As you grow old, your health starts to deteriorate. Everything, whether it is your mental health or your physical health, starts to slow down. However, with age, your mental health gets overshadowed by your physical health.

Signs You Should Note

If you note these signs in your ageing parents or grandparents, take note of it. Try to get involved with them. It is also important to ensure that they have a separate social circle apart from the family. This way, they can have friends who they can also relate to.

With age, suggests Sinha, you are more prone to be depressed, and anxious. “Mental health conditions like schizophrenia or bipolar disorders are not something that happens when you grow older. You may have been living with these for the last 40 years, but the management differs, she suggests.

As you grow old, your symptoms start to overlap with other mental health conditions. For the proper treatment professionals use differential diagnosis, suggests Sinha. “The lines become blurred and to differentiate the symptoms from one mental health condition to another becomes difficult,” she says.

Preventive Measures

There are also food habits like eating leafy vegetables, nuts, fish, virgin coconut and beans that help with brain functions.

Sinha suggests that keeping a social circle and continuing your hobbies can help your mind stay healthy. “Men especially face this issue, after they retire, they feel like they are at the loss of authority, and they start to lose control. It is thus important to keep doing things and learning a new skill to keep your brain active. While for women, since they continue taking care of the house, their brain stays active,” she says.

Cognitive stimulation is the key, especially to managing dementia, she notes.

“Just with weight training, you push your body and after a while, it becomes your muscle memory. Same with the brain. However, one should not get into solving too many puzzles, or trivia after being diagnosed with dementia. Because that would mean you are making your already injured brain exercise which might lead to agitation,” she recommends.

How to support?

“The most important part is for the caregiver to understand what is happening and come to terms with the conditions. Because the elderly with cognitive conditions are not able to understand, they cannot be told or instructed to do anything. Thus, the responsibility is solely on the caregiver,” points out Sinha.

So, what can be done?

Awareness

Reach out to therapists and counsellors to know the ways to create such a healthy environment.

Be Patient

She suggests adopting the same approach that you do with kids and with your pets. This is when you focus on gestures, body language and mood over language. Due to cognitive disorders, parents experience a loss of language and the only way to communicate and to understand what they are communicating is through these means.

Be Empathetic

Create a healthy environment by agreeing with them and listening to their stories. The responsibility of creating a safe environment is totally with you.

There might be times when your parents may do socially unacceptable or non-compliance behaviour. But it is important to understand the triggers and ensure that the triggers do not occur anymore.

Help Them Stay Fit

IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease is a growing health concern worldwide - particularly amongst young adults. The two main types of IBD are Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s disease. However, these can be confused because they share symptoms.

Some of these are abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, and weight loss. They affect the digestive tract differently, thus also have different complications and treatment plans. It is important to understand these differences so that patients may seek out timely diagnosis and better disease management.

1. Different Parts of the Digestive Tract Are Affected

Ulcerative Colitis is limited to the colon and rectum. Inflammation begins in the rectum and spreads continuously upwards. In Crohn’s disease, any part of the digestive system can be impacted. Including the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon. However, it is most commonly the small intestine that is involved in Crohn’s disease.

2. Inflammation Pattern is Different

In ulcerative colitis, inflammation is continuous. There are no healthy gaps in between the affected areas. Crohn’s disease causes patchy inflammation. Meaning, there are sections of healthy tissue known as “skip lesions”.

3. Crohn’s Disease causes more serious damage

Ulcerative colitis affects only the innermost lining of the bowel. Crohn’s disease, on the other hand, can involve all layers of the intestinal wall. This increases the risk of complications such as fistulas, bowel obstruction, and intestinal narrowing.

4. Symptoms May Look Similar, But Often Differ

Both conditions can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fatigue, and unintended weight loss. However, bloody stools are more common in ulcerative colitis. Crohn’s disease may also cause mouth ulcers, severe nutritional deficiencies, and pain in the anal region.

5. Nutritional Problems Are More Common in Crohn’s Disease

Because Crohn’s disease frequently affects the small intestine, patients may struggle to absorb nutrients properly. This struggle results in anemia, a vitamin B12 deficiency, low iron levels, and weight loss.

6. Surgery Has Different Outcomes

Ulcerative colitis can be cured by removing the colon. In Crohn’s disease, surgery is used mainly to treat complications, but inflammation can affect another part of the digestive tract.

7. Smoking Affects the Diseases Differently

Smoking worsens Crohn’s disease. It increases the risk of flare-ups, complications, as well as repeat surgeries. However, Ulcerative Colitis does not show the same pattern. Some studies have found lower rates of ulcerative colitis among smokers. Although smoking is never recommended as a treatment because of its serious health risks.

