We often say that motion is the lotion for your joints.

The impact of movement, even gentle movement, can be extremely beneficial to overall health.

But many of our jobs have become more sedentary, with long days sitting at a desk. This inaction negatively affects your joint mobility and health by tightening your hip flexor and hamstring muscles, putting excessive stress on your joints and stiffening them.

Prolonged sitting with poor posture overworks the muscles in your neck, back and spinal ligaments – straining the discs and surrounding structures in the spine. Inactivity for long hours may also cause your bones to lose strength, contributing to osteoporosis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 15 million Americans have severe joint pain. This pain can limit a person’s ability to perform basic functions and compromise their quality of life.

While most people associate joint pain or loss of bone strength with older adults, that doesn’t mean it can’t impact young people too. Young people may brush off their symptoms because they think they’re too young, but if you’re experiencing joint pain, don’t ignore it.

Too much damage to your joints leads to chronic pain and may require you to have joint replacement surgery, so it is important to take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening.

Research points to the simple fix – less sitting and more moving.

Physical activity helps you maintain a healthy weight, prevent muscle loss, improve bone density, and protect your joints from excessive wear and tear by absorbing the forces impacting them. When you walk, jog, climb stairs or lift weights, your bones and muscles become stronger to provide stability for your body while moving.

When movement is not possible, using an ergonomic chair provides benefits by supporting your posture and reducing the strain on your spine, neck and joints while sitting. Try to keep the spine in a neutral position and adjust your computer so it is high enough to avoid looking downward.

Other ways to prevent negative effects of sitting on your joints include:

• Stand up for five minutes every hour.
• Take brisk walks throughout the day, especially during phone calls.
• Incorporate stretches or yoga into your workday.

If you are experiencing chronic joint pain and find yourself needing medical intervention, MemorialCare Joint Replacement Center at Long Beach Medical Center is ranked among the best U.S. hospitals in orthopedics by U.S. News & World Report. Orthopedic surgeons at Long Beach Medical Center diagnosis your injury or disorder, provide treatment with medication, exercise, surgery or other treatment plans depending on your specialized needs.

If medication and physical therapy fail to provide relief, the Joint Replacement Center offers the latest robotic technology for a complete spectrum of care, including hip, knee, shoulder and ankle replacement.

To find the joint care you need to get your life back or to schedule an appointment, visit memorial.org/lbjointreplacement.

Dr. Andrew J. Wassef is a fellowship-trained, board-certified orthopedic surgeon with Long Beach – Lakewood Orthopedic Institute in Long Beach. He serves as the medical director of the MemorialCare Joint Replacement Center at Long Beach Medical Center.

By David Downey | Contributing Writer

The team that believes it found Amelia Earhart’s lost plane beneath the Pacific Ocean initially had difficulty extracting the fuzzy sonar image of what members say is the famed pilot’s Lockheed 10-E Electra.

“We almost lost it,” said Temecula resident Lloyd Romeo, a team member and brother of expedition leader Tony Romeo, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Lloyd Romeo, 67, said a team engineer couldn’t retrieve a set of data captured by an underwater drone and nearly gave up. But he said the engineer, Craig Wallace, persevered.

And on Nov. 29, Tony Romeo said, the team spotted in that data the image of a plane consistent with the Electra’s size and dimensions, and signature twin-tail design.

Earhart is one of the most iconic figures in American history.

She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. And her disappearance in 1937 while trying to become the first woman to fly around the globe is one of the nation’s most enduring and alluring mysteries.

“I think she’s America’s favorite missing person,” said Tony Romeo, who is 43 and CEO of the exploration company Deep Sea Vision.

“I like describing her that way. It’s been so long. There are so many different theories as to what happened to her. And the oceans have this mystique that when things go missing they just swallow things up.”

Maritime archaeologist James Delgado, senior vice president of SEARCH Inc., told The Associated Press that the potential find could change the storyline of Earhart’s disappearance but “we need to see more.”

