Of the many guidelines for living a healthy life, we’re commonly told it’s important to eat well, get exercise, and receive plenty of restful sleep. But one thing we’re rarely told is that frequent laughter is just as vital to living a healthy life. More than just a way to feel better instantly and connect with friends, laughter may actually help you to become healthier.
In many cases, anxiety is a normal response to stress. The feeling of elevated alertness is a part of the body’s fight or flight response, which helps us to quickly assess and react to high stakes and dangerous situations. When this response is triggered only situationally, in appropriate conditions, anxiety is otherwise normal and healthy. But for some people, the response is triggered by inappropriate situations that do not actually pose any sort of threat. When anxiety becomes a near constant concern, to the point where life becomes centered around managing fears, worries, and it negatively affects daily life and activities, then it becomes a serious mental health condition.
While some amount of forgetfulness and mental stumbling is normal with the aging process, it should only be occasional and minor, never causing major problems or seriously interfering with a senior’s quality of life. Forgetting someone’s name, failing to recall if you locked the door or not, and losing your keys are all normal lapses of memory that happen to everyone from time to time. However, more serious lapses like forgetting the way home, being unable to remember how a telephone works, or walking into a store and then suddenly not knowing where you are all probably point to an underlying neurological problem, such as Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
In many families, when older adults need extra care to get through their days, adult children or grandchildren will step in to help. And while at first, this can be a workable arrangement, the task list can soon swell. Soon, helping out here and there becomes managing your loved one’s healthcare appointments, taking care of the house and domestic tasks, and sometimes performing hands-on health care tasks that may seem more appropriate for a trained medical professional to manage.
With nine out of ten adults over the age of 65 taking some form of daily medication, and more than half taking four or more, seniors have plenty of opportunity to get to know their local pharmacist. With their knowledge of prescription and over the counter drugs, as well as how they can affect and interact with one another, there are several ways pharmacists can play a role in a senior’s health care plan.
The holidays are a joyous and celebratory time of the year, with lots of cheer, family fun, and plenty of activity to keep busy. But for many people, the end of the holidays can be a dark, lonely and depressing time. As many as 64% of people have reported feeling what can be described as the post-holiday blues. Oftentimes, the exhilarating feeling of stress, thrill, and excitement from the holidays can translate to a period of feeling sad, tired, and depressed once that excitement is no longer present.
While 80% of resolutions are abandoned by February, that doesn’t mean they’re impossible to do. Goal setting is an important part of success with resolutions, and can help improve your mental health.
Decreasing an aging loved one’s risk of contracting a deadly disease like Covid-19, influenza, or pneumonia can be as simple as getting a quick shot.
As we begin to enter the third year of the Coronavirus being an all-encompassing fact of life, it is important to remember the various lengths and measures needed to stay safe. While getting the vaccine, and taking the booster shots if able are of course a wonderful idea, that’s still unfortunately not the end-all be-all of protection from Covid-19.
Medications are prescribed to counteract health conditions in the body, and when prescribed and taken correctly, they are wonderful at this job. However, when medications are taken incorrectly, either with skipped doses or erroneously repeated doses, it can cause a major health setback, up to and including death.
There are two ways that diabetes can hurt the largest organ of the human body, the skin. When blood glucose levels are high, it causes the body to lose fluid. As fluid leaves the body, skin can become dry, and itchy
The kitchen is commonly regarded as the heart of the home. But unfortunately, it can also be a dangerous place. According to FEMA, people over the age of 65 have a chance of dying in a kitchen fire that is 2.5 times greater than that of the general population. Cooking accidents are one of the leading causes of fires in the home, accounting for thousands of preventable injuries and deaths each year. But just because your senior loved one has lost some mobility or mental capacity doesn’t mean they have to give up their love of cooking. The key is to provide a safe kitchen for them to use.
An ischemic stroke is an urgent health condition that occurs when an artery supplying the brain with oxygenated blood becomes blocked, which suddenly stops or sharply decreases blood flow, which ultimately causes a brain infarction, or in layman’s terms, tissue death. Ischemic strokes account for 80% of all strokes.
