Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Physical Activity And Lower Odds of Psychiatric Problems in Children

Excerpt from Your Therapy Source: (click for entire article)

The Journal of Pediatrics published research that measured the physical activity of 199 eight year old children. Wrist accelerometers were worn to determine if there was an association between physical activity and parent/teacher rated psychiatric problems in the eight year olds. The results indicated that "higher overall physical activity and more time spent in more intense physical activity were associated with lower odds for psychiatric problems in emotional, social, and behavioral domains".

Need ideas to get children more active? Check out 50 Sensory Motor Activities for Kids, Dancing with the Owls, Mini Movement Breaks and Locomotor Games.

Poll: Many Sick Americans Experience Significant Financial Problems And Report Their Care Is Not Well-Managed

Excerpt from Harvard School of Public Health: (click for entire article)

Many Americans who have experienced a serious illness or injury within the past 12 months are concerned about the financial costs of medical care, and struggle to ensure that their care is appropriate,  according to a new poll released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), NPR and Harvard School of Public Health. RWJF commissioned the poll to better understand Americans’ experiences and attitudes related to cost and quality of U.S. medical care.

A large majority of the general public (87%) thinks the cost of care is a serious problem for the country. In addition, about two-thirds of the general public (65%) believes the cost of care has gotten worse over the last five years.

In addition to surveying the general public, this poll also examined sick Americans’ experiences with and perceptions of the costs and quality of medical care over the last year. “Sick Americans” (27% of adults surveyed) are defined as those who said they had a serious illness, medical condition, injury, or disability requiring a lot of medical care or who had been hospitalized overnight in the past 12 months.

Judge Upholds FTC Complaint That POM Shouldn't Claim To Cure What Ails You

Excerpt from The Consumerist: (click for entire article)

If you've been chugging your way through vats of POM pomegranate juice or downing POMx supplements in the hopes that it would cure or prevent heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction, the Federal Trade Commission has got some words for you.

An administrative law judge upheld an FTC complaint that said POM was making deceptive claims in some advertisements about the powers of its juice and supplements, according to a press release from the FTC.

The judge ruled that POM and its sister corporation Roll Global LLC violated federal law with its claims, and barred POM from making "any representation about the "health benefits, performance, or efficacy" of POM products or any other food, drug, or dietary supplement. There's also a whole slew of factors that must be met before any claims can be made, like the handy dandy notion of "competent and reliable scientific evidence."

Exercise and ADHD

Excerpt from Your Therapy Source: (click for entire article)

Neuroscience published research on the effects of exercise on ADHD symptoms. The Dartmouth researchers concluded that:

    The effects of exercise are different on memory as well as on the brain, depending on whether the exerciser is an adolescent or an adult.
    A gene has been identified which seems to mediate the degree to which exercise has a beneficial effect. This has implications for the potential use of exercise as an intervention for mental illness.

The researchers, Bucci and others, found that "the implication is that exercising during development, as your brain is growing, is changing the brain in concert with normal developmental changes, resulting in your having more permanent wiring of the brain in support of things like learning and memory.  It seems important to [exercise] early in life."

Concussions, School Performance, and Accommodations

Excerpt from Law Office Matthew Stoloff: (click for entire article)

Concussions are on the rise. The Center for Disease Control recently reported that from 2001 to 2009, the number of emergency hospital visits for traumatic brain injury “increased significantly, from 153,375 to 248,418, with the highest rates among males aged 10-19 years.”

A concussion is the most common type of traumatic brain injury that can result in physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. A concussion may be caused by impact forces (which the head strikes something) or by impulsive forces (which the head moves as a result of an impact to the body). Such impact fores and impulsive forces frequently occur in contact sports games such as football, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer. But it can also occur in other “non-contact” sports such as volleyball, roller blading, skateboarding, and snowboarding.

If a concussion is not identified and treated appropriately, the individual may develop permanent, life-long symptoms including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, anxiety, memory and attention problems, sleep problems, and irritability. Subsequent concussions can result in psychiatric disorders and loss of long-term memory. Individuals who have had multiple concussions are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia pugilistica.

The Health Perils of Aging: Lonely and Sick

Excerpt from Penn Live: (click for entire article)

The grim effects of smoking, drinking, and poor eating are commonly cited by doctors as appalling and expensive health scourges. Yet for aging Californians, an often hidden health plague can be just as deadly: loneliness.

Social isolation and its common offspring – loneliness – became a political hot potato when California recently cut back on its adult day health care program, disqualifying 20% of the state’s older and disabled citizens from its attendance rolls. Families who depended on the centers for medical supervision and social interaction suddenly had to scramble to find new programs to care for these relatives.

For seniors with or without families, this often meant more time home alone.

Overeating, aging and memory loss

Excerpt from HHS.gov: (click for entire article)

A study indicates overeating may eat into older peoples’ ability to remember. Researcher Yonas Geda of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, saw it in data on more than 1,200 people ages 70 and 89.

Dr. Geda says people who ate more than around 2,200 calories a day had more than twice the risk of mild cognitive impairment, a form of memory loss. But calories of around 1,600 to 2,200 did not show the risk.

How to Navigate Medicare/Medicaid With Cancer

Excerpt from The Huffington Post: (click for entire article)

When someone is diagnosed with cancer, they are so deluged with information about their health and how to treat the disease so that managing their Medicare or Medicaid coverage gets overlooked.

"The paperwork becomes overwhelming for people," said Cheryl Berger-Israeloff, who works as a volunteer patient navigator for the American Cancer Society at Nassau University Medical Center. "They have to figure out what is covered, what they need, what is not covered."

Ms. Berger-Israeloff is not just working with people who are over age 65 and therefore automatically eligible for Medicare, but also indigent people, illegal immigrants, and what she calls the "working-class poor."

Childhood epilepsy and Social Security disability benefits

Excerpt from Disability Tips: (click for entire article)

How does Social Security look at children’s disability cases based on epilepsy or other seizure disorders?

Social Security first considers the Listing of Impairments. The Listings are a set of descriptions of medical conditions which can be disabling. The Listings tell you the what kind medical evidence you need and the medical findings to prove that the condition is disabling.  While the Listings are not the only way to be found disabled, they are very important in children’s disability cases.

Laughter Yoga: Can Happiness Heal?

Excerpt from The Huffington Post: (click for entire article)

When it comes to laughter yoga, faking it ‘til you make it is just fine.

At least, that's what Vishwa Prakash said at the start of the session that HuffPost's health news editor Amanda Chan and I wandered into recently.

It was one of a few guidelines Prakash offered, as well as keeping our eyes locked on our fellow attendees, some 20 men and women dressed in street clothes and standing in a circle in his textile design company's midtown Manhattan offices.

And with that, we were off.