Nutrition in Elderly People

This year 76 million Baby Boomers in America are entering their fifties and sixties, yet this generation is not the only one suffering from diseases derived from an unhealthy diet. Advances in medicine have continued to preserve lives, but still researchers have not found a miracle that fully sustains the quality of everyday life. Overcrowding and neglect is the fate of patients seeking long-term medical attention if individuals continue to lack nutritional knowledge, and depend on the care of others to survive. Heart disease and diabetes type two are factors that lead to a life of dependency and make a significant contribution to the large population needing medical care. These specific diseases take years to develop and can last a life time. Acting to prevent them includes consuming an adequate diet and managing an active lifestyle. Prolonging physical health with the use of nutrition and ecercise can insure a longer, happier life as well as, alleviate the need for medical assistance for daily activities for those with diabetes and heart disease.

What nutrients are and how they affect our body, malnutrition, deficiency etc. The guidelines which determine nutritional health including dietary reference values (DRV), what a balanced diet is and how to maintain this, what BMI is and how to calculate it, the eat well plate, I will explain possible influences on dietary intake, assess how these influences may affect the nutritional health of individuals and I will also make realistic recommendations for minimising the impact of negative influences on individuals in a specific health and social care setting.

In recent years, there has been research involving the causes and consequences of poor nutrition among the elderly. Researchers continually work to distinguish risk factors of inadequate nutrition; the factors of most concern are “poor appetite, functional limitations, limited income, and social isolation” (Lirette, Podovennikoff, Wismer, Tondu, Klatt, 2007). Individuals at highest risk are those who live at home with a lack of family support (Krondl, Coleman, Lau, 2008). The diets of many elderly people are often low in calories and lacking important nutrients. All of these factors can affect the health and quality of life in the older adult. Nutrition plays a significant role in the health of

Nutrition is essential for the whole being of the individual. The body needs nutrients to be healthy and fight off acute illnesses and infections. Mauk (2014) stated that “elderly clients may be at increased risk for poor nutrition due to the fact that they have multiple chronic illnesses… that can interfere with their

national institutes for health, if you are seventy or older you may have nutritional needs for either high or low calories depending on gender or state of

Aging is inevitable, with age comes certain conditions, and diagnoses that affect healthy aging in Canadians. In Canada, and across the world, there are institutions that help care for people with these diagnoses. Nurses are one of the members of the health care team, and they help to try and reduce risks that can exist in aging Canadians. The purpose of this paper is to explore the risks of malnutrition in aging Canadians living in institutions who have vascular dementia.

1.Cognitive means the affect that dementia has on thinking skills eg memory, understanding etc. Functional is about the ability to perform actions such as feeding themselves. Emotional is about how they feel and react eg confusion can cause distress and aggression. As dementia progresses, eating and drinking can become difficult for some people. This factsheet looks at some of the difficulties that people with dementia may have with eating and drinking, and suggests ways to help.

As subjects and ideas are better understood they replace old outdated ideas that were only visually explained without a logical or scientific. Nutrition is one of these subjects that despite its large advancements is lagging behind in implementation. Ideas revolving around breakfast, the nutrition tree and number of meals per day are rather old and being followed simply because they have been done for so long. With new understandings of the metabolic processes of the body as well as research or prove new fact we are seeing that large problems such as obesity and diabetes can be easily preventable with proper nutrition.

With a home care nutritionist, they continue to follow the dietary guidelines set while placed in a hospital but then continue to grow the patient’s knowledge by teaching them more nutritional information. The main goal of a home care nutritionist is to achieve and maintain the dietary needs with a minimal amount of stress of hardship. There is a lot of emotional, physical and mental factors that have to be taken into consideration when a nutritionist in a home care setting approaches a patient and “The Nutritionist in Organized Home Care” covers all attributes of the home care nutritionist

Patient malnutrition is a very real and serious matter; it can lead to a worsening of the patient's

There are many factors that contribute to the vast differences in physical function in the aging adult. One of these factors is related to immunity. As we age our immunity progressively declines putting us at a high risk for disease and illness. While the decline is gradual it has the snowball effect. The elderly population is much more likely to be affected by these diseases and illnesses (Health, 2011). Disease is believed to accelerate aging biologically speaking (Spirduso, 2004).

Nutrition is an important aspect of health within all age groups. A nurse’s initial assessment is very important to a patient’s nutritional status because during an assessment, many findings can determine the nutritional status of an individual. For example, a simple examination of a patient’s overall appearance can determine whether the patient is malnourished, by evidence of decreased functional status, decreased bone mass, impaired muscle function, immune dysfunction, reduced cognitive function,

One age related illness that leads to malnutrition is Dementia as low levels of protein in the diet destroys brain cells and inhibits problems of memory loss, difficulty thinking and communicating. This causes the inability to communicate needs when it comes to eating. As dementia gets worse, the ability to remember flavours tampers with taste buds. At the same time taste buds diminish with age and the salivary glands start to dry up, this can have an effect on eating habits so food preferences can change frequently and be

      Physiological changes and changes in nutritional requirements are not the only cause of elderly malnutrition.  Illness and physical limitations often affect nutritional status, as 19.7% of people over age 65 have at least one disability and 28.8% reported a limitation caused by a chronic condition (9).  For

The food that we consume is well assimilated in our body and is used for the growth and maintenance of body tissues. Life cannot exist without food, and it is for this reason that every living organism strives to obtain its food requirements. It has been seen that the satisfaction of hunger is usually the main factor for a satisfactory food intake. It is very important that for sustaining a healthy and normal life, diets should be planned with the scientific knowledge of nutrition. It is very essential to learn the general principles and considerations that govern the planning of balanced diets.