Nutrition and Aging Reflection

    Retrieved from https://www.businessmodulehub.com/blog/nutritional-tips-for-seniors/#.XTfJiC2ZM1I

     Mrs. Holloway's lecture about the importance of nutrition as we age was extremely enlightening.  We are constantly told how important it is to eat well, but eating well involves many aspects that we do not always consider.  Among all of the insightful knowledge she was sharing with us, there are a couple things that I learned a lot about.  One of them was how important lean body mass is for each of our bodies to contain.  In a perfect world, everyone would have 75% lean body mass and 25% fat body mass.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  As we age, lean body mass is lost much quicker, which is a great loss for our bodies.  As the total percentage of our body's lean mass decreases, the more at risk we are for many problems.  

      The second big piece of information I took away from Mrs. Holloway's lecture was how detrimental food insecurity can be to one's likelihood to endure major health problems.  I learned that when a person is food insecure, they are 50% more likely to become diabetic, 14% more likely to have hypertension, 60% more likely to have congestive heart failure or a heart attack, two times as likely to have asthma, and so much more.  The negative effects of food insecurity are truly jaw-dropping. 

      When addressing these problems, it is important for occupational therapists to consult with the dietitians available to them within their setting to decide how to approach the situation most effectively.  One way to address the accelerated loss of lean body mass in older individuals in the hospital is to assist them with maintaining some level of exercise while they are hospitalized.  By doing so, we can do our best to maintain the patient's strength.  To address those who may be food insecure within our community, occupational therapists and dietitians could come together to screen individuals for food insecurity.  From there, occupational therapists could hold group sessions for these individuals and educate them on the resources that are available to them to avoid further food insecurity.  

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