A study done in 2012 indicated that close to one in six adults over 50 would need help evacuating their homes in an emergency, and nearly one in 10 would need help from outside the household.

As you begin the planning process, ask yourself: what are the particular risks that you could face where you live?

Many communities have plans in place for helping seniors in the event of an emergency.

The idea behind the kit is to give someone enough supplies to be comfortable and safe until emergency services can arrive in the area

It’s important to prepare a
packet with

Legal Documents

Insurance Documents

Financial Documents

in case of an evacuation order.

A network of supporters will only work if you use it. So be sure to stay in touch with your network.

Conclusion

Hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, and other natural disaster are scary, and there’s no question that older adults have some vulnerabilities that make these events even more dangerous. But with a little planning, a little preparation, and a little help from a support network of concerned friends and relatives, seniors can weather the danger. And when they do, our communities are likely to be better off for it. Here you can create the content that will be used within the module.

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Of Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Cases Come From Women Over The Age of 60

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Types of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is a blanket term for any form of cancer that develops in and around the breast, such as the lobule (the part of the breast that makes milk), the milk ducts (these carry the milk around the breast), though there are specific forms of the cancer that affect different parts of the breast. Generally speaking, breast cancer is either:

• Invasive: The cancer spreads to healthy tissue.
• Non-invasive: The cancer is localized to the milk ducts and cells of the breast.

One of the most common form of breast cancer is invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). This form of breast cancer starts in the milk ducts and moves to other healthy tissue. There is a non-invasive form of this type of cancer that starts in the milk ducts, too, but BreastCancer.org notes that most breast cancers are invasive.

Other important forms of breast cancer include the following:

Invasive lobular carcinoma:

Similar to IDC, this form of cancer can spread to other parts of the breast, but it starts in the lobules. There is a non-invasive form, too, meaning the cancer stays in the lobule where it started.

Inflammatory breast cancer:

This is a rare form of breast cancer that makes up about 1 percent of all cases. It starts with a reddening and inflamed breast and then spreads quickly to surrounding tissue such as the lymph nodes. Within a few days or a week, it can spread from the breast to other areas.

Paget’s Disease:

This is a rare form of cancer that affects the nipple. It starts in or just behind the nipple and can spread to other parts of the breast.

Angiosarcoma:

While this is an overarching term for any form of cancer that affects the blood and lymph vessels in your body, it can occur in the breast, though it’s rare.

Any of these cancers can recur, even if treated in the early stages. The cancer may recur in the same spot as before or in a different area if leftover cells survived after the cancer previously spread.

There is also a form of breast cancer that occurs in men, but it makes up less than 1 percent of all related cases. If a man does develop breast cancer, it almost always starts in the undeveloped milk ducts.

Women are 126 times more likely to be diagnosed and die due to breast cancer than men.

Causes of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is caused by a mutation of cells in the breast, but it’s not exactly clear what causes that mutation. Whereas with lung cancer, for example, it’s easier to point to an activity like smoking as the root cause, the same does not hold true for breast cancer.

However, there are risk factors for breast cancer and they include:

Gender:

Breast cancer occurs almost exclusively in women. More than 99 percent of breast cancer cases happen in women.

Age:

The older you get, the more likely it is you will develop breast cancer. However, once you reach 75 years old, the chances of getting breast cancer over the remainder of your life starts to decrease.

Genetics:

The American Cancer Society says that about 5 to 10 percent of all breast cancer cases are inherited. The mutated genes most likely to be passed on that indicate a higher likelihood of having cancer are BRCA1 and BRCA2. You have about a 70 percent chance of getting breast cancer by 80 if you have one of these gene mutations. Men with the BRCA2 mutation have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than men without it, too.

Previously having breast cancer:

If you’ve had breast cancer in the past, you’re more likely to get it again.

Race:

White and African-American women have higher rates of breast cancer.

Dense breasts:

Dense breast tissue can be a risk factor for breast cancer. Dense breasts have more glandular and fibrous tissue than they do fatty tissue.

Family history:

If a close family member such as your mom, sister, or grandmother have had breast cancer, your chances of getting the disease are higher.

Reproductive history:

If you started your period before age 12 or started menopause after age 55, you are more likely to get breast cancer. Women who have never been pregnant have a higher risk as well.

It should be noted that these risk factors are not direct causes of breast cancer.

Signs and Symptoms of Breast Cancer

One of the most important steps in beating breast cancer is catching it at the earliest possible stage. This is why it’s vital to know the signs and symptoms.

The most common symptom is a lump on your breast. While most lumps on the breast are benign, about 20 percent are cancerous. They’re especially concerning if you’re over 40, because it is more likely the lumps are connected to cancer rather than an injection or benign tumors. The root cause of the lump is often seen during mammograms before they develop into lumps on the breast. So while lumps can be a sign, there are other signs on and around the breast that can indicate the presence of breast cancer. These include:

Nipple Inversion:

The composition of your nipple can change based on the presence of breast cancer. The cancer cells can affect the area right behind your nipple, causing it to turn inward or start inverting.

Swelling in the Underarm:

The first place cancerous cells usually travel after affecting the breast is to the lymph nodes in the under arm. Swelling or tenderness in the region can suggest breast cancer is present and has spread.

How to Get Screened for Breast Cancer

If you notice you’ve experienced some of the symptoms of breast cancer, visit the doctor as soon as possible. Not next week, not next month. As soon as the doctor can fit you in. When making the appointment, you should note you the symptoms you have experienced. You should also get a yearly test even if you aren’t showing any symptoms.

Your doctor will perform a handful of tests to determine if your symptoms are the result of the presence of cancer in your breasts. Some of these tests include:

Mammogram

A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast(s). The process starts with you standing in front of an X-ray machine and placing your breast on a clear plate. The machine then moves another clear plate on top of your breast, which is flattened with a little bit of pressure. This process can be uncomfortable and sometimes even painful, but it will only take a few seconds once the breast is in the right place. The machine takes photos of both breasts from the front and from the side.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that you avoid wearing deodorant, perfume, or any powder the day of the exam as they can alter the image and raise false flags. They also suggest avoid wearing a dress to the exam, and that you schedule the exam at a time when you aren’t on your period, during which your breasts can swell and be tender.

There are no strict guidelines for when a woman should start receiving a yearly mammogram, though it’s recommended that yearly exams start at age 45. They can move to every two years when you reach 50 to 55 years old. When you turn 75, there aren’t any guidelines for a yearly or every-other-year mammogram, and getting a screening at that point is up to you and your doctor’s discretion. You may want to start getting mammograms earlier than 45 if you have a family history of breast cancer, though that is of course up to you. If you’re unsure when you should start, consult your primary care physician.

Biopsy

This type of exam is performed to confirm a breast cancer diagnosis. It’s usually the step that follows all of the other types of exams when a doctor notices something that may be breast cancer.

During a biopsy, a doctor will extract cells from the area he or she believes the cancer is in your breast with the help of a needle and an X-ray. The cells will then be tested for cancer at a lab, which will either confirm or disprove the diagnosis. If confirmed, the test results will show if the cancer is invasive or non-invasive and how far along the cancer has developed, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Breast Exam

This is a physical exam done by a doctor, who will feel for any lumps, bumps, dimples, skin deformities, or other problems. He or she will also feel around the lymph nodes of your armpits, which is typically the first area that invasive cancer spreads to outside of the breast. Breast exams are suggested for adult women before age 40. They are typically done in conjunction with mammograms.

Ultrasound and MRI

Ultrasounds and MRIs are exams that help get a deeper image of the breast. Ultrasounds use soundwaves to depict clearer images of a lump on and inside the breast, while MRIs use radio waves to accomplish a similar task. Neither of these tests use radiation.

Breast Cancer Treatment and Prevention

Once a breast cancer diagnosis is confirmed, treatment starts almost immediately. Treatment depends on the type of cancer, the stage it is in, the size of the tumor is and if it has spread, and the type of tumor. All of this information helps doctors determine how to best move forward in your treatment.

Treatment options for breast cancer include:

Mastectomy:

This is surgery that removes the whole breast that is affected by the cancer. There are different kinds of mastectomies where the removal of tissue will move up to the lymph nodes in the armpit area. If the cancer has spread to the muscles behind the chest wall, surgeons may remove that, too. If cancer is present in both breasts, the surgery is known as a double mastectomy. Some people will have a mastectomy if it’s believed there is a high chance they will contract the disease due to family history.

