Planetaki Planet RuthK

Stuck inside with kids? Try Tumblebooks on the JMRL website

2010-02-09T01:54:30+00:00

Stuck inside with kids?

Use Tumblebooks on the kids webpage: http://www.jmrl.org/pr-kids.htm- audio book, games, puzzles

Inclement Weather – Personal safety is the key consideration!!!

2010-02-07T20:05:31+00:00

We hope you were warm and comfortable in your home watching the snow fall. It is great to see the sun shining today!

Some Session A courses start on Monday, February 8. If you are scheduled to attend a class this week, we want to remind you of OLLI’s Inclement Weather Policy.

For information on CLOSINGS:

TV: Watch WVIR-TV (NBC-Channel 29)
Radio: Listen to WINA (1070 AM)

OLLI classes in all locations follow the Charlottesville Public Schools on cancellations.
For information on DELAYS:
OLLI classes in all locations follow the Charlottesville Public Schools on delayed openings for classes beginning prior to 11 a.m. and early closings for classes beginning at or after 1 p.m.

EXCEPTION: OLLI classes at Meadows Presbyterian Church follow the Albermarle County Public Schools for delayed openings for classes beginning prior to 11 a.m. Classes starting at 11 a.m. or later will be held.
Personal safety is the key consideration!!!

Digging out again in Charlottesville!

2010-02-07T16:42:22+00:00

Everyone is busy digging out yet again. In our neighborhood we were lucky to have power for most of the storm, so it could have been a lot worse.

Filed under: Charlottesville Tagged: Charlottesville, February, snow, winter

Choose a Rainbow for Health

2010-02-06T21:20:16+00:00

I think that the “color your diet” approach is the one of the easiest, healthiest ways to control your weight. If you choose a rainbow, your plate will be filled with fruits and vegetables full of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants – and relatively few calories. Can’t wait for spring and the Charlottesville City Market!

Here is an article from Prevention Magazine to get you started:

Eat a Rainbow of Health

A colorful plate delivers a hefty dose of age-fighting nutrients

The healthiest (and tastiest) diet is a colorful one, but 80% of Americans still don’t eat enough brightly hued fruits and vegetables, according to a new analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys.

Produce contains phytonutrients, plant-based compounds that researchers believe may help ward off obesity, cancer, and heart disease. For a color-coded breakdown of what you need more of and why, turn the page. Aim for two half-cup servings from each group daily.

Continue reading …. Eat a Rainbow of Health – Prevention.com.

Filed under: Diet Tagged: antioxidants, cancer, colors, fruits, health, healthy lifestyle, heart disease, minerals, phytochemicals, stay healthier, vegetables, vitamins, weight loss

Dyslexia defined: New Yale study ‘uncouples’ reading and IQ over time « Blogs « Literacy News

2010-02-06T14:39:05+00:00

I have been a reading tutor for many years and I have often observed children who have great difficulty learning to read. I have also observed that over time, the ones who simply accept that reading is always going to take them much more time and effort than those around them are much more likely to realize their potential – many with college and graduate degrees and successful careers. I am always distressed by the children who struggle along thinking that they are doing something wrong or are just too dumb to learn and eventually drop out of school.

I was excited to see this new study at Yale that indicates that dyslexia is a lifelong condition that cannot be”cured” by more instruction. I believe that some children will NEVER test very well though they may be very bright and creative.

Contrary to popular belief, some very smart, accomplished people cannot read well. This unexpected difficulty in reading in relation to intelligence, education and professional status is called dyslexia, and researchers at Yale School of Medicine and University of California Davis, have presented new data that explain how otherwise bright and intelligent people struggle to read.

The study, which will be published in the January 1, 2010 issue of the journal Psychological Science, provides a validated definition of dyslexia. “For the first time, we’ve found empirical evidence that shows the relationship between IQ and reading over time differs for typical compared to dyslexic readers,” said Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics, and co-director of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

Read complete article: Dyslexia defined: New Yale study ‘uncouples’ reading and IQ over time « Blogs « Literacy News.

Bowmaster Disco rescheduled for February 12, 6-8 pm

2010-02-04T23:38:49+00:00

Because of the expected snow storm this weekend, we have decided to reschedule our Haiti Relief Dance until next week. The new date and time: February 12, 6-8 pm.

