November Prime Times Part 1

Prime Times Newsletter November 2023

Newsletter for Active Older Adults Upcoming Events Senior Lunch & Learn “Purse-a-nality" Thursday, November 2th @ 12:30 PM

Senior Bingo Tuesday, November 7th @ 12:15 PM

Senior Paint & Sip Friday, November 10th @ 1:30 PM

Senior Lunch & Learn “Meet Jackie! A First Lady and So Much More!"

Tuesday, November 14th @ 12:15 PM

Senior AARP Driver Safety Class Thursday, November 16th @ 8:30 AM-1:30 PM

Senior Thanksgiving Potluck Friday, November 17th @ 12:00 PM

Senior Card Social Thursday, November 30th @ 1:00 PM

Oh my goodness! October was so much fun! There were so many different activities to participate in at the Lake YMCA during October! If you came to one or a few of the events, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did! Now the leaves are falling and raking season has begun! I think my husband spent the day cleaning up the leaves only to wake up to the yard carpeted in the shades of fall yet again! The cold weather is slowly sneaking in! I had to dig out my son’s hat and gloves this morning. As much as I dislike the weather getting colder, I find this time of year is so cozy. The dreary weather provides a time to be indoors with family and friends, maybe enjoying a bowl of homemade soup while cheering for your favorite football team. I find myself making meals that require the oven or maybe something a little more comforting.

I love the cozy moments indoors, but don’t forget to get outdoors when the weather allows us to enjoy the beauty that this time of year presents us. Here in Ohio, we never know what the winter will throw at us or how long it will stick around, so go enjoy the outdoors while you can! I wish you many cozy moments as we head into November and a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Below you find a sneak peak of activities to come this December: December 4th Christmas Tea at Quail Hollow December 5th Wool Needle Felting w/ Regina (making snowman) December 7th Christmas Social (Lake Highschool Jazz Band performing) December 8th A Christmas Carol Presented by Jim Knight December 12th Senior Bingo w/The Canton Regency December 14th Senior Lunch & Learn: Christmas at the Whitehouse w/ Janet Weir Creighton

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Lake Community YMCA Senior Health Fair

A huge Thanks to all who attended the 2023 Lake Community YMCA Senior Health Fair!!! We had a great turnout, lots of vendors, speakers, prizes, and fun! Hope to see you all there again next year!

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Lake Community YMCA Senior Health Fair

Newsletter fo Active Older Adults

Newsletter fo Active Older Adults

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Senior Outing: Maize Valley

What a fun time we had! The weather was absolutely gorgeous! We had good food, fun, and fellowship! Thank you to all those who joined us! If you missed out, there is always next year!

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Newsletter fo Active Older Adults

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

5 Senior Health Myths—Busted!

By Laura Tedesco | October 23, 2023 Age is just a number, and here’s the proof.

Growing older is inevitable. Getting less healthy is not.

“You get very frail, you lose your mind—people in the past thought that’s what always happens when you get old,” says Marie Bernard, M.D., a geriatric medicine specialist who is chief officer for scientific workforce diversity at the National Institutes of Health. “That’s not true. With better nutrition, better health care, and better education, people are living longer and healthier lives. But getting rid of those old presumptions is hard.”

Step one? Stop thinking of aging as a disease, says Camille Vaughan, M.D., division director of geriatrics at Emory University and a physician at the Atlanta V.A. Medical Center.

Step two? Start embracing this truth: The fate of your health isn’t fixed, no matter whether you’re 65 or 85. Below, we bust five common myths about aging—and equip you with strategies to defy the most crippling of senior stereotypes.

Myth #1: Your Brain Will Decline “As we age, we certainly lose certain aspects of our brain function”—your spot-on memory for specific events and details, for one—“but we gain a lot too,” says Sharon Bergquist, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Emory University and an expert in healthy aging. “It’s not really a downhill process. You’re just trading different strengths and weaknesses.”

Translation: You may not be able to remember the exact date of your grandchild’s birthday, and sometimes it may take a second to remember why you walked into your bedroom (your keys!). But the upshot is you now have a wealth of life-accumulated insights that your younger self lacked.

“If you look at complex decision making—which requires experience and wisdom—older adults can make just as good, if not better, decisions than a 20-year-old,” says Dr. Vaughan.

The same goes for emotional intelligence and verbal ability. And what might seem like slower mental response time may actually signal the overstuffed memory files in your brain.

“It takes longer to retrieve things,” says Dr. Bernard.

