Practical Tips to Help Your Elderly Loved One Improve Their Heart Health

By Shanele Healy | August 17, 2020 |

Your elderly loved one’s heart health is extremely important. As they age, they might have more difficulties maintaining their heart health without help. However, you and their senior care providers can help them to improve their heart health in many ways. It is important that you start your elderly loved one off slowly.

Exercising 5 Days Every Week

Senior Care Pineville, NC: Heart Health and Seniors

One of the ways for your elderly loved one to improve their heart health is by exercising 5 days a week. Research shows that people who don’t exercise are much more likely to experience heart health issues. If your elderly loved one doesn’t exercise much right now, ease them into this one. Start by having them go on a walk 3 times a week for 15 minutes a time. Once they get more used to that, they can start exercising a bit more, until they are exercising 5 days a week.

Improving Their Diet

If you or a senior care provider is responsible for getting your elderly loved one’s groceries, be sure they are getting healthy foods. It is important to cut down on the foods that have a lot of cholesterol, fat, and salt. You should add more lean meats, whole grains, and fresh produce into your elderly loved one’s diet, as well. If your loved one wants flavorful food, you can put in spices or herbs, instead of salt.

Stop Smoking

If your elderly loved one is a smoker, it is important for their heart health that they quit. After just 1 day of quitting smoking, your elderly loved one’s heart attack risk will decrease significantly. Their heart rate will lower, as well. In just weeks, their lung function and circulation will get better, too. After 1 year of not smoking, your loved one’s coronary heart disease risk will be half of what it was when they were smoking. In just 2 years, there will be ½ the chance of having a stroke.

Lowering Stress Levels

If your elderly loved one is feeling stressed most of the time, this can have a negative impact on their heart health. It can be tough to manage stress for most people. However, it might be helpful to make a list of the things that are causing stress in your elderly loved one’s life. From there, you can help them to make changes to the things that they can to lower their stress levels.

These are some of the practical tips to help your elderly loved one improve their heart health. While their heart health isn’t going to necessarily get 100% better, doing all of these things can make a significant turn in the right direction.

If you or an aging loved one are considering in Senior Care in Pineville, NC, please call the professional staff at Caring at Heart today at (704) 379-7510. Serving Charlotte, Statesville, Ballantyne, Mooresville, Huntersville, Matthews, Concord, Gastonia, Pineville and Indian Trail

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/prevention.htm

https://health.gov/myhealthfinder/topics/health-conditions/obesity/stay-active-you-get-older-quick-tips

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Shanele Healy

Owner at Caring at Heart

Caring for others has always been a passion for the owner. She joined the healthcare field while still in high school believing that every health provider had the same intentions at heart. While working as a nurse assistant,Gloria quickly realized that those whom needed us most were being neglected and not receiving the best quality of care they deserved.
Knowing in her heart that families deserved better, she started Caring At Heart in 2008 with two key goals in mind: To provide clients and their families with an experience that was personable, easy, and reassuring and to create a working environment that employees were excited and proud to be a part of.