Tag Archive for: senior health

5 Ways to Avoid Senior Health Issues

Aging has its fair share of difficulties that if you are not prepared may adversely affect your life. Like birth or death, you can’t resist aging because it’s a stage of life. Note that, those who maintain a young healthy lifestyle experience a graceful aging.

However, even as you age, you can start taking part in a healthy lifestyle to reap the benefits. This doesn’t mean that you will completely avoid the effects of aging but the intense effects of aging will be prolonged or softer on you.

Ways to avoid senior health problems

1. Eat healthily

Proper nutrition is essential to maintaining a healthy body and an active mind. the rate of senior people affected by malnutrition is alarming. Unfortunately, malnutrition gravely affects a human being’s psychological ad physical system. With such effects, the senior is bound to die early.

Without proper nutrition, the seniors develop a weak immune system which means they are affected by all kinds of diseases. If you are a senior, even though you may lack the appetite take a meal that has a balanced diet.

The seniors may also lack appetite that sometime may result from the loss of smell and taste sensation. This leads to the urge to eat very little. Therefore, focus on appetizers for them. Otherwise, ensure they can eat a balance of food with calories, vitamins to maintain healthy organs.

A balanced diet helps to maintain a healthy weight, stay strong and retain essential body nutrients. Since you are prone to diseases like diabetes and heart problems, a healthy nutrition will help to avoid the occurrences of such diseases.

Fibers in your diet will help to combat the slow digestive system. Go for all the whole grains, highly fibred fruits and veggies. Drinking plenty of water is also important because it will help you to remain hydrated.

Ensure you consume fewer calories to maintain a healthy weight. As you age, you become less mobile as a result of less muscle energy and weak joints. Therefore, consuming more calories may not work to your advantage. You want to focus on more fruits, water and veggies

2. Exercise and mental health issues

As you age, you slow down and become dormant. This is a result of health problems, weight issues or fear of falling down. Most seniors don’t engage in exercise as they should. They don’t know that it can reduce the risk of developing different diseases while boosting their mobility.

It doesn’t matter what your age is, if you have the willpower and your doctor approves that you can work out, you will begin to feel strong. Exercising especially with a team increases your social circle, it boosts your immunity as you develop strong bones.

Some of the exercises that you can engage in include aerobics or any other medium level strength training, biking or yoga and stretch forms.

Another essential part is to maintain a healthy mind. Being a senior doesn’t mean your brain is old. You can engage in passwords, crosswords, reading as well as writing to maintain a healthy mental state. Other forms of mental exercises include visualization and meditation.

These mental exercises will keep you at par with your surrounding and even help you create your desires.

3. Convert their houses into a senior-friendly house

Making a house senior-friendly is about reducing the need to climb stairs or steps, making it non-slip and placing all support mechanisms to help seniors walk safely. Remember, most of them lack muscle strength and their joints are probably weak. So, you don’t need to make it harder for them.

If the world was perfect then we would have all the seniors living in a single-story building without high steps at the entrance or in an apartment with a functioning elevator. However, this isn’t always the case for most people. So, you can implement the steps below to make it senior friendly.

  • Add non-skid mats on the floors to avoid sliding. If your elderly uses walkers consider using the carpets to avoid slipping too.
  • For the staircases, they are generally not the best option for an elderly. However, you can install handrails to support them as they climb and go down the stairs.
  • Make the doorknobs safe but also easy to open. As earlier stated, you must focus on lessening the strains on the muscles and joints. Replace your doorknobs with lever style hardware.
  • The bathroom has caused various dangerous accidents over the years. Here focus on the floor and use non-skid mats, make the bathtub senior friendly. Change your toilet to suit the elderly height.

4. Prevention the disease is better than waiting to cure it

It takes so long to cure diseases even in your normal state. Since you are aging, visiting the doctor for medical check-ups every so often is essential. This medical procedure should involve checks against increased cholesterol level, heart conditions, different cancers and high blood pressure.

During your medical checks, you can also take vaccines against ailments like influenza and pneumonia. Make sure you have access to a doctor who in case you experience early symptoms like dizziness, loss of appetite and allergies can conduct an early medical check and give you early treatments.

It’s almost normal for the elderly to have poor vision. So, if this is you, visit your ophthalmologist sooner. Wear your glasses and have them checked every year. If you have the right glasses, chances are you won’t fall easily.

5. Socialize and Get enough rest

Seniors tend to isolate themselves or their families may reject them. In case this happens the seniors may suffer psychological traumas. Instead of staying in isolation, join support groups where there are like-minded people and people going through the same things for support.

If you can get engaged with the younger generation the better for you. Because they will not only make you mentally young and vibrant but they will also make you active and rejuvenated. They also give you a reason to keep living.

Never deny yourself sleep. Most seniors experience insomnia and frequent awake sessions in the night yet this will make you age quickly. Learn to think of only uplifting things before sleeping, keep the lights off and make your bedroom warm enough to encourage sleeping.

Conclusion

As a bonus, maintain a healthy outlook as this will keep you rejuvenated. Brush your teeth, bathe and wear some beautiful clothes. We all have a right to enjoy a happy life until we breath our last. Focus on wellbeing and this will become your reality.


About author

Jimmy Olivas is a bathroom designer & plumbing industry expert. Jimmy has become an avid blogger by reviewing toilets. In his spare time, he enjoys walking through home improvement stores, rating different bathroom appliances and researching the latest and greatest toilets. Reach him at ToiletPlanner.com