Year: 2019

FIVE WAYS TO CALM YOURSELF DOWN

BE MORE MINDFUL.
Yes, mindfulness is all the rage these days, but for good reason. Mindfulness has a host of health benefits, but among other things, it can help you control stress. When you practice mindfulness, you’re removing yourself from thinking about a stressful situation, reminding yourself to be grateful for the good things happening in your life, and shifts your perspective so that you can see things more clearly. All this works to calm your body and mind down and reduce stress.

DEEP BREATHING.
Sometimes, the simple act of taking some time to breathe deeply can make a huge difference? Why? It cues your body to slow down and relax. Taking deep belly breaths can help ease stress and anxiety, slow your heartbeat and stabilize your blood pressure. Its also that mindfulness trick again. Focusing on your breath helps to ground you and bring your attention to one thing, giving your mind a break and your body a chance to recoup. It’s easy to do, and you don’t have to do it for very long to reap the benefits. Just find a quiet spot, and slowly breathe in deeply through your nose, allowing your belly to expand. Then slowly let the air pass back through your nose as you exhale. Even a few minutes can be helpful in a pinch, but regular practice of this (daily for 10-20 minutes) can do wonders.

PERIODIC BREAKS.
Taking breaks not only help calm you down when you’re stressed, they can help make you more productive. When we work non-stop without taking a break, we’re pushing our brain to the limit, naturally tiring it out after a while, just like any other muscle in the body. But evidence suggests that taking periodic breaks helps to recharge our brain and become more focused. Taking a break may seem counter-productive to getting things done, but you’ll help yourself out in the long run by grabbing a glass of water or a healthy snack each hour, and you’ll feel much more relaxed and productive. It’s a win-win!

CALL A FRIEND.
Studies show that those with a strong social network tend to live longer than those without one. That’s because our friends help build us up, give us a sense of belonging, and help us deal with difficult situations. We don’t always have to go it alone, so when you’re feeling like you’re about to snap, pick up the phone and chat it up with someone who you know has your back. It’s a great stress reliever.

GET MOVING.
Regular exercise can do wonder for keeping your stress levels low, but even if you haven’t seen the inside of a gym in a while, taking a 5-10 minute brisk walk when you’re extra stressed can make a big difference. You’ll remove yourself from your stressful situation of the moment, get some fresh air, and release powerful stress-fighting endorphins.

BE MORE MINDFUL

When you practice mindfulness, you’re removing yourself from thinking about a stressful situation, reminding yourself to be grateful for the good things happening in your life, and shifts your perspective so that you can see things more clearly. All this works to calm your body and mind down and reduce stress.

Aged Care and Continence….the good news

Incontinence is not necessarily normal in the ageing process, though age is regarded as a risk factor. Residents in aged care settings who are reported to have severe incontinence usually have one or more co-morbidities with the largest diagnosis groups being dementia, stroke and muscular skeletal disorders. Such diagnoses make these residents more prone to incontinence due to physical or functional deficits. However, the good news is a general consensus is emerging that incontinence in the elderly is a ‘dynamic’, treatable condition.
#sheehan_health #agedcare #dementia #continence

Improved Cardiovascular Health

Melbourne’s Baker Medical Research Institute conducted a 3-year study that explored the connection between owning a pet and how it affected the pet owner’s cardiovascular health. The study included 5,742 participants, 784 of whom owned least one pet. Participating researchers made note of:
• Blood pressure level
• Cholesterol levels
• Triglyceride
When they announced their findings, the researchers revealed that the pet owners consistently showed healthier levels of cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and triglyceride. One of the interesting things the research revealed was that although the pet owners were generally more active than the non-pet owners, they also indulged in take-out food and alcohol more frequently, indicating that their dogs and cats did an even better job of keeping them healthy than previously anticipated.

Dogs and Alzheimer’s

It’s becoming increasingly common to walk into an aged care facility that deals with people that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia and find one or more dogs on the facility. The reason is because science indicates that the dogs are an important part of the treatment process.

At this point, no one fully understand why people suffering from Alzheimer’s have such a positive reaction to dogs and other animals. What is known is that when the animal enters the person’s life, even if it’s just for a few moments, the individual exhibits an increase in interactive behaviour. Some centres report that after spending time with a dog or cat, people have an increased appetite.
Some programs have trained Alzheimer’s support dogs that help people navigate the facility and perform basic functions they weren’t able to manage on their own prior to being paired with a canine companion.

Dementia and Continence

It can be hard to seek professional help for incontinence. Many people do so only at a point of crisis, as it may feel to the person with dementia like they are losing their dignity. Some may see incontinence as inevitable, but for many people with dementia, given the right advice and patience, accidents and incontinence can be managed or sometimes even cured.
The continence adviser will assess the person’s problems and how they are affecting their quality of life, as well as yours. It is common to be asked to keep a chart of toilet habits.
After a thorough assessment the continence adviser will write up a continence care plan tailored to the individual. This should include things that the person with dementia and any carer can do to help. It should also describe the support that professionals should provide, as well as follow-up and next steps.
The aim should be to cure toilet problems or incontinence wherever possible. This should be agreed with the person with dementia and their carer. In many cases, identifying and addressing practical issues, changing medications or making simple changes to lifestyle can help to achieve this.
In a few cases, the person may need to be referred to a further specialist. For some people, advice will focus not on curing but rather on containing the incontinence as comfortably as possible using aids.

