AARP Hearing Center
5 Childhood Health Issues You Can Fix at 50-Plus
Newer treatments and therapies are helping people address issues they have lived with for years
Liam Eisenberg
Perhaps as a child or teenager, you watched with envy as other kids had their benign but bothersome health issues repaired. Or maybe you were never informed that such issues could be fixed. But just because your parents didn’t help you address a physical or psychological concern decades ago does not mean you can’t do it now.
“It’s never, ever, ever, ever too late” to treat any number of issues that have plagued you since childhood, says Dr. Lea Marin, who helps older adults do just that as chief of geriatric psychiatry at the Mount Sinai–Behavioral Health Center in New York.
More Ways to Benefit
- Related Benefit 1
- Related Benefit 2
- Related Benefit 3
- Related Benefit 4
- Related Benefit 5
Older people may decide to address these issues because symptoms worsen, because treatments have improved or because they simply want to feel better about themselves.
“The last chapter is the best chapter,” Marin says. “It’s a time to feel confident and supported.”
Here are five conditions older adults are nixing and how they’re getting it done.
1. Deviated septum
Remember back in high school when your friends had surgery to correct a deviated septum — and, maybe not so incidentally, simultaneously straighten their nose? It turns out the procedure is not only cosmetic; it also brings short- and long-term health benefits. (A nose job accompaniment remains optional.)
Septa are the thin walls of bone and cartilage separating your nostrils. Almost nobody’s is perfectly straight, but a dramatic C or S shape can make people feel congested or prevent easy breathing through their nose, says Dr. R. Peter Manes, an otolaryngologist at the Yale School of Medicine. Other symptoms include headache, sinus infections, obstructive sleep apnea and even high blood pressure (hypertension).
The condition may worsen over time, but even if it doesn’t and you’ve learned to live with it, there are benefits to the surgery, known as a septoplasty, Manes says. This is why up to 20 percent of his patients are 50 and older.
The procedure is done on an outpatient basis, and the incision, typically made inside the nostrils, causes little facial bruising. Following the surgery, heart function has been found to improve, and snoring often lessens too.
2. Social anxiety
Have you always considered yourself to be shy? There’s nothing wrong with being introverted — preferring some time alone to constant group involvement — but some people labeled shy as a child actually have social anxiety that benefits from treatment, Marin says.
About 0.3 percent of older Americans experience social anxiety, also called social phobia, feeling distressed when around other people or avoiding engagements altogether. Marin regularly sees older patients who read about the condition and realize it has always applied to them.
“Although they’ve had it their whole lives, it’s the first time they’ve had a name for it,” she says. In other cases, they’re forced to address it because circumstances change, such as moving from an isolated neighborhood to a 55-plus community or an independent living facility where socializing is expected.
Untreated social anxiety can make older people lonely if they avoid going out, which is why it’s sometimes mistaken for depression. But just 10 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy could help. In some cases, a doctor might also prescribe an antidepressant medication that’s often used to treat anxiety.
Because of the joy socializing brings to their lives, many older patients tell Marin, “I can’t believe I waited so long.”
3. Misaligned or lazy eye
Some general practitioners may mistakenly tell older adults that if their misaligned eyes weren’t addressed in childhood, it’s too late now. But “that’s not true,” says Dr. Edward Kuwera, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Wilmer Eye Institute in Maryland. This condition, known as strabismus, can be rectified at any age; in fact, some of his patients are 90.
Strabismus is primarily a cosmetic issue that won’t damage the eyes, but it often makes people feel self-conscious. Fortunately, the fix is a simple outpatient procedure in which the muscle pulling one eye too tightly is repositioned. Not a single major complication occurred among more than 100 people over 80 who underwent the procedure, researchers reported last year, with three-quarters cured after a single operation. (More were fixed after two.)
“The risk of bad stuff happening with cataract surgery is much higher than the risk of bad stuff with strabismus surgery,” Kuwera says. Recovery is simpler too; you resume normal life the following day.
By contrast, a lazy eye, or amblyopia, is harder to treat in older adults because their brains learned long ago to ignore the problem, Kuwera says. But the double vision it can cause can be annoying enough that it’s worth the attempt.
Therapies are the same as in children, including wearing an eye patch on the dominant eye for several hours a day to force the brain to reengage. There are also treatments that use virtual-reality headsets, which one small study found can benefit adults.
Better treatments may be on the horizon, as scientists experiment with cutting-edge therapies, including psychedelics and an anti-seizure medication that promotes brain plasticity. Both are in early stages of research.
4. Stuttering
As many as 1 in 4 kids who stutter will continue to do so as adults, a condition known as persistent developmental stuttering. Fortunately, older adults can see dramatic changes with treatment from a speech-language pathologist.
This generally involves what is known as speech restructuring: learning to slow your speaking speed, extend vowels, control your breathing and employ other techniques that can be integrated into everyday conversations. The method reduces stuttering frequency by an average of 50 percent. And doing it via telehealth turns out to be as effective as face-to-face.
Stuttering often worsens when people get anxious, so cognitive behavioral therapy can also improve speech, Marin says. The focus here “is less about the way other people are viewing you and more about how you are viewing you,” she says.
5. Birthmarks
Many adults have come to terms with their birthmarks and even learned to love them, says Dr. Elena Hawryluk, an associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. Still, with advances in dermatology making them easier to eliminate, some older adults are having them removed. And some do so if the birthmark changes in a way that may indicate skin cancer is forming. “Any birthmark that is bleeding, changing in shape or color, growing unexpectedly or becoming otherwise symptomatic should be evaluated,” and often removed and biopsied, Hawryluk says.
Port-wine stains that were not easily eradicated when older adults were kids can now be significantly faded with a series of pulsed-dye laser treatments. Meanwhile, brown birthmarks, such as moles, are removed by simple excision.
“Advances in surgical planning, wound closure, and scar care have all helped improve cosmetic outcomes,” Hawryluk says. That may be why 95 percent of adults who had moles removed were pleased with their new appearance.
AARP Membership
Join AARP for only $15 per year with automatic renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of benefits, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.
More From AARP
5 Silent Conditions That Become More Common With Age
Experts explain how aging-related conditions develop quietly and what helps detect them sooner
Common Allergies People 50-Plus Face
Reactions to foods, medications, pollen and insects can develop later in life
Unlearning Pain, From a Doctor Who Lived With It
An unorthodox treatment for my chronic neck pain also transformed how I practice medicine