Hormone therapy:

Two of every three cases of breast cancer are “hormone-receptor positive,” according to the ACA, which means the tumor and cells respond to high levels of hormones in women, particularly estrogen. The high levels of hormones can help the cancer spread. Hormone therapy is a way to balance that. The drugs used for hormone therapy block the hormone receptors on cancer cells to help stop them from growing. They may also lower your hormone levels to help accomplish the same task.

You may also be treated to help manage any pain, eating issues, weight loss, or other physical and mental side effects that arise due to treatment. Not every breast cancer will require the same type of treatment and, ultimately, the choice is up to you what course of action you want to take. Your doctor should discuss all available treatment options, how they will help reduce the presence of the cancer, and how the treatment will help ensure the cancer will not resurface if the treatment is successful.

Unfortunately, there is no clear, defined way to prevent breast cancer. However, there are suggestions made by researchers and doctors in order to reduce the risk of getting breast cancer. According to the CDC, these include:

• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Not smoking
• Limiting alcohol intake to one or fewer drinks per day
• Being physically active
• Breastfeeding (if you have children)

If you have any questions regarding breast cancer, contact your primary care physician or get in touch with an oncologist in your area.

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In the past decade, the increase in workers aged 65 and older is nearly quadruple the increase in younger workers.

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Job Industries and Elderly Workers

Using the same survey, the BLS analyzed a series of job categories, comparing how many individuals between the ages of 45 and 65 were in these industries versus the number of workers over the age of 65. These included jobs in management, business and financial operations, legal, office and administrative support, farming and fishing, production, and more. The one area where elderly workers prevailed by a huge margin is food preparation and service-related jobs, with 25.3 percent of workers over 65 holding these types of positions versus just 3.1 percent of those in the younger age bracket. Other areas where the elderly hold a majority of the slots based on percentage share, even if only by a little, include:

• Art, design, entertainment, sports, and media (1.9 percent vs 1.7 percent)
• Personal care and services (3.7 percent vs 2.8 percent)
• Sales and related positions (9.8 percent vs 9.5 percent)

This survey also found that women are employed at roughly the same rate as men for both age groups and in almost all job categories, which is great news for elderly women want to work. Additionally, the number of elderly workers increased regardless of education, meaning this factor alone doesn’t necessarily impact an older person’s job prospects (depending on field and job requirements, of course).

Reasons Why People Are Working Later In Life

According to an AARP survey, the number-one reason Americans over the age of 45 continue to work past the point when others retire is because of financial necessity. For some, this necessity is related to their own living expenses, accounting for 42 percent of the cases. For others, they work to help support family members, which happens about 12 percent of the time.

Other reasons Americans are choosing to bypass retirement and work into their later years include:

To have something to do
(83%)

This survey also revealed that more than one in four older workers (27 percent) planned to continue to work for the rest of their lives, whether full or part-time.

Whatever the specific reason and whether it is out of want or need, finding a new job isn’t always easy when you’re over a certain age. In fact, another AARP survey found that two-thirds of workers over the age of 45 have either seen or experienced some level of age-related discrimination—often referred to as ageism—even though this discrimination is against the law.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) outlines that ageism is a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 and occurs if a job applicant is treated “less favorably” solely for being over 40 years old. Additionally, this act prohibits age discrimination in all aspects of the employment process, from hiring to firing, as well as in regard to layoffs, promotions, pay, training, and benefits.

The ADEA also makes it illegal to harass older employees, such as by making derogatory statements about their age or age-related abilities, which ultimately creates a hostile work environment. This harassment can come from employers or supervisors, but it can also come from a co-worker or even a client.

On a positive note, the number of age discrimination complaints being filed has actually decreased in recent years. In 2017, there were 18,376 age discrimination charges filed under ADEA, according to the EEOC, but in 2008, there were 24,582. Payouts in these types of cases cost more than $90 million today, but they are notoriously hard to prove.

That is likely why there are more ageism cases being resolved by “no reasonable cause,” which essentially means that the court has no hard and fast evidence that age discrimination occurred. According to the data, this finding occurs in almost three out of four (70.8 percent) of the cases.

The Driving Forces Behind Age Discrimination

One of the reasons the elderly are discriminated against in the workplace has to do with the media, according to the Encyclopedia of Social Work, a publication provided by the National Association of Social Workers Press and Oxford University Press.

For instance, some media sources report that older workers are “creating problems” for younger workers by not leaving the workforce. Others indicate that elderly employees don’t respect younger superiors, cost more to employ in terms of benefits, and are more than willing to take their employees to court.

Social stereotypes play a role as well, with the Encyclopedia sharing how older age is often considered synonymous with “physical and mental decline.” Other stereotypes that can lead to age discrimination include having the belief that older workers are more accident-prone, take more days off, are less intelligent, less flexible, or harder to teach. There’s also a misconception that they tire more quickly and underperform their younger counterparts.

However, research has proven otherwise, with one piece in Contemporary Issues In Education Research reporting that older workers are actually “absent less frequently and can be expected to remain healthy far longer than previous generations.” This research also states that elderly employees aren’t inflexible and unwilling to learn new skills; they’re just not provided the opportunities to advance their level of knowledge as often as their younger counterparts.

Ageism In The Workplace: Creating An Effective Response

Because ageism does exist in some capacity in the workplace, it helps to know how to effectively handle this type of discrimination if it occurs.

The first step is to consider talking with your employer about how you’re being discriminated against or, alternatively, filing a complaint via your company’s internal grievance policy, according to the AARP. This may enable you to resolve the ageism issue without having to go to court, especially if you have a solid case because they’re going to be more likely to want it to go away.

If you’re unable to resolve your discrimination concerns directly with your company’s management, the AARP says that your next step would be to contact the EEOC either by phone (800-669-4000) or online within 180 days. If you decide to take this route, it’s very important that you have documentation of the ageism. Hold on to any discriminatory emails or other writings or, at a minimum, keep detailed notes about what was said or done to you that could be considered age discrimination.

At this point, the EEOC will likely contact your employer and investigate your claim. If it is found that age discrimination was occurring, the EEOC can either try to resolve the issue directly with the employer (or whomever the claim is against) or take legal action against them if no resolution can be reached, which only happens in a small number of cases.

Once the EEOC completes its investigation and finds merit in the charge, they send you (the complainant) a “right to sue” letter that gives you 90 days from that date to file your lawsuit. However, you don’t have to wait to receive this letter before filing a case, because you can do that within 60 days of registering your complaint with the EEOC if you prefer.

After filing your lawsuit, it is up to the judge or jury to determine whether the individual or entity you are suing is guilty of age discrimination. If they are, you could be awarded money damages in an amount deemed appropriate by the court.

How To Make Yourself More Marketable As An Older Employee

One way to potentially avoid age discrimination is to make yourself more marketable as an older employee. The job search site Monster says that this involves doing two specific things, the first of which involves staying current in your industry.

The more aware you are of the latest technological trends in the industry you want to work in, the more valuable you are to the prospective employer. You don’t have to be an expert of every trend, but you should be able to show that you know what type of technology is being used and have a basic understanding of how it works.

If you’re a little behind or unsure of what this technology is, you may want to take a class to brush up your skills. Or, if you know someone proficient with that particular type of tech, you could also ask him or her to teach you more about it.

Monster also recommends that older individuals give their resumes a makeover so they look more modern while also listing any newly acquired skills to show that you’re taking positive action to make and keep yourself more marketable in today’s workplace.

Additionally, if you graduated from college more than two decades ago, Monster suggests that you don’t list your graduation dates. Leave your first entry-level positions (and their dates) off too, and instead share your more mid-level experience.

Finally, if you’re not sure what else to put on or leave off your resume, you may want to get professional help to make sure the document says everything you want it to—and nothing that you don’t.

Tips For Nailing A Job Interview

Once you’ve made it past the resume stage and have landed an interview, there are also a couple things you can do to ace it as an older job applicant. For instance, although employers are prohibited from asking applicants their age, some work around this by asking how long you plan to work.

Regardless of how you answer, Monster recommends being vague and saying, “I enjoy working, and feel like I’m still learning, and intend to stay in the workplace as long as I can.” Basically, the best response is one that shares your excitement for the job, offers up the skills you bring to the table, and provides the experience you have that will make you an asset to this employer.

U.S. News & World Report adds that if you’re over 50 and interviewing, it’s helpful to be able to articulate why you want to work for that particular employer. This requires doing a little homework beforehand so you know more about the company, what it does, its values, and where it wants to go in the future. You can find most of this information on the company’s website. This will show the interviewer that you’re committed to that organization or agency and create a more personal bond.

