Hello and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based

podcast I'm your host Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life

challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic

ear, and zero judgment.

Do you talk with the pharmacist more than your friends? Do you know so much about your loved

one's disease that doctors ask if you're a doctor too? If so, you can probably count yourself

among the nation's 65 million family caregivers.

If you're well-rested, relaxed, and have it altogether, this is not you.

Caregiving is one of the hardest jobs you'll ever do. Caregiving is one of the hardest jobs you'll ever do. And chances are you're either

doing it now or you will at some point in your life. Because according to the National Alliance

for Caregiving,

29% of the US adult population,

that's over 65 million people,

provide care to someone who's ill, disabled, or aged.

Now, when I say caregivers, I mean unpaid caregivers,

usually a family member.

Being a paid caregiver, like a home health care

aid, is also really really hard but that's another

episode. And caregivers don't usually think of themselves as caregivers. They just

think of themselves as a spouse, adult child, parent, or other loved one who's doing what's needed to help someone they love.

So this week, here are six big facts about the difficulty, necessity, and thankfully meaning of being a caregiver.

Fact number one, caregivers increasingly to the work of professionals. The things caregivers do routinely these days,

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