Category Archives: Longevity Medicine

Long life expectancy can be attributed to a persons diet - a healthy, balanced diet has been proven to improve longevity. Experts recommend eating at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day, basing meals on higher starchy foods like potatoes, bread and rice, having some dairy or dairy alternatives, eating some protein, choosing unsaturated oils and spreads, and drinking plenty of fluids.

But new research, published this week, has found the times of day a person eats holds the most benefits.

Dr Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, in the US, has said intermittent fasting could be part of a healthy lifestyle."

Intermittent fasting diets usually involve daily time-restricted feeding, which narrows eating times to six to eight hours per day and so-called 5:2 intermittent fasting, in which people limit themselves to one moderate-sized meal two days each week.

A range of human and animal studies have shown that alternating between times of fasting and eating supports cellular health, probably by triggering an age-old adaptation to periods of food scarcity called metabolic switching.

READ MORE:Type 2 diabetes symptoms: How often do you go to the toilet? Warning sign of the condition

Such a switch occurs when cells use up their stores of rapidly accessible, sugar-based fuel, and begin converting fat into energy in a slower metabolic process.

Dr Mattson says studies have shown that this switch improves blood sugar regulation, increases resistance to stress and suppresses inflammation.

Because most Americans eat three meals plus snacks each day, they do not experience the switch, or the suggested benefits.

In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr Mattson said four studies in both animals and people found intermittent fasting also decreased blood pressure, blood lipid levels and resting heart rates.

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Evidence is also mounting that intermittent fasting can cut risk factors associated with obesity and diabetes.

Studies also suggest intermittent fasting could boost brain health too.

Experts say people adopting intermittent fasting regimes should gradually increase the duration and frequency of the fasting periods over the course of several months, instead of "going cold turkey."

Many studies have highlighted the benefits of a vegetarian diet.

The authors of a large, long-term study concluded vegetarianism is associated with a reduced risk of ischemic heart disease.

The study featured in the British Medical Journal looked specifically at plant based diets and their effect on the risk of ischemic heart disease and also stroke.

As part of the study, scientists took data from 48,188 people whom they followed for an average of 18.1 years.

The participants who had an average age of 45 years at the start of the study had no history of ischemic heart disease or stroke.

They were then assigned to one of three groups:

Using food questionnaires, the researchers assessed their overall food intake and nutrient levels.

They also collected information about factors such as body mass index (BMI), height and blood pressure.

During the 18.1 years of follow-up there were 2,820 cases of ischemic heart disease and 1,072 cases of stroke.

After adjusting for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, the analysis revealed both positive and negative relationships between cardiovascular health and reduced meat intake.

The rate of ischemic heart disease among pescatarians was 13 per cent lower than that of meat eaters, while vegetarians had a rate that was 22 per cent lower.

Putting this into perspective, the authors of the study explained: This difference was equivalent to 10 fewer cases of ischemic heart diseasein vegetarians than in meat eaters per 1,000 population over 10 years.

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How to live longer: The best diet to increase life expectancy according to new study - Express

ABINGDON, Va. A local business owner is hoping to ring in the new year with less stress and more focus on well-being.

Angie Cvetkovski, co-owner of Balkan Bakery in Abingdon, has signed up to take tai chi classes beginning Monday, Jan. 6, at Western Masters Martial Arts in Abingdon.

Ive just turned 50, and I can tell I need more flexibility. Ive read about the benefits of tai chi, and I felt like this was the perfect time to learn, said Cvetkovski, who has a workload that is filled to capacity with obligations and tasks.

My plate is full. I have three kids and operate a family-owned business. Im also an esthetician on top of having a full-time job.

Cvetkovski is among many people who are searching for the secret to balancing stress in their lives.

According to Dane Harden, owner of Western Masters Martial Arts, tai chi offers a variety of physical and mental benefits for dealing with stress and anxiety in a modern world.

