#Coleen Hubbard

[fightingwithallreality]

Colorado Summer (1999) written by Larry Bograd and Coleen Hubbard, illustrated by Sandy Rabinowitz [source]

[wandertrixxtarr]

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

Judith Graham March 31, 2020

Cropped shot of a nurse holding an elderly woman’s hands in a retirement home

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I…

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

Navigating Aging

Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system.

To contact Judith Graham with a question or comment, click here.

Join the Navigating Aging Facebook Group.

See All Columns

Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I bring Mom or Dad home?”

It’s a reasonable question. Most retirement complexes and long-term care facilities are excluding visitors. Older adults are asked to stay in their rooms and are alone for most of the day. Family members might call, but that doesn’t fill the time. Their friends in the facility are also sequestered.

In a matter of weeks, conditions have deteriorated in many of these centers.

At assisted living sites, staff shortages are developing as aides become sick or stay home with children whose schools have closed.

Nursing homes, where seniors go for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or live long term if they’re seriously ill and frail, are being hard hit by the coronavirus. They’re potential petri dishes for infection.

Still, older adults in these settings are being fed and offered other types of assistance. My neighbor’s 80-something parents are at a continuing care community outside Denver. It has started a concierge service for residents who need to order groceries and fill prescriptions. At rehab centers, physical, occupational and speech therapists offer valuable services.

But would be Mom or Dad fare better, even with all due social distancing, in the family home?

Of course, care there would fall squarely on the family’s shoulders, as would the responsibility for buying groceries, cooking, administering medication, doing the laundry and ensuring the environment is free from potential contamination.

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Home health care services could lend a hand. But they may not be easy to get because of growing demand, shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing issues.

Another concern in bringing someone home: Some facilities are telling residents that if they leave, even temporarily, they can’t return. That happened to a family in western New York, according to Roxanne Sorensen, a geriatric care manager with Elder Care Solutions of WNY.

When this family took their elderly parents out of an assisted living facility for a brief “stay-with-us” respite, they were told the parents had been discharged and had to be placed on a waiting list before they could return.

Sorensen has a client in her early 70s who’s in rehabilitation at a nursing home after emergency surgery for a life-threatening infection. The facility is on lockdown and her client is feeling trapped and desperate. She wants to go home, but she’s still weak and needs a lot more therapy.

“I’ve told her, stay here, get stronger and when you go home you won’t end up in the hospital or with disabilities that could put you back in a nursing home for the rest of your life,” Sorensen said.

Those in nursing care who have cognitive impairments may become disoriented or agitated if a family moves them from an environment that feels familiar, said Dr. Thomas Cornwell, executive chairman of the Home Centered Care Institute. Some have behavioral issues that can’t be managed at home.

Families with children need to think carefully about bringing an older parent home, especially if he or she has underlying chronic illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease, Cornwell said. ��Kids, generally, even in the past few weeks, have been exposed to hundreds of others [at school],” he said. “They tend to be vectors of infection.”

Ultimately, every family must weigh and balance the risks. Can they give an older parent enough attention? Do they have the emotional and physical stamina to take this on? What does the parent want? Will the pangs of displacement and disrupted routines be offset by the pleasures of being around adult children and grandchildren?

Dr. Alison Webb, a retired physician, is a single mom raising a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. Her father, Bob Webb, 81, has mild dementia and had been hospitalized for depression before she asked him to leave assisted living and move into her Seattle home.

“Initially he resisted. He feared change, and he was concerned that his stuff was going to be left behind and he wouldn’t get it back, ever,” Webb said. Even today, Bob talks about going back home to his apartment.

Webb said a geriatrician on a Facebook group for female physicians convinced her it was safer for her father to leave his assisted living center. “’You’ll do a lot better here with the grandkids. You can play games. There’s a big yard. You can do some gardening,’” Webb said she told her dad.

There’s another benefit. Because she’s a physician, Webb said, she hopes “I’ll notice if he’s not doing well and take care of it right away.”

Coleen Hubbard’s mother, Delores, whom she described as “really resilient and really stubborn,” had loved living in a one-bedroom apartment in a Denver senior housing complex for the past decade. In October, Delores was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and decided not to have medical treatment.

