April 27, 2015
Samantha Morley
[email protected]
UCCS HealthCircle clinics have begun a series of free, monthly seminars to educate adults about how to keep themselves healthy.
The Community Health Education Series is targeted to adults and will feature topics such as nutrition, brain and bone health.
“We wanted to utilize the expertise of the UCCS HealthCircle faculty and staff to provide meaningful health education for the community,” Michael Bigelow, senior executive for clinical activities, UCCS HealthCircle, said in a press release.
“This series aligns with our mission to help empower people to live healthier and happier lives.”
The first seminar “A Balancing Act: Strategies to Enhance Balance and Prevent Falls for All Ages” took place on April 7 and was presented by the director for the Center for Active Living, Mary Ann Kluge.
“We at the Lane Center, those of us that are clinic or center directors, wanted to share our knowledge with the community,” Kluge said. “The best way to do that is to present some health education topics of interest and to utilize our expertise to share what we know and also what new research is coming out.”
Kluge said people in their 20s and 30s can show muscular imbalances, which can hurt their joints and increase the chances of bone breaking in the event of a fall.
According to Kluge, about 60 people attended the seminar. The group consisted of both students and community members.
“It did bring in a broad range of people, which is nice,” she said.
Three of Kluge’s students assisted with the presentation.
Patty Fryc presented information from her research about fall prevention exercise for participants between 20 and 78 years old. Sarah Kettlekamp focused on self-perception for people between 20 and 80 years old. Mitch Magrini did a study on power training with medicine balls for people aged 55 to 64 years old.
Regarding Magrini’s research, Kluge said that the power training was successful and improved the integrity of wrists in particular.
“Medicine balls are kind of a new way to train people,” she said.
Margini would instruct the participants to throw the balls in order to increase the stability of their arms.
“When people start to fall down, especially younger people and middle aged people, they tend to reach out with their hands and they break their wrists. And so he wanted to see if he could increase arm speed, and he did,” Kluge said.
The free seminar series will continue on a monthly basis.
The next presentation “Nutrition for You: Strategies to individualize your nutrition plan for optimal health” is scheduled for May 5 at 5:30 p.m. in the Lane Center. It will be hosted by Julie Anderson, director of the Peak Nutrition Clinic.