Home Care and Managing Diabetes
Having diabetes is not easy, and being a senior with diabetes can add extra challenges. If your senior loved one is facing this difficult challenge, know they are not alone. There are close to 26 million Americans with diabetes and there are more seniors with this disease that any other demographic. In fact, nearly 1 in 4 seniors over the age of 60 has diabetes.
Most seniors have what is called Type 2 diabetes. With this form of diabetes, the body does not produce enough insulin to manage the body's sugar intake or it no longer uses the insulin it does make, properly.
The risks of diabetes, especially in seniors, are serious. In addition to the direct complication of elevated blood sugar, diabetes can lead
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They not only have diabetes, but they also have osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, or other mobility issue or pain factor that they are dealing with. Home care associates are able to assist your senior loved one with their food choices, the preparation of nutritious, diabetic-friendly meals, and even the shopping.
Smoking is bad for everybody and increases the risks of numerous severe medical conditions. For seniors with diabetes, smoking dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and vision loss. Smoking cessation and the avoidance of second-hand smoke is a critical element of controlling senior diabetes and its complications. Home care aides can help your loved one get to support groups, make good choices, find alternative activities, and provide emotional support.
Perhaps the greatest thing a senior with diabetes can do is increase their physical activity. Not only does this help keep the weight down, but it makes it easier to keep blood glucose levels down, regulates blood pressure, helps lower cholesterol levels, and lowers stress and stress-related problems. Many times seniors are afraid to exercise because they are afraid of falling. Home care personnel can provide the support and assistance needed to increase their feelings of safety and
A senior home care aide can also help your loved one create a safer home. Does your loved one have air purifiers? Have they changed the air filters? Is there mold in the home? They can also provide advice on homecare tasks. For example, don't dry laundry outside if you have a breathing issue. The fibers of the cloth catch the pollen. This means you wear and even sleep on pollen filled and covered clothing and linen.
Diabetes is a disease where the body is unable to produce or use insulin effectively. Insulin is needed for proper storage and use of carbohydrates. Without it, blood sugar levels can become too high or too low, resulting in a diabetic emergency. It affects about 7.8% of the population. The incidence of diabetes is known to increase with age. It’s the leading cause of end-stage renal disease in the US, and is the primary cause of blindness and foot and leg amputation. It is known to cause neuropathy in up to 70% of diabetic patients. Individuals with diabetes are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease. There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2.
The high dispersion of diabetes, especially through the aging population, comes at a considerable economic cost. Health care expenses for individuals with diabetes are 2.3 times greater than expenses for those without diabetes, and diabetes complications account for a significant amount of those cost.
Type 2 Diabetes is a disease that is found in a variety of age groups around the world. This disease is growing at a rapid rate and it is impacting the health of this generation and future generations to come. Diabetes is a disease that impairs the body’s ability to produce or respond to the insulin hormone produced by the pancreas. The insulin allows for the glucose to be effectively used as energy throughout the body. Diabetes causes carbohydrates to be abnormally digested, which can raise blood glucose levels. This means that the glucose is not being taken up by the cells that need it. The cells cannot take up the excess glucose that has accumulated in the blood, so it is excreted through the urine. This can lead to problems with the kidneys, central nervous system, heart, and eyes because high blood glucose can damage the blood vessels of these organs. This diseased is managed by adopting a diet low in fat and high in fiber, increasing physical activity, losing excess weight, and not smoking. If this
When living at home with dementia the individual will have professional help come to them to help with daily tasks such as supervising medication intake, enabling optimum health and safety at home, providing a patient listening ear and friendly face, cooking, housekeeping and general errands, helping to facilitate routine, familiarly and comfort for their loved one at a difficult time. When someone moves from their home into a care home it can be very
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (2011), 18.5 % of the United States population is over the age of 60 years. Of these, 10.9 million (26.9%) are diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (ADA, 2011.) In Lewis and associates’ text book on Medical- Surgical nursing, Lewis states that the incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) increases with age (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, Bucher, and Camera, 2011.) The purpose of this paper is to explore the disease process of diabetes mellitus in the geriatric population.
