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Tag: Old Age Issues

Help for Individuals with Parents in a Nursing Home

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

As your parents get up in years, they will face a variety of challenges that will be difficult for them and for you. Many have gone the route of finding a nursing home where their parents will be able to get the care that is needed as they age and as they face new challenges.

 

It is important for you to be as involved as possible in the care that your parents are receiving in the nursing home. You may not be able to spend all of your time there, but make sure that you are visiting often and that the doctors and caretakers know who you are. The more often they see you, the more likely they are to tell you things that are going on with your parents. If you can establish a good relationship with the caretakers and medical professionals who work in the facility, your parents are likely to get the best care possible.

You want to be fully aware of the medication and medical treatments that your parents receive. There is usually a nursing home MAR that contains information about the type of medication your parents have been prescribed and have taken. Make sure that you fully understand the type of medication they are taking and make sure your questions get answered. Take time to find out more about the conditions that your parents may have and learn about the variety of treatments that are available. It is extremely important to be proactive when it comes to the medical care they receive.

It is good to remember that emotional and mental health is just as important as physical health. This may require that you take your parents on outings if it is possible and provide them with friendship and entertainment. Of course, the type of activities your parents will be able to engage in will depend on their circumstances. Also, the amount of time that you have to dedicate to their care will depend on your circumstances. However, do the best you can to give them the emotional and mental support they need.

Family Matters: Ways To Care For Older Family Members

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

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When you’re young, it seems impossible to imagine your parents or any other older relatives reaching the stage where they’re not able to do everything for themselves. Which means that when that time does come, it can be incredibly upsetting to come to terms with. However, just because it’s upsetting doesn’t mean that it’s something that you should ignore. The truth is that when your older relatives start to struggle with day-to-day tasks, their need for support is likely to fall onto you. Most people are more than happy to be there for older relatives when they need them, but they aren’t sure what they can actually do to help. With that in mind, here are some ways that you can more effectively care for your parents or any other older family members.

 

Set time aside for them

 

One of the hardest things for older people is the feeling that they no longer matter to those around them. As though, now that they’re older, they’re no longer as important as they might have been once upon a time. However, that’s obviously not true, and a great way to support them is to let them know how important they are to you by spending time with them. Sure, most of us have pretty busy lives, but the fact of the matter is, no one is too busy to take a little time out of their week to spend with someone important to them.

 

Get them professional help

 

Of course, the help that your older relative needs might be a little more specialised than just a sympathetic ear. If they need some kind of specialised care, then a service like Spectrum healthcare might just be perfect. Organisations like Spectrum offer some of the best home health care available meaning that they can get all of the help they need without having to go into a home and leave the place where they’re most comfortable.

 

Help them keep their independence

 

If there’s one thing that a lot of people say is harder than anything else when it comes to getting older, it’s the fact that they begin to feel as though they have no independence. If you’re looking after an older relative, then make sure that you’re not smothering or patronising them. Make sure that you can help them in ways that won’t make them feel useless or lacking in independence. If they can do things by themselves, don’t hover over them. Just because they need a little extra help doesn’t mean that they’ve suddenly turned into children who can’t do anything.

 

Of course, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t put your life on hold in order to look after your relatives. Sure, you may be willing to make changes and sacrifices in order to help, but if you’re giving everything up, then you’re just going to end up missing out on time that you could spend on your own life. If you can’t take care of yourself, then you’re never going to be able to take care of anyone else.

 

 

5 Ways To Avoid Health Issues As You Grow Older

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

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Everyone ages and everyone will encounter health decline at one stage or another in their lives. However, to prepare ourselves for the race against time, practicing good health care and a balanced lifestyle the only way to slow down the ticking clock. Keeping our body, mind, and soul healthy and happy is the true secret to living a long life.

Diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are aggressive beasts, taking many people unaware and stealing their health away. But these diseases are preventable to a certain extent. Even though the genes for these conditions may already lay dormant in your veins, conducting a better lifestyle can halt them from ever manifesting destructively. Today we are going to talk about how you can reduce your risk for health issues and stay healthy for longer.

Stay Active

It’s no surprise that an active lifestyle is good for your health. It can help you lose excess fat surrounding your organs, let you build muscles and even assist in the fight against common illnesses, as it boosts your immune system. Exercising for 30 minutes a day is good for your heart, helps you to digest food more easily and allows you to sleep better. It’s a no brainer.

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Feel Stress-Free

Stress is one of the primary causes of premature health issues. It is linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, obesity and even asthma. Calming your mind and body at the end of the day is as essential as eating your greens. Not only does your body need to stay healthy, but your mind also does too. Consider meditation. Wake up five minutes earlier in the morning and meditate before you start your day, there are loads of meditation apps which allow you to do this easily.

Avoid Harmful Triggers

There are many dangerous triggers in the world which can cause or aggravate health issues. Smoking is one of them, and if you are struggling to quit altogether, consider moving to a nicotine only substitute such as Mount Baker Vapor. Because it doesn’t contain the harmful chemicals which a cigarette does, it is the safer option for those who want to make a healthy change. Alcohol is another trigger which is linked to liver failure and weight problems. However, you don’t have to stop drinking altogether, just practice moderation.

