More than 100 residents of the Rio Grande Valley gathered Friday at the Brownsville Event Center to attend the Aging Healthy Summit.
The event, which is organized by UTRGV, consisted of presentations on how to age healthy and how community members can help improve the lives of those 55 or older.
“This talk today will not only be about how to take care of your aging parents, but is also about how to take care of yourself today,” said Dr. Nelly Garcia Blow, keynote speaker of the event. “Whether you are 4 years old, 20, 30 years old, I think the things you do today are going to impact how you age.”
Garcia Blow said her field of work is geriatrics, the branch of medicine dealing with the health and care of old people.
“As we age, we are not prepared; and as we age, we underestimate the process,” she said. “A lot of the times, on the outside, you can make yourself look 25, but on the inside, your body ages and as time goes on and your social circle changes, your life changes, and that change you don’t see it right away.”
Garcia Blow talked about the importance of working out regularly, having a healthy diet and keeping the mind active.
“I think we can all agree that you want good health, you want a low risk of disease, prevention, and you want to have a low-disease burden,” she said. “Not everybody can. You’ll end up with diabetes, high blood pressure. … There is some people that no matter what they do, they’ll have that; it’s a genetic component, but most of us can do a little something about it. You want to be active and engaged.”
Garcia Blow said the best ways to keep the mind active are by learning to play an instrument, learning a new language, playing chess and reading.
“In geriatrics, it’s so different, it’s managing, it’s Band-Aid medicine, but the [most important] thing is to prevent,” she said. “Forty-six million people are over the age of 65, so, we are all in the right business.”
Jack White, a UTRGV lecturer and organizer of the event, gave a presentation about Alzheimer’s disease and the importance of helping the family caregiver.
“I wanted to share with you my perspective on Alzheimer’s and community organization,” White said. “About a decade ago, I became an instant family caregiver and I learned more in that two-year period than I did in the previous 70 years.”
He became the main caregiver for his mother-in-law, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
“I remember walking into my mother-in-law’s house … visiting my mother-in-law, whom I loved, but she never let me win at chess,” White said. “She was a brilliant [woman] with an IQ over the rainbow and, so, we had wonderful talks, but this time I went and within 15 minutes I could tell [she was not right].”
He remembers calling his brother-in-law to inform him about the situation, to which he replied to not worry; that was just the way his mother was.
“She desperately needed care, but no one else from the family would support,” White said. “Alzheimer’s disease is scary, irreversible and aggressive. It is a brain disorder that slowly destroys the memory.”
White said, generally, there would be one caregiver and the rest of the family would disappear and not participate.
“That is one of the reasons why caregiver support is important; they need support,” he said. “It’s usually the one with ‘least power’ that winds up being shuffled around into this [being the main caregiver].”
In a ceremony during lunch, White received the “Aging Award,” which is given yearly by the event sponsors to a person who has helped improve the quality of life for the aging population.
“I am honored beyond words,” White said. “I look forward to continue the work with all these events, and others, to improve the lives of our aging population.”
