How Personalized Medicine Can Benefit Older Adults
Have you heard about 'personalized medicine?' Doctors and pharmacists can match you and your genetics with the most effective treatment and medications, allowing for a better quality of life and greater lifespan.
Personalized medicine uses the knowledge of an individual's genetic profile, helping doctors choose the proper medication or treatment and administer it in a way that best matches that specific patient.
Your genetic profile can be used to help prevent disease, diagnose disease and treat any disease most effectively.
In an effort to improve medical science, scientists and physicians are exploring the potential of personalized medicine. While the idea of individualized treatment plans isn't new, modern technology makes unique and specialized health care plans more accessible than ever before.
Personalized medicine can help anyone, but older people, in particular, can gain a lot from this medical approach.
How Does Personalized Medicine Work?
"One size fits all" isn't a practical approach for medicine. Everyone has a unique genetic makeup that influences how your body reacts to diseases and treatment, and personalized medicine considers this when building care plans for patients.
Medical advancements like molecular diagnostic devices allow doctors to learn more about patients' genetics, which, in turn, gives them more information about how a patient might respond to a disease or drug. A deeper understanding of each patient's unique body and needs empowers doctors to develop a more precise and effective treatment plan.
Prevention Over Reaction
One of the most significant ways personalized medicine can benefit older adults is that it allows a doctor to prevent health problems before they occur. Most modern medicine focuses on reacting to an issue instead of preventing it. On the other hand, personalized medicine offers insight into a patient's predisposition to certain diseases and conditions. Doctors can better predict if someone is susceptible to an illness or likely to develop a condition throughout the course of their life.
Preventing health issues helps older adults who might take longer to recover or develop further complications alongside a disease. The insights that personalized medicine delivers can go a long way in preserving the good health of senior patients.
Faster, More Accurate Diagnoses
A deeper understanding of a patient's genetics also enables better diagnostic processes. Part of this stems from doctors knowing the conditions and disorders a patient is predisposed to. Understanding a patient's susceptibility to specific health problems helps medical professionals watch out for those particular issues.
Additionally, analyzing genetic information enables faster and more sensitive tests. When diagnostics are more precise, doctors can pinpoint problems early and act quickly to deliver more effective treatments.
Individualized and Effective Treatment Plans
Genetic information can offer more than just insight into how a patient will react to specific diseases or conditions. This knowledge also helps doctors determine how effective specific treatments will be for individuals.
Inherited gene variations can affect how the body responds to certain medications. Unsafe and ineffective drugs cause avoidable deaths, adverse reactions, many of which result in costly hospitalizations. The ability for doctors and pharmacists to know the proper medication and dosage can be a game-changer for health care.
When health care providers can predict how a drug will affect the body, they can more easily prescribe the most appropriate medicines and treatments. This reduces trial and error methods and the harmful side effects, wasted resources, and steep prescription costs they create.
Individualized treatment plans are faster, safer, and more affordable for older adults and all other patients.
About the Author
Mallory Knee is a freelance writer for multiple online publications where she can showcase her affinity for all things beauty and fashion. She particularly enjoys writing for communities of passionate women who come together for a shared interest and empower one another in the process. In her free time, you can find Mallory trying a fun new dinner recipe, practicing calligraphy, or hanging out with her family.
Mallory Knee
Contributor since September 25th, 2020
Editor's Note
Medical advances add to the quality of life and life expectancy. However, added longevity brings many aging issues front and center. We may not have health problems but can suffer from mobility and frailty issues as we get older, increasing the risk of needing long-term health care.
Being dependent on others for our daily living activities is not something most of us want to have to burden our loved ones with. Family caregivers are often unprepared and untrained for the job. In some cases, the adult children are older themselves and unable to be caregivers.
Professional care is getting more costly every year. Increasing demand for care services and higher labor costs are financially straining families.
The affordable solution to aging and long-term health care is Long-Term Care Insurance. You will access your choice of quality care services, including care in your home. Not only will you protect income and assets from the high costs of care, but you also give your loved ones the time to be family instead of caregivers.
Be sure to obtain coverage in your 40s or 50s so you can find the most affordable options.
Available Resources on LTC NEWS
LTC NEWS offers several tools and resources to help you in your research for a planning solution or help your family find the appropriate care for a loved one at the time of crisis.
To help you plan for the future costs and burdens of changing health and aging, LTC NEWS can put together several resources, including:
- The LTC NEWS Cost of Care Calculator will show you the financial impact of long-term health care where you live. It will also show you state-specific information on tax benefits, care options, rules, and more.
- The Ultimate Long-Term Care Guide is an outstanding read to help you get a good overview of the topic area.
- Compare the major insurance companies that offer Long-Term Care Insurance products here - Top Insurers for Long-Term Care Insurance | LTC News.
- A detailed tax guide that includes available tax incentives can be found by reviewing the Long-Term Care Tax Benefits Guide.
Find all the resources on LTC NEWS - Resources for Long-Term Care Planning | LTC News.
Seek Professional Advice
Experts suggest using a qualified Long-Term Care Insurance specialist to help you navigate the many options available to you and your family. Insurance rates are regulated, so no insurance agent, agency, or financial advisor can give you special deals. However, premiums do vary over 100% between insurance companies for the same coverage.
A specialist who works with the top companies can match your age, health, family history, and other factors and find you the best coverage at the best value. A specialist will save you money, and you will have the peace of mind knowing they are making the appropriate recommendations - Work With a Specialist | LTC News.
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If your parent or loved one needs care now - or soon - you will need to find the appropriate care in the right setting depending on their needs.
Take a moment and read -
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Benefits of Reverse Mortgages
Today's reverse mortgages for those aged 62 and older could be an ideal resource to fund a Long-Term Care Insurance policy OR even provide money to pay for care if you, or a loved one, already needs help and assistance.
Some people have much of their savings invested in their homes. With today's reverse mortgages, you can find ways to fund care solutions, care itself, even help with cash flow during your retirement.
Learn more by asking questions to an expert. LTC NEWS columnist and host of the TV Show "62 Who Knew" will answer your questions regarding caregiving, aging, health, retirement planning, long-term care, and reverse mortgages.
Just "Ask Mike." - Reverse Mortgages | LTC News.
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