Delgado said Romeo’s expedition used world-class, cutting-edge technology that was once classified and is “revolutionizing our understanding of the deep ocean.”

But he said Romeo’s team must provide “a forensic level of documentation” to prove it’s Earhart’s plane. That could mean the patterns in the fuselage’s aluminum, the configuration of its tail and details from the cockpit.

Earhart had ties to Los Angeles County and the San Fernando Valley. She and husband George Putnam moved to Toluca Lake in the 1930s. She attended USC. She shopped in North Hollywood.

The North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Branch Library bears her name today. To the east in Riverside, so does Amelia Earhart Middle School.

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared July 2, 1937, while flying from New Guinea to tiny Howland Island midway between Australia and Hawaii. In one of her last radio transmissions, she reported that they thought they were close but couldn’t see the island and were low on fuel.

Extensive searches in the days following failed to turn up the plane. Now the team from Deep Sea Vision says it knows where the wreckage is.

Energized by the finding, the team is drawing plans for the next step, after a three-month expedition that concluded in December.

“We are going to keep the ball rolling,” Tony Romeo said.

Lloyd Romeo, a retired industrial controls engineer and radio-control-airplane club president, said in an interview that the team wants to return late this year or early next with a high-resolution camera.

His brother, who joined the interview by phone, said: “We want to confirm it and send pictures out for everyone to see.”

If confirmed, next up would be a difficult step: carefully raising the wreckage from its resting place more than 3 miles below the ocean’s surface. That would present legal and logistical challenges, Tony Romeo said, and those could take several years to solve.

“It would be one of the deepest salvages ever in history,” he said.

Still, Lloyd Romeo said, it is worth pursuing.

He believes the plane belongs in the Smithsonian museum complex in Washington, D.C.

“We’re very optimistic that the airplane is in good shape and the paint will still be on it,” he said, although it’s “probably bent up a little bit.” In deep water, such as in the area where Earhart may have disappeared, objects corrode more slowly than in shallow seas.

The team found the object by systematically scanning more than 5,000 square miles of ocean floor in an area west of Howland Island, where they believe Earhart went down.

Lloyd Romeo said the company’s underwater drone, named Hugin 6000 because it can search 6,000 meters below the surface, scanned in a straight line, 800 meters on each side at a time. Then the team turned it around and steered it down another straight and wide line parallel to the previous one.

“Mowing the lawn is what we call it,” he said.

Lloyd Romeo said the vehicle recorded images for 33 hours straight, then the team pulled it into the boat to retrieve data and prepare for the next run. Three hours later, the Hugin 6000 was in the water again scanning, he said. They repeated the process for weeks on end.

Lloyd Romeo said the underwater vehicle is more than 21 feet long and looks like “a fat torpedo.”

Tony Romeo said the vehicle — also used in other ocean searches — was purchased for $9 million. Deep Sea Vision spent $2 million on the Earhart expedition, he said.

As for the object in the image, Lloyd Romeo said it was found at a depth of 5,200 meters. That’s about 17,000 feet deep.

A drone captured the image from 60 meters above the object, or 5,140 feet below the surface, Lloyd Romeo said.

When the team returns with a high-resolution camera mounted to the underwater vehicle, members will steer the drone closer — to within five or 10 meters, he said.

“You don’t want to actually touch it,” he said. “We don’t want to disturb it at all.”

Deep Sea Vision’s is not the first expedition that sought to solve the Earhart mystery.

David Jourdan said his exploration company Nauticos searched in vain on three separate expeditions between 2002 and 2017, surveying an area of seafloor about the size of Connecticut. Those efforts were preceded by a $1 million hunt in 1999 from Nevada-based Dana Timmer. As recently as 2014, Timmer had not given up and sought to raise nearly $2 million for another go.

Between 1988 and 2002, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery made six trips to a different island in the western Pacific Ocean under the impression that Earhart crash-landed on a flat reef 1,800 miles south of Hawaii.

