

So nurses may not only be few and far between, but exhausted by longer shifts, higher patient loads, the paperwork demanded by Managed Care and the Joint Commission, (a private, non-profit watchdog for hospital standards,) and the rapid development of new skills for them to master.

What can be done?

The fall out from these developments can be serious: errors and delay in diagnosis, dangerous glitches with medication and care techniques, and oversights in ordinary patient safety.

Here are my suggestions for staying safe in the hospital:

1. Ensure that a competent adult stays at the patient’s bedside, and goes along on trips requiring wheelchair or gurney, as close to 24/7 as possible.

2. That adult should serve as a Sentinel, alert to obvious deviations in care (food being given to a patient who is supposed to have nothing by mouth, for instance); ominous changes in the patient’s condition unnoticed by the staff (increased trouble breathing, poor color, incoherence); and situations that are dangerous, such as an unconscious patient who is vomiting and in danger of aspirating the vomitus.

3. The Sentinel should be prepared to perform tasks that free up the nurse for more sophisticated patient care. Offer to empty basins and bedpans, sponge-bathe the patient, tidy the bed, know where vomit basins, bedpans, towels etc. are located, and how to help the patient put on a hospital gown. The Sentinel also may have to call for, or even administer, emergency treatment, such as suctioning the vomiting patient.

4. Ask every caregiver not only their name, but their exact title. If you don’t know what the title means (“I’m a first year fellow in Invasive Radiology,” for instance) then ask (“What is a Fellow? What is Invasive Radiology?”).

5. Ask for the training credentials of the Hospitalist. “Hospitalism” is not a specialty in itself; there are no required credentials, no Board Certification in Hospitalism. Your Hospitalist should be a Board Certified Specialist in the kind of condition the patient has. If not, or if you’re not sure, call your own Primary Care Physician.

6. Every student, resident, and fellow works under the supervision of a senior, board-certified physician. Ask each one who their supervisor is and the nature of his or her credentials. If a surgeon-in-training appears at the bedside to perform a procedure, make sure that the senior surgeon knows about it and agrees to it beforehand (unless it is a truly urgent situation.)

7. The potentially most dangerous area of the hospital is the MRI suite. It contains an extremely powerful magnet that acts on every magnetizable object in the room. Metal devices or fragments inside the body can shift and damage tissue. Loose objects in the room, such as an oxygen tank, will “home in” on the magnet at great speed, regardless of what is in the way — such as your head. Make sure your technician has checked on all possible dangers. There are no “national” guidelines for MRI safety.

8. Every study or lab test performed is ordered to answer a specific medical question. For instance, Is the bone broken? Is the pneumonia improving? Has the heart suffered damage? If you don’t know why a test has been ordered, clarify it and write it down. Once the test is performed, make sure that the physician who “read” the results actually answers the question.

9. Wear a shrill whistle on a chain around your neck, hidden under your top, to use ONLY in the case of a true desperate emergency.

10. As soon as possible after discharge, obtain and review the records of the stay with an eye towards accuracy, logic, and the credentials of the physicians. Make sure the reports of studies answer the medical question that was asked, and that the reports of students and doctors in training have been annotated and co-signed by the supervisor.

If this all sounds daunting, well, it is. But after thirty years as a physician, and sixty-seven days and nights with my husband in four different hospitals, I can’t honestly offer less intimidating guidance.

It is likely to be decades before we get medical care under better control, and in the meantime it is up to us, the Sentinels of our loved ones, to become the crucial missing member of the Health Care Team: that is, the person ultimately in charge.

Copyright © 2007 Laura Nathanson

Parkinson’s Disease & TAI CHI THERAPY

In a special to CNN, the Mayo Clinic’s mayoclinic.com reported that, “Parkinson’s disease is progressive, meaning the signs and symptoms become worse over time. But although Parkinson’s may eventually be disabling, the disease often progresses gradually, and most people have many years of productive living after a diagnosis.” This would indicate that there may be effective interventions that could perhaps slow the progress of the disease. When we get such a diagnosis, our first reaction might be to withdraw and give up. However, the old adage “use it or lose it” tells us that just the opposite is true. If you have Parkinson’s, you’d likely be best off to use everything your body is, every which way, on a regular basis.