“Mom had a lot of surgeries and hospitalizations in her life,” Hubbard said. “She was done dealing with the medical community.”

Every time Hubbard suggested her mother move in with her, Delores refused: She wanted to die in her own apartment. But then, a few weeks ago, serious pain set in and Delores asked the Denver Hospice to begin giving her morphine.

“That’s when I realized that we may be close to the end,” Hubbard said. “And I felt an incredible urgent panic that I had to get her out of there. Things were already starting to close [because of the coronavirus]. I could not fathom that she might be cut off from me.”

Hubbard prepared a room at home and found a small, tinny metal bell that Delores could ring if she needed help. “We made a lot of jokes about Peter Pan and Tinker Bell,” Hubbard remembered. “When she rang the bell, I’d come in and say, ‘Yes, m’lady, what’s happening?’”

Five days after arriving, Delores passed away. “Grieving right now happens in a space of solitude and silence,” Hubbard wrote in a Facebook post. “Sure, there are texts and phone calls, emails and snail mail, but no embraces, no questionable casseroles delivered by neighbors, no gathering of family and friends to share stories and memories.”

Amid the grief is relief that Delores had what she wanted: a death without medical interventions. “I’m pinching myself that we made that happen,” Hubbard said. “And I’m so glad we brought her home.”

Patricia Scott’s story is unfinished. The 101-year-old was living in a retirement community in Castro Valley, California, before her son, Bart Scott, brought her to his house in Santa Rosa, moving her into a spacious in-law apartment.

Asked how she felt about the change, Patricia Scott said, “I’ve never been particularly thrilled with the idea of homogenized residency with a bunch of old farts, of whom I am one.”

Yet, she longs for her two-bedroom apartment: “It’s just that everything is there. I know where crap is. I miss my regular life.”

Bart Scott has four siblings, and they agreed that it was untenable to leave his mother alone during the coronavirus scare. “She is the matriarch of this family,” he said. “There are a lot of people who put a lot of store in her well-being.”

As for potential health threats, Patricia Scott is characteristically sardonic. “I was born in 1918, in the middle of the influenza epidemic,” she said, “and I think there’s a delicious irony that I could very well exit in this one.”

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic? published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[dinafbrownil]

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

Navigating Aging

Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system.

To contact Judith Graham with a question or comment, click here.

Join the Navigating Aging Facebook Group.

See All Columns

Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I bring Mom or Dad home?”

It’s a reasonable question. Most retirement complexes and long-term care facilities are excluding visitors. Older adults are asked to stay in their rooms and are alone for most of the day. Family members might call, but that doesn’t fill the time. Their friends in the facility are also sequestered.

In a matter of weeks, conditions have deteriorated in many of these centers.

At assisted living sites, staff shortages are developing as aides become sick or stay home with children whose schools have closed.

Nursing homes, where seniors go for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or live long term if they’re seriously ill and frail, are being hard hit by the coronavirus. They’re potential petri dishes for infection.

Still, older adults in these settings are being fed and offered other types of assistance. My neighbor’s 80-something parents are at a continuing care community outside Denver. It has started a concierge service for residents who need to order groceries and fill prescriptions. At rehab centers, physical, occupational and speech therapists offer valuable services.

But would be Mom or Dad fare better, even with all due social distancing, in the family home?

Of course, care there would fall squarely on the family’s shoulders, as would the responsibility for buying groceries, cooking, administering medication, doing the laundry and ensuring the environment is free from potential contamination.

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

Home health care services could lend a hand. But they may not be easy to get because of growing demand, shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing issues.

Another concern in bringing someone home: Some facilities are telling residents that if they leave, even temporarily, they can’t return. That happened to a family in western New York, according to Roxanne Sorensen, a geriatric care manager with Elder Care Solutions of WNY.

When this family took their elderly parents out of an assisted living facility for a brief “stay-with-us” respite, they were told the parents had been discharged and had to be placed on a waiting list before they could return.