Lloyd Romeo said he joined this latest expedition to support his brother and to embark on a great adventure. He performed a variety of tasks, among them taking photos and video.

“I have always had an interest in treasure hunting,” he said.

And, he added, “How often do you get to go out on a thing like this?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Jon Bruschke knew he was onto something big when he overheard his 16-year-old daughter, Andromeda, singing at home.

But she wasn’t belting out a tune by one of her favorites, Taylor Swift.

Rather, the Fullerton Union High School student was singing a song from her father’s first musical, “Change the Game,” staged Jan. 5-6 at the Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center and being shopped around for potential performances at other venues.

Bruschke is a professor and speech and debate coach at CSUF, so a musical isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when guessing a pet project of his.

But Bruschke, who’s been playing the keyboards and writing songs since he was 18 years old, is a member of the “three-chord rock band” True to the Universe, a longtime fixture on Orange County’s live music scene.

So, tunes are in his blood.

And Bruschke’s multicultural and high-achieving speech and debate team at CSUF was the inspiration of “Change the Game,” a story about grassroots empowerment, local politics, a patchwork community of young adults from different ethnic backgrounds, and with the message that maybe it’s not how to win, but rather how to change the game.

As for Andromeda singing her father’s original songs?

She’s one of the 14 members of the cast of “Change the Game,” many of whom are CSUF alumni or current students.

Andromeda, who has been dancing since age 3 and sings and acts, plays a student/reporter and is one of five members of a quasi-chorus who perform in the musical.

The plot

The plot centers on students at the fictional Cal State San Marita who convince their political philosophy professor to take on big-money developers and run for local office. It’s a story of underdogs who take on the system by coming together to make a difference in the world by changing their community.

“They succeed not by beating people at their own game but by changing what the game is about,” said Bruschke, the musical’s writer, producer and director who for the last six years has served as chair of CSUF’s Department of Communication Studies.

“They realize they must make the world better for everyone and not just for themselves,” said Bruschke, who began his career at CSUF in 1997 after attending the university as an undergraduate (1984-88) and earning his doctorate in communication from the University of Utah in 1994.

‘Cooking with ideas’

Bruschke grew up in Salt Lake City and fell in love with speech and debate in high school when he had to take it as an elective after the metal shop class filled up.

“My brain was cooking with ideas at the time, and I latched onto it,” he recalled.

He says coaching CSUF’s speech and debate team has been the most meaningful thing he’s done in his life.

“What set us apart is we would get a variety of students — Latinx kids, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc.,” Bruschke said of his early years as speech and debate coach. “They’d all come together in one room. We were always overmatched by USC, Harvard, Northwestern, and other powerhouse speech and debate teams. But by the time our students were seniors, they were competing nationally.”

In 2004, the CSUF speech and debate team hit a high-water mark with an appearance in the quarterfinals of the National Debate Tournament.

Bruschke said his experience with the speech and debate team informed the plot of his musical.

“Seemingly every demographic came together, and it made them feel they belonged,” he said of his speech and debate team.

“What I would love to be is the Gene Roddenberry of musical theater,” added Bruschke, referring to the creator of “Star Trek” on TV. “I want to be the guy who brings everyone together and helps build a future where everyone is included and has a place.”

‘It’s not going to end here’

Bruschke began working on “Change the Game” in the spring of 2020. He would bounce ideas off bandmate and CSUF philosophy professor Andrew Howat.

In August 2022, the musical had its first workshop performance at the Maverick Theater in Fullerton. A year later, four shows were held at the Chance Theater in Anaheim.

Musical arrangements in “Change the Game” are by Howat and Bruschke.

Bruschke’s son, Milo, 20, co-wrote the lyrics with his father. The 17 songs in the musical originally were recorded in Howat’s home studio. A key hip-hop section was contributed by Tyrone Stokes, who goes by the stage name Lyrically Twisted.

Bruschke said he hopes “Change the Game” will be staged again soon.

