New research points to the fact that current mental disorders can be a good indicator for future chronic health issues. A study conducted in New Zealand referenced surveys from 17 countries to come to the conclusion that mental disorders ran a high correlation with chronic health problems. The mental disorders that were evaluated included mood, impulse control issues, anxiety, and substance abuse and dependency, to name a few. The chronic health issues looked at included arthritis, pain, hypertension, stroke, asthma, diabetes, lung disease, and cancer, among others. Although they did find a high correlation between these two things, the study did not go into enough depth to determine any sort of causal relationship.
Depression and other mental disorders have been linked to a lower quality of life for quite a while, and this study is one more piece of evidence to support this hypothesis. When someone is dealing with a struggle like depression, it is not uncommon for there to be physical repercussions. For example, someone with severe depression is far less likely to be physically active, and that means that they are at a higher risk of things like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and strokes. These can all be fatal, or cause permanent disability, so it’s quite obvious that depression could have a moderate connection the chronic illness.
Luckily, even for an untrained professional, there are a few things that you can do to help an elderly loved one that might be suffering from things like depression and anxiety. Because the main gist of this research article was that mental illnesses and disorders have a negative impact on health, it is a reasonable assumption that doing small things to fix mental health would translate to better overall health. In the senior citizen community, mental health is a huge issue, but many of the causes are often identifiable. Seniors’ mental health can be impacted by things like loneliness, physical disability, or the loss of loved ones. These are all unfortunate to say the least, but sometimes something as simple as having a caregiver in the house can help alleviate these things. A professional caregiver provides many services, but one of the most beneficial things that a caregiver does is provide a companion so that your elderly loved one is not spending their days in solitude. In addition to other things, this companionship helps seniors to stay mentally alert through conversation and interacting with others, and it gives them something and someone to look forward to every day. Even if your loved one is currently living with you, they probably spend a lot of their time at home while you are at work, so having a caregiver in the house when you’re away not only allows them to have supervision, it gives them someone outside of the family that they can spend time with. No matter what, this is a beneficial thing for them. Just ensure that the caregiver you select is the right one. Not all caregivers are created equal, so going with one that is highly trained and is backed by a reputable service is going to be the safest choice that you can make when it comes to caring for your loved ones.
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