Stress in general can be extremely harmful to your overall health, said Harden, who is a primary care provider at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Bristol, Virginia.

Tai chi is an ancient Chinese form of medicine that is practiced as a grace form of exercise. A series of slow movements are accompanied by deep breathing and stretching. The exercises are performed in constant flowing movements.

When we think of tai chi in this country, we think about the slow-moving hand movements, but its really an energy exercise, and its incredibly good for your health, said Harden, an accomplished martial artist who was admitted into the Martial Arts Masters Hall of Fame in 2010, an honor he shares with martial artist celebrities including Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bill Superfoot Wallace and Michael Jai White.

Tai chi is basically standing meditation and breathing exercises. Its terrific for helping to control breathing and releasing stress.

According to the instructor, tai chi increases longevity, improves muscle strength, balance and flexibility, boosts cognitive function and helps aid in sleep. It can improve symptoms of fibromyalgia and COPD, promote weight loss, reduce fall risks and decrease pain from arthritis.

The tai chi classes are appropriate for all age levels. My tai chi class will focus more on the health value instead of the martial arts applications. Students will learn the physical application, meditation and theory of tai chi, he said.

The ongoing classes will be rather informal. We will focus on tai chi for fitness. The idea is to get people on the mats, get them moving and understanding the whole process of tai chi. Well also have a few reading assignments to help people understand the relationships between the body and mind.

Cvetkovski jumped at the chance to enroll in the local tai chi classes. I dont think there is anyone better to teach this class than Dane Harden. He is a hidden treasure in Southwest Virginia, said the mother, who became familiar with the studio after her children enrolled in Hardens martial arts classes.

Harden started the Western Masters Martial Arts business in 1979 in Maryland, eventually opening dojos or schools in Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

He had a vision of a martial arts school dedicated to making the world a safer place one student at a time. Our primary goal here is to train our students to deal with real-world problems, both mentally and physically, he said.

Harden, 62, has excelled at martial arts most of his life. He began studying aikido, a modern Japanese martial arts, in 1969 at the age of 10.

He trained in taekwondo with the Jhoon Rhee Institute in Cumberland, Maryland, before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1976. Most of his 35 years in the service were spent as a flight surgeon. Harden retired as a colonel in the Army in 2018 as a highly decorated combat veteran with several operational deployments to his credit.

His last military assignment was as the deputy commander for the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hardens combat service was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo. He served with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Georgia and completed missions in South America. Stateside, at Hurricane Katrina, he completed search and rescue missions and also served in medical response during the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.

Martial arts study and practice accompanied me on all of this and kept me safe in mind and body, said the retired soldier.

His military awards are too numerous to list, but one of his most prestigious honors was the Order of Military Medical Merit, which is awarded to less than 10% of career military medicine professionals. His stellar medical career is mentioned in the book, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire, by bestselling author Ted Barris.

Harden continued to practice martial arts even while he was in the service, earning black belt ranks in aikido and Isshin-Ryu Karate-do and, most notably, an eighth-degree black belt in taekwondo.

He has competed in tournaments on the U.S. National Karate Circuit for more than 30 years, winning awards for forms, fighting and weapons competitions at state, regional and national levels.

The tai chi classes will be held 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Mondays at Western Masters Martial Arts studio at 1948 Lee Highway in Abingdon.

Gym clothing is recommended. The cost of the classes is $60 per month.

For more information about the classes and other martial arts offered, call the studio at 276-356-3196.

Carolyn R. Wilson is a freelance writer in Glade Spring, Virginia. Contact her at news@washconews.com.

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Local tai chi courses offer balance and benefits for stress-filled lives - Southwest Virginia Today

If you feel about this past year the way that I do, dear reader, you may question why anyone would want to relive 2019. Well, newspaper traditions being what they are, columnists are expected to write The Year In Reviewcolumns. At my age, newspapers and I have something in common. Were both happy to have survived another year.