Hope to see you there!

A Conversation about People and Events in Charlottesville

2010-02-04T15:05:45+00:00

Take a look back in time with Florence Bryant and Joy Perry as they share their perspectives on the influential leaders and significant events that have helped to shape Charlottesville over the past 45 years.

Florence Bryant is a retired teacher and author who will reflect on the urban renewal of Vinegar Hill, the formation of public housing developments, and the start of integration in the public and political life of the city.

Joy Perry is a former board member of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society who currently leads tours of historic Charlottesville.

The presentation is free and open to the public. It will be held at the Covenant Church of God, 1025 East Rio Road, on Friday, February 12, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

For reservations, please email the OLLI office at olliuva@virginia.edu or call 434-923-3600.

Four Season Food — University of Virginia Health System – Live Red

2010-02-02T21:21:21+00:00

We all love the taste of those fresh tomatoes from a farmers’ market, but don’t wait for summer. Some research has suggested that processed tomatoes may be even better for you than fresh tomatoes. Was the Reagan administration on the right track when they listed ketchup as a vegetable for school lunches?

Enjoy the heart-healthy benefits of tomatoes all year
By Susan E. Del Gobbo, MPH, RD, UVA Health System dietitian

During the winter, a freshly grown tomato isn’t likely on your shopping list. But science shows that you should definitely consider enjoying tomatoes in their canned or frozen forms all year long. Turns out that processed varieties may even be better for you.

Few foods compare in taste to a freshly harvested tomato. Yet within hours of harvest, fresh tomatoes are transformed into tomato products—including canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato soup, tomato juice and ketchup.

It is well known that eating generous amounts of fruits and vegetables are likely to reduce the risk of a number of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and recent research hints that tomato products may be protective in such diverse conditions as ultraviolet-induced damage and osteoporosis.

Read the complete article: Four Season Food — University of Virginia Health System – Live Red.

Filed under: Diet Tagged: health, healthy lifestyle, stay healthier, tomatoes, vegetables

Please pay attention! – teaching in an age of “multitasking” students

2010-02-01T22:02:50+00:00

In my years of teaching Web Development courses, I was increasingly plagued by students trying to keep up with social networking sites, instant messaging, email, etc., during class time. Because of the nature of my courses my students were always sitting at Internet-connected computers so my problems started before the days of wireless access and students’ omnipresent laptops and web-enabled cell phones.

One of my teaching colleagues once asked whether I thought that we older people had Windows 3.11 brains while kids were growing up with Windows NT brains. All I could say was that I know that I have a one-track thought process if I really want to learn something. He agreed and we marveled at our students seeming ability to do everything at once.

Now there is some current research that questions whether multitasking is really as “efficient” as its proponents would have us believe.

I am very glad that my computer can multitask (Windows NT was a huge improvement for me, and now my iMac is really fantastic at doing lots of things at once), but I am happy to learn that perhaps it is not necessary for me to try to do the same thing!

Below I quote an interesting article on this subject from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Scholars Turn Their Attention to Attention

In an age of classroom multitasking, scholars probe the nature of learning and memory – January 31, 2010
By David Glenn

Imagine that driving across town, you’ve fallen into a reverie, meditating on lost loves or calculating your next tax payments. You’re so distracted that you rear-end the car in front of you at 10 miles an hour. You probably think: Damn. My fault. My mind just wasn’t there.

By contrast, imagine that you drive across town in a state of mild exhilaration, multitasking on your way to a sales meeting. You’re drinking coffee and talking to your boss on a cellphone, practicing your pitch. You cause an identical accident. You’ve heard all the warnings about cellphones and driving—but on a gut level, this wreck might bewilder you in a way that the first scenario didn’t. Wasn’t I operating at peak alertness just then? Your brain had been aroused to perform several tasks, and you had an illusory sense that you must be performing them well.

That illusion of competence is one of the things that worry scholars who study attention, cognition, and the classroom. Students’ minds have been wandering since the dawn of education. But until recently—so the worry goes—students at least knew when they had checked out. A student today who moves his attention rapid-fire from text-messaging to the lecture to Facebook to note-taking and back again may walk away from the class feeling buzzed and alert, with a sense that he has absorbed much more of the lesson than he actually has.

