Alternative Health Blog

Caregivers can speculate that this gender distinction is based on the women of the “Sandwich Generation” taking on the greatest responsibility in care for the aging parent, including a heightened emotional involvement. More than 91,000 Japanese men and women between 40 and 69 years old were evaluated by Osaka University researchers. The study followed the men and women over 11 years.

Women living in a three-generation household had double the risk than women living with a husband and kids, and, what’s more, three times the risk than women who lived only with husbands.

The findings are instructive for any of us facing increased caregiver roles. Couples would do their marriages and respective health of each partner by recognizing the increased stress and risk of heart problems, then acting on ways to provide “respite care” for the elders. A woman who is tempted to “do it all” in the caregiving and child-raising could well be creating an untenable health situation for herself—and ultimately the husband, aging parent and the kids.

 Men who understand this outcome can help their spouses by understanding the three-generation home is very hard on a woman’s heart and psyche. This study is an important consideration for caregiving decisions in every family. Matters of the heart can seem more about doing the “right thing” for an aging parent, but might in reality be the “wrong thing” for the wife-mother who is both attending to a parent and nurturing the kids.

This study is a direct hit on how real life can stress the body and especially the cardiovascular health of a woman who reaches out in a caregiving scenario when, perhaps, no one else is willing. 

Caregiving decisions are never easy and rarely clear-cut. But neglecting the health of caregivers is an action that can lead to deeper health problems for the woman of the household. The Japanese researchers have provided a service that any of us with aging parents and kids still at home would do well to embrace. Let's not make it an even tougher course by ignoring what it can do to women.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.