Why Caregivers need to care --
​about themselves
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Caregiver Health at Risk:  the Facts

  • According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, (see more links, contact and description below) there are approximately 65.7 million family caregivers in the U.S. today providing "free" care valued at about $450 billion. Two out of every five adults care for a family member and approximately 2/3 of caregivers are women. As the baby boomer generation ages (at a rate of about 10,000 per day baby boomers reaching age 65), caregiving will continue to be a crucial issue among Americans.
  • In 2014, caregivers for Alzheimer's alone provided over 17.9 billion hours of unpaid care valued at more than $217.7 billion. Alzheimer's cost the nation $226 billion in 2015 and that figure is expect to rise to $1.2 trillion by 2050.
  • Caregivers face significant risks to their own health due to high levels of stress, specifically:  alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse, anxiety disorders, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart attack, heartburn, infection, obesity, pain (muscle or joint pain and headaches) and depression (According to the FamilyDoctor.org website)
  •  www.familydoctor.org/familydoctor/en/seniors/caregiving/caregiver-health-and-wellness.html

These statistics are simply staggering.  And, according to the current Alzheimer's Disease Fact Sheet, with projections made from current data, "unless something is done, the costs of Alzheimer’s in 2050 are estimated to total $1.2 trillion (in today’s dollars). Costs to Medicare and Medicaid will increase nearly 500 percent."  And that's just the projection for one disease, Alzheimer's.  The graying of America is going to be the bankrupting of America, indeed.  This is a crisis of monumental proportions, one which our healthcare system cannot begin to address, and so it us up to those who have walked in the caregiver's shoes to help others on that journey.  You've heard the phrase, "It takes a village."  Well, in this case, we may find it takes a whole planet! 

​Family Caregiver Alliance
National Center on Caregiving
(415) 434-3388 | (800) 445-8106
Website: www.caregiver.org
Email: info@caregiver.org
FCA CareNav: https://fca.cacrc.org/login
Services by State: www.caregiver.org/connecting-caregivers/services-by-state/
Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) seeks to improve the quality of life for caregivers through education, services, research, and advocacy. Through its National Center on Caregiving, FCA offers information on current social, public policy, and caregiving issues and provides assistance in the development of public and private programs for caregivers. For residents of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, FCA provides direct support services for caregivers of those with Alzheimerʼs disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinsonʼs, and other debilitating disorders that strike adults.

Science Daily

For the latest information on research studies and new insights published in highly respected medical and psychological journals, here's a link for Science Daily, which is a clearinghouse digest for these articles.  You may subscribe to the whole daily feed or select specific topics of interest.  Included here are three links to the siteone for the as well

research on yoga/meditation
for caregiver stress relief

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A study released in Science Daily gives some excellent results from a small study done at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.  Professor of psychiatry, Dr. Helen Levretsky, led the study which shows remarkable improvements in cognitive functions and lower levels of depression in participants who used a simple yoga meditation for 12 minutes daily over an 8-week period.  For further information, please read the article linked below:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120313145018.htm#.T2Ci1eI4wa8.email

Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation

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If you would like to view the video presentations by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, founder and President of the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation (ARPF), whose innovative studies are mentioned in the article above regarding the use of the yoga/meditation technique called Kirtan Kriya (KK), check out the link to them on Youtube below:
http://www.alzheimersprevention.org/videos.htm

Books & Music

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​Recommendations for helpful books, ebooks, music for relaxing

Computer use and exercise combo may reduce the odds of having memory loss

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Here is a link to an article in Science Daily which reports on a study done at the Mayo Clinic, which is published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.  It gives some very hopeful results for the 926 participants, that using a computer along with moderate exercise significantly improves your chances of warding off memory loss.
http://sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120501134201.htm

Wellness Blog

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Interaction, thoughts, questions, comments & support