“Heavy multitaskers are often extremely confident in their abilities,” says Clifford I. Nass, a professor of psychology at Stanford University. “But there’s evidence that those people are actually worse at multitasking than most people.”

Read complete article: Scholars Turn Their Attention to Attention – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Filed under: Lifelong Learning, Live & Learn Tagged: computers, Lifelong Learning, Live and Learn, multi-tasking, students, teaching

Winter Storm in Charlottesville

2010-01-30T21:52:30+00:00

Here we go again!

Filed under: Charlottesville Tagged: Charlottesville, snow, winter

Higher Vitamin D Linked to Lower Colorectal Cancer Risk – more news from Tufts

2010-01-30T15:17:05+00:00

The calcium/Vitamin D connection to overall health is an unfolding story. I wonder if the incidence of colorectal cancer is greater in places where people drink less milk and/or eat fewer calcium-rich vegetables?

The largest study of its kind to date may tip the scales on the controversial question of whether higher vitamin D levels are associated with reduced risk for colorectal cancer.

Researchers drawing on data on more than a half-million participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) study concluded that people with more vitamin D were up to 40% less likely to develop colorectal cancer.

The study compared the 1,248 EPIC participants diagnosed with colorectal cancer with an equal number of healthy controls. Blood levels of vitamin D below a mid-range were associated with an increased risk of cancer, especially in the colon; high levels didn’t confer any extra benefit. The study also found reduced risk associated with high consumption of dietary calcium, but not dietary vitamin D.

The EPIC findings are in line with a 2007 meta-analysis of previous studies, but differ from the 2006 Women’s Health Initiative, which found calcium and vitamin D supplements had no benefit against colorectal cancer. – British Medical Journal

Download our free Special Report, “Eating to Beat Cancer.”

Via Tufts health & Nutrition Email Newsletter

Filed under: Diet, senior citizens Tagged: calcium, cancer, health, healthy lifestyle, minerals, stay healthier, Vitamin D, vitamins

Amazon Kindle – perfect for seniors!

2010-01-24T18:57:50+00:00

I have to admit that I love tech gadgets and that is why I was drawn to the Kindle. When I learned that I could order books from Amazon and have them almost instantly, I was sold.

However, I really worried that it would be difficult for me to read on a small hand-held device. I found after about six months of use that I prefer to read on the Kindle! On a trip when I was forced to go back to paperbacks for a while I realized how much easier it is for me to read and (become completely absorbed in what I am reading) on that small electronic screen. Now I am really sold!

In a nutshell, the Kindle eBook Reader is reading made easy, comfortable and fun. Those who have actual experience with this marvel of a device will surely attest to that. It’s great in many ways and the e-book reader’s most underrated attribute must arguably be the quality of the display. The screen is such a boon to those of us who are struggling with old sightedness. For the first time in a long time, a great number of senior folks are reading more, faster and longer.

via Amazon Kindle For E-Learners | More Books Reviews.

The Kindle line is renowned for their breakthrough technology so the outstanding display of the Kindle 2 comes as no surprise. That’s also where the rubber hits the road insofar as reading is concerned and Amazon is well aware of it. Behind what appears on the screen are some very ingenious engineering and science to emulate the natural appearance and readability of the paper print culminating in the thoroughly paper-like display of the Kindle 2 today.

Many older readers are beset with eye strain from reading conventional print or the computer screen. Over time, they are resigned to fatigued eyes as part and parcel of reading. Nothing is further from the truth and the Electronic Ink Digital Display of the Amazon Kindle proves that. Kindle readers notice that tired eyes are a thing of the past even for those who indulge in prolonged or binge reading. For bi-focal or reading glass users, the effect will be all the more profound.

Although the maiden Kindle already had a pretty formidable display, Amazon never let up on their trademark cutting-edge technology. That’s basically how and why the Kindle 2 is able to boast an even crisper paper-like screen. Resolution, shade scale and image stability have all been greatly enhanced. In technical terms, the display is now powered by a 16-level gray scale with 167 pixels per inch resolution at 250 millisecond refresh rate upon electronic ink bubble and film technology.