It’s also helpful to provide clear examples of how you’ve solved problems or what you’ve done to overcome obstacles, as these are highly valuable skills. Give the interviewer an idea of your capabilities based on actual situations you’ve encountered or been involved with to better highlight your abilities and how you handle yourself when working with others.

Also, while you may be tempted to tell a prospective employer all about your 30+ years of experience, U.S. News suggests that older workers get further ahead by taking a less talkative approach and focusing on just a few of the skills, abilities, or experiences that showcase them best. So, follow the interviewer’s lead and recognize if you may be sharing too much.

of managers will bypass a job applicant if they don’t receive a thank-you note after the interview.

The Other Job Option For Seniors Wanting To Work

In the BLS’s comparison of job industries and how they relate to individuals between the ages of 45 and 65 versus those who are older, the one factor where older adults almost always prevailed over the younger group was in regard to self-employment.

For instance, in architectural and engineering positions, 3.4 percent of workers aged 45 to 65 are self-employed. However, that amount increases to 9.3 percent for those over 65. And for those working in business and financial operations, individuals over the age of 65 are self-employed 25.4 percent of the time compared to just 8 percent of the younger age group.

This is good news for two reasons.

• First, you don’t have to worry about being discriminated against for your age by an employer if you’re working for yourself.
• Second, if you’ve always wanted to own your own business—whether as a side hustle or full-time—now is your opportunity to do it because people like you are doing it.

In fact, in 2016, the U.S. Small Business Administration reported that 5.4 percent of seniors 62 years old and older are working for themselves, up from 4.2 percent in 1988. Though this may not seem like much, the number of self-employed persons under the age of 62 actually declined during this same timeframe, dropping from 7.2 to 6.0 percent.

So, what type of work can you do as a self-employed senior?

Self-Employment Options For The Elderly

In reality, you can do anything as a self-employed older person who is not yet ready to leave the workforce because no job type is off limits based solely on age. So, the real question you may want to ask yourself is, “What do I want to do?”

Maybe there is something you’ve dreamt of doing for as long as you can remember, but never made it a priority because you had a family to take care of or bills to pay. Or perhaps you’ve always had a side job in addition to full-time work and, now that you no longer work your 9-to-5, you’re interested in making your part-time gig your full-time job.

If you’re not quite sure how to turn working for yourself into a profitable venture that is worth your time and effort, here are a few options to consider:

Drive for companies like Uber and Lyft so you can work when you feel like it yet don’t have to worry about marketing because these companies take care of that for you.

If you’re still not sure how to turn your skills and knowledge into a business you can run and own, Retired Brains offers a List of Businesses Started By Boomers, Seniors And Retirees that may give you a little inspiration and help you think outside the box.

Although age discrimination does occur in the workplace, there are still things elderly workers can do to help combat it. These include taking the appropriate action if you feel that you’re a victim of ageism, marketing yourself effectively as an older worker, and possibly even working for yourself. All of these can help you keep working until you’re ready to stop, no matter your age.

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Or More of Parkinson’s Patients Will Develop Some Form of Dementia

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Symptoms and Signs Of Parkinson’s Disease

It’s difficult to directly diagnose Parkinson’s disease. There is no specific test doctors can perform to confirm a diagnosis, which is why it’s important for research to continue to identify the ever-evolving definition of Parkinson’s. In addition to pinpointing many of these symptoms, doctors will also delve through family history and perform an overall examination of the brain to officially diagnose someone.

The rate at which these symptoms onset varies per person, and there’s no specific amount of time you’re guaranteed to lived once diagnosed. It can develop quickly or you can live 30 years before the worst of the disease starts to show. While Parkinson himself identified six main qualities of the disease when he first detailed it, the symptoms of Parkinson’s have developed over time. They include, but aren’t completely limited to, the following:

• Slowness of movement: This is identified as the inability to move the body as quickly as normal, with muscles moving slower in coordination with each other. Known as “bradykinesia” in the medical world, it’s one of the defining symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Researchers explain that the disease causes the brain to create less of a certain type of brain cell (basal ganglia) that helps part of the brain’s cerebrum tell us to move our muscles. Slowness of movement can take shape in many forms (that we’ll discuss soon), and bradykinesia can force those with the disease to take longer to complete routine activities and eventually lose coordination.
• Decreased facial expressions: As Parkinson’s disease progresses, you may find that a patient’s face starts to get less expressive over time. Someone who used to smile or frown often may not be able to show expression as much as they once used to. Known as “hypomimia,” the condition has some connection with bradykinesia. Patients may not be able to express emotions and facial expressions as well as they used to simply because their body is not allowing them to quickly grin, curl their eyebrows, frown, or use any facial muscles at a given instance. It almost appears as though the person with the disease is wearing a permanent mask that shields their reactionary emotions—you won’t be able to tell how they’re feeling unless they vocalize it.
• Tremors: Formally known as dyskinesia, tremors are defined as an “involuntary, rhythmic muscle contraction leading to shaking movements in one or more parts of the body” by the National Institute of Health. These contractions can be constant or occur at random times, and they don’t occur in everyone with Parkinson’s. These tremors occur most frequently in hands, arms, legs, and your head/neck area. While doctors can’t explicitly explain why tremors occur in Parkinson’s patients (research has shown that a lack of certain brain chemicals may contribute), but tremors have been found to be a side effect of people using levodopa—a medication used to treat Parkinson’s.
• Unsteady balance: In the later stages of Parkinson’s, your balance may start to fall by the wayside, which can impact basic activities like walking, putting on clothes, and bathing. Like reduced facial expressions, an unsteady balance is partially connected to bradykinesia, in that your body’s inability to move muscles as quickly when reacting to certain movements can cause falls and a general instability. Having an unsteady balance—and trying to overcompensate by bending or leaning a certain way to prevent consistent falls—can result in poor posture. Many of these symptoms are interconnected, as one can start a chain reaction in causing the others.
• Monotonous vocal tone/soft speech: Just as your face can start to get less expressive, so can your voice, because the muscles surroundings your lips and neck provide less opportunity for you to express at a loud and shifting vocal tone. (This is known medically as “dysarthria.”) This can make it more difficult for doctors to treat patients, or for caregivers to understand a patient’s needs. Like bradykinesia, speech impairments come from the disease affecting the part of the brain that produces smooth motor skills like speech. The way a person with Parkinson’s speaks isn’t just limited to a slow, monotonous tone. It’s possible that a patient could exhibit rapidfire speech, also making it difficult to understand. Overall, Parkinson’s patients have a difficult time keeping up in conversations because of all these effects.
• Decreased ability to bend (Rigidity): As the disease progresses, you may find it more difficult to bend your arms, legs, and back, making your overall movements far less fluid. This can make it challenging to put on clothes, get in and out of bed, roll over in bed, walk at a fluid pace, and other daily activities. Overall, Parkinson’s causes your muscles to feel cramped and achy on a consistent basis. While this symptom isn’t completely understood, researchers believe it’s due to the dramatic decrease in dopamine—a chemical that helps brain cells and nerves stay connected—in Parkinson’s patients. Those with the disease have 60 to 80 percent less dopamine than the average person.
• Shuffling walk: A person’s gait—the fluidity in which someone walks—can be affected by Parkinson’s. Though often temporary, patients have reported that it feels like their feet are glued to the floor when trying to move them. And once their feet do move, it’s more of a shuffle than it is picking one foot up and placing in front of the other. Like many of these other symptoms, this is caused by damage to a part of the brain that helps with the fluidity of motor movements. If someone with Parkinson’s isn’t shuffling their feet, their strides may be shorter while walking quicker. All this can occur while overcompensating with poor balance, which can make walking extremely difficult and painful.

Does Parkinson’s Lead To Dementia?

During the final stage of Parkinson’s disease, your symptoms may progress from severe motor function inhibition to memory loss. Generally, any form of memory loss is known as dementia.

There are multiple forms of dementia, such as:

• Alzheimer’s disease (the most common)
• Huntington’s disease
• Vascular dementia
• Dementia with Lewy bodies
• Dementia caused by head trauma
• Dementia caused by alcohol and drug abuse

Parkinson’s disease is listed as a form of dementia simply because memory loss occurs in its later stages. It’s estimated that memory loss doesn’t become a concern until at least 10 years after the initial diagnosis. While memory loss isn’t a cardinal symptom of the disease, more than half of Parkinson’s patients develop some form of dementia. Like Alzheimer’s disease, the dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease progressively grows worse.