I began 2019 with a snarky multiple-choice test that mainly depended on my annoyance with President Donald Trump. That January column was to be the first of many columns inspired by our dysfunctional president. Sadly, your reaction to the column proved that you were even more annoyed at me than I was with the president. That theme (or is it meme?) persisted during 2019. Me annoyed with Trump. You annoyed with me.

After my equally snarky next column this one about Trumps proposed wall (hows that going, by the way?) I followed with a column about men and their underwear, of which I, at least, have first-hand knowledge. I like to think that Januarys columns demonstrated the wide diversity of my interests.

February began with a personal reminiscence about my familys politics. It took me about 70 years to find out that mom was a Democrat. Im a slow learner. Mom spent her final years disrupting the current events discussions at her nursing home arguing about the inadequacies of George W. Bush. Mom if you were alive today, you might actually appreciate good old Dubya. Sure, he never found the WMD, but at least he never tweeted and never held up aid to Ukraine.

As is my habit around Valentines Day, I handed out relationship advice in my next column. I mused that, in part, the longevity of my marriage of over half a century is due to inertia. Frans not mine. Im sticking close by the fire these days. Theres practically no market for a man with one kidney (his wifes), whose only skill is making restaurant reservations. I followed that column writing about things I learned recently (and forgot the next day). And proving that I can complain about the slightest things, I ended the month with a column in which I moaned about having to wipe down the tiles after Im done showering. Incredibly, I returned to complaining about the shower in another column later in the year.

March always comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, at least thats what mom used to say. Unfortunately, that was not reflected by March columns this year. The month opened with me writing an inane column citing what had happened on March 6 in history. Whats special about March 6? Nothing. And I took 900 words to prove it.

It was back to complaining in my next March column, this time about my voice- activated remote (yes, my complaints center on the trivial and are endless). I followed that column with another, this time grumbling about having to change the time on every clock and watch TWICE a year because of daylight saving time. In the same column, I debated the proper way to drape toilet paper. Over or under? (I can be helpful about so many things that no one cares about). In my final March column, I shared with you details of our momentous move from South Philly, where wed both lived all of our lives, to Center City. I begged forgiveness for deserting you. Strangely, you didnt seem all that sad that we were leaving.

The unquestionable highlight of my April columns was my return to complaining about my shower this time the one in our new apartment. You know Im desperate for non-Trump topics when I write TWO columns complaining about the bathroom shower.

In May, I ticked off a reader who had some special interest, likely monetary, in homeopathic medicine. I trashed it. Maybe the guy was just a big fan of St. Johns Wort?

June found me complaining about my Trump addiction. You agreed and suggested it might help if I stopped writing about him.

In a July column, I proved (as if this needed proving) that my favorite topic was and is myself. Incredibly, I actually interviewed myself. In print. And I used two columns to do it. As if to sum up your feelings, I titled my first column in August THE LAST STRAW.

In September, reaching for a subject no one had ever had any prior interest in, I treated readers to a detailed explanation of glamping. Not one reader has shown even a modicum of interest in the origins of glamping since that column, either.

In October, I found your patience with me waning when I accused Trump supporters of belonging to a cult. Many of you wrote back assuring me that keeping statues of the president in your finished basements proved nothing. Yes, but youve got to admit that burning incense in front of those statues while repeating Trumps inaugural address is a tad over-the-top.

You might accuse me of being cruel in one of my November columns, A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOSING, dealing with the inept history of the local Republican Party. But I wasnt the one thinking Billy Ciangalini would be our next mayor. The saddest thing about November was that we had to say goodbye to sports columnist Bill Lyon.

By December, I fancied myself a film critic (is there no end to my talents?) with a review of THE IRISHMAN, or as I called it, THE MEDIGAN.

As 2020 arrives, I enter my 57th year as columnist for the Review. And what does it say about you, that youre still reading this stuff?

You can follow Tom Cardella on Facebook. As if you havent had enough.

