all that's changed

Having spent two weeks now working with the elderly, I have a few early New Year's Resolutions to pass along.

These all go directly -- I said directly -- to staving off Alzheimer's, dementia and stroke.

1. Keep your head active, throughout your life. Don't just do the same-old. Master new skills, learn new things and burn new neural pathways to keep your brain limber. Examples I've heard from friends recently - take up crossword puzzles, figure out new software, start a new craft, learn to dance a new step. It doesn't need to be anything complicated; just new to you.

2. If you're not eating fish 4-5 times a week, take fish oil supplements, particularly Omega-Three and Omega-Six fatty acids, daily. These are micronutrients that benefit your head and your heart. Flaxseed oil and Evening Primrose oil contain these acids.

3. While you're at it, take your multivitamins and girls, your calcium, every day. If a good diet represents the bricks of nutrition, then vitamins and minerals are the mortar. You need vitamins and minerals to make good use of the food you eat.

These go directly to cardiovascular & stroke issues.

4. Exercise aerobically for your heart. Do weight-bearing exercise for your bones. Yoga or whatever for continued joint flexibility and balance. You have to do all three.

5. Don't get fat, if you can help it. If you're overweight, it's much more difficult for the staff to care for you. It takes twice the staff to transfer an overweight patient from wheelchair to bed (which represents about a 75% work slowdown, which some people are not kind about). It's hard to move and keep clean everywhere you need to keep clean.

I could walk you around a convalescent home and point out case studies. Most of us become forgetful as we age. I'd say 40-50% of the residents have dementia to the point that it's difficult/impossible to understand their basic needs. They can't communicate at all, and everything is done for them. Everything. You don't want this.

There are also cases of the "extreme elderly" - 80+ - who are absolute delights. They're totally mobile, they know what's going on, they participate in activities and run their own schedule, they assist in their own care, they're fresh as new pennies and always have a smile on their faces. More about my favorite residents to come...

Posted by em on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at 9:32 AM | Permalink