Very Verla ♫ joie de vivre

8.6.14

Things I Learned This Week

While I recognize that I’m getting older (okay that I am old), I’m still a learner. So this week I’m sharing some “old person” knowledge.

NSAIDs cause problems for older adults. Each year 41,000 older adults are hospitalized and 3,300 die as a result of ulcers caused by NSAID use.
At least 16,000 auto crash injuries involving older drivers are attributed to the use of psychoactive drugs (benzodiazepines and antidepressants).
Each year 32,000 older adults experience fractured hips that can be attributed to drug related falls (sleeping pills, tranquilizers, antipsychotic drugs, antidepressants). These falls result in more than 1,500 deaths.
Approximately 163,000 older Americans have serious mental impairment (memory loss, dementia) that are either caused or worsened by drugs (minor tranquilizers, sleeping pills, high blood pressure drugs, antipsychotic drugs).
Two million older Americans are addicted or at risk of addiction to minor tranquilizers or sleeping pills because they have used them daily for at least one year.
Drug-induced tardive dyskinesia has developed in 73,000 older adults. This adverse reaction to antipsychotic drugs is often irreversible.
Drug-induced parkinsonism has developed in 61,000 older adults. This is attributed to the use of antipsychotic drugs and at least one drug prescribed for heartburn/gastric reflux.
For some older people, diabetes is a side effect of taking statins (for cholesterol), steroids, beta-blockers (for high blood pressure) and antipsychotics.
Antacids, antidepressants, some blood-pressure medications, and narcotic pain medicines often cause constipation. Prescription medications for constipation may cause diarrhea, headache, nausea, gas, stomach cramps, or upset stomach. (How does one get out of the medication/medication for side-effects/medication for side-effects of side-effects medication cycle?)

This is frightening information for this older person who is developing old-people-type problems. I recognize that the percentage of people who have problems with drugs is not huge with relationship to the population of older adults in the U.S. (40.5 million in 2010), but I really want to avoid being a statistic. As luck would have it, I had an allergic reaction to a recently prescribed statin, and my doctor told me I should never again takes statins. He recommended that, instead, I control my cholesterol with a diet and exercise regimen.

Really? I don’t actually need the convenience of popping that pill every day?

So I’m now stuck with just my daily vitamins and supplements – eleven of them. O yes, I’m also trying to stay off of ladders. I did backslide this week and fix something that has been bugging me. I know there are statistics concerning older people and falls from ladders, so please don’t tell my kids!

- Information from web sources including “Worst Pills/Best Pills”

- T-Shirt: Oasis Advanced Wellness

2.6.14

Priorities

A few days after his graduation ceremony at the University of Kansas this spring, our grandson, Michael Powers, departed for Africa with a mission team*. Equipped with his training in film and media, Michel’s assignment is to make a documentary film of the travels and activities of the team.

This seasoned team will be in Africa for five weeks providing teacher training and community development/leadership training. So while many of us go on vacations, the members of this team will be devoting their time to others.

The first stop for the team was a college in Swaziland and, through interactions with students there, our new university grad learned a lot about differences between priorities in a privileged society and those in a developing nation.

Among other things, Michael wrote: “. . . the students were especially inspiring. In the US, everybody’s post graduation goals involve finding a good job and making a lot of money. These students want to help fight the AIDs epidemic in their countries, they want to help lift up and empower women, root out government corruption, and just generally help others. Huge selflessness from a group of students struggling to pay 100 American dollars a month for room/board/tuition/food.”

I pray the lessons of this trip are not only long remembered but also values changing.