What is the impact of continence problems at school?

Daytime continence problems can have a significant impact on self-esteem, wellbeing and socialisation, as well as learning for the children affected. School staff are not health trained and many do not understand that children can have a medical problem affecting their bladder and/or bowel and are often at a loss to know how to help. Rules around access to the toilet and drinks can adversely affect all children, but tend to have a disproportionate impact on those with continence difficulties and disabilities.

The role of the healthcare professional
This leads to the question of what can healthcare professionals working with children and young people do to support. There are some simple and fairly quick measures that can be put into place, which are likely to have positive effects:
Health visitors can discuss timely toilet training and explain issues around bladder and bowel health with families at developmental checks. They can play a positive role in alerting families to early signs of constipation and how to address these.
School nurses can be alert to signs of continence problems at school entry, provide first line advice and refer on if necessary. They can explain continence problems to school staff, ensuring that they understand that inadequate or dirty toilets, which provide poor levels of privacy and where poor student behaviour is unchecked, can discourage students from using them. This may result in pupils avoiding drinking and withholding urine and faeces during the school day. Schools should be encouraged to consider their policies with respect to access to water bottles and toilets during the day. Staff may also need explanations of normal fluid intake in school age children and to be reminded of the educational and health benefits of children being reminded and encouraged to drink regularly throughout the school day.

Bedwetting is the most common childhood continence problem…

Many children and young people affected have other continence problems. These include constipation, day time wetting, urgency (having to get to the toilet quickly) or frequency (having to go to the toilet more often than usual).
What a lot of people do not know is that bedwetting can and should be treated in all children over the age of five years. For children younger than this, simple changes might make a difference. Therefore all children with bedwetting should be helped to understand that:
Drinking well is really important to help the bladder work well
• Primary aged children should be drinking about 1.5 litres of water-based drinks a day
• Secondary school children should be drinking more than this and secondary school aged boys should be having up to 2.5 litres of water-based drinks per day
• Children should avoid fizzy drinks as these can make bedwetting worse, by irritating the bladder
• Children should avoid drinks with caffeine in them (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cola and many energy drinks). Caffeine can irritate the bladder and encourages the kidneys to make more urine
Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables helps prevent constipation. Constipation may cause bedwetting, or make it worse.
• Children who are constipated should have this treated as part of the treatment for bedwetting
They need to try and wee just before going to sleep. This makes sure they start the night with an empty bladder and gives them the best chance of a dry night.

Healthy Ways to Combat Urinary Incontinence in Ageing

There is no magic cure to handling the onset of urinary incontinence. But there are many ways to manage it, and to live the life you want.

Bladder Control

While there are some conditions that aren’t responsive, the bladder can usually be programmed with exercise and training, like any other part of the body. Experts recommend training your bladder by setting a strict schedule for urinating (as in every hour or 90 minutes), regardless of need or urgency. As you do this, and exercise, you can expand the space between voids, until you are in more control.

Lifestyle Adjustments
There are a lot of things a person can do to make their bladder healthier, including:
• Weight loss
• Limiting alcohol
• Avoiding sweet or sugary drinks that put more stress on the bladder
• Less caffeine

Many people need to manage incontinence with adult pull ups and pads, furniture protection, creams to help irritated skin. But for many people, things like furniture pads or urinary irritation creams are not something to talk about, it’s something to avoid and shameful. But that shouldn’t be the case!

Accept that there are some changes you can make through exercise or lifestyle adjustment, and some you can’t. This doesn’t make an older adult less of a person or less capable. And it doesn’t mean they can’t live at home, by themselves or with a caregiver. It just means that there needs to be some adjustments.

Having urinary incontinence doesn’t mean an older adult needs to stop enjoying living. It just means they need to live differently. And that’s part of aging: making the right adjustments so that you can continue to live strongly, age where you want, and experience the life you want.

What is ‘normal’ for toilet training?

Toilet training is an area of normal child development that causes anxiety for many families. However, when a child has a disability it is an even bigger hurdle for parents and carers, although the children, particularly those with learning or sensory disabilities are not usually concerned.
Often families are advised that they should not worry about toilet training until the child appears to be ready for this stage of learning. However, there is no clear definition of what is meant by ‘being ready’. There are some signs that are quoted, such as knowing when their nappy needs changing, asking to wear normal pants, or asking for the toilet. Children do not often reach this stage by themselves and many will not understand that they should be doing something different from what they have been doing since they were born. For many, signs of readiness for toilet training are not present until the children have actually started a toilet training programme.
What is suggested
It is suggested that toilet training should be started early for most children, including those with disabilities. To toilet train a child needs to learn a set of skills including communicating the need to go, managing their clothes and learning to sit on the toilet or potty. With appropriate support children can start to learn these skills from their second year. Toilet training does not necessarily get easier as children get older – it might get more difficult if they don’t see why they need to change something that is working well for them.
If toilet training is delayed, for whatever reason, children should be offered assessment to ensure that their bladder and bowel are healthy. Children with disabilities are more prone to constipation, which may in turn cause bladder problems. Without assessment these problems may be missed.