According to recent figures, the national average cost for nursing home care is $56,000 a year, or about $153 a day.

The price for staying at an assisted-living center, is $22,476 a year, while home-care costs range from $12,000 to $16,000 a year.

With most families unprepared to handle such an expense, having a long-term insurance policy could make such a situation much more manageable.

A long-term insurance policy will pay for some or all of long-term care, which could include help with daily living needs, home health care, respite care, hospice care, adult day care and assisted living or nursing home care.

For most people, buying a long-term insurance policy doesn't become a thought until they are nearing retirement.

But, Holly Hanson, an agent from Benefits Broker which specializes in long-term care insurance, says early planning for long-term care could be beneficial.

"By doing the pre-planning, it can take the crisis management off of a child or loved one later on," Hanson said.

She added that the cost of a policy is based on age and the general health of the individual. Obviously, the younger you are, the lower the premium will be, Hanson said.

For example, she said a policy that includes $100 a day in benefits would cost a 40-year-old approximately $650 a year, but for someone who is 79 that same policy would be about $6,000 a year.The Pueblo Chieftain Online - MORE

Alzheimer's Disease affects more than 4 million Americans, steals short-term memory and some researchers believe that many of the earliest memories remain intact. Music therapy and art therapy can help access those long-term memories and tap into previously unreachable thoughts and feelings.
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Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most prevalent cause of irreversible blindness in developed countries. Recently, high-dose supplementation with beta carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc was shown to slow the progression of AMD.

Conclusion In this study, a high dietary intake of beta carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc was associated with a substantially reduced risk of AMD in elderly persons.

JAMA -- ...Click to read study...

Simple exercises conducted on resistance training machines lead to a variety of favorable effects on muscle strength and performance in the elderly, Australian researchers report.

Moreover, they say, even relatively low-level workouts lead to significant improvement.

As investigator Dr. Dennis R. Taaffe told Reuters Health, "only a modest amount of resistance exercise, performed on a regular basis, is required to enhance muscle strength and physical performance in older adults, which may assist in the prevention of disability and thereby prolong independence."more| Reuters.com

Therapies focused on changing sleep habits may be a good alternative to sleeping pills for older adults with insomnia, a research review suggests.

The review of 23 clinical trials found that behavioral therapies aimed at changing people's habits and attitudes regarding sleep were generally effective in helping older adults get a better night's sleep.

The findings, published in the journal Health Psychology, add to evidence supporting behavioral sleep therapies.more| Reuters.com

For people over age 65, flu vaccines may not work as well as predicted.

The finding, from two careful University of Washington studies, is a big surprise. Yes, elderly people don't get the same vigorous boost of immunity from flu vaccine as younger people. But public health experts almost universally agree that flu vaccination is a priority for elderly people.MORE

Cancer. Alzheimer's. Diabetes. Osteoporosis. These are just some of the diseases that researchers hope can be treated or prevented with statins....ot since aspirin has a class of drugs come along that does so much more than originally intended that it could end up being used as a preventive against many major diseases.

Statins, which lower cholesterol, have been proved in clinical trials to reduce heart attacks and strokes by 30 to 50 percent. They are the most widely prescribed drugs in the U.S.; 1 in 10 adults take them.

But their full value in improving the nation's health rests with research attempting to establish the ability of statins to prevent cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis and macular degeneration.
Chicago Tribune | MORE

some researchers claim that inducing a mild autoimmune reaction could actually protect the central nervous system from a spectrum of neurodegenerative conditions, from glaucoma and spinal cord injury to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. "This is a hot-button issue right now," says Howard Gendelman of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.Scientific American.com: MORE