Medication management Archive

Caregivers may benefit from substitute caregivers who can give them a break. This "respite care" might come from a family member or friend who volunteers to help out. Or it can come from outside services such as adult or child day care centers, short-term stays (seven to 30 days) in a skilled nursing or memory care facility, professional child care or nanny services, or private duty care (which can send someone to be with a loved one up to 24 hours per day).

High-tech tools can help people with vision impairment. Examples include accessibility features (such as speech-to-text or text-to-speech) on a smartphone or computer; apps for navigation, magnification, or describing a scene; wearable devices that use video cameras to capture images and then project them onto tiny screens inside a headset; peripheral prism glasses, which shift light from one side of the eye to the other to make up for losses in field of vision; and household gadgets such as "talking" thermometers, scales, and calculators that audibly read out results.

Increasingly, hospitalist doctors (who are present in the hospital 24 hours a day) take care of hospitalized patients, with advice from the patients' primary care doctors. This helps solve the dilemma of primary care doctors needing to be in two places at once—in a hospital with some patients and in an office with others. It's not a perfect solution: hospitalists often don't know the patients they're caring for, and they are unfamiliar with patients' extensive medical records. But ultimately, the increasing number of hospitalists is probably improving the quality and efficiency of hospital care.

The risk of experiencing sudden cardiac arrest while exercising or participating in sports is quite low among active older adults, according to a 2023 study.

Foam rolling is a simple technique to help relieve soreness and tightness in muscle areas like the calves, thighs, buttocks, and back.

Proper flexibility means you can bend, reach, twist, stretch, and sit and stand with a greater range of motion and less effort. While flexibility usually declines with age, adopting a regular stretching routine can help improve flexibility no matter your age. Besides improving flexibility, stretching also helps to reduce exercise soreness and injury risk and improve performance in sports and activities.

As people age, earlier sun damage to the skin, especially on the face and neck, shows up as dry skin, wrinkles, and age spots. While much of this sun damage occurred in the past, people can take steps later to reverse some of it. Adopting a three-step daily skin care routine—washing, moisturizing, and applying sunscreen—is the best way to treat existing skin problems, maintain healthy skin, and protect against future harm.

A 2023 study found that cannabis-related visits to hospital emergency departments skyrocketed among adults ages 65 and older from 2005 through 2019.

The gallbladder stores bile from the liver and squeezes it into the small intestine to help digest fats. About 15% of American adults have gallbladder disease, most commonly gallstones. Women are more prone to gallstones because estrogen slows the gallbladder's ability to empty. Serious complications can result from gallbladder disease, including inflammation, infection, and blockages. People can reduce their risk for gallbladder problems by eating more fruits and vegetables, favoring lean proteins, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Prehabilitation, or prehab, involves a wide range of steps to take before surgery to maximize recovery afterward. Prehab components include nutritional support, strength and fitness, blood sugar control, medication management, smoking cessation, pain management, and delirium prevention. Research suggests prehab can increase the odds people will heal faster, experience fewer complications, and recover more smoothly over all.