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Daily Movement Keeps Your Brain Healthy

Date: March 3, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips

Chores can be kind of a drag, but they can help keep you sharp. We mentioned briefly about how household chores can keep you healthy in our article about different ways to stay healthy as you age. In this article, we are going to dive deep into a new scientific study that says daily movement keeps your brain healthy.

Daily Movement Keeps Your Brain Healthy

Daily Movement Keeps Your Brain Healthy

 

You know that it’s good to keep exercising as you age. But exercising can seem too daunting if your body isn’t working as well as it used to. That’s why this study is such a big deal. It’s saying that you don’t have exercise a lot to stay healthy, you can just move around your house.

Plus, the study proves that simply moving around will keep you sharp even during your 70s and 80s.

The Study

 

454 adults age 70 or older were part of the study. 191 of them had behavioral signs of dementia, while 263 didn’t. They were given thinking and memory tests every year for 20 years.

This study is particularly interesting because Dr. Aron S. Buchman, who led the study, was able to look at the brains of participants. This is because the participants agreed to donate their brains for research after their death.

In the last few years of research and before their death, people in the study wore an activity monitor called an accelerometer. It’s like a Fitbit. It measured physical activity all the time, the smallest movements were recorded.

Every 10 days researchers created an average daily activity score.

The Results

 

It’s been shown that higher levels of daily movement are linked to better thinking and memory skills. This was concluded by the yearly tests the participants took.

When Buchman looked at the brain tissue, he found that even brains with 3 signs of Alzheimer’s disease or more had positive results. Even though they had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, 30% of them had “normal” cognition at death.

Buchman believes that physical activity, no matter how small, can be protective even if you develop Alzheimer’s. It can mask the symptoms and allow some control over your brain health even when you don’t have control of Alzheimer’s.

“As long as you have some activity and you’re moving, whether you’re chopping onions, typing, sweeping the floor or even running, you can reduce your risk of cognitive decline.”—Dr. Buchman

There’s More to Come

 

While this study is a great start, researchers would like to learn more. This study didn’t show a clear cause and effect of how everything worked. The study also didn’t have info on how active participants were before they became part of the study.

But this study proves there is hope.

Read more here.

6 Ways to Deal with Arthritis

Date: February 25, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
There Isn't Enough Help for Seniors

Arthritis is a real problem. Most people think it’s a part of getting older, which is slightly true, but you don’t have to just accept it’s going to happen to you. There are ways to deal with arthritis.

6 Ways to Deal with Arthritis

6 Ways to Deal with Arthritis

 

You can handle arthritis with the right combo of exercise, medications, and lifestyle changes.

1. Medications

Medications are a key part because they relieve pain, inflammation, suppress the immune system, and minimize joint damage. It’s good to know why you are taking the medicine and how helpful it will be.

Also, keep a list of what you are taking, how well they are working, and any side effects you may have.

2. Diet

A balanced diet can help make you feel better overall. If you are overweight, that can lead to more stress and pressure on your joints.

3. Exercise

This is essential to deal with arthritis. It can reduce pain, maintain joint mobility, strengthen muscles, and improve posture and balance. You should exercise daily if you can.

It can be tempting not to exercise because of pain or if you want to protect your body, but you need to move. Regular movement is key to pain management.

4. Dealing with Pain

You can handle pain using hot or cold packs, massage, acupuncture, relaxation techniques, or distracting yourself.

5. Fighting Fatigue

Take it easy as you go about your day. Split up your tasks so that you don’t overwhelm yourself. Use any tools that are at your disposal that can make things go smoother.

6. Holistic Methods

There are a lot of holistic methods you can use to help with arthritis. You can use vitamins, mineral supplements, and herbal medicines. Though there is no scientific evidence that they actively help. Some may interact with your medications negatively.

Read more here.

The Truth About Flu Shots and Seniors

Date: February 25, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
Why Flu Shots Don't Work in Seniors

You know how dangerous the flu can be for a young, healthy person, and you probably know that it can be deadly for infants and seniors. It’s important to get a flu shot, but what if they don’t work? A new study in Cell Host & Microbe talks about the truth about flu shots and seniors.

