 Good afternoon and welcome to Pacific Partnerships in Education. I'm your host Ethan Allen here on Think Tech Hawaii and Pacific Partnerships in Education is about all the amazing work that's happening around the region here in education. We have a truly amazing guest today, Dr. Virginia Henshaw. Welcome Virginia. I'm delighted to be here. Virginia is a former chancellor and professor of tropical medicine, medical microbiology and pharmacology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, an amazing person and we're going to really be talking about this stunning thing that she developed, this mini medical school on healthy aging and it's a great event, it's really helpful, really appropriate since what is it now? They say every day 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 and have been for years and it will be for years to come so healthy aging is clearly going to be a big thing. So is that what started you on this or what was it? Well there were several reasons, one is about Hawaii because we have the highest percentage of people over 65 in the nation and we live longer which is a blessing but we want to do it in the best way possible and then also I wanted to work on a project to involve both the university and the community and the Hawaii is special in many ways but it certainly has more respect for Kapuna because of the native Hawaiian and Asian cultures and I knew we had a great department of geriatric medicine at Japsum and lots of folks in the community that were working on Kapuna issues and so I decided that that would be a good project to provide a program that would give them good information about what they could do in their lives to say healthy and prove their well-being for the longest possible. Yeah that's what struck me out and sort of disclaimer here I participated in the session this a couple years ago and it was just filled with these sort of worthwhile practical widely applicable good stuff you know you can immediately take home and use about just simple things about how to get up out of a chair and how to keep your balance and just practices in your daily life that will help help you age gracefully and be healthy in your aging so it was it was truly a truly amazing good so let's let's I suspect many of the viewers don't really know much about this can you give us a little overview of sort of the general structure what how this runs well we this is our fifth year and we have two sessions a year we were just gonna have one but it was so popular we decided we better repeat and the spring and the fall 170 people in the class and we meet on five Saturday mornings from using 9 to 11 30 and we have two lectures we have a social time and then we also offer options that people may or may not want to participate in and then we have graduation with complete with music and lunch and these lectures are amazing you found stunning people to come and talk and they're not dry academic lectures they're really wonderful they're rich they're filled with interesting useful vibrant dynamic stuff they the lectures off time to get the audience up and doing things exercises and right so it really keeps things moving right along yeah so and what's the cost of this for people it's free the reason I've been able to do that because Dr. Rosita Leong for whom it's named now endowed the program and then also the participants have been very generous in supporting it because that was the goal if I could offer it for no charge that would be great now it is by invitation but that's solely because I want to be sure people will commit to the five Saturdays as you know I take a role right because usually we have a waiting list so you want to be sure each seat is used and so that's worked really well we've been able to maintain it HMSA Foundation was helpful in getting us started with a grant and University and Japsum and UH Foundation and UH Cancer Center have all put in support for right who takes place in the in the Cancer Center Sullivan Sullivan Conference Center which is just absolutely perfect wonderful venue for that and makes it very very easy to step outside and mill around and socialize during the break which I think an important part of that right oh it's extremely important we have four goals we want to be physically active mentally engaged socially connective and nutritionally balanced but if I picked out the two that are really pivotal is the socially connected and the physically active that's gonna do a lot for your health and well-being if you are that yeah that I mean that resonates with the whole blue planet project right these are the commonalities of these sites around the world where you have populations of very healthy very long lived people right when Hawaii does pretty well right and all these sites people are physically active they are well connected eat a healthy diet you know they have something to do in their lives typically now sometimes we have cookies too though well excellent excellent and so this is this is grown over the five years you've you've you've built it you've refined a little bit you and I as I was talking beforehand you said you're starting to now take it electronically right we tape our lectures and we put them up on our website and we also put them up on spectrum on 342 or 1342 and that's an on-demand channel so you can watch them whatever you want because we have multiple islands and so we wanted to reach different populations because we physically can't do any more in the room and then also we're working on some projects to live stream the project up to other islands where they have a similar group gathered to do the same thing well excellent so you could have a little local site with local master and mistress of ceremonies but show selected vert episodes or parts of other right yeah I'm a researcher by nature so I like to try experiments each year so each year we have a different experiment we do to see some must work but some don't that's that's great that keeps the whole thing fresh yeah keep bringing in new material you're building up we must now have a great library because 40 right and some of them must be sort of not repeats exactly but the same topic covered multiple times now well we change the topics each year we have the same topics for the spring the fall and then the next year we have totally new speakers and new topics I have not run out of topics the issues around aging are very important we've all been using the equipment a little longer since we're aging but we're I think most people are very devoted to try and figure