Aesthetically, the Kindle is classy and stylish, yet modest. After all, the top design objective at Amazon was to make the Kindle disappear so you get ‘lost in your reading, not the technology’. The ergonomics are superb with the display centrally placed and occupying the best part of the real estate like a good video appliance should. The look and feel is so close to a real paperback that one could be caught absent-mindedly trying to dog-ear the Kindle.

Derived from a combo technology of Physics, Chemistry and Electronics in unison, the Amazon Kindle display is a godsend for hardcore readers. Above all the benefits and convenience it delivers, it has the welfare of your eyes in mind. You will never wear out your eyes with a Kindle. Whether you are a book lover, tech geek or gadget freak, you will love your Kindle and its super duper display. So will your eyes and that’s a guarantee.

via Amazon Kindle For E-Learners | More Books Reviews.

Posted in Lifelong Learning, Live & Learn Tagged: Kindle, Lifelong Learning, Live and Learn, Reading, Seniors

Notes from Jim McGrath – OLLI-UVa – Spring 2010

2010-01-22T21:02:05+00:00

It’s always great to be able to report good news.

Jim McGrath

OLLI’s fall ’09 semester was our best ever. We registered more than seven hundred students. The last time I looked, the number was 707; but it is likely that a few more registered after that. This reflects well on the program,the faculty, the students, the Program Committee and its chair, Elliot Mininberg. Another contributor to OLLI’s success is Tyson Janney, our public relations guru, who is getting our message out to more and more people.

In our Fall 2009 Catalog, we asked you some questions so we could better plan our courses. Of those who registered that semester, 88 percent answered the survey. What a great response! And here’s the skinny about the likes of the collective “we” who take OLLI courses.

First, we are primarily women, outnumbering men nearly two to one; specifically, we are 64 percent female, 36 percent male.

History, with 275 votes, leads the topics of interest.Then comes art, literature and poetry, and music, in that order, and fairly evenly divided with a combined 426 votes.To complete the top ten choices, we add political science,religion, gardening, films, travel, and, tied for tenth place,architecture and pure science. Sixteen other categories also were chosen. “We” are a diverse group with many interests.

We also found that word of mouth is the best way to spread the OLLI story; so, keep talking and we can continue to grow.

Jim McGrath, president

Mentor. Tutor. Pass on the gift of Lifelong Learning!

2010-01-22T16:55:59+00:00

Everyone these days needs to be a lifelong learner, and YOU have the power to make a positive difference in a child’s life. There are many ways to be a mentor or tutor. Find the perfect fit at:

Mentor & Tutor Opportunity Fair

Thursday, January 28, 2010
(Snow date – February 4)
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Omni Hotel
Downtown Charlottesville
(Free parking)

United Way- Thomas Jefferson Area Volunteer Center
806 East High Street, Charlottesville
434-772-1705
swood@UnitedWayTJA.org | www.UnitedWayTJA.org

For more information visit BeAVolunteer.info.

Posted in Albemarle, Charlottesville, community service, Lifelong Learning, Live & Learn Tagged: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, City Schools, community service, Lifelong Learning, Live and Learn, volunteer

OLLI Notes for Spring 2010 – Newsletter Announcing 2 OLLI Outings and 3 Special Presentations for Members

2010-01-21T18:22:09+00:00

OLLI Notes for Spring 2010 is now available for download on the OLLI-UVa website. Check out this newsletter for Spring 2010 trips and special presentations for OLLI-UVa members.

More soup’s on the stove in JABA’s next class

2010-01-21T00:37:39+00:00

Want to try making nutritious soups at home?

Plan ahead for JABA’s next class, “Healing Broth and Warming Soup,” which will be from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on January 27 at JABA, 74 Hillsdale Drive.

Instructor Sarah Lanzman, a chef and natural health professional who serves as JABA’s catering chef, will lead the class.

The charge for the class is $35. Reserve your spot by emailing edaidone@jabacares.org or calling 817-52222.

Posted in Diet, senior citizens Tagged: Albemarle, Charlottesville, cooking class, health, healthy lifestyle, JABA, Recipes, stay healthier

Smile and be healthy!

