Caring Currents

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If so, you have plenty of company. Generally speaking, men don't handle illness well. Psychologists have lots of theories on this topic, having to do with men needing to be in control and all that, but when it comes right down to it, all we need to talk about here is the fact that many men make lousy, grouchy, and often ungrateful patients. And cancer, with it's complexities of understanding and treatments that can be almost as hard to endure as the disease, is not going to bring out the best in most people to begin with.

So when a man in your life has cancer, and you're running around and trying to understand medical-ese and dealing with doctors and cooking tempting meals and he's being - well, let's say it -- plain old mean -- what do you do? It's awfully hard to take. We're doing this out of love - is it too much to ask to feel loved while we do it?

This has been a hot topic among Caring...  Read more

When you live far away from a friend or family member who's diagnosed with cancer, it's really tough to know what to do.

Do you jump on a plane? Wait until surgery or other treatment is scheduled and come to help out then? Some people wonder if they should relocate temporarily if a loved one has a terminal diagnosis and not much time left.

There are five questions I hear frequently about long-distance caregiving for cancer. I've also seen some really good advice on this topic coming from Caring.com readers and experts. I thought I'd summarize them here, so people in this situation have somewhere to start.

1. When I hear that someone I love has cancer, should I go home right away?

The answer depends on a lot of factors, but the first thing to consider is how advanced the cancer is. If the person has a stage I, stage II, or stage IIIa cancer, the situation is less urgent, and it's easier to wait and pinpoint when you'll be most useful...  Read more

Today I heard the news that Doug Feiger, lead singer of the late '70s new wave band The Knack (Remember the hit "My Sharona?") died of metastatic lung cancer over the weekend. He was 57 and had battled the disease for several years.

The news made me sad because Feiger is one in a surprisingly long list of 70s and 80s Baby Boomer icons, including Patrick Swayze and John Hughes, to die in recent months, and I think it's making all of us in that age range sit up and take notice.

But what really moved me were some words Feiger said to another journalist when interviewed for his hometown paper, the Detroit News, just a few months before he died. Here's what he said:

"I’ve had ten great lives. And I expect to have some more. I don’t feel cheated in any way, shape, or form."

Would you be able to be so philosophical if you received a terminal diagnosis in your mid 50s? I'd like to think I'd be capable of such wisdom and perspective, but I'm not sure...  Read more

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This week, two nutrition studies swept across the newspapers and airwaves. Did you see them? Here are the short-and-sweet headline versions:

1. Soda pop causes pancreatic cancer.

2. Chocolate prevents stroke.

These studies got a lot of attention because these are popular foods. One study warns of a serious disease we all fear, while the other gives you another reason to eat something you want to eat anyway. But are they true? To be honest, even after taking a look at the actual data, I'm still not sure, and I'm not sure the experts know either. But they make sense and fit with what we already know about nutrition, so they do make important points.

The Problem with Soda

Most soft drinks are made with highly concentrated sweeteners, like high-fructose corn sweetener. Even the "healthier" versions made with good old-fashioned sugar deliver it in a highly concentrated dose. The job of the pancreas is to secrete insulin when needed to process sugar, so when you hit your body with a wallop of sugar, the pancreas goes into overdrive...  Read more

Researchers unveiled a new blood test this week that they say can detect colon cancer cells early and identify precancerous cells, as well. It's much simpler -- and more comfortable -- than a colonoscopy and will likely be inexpensive, as well. What's the rub? We're not there yet; it still needs more testing.

But the research was big news among colon cancer experts at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium this week. Those of us concerned about colorectal cancer risk need to pay close attention to the future availability of this test and others like it.

Why? Right now the problem with colorectal cancers is that they're silent killers; people usually don't know they have a tumor until they have blood in their stool, at which time they tell their doctor and a colonoscopy is performed. Blood that's present in the stool but isn't visible can be detected with a fecal occult blood test (FOBT)...  Read more

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Does someone in your life have trouble breathing as a result of chronic sinusitis?

You'd be surprised how common this is. Experts say between 16 and 18 percent of adults have chronic sinusitis -- now officially known as rhinosinusitis -- that makes them unable to breathe through their noses. The condition, which leads to repeated sinus infections, causes frequent coughing, sneezing, and headaches, and can lead to weakness and fatigue. Some head and neck experts say that chronic sinusitis can actually cause people to suffer more long-term problems than COPD.

Researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University have been shining a light on this little-discussed problem lately with a series of studies showing that simple surgery greatly increases the quality of life for those who undergo it.

The most recent study, published in this month's issue of Otolaryngology, found that 75 percent of those who had endoscopic sinus surgery reported that their quality of life afterward greatly improved...  Read more

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If someone we love smokes, we want them to quit. But we may not feel there's anything we can do about it. If we smoke, we probably know we need to quit, but may not feel we have the willpower to do it right now. (Though chances are, quitting's one of our New Year's resolutions.)

According to statistics kept by the Centers for Disease Control, about 23 percent of U.S. adults -- or almost one in four -- still smoke cigarettes despite years of public health warnings not to smoke.

From the caregiver's perspective, what really matters to us is that our loved ones live as long as possible, in as good a state of health as possible. In that spirit, here are a few things to think about when it comes to smoking and cancer.

1. Smoking increases the risk of all types of cancer, not just lung and throat cancer. It's a common misperception that if the lungs and throat seem to be tumor-free, then everything's hunky dory...  Read more

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We're just a few days into the new year, and everyone's rushing to make resolutions. But instead of promising to get organized or become bikini-beautiful, let's focus on what really matters: getting and staying healthy. Here, in no particular order of importance, are five resolutions to protect yourself from cancer in 2010.

1. Avoid too much sun exposure. By this, I really do mean too much -- it's actually a good thing to get your 15 minutes' worth of rays to build up vitamin D. But if you're going to be out longer than 15 minutes, be sure to lather up the sunscreen, put on a hat, and cover up with long sleeves. Melanoma is much more serious than many people realize; it's actually the fastest growing type of cancer in the U.S. right now. If you saw a movie over the holidays, you may have had your awareness about melanoma raised; rock singer Bruce Springsteen recently released a public service announcement about the dangers of melanoma after beloved E Street Band member Danny Federici died of the deadly cancer in 2008 at the relatively young age of 58...  Read more

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Cancer patients who have dementia die much sooner from their disease than those who have cancer without dementia, researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, announced this week. After controlling for other factors like age, tumor type, and tumor stage, the research team, led by assistant professor Claire Robb, compared cancer patients with no dementia, mild dementia, and moderate to severe dementia.

The difference was quite dramatic: Cancer patients without dementia lived an average of four and a half years; those with moderate to severe dementia died after an average of eight months. The study was published in the early online edition of the journal Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology.

The results are important to talk about, Robb said: “As the population ages and as treatments improve, we’re going to see more patients with both dementia and cancer."

No one knows...  Read more

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When you're caring for an older adult, falls are a constant fear. And we also know from hard experience that falling is an enormous risk for older adults. A fall -- especially if it results in a fracture -- can put in motion a chain of events and health issues that compromises an older person's ability to live independently and can even result in disability or death.

So here from the experts at Caring.com are some of the best ways to prevent winter falls:

1. Choose footwear carefully. Because snow, ice, and rain-slicked pavement are slippery, traction is what you need. For traction, you need tread -- a surface with bumps and hollows. Think about basketball shoes, with plenty of tread to grip polished gym floors, or hiking boots with lugged soles for mud. Many "comfort" shoes, popular with seniors, have rubber soles but they're smooth - you need something with grooves where the water and ice can go...  Read more