Keeping You Safe From COVID-19
Interested in a career at Golden Heart Senior Care. APPLY HERE!

How to Improve Heart Health as a Senior

In-Home Care in Summerlin NV
In-Home Care in Summerlin NV

As your body ages, the chance of developing cardiovascular disease goes up. This means a senior really needs to focus on overall heart health, and having in-home care keeps them on the right path with healthy habits. When seniors start giving up on things like diet and exercise because they can no longer do what they used to, it’s time to think about hiring help like in-home care professionals. They may be able to help your senior focus on boosting heart health and manage pre-existing conditions through a healthy lifestyle. Here are some ways your senior can boost heart health quickly and efficiently.

Understand Heart Healthy Activities

Exercising regularly is still recommended as a means of maintaining and improving cardiovascular health. However, even with in-home care help, a senior should always consult a doctor before trying a new health routine. If they’re not used to being super active, it can have a negative impact if they push their bodies too hard. Always ask a professional what exercises a senior should do before doing it. Once a professional doctor is consulted, an in-home care specialist can help a senior stick to a specific routine for optimal heart health. Exercise doesn’t mean running marathons or lifting healthy weights, but it can be something simple like a brisk walk every day or stretching with yoga each morning. Find something your senior loves to do with a doctor’s approval and add it to their daily routine.

Quit Bad Habits Like Smoking

You’ve heard it before, smoking is bad for you. Not only is it terrible for your lungs, but it also impacts how strong your heart is too. This is something that can be easier to talk about than actually do. Ask a doctor for help and try finding other habits to replace smoking with. A senior may want to smoke when they feel hungry, stressed, sad, or another emotion they can’t quite place. If that’s the case, they may need to talk about what has them in a bad mood. Be an opening ear and help them de-stress without turning to a smoking session.

Encourage Them to be a Healthy Weight

Fad diets don’t work, and they’re not always the healthiest for a senior. If your senior is focused on weight loss or weight gain, help them focus on eating a well-rounded diet. Focus on eating green vegetables, lean proteins, and some fruits throughout the day. The less processed a diet is, the better it is for a senior’s entire body. Eating right won’t just help a seniors heart; it will help their brain and full body too.

Understand the Numbers

When you start looking into health, you will notice there are a lot of numbers and counts. A senior should get their vitamin levels checked, blood pressure, and even cholesterol checked. Some of the time, in-home care can help monitor specific numbers, but a senior should also get blood work done to watch these numbers too. If something is too low or too high, it can impact heart health, and it’s your job to help a senior understand these numbers and what they can do to fix them.

Source
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/heart-over-50/heart-health-aging

If you are considering in-home care in Summerlin, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.

Top Tips for Improved Heart Health in the Elderly

Senior Home Care in Summerlin NV
Senior Home Care in Summerlin NV

Heart disease is the number one cause of death throughout the United States. Nearly 700,000 people lost their life to this disease in 2020. While heart disease risk can be somewhat genetic, there are some lifestyle factors that have a strong impact on preventing heart health issues, as well. Senior home care will encourage your elderly loved one to follow through with these tips when you can’t be there:

Movement Should Be a Priority

One of the things that your elderly loved one should be doing to prevent heart health issues is moving around regularly. Studies show that people who walk between 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day have a much lower risk of heart health issues than people who walk fewer steps than this. In addition, other studies show that people who get up and move around a bit every hour or two are much healthier than those who sit around for hours at a time without getting up. You and home care providers can make sure movement is a priority for your elderly loved one.

No Smoking

Did you know that smoking isn’t only bad for the lungs? It is bad for the heart, as well. In fact, research shows that people who smoke have a much higher risk of strokes, heart attacks, and heart disease than non-smokers. It also shows that people who quit smoking have a lower risk of heart issues within the first 24 hours of not smoking. After more time, the heart disease and heart attack risk goes down even more.

Heart-Healthy Eating

How does your elderly loved one eat right now? Do they eat a lot of fatty, cholesterol-filled foods? If so, their risk of having heart issues is probably quite high. Studies show that in order to lower the risk of heart disease when it comes to the diet, people must eat heart-healthy foods and eliminate or limit sodium, cholesterol-filled foods. Some of the foods that should be avoided are fast foods, fried foods, packaged foods, and different kinds of margarine. Some of the foods that should be added to the diet are leafy greens, healthy fats, avocados, nuts, and olive oil. Eating a rounded, balanced diet is truly one of the best ways to prevent heart health issues.

Sleep Well, Sleep All Night

Did you know that senior citizens who get quality sleep and who sleep all night have a much lower risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes? According to professional resources, sleep helps to repair damage in the body which includes any damage done to the heart. So, the better your elderly loved one sleeps, the better it will be for their heart.

Conclusion

These are some of the top tips for improved heart health in the elderly. Now that you have these tips, you can better prepare your elderly loved one for lifestyle changes they will need to make to protect their heart. Don’t forget that senior home care can help your elderly loved one to make these lifestyle changes.

Sources
https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/prevention.htm

 

If you are considering senior home care Summerlin, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.