That said, you should be actively exercising your brain. The more things you do to build strong, diverse neural connections—traveling, trying new things, socializing with an array of people—the more likely you are to delay the onset of memory loss, says Dr. Bergquist.

To learn about other ways you can keep your brain healthy, talk to your doctor. “One out of three individuals 85 and older may develop Alzheimer’s-type dementia, but that means two out of three do not,” Dr. Bernard says. “So it’s not an inevitable part of aging.”

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

5 Senior Health Myths—Busted!

By Laura Tedesco | October 23, 2023 Continued.

Myth #2: You’ll Lose Your Appetite Yes, there are some age-related changes that can affect your appetite. For starters, if you’ve lost muscle and exercise less, your body will require fewer calories, says Dr. Bernard.

This means you won’t need to pile your plate as high as you once did.

There are less visible changes, too. “As you get older, the stomach empties a little slower, so you tend to get fuller,” says Dr. Bergquist. Higher levels of cholecystokinin (a fullness hormone) and less-sensitive taste buds can also contribute to a shrinking appetite.

What’s not normal? A total loss of appetite—and the weight loss to match it. “Weight loss, pain when you’re eating, a lot of heartburn, nausea—those are red flags that there could be a medical condition causing the loss of appetite,” warns Dr. Bergquist. If you have a chronic illness, you could also be experiencing a side effect of medication.

If your clothes are feeling looser, talk to your doctor, who can help you figure out the cause and the appropriate solution. Continue taking medications as prescribed, but do let your doctor know about all the medications you take and any concerns.

In the meantime, awaken your palate by cooking with more aromatic spices, such as ginger, saffron, or cumin. “To bring back enjoyment of food, people end up eating things that are really salty or sweet, which is the worst way to do it,” Dr. Bergquist says. “Aromatic spices make foods flavorful, but in a healthy way.” (Check out how to make easy spice blends.)

Myth #3: Intimacy Vanishes While not often discussed openly, sex is important for the majority of older adults, according to the results of the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Aging. More than half (54%) of older adults responding say they are sexually active. And nearly three in four say they are “satisfied” with their sex life.

“It seems there is a U-shaped curve to satisfaction—it’s higher when you’re very young, goes down when you’re in middle age, and goes up again with older age,” says Dr. Bernard.

The obvious explanation: Once your kids are grown and your career is winding down, you have more time and mental space for intimacy. Plus, since older men often take longer to achieve arousal, couples may find themselves more sexually in sync, enjoying intimacy builders like holding hands, hugging, and kissing before the main event.

That’s not to say there aren’t changes in libido and intimacy that can come with age. After menopause, women’s estrogen levels drop, making water-based lubricant (which is less irritating than petroleum-based products) a worthwhile tool, says Dr. Vaughan.

Another hurdle: If one member of a couple has a chronic condition, “that changes the dynamic of the relationship,” she says, forcing them to rethink the way they connect. For example, if nighttime is typically the chronically ill partner’s toughest time of day, morning sex might make more sense. And remember, it’s okay to forgo intercourse in favor of other types of intimate touch you both enjoy.

New partner? You do still need to protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases. The National Institute on Aging recommends using a condom during sex and talking to your doctor about other ways to practice safe sex.

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

5 Senior Health Myths—Busted!

By Laura Tedesco | October 23, 2023 Continued.

Myth #4: You Can’t Build Muscle Anymore It’s true: You shed 3% to 5% of your muscle mass with every decade after 30, thanks to increasing inflammation and declining hormone levels, says Dr. Bergquist. But that doesn’t mean you can’t regain at least some of what you’ve lost.

“Resistance exercise helps build up mass, and we’ve found that’s something people can do throughout their lifespan,” says Dr. Bernard, who adds that even 90-year-olds can see their physiques change with this type of training. Although resistance exercise (also called strength training) using weights, resistance bands, or your bodyweight is the ideal, you can also tone up through everyday tasks like gardening or cleaning, she says.

The payoff? The stronger you are, the less likely you are to fall. There’s also a big-time benefit to your brain. Exercise triggers a flood of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, a growth factor that supports the formation of new neural connections, says Dr. Bergquist.

Myth #5: It’s Too Late to Learn New Things If your grandkid’s iPhone or Android intimidates you, that’s all the more reason to give it a try. Ten years ago, researchers thought the brain stopped forming new connections at a certain age, but now there’s evidence that we keep generating new neurons throughout our lives, says Dr. Bernard.

“As soon as you learn a new skill, you build crisscrossing pathways, so you create stronger, more, and different connections in your brain,” adds Dr. Bergquist.

