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As you age, your body undergoes lots of changes. In fact, when you think about it, this starts from the moment you are born! Your body grows and adapts, and you become an adult. Usually, these changes are progressive and beneficial. However, when you reach a certain point, the changes become more negative. The body begins to slow down and lose its ability to work as efficiently as it once did. As a result, this leads to lots of health problems in your later years. This is why most elderly people suffer from some type of health issue.
Today, we’re going to look at a few common health problems that you may be able to prevent!
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Hearing loss
I’ve already written an entire article on managing your hearing loss, so there’s no point in going over that again. Essentially, your ears get weaker as you get older, so you lose your ability to hear. However, you can take some steps to prevent this:
- Avoid listening to things at high volumes
- Protect your ears when you’re around loud noises – such as when you’re at work, a concert, or on a plane
- Stop putting things in your ears, even if you’re trying to clean them – this can damage your eardrums and lead to permanent hearing issues
- See an audiologist for regular hearing tests
Follow those steps and you will delay hearing loss for as long as possible!
Urinary incontinence
Yes, as you get older you lose the ability to hold in your urine. This stems from the pelvic floor muscles weakening. The obvious problem with this is that you can leak urine from time to time. While things like the Coloplast SpeediCath exist to help you deal with this issue, it’s something that’s best avoided. Preventing this problem requires you to:
- Train your pelvic floor muscles regularly
- Practice good toilet habits – avoid holding it in for too long as this can cause infections that trigger urinary incontinence
- Avoid trigger foods that make you need to pee a lot – like caffeine
Sadly, urinary incontinence can occur due to another disease or illness. However, it can also happen just because of poor toilet habits, an unhealthy lifestyle, and weak pelvic floor muscles. So, trying the tips above will help you prevent it.
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Dental health problems
I’ve grouped a few issues under one heading as it makes sense to talk about all of them. Elderly people are prone to many dental health problems, mainly gum disease and teeth loss. In fact, gum disease usually leads to your teeth falling out. Again, you can get false teeth to handle this issue, but you can also take steps to prevent it:
- Brush your teeth twice daily
- Floss regularly to keep your gums healthy
- Avoid foods high in acidity or sugar
- Visit your dentist regularly for checkups
That’s all there is to it, and you can save yourself years of dental health issues and thousands of dollars in dentist bills.
Prevention is always better and easier than finding a cure. Getting old doesn’t mean you have to suffer from health problems. You’re at a higher risk, sure, but you can still prevent them from occurring.