Sorensen has a client in her early 70s who’s in rehabilitation at a nursing home after emergency surgery for a life-threatening infection. The facility is on lockdown and her client is feeling trapped and desperate. She wants to go home, but she’s still weak and needs a lot more therapy.

“I’ve told her, stay here, get stronger and when you go home you won’t end up in the hospital or with disabilities that could put you back in a nursing home for the rest of your life,” Sorensen said.

Those in nursing care who have cognitive impairments may become disoriented or agitated if a family moves them from an environment that feels familiar, said Dr. Thomas Cornwell, executive chairman of the Home Centered Care Institute. Some have behavioral issues that can’t be managed at home.

Families with children need to think carefully about bringing an older parent home, especially if he or she has underlying chronic illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease, Cornwell said. “Kids, generally, even in the past few weeks, have been exposed to hundreds of others [at school],” he said. “They tend to be vectors of infection.”

Ultimately, every family must weigh and balance the risks. Can they give an older parent enough attention? Do they have the emotional and physical stamina to take this on? What does the parent want? Will the pangs of displacement and disrupted routines be offset by the pleasures of being around adult children and grandchildren?

Dr. Alison Webb, a retired physician, is a single mom raising a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. Her father, Bob Webb, 81, has mild dementia and had been hospitalized for depression before she asked him to leave assisted living and move into her Seattle home.

“Initially he resisted. He feared change, and he was concerned that his stuff was going to be left behind and he wouldn’t get it back, ever,” Webb said. Even today, Bob talks about going back home to his apartment.

Webb said a geriatrician on a Facebook group for female physicians convinced her it was safer for her father to leave his assisted living center. “’You’ll do a lot better here with the grandkids. You can play games. There’s a big yard. You can do some gardening,’” Webb said she told her dad.

There’s another benefit. Because she’s a physician, Webb said, she hopes “I’ll notice if he’s not doing well and take care of it right away.”

Coleen Hubbard’s mother, Delores, whom she described as “really resilient and really stubborn,” had loved living in a one-bedroom apartment in a Denver senior housing complex for the past decade. In October, Delores was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and decided not to have medical treatment.

“Mom had a lot of surgeries and hospitalizations in her life,” Hubbard said. “She was done dealing with the medical community.”

Every time Hubbard suggested her mother move in with her, Delores refused: She wanted to die in her own apartment. But then, a few weeks ago, serious pain set in and Delores asked the Denver Hospice to begin giving her morphine.

“That’s when I realized that we may be close to the end,” Hubbard said. “And I felt an incredible urgent panic that I had to get her out of there. Things were already starting to close [because of the coronavirus]. I could not fathom that she might be cut off from me.”

Hubbard prepared a room at home and found a small, tinny metal bell that Delores could ring if she needed help. “We made a lot of jokes about Peter Pan and Tinker Bell,” Hubbard remembered. “When she rang the bell, I’d come in and say, ‘Yes, m’lady, what’s happening?’”

Five days after arriving, Delores passed away. “Grieving right now happens in a space of solitude and silence,” Hubbard wrote in a Facebook post. “Sure, there are texts and phone calls, emails and snail mail, but no embraces, no questionable casseroles delivered by neighbors, no gathering of family and friends to share stories and memories.”

Amid the grief is relief that Delores had what she wanted: a death without medical interventions. “I’m pinching myself that we made that happen,” Hubbard said. “And I’m so glad we brought her home.”

Patricia Scott’s story is unfinished. The 101-year-old was living in a retirement community in Castro Valley, California, before her son, Bart Scott, brought her to his house in Santa Rosa, moving her into a spacious in-law apartment.

Asked how she felt about the change, Patricia Scott said, “I’ve never been particularly thrilled with the idea of homogenized residency with a bunch of old farts, of whom I am one.”

Yet, she longs for her two-bedroom apartment: “It’s just that everything is there. I know where crap is. I miss my regular life.”

Bart Scott has four siblings, and they agreed that it was untenable to leave his mother alone during the coronavirus scare. “She is the matriarch of this family,” he said. “There are a lot of people who put a lot of store in her well-being.”

