How Home Care Can Help Seniors with Gout

Many of us have heard of gout but may not understand exactly what it is. Gout is arthritis in one of its most painful and severe manifestations. Gout is the result of uric acid crystallizing in the body and being deposited into a person's joints, leading to inflammatory arthritis in these locations.  This arthritis is partnered with swelling, stiffness and tenderness in these joints.

When a person is afflicted with gout, the body part most commonly affected is one's big toe. The other joints typically prone to gout are the ankles, knees, elbows, hands and wrists. Gout becomes more and more painful as the joint swelling makes the skin above it tighten and become extremely sensitive to the touch. The skin reddens and even turns purple. Often a diagnosis of gout is not made until a patient comes to a doctor for something to help manage his or her pain.

Factors Affecting Seniors' Risk for Gout

Gout can last anywhere from three or four days to several weeks. It may even become severe enough to result in deformities in the affected joints. It is important for the elderly and those who work in senior care to know and understand the key factors that impact whether a person is at risk of developing gout or not. These include:

• a family history of gout
• being overweight, which leads to increased uric acid production
• alcohol consumption which interferes with the body's uric acid removal ability
• prescription medications used in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease such as Levodopa and Cyclosporine and drugs with Salicylate (aspirin, diuretics or Niacin
• increased risk from other health conditions like hypertension (high blood pressure), hypothyroidism,  and renal insufficiency,
• psoriasis and certain forms of cancers

Treatment for Gout and In-Home Care Precautions with the Elderly

The main goal of gout treatment is quick pain relief and prevention of any future attacks. Containment of the damage and avoidance of any long-term complications is also paramount. Kidney damage and deforming joint destruction are both potential hazards of severe gout. It is important for elderly patients to take any medicine prescribed and understand the steps they must take to prevent re-occurring attacks.

For those who have gout, home care can play a significant role in treatment. Seniors and their home care givers should use any recommended hot or cold therapy packs on any affected areas as directed and keep the gouty joint elevated as instructed. It is important that the affected person drink a great deal of water (up to ten glasses per day) and take the recommended doses of over the counter pain medication. Alcohol intake should be limited if not eliminated altogether. 

Home Care for Seniors Makes a Difference for the Whole Family

Many families choose to become the caregivers of their aging loved ones when that time comes. Whether choosing to care for one's parent(s), grandparent or other significant loved one, there will be challenges for the caregivers, their own family and the senior as well. The relationships among all involved are being exposed to tremendous differences that can cause discomfort and change those relationships greatly.

Depending on the senior's age, health and ability to attend to her or his own needs, different types of home care may be required. Some seniors need direct care on a daily basis. Others need help with meal preparation, grooming, bathing and general activities of daily living. Still others can no longer drive, but are otherwise capable of caring for themselves. Family members may be caregivers by going to the senior's home on a regular basis and attending to him or her there or by moving the senior into the caregiver's home permanently.

The elderly often grieve the loss of their independence. It is an emotionally difficult period of adjustment to become a dependent in someone else's household after living as an independent adult. It is also hard for the adult child to become the caretaker for the parent, who has always been the caretaker. Needing help with bathing and toileting is awkward for the parent when their adult child is the caregiver helping them. It is also difficult for the adult child. The time the caregiver must devote to the senior is taken from his or her own children, creating even more change in the home.

Senior care from other sources is available to assist and supplement the care provided by family members. In fact, this service is a great help for families making the adjustment of providing care for an elderly loved one. When the family caretaker needs a break, a non-medical home care agency can supply a caregiver to provide assistance in the home so the caretaker has a few hours each week in which to do errands or take some stress-relief breaks.

The family caretaker should interview the care agency to discover all the services they offer. One valuable service to consider would be to let the caregiver come and do the toileting, bathing and grooming sessions each week to remove the awkward and embarrassing episodes from the parent and child relationship altogether. Caregivers can come for a few hours a week or on a full time basis. The assistance of a care agency can ease the stress and contribute to the comfort and ease of the entire family.

How Volunteer Work Can Help Reduce Hypertension in Seniors

Communities, schools, churches, states, our country and the entire world all offer thousands of opportunities for volunteering. Museum docent, provider of Comfort Pet visits to hospital patients, Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, library volunteer, homeless shelter cook, storyteller at a school, Adopt-a-Highway volunteer, and many other opportunities are available for anyone with time to spare and a desire to help. Many seniors and retirees serve as volunteers because, having retired, they have free time during the day to use for these projects.

Research from Carnegie-Mellon University indicates that today's volunteers are receiving more than warm and satisfied feelings for their efforts. In the Journal of Psychology and Aging published by the American Psychological Association, the results of this study indicated adults who volunteered regularly actually lowered their risk of hypertension.

Specifically, volunteers with at least 200 volunteer hours of service each year lowered their risk of hypertension by as much as 40%. This is a significant finding because high blood pressure (hypertension) is a contributor to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Volunteering as a means of reducing hypertension for the elderly is a safe and non-prescription remedy.

Seniors benefit more from volunteer work than any other group of volunteers for other reasons as well. These include:

• Social Interaction: which is a critical component of maintaining good thinking and memory skills as the brain ages.
• Self-Confidence: which allows the senior to continue to live independently and take care of him or herself.
• Physical Activity: which keeps the joints moving and helps prevent gout, stiffening and weight gain.

Inactivity from boredom and depression may lead to elevated levels of pain in the joints and muscle weakness. Self-confidence and satisfaction from volunteering leads to contentment and happiness that actually helps seniors live longer than elderly people who do not volunteer.

Seniors who receive non-medical home care because they cannot drive and need transportation for errands and medical appointments may still volunteer. They can discuss with their caregiver the opportunities available in their local area, then choose one to which the caregiver can provide the client transportation on volunteer days. In-home care services who work with house-bound seniors can help them discover volunteer opportunities they can handle from home, such as serving on a phone tree, working on-line, working on mailings and making phone calls.

To reduce hypertension risks, develop better heart health, improve memory and provide a service to your community, check out the causes and organizations that interest you the most and work with your care giver to choose the volunteering experience(s) for you.