Some older adults find trying new things daunting or may be concerned they’ll look senile, says Dr. Bernard. If that’s you, stick to a hobby that plays to your brain’s strengths (see myth #1) instead of trying something that requires multitasking, a skill that’s known to decline with age, suggests Dr. Bergquist. “Because you’re naturally not as good at it, you may get discouraged,” she says.

Just be prepared to practice more than your younger self would have. “I picked up violin a few years ago, and my teacher said any technique I was learning would require practicing as many repetitions as years I am old,” says Dr. Vaughan. Although that stat may not be scientifically proven, she says, the idea holds true: It may take longer to learn a new skill than it used to, but given the time and motivation, you can learn just as well as a younger person.

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Senior Strength Moves of the Month

Bridge

Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Place your arms at your sides. Tighten your buttocks, then lift your hips up off the floor until they form a straight line with your hips and shoulders. Hold. Return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.

Opposite arm and leg raise

Kneel on all fours, with your head and spine neutral. Extend your left leg off the floor behind you while reaching out in front of you with your right arm. Keeping your hips and shoulders squared, try to bring that leg and arm parallel to the floor. Hold, then return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise with your right leg and left arm. Repeat the exercise on both sides 10 times Modified plank

Start on your hands and knees. Tighten your abdominal muscles and lower your upper body onto your forearms, aligning your shoulders directly over your elbows and keeping your feet in the air behind you. Keep your back straight, making your body as much like a "plank" as possible. Hold the position and return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

Newsletter for Active Older Adults

10 fascinating facts about Election Day November 8, 2016 | by NCC Staff Election Day in Philadelphia, 1815

Many Americans will be heading to the polls at some point today to cast ballots on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. So who picked that day, and why do we still observe it?

Do some people vote on other days in the fall? Here are some answers to those and other questions about Election Day. 1. Elections took place way before the Constitution was ratified The English in particular conducted voting soon after they landed in Virginia in the 17th Century. But not everyone could vote and not every office was up for election. But many colonies allowed white male adults who owned land to vote for legislators who served in lower assemblies.

2. George Washington and Election Day drinking In 1758, a young candidate in Virginia for the House of Burgesses footed a huge liquor bill to woo voters on Election Day. George Washington spent his entire campaign budget, 50 pounds, on 160 gallons of liquor served to 391 voters. Buying votes with booze was already a custom in England. Washington also was following a Virginia tradition where barrels of liquor were rolled to courthouse lawns and polling places on Election Day. 3. We wouldn’t recognize an Election Day about 200 years ago Not only were eating, drinking and parading common, votes could be conducted a public voice votes. Also political parties would hand our pre-printed ballots for voters to cast, to ensure that people voted for a party ticket. It wasn’t until the 1890s that the Australian ballot, also known as the Secret Ballot, became commonly used in America.

4. The Constitution didn’t spell out when Election Day was The administration of elections was left up to the individual states in the Constitution, with the exception of some basic requirements for presidential and congressional candidates. So states were left to pick their own election days, including when elections for federal offices were held. But any federal election involving the Electoral College needed to be resolved by mid-December.

5. The weather and farming dictated when elections were held In the 1800s, the agrarian economy was an important factor, and farmers weren’t able to travel easily until the harvest was over. Also, the onset of winter conditions in areas that had winter conditions made travel a problem, so elections happened in the late fall.

Related Story: How midterm elections have changed Congress since 1946 6. Election Day also wasn’t on a fixed day until the mid-19th century Congress finally stepped in to set a uniform day for presidential elections in 1845 as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This was a scheme borrowed from New York state and it allowed people to observe the Sabbath, travel to vote, and return home for Wednesday, which was observed as Market Day. This was just for presidential elections every four years, but it started a trend.

7. Election voting machines are a 20th Century innovation The mechanical lever voting machine was patented in 1889 but it took decades for the machines to become commonplace. Jacob H. Myers built the first lever machine used in an election, back in 1892. Meyers said the devices were needed to prevent “rascaldom.”

8. The mechanical voting machine is extinct The classic mechanical lever voting machine was phased out by 2010 in the United States. Most votes are now conducted using electronic digital voting machines or by using paper ballots that are sometimes optically scanned.

9. The chance of a “hanging chad” is almost extinct, too By 2012, punch card voting machines only accounted for 0.02% of machines in used. Back in 2000, it was a problem with the chads, or the rectangular pieces of a card punched to indicate a vote, that caused problems with the presidential vote in Florida.

10. Not all states vote on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November In years when federal elections aren’t held, not all states feel the need to have an election on a traditional Election Day. In 2015, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Louisiana held elections later in the month.