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The proportion of elderly at any age without any chronic conditions is small, and disease can trigger a cascade of events resulting in functional deficits and disability. An increase in the number of activities with which an elder has difficulty increases linearly with comorbidity, that is, coexistent medical conditions that further complicate not only the genesis of a functional deficit but also its treatment. For example, rehabilitation for a stroke for an individual who also has painful, degenerative changes in the foot and a low tolerance for stressful activity secondary to angina with exertion would present a particular rehabilitation challenge. Yet, this example encapsulates geriatric rehabilitation specialist’s emphasis on care and function, not cure and disease. (more…)
The overarching goal of physical therapy rehabilitation is to return the individual to as close to the premorbid level of funct ...
There are numerous basic Activities of Daily Living instruments that seek to quantify basic physical functions and obtain a numeric ...
Beneficiaries of the Medicare program have three rehabilitation-related benefits established by federal statute: physical thera ...
There are a number of issues that must be considered in geriatric pain assessment. The major issues that merit attention are pr ...
Most older adults adapt successfully to the multiple developmental and social changes and late life depression that are common ...
Over the past 60 years, many documents, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have addressed the rights of all persons. But it was not until the Declaration on Social Progress and Development in 1969 that the human rights of the elderly were specifically mentioned in an international rights document (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights). The United Nations adopted the first International Plan of Action on Ageing in 1987 and the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Principles for Older Persons in 1991. (more…)
Older Person Care
• Older persons should benefit from family and community based care and protection in accordance with e ...
There are now several gay senior housing projects in various stages of development in Seattle, Boston, and Florida. While such ...
Elder maltreatment and abuse of the elderly is found in almost all countries of the world. According to the World Health Organi ...
As mentioned earlier, the tendency to reminisce as we grow older was regarded by many gerontologists as a pathology until Robert Bu ...
It is in this same period that college-and university-based Institutes for Learning in Retirement (ILRs, later renamed Lifelong ...
Not all body fat is equally bad for your health. It is widely known that body fat distribution is extremely important. There is increasing evidence for the deleterious effects of Visceral Fat on aging. Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is an epidemiological tool that demonstrates a correlation between Visceral Fat and development of diabetes mellitus, stroke, coronary artery disease, and mortality. This ratio is easily determined by dividing the measurement of waist circumference by hip circumference. (more…)
Adipose tissue fat is not simply a reservoir for excess nutrients, but rather an active and dynamic organ capable of expressing ...
Some medications exist for weight loss. These medications are moderately effective, although they often have side effects that ...
Animal studies support a cancer-promoting role for fat, and in humans, epidemiological data strongly suggest that dietary fat i ...
Obesity results from an imbalance between caloric consumption and caloric expenditure over a prolonged period. Weight gain occurs w ...
Concomitant with the global increase in obesity is the increase in the metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syndrome, also known ...
In older patients without apparent cardiovascular disease, the number of cardiac myocytes declines, while residual myocytes enlarge. Concurrently, there is an increase in elastic and collagenous tissue in all parts of the interstitial matrix and conduction system with advancing age. (more…)
Supraventricular Tachyarrhythmia
The principles of drug and non-drug management of supraventricular tachyarrhythmia (SVT) are si ...
Results from several recently completed trials have important implications for the primary prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death Preve ...
Several clinical tools are available for identification of patients at risk of cardiac arrhythmias or its consequences that may ben ...
There are intrinsic changes in the cardiac pacemaker cells and the cardiac conduction system associated with aging, which increase ...
Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy improves functional capacity and quality of life in patients with persistent class III and IV hea ...
The senses of smell and taste are termed chemical senses because they detect chemical stimuli and encode chemosensory information into neural signals. A variety of diagnostic terms have been used to describe smell and taste disorders. Standard classification terms for olfactory disorders are anosmia (absence of smell), hyposmia (diminished sensitivity of smell), and dysosmia (distortion of normal smell). Phantosmia, a type of dysosmia, refers to perception odor in absence of an odor stimulus, and parosmia refers to distortion of odor perception when an odor is present. For taste, diagnostic terms include ageusia (absence of taste), hypogeusia (diminished sensitivity of taste), and dysgeusia (distortion of normal taste). (more…)
Doctors frequently have the patients need their dietary advice. As a doctor, I ‘ve talked to many patients over the huge amount ...
Are you confused by the overwhelming number of anti aging skin care creams available? Well, here is where the confusion stops. ...
Depression is not a monolithic disorder. Rather, it presents in a variety of syndromes that may vary in severity, length, and ass ...
Social cognitions involve thoughts about others and thoughts about the self in relationship to others. When we consider cognitive a ...
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) is the core daily personal care activities that are necessary in order for people to be able to l ...
The accumulative waste theory of aging, also known as the waste accumulation or garbage accumulation theory of aging, proposes that molecules damaged by oxidation and their by products (e.g., aged collagen, damaged enzymes), and damaged mitochondria (organelles responsible for cellular energy production) accumulate in postmitotic (non dividing cells) causing dysfunction, toxicity, aging, and cell death (see Error Catastrophe Theory of Aging).
There are several mechanisms by which garbage accumulation affects cells. (more…)
Aging theories cover the physiological, genetic, biochemical properties of a typical organism, and the way these properties cha ...
A number of global changes occur in the human nervous system with age. These changes affect the Autonomic Nervous System as well as ...
Reactive radicals of nitrogen (nitric oxide and derivatives such as peroxynitrite) and of oxygen (superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxi ...
The largest single risk factor for developing cancer is age. The incidence of cancer increases exponentially with age, although ...
Aging theories cover the biochemical, genetic, and physiological properties of a typical organism, and the way these propertie ...