2010-01-19T22:37:00+00:00

Just remembering to smile more often can affect your mood – and even your overall health.

Researchers ask why optimism is associated with health, pessismism with disease

Carolyn Butler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

… One of the possibilities most interesting to scientists is that your psychology has a direct effect on physiology, impacting blood pressure, heart rate, stress hormone levels and immune function, all of which can contribute to disease and mortality. For example, a study published last year in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity found that higher levels of pessimism are linked to unfavorable changes in inflammatory markers and white blood cells.

Read complete article: Researchers ask why optimism is associated with health, pessismism with disease – washingtonpost.com.

Posted in mind-body Tagged: health, live longer, mind-body, stay healthier

OLLI-UVa and JABA Form Partnership

2010-01-19T18:43:16+00:00

OLLI at the University of Virginia and JABA (Jefferson Area Board for Aging) are pleased to announce a new partnership!

OLLI members who provide thirty hours of certified community service with JABA within a twelve-month period will receive a $25 discount on one semester’s tuition as an incentive to learn by giving back to the community. At the same time, JABA volunteers who provide thirty service hours in twelve months and who are new to OLLI will receive a free OLLI course to encourage their ongoing participation.

To learn more about the varied volunteer opportunities, please contact Martha Williams at JABA 434- 817-5245.

Martha Williams, Manager
JABA RSVP Volunteer Services
674 Hillsdale Drive, Suite 9
Charlottesville, VA 22901
434-817-5245 (p) 434-817-5230 (f)
mwilliams@jabacares.org

via OLLI-UVa Blog.

Posted in Albemarle, Charlottesville, community service, JABA, Lifelong Learning, Live & Learn, OLLI-UVa Tagged: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, community service, JABA, Lifelong Learning, Live and Learn, OLLI at U.Va., Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, RSVP, Seniors, volunteer

OLLI-UVa and JABA Form Partnership

2010-01-19T18:43:55+00:00

OLLI at the University of Virginia and JABA (Jefferson Area Board for Aging) are pleased to announce a new partnership!

OLLI members who provide thirty hours of certified community service with JABA within a twelve-month period will receive a $25 discount on one semester’s tuition as an incentive to learn by giving back to the community. At the same time, JABA volunteers who provide thirty service hours in twelve months and who are new to OLLI will receive a free OLLI course to encourage their ongoing participation.

To learn more about the varied volunteer opportunities, please contact Martha Williams at JABA (434- 817-5245).

Martha Williams, Manager
JABA RSVP Volunteer Services
674 Hillsdale Drive, Suite 9
Charlottesville, VA 22901
434-817-5245 (p) 434-817-5230 (f)
mwilliams@jabacares.org

A Feast of Literature on The Horizon – Virginia Festival of the Book

2010-01-18T16:18:31+00:00

One of my favorite annual Charlottesville events is coming up soon. Sounds like it will be lots of fun!

March 17th is the first day of the Virginia Festival of the Book, but now’s the time to start finding your favorite authors, buying your tickets to our special events and planning your trip to this fabulous festival celebrating books and book culture.

Get Your Name In a Novel!
Purchase $16 raffle tickets for any of these four exciting prizes and help support the Festival!

•   Your name in a Mystery Novel
•   Custom website for your book, for yourself, or for your business
•   Basket of sixteen books signed by their authors
•   Critique of Your Work by a literary agent

Festival Events
We’ve got more than 100 Free Events planned for you, but here are a few ticketed events you won’t want to miss.
•   Festival Luncheon – Michael Malone
•   Crime Wave Luncheon – Julia Spencer-Fleming
•   Business Breakfast – Michael Gelb
•   Authors Reception at The Paramount

More information at http://www.vabook.org/

Posted in Albemarle, Charlottesville, Lifelong Learning, Live & Learn Tagged: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, fun, Lifelong Learning, Live and Learn, Virginia festival of the Book

Physical Training Over Time Has Anti Aging Impact On Cells

2010-01-19T22:37:00+00:00

Another reason to get up and MOVE! You will be healthier and happier for it. I like dancing in place to my favorite 50’s hits during the winter months when walking outside is more difficult. Do you have a favorite aerobic activity for the winter?

