Seniors' health

Slipped disc - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is a disc? A slipped disc is when the soft part of the disc bulges through the circle of connective tissue. The spine is made up of the vertebrae (the bones making up the spine), which have cartilage discs between them. ...

Restless legs syndrome (RSL) - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is restless legs syndrome (RLS)? This is a condition characterised by unpleasant burning, prickling, tickling or aching sensations in the muscles of the legs. In 1861. Wittmaack described it as 'Anxietas tibiarum'. Ekbom in 1945 reported hi...

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is PMR? Polymyalgia (poly = many; myalgia = aching muscles) rheumatica (PMR) is an inflammatory rheumatic condition. It affects around 4 per 1000 people over the age of 50. The usual onset is after age 60. Symptoms can start abruptly, or...

Over-the-counter remedies for arthritis - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

You can now buy hundreds of over-the-counter remedies that claim to ease the pain of arthritis. But, are they going to help or are they simply a waste of money? We look at some of the key treatments for joint pain and inflammation and ask the exper...

Osteoporosis: preventing falls - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

Why prevent falls at home? About 1 in 20 falls at home results in a bone fracture and of these, one in five is a hip fracture. Hip fractures have a high mortality rate; some 10 per cent of patients are dead within a month. In addition many o...

Osteoporosis and its treatment - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

A good calcium intake is essential throughout life for healthy bones. Ideally, osteoporosis is a condition that should be prevented from occurring. But this is unrealistic given our present state of knowledge and ability to influen...

Osteoporosis: bone density scans - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What are bone density scans? Bone scans measure the amount of bone in a particular site of the body, usually the lower part of the spine, the hip, the forearm or the heel. Doctors use the scans to help them to assess the likelihood of f...

Osteoporosis - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

Osteoporosis affects one in three women over 50. Osteoporosis is where the amount of bone tissue in the body is below what is normal for a person, taking into account their sex and age. Put simply, osteoporosis causes weaker bones,...

Osteoarthritis - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is osteoarthritis? Around 8 out of 10 people over the age of 50 are affected. Osteoarthritis is a disease of the joints affecting almost everybody as they get older. Around 8 out of 10 people over the age of 50 are affected. ...

Gout (podagra or uric acid) - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is gout? Gout, otherwise known as podagra or uric acid arthropathy, is a rheumatic complaint, which usually attacks a single joint at a time. The disease has a preference for the big toe of middle-aged men – it swells, turns r...

Fibromyalgia - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is fibromyalgia? Fibromyalgia (previously called fibrositis) is a common 'rheumatic' disorder – where complaints arise from muscles, tendons and ligaments rather than the joints. Although the tissues involved do not suffer long...

Giant cell/temporal arteritis - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is giant cell arteritis? Arteritis means inflammation of the arteries. It is one of those conditions in which the body's own immune system appears to 'attack' it's own tissues, in this case the lining of the arteries of the body. These a...

Arthritis - Muscles and joints - Seniors' health

What is arthritis? Arthritis simply means a painful condition of the joints. There are different types of the disease – many inflammatory, for example rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and others more degenerative in nature, for example...

Smoking - cutting down or quitting - Lung disease - Seniors' health

Reducing the amount you smoke is a start and better than nothing, but the ultimate goal should be to quit altogether. Addiction to tobacco is both physical and psychological. Every smoker knows how difficult it is to stop smoking or even c...

Chronic bronchitis or emphysema (COPD) - Lung disease - Seniors' health

What is chronic bronchitis? Smoking is the main cause of more than 8 out of 10 cases of chronic bronchitis and quitting smoking is the most effective thing you can do to stay as healthy as possible in the long-term. Chronic bro...

Pneumonia - Lung disease - Seniors' health

What is pneumonia? Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung tissue affecting one or both sides of the chest that often occurs as a result of an infection. Infection can be caused by a lot of different micro-organisms – viruses (eg re...

Flu vaccination - Infections - Seniors' health

What is flu? Flu viruses can be transmitted to your hands when covering the nose and mouth when sneezing. Influenza is a highly contagious virus infection affecting the respiratory system. What are the symptoms? ...

Varicose veins - Infections - Seniors' health

What is the difference between veins and arteries? The heart pumps blood through the arteries to all parts of the body – the vital organs, the head, arms and legs. The blood is then spread through tiny vessels called capillaries which ...

Type 2 diabetes - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

Exercise reduces insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes. The pancreas lies at the back of the abdomen behind the stomach and has two main functions: to produce juices that flow into the digestive system to help us digest fo...

Stroke - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

What is a stroke? A stroke happens when the blood supply to the brain is disturbed in some way. As a result, brain cells are starved of oxygen. This causes some cells to die and leaves other cells damaged. Types of stroke Most st...

Exercise, heart disease and high blood pressure - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

The best exercise for your heart is aerobic activity like walking. Exercise is good for the heart and circulation. Research has shown that regular physical activity can speed recovery from a heart attack. It can also help to prevent symptoms wor...

Diet and heart disease - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

The British Heart Foundation recommends eating oily fish to keep your heart healthy. What you eat can have a big impact on the health of your heart. A poor diet full of high-fat, sugary and salt-laden foods can contribute to weight gain, raise blo...

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

What is it? The most common veins affected by DVT are those of the legs or within the pelvis. Thrombosis occurs when a clot forms in the blood, blocking a blood vessel. If the blood clot occurs within a major vein, the cond...

Coronary thrombosis (heart attack) - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

What is a coronary thrombosis? A heart attack will cause severe chest pains behind the breast bone, often radiating towards the left arm. The heart is surrounded by three major coronary arteries that supply it with blood and oxyg...

Atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries) - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

What is atherosclerosis? Term watch What is an artery? An artery is a blood vessel. The coronary arteries carry blood to the heart. Atherosclerosis refers to the build up of fatty deposits called plaques in the walls of the arteries. ...

Angina (chest pain) - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

What is angina? Angina causes crushing pain in the centre of the chest. Angina pectoris is a phrase that comes from Latin and translates as 'tight chest'. People with angina experience pain in the centre of the chest. ...

Parkinson's disease: coping with - Heart and circulation - Seniors' health

With Parkinson's, it's important to keep yourself as physically and mentally active as possible. In this way, mind and body functions can be maintained to the greatest possible degree. Regular physiotherapy can help body functioning. ...

Parkinson's disease - Brain and nervous system - Seniors' health

What is Parkinson's disease? Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disease of the nervous system associated with trembling of the arms and legs, stiffness and rigidity of the muscles and slowness of movement (bradykinesia). A third of t...

Multi-infarct dementia - Brain and nervous system - Seniors' health

What is multi-infarct dementia? Multi-infarct dementia mainly affects elderly people with arteriosclerosis. Multi-infarct dementia is a form of dementia caused by large numbers of small blood clots (emboli) in the brain that star...

Huntington's disease - Brain and nervous system - Seniors' health

What is Huntington's disease? Huntington's disease (HD) was described by George Huntington (1850-1916) who was born in Long Island, New York. He described this disorder in his only known written article called 'on chorea'. Huntington's...