ACTIVE ADULTS LEAD A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
AT DESTINATIONS, LAS VEGAS
 Doctors say and research has proven that if you exercise your mind it can grow stronger. Our brain cells do regenerate. To maintain the brain in peak condition at any age, it’s imperative to keep the circulation lively by physical activity, drink water consistently for good hydration, provide quality nutrients for cellular metabolism, and breathe plenty of fresh oxygen. We all know this.
As for the memory, we’ve heard, “Use it so you don’t lose it!” But how? Now there’s a way.
The lucky individuals (age 55+) who live at any one of the nine Destinations Active Adult Communities around Las Vegas can conveniently enjoy every opportunity to cultivate a healthy mind and body with the variety of activities offered right on their property.
 From Arthritis Foundation exercise classes in the workout room,Aquaerobics in the Pool, to the newest addition to their Healthy Lifestyles Program, “Memory TuneUps” once a week in the Club House. According to BJ Hill (age 68) these sessions are “Like a gym for the mind.”
Participants join in with an enthusiastic group on the television screen who are learning classic, age-old memory techniques taught in a refreshing and entertaining way by world-renowned presenter, memory expert, Jan Dacri (pronounced Dak-ree). In five sessions, the DVD called MEMORY SECRETS; Restore Your Memory – Retrain Your Brain is shown, and each person has their own book to use (by the same title). As a group activity, they say it’s a blast. Practicing on your own, it’s an insurance policy money can’t buy!
After watching 20 – 30 minutes of video, the Activity Director (or an enthusiastic resident) leads the group in follow-up memory activities. Each person proves to him or herself that there’s still a great mind between their own two ears. While neurons are charged up, dendrites lengthen, the mental muscles begin to bulge, outlook improves for the future, self-confidence builds.
 Everyone succeeds in remembering names, lists, all sorts of information. Jan tells the group, “The memory grows stronger just by using it in this amusing and gratifying way.”
Doctor endorsed and approved, Dr. Robert Stone, says “I highly recommend doing the exercises in this remarkable program . . . a milestone in applying what medical science has discovered about improving the human mind and memory.” Dr. Larisa Likver, who’s patient population is over 55, tells us “As we age, we must do more to keep the body in good condition. This program will show you how to do that for your mind!” Dr. Jim Montagano encourages patients to do Memory TuneUps to “reverse memory loss without drugs; restore youthful vitality to your brain cells.”
A Memory TuneUp Program. Everyone can do it. According to Alberta Gwinn (83) “I now go to the grocery store without a list just to pump-up my memory muscles. I remembered the first and last names of all 16 people in my Aquacize class and some of their phone numbers; and I’m memorizing a magazine, just to amuse myself and to beef up my brain cells!”
You can use the DVD and book on your own just as easily as in a group – it’s self-working, step-by-step, like a Do-it-Yourself Tool Kit to repair your memory and maintain your brain in tip-top condition. View the book cover here.
It’s a great parent-child activity, regardless of the age of the parent and/or child! Valuable for students who’d like to study in less time and get better grades. And it’s perfect for people out in the hectic business world who can’t seem to remember where they left their keys or where that darn car keeps hiding in the parking lot!
 If you happen to live in Las Vegas at Destinations you’re one of the lucky ones. You can join the Memory TuneUp group right in your Club House once a week. If you have any questions feel free to call Cathy Anderson, lead Destinations Activity Director at (702) 476-8997.
To purchase the book and DVD for yourself, go to www.jandacri.com , click on Products.
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Chewing
the Fat
By Bobbie Katz
Yes,
cellulite sucks – and very nicely, thank you –
compliments of a treatment called Endermologie, a non-invasive
vacuum massage combined with applied pressure. At the Sculpt
Medical Spa in Henderson, Nevada, 20 minutes from the Las
Vegas Strip, the three-part system used, which combines treatment,
proper nutrition and exercise, is the Synergie Lifestyle System
by Dynatronics. This technique has been cleared by the FDA
as a method to relieve muscle soreness, to temporarily improve
blood circulation and to temporarily reduce the appearance
of cellulite and circumferential body measurements. That’s
enough for me to try Endermologie, even though it really takes
about 20 treatments (and $1195) to achieve the results one
wants.
1:45 p.m. - I get to the spa about 15 minutes early to fill
out the required paperwork. The certified technician, Petra
Sahlin, who grew up in Sweden, has a massage/bodywork background
and has been doing Endermologie for three years, the first
two in LA, greets me in the waiting room and gives me the
obligatory clipboard with pen. It’s important because
contraindications such as deep vein thrombosis, uncontrolled
high blood pressure, diabetes and others may preclude you
from having the treatment.
