Probiotics Help Aging Digestive Tracts
One of the blogs we regularly follow is Nurse Virginia’s blog for aging patients. She is knowledgeable, practical, and regularly brings up subjects that you don’t often read about.
Recently Nurse Virginia noted a common problem with aging patients – their increasingly delicate balance of colon bacteria. Not all bacteria are harmful. Human digestion cannot occur without the symbiotic relationship we have developed with certain, helpful strains of bacteria. If a person is not careful with the use of antibiotic medications, he or she can find herself with serious digestive problems.
Those problems only increase as we get older.
Probiotics are helpful bacteria introduced into the human system to help carry out normal digestive and other functions.
Nurse Virginia says:
Antibiotics are a true wonder of the age we live in. Anyone who has suffered from an infection gone wild can fully appreciate living in this time when we have easy and cheap access to these wonder drugs. In 1900, the age expectancy was just 49, and the dramatic increase in life expectancy since then, has been due in large part to the discovery and use of antibiotics.
However if you are one of those who have over used antibiotics or are old enough, like this Grandma, to have a more delicate balance of colon bacteria. Exercising caution by being aware of the side effects of using antibiotics, might be a smart investment in health.
As we care for aging parents, it is a good thing to remember that our digestive systems are are more delicate as they grow older. Nurse Virginia notes that while yogurt is a good thing, it is pasteurized, which kills most of the bacteria. Various over-the-counter supplements might be the answer.
Gordon Atkinson for Sodalis Elder Care
Sodalis Elder Care Facilities in Texas. Assisted Living in Texas where our aging friends are cared for with tenderness and compassion.
