Senior Health Fair 2

The Senior Health Fair was time well spent today at Des Moines University! I expected as much. I walked away from the Fair with a message that I knew, but it was a message that I have been conveniently choosing to ignore for about a year - more on that in a minute.

DMU had a host of golf carts greeting and carrying visitors to their Student Education Center. Once inside there was a welcome area and 40 stations set up throughout the building. The set up was roomy, efficient, and welcoming. I even had the chance to say hi to DMU’s President, former Iowa Governor Terry E. Branstad. I found

• “vendors” of which half were promoting free services such as Aging Resources of Central Iowa, Alzheimer’s Association, SHIIP, Senior Services of Polk County, and DART who provided free transportation to the Health Fair

• health oriented information on cholesterol, infectious disease, Alzheimer’s, heart health, several cancer types, alternative health care, and coal burning effects

• lots of medical screening and testing of blood glucose, cholesterol and lipid levels, body-mass index, blood pressure, bone density, depression, vision, skin cancer reviews, vascular disease, balance, strength, flexibility, and review of medicines.

• the very popular Booth 33 offered demonstrations of osteopathic manipulative medicine

• and finally perhaps most valuable, the check out station (if you wanted).

At the check out station each person had the opportunity to assemble all of the testing information. While there were plenty of opportunities to talk with DMU medical students and budding practitioners backed up by faculty at each of the earlier stations, I for one didn’t need an ear trumpet to hear the final message.

Being a typical American when I hear the words health care, I think about doctors, problems, and disease. In the U. S. we have come to rely on a medical system that will “fix it” for us: an active medical system, a passive us.

In an article on the Center for Disease Control website we can read that chronic, not infectious disease will be the main contributor to a shortening of life. One of the CDC conclusions (1): prevention of chronic disease requires personal responsibility. That means more responsible eating and exercise. OK. OK. I got the message. From what I could see, the DMU Senior Health Fair was full of pretty healthy people looking for feedback, accepting personal responsibility, and getting a message. Messages are pretty individual and each participant got their own.

My message: health care starts with self care.

No one would have gotten any message except for the service of the dedicated medical students and their faculty. Des Moines University is a great resource and provided a great service through their annual Senior Health Fair.

photo by James G. Lindberg

footnote (1) Other conclusions in the article from CDC were also noteworthy. Are healthy, affordable foods available? Are safe, affordable exercise options available? Does the community address social determinants of health such as education, housing, job opportunity, and racism. But that is another story altogether so I’ll skip it.

The Age of Conversation 2

There is a new book out, and it better be good. Why? Because 237 authors from around the globe have each written one page limited to 400 words. They darned well better be the best 400 words each of the authors had. (Since I had only 200 good words available at the time, I collaborated with the Purple Wren. and we wrote a page with 385 words and one picture and we titled it, If you can’t stand the heat… .)

The book, a second edition is called

• Age of Conversation 2
• the authors have given their best insights into the nature of conversation and communication in a digital world as it affects business, community, and individual
• Several of the authors are local men and women
• You can buy (hardcover or paperback) or download a copy
• All profits (after expenses) go to Variety, the international children’s charity, and the 1st edition raised $15,000

Pricing for The Age of Conversation 2 is:

• e-book: US$12.50 ($10.00 going to charity)
• paperback book: US$19.95 ($8.02 to charity)
• hardback book: US$29.95 ($4.60 to charity)

The venture was overseen by local marketer Drew McLellan and Australian Gavin Heaton. Check the list of authors if you like.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Reginald Adkins, Vandana Ahuja, Ozgur Alaz, Armando Alves, Francis Anderson, Todd Andrlik, G. Kofi Annan, Mike Arauz, David Armano, William Azaroff, Steve Bannister, Ryan Barrett, Cam Beck, Jordan Behan, Connie Bensen, Rohit Bhargava, Susan Bird, Toby Bloomberg, Jon Burg, David Berkowitz, Mark Blair, Ed Brenegar, Chris Brown, Deborah Brown, Duane Brown, Tim Brunelle, Wayne Buckhanan,

Pet Campbell, Becky Carroll, Paul Chaney, C.C. Chapman, Katie Chatfield, Thomas Clifford, Gary Cohen, Stephen Collins, Tim Connor, Peter Corbett, Hillel Cooperman, Ed Cotton, Chris Cree, Dave Davison, Luc Debaisieux, Jeff De Cagna, Dino Demopoulos, Geert Desager, Rishi Desai, Pete Deutschman, Matt Dickman, Vanessa DiMauro, Jeanne Dininni, Brent Dixon, Mark Earls, Sue Edworthy, Jay Ehret, Gianandrea Facchini, Anna Farmery, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Jeremy Fuksa, Seth Gaffney, Bill Gammell, Deanna Gernert, Cedric Giorgi, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Phil Gerbyshak, Scott Goodson, Mark Goren, James Gordon-Macintosh, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Susan Gunelius, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral,

