& quot;Active Health", Enjoying Silver Age Life (Health Direct (Stop 97))
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
On June 21, students of Jishui County Senior Citizens University in Ji'an City, Jiangxi Province, were playing waist drums. Liao Min photo (People's Visual)
On June 30, an old man was giving dishes to his partner at the Phoenix Hill Community Senior Service Center in Andongwei Street, Rizhao City, Shandong Province. Zhang Jingang photo (People's Vision)
How to do health management for the elderly at home? How to ensure daily meal nutrition? How to prevent and control common diseases and chronic diseases of the elderly?
The theme of this year's National Senior Health Awareness Week is "Improving Senior Nutrition and Promoting Senior Health". Recently, in the media communication meeting "Promoting the health of the elderly, starting from disease prevention" hosted by Health News, many experts and scholars carried out scientific popularization and provided professional guidance on the prevention of common chronic diseases and infectious diseases in the elderly, as well as reasonable diet.
General Dietary Guidelines for the Elderly
The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" compiled by the Chinese Nutrition Society has the following four core recommendations for the elderly aged 65-79.
★ Rich food variety, sufficient animal foods, and frequent consumption of soybean products.
★ Encourage shared meals, maintain a good appetite and enjoy the taste of food.
★ Active outdoor activities to delay muscle decay and maintain appropriate weight.
★ Regular health checkups to measure nutritional status and prevent nutritional deficiencies.
Dietary Guidelines for the Elderly
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022) has the following six core recommendations for senior citizens aged 80 and above.
★ Diversify foods and encourage a variety of eating styles.
★ Choose foods with fine texture and high energy and nutrient density.
★ Eat more fish, poultry, meat, eggs, milk and beans, and moderate amount of vegetables with fruits.
★ Pay attention to weight loss and regular nutritional screening assessment to prevent malnutrition.
★ Take appropriate and reasonable nutrition to improve the quality of life.
★ Adhere to fitness and educational activities to promote physical and mental health.
Health management, "seat" not "bed"
Statistics show that by the end of 2021, China's population aged 60 and above has reached 267 million. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the number of elderly people aged 60 and above is expected to exceed 300 million, accounting for more than 20% of the total population, and China will enter a moderate aging society.
"Longevity should not just be a long life of natural age, but also a long and healthy life with dignity." Wang Jianye, director of the National Center for Geriatrics and director of the Chinese Medical Association's branch of geriatrics, said that the per capita life expectancy of China's residents has increased to 78.2 years in 2021, but the healthy life expectancy of the elderly needs to be improved. While promoting the construction of medical and health service system for the elderly and promoting the extension of medical and health services to the community and families, it is necessary to mobilize the awareness of the elderly to take the initiative in disease prevention and health management.
"Among the population aged 60 and above in China, 55.83% of the population aged 60-69 is of lower age, which means that the aging is now mainly of lower age." Wu Yushao, vice president of Fudan University's Institute on Aging, pointed out that these younger seniors, who have retired soon, have a strong desire to accomplish their life goals and contribute to society, which requires a healthy body as a foundation. In fact, "want to be healthy but don't know how to be healthy" is the true picture of most of the elderly nowadays, which requires us to integrate the concept of positive aging and healthy aging into the whole process of economic and social development, and shift the health gate from focusing on the senior elderly and the disabled and demented elderly to the younger elderly.
How to establish the concept of positive aging concept? "We advocate that the elderly actively participate in social life and establish a lifelong learning concept." Wu Yushao said that a large number of studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between active participation and health of the elderly, and the more actively they participate in social activities, the better the health status of the elderly will be, "Compared with beds in nursing homes, seats in senior colleges are a more economical, practical and positive choice. In short, it is important to look more positively at aging, more positively at the lives of older people, and more positively at retirement."
Be open and learn to live with chronic illness
For the elderly, from which specific aspects should we start health management? Several experts point out that the main place to start is with chronic diseases and infectious diseases.
Liu Xiaohong, director of the Department of Geriatrics at Peking Union Medical College Hospital and vice president of the Geriatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, introduced that common chronic diseases are generally divided into three categories: one is non-cancerous, metabolic and vascular-related diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hyperuric acid; the second is malignant tumors, that is, cancer; the third is degenerative diseases, such as bone and joint diseases with an incidence of almost 100%, and cataracts, hearing loss, etc. Occur ata higher rate.
