They are quips we hear often enough—when you forget a well-known name or where you left your keys: “I’m having a senior moment,” or, “My Alzheimer’s is setting in!” As we age, the body changes, including the composition of the brain making the elderly more prone to mild forgetfulness. Sometimes these memory slips are nothing…
It’s not easy to be a parent. However, it is often difficult as well to be the child of parents who can no longer care for themselves. Most aging parents obviously want to live at home for as long as possible. This often means that they will need in-home elderly care to make that happen. The…
In a prior column, I wrote about the advantages of aging in place and how that sometimes requires the help of a home health aide to care for the elderly loved one. So how do you hire one? The first question is whether to use an agency or find an aide on your own? While…
Aging in place is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as “the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level.” The value of aging in place is recognized more now than ever before. There are many psycho/social benefits of the elderly remaining…
Loved ones from coast to coast rely on professional home healthcare services to ensure their aging loved ones can stay in their homes for as long as possible. Care for the elderly can range from simple tasks to more complex options; sometimes professionals simply stop by a few times per week while others may actually…
For most seniors, the goal is to live in their own home for as long as possible. Perhaps a more reasonable goal would be to stay in your home as long as it’s safe. There are certain dangers in remaining at home for older adults, especially if they live alone. Home healthcare services can help…
Say No to Standard Nutritional Shakes The New York Times reported that the American Geriatrics Society has made a new warning in their Choosing Wisely recommendations against using products such as Boost and Ensure because they are little more than ‘liquid candy’. Interestingly, this is a label usually ascribed to soda. Like soda, the primary…
Diabetes affects a disproportionate number of older adults—approximately 25% of Americans aged 60 and over. In the United States, our growing aging demographic is clearly one of the drivers of the diabetes epidemic. Another less known condition, prediabetes, is even more common and affects an estimated 50 percent of Americans over 65. Pre-diabetes is where…
Perfect Storm: Diabetes and Tuberculosis With 382 million people affected with diabetes worldwide in 2013 and that number poised to rise to 592 million by 2035, a warning bell is being sounded with respect to the real possibility of a serious co-infection – tuberculosis (TB). Since diabetes is a disease that weakens the immune system,…
The shuffle. It’s something we’ve come to accept as a normal part of aging, or as a result of certain medical conditions. Certainly, following a stroke or coinciding with the onset of Parkinson’s disease we expect a change in gait. But, what if there was more to this somewhat gradual change in a person’s gait?…