“It was a blast, and it’s not going to end here,” Bruschke said. “I made a promise to the cast that I will push this as far as we can make it go.”

For more information about “Change the Game” visit changethegamemusical.wordpress.com.

In our fast-paced world, where time is precious, it’s no wonder that health-conscious seniors are turning to intermittent fasting as a powerful tool to enhance well-being. This wellness trend has gained popularity for its potential to boost energy, support weight management and promote overall health.

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that revolves around when you eat rather than what you eat. The concept is simple: alternate between periods of eating and fasting in a way that can be implemented into your daily life for as little or as long as you’d like – from a few weeks to forever.

Many seniors benefit from this practice, with 16-8 intermittent fasting being the most popular option. This method necessitates an eight-hour window for eating and a sixteen-hour fast, making it easier to stick to it in the long run.

Even though other more restrictive methods are available, such as all-day fasting two days per week or reduced caloric intake for two days per week, the 16-8 intermittent fasting method for seniors is preferred because it frequently provides better sustainability and overall results.

When you fast, your body undergoes a process called metabolic switching. After several hours without food, your sugar stores are depleted, and your body starts burning fat for energy. This shift from glucose to fat metabolism can have several benefits:

• Weight management: Seniors who practice intermittent fasting may experience better insulin sensitivity and reduced body fat percentage, which is a helpful tool for weight management and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Cellular repair: During fasting, your cells initiate repair processes, promoting longevity and overall health.

Beyond energy and weight management, intermittent fasting has been associated with other various health benefits, including:

• Enhanced brain function: Studies reveal that intermittent fasting boosts cognitive function. It improves working memory, your brain’s ability to problem-solve and make decisions, and verbal memory — i.e., your ability to remember words and language — keeping your brain sharp and focused.
• Heart health: Research suggests that intermittent fasting can improve heart health in seniors over the age of 70. It may lead to lower levels of “bad” LDL, or low-density lipoproteins, cholesterol and reduced risk of heart disease.
• Reduced inflammation: Chronic inflammation is linked to various diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. During fasting periods, your body initiates repair processes, including autophagy, or cellular cleanup. By allowing your digestive system to rest, the immune response is regulated and reduces inflammation.

If you are a senior and considering intermittent fasting, though, it is important to proceed with caution.

While intermittent fasting has been shown to have potential benefits, such as weight loss and reduced risk of various diseases, we don’t have much evidence about its effect on the health of older adults. Potential risks for seniors include increased chance of falls because of dehydration and dizziness, vitamin deficiencies, lowered metabolic rate, and more difficulty meeting the body’s nutritional needs during intense physical activity or periods of illness.

It’s very important to stay hydrated during the fasting hours and to consult your physicians before you start an intermittent fasting regimen.

If you and your doctor decide intermittent fasting is right for you, here are some steps you can take to incorporate intermittent fasting into your daily routine:

• Start gradually: Seniors should begin with an eight-hour fasting window and gradually extend it to 12 hours. Each fasting episode should last a minimum of 12 hours to reap the benefits.
• Stay hydrated: Adequate hydration ensures proper cellular function and prevents dehydration, which can lead to fatigue. Drinking two to three liters (about eight to 12 cups) of water daily can also help with appetite control and digestion.
• Choose nutrient-dense foods: When you break your fast, opt for whole foods rich in nutrients, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein, dairy and healthy fats. Try to limit red and processed meats, sodium, added sugars and alcohol.
• Listen to your body: When you feel hungry, your body will start signaling that it needs nourishment through hunger cues, such as stomach growling, a feeling of emptiness or irritability. Pay attention to hunger cues and adjust your eating window accordingly to accommodate your body’s needs by either eating earlier in the day or later in the evening. Enjoying calorie-free drinks like water, black coffee or tea won’t break your fast.
• Medications: Continue your medication regimen as recommended by your doctor. Taking medications will not break your fast. If you need food with your medication, try a modified fast by changing the time window for eating.