Physical Training Over Time Has Anti Aging Impact On Cells
Thu, Dec 3, 2009

Scientists have learned that forceful fitness training actually thwarted the loss of telomeres length – the telomeres act like the cap on a shoelace, preventing the chromosome from unraveling – and aided the cardiovascular system against the impact of aging. This is according to the Journal of the American Heart Association.

via Physical Training Over Time Has Anti Aging Impact On Cells.

Posted in Fitness Tagged: active lifestyle, Fitness, health, healthy lifestyle, heart attack, stay healthier

Make it a Day On, Not a Day Off – Help JABA’s Soup for Seniors

2010-01-16T14:47:31+00:00

Make it a Day On, Not a Day Off by bringing your canned goods and nonperishable food items to JABA on MLK Day January 18th for Soup for Seniors, a food drive to benefit JABA’s Food Bag program for low-income seniors. Drop off food items between 9 am and 1 pm at JABA at 674 Hillsdale Drive, Charlottesville, where volunteers will be there to sort and pack the food.

And if you can help us with a few other requests e-mail me at mwilliams@jabacares.org :

HELP! We need telephone callers to conduct a satisfaction survey of JABA clients. You can do this from your home or at our offices. You will have a script and a few questions to ask and the client will have prior notification that you will be calling.

We need two volunteers to use the computer and the copier in Louisa County to complete a project involving scanning and copying documents.

An elderly client in Louisa County needs someone to take her to the grocery store or other errand once a week.

Hope to see you this Monday at JABA with your food donations and thank you, as always, for all you do to serve those less fortunate in our community.

Martha

Martha Williams, Manager
JABA RSVP Volunteer Services
674 Hillsdale Drive, Suite 9
Charlottesville, VA 22901
434-817-5245 (p) 434-817-5230 (f)
mwilliams@jabacares.org

For information on volunteer opportunities at JABA go to
www.jabacares.org/page/full/volunteer-opportunities/

JABA’s mission is to promote, establish and preserve sustainable communities for healthy aging that benefit individuals and families of all ages.

Posted in Albemarle, Charlottesville, community service, JABA Tagged: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, community service, JABA, Nutrition & Fitness, RSVP, Seniors, volunteer

Dance! Dance! Dance! The First Ever J.V. Discothèque

2010-01-14T21:37:30+00:00

This sounds like a lot of fun! If you would like to help, please let us know.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

The First Ever J.V. Discothèque

Mr. Bow’s Second Grade Class invites all serious Boogie Down Dancers to join us in the auditorium!

Friday, February 5th, 2010
From: 6:00- 8:00

This is for the entire school!!!!! Not just the second grade!!!!!
If you are older than 12 you’ll have to boogie down at your local middle school.
Sorry Pre-teens….

*DJ Bow will be playing positive dance music for all the children of JV and their families. *There will be some light refreshments and snacks, but eat dinner before you come. Don’t miss this historic night, Grrrrrrr.

“It’s the Woodstock of our generation!”

Finally: bring a few bucks to spend on Mr. Bow’s Class Economic project:

“Money Honey Soaps”

via Mr. Bowmaster’s Second Grade.

No more dieting? -January 2010 UVa Club Red

2010-01-13T01:09:20+00:00

It’s January; time to ring in a new year and vow to stand up more—yes, find out how this resolution can lead to a much healthier you in 2010.

It’s all at clubreduva.com.

Dieting is out Discover the 4 most effective habits of those who lost weight and kept it off. Dieting didn’t make the list.

Give it 10 percent When it comes to improving your health, 5 small changes will bring big rewards.

Stand up for a new you “Sitting disease” is a serious threat to the health of many Americans. Take a stand against it.

News for new moms A recent study shows that breastfeeding is a great way to improve a mom’s long-term heart health.

Get cooking Our recipe of the month is green beans with slivered garlic, lemon zest and pomegranates, one of the amazing recipes of Charlottesville chef Ashley Hightower featured at Club Red’s cooking events.

Want to share UVA Health System’s Club Red with a friend in Virginia? Have them visit clubreduva.com to sign up as a new member. It’s FREE.

Go to clubreduva.com for all this and more!

