by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Nutrition, Seniors
Eating right and staying fit are important no matter what your age. As we get older our bodies have different needs, so certain nutrients become especially important for good health.
Calcium and Vitamin D
Older adults need more calcium and vitamin D to help maintain bone health. Have three servings of vitamin D-fortified low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt each day. Other calcium-rich foods include fortified cereals and fruit juices, dark green leafy vegetables and canned fish with soft bones. If you take a calcium supplement or multivitamin, choose one that contains vitamin D.
Vitamin B12
Many people older than 50 do not get enough vitamin B12. Fortified cereal, lean meat and some fish and seafood are sources of vitamin B12. Ask your doctor or a registered dietitian nutritionist if you need a vitamin B12 supplement.
Fiber
Eat more fiber-rich foods to stay regular. Fiber also can help lower your risk for heart disease, control your weight and prevent Type 2 diabetes. Eat whole-grain breads and cereals, and more beans and peas � along with fruits and vegetables which also provide fiber.
Potassium
Increasing potassium along with reducing sodium (salt) may lower your risk of high blood pressure. Fruits, vegetables and low-fat or fat-free milk and yogurt are good sources of potassium. Also, select and prepare foods with little or no added salt.
Know Your Fats
Foods that are low in saturated fats and trans fat help reduce your risk of heart disease. Most of the fats you eat should be polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Check the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels for total fat and saturated fat.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.eatright.org
Maintaining a proper nutrition throughout our lives is absolutely essential towards overall health, and many might find this difficult to follow, especially since our dietary needs change as we age. Due to natural wear and tear alterations of the tissues in our body, what we needed mostly as children may not be necessarily beneficial to us as adults. The above list covers several nutritional needs for seniors.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Nutrition, Seniors, Supplements
Fish oil is one of the most popular dietary supplements in the U.S. because of the perceived cardiovascular benefits of the omega-3 it contains. However, scientific findings on its effectiveness have been conflicting.
New research in Physiological Reports supports the claims for seniors, reporting that taking omega-3 fish oil supplements every day can improve the cardiovascular health of healthy seniors after 12 weeks of use.
Risk of cardiovascular disease increases with age because the arteries become stiffer. Arterial stiffness affects how blood travels through them and ultimately how strongly the heart needs to pump. The most commonly used measures of arterial stiffness are pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index. When the heart ejects blood into the blood vessels, pressure increases, creating a bulge in the vessel. PWV is the speed at which the bulge ripples through the arteries. When the pressure pulse hits a fork in the arteries, part of the pressure pulse bounces back towards the heart and combines with the new pulse coming out of the heart. How much the reflected pulse enhances the new one is called augmentation index. High PWV and high augmentation index values reflect stiffer arteries.
Reported cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 include reduced arterial stiffness seen through improved PWV and augmentation index. In this new study, researchers at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine examined whether omega-3 supplements could reverse the effects of aging on the blood vessels in healthy older adults and reduce PWV and augmentation index.
Healthy subjects ages 60 to 80 took two omega-3 capsules twice daily for 12 weeks. Each capsule contained 1000 mg of omega-3 (465 mg eicosapentaenoic acid and 375 mg docosahexanoic acid). The researchers measured PWV, augmentation index and blood pressure before and after the 12-week regimen. The results were compared to young healthy subjects, ages 21 to 35, who also followed the same omega-3 supplement schedule.
The researchers found that 12 weeks of supplementation significantly decreased PWV in the older subjects, supporting improvement in vascular health, although PWV was still higher than in young subjects. While PWV improved, augmentation index and blood pressure did not. The omega-3 supplements also did not improve either index of arterial stiffness in the young subjects.
According to the researchers, “These findings provide support for the concept that increased omega-3 intake may be an efficacious therapy in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in aging humans through effects on central arterial stiffness.” They also noted that “these effects occurred over a relatively short period of time.”
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.news-medical.net
With age, the body can become more vulnerable to developing certain conditions or even injuries related with aging. Cardiovascular disease is among the most common complication reported among the elderly, due to changes in the arteries. Fortunately, research has determined that omega-3 fish oil supplements can have tremendous benefits for seniors.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Nutrition, Seniors
As people age, their diets may need to change, especially if their diets are not well-balanced. Generally, doctors will recommend a well-balanced diet for older adults, meaning that they should eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, proteins and whole grains to maintain and improve overall health. According to Ruth Frechman, registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, in addition to eating a healthful variety of foods, there are specific things a caregiver can incorporate into their their loved one’s diet to boost his or her health.
