Are There Aspects of Heart Disease Your Senior Can Change?
There is a lot about heart disease that your elderly family member cannot control at all, like a family history of heart problems. But there are other factors of heart disease that are completely controllable if your senior is willing to make some changes.
Homecare in Canton MI: Aspects of Heart Disease
Choosing to Be More Active
One of the biggest recommendations your senior’s doctor may give her is to become as active as she is able to become. That might mean that she stretches a few times a day or that she takes up walking or water aerobics. The key is to stick to the activity levels that her doctor recommends so that she doesn’t overdo anything. As she becomes stronger, she may be able to become even more active.
Handling Stress Appropriately
Even the calmest people experience stress. If your elderly family member doesn’t handle stress well, she might need to learn new ways to process and to funnel those feelings. Continuing to handle stress in inappropriate ways can mean that she transforms emotional stress into physical stress and that’s not great for her heart and her circulatory system. Learning to deal with feelings head-on can help immensely.
Her Decisions Around Food
What and even when your senior eats has a huge impact on her ability to improve her health. Her doctor will likely recommend specific foods that she should be eating, like vegetables, fruits, and leaner protein choices like fish and poultry. Finding new ways to appreciate these foods that your senior might not have enjoyed in the past can take a little bit of time and creativity. She might even find that having help in the kitchen, either from you or from elderly care providers, can be the key.
Unhelpful Choices She Might Give Up
She’s an adult, so there are lots of choices your senior makes in a day that is completely up to her. But some of those choices, like smoking, can have a huge negative impact on her health. Giving up smoking can help her to improve her heart health and her overall health, so she may want to work at finding ways to ditch that habit. There may be other choices she’s making that she’d like to make differently, too. Her doctor can help with techniques.
Making these changes is not easy to do. Even if your elderly family member is able to only make small strides toward change, that is a big deal.
If you are considering hiring Homecare in Canton, MI, contact the caring staff at No Place Like Home Health, LLC today. Call (734) 259-4200.
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