BY STEPHANIE TRELOGAN OF CARING.COM
Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States. For people over 65 years of age, the risk is even greater: eight out of ten people who die of heart disease are 65 or older. Although these statistics sound dire, take heart: With these strategies, you can help your parents reduce their risk — and reduce your own at the same time.
Know the early warning signs and seek treatment right away
Some typical symptoms of a heart attack include:
- Chest pain (angina)
- Shortness of breath
- Palpitations (skipped beats or a racing or pounding heart)
- Leg swelling
- Bluish skin color (cyanosis)
- A prolonged, unexplained cough
- Coughing up blood
- Persistent fatigue or feeling unwell
- Passing out
But sometimes the symptoms aren’t so obvious. The pain of a heart attack may feel like really bad heartburn or even the flu. And the symptoms of a second heart attack may not be the same as those for the first. If your parent has already had a …
Continue reading AGING & CARING: 10 ways to help your parents prevent a heart attack »
Many family caregivers don’t realize that some of the most stressful challenges of Parkinson’s can come from changes in a patient’s mood, thinking, and behavior. For instance, depression, dementia, and drug-induced psychosis are potentially crippling conditions that often accompany Parkinson’s. Yet doctors and researchers haven’t paid much attention to such troubles.
Clock: Keep a large-faced, easy-to-read clock in plain view in every room the person frequents. Ideal is a digital clock that displays the day and date along with the time. You may also want to use written reminders (”I’ll be right back at 2
Exercise benefits your head as much as the rest of your body, a growing number of studies indicate. Overall cardiorespiratory fitness also lowers the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems — all known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. …
1. Preserved and smoked meats. Slap your hand away when it reaches to make a ham sandwich as an evening snack. Ham, bacon, sausages, and smoked meats contain high levels of the amino acid tyramine, which triggers the brain to release norepinephrine, a brain stimulant that makes us feel alert and wired.
For practical and emotional reasons, then, giving up driving is a transition that everyone involved wishes to put off as long as possible. It’s no wonder that many adult children and spouses say that taking away the car keys was among the hardest things they ever had to do.
Anyone can create a will with an inexpensive software package or, if there are significant assets or a complicated plan for dividing your property, you can pay an attorney several thousand dollars to draft one a will. In either case, it’s money well spent.
Still, many have pointed to a few common factors that can help a death seem good — and even inspiring — as opposed to frightening, sad, or tortuous. By most standards, a good death is one in which a person dies on his own terms, relatively free from pain, in a supported and dignified setting. Other things to consider:
