As I’ve already said, I’m working with her on improving her diet. That’s the first and main thing I’m doing. I’m asking questions about supps to try to help make the journey easier for her. It’s not to allow her to do nothing about her diet.
Also as I’ve already said, her joints aren’t in a good state. Walking is painful for her and she can only walk very slowly so lots of walking is out of the question until her joints get better.
I get what you mean about the meds she’s taking and I’ll find out exactly what she’s taking and research what they interact with.
But I bet there are some good joint supps that she can take which would make her joints better. Along the same lines, I’m sure there are other things which she can safely take to make things a little bit better. If it’s just omega 3s and grean tea extract, so be it.
You seem to really care about this person and want to help. That is a good thing. My grandmother is 92 and hasn't been able to stand from a chair in about 5 years unless someone helps her. When she started losing her ability to stand and walk, and I saw my dad limping around on bad knees in his 60's and then realized I was 5'8'x and 300+ in my 30's, it clicked. There is a path. And it is even more brutal than just dying. It is full of pain and inability and loss of self respect.
Making changes in my 30's has been a hard road. I have a lot of failures. I have had to fight for every inch and everytime I let up, I lost so much if the ground I had taken. Someone who is 80, with diabetes, joint pain, etc. Is going to have a really, really hard time turning that ship around.
I say this not so that you give up hope and stop helping. But you need to have perspective here. While you are trying to make things easier with supplements, you aren't being honest with yourself about how hard it will be - there is nothing that really makes it easy. And you need to be honest with you so you can be honest and understanding with her.
So, if there is a supplement out there that will help an 80 year old, be appropriate, and not be a risk of harming her, and really make things easier, then most of us on here don't know it and we are all kind of into supplements. Doesn't mean it isn't out there - but it probably means that you aren't going to find it in a capsule with a label on it. You are going to have to dig deep and find something that none of us know about that is likely not commercially available, and you will have to source/make yourself.
And of course...you would have to test it to make sure it actually was what you thought, which will cost thousands of dollars.
Plus, if you do find such an ingredient, since so few know about it, safety and interactions,etc. Will likely have not been studied, so you are back to square 1.
And if you are sourcing it and don't know what it us, it could be dangerous and safety is a bigger problem.
Add in all the studies showing that a huge number of supplements contain illegal DRUGS and ingredients that aren't disclosed on the label = more risk.
You are simply wasting a lot of time on things that at best make a 5% difference (being kind) and at worst will kill her, put her in the hospital, etc.
I understand the desire to help....I spend a ton if time researching to help people... but if you have heard of it or it is already available, it probably isn't going to be appropriate - especially without knowing every drug she takes already.