Why Flu Shots Don't Work in Seniors

The Truth About Flu Shots and Seniors

 

The study found that your B-cells, which fights infections, weaken as you get older. What this means is that you can’t fight off the flu as well as you used to.

Most vaccines depend on your B-cells responding to work. This could be the reason why flu shots don’t work in seniors.

The team from the study looked at how B-cells and antibodies from adults between the ages of 22 to 64 and seniors aged between 71 and 89. The team compared how they responded to the latest flu vaccine.

The B-cells in younger people were able to recognize the mutations of the virus and create protective antibodies. Older people’s B-cells did not do so well with the constantly changing flu virus.

Their B-cells were stagnant and the antibodies they made were less diverse and less powerful. Essentially, they are unable to change with the times and are getting left behind.

Interestingly, seniors’ B-cells were great at fighting against flu mutations of the virus from their childhood. Younger people were not able to fight against older mutations.

Does Science Know Why This Happens?

 

Why this happens is currently unknown. Though researchers have noticed that people between 50 and 70-years-old had occasional dips in their influenza fighting power. The steepest drops happen after your 70s.

Even though they don’t work as well, it’s still important for seniors to get flu shots. A shot can reduce the chance of catching the flu by 40 to 60% in the general population, and seniors’ percentage is a little below that.

Make sure you and the people around you get their flu shots as soon as they can.

Read more here.

8 Symptoms to Worry About

Date: February 25, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
How Ageism Hurts Seniors' Health

No one likes to be sick. In fact, you may be ignoring symptoms, desperately hoping they go away. Sometimes this works, other times not so much. When this tactic doesn’t work, things can go bad quickly. Here are 8 symptoms to worry about.

8 Symptoms to Worry About

8 Symptoms to Worry About

 

These are symptoms that are common but taken less seriously than chest pain and irregular moles.

1. Being Sleepy During the Day

Stress can leave anyone drained and tired. So can insomnia, which is when you can’t sleep no matter how hard you try. While this can happen occasionally, if it continues to happen, then you have a problem.

This could mean that you have sleep apnea. This is when you have disruptive breathing patterns. You will not get enough oxygen during the night and keep waking up to get it.

Other symptoms include loud snoring, sore throat, or a headache.

2. Erectile Dysfunction

This is usually seen as more of an emotional problem than a physical one. Most of the time, men fix it with Viagra without checking out why it happened in the first place.

Erectile dysfunction could be a sign of heart disease. Men who have this problem are twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease or die of a heart attack.

3. Unintentional Weight Loss

This type of weight loss isn’t the result of hard work. It’s when things get a bit scary. This symptom could mean cancer. If you lose around 10 pounds a month, that’s a common sign of cancer.

It can also mean that you have a thyroid problem.

4. A Persistent Cough

If you continue to have a cough that won’t go away, there could be a respiratory problem.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, also known as COPD, is a common problem. It can cause permanent lung damage.

A chronic cough could also be a sign of lung cancer.

5. Peeing Often

Have you noticed that you are going to the bathroom more often than normal? Some people brush it off as having an older bladder, but it could be something more.

Too much glucose in the blood can trigger a need to pee. This is a symptom of Diabetes.

For women, it can be a sign of urinary tract infection. For men, it could mean a potential prostate problem.

6. Slipping, Falling, and Losing Your Balance

We all know that falls happen, but if it happens a lot, then there is a problem. A potential neurological problem. Things can cause your brain to go off and make you lose your sense of balance.

Such problems can include motor diseases like Parkinson’s, autoimmune diseases, and diabetic neuropathy.

7. Always Being Constipated

Going to the bathroom is important. Being constipated is annoying, but is it something to take seriously?

Constant constipation could indicate colon growths or colorectal cancer. The growths can cause a narrowing or blockage, which leads to constipation.

8. Chest, Neck, and Arm Discomfort When Exercising

Pain that spreads to the chest, neck, and arms after exercising can be a sign of coronary artery disease (CAD). This type of symptom can affect women more, while men have the classic chest pain.

