Proper hydration is one of the most essential aspects of maintaining good functionality of the joints and organs in the body. Many of the body’s essential nutrients are delivered through water. Some of our joints, such as the knees have no blood supply and rely solely on nutrients from water to maintain proper function. In the elderly, hydration is especially…
The importance of addressing incontinence immediately when it arises cannot be overstated. Around 20 million people in the United States alone suffer from incontinence, nearly 75% of which are women. Childbirth can very easily weaken the pelvic floor muscles enough to where urinary incontinence becomes a problem immediately after pregnancy. Given the personal and rather embarrassing nature of the symptom…
A PharmaTimes story revealed that the stress associated with providing unpaid care for a sick or disabled adult is leading to a 29 percent greater use of anti-anxiety medicines among such caregivers, compared those who do not provide such care, according to research from pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts.. An estimated 42 million Americans serve as a caregiver to…
According to a report in Reuters, seniors with high blood sugar – but not high enough to be diabetic – face a slightly greater risk of developing dementia, according to a new study of over 2,000 volunteers. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that an average glucose reading of 105 to 120 milligrams per deciliter…
As a certified physical therapist I advocate movement and exercise for everyone, and that includes seniors. One of the priorities I set for my home aides is to encourage seniors to move during the day. It helps with heart health and even improves mental health. Now there is evidence from a study called REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences…
One of our primary responsibilities as home aides is to prevent loved ones from requiring hospitalization. Hospitalizations add great stress and discomfort to seniors, and now there is new evidence that the risk of infection rises when a senior requires hospitalization. In fact, roughly 45 percent of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are in patients older than 65, according to Thomas File,…
As a Physical Therapist, I have been telling my patients to take their blood pressure medication and take their time getting out of bed in the morning by “rolling” to one side vs doing a sit up to avoid heart attacks and strokes. According to another recent report in HealthDay News, failure to take blood pressure-lowering medicines as directed greatly increases…
Although post-traumatic stress disorder is associated with retuning veterans, a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE found that people who develop PTSD after a stroke could have a greater risk for heart problems or another stroke because of the psychological issues they endure. Reporter Barbara Bronson Gray, writing for HealthDay, found that the researchers “discovered that patients who…
A study of senior women at the Shimane University Faculty of Medicine in Japan found that the average sodium intake among all the women studied was 5,211 milligrams a day. The women in the top 25 percent for sodium intake averaged 7,561 milligrams a day. Now there is evidence that having a very high salt intake is linked to a…
A recent story from Bloomberg News quoted a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta that estimates that 1 in 8 Americans at least 60 years old reported confusion or memory loss in the preceding 12 months. In addition, about one-third of those Americans also said they had functional difficulties including the ability to work or…
