More than 15.5 million Americans (family members and friends) provide unpaid care for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia.
Women make up 65% percent of caregivers for people with these illnesses, putting them at the center of the growing Alzheimer’s crisis.
Alzheimer’s disease makes people forget things which can frustrate family members or friends.
Symptoms include memory loss and the inability to do normal tasks like cooking and dressing. They don’t list food and beverages in Causes below, but I think what you eat and drink plays a HUGE role in how your brain functions.
Add how much sleep and exercise you get too –basically your daily habits and lifestyle. It’s not normal aging. In fact, it’s abnormal aging.
Avoid stress and triggers, as those are the things that make you reach for unhealthy foods, beverages or habits. Sometimes, stress is absolutely unavoidable.
A daily commute can stress you out. Add people who gossip, complain and whine and it’s enough to exhaust you.
If that’s the case BREATHE FIRST. Take a walk. Distract yourself with something positive, smile at someone who may be having an even worse day than you, and allow that stressful moment to pass. It will.
Being a Caretaker for someone with Alzheimer’s is stressful.
I talk to Kailen Rosenberg, known as the “Love Architect” and an expert on unconditional love is the author of Real Love, Right Now.
She talks about the importance of unconditional love when you are a caretaker.
She is joined by Betsy Broyles Arnold, who was caregiver for her mother who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
They discuss the challenging role of the caregiver and the impact of Alzheimer’s disease that many often do not see.
Click Link for Interview: https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRSMFh2cGtlM1R2WnRVag
Known as “Love Architect” Kailen Rosenberg is more than just a matchmaker but a teacher of “love on a higher level.” She’s been featured as a regular guest on more than 400 print, online, radio and television interviews, including the Today Show, Good Moring America, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Fitness, Marie Claire, Redbook, Self, Oprah.com, the Oprah Winfrey Network, BBC Worldwide, E4, The Huffington Post, and more. For more information please visit http://www.thelovearchitect.com
About Betsy Broyles Arnold
Betsy is the daughter of football icon Coach Frank Broyles who, along with her twin sister, Linda, became the primary caregiver to their mother, Barbara, who lost her battle with Alzheimer’s in 2004. That experience led her — together with her sister and father — to create The Frank and Barbara Broyles Foundation to help families and caregivers who are caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s.
For more information please visit: http://www.alzheimersunconditionallove.com
MARIA DORFNER is the founder of NewsMD. She began her career at NBC with an internship in 1983, and began specializing in medical/health ten years later. She can be reached at maria.dorfner@yahoo.com