Expert Home Care NJ - New Jersey Home Health

There are two types of diabetes. Type 1 is an insulin deficiency condition that people are born with. Type 2 diabetes develops gradually as a person grows older. It can appear anytime, in anyone. Undetected and untreated, Type 2 diabetes can represent a very serious life-threatening disease.

Diabetes is a condition that affects the way your body uses food. During digestion the body converts food into glucose for energy. To get the glucose into your cells, the body uses a hormone produced by the pancreas gland: insulin.

In those individuals with diabetes, the amount of insulin produced by the pancreas is either absent or too little, or, the body simply doesn’t assimilate it. The result is that digestion creates glucose the body can’t use. The glucose builds up in the blood causing high blood sugar levels, or diabetes.

Fortunately, when diabetes is detected early, it can often be controlled by diet and exercise. In more serious cases, oral medications may be prescribed to reduce the body’s blood sugar level, or insulin injections may be prescribed to boost the body’s ability to assimilate the excess glucose. Untreated, over time diabetes may harm your eyes, nerves, kidneys, heart and blood vessels.

The good news is that there is a lot you can do to prevent diabetes by eating a healthy diet, controlling your weight and getting regular exercise. Even those who develop diabetes can, with some relatively simple lifestyle changes, keep their blood sugar under tight control and avoid or delay other serious health problems.

The most common warning signs of diabetes are: fatigue, excessive thirst, increased appetite, frequent urination, sores that won’t heal, sexual problems, blurry vision, and numbness or tingling in the hands or feet. Anyone who is experiencing any of these symptoms, or has a family history of diabetes, or is significantly overweight, should see their primary health provider and have periodic blood sugar tests performed.

If you are a family member caring for an aging relative living in New Jersey, Expert Home Care can help you keep your senior safe and healthy. Please call us at 800-848-2336.

New Jersey’s Senior Care and Live-in Care - Expert Home Care NJ - helps your loved ones stay safely in their homes longer. Call us today at 800-848-2336.

Women are at greater risk of developing heart disease than men. Heart disease, which can lead to heart attack, is currently the number one cause of death for American women! Here are some of the major “indicators” you should be aware of:

Overweight as a child. Excess weight during childhood can result in the development of thickened heart muscles which can significantly increase the risk of heart attack later in life.

If, at age 18:

• You were 10-to-20 pounds overweight, you have a 25% higher risk of having a heart attack between the ages of 40 and 70. 
• You were 18 to 24 pounds overweight, you have a 65% higher risk. 
• You were more than 24 pounds overweight at age 18, you have a 100% greater risk than the average person.

High triglyceride levels in the blood. Like cholesterol, triglycerides can produce abnormally high accumulations of plaque in the blood vessels that lead to the heart, which can result in a heart attack.
What can you do right now to help lessen your risk? According to medical experts, here are six ways to help protect your heart and lower your risk of heart attack:

• Quit smoking—It’s still the number-one contributing risk factor!
• Eat a well-balanced diet. Avoid foods high in artery clogging saturated fats.
• Choose a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, grains, low-fat meats and dairy products.
• Exercise. Moderate exercise may well be the elixir of life. It raises good cholesterol, lowers bad cholesterol, lowers triglyceride levels, lowers blood pressure, helps control obesity.
• See your doctor regularly. He or she can help you assess your risk, offer you advice and therapy options for quitting smoking, changing your eating habits and an appropriate exercise program. He or she can also monitor your vital signs and recommend the use of medications that can help you to control your blood pressure and/or cholesterol levels.
• Whether you are a man or a woman, heart disease, heart attack and stroke represent your number one health risks. A proactive approach to improving your health and lifestyle can go a long way to put the odds in your favor by reducing your susceptibility.

 New Jersey’s Senior Care and Live-in Care - Expert Home Care NJ  -  800-848-2336.

New Jersey’s Expert Home Care ensures the safety of your loved one in the comfort of their home.  Please call us at 800-848-2336.

A healthy immune system is capable of eliminating dangerous infections and diseases before you’re even aware of them. Our body’s immune system is a thriving swarm of billions and billions of white blood cells, T-cells and other antibodies that have one goal: to recognize foreign invaders within our body and destroy them!

When bacteria enters your body through a cut, specialized cells called macrophages rush to the scene to devour the invaders. Other helper T-cells, killer T-cells and B-cells which create antibodies also rush to the site to clean up any bacterial fragments left behind.

Viruses are more insidious than bacterial infections because they sneak into our cells and have the ability to alter them for their own purposes. Against a viral infection, the immune system dispatches swarms of antibodies to attack the viral invaders. In addition, your immune system has memory cells that analyze each viral infection, remembers the formula that successfully defeated it, and creates an immunity to that exact virus in the future.

