How to Take Care for Your Alzheimer's Family Member

Things to Consider

You won't find it an easy job to take care for an Alzheimer's patient. This task can overburden you at times. The changing behavior and the decreasing ability to perform all kinds of tasks not to mention the effects of memory loss are a great challenge to the caregiver. This is an extra heavy addition to normal care of the elderly.

What we need to keep in mind is to take good care for our selves as caregivers as well. If we neglect ourselves, the quality of our lives also deteriorates.

Organization of Home Care

It takes a lot of courage to take care for an Alzheimer's patient. It really is a challenge to your power of patience and flexibility.

Being well prepared helps you to deal with it. This article will give you appropriate suggestions for all kind of subjects from creating a safe environment to limiting choices and reducing over-exertion.

As time progresses there will be an increasing need for changes in the environment to adapt to a changing need for security. People with Alzheimer's Disease are slowly loosing their control over fine motor skills. At a certain moment it possibly will not be safe for them to handle a sharp knife or certain tools out of their tool box they earlier were a common handiness to them.

So you must be keen on all these kind of subjects and gradually make changes to the home environment.

The communication with your beloved-on will also change as the disease progresses. They won't remember thing you just said an instance ago. It makes no sense to become impatient or angry. It's just a fact that must be accepted and you must learn to deal with.

Sometimes it helps you to think like a computer. That can repeat and repeat over and over again and does not change in the way the information is presented when you do something wrong....

Tips to Reduce Frustrations

Imagine how you would feel, when once-automatic tasks become difficult or impossible. Sometimes in normal life and being healthy we get frustrated when something we want to accomplish over and over fails. So we can expect a person who has Alzheimer's to react with the same frustration, agitation and even aggression when they don't succeed in all kinds of things, especially if the remember being handy with it in the past.

In your task as a caregiver you can help them to limit challenges and ease frustration:

Take more time for all kinds of activities than you used to. By being prepared to that you will be more patient with your beloved-one and cope with the situation. Not only for one day but for all time coming after this day!

Help them in making choices. They will have a problem with that. You can help by limiting the options (making a pre-selection).

Step by step ask them to help you with activities in stead of asking them in one long sentence to fulfill a complex task.

They are much faster distracted by stimuli from their environment such as the TV or radio. So turn those off when you are engaged in other activities.

Because they are not able to focus on too many things simultaneously, make sure you invite a limited number of visitors.

It is very important, if not only for your own well-being, to maintain social contacts and relaxation.

Hard Decision

If care giving for your loved one with Alzheimer's becomes unmanageable at home, consider placement in a facility with specialized care for your beloved-one.

Take Care For Yourself

Many caregivers ignore their own care needs, both mentally and physically. You also have to deal with the diagnosis of your beloved-one, the changes in your relation from partners to caregiver and care receiver and the great responsibility you have from now on.

Find the support you need through contact groups, continue to take some time for your own hobbies, find someone to assist you or may be to take over the care for a couple of hours a week, so you can relax and go shopping, to the pool, get a massage or anything else you long for.

Identifying Symptoms and Treatment Options for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

A common disorder with real impact, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) can have a large effect on quality of life.

IBS is a functional disorder that affects the colon, or large bowel, but does cause any permanent damage to the digestive tract. Common symptoms are abdominal pain, bloating, and irregular diarrhea or constipation. With IBS, the nerve endings on the lining of the bowel are unusually sensitive, resulting in unusual muscle activity and spasms in the colon. It is the colonic spasticity that leads to the symptoms of IBS.

Particular foods, such as alcohol, fats, oils, and carbonated beverages, can trigger IBS. Eating too fast or waiting too long to eat between meals can also trigger IBS. Depression, trauma, and stress can aggravate symptoms, but DO NOT cause or trigger IBS.

Because symptoms vary among patients, the best way to determine if you have IBS is to consult a healthcare professional. Common tests performed to determine if symptoms are related to IBS are:
• Lower G.I x-ray (a.k.a the barium enema)
• Small bowel series x-ray
• Stool parasite culture
• Flexible sigmoidoscopy and/or colonoscopy

To date, there is no cure for IBS. There are, however, options available for managing and treating symptoms of IBS.

