South Carolina's

Most Trusted Senior Resource Network

FOR South Carolina Seniors, Created BY South Carolina Seniors

Financial Planning

Senior Legal Information

Health Tip Of The Month…

(These tips are not for everybody and should not be taken as specific recommendations. Before you take any action regarding yours or anyone’s health, we strongly suggest you consult a qualified physician!)

Food of the Month: Use Good-For-You Ginger In Gingerbread Or A Ginger Tea!

If you've puzzled over uses for those knotty-looking ginger roots in the produce department, just put one into your shopping cart. Then check your cookbook for recipes that begin with the word "ginger."

Ginger has been revered around the world for more than 7,000 years. It has slightly pungent natural taste that adds a touch of its flavor and enhances all other flavors in a recipe. Ground ginger has a different flavor and is not interchangeable with fresh ginger.

In China and many other parts of the world, ginger is well-known for its power to calm an upset stomach. Common anti-nausea medications work through the central nervous system, causing drowsiness. Ginger acts directly on the digestive tract. In one study, people who took 1 gram of ginger before surgery had less nausea afterward. It is useful for chemotherapy patients and for pregnant women having morning sickness because it will not harm the fetus.

Ginger's reputation as a remedy for motion sickness and seasickness is well documented by a famous Danish study. Ginger extract is available in health-food stores.

Next time you're feeling a little queasy, brew a cup of ginger tea. Slice some ginger root. Put it in a tea ball and place in a teapot. Pour boiling water over the tea ball and let it sit for 10 minutes. Sweeten with honey.

Health Update for Seniors in South Carolina

Below is an article on Lyme's disease. It was thought by many as a primarily New England state epidemic, but thousands of cases are being reported in the southern states. It is important to check for ticks as the infections they can pass are creating terrible health problems in people of all ages and can even be deadly. If you do not know about Lyme's disease, please read the information below.

More than 100,000 cases of Lyme disease have been reported in the United States, and the incidence is increasing each year. Approximately 12,500 new cases were diagnosed in 1997. Lyme disease can be difficult to diagnose because it is easily mistaken for other ailments, and existing laboratory tests can be inaccurate. Although Lyme disease can be treated successfully in the early stages with antibiotics, patients who go untreated or do not respond to antibiotics may develop significant complications months or years later. These problems may include painful arthritis, especially in the knees, nervous system difficulties, and heart complications. Treatment of early-stage Lyme disease alone costs an estimated $60 million a year in the United States.

Identification of an Emerging Disease
Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975, when researchers investigated several cases of arthritis among children living in Lyme, Connecticut. The researchers suspected that an unidentified infectious microbe caused the illness, because the sick children lived near each other and became ill at the same time. Many of the children also recalled being bitten by a tick before becoming ill, and some developed a distinctive skin rash just before other symptoms appeared. From these clues, the researchers suspected that deer ticks, common arachnids the size of a pinhead, were involved in transmitting an unknown infectious microbe.

Discovery of the Culprit
In 1981, as NIAID researchers were examining deer ticks for microbes that cause tick-borne disease, the researchers serendipitously found a new microbe. This spiral-shaped bacterium later was named Borrelia burgdorferi, after the NIAID scientist, Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, who discovered the microbe. The next year, NIAID researchers at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories isolated B. burgdorferi from deer ticks and developed a method to grow it in the laboratory. When scientists mixed the bacterium with blood from people who had recovered from Lyme disease, they found that the microbes reacted with a particular antibody produced during the immune response to infection. Such antibodies were not present in people who had never had Lyme disease, indicating that B. burgdorferi was the likely cause of Lyme disease. In further tests, rabbits developed both a rash similar to the typical Lyme disease rash as well as the same type of immune response generated after being bitten by ticks infected with B. burgdorferi. The following year, NIAID-supported scientists found B. burgdorferi in the blood and other tissues of patients with Lyme disease.

Lyme disease was discovered in 1975 in the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut. The disease is a bacterial infection caused by the bites of certain infected ticks, and the ticks are much smaller than the ticks that are commonly found on dogs or cattle. The two most important ticks in Lyme disease are the deer tick in the northeast and north central states, and the western black-legged tick in the West. Although the deer ticks that carry the disease are slowly expanding into new areas, there are three general areas in the U.S. that have the highest incidence rate of Lyme disease: the East-coastal states of Massachusetts, the noth central states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, and northern California.

In nature, the Lyme disease bacteria exist in a cycle that involves ticks and small animals. Particularly implicated in Lyme disease are the wild white-footed mouse in the east, and the wood rat in California. Once these rodents become infected, they can spread the disease to the many immature ticks that will likely feed upon them. Adult ticks prefer to feed upon the larger animals, instead of the rodents and small animals preferred by immature ticks. The adult ticks are particularly fond of deer, but as deer are resistent to Lyme infection, their function in the lyme disease cycle is to carry ticks into new areas. Birds may also be responsible for transporting these ticks into new areas.

Lyme disease is not transmitted from person to person. It is only transmitted from ticks to humans, and the infected ticks can also transmit the disease to dogs, cats, and horses. These animals cannot transmit Lyme bacteria to humans, but they can carry ticks on their bodies, increasing their chances of getting infected by the ticks, and increasing the chances of those ticks infecting humans. Ask your veterinarian about appropriate products that will prevent tick infestation for your pet.

