Reflections on lectures on geriatric disease prevention and health care knowledge

There is no "universal health formula" suitable for all the elderly. The core of geriatric disease prevention is not to follow the popular science popularized by Internet celebrities, but to first understand your own body baseline and then make appropriate adjustments. Prevention three years earlier is more than 10 times more cost-effective than treatment three years later.

To be honest, I was called by the community grid staff to make up the numbers from the beginning. Last month, my mother suddenly fainted for two seconds due to high blood pressure while she was squatting on the ground picking up vegetables. I was so panicked that I watched short health videos for three days and bought her more than 2,000 imported deep-sea fish oil and glycosaminochondroitin. I always felt that the more expensive ones were right. When I arrived at the scene, I discovered that the lecturer was Dr. Zhang, who has worked in geriatrics at a community hospital for 22 years. He was holding a stainless steel thermos cup with paint peeling off in his hand, and the pages of his notebook were curled up. As soon as he opened his mouth, he said, "I'm not selling anything today, I'm just telling you the real thing I've seen."

There has been a lot of quarrel on the Internet recently about "Should the elderly become vegetarians?" He did not directly give the right or wrong, but first gave the example of two acquaintances in our community. Aunt Li from Building 3 has been a vegetarian for 8 years, eating plain porridge with pickled radish. Last month she was found to have double triglycerides and severe anemia. She staggered when walking. Dr. Zhang said that she had fallen into the misunderstanding that "being vegetarian is healthy". She ate too much staple food and couldn't keep up with high-quality protein. She had developed mild sarcopenia. Muscle is the main metabolic organ of the human body. Muscle mass is lost quickly. Even if she doesn't eat any meat, her metabolism is poor and she still has high blood lipids. On the other hand, Uncle Wang from Building 1 is 74 years old and has to eat two pieces of braised pork every day. However, he does Tai Chi for an hour every morning and walks 3 kilometers around the river in the afternoon. Every time he has a physical examination, his blood lipids and albumin are within the standard line. “The prerequisite for a vegetarian diet is that you have to eat enough eggs, milk, and soy products to replenish protein. Those who like meat only need to control the amount and exercise enough. There is no need to cut it all. Forcing old people who like meat to eat cabbage every day will only make them feel bad and weaken their immunity. ”As soon as he said this, several old people below who were forced to be vegetarians by their children every day nodded.

Just as he was talking, an old man in a white vest in the back row suddenly raised his hand and said in a loud voice that could be heard in the entire activity room: "I take antihypertensive medicine every day as prescribed by the doctor. How come I had a minor stroke last year? ”Dr. Zhang asked him for ten minutes before he figured out that the uncle often forgot to take his medicine, so he would take two pills at a time when he remembered. Sometimes he would just stop for two or three days if he didn't feel dizzy. Dr. Zhang sighed at that time and said that this is a pitfall that many elderly people fall into: "The most fearful thing about antihypertensive drugs is that they stop and go. The fluctuation of blood pressure is much more damaging to blood vessels than if it is always slightly higher. ”As for many elderly people who secretly reduce their medication because they believe that "medicines are only three parts poisonous", he also put it bluntly: the side effects of current first-line antihypertensive drugs are 10,000 times less than the risks of stroke and kidney failure caused by long-term poor control of high blood pressure. If you really feel uncomfortable after taking it, go to a doctor to adjust the medication, and don't stop on your own.

I was browsing short videos before and saw a blogger saying that the elderly should not eat egg yolks. I was about to raise my hand to ask, but Dr. Zhang just mentioned this controversial point. He said that there are indeed two schools of thought. One group believes that high cholesterol in egg yolks will increase the burden on blood vessels, and the other group believes that the lecithin in egg yolks is good for blood vessels. His suggestion is to read your physical examination report first: if the low-density lipoprotein is within the normal range, eating a whole egg every day is absolutely fine. ； If your cholesterol level is already high, eating one egg yolk every two days will not be a problem. However, completely banning egg yolks may lead to nutritional deficiencies, and the gain outweighs the gain. There was also the pile of deep-sea fish oil I bought. He also glanced at the order on my mobile phone and said with a smile that if I could eat deep-sea fish 2 to 3 times a week, about 100 grams each time, there would be no need to take such health supplements. If the triglyceride exceeds the normal upper limit by more than 2 times, go directly to the doctor to prescribe high-purity fish oil. The Omega-3 content of health supplements is pitifully low, and eating it is just a psychological comfort. My face was hot at the time, and the more than two thousand yuan was really wasted.

There is also the most frequently asked question about calcium supplementation. He did not say "all elderly people should take calcium tablets". Instead, he reminded everyone to check bone density and blood calcium first. If you can drink 300ml of pure milk every day, bask in the sun for half an hour, and have a bone density T value above -1, there is no need to supplement calcium at all.； If you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, you should follow the doctor's advice and take supplements with vitamin D. Otherwise, it will not be absorbed even if you take supplements, and you will easily develop kidney stones.

After the show, I took my mother to the community health station and took a blood pressure test. It was 128/79, much more stable than before. When we got home, we tore up the "Ten Rules for Elderly Health" posted on the refrigerator. We didn't force her to completely give up the pickled radish she had been eating for half her life. We just picked up one chopstick at most every day. When I got off work early every day, I walked with her around the neighborhood for 40 minutes, and went to the community to check her blood pressure every Wednesday. I used to think that the prevention of geriatric diseases was too complicated and expensive supplements to buy, but now I know that the most useful ones are always the most down-to-earth ones. After all, you live your own life and your body is your own, and the most suitable one is the best.