Link:
Cardella: The Year In Review - South Philly Review

A century ago, the world stood at the brink of the Roaring Twenties, a decade of exuberance, prosperity and growth. Will 2020 usher in a similar era? There are reasons to believe so, though the scales are more finely balanced.

In the closing days of 1919, the ravages of war were slowly receding. For years, the great powers had been totally absorbed in the pursuit of death and destruction. Now they could move forward to rebuild and expand.

No such liberation stands in the offing as we enter the decade ahead. Canada's economy, having weathered the recession of 2007-08, is stable, yet challenges abound.

The most potent political issue of the day, global warming, makes for an uncertain future. There is no consensus about how to balance action on this front, with the urgent need for additional revenues to reinforce our safety net programs.

We have a minority government in Ottawa, whose longevity is uncertain.

Britain is leaving the European Union, at a price that remains to be seen.

And south of the border, Donald Trump has been impeached, while the 2020 presidential election campaign looks likely to be the nastiest in recent times.

In short, the path ahead is unclear.

Still, there are reasons for optimism. The differences that divide us are far fewer than the ties that bind us.

Quebec nationalism has subsided.

Anger in Alberta that the West is ignored will simmer for a time, but we have typical Canadian ways of addressing such conflicts through compromise and civility.

Abroad, the lessons of the 20th century have largely been learned. Armed conflict settles nothing, and no-one gains from trade disputes, as the United States is learning.

The unprecedented access of people around the globe to information via the internet is creating new generations with broader horizons and immensely improved access to learning.

As a result, our world is safer and saner than at any time in history.

In medical science, the long-awaited rewards of decoding the genome are finally beginning to appear. Promising new treatments for Alzheimers disease and cystic fibrosis are in sight.

Yes, these drugs still have some way to go before their full potential is realized. But the pace is gathering by the year.

Virtual medicine, where specialists at distant locations can diagnose disease and suggest treatment, is already with us. Robots are aiding precision in surgery.

In the workplace, smart machines will increasingly free humans from long hours of unsafe and repetitive tasks. Some have worried this may make human labour redundant, but that seems unlikely.

The Industrial Revolution created more jobs than it destroyed, and artificial intelligence may do the same. The decade ahead will revolutionize the work site.

Globally, altruism and enlightenment are slowly extinguishing famine and plagues. A century ago, the majority of the worlds population lived in poverty. Average life expectancy was 35.

Today only 10 per cent struggle below the poverty line, and life expectancy has more than doubled. These improvements will continue in the years to come.

AIDS, once invariably deadly, has been tamed, smallpox has been eradicated, and it is possible that polio may be all but wiped out by 2030.

These gains were made possible, in large part, by a growing commitment to international co-operation, unthinkable a century ago.

In short, the better instincts of humankind, in the pasttoo often overshadowed by our faults, are slowly prevailing.

True, we are an aging society, and that poses challenges of its own. Yet our younger generation is more socially active, more progressive and more self-confident than ever.

There is reason to believe these trends will persist in 2020 and beyond, ensuring the long arc of history continues its steady curve toward betterment.

That, at any rate, is our hope as we prepare to welcome a new decade.

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Editorial: Reasons for optimism on the eve of a new decade - Times Colonist

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As we start a new decade, we can see hopeful signs of improvement for people with disabilities. At the same time, its hard not to notice more negative trends evidence that in some ways we may be heading in the wrong direction on disability issues and culture.

What will life be like for disabled people ten years from now? Will todays worrying trends turn into frightening realities? Or will we finally achieve some of the access, equality, and opportunity breakthroughs we have been working on for decades?

Lets first look at three ways things could end up much worse for disabled people in 2030, given current trends:

1. Division

The disability community could become even more bitterly divided than it is already by race, gender, and sexual orientation, between haves and have-nots, among conflicting political identities, and between groups of people with different kinds of disabilities.

