Senior’s Health: Your senior might be experiencing lung issues more often than she ever has as she ages, and it’s not something that you or she are just making up.
There are quite a few reasons that this is happening, and there’s help that your senior can lean on in order to make sure that she’s able to properly heal, too.
Lung Capacity Shrinks
As your senior ages, her lung capacity actually shrinks. When that happens, it’s more difficult for her to take in enough air to cough up mucus and the germs trapped within it. That alone can lead to a greater risk for those germs to cause an infection that your senior requires additional treatment in order to kick.
Immune Systems Are Often Compromised
Your senior may have a weakened immune system. Sometimes this is a result of aging, but it can also be a result of health issues like diabetes or high blood pressure. Your senior’s overall health, as well as how well she’s resting and whether she’s eating properly, all factor into helping her body and her immune system to stay strong.
Your Senior May Not Realize She’s Feeling Well
Combine these factors with the fact that your elderly family member may not realize when she’s not feeling well, and she may be more susceptible to a variety of illnesses. Some of the issues she may be facing could include cognitive changes, which are sometimes not as obvious as you might expect. Furthermore, other issues related to your senior’s senses having changed, making recognizing a specific senior’s health issue more difficult for her.
Senior’s Health: Other Health Issues Make Pneumonia More Likely
If your elderly family member already experiences some significant and challenging lung issues, like COPD or asthma, her lungs are already weakened. Much like her immune system weakening, this means that her lungs are far more likely to be unable to defend against germs that attack her system. Serious exacerbations may even send her to the hospital. If she’s not able to heal well enough, she may end up back in the hospital.
Recovering from pneumonia and other lung infections can be more difficult for your senior’s health as she ages. Having help from home health care providers can offer a measure of comfort to her as your elderly family member continues to recover at home. They can help to minimize the risk that your senior will return to or end up in the hospital due to pneumonia.