Homeopathy for the diseases in senior citizens

Generally, a person above the age of 60 to 65 years is termed as senior citizen. This is the age where a person can be suffering from variety of diseases like hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, coronary artery diseases or heart problems, osteoporosis, vision problems, hearing loss, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s Disease etc.

Hypertension: Hypertension means high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a chronic and very common complain seen in the senior citizens. It is determined by the amount of blood pumped by the heart and amount of resistance offered by the arteries thorough which the blood flows.

The arteries become narrower with the increasing age of an individual. The narrowing of arteries exerts more pressure on blood and thus, person suffers from high blood pressure or hypertension.

Hypertension is a silent disease and it gradually develops over the years. It can be diagnosed easily by undergoing regular blood pressure checking. Homeopathic medicines are not suggested for the Hypertensive patients.

Diabetes Mellitus: Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterized by increased sugar level in the blood either because of deficient production of insulin or failure of body cells to respond to insulin.

Diabetes in elderly people is mostly addressed as Type II Diabetes mellitus. Symptoms of Diabetes include excessive thirst, excessive urination, and excessive hunger. In spite of eating well the patient of diabetes experiences weight loss. Apart from this tingling and numbness in extremities, loss of libido, frequent urinary tract infections, erectile dysfunctions etc. are the other symptoms seen in a diabetic patient. Homeopathic medicines are not suggested for the treatment of Diabetes Mellitus.

Osteoporosis and arthritis: These two are very common disorders found in senior citizens. Osteoporosis means decrease in the density of bones due to deficiency of calcium and Vitamin D. The bones become porous and spongy. They become more fragile and vulnerable to fractures very easily due to lack of calcium.

Arthritis is a chronic and progressive disorder associated with wear and tear of the joints. It mostly affects the weight bearing joints like knee joint and hip joint. The cartilage between two bony surfaces gets worn out in arthritis. This worn out cartilage causes friction between the two bony surfaces. Patient experiences pain due to this. Pain, swelling and redness of the joint are the three main symptoms of arthritis.

Homeopathic medicines can offer significant help in dealing with arthritic pains. The medicines like Arnica Montana, Calcarea Phos, and Ledum etc can reduce the symptoms of pain and swelling. The patient of arthritis should do quadriceps exercises regularly. These exercises increase the strength and tone of the muscles around knee joint. This in turn helps in improving balance and reducing pain and swelling of the joint.

But, in severe cases of arthritis, patient has to undergo surgical intervention namely, Total Knee Replacement.

Coronary artery diseases: Most of the senior citizens suffer from various heart conditions which can be included under the heading of coronary artery diseases. The use of conventional medicines with life style modifications like going for regular walk, reducing excess body weight and following practices like Yoga and meditation help to a great extent in dealing with such conditions.

Patients of Coronary artery diseases are suggested to continue with their physician’s treatment. Homeopathic medicines are not suggested for these patients.

Parkinson’s disease: Parkinson’s disease is the progressive disorder of nervous system generally seen in older people. Parkinson’s disease is known to adversely affect the overall movements of the body and muscles co-ordination in the affected individual.

Initial phase of the diseases starts with slurred speech or inability to close the buttons of the shirts. As the disease advances person faces more and more difficulties in performing day to day simple activities. Homeopathic medicines in Parkinson’s disease have supportive role.

Alzheimer’s disease: Alzheimer’s disease is chronic progressive disorder which destroys memory in the individual. This disease is characterized by destructions of the brain cells resulting into dementia or loss of memory and destruction of other mental functions. Initially, the patient tends to forget recent incidences and he may keep on repeatedly saying the same thing, or ask the same question again and again or he may forget whether he had his lunch or dinner or not.

For Alzheimer’s disease homeopathic medicines can have supportive role. They can help in delaying the destruction of nerve cells.
Recurrent urinary tract infections especially in women senior citizens: Elderly females often complain of painful urination, constant urge to pass urine and urinary incontinence. Sometimes, it is because of underlying disease like Diabetes Mellitus and sometimes it is due to weakness of the pelvic muscles.

This is surely a very embarrassing situation for the elderly ladies. Due to this problem, they mostly avoid social gatherings and long distance travelling and become indifferent and aloof.
Recurrent urinary tract infections in elderly females are treated very well by using homeopathic medicines.

Prostatic hypertrophy: This condition is seen in elderly males only. In this condition the prostate glands become enlarged which exert pressure on urethra causing frequent and ineffectual desire to pass urine. As in females, males also find this kind of situation very embarrassing and they avoid social gathering and travelling because of frequent desire to pass urine.

In case of prostatic hypertrophy, the homeopathic medicines can offer the symptomatic relief. They may not be able to reduce the increased size of the prostate gland but they certainly help in relieving the urgency of urination and recurrent infections of urinary tract in the elderly males.
Recurrent respiratory tract infections: This is a very common problem in both elderly males as well as females. Senior citizens frequently fall sick due to diminished resistance power or immunity. Moreover, if the patient is suffering from diseases like Diabetes Mellitus then such infections become quite common and long lasting. Senior citizens with respiratory tract infections often complain of recurrent cold and cough and sometimes even breathlessness. Cough, cold etc make their day to day living more difficult.
Homeopathic medicines have a good scope in treating and controlling such conditions.