6 Fun Activities for Seniors with Limited Mobility

Old age is an inevitable part of life and as we grow older, we experience at least some loss of mobility. This occurs for a variety of reasons, including chronic medical conditions, diminished balance and even certain medications. When that happens, activities and hobbies they used to enjoy might now be too difficult.

When ageing brings physical challenges for a senior loved one, creative activities can brighten his or her life. As caregivers, we aim to provide the best elderly care possible to our senior loved ones; and loss of mobility doesn’t mean that we can’t help them have a good time.

Unfortunately, loss or lack of mobility can also have mental and psychological consequences, so this makes it even more important that we – as elderly caregivers – encourage them and help them indulge in activities that are suitable for them.

Despite reduced mobility, your loved one can capitalize on the intact faculties. Some hobbies boost cognitive function, dexterity, flexibility, and muscle tone. Here are ways to keep your loved one delightfully engaged.

Reading
Reading is a fantastic activity for older adults. It’s a fun way to spend time and keep the brain engaged. It can also improve memory, reduce stress, improve sleep, and delay cognitive decline. Whether your older adult likes reading physical books, magazines, using an e-reader, or listening to audiobooks, they can immerse themselves in a well-told story, look at photographs, or learn about an interesting new topic. Organizing a book club among their friends is another way for seniors to enjoy reading and socializing.

Enjoy Some Brain Games
Books of riddles, quizzes, word searches, sudoku and arithmetic logic are available at many bookstores. They provide endless hours of entertainment and fun; they are also inexpensive. Sit with your senior loved one and work on a riddle or word search together to inspire them. These kind of games also boost mental health and sharpen the mind, thereby making older adults more alert and aware.

Exercise Regularly
Even if your older adult isn’t very mobile, there may still be exercises they can do to get their bodies moving. Whether they’re sitting or standing, they can still get the health and mood benefits, especially from chair exercises or chair yoga routines. There are also exercise routines that can be done using a walker for stability or just focused on the feet and ankles to reduce swelling.

Get Creative
There’s at least a small spark of creativity in all of us and this doesn’t change as we get older. All things artistic are ideal for those with restricted mobility and deliver plenty of health-boosting benefits. From crocheting and colouring to knitting and whittling, making and creating is a positive and productive way to while away some hours. Getting in touch with your artistic side and learning to do something new can help boost self-esteem, create a sense of accomplishment, reduce stress and stimulate cognitive function.

Visitors
Companionship is one of the most important things for an elderly person. Ask family members and friends to drop by and spend some time together with them. You can even ask their friends to come and visit from time to time or take your senior loved one to visit them. Doing this, helps eliminate feelings of loneliness and isolation and makes them happy.

Herb Gardening
While it may be difficult for your loved one to tend an outdoor garden, who says they can’t do it indoors? Herbs are a great thing to grow indoors, especially if your loved one has a sunny windowsill for them to sit on. Pick up a few of your loved one’s favourite herbs at a garden store along with a pot or window box and some soil to replant them in. Together you and your loved one can get your hands dirty replanting the herbs. What’s also great about herbs is that they need to be watered and tended to very regularly, which will give your loved one something to do every day!

Senior citizen care doesn’t always have to be about medications and doctor/hospital visits. There are things that are sometimes way more important and that is keeping your elderly loved ones happy and mentally and emotionally well. Elderly caregivers need to encourage their loved ones who have reduced mobility to indulge in these activities and can even give them company by joining in!

Mutual Fund Investment for the First Time Investor

For a beginner, investing in mutual funds can seem a difficult task. Understanding the meaning of mutual funds and how mutual funds work is the first step in the investment journey.

A mutual fund means a fund established in the form of a trust to raise monies through the sale of units to the public or a section of the pubic under one or more schemes for investing in securities, money market instruments, gold or gold related instruments, real estate assets and such other assets

Depending on the schemes objective, the money collected from investors is invested in various categories such as stocks, gold, bonds and other securities. A fund manager whose main aim is to follow scheme objective and try to generate alpha on the fund’s investments manages each fund.

If you are a first time investor you should consider your financial goals, your investor profile viz, are you looking for short term investments or are you aiming at building your wealth over long term? You should also look towards diversifying your portfolio by investing in different mutual funds.

Beginners can begin their investing via systematic investment plans (SIP) especially if they are investing in equity instruments for the first time. A lump sum investment can be risky if the stock market is at its peak.

SIP allows you to spread your mutual fund investments over time and invest across market levels.

A mutual fund calculator is a financial mechanism that enables investors to calculate the estimated returns on their mutual fund investments.

A mutual fund calculator guides you in your future planning based on estimated returns.

An SIP calculator is a financial device that enables investors to calculate the expected returns on their SIP investments. With the help of this tool, you can calculate how much of mutual fund investment is needed to achieve the target corpus.

Investments in mutual funds can be made online or offline. However, bear in mind that you should be KYC compliant to invest in a mutual fund. This means, you need a PAN card and valid address proof.