Lastly, our immune system contains free ranging agents called natural killer (NK) cells that seem to be programmed to attack both viruses and cancer cells. Fortunately, you can strengthen your immune system without too much effort:

• Eat a balanced diet.
• Cut down on fats.
• Take supplements containing the antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E.
• Exercise regularly. Regular exercise increases blood flow and helps to move immune cells throughout your body.
• Minimize or neutralize the effects of stress. Chronic, unrelieved stress is probably the most severe threat to your body’s immune system.
• Limit alcohol consumption.
• Quit smoking cigarettes
• Get a good night’s sleep.

Without our immune system, even the mildest infection would be lethal. Under normal circumstances and with a little care and common sense, we can all keep our body’s immune system healthy and strong.

New Jersey’s Expert Home Care can help keep your aging relatives safe & healthy. Call us at 800-848-2336.

New Jersey’s Expert Home Care ensures the safety of your loved one in the comfort of their home.  Please call us at 800-848-2336.

Yesterday our post gave reasons “why” high blood pressure and hypertention is a potentially deadly disease, if left untreated. Today let’s share positive tips on caring for ourselves when living with high blood pressure.

Fortunately, there are certain lifestyle changes you can make to decrease your blood pressure, in addition to taking medication. For those whose doctor prescribes medication, compliancy is very important. Many people suddenly decide to stop taking their medicine because they don’t feel ill. As a result, their blood pressure increases and they put themselves at risk again for serious complications.

In addition to medication, experts recommend the following ways to lower blood pressure:

• Lose weight. For every 10 kg (22 pounds) of weight loss, blood pressure can drop as much as 20 points.
• Eat less salt. This can reduce blood pressure by as much as 8 points.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables and less fat. This has the potential to decrease it by 14 points.
• Start exercising. Even a brisk walk 30 minutes a day has the potential to drop blood pressure as much as 9 points.
• Reduce alcohol intake. This can result in an improvement of up to 4 points.
• Stop smoking. This will result in an all-around blood pressure improvement, as smoking causes the blood vessels to constrict putting added stress on the heart.
• Reduce stress. People who live with unrelenting stress tend to experience higher blood pressure readings.

 Certain stress reduction practices can be incorporated into one’s lifestyle. Taken together, these strategies can often impact dramatically on lowering your blood pressure. In addition, it’s important to have your blood pressure checked periodically to determine what, if any, changes need to be taken.

Call New Jersey’s Expert Home Care at 800-848-2336.

Expert Home Care in New Jersey helps elders in New Jersey stay in their homes safely. Call us at 800-848-2336.

If an elder is suffering from high blood pressure, or hypertension, without ever knowing it can damage the heart, kidneys, brain and eyes before the condition is ever diagnosed. Hypertension is widespread, affecting as many as 60 million Americans, or one in every four adults. It is often killed the “silent killer.”

In the medical world, 120 over 80 is considered a normal blood pressure reading and the range for pre-hypertension is 120 to 139 over 80 to 89. Stage 1 hypertension is a range from 140 to 159 over 90 to 99.

The top, larger number is called the systolic pressure. This is the pressure generated when the heart contracts (or pumps), and it reflects the pressure of the blood against arterial walls. The bottom, smaller number is called the diastolic pressure. This reflects the pressure in the arteries while the heart is filling and resting between heartbeats.

The key risk factors for hypertension include obesity, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, diets high in salt and fat, increased alcohol consumption and physical inactivity. Men 55 and over and women 65 and over are most prone to the disease. African Americans, particularly women – and family history are also factors.

Visit us tomorrow when we give tips and lifestyle enhancements to decrease your high blood pressure.

In the meantime call Expert Home Care when you need live-in care for your loved one.. call us at 800-848-2336.

Expert Home Care - A New Jersey Senior Care, Elder Care, and Live-In Home care agency sponsors a Live Focus on Senior Radio program on wsRadio.com. Hosts are David Goodman, President of Expert Home Care New Jersey and Frank Esposito, Vice President of Expert Home Care New Jersey.

You are invited to listen to our host, Frank Esposito, interview Donald Vanarelli, Esq., certified elder law attorney and co-founder of the Elder Mediation Center of New Jersey. The topic of the radio interview is Elder Law Mediation (click to listen). Don Vanarelli explains the circumstances that make elder law mediation a viable option for resolving disputes between family members over care, finances, independence and other issues involving elderly parents.

What is elder mediation?

Mr. Vanarelli explains that mediation is primarily for family members to find resolution when helping aging parents become a topic of family dispute, “when family members are unable to hear one another and find resolution on hard elder care issues, mediation can help find agreement between family members,” says Don Vanarelli.

