Healthy Rhymes for the Elderly

There is no need to read thick textbooks or rely on folk prescriptions when it comes to health care for the elderly. If you follow a few jingles collected from clinical diagnosis and treatment and practical experience of long-lived elderly people, you can avoid 80% of health pitfalls, and the cost is less than one percent of health care products.

Last week, when I was attending a consultation at the community health service center, I met Aunt Zhang Guilan, who lives in Building 3. She was carrying half a bag of off-brand health products that she wanted to throw away and stuffing them into a shrink bucket. She said that she had heard a live broadcast host shout "Selenium supplements can prevent cancer" and "Nano magnetic therapy shoes can open blood vessels", and she has caused more than 20,000 injuries. , last month I learned a few smooth health mantras from the old guys in the community’s elderly choir. In the past two months, my blood pressure has stabilized from 160/95 to 130/80, and my knees no longer shake when I go up and down the stairs. I kept thinking, "If I had known there was such a worry-free way, why would I have spent all that money?"

Speaking of which, I met a 74-year-old Uncle Wang in the past two months. He regarded the Internet celebrity's health regimen as an imperial edict. He ate okra and drank raw celery juice. In the end, he had a cold stomach and acid reflux even after drinking hot porridge. He stayed in the hospital for five days before being transferred back. In fact, these widely circulated jingles are really not made up by any expert. They were made by our center during the follow-up of long-lived elderly people in the past two years, and they chatted with more than 200 strong elderly people over 80 years old in the area.

The first saying that spread widely is this saying: "Eat soft food instead of hard food, eat light food not salty food, eat fresh food not old food". Don’t underestimate these three sentences. Some old people came here and asked, didn’t some nutrition bloggers say that old people should eat more chewy things to exercise their masticatory muscles? Will eating soft food cause high blood sugar? In fact, both sides are right - the "soft" here does not mean that you should eat porridge and rice all the time. It means that you should eat less hard bones and fried peanuts that are tough for your teeth and difficult to digest. When cooking, stew green leafy vegetables and lean meat until they are a little bit mushy. You should also take two bites of steamed corn and peeled apples and other slightly chewy things every day. This will not hurt your stomach, but it can also exercise your masticatory muscles and delay the rise in blood sugar. There used to be an old man who only drank plain porridge and pickled vegetables every day. After half a year, his fasting blood sugar soared to 7.8. Later, he adjusted according to this formula and ate half a bowl of soft multi-grain rice at noon, and replaced all the pickled vegetables with stir-fried fresh vegetables. After two months, his blood sugar dropped back to the normal range.

There is also a saying that everyone often hums when walking: "It is better to rest for ten minutes after walking a thousand steps, and it is better to wander around after practicing hard." Two years ago, when the idea of ​​"10,000 steps a day" was popular, our department could receive four or five elderly people a week who had knee effusions and meniscus injuries. There were also experts in the sports department who said that the elderly must move if they cannot sit and lie down for long periods of time. This is true. The key point is not to force yourself. The meaning of this mantra is don’t compete with your old friend who can walk more or climb stairs faster. If your knees hurt, just find a bench to rest. Don’t hold on. Go downstairs and hang out for 20 minutes after meals every day. Do Tai Chi, water plants, chat with old neighbors, even cleaning tables and mopping floors at home. These are all suitable exercises. Uncle Li, who used to walk 15,000 steps a day to compete in the WeChat step count rankings, later changed to walking for half an hour every morning and afternoon. He would lift a mineral water bottle filled with half a bottle of rice at home to practice arm strength. Now his legs no longer hurt, and he can carry ten kilograms of rice up to the fifth floor without breathing.

Oh, by the way, there is another saying that is most widely circulated among people in private: "Don't take advantage of others when things happen, and meddle less in your children's business and save more money." The psychiatrists in our department often say that half of the problems of the elderly are caused by anger. Some elderly people have retorted before, saying, "Who cares about my children if I don't care about them?" Who will take care of the grandson? What should I do if I have no one to care for me when I get old? In fact, it really doesn’t mean that you should ignore the child completely. It means that you should not shoulder everything on your own shoulders. Don’t interrupt when a young couple quarrels. The habits of raising children should be based on their young people’s habits. You only help but don’t make the decision. The time you save dancing and playing chess with your old sisters is no better than being angry every day? There used to be a 68-year-old Aunt Liu who quarreled with her daughter-in-law every day about feeding her grandson and enrolling in interest classes. Last year, type 3 breast nodules were found during a physical examination. Later, she followed this rule and made an appointment with the couple to only take care of her baby three days a week. During the rest of the time, she went to the University for the Elderly to study painting. Six months later, the nodules were reduced by half, and even her chronic insomnia was much better.

Last week, an old man came to prescribe antihypertensive medication. He said that he wrote these words on the refrigerator magnet, glanced at it while cooking, and hummed a few words when going out for a walk. It was much more effective than his children calling each other every day and saying "less smoking and less drinking." In fact, health in the elderly is not that complicated. It just means eating more comfortably, exercising appropriately, and being more relaxed. It is much more reliable than health products and fancy health equipment that cost thousands of dollars.