The Alzheimer’s Association says that if dementia does stem from Parkinson’s disease, the symptoms are similar to dementia with Lewy bodies. This is because patients start to develop these protein deposits (the Lewy bodies) on the parts of their brain that affect movement and cognition, which can then affect memory.

Symptoms of the dementia include:

• Hallucinations
• Changes in reasoning
• Changing levels of alertness that vary from day to day
• Delusions
• Difficulty interpreting visual information
• Depression

Dementia may not explicitly be a symptom of Parkinson’s disease. It may just be that people with the disease are at a higher risk of developing dementia than people without it. It also may be that memory loss is occurring separately from the disease. Most Parkinson’s patients who experience dementia are over 70, which is when rates of memory loss start to increase, too. Nevertheless, it’s a significant development in the progression of Parkinson’s and something that doctors need to include in the treatment process.

Stages Of Parkinson’s Disease

Because Parkinson’s disease develops over time, there are various stages that help identify how symptoms have progressed and what should be expected next.

Generally, doctors follow a set of five stages as outlined below:

Stage 1

The beginning stage of Parkinson’s disease sometimes doesn’t show any signs at all. If symptoms are noticeable, they’re usually tremors and affect one side of the body. The symptoms usually don’t affect your daily routine, but they should be taken seriously and brought to the attention of your doctor, if they haven’t already.

Stage 2

During this stage, the disease starts to affect your whole body. The tremors and stiffness cause routine activities to take a little longer to complete, and your overall movement starts to be affected. Your posture and facial expressions may should start to change, which can impact your ability to walk at a normal pace or communicate like you used to.

Stage 3

This stage features a worsening of all the symptoms that started to progressively deteriorate in stage 2, but you also start to experience a loss of balance and coordination, as well as how quick your reflexes are. As these symptoms start to come into the fold, people with the disease start to fall more, which can cause their own injuries and debilitations. Activities like getting out of bed, eating, and getting dressed start to get more difficult.

Stage 4

At this stage, it’s nearly impossible to live on your own. Your ability to complete activities of daily living (dressing, taking a shower, eating) become severely inhibited, and you shouldn’t perform them without assistance because it’s dangerous—especially cooking and trying to bathe. Walking is limited, too, with your movement being restricted to a walker (if possible).

Stage 5

This is the final and most severe stage, and you can’t live without assistance by this point. Basically all motor functions are lost, and you’re confined to a bed or a wheelchair for movement. Stage 5 is when dementia, hallucinations, and confusion begin to set in.

In addition to the onset of the disease developing slowly, there is not one singular form of Parkinson’s disease but rather multiple that take effect at different speeds and produce different symptoms. While different forms of the disease have in-depth rating symptoms about how severely the disease is progressing, the aforementioned rating system presents a solid progression of symptoms across all forms of Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s is not always the explicit cause of death for those with the disease, but rather the dangers and the inhibitions (immobility leading to heart issues, instability leading to fatal falls) of the disease that can become fatal.

Different Types of Parkinson’s Disease

As Parkinson’s begins to take its full effect, the disease can ravage different parts of the brain and cause varying symptoms. The diagnosis of what type of Parkinson’s you have depends on this (symptoms, where it starts, etc.). Sometimes, doctors don’t know the exact cause, either, but they know you exhibit symptoms that line up with Parkinson’s. Let’s dig into the different forms of the wicked disease:

• Vascular Parkinsonism: Vascular Parkinsonism is caused by a restricted blood flow to the brain, particularly the parts of the brain that affect movement and speech. When someone has a massive stroke, or even multiple smaller ones, the immediate restriction of blood to certain parts of the brain can cause Parkinson’s-like symptoms. Contrasting from normal Parkinson’s disease, the symptoms of Vascular Parkinsonism—most commonly, walking problems and memory loss—typically onset very rapidly because of the immediate blood restriction.
• Idiopathic Parkinson’s: The most common form of Parkinson’s disease, this is diagnosed when the root of the disease is unknown. While the loss of motor skills and stability can be explicitly explained in other cases, doctors often don’t know why the disease came to fruition.
• Drug-induced Parkinson’s: You can develop Parkinson’s disease after long exposure to certain forms of medications. Between 5 and 10 percent of people with Parkinson’s develop it because of this. Antipsychotic and neuroleptic drugs that are used to treat conditions like schizophrenia and psychosis may cause Parkinson’s because they affect natural dopamine levels in the brain. While they block dopamine in the immediate term, this long-term depletion can start to proliferate in the form of Parkinson’s symptoms. If the disease does develop due to these type of drugs, it’s often reversible within weeks and months of stopping the medication.
• Corticobasal Degeneration: A rarer form of the disease, it occurs when a protein called tau builds up on certain parts of the brain. Corticobasal degeneration develops more slowly and often affects one side of the body before slowly taking effect to the whole body over the course of a couple years. It can be diagnosed in your 40s, but people most commonly develop the disease between 50 and 70 years old.

There are other generations of the disease, but they are the most rare forms. Nevertheless, they carry similar symptoms as all other forms of the disease.

Parkinson’s Disease Treatment and Its Future

Parkinson’s disease has no cure. However, millions of dollars are going into research every year to help better understand the disease, from how it’s defined to how it’s treated. The ultimate end goal is developing a cure for Parkinson’s, but in the meantime, doctors and researchers have developed treatment plans based on what they presume is causing the disease in the first place—most often the lack of certain brain chemicals and cells like dopamine.

The plans vary per patient, and some of these treatment options include:

• Levodopa: This is the primary medication used to treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms. Those diagnosed with the disease have been found to have significantly lower levels of dopamine, and levodopa addresses that issue and stimulates the nervous system. Levodopa increases the dopamine levels in your body and aims to qualm issues rooted in the nervous system like tremors, muscle control, and coordination. Typically, levodopa is taken in conjunction with a drug called carbidopa, which acts as a protector for levodopa so it actually reaches the brain and allows it to be effective. Unfortunately, levodopa has some drawbacks that include vomiting, nausea, insomnia, and diarrhea, among other side effects. Long-term, levodopa can actually make tremors and other muscle spasms worse. The combination of these medications is taken multiple times per day.
• Dopamine agonists: As opposed to taking levodopa, which turns into dopamine, some patients are prescribed with dopamine agonists, which mimic the effects of dopamine. These agonists activate the dopamine receptors in your brain and make it seem as if your dopamine receptors are acting normally. In some cases, dopamine agonists are taken in conjunction with levodopa to help find a healthy balance between the two medications and limit the side effects from both treatments. Side effects of dopamine agonists are similar to levodopa, but there are other severe side effects including hallucinations and sporadic behavior outside of your personality.
• Surgery/brain stimulation: Surgical options are available for Parkinson’s patients. The primary form of surgery that those with Parkinson’s receive is deep brain stimulation (DBS), which aims to address specific parts of the brain like the cortex. During the surgery, electric waves are sent to the brain in order to stimulate the parts of the organ that are suffering as a result of Parkinson’s. The end goal is to relieve some of the symptoms the disease causes. Another surgery Parkinson’s patients can get is an implant that consistently emits dopamine agonists or levodopa to make sure the drug is taken on schedule.
• Medical marijuana: Medical marijuana has not been officially recommended as a treatment for Parkinson’s by the Food and Drug Administration, as it’s not been scientifically proven that cannabinoids explicitly help fight the disease. However, it has been used for decades in order to treat diseases like the ones exhibited by Parkinson’s, such as tremors and slowness of movement. To learn more, read our complete guide to medical marijuana for seniors.
• Other medications: There are other medications including Eldepryl, Zelapar, Duopa (a combination of levodopa and carbidopa), Azilect, and dozens more that address dopamine levels in the brain and various symptoms you may be experiencing because of the disease.

There isn’t any real way to definitively prevent the disease, either. As with prevention for any disease or malady, it’s suggested that you maintain a healthy lifestyle before and after a diagnosis. Remaining physically engaged through activities like running, yoga, and weight lifting and eating healthy are both ways to provide your body with the best opportunity for a healthy life.

Clinical trials are also viewed as a “treatment option” because they may give you as good of a chance of relieving symptoms as other already-existent treatments. There are clinical trials happening year-round with various institution and foundations, and your demographic may fit a trial in its beginning pre-clinical stage or an advanced stage.

Talk to your doctor about any available clinical trials that you may qualify for and how to become a part of them. Also stay in contact with your doctor regarding any concerns that you may have with Parkinson’s or how to get it treated.

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Average Age of Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

What Is Prostate Cancer?

Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in the world among men (skin cancer is first, lung cancer is third). Males are the only people who can contract prostate cancer, simply because they are the only people who have prostates. (Just like women are the only people who can have ovarian cancer.) Nearly 200,000 men are diagnosed with the disease every year, and most of them are over the age of 50. It’s estimated that nearly 30,000 men will die because of prostate cancer in 2018.

Despite these large mortality numbers, the overall prognosis of prostate cancer is positive. The American Cancer Society (ACS) notes that the 15-year survival rate for those diagnosed with prostate cancer is 96 percent—meaning that 96 percent of people diagnosed with the disease live for 15 years past their diagnosis date. That number is even higher when you look at the 5- and 10-year survival rates. This can be attributed to early detection and treatment options, which we’ll discuss soon. It’s also entirely possible for a man to die while having prostate cancer, but the prostate cancer not be the cause of death.

The prostate is a small gland, about the size of a walnut (about an inch and a half in diameter) located between your bladder, penis, and rectum.

The primary function of the prostate is to excrete prostate fluid, which mixes with sperm to become semen during ejaculation. The urethra also runs through the prostate from the bladder to the penis. When ejacualting, the prostate closes off the urethra from the bladder and thrusts the semen from the testes, through the prostate, and to the penis. The fluid that comes from the prostate makes up about one-third of the overall semen fluid composition.

Because the prostate is packed between other vital organs like the bladder, rectum, penis, and urethra, when it grows—as it usually does with prostate cancer—it can cause a lot of issues.

Early Stage Prostate Cancer

Most prostate cancer (about four out of every five cases) is caught in the early stage. Prostate cancer is in the early stage when the prostate hasn’t grown or swelled because of the cancer’s presence, and it’s still localized in the gland. While there are four stages of prostate cancer, each with their own levels of severity, nearly all of these stages are considered in the “early stage” as long as the cancer hasn’t spread outside of the prostate.

After various tests, your doctor will assign a stage or a Gleason score based on what your prostate looks like and how aggressive the cancer is. The higher Gleason score you have (it runs grade one through five), the more aggressive the cancer is. While the cancer is still is in the prostate, it’s still in the early stages.

According to the ACS, the five-year survival rate for those diagnosed with prostate cancer is almost 100 percent.

Treatment

There are several treatment options available in the early stages of prostate cancer. These options include:

• Surgery: A prostatectomy—surgery that removes parts of the prostate—is typically a choice in younger, healthy men who want to get rid of the problem while the side effects from surgery are less likely to be risky. There are different types of surgery (open prostatectomy, laparoscopic surgery, perineal prostatectomy) that require incisions on different parts of the body and have varying risk factors, which can also affect someone’s decision. A study found that men who did decide to undergo surgery to remove the part of the affected prostate within a year of being diagnosed didn’t have higher rate of relapsing the longer they waited to decide to undergo this treatment process. So while surgery is an effective treatment, it’s also okay to sit on the decision and make sure that it’s the right treatment for you.
• Radiation: Treating prostate cancer with radiation is a good option for older men with diminished health whose cancer is progressing. Surgery may be too risky of an option for these older patients, so radiation attacks the cancer without having to surgically invade an older body. Like surgery, there are varying radiation options that require different lengths of treatment, and whichever one is recommended as the best option to you may sway you toward or away from this treatment. For example, one treatment option sees small seeds placed in your prostate that emit radiation over the course of many months to attack the cancer, while another option requires radiation sessions that run 15 to 30 minutes long, four or five days a week.
• Observation: Sometimes the best treatment is no treatment at all, but rather consistent check-ups and tests to make sure the cancer isn’t progressing faster than usual. The risks of waiting and monitoring can outweigh the risks of other treatments, making observation the best treatment option for the time being. This option makes sense for many men. If an 80-year-old man is diagnosed with a beginning-stage prostate cancer, and it’s not expected to affect the man’s life over the next couple years, why rush treatment? The same can be said for a man in his 50s, who doesn’t feel the need to address the problem until it starts spreading and affecting his health.

When prostate cancer is in its early stages, patients have time to consult other doctors and family members to decide which treatment is best for them and their health. For instance, an man in his 80s may be more reluctant to surgery than a man in his 50s, whose body may be able to handle the treatment option better. Also, men whose cancer is diagnosed with a low Gleason score may be more inclined to wait rather than a man whose cancer is close to spreading to other parts of the body.

You can change your mind on treatment options whenever you’d like. If you decide to wait and later feel surgery is the best option, inform your doctor of your decision.

Late-Stage Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is in its latest stages when it has spread to nearby locations such as bones, lymph nodes, and organs. While survival rates for all stages before this are extremely high, once prostate cancer has metastasized to other parts of the body, the survival rates over the next five years are below 30 percent, according to the ACS. Some areas of the body the cancer may spread to in its late stages include:

• Spine
• Pelvis
• Ureters (the tubes that take fluid from the kidney to the bladder)
• Ribs
• Pelvis
• Bladder

When prostate cancer spreads to these other areas, it’s difficult to treat and cure, which is why the five-year survival rates are drastically lower than they are in earlier stages.

Treatment

At this point, treatment options in earlier stages like the waiting game and surgery are out of the question. So what are your options now? In this later stage, treatment options tend to try and attack the cancer as a whole rather than the area it’s localized to, like the prostate or your spine.

Let’s take a look at some options:

• Hormone therapy: Hormone therapy tries to keep male hormones at normal levels, as high testosterone levels have been shown to be a risk factor in the development of prostate cancer. Reducing the amount of hormones that reach the cancer can help shrink cancer cells or stop them from multiplying altogether. Hormone therapy can be done through various procedures and medications, including removing the testicles to help severely minimize how many hormones are reaching the cancer. This therapy can’t cure prostate cancer, but it can help stop it from growing and spreading, allowing for other treatment options to get rid of it.
• Chemotherapy: A common treatment for all types of cancer, chemotherapy is used to either kill cancer cells or stunt their ability to metastasize. Newer chemotherapy drugs have been shown to be effective in helping treat prostate cancer and the areas it spreads to. They also have proven to help men live longer than older chemotherapy drugs. While it’s not the primary treatment option, chemotherapy can add a layer of effectiveness.
• Immunotherapy: This form of treatment uses your body’s immune system to attack cancerous cells. For prostate cancer treatment specifically, there is only one medication, Provenge, that is approved by the Food & Drug Administration, but it has shown to help men survive longer while having advanced prostate cancer. However, Provenge hasn’t been proven to work for prostate cancer that is localized in the gland.
• Radiation: Unlike other early stage treatments, radiation is still in the cards as a treatment plan in the later stages. While it’s a more difficult treatment, because the area where the cancer exists isn’t confined to one area, radiation remains an option.

Unlike early stage treatments, where you have time to think over your options, you should follow your doctor’s advice for treatment—and follow it soon—as late-stage prostate cancer can become fatal quickly.

Who Is Most At RIsk Of Being DIagnosed?

The average age of a prostate cancer diagnosis is 66, according to the ACS, and it’s rare to be diagnosed with prostate cancer before the age of 40. This is why testing isn’t usually suggested until you are at least 45.

The men most affected by prostate cancer are older than 50. Your chance of being diagnosed with prostate cancer increases with age, too. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the following is a list of a man’s chances of developing prostate cancer at different age ranges:

• Before 50: 1 in 403
• Between 50 and 59: 1 in 58
• Between 60 and 69: 1 in 21
• Between 70 and 79: 1 in 14

The chances of being diagnosed with the disease continue to rise after 80.

In addition to age being a telling factor in how likely it is a male will develop prostate cancer, so is race. While diagnosis rates fell for all races between 1999 and 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black men consistently were diagnosed with prostate cancer far more frequently than any other racial group. Some trends over the 16 years include:

• Black men were diagnosed with prostate cancer more than 50 percent the national average per 100,000 people.
• Whites and Hispanics were diagnosed at similar rates, both of which fell just below the national average.
• American Indian/Alaska Natives and Asian/Pacific Islanders both fell more than 50 percent below the national average of diagnosis rates per 100,000 people.

It’s suggested that black males in America start to get tested earlier than white men (in their 40s rather than their 50s), because black men have been found to have more advanced prostate cancer when it is diagnosed, which means earlier testing could catch the disease earlier on.

Researchers chalk this trend up to a couple reasons, including, but not limited to: generally having less quality facilities (thus lower quality care), genetics, and having certain environmental and dietary differences than other black populations around the world. (Black men in Africa are diagnosed with prostate cancer less frequently than African-American men, which would suggest the living environment—and all the stress and differences in diet that come with it—could influence the higher diagnosis rates.)

