Free and Unbiased Information Blog Focused on Helping The Aging

If you are caring for an elderly loved one, one thing you should focus on is their weight. You want to make sure they aren’t overweight. If they are, they could start experiencing a wide range of health issues including heart problems, anxiety, depression, and more. One of the first things you should do in this regard is to know more about why many senior citizens gain weight. Figuring out these reasons can help you to prevent them from gaining so much weight. Losing Muscle Mass One of the main reasons that senior citizens lose weight It’s because they lose muscle mass. While muscle does weigh more than fat does, it also will burn 3 times as many calories as the fat on the body will. This means when someone loses muscle mass their body isn’t able to burn off as many calories. Every decade people lose more and more muscle mass. There isn’t much that can be done about this, except for making sure your elderly loved one is exercising and staying as fit as possible. Continuing regular...

When your body senses danger, your brain sends signals directing your muscles to tighten and your adrenal glands to release stress hormones. Stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, force your breath to quicken, blood pressure to rise, and senses to sharpen. These physiological changes speed up your reaction time, increase your strength, improve your stamina, and enhance your focus. This reaction is referred to as the stress response, and it’s entirely normal and necessary for survival. Once your brain accepts you are not in danger, your body returns to its normal pre-stressed state. Chronic stress, on the other hand, is harmful to your health and can be particularly hazardous for older adults. Here is what you need to know about stress in older adults. The Effects of Stress On Older Adults Although it’s difficult to determine the extent to which chronic stress affects the health of older adults, there is undoubtedly a correlation. Here are the few ways seniors are ...

While you may consider your bathroom to be a safe place where you are able to relax and slow down with a soothing bath or invigorating shower at the end of an extended day, for senior loved ones, the bathroom is undoubtedly probably the most dangerous room in the home. With slippery floors which are even slipperier when damp, closed-in spaces, and hard, unforgiving surfaces, falls are alarmingly common, and sometimes lead to severe injury. At Enhanced Home Care, we’re always prepared to perform an assessment of the house and recommend safety modifications in the bathroom to lessen the risk of falls. And because January is National Bath Safety Month, it is the best time to share some actions you can take right now to help keep your loved ones safe throughout each part of the bathroom: On the Floor When you initially step into the bathroom, look over bathmats and any other rugs to be certain they’re firmly secured to the floor and free of loose edges to cause tripping hazards. Make...

Enjoying a long and healthy retirement requires taking good care of yourself. While many people focus on living a heart-smart lifestyle, taking proactive steps to maintain healthy lungs is essential, too. As we age, the lungs become weaker and less flexible. This can contribute to a variety of diseases and chronic health conditions. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , lung-related illnesses are the 3rd leading cause of death in this country. That includes lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and asthma—adding up to nearly 235,000 deaths a year. Here are a few tips you can use to keep your lungs healthy: Stop smoking. Talk with your primary care physician about smoking cessation programs. Avoid secondhand smoke. Research shows it can be just as deadly as being a smoker. Stay away from harsh chemicals. It’s important to avoid breathing in damaging fumes (e.g., home cleaners and weed killers). Prevent infections. Many infections can lead to ...

Dementia affects older adults in many ways. One thing it can cause is a lack of judgement. Seniors with dementia might mistake dangerous items for food, misuse appliances, or harm themselves with certain objects. Keeping a senior with dementia safe in their home requires some planning and making adjustments. It can be difficult to determine what items might be dangerous for someone with dementia. Below are 5 things to keep away from your aging relative with dementia to help keep them safe. 1: Weapons Dementia destroys the memory of older adults, making them sometimes forget who the people around them are. It can also make them feel confused and fearful. As a result, an older adult with dementia might mistake someone they know for an intruder. Having a weapon in the house where the senior has access to it can put family caregivers and others at risk. If there are weapons in the home, keep them in a locked cabinet. You may also want to put sharp knives out of reach, too, including t...

Another year has come and gone. The year 2019 was a great one for many, and we, at Freedom Home Care, have a lot to be thankful for. Because of this, we are going to take a look back at 2019 and talk about some of the great events we hosted last year. Events Hosted by Freedom Home Care in 2019 There were a lot of great events that happened at Freedom Home Care in 2019. Check out some of our favorites below. Nurses and Purses – In May, during Nurse Appreciation Week, Freedom Home Care had a Nurses and Purses event. This event was for RNs, LPNs, and CNAs. This event gave out some delicious food and drinks, as well as some beautiful purses. Every nurse that showed up got a purse, and five lucky winners got a big purse from the raffle. It was a great way for us to appreciate all the great work that nurses do! Food for Thought – At the end of May, Greg Borzo gave us a presentation during one of our Lunch and Lecture even...