out what they can do to remain healthy oh yeah all it takes is is an accident or illness to make you truly appreciate right what what value good health has and that's immeasurable oh yeah now the what what is it that Andrew Wiles says that the goal is to shorten that period of morbidity right living healthy and then drop dead right we don't always get our wish right now so some of it is to help us adjust to the changes that might happen right as well sure none of us are 20 years old we're out just the last couple weeks I've been out trying to doing an event that I've done for 35 years and I know this it involves clamoring around on hanging stuff in trees and climbing up on counters and all I'm a little more cautious now about those things you should be well we our age range is interesting we've had from 18 to 94 but the majority of folks are 55 to 75 because it's focused on things are particularly important for the second phase of your life sure sure and it is important to recognize those changes are happening right and adjust I mean we actually what's normal not normal yeah we're actually in this event that I was talking about we've actually now recruited some young people to come and do some of the more parts that require people to be very agile climb up in a booth and put a floor down in the loft 10 feet above well one of our speakers had told everybody don't be hard-headed you know stay off ladders do you know let somebody else do that yeah exactly exactly as we've all typically don't have quite as good balance and agility and flexibility as high cheese the best for balance I've heard that I've heard that do you practice Tai Chi I'm not very good at it to be honest because I tend to move too fast but yeah I do it I like it it's very relaxing I've heard very good things about her and people have suggested it would be good for me to take it up you do how we're a very special thing I will get we'll get later on to a video but you you are a champion javelin thrower you are the top javelin thrower in your age group in Hawaii that's true there we go yeah we could we could we could we could actually I wonder if we could show the video of that just I know it's out of order but maybe maybe our talented crew can pull that how far do you throw it not far my son told me to keep my primal screams short because my javelin doesn't stay in the air too long but I have a great time excellent excellent since we've started on this so maybe we maybe we could start in on a couple of the picks here and okay so we got a better sense about about what the what what this many many medical schools like the first one I think shows a group of people sort of in the more more basic mode within within the Cancer Center facility there if we can bring that up maybe the first picture there we go so yeah you can see there's there's 170 people right you know a lecture up in front some nice big monitors and all yeah it's a perfect room and they say we have about 170 is the capacity for the room and it's full right and we do it for five Saturdays and and and all people have to do is let me know they're interested in attending so that I can be sure they get the information yeah yeah the second picture I think sort of shows maybe a little close up of some people laughing and enjoying it these these lectures are not dead serious must take notes kind of thing no your notebook typically has all the notes the slides in them yeah we prepare binders for everyone that shows all the presentations so they can take notes but the speakers are also told to incorporate humor right because I think laughter often is the best medicine oh absolutely and where our theme is seniors rock so we talk about the positivity effects of aging and there are many sure and most people don't talk a lot about that right and yet we should because we're fortunate to get old yeah we are I mean it's we bring it brings us some perspective on life yep some insights a wealth of experience to grab on to you know to pull from yes and hopefully wisdom yeah well it's amazing that when you look at 170 people in this age group there's about 10,000 years of experience in that room and so that's fascinating to see that they're very fascinating yeah interesting interesting and they're lifelong learners and that's why they're there yeah now that's that's what you got what you got to be and then you do that the social interaction that happens and he said that's shown in I think the third picture here you make that an explicit part of this whole thing there's a whole break people get out get to chat with friends meet new people right it was very very as I recall very open very convivial group well this is where I did an experiment once at first it was only 10 minutes and that was disaster so now it's 30 minutes to be sure they have time to greet old friends make new ones interact because the social part is extremely important and they actually want to have a reunion which I'm working on as we could have a reunion of well there's over 1400 people now that have been in it but they really enjoy that aspect you know it's funny it's it's one of the things I have found most commonly at conferences of all sorts they don't do enough of is set aside time for people just to mingle socialize almost any conference no matter what you're doing what it's about what you're trying to get done at it it seems to me that's something that is often a short change so it's great to hear that you've really given that some serious emphasis well I really it science lectures or you know little rooms look the same everywhere but what's important about people that are in that room and then allowing them to interact outside they they learn all kinds of the aspects about different people's lives and experiences and wisdom absolutely we're going to continue this discussion but I'm told we need take a one-minute break right now again dr. Virginia Henshaw is with us today here on Pacific partnerships in education I'm your host Ethan Allen and we'll be back in one minute my name is Stephanie Mock and I'm one of three hosts of think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii food and farmer series our other hosts are Matt Johnson and Pomei Weigert and we talked to those who are in the fields and behind the scenes of our local food system we talked to farmers chefs restaurant tours and more to learn more about what goes into sustainable agriculture here in Hawaii we are on at Thursdays at 4 p.m. and we hope we'll see you next time Aloha I am Howard wig I am the proud host of cold green for think Tech