While there are many age-related digestive problems, the good news is that there are also many lifestyle changes that can effectively combat these issues. Home care aides can help your senior loved one with many of these ideas.
If type 2 diabetes is not controlled then type 1 diabetes can develop. This is worse because the patient becomes dependant on insulin. It usually develops in the teenage years of someone’s life. This has to be given my subcutaneous injection (Payne, Barker 2010), this makes sure that the insulin levels are regular and forms the basis of dietary management. They will also have to regularly check their blood sugars. They will often need monitoring, assessment and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors because they have many features of metabolic syndrome.
A factor that places individuals at risk for diabetes that cannot be controlled includes a person’s family history, ethnicity, gender, and age. The ‘National Diabetes Fact Sheet’ release in 2007 revealed that 23.6 million adults and children in the United States are afflicted with some kind of diabetes. After analyzing this figure, they determined that 1.6 million people over the age of 20 years and older are newly diagnosed each year. (National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2007) As we get older our body’s metabolism begins to slow down. A combination of a slower metabolism and decrease in activity add to our body weight by decreasing the amount of energy required to sustain us during inactivity. Because we often maintain the same eating habits, our body uses what it needs then begins to store excess carbs by converting them into fat
Seniors and older adults living with diabetes can face many challenges in their day-to-day activities as they get older such as: standing, cooking, getting dressed, shopping and managing money. As diabetic seniors start to lose their independence and have difficulty completing everyday task, loved ones should seek to get them additional care.
Diabetes is a type of disease that happens when your immune system destroys these cells called beta cells, beta cells are cells that make insulin in your body. Both of my grandparents have diabetes type 1, but my grandpa has it worst than my grandma. Both of them got it because they didn' t know how to take care of their body. My grandma was diagnost with diabetes type 1 when it was barely starting to for but didn't treat it right away, what i mean by she didn't treat it right away i mean that she took her medications but didn't change the way she ate until my grandpa was also diagnost with it. Unlike my grandma my grandpa was starting to treat it right away, the only thing was that he was diagnost with it when it was already big, that is why he has always had it worst than my grandma. Both of them take medications for diabetes and high blood pressure, but my grandpa also takes medications for his kidney problems. Both of my grandparents have the same side effects which are eye problems, skin problems, and high blood pressure problems but my grandpa has two extra ones which are kidney problems and foot problems. Diabetes has changed their diet a lot, they do not eat a lot of things with sugar, fried foods, and foods that are high on salt.
A healthy diet coupled with proper nutrition can help the diabetic manage his or her condition. Obese people are at more risk to diabetes. So it is very important for diabetics to maintain a healthy weight. Actually, it is not only the diabetics who need to eat healthy. Changing your diet to healthier alternatives can help prevent other diseases in the long run. It is essential for the diabetic to especially cut down on carbohydrates, because glucose comes from this food group. And diabetes is concerned about the erratic levels of glucose in one's body. The amount of fats and salt one takes in should also be controlled. Diabetes has some associated risks including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Healthy eating can simply help in minimizing these associated risks and prevent any more diabetic complications.
Diabetes is very common in elderly age. The pathophysiology of this disease is different in the elderly; as a result the therapeutic approach towards it should be different (Meneilly, 2009). Type 2 diabetes is caused by a sequence of genetic factors related to impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance. The main environmental factors which affects this type of diseases such as overweight or obesity, lack of exercise, stress, high-fat diet, family history, high alcohol consumption, high cholesterol and blood pressure, race or ethnic background, certain medications and as well as aging. These factors show that diabetes is a multifactorial disease which involves multiple genes and environmental factors. There are few reasons why the incidence
Senior homecare aims to reduce your risk of diabetes complications, including reduced blood flow. This can lead to infections, ulcers and possible removal of body parts. Additionally, diabetes complications include heart disease, stroke
If your senior loved one has diabetes, it's important that they eat a diet that is carefully balanced in carbohydrates, protein, fat and nutrients. Doing so can help him or her keep their blood sugar levels from rising too much, which can cause diabetic complications. Try one of these delicious recipes for your senior loved one to keep them satisfied without any blood sugar spikes.