If it’s right for you, and with your health care provider’s help, you can set your eating clock — and discover the transformative effects of intermittent fasting.

It’s never too late to live a healthier lifestyle to reduce chronic disease issues and to keep you active and well.

As a family medicine physician, Dr. Vinh Nguyen enjoys having the opportunity to care for patients of all ages, from children to seniors. Nguyen earned his medical degree from UC Irvine, where he was honored with the UCI/National Institutes of Health Research Fellowship Scholarship. While completing his medical residency training in Long Beach, Nguyen was also selected as the chief resident of Educational Affairs.

It started in a moment of crisis for a student, challenging the status quo and stretching the university to work differently, to respond with compassion, and to do the right thing.

In the late 1990s, a freshman turned 18 and aged out of foster care during the summer between high school and college. She suddenly found herself without housing. Cal State Fullerton dorms were not staffed year-round and her hopes of attending college seemed to end before they could begin.

The student reached out for help and with the approval of then-President Milton Gordon, staff were given the greenlight to challenge “how they always did things.” They were empowered to provide housing solutions that broke the mold of typical dorm life. A partnership with Orangewood Foundation took root, and through both private support and innovative thinking, the student could move into the dorms before the semester started.

The bravery of just one student courageous enough to ask for help, started a movement.

It soon became clear this was not an isolated experience. While former foster youth often met the rigorous qualifications to attend Cal State Fullerton, circumstances beyond their control could many times derail their academic journey.

Cal State Fullerton responded by creating the Guardian Scholars Program. This work continues today and actively promotes social mobility by empowering students to disrupt cycles of poverty and trauma, and it is now being done all over the United States, thanks to the Titan community and partners like Orangewood Foundation.

Our Guardian Scholars Program was the first of its kind 25 years ago and led to the creation of 90 additional student support programs for former foster youth at universities and colleges throughout the country, including all 23 CSUs.

According to the National Foster Youth Initiative, only 3% to 4% of former foster youth obtain a four-year college degree because it is uncommon for students to have the financial resources, mentorship, support, stability and guidance they need to complete postsecondary education.

The Guardian Scholars Program breaks these barriers by providing a nurturing support system with wraparound services and a community that enhances belonging and success for our students. Additionally, substantial tuition and housing support are offered through the program.

Founded in 1998 with three students, 251 Guardian Scholars have since graduated. Notably, this year marks our largest cohort with 27 current students expected to graduate in May. Numerous Guardian Scholar alumni advanced on to earn master’s degrees in fields such as social work, counseling, education and international business.

The program recently expanded its services to graduate students and nine are participating. This number is likely to grow as word spreads and more students decide to pursue graduate degrees.

On Jan. 30, I have the privilege of speaking about the legacy and impact of this program to the California State University Board of Trustees. Longtime Guardian Scholars supporter and partner Chris Simonsen, CEO of Orangewood Foundation, and alumna Becky Wells, a foster youth advocate, will join me. Our Guardian Scholars Program will be profiled as a compelling example of inclusive partnerships and demonstrates the impact private support makes to our students.

As president of Cal State Fullerton, it is an honor to amplify these stories and express my gratitude to students, leaders and partners whose bravery and compassion challenged the status quo. They conducted their work through an equity lens and built a supportive community that gives students the foundation to excel.

This is what makes us a Titan family.

Learn more and consider supporting our groundbreaking Guardian Scholars Program.

Sylvia A. Alva began leading Cal State Fullerton as president in August 2023.

Laguna Woods Globe

Have you ever?

Have you ever found yourself haplessly scouring your Laguna Woods Village “manor” for something (the refrigerator owner’s manual in this case) and you know that you put it somewhere in your abode?

And as you end your search empty-handed, your sweetie comes home after a long hard day’s shopping, lugging many bags of treasures she was so incredibly lucky to find on sale?

After a peck on the cheek, you hear the rejoinder that is on Page 3 of the “How To Explain Life to Your Husband Handbook”: “You aren’t going to believe how much I saved today!”