Disability is an incredibly diverse set of experiences, encompassing physical, cognitive, sensory, and emotional impairments and hundreds of specific diagnoses. And disability itself intersects with all other flavors of human experience and social identity. Despite this, the overall trend over the last 30 years has been for the disability community to come together as much as possible. Cooperation has contributed to historic advances, and these advances have in turn helped reinforce the value of unity.

Yet even now, we see that external threats and zero-sum, circle the wagons thinking threaten to overwhelm the drive for solidarity, shared experience, and collective action. It would be tragic for the disability community, (such as it is), to once again shatter into competing and mutually resentful camps tragic, but entirely possible.

2. The sinister side of innovation

Medical and technological advances could increasingly make disability seem like something people can choose to fix, and should further stigmatizing people with more persistent, ongoing disabilities.

Many people, including many with disabilities, view innovations in medicine, technology, and wellness as hopeful opportunities to cure and essentially conquer disability itself. Its a major component of technological utopianism, the belief that ever-advancing technology holds the key to fixing our most difficult social problems. And its true that technology has done a lot to liberate disabled people, through better wheelchairs and prosthetics, relatively cheap adaptive products, and of course computers and the internet. Medicine, too, is largely responsible for vastly improved everyday health and longevity for people with disabilities that once cut lives short.

Unfortunately, the impressive contributions of technology also fuels more problematic attitudes and sinister goals. People who believe that any affliction or disability can be fixed with the right tool, treatment, or lifestyle tend to develop a judgmental view of disabled people generally. And its not just about treatment. Already we can see an alarming interest in eliminating disabled people entirely from society, through prenatal screening, a renewed interest in eugenics, and an ever more permissive and sympathetic approach to assisted suicide. These threats may seem far-fetched and abstract now, but in ten years, how will society regard disabled people whose continued existence doesnt seem to belong in a world where every problem has a shiny new solution?

3. Back to institutions

Nursing homes, institutions and other controlled care facilities of various kinds could again be widely promoted and used as the solution to disabled peoples needs.

A large portion of the story of disabled people in the last 20 years has been the effort, on several fronts, to move disability care and services away from nursing homes, institutions, and other types of centralized facilities. Instead, we have moved towards disabled people being able to live in their own homes, on their own terms, with whatever services and support they need provided individually, in the community, and as much as possible under their own control. Disability policy has come a long way on this, benefitting people with physical disabilities, including older people with age-related impairments, people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, and people with mental health diagnoses, among others. The fairly obvious personal preference for greater independence, and the relative cost-effectiveness of these models can make continued progress seem inevitable.

However, it seems that there is literally no belief or practice of the past so awful that it cant be revived. Against all expectations of just a few years ago, there is a renewed interest in defending and even expanding disability service models that emphasize institutionalization, control, protection, and segregation. Traditional nursing homes still enjoy at best lukewarm acceptance. But innovators are hard at work coming up with exciting new communities and assisted living campus programs that are little more than high-end institutions with the same segregation and day to day control of disabled peoples lives that contributed to outrages like Willowbrook, which helped launch the movement against institutions in the first place. Straightforward advocacy for a wholesale return to institutions is becoming more common and accepted.

Maybe its just a fleeting fashion a nostalgic flirtation with old ways of doing things. But it could easily become a real trend, perhaps in response to underfunding, perceived unpredictability, and occasional failures of more individualized models like home care. Plus, misunderstood and fabricated financial pressures, and the fear of bad things happening always threatens to overwhelm hopes and ambitions for independence. Will most disabled people live independently in 2030? Or, will we be back inside closed facilities, wondering how we got here again?

Now that we have reviewed some realistic fears, lets look at three entirely feasible hopes for how life could actually be much better for people with disabilities by 2030:

1. Health insurance for everyone

There will no longer be any such thing as eligibility for complete health care, and long term services and supports for disabled people. It will be automatic for everyone.