Other Risk Factors

Outside of age and race, there are lifestyle choices and genetic predispositions that put you at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. These can include:

• Family history: How often prostate cancer occurs in your family can be an indicator of the likelihood that you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, too. If more than three immediate family members (like a brother, father, grandfather, uncle) on the same side of the family have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, then you may want to get screened earlier than planned. The same cancer occurring in multiple family members may be explained by similar lifestyle habits and genetics that inhibit the disease’s development.
• Genetic mutations: Mutations of certain genes—like BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are most commonly associated with breast cancer in women—have been shown to indicate a higher chance of developing prostate cancer in men, as well as breast cancer. These genetic mutations can be passed down for generations, but this is usually the case in less than 5 percent of prostate cancer diagnosis.
• Agent Orange: While this may be a specific demographic, the United States government lists Agent Orange—a chemical used in the Vietnam War—as a cause of the disease through exposure.

Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer

Now that we know what prostate cancer is, how can we tell if we have it aside from being tested regularly? A lot of the symptoms of the disease have to do with discomfort while urinating while ejaculating. According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, these can include:

• Blood in your urine
• Pain while ejaculating
• Frequently having to urinate— especially at night— and not being able to hold it back
• Pain while urinating
• Sporadic flow of urination
• Trouble getting and maintaining an erection
• Loss of control of your bladder and bowels
• Pain in your hips, back, spine, and other parts of your body close to your prostate, indicating the cancer may have spread
• Pressure in your rectum
• A decrease in the amount of fluid you ejaculate

In its earliest stages, none of these symptoms may be present, which is why it’s important to get ahead of the disease with testing.

How To Find Out If You Have Prostate Cancer

Ah, the dreaded, stigmatized prostate exam: a necessity (or at least suggested necessity) for every man over 50. As we’ve learned, an symptom of prostate cancer is an enlarged prostate, so the main way doctors test for it is by feeling the prostate.

Formally called a “digital rectal exam,” doctors place a lubricated finger, covered with a glove, up your rectum and feel for the prostate, which is right next to the rectum. The doctor feels for any abnormalities, like if it’s larger than it should be, feels different than it should, or the shape of it is different. But a DRE is not the be-all, end-all of prostate tests. There are plenty of tests doctors run to confirm a diagnosis. These tests include:

• Blood test (PSA Test): One of the other primary tests to see if you have prostate cancer is called a prostate-specific antigen test, or a PSA test. For this, doctors take a blood sample from your arm and test it for a specific substance (antigen) that is produced by your prostate. “Normal” PSA levels are 4.0 ng/mL, according to the National Cancer Institute, though people have been found to have prostate cancer with lower levels. Anything below 4.0 is still considered in the healthy range, though the closer the levels are to 4.0, the closer it should be watched. It’s also healthy to have extremely low PSA levels. While levels over 4.0 don’t strictly indicate cancer, it’s a strong indicator of prostate growth and swelling, which is a leading sign of cancer. A PSA test is usually done in the same session as a DRE.
• Urinalysis: Your urine may be tested for certain infections. If an infection or disease is found after the first test, doctors may take a couple more samples to confirm the infection is in the prostate and not the urethra or bladder.
• Ultrasound: If a doctor notices any abnormalities with a DRE and your PSA levels, they may conduct an ultrasound in order to get a better view of the condition of your prostate. This form of testing—formally called a Transrectal ultrasonography—helps doctors get closer to the prostate than their finger can during a DRE and can take images that allows doctors to examine the change in your prostate over time.
• Sampling prostate tissue (biopsy): A pretty direct way in testing if you have prostate cancer or not is directly testing prostate tissue. A small needle takes a sample of tissue from the prostate and then is tested to see if there are abnormal amounts of cancer cells. This is typically done in conjunction with an ultrasound, which may confirm growth or swelling.
• Various scanning procedures: Doctors sometimes use other non-invasive scanning procedures to help try and get a better picture of your prostate. These tests include CT scans, MRIs, x-rays, and bone scans, according to the ACS. While these aren’t the prefered methods of testing for confirmation, they can help give a better picture of where the cancer is in the prostate and how far it may have spread if its presence is confirmed.

Now, it’s natural to think, why not just do some of these tests in the first place rather than a DRE? It’s because a DRE lets doctors know if it’s even worth running you through these other extensive, time-consuming tests in the first place.

It’s suggested you get tested once a year, like at an annual check up, starting in your 50s. Your doctor may suggest you start getting a test sooner if you are particularly prone to prostate cancer based on your family history or demographics.

Despite these yearly tests, it was still found that prostate cancer often went undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in the past. Harvard’s Medical School reported that prostate cancer cells were found in millions of undiagnosed men in postmortem autopsies. While it may not have been the specific cause of death, Harvard noted that cancer cells were found in prostates of one-third of men over 50, and 90 percent of men over 90.

In addition, it was found that anywhere from 16 to 56 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer didn’t exactly have prostate cancer that would be threatening during their lifetime. The tumors found on the gland during autopsies were often found benign or harmless, but the patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer anyway due to their high PSA test levels. These misdiagnoses can help explain why the survival rates for prostate cancer are so high.

Prostate Cancer Prevention

As we’ve seen with high diagnosis rates in men in their 80s and 90s, prostate cancer is almost inevitable if you live long enough. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take all the steps we can to try and prevent the cancer cells from triggering and metastasizing. Here are some steps you can take that may help push back a diagnosis:

• Healthy Diet: Eating certain foods like vegetables, fruits, and fish (which is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good fats) is recommended because it takes away from eating fatty foods, like pork, fried food, and cheese, which play a role in weight gain. People with higher body mass indexes (above 30) have been shown to have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer.
• Exercise: Related to healthy food helping maintain weight, exercising can be beneficial in terms of maintaining a healthy BMI. An increase in exercise, paired with a healthier diet, can help you drop weight quickly and get to proper BMI levels.
• Reduce stress: Stress has been shown to aid the progression of active cancer cells in your prostate. It also negatively affects your immune system, which is constantly fighting cancer cells when they’re present.

These preventative steps are also recommended for other types of cancers and diseases. While they may not explicitly reduce your risk of getting prostate cancer, following these steps won’t increase your chances of developing the disease.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding a prostate cancer diagnosis—or think you may have the disease—contact your doctor immediately.

Causes of the Flu and How It Spreads

We know that the flu is caused by various influenza virus strains, but how you contract the virus differs per case.
The flu is highly contagious. The CDC says that one person can infect another if they are within six feet of each other. Some ways to come in contact with the disease include:

The virus is spread through small droplets of fluid created from coughs, sneezes, and saliva exiting your mouth while talking. Someone with the flu—who may not know it yet because they haven’t experienced symptoms—can infect someone else with the virus up to a day before they start showing symptoms. Symptoms may take up to four days to show after entering your system. Typically, you are contagious for another five to seven days after showing symptoms.

The flu has the potential of causing an epidemic, which is an outbreak of a virus in one section or community of the world. Because it’s possible for birds to carry the disease elsewhere, the flu can reach the worldwide population and cause a pandemic.

In 1918, the worst recorded influenza pandemic occurred when the H1N1 influenza A strain killed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million people (up to five percent of the world population at the time). The most recent flu pandemic occurred in 2009, when close to 20,000 people died around the world due to another H1N1 strain. While almost all influenza A strains are covered under vaccines, there are times when a strain that isn’t affected by the flu vaccine surfaces and causes worldwide hospitalizations and harm.

When Is Flu Season?

There is no specific day when to mark when the flu season begins. The starting point of flu season varies every year depending on the location around the world and when the influenza virus reaches certain communities and countries.

The start of flu season is marked by whenever levels of influenza infections start to rise above normal levels. In the United States, this increase in flu infections usually happens between the fall and spring months, with peaks in January and February. The length of the flu season can also vary depending on if a certain strain of influenza reaches pandemic levels, which can extend a season to longer than a year as a vaccine is developed and distributed.

From the end of 2011 to 2017, the flu seasons in the United States have lasted from (via CDC):

October 2, 2011 to May 19, 2012
September 30, 2012 to May 18, 2013
September 29, 2013 to May 17, 2014
September 28, 2014 to May 23, 2015
October 4, 2015 to May 21, 2016
October 2, 2016 to May 18, 2017

While there’s clearly a general trend from when it starts and ends, there’s no specific day in the fall when you should become more wary of catching the flu and no specific day in the spring when worries should lessen.

