This is an automatically translated article.
The increasing proportion of older people puts a lot of pressure on health systems around the world. Health care for the elderly is always an important issue, and most especially geriatric syndromes often cause serious effects, even death.
1. What is geriatric syndrome?
Aging and old age are inevitable in every person's life, in the world the proportion of elderly people is increasing while the birth rate is decreasing. The rapidly increasing group of elderly people is a challenge to the medical field because in old age health often deteriorates, physical and mental strength is no longer the same, moreover, aging often leads to many health problems. and this is a group of people who need constant care.
In Vietnam, when our country is in the group of a rapidly aging population, the challenges of health care for the elderly as well as the health system to treat age-related diseases need to be addressed. and care more.
Geriatric syndromes include various complex health problems of the elderly. This syndrome mainly comes from aging body problems caused by old age and involves many different parts of the body. There are 4 factors that cause geriatric syndrome including:
Old age Aging Cognitive dysfunction Decreased daily activities due to poor mobility.
2. Geriatric syndromes in the elderly
At present, geriatric syndrome is still very new, the clear understanding of this syndrome is still quite vague, because of the complexity in diagnosis as well as the need for a comprehensive geriatric assessment to find out exactly. condition that elderly patients are experiencing. The most common types of geriatric syndromes in old age include:
Delirium syndrome : Delirium in the elderly is a common condition, which is a sudden, unpredictable mental disorder. . Elderly people with delirium often lose the ability to pay attention, become disoriented, cognitive decline, behavior, personality and emotions change. Memory loss: Old age, aging nervous system leads to many dangerous consequences, especially memory loss, confusion, pathologies such as parkinson... Risk of falling: Falling is the leading cause of dementia. When it comes to mortality in the elderly, age-related changes often impair systems involved in maintaining balance, making older people more susceptible to falls. Weakness: The elderly's body functions are entering the aging stage, the body is weaker than before, especially the immune system, so the elderly are subject to many diseases. Moreover, because the body after many years of work and labor, accumulated diseases make the body weaker along with the elderly often afraid of exercise activities, making the body increasingly weaker. Dizziness: This is a common condition in the elderly Incontinence: Elderly people often have physical problems that they cannot control themselves such as urinary incontinence, problems with walking, needing other people to take care of. Malnutrition, difficulty eating: Not having a good appetite or many different reasons why the elderly cannot eat much, leading to malnutrition may occur.
Hearing loss, vision loss: The cause of vision loss or loss in the elderly is due to the degeneration of vitreous proteins. Loss or loss of vision in the elderly often causes many impacts on the daily life of the elderly. For hearing loss, after the age of 40, there are changes in the structure of the hearing organs such as a decrease in the number of hair cells, ganglia, and a decrease in blood supply to the cochlea. Elderly people often have some kind of hearing problem such as hearing loss, deafness, etc., causing certain effects on the reception of information from the opposite person. Sleep disorders: Older people often have many sleep problems such as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or staying asleep. If not treated early, long-term will have certain effects on health. Osteoporosis: This is a common condition common in the elderly, calcium density in the bones gradually decreases with age, so osteoporosis often occurs, making the elderly susceptible to fractures that are dangerous to their health. live.
3. How to treat senile senescence syndrome?
Treatment of aging syndromes due to old age is essential and needs more attention from relatives, family as well as medical facilities. Depending on each aging condition that the elderly are experiencing, the doctor will rely on that to come up with the most appropriate treatment regimen.
For incontinence, especially in defecation, the elderly need to limit the use of stimulants such as alcohol, coffee, and tobacco. The use of drugs and medical interventions can help the elderly get rid of this condition, so when you see a medical phenomenon, you should take the patient to treatment and do not hesitate to consult. doctor about these issues.
For delirium, the patient needs to be cared for and closely monitored as well as quickly treated the cause of the syndrome to help the patient quickly stabilize psychologically and return to normal life soon.
Dementia can be treated with drugs depending on the stage of the disease. Dementia treatments include psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, stimulation measures, and cognitive rehabilitation. In addition, supplementing with vitamin E, folic acid, and omega 3 helps the elderly to enhance memory, but no studies have shown that they are effective in the treatment of memory loss.
If the elderly often fall, relatives should take them to the hospital for examination to find out the cause and treatment. There are many treatment methods such as physical therapy, exercise to improve the patient's walking ability. Supplementing with vitamin D and calcium helps to strengthen bones. In addition, to prevent osteoporosis, the elderly should go to the doctor periodically, especially should pay attention to the bones. Osteoporosis in the elderly is completely reversible. The addition of calcium and vitamins is necessary and regular exercise to improve health.
Basically when the body is aging, the elderly will have a lot of health problems. In order to limit the above situation, in addition to paying attention to nutrition and exercise, the elderly also need to perform periodic health checks.
Vinmec International General Hospital has developed a general health checkup package for all customers. The overall health examination helps the doctor to detect abnormalities, thereby giving appropriate advice as well as the best treatment for each case.
The examination process at Vinmec is performed by a team of doctors and experts combined with modern medical equipment, so customers can be completely assured and confident about medical quality.
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