Senior's Health

Steps for Avoiding, Recognizing and Treating Caregiver Fatigue

Care­givers sac­ri­fice a lot for those they care for, but, often­times, neglect their own health in the process. Between help­ing with every­day liv­ing, man­ag­ing med­ical care and tak­ing care of house­hold activ­i­ties, it is no sur­prise that many care­givers feel men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly exhaust­ed over time. To help pre­vent symp­toms of burnout”, we have com­piled tips to rec­og­nize care­giv­er fatigue in your­self and oth­ers, as well as how to prac­tice self-care in such a demand­ing role.

Age and Your Eye Health

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It is nor­mal for you to expe­ri­ence changes in your vision through­out your life, and as you age, your risk of devel­op­ing cer­tain eye con­di­tions increas­es as well. For most peo­ple, changes in their eyes begin in their ear­ly to mid-40s and will con­tin­ue into their ear­ly 60s. The most com­mon visu­al change in old­er adults is dif­fi­cul­ty see­ing things close by, pri­mar­i­ly when read­ing or work­ing on a com­put­er. This is a con­di­tion called pres­by­opia, a nor­mal change in your eye­’s abil­i­ty to focus. This hap­pens when the lens of your eye los­es some of its flex­i­bil­i­ty, mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for your eyes to shift eas­i­ly from objects far away to objects near­by. Typ­i­cal symp­toms include dif­fi­cul­ty read­ing print mate­ri­als includ­ing books, news­pa­pers or menus, espe­cial­ly in dim light. You may find your­self hold­ing objects away from you in order to see more clear­ly. Once it devel­ops, pres­by­opia will con­tin­ue to progress as you age. Indi­vid­u­als who already wear glass­es or con­tact lens­es may need to switch to bifo­cal or mul­ti­fo­cal lens­es for help with near and far dis­tances. Those who haven’t need­ed con­tacts or glass­es in the past may need to use read­ing glass­es mov­ing forward.

Growing Old Gracefully

Grow­ing old may be inevitable, how­ev­er, aging well is a choice. Thanks to med­ical advance­ments and increased access to care, the aver­age Amer­i­can is liv­ing to near­ly 80 years old. Tak­ing a proac­tive approach, and estab­lish­ing healthy habits now can help you to feel your best as you enter into your gold­en years. Our Inter­nal Med­i­cine physi­cians, as well as some of their active senior patients, share what you can do now to remain healthy, regard­less of your age.