When flu season strikes, it often hits hard and fast. The symptoms can knock a person down, forcing them to spend a week in bed or take a trip to the hospital. Seniors ages 65 and older have a higher risk of severe flu complications, accounting for up to 70 percent of hospitalizations from the virus and up to 85 percent of the deaths each year.
Typically, we make sure our family has regular checkups, but is your older loved one following the same schedule? Experts are guessing the answer is probably not.
According to the Center for Disease Control, a little over half (60 percent) of today’s senior adults visited a dentist in 2013 despite the fact that one in four of seniors aged 65 and older have gum disease. This segment of the population is in need of proper dental care since many of today’s serious diseases can be linked to tooth decay or gum disease. Read more