Read more here.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals Getting Fined for Pushing Drugs on Seniors

Date: February 17, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
How to Protect Yourself from Pharmacists' Mistakes

We’ve talked before about a pharmaceutical company pushing drugs on seniors. Now, they are getting fines from the Department of Justice. The company wanted to take advantage of seniors and how they are less likely to speak up with their doctors.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals Getting Fined for Pushing Drugs on Seniors

A Brief Summary Avanir Pharmaceuticals

 

In our previous article, we discussed how Avanir was up to no good. They have been aggressively marketing their drug to nursing home residents and doctors who interact with seniors.

A 2017 CNN investigation found that they were using the drug, Nuedexta, falsely in elderly dementia patients.

The government only approved Nuedexta for a rare condition whose symptoms include uncontrollable laughing and crying. This disease is pseudobulbar affect or PBA.

PBA can happen to patients with neurological conditions like dementia, but it’s not very common.

That didn’t stop Avanir salespeople from pushing it onto seniors in communities. Doctors with connections to the company have been caught misdiagnosing seniors with PBA so they can prescribe the drug.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals Getting Fined for Pushing Drugs on Seniors

 

Avanir has publicly acknowledged the investigation and that they have reached an agreement with the Department of Justice. The details of that deal are still unknown.

Though, financial filings from Avanir’s parent company, Otsuka, guess the agreement could mean $120 million in fines.

Nothing is completely confirmed.

Avanir hasn’t said anything else about the agreement. They have said they are “deeply committed to regulatory and legal compliance, as well as the health and safety of the patients we serve.”

Read more here.

5 Ways to Help With Transitional Care

Date: February 10, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
Could House Calls Be Making a Comeback?

Change is hard and moving is stressful. Now, imagine that you have to change your entire lifestyle. This is what many seniors have to go through when they deal with transitional care. They may have to leave their home for a community, or downsize their home and allow strangers to come in and help them. There are ways to help ease your senior and make the changes smooth.

5 Ways to Help With Transitional Care

5 Ways to Help With Transitional Care

 

If you aren’t careful, your senior could get very sick because of that change. If they have any chronic conditions, their symptoms can be made worse. There can also be symptoms like losing their voice, urinary tract infections, high blood pressure, delusions, falls, and so much more.

But fear not, these 5 tips should be able to help you with transitional care.

1. Prepare and Educate

You should always make sure that you talk to your senior about what is going to happen. Make sure that they understand that things will be different and why.

It’s also important to educate yourself. Your senior is relying on you as their caregiver. Make sure you have all the information you need to make everything as easy as possible for both of you.

This information can include what to do if you are going from home to a hospital, what’s the best community for your senior’s needs, and who your senior’s doctors are.

2. Keep Communication Open

There’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to senior care, even more so when it’s just the beginning. Your senior could be moved from a hospital to a community without having important info.

See if you can find a way to make sure all people get the information they need. This could mean keeping records yourself and making copies to hand out. It could be asking your senior’s doctor to send the info to the people who need it.

Make sure everyone is on the same page.

3. Pay Attention to Your Senior’s Care Goals

Do you know what your senior wants when it comes to their care? Do they have any treatment preferences? Would they prefer to be at home or a community? Do they have an advance directive?

If no such options are available, it’s important to think about what your senior would truly want. If you have to, gather opinions from other people who know your senior well.

4. Make a Team

The best way to get through all the changes in one piece is to create a team. This way everyone can help you make sure your senior gets the best treatment. It will also make your senior feel supported and safe.

Make sure anyone who is going to help and care for your senior knows what they’re doing. Make sure they know how to care for any chronic conditions that your senior may have.

5. Avoid Hospitalizations

It’s best you avoid any unnecessary changes in their environment. This can mean hospitalizations or ER visits. This can mess with the flow of care your senior gets and upset them. Upsetting them can cause illness and agitation.

Read more here.

7 Ways to Handle Medical Management

Date: February 3, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
Staying Safe During Coronavirus While Having Dementia

Managing your health is hard enough, but it can get chaotic when you have to manage someone else’s. There a few different ways you can handle medical management of your senior without wanting to pull your hair out. If you aren’t properly prepared, then things can go poorly when there’s an emergency. You may be in charge of your senior’s medical management for years.

