Patrice Magrath and Michele McKenney from McKenney Home Care were the guest speakers on the topic of Caregiver Stress at an event held on July 15, 2014 at the World Tennis Club in Naples. CEU’s were provided to attendees by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Naples, Florida. The talk was attended by about 50 people and highlighted the clinical effect of caregiver stress. Family Caregiving is “risky behavior” the effect of long term stress caused by caring for a loved one is misunderstood and often takes people by surprise. But fear and uncertainty about the future, ambiguous loss, frustration, shift in roles, financial pressures, isolation, demands of constant care and guilt all contribute to long term stress. Long term stress causes disease, a 2012 study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers established that prolonged stress alters the effectiveness of cortisol to regulate the inflammatory response, this in term causes runaway inflammation which is thought to promote the development and progression of many diseases including Alzheimer’s, Diabetes II, Arthritis, Pulmonary Diseases, Cardiovascular diseases and Cancer.