What is Happiness? A smile, a laugh, a tickle, tears of joy, encouragement or support? Happiness doesn’t have a definition, yet it entails a different meaning to each of us. Happiness is like making an investment. The more you distribute and share, higher are the returns.
As author Vanessa King says, “There are 10 keys to Happier Living.”

Did you just see what tops the list? Giving.

How do you plan to celebrate this day of Happiness? Shopping? Trip to the salon or a short getaway in a 5-star accommodation? How about we dedicate this day by giving something to someone? Our parents, maybe?

Indian culture places parents as equivalents to God, but as children we fail to live up to that. The distance, the neglect and it’s after effects never show up in their demeanour but it shows in their deteriorating health. It gets very hard for ageing parents to cope with health issues when they finally have time for themselves after a life full of responsibilities and hardships.

Common Ailments in Senior Citizens

Senior citizens are prone to myriad health problems, owing to their reduced strength and mental dissatisfaction. If not treated in time, this could lead to irreparable situations. Bones are the most susceptible parts of the body to get affected after a certain age.The most common diseases and defects are:

1. Arthritis
2. Osteoporosis
3. Slipped disc
4. Spondylitis

These are just a few of the many disorders that senior citizens are prone to, including the most trivial of them like blood pressure, diabetes and cardiac disorders.

What Can You Do To Make Them Happy?

As children there are many ways in which we can gift good health and well being to our parents.

1. Create Awareness

Making your parents aware of the various health risks they face due to progressing age, is the first step of healing process. Many a times, patients tend to go under depression when they come to know of their physical disorder. Positive outlook towards life and the zeal to live healthy goes a long way in accelerating the recovery process in patients. Children should be supportive and keep their parents abreast of their health status from time to time so that they are prepared for the worst and ready to fight it off without any mental stress.

2. Regular Health Check Ups

It is mandatory to initiate regular health full body check-up after a certain age, say post 50. This helps in early prognosis of disorders and subsequent treatment. The check-up can include blood tests, stress tests, bone density tests, to start with.

3. Diet and Exercises

As age progresses, bones enter a degenerative phase, unless nourished with calcium supplements. Parents, when they enter the retirement phase tend to go to extreme ends of the dietary spectrum as they are enjoying a relaxed phase. Some end up consuming less food while some others tend to go a gastronomic spree. A balanced diet that includes milk, cheese, buttermilk and eggs is necessary for both, men and women in old age to keep their bones healthy, strong and functioning. Calcium and vitamin D supplements should administered to combat deficiency and aid in prevention of bone disorders.

Our body is a machine. It needs to be oiled and operational on a regular basis for a longer life. For this, a streamlined diet should be complemented with regular exercises like walking, cycling, and swimming, to keep up the bone strength and regulate blood sugar, cholesterol levels.

4. Treatments

Arthritis affects 15% people i.e. over 180 million people in India and Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent form of arthritis in India, affecting over 15 million adults every year, commonly among patients older than 65 years of age.</

Degenerative disorders like these are commonly found in senior citizens. While these are curable with medicines, diet and surgeries, there are various myths and misconceptions surrounding knee and hip replacement surgeries in India. Scientific evidence suggests that there is a high success rate in these surgeries the effects of which last for 15 or more in more than 95% of patients. Early detection and regular, timely treatment can help patients live a happy, pain free life.

Conclusion

On this International Day of Happiness, let us pledge to give our parents a gift of good health and a healthy, happy life.

As celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna expressed recently,

Don’t wait for a single more moment. Our parents might never ask for anything and just give all their lives for us. Surprise them, spoil them, hug them, ask them about their dreams, and love them. Because one day, you might be able to buy a fleet of cars, but you can’t buy time.

Wishing you and your parents all the Happiness in Life with a Gift of Sound Health and Well Being