Alzheimer’s disease remains the biggest fear many of us have about growing older, but for most people with dementia, the symptoms did not show up all at once. Instead they started appearing gradually, often in the form of what physicians refer to as MCI, or mild cognitive impairment. This condition, regarded as a precursor to…
It’s a respiratory condition that you may never have heard of. This condition is not especially common – about 200,000 cases per year – but once contracted, it can cause lasting lung damage unless treated. And while this condition does not specifically affect seniors more than younger people, knowing about it may explain why someone…
Last week we wrote here on the AgingOptions blog about the importance of preparing for your discharge from the hospital from the moment you arrive. Today we’re considering an important aspect of that preparation. When you’re in the hospital and the time for discharge approaches, there’s a rush of last-minute activity, gathering personal effects and…
In the arena of medical care, there are times when good intentions produce bad outcomes. That was our reaction when we read this important article published recently on the Kaiser Health News website. It’s called “‘Fear Of Falling’: How Hospitals Do Even More Harm By Keeping Patients In Bed,” and the premise is straightforward: in…
It’s an all too common scenario: an elderly loved one on Medicare is hospitalized, and the family expects the stay to last a certain length of time. Then suddenly, with little or no warning – and often days earlier than anticipated – the hospital tells the surprised family that the discharge date has been moved…
There are a number of important occurrences associated with the month of October. It’s the start of Medicare open enrollment. It’s the climactic month of the baseball playoffs. And it’s traditionally the month when every neighborhood pharmacy puts out the signs saying, “Flu Shots Available Here.” Yes, October marks the start of what is usually…
Last year, we discovered a highly disturbing article on the website HealthDay that put an ominous spin on the recent chorus of headlines about the nation’s opioid crisis. According to two government reports released in 2018, a growing number of seniors are falling prey to this insidious category of highly addictive painkillers. Because this problem…
We’ve written about the problem of what hospitals and doctors call “observation care” multiple times before here on the AgingOptions blog. When most people hear about this Medicare rule, they respond with angry disbelief – but in spite of new regs designed to curb the practice, the problems associated with what amounts to a giant…
Alzheimer’s disease is the thing most aging men and women fear most. As the disease progresses and mental impairment grows worse, sufferers often retreat into resigned depression. So, imagine how you would feel if, after enduring eight years of worsening symptoms you feared were due to Alzheimer’s disease, you discovered that the condition actually causing…
It may have happened to a senior loved one, or even to you. In a fairly short period of time, a person changes from being lucid and aware to being confused and agitated. They can’t think clearly or remember where they are or what they’re doing, and they have difficulty recalling even recent events. The…