Flu seasons can vary in severity, too, because of new strains popping up or low vaccination rates. For instance, as of early January 2018, experts predicted that the October 2017 through May 2018 season would be particularly bad due to a new strand of influenza A making its way around the world (though the CDC had yet to declare a pandemic at the time of publishing). Just halfway through the season, the strain had seen cases in almost all 50 states and over 200,000 people had been infected.

How To Find Out If You Have The Flu

It’s possible to be sick during flu season while not being vaccinated, but that doesn’t always mean you have the flu—you may just have the common cold. But if flu symptoms are lasting more than a two days, you should get tested by a doctor immediately, as the common cold and the flu are treated with different levels of medication and severity.

There are different tests with varying levels of accuracy that health care professionals can conduct to figure out if you have the flu. These can include:

You may not always be tested for the flu, because the general, more severe symptoms of the flu (bad cough, chills, and headache) will be treated similarly with or without a confirmed diagnosis. In either situation, during flu season, the WHO suggests doctors use one of the rapid tests to confirm a diagnosis before any other test in order to get virus under control as quick as possible.

Why Seniors Should Consider Vaccination

Seniors are the demographic group most affected by the flu. The CDC reports that between 70 and 85 percent of deaths caused by the seasonal flu are over the age of 65, and that up to 70 percent of flu-related hospitalizations that occur are seniors. These are staggeringly high rates, and they can be directly connected to how often seniors get vaccinated, in addition to seniors’ weakened immune systems making them especially vulnerable to the flu.

Getting vaccinated helps, too. The CDC found in 2016 that seniors getting the flu vaccine—which covers most strains of influenza A and B—reduced the likelihood they’d be hospitalized because of the flu by more than 50 percent. Vaccinated people over the age of 50 were found to be 57 percent less likely to be hospitalized from the flu than non-vaccinated people. The hospitalization rates were similar for people over the age of 75, as well.

Despite how effective the flu vaccine can be, about one-third of seniors still don’t get vaccinated. Rates have hovered around this number for the last 15 years, and the government aims to increase senior flu vaccination rates to 90 percent by 2020. “It’s amazing how once people see the disease up close, getting the vaccine suddenly raises up on their list of priorities,” said Dr. Robert Wergin, a Nebraska physician and president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. This is why it’s important to get ahead of the flu with a vaccination. It’s not worth the risk.

How And Where To Get Vaccinated?

While most adults are fine with receiving a standard-dose flu shot, seniors have particular shots catered to their immune systems:

While these shots may be catered to seniors, the CDC says there is no specific recommendation for which shot seniors should take, whether it be the high-dose shot, the option with adjuvant, or a regular-dose option. There are other types of vaccines, including a nasal spray and an intradermal shot, which are not recommended.

Any doctor or health care professional should be able to distribute the flu vaccine. Some places you can get a flu shot include:

• A doctor’s office
• A pharmacy like CVS, Walgreens, or Rite-Aid
• A blood-testing lab

Flu vaccines should be covered by your insurance and Medicare. Under the Affordable Care Act, private insurers must cover preventative care like flu shots. Flu shots are also covered under the Medicare B provision. As long as your doctor doesn’t charge more than Medicare covers, the shot should be completely free.

Possible Side Effects of Vaccination

After getting the shot, you may feel very mild or uncomfortable pain where the vaccine was injected. There is also the potential—albeit pretty rare—that you will get a fever as a result of the shot. This does not mean you have the flu, and the fever will subside. Other rare, but noteworthy, side effects include:

• Allergic reactions
• Problems breathing
• An increased heart rate
• Dizziness

You will not get the flu from receiving the flu vaccine.

Should Anyone Not Get Vaccinated?

The CDC recommends that every senior physically capable of getting the flu shot should get one, except for those who:

Seniors with allergies to eggs are still recommended to get the vaccine, even though many flu vaccines contain an egg protein called ovalbumin. Doctors are suggested to watch the patient for 30 minutes to see if the shot causes any allergic reactions, but after that time period, the person with the allergy receiving the shot should be clear of any allergic reactions.

How To Prevent the Flu

The best way to prevent getting the flu is by getting the vaccines, even though only about 60 percent of vaccinations are effective, according to NPR. There are plenty of other preventative steps seniors can take in order to reduce their chances of catching the influenza virus. These steps include:

Lead a healthy lifestyle: As we’ve seen, seniors’ immune systems become less effective as they age. There are things to be done to help combat that, though, including eating properly and exercising. Beyond that, there are day-to-day activities like being consistent with your hand washing and keeping a clean and sanitized living space that can help kill viruses and stop the spreading of the disease.

Get other vaccines: The flu vaccine certainly helps prevent getting the flu, but what if you actually get it? There are a slew of other health concerns that can develop after catching the influenza virus. There are various vaccines you can get to help prevent these advanced issues, which can include pneumonia and meningitis.

Seek immediate help if you’re feeling ill: Not only does this help you address immediate health concerns—whether they end up being the flu or not—it also helps you know if you’re contagious so you can take preventative steps from spreading the virus. You can call out of work, sanitize your living space where other people may come in contact with the virus, and make sure you drink extra fluids to stay hydrated.

Remember: the flu is serious business. If you have any other questions about the virus and how to prevent it, talk with your primary care physician.

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Alcohol-related emergency room discharges among the elderly reached nearly a three-quarters of a million in 2012.

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Once users start to consume more drugs and/or alcohol, they build up a tolerance to the substance, and it takes more and more to reach the desired effect. This amount varies per person.
In 2014, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said there were approximately 21.5 million people aged 12 or older in the United States addicted to either alcohol or drugs. Nearly three million of those suffer from addictions to both of those substances.

Symptoms

Not everyone who is addicted to a substance shows it. You may often hear people close to addicts who overdose or seek treatment say things like, “I never in a million years would’ve guessed he/she was addicted to alcohol,” or, “I knew they liked to drink, but I never knew it was that bad.”

Addiction can come in all shapes, sizes, and amounts. There are people who could be high or drunk and continue to function in their public and working lives but become secluded and distant in their private lives. The opposite remains true, too, as those addicted to a substance can have their public and working life destroyed by substance abuse, and it could severely impact their performance at work.

Just as there are different reasons why people start consuming alcohol or drugs, there is a wide range of symptoms—both physical and mental—that may reveal an addiction. These symptoms may be in plain sight, but they can also be hidden away, because they’re only partaking in their addiction in solitude. Some of these symptoms include:

These symptoms can appear in people at any age.

Prevalence Among Seniors

Alcoholism doesn’t stop once you hit a certain age. While it may sound easy to chalk up an alcoholic’s tendencies to “he’s lived a long life already and earned the right to make his own decisions,” there is no specific age where it’s okay for you to be consuming mass amounts of alcohol.

The National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence points out that up to 11 percent of elderly hospital admissions are because of drug- and alcohol-related issues. This is a similar rate to elderly people being admitted to the hospital because of heart attacks, which can also be caused by prolonged alcoholism. The alcohol-related admissions number increases to 14 percent relating to emergency room visitations, and the rate at which the elderly are admitted to psychiatric hospitals due to alcohol or drugs is 20 percent.

To make matters more difficult, studies have found that older people are less likely to receive alcoholism as an out-of-the-gate diagnosis than younger people. This problem can boil down to how difficult it is to identify alcoholism in a senior. One study conducted in the late 1980s found that it was less likely that older patients (who are alcoholics) would be diagnosed with alcoholism than younger patients with alcoholism would be.

One article, which describes substance abuse among seniors as an “invisible epidemic,” notes that a driving force behind alcoholism and substance abuse in the elderly is how many live independently, or not in nursing homes or assisted living. Less than 5 percent of seniors live in dependent living situations, which allows a great deal of potential isolation and independent decision making to percolate into a substance addiction.

Even when seniors live inside nursing homes and assisted living, though, the NCADD says that nearly 50 percent of those living in those facilities have “alcohol-related problems.” The same council also points out that the demographic with the highest rates of alcoholism are widowers (men who have lost their spouse) over the age of 75.

Increased Sensitivity to Alcohol

Aging can lower the body’s tolerance for alcohol. Older adults generally experience the effects of alcohol more quickly than when they were younger. This puts older adults at higher risks for falls, car crashes, and other unintentional injuries that may result from drinking. “Even though younger and older adults appear to have similar metabolism, the behavioral implications are different,” said Sara Jo Nixon, a researcher and professor at the University of Florida.

