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How to Choose the Safest Over-the-Counter Painkiller for Older Adults

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH

Depositphotos_13932212_m-2015-OTC-medication-compressorQ: My 88-year old mother often complains of various aches and pains. What is the safest over-the-counter painkiller for her to take? Aren’t some of them bad for your liver and kidneys?

A: Frequent aches and pains are a common problem for older adults.

If your mother has been complaining, you’ll want to make sure she gets a careful evaluation from her doctor. After all, frequent pain can be a sign of an important underlying health problem that needs attention. You’re also more likely to help your mom reduce her pain if you can help her doctors identify the underlying causes of her pain.

That said, it’s a good idea to ask what over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers are safest for older people.

That’s because improper use of OTC painkiller tablets is actually a major cause of harm to older adults.

So let me tell you what OTC pain relievers geriatricians usually consider the safest, and which very common group of painkillers can cause serious side-effects in aging adults.

What’s the safest OTC painkiller for an aging parent?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles, Q&A Tagged With: medication safety, medications, pain

7 Commonly Neglected Problems to Address for Healthier Aging:
The Healthy Aging Checklist Part 3

by Leslie Kernisan, MD MPH 14 Comments

Aging manThis is the third in a series of posts covering the Healthy Aging Checklist.

Again, the Healthy Aging Checklist summarizes the six fundamental activities I recommend when asked what to do to maintain the best possible health while aging. They are:

  • Promote brain health and emotional well-being.
  • Promote physical health.
  • Check for and address common senior health problems (such as falls, memory concerns, depression, incontinence, pain, isolation, polypharmacy).
  • Learn to optimize the management of any chronic conditions.
  • Get recommended preventive health services for older adults.
  • Address medical, legal, and financial advance care planning.

In this post, I’ll cover the third item: addressing commonly neglected senior health problems that routinely sabotage healthy aging.

These issues are sometimes referred to as geriatric syndromes. They affect health and quality of life, and although they happen more in people who are older or frailer, they affect countless people in their 60s and 70s as well.

Virtually all of these issues affect a senior’s ability to socialize, be physically active, and take good care of himself or herself.  So addressing these is key to enabling healthier aging.

Unfortunately, these issues routinely fall through the cracks of usual medical care. People often suffer from these problems for years without anyone taking effective action.

This may be because many people — doctors, seniors themselves, or family members — assume nothing can be done about these, and that they are just “part of getting old.”

Don’t believe that.  We have studied these problems in geriatrics and most of the time, correctly evaluating and then managing these problems helps older adults and their families feel better, live better, and sometimes even live longer.

Remember, healthy aging is not just about preventing problems. It’s also about spotting them and addressing them before they get worse, or drag down the rest of your health and independence.

So for healthier aging, be proactive in checking for these oft-neglected problems.

And then remember: sub-optimal treatment of these problems is all too common. So you’ll need to be proactive about getting them correctly managed — which might mean either seeing a geriatrician (nice if you can find one) or making sure your usual doctor is thinking like one.

Here’s what to look for, and how to learn more:

7 Common Problems to Check for and Address for Healthier Aging

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Aging health, Geriatrics For Caregivers Blog, Helping Older Parents Articles Tagged With: falls, healthy aging, medications, memory, pain

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