Five Keys to Living Happily with Osteoporosis
Your senior might feel that a diagnosis of osteoporosis clips her wings, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Your elderly family member can still live a happy and full life with osteoporosis, but she needs to make a few changes.
Test Her Bone Density
Home Care Lake Forest, IL: Living Happily with Osteoporosis
Your senior’s doctor might order bone density tests for her. This is a way to measure current bone density and determine if your senior is losing bone density. It’s ideal if she’s had a test done in the past that gives you a baseline to compare future test results to. This is a test that can be done many times over time to help you and she to see what’s helping her to maintain the bones that she has.
Use Medications and Supplements as Her Doctor Recommends
One of the treatment methods that your senior’s doctor might recommend are prescription medications or even supplements, like vitamin D and calcium. These recommendations are about helping her to strengthen her bones and possibly to even slow down bone loss. If your senior’s doctor does feel as if these are important additions to her treatment plan your elderly family member needs to give them a shot.
Start an Exercise Plan
Exercise is a big part of most osteoporosis management plans because it helps your senior’s bones to become stronger. Activities like walking, lifting weights, and even water aerobics can all help. If your senior has not been a huge fan of exercise in the past, she needs to start out slowly and work her way up to a full-on exercise routine. Her doctor can help you to map out a plan for her. If she has other health issues, physical therapy might be the best place to start.
Include Balance Exercises
Your senior might really benefit the most from balance exercises, like tai chi or yoga. These offer her weight-bearing exercise and they help her to improve her balance. This is a huge part of helping her to avoid a fall, which could be incredibly dangerous with osteoporosis.
Enlist Some Extra Help
Your elderly family member might find that as she adjusts to all of the changes, she’s experiencing because of osteoporosis that it helps to have someone else handling certain tasks for her. Home care providers can take over routine tasks like cooking and cleaning, leaving your senior the energy and the time she needs to focus on healthy eating and keeping up with exercise.
Your elderly family member might have to make some adjustments to how she’s approached her life until now, but that doesn’t mean that she’s got to give up doing what she loves. Osteoporosis is just an indication that she needs to pay more attention to her bones and to her overall well-being.
Excerpt: Osteoporosis doesn’t have to keep your senior from living a full and happy life.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care Lake Forest, IL, contact the caring staff at Companion Services of America today at (847) 943-3786. Our home care service area includes Northbrook, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Evanston, Des Plaines, Skokie, Lake Forest, Wilmette and the surrounding areas.
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