Cataracts Awareness Month is a time for you and you’re senior to talk about her risk factors for developing cataracts and to explore the different options for doing what you can to prevent cataract formation.

Encourage Your Senior to Get Regular Eye Exams

Regular eye exams are crucial for your senior, whether she suspects that she might have cataracts or not. Other eye problems that are just as preventable as cataracts also need early detection in order to be prevented. If your senior does have cataracts that are forming, her eye doctor can help her to understand what needs to happen next.

Take Special Precautions if Your Senior Is Diabetic

Diabetes makes a lot of other health issues more complicated, including cataracts. If your elderly family member is diabetic, it’s imperative that she is keeping her blood sugar under control because high blood sugar levels contribute to cataract formation. Diabetes can affect your senior’s vision in other ways, too.

Help Her to Eat a Balanced Diet

When your senior is properly nourished, she’s better able to stay healthy. That means her body is less likely to develop issues like cataract formation, too. Getting the right nutritional balance means that your senior is getting lots of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients. Talk to her doctor about what that means in terms of your senior’s current eating habits.

Talk to Your Senior about Smoking

If your elderly family member smokes, she may be inadvertently making cataracts more likely. It might sound unrelated, but nicotine and smoke can both create damage in the eyes that can lead to cataract formation. There’s also a greater risk that your elderly family member might develop cataracts at a younger age than she might have if she weren’t a smoker.

Protect Your Senior’s Eyes from UV Rays

UV rays are damaging to your senior’s eyes. Over time, that damage builds and builds until it contributes to cataract formation. One big way to protect your senior’s eyes as much as possible is to encourage her to wear sunglasses that have a coating that blocks UV rays. These are important for her to wear every time she’s outside, whether the weather is cold or not because UV rays are equally damaging regardless of temperature.

Some of these changes can feel like a lot to your aging family member. Having help from elderly care providers can make these changes a lot easier for your senior. If she has developed cataracts, they can also help her to cope with limited vision.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Elder Care in Oakland, CA, contact the friendly staff at Home Care Professionals today.
Call (866)-940-4855

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andy@hcprosonline.com

CEO at HomeCare Professionals

Andy Howardis a Bay Area Native who holds a BA in Political Science (University of Colorado at Boulder, ’97). After college Andy worked in the surging tech industry.His Grandmother however, would suffer a significant decline in health and ultimately needed in-home care. The experience of a loved one depending on outside help to age in place proved to be pivotal for Andy as he left the tech industry in 2002 for an opportunity in the home care world with a large provider. After having success in home care, but being frustrated by corporate constraints Andy founded HomeCare Professionals in 2005.He methodically built the company one client at a time by focusing on hiring quality caregivers to ensure positive outcomes. Currently Andy serves as the CEO of HomeCare Professionals and is also highly active in the non-profit organization California Association of Health Services at Home (CAHSAH) which advocates for a higher standard of in-home care for those who wish to remain living at home in California.

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