Manshuq

February 5th, 2020

Mrs. Aliya Abdrakhmanova spends a lot of time in state clinics. Nothing irregular – she is 75! It is difficult to be an absolutely healthy person of such age and live calmly without need for constant medical supervision. But, it should be noted that Mrs. Abdrakhmanova carefully monitors her health: she regularly goes through all the necessary screenings, diligently complies with all the doctor's prescriptions, takes vitamins and tries to control her nutrition. Her main problems are sore joints and pressure. Her knees began bother her after several injuries and fractures. Now she has to move with the help of crutches. No move is the worse. Therefore, doctors recommended her mandatory activities: walks in the fresh air in winter season, work in a summer cottage in summer season. It became easier after surgical treatment, although the pain did not go away at all. It's all the more difficult with pressure since it is impossible to treat it, doctors say that it's age. That is why Mrs. Abdrakhmanova regularly visits therapist in the clinic and constantly monitors her condition - at least daily checks her pressure.

Not everyone can boast of such an attentive attitude to their health. Therefore, we decided to create a kind of guidebook dedicated to the issues that are important when it comes to the health of older people. Attention to the health of loved ones is a great help that the elderly need. 

Close to old age, our immune system begins to fade. This is directly related to elderly diseases: luck of generation of new protective cells, existing ones are not updated. These leads to reducing of protective functions in the body, especially in elderlies. Also, susceptibility to infections increases, the healing process slows down. Plus, protective functions are weakened against the background of chronic diseases that are observed in every second elderly person.

That is why geriatricians - doctors specializing in the treatment of the elderlies - pay special attention to the need for immunization of older people, even despite the vaccinations that were given earlier and the infectious diseases faced before. 

STATISTICS

UN experts classify Kazakhstan as a country with accelerated rates of aging and predict that by 2050 the number of elderly people in Kazakhstan will increase up to 2,5 times.

Pneumonia, including pneumococcal, is the leading infectious cause of death in children around the world. Nevertheless, this disease can cause serious complications for adults too.

Pneumococcal diseases caused by the bacterium Streptococcus Pneumoniae. Anyone can get pneumonia, but in a high-risk area - children under two years and adults over 65, as well as those with diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, weak cardiovascular system, and who have low immunity, plus smokers and alcohol addicted people.

For elderlies, pneumonia usually develops in conditions of anatomically altered lung tissue, impaired ventilation and perfusion, that is, with age, the strength of the contraction of the respiratory muscles and the elasticity of the lung tissue decreases. Plus, pneumonia in older people often proceeds against a background of concomitant diseases. Moreover, pneumonia has a poor clinical picture - it is difficult to diagnose it in a timely manner, and this, in turn, complicates the treatment and worsens the prognosis of the disease. 

STATISTICS

Among elderly patients with pneumonia and background heart diseases (with exacerbation of the latter), 8,5% of cases end in the intensive care units.

We also notice another problem - an increase in the resistance of pneumococcus to antibiotics. This means that treatment of pneumococcal infection with antibiotics very often turns out to be ineffective.

The most highly effective way to influence the incidence and mortality from pneumococcal infections is, of course, vaccination. According to WHO, immunization prevents from two to three million deaths of people of all ages from vaccine-preventable diseases. And vaccination of the elderly is one of the tools that helps to increase the life expectancy of patients and reduce mortality. 

Vaccination does not provide one hundred percent protection against infection, but the likelihood of complications after the disease is close to zero.

 

If an elderly person has chronic diseases, vaccinations in this case are not only contraindicated, but directly recommended. 

Screening is a preventive examination, the purpose of which is to identify a disease or a predisposition to it at an early stage and provide timely assistance.

Doctors assure that early diagnosis is the most effective way to fight the disease. Kazakhstani doctors have programs for the early diagnosis of dangerous diseases, including cancer.

Even if there are no symptoms, older people need to be tested for the following: 

Every person close to 60-70 accumulates a whole bunch of diseases. They appeared not in one day, not overnight - we have been "earning" them for years. Constant experiences, stress and poor nutrition, smoking and alcohol drinking lead to the development of cardiovascular diseases.

But it is in our competence to prevent and stop the development and progress of these diseases.

First of all, we need to monitor your blood pressure, weight, sugar (glucose) level in blood and cholesterol.

Measuring these four indicators does not require much effort. Regular monitoring can help prevent serious health problems.

Two other important aspects are body weight and smoking.

It is proved that a decrease in body weight by an average of 5 kg reduces the level of systolic (upper) pressure by 4 mm Hg, and diastolic (lower) - by 3.6 mm Hg, respectively. Normalization of weight will not only help stabilize pressure, but also reduce joint pain – it will be easier to the body to "carry" itself.

We can talk endlessly about the dangers of smoking. I cannot stress it enough that you should give up smoking at all. And do not talk about the pleasure of smoking a cigarette, stress and so on. Smoking cigarettes increases the blood pressure, "spoils" blood vessels plus causes an unpleasant odor. 

Illustration: Roman Zakharov