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Better Health While Aging

Practical information for aging health & family caregivers

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    • Preventing Falls in Aging Adults
    • Medication Safety
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009 – Q&A: Answers to Your Questions on Helping Older Parents

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 5 Comments

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
009 – Q&A: Answers to Your Questions on Helping Older Parents
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00:00 / 57:22
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In This Episode:

Dr. K answers nine audience questions related to helping older parents:

  • How to find a facility for an older father with dementia who is a “two-person assist”? How to make sense of the jargon on care levels and how are facilities classified?
  • How to help an older  mother with bipolar, especially if she seems to be going into a manic phase?
  • How to maintain sanity and better respond to an older father with Alzheimer’s disease, who gets agitated and angry in the afternoons and evenings?
  • Whether to worry about withdrawal symptoms, after an older mother is hospitalized and treated with haloperidol for delirium
  • How to keep assisting without losing hope, in the context of a mother with Alzheimer’s and an older father with Parkinson’s and sleep problems
  • What to do when it’s hard to get an older mother to take her medications, and how to get her to understand the importance of recommended procedures such as cataract surgery
  • What to do if both you and your elderly mother have been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and how to handle caregiving issues
  • Whether anxiety can cause abdominal pain and shortness of breath in someone with dementia, and how to improve bad breath that has been attributed to acid reflux
  • What can be done if an older father with mild cognitive impairment has been refusing to leave the house for several months
[Read more…]

008 – Interview: Helping Families with Memory Loss: The Care to Plan Online Tool

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 4 Comments

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
008 – Interview: Helping Families with Memory Loss: The Care to Plan Online Tool
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In This Episode:

Dr. K talks with Professor Joseph Gaugler, PhD, an expert in family caregiving and dementia, who is on the faculty of the University of Minnesota’s Center on Aging. They discuss:

  • Care to Plan, a new online tool developed by Dr. Gaugler and his colleagues, designed to help family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias
  • How Care to Plan uses an easy online 20-question assessment to create a personalized plan of support for family caregivers
  • Why different families may need to prioritize different support strategies
  • Seven different types of support that are known to help family caregivers: Education, Problem Solving, Support Groups, Change Your Thinking, Brain Health, Take a Break, and High-Powered Combinations
  • The benefits of attending a local university-led conference about memory loss and dementia, such as the University of Minnesota’s Caring for a Person with Memory Loss Conference

[Read more…]

007 – How a Personal Health Record Helps You Be Proactive

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH Leave a Comment

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
007 – How a Personal Health Record Helps You Be Proactive
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00:00 / 27:15
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In This Episode:

Dr. K explains why she always recommends that older adults and families keep their own copies of key health information. She covers:

  • Why this proactive approach — which is also known as maintaining a personal health record (PHR) helps older adults get better healthcare from doctors
  • The five common healthcare pitfalls that you can avoid or minimize, by maintaining a PHR
  • What health information is most useful to request and why
  • Options for organizing and keeping health information
  • Why it’s good to bring a paper copy of relevant health information to doctors’ visits, and other tips on bringing medical information to doctors
[Read more…]

006 – Interview: Surviving Cancer & Better Healthcare Through Being an e-Patient

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH Leave a Comment

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
006 – Interview: Surviving Cancer & Better Healthcare Through Being an e-Patient
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In This Episode:

Dr. K talks with “e-Patient Dave” deBronkart, a co-founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Dave is a well-known advocate for improving healthcare by encouraging people to become “equipped, enabled, and empowered” when it comes to their own healthcare. They discuss:

  • How getting information from an online patient community helped Dave survive a usually fatal cancer
  • What is an “e-patient,” and why being proactive leads to better healthcare
  • Why public access to health information is creating a sea change in the practice of medicine
  • How the patients’ rights movement is creating a culture change that some doctors find threatening
  • Why it’s better for patients and doctors to act as partners and “share the knowledge”
  • Practical tips on getting more informed regarding your own (or your family member’s) healthcare
  • What kinds of doctors to avoid, and how to get a second opinion
[Read more…]

005 – Interview: Otago & Proven Exercises for Fall Prevention

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 13 Comments

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
005 – Interview: Otago & Proven Exercises for Fall Prevention
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In This Episode:

Dr. K interviews Tiffany Shubert, PhD MPT, a practicing physical therapist on faculty at the University of North Carolina, and a leading expert on exercise programs for fall prevention. They discuss:

  • What types of exercise work best for fall prevention, and why
  • Why strength and balance exercises are so important for aging adults
  • Why walking is not enough, when it comes to fall prevention
  • Easy tests you can do at home, to check an older person’s leg strength and balance
  • What’s involved in the Otago Exercise Program, an exciting new physical therapy program proven to reduce falls in older adults and endorsed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
  • How to find Otago near you
  • Why any exercise or physical therapy program for fall prevention should involve exercises done in standing, that are challenging, that get more challenging over time, and that involve at least two hours/week of exercises
  • Other proven programs to reduce falls in older adults
  • Tips on doing fall prevention exercises in people with Alzheimers or other dementias

[Read more…]

004 – What to Do If You’re Worried About Falls

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH Leave a Comment

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
004 – What to Do If You're Worried About Falls
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00:00 / 26:27
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In This Episode:

  • Why older adults fall
  • How to identify underlying health risk factors and fall triggers, so that you can personalize your fall prevention plan
  • The three step process Dr. Kernisan uses to create a fall prevention plan for an older person
  • Medications that geriatricians often reduce or stop, to reduce fall risk
  • How blood pressure medication can increase fall risk, and a simple test to discuss with the doctor
[Read more…]

003 – Interview: Helping Reluctant Parents Address Memory Concerns

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 8 Comments

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
003 – Interview: Helping Reluctant Parents Address Memory Concerns
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00:00 / 45:00
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In This Episode:

Dr. K interviews Linda Fodrini-Johnson, MA MFT CMC, a past president of the National Association of Geriatric Care Managers and the founder of Eldercare Services in the San Francisco Bay Area. They discuss:

  • How adult children can better approach aging parents, when there’s been concern about memory problems or financial transactions
  • What is a geriatric care manager (also known as an aging life care professional), and how they help families address memory concerns
  • How to find a geriatric care manager with the right counseling skills for your needs
  • How to get free help and advice from geriatric care managers and trained aging professionals
  • Why people often tell Linda they wish they’d gotten more help or information sooner
[Read more…]

002 – What to Do If You’re Worried About Someone’s Memory

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 8 Comments

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
002 – What to Do If You're Worried About Someone's Memory
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In This Episode:

  • Why it’s important to take action, if you notice memory or thinking problems
  • Common treatable medical problems that can cause or worsen memory and thinking
  • What to take note of, and what information to bring to the doctor
  • How to communicate with the doctor beforehand (which is especially useful if your parent or relative feeling defensive)
  • What should be covered during a preliminary medical evaluation for memory or thinking concerns
[Read more…]

001 – Introducing the Better Health While Aging Podcast

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 2 Comments

Better Health While Aging
Better Health While Aging
001 – Introducing the Better Health While Aging Podcast
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In This Episode:

  • Dr. Kernisan introduces the Better Health in Aging podcast
  • We discuss three common questions people often ask Dr. K:
    • What IS geriatrics?
    • At what age should geriatrics care start?
    • Do I need a geriatrician?
  • Dr. K introduces herself and explains more about why she’s starting this podcast.
[Read more…]
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