Monterey, CA Obesity A Big Problem In America

A person measuring their belly with a tape measure.


Obesity is a huge problem for Americans, and some people are just accepting the condition rather than fighting it.   “We consider fat a part of human body diversity,†Tigress Osborn, chair of the nonprofit National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, told USA Today.

In 2005, the U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona declared obesity a bigger threat to America than terrorists, but our government has done very little to regulate food marketing, reduce demand by increasing taxes or adding the kind of nutrition labels to decrease junk food consumption.  Currently, 42% of Americans fit the medical definition of being obese (having a body mass index of 30 or greater).  Many types of cancer are linked to obesity.  So is heart, liver and kidney disease.  And people with obesity run an 80% higher risk of developing diabetes.  Many people swear by the Mediterranean Diet to lose weight.  It consists of delicious foods like lamb, chicken, beef, olive oil, fresh fruit, vegetables and nuts.  Montage or Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP) has some great information on their website about weight loss.

Social Security Payments To Leap In The Double Digits Come January

A group of people giving thumbs up to the camera.


Social Security payments are expected to rise by more than 10% next January given the soaring inflation that we have experienced.  Mary Johnson, policy analyst at The Senior Citizens League, cautions that this number may be too high, particularly if inflation cools later in the year.  The best case scenario : A huge increase in January while inflation cools to a reasonable level in 2023.

Pacific Grove, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA Or HHA Designation A Plus

A woman in a wheelchair with her arm around an older lady.


Pacific Grove, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA Or HHA Designation A Plus (Service Areas Are Aromas, Big Sur, Carmel, Carmel-by-the-sea, Carmel Valley, Castroville, Corral-de-Tierra, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Prunedale, Salinas, Seaside & Soledad

We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade and have recently expanded into Santa Cruz County.   We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.

Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and Santa Cruz is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care.  Our services include:

Caring companionship

Meal preparation

Incidental transportation

Running errands

Light housekeeping

Medication reminders

Monitoring of safety while bathing

Information and referral services

Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.

If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you!  We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems.  Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus.  To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle.  To apply, please visit our website www.fhcofm.com, click on home care aides, then careers where you can fill out an application online.  We have immediate openings all over Monterey County.

 

Inflation Soars To Level Not Seen Since 1981

A blue and white logo of the social security administration.


U.S. consumer inflation hit 9.1% last month, a rate that we have not seen in more than four decades.  There’s good news and bad news here.  Seniors will get the biggest increase in Social Security than they have seen in decades.  And if you own your own home, you will be in a better financial situation than those who are renting because, as long as you have a fixed-rate mortgage, your payments won’t go up.  The biggest cost increase right now is gas, up 11.2% from the previous month and up 60% from a year ago.  This is followed by groceries, which are up 12.2% from a year ago.  Let’s hope that the Federal Reserve can get this economy back on track.

More Changes On The Estate Planning Front

A jar of coins with the word retirement written on it.


The I.R.S. is giving widows and widowers more time to deal with complicated estates after one spouse dies.  Typically, when one spouse dies, the other one gets all or part of the estate tax-free.  The surviving spouse can also carry over the deceased’s unused estate tax exclusion if they file an estate tax return and choose what the IRS terms “portability.â€Â  Previously, a surviving spouse had only 15 months to file the return.  Under new rules, however, the window for filing was extended to two years in 2017 and then last week it was raised again to five years.  Talk to your tax accountant if you have any questions about the new rule.

Monterey, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA Or HHA Designation A Plus

An older woman holding her hand out to someone


Monterey, CA Home Care Aide (HCA) Senior Alzheimer’s & Dementia Caregiver Jobs Available : Set Your Own Hours: $2/Hour Extra On The Weekends CNA Or HHA Designation A Plus (Service Areas Are Aromas, Big Sur, Carmel, Carmel-by-the-sea, Carmel Valley, Castroville, Corral-de-Tierra, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Prunedale, Salinas, Seaside & Soledad

We have developed a reputation for having the best caregivers (Home Care Aides or Senior Companions) in Monterey County over the past decade and have recently expanded into Santa Cruz County.   We are currently looking for qualified caregivers.