Whether this means Medicare For All or some other hybrid model, the key is not just affordability, but stability. Today, people with disabilities have to worry constantly about sudden, even accidental loss of health insurance. Many of us rely on health insurance not just for standard health care, but also for adaptive equipment and home care. As a result, the constant need to maintain fragile eligibility factors into every major decision we make, including whether to marry, and whether and how much we can work if we have the opportunity.

Taking health insurance off the table, and fully covering home care for all who need it, would liberate disabled people even more than the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. It would once and for all make unwilling placement in facilities impossible, and fulfill the true promise of independent living.

2. End of the poverty trap

Disabled people will be able to work, earn money, and save much more than they can now without fear of losing support benefits.

There are many factors that influence whether or not any particular disabled person is working for pay. As already noted, maintaining steady health insurance is both essential and complicated. The same is true for other financial benefits like Social Security, food stamps, and housing subsidies, not to mention any support services people with particular disabilities need to maintain safety and independence.

Eliminating any financial downside to working, or working more, would be a huge step in the right direction for disabled people, regardless of our ability and opportunity to work at any given time. Figuring out how to do this isnt difficult in the technical, policy sense. Whether or not the political will exists to do it will go a long way towards deciding how life with disabilities will be in 2030.

3. Accessibility is done

Physical and communication barriers in workplaces, businesses, and transportation will be almost unheard of.

Maybe it really will just take longer than we thought before the promise of the ADA is finally realized in full. Maybe the legal and practical tools are already in place, and we will reach some sort of final accomplishment by 2030 of full accessibility largely through time and the natural process of repairing and replacing the infrastructure. Or maybe we will ramp up the effort, (so to speak), with some combination of stronger mandates, tighter enforcement, and targeted funding.

Will we simply coast towards this final elimination of practical barriers to full liberation, equality, and mobility for disabled people? Or will it require something more? And can we do it in another ten years or less?

***

These two lists were informally brainstormed, not carefully surveyed and sorted. Ask any disabled person and they might produce completely different predictions. However, these negative and positive forecasts do accurately reflect the pessimism and optimism that exist side-by-side among people with disabilities.

Its also interesting that all of the predictions on the darkest timeline list are social threats, while the optimistic hopes are all about concrete policy. It could just as easily be the reverse. After all, the disability community faces dozens of policy threats too, while disability culture is arguably more vibrant and collaborative than ever before.

Stil, policy advancement alongside social stagnation or decline would be consistent with the disability communitys history. Our legal and policy victories have always tended to run a few laps ahead of our progress on social attitudes and beliefs about disabled people. Big systemic improvements have often been followed by backlash something we may be seeing right now, and not just with the disability community.

What if both lists come true by 2030? What if the disability wins strong material victories, but loses cohesion, community in effect, its soul]? What if portions of the disability community gain power, freedom, and respect, while we sacrifice the rest of us to rejection, shame, and confinement?

Of course, there are infinite possible futures for all of us. But the disability community has unique opportunities to shape the world it will inhabit in 2030. We just have to be clear about what we want, and what we are and arent willing to do to get it. Now is a good time to think about it, and seriously.

More here:
Disability Life In Ten Years: Fears And Hopes For 2030 - Forbes

Did you know that community pride is growing in The Dalles?

Thats true, according to a recent Gallup Well Being Index survey conducted by the Blue Zones Project The Dalles in 2019.

And that might just help; us all live longer, healthier, happier lives.

In the last two years, there has been a seven percent increase in residents feeling proud of their community, said Brett Ratchford, organization lead with Blue Zones in The Dalles, which began in the city more than two years ago.

Similar successes are also occurring around the state in Klamath Falls, Roseburg and Grants Pass.

Projects in Oregon focus on communities that show lower than average survey scores, where community members report on their own social, community and physical well being in a Gallup survey.

For example, 71.6 percent of those surveyed in The Dalles self-reported being obese in 2017. However, that number tumbled 12 points in the latest survey taken in 2019, Ratchford said.