As for potential health threats, Patricia Scott is characteristically sardonic. “I was born in 1918, in the middle of the influenza epidemic,” she said, “and I think there’s a delicious irony that I could very well exit in this one.”

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/should-you-bring-mom-home-from-assisted-living-during-the-pandemic/

[stephenmccull]

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

Navigating Aging

Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system.

To contact Judith Graham with a question or comment, click here.

Join the Navigating Aging Facebook Group.

See All Columns

Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I bring Mom or Dad home?”

It’s a reasonable question. Most retirement complexes and long-term care facilities are excluding visitors. Older adults are asked to stay in their rooms and are alone for most of the day. Family members might call, but that doesn’t fill the time. Their friends in the facility are also sequestered.

In a matter of weeks, conditions have deteriorated in many of these centers.

At assisted living sites, staff shortages are developing as aides become sick or stay home with children whose schools have closed.

Nursing homes, where seniors go for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or live long term if they’re seriously ill and frail, are being hard hit by the coronavirus. They’re potential petri dishes for infection.

Still, older adults in these settings are being fed and offered other types of assistance. My neighbor’s 80-something parents are at a continuing care community outside Denver. It has started a concierge service for residents who need to order groceries and fill prescriptions. At rehab centers, physical, occupational and speech therapists offer valuable services.

But would be Mom or Dad fare better, even with all due social distancing, in the family home?

Of course, care there would fall squarely on the family’s shoulders, as would the responsibility for buying groceries, cooking, administering medication, doing the laundry and ensuring the environment is free from potential contamination.

Email Sign-Up

Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

Home health care services could lend a hand. But they may not be easy to get because of growing demand, shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing issues.

Another concern in bringing someone home: Some facilities are telling residents that if they leave, even temporarily, they can’t return. That happened to a family in western New York, according to Roxanne Sorensen, a geriatric care manager with Elder Care Solutions of WNY.

When this family took their elderly parents out of an assisted living facility for a brief “stay-with-us” respite, they were told the parents had been discharged and had to be placed on a waiting list before they could return.

Sorensen has a client in her early 70s who’s in rehabilitation at a nursing home after emergency surgery for a life-threatening infection. The facility is on lockdown and her client is feeling trapped and desperate. She wants to go home, but she’s still weak and needs a lot more therapy.

“I’ve told her, stay here, get stronger and when you go home you won’t end up in the hospital or with disabilities that could put you back in a nursing home for the rest of your life,” Sorensen said.

Those in nursing care who have cognitive impairments may become disoriented or agitated if a family moves them from an environment that feels familiar, said Dr. Thomas Cornwell, executive chairman of the Home Centered Care Institute. Some have behavioral issues that can’t be managed at home.

Families with children need to think carefully about bringing an older parent home, especially if he or she has underlying chronic illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney disease, Cornwell said. “Kids, generally, even in the past few weeks, have been exposed to hundreds of others [at school],” he said. “They tend to be vectors of infection.”

Ultimately, every family must weigh and balance the risks. Can they give an older parent enough attention? Do they have the emotional and physical stamina to take this on? What does the parent want? Will the pangs of displacement and disrupted routines be offset by the pleasures of being around adult children and grandchildren?

Dr. Alison Webb, a retired physician, is a single mom raising a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. Her father, Bob Webb, 81, has mild dementia and had been hospitalized for depression before she asked him to leave assisted living and move into her Seattle home.

“Initially he resisted. He feared change, and he was concerned that his stuff was going to be left behind and he wouldn’t get it back, ever,” Webb said. Even today, Bob talks about going back home to his apartment.

Webb said a geriatrician on a Facebook group for female physicians convinced her it was safer for her father to leave his assisted living center. “’You’ll do a lot better here with the grandkids. You can play games. There’s a big yard. You can do some gardening,’” Webb said she told her dad.

There’s another benefit. Because she’s a physician, Webb said, she hopes “I’ll notice if he’s not doing well and take care of it right away.”

Coleen Hubbard’s mother, Delores, whom she described as “really resilient and really stubborn,” had loved living in a one-bedroom apartment in a Denver senior housing complex for the past decade. In October, Delores was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and decided not to have medical treatment.

