Living Well, April

A Quarterly Magazinefor People 45 & Older

VOL. 2|APRIL 2011

The need to keep fit ....................................2Computer connections ..............................4Get up and go..............................................6How to improve health................................8

All photos byBOB SATNAN/DEMOCRAT

By Bob SatnanThe Sedalia Democrat

Karen Smith stops visiting with fellowbowlers long enough to step up and roll herframe. She grabs her ball, swings it and the ballhits the pocket a perfect strike.

She quickly turns on her heel, claps herhands and announces, I like that lane!

Smith, 68, of Sedalia, sports a smile asbright as her yellow shirt as she gets back toher true focus: chatting with her teammatesand competitors in the Swinging Seniors leagueat Shooters Lanes in Sedalia.

Im lucky I can do all of this, Smith says,in reference to pain she feels from injuries andarthritis. But the chance to be active and spendtime socializing keeps her bubbly personalityeven more effervescent.

Bonnie Gensler, 68, and her sister, LoisHarms, 70, make the trek up from Lincolneach Monday to take part in the league.Gensler contends, I believe we (seniors) needto stay active both physically and mentally.

There is plenty ofresearch to back upher claim.

Dr. Behfar Dianati,an internal medicinespecialist at BothwellRegional Health Cen-ter in Sedalia, focuseson the diagnosis andtreatment of health is-sues in adults. He saysthe physical activitythat the league mem-bers experience is beneficial, but the body isnot all that needs a workout.

The mind is not an exception from otherorgans. Like any organ, if you dont exercise it,it will lose function, he says. Dianati adds thatas people get older and lose social connections,they dont use certain parts of their brain, sothose areas functions go away, never to be re-gained.

Harms, who still works with kindergartnersin the Benton County R-2 School District, liveson a farm so she has plenty of chores to keepher busy. I try to be as active as the Lord letsme be, she says.

She comes from a sports-minded familyand played softball until age 60. But when itcomes to bowling, she says, Its a challenge.

Ill give you a challenge!Bill Wilson, 78, of Sedalia, has been in the

league 10 or 15 years seemingly makingwisecracks the whole time. So what motivatedhim to join the league?

Its fun, I get a little exercise and it gets meout of the house, he says, adding that his wifeenjoys that last part the most.

Virgil Kitchen says the league gives himsomething to look forward to. The 96-year-old Sedalian is among the leagues top handicapscorers.

I get a lot of pleasure out of doing this,he says.

The Elder Care Caf blog(eldercarecafe.net) notes that a key to keepingseniors active is finding out what they did in

the past to exercise orremain active and en-couraging them toparticipate in a like ac-tivity in some fashion.It also encouragesseniors especiallythose who have notbeen active in a while to start slow withsuch activities andbuild proficiency andconfidence; if frustra-tion sets in early, theopportunity to make

The need to keep fit,physically andmentally

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LIVING WELL Wednesday, April 27, 2011PG 2

The Swinging Seniors bowling league April 18 at Shooters Lanes in Sedalia.photos by BOB SATNAN/DEMOCRAT

getting out and getting movingmay be lost.

Gensler subscribes to the useit or lose it theory. She says thatthe bowling league provides men-tal and physical activity, as well ascamaraderie for the participants.

You can come here and feelbad, but once you get to bowlthose bad feelings go away, shesays.

Gensler, who works for Reece& Nichols Golden Key Realty,works puzzles, has text-messageexchanges with her son and does alot of computer-based work tohelp keep her mind active.

If you stay mentally fit, thephysical comes along with it, shesays.

Dianati agrees, stating: Themore you use your brain, the morereading you do, the more socializ-ing you do, the longer you canhave good use of your brain. Itslike that saying, With a healthymind comes a healthy body.

While the bowling league, andplenty of other activities includingwalking or bicycling on the KatyTrail, playing golf or doing yogaare both low impact and beneficial,Dianati says another exercise isgaining favor: tai chi chuan.

He says a recent study showselderly who do tai chichuan, a slow-movingChinese martial artthat is said to improvebalance, strength andendurance, have fewerincidences of falling.

It is the nature ofthe sport to use bal-ance, mental powerand physical power,Dianati said, addingthat socializing aspart of the classesstimulates parts of

brain, as well.Another benefit of the bowl-

ing league and other group activi-ties for seniors, especially thosewho are living alone: Folks noticewhen youre not there.

Somebody is always checkingon somebody, Harms said.

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LIVING WELLWednesday, April 27, 2011 PG 3

Karen Smith, 68, chats between frames with Bobbie Lee, 79,and Jack Drexler, 77, between frames during the SwingingSeniors bowling league April 18 at Shooters Lanes in Sedalia.Bonnie Gensler, 68, of Lincoln, makes her approach before rolling a strike.

LIVING WELL Wednesday, April 27, 2011PG 4

By Travis McMullenfor The Democrat

For many, the Internet is a significantpart of their lives and any extended periodof time spent without access to it is timespent in complete agony. We live in a worldwhere a significant percentage of the popu-lation must constantly check their Twitterfeeds, Facebook accounts and email in-boxes or they might just go mad.

They say wisdom comes with age, butwe all still hear the jokes about youth being

tied to electronic prowess. These days itmight seem that children are born with nat-ural computer abilities as though eachnewborn is issued a foam keyboard andmouse and will be able to utilize the Inter-net within hours of coming into the world.

There are millions of children alivetoday who have never and probably willnever live in a world without Internet ac-cess, without laptops and touch-screenphones and will never have to be withoutthe endless resource that is the Internet.

But there are others who are steadfast intheir belief that the Internet has never andcan never do anything for them. There aresome who are willingly being left behind.But the Internet is one of the greatest in-novations of mankind and it can improvethe life of each and every one of us if weonly let it.

It can be easier to develop new skillsearlier in ones life, sometimes, but nobodyshould let a little inexperience get themdown. Anyone, at any age can learn justabout anything if they put their mind to it.The worlds collected knowledge is availablewith the click of a few buttons.

You can use the Internet to make con-nections to people you used to know, oreven people you would like to know.

As previously mentioned, Facebook, thewildly popular website whose creation wasthe basis of 2010s smash-hit movie TheSocial Network, is pretty much the interac-tion center of the net. It started out as anonline meeting space for college studentsbut it quickly turned into much more thanthat. Facebook and the Internet at largeoffer a level of long-range interaction thatcant be achieved through phone calls andtraditional mail, even when combined.

One can interact with old friends, dis-tant relatives, classmates, celebrities andpoliticians through Facebook and servicessuch as Twitter. Social networking sitesmake it easy to find exactly who you wantto find you can search by city, state, orschool or just search for the names of thepeople that youve lost contact with.

And one of the best things about theInternet is that no matter what you might

Computers, online services provide chance to connect

622 South Ohio6