Family inHome Caregiving of Monterey and Santa Cruz is seeking compassionate, mature and dependable caregivers who want to improve the lives of our elderly Clients by providing in-home, non-medical care.  Our services include:

Caring companionship

Meal preparation

Incidental transportation

Running errands

Light housekeeping

Medication reminders

Monitoring of safety while bathing

Information and referral services

Other services that improve the safety, security and quality of life of seniors.

If you believe you would make an exceptional Home Care Aide, we would love to hear from you!  We prefer those with experience helping the elderly, disabled and others with mobility problems.  Having cared for those with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s is a plus.  To work for us, you must have excellent references, a clear criminal record, a good driving record, and an insured reliable vehicle.  To apply, please visit our website www.fhcofm.com, click on home care aides, then careers where you can fill out an application online.  We have immediate openings all over Monterey County.

 

Seniors Are The Last Age Demographic To Drop Cable, Cut The Cord

A man and woman looking at a laptop


Virtually all of the major streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are having trouble sustaining their growth rates as myriad new services like Discovery+, Disney+, ESPN+,HBO Max etc. provide cheaper options than paying the fat cable or satellite bill each month.  The only thing which has given the sector some hope has been the growing number of 50+ streamers who are signing up for the online video services.
According to Nielsen, people 50 and over accounted for 39% of total streaming watch time in May, up from 35% a year earlier. “Streaming has progressed beyond both early adopters and the second wave, into older audiences that have been the last holdouts, “Brian Fuhrer, SVP of product strategy and thought leadership at Nielsen, told The Wall Street Journal.

Monterey, CA What Are The Tax Issues When Giving Money To A Non-Profit From An IRA

A jar of coins with the word retirement written on it.


 

One way to do this is to donate out of an IRA or other retirement account.  However, Leonard Sloane of the Wall Street Journal cautions that you need to be careful when planning this.  “So many people make mistakes with the rules,†says Andy Ives, an IRA analyst at Ed Slott & Company, a tax consulting firm.  One mistake people make is making a gift to a donor-advised fund (such as the Community Foundation of the Monterey Peninsula), a private foundation or charitable-gift annuity.  To obtain the tax benefit, there must be a full release of the funds directly to a charity.  Another mistake is when the donor accepts something in return for the gift.  You can’t even accept a tote bag, coffee mug or T-shirt as a gift!  Make sure you talk to a tax advisor before implementing this strategy.

Monterey, CA Alzheimer’s Breakthrough With The Christchurch Variant APOE Gene

A man in white lab coat and tie.


Researchers have been studying a group of families in Columbia for years due to the fact that they carry a variant of the gene PSEN-1 which pretty much guarantees they will get Alzheimer’s.  Many get it at an early age, with a sad story being told by a mother who had to take care of her son who had Alzheimer’s disease.  There has been a recent breakthrough, with Aliria Rosa Piedrahita de Villegas, a woman in her 70’s with the gene who did not get Alzheimer’s disease until the age of 72, three decades after most others with the gene get the disease.  Further study found that Aliria also had two copies of another rare variant of the APOE gene, also known as the Christchurch variant, which helped protect her brain and drastically slowed the progression of the disease.  “This opens a new door for Alzheimer’s research,†said Yakeel Quiroz, an associate professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.  “And through that door are new opportunities for treatments,†he said.  Quiroz and other researchers are now working on developing an Alzheimer’s treatment that can replicate the protective actions and effects of the Christchurch variant.  Regular readers of my blog know that both my grandmother and my father had this terrible disease when they died.  There is a great group of people at the Monterey branch of Alzheimer’s Association in Ryan Ranch or you can also call their 24-hour hotline for support at 1-800-272-3900.

Monterey, CA New Hope For Those With Pancreatic Cancer

A person holding hands with another person in bed.


We have a lot of good oncologists on the Monterey Peninsula but one of the cancers that is extremely difficult to treat is pancreatic.  It has a five-year survival rate of only 10%.  However, researchers are working on a new drug that shows promise.  USA Today profiled Barbara Brigham, who was almost resigned to dying after a 2020 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.  Her doctor encouraged her to join a clinical trial which was testing a new way to stimulate the immune system against cancer, and it worked!  She is now living free of cancer.  A gene called KRAS, mutated in many pancreatic tumors, could soon be “druggable,†says Providence Foundation oncologist Eric Tran.  And there are other drugs going through the clinical trial stages which look very promising.