What are the methods to prevent geriatric diseases?

Judging from many years of practice in clinical geriatric medicine and community chronic disease management, there is no so-called "one-size-fits-all" prevention method for geriatric diseases. The core is centered around three levels: lifestyle adjustment, early screening and early intervention, and long-term management and control of basic diseases. There is no need to be superstitious about various folk remedies and secrets spread online.

Two years ago, I met Uncle Li, who had just retired, when I was attending a clinic in the community. At that time, his annual physical examination revealed that he had soft plaques in his carotid arteries, and he also had essential hypertension. He was not dizzy or dizzy, and did not take the doctor's warning seriously. He still drank two taels of white wine every day, and he liked to choose salty braised pig head meat with fat intestines. Within a year, he suffered a cerebral infarction and was hospitalized. The left side of his body was almost paralyzed. After almost two years of recovery, he could barely walk down the stairs by himself. If I had quit drinking when the problem was discovered, followed the doctor's advice to take statins to regulate blood lipids, and walked three to four thousand steps around the neighborhood after meals every day, I would not have suffered this problem at all.

Nowadays, the most heated debate on the Internet about the prevention of geriatric diseases is whether taking health supplements is useful or not. In fact, it has to be discussed separately. You cannot kill it with one blow and you cannot believe it all. If the elderly have poor chewing function and unbalanced daily dietary intake, for example, they eat refined staple foods all year round and lack dietary fiber, or they rarely go out to bask in the sun and are deficient in calcium and vitamin D, supplementing with corresponding nutritional preparations under the guidance of a doctor can indeed reduce the risk of osteoporosis and constipation. But if you believe those sky-high-priced health products that claim to "unblock blood vessels, prevent Alzheimer's disease, and reverse diabetes," you will most likely have to pay an IQ tax. Last month, an aunt came to me with a bag of plant capsules that were claimed to be able to cure high blood pressure. I glanced at the ingredient list and saw common medicinal and food sources such as cassia seed and kudzu root. She stopped taking the antihypertensive medicine for half a month, and her blood pressure rose to 170. She was so dizzy that she couldn't stand steady, and almost had an accident.

Many people think that the prevention of geriatric diseases is the responsibility of the elderly. In fact, this is not the case. The participation of younger people can often achieve twice the result with half the effort. In one family I met, the junior specially changed the old man to low-sodium table salt. When he came to eat every week, he cleared out the leftovers that had been in the refrigerator for more than two days. Every six months, he made an appointment for a targeted physical examination package for the old man. When he had time, he accompanied the old man to climb low mountains and fly kites in the suburbs. The old couple are now 78 this year. Except for a slight presbyopia, their blood pressure and blood lipids are all within the normal range, and they rarely catch colds.

To put it bluntly, the prevention of geriatric diseases is like maintaining an old house that you have lived in for decades. Don’t wait for the roof to leak or the circuit to burn out before rushing to repair it. Pay more attention to small problems at ordinary times. If you see the wall peeling off, repair it, and replace the wiring when it is old. Naturally, you can live in peace and avoid major problems.