Hawaii I appear every other Monday at 3 and I have really really exciting guests on the exciting topic of energy efficiency hope to see you there back here Pacific partnerships education I'm your host Ethan Allen here on think Tech Hawaii with me today is dr. Virginia Henshaw Chancellor Emeritus and professor of all kinds of things at the medical school and we're talking about her many medical school for healthy aging it's a wonderful sort of informal learning experience runs five successive Saturdays twice a year it's a group of a hundred and seventy people comment here wonderful speakers talking about all kinds of topics that are relevant to the aging process as she says with a very focus on very positive aging age well age gracefully age healthfully if I may and it's it's really a as far as I know it's a unique thing I haven't seen anything quite like this anywhere else perhaps you have you may have researched it more than I of course but it's different and it has to be appropriate for Hawaii but yeah it's no it's well match I had forgotten the fact that yes Hawaii has a large population elderly people and more of us pouring into that group every day and it's we're not often prepared for that in a sense we're not trained to get old right no and people talk a lot about the negative aspects and that gets really disheartening for older people so as seniors we need to think about aspects that we've gained you know and there and there are actually some biologic changes that happen that are quite helpful like for one example your amygdala in your brain it slows down and that's a really good thing because it generates fear hate and anger and so we mellow so there are physical changes that actually occur and people worry about oh I can't remember what so-and-so what well we are a little bit slower on recall because we have to make too many connections right yeah we've got so much information there it's kind of like a full hard drive yeah exactly six-year-old what have they experienced really but we do get to the end point and that's what people need to appreciate it's just may take a little longer and you can see it on a test where that we're going back and forth and we also use both sides of our brains more as we age and that tends to make us more compassionate right so they're not a positive aspect yeah absolutely absolutely and so let's see we were actually before the break we were looking at a few images and I think we have another image of one of the exercises you know when they're speaking oh yeah can you tell us a little bit this is Qi Gong and in the options we do all kinds of different things we've had a lot of exercises for people to try standing seated Tai Chi we do all kinds of things or topics that we think most of the class might want but not everybody and so we have an option that runs from 11 30 to 12 30 and so that that's proved quite healthy for people too they've enjoyed that sort of little extension if you if you want to stay if you want to stay fine something excellent excellent that that's great and then yes you go through and bring the whole thing together with it with a formal graduation yeah this is our graduating class and we have fun we in Jairus Hedges and I dress up and in our graduation attire and then we have music for this occasion and lunch together to share the fellowship that we've gained during the course yeah no it was great because I know I met several people at the first or second session where that saw repeatedly and got you talking to a little bit more and now it was it was wonderful to have that kind of thing that's it was very very helpful so so you you mentioned one point you have you have a website for this right right and its web address would be jabsum.hawaii.edu backslash mini med school all one word okay mini med school okay so if they get to the Jabsum site they shouldn't get to the Jabsum site just put mini med and it'll come up okay no that's good because then you've got a bunch of the the at least the formal content right so we're archived there and presumably searchable right we have raised we have resources that you might want to look at and we have information about all the speakers because speakers have just been wonderful they volunteer they're interesting informed caring and very dynamic oh yeah you had you know they're selected very good job curating them because they're I recall I mean it was sort of like wow that person was great wow this next person even better well we meet together beforehand we go over the speaker's guidelines about what may is most effective with this audience and so that's been very helpful right because given that audience a lot of people in that audience have heard a lot of talks over there right and so if you're gonna be memorable you have to talk it up a notch yeah yeah really really knock it knock it out of the park excellent maybe we can go and pull up that that video of one of you one of your right participants talking about this you know I suspect her reaction was not not at all a typical people people really like this and people I know that all the people I talked to group I was in certainly enjoyed it greatly so we're what are you we're gonna take this you're gonna continue and are you gonna expand it are you gonna well it's endowed now and so it will continue and one of the experiments I'd like to do the coming year is to have a counterpart say on Maui it would have a big group too with the same materials that we have and we could then stream it over and I've wanted to we have some 10-minute videos Ted talk type videos and those were designed basically for community centers to gather people but have an expert there so it's more local and for people who can't get to the mini med school or don't particularly like watching longer videos they could use these to have a discussion about their health and well-being and that's that's really needed and it's obvious it's hit a sweet spot and the fact that people are very enthusiastic and they're devoted about coming and participating and we have homework so you gotta do homework and it's really been great to see them make changes in their lives it's gonna help them yeah I mean this this really gets to the whole the social determinants of health business in a sense you are helping people build a better scaffolding or better support system for themselves right right and really empowering them to to take better care of themselves take better care of their friends their relatives their parents siblings whatever well we've noticed too that a lot of people share