General

Chronic shoulder pain: comparison of acupuncture and conventional treatments

San Jose Care Resource Guide: Chronic shoulder pain can have many causes, the next link  Chronic Shoulder Pain: Part I. Evaluation and Diagnosis   will bring you to an detailed article from Kelton  M. Burnank et. al. on the the diagnosis of the various aspects of it.

•  rotator cuff disorders,
•  adhesive capsulitis,
•  shoulder instability,
•  shoulder arthritis

This article is quite technical: as the it  goes into the details of sub-categories of underlying illness or condition, , the complexities of the diagnosis of the causes of shoulder pain become apparent.

The classical treatments of such causes is described in another article by the same author.  Chronic shoulder pain: part II. Treatment.

Those treatments consist of

• Activity modification and analgesic medications
• physical therapy
•  Combined steroid and local anesthetic injections

Then: “…Symptoms that persist or worsen after six to 12 weeks of directed treatment should be referred to an orthopedic specialist…”

Cure or long term relief does not seem  a given.

Then come a method apparently more benign: accupuncture.  Accupuncture seems to have  some good rate of success according to an article in JAAPA   Chronic Shoulder Pain and Acupuncture Treatment. This article concluded:

“… A treatment series of 15 acupuncture sessions produced signifi­cantly greater pain relief than sham acupuncture or conservative treatment in patients with chronic shoulder pain not due to osteoarthritis or rheuma­toid arthritis…..”

Talk to your Doctor

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HealthCare: California’s Gov. Brown’s proposed steep healthcare cuts

San Jose Care Resource Guide: Gov. Brown announces “painful” [for whom?] cuts in California’s healthcare system. Click Here for the Kaiser Health News/California Healthline link

Quoting:

The cuts, which total $12.5 billion, include some large reductions in health care services, including:

• $1.6 billion cut from Medi-Cal;
• $1.5 billion savings from reducing eligibility period for state health services;
• $1 billion cut from developmental services;
• $1 billion cut from In-Home Supportive Services; and
• $ 716 million reduction in child care services, including reduction in levels of subsidies.

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Sleep: The Importance of Body Clock and Metabolism Regulation (Mercola)

SanJose Care Resource Guide: Dr Mercola has a clear, straightforward, and convincing appeal for a normally simple behavior which as probably as important,nay, more important than all the supplements we are gobling down…Sleep and aiding and abetting your Circadian rhythm. Click Here for a link to his post

Quoting Dr Mercola, 

• Short term memory
• Creativity and learning performance
• Weight gain/loss
• Diabetes and heart disease risk
• Immune system
•  a stronger immune response
• Cancer risk

In addition:

• Parkinson disease (PD)
• Alzheimer disease (AD)
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Gastrointestinal tract disorders
• Kidney disease
• Behavioral problems in children
• Stress response related issues: Headaches,Indigestion,Insomnia ,Increased anxiety,Depression,High blood pressure

You name it, sleep is part of the remedies.    So, yes, sleeping enough can be a good investment of your time…

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Ways The New Health Law May Affect You in 2011 (KHN)

San Jose Care Resource Guide: Kaiser Health News bring us a good summary of the Obama administration’s changes in Health Care Policies taking effect in 2011.

In a nutshell: 

• Seniors will get big discounts on prescription drugs 
•  Free preventive care      (Wallet neutral for you, and medically  questionable)
  • Studies abound on the cost effectiveness of preventive care, with varying enthusiasm
    • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:  Some Health benefits, No Cost Benefit
    • Dr Joseph W. Stubbs, Amrican College of Physicians   : “..Too often our patients extract a psychological reassurance from screening tests that is not grounded in reality..”
• Food calorie counting more transparent: Might help obesity epidemic, limited value for seniors
• Some in Medicare Advantage plans may lose coveted extra benefits such as vision and dental coverage
• News taxes on drug companies: KHN/Fox  : That will help Research for that new treatment? , …not

Source: KHN

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Caregiving Skills For Dementia (Lippincott’s Nursing Center)

San Jose Care Resource Guide:  This is a very rich article from the Lipingcott’s Nursing Center on dementia in its various forms. Essentially a class  for nurses , but family caregivers will benefit immensely from the information. Click Here for link

San Jose Care Resource Guide: Here are some of the  topics

• COMMON TYPES OF DEMENTIA
•  NURSING CARE MODELS (Techniques for interaction with a person afflicted with Dementia)
• INTERVENTIONS ( What can be done to improve the situation)
  • Illustrative examples of cases and what was done
  • Responses to specific dementia issues such as
    •  agitation
    • withdrwal
    • apathy

One of the best article we have seen in a long time!

Dementia Caregiving: Poor Skills=Frustration + Depression!

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Powerful Center for Medicare and Medicare (CMS) information has been updated

SJCRG: This powerful careging info from theUS  Govnm’t has been updated. Here is the link

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FairCareMD: A Cyber Marketplace For Doctors and Patients

SJCRG: FairCareMD,  a Cyber Marketplace For Doctors and Patients… Is this an idea whose time has come, ….or not?

Here is the link.    

You type into a form  the medical service you need and doctors will bid for it.    That reminds me of similar markets  programmers and clients. I have a hard time with this, but that might be a generational hangup…

And I will throw in an X-Ray...

What do you think?

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Is your government draining money away from the benefits of the highly disabled?

SJCRG: To know  what has happened, we will quote from this link at Occupational Health and Safety site

“….Since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) twenty years ago, the definition of “disability” has shifted from an underlying physical or mental condition to a complex interaction between a person and his or her environment….”

The full extent of the difference is summarized in this text from the EEOC: “SUMMARY OF KEY PROVISIONS: EEOC’S NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING (NPRM) TO IMPLEMENT THE ADA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 (ADAAA)”

Bottom line the definition of disability is now much broader and the burden of proof much lighter: good or bad.Think in terms of a shrinking economy, more people entitled, with less money to go around.

We believe the truly disabled, i.e. , those who fit  the strictest definition, have been short changed. A typical impact can be seen in our post on the wheelchairhealth site on the greater difficulty that highly disabled have to get the high tech power wheelchair they need!

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Does Osteopathy Reduce Musculoskeletal Pain? (Springer-Verlag)

SJCRG:

From the study conducted by Paul Posadzki and Edzard Ernst in “Clinical Rheumatology”

• 5 studies claim positive impact of Osteopathy on Musculoskeletal Pain
• 11  studies claim no impact of Osteopathy on Musculoskeletal Pain

So :”..No compelling evidence that it works..” But it might…

The Osteopath's path

For background on Osteopathy, go to the Wikipedia link

Talk to your Osteopath

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American Heart Association (AHA) has a good caregiver website

SJCRG: Here is the link AHA-Caregivers.    Excellent site for caregivers of all stripes. I particularly like the tone, “Caregiver, we are here for you” . Take a look at the “Reach Out”  communication tips, they will save you grief!

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