Many people worry about losing mental faculties as they get older, and perhaps think there’s nothing they can do to prevent the inevitable development of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. It’s no wonder, our minds are, quite literally, who we are, and the idea of either forgetting huge parts of our lives, or becoming unable to form new memories are frightening prospects. But many of the preconceptions people have about older brains aren’t necessarily true, and there’s a whole litany of myths out there that can cause undue stress and mental anguish to people as they age. Read on to hear some of these common beliefs, and the reality that refutes them.
When your job or time revolves around caring for another, one of the things that’s easy to let fall by the wayside is your own personal well-being. Exercise is incredibly important for not only physical health, but mental as well. Follow these tips for how to better find time for yourself to keep yourself active, and healthy.
Throughout the United States, over forty million people suffer from at least one of the over one hundred various types of arthritis. No matter the specific type of arthritis one might be afflicted with, they all share the common symptom of painful joint inflammation and stiffness. And while there is no cure for arthritis in many of its forms, there are always options for treatments and strategies, to lessen the severity of the symptoms, allowing a person suffering from the condition to return to a normal life and routine.
While many people with varicose veins are more concerned with the physical appearance of them on their legs. Because the veins are perceived as unattractive, they may not want to wear clothing that shows their legs. However, varicose veins can be more than an aesthetic issue, and can sometimes be more indicative of a more serious medical problem.
Bathroom safety is one of the most important things for an elderly person living in their home, as the multiple slippery surfaces and stepping required makes for a potentially dangerous situation. Falls are one of the biggest dangers to older adults, with many hospitalizations and deaths sadly caused by them every year. And for many seniors, injuries from a nasty fall can be the beginning of a physical decline that leads to a reduced quality of life and lifespan.
Many seniors have difficulty eating enough, due to changing senses of taste and smell as they age, side effects of medications reducing hunger, difficulty chewing or swallowing, or any other number of reasons. One thing caregivers can do to combat malnutrition and make sure your loved one is eating enough is to keep plenty of small, nutritious, ready to eat snacks on hand.
Most of us have heard the word obesity before, but may not be familiar with the actual definition, or what it means for us to actually have it applied to us. How does the condition of obesity affect a person’s life, and what can an older adult do about it to manage their weight and promote healthy living?
Hoarding is an issue that has only recently come into public consciousness, mostly due to TV shows sensationalizing the lives and homes of those suffering from it. It is a real, and serious issue, and one that frequently affects aging people, making it a point of concern for those caring for their elderly relatives and loved ones. Not only does hoarding cause significant mental duress related to the possessions in the hoard, it poses a major health and safety risk as well.
While the idea of living to the age of 100 and beyond may seem like a faraway science fiction dream for many, with the majority of people measuring their lifespans in double digits, and the majority of those who do reach 100 or beyond becoming stories worth noting, the fact is that worldwide the number of centenarians, the term for people aged 100 to 110, is expected to increase sharply.
Seniors are unfortunately one of the most vulnerable segments of our population, frequently the victims of crimes, scams, or abuse. As a large portion of seniors suffer from either physical ailments or cognitive decline, their lack of ability to defend or advocate for themselves makes them an easy and tempting target to the unscrupulous.
While some amount of forgetfulness, memory loss, and trouble thinking is normal with aging, what isn’t normal is suffering from Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia. Less than 15% of the population aged 71 or older suffers from a degenerative dementia disorder, meaning that it’s certainly not guaranteed that you’ll get it as you get older.
As the fall season progresses along towards winter, one thing everyone surely notices is the sun rising later each day, and going down earlier each evening. Come November, it’s only going to get worse when Daylight Savings ends, making the sun set even earlier each day. For many of us, less light and more cold can have a debilitating effect on our daily lives, and our emotional and mental health. Our internal clocks are calibrated by exposure to sunlight, so for many of us shorter days are a disruption that can be hard to shake ourselves free of.