As you feign interest in the new tea cozy, the coloring books, playdough, Legos and wiffle ball equipment for the grandchildren who visit for five days once a year, the new sheets for the beds, another cream-colored blouse and sweater, a juicer, metal cookie cutters, a waffle iron (never go shopping when you’re hungry), and 14 new throw pillows to replace the perfectly serviceable and completely superfluous ones that cover 90% of the land mass of your California king-size bed that must be relegated to the corners of the bedroom each and every night before slumber ensues, you ask, “Just where in God’s Green Acres do you expect to house all this new booty?”

You’re feeling particularly superior in that moment knowing that there is no room anywhere, period.

To press your point, you ask with just a hint of a snide smile, “Oh, and do you know where the owner’s manual for the new fridge is?”

As you bask in the glory of an inane “gotcha” moment, she disappears into the vast reaches of your 1,100-square-foot estate, returns in 17 seconds, and swats your ample gut with said owner’s manual.

While you wipe the stupid look off your face, the commander-in-chief explains that some “spring cleaning” is in your immediate future. You then ask a perfectly logical question: “So, shall we give the old pillows to Goodwill or just toss them out?”

One would have thought you suggested committing a felony.

Evidently, the plan is to relegate the old pillows to the guest bedroom. When you point out that the queen-size bed doesn’t have the same pillow capacity, you are on the receiving end of the look that makes the blood drain from your face.

You know this look. It’s the “How dare you question the way I decorate our house to make it a home, which is done all for you, so that when you come home, you can feel the serenity and love, and this is the thanks I get” look.

And oh yeah, “You’re on the couch until further notice … without pillows.”

Yeah, me neither.

Shaun Tumpane is a Laguna Woods Village resident.

Jimmy Ko, 30, is a commercial banker with JP Morgan Chase & Co. in Irvine, but he admits that he was not the best student as a teenager growing up in Anaheim Hills. Even when he followed his older sister to Santiago Canyon College, he stayed out late many nights, not caring that his grades were sinking.

“My first semester at SCC was not the best,” Ko said. “And then the spring semester after that, I got tuberculosis.”

Forced to withdraw from all his classes and isolate at home, Ko experienced a dramatic change of heart. He reflected on his carefree life and low grades while his parents worked hard in their restaurant to support the family. “I was not particularly proud of myself at that point,” Ko said.

He vowed to change.

As soon as he got the OK to return to school, Ko threw himself into his classes and stepped up for leadership roles, eventually becoming president of Associated Student Government. “I was hyperfocused on doing well in school and just trying to be more involved,” he said.

He studied economics and decided on a business career. “For a first-gen student, your options are business, doctor or lawyer. I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer,” he said. “My parents always owned restaurants, and so business was a natural transition. My parents were both very good chefs, but they didn’t necessarily like the banking side of how to run a business, so I gravitated toward that.”

His parents lost their restaurant and decided to return to South Korea when Ko was still at SCC. “So, days before my 21st birthday I had to figure out things on my own,” he said. He stayed at SCC to finish his studies while his older sister worked to support them both.

“SCC really helped me because it was like my first family,” he said, still appreciative of the support he received from teachers during his 2011–2014 years there — particularly from professors Alex Taber, Rick Adams, Will Lennertz and Corinna Evett.

“I didn’t realize the deadline for scholarship applications (for four-year universities) was in 48 hours, so I asked Professor Lennertz and Corinna Evett to write me a recommendation letter, and in less than 24 hours they were able to produce something for me. That was honestly very special.”

He never forgot their generosity.

“A big part of why I give back to the community is just thinking about the hard time I had, where I had maybe 15 or 16 meetings a month between all the organizations I was a part of as student government president, and also having to go to class and then work two part-time jobs,” Ko said. “I’m very thankful SCC professors were understanding of my personal schedule. For some courses when I didn’t do as well as I could have, I reached out to see if I could do extra work during the summer, and they were understanding of that.”

