Over time, aging adults experience a great many changes in their health, including in their hands and how their hands function. Some of these changes are significant enough that they can make daily life much more difficult. Having help from 24-hour home care may be the perfect way to help seniors cope with these changes.
Joint Health Changes
There are many different types of arthritis, but the most common is osteoarthritis. Damage over a lifetime and repetitive motion injuries can lead to osteoarthritis, causing joint pain, stiffness, inflammation, and inability to use affected joints. Gentle exercise can help seniors to reduce pain and stiffness while also maintaining flexibility, but seniors may also need extra help with daily tasks.
Muscles Atrophy
The hand is full of not only small bones but also muscles that work together. As seniors age, they tend to lose muscle tone throughout the body including in areas like the hands. What that means for aging adults is that they experience changes in grip strength and increased difficulty with things like opening jars, turning doorknobs, or other daily tasks.
Skin Thins
Skin over the entire body changes, thinning with age. But because hands often don’t have much of a fat layer, the thinning in these areas is even more obvious. That increases the risk of injuries, cuts, bruising, and more in the hands. Skin on the hands is also typically drier, leading to cracked, irritated skin.
Sensory Perception Changes
Seniors tend to experience their environment in a different way as they age, including in their hands. These sensory changes mean that they perceive temperature, pressure, and texture differently. This means that seniors may not notice an injury to their hands or difficulty holding or grasping something.
Motor Skills Decline
Fine motor skills are what help people to do things like write with a pen or button clothing. This can be painful, but also incredibly frustrating for seniors who want to maintain their independence. Elder care providers can be there to help with these and other tasks that are necessary for health, well-being, and overall quality of life.
Healing Slows
Adding to all of these other complications is the fact that healing tends to slow down for aging adults. When they do sustain injuries, they take a lot longer recovery time than they used to. That makes it even more important for seniors to avoid riskier activities that could result in long-lasting damage.
Other Age-related Changes Occur
There are other age-related complications and changes, too, like losing bone density, increased risk of nerve damage, and the possibility of joint deformities happening. Some of these issues may be able to be prevented, but not necessarily cured.
The aging process brings with it a lot of different changes all throughout the body. As seniors experience more trouble with things like hand health, having help from 24-hour home care can become even more important. Caregivers are able to offer support to make these changes easier to manage on a daily basis without sacrificing independence.