2:00 p.m. – Petra takes me into her intimate little
treatment room. I am slightly apprehensive as she explains
the possible side effects of the treatment to me -- nausea,
headaches and dizziness – which may occur if you have
a large amount of toxins in your body since this is a cleansing
process of the lymphatic system. She also explains that there
is the possibility of bruising. After advising me to drink
at least 6-8 glasses of water during the day following the
treatment, she hands me a white Synergie body suit designed
to allow treatment over the torso and extremities. She tells
me that normally before-photos are taken of clients as are
after-photos at the completion of the 20-treatment process
and shows me some photos. I’m impressed. She also tells
me that even with one treatment, I will feel lighter and better,
even though it takes several treatments to actually see physical
results. She leaves the room to allow me to entirely disrobe
and put on the body suit.
2:10 pm. – Petra knocks on the door. She enters and
tells me to lie flat on my back on the treatment table, legs
slightly apart. She explains that the treatment takes about
40 minutes, devoting about five minutes to each section of
the body that requires it. She shows me the suction cup, which
is connected by a long hose to the Synergie machine, and explains
that it “grabs” the skin while applying suction.
She tells me to let her know if it hurts and she will lower
the amount of suction – the process will still have
the same effect and she doesn’t believe in “no
pain, no gain.” She begins the treatment on my left
thigh, rolling and sucking the inside of it, then moving from
inside to front. It actually feels relaxing, much like a deep
tissue massage. I can feel heat in the area, which Petra explains
is good because that means that my circulation is being increased.
2:15 p.m. – She begins the treatment on my lower stomach,
then moves up to the upper left arm. Afterwards, she does
my right inner thigh, stomach, and upper right arm. She then
tells me to turn on my left side. Putting a foam bar on the
table, she instructs me to put my right leg over it and press
my knee down on the table. She the gives me the treatment
again on the inner left thigh, then on the outer right thigh
(a very sensitive area, she explains, because of the amount
of fat a woman carries there). She then performs the treatment
on my right outer hip, my waist and again on my upper right
arm. Once done, she turns me over and does the same on the
other side. Afterwards, she has me lie on my stomach and does
the treatment on the back of my calves and thighs, buttocks,
back and upper arms. I am totally relaxed and feeling very
warm.
3:00 p.m.- I leave the salon on a quest for water in the Las
Vegas desert. I have no side effects, just slight soreness
on my outer thighs.
5:00 p.m. – I finally arrive home and check myself out
in the mirror. Believe it or not, I can see a difference in
my stomach area. And I do feel lighter. Now, to dinner.
<TOP>
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| A
Prescription for Well-Being
By
Bobbie Katz
You no longer have to take two aspirins and wait to call the
doctor in morning. Thanks to a unique Concierge Service provided
by the Elite Medical Services and Spa, the doctor is in –
24 hours a day.
Located in Henderson on Sunridge Heights Parkway and owned
by Dr. Simong Youmans, the medical center, which opened March
1, responds to a need heretofore not attended to in Las Vegas.
Besides being the first Concierge medical service offered
on a 24/7 basis, it provides a revolutionary way of looking
at medical care, including the offering of a Wellness Program.
“I got tired of just taking care of patients who were
always in crisis and at the end of their disease process,”
admits Youmans, who was an emergency room physician at St.
Rose Hospital for six years before opening the 5,800-square-foot
center. “I wanted to integrate a holistic approach with
a traditional approach to medicine and also practice preventative
medicine before symptoms appear.
“We practice the kind of medicine here that no one else
practices. We do a comprehensive exam and we listen to patients.
We take care of both the body and mind and we work with the
patient. We also offer counselors, nutritionists and support
groups as well as a full calendar of wellness services and
activities. We have a pediatric care unit as well. It’s
all in a building designed to make people feel at home instead
of feeling like they’re in a doctor’s office.
We even have a meditation room where they can relax before
an appointment.”
Elite’s Concierge services include a complete physical
exam, the use of a sophisticated electronic medical record
system that a patient can access with a password from anywhere
in the world, additional tests (depending on the plan chosen),
referral to specialists without the wait, an available home
visit program, online appointments and scheduling and prompt
24/7 care. If a patient ever ends up in the hospital, Elite
will provide a physician advocate who will look out for that
person’s care, making sure that he or she is receiving
the proper medication and treatment, and will hand-pick an
internist to take care of the patient.
There are four different Concierge programs to chose from,
ranging in cost from $1,500 a year to $10,000 a year. The
center does not accept medical insurance but will give patients
a bill that they can submit for reimbursement. People who
do not purchase the Concierge service are also welcome at
the clinic but will be charged $75 per visit.
Youmans, who came to the United States from Korea when she
was 15, attended Temple University Medical School in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and did her emergency Medicine residency at
the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Married with two sons, now 26 and 28, she moved to Las Vegas
in 2000 to be near family. But she found herself unhappy with
the state of medical care here, feeling that many of the doctors
were non-responsive to patients. She decided to create her
facility, taking in a partner who is also a Board Certified
Emergency Physician, Shawn Wijesinghe, to change that.
