Although it may seem to be a dreary topic to consider when you are in perfectly good health, your wishes for end-of-life care are very important. In fact, it is vitally important to make your end-of-life wishes known while you are in good health so that when you are faced with an emergency, your loved…
Sedatives that many younger adults can take without any problems can pose potentially dangerous issues for seniors who react far differently to certain active ingredients in medications. However, many doctors continue to prescribe these sedatives to seniors in an effort to help them sleep at night or to calm their racing minds at bedtime. Some…
When a younger person falls, all that he or she may be left with are a few bruises and a sore posterior. However, when seniors fall, far more serious concerns arise. Seniors may be left with broken bones from any type of fall because their bones are so much more brittle. In addition, falls can…
How important is someone’s neighborhood in relation to his or her health? Some may say that only the decisions one makes about diet, exercise and lifestyle truly affect health. However, when individuals look beyond the basics of their health, they may be surprised by what they find. A recent study in the Journal of the…
Polypharmacy is defined as the use of multiple medications at the same time by one individual. Because your health tends to deteriorate as you get older, this condition is most likely to happen to senior citizens. Therefore, if your doctor has placed you on more than one prescription, if you have prescriptions with more than…
Many seniors find themselves with failing appetites as they age. This may be caused by numerous factors, such as declining metabolism, poor sense of taste, disease and even medications. Although this change in appetite may not be completely unexpected, it can be an unwelcome part of aging because proper nutrition is vital to a healthy…
Those seniors who find it difficult to get around on their own may rely on powered or manual wheelchairs for their mobility. These chairs can open up many doors for seniors as they want to remain active in life, and they can significantly improve one’s quality of life. However, because many operate on wheels and…
While advance care plans may not be something that most people want to think about, they can provide peace of mind that you will be cared for according to your wishes when the time comes. This can help you feel less anxious and can help clear up a myriad of questions for your family members…
Insomnia can be described in two common ways, which include difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night and difficulty staying asleep. This problem affects people in higher proportions as they age. Once adults reach their senior years, they are even more apt to struggle with this problem, and around half of all seniors…
Despite its name, a stress test does not test one’s mental stress level. Rather, this test is used to check the level of health of the heart muscle. Specifically, it looks at how well the heart functions under stress. To do this, the heart must first be placed in a stressful situation. This is usually…