Aging health Archives - Better Health While Aging

4 Key Things to Know About Age-Related Hearing Loss

Have you noticed that an older relative seems to be having trouble hearing you at times?

Or perhaps you’ve realized that sometimes YOU are the one saying “What?”

These situations are extremely common. Sometimes the issue is that one is trying to communicate in a noisy place and there is no need for concern.

But in many cases, these kinds of issues can indicate that an older person (or even a middle-aged person) is being affected by progressively worsening hearing loss.

You probably already know this: chronic hearing impairment becomes very common as one gets older. The National Institute on Aging reports that one in three adults aged 65-74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those aged 75+ have difficulty with hearing.

Hearing loss also affects a significant number of people earlier in life. A 2011 study on the epidemiology of hearing loss documented hearing loss in 11% of participants aged 45-54, and 25% of those aged 55-64.

In short, research confirms that quite a lot of people experience hearing loss. But sadly, research also confirms that hearing loss is often under-recognized and inadequately addressed.

This is a major public health issue, for older adults and also for the many middle-aged adults experiencing hearing loss. At this point, we know quite a lot about: [Read more…]

Q&A: How to Prevent, Detect, & Treat Dehydration in Aging Adults

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 37 Comments

Q: How can we get my older mother to drink more water? She is susceptible to urinary tract infections and seems to be often dehydrated no matter what we do. We were also wondering if coffee and tea are okay, or should they be avoided to reduce dehydration?

A: Dehydration is indeed an important problem for older adults. It can be common even when it’s not hot outside.

Helping an older person increase her fluid intake, as you’re trying to do, is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of dehydration.

Now how to actually do this? Studies — and practical experience — suggest that the best approaches include: [Read more…]

5 Top Causes of Sleep Problems in Aging, & Proven Ways to Treat Insomnia

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 92 Comments

What should you do if an older person complains of not sleeping well at night?

Experts do believe that “normal aging” brings on some changes to sleep. (See my previous post for more on this.) Basically, older adults tend to get sleepy earlier in the evening, and tend to sleep less deeply than when they were younger.

So it’s probably not realistic to expect that as you get older, you’ll sleep as long or as soundly as when you were younger.

That said, although aging by itself does change sleep, it’s also quite common for older adults to develop health problems that can cause sleep disturbances. So when your older relatives say they aren’t sleeping well, you’ll want to help them check for these. Figuring out what’s going on is always the first step in being able to improve things.

And remember, getting enough good quality sleep helps maintain brain health, physical health, and mood.

Recently, I did a little research to identify the top causes of sleep problems in older adults. In this article, I’ll share what I found out. I’ll also tell you about what approaches have been proven to work, to help treat insomnia and sleep problems in older adults.

Last but not least, if you (or your older relative) have experienced the very common combination of waking up to pee at night and difficulty sleeping, I highly recommend listening to this podcast episode, which features a geriatrician who is an expert on this: 092- Interview: Addressing Nighttime Urination & Insomnia in Aging.

5 Common Causes of Sleep Problems in Older Adults

[Read more…]

5 Questions to Ask Yourself on National Healthcare Decisions Day

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 10 Comments

Since 2008, April 16th has been designated as “National Healthcare Decisions Day” (NHDD).

It’s an initiative meant to “inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning.”

In other words, National Healthcare Decisions Day is meant to get you to plan for your future…a future time during which you might be ill and others — most likely your family — will have to make decisions about your healthcare.

This is not a particularly unlikely scenario. Between the present-at-all-ages possibility of being in a bad accident and the increased likelihood of illness as one ages, you’d actually have to be quite lucky — or unlucky, depending on how you see it — to reach the end of your life without anyone else ever having to make a medical decision on your behalf.

Still, studies and surveys generally find that many of us have not taken the needed steps to “make our wishes known.”

And even among those who have “made their wishes known,” there’s usually more to it than they realize, and they often have skipped an important piece of the process. [Read more…]

Medications Older Adults Should Avoid or Use with Caution:
The American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria (2019 Update)

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 21 Comments

Today we’re covering a touchstone resource for geriatricians: the “Beers List” of medications that older adults should avoid or use with caution.

(Technically, it’s called “The AGS Beers Criteria® for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults.” I personally think of it as the list of “risky medications” for older adults.)

If you want to know which medications older adults, in particular, should be careful with, this is the list!

Now, I have good news and bad news about the Beers criteria.

The good news is that they were just updated and revised, so the Beers Criteria published in January 2019 is about as up-to-date as you can get for this type of guideline document. (Yay!)

The bad news is that this year, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS), which has historically made the list freely available to the public on HealthinAging.org, has not released the updated information for free on its page about the Beers Criteria. (Bummer!)

Instead, they’ve posted a notice that “To access the complete AGS Beers Criteria^® and its related resources, please visit GeriatricsCareOnline.org.” From there, the article is available for purchase.

(My suggestion for those who really want the list: consider getting the handy 2019 AGS Beers Criteria® Pocketcard, which is $9.99. Or, ask your health provider to print it for you.)

I think it’s really too bad that it’s become harder for regular people to access this wonderful resource, but oh well.

Whether or not you obtain access to the full 2019 Beers Criteria, I still think it’s important for older adults and families to at least be aware that this resource exists, and to understand how it can help make the medical care of older adults safer.

You absolutely should know that experts in geriatrics and in medication safety go through a very careful process of reviewing the research on medications, and of updating this list of medications that older adults should avoid or use with caution.

So in this article, here’s what I’ll be sharing with you: [Read more…]

5 Common Causes of Sleep Problems in Older Adults

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