“Mom had a lot of surgeries and hospitalizations in her life,” Hubbard said. “She was done dealing with the medical community.”

Every time Hubbard suggested her mother move in with her, Delores refused: She wanted to die in her own apartment. But then, a few weeks ago, serious pain set in and Delores asked the Denver Hospice to begin giving her morphine.

“That’s when I realized that we may be close to the end,” Hubbard said. “And I felt an incredible urgent panic that I had to get her out of there. Things were already starting to close [because of the coronavirus]. I could not fathom that she might be cut off from me.”

Hubbard prepared a room at home and found a small, tinny metal bell that Delores could ring if she needed help. “We made a lot of jokes about Peter Pan and Tinker Bell,” Hubbard remembered. “When she rang the bell, I’d come in and say, ‘Yes, m’lady, what’s happening?’”

Five days after arriving, Delores passed away. “Grieving right now happens in a space of solitude and silence,” Hubbard wrote in a Facebook post. “Sure, there are texts and phone calls, emails and snail mail, but no embraces, no questionable casseroles delivered by neighbors, no gathering of family and friends to share stories and memories.”

Amid the grief is relief that Delores had what she wanted: a death without medical interventions. “I’m pinching myself that we made that happen,” Hubbard said. “And I’m so glad we brought her home.”

Patricia Scott’s story is unfinished. The 101-year-old was living in a retirement community in Castro Valley, California, before her son, Bart Scott, brought her to his house in Santa Rosa, moving her into a spacious in-law apartment.

Asked how she felt about the change, Patricia Scott said, “I’ve never been particularly thrilled with the idea of homogenized residency with a bunch of old farts, of whom I am one.”

Yet, she longs for her two-bedroom apartment: “It’s just that everything is there. I know where crap is. I miss my regular life.”

Bart Scott has four siblings, and they agreed that it was untenable to leave his mother alone during the coronavirus scare. “She is the matriarch of this family,” he said. “There are a lot of people who put a lot of store in her well-being.”

As for potential health threats, Patricia Scott is characteristically sardonic. “I was born in 1918, in the middle of the influenza epidemic,” she said, “and I think there’s a delicious irony that I could very well exit in this one.”

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic? published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[medicalcodingjob]

Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?

This story also ran on CNN. This story can be republished for free (details).

Dr. Alison Webb took her 81-year-old father out of assisted living, to live.

Coleen Hubbard took her 85-year-old mother out of independent living, to die.

With the coronavirus moving through facilities that house older adults, families across the country are wondering “Should I bring Mom or Dad home?”

It’s a…

[cutshawsnidowoa]

What’s Mew at Catster: June 2019 Cat Events

The post What’s Mew at Catster: June 2019 Cat Events by Annie Butler Shirreffs appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Looking for a way to celebrate our feline friends in June? Here are some fun June 2019 cat events.  

Saturday, June 1 to Sunday, June 2: Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp

Learn all about cats at Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp; Photography courtesy Cat Camp

Grab your cool-for-cats T-shirt and pretty kitty ears, and head to the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City for the annual Cat Camp. Hear leading experts – like Jackson Galaxy, Kitten Lady Hannah Shaw and Cat Man of West Oakland Adam Myatt – chat about orphaned kittens, cat behavior, fostering and community cats. Participate in counselor sessions, meet adoptable cats, visit the on-site Meow Parlour cat café and shop for feline-themed products. For a full list of speakers/schedule, go to catcampnyc.com.

Friday, June 7: The Secret Life of Pets 2

Check out this fun sequel, opening today!

In the sequel to the 2016 animated comedy movie The Secret Life of Pets, Terrier Max stresses over protecting toddler Liam (yes, his owner is now married, with a child) and develops a nervous tic. The rest of the gang is having issues, too. Pomeranian Gidget and kitty Chloe try to rescue Max’s favorite toy, hindered by Chloe’s little catnip problem. And bunny Snowball tries to live out his superhero fantasy when Shih Tzu Daisy asks for help on a dangerous mission. Of course, there’s mixed breed Duke (along with Max) who visits a farm only to have to survive canine-intolerant cows, hostile foxes and a terrifying turkey.