7 Ways to Handle Medical Management

7 Ways to Handle Medical Management

 

By knowing what you are doing, you provide a better quality of life for your senior. You also reduce the stress for yourself.

1. Use a Person-Centered Approach

By focusing on the person, you use a more positive approach. It will remind you that the person’s needs are most important. This way it can improve their well-being and their quality of life.

People who are care providers, but not medical professionals, should take a holistic approach with their care. They should try to remove any barriers of the coordination of medical and non-medical care and support.

This method will make your senior feel better overall.

2. Know What the Doctors Should Be Doing

You need to keep track of what each of your senior’s doctors does. That way you know how your senior’s care is supposed to be going.

You can work together with those doctors to create a single idea of what your care goals are.

3. Talk to the Doctors

The best thing you can do for your senior is know how to take care of them. Ask doctors about the chronic conditions your senior has and how you can help them with their symptoms. Should you change anything to their house if they are living at home? Is there something you should let the community know if they are in assisted living?

Don’t be afraid to tell any of your caregivers about changes in your senior’s health.

4. Try Using Methods That Don’t Involve Pills

There are a lot of different ways to help with dementia symptoms that don’t involve pills. There is a lot of evidence showing that other methods can work just as well if not more.

We actually explore this idea more in our article “9 Ways to Help With Dementia Symptoms Without Medications.”

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Pills

It’s not bad to use pills when they are necessary. There are times when pills are the right solution. Make sure you talk to all your care providers about what to use and when to use them to best suit your senior.

6. Prepare for Emergencies

Often when it comes to senior care, it’s a matter of when and not if with emergencies. It’s always better to have a plan prepared so your senior can be as safe as possible during the situation.

7. Do End of Life Discussions ASAP

No one wants to talk about the end of a beloved’s life, but it needs to be done. It’s good for you to know what your senior wants and how it should be done. This will also lessen the stress on you.

Read more here.

Emergency Rooms are Chaos for Seniors

Date: January 27, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
New Partnership Creates First Rural Geriatric Emergency Department

Anyone who has been in an emergency room knows how chaotic it is. There always seems to not be enough beds for all the people that need help. For the elderly, it’s even worse. It’s loud and there are so many moving parts it’s scary. There’s no privacy and cots are too hard on their bodies. Emergency rooms are chaos for seniors.

Emergency Rooms are Chaos for Seniors

Emergency Rooms are Chaos for Seniors

 

Luckily, people are starting to recognize that the emergency room system needs to change. Many hospitals are making structural changes and new procedures to make things more senior friendly.

This is good because the senior population is growing fast.

Emergency rooms are good for obvious or easy to solve problems. They struggle with the bigger picture when it comes to seniors. Seniors can have odd symptoms with similar diseases or disorders and it can be hard to tell them apart.

For example, they can have nausea instead of chest pain when they are having a heart attack. They also can feel less pain and can’t tell doctors how dire the situation is.

Seniors need comprehensive screening procedures to check medications and health history. They should also aim to not have them admitted into the hospital if it can be helped. This is because it can be hard for seniors to go back to their original state after being hospitalized.

“We want to look at all their needs and problems, including medical and social problems. We need to be aware of their risk of falls, unexpected complications from patients taking multiple medications, cognitions and mental status, among other things. Is the person getting the food they need? Is their home safe from basic fall hazards?”—Sia Agha, chief medical officer at the West Health Institute in San Diego

This also means keeping this in mind when seniors show up with an acute chronic problem that has them coming back to the emergency room. That way they don’t have to come back over and over again.

New Accreditation Program

 

The American College of Emergency Physicians created an accreditation program to encourage emergency departments to have better approaches for senior patients.

These accreditations have certain requirements like having both doctors and nurses with specialized geriatric training. There’s also environmental criteria like having mobility aids and easy access to water.

So far only 22 hospital ERs have been accredited. But, the people who run the program guess that around 5,000 ERs will apply and get certification.

Read more here.

New Migraine Treatment for Seniors

Date: January 20, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
New Migraine Treatment for Seniors

Migraines are rough. They can derail your whole day. There’s not much you can do other than sleep or stay in the dark. While how often seniors gets migraines decreases as they age, they still can get them. So, it’s good news that there’s a new migraine treatment for seniors.

