Heart Health: Preventing Cardiovascular Disease

You can take steps to protect yourself from developing cardiovascular disease, even if you are at risk. The best way to prevent this condition is by following a healthy lifestyle, which includes not smoking, exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet and maintaining a healthy weight as well as getting enough sleep and regular checkups with your doctor.

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Memory Care

Memory care is a specialized form of senior care designed specifically for individuals with memory impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

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Planning For The Future

It is important to plan for the future and empower ourselves with options that meet our needs and desires. When faced with a life-limiting or terminal illness, many decisions must be made. These decisions can involve financial matters, advance directives, funeral arrangements, how the last days of life will be spent, and other issues. Even though discussing these issues may bring up feelings regarding difficult losses and changes, it is important to be proactive and to communicate in order to ensure choice and control during difficult times.

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Why To Retire In Tucson, AZ

When many folks retire, heading to an area with a warmer climate tends to be a popular and appealing option. While there are many sunny cities in the country where you can retire, there are many aspects of Tucson, Arizona that make it a particularly great destination where retirees can relocate.

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Benefits Of Assisted Living

As we age, the feasibility of safely living on our own can become challenging. However, many aging seniors may feel apprehensive about joining an assisted living community, fearing a loss of independence and becoming a financial burden.

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Can Medicare Help Us Pay for Assisted Living?

Aging adults often arrive at a time where they will need long-term care and assistance with their daily lives. Many will turn to assisted living communities, which allow seniors to maintain some level of independence, while also receiving some help with tasks like housekeeping, nutrition, and other household tasks.

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Homeowners Transition to a Retirement Village

There are many exciting things to look forward to during retirement, like having more time to chase grandchildren or picking up some new hobbies. However, there are plenty of challenges brought by this lifestyle shift, including home-owning seniors who are thinking of joining a retirement community or village.

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Benefits of Volunteering During Retirement

Retirement is a stage of life that we all look forward to, with more time to relax and enjoy life’s pleasures. However, in the event of feeling a loss of routine and purpose during this time, there are many ways to get involved and active recreationally.

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Entertainment Technology For Seniors

Keep Your Mind Sharp

Entertainment Technology For Seniors

Entertainment Technology for Seniors

As we age, our brains change. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to keep your brain active and entertained during those years. Here are some suggestions if you’re looking for fun apps to keep your mind sharp.

1. Elevate

Elevate is an app that helps you train your brain to work faster and sharper. It has been used by over 10 million people, with half of them being over 40 years old. The best part about this app is that it’s so flexible, as you can use it in small chunks of time whenever you have a spare minute on the subway or while waiting for an appointment.

2. Wordle

Wordle is an app that allows you to create word clouds. You can use it to create word clouds in your writing or to create word clouds in other people’s writing. You can also use it to create word clouds of the text in pictures (for example, an image of a book cover).

Wordle provides an easy-to-use interface for generating these wordles and lets you choose from several different fonts and styles, as well as how many words you want in each cloud (five, six, or seven).

3. Duolingo

Duolingo is a language learning app that is free and available on both iOS and Android devices. You can choose from a wide range of languages to learn: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and even Swahili (a language spoken in East Africa).

You can use this app while commuting to work or school, waiting for an appointment, or during your lunch break at the office. The app’s chat feature can also be used with friends or family. The app will teach you how to speak the language of your choice through fun lessons that make learning easy!

4. GrandPad

GrandPad is a tablet designed for seniors. It features simple navigation, large buttons, and enhanced sounds. The tablet comes with pre-downloaded apps, including ones to make video and phone calls, music players, photo galleries, radio, games, email, and more.

5. Oculus Rift Flight Simulator

Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that simulates the experience of flying and driving. You can choose from several preprogrammed adventures or use it to monitor your flight plans. Oculus Rift is also compatible with some games, so you can play on your computer while wearing the headset. Many seniors enjoy the flight simulator as they reminisce of older times, especially retired vets who once flew.

6. Audible

Audible is a great app for learning new languages, instruments, skills, hobbies, and even subjects. You can choose to listen to audiobooks on the go or at home. Listening while you’re working out or cleaning the house will improve your focus and concentration while also helping you relax—and who knows what else?

Audible offers more than 180,000 titles in over 100 languages. You can also download audio samples of books before buying them so that you know exactly what it contains before purchasing them. 

 

These apps can help keep your brain active and keep you entertained. We know that there are so many more options out there, so don’t stop exploring!

Feeling Dizzy? One of These Culprits Could Be to Blame

Health

Feeling Dizzy? One of These Culprits Could Be to Blame

With the right care, dizziness can often be treated. Here are five things that can cause dizziness and what can be done to treat it.

Bouts of dizziness are common for seniors, with 30 percent of people over age 60 and 50 percent of people over age 85 experiencing dizziness. But while this issue is common, that does not mean it can be shrugged off as a natural part of aging.

With the right care, dizziness can often be treated. Here are five things that can cause dizziness and what can be done to treat it.

Vertigo

You may think vertigo and dizziness are the same thing, but vertigo is a specific kind of dizziness in which individuals feel like their world is spinning. The most common kind of dizziness for seniors is benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), which is caused by crystals in the inner ear becoming dislodged. If BPPV is the cause of your dizziness, it can be treated with some simple maneuvers that help the crystals move back into place.

“Vertigo can not only be frustrating for seniors, but it can also be deadly,” says Clay Gardner, executive director at Vista Knoll Specialized Care Facility. “Untreated, dizziness can lead to falls, which can cause broken bones and even death. Getting appropriate treatment can help cure vertigo and avoid dangerous complications.”

Infections

Sudden vertigo that lasts up to a week could be the result of a prior infection. Vestibular neuritis is often caused by a viral respiratory illness like the flu that causes the nerve cells in the inner ear to become inflamed. Vertigo caused by infections can be treated with anti-nausea medication or physical therapy. Steroids for inflammation can also help bring down the swelling in the inner ear.

Medications

Some medications can cause dizziness, especially among elderly patients. For people with high blood pressure, hypertension medication could be to blame for dizziness that happens when they get up too quickly. Other medications like salicylates and some cancer drugs can cause permanent damage to the inner ear, affecting a person’s hearing and balance. Unfortunately, people who are taking medicine for dizziness could actually end up with more dizziness, as some sedatives can worsen the symptoms.

Meniere’s Syndrome

If you have dizziness along with ringing in your ear, distorted hearing, and nausea, you may have Meniere’s syndrome. These attacks can last for a few minutes or for several hours. Meniere’s can be treated on several fronts, including diet and medication. Limiting salt and caffeine can help, and anti-nausea medication might provide some relief.

Stroke or TIA

Strokes, or transient ischemic attacks (TIA), aren’t the most common reasons for dizziness in seniors, but they are one of the most serious. Because time is of the essence when treating a stroke, it is important to rule stroke out when sudden dizziness occurs. Symptoms of a stroke can be similar to vestibular neuritis, so you should seek medical attention the first time you experience dizziness to figure out what is causing it. People who are having a stroke often have other symptoms like confusion, numbness, or slurred speech. Even without other symptoms, someone with dizziness could still be having a stroke or TIA, which can lead to a stroke.

Dizziness is a common complaint among seniors, but it does not need to be a fact of life. If you are experiencing dizziness, get medical attention. Your doctor can help determine what is causing your dizziness and figure out the best treatment.