There are a number of physiological reasons as to why older adults start to feel the effects from alcohol quicker. These reasons can include:

In addition to feeling the effects of alcohol quicker, the damage alcohol can do to older bodies proliferates as we age when it is paired with health issues that already are more problematic in the elderly.

Increased Health Problems

Drinking alcohol throughout your life can cause a slew of health issues, particularly when you abuse it as you age. Let’s look into how years of alcohol abuse can exacerbate the risk of many health issues that you are already at risk of contracting simply due to age.

Diabetes is a condition where the body has a resistance to insulin—the hormone your body uses to break down sugar for energy. Some are born with the condition or develop it at a young age, where the body simply doesn’t produce the insulin needed to break down the sugar (type 1). However, others develop the condition over time as your body builds up a resistance to the insulin your body produces. This is type 2 diabetes, and it is the most common form of diabetes. Some symptoms of type 2 diabetes include:

• Fatigue and general tiredness
• Having to urinate more (often because you’re frequently more thirsty)
• Blurred vision
• Cuts and wounds healing slower

Alcohol abuse can contribute to the proliferation of type 2 diabetes. A site that helps sift through the health issues that stem from heavy drinking points out some ways that drinking can increase your chance of developing type 2 diabetes:

Not only can alcohol abuse increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, once diagnosed, it’s recommended that you seldom drink or don’t drink at all, which can be a tough regimen to follow when someone is addicted to it. It’s suggested people with type 2 diabetes have no more than one to two drinks during a session of drinking. If effects from the diabetes have already started to show—like blindness and hypertension—it’s suggested that you don’t drink at all.

High Blood Pressure. Drinking can have immediate and long-term effects on your blood pressure levels, according to the American Heart Association. Having more than two to three drinks can increase your blood pressure and cause acute heart attacks, strokes, and blurred vision—all potentially lethal consequences for seniors. Over time, alcohol abuse can steadily increase your overall blood pressure levels, even when you’re not drinking. Some effects of high blood pressure include:

If you’re suffering from high blood pressure due to an addiction to alcohol, it’s suggested you slowly decrease how much you drink per day. Quitting alcohol cold turkey can cause increased blood pressure levels over the span of a couple days, enough so to result in fatal consequences.

Congestive Heart Failure. As discussed in the previous section, high blood pressure can eventually lead to heart failure. But there are other factors associated with heavy drinking that can also lead to congestive heart failure. According to the American Heart Association, heart failure happens when “the heart muscle is weakened and cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen.” Some of the main causes of heart failure include:

• Type 2 diabetes
• Hypertension
• Myocardial infarction

All of these conditions are increased with the presence of heavy drinking, which then in turn increases the risk of heart failure. Alcohol abuse can also result in alcoholic cardiomyopathy, which is described as having damaged parts of the heart among patients with a long-term history (five to 15 years) of heavy alcohol consumption. Alcoholic cardiomyopathy, too, is a large risk factor in heart failure.

It’s possible to qualm or reverse the effects of drinking. In the case of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, it’s been shown that abstinence from alcohol can reduce the risk of cardiac death.

Liver Problems. After years of alcohol abuse, your liver can stop working. This is a progressive process, however, and it doesn’t just all of a sudden stop functioning one day. The liver’s main function is to regulate what is in your blood, from the glucose to the protein. As we’ve discussed in the diabetes section, alcohol can stop your liver from filtering glucose as it breaks down the alcohol, resulting in long-term damage to the arteries in your liver and all over your body. In this process of breaking down alcohol, the body also produces bad material that can damage the liver even more. Years of abuse can create scar tissue all over the liver, which can ultimately render it unusable.

The two main phases of liver disease are:

If you start to abuse alcohol in your elderly years, these conditions can culminate very quickly, because there may have been previous damage to your liver.

Osteoporosis is a disease that causes the gradual thinning and weakening of bone. It is one of the most common diseases in America, with more than 50 million people having the disease or at high risk of having it, according to the National Institute on Health. Having a low bone mass can cause you to have easily breakable bones. This, in turn, can call for more trips to the hospital and longer stays as bones heal and rehab, which can then cause increased rates of mortality.

Alcohol abuse can cause bones to wither and contribute to the proliferation of osteoporosis. The NIH says that heavy drinking can affect the body’s calcium levels, which are important to maintaining strong bones. It can also mess with hormone levels in both men and women. Certain hormones that men (testosterone) and women (estrogen) produce assist in maintaining strong bones through the production of osteoblasts and other bone-supporting cells. Alcohol can negatively affect the levels of testosterone and estrogen in men and women, thus affecting the strength of bone in the body.

Memory Problems. In the present activity of drinking, older people may reach the point of memory loss (blackout, spotty short-term memory) quicker than they used to, because of their increased sensitivity to alcohol. Whereas it may have taken hours of heavy drinking to reach that point in the past, it may now only take a couple drinks.

Over the long term, years of alcohol abuse have been found to have debilitating effects on the brain, from motor functions down to what you can remember. One study found that middle-aged men who averaged two and a half alcoholic beverages per day were more likely to experience “more rapid mental losses” over the next decade than men who drank less frequently than that. The study also concluded that heavy drinkers started to experience memory loss one-and-a-half to six years earlier than those who drank less.

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that about 80 percent of alcoholics have deficiencies in thiamine (vitamin B), which can result in memory and psychosis issues, including Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome. This syndrome is actually a set of two separate disorders: Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis. These are common disorders among older alcoholics.

Wernicke’s encephalopathy’s main symptoms include:

• Confusion
• Eye paralysis
• Problems with muscle coordination

Patients with WE may never exhibit any of these symptoms, which is why it is often diagnosed after a patient has passed. WE can also occur in flashes, and you may only exhibit one or two of the symptoms throughout your life and are left undiagnosed. Around 80 to 90 percent of those with WE, the NIAAA says, also develop Korsakoff’s psychosis, which is a more chronic syndrome that severely affects memory and motor functions.

Mood Disorders. Alcohol and substance addiction can result in mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder over an extended period of abuse, according to one study. It’s important for doctors to clarify, though, if patients were suffering from the mood disorder before the addiction onset, or if the mood disorder is a result of years of abuse.

The NIAAA notes that, while mood disorders and alcoholism can co-exist and not be caused by one another, patients with mood disorders “are more likely to have difficulty maintaining abstinence, to attempt or commit suicide, and to utilize mental health services” than alcoholics who don’t have or didn’t develop mood disorders.

Dehydration is a major issue among the elderly population. In one study, up to 30 percent of seniors who were hospitalized also were suffering from dehydration. As discussed earlier, one of the large reason why seniors are more sensitive to alcohol is because elderly people have less water in their bodies. Drinking alcohol—especially in excess over a long period of time—only makes matters worse.

You become dehydrated when you drink alcohol because our bodies re-absorb less water than it would with no alcohol in our system. There is also the consequence of vomiting while drinking alcohol, which can further dehydrate us of necessary fluids and electrolytes. Being dehydrated is especially risky when you are a senior.

Dehydration can cause:

• Kidney issues
• Seizures
• Brain swelling
• Comas
• Death

While dehydration is often reversible with proper care, the constant strain placed on the body by dehydration can result in dire consequences in the long-term.

Bad Interactions with Medications

Many prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as herbal remedies, can be dangerous or even deadly when mixed with alcohol. According to the NIAAA, medications that can interact badly with alcohol include:

How To Get Help

No matter your age, there are ways to get help if you’re suffering from alcohol addiction, especially as an elder. The first step, though, is identifying the problem. This is either a realization and acceptance the individual has to come to, which may come at the hands of a diagnosis from a doctor after seeking help for various medical issues.

No matter the situation and how advanced the addiction and health problems caused by it are, you must remember that addiction is an illness, and not a choice. It’s not something that can be dropped easily. In fact, quitting an alcohol addiction cold turkey can potentially be fatal. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms can include:

• Anxiety
• Raised blood pressure
• Sweating
• Insomnia
• Stomach issues
• Seizures
• Tremors
• Delirium Tremens (severe confusion)

This is why it’s suggested that when you’re quitting alcohol, you slowly wean yourself off, especially if you’re inebriated in the the days prior to your decision. You should set up a schedule detailing how many drinks per day you will drink, reducing your intake by two drinks per day, until you are no longer drinking. For instance, if you average 10 drinks per day, spend five days reducing your intake to eight, then six, then four, then two, and then on the fifth day, you can begin sobriety.

When looking for ways to get sober and begin your path to recovery, there are various treatments you can seek. These include:

It’s important to remember that there is always help and a support system out there for you, no matter your age.

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