Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by a board-certified geriatric psychiatry specialist Depression and anxiety in aging parents are medical conditions that respond to treatment, yet they remain among the most overlooked problems families encounter. The signs look different in older adults than in younger people: irritability, physical complaints, and quiet withdrawal instead of expressed
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by the How To Help Your Elders Medical Advisory Process Dehydration in older adults is common, preventable, and potentially dangerous. The thirst mechanism deteriorates with age, so your parent may feel fine while being significantly dehydrated. Dehydration causes confusion that mimics dementia, increases fall risk, and turns minor infections
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by a board-certified geriatric nutrition and internal medicine specialist Your aging parent might be eating and still starving. Malnutrition in older adults creeps in quietly through pain that makes cooking hard, fading taste that robs food of pleasure, depression, swallowing trouble, or a shrinking budget. The consequences are severe:
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by the How To Help Your Elders Medical Advisory Process Incontinence affects millions of older adults and is one of the most undertreated conditions in aging because shame prevents people from seeking help. It is not an inevitable part of getting old. Many types can be improved, managed, or
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by a board-certified gastroenterology and geriatric care specialist Constipation in aging parents is painful, common, and deeply undertreated because nobody wants to talk about it. Medications, dehydration, reduced mobility, and diet changes all contribute, and the problem goes well beyond discomfort into mood, appetite, and willingness to leave the
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by the How To Help Your Elders Medical Advisory Process Aging skin is thinner, tears more easily, bruises from minor contact, and heals with agonizing slowness. Small wounds that would be insignificant in a younger person can become infected and life-threatening in an older adult. Prevention through moisturizing, pressure
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by Dr. Marcus Webb, M.D. According to the CDC, roughly 68 percent of adults over 65 have gum disease, and poor oral health is linked to heart disease, pneumonia, and malnutrition. Dental problems in older adults are not cosmetic issues. They are medical problems that affect nutrition, infection
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by a board-certified geriatric care specialist Your parent's thyroid is a small gland at the base of the neck, and when it stops working right, everything else looks like the culprit. Depression, dementia, heart trouble, weight changes. A simple blood test can catch it, and treatment often
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by the How To Help Your Elders Medical Advisory Process Hospitals save lives, but they also create new problems for older patients. Delirium, falls, infections, muscle loss, and medication errors are common during hospitalization of adults over 65. Your presence, your advocacy, and your preparation for discharge can meaningfully
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by a board-certified pain management and geriatric care specialist Chronic pain in an aging parent does more than hurt. It changes personality, fractures sleep, shrinks their world, and feeds isolation and depression in a cycle that compounds on itself. The goal isn't to cure the pain but
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by Dr. Marcus Webb, M.D. More than half of adults over 65 report some form of sleep difficulty, according to the NIH. Poor sleep in older adults is not an inevitable part of aging. It is often caused by treatable conditions including pain, medication side effects, sleep apnea,
Understanding What They're Facing
Reviewed by Dr. Marcus Webb, M.D. Swallowing difficulties, called dysphagia, affect roughly 15 percent of older adults and up to 68 percent of nursing home residents, according to the NIH. Untreated swallowing problems are a leading cause of aspiration pneumonia, which is one of the top killers of older