Health
How can you help your parent stay well for as long as possible and find their way through a complex health system?
Helping parents to avoid depression
With depression known to be a real risk in an ageing population, there are many ways that we can help our parents to keep active and independent to stave off the gloom. Our parents can become depressed for many reasons. Losing friends and loved ones is an obvious cause, but loneliness through lack of human […]
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Dad, dementia and connecting through art
Written by Rebecca Lenton This week’s storyteller is Ro Lavender. Ro tells us how watercolour painting brought her closer again to her father, Peter Scott, after advancing dementia had caused a collapse in communication between them. My dad was an architect and a very capable and independent individual. He was a practical man who always […]
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When helpers become the enemy
This week’s storyteller is Sally.After years of being his wife’s carer, Sally’s father began to believe that everyone coming into his home wanted to poison him or steal his treasures. In this first part of her story, Sally describes how her father slipped into delusional paranoia and how his family struggled to help. After more […]
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Recognising signs of dementia
Written by Kathy Lawrence Dementia is much in the news now. But can we differentiate between failing memory that besets the elderly and the busy, and true dementia? Looking at the lists of early symptoms of dementia that are being publicised, it would be easy to have a three-step reaction. OMG that’s me. Panic! If […]
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Urinary incontinence: causes, treatments, symptoms
Urinary incontinence is often seen as an inevitable sign of ageing but that’s not necessarily the case. There could be other causes that can be addressed. And for those who do have to live with incontinence in the long term, there are ways to help manage the condition. Urinary incontinence is defined as the unintentional […]
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A focus on vitamin D – how the “sunshine” vitamin can improve health
Update July 2021: Evidence suggests that lack of vitamin D can lead to more hospitalisations due to Covid-19, but isn’t linked to greater mortality rates. Read more indepth analysis of studies on vitamin D and health here. Dr David Mantle, nutritional adviser at Pharma Nord, discusses the importance of vitamin D to health in an […]
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5 tips for preventing falls in the home
Statistics show that falls in the home that mean a trip to A&E are often the first step to losing independence and a move into care. Nursing professional Vince Baiera shares his experiences in helping older people to avoid having those falls. With more than six years’ experience as an ICU Nurse at some of […]
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Product review: adjustable multi-user spectacles
We’ve been trying out adjustables glasses. Named adjustable not because you can change the fit but instead you can change the actual lens to suit a wide range of prescriptions. That means they could be shared as a “spare pair”. Here’s what we thought. As we get older most of us become more dependent on […]
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Why treating varicose veins effectively is vital to leg health
There’s a strong belief that treating varicose veins is more a vanity project than a health issue. Consultant Vascular Surgeon Prof Mark S Whiteley explains how varicose veins can lead to more painful conditions such as leg ulcers and should be taken seriously. And why stripping is rarely the right way forward. A history of […]
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Benefits for the hearing disabled
The World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2030 adult-onset hearing loss will be one of the top ten problems in Britain, outstripping both cataracts and diabetes. So how do you get help and are there any benefits available to support the hearing disabled? It’s easy to take your hearing for granted if you don’t […]
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