Geriatric disease prevention methods do not include

Methods to prevent geriatric diseases do not include blindly eating high-priced nourishing and health care products, long-term excessive overloading of exercise, extreme vegetarianism that completely eliminates all non-vegetarian foods, and relying on "health remedies" to replace standardized chronic disease management. These four common practices are most likely to be pitted by the public.

I have been in the geriatric department for almost ten years, and the health care pits that the elderly people I have seen have walked through can really hold a basket. Last week, I met Aunt Zhang from the community who brought two large boxes of beautifully packaged "broken Ganoderma spore powder" to the clinic to ask if it could prevent cerebral infarction. The young man at the health product store downstairs said that this product can open blood vessels and is safer than taking antihypertensive drugs. She saved up her pension for three months and spent more than 4,000 to buy it. In fact, according to the consensus of geriatric medicine at home and abroad, ordinary healthy elderly people do not need to supplement such high-priced supplements as long as they eat a balanced daily diet and achieve dietary diversity. If they really have nutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin D, B12 or iron deficiency, it is enough to follow the doctor's instructions and buy medicinal supplements that cost a few yuan a bottle. Most of those "health gift boxes" that cost thousands of yuan are paid IQ tax. Of course, some scholars in the field of nutrition believe that some antioxidant supplements can have certain benefits for high-risk groups, but only if there are clear clinical indications and they are taken according to the recommended dosage. Blindly following the trend and buying high-priced products is definitely not a formal means of preventing geriatric diseases.

If you say that eating health care products blindly will at most result in a loss of money, then excessive exercise may directly harm the body. Last month, I adopted a 68-year-old Uncle Li. After he was diagnosed with diabetes, he heard someone say "walk more to lower blood sugar." He went out for a walk every day before dawn. The most he walked in one day was 15 kilometers. Within two months of walking, his knees hurt so much that he couldn't go downstairs. The examination revealed that the meniscus was worn three times and there was effusion in the joint cavity. His blood sugar did not stabilize. Instead, it soared because of the pain and lack of rest. Some people will definitely ask, isn’t it said that exercise is the core means to prevent geriatric diseases? Yes, the guidelines for endocrinology, orthopedics and geriatrics all recommend that the elderly maintain 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week, but moderate intensity refers to the degree to which you can sweat slightly and speak normally during exercises such as brisk walking and Tai Chi. Excessive exercise in order to lower your index, or even joint-damaging exercises such as climbing stairs and squatting, has long gone beyond the scope of prevention. Instead, it can induce joint injuries and cardiovascular accidents, and is not a recommended prevention method at all.

There is another misunderstanding that is deeply hidden. After many elderly people suffer from high blood pressure and high blood lipids, they simply do not eat any meat, even eggs and milk, thinking that "eating vegetarian will cleanse the blood vessels." There was a 72-year-old Aunt Wang who was like this. After being diagnosed with high blood lipids, she went on a vegetarian diet for half a year. She lost all her meat and eggs, and ate white porridge with vegetables every meal. As a result, her blood lipids did not drop much. She was first diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, and her albumin was almost one-third lower than the normal standard. She had colds four times in three months, and her immunity was extremely poor. It must be said objectively here that there are indeed many studies confirming that a plant-based dietary pattern is good for cardiovascular disease, but this dietary pattern requires sufficient soy products, mushrooms, and nuts to supplement high-quality protein and trace elements, as well as additional B12 supplements. It is not an extreme vegetarian diet that does not eat animal-derived foods at all. This extreme approach not only fails to prevent geriatric diseases, but also increases the risk of anemia, osteoporosis, and low immunity due to malnutrition, and is naturally not part of the formal prevention methods.

Finally, the easiest thing for everyone to believe is the various "folk health remedies" that are spread so miraculously, such as soaking peanuts in vinegar to lower blood pressure, drinking red wine to soften blood vessels, and eating Panax notoginseng powder every day to open blood vessels. Many people may not believe it. These are not standard methods for preventing geriatric diseases. There was an old man who believed that drinking red wine softens blood vessels. He drank two taels of red wine every night for dinner. After drinking for more than a year, his blood vessels did not soften. Instead, he was first diagnosed with high uric acid. There was also an aunt with high blood pressure who stopped taking antihypertensive medicine and ate vinegar and soaked peanuts every day. Finally, her blood pressure soared to 180, causing cerebral hemorrhage and she was sent to the emergency room. Of course, this does not mean that these folk remedies are completely untouchable. For example, eating peanuts soaked in vinegar is fine as a side dish, and drinking a small amount of red wine is not a bad thing as long as there are no contraindications. However, if these folk remedies are regarded as core preventive measures, or even stop regular drug treatment and physical examination monitoring, then it is completely putting the cart before the horse, and naturally it is not a formal preventive method.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is really no magic shortcut to prevent geriatric diseases. It is nothing more than eating more varied foods, exercising moderately, taking medicines as prescribed by the doctor, and having physical examinations on time every year. Those "preventive methods" that sound too easy and too omnipotent are mostly a trap for your wallet. When you are really not sure whether a certain method is reliable, it is much more reliable to go to the community health service center and ask a family doctor for a few words than to listen to the lies of your square dancing teammates or the young man in the health product store.