Apathy is defined as a feeling of disinterest, when you’re lacking the motivation to do anything or care about anything around you. While it can be caused by something as simple as a case of the blahs, it can also be a sign of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other more serious mental or emotional health conditions.
While hospital stays are generally unpleasant, there’s few feelings better than finally being discharged from one. The road to recovery is many times long and difficult, but getting back to your home and life is a significant milestone. Most people prefer to recuperate at home, but even when it’s an option, the help and care needed must be considered.
Most seniors have at least one, if not many more, prescription medications that they take daily. Depending on how medications are taken, they can be crucial for health when the guidelines are followed, or they can cause a major health setback if taken improperly. Whether it’s taking too many doses mistakenly, or forgetting the schedule and skipping medication at the appointed time, the results can be deadly.
A healthy, well-balanced diet is a crucial part of good health, and this is especially true for seniors. Processed foods, while convenient and plentiful, are often devoid of the essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that you receive from fresh foods. Summer is one of the best times of the year for fresh produce of all colors, or even trying to grow your own. Summer is the perfect season to make a conscious effort to add in more fruits and vegetables to your daily diet.
When we reach our twilight years, one of the key ingredients to staying healthy, remaining independent, and living longer with a high quality of life is exercise. Exercise is of course important at all stages of life, but uniquely important for seniors due to the negative impact on our bodies that many of the physical effects of the aging process have.
It is unfortunate that some of the nicest weather of the year also comes with an onslaught of allergens. When pollen fills the air, people with allergies begin to groan and seek relief.
Many of us understand the need for each of us to have some amount of personal space and isolation from time to time. Whether to recharge our emotional batteries, think through some thoughts, or just spend our time on our own terms, research has shown that periods of self-imposed isolation can reduce stress, build self reflection and self esteem, and improve focus.
Most people on the planet don’t like being told what to do. For elderly people, who have lived their lives successfully and accumulated a lifetime of knowledge and experience, this tends to be even less so. Most seniors tend to bristle or get defensive when decisions are getting made on their behalf. But the problem is that it’s vital for adult children and other caregivers and loved ones to intercede on behalf of seniors should it be necessary for their care. Not all seniors will require that level of intervention, but many do. This is why it’s important to plan ahead, so you’re not stumbling unprepared through a difficult conversation when there’s no choice but to have it at that exact moment.
When most people think of the changes that cognitive decline like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease brings about, they tend to focus on a few measures of brain health. The reality however, is that the truth of the breadth of the changes is a lot more complicated.
Recreational activities are a great way for seniors to stay active and engaged in their later years. Whether continuing a current or rediscovering an old hobby, or exploring something new, recreation can strengthen physical and mental abilities. Just because someone is a senior doesn’t mean they have to sit around playing bingo or watching the news.
Urinary incontinence is one of those realities of life that many people consider to be an inevitable nuisance that happens as you age. While the aging process and the decline of physical capabilities plays a role, it’s not something that you need to accept unquestioningly, or let influence your life and decisions should it happen to you
For many caregivers, the idea of receiving a solid eight hours of sleep on a given night sounds like a wonderful pipe dream. After all, it’s difficult for people who don’t have the added concern of providing care to a senior loved one to get eight hours in each night, so what chance would they have? While prioritizing sleep as a caregiver can be a hard row to hoe, it should be a priority for any elder care plan. After all, the better the health and mindset of the caregiver, the better the care provided will be.
Being a caregiver is a delicate balancing act at times, whether you’re caring for an elderly parent, another loved relative, or a spouse. On the one hand, you want the best for them and you want to help them to thrive and overcome challenges in the same way they have all their lives. But on the other hand, your loved one deserves a well-earned, restful twilight years, after a busy, active adult life, and you certainly don’t want to push them beyond their limits and capabilities. And it is just as likely that your loved one has thoughts and opinions about their care as well, and will wish to remain as independent as possible, as well as not wanting to feel like they’re being a burden to you. As a result, they may be hesitant to confront, or sometimes completely avoid, any of the hard stuff, or overextend themselves trying to take it on alone. Change is hard for everyone, especially the changes brought as a result of aging.
