Swallow Safely: How Swallowing Problems Threaten the Elderly and Others. A Caregiver's Guide to Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention [Kindle Edition]

Roya Sayadi Ph.D. CCC-SLP (Author), M.D. Joel Herskowitz (Author)

Book Description

Many people these days know about the dangers of falling in the elderly. Falls account for nearly 20,000 deaths annually in the United States. Caregivers do a lot to prevent these tragic accidents from occurring. Relatively few people, however, realize the danger of swallowing problems. They, too, take tens of thousands of lives every year through choking, pneumonia, and malnutrition. SWALLOW SAFELY seeks to erase this knowledge gap. The book presents in clear, non-technical language with illustrations how swallowing works normally, how things can go wrong, what symptoms to watch out for, and how to get help. The book is written primarily for caregivers of elderly persons and others with medical and neurologic problems such as stroke, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and Alzheimer disease that are commonly associated with swallowing problems. Appendices include a Letter For Your Doctor and Suggestions For Safe Swallowing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An extremely useful and potentially life-saving book. --Christiane Northrup, M.D., Author of Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Understanding the Crucial Link Between Mothers, Daughters, and Health

Don't wait for a swallowing disaster. This book tells you how to keep a swallowing problem from becoming fatal. --Henry J. Heimlich, M.D., Author of Heimlich's Maneuvers

What an eye-opener! Who knew a runny nose could actually be a clue to having a life-threatening swallowing problem? Easy to read and packed with lifesaving knowledge everyone should know. Especially valuable for families and caregivers of elders with dementia, who often develop swallowing problems. --Jacqueline Marcell, Author of Elder Rage, Host of Radio Show Coping with Caregiving

Swallowing is a four-step process that usually happens without conscious thought or deliberate physical effort, even though most people swallow approximately six hundred times a day. More than ten individual body parts are involved in swallowing, and muscular weakness or poor coordination during its four phases--preparatory, oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal--can ruin mealtime and put certain people at risk of dehydration, malnutrition, oxygen distress, choking, or pneumonia caused by the inadvertent aspiration of food or drink into the lungs. Patients, family members, and health care providers must be educated and alert for signals of dysphagia, the medical term for difficulty swallowing.

Despite its seriousness, too few people know how to identify and treat dysphagia. The authors of this book, a wife and husband team, a speech-language pathologist and neurologist, respectively, have extensive expertise with dysphagic patients, and they have written a well-researched, informative guide for those caring for the elderly or the ill. The book's straightforward language and clear terminology are accompanied by sixteen well-labeled illustrations of the swallowing process. Each chapter ends with a summary of important terms and information for quick reference or review. The authors' comprehensive approach to this quality of life issue extends to their thoughtful decision to publish the book in large print that can be read comfortably by both elderly patients and their middle-aged or aging children and spouses.

Swallowing difficulties are often overlooked because their symptoms may be relatively subtle and discounted or ignored. Patients [or caregivers] might not realize that a runny nose during meals, coughing, or excessively slow swallowing can indicate a potentially life-threatening problem with swallowing. The authors include many tips for careful eating that may help restore safety and pleasure to mealtimes. A thoughtful, pre-written Letter for Your Doctor lists swallowing problems and provides space to list hospitalizations, medical conditions, and medications. This book will save lives. --ForeWord Reviews

What an eye-opener! Who knew a runny nose could actually be a clue to having a life-threatening swallowing problem? Easy to read and packed with lifesaving knowledge everyone should know. Especially valuable for families and caregivers of elders with dementia, who often develop swallowing problems. --Jacqueline Marcell, Author of Elder Rage, Host of Radio Show Coping with Caregiving

About the Author

Roya Sayadi, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a graduate of the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. She received her Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University in neurogenic communication disorders. She has taught speech-language-swallowing pathology at the undergraduate and graduates levels. She works with the Natick VNA, having extensive contact with elderly persons with swallowing problems associated with stroke, Alzheimer disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig s disease), cancer of the head and neck, lung disease, diabetes, heart disease, and head injury. She lives in Natick, Mass., with her husband. They have four children. Joel Herskowitz, M.D. , Dr. Sayadi s husband, is a graduate of Princeton University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. A board-certified pediatric neurologist, he is on the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine. He is the author of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Psychiatry: Common Ground (with N. Paul Rosman, M.D.), Is Your Child Depressed?, and TWISTED!, a play about a woman with Wilson disease he has presented in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Heidelberg.

Product Details

• File Size: 411 KB
• Print Length: 180 pages
• Publisher: Inside/Outside Press (May 20, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003PDN65K
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,500 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #64 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Diets & Nutrition
  • #72 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Parenting & Relationships > Aging Parents > Eldercare

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I would have not stuffed my father's mouth full of food had Swallow Safely been available August 6, 2010

By Brenda Avadian

Format:Paperback

Toward the end of my father's life, he had difficulty chewing food and eventually swallowing. I didn't know it then. One morning, while feeding him breakfast at the nursing home, I stuffed more and more food in his mouth, thinking this might stimulate him to swallow.
Upon seeing his stuffed cheeks, the aide who usually helped him eat exclaimed, "Brenda what are you doing?"
Embarrassed I confessed, "He won't eat!"
What did I know?

