Seniors that are overweight need to lose weight in order to be healthy. Getting as close as possible to a healthy weight will significantly improve a senior’s health. Seniors that are a healthy weight can lower their risk of diabetes, heart disease, heart attacks, circulatory problems, and many other illnesses. But because many seniors can’t exercise strenuously they need to use a combination of diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices to try and lose weight. Home visit doctors who help seniors with weight management can be very effective at helping seniors get to a healthy weight.
Nutritional Counseling
Since diet is so important for weight loss it helps immensely if the doctor helping your senior loved one can see their pantry and refrigerator and see how your senior loved one normally eats. A home visit doctor can give much better nutritional counseling when they get a sense of how your senior loved one is able to cook and what their level of nutritional knowledge is. For example, if your senior loved one has a lot of fresh veggies in the fridge and not a lot of sugary snacks and junk in the pantry the home visit doctor will not waste time talking about the benefits of fresh vegetables since it’s clear your senior loved one already knows that. Instead they can focus their time and attention on other areas.
Lifestyle Coaching
Lifestyle advice and coaching is also an important part of weight management and the home visit doctor needs to see how your senior loved one is living in order to give better advice. For example, if the doctor sees that the house is disorganized and messy it could indicate that your senior loved one has depression, which can cause weight gain. Treating the depression may help treat the weight problem. A holistic lifestyle approach is important for good weight management.
Less Embarrassment
Seniors often may be embarrassed to be weighed at the doctor’s office even if they are weighed in a private room. Weighting a patient at home on their own scale can make them more comfortable. And seniors that are overweight may be much more comfortable talking about their food journals, weight gain, and other issues with a home visit doctor that they see in their home rather than discussing all of that in public with the doctor at their office. Seniors value modesty and privacy and both of those are available at home.
Practical Advice And Goal Setting
Helping seniors get to a healthy weight requires some honest discussions and a thorough assessment of the way that they’re living and eating on a daily basis. Because of that doctors who are visiting seniors at home will be able to give better and more practical suggestions when they see your senior loved one’s home, how they life, the neighborhood they live in, how close the closest grocery store is, where seniors can walk, and other factors that are relevant to your senior loved one’s weight loss.
Primary Care @ Home treats patients between ages 18-100+ years of age. We specialize in Primary & Preventive Care, Chronic Conditions, Homebound Patients, Geriatrics and Intellectually Disabled patients all in the comfort of our patient’s own homes. If you or an aging loved one in Fishers, IN could benefit from our services please contact us today! (317) 471-0774
Dr. Horine treats adults including seniors and those with special needs. Dr. Horine Graduated from Indiana University and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, where he practiced until 2019.
He has a special interest in assisting home-bound patients to remain in their homes and out of the hospital.
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