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Eat A Balanced Diet

Being overweight or obese can lead to a number of different health problems:

  • type 2 diabetes
  • high blood pressure
  • heart disease and strokes
  • certain types of cancer
  • sleep apnea

But you can easily prevent the risk of becoming overweight by following a balanced, healthy diet. That’s not to say you have to swear off Dominos Pizza for life; it’s all about moderation. You can cheat every now and again as long as you maintain a healthy diet in between.

Don’t Ignore The Doctor

Finally, if you have a recurring cough, you need to urinate more than normal, or your stomach hurts when you eat: visit the doctor. A trained medical professional will help you with whatever the issue may be and will be able to give you advice on how to prevent it in the future.

Routine Maintenance: Caring For Elderly Family Members

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

No one likes the idea of their parents, grandparents, or other elderly relatives having issues in their later life. Instead, you want to protect these people, giving them the best possible chance at a good life, without taking away any of the joy they used to have. This sort of challenge can be a hard one, as most people are busy enough looking after themselves, let alone having the time to care for someone else. To help you out with this area, this post will be going through some of the key considerations you should be making. Along with this, it will also be helping you to achieve this goal for your own loved ones.

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When something goes wrong with someone’s body, it can often be hard for them to admit that there is an issue. As people notice more and more issues, as they usually do into their later life, it can be hard to be vocal about them, and a lot of elderly people will simply suffer in silence. The best way to combat this issue is through monitoring. You should always be looking out for differences in mood and behavior, as well as the way that they move. If you suspect a problem, they should get medical help as soon as possible.

Once you have started to monitor your loved ones, you can consider the ways that they will be cared for. In most cases, it’s best to avoid giving intimate care to someone you’re very close to. Taking this work into your own hands will hurt the memories you have of them, as you will see them in a very vulnerable and undignified state. To take this sort of work out of your hands, loads of companies have been started in recent years which can handle this care for you. 

A lot of elderly people have to spend their mornings and evening popping pills to make sure all of the chemicals in their body have the right balance. From treatments which help with blood pressure, to ones which fight much more serious conditions, this medication is very important. To avoid any mistakes with this, an aged care medication company can deliver all of the treatments required, as and when they’re needed. This makes it a lot easier to keep on top of the medicines your loved one takes, while also ensuring the right options are used.

As you get older, having to rely on care from others and support in most aspects of your life can be very depressing. Just imagine becoming a child again, losing a lot of the abilities you once had and having to go back to being looked after. Of course, though, elderly people are adults, not children, making this a hard pill to swallow for most. All of the work you do for your loved ones should be to try and maintain as much of their independence as possible. For example, even if it might be easier for you to do all of the food shopping on your own, taking them with you will give your relative the chance to make their own choices.

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Hopefully, this post will arm you with everything you need to start making your loved one’s lives as comfortable as possible. During this time in their life, it’s very easy for someone to lose a lot of the things they once loved. This is a shame, though, as it doesn’t have to be the case. Instead, you just need to start working harder to help them.

How To Have A Happy Retirement

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

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Retirement has come at last, but you might not be thinking that everything is plain sailing from here. Whilst there are things to sort out now that you’re out of work, the important thing is focusing on relaxing and enjoying life from here on out. The following points might help you with sorting out the boring side of things so that you can move on quickly towards enjoying the more exciting side of life.

Sort our your living situation.

This is the second thing you’ll need to think about now that you’re retired. Perhaps your children are now adults and they’ve moved out of home. You and your partner, if you have one, might be looking to downsize from your current home. It might be time to move somewhere else. Perhaps a small cottage or a bungalow is more your thing. Of course, you might not want to live alone anymore, depending on your age. You might want to check out RiddleVillage.com if you want to look into options for retired living. There’s more out there than the standard care home; you could be part of a village community which encourages independent living with your peers.

There would be the added benefit of care and help on hand, no matter which kind of retired living community you chose to explore. Of course, it all depends at which stage you’re at in your life. You might have just retired, but perhaps you’re still happy living at home with your partner or your family. This is more something you might have to plan for the future, but it doesn’t hurt to get these things in order. As mentioned in the last point, regarding finances, it’s better to have these things set way in advance. An article over at usatoday.com explains that staying social is the key to happiness in retirement, so if you’re not finding that in a living community then you might want to find it elsewhere. The final point discusses this further.

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Sort out your happiness.

It’s hard to be happy all the time as you get older, and you might find it difficult to deal with the lack of things to do once you retire. It’s important to find hobbies and ways of staying active. Join groups of likeminded people; that might mean volunteering, but it’s all to do with how you want to spend your time. Much like when you were young, being happy is a state of mind, and it’s something that has to be pursued.