Blue Zones, created by Dan Buettner, is a program that works to spur health, happiness and longevity but not through trends or the latest fad.

Buettner, a National Geographic fellow and longevity coach, spent years studying pockets of people who were living longer, healthier happier lives. He found that they were not people intentionally seeking goals of weight loss or happiness through diet, exercise, or attainment of monetary wealth. Rather, longevity and happiness grew from the right environment. Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California were the five original areas of study where people were living to or past 100 and reported higher levels of happiness.

In these communities people walked moremoving naturally, had strong social ties, ate a diet that was about 20 percent meat based or less and people had a strong sense of purposethey enjoyed their work, according to his study.

Shape peoples environment so they are set up for success, and they are nudged into slightly healthier behaviors,Buettner said during an online-interview with actor Matthew McConaughey. Make it easier to garden and eat fresh vegetables or make it easier to enjoy a hobby or discover your purpose and health improves, he explained.

In part, Blue Zones Projects in Oregon help augment community groups, who then find ways to address issues that increase wellness and happiness. An example of that in The Dalles is the installation of concrete bump-outs, signals and a crosswalk at Dry Hollow Elementary. That project was a result of local citizens needing to create a safe route to school, and accessing funding to make environmental changes.

Walk to School Wednesdays has dozens of students walking to Colonel Wright and Chenowith Elementary schools as well.

Walking or moving naturally is one of the nine power principles that Buettner discovered in his travels.

In Grants Pass, the community was able to parlay their success in getting students to walk to school into an Oregon Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant for $100,444. It will pay for scooters, bicycles, helmets and a bus to transport them. They will be shared amongst the elementary schools, Coral Simpson with Grants Pass Blue Zones said.

Roseburg is also working toward a healthy identity. The community faced major economic challenges with the downturn in the logging industry. It also went through a school shooting at Umpqua Community College on Oct. 1, 2015, when a 26-year-old killed nine others before killing himself. The young man left a letter stating, no job, no life, no success.

That was a tipping point, said Juliete Palenshus with Blue Zones Project Roseburg. The community felt ready to move after that, she said. Not just because of the shooting. But the shooting was a symptom of the underlying issues.

Roseburg kicked off their Blue Zones Project with 800 people at the community college and soon had a coalition of community leaders from churches, city hall, businesses and nonprofits to set goals and guide a lasting policy that would outlive committees.

While Blue Zones Project Roseburg has reached some 6,300 people through healthy eating demonstrations, walking groups, other impacts can be seen within the community, Palenshus said.

For example, the area has been under-served in health care for years.

Aviva Health is now working toward a family medicine residency program where future doctors will complete their residency in Roseburg, offering health services to the community. In addition, the hope is to attract a strong group of health workers who would eventually choose to stay.

She also pointed out that George Fox University is exploring the possibility of building a mental health college in Roseburg.

The need for healthcare education in Southern Oregon is great, as the region faces growing allied and mental health workforce shortages that pose serious healthcare access issues, according to Kelly Morgan, CEO of Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg.

In Klamath Falls, Blue Zones Projects Kendra Santiago said they were not engaging as many men as women.

So they put together a program for men to run or walk 60 miles during the month in concert with Movember and No-Shave November. The month has been designated for focusing on mens health, especially suicide and cancer prevention.

Santiago said they also realized they needed to create a little more competition. So, they engaged the Air National Guard, police department, the Oregon Department of Forestry and fire departments and in a fitness challenge. Each group challenged the others to pass their fitness tests. Police were hiking through the woods with 45-pound packs. And foresters were doing sit-ups and pushups and a 1.5 mile run at Kingsley Air Field Air National Guard Base, to name a few of their activities.

We felt more competition was needed to get men involved and it showcased what they do daily to be fit for work, Santiago said.

Read more:
Getting in the Blue Zones | Free News - Dalles Chronicle