Jessica Hagy, Mark Hancock, Ann Handley, Douglas Hanna, Steve Hardy, Nettie Hartsock, Doug Haslam, Gavin Heaton, Paul Hebert, Jeremy Heilpern, Alex Henault, Darren Herman, John Herrington, Susan Heywood, Adrian Ho, G.L. Hoffman, Daniel Honigman, Uwe Hook, Sean Howard, Cathryn Hrudicka, Robert Hruzek, Sam Huleatt, Richard Huntington, Shama Hyder, Paul Isakson, Tim Jackson, Dustin Jacobsen, George Jenkins, Kevin Jessop, Mitch Joel, Stanley Johnson, Timothy Johnson, Spike Jones, Amy Jussel, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Ryan Karpeles, Douglas Karr, Gareth Kay, Lois Kelly, Christina Kerley (CK), Chris Kieff, Thomas Knoll, Katie Konrath, David Koopmans, Derrick Kwa, Michelle Lamar, Stephen Landau, Kenny Lauer, Bob LeDrew, Tammy Lenski, Mark Lewis, Phil Lewis, James G. Lindberg,

Brett Macfarlane, Lori Magno, Angela Maiers, Valeria Maltoni, Louise Manning, Tim Mannveille, Mike McAllen, Becky McCray, Matt J. McDonald, Paul McEnany, Mark McGuinness, Drew McLellan, Robyn McMaster, Doug Meacham, Jenny Meade, Terrell Meek, Efrain Mendicuti, Sreeraj Menon, Gaurav Mishra, Doug Mitchell, Corentin Monot, Scott Monty, John Moore, Matt Moore, Ernie Mosteller, Brandon Murphy, Eric Nehrlich, Jeff Noble, Andy Nulman, Andrew Odom, Jason Oke, Simon Payn, Branislav Peric, Neil Perkin, Eric Peterson, David Petherick, Steve Portigal, J. Erik Potter, Dennis Price, Joe Pulizzi,

Veronique Rabuteau, Arun Rajagopal, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Ryan Rasmussen, Connie Reece, Brian Reich, Cathleen Rittereiser, David Reich, Sandy Renshaw, Nick Rice, Steve Roesler, Fernanda Romano, John Rosen, Roberta Rosenberg, Troy Rutter, Mike Sansone, Sheila Scarborough, Dan Schawbel, David Meerman Scott, Sean Scott, Andy Sernovitz, Bernie Scheffler, Asi Sharabi, Ron Shevlin, Jamey Shiels, Brad Shorr, Sonia Simone, Charles Sipe, Dan Sitter, Jon Swanson, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Stephen Smith, Phil Soden, Aki Spicer, Sheryl Steadman, Rachel Steiner,

Paul Tedesco, Seni Thomas, John Todor, Scott Townsend, PJasmin Tragas, Jonathan Trenn, Kate Trgovac, Karl Turley, Tim Tyler, Yves Van Landeghem, Mario Vellandi, Steven Verbruggen, Greg Verdino, Jeroen Verkroost, Dylan Viner, Roger von Oech, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Ellen Weber, Hugh Weber, David Weinfeld, Scott White, Gordon Whitehead, Andy Whitlock, Keri Willenborg, Casper Willer, Paul Williams, Chris Wilson, Craig Wilson, C.B. Whittemore, Steve Woodruff, Troy Worman, Piet Wulleman, Faris Yakob, Joanna Young, David Zinger,

photo from Age of Conversation 2

A New Look for AroundDesMoines.com

You might have noticed - we’re working on a facelift for AroundDesMoines.com!

We have a new look that features six tabs across the top so that we can highlight posts.

And there are four main categories just below that:

• Facing Des Moines: Putting faces on everyday people and telling some of their story
• Life is Political: What’s happening in our lives that intersects politics
• Community: Events and services around Des Moines that you might want to discover
• The City: History, architecture, museums, parks, and places

Note the featured photo and video to the right in the site. We’ll change those from time to time. Maybe bi-weekly, weekly, maybe more. We’ll see. It depends on you.

Do you have something to submit? We’d be happy to find guest writers and contributors who want to write about the city, events, politics, or their favorite cause. Write about what you love. (Submission guidelines)

It’s a great way to show off your writing or photography skills and reach a wider audience.

Contact us at 515.745.9978 or life@arounddesmoines.com

Thanks to Jesse Petersen at Perfectly Petersen for updating WordPress and tweaking our new Revolution City template. Click here to view more details

Note: If you’re keeping up with us in a feed reader you might notice that we’re republishing some of our posts so they work in our new categories. (Sorry about that. We’ll be done with our housekeeping soon.)