La Jolla Senior Care News

Helping the Elderly Manage Arthritis

elderly people holding hands
Senior Home Care in San Diego CA: Arthritis

Is your elderly loved one living with arthritis? If so, every day might be a challenge for them. The most simple daily tasks can seem terrible and painful. If this is something your elderly loved one is diagnosed with or struggling with, there are various tips that you and your senior home care provider can use to help them manage their arthritis better. Hopefully, the tips below will help them be in less pain and improve their quality of life, as well.

 

Getting Organized

One of the first things you should do when helping your elderly loved one to manage arthritis is to get things organized. They are likely going to have doctor’s appointments and possibly medications to take. Your elderly loved one may need to make lifestyle changes like tracking what they eat or reducing inflammation by regularly exercising. It would be a good idea to make a list of the things that your elderly loved one needs to manage their arthritis. That way, you can work with them and their senior home care providers to ensure they are able to get the best care and make the proper changes to improve their quality of life.

Embracing Exercise

As noted above, one of the things that your elderly loved one may need to do in order to manage their arthritis is to embrace exercise. Many people who struggle with arthritis don’t feel like exercising. You might hear your elderly loved one say things such as, “I am in too much pain to get up and take a walk.” This could be true. However, the more inactive someone with arthritis is, the more pain they are going to be in. The reason for this is because their body tenses up and has more inflammation when it is sedentary. If you can even get your elderly loved one to start their day with a 5 to 15-minute walk, that could help them to be in less pain that day. Yoga is another great exercise for those with arthritis. Maybe, you or a senior home care provider could turn on yoga workout videos for your elderly loved one in the evening to help relax their body and mind.

 

Emotional Management

It may be something that most people forget about, but your emotions do have something to do with physical health, too. For example, when someone is stressed out, they are much more likely to have stomach pains, headaches, back pain and chronic discomfort. This is not to say that your elderly loved one’s pain and discomfort will completely go away if they manage their emotions better. However, by managing their emotions, they can reduce the stress chemicals in their body and brain, which can help to reduce pain.

Conclusion

These are some of the best tips for helping your elderly loved one to manage arthritis. Now that you have these tips, don’t hesitate to share them with your elderly loved one. Hopefully, by having you and home care providers remind your elderly loved one to do these things regularly, it can significantly help with reducing their pain and discomfort.

 

For more information about hiring Senior Home Care in San Diego, CA, call the friendly caregivers at La Jolla Nurses Homecare who can help your aging parents remain in their own homes, at 858-454-9339. We are a home care agency providing quality and affordable senior care in La Jolla, CA, and the surrounding communities.

Sources

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/arthritis/in-depth/arthritis/art-20046440#:~:text=Heat%20and%20cold.,20%20minutes%20at%20a%20time.

Brittnei Salerno

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