Prepare Meals Rich in These Nutrients
- Omega 3 Fatty Acids
The acids have been proven to reduce inflammation, which can cause heart disease, cancer and arthritis. They can be found in flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, walnuts, canola oil, and different types of fish. Your older relative should have foods rich in this nutrient twice per week. If this is impossible, check with their doctor to see if an Omega 3 supplement would be beneficial.
- Calcium
The need for calcium increases as people age. This is primarily to preserve bone health. One added benefit of calcium is that it helps to lower blood pressure. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults over the age of 50 get at least 1200 milligrams per day of calcium � equal to about four cups of fortified orange juice, dairy milk, or fortified non-dairy milks such as almond or soy. Leafy greens like kale and turnip greens are also great sources of absorbable calcium. Many people find it challenging to consume this much calcium per day by eating and drinking, so check with your loved one’s doctor to see if he or she should take a calcium supplement.
Hydrate
As people age, they do not get thirsty very often, even though their bodies still need the same amount of liquids. If you notice that your loved one is not drinking liquids very often, make sure that you provide them with it. If they do not feel thirsty, chances are they may not think about drinking a glass of water.
If you are concerned that your loved one may not be properly hydrated, check his or her urine. Urine is the surest sign of hydration or lack of it. If their urine is clear and light, then they are most likely properly hydrated. If, however, their urine is dark and/or cloudy, they will need to start drinking more liquids.
Limit Sodium Content
For those with hypertension,�one of the most important things caregivers can do to help reduce a loved one’s hypertension is to prepare foods that are low in sodium. Most people are surprised to find out that added table salt accounts for only a small percent of sodium content in food. Frozen, processed and restaurant foods are typically extremely high in sodium, and should be avoided or only be a very small part of the diet. Fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, dry beans, unsalted nuts and nut butters, and grains like brown rice and oats are all foods that are naturally low in sodium, so try and incorporate them as much as possible in their diet.
Incorporate Changes Gradually
Making dietary changes can be difficult for anybody. It can be especially difficult for older adults, though, because people get stuck in habits. If your loved one needs to make dietary changes to increase their health and well-being, there are specific things that you, the caregiver, can do to help with the change.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.agingcare.com
Following a balanced nutrition is essential to achieve an individual’s overall health and wellness, especially for seniors. Because the body begins to adapt to aging alterations, older adults may have different nutritional requirements than most people. By following the above mentions tips, seniors can also achieve overall well being to maintain a quality lifestyle as they age.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Chiropractic, Integrative Functional Wellness, Integrative Medicine
Lt. Col. Scott Griffith, MD, and Army�s pain management consultant, quoted in a recent interview, �Chronic pain can be very challenging so we focus a lot on their functionality, being able to restore their function as well as bringing their pain down to the extent that we can. Even for people who cannot have their pain eliminated, many of them can have an improvement in the quality of their life.�
For military healthcare providers, managing acute and chronic pain has become a tremendous problem than ever before. In a June 2014 report in JAMA Internal Medicine, of 2,597 evaluated individuals, researchers found that 44 percent of troops experienced chronic pain symptoms after being deployed for combat while 15.1% of those individuals reported regularly using opioids. Furthermore, Veterans Affairs administrators gave a testimony before a Congress hearing that chronic pain was among the most common medical complication in veterans returning from the last decade of conflict. The frequent cause for chronic pain is due to musculoskeletal injury, which is usually unrelated to battlefield wounds. Causes for musculoskeletal injury include training and job performance with the use of increasingly heavy protective equipment as well as sports and recreation.
The challenge for federal medicine providers still lies on relieving chronic pain symptoms among active duty military members and veterans while also decreasing the chance of opioid addiction and abuse among individuals. In 2003, the Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM) was established to support and regulate pain research and education as well as improving pain management methods. Six years later, the Army surgeon general organized a pain task force membership that included representatives from military services, TRICARE and VHA, to give guidance and approval for a comprehensive pain management strategy. That same task force distributed a report in May 2010 recommending the military to use a holistic, multimodal and multidisciplinary approach to pain management, including complementary and alternative medicine.
Through the project, the VA will analyze the extent and cost-effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine utilization among veterans being treated at the Veterans Affairs Medical Clinics for musculoskeletal disorder-related pain and other related conditions. On a wider spectrum, changes in drug development are giving clinicians other means to helping active-duty service members and veterans as well as others avoid opioid addiction.
Dr. Alex Jimenez D.C.,C.C.S.T’s insight:
Both acute and chronic pain relating to trauma from an injury, have constantly been a common complication among troops. Fortunately, in recent years, efforts by the United States Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs officials to solve the issue of pain among active duty service members and veterans have started offering a larger variety of non-drug alternative methods. For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at (915) 850-0900.�
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