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March 20
Naomi Jones
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March 27
Eric M. Latham
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Next Week...
March 20
Naomi Jones
American Cancer Society
Upcoming Meetings...
March 27
Eric M. Latham
He’s walked across the country. He’s written a book. He’s working on a second. He’s a motivational speaker, who raises money for cancer research and awareness. Eric M. Latham is only 26.
April 3
"A River Runs Through It"
Meg Sullivan - A river running through Westwood?
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This Week...
Much Info on Aging, by Gary Small, on March 13th
ED WRIGHT started us off with the Pledge. LENNY came forward with Roll Out The Barrell, which he claims some of those present knew. I’m sorry I missed it.
SHERRY DEWANE gave the Invocation.
There were several guests. (Surprise), SUNNY was with LENNY, and MARGARET accompanied HARLAN. ED GAULD brought his son, TED. PP STEVE SCHERER had another Special Guest, Carrie Smith, who is with the Athletic Development office. At this point, PP BOB WESSLING had the misfortune to have his cell phone ring, which cost him fifty bucks.
While on the subject of money, let me write about Parking. Since I wasn’t able to be present when the subject was discussed today, here is the current status: We are allotted fifteen spaces at St. Albans Church, across the street from the Faculty Center. Starting April 1st, there will be new placards, numbered from one to 15, which will be issued by that time. Those with placards will be billed $75 monthly for their parking space.
The Board expects this to accomplish several things – first, clarifying who has placards, and eliminating the weekly collection which now takes place – (and will still be in effect on the 20th and 27th of this month, by the way.) Since we may have given out more than 15 ID’s originally, this means that everyone who now has one may not qualify for the new placard. But I need to hear from you before April 1st if you wish to be considered, please.
March birthdays were next announced. TERRY R. WHITE elected Oceanside, on the 4th. PP CHRIS GAYNOR came aboard in LA, on the 11th. LEAH VRIESMAN chose Janesville, which I’m sure you knew was in Wisconsin, on the 13th. PP JOHN SINGLETON liked the next day, but in Salt Lake City. PDG ANDY ANDERSON favored Buffalo (in NY, of course) on the 21st. CURT SMITH chose Bakersfield, on the 26th, and MYRON TAYLOR also came along on the 26th, but in Goodwill, WV.
There were several announcements:
District Governor Nominations are due by April 10th, to the District Office.
District Book Drive, for the International Convention. These should be new books, for kids from K thru grade 3, and the GAULD’S or PEGGY BLOOMFIELD will store them for you.
The District Assemby is May 17th, as announced by Incoming President SEAN MCMILLAN – all new officers are expected to attend, please.
ELLIOTT TURNER discussed the Corazon Project and WAPI. The Board decided we wanted to determine how many members would support Corazon, and only six hands were raised as being interested. The tentative date is April 29th but a decision is not yet final. WAPI is now set for April 19th at Westwood United Methodist church, from 0900 until 2:30. Pizza and soft drinks will be available, and both Rotarians and Rotoract members will be participating.
MARK ROGO outlined his idea for a new Career Day program, and wanted to know how many of our members would support this plan. Several hands were raised, so stay tuned.
MARK KRAUSE provided a brief Humor Time:
Question – what does DNA stand for? Answer – National Dyslexics Association
Comment – This reminds Mark of the bumper sticker he saw the other day,
“Dyslexics of the World, UNTIE!”.
OUR SPEAKER
PP JIM COLLINS introduced our Speaker, Dr. Gary Small, who is Professor of Biobehavioral Sciences and Aging at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Jim was first attracted to Dr. Small by his slogan, “Living Better Longer” and PP JIM wants to take credit for passing this advice along to HENRY TSENG. Dr. Small has over 400 publications in his field of Aging, plus a world-famous best seller, The Memory Bible. The Emeritus Chairman of the Center for Aging, by the way, is Art Linkletter. As a side note, YOE even participated in one of Dr. Small’s programs, and he is a most effective instructor.
Dr Small began by talking about Alzheimers – which is of interest to all of us, of course. He showed slides which clearly indicated the amount of plaque (which causes the disease) in various stages of Alzheimers development. One result is the conclusion that physical condition can directly effect the spread of Alzheimers – the better your physical makeup, the less chance you have of developing the disease.
He next showed slides of his Grandmother, who is 104. To document this, he asked her, “Grandma, tell me how old you are”. She paused, and then replied, “Shut up”, so her mind is doing OK. She was doing all the right things to stay well. Her apartment had no elevator, so she used the stairs. She was involved in everyone’s business, so she was mentally active. (Laughter here).
Their studies have proven that it is much easier to protect a healthy brain then it is to repair one. Thus the earlier the time when stimulation and even medication can be used makes a significant difference in the result. In other words, we do too little, too late. The newest and most promising strategy they are using is brain imaging. For instance, they have found that late stage Alzheimers looks like the brain of an immature child. They have now convinced Medicare to pay for these scans to help with the treatment of Alzheimers.
His Department has now developed a chemical that is injected into the patient that is attracted to the plaque that indicates Alzheimrs. This is a huge advance, since before you could only make a definite diagnosis after someone died. Not too long from now, you will be able to go to your doctor and get a ‘brain check’ – just as you now get a chest xray. As a result, you can be started on a medicine, or perhaps a vaccine, well before the disease has developed very far. This is the same technique now used to determine the need for colesterol medication, or a blood pressure test. The scan test has now been patented by UCLA, and licesnsed to Siemens. They already have approval from the FDA to commercialize the test.
He next suggested some ‘tools’ which each of us can use to improve memory. Question – How can Ralph stand behind Steve, and Steve stand behind Ralph at the same time? And the answer, clear to everyone but me, was, they are standing back to back.
Question – People who complete college have a higher risk of Alzheimers than those who just graduate from high school?. False. All the evidence points to the fact that mental activity is condusive to mental health. He flashed six words on the screen, which we were to repeat later. They were, nun, scarf, spinach, scarf, cigar and something else – which I cannot recall. We were asked to tie these disconnected words into a story, to help us remember them. ALY SHOJI and ED GAULD both did them perfectly.
The three key words in remembering items is, first, LOOK. Next, SNAP – make a picture of what you want to recall, and third, CONNECT the picture to something else.
With names, pick out a distinguishing feature of the face of the person, and that will help to recall that person’s name. Remember that managing the stress in your life has many benefits. Most of our stress is brought on by ourselves, so we can control that. Physical exercise always relieves stress. Remember that diet helps – fish a couple of times a week, whole grains, low fat, wine with dinner – we probably all know the rules, but don’t always follow them. Tests do show that following the rules will improve brain function.
It is a fact that optimists live longer than pessimists.
Dr Gary Small, we thank you for visiting with us today.
Words of wisdom - Dr Albert Schweitzer
Constant kindness can accomplish much. For just as the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
