Many components of the health care system — often including patients themselves — look straight past patients’ teeth and down their throats, rather than addressing oral health needs. Medicare is no different. Original Medicare with no supplementary medigap plan, the insurance that covers roughly 427,200 seniors in Kansas, offers no preventive or restorative dental coverage,
Other than the normal aging process and bad genetics, there are other things that appear to be associated with developing one of the many forms of dementia. The problem for doctors and researchers is trying to identify these risk factors, especially since there a couple hundred different types of dementia. I recall about 20-30 years
For many years, there was a profession of people that seemed to defy the aging process or at least they aged much slower than most other people. On the outside, they may have looked old, weathered and worn, but on the inside, they tended to have a better immune system, greater muscle mass, lower levels
Are allergies more of an affliction of children and younger adults? No! While many allergies do show up in youth, they can actually manifest themselves at any age and they can develop suddenly or slowly. As a child, the only thing I was allergic to was poison ivy. It was more than just a typical
With aging comes a myriad of health issues, some of which are preventable, others due to our lifestyle and some by genetics or accident. Some of the health issues can be treated with medications, diet and exercise, but not all of them. Sometimes, like it or not, we have no choice but to go under
How well are you or your loved-ones aging? Yes, genetics plays a vital role in how many of us age, but there are also things we do that help determine if we age poorly or gracefully. I know some families where many of their members live well into their 90s and other families where few
Most of us hate medical terms like syncope and wish doctors and nurses would talk in plain English, but many don’t. So, what is syncope? Is it a disease? What causes it? How does age affect syncope? Is it serious? What is syncope? Simply stated, syncope (SIN-co-pee) is the fancy medical term for loss of
There is no doubt that winter is here. At the time of this writing, it is 23 degrees outside at my house with a wind chill ranging from 14 to 18 degrees. We had a dusting of snow this morning and since I spent most of my life in the Arizona desert, this is cold.
In our younger days, we tended to make fun of older people who suffered from various forms of dementia. As we got older and matured, that mockery turned to sympathy as we realized what it does to their loved ones. As we approach our senior years, the sympathy turns to fear as we fear, hope
In the past, we’ve discussed a liver cleanse or detox along with a colon cleanse and the jury is still out on the benefits versus harms of these types of detox or cleanses. Many say they are beneficial to overall health and needed on a regular basis while others say that such an intense cleanse
