Health & Wellness

If you’re looking for holistic methods to improve your overall health, you’ll likely explore what types of exercise are right for your body, what foods to incorporate into your diet to support your immune system, and how to build and maintain meaningful relationships. All these avenues can lead to improved health, but you may also want to establish a meditation practice. The benefits of meditation for seniors are multidimensional and widespread. A daily practice can improve important aspects of your health.

To learn more about meditation and its benefits, CLICK HERE.

May is Healthy Vision Month and it’s an important reminder to take care of our eyes.

We use our eyes to complete daily tasks like preparing meals, engaging in physical activity, taking the correct medication and dosage, protect ourselves from falling, and so much more. That’s why it’s important to keep them healthy, so we’re seeing our best and maintaining our independence. If we don’t, the quality of our vision could decline—from a combination of age and lifestyle factors.

To learn about simple guidelines from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) that can help you maintain your vision health, CLICK HERE.

The CDC announced on May 13, 2021 that fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. According to the CDC, people are considered fully vaccinated:

• 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
• 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine

We share your enthusiasm about the news and are hopeful COVID-19 rates continue to decline. Because our community follows guidance from health and regulatory agencies, our policies reflect the following:

• Residents in independent living are no longer required to wear a mask in the independent living areas of the community if they are fully vaccinated unless required by local and state regulations, as mentioned above.
• All residents, regardless of vaccination status, must wear masks on any form of community-based transportation.
• Family and friends visiting residents in independent living need to wear a mask when entering and exiting and while in common spaces within a community. Masks can be removed when visitors are in a resident’s apartment.
• All residents in assisted living or memory care must continue to wear masks as required by the CDC for assisted living.
• All independent living residents, family, and friends visiting residents in the assisted living, memory care, or skilled nursing areas in communities must continue to wear masks and adhere to the safety protocols in these settings.
• Individuals taking part in a tour experience or attending an event at the community must wear a mask to meet with our team and experience the various areas of our community.

There are no changes to our mask policy for employees at this time, regardless of their vaccination status. The CDC states it is still learning how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. For the protection of residents and fellow employees, all community employees must wear masks, regardless of where they work within our community.

The health and safety of residents and employees remains our highest priority. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and adjust our protocol to help ensure the health and safety of our residents and employees. With further questions related to our COVID-19 protocols, please contact us directly.

The physical consequences of excess weight are well known, ranging from type 2 diabetes, increased risk of falls, heart issues, and osteoarthritis. Yet not quite as much spotlight is given to its impact on our mental and emotional health. May, which is nearly upon us, is Older Americans Month and Mental Health Awareness Month—and a great opportunity to explore the “invisible” burden shouldered by many older adults living with obesity. In addition to their physical challenges, people living with obesity often struggle with mood and anxiety disorders.

To learn more about what mental health challenges older adults with obesity face, from the National Council on Aging, CLICK HERE.

People with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias may start having trouble managing their finances several years before their diagnosis, according to new research supported by the National Institute on Aging. Published online in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study is the first large-scale analysis of people’s ability to manage their money before and after a dementia diagnosis.

Common symptoms of dementia, including memory and cognitive limitations, can lead people with dementia to have trouble handling money and paying bills, so repeated financial mistakes can be an early sign of the disease.

To learn more about how dementia may cause problems with money management years before diagnosis, CLICK HERE.

More than 25% of seniors experience a fall each year in America. Emergency departments see 3 million seniors for fall-related injuries. While falls are so common they’ve become the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries in adults over age 65, that doesn’t mean they are an inevitable fact of aging. In truth, the belief that falls are simply a natural part of getting older actually puts seniors at a greater risk for falls.

Balance and agility naturally wane in an older adult’s later years. If nothing is done, this decline puts seniors at a greater risk of experiencing an injury-inducing fall, but it doesn’t follow that there’s nothing you can do to prevent a fall from happening. To learn of some basic steps toward fall prevention that can make a senior much safer, CLICK HERE.

Most of us appreciate the importance of physical wellness both now and as we age. Intellectual wellness too has garnered more attention as we learn about the effects aging can have on our cognitive functions. But what many of us never consider is our emotional wellness and our ability to reduce anxiety, boost happiness, and enjoy sharper mental focus.

Yet, within the ever-growing list of apps with which you can decorate your home screen are a slew of mental health apps that can help all of us in our quest to achieve emotional wellness and improved mental health. Each of these apps can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or on Google Play. To view our list of favorites, CLICK HERE.

It’s no secret that staying physically fit is vital to better health and well-being. But for many of us as we get older, it just seems more and more difficult to incorporate exercise into our daily routine. It might be a busy schedule or chronic pain that makes it a challenge to move freely, or perhaps the thought of joining a gym is too intimidating. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by the time we turn 75, about one in three men and one in two women engage in no physical activity.

To learn about the many benefits of participating in a fitness program, CLICK HERE.

You have a lot of options when it comes to where you live. In fact, where you make your home is one of the most personal and most important decisions you might make in your life. It’s especially important as you evaluate your senior living options.

According to the latest research, walkable neighborhoods are beneficial for people of all ages, but, in particular, they have a compounding effect on the benefits of independent living for seniors. Before you get too far into your research on the best senior living neighborhoods, let’s define walkable neighborhoods.

To learn what makes a neighborhood walkable, and why that’s so important, CLICK HERE.

Great news: We’re living longer. In fact, for the first time in history, residents of high-, middle-, and low-income countries are likely to live to 60 years of age and beyond. Longevity is one of the greatest achievements of our time.

But this success story is hollow if the quality of those extra years is compromised because of poor health or a loss of autonomy. Research consistently shows that making the most of these years depends largely on our lifestyle choices. And it’s much more than simply physical health.

To learn about the importance of wellness programs, CLICK HERE.