I'm embarrassed to admit it now, thanks to Roya Sayadi, PhD, CCC-SLP and Joel Herskowitz's, MD new book. Swallow Safely educates and empowers caregivers to prevent those with swallowing problems from choking.

Highlights:

Four-steps to the swallowing process, p. 15.
It's amazing how many of us don't even focus on our eating; yet, with an estimated 600 swallows daily, a lot can go wrong!

Difference between a "café coronary" and a heart attack, p. 49.
Heimlich maneuver--on someone else and self-administered, p. 58.
Two additional points bear mentioning:
follow then stay with a choking person, as embarrassment may cause him/her to leave the setting.
pneumonia may not show up for months after a choking incident.

Medications and how to manage them when they cause dryness and swallowing complications, p. 78 and in appendix. Tips for taking meds, p. 85.

Treating swallowing problems including: warnings about mixing foods, the need for sensory stimulation and aiding the swallow reflex with an ice-cold applicator dipped in lemon juice, diet modification can get emotional, aspirating even while tube feeding, pgs. 91- 107.

What to expect when going for a thorough swallowing exam, p. 113.

The role of the caregiver, p. 121 I was particularly touched by this paragraph (italics added for emphasis): It is your love that guides you to learn more, your caring that ensures... recommendations are carried out..., your patience and strength that enable you to be with someone you love through difficult times.

Mindful swallowing, p.125.
Read this twice, it can save your or your loved one's life!

Appendices include a form where you can record your observations of a loved one's difficulty swallowing and tips for swallowing safely.

Sayadi and Herskowitz caution family caregivers to be more specific in helping loved ones define their advance directives. Many are either DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or resuscitate. Yet, there remains a lot of gray area in between these extremes, such as when a mildly impaired individual chokes on a bone. In such an instance, detailed instructions on the Heimlich maneuver are offered.

Given the number of medical terms used throughout the book, it would have been nice to refer to a glossary-something the authors should consider including in a subsequent edition.

Also, as one whose nose runs each time I eat, I'd like to learn more about this and why it occurs. When I asked Herskowitz, he offered the following explanation: The runny nose and the watery eyes result from reflex irritation of the mouth, throat, or (most ominously) the larynx.

I know I could have been much better informed had Swallow Safely been available while my father was still alive.

Recommended for family and professional caregivers for those experiencing swallowing difficulties due to stroke, Alzheimer's, MS, ALS, cancer, heart disease, and even healthy individuals who experience swallowing problems.

Reviewed by Brenda Avadian
Editor, The Caregiver's Voice Book Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My review of a great book on Swallowing Safely. December 31, 2012

By Ervsbookreviews

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Swallow Safely: How Swallowing Problems Threaten the Elderly and Others. A Caregiver's Guide to Recognition, Treatment, and Prevention [Paperback] by: Roya Sayadi and Joel Herskowitz is a book that I needed and benefitted very much by having this,as I have been dealing with silent aspiration since completing my radiation for cancer of the throat.

This book is and was very helpful for me as I have been learning how to eat again. I never believed that I would go through the eating challenges that I have went through but I do now. This book has helped me a lot in dealing with my eating problems.

This book is a great book to have if you have a swallowing problem of any type I recommend this book. I am glad I have it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars well-written and easy to read March 7, 2012

By K.SLP

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am finishing up my graduate program in speech-langauge pathology and wanted a resource I could refer my patient's families to. This is a great a book, very easy to read (I read it in under 2 hours). As a future speech pathologist I found it extremely helpful to have the list of medications that may impact swallowing, as this is something we do not typically get directly instructed on in our graduate programs.

More About the Author

Joel Herskowitz is the son of Reida Postrel Herskowitz and the late Irwin H. Herskowitz. Because his father was a teacher and research scientist in the area of Drosophila genetics, his family moved from Brooklyn, NY, to New Orleans, LA, to Bloomington, IN, and the St. Louis, MO, where he attended high school. At Princeton, he majored in music, developed his writing skills as a newspaper stringer with the University Press Club, and took pre-medical courses. He attended Chicago Medical School for two years, then transfered to Albert Einstein College of Medicine, from which he was graduated. After a pediatric internship and residency at Boston City Hospital, he sat in on a course on the Neurology of Behavior by the late Harvard professor Norwan Geschwind and decided to weave his medical training into psychiatry and neurology, which he did by doing a year's fellowship in child psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine (under the guidance of Alan N. Marks, M.D.) then a residency in child neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (led by N. Paul Rosman, M.D.). Out of that training and experience came two of his books: "Pediatrics, Neurology, and Psychiatry: Common Ground" and "Is Your Child Depressed?" He continues his practice of pediatric neurology and -- stimulated by the knowledge and experience of his wife, Dr. Roya Sayadi, a speech-language pathologist -- co-authored a book on swallowing problems -- "Swallow Safely." He has spoken throughout the country on this topic, especially among patients and families with Parkinson's disease, often affected by this problem. When not practicing medicine, he can usually be found on the tennis court or studying about the game. He cites books and CDs of Jeff Greenwald ("Fearless Tennis"), Jim Fannin ("Tennis in the Zone"), Brad Gilbert ("Winning Ugly"), and Eugen Herrigel ("Zen in the Art of Archery") as being particularly helpful.