With humor and irreverence, the film looks at the emotional lives of pets and their bond with the families that love them. The furry gang searches deep for their inner courage to face their fears with some help from the one-and-only Harrison Ford, the voice behind veteran farm dog Rooster. All the stars are back: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Hadish, Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, Hannibal Buress, Nick Kroll, Dana Carvey, Ellie Kemper, Pete Holmes, Garth Jennings and Bobby Moynihan. Directed by Chris Renaud and co-director Jonathan Del Val, written by Brian Lynch and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy. Visit thesecretlifeofpets.com.

Saturday, June 8: Angel Pets Conference and Angel Expo 2019

Get great senior-pet info at the Angel Pet Conference.

Want to take better care of your pets (and yourself) during the senior years and end-of-life transitions? Attend the unique and pioneering Angel Pets Conference and Angel Pets Expo 2019 at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Seminars and products focus on senior pet care, end-of-life and caregiver support. Listen to experts like internationally renowned pet-loss specialist Coleen Ellis and more. Schedule and registration at angelpetsconference.com.

Saturday, June 8: Catherine’s Butterfly Party

This event celebrates its 5th year, on what would have been Catherine’s birthday.

Celebrating its 5thyear, this event honors the life of Catherine Hubbard, who was tragically slain during the 2012 Sandy Hook Massacre. This year, the event falls on an extra special day – what would have been Catherine’s 13thbirthday. The Butterfly Party pays tribute to her life by continuing her dream of one day working with animals and spreading love and kindness to animals and all beings. Last year, more than 6,000 attended the event, and more than 70 homeless animals found forever homes. Funds raised by the event support the building and development of the official Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, a future destination for animal and wildlife care in Newtown, Connecticut. 

Saturday, June 29:  Catfest London

The second edition of this day-and-night festival at Beckenham Place Mansion will be bigger and better. Discover fab cat accessories from 50-plus exhibitors, books, the Swell Cat art show, vegan street food, cocktails, live music and big-cat cult flick ROAR under the stars. Take in soulful talks from best-selling writers and animal experts like BBC’s Big Cats About the House stars Giles Clark and Gwen Cooper (Homer’s Odyssey). Meet street cat Bob and James Bowen of A Street Cat Named Bob fame and other feline superstars. Fall in love with rescued street kittens from Morocco. For more information, visit catfestlondon.com.

Saturday, June 29 to Sunday, June 30: CatCon 5thAnniFURsary

Join in all the feline fun at CatCon.

Pounce on this annual Southern California cat-centric, pop cultural two-day immersive experience that draws crowds of 16k-plus. Cat Con debunks the crazy cat lady myth, proving you can be hip, stylish and have a cat, too. This year, CatCon is taking over even more space to eat, drink, play, adopt and shop for choice products for cats and their people. Expect a ton of surprises, plus many returning and emerging talent and experiential activations galore, while CatCon continues to support shelters in adoption, health and spay/neuter efforts. Get more info at catconworldwide.com.

About the author

Annie Butler Shirreffs has worked in the pet industry for 20 years and is currently the senior editor of Catster and Dogster magazines. A cat lover since she was a little girl, she has always had feline friends in her life. She and her husband share their Southern California home with their four cats and an ever-changing clowder of foster kittens, all of whom enjoy being testers for cool, new products.

Thumbnail: Photography ©IvonneW | Getty Images.

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The post What’s Mew at Catster: June 2019 Cat Events by Annie Butler Shirreffs appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

from Catster https://www.catster.com/the-scoop/whats-mew-at-catster-june-2019-cat-events via IFTTT

[4rhealth]

By ICIM member’s Coleen and Conrad Maulfair, DO: Toxic time bombs: The pollution in you

  Fatigue, allergies, joint aches or mood swings got you down? Although concern over the effects of pollution on the environment has held our attention for decades, new research is detecting chemical toxins in most people.[1;2] While industry furiously challenges the evidence, scientists argue that low-level chemical exposures are linked with these subtle but all too common problems, not to mention diseases such as autism, ADHD, and cancer, to name a few. Long term, low level exposures to chemicals cause an accumulation in the body referred to as “body burden.”

