Archive for August, 2024

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Brain Health…What Is It and How to Maintain It

Wednesday, August 21st, 2024

 

To open our “Optimizing Brain Health” program, Dr Kathleen Fuchs of the UVA Memory and Aging Care Clinic (MACC) shared definitions, including cognitive changes in normal aging: slowed information processing, reduced mental flexibility, slowed learning, mild inefficiency in retrieval and words/names. Plasticity offers hope for older brains…it is new brain connections in response to life experiences.  New thoughts and skills carve out new memory pathways.  Repetition and practice strengthen these pathways. Animal studies show improved cognitive performance with:  1) enriched environment; 2) exercise; and 3) increased social interaction.

Cognitive reserve provides persons with higher lifetime intellectual enrichment the ability to withstand neurological disease progression without suffering cognitive impairment or dementia. Education (early and lifelong learning), cognitively challenging work, cognitive leisure activities, social activities and aerobic exercise are contributors to Cognitive Reserve.

#1 brain health activity:  exercise. Exercise 3-4 times per week.  Build up to 30 minutes. Increase your heart rate.  Be sure to check with your doctor before starting, if you don’t currently exercise.  Walking and talking double benefit.

Follow a Mediterranean diet.  Watch sleep quantity/quality.  Check hearing.  Monitor your mood.  Seek socialization.

IF interested in participating in research, contact Colleen Webber, UVA Memory Disorders Division, 243-5898 phone.

The Center’s Executive Director Melanie Benjamin shared literally hundreds of ways to improve plasticity and cognitive reserve at The Center, including exercise/fitness, painting/art, Spanish/Italian/French,  crocheting,  gardening, cooking, quilting, dancing, support groups (Parkinson’s, Womens, Cancer, Mental Health, ADHD, Grief, Retirement, Aging in Place, etc.), education (Pride Series, DEI Series, Brain Health, Cell Phone tutorial, Architecture, Good Life series, Funerals, Medicare, Vietnam, WWII, Money, Navigating Senior Living Options and more), luncheons, music performances, movies, documentaries, beer and bingo, book clubs, health services (flu clinic) AND MORE !!

Maintain your brain….you have the power.

*****

Following the program, the SSV held a reception welcoming everyone back to The Center at Belvedere:

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SSV Future Programs

Friday, August 2nd, 2024

The public is welcome to our meetings. The meetings are held at The Center at Belvedere, 540 Belvedere Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22901, the second Wednesday of the month from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. There is no charge, although we suggest you join our group which has been in existence for 25 years. The membership dues are only $25 per year and can be paid online on the ‘Join SSV’ page. Your dues will help us continue to deliver top-quality presentations. If you have questions, please email info@seniorstatesmen.org. Click the tab above to see samples of our newsletter.

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Can Democracy and Capitalism Co-Exist?

Democratic capitalism is under siege. Yet the relationship between free markets and democracy, long viewed as a foundational feature of American political life, has often been highly contentious. 

Today, old challenges like political polarization, rising market concentration, racial and ethnic battles over identity, and vast gaps between rich and poor are exacerbated by new circumstances. This event will feature three scholars of politics, history, and law who will consider the opportunities and perils of reimagining democratic capitalism.

 

Sid Milkis
Professor, UVA Department of Politics
Sid Milkis is a distinguished Professor in the UVA Department of Politics and Interim Director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy. He was awarded the Cavalier’s Distinguished Teaching Award and has received acclaim for his numerous books and scholarly research.  His latest initiatives revolve around the complex relationship between Democracy and Capitalism.  Milkis received his B.A. from Muhlenberg College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania

 

 

 

 

Margaret Foster Riley Professor, Professor of Law, Public Health Science, and Public Policy at the Batten School of Leadership

Margaret Foster Riley is a Professor of Law, Public Health Science, and Public Policy at the Batten School of Leadership.  She has written and presented extensively about health care law, biomedical research, health disparities and chronic disease.  She has worked as a Litigator for multiple law firms. Riley received her law degree from Columbia and her undergraduate degree from Duke.

 

Scott Miller
Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Darden
Scott Miller is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Darden, Director of the Democracy and Capitalism Lab, and a Senior Fellow at the Miller Center of Public Affairs.  He has received many awards and fellowships and is the author or co-author of numerous scholarly papers on economic history, financial crises, and the interplay between societal and economic change.   A native of Colorado, Miller received his Ph.D. in Economic History from the University of Virginia.

 

 

 

 

The program will be moderated by a SSV Board President, Margie Swanson.

SSV IS ASKING ALL ATTENDEES TO REGISTER IN ADVANCE AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
Senior Statesmen of Virginia | The Center Charlottesville (thecentercville.org)

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

 

Past Programs

Past programs are arranged in inverse chronological order.  Speaker bios and links to videos and podcasts are given, with a program summary written by SSV board members