New Migraine Treatment for Seniors

New Migraine Treatment for Seniors

 

A new report talks about different medications and how they can help seniors. The report also emphasized that each treatment should be tailored for the individual.

Some of the medications used to help with migraines were not necessarily prescribed before to treat migraines. Although these drugs have been on the market it for a while, they are getting a new use as migraine treatments. Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), B-blockers, anticonvulsants, and calcium channel blockers get recommended the most. This is based on the strength of scientific evidence and effectiveness of these medications.

For acute treatments for attacks, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), paraetamol, ergotamine, triptans, and antiemetics are suggested.

Though all these drugs being available can increase the risk of underestimated drug-drug interactions (DDIs). They also pointed out the clinical effects of drug hypersensitivity through the increased risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Both can make a senior sick.

The risks have to be balanced with pre-existing illnesses. Every drug should start at a low dose until you see how a senior interacts with the drug.

Overall, more work needs to be done to know how seniors interact with drugs as they age. More studies need to be done.

Read more here.

4 Ways to Strengthen Your Core

Date: January 20, 2019
Author: Erynn
Categories: Stories & Tips
4 Ways to Strengthen Your Core

Back pain stinks. If you have some, you aren’t alone. Around 60% to 70% percent of people have it. Most people have it for one reason or another. It could be due to bones, muscles, or something else. Focusing on exercises that strengthen your core can really help with your back pain.

4 Ways to Strengthen Your Core

4 Ways to Strengthen Your Core

 

People always say that core strengthening exercises are sit ups. That’s just not the case. Sit ups can actually be the worse kind of exercise for people with back pain. Instead, you should try these.

1. Pelvic Tilt with Bracing

This exercise uses the deep core muscles in your pelvic floor and abdomen. It also moves your lumber spine through its natural range of motion.

You lie on a mat with your knees comfortably bent and feet flat on the floor. Put 2 fingertips at the top of your pelvic bones. This helps you pay attention to how your pelvis moves during the exercise.

Take a breath and breathe out hard. As you do, contract your pelvic floor and tighten the inner wall of your abdomen, like bracing for a punch. If you aren’t sure how to contract your pelvic floor, make the motion you do when you try to hold in urine.

Take a second to feel all these muscles. This is your deep core.

Take a breath and on the exhale, move the front of your pelvis towards your ribcage. Flatten your lower back a bit as you do this. On the next inhale, move your pelvis away from your ribcage. Create space between the floor and your back.

Do 5 to 10 repetitions and make sure to pay attention to your core muscles.

2. Swimmers

Working one side of the body and then the other helps strengthen the muscles near your spine. It does this without too much stress on the lumbar vertebrae.

You don’t have to go swimming to take advantage of the motions.

Lie on your stomach with your arms above your head. Keeping a neutral spine, raise your right arm and left leg a few inches at the same time. Then lower it and do the same with the other limbs. Think of how swimmers look while in the pool.

As you do this, try to make your spine longer as you reach forward with your arm and backwards with your leg. Do not rotate your hips and keep your toes pointed to the floor.

Do 20 reps, 10 on each side.

3. Bird Dog

This is similar to Swimmers but has more movement. Kneel on a mat on all fours, make sure your spine is in its neutral S curve. With this exercise, you work your deep core muscles like with the Pelvic Tilts. Slowly reach forward with your right arm and stretch your left leg out behind you. Slowly return them to the mat and repeat the process on the other side.

A special positive of this exercise is that it helps strengthen the muscles that help you balance.

Do 20 reps, 10 on each side.

4. Marching Bridge

This focuses more on the muscles in the buttocks. These are usually lax and weak from sitting all the time.

Lie on your back with knees bent 90 degrees and feet flat on the floor. Work the deep muscles in your core and move into the bridge position by lifting your butt off the floor. Make sure you keep the natural curve of your spine. Your butt muscles should be working to keep your body in a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.

Lift your left foot off the ground and straighten your left leg. Make a line all the way through your left heel. Bring in it back and then do it on the other side. Your hips need to stay square and not rotate.

Do 20 to 30 reps.

Read more here.