One can invest in mutual funds through RIA or directly with the asset management company (AMC) in the direct plan. You must complete your KYC formalities online. You will also have to complete the IPV (In-Person Verification) by SEBI-approved agencies.

Mutual fund investments can be made through a mutual fund distributor by opting for a regular plan. The mutual fund house pays a commission to the mutual fund distributor or the intermediary.

You can also invest in direct plans of mutual funds online through the website of a fund house. You need to complete your KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance and then invest in the mutual fund scheme of your choice.

Mutual funds are one of the effortless way of investments. It helps to potentially grow your corpus in the long term. For this, plan your goals, through mutual fund comparison select the appropriate funds and start investing.

Choosing the Best Probiotic Supplements for Yourself

The intestine is the human body’s largest digestive and immune organ, responsible for 99% of nutrient absorption and 70% of immune work. The amount of food consumed in a lifetime is equivalent to 12 elephants. The intestine has more than 400 kinds of 10 trillion bacteria, diligently maintaining people’s health, of which probiotics are indispensable. In recent years, people have begun to attach importance to the efficacy of probiotics and intentionally add them to the diet.

Probiotics have six major functions

Probiotics are essential to human health, and its functions are mainly reflected in the following aspects: 1. Promote digestion and absorption. Food usually stays in the intestine for more than 12 hours. During this time, probiotics can promote the synthesis of various digestive enzymes to extract various nutrients from the food. For example, the short-chain fatty acids decomposed by the colonic flora through fermentation can promote the absorption of calcium, magnesium and iron in the colon; and for example, Streptococcus thermophilus can produce lactase to help the human body digest lactose

Enhance immune cells and protect intestinal mucosa. On the one hand, the structure of probiotics, such as peptidoglycan, lipoteichoic acid and other components can enhance the activity and lethality of immune cells. On the other hand, organic acids, hydrogen peroxide and other substances produced by these beneficial bacteria can reduce the permeability of the intestinal mucosa and block or inhibit the invasion of the intestinal mucosa by pathogens.

Reduce the risk of cancer. Escherichia coli, Clostridium spp., Enterococcus, Bacteroides, etc. in the intestine can promote the combination of nitrite and amine in food to form nitrite amine with strong carcinogenic effect. Probiotics such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli can decompose nitrite into nitrites and amines, thereby reducing the risk of bowel cancer.

Reduce cholesterol absorption. Probiotics participate in the liver-intestinal metabolism cycle, which can control the flora to interfere with the absorption of cholesterol in food, inhibit the production of liver cholesterol, and promote the excretion of cholesterol in the body.

Auxiliary anti-oxidation of the oxides in the body, such as oxygen free radicals and hydroxyl free radicals, etc., because of their unstable nature, redox reactions are prone to occur, and excessive amounts may cause oxidative damage. The intestinal probiotics can help eliminate the oxides synthesized by the body and maintain the dynamic balance of oxidative metabolism.

To moisten the intestines and laxative. Normal feces rely on the action of probiotics, which can maintain 70% to 80% of the moisture content, and discharge very smoothly. However, if the number of probiotics is too small and the gastrointestinal motility and digestion capacity is insufficient, it is easy for the feces to stay in the intestines for too long, and a large amount of water will be lost, which will make it difficult to eliminate.

Does everyone need probiotic supplements?

Studies have pointed out that the proportion of beneficial bacteria in the intestines of healthy people reaches 70%, while that of ordinary people is 25%, and the proportion of people with constipation is reduced to 15%, while the proportion of probiotics in the intestines of cancer patients is only 10%. Therefore, from a long-term perspective, appropriate supplementation of foods rich in probiotics is of great significance for maintaining intestinal health. There are several types of people who need special supplements:

Acute infectious gastroenteritis when acute inflammation is caused by a foreign pathogen, the immune function of the intestinal tract becomes poor and frequent diarrhea is prone to cause a serious reduction in the scale of probiotics. At this time, probiotic preparations such as Rhamnobacterium and Saccharomyces boulardii may slightly shorten the duration of diarrhea and reduce the degree of diarrhea.

After taking antibacterial drugs, the destruction of intestinal flora by antibacterial drugs is more serious. At this time, it is difficult to rely on self-recovery, and additional probiotics need to be supplemented to help the intestinal microecology restore balance.

Studies on the elderly with poor digestion have shown that the number of probiotics in the human body will decrease with age, usually only 11% of the elderly, the probiotics are severely insufficient, the gastrointestinal function is weak, and appropriate supplements are needed.

People with weakened immunity. As we said earlier, the intestine is responsible for about 70% of the body’s immune function, and probiotics are even more important elements of immune activity. Therefore, people who have frequent colds all year round, have chronic inflammation, have low immunity, and tend to get sick in the stomach and intestines during the season, can be suitable to supplement some foods rich in probiotics.