The Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog

Learn practical ways to improve the health and wellbeing of older adults!

Written especially for family caregivers of older adults, but useful for all who want to learn how geriatricians help aging adults.

Top 10 Checklist for Better Health & Aging in 2021

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 39 Comments

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

It is indeed an excellent time to reflect on the past year. (And wow, quite a lot to reflect on for 2020!)

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…]

COVID Vaccination for Aging Adults:
What to Know & Do

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 16 Comments

At last, at last. After an excruciating year of coronavirus pandemic, an amazing milestone has been reached: COVID vaccination has begun!

On December 11, 2020, the FDA granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. So now, it’s possible to vaccinate people who are not part of a trial studying the new vaccine. (Moderna’s vaccine is expected to get its EUA very soon, as well.)

Of course, it doesn’t mean that everything will be back to normal within the next few weeks. But vaccination is what will enable us to eventually pull out of the danger and disruption the pandemic is causing.

Although it’s exciting to see COVID vaccination start to take place in the U.S., it also raises a lot of questions for people.

In this article, I’ll summarize what I think is most important for older adults and families to know about coronavirus vaccination.

In particular, I want to address the question of efficacy (does it work?) and safety (is it dangerous?), specifically for older adults.

So I’ve recorded a short video presentation about how I assess whether the COVID vaccine (or other treatment) is effective in older adults, especially those over age 85 and those in nursing homes. I also have summarized some key vaccine information below.

In this video, I review the data for Pfizer’s vaccine, and I show you how you can assess the data on older adults when the data for upcoming vaccines is released. [Read more…]

Cognitive Impairment in Aging: 10 Common Causes & 10 Things the Doctor Should Check

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 72 Comments

Have you been worried about an older person’s memory or thinking abilities?

Maybe your parent has seemed more confused recently. Or you may have noticed that your aging spouse is repeating herself, or struggling to do things that didn’t use to pose much of a problem.

These are very common concerns, and they often lead to questions such as:

Is this normal aging or something more significant?
What is wrong?
Could this be Alzheimer’s? Or some other form of dementia?
Can this be treated or reversed?
What should we do about this??

The answer to the last question is this: if you are worried about memory or thinking, then you should seek out some kind of medical evaluation.

That’s because when families worry about an older person’s cognitive abilities, there often are some underlying health issues affecting the mind’s function.

Those need to be detected, and treated if at all possible. So, you’ll need to request help from a health professional, and in this article, I’ll explain what that initial help should consist of. This way you’ll know what to expect, and what the doctor might ask you about.

Technically, these kinds of problems are called “cognitive impairment.” This is a broad term that means some kind of problem or difficulty with one’s memory, thinking, concentration, and other functions of the conscious brain, beyond what might be expected due to normal “cognitive aging.”

(For more on “cognitive aging” and what types of changes are considered normal aging, see this article: 6 Ways that Memory & Thinking Change with Normal Aging, & What to Do About This.)

Cognitive impairment — which is also called “cognitive decline” — can come on suddenly or gradually, and can be temporary or more permanent. It may or may not keep getting slowly worse; it all depends on the underlying cause or causes.

In this article, I’ll share with you the more common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults.

I’ll then share a list of 10 things that should generally be done, during a preliminary medical evaluation for cognitive decline in an older adult.

Common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults

[Read more…]

Coronavirus Update: Important Developments & Suggestions (11.18.20 Edition)

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 6 Comments

Like many of you, I continue to follow the coronavirus situation closely, for personal and professional reasons. And of course, I’ve been quite concerned by the recently increasing COVID case numbers.

So I’ve recorded another video commentary to share with our Better Health While Aging community.

This video covers:

The coronavirus situation today
Why COVID rates are so high right now
Latest developments in treatment & vaccination
What this means for older adults
If you’re wondering “Is it safe to…?”
Dr. K’s recommendations for the holidays and winter

Watch the subtitled video and search the transcript below or get the audio-only through the podcast here.

(For a short tutorial on how to search the transcript, see here.)

Please stay as safe as you can, and take care!

Related resources:

[Read more…]

Anemia in the Older Adult:
10 Common Causes & What to Ask

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

Have you ever been told that an older relative has anemia?

Or perhaps you noticed the red blood cell count flagged as “low” in the bloodwork report? Or noticed “low hemoglobin” in a doctor’s report?

Anemia means having a red blood cell count that is lower than normal, and it’s very common in older adults. About 10% of independently living people over age 65 have anemia. And anemia becomes even more common as people get older.

But many older adults and families hardly understand anemia.

This isn’t surprising: anemia is associated with a dizzying array of underlying health conditions, and can represent anything from a life-threatening emergency to a mild chronic problem that barely makes the primary care doctor blink.

Still, it worries me that older adults and families don’t know more about anemia. If you or your relative has this condition, it’s important to understand what’s going on and what the follow-up plan is. (I’ve so often discovered that a patient didn’t know he or she had had anemia!) Misunderstanding anemia can also lead to unnecessary worrying, or perhaps even inappropriate treatment with iron supplements.

Featured Download: What to Ask Your Health Providers About Anemia. Use this free PDF to make sure you ask key questions about your anemia condition, including what’s been done to diagnose the cause, and what the plan is for treatment. Click here to download.

And since anemia is often caused by some other problem in the body, not understanding anemia often means that people don’t understand something else that is important regarding their health.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a doctor to have a decent understanding of the basics of anemia.

This post will help you understand:

How anemia is detected and diagnosed in aging adults.
Symptoms of anemia.
The most common causes of anemia, and tests often used to check for them.
What to ask the doctor.
How to get better follow-up, if you or your relative is diagnosed with anemia.

[Read more…]

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Common causes of cognitive impairment in older adults

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