Simple changes in lifestyle, diet, and stress levels can help reduce symptoms of IBS. Stress management, which includes daily exercise, counseling/support, and adequate sleep, can be a useful technique when managing IBS.

Certain symptoms of IBS can be treated through prescribed medications. Laxatives are often prescribed when a patient has discomfort from constipation. Loperamides can help decrease diarrhea.

Another treatment option for IBS is prescribed Donnatal Extentabs and Donnatal Elixir (www.Donnatal.com).

Donnatal Extentabs are an extended release, combination antispasmodic therapy that provides a gradual dissolution over a period of 12 hours. Reducing spasms in the colon can help manage pain, bloating, and bowel dysfunction associated with IBS.

Donnatal Extentabs recommended b.i.d dosing, one Extentab in the morning and one at night, offers a convenient 12-hour dosing schedule.

The nighttime benefit afforded by Donnatal Extentabs is important to IBS sufferers whose symptoms can interfere with getting a full night's rest. Without proper rest at night, quality of life is affected, as well as their ability to be productive at home or in the workplace

Donnatal Elixir is used as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and acute enterocolitis. Donnatal Elixir is an immediate release, antispasmodic therapy that is available only by prescription.

When prescribing Donnatal Elixir, pediatric patients may be dosed every four to six hours; adults may be dosed three or four times a day according to conditions and severity of the symptoms.

Herbal Remedies for Hemorrhoids- 6 Highly Effective Herbs for Natural Hemorrhoid Relief

Herbal remedies for hemorrhoids offer sufferers good natural options to relieve their symptoms at home and this article will examine some of the highly effective herbs useful for relieving the symptoms of hemorrhoids.

These herbs include the following examples:

1-Lemon Balm

The use of lemon balm has a lot of healing effects on hemorrhoid swellings; it helps to shrink and reduce the size and symptoms of the swollen inflamed pile veins rapidly. This herb is available commercially in the form of oral capsules; this capsule of 500mg of the herb should not be taken more than three times in a day.

2-Milk Thistle

Milk Thistle aids the detoxifying actions of the liver thus helping to get rid of the noxious chemicals in the body that are responsible for the development of most diseases, it also has anti-inflammatory properties to alleviate the inflammation of pile veins.

This herb contains an active ingredient called silymarian which has the ability to reduce inflammation very fast. This herb is also available in capsular form and the maximum dose of these capsules that you can consume daily is 450 mg.

3- Mangos

Apart from the fact that the mango fruit is very rich in fiber, it also has a lot of other natural healing properties that are beneficial in treating piles. Mango seeds can be dried and then ground into powder form which can either be used to make tea which can sipped orally or which can be mixed with water to make a slave which can applied directly unto swollen external hemorrhoid tissue to stop bleeding piles.

4-Yarrow

Although this is an herb that is usually made into a tea, this herb works best for natural hemorrhoid treatment when it is applied directly to the inflamed rectal region. This will reduce the swelling and itchiness associated with hemorrhoids. Yarrow is available in most grocery stores, and any whole or natural foods market.

5-Gotu Kola

Gotu Kola is an Indian herb that is a hemorrhoid remedy. The active ingredient inside this herb is called triterpenic acid and in its capsular form, this herb can be taken three times a day at a dose of 30 mg per capsule. Gotu kola extract reduces pain, swelling, fatigue, and sensation of heaviness from hemorrhoids.

6-Plantain Herb

Plantain also has plenty of allantoin just like comfrey root powder. Use it just like comfrey powder by mixing it with oil and applying it directly to your anus. You can also combine equal parts of the plantain and comfrey powder. You can either buy the commercial pre prepared plantain powder or you can prepare your own powder at home by grinding plantain leaves into powdery form.

Are there other good natural hemorrhoid treatments?

The good news is that there are many other natural treatments that have proven to be very effective in helping you to get rid of this problem from home naturally, and you are invited to www.hemroidsolution.blogspot.com to discover more natural hemorrhoid cures.

Finally click here to receive a free newsletter on natural hemorrhoid treatment.