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Helping Older Parents Articles

Wondering whether you should worry? Having trouble getting parents to accept help? Overwhelmed by challenges and concerns?

This part of the site is especially for you! It includes our hand-picked articles, tips, & resources for people helping older parents.

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

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 28 Comments

elderly woman fallingWorried 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.

Get Your Free Fall Prevention Resource Guide! A handy short PDF to help you quickly find the key online resources mentioned in this article. Click here to download.

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…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles Tagged With: fall prevention, falls

Flu Shots for Older Adults During COVID Times: What to Know & Do for 2020

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 136 Comments

Usually, I update this article in October, which I think of as flu vaccination time.

But this is 2020 and things are different, so I am writing this in September. In particular, due to COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is urging that people get vaccinated against influenza early in the fall (before the end of October 2020).

Vaccination against seasonal influenza has always been a bit of a tricky topic. 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?

And now that we have COVID-19 to contend with, vaccination for seasonal influenza might feel even more confusing for people. 

Don’t let yourself be confused. In this article, I will share with you what I know about influenza vaccination and what I’ve learned about influenza in COVID times. I also have updates on the newest high-dose vaccines available for older adults.

But let me share the bottom line with you right now. In general, I have always supported the CDC’s usual recommendation that everyone over the age of 6 months should get their seasonal flu shot.

This year, I agree with the CDC that it’s especially important for people to get their seasonal flu shot, as soon as you can, and if you are an older adult, I recommend getting one of the higher-dose vaccines.

In “normal” pre-COVID times, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that every year, influenza affects 9-45 million Americans, causes 140,000-810,100 hospitalizations, and results in 12,000-61,000 deaths. In most years, influenza vaccination does help reduce hospitalizations and deaths (I go into details below).

And now this fall, we will also have COVID-19 to contend with. As of September 2020, at least 190,000 Americans have died of this disease. We don’t know for sure what will happen this fall, but since COVID seems to spread more when people are indoors and in proximity to the exhalations of others, COVID is likely to get worse this fall.

So this year, more than ever, it’s important to do what you can to reduce respiratory illness, to protect yourself, and to protect others. We don’t yet have a COVID vaccine, but we do have influenza vaccines.

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.

Here’s what I’ll cover in this article:

  • The basics of influenza and vaccination against the flu
  • What we know about influenza and COVID-19
  • What to know about flu shots for older adults
  • What’s new and resources for the 2020-2021 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

(Prefer to listen to my key points about flu shots for aging adults? Click here to jump down to my subtitled audio with searchable transcript!)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles

Q&A: What to Do About Unintentional Weight Loss

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 97 Comments

Q: My 88-year-old father lives in his own home about 100 miles from us. He’s been living alone since my mother died five years ago. I thought he looked rather thin last time we saw him. I’m starting to feel worried about his nutrition. Should I be concerned? Would you recommend he start drinking a supplement such as Boost or Ensure?

A: This question comes up a lot for families. It is indeed very common for older adults to experience unintentional weight loss at some point in late-life.

The brief answer is that yes, you should be concerned. But I wouldn’t recommend you jump to purchasing Boost or Ensure.

Now, in most cases, some nutritional supplementation is in order. But before focusing on this, you should first get help figuring out why your father is losing weight.

For doctors, unintended weight loss is a major red flag when it comes to the health of an older person.

So in geriatrics, we usually recommend that an older person — or their caregivers — monitor weight regularly. This enables us to spot weight loss sooner rather than later.

Once we’ve spotted unintentional weight loss, the next step is to figure out what might be causing it. And then we’re in a better position to recommend a treatment plan, which might well include a nutritional supplement.

In this post, I’ll go over each of these steps in more detail.

Why you should monitor for unintentional weight loss

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles, Q&A Tagged With: weight loss

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

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 59 Comments

preventing dehydration in elderlyQ: 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…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles, Q&A Tagged With: dehydration, UTI

Coronavirus Update & Suggestions (6.11.20 Edition)

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 14 Comments

Like many of you, my daily life has been changed by the coronavirus situation, for personal and professional reasons.

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

This video covers:

  • The coronavirus situation today
  • Key points on what I’ve learned about COVID so far (and what we’re still trying to figure out)
  • Updates on testing & reducing COVID transmission
  • If you’re wondering “Is it safe to…?”
  • COVID & Older Adults: the tradeoffs we’re facing
  • Nursing homes and COVID
  • My recommendations for this summer

The video is below, or get the audio-only through the podcast here.
(For those who have asked about transcripts: I wish I could but right now we are too short on funding; transcripts cost $1.25/minute to produce plus more time to format and finalize.)


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

Related resources:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles

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