"Chronic disease is incurable, and what we want to do is to stabilize it and maintain the normal functional state of the elderly body so that they can do what they want to do." Liu Xiaohong stressed that chronic diseases are common for the elderly, so they need to learn to face them openly and learn to live with them.
It is worth noting that chronic diseases are closely related to malnutrition. Liu Xiaohong introduced that older people with multiple coexisting diseases may have to take multiple medications, many of which can affect their appetite. Some chronic diseases such as diabetes can cause abnormal metabolism; malignant tumors can increase the body's nutrient consumption; and more protein is needed to help heal wounds after fractures and surgical procedures.
"It is important to ensure that the elderly consume adequate nutrition and pay attention to nutritional balance." Liu Xiaohong stressed that the elderly in the northwest should pay attention to increasing the intake of vegetables and fruits to avoid B vitamin deficiency. Some elderly people have a low intake of red meat, beware of vitamin D deficiency.
Vaccinations to prevent infectious diseases
In addition to chronic diseases, the elderly should also focus on infectious diseases when managing their health. Experts point out that influenza, streptococcal pneumonia and herpes zoster are common infectious diseases among the elderly and should be taken seriously.
Liu Xiaohong stressed that influenza is not a "big cold", and a milder form of influenza is similar to the common cold, but the flu causes more pronounced systemic symptoms such as fever and muscle pain. If the body's immunity is low at this time, bacterial pneumonia may develop, which can lead to complications such as shock, respiratory failure, acute renal impairment and other multiple organ functions.
Most community-acquired pneumonia is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and occurs mostly in the elderly, infants and children and those with chronic diseases, such as chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases, and people with diabetes and immunocompromised conditions are also susceptible.
Herpes zoster is an infectious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, typically manifesting as a unilateral rash along the nerves, often accompanied by neuralgia. The incidence increases significantly after the age of 50, and 90% of the cases are due to a decrease in the body's immune system.
Happily, all three of these infectious diseases can be prevented by vaccination.
"Vaccination is an effective preventive measure, and by preventing infections can help mitigate the progression of chronic diseases that accompany the elderly, improving the quality of life and extending the life span of patients." Ge Caiying, chief physician of general practice at Beijing Fangzhuang Community Health Service Center, noted that to better manage their health, seniors can sign up for family doctor services at a community medical institution near their home, "one doctor, one family," to realize a model from passive service to active management. After signing up, family members can receive individualized treatment plans, quarterly face-to-face visits, health education and other services.
"At present, the coverage rate of the first dose of the new crown vaccine in China has exceeded 90%, but there are still some elderly people who have not completed the whole vaccination or booster vaccination, among which the proportion of chronic disease patients, especially those with multiple co-morbidities, is high." Feng Zijian, executive vice president and secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Preventive Medicine, pointed out that vaccines, as one of the important means to enhance specific immunity, are the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases. Seniors are advised to get a booster shot of the new crown vaccine as early as possible and to be actively vaccinated against influenza, pneumococcal vaccine and herpes zoster vaccine.
Some seniors are concerned about vaccination because they have chronic diseases. Will chronic diseases affect the effectiveness and safety of vaccination?
"Having a chronic disease is not a contraindication to vaccines per se; it does not affect the effectiveness or safety of vaccines; it affects the timing of vaccination." Bai Yunhua, chief physician of the Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, said that chronic diseases may have to accompany the elderly for a long time, and it is important to consider the actual situation of the patient and wait until the chronic disease is ina stable state before vaccination.
Do vaccines affect the control of chronic diseases? "At present, we have conducted a large number of vaccinations for the elderly (including seasonal influenza vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, herpes zoster vaccine, and new crown vaccine) and collected a large amount of safety data." Bai Yunhua pointed out that vaccines do not affect the control of chronic diseases, but rather may reduce the occurrence and development of many infectious diseases and even cross-infections through these vaccinations, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases and complications of chronic diseases leading to adverse outcomes, which means that vaccination is beneficial to the control of chronic diseases in the elderly population.