As retirement approaches, it’s important to stay on top of our ongoing health. Proper health management is essential for long-term physical and mental wellbeing – even for the most fit and active people.
Retirees are more susceptible to various medical conditions – meaning that keeping track of their ongoing health through regular check-ups, activity, and medicine management will provide the best chance of catching any problems early. Doing so helps ensure access to appropriate treatments before any one issue becomes too serious.
Regular Visits to the Doctor
Consider This: Long-term health management is much easier with regular visits to primary care doctors. Many issues affecting retirees, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, take years to fully show symptoms.
Dorvie Tip: Visiting the doctor at their recommended intervals provides the best chance of identifying an underlying health condition as early as possible. Regular visits are especially important for retirees who already have known health conditions. Their doctor can continually monitor any current conditions – ensuring things stay under control and don’t worsen – while screening for new ones.
Managing Medication
Consider This: As mentioned above, people are susceptible to various health issues as they age, some of which can be treated or managed with medications. People often require several different prescriptions to stay on top of their health. Of course, managing various types of medication at one time is difficult, especially if you’re dealing with multiple health problems. For example, keeping track of whether we’re up to date on all medications is difficult by itself, but some medicines have a short shelf life and will need to be replaced, while there may be newer medications available to better treat current conditions.
Dorvie Tips: Keep on top of medicine management, gathering all medication in one location to see what is in date and what may need to be replaced. Organizing medications is also recommended, so consider using a pill organizer to sort the medication and creating a list of each prescribed medication so it’s easier to know that status of each.
Here are some important pieces of information to note when organizing medication:
- The name of each medication, including over the counter and prescription
- Dose sizes and how often each one is taken
- The doctor who prescribed the medication
- What condition the medicine is treating
Be Aware of Interacting Medications
Consider This: One of the drawbacks of being on different medications is the potential for dangerous interactions. Some medicines should never be taken together, at the risk of serious side effects that can impact a person’s physical and mental health.
Dorvie Tips: There are a number of resources online that can identify negative drug interactions, and your doctor and pharmacist can also help clarify. Double check medication lists regularly, looking for potential negative interactions, especially with any addition of a new prescription.
At Dorvie, we understand the desire to stay in one's own home and we're here to help you do just that. From resources on aging in place to our customizable platform of services delivered by well-vetted local providers, we want to help you enjoy your golden years. Because you've earned it. Enjoy Life, Let Dorvie Handle It!