Family matters in a very important way when diabetes is the subject. Families often share the risk of diabetes. Knowing your family history is important. If you don’t know your family health history offhand, it’s time to do some research and ask around in the family. For example, who in your family is currently living with diabetes? And who may or may not have had it in the past? Knowing if your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents suffered from diabetes is important information. Knowing this can encourage you and other family members to be tested for diabetes, which is important because if undiagnosed and left untreated, the disease can lead to serious health problems, such as blindness, loss of mobility or limbs, kidney failure, and heart disease.
You may or may not have once heard the term “elder orphans” during the past year or two. This term was coined to describe those seniors who do not have a spouse or children who can assist them as the needs of their care change as they age. It is currently estimated that about twenty two percent of older adults today fall into this category, with the number only expected to rise as time goes on.
As we age, it’s harder to get a good night’s sleep. We may find ourselves in bed for hours, unable to drift off to sleep. Or, we might find ourselves sleeping right away, but then experience a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night, perhaps waking up at 4am and then being stuck staring at the ceiling until dawn. Painful health conditions and some medications can interfere with sleep. And middle of the night bathroom trips can get us up out of bed, of course, and even if we are getting the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep, we might not feel rested for the next day.
As we age, our daily habits and activities can start to take a toll on our well-being. Find out the benefits of writing letters by hand for seniors.
Mental health is an important part of our overall health and well-being. Discover the different ways spring cleaning can help with your mental health.
A healthy diet is important for your overall bodily health, but it’s also very important for the health of your eyes. Proper nutrition that provides essential minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants can help you in the prevention of serious eye conditions. A healthy diet can keep you from developing eye conditions such as cloudy vision due to cataracts, vision impairment from age related macular degeneration, glaucoma, dryness of eyes, and poor nighttime vision. Oxidants can damage our health in negative ways unless counteracted by the intake of antioxidants in the diet.
To a doctor, the way an older adult walks can reveal a lot. It can capture a snapshot of overall functioning and well-being, provide insight into a senior’s mobility and independence, and give foresight into fall risk, hospitalization, and future disability.
Everyone alive is aware of the harmful effects of smoking, but the problem with nicotine addiction is that just being informed as to the negative health outcomes isn’t necessarily enough to stop. Any doctor under the sun will suggest for you to quit smoking, and your loved ones will certainly feel much better in their twilight years living a smoke-free lifestyle. But wanting to quit and actually quitting successfully are two different animals. Consider the following ways you can support and help facilitate your loved ones’ desire to give up their smoking habit.
It’s hard to know just how to plan for aging parents, but it’s especially hard for adult children with their own lives and responsibilities. There are several factors to consider when contemplating long term care for elderly parents.
The months following your loved one experiencing a stroke are frequently difficult. The transformation will necessitate an entirely new perspective on care, routine, and priorities. Not to mention the distress you’ll be feeling watching your loved one suffering from physical and emotional changes. However, with the large body of data around effective stroke therapy, there is optimism to be had for the road ahead.
One of the negative health effects of cancer is that it makes the immune system less strong. One of the things you can do to help build up your immune system is follow a healthy diet, which can help to build up the immune system and boost your body’s ability to fight off infections. A healthy diet also aids the body in the ability to heal the body tissues faster if the cancer or the treatment for it has caused any damage.
We live in a world with countless senior discounts available that can significantly alleviate the financial strain felt by many individuals over the age of 60. Find out where you can get deals as a senior.
Understanding your resting and active heart rates is an important indicator of overall health as a senior. Learn some tips to measure your resting and active heart rate.
It is necessary for seniors to practice proper diet and eating habits, to maintain both their mental and physical health. Eating well can restore your health, lift your mood, and raise your spirits. Keeping a healthy diet, making sure to engage in regular exercise as part of your routine, and engaging in outdoor activities in an atmosphere with plenty of sunlight and oxygen are great ways to improve your general health and overall well-being.
There’s no shortage of ads for expensive face creams and lotions that purport to reduce the appearance of age, billing themselves as “fountains of youth”, or claiming that their effects are so powerful they’re putting plastic surgeons out of business.
We all know that the things we eat are extremely important, but maybe we don’t know exactly why it’s important. The fact is that our diets have a great effect on our overall health.
Dietary supplements for health are a major industry these days. One walk down the supplement aisle of a pharmacy or supermarket will display shelves filled with row upon row of all kinds of pills and powders all purporting to do one thing or another for your health. More than half of all older adults take dietary supplements, and for the most part these substances are not harmful, But there are still several things older adults should know and consider before taking any.
As we journey through the aging process, maintaining physical and cognitive health becomes increasingly important. With our bodies and minds changing, we must care for ourselves in order to live a happy and healthy love. Fortunately, there are many things that older adults can do to maintain their physical and cognitive health, and here are some tips for keeping the body and mind in shape as we age.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that can cause mild to severe illness in people of any age. It is a leading cause of death worldwide in both children and older adults. Pneumonia is not caused by any one thing, but rather a whole host of different microorganisms like bacteria or viruses. It can range in severity from mild to life-threatening.
Many mental health experts are starting to praise the positive effects of gratitude journaling for seniors. But what is it all about? Read on to find out!
When you think of people who may not like Valentine’s Day, you might guess that it would be people who may have recently had a bad relationship or rough breakup. But there’s another group to consider, and it may surprise you to hear it’s older adults.
Even with all the modern advances in medical science, it can be useful to still take a look at the health practices of humanity throughout the ages. The environment that we all live in is a far different world than the one we evolved to function in, and our brains and bodies may not have fully caught up to the realities of everyday life.
A broken hip can be a challenging experience for an individual, both physically and emotionally. Learn some health problems that can arise as a result of lack of mobility resulting from a hip fracture.
Making health care decisions for ourselves is difficult enough. But making health care decisions for others, someone we care about, can be overwhelming. And when the decisions to be made concern the business of the end of life, it can seem near impossible. Even when advance directives are in place, such as a living will to explain your loved one’s wishes, it can’t cover every possible medical eventuality. So how can you advocate for your loved ones when they can’t make their own decisions?