HEALTH & AGING

Q: My 88-year old mother often complains of various aches and pains. What is the safest over-the-counter painkiller for her to take? Aren’t some of them bad for your liver and…

It’s annoying but unfortunately true: most parts of the body work less well as one gets older and older. This is even true of the brain, which is part of why…

Constipation is not a glamorous topic, but it’s certainly important, especially in older adults. As anyone who has experienced occasional — or even chronic — constipation can tell you, it can…

In this article, I’ll address a real mainstay of modern medicine: laboratory tests that require drawing blood. This is sometimes referred to as “checking labs,” “doing bloodwork,” or even “checking blood.”…

Have you ever been told that an older relative has anemia? Or perhaps you noticed the red blood cell count flagged as “low” in the bloodwork report? Or noticed “low hemoglobin”…

Many commonly-used medications affect memory brain function in the short-term and in the long-term. These can make Alzheimer’s symptoms worse, and have been linked to developing dementia. Here are the four…

This article is about the most common aging brain problem that you may have never heard of. While leading a fall prevention workshop a few years ago, I mentioned that an…

Learn to prevent falls in older adults by making sure you get the right evaluation after a fall happens. Here are eight things that should be checked at the doctor’s office….

  Swelling in the lower legs – known as “lower extremity edema” in medical terms – is a problem that often affects older adults. The good news is that most of…

Once upon a time, the ER missed a pelvic fracture in one of my older patients. Actually, this kind of thing has happened more than once, and perhaps it’s happened to…