Tai Chi movement’s gentle balance enhancing motions can obviously help the Parkinson’s patient by helping to reduce the gradual loss of balance that Parkinson’s sufferers often experience. However, there may be much more it offers. For example, Tai Chi movements rotate the human body in about 95% of the ways the body can move, when a long form is practiced. This is far beyond what other exercise offers, and in fact the closest would be several swimming strokes, which together would only rotate the body in about 65% of the ways it can move. For Parkinson’s sufferers, or anyone for that matter, this would indicate that by “using” 95% of the body’s possible motion several times a week, the possibility of “losing” the ability to do so diminishes accordingly. This isn’t rocket science, but simple common sense.

Yet, perhaps Parkinson’s patients have even more to gain from Tai Chi. A few years ago I taught several classes at local medical centers. I was continually frustrated because although I’d seen emerging reports that Tai Chi was beneficial to people with Parkinson’s Disease, or arthritis, or chronic hypertension, etc., even though the departments that specialized in those conditions were often just down the hall from my Tai Chi class . . . they might as well have been a million miles away. Because the physicians who ran those departments were either ignorant of or unwilling to refer their patients to the possibilities that Tai Chi offered their lives.

I remember though, that at one medical center a visionary neurologist began to refer patients with balance disorders to my Tai Chi classes and the result was very beneficial for his patients. Another physician actually wrote prescriptions for my Tai Chi classes to treat the chronic hypertension of his patients, who’d seen a significant drop in their blood pressure since beginning the classes weeks before. A clinical psychologist brought me in to teach Qigong (Chi Kung) meditation and Tai Chi to her patient group to enhance their sense of well being and provide effective stress management training. So, even back then some physicians were seeing the potential Tai Chi offered their clients, and even more are now, but the number of physicians who are still not informing their patients of Tai Chi’s direct therapeutic or at the least adjunct therapy benefits to their patient’s efforts to deal with their conditions and life, is increasingly indefensible in this day and age. Given the research that has exposed the many physical, mental, and emotional benefits Tai Chi offers, for physicians to not educate themselves on this and share their knowledge with each and every patient is tantamount to mal-practice. Health educators should likewise be making such therapies part of their medical student education programs as well.

Tai Chi for Parkinson’s is being recommended increasingly by support groups and some progressive medical centers, but until everyone that has Parkinson’s knows about it, then our work at World Tai Chi & Qigong Day is not done, nor is the medical community’s. There are many obvious reasons everyone with Parkinson’s should be doing Tai Chi, but it’s the ones that are not yet obvious that may be the most intriguing. One obvious reason is that Tai Chi is the most powerful balance and coordination enhancing exercise known. In many studies at major universities Tai Chi was found to be TWICE as effective in reducing falls as the other balance enhancing exercises being studied. For people with Parkinson’s, who often see their balance deteriorate as their condition progresses, it is unforgivable for them to not be informed of Tai Chi’s potential benefits at the earliest stage possible while their balance is still good.

Now, regarding the less obvious reasons Tai Chi may benefit Parkinson’s patients. Both my wife and daughter, who co-taught a Tai Chi class together noticed that a young man with severe Parkinson’s tremors . . . completely lost his tremors once he joined the class in flowing through the Tai Chi movements in class. In another class I was teaching an older man with advanced Parkinson’s attended my classes for many months, and he always came in very slow with his walker. Once we began the Tai Chi movements he no longer used his walker, and had learned the entire long form of Tai Chi I taught, which was over 15 minutes of continuous changing forms. His form was unique and tailored for his limitations, but nonetheless a challenging set of exercises he was able to accomplish without the use of his walker. What do these anecdotal experiences portend for others with Parkinson’s? I don’t know, but there should be massive research dollars coming from the National Institutes of Health to find out. Given the promise Tai Chi seems to offer people on so many profound physical, emotional, and mental fronts from preliminary research, the current total research money earmarked for complimentary and alternative medicine’s (CAM) is a mere pittance.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), now in its sixth year, supports more than 300 research projects and has an estimated budget of over $120 million for 2005 (up from $50 million in 1999). Total spending on CAM by all NIH institutes and centers is expanding as well, and is expected to reach $315 million by 2005.

