Protecting Your Heart: Essential Tips for Seniors

Protecting Your Heart: Essential Tips for Seniors Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among adults over 65, accounting for more fatalities than all cancers combined. Despite this alarming statistic, many people don’t realize they’re at risk. Approximately 90% of adults have at least one risk factor for heart disease, such as high…

Read More

Unlocking Connection: Communication Strategies For Dementia Care

Unlocking Connection: Communication Strategies For Dementia Care Communicating with someone living with dementia is about connection over correction—it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Combining insights from Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care *wish I knew who to credit for this image (PAC) and the immersive Dementia Live® experience (2 programs…

Read More

GAIT SPEED: The 6th Vital Sign in Healthy Aging

GAIT SPEED: The 6th Vital Sign in Healthy Aging While temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and pain are commonly known as vital signs, a 6th vital sign—gait speed—is gaining recognition as a crucial indicator of overall health. Gait speed is a simple yet powerful predictor of physical function and potential health risks. And has shown…

Read More

RISE UP: Combating Couch Acquired Frailty

RISE UP: Combating Couch Acquired Frailty FRAILTY STATS: *higher risk for hospitalization *higher risk of falls *higher risk to develop dementia *require caregiver support We talk a lot about Hospital Acquired Frailty–it’s an important subject that affects a lot of seniors. But there’s another condition that often is a precursor to this…COUCH ACQUIRED FRAILTY It’s…

Read More

Movement for Mind & Memory: How Exercise Supports Brain Health in Dementia

Movement for Mind & Memory: How Exercise Supports Brain Health in Dementia Exercise can play a meaningful role in managing moderate dementia, helping both cognitively and physically in several ways: Improved Blood Flow and Oxygenation: Increased oxygenation to the brain can help with cognitive clarity, slowing down the progression of cognitive decline, and maintaining healthy…

Read More

Hospital Acquired Frailty

Hospital Acquired Frailty: A precipitous multi-system decline due to immobility while in a hospital that is often preventable. Motion is Life Frailty Tip Sheet Why is consistent mobility crucial? Muscle activity impacts far more than just our ability to move….it’s a SAFEGUARD Immobilized patients not only experience functional declines, but medical conditions worsen as well.…

Read More

Qualifying for Home Health

Qualifying for Home Health: No, we don’t need to wait for an injury or illness to assist. In fact, being proactive can often reduce this risk. We are often asked, which of our patients would qualify for home health? Recent fall, or new fear of instability: we call any unintended loss of elevation a fall…

Read More

Revising Healthcare Goals for the Older Patient

Revising Healthcare Goals for the Older Patient: And why the therapy goal of ‘previous level of function’ doesn’t go far enough. The decline of older patients is well documented, with each subsequent injury or illness creating a new, and lower baseline. Many healthcare providers are trained to think in terms of helping a patient get…

Read More

50% of seniors in healthcare settings are malnourished

Half of all patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities are malnourished, leading to unnecessary suffering, poorer quality of life, and increased mortality. Despite available solutions, malnutrition is underdiagnosed and undertreated globally. A review in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights this issue and calls for greater use of existing knowledge to address it. The…

Read More

Canary in The Coal Mine

Early warning signs an elderly adult may be declining Throughout much of the 20th century, chirping canaries were used in the coal mining industry as early warning systems for poisonous gases like carbon monoxide. Since carbon monoxide is clear and odorless, miners needed a way to detect it before it became lethal. Canaries, sensitive to…

Read More