For many people, end of life care is only something they think about as it pertains to getting older. But the sad reality is that a medical emergency can happen at any time, leaving you unconscious or unable to make decisions for yourself. When this happens, your family members are left to decide what they think or guess at what you would have wanted. Instead of making them choose in this situation, you can create an advance directive, which will clearly state your wishes and leave very little gray area.
For seniors looking to stay active and reap some of the many health benefits of exercise, swimming can be a great and effective way to stay moving and boost their health and mood. Swimming is not only fun and relaxing, but it also poses less risk of injury than many other activities, and it can be done by people of all ages and many different levels of health or ability. It also does not require any special training or special equipment beyond a volume of water large enough for swimming, and it’s one of the best ways to beat the heat on a hot summer day.
Many of us who have never experienced depression, or have only struggled with it from time to time after a tragic event, assume that it is merely an unshakeable feeling of sadness. While this can be true for some people, the fact is that depression does not necessarily have to include feeling sad. It may manifest in other, unexpected ways, that you or loved ones may not always associate with depression. Many times, for seniors, these uncommon and unexpected signs and symptoms can be normal.
Sadly, financial abuse and scams targeting seniors is on the rise. The Federal Trade Commission reports that older adults and seniors lose more money to scammers than people in younger cohorts. The average senior over age 80 lost $1,700 to scams and cons, compared to just $188 lost by people aged 19 or younger, according to the FTC.
We carry our skin around every day, but oftentimes we neglect it and don’t think about it until irritation or injury occurs. Our skin is a fragile layer of tissue that surrounds us, and is actually the human body’s largest organ. Skin is made up of water, protein, fats, and minerals, and serves many vital functions like protecting us against germs and regulating body temperature. Like all parts of our body, skin changes with age. Over the course of our lifetimes, skin is susceptible to scratches, tears, cuts, burns, infections, and diseases.
Maintaining strong bones as we age will reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Every year in the United States, close to 1.5 million fractures are caused by osteoporosis, a condition affecting seniors especially where bones become weak and brittle.
Many seniors struggle with a poor diet, something that sadly goes overlooked by friends and family members. Older adults may have qualms about leaving the house, especially given the risk of the coronavirus that remains ever-present.
Older adults who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease will often feel a compulsion to walk and wander about. Naturally, there is no real place for them to go, and most of the time they are not even aware of what direction they’re heading in. They simply feel the need to move and walk around aimlessly. This behavior is often called “wandering” by medical professionals, researchers, and caregivers.
All people, not just older adults, value their sense of freedom and having the ability to come and go as we please. One of the biggest parts of that freedom, one that older adults are usually resistant to giving up, is driving. But as the body ages, so too do our abilities and senses, and it is important to be mindful of any changes to our driving habits. Older drivers, especially above the age of 70, have a higher per-mile risk of being involved in a car accident.
The outdoors aren’t called the great outdoors for no reason. Countless studies, research, as well as the sum total of human experience throughout history have all pointed to the same conclusion time and time again, which is that getting outside and taking in nature and all our world’s natural splendor has real, tangible benefits. Spending time outside can improve our mood and mental health, boost the strength of our immune system, lower blood pressure, and even shorten time spent healing after surgery or a significant injury.
As we age through our lives and enter our twilight years, one thing you’re sure to notice is the increase in tips, advice, and conversations related to health and wellness. It makes sense, after all, we all want to age with dignity and remain capable and healthy for as long as possible, and for many of us, by the time we’ve become seniors we may have developed a chronic condition, or had one catch up with us. One topic you’ve probably heard over and over is high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a concern, of course, and has all sorts of negative health outcomes if left untreated, but equally dangerous and under discussed is low blood pressure.
Life is a rich journey, full of a variety of experiences, highs, lows, accomplishments, setbacks, gains and losses. One constant in life is that change is inevitable, and no stage of life is more marked by change than the time we begin aging into our twilight years.