Posted in Diet, Fitness Tagged: active lifestyle, Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fitness, health, healthy lifestyle, Recipes, stay healthier, weight loss

Serving Your Community Benefits Your Brain – from Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter

2010-01-09T17:06:01+00:00

As a JABA FISH volunteer at Jackson-Via Elementary School in Charlottesville, I can agree with the “cobweb removal” statement! Helping an ESL student with math is certainly a brain fitness exercise — and I have to say that I am learning “strategies” for solving word problems that I had never thought of before.

I encourage everyone who can to add some community service to their scheduled activities. You will be so glad that you did!

Volunteering Helps You, Too – in Your Brain

Worried about keeping your brain sharp as you age? Maybe you should try volunteering.
A small Johns Hopkins study suggests that the mental stimulation of participating in a volunteer program could help delay or reverse declining brain function.
Researchers studied 17 women, age 65 or older, at high risk for cognitive decline based on a mental-state test. Eight of the women signed up as volunteers for Experience Corps, a program that involves seniors in helping children in urban public schools. At the study’s start and again after six months, all the women’s brains were scanned using MRI technology. After their volunteer stints, the Experience Corps women showed improvements in brain function compared with the non-volunteering control group. As one participant put it, volunteering “removed the cobwebs from my brain.” – Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences
Via: http://tuftshealthletter.com/

Posted in Charlottesville, community service, Healthy Aging, JABA, Lifelong Learning, Live & Learn Tagged: brain fitness, Charlottesville, Civic Engagement, community service, JABA, Jackson-Via, Lifelong Learning, Live and Learn, RuthK, Senior Corps, Seniors, tutor, volunteering

Planetaki Planet RuthK

Stuck inside with kids? Try Tumblebooks on the JMRL website

Inclement Weather – Personal safety is the key consideration!!!

Digging out again in Charlottesville!

Choose a Rainbow for Health

Eat a Rainbow of Health

Dyslexia defined: New Yale study ‘uncouples’ reading and IQ over time « Blogs « Literacy News

Bowmaster Disco rescheduled for February 12, 6-8 pm

A Conversation about People and Events in Charlottesville

Four Season Food — University of Virginia Health System – Live Red

Please pay attention! – teaching in an age of “multitasking” students

Scholars Turn Their Attention to Attention

Winter Storm in Charlottesville

Higher Vitamin D Linked to Lower Colorectal Cancer Risk – more news from Tufts

The largest study of its kind to date may tip the scales on the controversial question of whether higher vitamin D levels are associated with reduced risk for colorectal cancer.

Amazon Kindle – perfect for seniors!

Notes from Jim McGrath – OLLI-UVa – Spring 2010

Mentor. Tutor. Pass on the gift of Lifelong Learning!

Mentor & Tutor Opportunity Fair

OLLI Notes for Spring 2010 – Newsletter Announcing 2 OLLI Outings and 3 Special Presentations for Members

More soup’s on the stove in JABA’s next class

Want to try making nutritious soups at home?

Smile and be healthy!

Researchers ask why optimism is associated with health, pessismism with disease

OLLI-UVa and JABA Form Partnership

OLLI at the University of Virginia and JABA (Jefferson Area Board for Aging) are pleased to announce a new partnership!

OLLI-UVa and JABA Form Partnership

OLLI at the University of Virginia and JABA (Jefferson Area Board for Aging) are pleased to announce a new partnership!

A Feast of Literature on The Horizon – Virginia Festival of the Book

Physical Training Over Time Has Anti Aging Impact On Cells

Make it a Day On, Not a Day Off – Help JABA’s Soup for Seniors

Dance! Dance! Dance! The First Ever J.V. Discothèque

Dance! Dance! Dance! The First Ever J.V. Discothèque

“It’s the Woodstock of our generation!”

“Money Honey Soaps”

No more dieting? -January 2010 UVa Club Red

It’s January; time to ring in a new year and vow to stand up more—yes, find out how this resolution can lead to a much healthier you in 2010.

It’s all at clubreduva.com.

Serving Your Community Benefits Your Brain – from Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter

Volunteering Helps You, Too – in Your Brain

Dance! Dance! Dance!

The First Ever J.V. Discothèque