Some of those hard elder care issues are:

• Housing Issues
• Power of Attorney
• Guardianship
• Family caregiving - scheduling sibling’s time committments and responsibilities
• Finding in-home help for aging relative or parent
• Living arrangements
• Healthcare Issues & planning
• Estate Planning
• Finances
• Medical Treatments

It’s best to come to resolution before filing a lawsuit, going to court, and having the judge make decisions for the family. If you are in dispute over any of the issues listed above or maybe another hard elder care concern, you might consider going to a professional like an elder law attorney to get resolution before your family comes to an impasse. It’s always better to keep the lines of communication open, especially when seeking soltutions that are best for your mom and dad.

Donald Vanarelli, Esq., certified elder law attorney points out in the radio interview some of the benefits you, a family as a whole, receives from mediation:

• Siblings come together in the same room - this may be the first time in years if family siblings live in different states.
• You get to experience sibling’s body language and make eye contact
• You may also view your parent’s reactions, physical responses
• Walk away with problems resolved, next steps to take, and have specific, clear action items for each family member to do/take

Listen now and hear if family mediation is right for you: Elder Law Mediation.  Brought to you by Expert Home Care New Jersey, the leader in New Jersey elder & senior live-in home care.

Call us for senior live-in help today, 800-848-2336 or contact Expert Home Care New Jersey.

New Jersey Expert Home Care in Somerville, Red Bank, Lakewood, Hackettstown, Ridgewood, Princeton, Trenton, Flemington, Morristown, Wayne helping your loved ones when memory loss is an issue.  Call us at 800-848-2336.

We are your Live-In Home Care Specialist in New Jersey.  Since 1985 we’ve been providing Live-In Home Care in the Tri-State Area. Expert Home Care knows that it means everything to aging seniors to live independently at home. Most adult children understand this wish. That’s why Expert Home Care in NJ offers 24/7 care so we can be there when you cannot be.

Today our topic is memory loss. There’s a bit of confusion around memory loss - is it Alzheimer’s, or dementia? Most often, we are asked, “Is memory loss normal?”

Memory loss is not a normal part of the aging process. this is the message that seniors, spouses, children and loved ones need to remember. As research shows that the ability to pay attention and concentrate decreases with age, and senior moments or word finding difficulties are common, it is not normal for memory to worsen with age. This can, in fact, be a sign of a more serious problem.

Experts in memory loss says aging slows down the process of taking in new information. People don’t forget, but may begin to learn differently. Learning can be improved through such healthy living measures as:

• Proper exercise
• Eating a balanced meal
• Getting enough sleep
• Reducing stress

New Jersey’s Expert Home Care suggest that seniors become aware of what can adversely affect attention and concentration and find ways to eliminate these stressors from their lives.

This may mean getting treatment for:

• Depression
• Reducing alcohol consumption
• Recognizing medication misuse
• Using herbal supplements with caution

We suggest the following helpful hints: 

• Writing things down
• Organizing important things
• Planning ahead
• Exercising the brain - doing crossword puzzles or number games

Regular brain exercises can increase learning and help reduce senior moments. Just like our bodies, our brains require regular care and maintenance. This is particularly true when we get older.

Do you believe you’re experiencing memory loss as you age? What do you do to help diminish or control “forgeting things and dates”? Share with us your story and tips by leaving a comment below. Thank you. 

For help with caring for a loved one living with memory loss, call the Live-in Home Care Specialist at 800-848-2336. New Jersey Expert Senior & Elder Home Care.

Most of the care provided to an older adult is from an informal network of family and friends, rather than a paid or formal network. The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP reported in 2004 that the estimated number of caregivers in the US was 44 million people. That translates into nearly 21% of all US households providing care for an adult family member.  Many of these people work part-time or full-time hours and may also still have child-rearing responsibilities on top of this. The people in this group have come to be known as the “sandwich generation”, because they are often “sandwiched” in between taking care of the kids and mom and/or dad as well. The costs of this are far reaching from emotional, physical and of course financial.

The cost to US businesses from this is very significant, almost 34 billion annually.  This happens from workers having to leave work early, take time off,  and deal with interruptions which all leads to less productivity which effects on the bottom line.  Employers are doing what they can to help their employees with these issues more than ever. This assistance includes help such as resource and referral programs which include local services like home care which may include hourly help or live in help. If an employee is having an issue they can go to their employee or HR department and asked to be referred to a home care agency. There are also workshops and support groups as well as long-term care insurance coverage.

This trend is going to continue for several decades with people living longer due to better medicine and more healthy lifestyles.