Sounds like a lot? However, $120 million is less than “one half of one percent” of the total NIH FY2005 budget. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges the NIH’s total annual budget for FY 2005 is $28.8 billion (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/05pch8.htm). Remember, we are talking about only spending much much less than one half of one percent to study an exercise that preliminary research has shown to: n Lower High Blood Pressure (about 1/3 of Americans have hypertension – roughly over 90 million Americans) n Boost Immune Function profoundly (a study sited at drkoop.com indicates that a Tai Chi practicing group was TWICE as resistant to the shingles virus, and researchers believed this would carry over to other viral resistance as well.) n Dramatically reduce falling injuries by about half (complications from falling injuries in older Americans is the 6th leading cause of death for seniors in America)

If Tai Chi only addressed this chronic condition affecting 1/3 of Americans, while boosting the immune system of all practitioners profoundly, and cutting in half the sixth leading cause of death for seniors, without any negative side effects, that would seem to be, for the rational person a reason for pouring massive resources into researching it further. However, Tai Chi’s benefits only begin with the above preliminary findings. We also know that it may very well relieve depression, anxiety, and mood disturbance, as well as reduce ADHD symptoms in teenagers diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. There are indications that Tai Chi may greatly reduce or even eliminate chronic pain conditions, and lessen allergic and asthmatic reactions, and improve overall respiratory function.

My point is, “where is the massive attention this would garner on talk shows, and in health newspaper sections, if this were a drug or surgery that could provide such a seemingly massive breakthrough in health treatment?” Peter Chowka, in a brilliant two part series for Natural Health Line, entitled “Complementary & Alternative Medicine in 2000,” wrote, “Conflicts of interest are not uncommon in most aspects of life. But in medicine, the biggest business in the U.S. (over $1.5 trillion a year constituting over 14 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, according to the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine report issued January 10, 2001), serious conflicts are particularly well entrenched.” Mr. Chowka wrote of physicians like Dr. Marcia Angell voicing concerns of the “troubling” result massive research money from drug and medical-equipment companies was having on the scientific process. In the New England Journal of Medicine’s May 18, 2000 issue, Dr. Angel wrote an editorial entitled, “Is Academic Medicine for Sale?” She wrote, “As we spoke with research psychiatrists about writing an editorial on the treatment of depression . . . we found very few who did not have financial ties to drug companies that make antidepressants. . .The problem is by no means unique to psychiatry. We routinely encounter similar difficulties in finding editorialists in other specialties, particularly those that involve the heavy use of expensive drugs and devices.”

So, who can make a multi-billion dollar fortune teaching Tai Chi to people? No one can. Tai Chi cannot be bottled, or mass marketed. It is a decentralized labor intensive industry that employees many people, but keeps the profits small and local. Yes, there are videos and DVDs that teach Tai Chi effectively, but ultimately even those who utilize videos are drawn to live class like structures. As I mentioned before with the “anecdotal” experiences of my students with Parkinson’s, Tai Chi seems to offer something profoundly beneficial to the quality of life of Parkinson’s sufferers. It needs further study. We are in a catch 22, where many health professionals feel they cannot recommend Tai Chi because too much of the preliminary research is anecdotal. However, when Tai Chi is jockeying for position to get a crumb of the .5% of total NIH money going to ALL complimentary and alternative medical therapies . . . the result will be many long years of millions of people suffering needlessly from conditions or symptoms of those conditions that Tai Chi could likely safely lessen or even eliminate.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT TAI CHI AND PARKINSONS?

Tai Chi is being recommended by some forward thinking medical institutions already. The Cleveland Clinic of Neuroscience Center encourages Parkinson’s Disease patients to seek out a hobby or activity they can enjoy and stick with such as “Tai Chi” and other activities. The Alexian Neurosciences Institute in Illinois offers a course in their The Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center. Also, the American Parkinson’s Disease Association at Stanford University Medical Center, in it’s “Beyond Pills…. Alternative Approaches to Coping with Parkinson’s Disease” program, offered “Tai Chi, The Art for Living with Parkinson’s” by Mwezo & Jane of Kujiweza Healing Arts. (Learn more at: http://parkinsons.stanford.edu/symposium.html). The Parkinson’s Society of Canada recommends Tai Chi for Parkinson’s patients, suggesting “Tai Chi may prevent or at least slow down the onset of degenerative diseases; in the long run, it can reduce need for rehabilitative care.” (http://www.parkinsons.ca/managing.html#taichi)

In the United Kingdom a Parkinson’s Tai Chi study was conducted at Camborne Redruth Community Hospital, Cornwall. Their conclusion of the study was such, “Tai Chi training was well tolerated by PD patients in this study, but had no measurable effect on motor performance using UPDRS score or GAG time. There was a non-significant improvement in quality of life scores (PDQ 39). Larger studies would be needed fully to evaluate the value and efficacy of Tai Chi. However our results are encouraging, and provide evidence for its safety and tolerability and would support the feasibility of further study.” (http://www.pdcornwall.org.uk/showarticle.pl?n=30&id=81)

