Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

9 Types of Issues to Address When Helping Older Parents

Aging Parents To Do List Most older adults don’t need much help from others.

In fact, many of them are quite busy assisting others and otherwise contributing to their families, communities, and/or workplaces.

But of course, many older people eventually do need some help from others, especially if they live into their 80s, 90s, or beyond. After all, only a minority of people transition from being fully independent to deceased, with no intervening period of needing assistance.

When an older person does start to need help, it tends to be close family members — assuming the person has family — that step in: spouses, adult children, siblings, nephews or nieces, grandchildren, and so forth. In fact, family members are by far the number one source of “long-term care supports and services” for older adults.

Sometimes providing this support can be fairly straightforward: a little help with transportation, or arranging for some assistance with shopping or household chores.

But in other cases, family members find themselves having to take on quite a lot. This is often due to health issues affecting the older person’s ability to remain independent and manage various aspects of life.

Some situations that commonly bring this on include: [Read more…]

Top 10 Checklist for Better Health & Aging in 2019

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 31 Comments

Do you find yourself taking stock and setting goals around the time of New Year’s?

It is indeed a great time to look back and see all that’s happened — especially the good stuff — since the previous New Year.

And although one can set goals at any time of year, the start of the calendar year is a time that seems to inspire many people to think about their health and how to thrive over the coming year.

If better health while aging is important to you, here are my top ten suggestions for the coming year. [Read more…]

13 Recommended Resources for National Family Caregivers Month

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 7 Comments

This month — November — is National Family Caregivers Month.

If you’ve been in any way assisting another adult with managing health concerns or life tasks, you qualify as one of the estimated 40 million family caregivers in the US.

Such help often starts out with small things, such as helping an older relative get to appointments or assisting with grocery shopping.

But it’s also fairly common for families to end up providing quite a lot of care. A 2015 report found that on average, family caregivers provided 24.4 hours of assistance per week, and 23% of caregivers were clocking 41 hours or more.

Many people find themselves eventually struggling with the caregiving. Most of us haven’t prepared or been trained to do this, and many people are unsure of where to get information, help, or support.

So in this article, I’ll share some of my favorite resources to make family caregiving a little easier. [Read more…]

Flu Shots for Older Adults: What to Know & Do for 2018-2019

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 65 Comments

It’s October, which means it’s that time of the year again: flu vaccination time!

Back when I worked in a primary care clinic, this is when we made a big push to offer the seasonal flu shot to all of our patients. (And we got ourselves immunized, as well.)

Not all of our patients agreed. Many older adults are skeptical of the need to get a yearly vaccination against influenza. They aren’t sure it will help. Or they think that the vaccination will actually give them a mild case of the flu. Or they just don’t like needles.

Or maybe they aren’t sure which type of seasonal flu shot to get: the regular one or one of the newer “stronger” versions, designed for older adults?

I’m never surprised when people bring up these questions. Vaccination for seasonal influenza can indeed be a confusing topic.

But it’s certainly important to consider. Depending on the year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that every year, influenza affects 9-60 million Americans, causes 140,000-710,100 hospitalizations, and results in 12,000-56,000 deaths.

Influenza is more severe in some years than others. In fact, the CDC recently announced that the 2017-2018 season was particularly severe, with an estimated 80,000 deaths related to the flu.

Now, most people get better without needing hospitalization, but some people get very sick. Older adults are especially likely to get dangerously ill from catching the flu.

So I agree with the CDC’s recommendation: everyone over the age of 6 months should get their seasonal flu shot.

In fact, I’m about to go get mine. As a healthy woman in her 40s, I’m not that concerned about getting dangerously ill from influenza. Instead, I get my annual flu shot because I want to minimize my chance of getting sick and perhaps exposing my older patients to influenza.

This month, you’ll probably be encouraged to get vaccinated too. So in this article, I’ll address some key things to know about influenza and the flu shot, along with some common questions and concerns. Here’s what I’ll cover:

The basics of influenza and vaccination against the flu
What to know about flu shots for older adults
What’s new and resources for the 2018-2019 flu season
Which influenza vaccination is probably best for most older adults
What to do if your older parent or relative is unwilling or unable to get vaccinated

[Read more…]

How to Prevent Falls: 4 Proven Approaches To Ask Your Doctor About

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 15 Comments

elderly woman falling Worried about falls in an older parent or relative? If so, do you know if their doctor has considered the most useful prevention approaches?

Fall risk can be reduced, but it generally takes some thought and effort. That’s in part because most older adults have multiple factors making them vulnerable to falls.

In a related article on this site, I’ve explained that best fall prevention plans involve identifying an older person’s particular risks — especially risks related to health conditions — and trying to counter those.

So for instance, if an older person has diabetes and is having frequent moments of low blood sugar (also known as hypoglycemia), then to reduce falls, addressing the hypoglycemia is as important, if not more, as starting an exercise program.

In other words, I always recommend that aging adults and families learn to tailor their fall prevention plans. You want to focus on what are the most important modifiable risk factors for that individual person.

That said, over the years I’ve noticed that there are four approaches that I find myself using over and over again, in almost all my patients who have had repeated falls.

These four approaches are used often by geriatricians, but much less often by busy primary care doctors. Unless, that is, a proactive family asks about them.

My Four Most-Used Fall Prevention Approaches

[Read more…]

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My Four Most-Used Fall Prevention Approaches

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