8. Treatment Approaches

Both conditions are treated with anti-inflammatory medications, immunosuppressing drugs, and dietary changes. But in Crohn’s disease, often more aggressive and long-term treatment is required. This is because it can affect the deeper layers of the bowel and multiple parts of the digestive tract.

Most people who hear the words “robotic surgery” picture something from a science fiction film. A machine operating independently, the surgeon watching from across the room. The reality is considerably less dramatic and considerably more reassuring.

In robotic-assisted surgery, the surgeon is in control throughout the procedure. The robotic system does not make independent decisions. It functions as a precision instrument, translating the surgeon’s movements into actions with a degree of accuracy that is difficult to achieve through conventional techniques alone. A useful parallel is GPS navigation — the driver still steers, still makes every turn, still decides the route. The technology makes the execution more reliable.

What this means for patients, practically, is a procedure designed to do what it needs to do with less disruption to the surrounding tissue. Less disruption means less post-operative pain. Less pain means rehabilitation begins sooner. And sooner rehabilitation means the things patients actually care about — walking without discomfort, climbing stairs, travelling, returning to work — come back faster.

This is why robotic surgery has gained traction in orthopedics in particular. Joint replacement patients are not looking for a technical achievement. They are looking to move again. They want to walk to the kitchen without wincing, attend a family function without sitting out the evening, and pick up their grandchildren. The recovery is the point, and the precision that robotic assistance enables is what makes that recovery more predictable.

There are persistent myths worth addressing directly. That robotic surgery is risky because it relies on machines — it is not, because the surgeon remains in control and the system includes multiple real-time safety checks. That it is only accessible in premium or specialty settings — increasingly, it is not. That the higher upfront cost cannot be justified — for many patients, the shorter hospital stay, lower post-operative pain, and reduced likelihood of complications make the calculus straightforward.

Healthcare is moving toward precision and personalization, and patients are moving with it. The question most people are now asking before surgery is not only whether the procedure will work. It is how quickly and how fully they will get their life back afterward. Robotic-assisted surgery was built to answer that question.

Lifespan across the globe is increasing. More people are living to old age and spending more years in later life. This is a big societal achievement.

India, too, is witnessing this demographic shift. Life expectancy in India is expected to rise from about 72 years in 2023 to nearly 77 years by 2045, and it may reach 83 years by 2080. But the question here is whether this increased lifespan also translates into good health?

Even though people are living longer, the number of years they live in good health has not increased by the same amount.

People are now spending more years coping with health challenges that affect their independence, mobility, and quality of life. One of the key reasons behind this gap between lifespan and healthy years is the rising burden of chronic diseases in an ageing population.

How Ageing Increases Health Risks

Ageing is associated with a gradual deterioration of the immune system, a process called immunosenescence. As people enter their 50s, the body’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to bacteria and viruses decreases.

Its ability to produce antibodies reduces. It makes the body stay in a constantly inflamed condition, even in the absence of an infection.

This process is strongly linked to a higher risk of chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, or kidney disease.

These chronic conditions further weaken the already weakening immune system of the ageing adults. This, in turn, makes older adults vulnerable to various vaccine-preventable infections such as flu, shingles, and their complications.

In this phase of life, even a routine illness like the flu may lead to hospitalization or serious complications such as pneumonia.

Shingles, which is caused by the reactivation of the chickenpox virus and is far more likely to strike in older adults, can result in debilitating nerve pain that lasts for months.

The impact of these infections goes far beyond an individual’s physical suffering. When adults fall ill, the consequences extend to families and the broader healthcare system. There are medical bills, lost wages, caregiver responsibilities, and often a long road to recovery.

For older adults, infections can mean loss of independence or worsening of underlying health conditions.

At the system level, preventable hospitalizations lead to overcrowded facilities and diverted resources, putting additional strain on India’s already overburdened healthcare system.

Ageing society And Preventive Healthcare

India is shifting from being one of the world’s youngest societies to the world’s oldest.

It already has around 150 million older adults, making it the second-largest ageing population in the world. By 2047, this number is expected to double to nearly 300 million, and by 2067, India may have the largest population of older adults globally.

As this shift continues, protecting the health of ageing adults will become increasingly important for families, communities, and the healthcare system.

As life expectancy continues to rise, it is important to ensure that these added years are lived in good health.

Preventive healthcare measures such as balanced nutrition, regular physical activity, and adequate sleep, along with timely vaccination, can help achieve healthy ageing.

Vaccination works by stimulating the immune system to recognize and fight infections more effectively.

As immunity naturally weakens with age, adult vaccination can help strengthen the body’s defences and maintain protection against certain preventable diseases.

Adults, especially those entering their 50s and beyond, should speak with their doctors about recommended vaccinations and take timely steps to stay protected. Proactive preventive care can play an important role in supporting healthier, more active years later in life.