The first sign of Lyme disease in humans is usually a characteristic rash, called erythema migrans, which expand outward from the site of the tick bite between 3 and 30 days after the bite. The rash is flat, circular, and is often as large as 2 inches in diameter. As the rash expands, it may begin to take on the appearance of a bull's eye. Infected persons may also experience flu-like symptons, including fever, headache, fatigue, and muscle aches. Persons treated with antibiotics at this stage of infection are likely to make a quick recovery and be competely cured. Persons who do not receive early treatment can develop problems involving the heart, joints and/or nervous system.

If you are taking care of a loved one, from a distance, read the

20 Questions Long Distance Caregivers Must Ask.

What To Expect As You Get Older

Alzheimer's Care (Contains Caregiver Tips, Overview of the Disease, & Safe Driving Information)

Arthritis

Hearing Loss

Vision Loss/Low Vision

Skin Care and Aging- "Defy aging.” “Tone and firm sagging skin.” “Restore your skin’s own wrinkle control." (PDF)

Prostate Problems (PDF)

Sexuality in Later Life (PDF)

Menopause (PDF)

Osteoporosis (PDF)

High Blood Pressure (PDF)

A Good Nights Sleep (PDF)

Health Links:

National Institute of Health

NIH Health Page

Make Sure You Bookmark This Site!

You'll Always Know Where To Find Us! Just Click On The Book To The Left.

Innovative Website Helps Seniors Take Medicines Safely

How can I remember details about all of the medicines the doctor prescribed for me? Does aging affect how the body processes medicines? Are there ways to avoid side effects? What is the “grapefruit juice effect?” Answers to these questions and more about the safe use of medicines now are only a mouse click away on the senior-friendly government Web site called NIHSeniorHealth.

The site, www.nihseniorhealth.gov, has clear, reliable information about medicines and your body, taking medications safely, and research to develop tomorrow’s medicines. People age 65 and older take more prescription and over-the-counter medicines than any other age group. Older people as a group tend to have more long-term, chronic illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

“Many older Americans owe their health in part to new and improved medicines, but using them may be riskier for older adults, especially when several medicines are used at one time,” says Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), which developed the content for the safe use of medicines topic on the Web site. “To help avoid risk, older Americans now can turn to NIHSeniorHealth for accurate, helpful information about how to take medicines safely and manage them wisely.”

One of the fastest growing age groups using the Internet, older Americans increasingly turn to the World Wide Web for health information. In fact, 66 percent of “wired” seniors surf for health and medical information when they go online. NIHSeniorHealth, a joint effort of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), was designed especially with seniors in mind. The senior-friendly site is based on the latest research on cognition and aging. It features short, easy-to-read segments of information that can be accessed in a variety of formats, including various large-print type sizes, open-captioned videos, and even
a talking version. Additional topics coming soon to the site include shingles, problems with taste and smell, eye diseases, stroke, and osteoporosis. The site links to MedlinePlus, NLM’s premier, more detailed site for consumer health information.

The NIA leads the Federal effort supporting and conducting research on aging and the health and well-being of older people. The NLM, the world’s largest library of the health sciences, creates and sponsors Web-based health information resources for the public and professionals. The NIGMS supports basic biomedical research that lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. All three are components of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

'Psychocardiology': New Term Puts A Different Slant On Heart Disease.

From folk medicine to modern research, the impact of a positive outlook on life has long been suspected to have a big influence on heart health. Doctors today are finding that psychological factors may be just as important as diet and exercise when it comes to preventing heart attacks.

Fear is a factor. After an earthquake or hurricane, heart attack deaths are more than three times the usual toll. On the day of the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles County, cardiovascular deaths jumped from 15.6 per day to 51.

Negative emotions play a role in heart health. Doctors at the University of Birmingham in England find that depression at least doubles an otherwise healthy person's heart attack risk.

Hostility and anger are important factors. Doctors at Duke University find that high levels of hostility increase the risk of dying from heart disease by 29 percent. In people 60 or younger, hostility increases the risk by 50 percent.

Stress is a factor. A large study led by Canada's McMaster University shows that in the year before heart attacks, 30 percent of patients had been under significant stress from work, family, financial troubles, and other causes.

It doesn't have to be that way. Doctors say people handle stress differently. Those who handle it well have a sense of control over their lives, rather than feeling they are victims of circumstance.

Hostile and depressed people interpret more situations as stressful. The resulting increase in stress hormones such as adrenaline can wreak havoc on the heart. They also have higher levels of C-reactive protein, which is associated with cardiovascular risk.

Be optimistic. Laugh a little, and keep your heart healthy.

Financial Planning

Senior Legal Information

Email For Advertising Information.

Toll-free 24 hr. hotline at 1-877-360-2711 ext. 5050

The information contained herein is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, tax or legal advice. Further, this information is general in nature and is not intended to be reflective of any specific plan. Please contact your personal investment, financial, tax or legal advisor regarding your specific needs and situation.

Advertising Space