As we gain increasing understanding about the adverse effects of body burden on health what remains less clear is when the time bomb may go off. The medical community is trained to look to yesterday’s exposure to explain today’s symptoms. Yet, body burden, accumulations of toxic chemicals, may have more subtle but important health effects that are not seen for years, or even lifetimes. Because of this time delay, it is not uncommon for a chemical to be banned for safety concerns after decades of use — a real world experiment.

Studies link ZIP codes near waste sites with low-birth-weight babies, thyroid disease in women and female reproductive disorders such as endometriosis — even in regions with higher per capita income, less smoking, better diet and more exercise.[3] The same researchers have data linking living near waste sites to elevated risks for stroke, ischemic heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

Our life support system: Better living through chemistry? You don’t live near an industrial waste site? The truth is that even if you do, you probably get most of your toxins as pesticides and additives in your food or each time you apply various consumer cosmetic products. Your home, your cars and even the water you drink slowly leak chemicals into your life.

There has been a staggering proliferation of toxic chemicals produced without due regard for testing for long-term health effects of low level exposures. Thousands of new synthetic chemicals come into manufactured consumer products every year with little to no safety testing or public approval process. According to the World Health Organization, there are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in use in consumer products today with 1,000 to 2,000 being added to the list each year.

We breathe these chemicals through our lungs, absorb them through our skin and ingest them in the food we eat and water we drink. We are soaking up chemicals that we’d be hard-pressed to spell or pronounce, if we could even find out what they were.

The body burden problem Toxic chemicals know no boundaries. Chemicals contaminate not only wildlife and the environment, but people, breast milk and the unborn child yet most people are unaware that they carry chemical compounds in their bodies. Each of us has some load of industrial chemicals stored in or passing through our bodies. Human fat tissue sampled in the United States contained 700 contaminants that have not been chemically identified.[4]

According to Michael McCally, M.D. Ph.D., of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, “Current ‘normal’ body burdens of dioxin and several other well-studied organochlorides are at or near the range at which toxic effects occur in laboratory animals.” A recent Mt Sinai study found 167 chemicals in the blood and urine of volunteers; chemicals used in consumer products and found in industrial pollution.[2] Of the 167 chemicals discovered, 94 are toxic to the brain or nervous system, 76 are carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and 79 are linked to birth defects. None of the participants worked with chemicals or lived near an industrial facility. In other words, these toxins represent the average body burden of the ordinary American citizen.

This is not a uniquely American problem. A 2005 British study funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Co-Operative Bank found chemicals including banned pesticides like DDT, flame retardants and the PFOA chemical found in Teflon and used on nonstick pans and stain repellents.

If the body burden of adults isn’t enough cause for alarm, it is shocking to learn the effects on future generations. In 2005, the US Environmental Working Group [5] reported that umbilical cord blood samples taken from newborn babies were all heavily contaminated. A total of 287 contaminants were detected. Many of these were known or suspected carcinogens, neurotoxins or linked with birth defects if present in high concentrations. Meanwhile, an exhaustive review of the evidence points to prenatal exposures as a source of postnatal mental deficits.[6]

Scientists have never assessed the effects of exposures to the endless combinations of chemicals found in people. One reason why measuring such effects is difficult is that these chemicals are persistent (meaning they do not break down) and bioaccumulative (meaning they tend to build up in living things, particularly areas of the body rich in fat such as fatty tissue, brain and other organs).

Our understanding of when a chemical is toxic is changing and concerned individuals are calling for laws to regulate these compounds more carefully. However, because of their widespread use, tendency to persist and accumulation in body tissues — especially fat — even regulatory changes will not remove them from our world very quickly.

While we wait for industry, government and science to reach agreement, the vast increase of chemicals in our environment, foods, cosmetics and medicines puts an enormous burden on our bodies’ natural abilities to break down and remove toxins. With the exception of certain minerals, these chemicals do not belong in the body. While minerals are needed at low levels for normal function, some are now found measured at high or even toxic concentrations.

