Granny Heroes

Tuesday, 18 October 2022

We see your grandparents more than you do!

One interesting quirk over my last 20 years as a community Pharmacist: I get to be around more 80 year olds than probably you do. And how are they doing? Like every cohort amongst us, they vary. We have 80 year olds in our community that are struggling with their health. But we also have 80 year olds that have more energy than 30 year old me.

What's the secret to their wellbeing? Is there anything we could be doing now to make sure we stay healthy? Success leaves clues - so lets do a quick fire round of things I’ve learnt from this amazing group of people in our community:

1. Loneliness kills. Being around people is the spark of life, be it book clubs, golf mates or church groups. When we ask our patients what their plans are for the day and they start talking about their group activities, their eyes just light up with energy. You just can’t help but put a smile on your face.
2. Be good friends with an audiologist. And turn down those headphones. Impaired hearing severely affects your health outcomes and can leave you out of the loop with family and friends. This, in turn, can result in feeling a bit isolated (see 1.)
3. Put sunblock on your hands (and ears and scalp and.. just smash that stuff on ok!) We dispense a lot of skin cancer treatments to be used on hands - avoid this by using sunblock. Sun damage also ages skin dramatically - douse your neck and face with that good stuff too! (We recommend La Roche Posay facial sunblock. We have free samples to give away this month, so come in store to try some.
4. Stop Smoking/Vaping. These habits can lead to a condition called COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) Trust me when I say, you would not choose to have this disease. Due to the damage caused to lungs from smoking or vaping, COPD makes breathing a daily struggle and severely impacts your health outcomes.
5. Be a Dog person. Pets provide companionship, but we would give the nod to dogs over goldfish as dogs make you walk outdoors. Daily exercise is vital to maintaining good health. Outdoor walks on uneven ground make you work out your brain too, as with every single step on uneven ground, your subconcious brain does millions of calculations to stay balanced. This trains the same part of the brain that controls your memory centres. Also, you get to meet other dog people on your walk.
6. Drink water. Drinks laden with sugar provide zero nutritional value and can dump a lot of sugar into your system that over time can greatly impact the likelihood of getting diabetes. It's important to know that it's not just soft drinks - fruit juices, sweetened coffee drinks and flavoured milks all contain a ton of sugar. Diabetes is a risk factor for so many other unhealthy conditions, and it's becoming more prevalent in today's society. The simple act of choosing to drink water over time compounds greatly to your future self.

It's been ridiculously busy at work over the last 3 years, and as a result I’ve been beavering away out back in the dispensary a lot. But I had the best 10 minutes at work recently - we had a quiet patch, and I was out in the shop when a long term customer came in. She couldn’t get her blood pressure machine to work, and I had the time to have a look to see if I could fix the thing. This patient is in her 80s and her husband recently passed away. The machine just needed new batteries so it was an easy fix - but we just chatted. Turns out she was a rep-level swimmer in her day and she still tries to get out to Moana pool as much as possible; she got herself a wee cat to look after and has plans to visit her family in the North Island over summer. She had to dash though, as she was meeting up with her friends to play Mahjong later that day and wanted to make something for them to share for afternoon tea. She thanked me and left; I thanked her and just smiled. I can’t define your interpretation of success or happiness, but I’d 1000% love to be like her when I grow up.

As always, if there's anything here that piqued your interest, or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.