WCHS TV during a news report focusing on Tai Chi’s ability to boost immune system function, also reported that “Tai Chi has also been shown to help illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and arthritis.” (http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/healthyforlife/2177.shtml)

The Neurology Channel reported, “The slow flowing movements of Tai Chi help maintain flexibility, balance, and relaxation. The Struthers Parkinson’s Center in Minneapolis, which teaches a modified form of Tai Chi, consistently reports benefits achieved by patients in all stages of Parkinson’s.” (http://www.neurologychannel.com/parkinsonsdisease/surgery.s html)

Physicians at the Mayo Clinic recommend Tai Chi for Parkinson’s therapy, under their Parkinson’s “self-care” section for avoiding falls, where they suggest you “Ask your doctor or physical therapist about exercises that improve balance, especially tai chi. Originally developed in China more than 1,000 years ago, tai chi uses slow, graceful movements to relax and strengthen muscles and joints. “

At a popular health website called “RemedyFind.com” viewers can vote on therapies they’ve found benefited their condition, or didn’t benefit it. The rating there for Tai Chi as a Parkinson’s therapy received a rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10. (http://remedyfind.com/rem.asp?ID=13945)

A Study at the University of Florida in Jacksonville found that patients who attended Tai Chi classes for one hour each week for 12-weeks were less likely than a group of control patients to experience an increase in the severity of their condition and a decrease in motor function. . . ..[of alternative therapies] the most popular therapies being Tai Chi, yoga, and acupuncture. (http://www.worldhealth.net/p/275,1526.html), (SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 13th November 2002)

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, “Parkinson’s Meets It’s Match in Tai Chi.” In this article they write that Dr. Mark Guttman, director of the Centre for Movement Disorders in Markham, Ontario, recommends people with Parkinson’s do exercises that involve a lot of stretching, similar to the movements of tai chi.

“Tai chi is wonderful; it can help people with disabilities as well as people with Parkinson’s,” he says. He added that studies on animals show exercise induces a change in the brain that prevents the symptom’s of Parkinson’s from emerging.

The Tai Chi teacher for this program, Ms. Embree, spoke of how people with fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, and Parkinson’s often attend her classes . . . “Doctors are now sending people here,” adds Ms Embree. (for the entire article, go to: PARKINSON’S MEETING IT’S MATCH IN TAI CHI, April, 13, 2005, http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/0304/lvtaichi7.html )

At the National Parkinson’s Foundation site, Melanie M. Brandabur, MD NPF Center of Excellence, University of Illinois at Chicago and Jill Marjama-Lyons, MD NPF Center of Excellence, Shands Jacksonville, wrote, “Most patients derive a great deal of benefit from today’s medications and surgical therapies for Parkinson’s Disease . . . However, benefits of these therapies can be limited. As time goes by, the medications may not seem as effective as they once were. Side effects or unpredictable response may develop. Surgical therapies are not curative and often treat only selected aspects of Parkinson’s Disease. For these reasons, patients may decide to explore other modalities, such as massage therapy, Tai Chi, yoga, or herbal preparations to augment their Parkinson’s medication . . . Many patients with Parkinson’s Disease have become interested in complementary therapies to supplement medications and other traditional PD treatments. These physicians also suggest that as Tai Chi and other modalities benefits are exposed by clinical research, physicians will advocate their use more widely. (http://www.parkinson.org/site/pp.asp?c=9dJFJLPwB&b=238635)

World Tai Chi & Qigong Day joins a growing number of health professionals specializing in fields like Parkinson’s who believe that much more research needs to be done to illuminate the full spectrum of benefits Tai Chi offers all people as well as those specifically with chronic conditions. This will enable more physicians to make Tai Chi a regular prescription written as therapy or adjunct therapy for a host of maladies many are already enjoying the benefits of for their condition, but paying out of pocket for. Ultimately more and more health insurance plans should and will make Tai Chi classes a deductible medical expense for their clients. The end result of this shift may portend the savings of hundreds of billions of dollars annually in saved health care costs as patients are better trained in self care techniques, training the great visionary Thomas Edison referred to as “the care and maintenance of the human frame,” which Edison envisioned would more and more reduce the need for expensive surgeries and life long dependence on medications as human beings maximized their own self healing abilities. Traditional Chinese Medicine has spent centuries developing and evolving self healing technologies like Tai Chi. Now the west can learn about their results, and physicians can prescribe them to their patients and our entire society will be healthier and more abundant for it.

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