Ko was accepted as a transfer student to University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He took a gap year because “I could not afford USC tuition and worked four jobs at that time to try to figure things out,” he said.

He started at USC in 2015 and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2017, which led to his job at JP Morgan Chase.

“I work with customers, corporations, dealing with loans, treasury services, cash management,” he said, “trying to help businesses run their day-to-day operations and work toward long-term goals.”

Ko has funded a scholarship at SCC, is the treasurer of the SCC Foundation and spearheads the Alumni Association. He also sits on three boards at USC.

He remembers vividly the hard years as a student with little money. “Even from that age, I was thinking I don’t want another person to have to have the same feeling of hopelessness, of being so restricted and having zero options. Part of why I spent so much time helping other people is I understand what some people might be going through. I want to be able to show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Several students he mentored in 2023 were offered full-time jobs in their senior year.

“That’s honestly the most rewarding feeling because I have a rough estimate of how much they’re going to make,” said Ko. “For a lot of these people who are first gen, making six figures will change the course of their family forever. A lot of these families have never seen money like that. Within one generation they’re able to secure themselves in this country and build a foundation. They might not be aware of it yet, but just seeing that their family is going to do so well after that, it’s a great feeling.”

As we age, incorporating simple-yet-effective practices can make a significant impact on our health. With 2024 just around the corner, there’s no better time to explore how seniors can make better and healthier changes in the new year. From making your homes more senior-friendly to embracing low-impact exercise, maintaining a balanced diet, and incorporating helpful tools and gadgets, these tips can help ensure a “golden” new year.

Over time, our living spaces need to adapt to our evolving needs. Creating a safe and accessible living space is a crucial step in promoting overall well-being for seniors.

A few tips you can do around your home include:

• Decluttering and organizing living spaces to reduce the risk of falls.
• Removing loose rugs.
• Securing handrails in hallways.
• Ensuring proper lighting in all areas.
• Installing grab bars in bathrooms.
• Investing in non-slip mats or stickers that can be placed on the floor, improving traction when walking around the house.

All of these steps can help prevent accidents and foster an environment that promotes independence and comfort.

Another aspect of healthy well-being is exercise.

It’s never too late to start or modify a fitness routine. Low-impact exercises are gentle on joints and muscles, making them ideal for seniors. Activities such as walking, swimming and cycling provide cardiovascular benefits without excessive strain. Chair yoga, tai chi, dancing and gardening are excellent choices for improving flexibility, balance and mental well-being. Seniors should aim for at least 30 minutes of activity a day, along with muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days.

Muscle-strengthening activities include:

• Seated leg lifts.
• Calf raises.
• Seated top taps.
• Bicep curls (this can be done seated or standing) using light weights.
• Resistance-band exercises.

Maintaining a healthy diet is an especially important part of our health as we age.

Seniors should focus on eating nutrient-rich whole foods, and incorporating a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains and healthy fats into daily meals while limiting processed foods, excess sugar and sodium intake.

It’s important that seniors also eat more fiber-rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables and grains, to aid digestion and prevent constipation.

A diet high in calcium also helps to maintain bone density and prevent osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a serious illness that impacts everyone as we age, so it’s important to combat it before it gets to a bad state. Foods high in calcium include dairy products and leafy greens.

Staying hydrated is also crucial for seniors, as it helps maintain electrolyte balance and blood volume levels, aids in digestion and the transportation of nutrients, and helps kidney function.

Seniors should typically consume about eight to 10 cups of water daily. I know that may seem like a lot but try setting small achievable goals throughout the day. Drinking the proper amount of water can help prevent dehydration, which can lead to headaches and dizziness, and help your other organs and systems in your body function properly.

If you’re having trouble drinking enough water, consider breaking down your daily intake into manageable goals:

• Two glasses by 10 a.m.
• Two more glasses by noon.
• An additional two by late afternoon.