the information in the binders with their friends and relatives and that's great because that's a magnifier yeah and helps get the information out there because they said we we could have a certain size room but I'm very much into the fact that you know education you've got to get it out to everybody as much as humanly possible and so that's why we do the website and spectrum yeah that no and I like the idea of doing different formats fit in other communities sort of community center locations and all because again you can build through new models of it in a sense if you get a local gerontologist they're showing a couple of videos and stimulating community discussion on what what can people in that community do to support one another and make life better for themselves as age well and we can do a lot actually it's we can't prevent everything but we we can do a lot better job and I really would love to have younger people involved so that they would start early because it's a lot easier to prevent than it is to treat I mean it's sort of like the whole business with saving right if you start saving money at an early age and do it regularly relatively painlessly you will find that as you later on you actually have a lot more money than if you haven't saved anything trying to start at age 60 trying to establish retirement well athletics is a good example because when I was young girl there were none for women right and so you really weren't supposed to do that kind of stuff and so now we encourage people of all ages not just the young people but the older people to exercise use it or lose it is true and so we want to get them engaged in what works for them not necessarily what works for a 20 year old what works for them sure no it's often just a simple small walk each day that that's that's great gets gets you out gets you moving get gives you new stimulation so it's sort of good on good on a lot of different levels right well yeah and what's interesting is you know in one of the classes we gave air by a pedometer but you know there's this issue about 10,000 steps well that's close to five miles for folks and that evolved because of the first pedometer being named 10,000 steps so my view of it is I tell people to use it to do a little bit more each week the 10,000 steps is a lot for some folks so I think getting realistic about what you can do but not quitting it really is important my my wife broke her leg last fall and that put a real crimp in her walking of course and only now she's starting to walk but now she's fine yes if she walks a little more pushes a little bit you know she's she's gradually getting back not fully up back up to doing her five miles a day but she's pushing her in that direction that's that's the key thing you say a little more each day right yeah and you know when I started the javelin it was kind of funny because I need a lot of help because it's much more complicated than I thought it was my son was a javelin so he helped had two coaches I had my massage therapist my physical therapist my sports medicine doctor and my trainer and the reason I tell people that is because it's good to get help when you're going to deal with something it's a little bit different in particular that you haven't done before but go ahead and try it right and there are people that can help you do it in a way that will keep you healthy and then help you if you do something wrong that's a very nice example of learning a new skill with a good support network yeah if you did it wrong and you twisted your shoulder or through your arm out or whatever you're it's good to have your physical therapist there know how to treat that immediately and advise you about what to do or not how to do it differently next time how much time to take off to let it heal before you try it again yeah well it turned it kind of into a social aspect because I formed the jazzy javeliers and we're all senior women in different age groups now we'll have to tell you one reason I have gold medals is because there's no competition so we'd love to have more people come out for the master's track okay so then your next session for this mini medical school is October 6th through November 3rd those are Saturday mornings 9 to 11 30 a.m. five sequential Saturday mornings you have to commit to the whole thing be really pretty much ready to show up and be there and be alert and active right but and the way they should get in touch with you about it with you directly well the best way it's just email me okay it's V Henshaw at Hawaii dot edu okay there we there we have it V Henshaw at Hawaii dot edu and that will you can ask to join in and basically I shall show give you a third degree well we welcome folks because the more folks we can have learn more about staying healthy it's better for everybody in the community it's better for the younger people and the older people exactly it's to no one's advantage to have people in ill health right declining and being a burden on themselves being a burden on those around them right and besides we have a lot of fun that was a good thing about it it's an amazing amazing I don't want to call it an event but it's a school it's a medical school you have set up and you've done it in a nice accessible way you've done in a way that helps a lot of people you're obviously if you've done this five times twice a year now you've got now that's you've helped a lot of people directly and with your website and you're now streaming it out you're helping thousands and thousands and thousands of people well you do look for magnifiers as to how you can get the word out such as this program to help people learn that there are educational opportunities out there that you know you need to be aware of and maybe you'd like to participate because I think it is education is just such a wonderful activity learning is a joy yep there's nothing to be done yeah and I learn every time too I'm sure you do and you're here all your participants I'm sure learn much more though so that's great thank you so much Virginia this has been our real pleasure I've learned a lot and I'm sure our viewers have learned even more I hope many of them will contact you and try to sign up and if not for this fall maybe for next spring be great excellent again Virginia Hinshaw Chancellor Emeritus and Professor of Tropical Medicine Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine thank you so much for being here Virginia my pleasure all right and we'll see you in two weeks for the next episode of Pacific Partnerships in Education until then