One of our articles sums it up perfectly by stating that you need to still find the time to be active, whatever your age. That might just mean going on a leisurely walk around your local park with a family member, rather than heading off on a strenuous run. You need to keep your mind and body active because the mental effects of exercise, whatever your age, are huge. Of course, cardio is also great for your heart and it might help alleviate aches, pains, or stiffness which might be stemming from inactivity.

 

Not a Day Older: Taking Care of Your Body and Mind in Old Age

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Growing old takes a toll on your body. Although most of us will change as we age, and looking in the mirror is more of a surprise than anything else, you need to take care of yourself more than ever when you’re getting older. If you think the amount you exercised back in the days is what you’re living off now, you’re quite right – but that doesn’t mean you should stop caring about your body and mental health quite yet.

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The truth is, your mind as well as your physical health will be declining when you’ve reached a ripe age and to keep yourself healthy, it’s important to look at health holistically. Here is a handful of the best preventative measures you can take for your health in old age so that you can enjoy a functioning body and a healthy mind for as long as possible.

The best exercise to stay young

The mitochondria in our bodies are considered the cell’s power generator; it produces energy and converts it into forms that are usable by our cells. As we age, our cells stop to regenerate as easily as it did before, and are simultaneously affected by the mitochondria diminishing in both number and vigor.

We’d like to keep it as a generator for as long as we can, and certain types of exercise have actually proven to undo some of what aging has done to our cell’s power producer. The type of exercise that produced the biggest change in people’s genes in a study from this year was intense exercise – or interval training. There are a lot of different ways to incorporate this into your regular routine, although it’s usually associated with running or jogging. How well your aging family member is able to cope with running, you know better than any, but consider similar options such as cycling if this is difficult due to painful knees or other immobilities.

While there’s no decent alternative to growing old, by taking care of yourself and your older family members, you’ll be able to enjoy active years as a senior citizen and leap from one Pilates class to the next one. It will keep you independent and happy for as long as possible so that you can get much more out of your Medicare Supplement plans – and enjoy your golden years for a long time still.

Aging and stress

Stress is bad company when you’re trying to look after your health, and little is able to have such an impact on your health as this one. While we may experience hard times at any age, you’re more likely to have gone through a traumatic emotional loss when you’re older and it becomes even more important to know how to deal with this.

To get in touch with your spirituality can take you a step away from stress and depression; while there are a lot of ways to do this, the most popular way is to try meditation or holistic exercises such as yoga.

The combination of a loss of a loved one, loneliness, and even financial concern can make the stress factor a lot worse when you age – and seniors are at an increased risk for depression. Take care of your mental health as soon as possible and reach out to a professional or your family members for a chat, and practice expressing your emotions.

Remember to laugh and surround yourself with positive people who enjoy life and have managed to stay active. They’ll keep us young for longer and make it easier to enjoy everything life has to offer.

 

Not a Day Older: The Best Exercise For Aging Muscles

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Growing old takes a toll on your body. Although most of us will change as we age, and looking in the mirror is more of a surprise than anything else, nothing is as affected as much our muscles. If you’re thinking that the amount you exercised back in the days is what you’re living off now and that the muscles you built in your twenties have served you well, you’re quite right – but that doesn’t mean you should stop caring about your body.

Image via: Pexels

Those sweaty circles of Pilates for seniors can be a bit underwhelming, though, if this is the only exercise your older parents are doing. Use science instead, to find the best type of workout to slow down the aging process and see them enjoy many more years of activity and sports.

The mitochondria

The mitochondria in our bodies are considered the cell’s power generator; it produces energy and converts it into forms that are usable by our cells. As we age, our cells stops to regenerate as easily as it did before, and are simultaneously affected by the mitochondria diminishing in both number and vigor.

We’d like to keep it as a generator for as long as we can, and certain types of exercise have actually proven to undo some of what aging has done to our cell’s power producer.

We’ll lose muscles, in other words, and will struggle with keeping our bodies as light and energized as we used to. It will keep them independent and happy for as long as possible, and they can get much more out of their golden years – and a lot more out of their Medicare Supplement plans. While there’s no decent alternative to growing old, by taking care of yourself and your older family members, you’ll be able to enjoy active years as a senior citizen and leap from one Pilates class to the next one.

Interval Exercise

The type of exercise that produced the biggest change in people’s genes in a study from this year was intense exercise – or interval training. There are a lot of different ways to incorporate this into your regular routine, although it’s usually associated with running or jogging. How well your aging family member is able to cope with running, you know better than any, but consider similar options if this is difficult due to their knees or other immobilities.

Cycling, for example, is excellent interval exercise and can be done in nature as well as on a stationary bike at the gym. If you think the gym is a better option as they’ll have assistants around at all time, remember that time spent in nature is wonderful news for their health as well. Try to compensate by walking outside together and enjoying nature in other ways – with less speed, perhaps.

To get the kind of benefits that will reduce aging in their muscles, it needs to be intense – and to manage this on a bicycle, you’re going to need speed. The gym may be the best option, in other words, unless they’re still relatively young.

While any type of exercise is good for your body, you should treat your family to the best kind of exercise for their age – especially now that you know the science behind it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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