Starting a conversation about long-term care with your aging loved one can be uncomfortable. As a result, you may be tempted to put it off until tomorrow. But far too often,  tomorrow  never comes and before you know it – it’s too late. But given that at least 70 percent of people over 65 years old will require some form of assistance in their lifetime, a conversation about long-term care is one we should all be having. That being said, here are 5 tips to help you initiate, approach, and end a productive conversation about long-term care with your aging loved one. 1. Do your homework. Before you attempt to talk to your loved one about long-term care, make sure you do your homework. Identify all of your concerns and write them down. Doing so will give you a reference point for the other half of your homework assignment: educate yourself . Educating yourself includes exploring the different solutions for each of the concerns you wrote down. ...

  Are you looking to improve your health and happiness for 2020? Well, you can in so many ways, one simple and fun way to do so is with houseplants. You can add more indoor plants to your home and it can benefit your health. Learn more about this below. • Boost Mood – Humans have a connection to nature and nature calms us, so bringing plants indoors can help boost a person’s mood. Plants indoors also help increase oxygen levels, regulate humidity, and make people feel calmer. All of this can lead to a heightened mood. • Reduce Stress – Studies have shown that people being around nature and the natural world reduces stress and helps them feel calmer. That means bringing plants indoors can have a similar effect on people. Having more houseplants can help you reduce the stress you experience. • Improve Focus and Concentration – Above, we talked about how plants boost mood and can reduce stress. With reduced stress and a boosted mood, your focus can be improved. Having plants ar...

You may have seen Freedom Home Care services advertised in the Chicago area. Freedom Home Care Highland Park provides many different in-home senior care services to give those that you love a little bit of extra help. However, you might not know that Freedom Home Care also has medical staffing services . Learn more about these medical staffing services below. Medical Staffing Services The medical staffing service at Freedom Home Care is separate from their other senior-care services. This medical staffing service is to help your hospital or doctor’s office get some extra medical staff if you happen to have a shortage. Currently, there is a general shortage of medical staff like RNs, LPNs, and more. We work to help bridge that gap by providing you with some medical personnel when you have a shortage. We have medical staff that can temporarily replace your employees when they are on temporary leave, vacation, or if you are in the process of trying to hire more people. Whatever the s...

Many people choose to make a New Year’s resolution every year, but they often struggle to see those resolutions through. That is why we have come up with some realistic New Year’s resolutions for seniors so that they can set resolutions that are attainable. • Update Your Legal Documents – Updating wills, power of attorney documents and prenups is something that people often put off. You don’t need them until you need them, and you may not know when that is going to be, so it is easy to put off. It would be a great New Year’s resolution to update them so they are ready when you need them. • Eat Healthy and Exercise – Healthy eating and exercise can also be a great New Year’s resolution. Many people fail at these types of resolutions because they push themselves too hard or set unrealistic goals. Instead, try incorporating some more healthy habits you enjoy like taking a walk with a friend or making a healthy meal for your family when they come for a visit. • Clean Out Your Attic or...

The exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) increases significantly during the winter months. CO is a harmful, colourless, and odourless gas, which gets emitted from heating systems that run-in house during the winter months. This gas gets emanated from an array of things around us including gas stoves, cooking ranges, water heaters, space heaters, automobiles, charcoal grills, furnaces and other heating systems. CO from these fumes gets build-up in the house if there is no adequate flow of fresh air. Once there is a high concentration of CO, it can even cause death within a few minutes. Older adults with health conditions like breathing difficulties, heart concerns and anaemia are more prone to falling ill when exposed to CO. Moreover, the symptoms of CO exposure are similar to other illnesses like flu and food poisoning. Common Symptoms of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Once there is CO build-up in the room, the body starts replacing oxygen in red blood cells with CO leading to unconsciousne...

Growing older is not easy. After sixty years or so on Earth, our bodies can begin to struggle. One challenge common to the elderly is hearing loss. Hearing loss can be scary since we take in so much of the world with our ears. Having a conversation and listening to another person is one of the main ways we communicate with the world around us. But it isn’t just conversations with friends and family that are affected by hearing loss. Listening to music may be a relaxing pastime that is no longer enjoyable. Watching a favorite show on TV may become difficult. Luckily, there is hope! Hearing loss can be prevented, and while it can’t be cured, there are many ways to assist someone suffering from hearing loss. Hearing Problems in Elderly Adults Hearing loss in the elderly is not as straightforward as it sounds. It tends to happen gradually , so older adults do not always know it is happening at first. They may not realize they are not hearing as many environmental sounds as they are used...

