Fulton Community Matters February 2019

Commun ty Matters Fulton Presbyterian Manor

The Habits That Can Help You Live Longer

A conversation with Longevity Innovator and Nobel winner Elizabeth Blackburn

Elizabeth Blackburn

(Advances in science and public health are increasing longevity and enhancing the quality of life for people around the world. In this series of interviews with the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging, visionaries are revealing trends and insights regarding healthy longevity. The interviews highlight new discoveries in biomedical and psychosocial science, as well as strategies to promote prevention and wellness for older adults.)

Elizabeth Blackburn, president emerita of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, is one of only 12 women to have won a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. She was honored for her co-discovery of telomerase, the enzyme that

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February 2019

For the love of reading Reading can take you to far off places. For two assisted living residents at Fulton Presbyterian Manor, this is especially true.

Opal Foreman can be found reading at almost any time of the day. She says she likes love stories because “it takes me back in thoughts to when I was young.” She typically gets her books from a peer, who gets them from a local church.

Janette Clark also loves to read.

She is more into good stories, like “family things,” but also says she’ll read about anything.

Janette gets her books from the Daniel Boone Library every five days or so, as someone brings

Opal Foreman proves you can never have too many books!

them to her. Her daughter also brings her books to read, so she is well stocked.

These residents show that you’re always the right age to enjoy a good book, and you can always keep your imagination going!

Janette Clark shows off just a few of the books she’s enjoyed reading lately.

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chromosomes often do as cells divide.

Telomeres absorb the wear and tear replenishes the telomere, an area of the themselves, and so each time the cell chromosome related to the process of divides, these telomeres often become a little shorter. When they get too short, aging. In this interview Blackburn — they signal the cell to die. the Next Avenue Influencer of theYear in 2017 — emphasizes the importance Telomeres dynamically protect of maintaining healthy habits, why chromosome ends, so our genes stay telomeres are essential for healthier intact and our cells continue to work lives and how stress can be a positive well. If that protection is compromised, it experience. prevents our cells from thriving and growing properly.

Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging: Can you explain Indeed, in humans, telomeres wear down what a telomere is and its role in with age and through many other our living longer, healthier lives? influences. We understand the nuances of the balance between these opposing Elizabeth Blackburn: Telomeres are like the protective caps on the ends forces of telomere attrition and of shoelaces. They prevent the ends of a replenishment. The balance — or lack of it — affects cellular health and the entire shoelace — a metaphor for a body’s propensity for various diseases that chromosome — from fraying, which increasingly plague humans as we age.

What’s the function of telomerase?

How is it linked to healthy living? ® Telomerase is the enzyme that replenishes telomeres. In humans, we now know that ® a proper balance of telomerase is needed.

Too much telomerase action in our cells can tip the balance over into real risks for Community Matters cancers. is published monthly for residents and We have learned — by directly studying friends of Fulton Presbyterian Manor by Presbyterian Manors of humans — what works safely for telomere maintenance.

501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at PresbyterianManors.org.

There is a great deal that we individually and as a society can do to improve Dawn Smith, executive director telomere health safely: getting enough To submit or suggest articles sleep and exercise, finding and learning for this publication, contact ways to cope with chronic psychological dsmith2@pmma.org. stressors, Mediterranean-diet-type eating Telephone: 573-642-6646 habits, various forms of social Fax: 573-642-2202 improvements, unpolluted environments.

Address: 811 Center St., Fulton, MO 65251-1922 These good influences on telomere maintenance do not increase cancer risks.

Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian How can we make disease values. prevention a priority?

FultonPresbyterianManor.org We can use our ever-increasing knowledge about the biology that underlies the slow development of these 2 COMMUNITY MATTERS FEBRUARY 2019

diseases — prominently, heart disease, diabetes, cancers, neurodegeneration and depression.

Such diseases and conditions do not happen overnight, immediately before they are clinically diagnosed.

Thus, there are many points at which their progression can be potentially intercepted or even reversed.

Since behavior change is hard, how can we get people, even in small doses, to see the importance of not ignoring healthy habits?

Sometimes, having an understanding of what goes on in our bodies can help.

People have repeatedly mentioned to me and other researchers that having a mental image of their telomeres wearing down actually helps them to be motivated to adopt or keep up healthier actions.

How can stress be seen as a positive challenge? Can you explain?

My colleague and co-author of our book, Elissa Epel, explains this research in the book.

Essentially, it means when you think: “I can take this on.” It means you can learn to get yourself into the habit of reframing your responses to stressful things as challenges, rather than as simply threats over which you will have no control.

It is not denying or minimizing the reality of the stresses, but presenting them to yourself in a different way, so that you can respond in ways that have been associated with better telomere maintenance.

The Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging aims to improve lives and strengthen societies by promoting healthy, productive and purposeful aging.

Fulton Presbyterian Manor’s Art is Ageless® exhibit and reception features senior artists Since the beginning of time, creative expression has brought joy to both its creators and those who experience their art. The Art is Ageless® program offers senior artists the opportunity to share and display their artwork and reaffirms the agelessness of human creativity.

This month, their works are on display at Fulton Presbyterian Manor.

“It’s inspiring to see the beautiful pieces these seniors have created,” said Dawn Smith, executive director. “The joy it brings to them and others is wonderful, and that’s something we want to celebrate and share with the entire Fulton community.”

The Art is Ageless exhibit will feature works from local artists who are 65 and older, including a few Fulton Presbyterian Manor residents. The public is welcome to visit the community to view the exhibit of acrylics, oils, photography and various other mediums, ranging from amateur to professional levels. The exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., February 16 – 18, 2019.

In addition to the exhibit, Aberdeen Heights will honor local senior artists during a reception at the community at 2 p.m. on February 19.

For the competition, works are to have been completed in the past five

New position for Tresa Allen We knew Tresa Allen would make a great addition to our team when she joined us in 2018 as an LPN, but we’re thrilled that she’s chosen to expand her experience with us as our new marketing director! She’s also a social worker, so her official title is MSW|Marketing|Social Services.

Whew!

“I have worked as an LPN for over 30 years now at Fulton State Hospital and some nursing facilities. I have also worked as a social worker at Fulton State Hospital and community mental health agencies. I began my career as a CNA, then CMA, then LPN, and finally I obtained my MSW and worked as a social worker. I have also worked as an office assistant a couple LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

years (since January 2014).

There are nine categories, as well as designations of amateur or professional. Works to be entered for judging need to be at Presbyterian Manor by February 18.

Entry forms and information can be picked up at Fulton Presbyterian Manor, 811 Center Street, Futon, MO, 65251 or by calling 573-6426646 or emailing dsmith2@pmma.org. Or go to ArtIsAgeless.org to view rules, download an entry form or enter online.

of times,” said Tresa.

Tresa is looking forward to serving others in a different way in her new role.

“I have a strong faith, and I believe that when working with this population a Christian-based service is important. I have always admired the Fulton Presbyterian Manor for the excellent care people receive here. I’m looking forward to being able to assist people with meeting the needs they have acutely and longer term. I am always glad to meet new people and to be able to assist them at a difficult time and to make that time smoother is a plus!”

When Tresa’s not at work, she loves

Tresa Allen is the new marketing director at Fulton Presbyterian Manor.

playing Tomb Raider on any game system she can.

“I love video games. I also crossstitch and have six grandchildren I love to spend time with. I am just now getting into photography and am experimenting with it.”

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