Senior Safety Tips
Seniors and Medicine
Medicine Resources
Older adults take more medication now than ever before. One reason is that older adults need more medication for chronic conditions.
With aging, many body processes are altered and often slow down, affecting the way medications are absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted. These elements combine to create a greater risk of drug interactions, drug/food interactions, and side effects.
Some medications will not work or have dangerous side effects when taken with other medications.
Seniors and Food Safety
Why are Seniors at Risk?
As we age, our immune system function decreases. Inflammation of the stomach and a decrease in stomach acid occurs. These factors increase the risk of infections caused by bacteria living on food.
Seniors have decreased appetites and are usually cooking for themselves and/or their spouses. This means there are more food leftovers to be stored in the refrigerator, thus increasing risk of bacterial growth.
Symptoms of Food Borne Illness
- Common symptoms of food borne illness include diarrhea, abdominal cramping, fever, headache, vomiting, and exhaustion.
- Symptoms may occur as early as one hour after contaminated food is eaten to several days afterward.
- Usually, symptoms last only 1-2 days but may persist over a week. If symptoms are significant or persistent, see your doctor.
Prevention
AVOID: Seniors should avoid eating raw or under cooked meat or eggs, raw shellfish, alfalfa sprouts and unpasteurized milk, cheese, fruit or vegetable juices.
CLEAN: Wash hands with warm soapy water before preparing food and wash food preparation surfaces before and after each use. Plastic cutting boards are easier to clean. Consider using paper towels to clean surfaces or launder cloth towels often. Always wash any plate, pan, cutting board or container that was used with raw meat before using it for another purpose.
COOK: All food requiring cooking should be done thoroughly. Order food well done at restaurants. Learn about safe cooking temperatures courtesy of foodsasfety.gov.
CHILL: Refrigerate or freeze leftovers within two hours after cooking and reuse as soon as possible. If more than two hours have gone by (including restaurant leftovers) throw the food out. Divide large amounts of leftovers into smaller containers for quicker cooling. Eat refrigerated leftovers within 4 days. Remember, if you are in doubt about the quality of food, it’s best to throw it out.