Eating a well-balanced diet is essential for older adults. It can keep them energised and help in maintaining their healthy weight by giving all the nutrients. It also lowers the risk of developing chronic health conditions. Malnutrition, on the other hand, increases the risk of being overweight or underweight, weakening of bones and muscles and makes the elderly more vulnerable to diseases. To meet the nutritional needs, you need to plan your older adults’ diet in a way that they eat foods rich in fibre, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. However, there are various factors that impact your elderly’s diet like loss of appetite, difficulty in chewing or chronic health conditions, which make it difficult for the elderly to eat all types of food. So, before you try to improve your older adult’s nutrition, it is essential to understand the common problems impacting their diet. Factors Contributing to Malnutrition in the Elderly Some of the common factors that cause malnutrition inc...

Do you know…almost half of all older adults are chronically under-hydrated, as reported by a new scientific study conducted at UCLA ? Not just that, but elderly adults over age 65 represent the highest category of hospital admissions as a result of dehydration. Dehydration can easily sneak up on older adults, who usually have a reduced sensation of thirst, who can experience medication side effects that cause hydration problems, or who incorrectly think that drinking less will lessen incontinence issues. Senior dehydration can be extremely harmful, raising the risk for health concerns including: UTIs Kidney stones and/or failure Blood clots Seizures Hypovolemic shock And numerous others Dehydration is generally detected according to the following symptoms: Early stages: Reduced amount/darker-colored urine Dry mouth Feelings of weakness, dizziness, and/or exhaustion Muscle cramps Irritability Advanced stages: Confusion and disorientation, such as difficulty with wa...

Diabetes can cause a whole lot of health problems in those who have it. While there are two main types of diabetes, today you will learn more about the risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. Knowing more about these risk factors can help you to prevent your elderly loved one from getting it. Weight One of the main risk factors for Type 2 diabetes is weight. When someone is overweight or obese, they are much more likely to get this type of diabetes. The excess fat creates cells that are resistant to proper insulin use. Due to this, medical insulin is often needed to keep the body stable. If your loved one is overweight or obese, work with them to lose weight. You or their senior care providers can go on regular walks with them to help them lose weight. Family History Family history is another one of the risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. If a sibling or a parent of your elderly loved one has this type of diabetes, then it is more likely they will, as well. There isn’t much that can be ...

Finding out your loved one has Alzheimer’s disease can be devastating. From the moment you learn about their diagnosis, your resilience is challenged. As you are forced to accept the new trajectory of your relationship and you are often overcome with a slew of unfavorable emotions – one of them being grief. You might be asking yourself, “ how can I grieve a person who is still alive?”   As it turns out, you can – it’s called an ambiguous loss. What Is An Ambiguous Loss? “Ambiguous loss” is a term used to describe losses that are related to presence and absence. There are two main types: a physical loss with the psychological presence (i.e. child abduction, adoption, etc.); or a physical presence with a psychological absence (i.e. terminal illness, cognitive deterioration). An Alzheimer’s diagnosis can trigger the latter.   [Tweet “Ambiguous loss is a term used to describe losses that are related to presence and absence”] When your loved one is first diagnosed ...

Looking after a person you love with dementia is obviously nothing to laugh about. Nonetheless, research is frequently pointing to the benefits associated with humor, and adding it into dementia care could possibly be just what the doctor ordered to improve quality of life for your loved one. As an example, an Australian research study just recently revealed that humor therapy is effective in reducing agitation in those diagnosed with dementia as thoroughly as antipsychotic medications, without any negative effects. Shared laughter connects us, and helps individuals diagnosed with cognitive difficulties to feel understood, secure, and at ease. As stated by Lori La Bey, founder of Alzheimer’s Speaks, “When anyone is sick or having a hard time, they still like to laugh. I spend a lot of time teaching people that feelings don’t go away, and it’s okay to get back to that zone.” Laughter also releases endorphins, which inhibit stress hormones, and may even improve blood pressure levels a...

Caring for someone who has Alzheimer’s disease can be tough. They experience all sorts of issues including sleeping issues. Many people who have this disease have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. There are many reasons for this that you and their caregivers should be aware of. Trouble Sleeping Your elderly loved one might have trouble sleeping. If you have noticed they have had changes in the way that they fall asleep or stay asleep, it is time to find out what the issue might be. The first thing to note is that this disease, alone, can cause people to have trouble sleeping. There is something in their brain that causes sleep disruptions. It could be they are feeling restless or anxious before going to bed. Whatever the issue might be, these troubles sleeping should be addressed. You should pay attention to how your loved one is behaving. Pay attention to how they are acting before bedtime. If they seem anxious about something, find a solution for their anxiety. You should ...