dementiaia
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The nutrition of the elderly is influenced by many factors, including finances, social patterns, the physiology of aging, and psychological factors. Major obstacles to good nutrition for many older Americans are their physical limitations, diseases, and decreased mental function. Surprisingly little research has been devoted to the nutrient needs and eating habits of the elderly in the United States. The Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) of 1980, which set the dietary standards for different groups by age and sex, made few recommendations specific to the elderly and even these were based largely on extrapolations of research data on younger persons, usually young men. But recent nutrition research suggests that the elderly do differ in important ways from middle-aged adults, and that older men and women differ from each other as well. With age, the needs for calcium, vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12 appear to increase because the aging body absorbs and utilizes these nutrients less efficiently. Researchers are discovering that older Americans often have inadequate intakes of folacin, zinc, magnesium, calcium, and vitamins B-6, B-12 and D. One study showed that hospitalized elderly patients were actually served meals that were nutritionally inadequate and they often ate less of their meals than younger patients. With poor nutrition, hospitalized older people are at great risk for incomplete healing and infection after surgery, and for bedsores. Surveys have concluded that up to 50 percent of patients in nursing homes are malnourished...