Most people wait too long to do something about it The good news is that something can be done about the toxins in our bodies. Our livers, lungs, kidneys are constantly working overtime to remove the onslaught of chemicals. To function properly, these systems require broad nutritional support. When we don’t give our body what it needs to help it eliminate these chemicals or when we expose it to more than it can handle, it just can’t keep up. Symptoms such as fatigue, aches, allergies, asthma, mood swings, foggy thinking, and more set in. Before this happens — and even afterwards — the correct detoxification program can make all the difference.

The Maulfair Medical Center uses the Hubbard method of detoxification, the most thorough and scientifically validated regimen available. This precise regimen combines exercise, sauna bathing, and vitamin and mineral supplementation to increase the elimination of chemicals while rebuilding and repairing your body. Its safety and effectiveness in treating a wide range of exposures have been established for more than two decades.[7;8]

Originally developed by Hubbard in 1979, this program has been successfully used to aid individuals exposed during large-scale environmental contaminations, including those resulting from the 2001 World Trade Center disaster [9] and the 1986 Chernobyl incident [10]. Thousands of people have enjoyed relief from symptoms caused by more gradual build-up of toxins.

Sauna detoxification at the Maulfair Medical Center Dr. Maulfair gets you started on your sauna program with a thorough medical examination and a series of key tests plus a complete physical exam. Tests may include a pre and post assessment of toxic body burden and some tests may be repeated periodically, to monitor your status while on the regimen.

Dr. Maulfair has over thirty years experience utilizing detoxification regimens to treat chronic disease. Join those clients of the Maulfair Medical Center’s program who have gained back their quality of life, enjoy restored energy, clear thinking, motivation and an overall sense of well being. For more information see www.drmaulfair.com

Dr. Conrad Maulfair Maulfair Medical Center, Topton, PA

Reference List

1. Calafat AM, Wong LY, Kuklenyik Z, Reidy JA, Needham LL: Polyfluoroalkyl chemicals in the U.S. population: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2004 and comparisons with NHANES 1999-2000. Environ Health Perspect 2007; 115: 1596-602. 2. Environmental Working Group. Body Burden: The pollution in people [Web Page]. 2003; Accessed 2008 Feb 20. Available at: http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden1/ 3. Baibergenova A, Kudyakov R, Zdeb M, Carpenter DO: Low birth weight and residential proximity to PCB-contaminated waste sites. Environ Health Perspect 2003; 111: 1352-7. 4. Onstot, J., Ayling, R., and Stanley, J. Characterization of HRCG/MS unidentified peaks from the analysis of human adipose tissue. Vol. 1: Technical Approach. 87. Washington DC, US Environmental Protection Agency Office of toxic Substances. 5. Environmental Working Group. Body Burden: The pollution in newborns [Web Page]. 2005; Accessed 2008 Feb 20. Available at: http://archive.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/execsumm.php.  6. Williams JH, Ross L: Consequences of prenatal toxin exposure for mental health in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2007; 16: 243-53. 7. Schnare DW, Denk G, Shields M, Brunton S: Evaluation of a detoxification regimen for fat stored xenobiotics. Med Hypotheses 1982; 9: 265-82. 8. Schnare, D. W., Ben, M., and Shields, M. G. Body Burden Reduction of PCBs, PBBs and Chlorinated Pesticides in Human Subjects. Ambio 1984; 13(5-6): 378-380. 9. Cecchini MA, Root DA, Rachunow JR, Gelb PM: Chemical Exposures at the World Trade Center: Use of the Hubbard Sauna Detoxification Regimen to Improve the Health Status of New York City Rescue Workers Exposed to Toxicants. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients 2006; 273: 58-65. 10. Tsyb, A. F., Parshkov, E. M., Barnes, J., Yarzutkin, V. V. , Vorontsov, N. V., and Dedov, V. I. Rehabilitation of a Chernobyl Affected Population Using a Detoxification Method. Proceedings of the 1998 International Radiological Postemergency Response Issues Conference. 1998. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

from The Alliance for Natural Health http://ift.tt/2Cip10z via Aloe for Health