by Dr Liz | Feb 25, 2014 | Caregivers, Health
Earlier this month, a large study cast doubt on whether exercise can help nursing home residents with depression. The study, published in BMC Medicine, followed more than 1,000 residents in 78 “care homes” in the United Kingdom. It found that the number of elders who...
by Dr Liz | Feb 21, 2014 | Dementia, Legal Issues/Financial Abuse
“If someone who is alert and aware makes a conscious choice to live in unclean, potentially dangerous conditions, as long as it doesn’t affect others, they have the right to refuse help.” That is correct. However, the devil is in the details. We, as a...
by Dr Liz | Feb 10, 2014 | Caregivers
Recently, I came across this story from a family that inspired more thoughts about swallowing: An elderly woman suddenly started holding her breath. She gagged whenever she tried to eat, and she started spitting up saliva. Her daughter, a nurse, thought, “Oh my God,...
by Dr Liz | Jan 28, 2014 | Behaviors, Caregivers
A colleague recently forwarded me an essay from The New England Journal of Medicine about what we call in the field “elder self-neglect.” The essay describes a patient who has piles and piles of paper in his home, rotting food in the kitchen, rat feces everywhere. It...
by Dr Liz | Jan 9, 2014 | Caregivers
As a geriatrician making house calls throughout the Bay Area, I often must explain to families that toward the end stages of dementia, their loved ones will eventually forget the most basic of physical functions, like how to swallow. Often, this signals that there’s...
