A heart attack is a significant event in the life of someone who suffers one, and it will irreversibly alter the trajectory of their life and the lives of their friends, family, and caretakers around them. If you or a loved one has recently suffered a heart attack, it’s important to understand all the medications and lifestyle changes it will take to remain healthy and have a successful recovery.

While staying healthy is the goal of all people, especially older adults, those suffering from diabetes need to be aware of possible changes to health. Diabetes is unfortunately the seventh leading cause of death, and can lead to permanent disabilities.

 

As we age, we may find that more and more dental problems crop up. Cracked or broken teeth, root canals, possibly even needing dentures, it seems like the mouth is yet another place where the ravages of age take their slow, grinding toll. The amount of care and effort that it seems to take can lead to many ending up neglecting their mouths altogether. After all, you might think, if it’s inevitable I’ll lose my teeth, why should I care? But what many of us may not know, or fail to consider altogether, is that oral health problems can very quickly become very serious.

Inflammation is a normal, healthy biological response, which helps rid your body of harmful bacterias, toxins, viruses and damaged cells. In the case of acute inflammation, like when you have a cut or you’re dealing with a cold, the process usually only lasts a few hours or a few days. Unfortunately, several factors can interfere with this natural healing system of your body, sending it into overdrive, stimulating it too much and hindering the healing process to cause damage to your body.

With the winter holidays rapidly approaching, stress goes hand in hand with every aspect of them. The anxiety of planning, getting the house and travel arrangements ready, seeing sometimes challenging family members, and the financial pressure of gift shopping can take a lot out of most anyone. But fortunately, it doesn’t have to be.

Changes in the appearance, growth, and strength of a person’s fingernails can sometimes tell us a great deal about their overall health. If you spot a change or markedly different appearance in the nails of your elderly loved one, it could clue you in on a serious medical condition. Read on to find out what health conditions different nail appearances could point to.

For many caregivers and family members of older adults, one of the most consistent and biggest challenges is keeping their senior loved one maintaining a healthy weight. Among the many changes that aging brings about, our senses of smell and taste weaken, which can cause appetite and food preferences to change. Many seniors aren’t very excited for meal times and struggle to eat enough to satisfy their daily nutritional requirements. Proper nutrition is critical for good health, as our body is composed of the things we feed it.

When your sleep is poor, not only does the daytime tiredness affect your ability to do activities throughout the day safely and enjoyably, but poor sleep has been linked with a lower quality of life, and risk of chronic disease. For people with bad sleep habits, conditions like diabetes and obesity are more common. Surprisingly, sleep regulates the hormones that tell your body when you’re hungry and signals the feeling of fullness that makes you stop eating. For those suffering from bad sleep, they may be prompted to eat more, and also reach for unhealthy food choices throughout the day.

While much attention was paid to the shots from the COVID-19 vaccine this year, and necessarily so, it is critical that we do not forget about the equally important, especially for older adults, seasonal vaccine against influenza, or the “flu”.

As we age, it’s important to know about all the changes we can make to preserve our health and longevity. After all, your body isn’t necessarily capable of all the same things it was when you were younger, so it doesn’t exactly make sense to keep living your life the same way you did at that time. By keeping preventable health problems in mind, knowing what you can do for early detection and treatment, men can preserve their health long into their advanced years.

As vaccination rates increase and COVID-19 infections decrease, we are perhaps well on our way to seeing an end of the pandemic that disrupted so much of our daily lives, routines, and activities we enjoyed. While getting infected with the disease had worse health results for seniors, the impact of spending eighteen sedentary months inside socially isolating and physically distancing has the possibility of nearly as bad health incomes.

Losing bone mass is a natural consequence of aging, especially in women post menopause. While osteoporosis is a concern, and the most commonly diagnosed bone disease, the loss of bone density due to aging can be devastating even without a diagnosis. Low bone density can result in your bones and hips breaking easily, severely limiting your mobility and curtailing your independence. Fortunately, there are a few changes you can make to your lifestyle and habits to keep your bones at the optimal health and strength for years to come.

While experiencing aches and pains here and there is a normal part of aging, and usually resolves quickly, within a day or two, sometimes pain may linger. Pain that occurs regularly for three or more months is known as chronic pain, which can disrupt your life and keep you from the things you enjoy. Knowing different strategies and methods for managing pain can help you reduce discomfort and preserve your independence.

You’ve probably heard the word “cholesterol” a lot when any discussion of heart health comes up. To keep a healthy heart, you must have low cholesterol. But then some cholesterol is apparently good, and it’s good to have a high level of it, so what’s the difference? What even is cholesterol? Where does it come from? It’s important to understand cholesterol and the role it plays in your body’s health, and how you can manage it to maintain your healthiest body.

Often lost among other causes, kidney diseases like diabetes and others are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Because initial symptoms can be minor or get confused for other conditions, many kidney diseases go undiagnosed and untreated until kidney function is significantly decreased. This is why it’s important to keep the health of your kidneys in mind when aging, taking steps whenever possible to reduce the risk of kidney disease.

While aging is an unavoidable fact of life, many of the negative effects we associate with aging are actually not. By taking good care of ourselves and living a healthy lifestyle, we can make sure to make the most out of each stage of our lives.

One of the many common complaints of aging is arthritis. The stiffness and soreness caused by swelling joints can make it more difficult to do tasks you once did easily, or even get around without discomfort. 

Fall is an exciting season for many people. The cooler weather, the changing of the leaves, and more, give people plenty of things to look forward to from the equinox to the winter solstice. Among everything else, fall is the harvest season first and foremost. And while pumpkin and other squashes are the star of the show, there’s many more fruits and vegetables in season to choose from, and some of them have considerable health benefits of interest to seniors. Read on to find out what you should be filling your grocery basket with, and what they can do for your body!

TV shows like The Golden Girls or Netflix’s hit Grace and Frankie make an appealing case for older, unrelated adults living their twilight years together under one roof. With a number of mental, physical, and financial benefits to such a practice, it’s no wonder that many older adults are choosing to age in place together, as roommates.

While most health concerns with aging revolve around our physical bodies, worrying about things like blood pressure, blood sugar, aches and pains, or other metrics, equal attention should be paid to mental health. After all, our bodies operate as one holistic unit, both mind and body. To that end, practicing mindful meditation can promote many benefits, both mental and physical.

When a loved one has hearing loss, it can lead to social isolation and loneliness as it creates a barrier to communication with others. This can lead to depression, and cause pain in the extended family as your loved one retreats from interaction, due to being embarrassed or ashamed. While encouraging your loved one to meet with a doctor or audiologist to be evaluated and possibly fitted with a hearing aid is a good first step, there are other things to keep in mind to ensure effective and meaningful communication.

A common refrain heard from older adults with a smoking habit is statements along the lines of “I’ve smoked a pack a day for forty years, what’s the point in quitting now?” But the fact of the matter is that it’s always the best time to quit smoking. No matter how many packs or how many years you’ve smoked in the past, quitting smoking now will greatly improve your health. Quitting is likely to add years to your life, improve your breathing and energy levels, not to mention save you money.

Any older person can unfortunately be the target of elder abuse. It can happen at the hands of a loved one, a caregiver, or a stranger, in their own home or in a care facility. Recognizing the signs is important, as frequently the victims of elder abuse are unable to advocate for themselves, whether due to a diminished capacity or social isolation.