People have become careful about their lifestyle. They eat a balanced diet and keep themselves fit to stay healthy as long as possible. This has increasedoverall life expectancy. Unfortunately, however healthy your lifestyle is, age is something that catches up with everyone. And with aging come chronic illnesses and health conditions. These can affect a senior’s quality of life.
Seniors hate being thought of as weak or in need, so they cope with the disability for as long as they can without complaining or bringing it to the notice of their children or doctors. Apart from that, not all of them are aware that, nowadays, with advanced medicine, these illnesses can be treated and even reversed.
Common, treatable age-related health conditions
Total knee replacement
One of the most common problems that the elderly suffer from is knee pain due to osteoarthritis, obesity, old injuries etc. This can be chronic and over time can completely immobilize the elder. Joint replacement is the preferred treatment for alleviating pain and improving function in patients with chronic knee pain. A person who has undergone a knee replacement surgery finds rapid and substantial improvement in pain, function, and quality of life.
Cataracts in seniors
One of the signs of aging is progressive vision loss due to cataracts. Cataracts occur when the eye lens gets clouded. Many seniors may not even be aware that their vision loss is due to cataracts. They chalk up the loss of vision to aging and try to manage to the best of their ability. A small surgery can treat the cataract and reverse the loss of vision.
Help for hearing loss
A common problem that affects the aged is loss of hearing due to damage to the sensory hair cells. As with progressive vision loss, seniors deal with progressive hearing loss by managing the best way that they can. As the hearing loss increases, they stop paying attention to what is going on around them. These days, there are technologically advanced hearing aids that can help with mild to moderately-severe sensorineural hearing loss.Seniors with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss may be able to have partial hearing restored with a cochlear implant. If there is damage to the outer or middle ear or if the sensorineural hearing loss is permanent, medical or surgical intervention can restore hearing.
Cardiovascular treatment for seniors
Life expectancy has increased and due to that, the incidence of cardiovascular disease related to age is also on the increase. Even seniors who have led a healthy lifestyle could get heart disease. But, advances in treatment of cardiovascular diseases have led to elderly patients having heart surgeries with satisfactory outcomes.
As a person ages, their arteries harden and narrow, there is build-up of plaque and this reduces blood flow. There are several surgical ways to treat this problem depending on the severity of the problem. Angioplasty is a safe and effective procedure for the elderly. Stents are another way of treating narrowed coronary arteries. A coronary artery bypass grafting is another type of surgery that improves blood flow to the heart.
Hip replacement surgery
Osteoarthritis can cause severe pain in the hips in the elderly. The pain can be so debilitating that the senior is completely immobile and confined to bed. A hip replacement surgery can help in relieving pain, improve mobility and will better the seniors’ quality of life.
