As you age the threat and worry of attaining a health problem increases. The constant thought of impending illness on people’s minds is far from healthy. Thankfully, with increased technology and intelligence in the medical industry there are more ways to combat and prevent these diseases creating fatal damage.
This is especially true with the elderly. As our population continues to enjoy a longer and higher quality life there is more knowledge and ways to prevent or treat the common illnesses and diseases.
The most widespread and threatening conditions affecting the over 65s is coronary heart disease, followed by stroke, cancer, pneumonia and the flu. These are especially more damaging in elder people because the body becomes less willing to fight of the root of the infection.
There are also common longer term diseases that can take its toll on the whole family. Parkinson’s disease affects 127,000 people in the UK alone. With Alzheimer’s, a branch of Parkinson’s, taking up a large percentage of this.
Dementia is another long term disease that is affecting millions of people and unfortunately there is no cure.
There are also many ailments which are not life threatening but provide much disruption such as arthritis, eye problems and depression that can disrupt many lives.
Living in fear of illness is not something that should be at the forefront of your mind as you enjoy retirement. There are ways to help prevent all these common diseases in the elderly and, thanks to modern technology and research, if you have the disease there is also ways to help make it an easier task to deal with.
Through eating healthily with plenty of vitamin C, D and calcium it helps keep your bones strong. By eating plenty of whole foods such as beans, green vegetables and leaves and nuts, while cutting out the processed foods, the body begins to respond much better with cleaner blood cells and oxygen.
Keeping active both physically and mentally help build a much stronger body and can stop depression, arthritis and combined with healthy nutrition many other ailments such as Parkinson’s and the risk of strokes diminish.
As well as prevention if you happen to have a disease that has, unfortunately, restricted your lifestyle there are ways to combat that and make sure there is some form of ease of living and independence. By modifying your home it is possible way to treat this. It is quite easy for an elderly person when battling a disease to become depressed as they lost their independence. Installing improvements in the home, especially in the bathroom, like a Premier Care in Bathing walk in bath can help with the very personal topic of hygiene. While it may be too late to prevent the common diseases that an elderly person might receive there are ways to help keep them feeling positive about their condition. By being able to offer them a way to remain independent for as long as possible it breeds a positive alternative for the person in need.
Health risks are common at all stages of life but with a little help or change in lifestyle choices these can be prevented even at a later stage in life.
Image Credit: SalFalko