“With both of us being emergency physicians, there is
nothing that we haven’t handled,” says Youmans.
“However, when it comes to a real emergency such as
a heart attack, stroke or serious bleeding, we will come meet
a patient or send a mobile unit but after administering emergency
care, we’ll have the patient transported to the appropriate
place.”
With every kind of specialist one can think of on staff, Elite’s
medical services also include Stress Management, Smoking Cessation,
Weight Management, Disease Prevention, Fitness and Sports
Medicine, Women’s Wellness, Men’s Wellness, Pediatric
Wellness, Hormonal Therapy, Detoxification and Anti-Aging
Medicine.
All the better to keep you healthy with, my dears.
<TOP>
And
the World Stood Still
By
Bobbie Katz
For
many years, Greer Childers has taken on the weight of the
world.
The fitness expert, who resides in Las Vegas but whose face
has been seen on infomercials and TV shopping networks all
over the globe, has given untold women the “skinny”
on dropping pounds and becoming fit. Still, having sold more
than 20 million videos of her self-created aerobic deep-breathing
exercise program, “Body Flex,” she’s never
given an inch where her belief that working out should produce
the most results in the least amount of time is concerned.
To that avail, the 61-year-old, size 4-6 Childers has some
new “Shapely Secrets” she wants to share with
women everywhere. In her new infomercial released worldwide
on September 23, and which, at this writing, is the number
one infomercial in the country, she’s now trying to
tell them that they can get the body they want with motionless
exercise in just seven minutes a day – and millions
are standing still for it.
“I believe that Shapely Secrets’ is going to revolutionize
the exercise industry,” says Childers, stating that
her exercise motto is “the simpler, the faster, the
better.”
“It’s based on a sound scientific principle called
Diametric Resistance, meaning that opposing muscles work against
each other. With my program, you’re working four to
six muscle groups at a time with one position as opposed to
one muscle at a time the old-fashioned way. Two major medical
universities did the clinical studies, which showed that ‘Shapely
Secrets’ is equivalent to doing 250 crunches and is
five times more effective at working muscles than weight-lifting
You’d have to go to the gym and lift weights for 35
minutes to have the equivalent of this seven-minute workout.”
“The studies revealed that you can lose one dress size
in 14 days,” she continues. Of the weight that’s
lost, 75-80 percent of it is pure fat, not water or muscle.
Plus, this exercise tones muscle at the same time so that
you’re fit. Every one of the 1,000 women who participated
in the test trials had results. One woman actually lost 4
½ inches in each thigh in 14 days. Every body type
can lose in places never thought possible before.”
What’s even more amazing is that there are only four
positions for the entire body in “Shapely Secrets,”
three held for two minutes each and one for one minute, adding
up to seven minutes. There is one position that covers the
biceps, triceps, chest, back, abs, waist and shoulders; another
covering the same muscle groups with the emphasis on the triceps;
another that covers the calves, thighs, lower abs, hamstrings,
hips and buttocks, and a fourth for the face.
<TOP>
While this may sound too good to be true, the question may
be, what do you have to lose? – except maybe for weight,
inches, flab, dress sizes, a poor self image and a minimal
amount of money to buy the video and accompaniments. Childers,
the divorced mother of three sons, actually got into the exercise
industry 25 years ago while hunting for something that would
work for her own overweight problem that left her tired, discouraged
and feeling badly about her self after trying everything on
the market, including a personal trainer.
With just a high school education but possessing the gift
of common sense, after coming across an effective but difficult
hour-and-a-half long program designed by an exercise physiologist,
Childers took it and made it her own. She trimmed it down
to 15 minutes a day and created exercises to go with the breathing
technique it was based on that everyone, even infirm people,
could do. But as successful as “Body Flex” has
been, Childers, truly a lone wolf in the exercise industry,
continued to search for something even easier, faster, better
and more effective, designed for all age groups, demographics,
and degrees of health and fitness..
“A male friend of mine, who is 63 but looks 32 –
and a 32-year-old could only hope to look like him if he worked
out two hours a day – showed me a seven-minute program
based on Diametric Resistance that he was doing,” Childers
explains. “But it required a lot of movement and it
was too difficult for me so I knew it would be too difficult
for other women. I thought about it and realized that if the
principle of muscle against muscle worked with movement, it
would work without it. So I revamped it into a stationary
program for women.”
“Women are not going to make a career out of getting
in shape,” she adds. “It’s going to have
to slide in somewhere in her life and day. This is also about
vibrancy and health. ‘Shapely Secrets’ can be
done anytime by anybody. People will see and feel a difference
almost immediately. This is the light at the end of the tunnel
that women have been looking for. It’s simple and it
works.”
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