In the old days, seniors who were suffering from arthritis were advised to take it easy. Sit down most of the day so as not to stress your joints, well-meaning doctors would say. Sit in a rocking chair for easy, soothing motion, at the most. Rest your joints. If it hurts, don’t do it. We know now that this was…
Are your elderly parents getting the sleep they need? Have you ever tried to fall asleep but just couldn’t? Or have you fallen asleep just to wake up in the middle of the night and then you can’t fall asleep until just before the alarm goes off? Are you staying awake to care for elderly parents? Sleep is such an…
Is bed rest injuring patients after discharge? Bed Rest serves as a time honored treatment for both injury and illness, and is prescribed more often around flu season. A normal muscle, at complete rest, in absence of illness, loses up to 15% of its strength each week. During bed rest, the first muscles to become atrophied are the trunk and…
As a certified physical therapist, my staff and I understand the importance of staying active as we age, so our health aides encourage our clients to increase their activity during the day. This becomes all the more important when you realize that adults 60 and over, spend an average of two-thirds of their waking time being sedentary — roughly nine hours…
Quoting from a study by the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, HealthDay News reports that being physically fit can help prevent heart attacks and increase survival in people with stable coronary artery disease. This was true whether or not the patients underwent a procedure to open blocked heart arteries. Researchers analyzed data from more than…
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,…
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…
