Marriage9 Tips for Emotional Intimacy By Jane Farrell articleBy Paul Dunion When I ask a couple in couples counseling, "So, tell me about the current status of your intimacy,” they inevitably start talking about their sex life. When I proceed to explain I am interested in their emotional intimacy, the male quickly turns his gaze toward his wife and the female typically speaks of the loneliness and isolation she experiences in the marriage. She may not know exactly what, but she does know something is missing in the marriage.
CaregivingCaregiving Challenges: Bathing and Personal Hygiene By articleBy Diane Blum As Alzheimer’s progresses, poor hygiene can often become more than just an unpleasant issue. It can have medical consequences, such as bacterial infections including UTIs. Gastroenteritis and other health issues can also occur, some quite serious to an immune system weakened as Alzheimer’s progresses.
_ MarriageFor Older Couples, Husband’s Health & Happiness Is Crucial By articleA husband’s agreeable personality and good health appear crucial to preventing conflict among older couples who have been together a long time, according to a release written by Jann Ingmire about a study done at the University of Chicago and published in March 2014 in the Journal of Marriage and Family. The researchers found that the health and happiness of wives play less of a role in limiting marital conflict, perhaps because of different expectations among women and men in durable relationships.
_ PetsIs Your Cat's Medicine Working? By Jane Farrell articleThere’s a new clinical design to determine whether medicines designed for cats are actually doing the job. In designing the new method, researchers from North Carolina State worked to overcome the “placebo effect” in a pain-management study of cats. Evaluating the effectiveness of a medicine is difficult when it comes to cats, who may not reveal the pain they are suffering and who also are resistant to taking medication.
CaregivingPeace of Mind for Long-Distance Caregivers By articleBy Marki Flannery Every Sunday, Donna placed a call from her home in Washington D.C. to her Aunt Catherine, to check up on her. At age 87, Catherine lived alone in her longtime Lower Manhattan apartment and, except for an attack of angina a couple years ago, was in relatively good health. Donna asked, as she usually did, about her aunt's weekend and was heartened to hear she had gotten out with friends. "My neighbor's daughter took us to the Metropolitan Museum," Catherine said, sounding uplifted.
_ DatingIs Your Online Profile Too Revealing? By Jane Farrell articleBy Judith Bitterli Editor’s Note: Internet dating is serious business. According to the Statistics Brain Research Institute, the internet dating scene generated $1.049 billion in revenue for the year 2012. And online dating sites aren’t the only place where potential mates are checking each other out. AVG Technologies, an online security firm, found in a survey that one in three young baby boomers (45-54) were also using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to research a person they might be interested in.
_ ParentingHelping Grown Kids Can Boost Mental Health By articleAll the negative press about “boomerang kids” aside, helping your adult children in various ways may actually be an antidote to depression as you age. That’s the finding of a team of researchers at Penn State, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. The results are published in the February 2014 issue of The Gerontologist.
_ WidowhoodBereavement Ups Heart Attack & Stroke Risk By articleWe really can die of a broken heart – or at least suffer serious adverse health events. The risk of having a heart attack or stroke increases significantly during the 30 days after a partner's death, according to a study done at St. Georges College in London and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on February 24th 2014.
_ PetsThe ASPCA Offers 9 Cold Weather Tips for Pets By Adprime Admin articleHere, adapted with permission from an article by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, are guidelines for protect your pets when it’s cold outside:
_ PetsHelp for Overweight Cats By Jane Farrell articleObese cats could lose weight if their owners feed them smaller wet meals throughout the day, according to new research from the University of Illinois. But those methods, which work for humans as well, may be hard to implement.
_ Marriage5 Tips to Keep Your Marriage Feeling Young By articleBy DJ Miller There’s popular assumption that once you get married, romance and butterflies fall by the wayside. That stereotype isn't always the case, but too often "to have and to hold" does become an obligation after a few decades. If you're part of a couple that is going through a marital slump after many years, here are tips to help you get out of the rut. Remember Why You Got Married
_ MarriageHappy Couples Can Resolve Fights By Adprime Admin articleJust in time for Valentine’ s Day 2014, Baylor University psychologist Keith Sanford, Ph.D. reports that being critical, angry, and defensive isn't always a bad thing for couples having a big disagreement — provided they are in a satisfying relationship. In that case, they likely will have a "big resolution" regardless of how negative they were during the discussion, according to his study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
_ MarriageDouble Dating Keeps Romance Alive By Adprime Admin articleJust in time for Valentine’s Day, researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit have found that going on a double date may be more effective at reigniting passion in your own relationship than the classic candlelit dinner for two. That result appears to be because striking up a friendship with another couple in which you discuss personal details of your life will bring you closer to your own partner. The study will be presented the week of February 10th 2014 at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Austin, Texas.
PetsInclude Pets in Healthy Weight Resolutions for 2014 By articleNearly half of all Americans make New Year’s resolutions and of those, almost 40 percent are related to weight loss. This year, why not include pets in a weight management program to ensure they’re at a healthy, optimum weight? One type of tool veterinarians use to rate the body condition of dogs and cats is a scale one to nine, with a healthy pet being in the four to five range. When a pet is at a healthy weight, a pet parent should be able to feel the ribs, but not see them.
_ DivorceGetting Past Betrayal By Adprime Admin articleBy Judy Kirkwood “The most important thing about me was that for quite a chunk of my life I was divorced. It was a fact that stayed with me even after I remarried. I have now been married to my third husband for more than 20 years. But when you've had children with someone from whom you're now divorced, that split defines everything; it's the lurking fact, a slice of anger in the pie of your brain.” Nora Ephron
_ Relationships & LoveJohn Edwards Is Guilty--Of VIolating Human Decency By Jane Farrell article To me the most compelling news to surface in John Edwards’ trial for alleged violation of campaign finance laws is the scene described last week of Elizabeth Edwards ripping off her blouse and bra and confronting her husband with evidence of her scarred life (physical and emotional - she had a double mastectomy and was battling a recurrence of her cancer). “You don’t see me anymore,” she cried, as ex-aide Christina Reynolds recounted in the federal courthouse in Greensboro, North Carolina.
_ Relationships & LoveMy Sweet Baby James By Jane Farrell article James Taylor’s breakthrough album, Sweet Baby James, was released in 1970. Over 40 years later, he is still my boyfriend – well, he did promise, specifically to me, “You’ve got a friend.”