This way, you can fulfill most of your hydration goals without needing to consume water too close to bedtime, minimizing disruptions during the night.

If drinking that many glasses of water feels unattainable, don’t forget that you can also “eat your water.” Consuming foods with high water content, such as watermelon, cucumbers and tomatoes, is another great way to stay hydrated. These foods can help keep the body hydrated and provide essential nutrients at the same time.

Today, embracing technology can be a game-changer in simplifying health-related tasks and improving overall quality of life. Try incorporating helpful gadgets such as:

• GrandPad: The easy-to-use tablet allows seniors to listen to music, play games and browse safely on the internet. Its large buttons and intuitive interface make it a simple tool for video chatting with family and friends.
• Amazon Echo Dot: Alexa is a smart device that uses speech recognition to perform a variety of tasks. It can do a range of things like play music, receive news updates, check the weather or set alarms, and can be set up anywhere in the home. If a fall should ever occur, you can say, “Alexa, call for help,” and it will text and call your emergency contacts.
• MedMinder: This pill dispenser holds daily doses of medication for a full month. It doles out digital reminders – lights, beeps and phone calls – with its own cellular connections. Caregivers and family members can also receive phone calls if a dose is missed.

As we step into the next year, there is no better time than now to start adopting a new or modified approach to wellness. By taking small steps to improve your home, diet and exercise routine and by incorporating helpful gadgets and tools, you can improve your quality of life — and enjoy your golden years to the fullest.

Dr. Au-Co Nguyen studied osteopathic medicine at Midwestern University in Arizona and went on to complete a family medicine residency at Community Health of South Florida, Inc. Nguyen also completed a geriatric fellowship at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center in Florida. She chose a career in geriatric medicine because she wants to make a difference in patients’ lives, both mentally and physically.

On Jan. 13, The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Cal State Fullerton will present a preview of the many noncredit spring classes for older adults. These include classes on personal finance, great classical composers, line dancing, the history of Broadway, drawing, the Supreme Court and U.S. Constitution, history of rock and roll, poetry — even one about the gorillas at the San Diego Zoo — among others.

“We have about 110 classes that we put on each year on average,” said Ellie Monroe, who is vice president of programs and an instructor.

The OLLI program was started at Cal State Fullerton 45 years ago to serve Orange County’s older population. According to the Orange County Office on Aging, about 14% of OC residents are 65 and older, and this number is predicted to grow steadily.

Bernard Osher, a successful businessman and native of Maine with a passion for lifelong learning and the arts, founded OLLI as a nonprofit, self-supporting organization. Through his generous support, the OLLI program at Cal State Fullerton has a $2 million endowment; programs also exist at about 125 other universities throughout the U.S.

Open to adults who are retired or semiretired, Cal State Fullerton’s OLLI program requires purchasing a $275 yearlong membership. No previous college education is necessary. Membership allows people to take as many classes as they wish, though some may require extra fees if, for instance, travel expenses are involved.

“We currently have approximately 1,100 members,” Monroe said.

Within this robust program, a subcategory of classes called Transition in Retirement is also available. These are designed specifically for members who are thinking about retiring or have already retired and need to make some adjustments for this transitional time of their lives.

“Transition in Retirement covers subjects that a new retiree would want to know about,” Monroe said, including income tax planning, how to optimize your retirement budget, cleaning out the clutter and more. “We usually have someone from the psychology department who gives a lecture on retirement and what that means psychologically and what people might be mindful about. It’s been very successful,” she said.

OLLI members can also audit any of about 10,000 Cal State Fullerton classes, without paying additional tuition. “We just need to get permission from the instructor in order for a person to be able to sit in their classes,” Monroe said, adding that no homework is necessary. Access to videos of recorded past classes is also available, and campuswide parking is included in the membership fee.

OLLI classes are available year-round, with summer, fall, and spring programs.

The Jan. 13 spring preview event will give prospective members a glimpse of the OLLI program, Monroe said. “Different classes will be presented in different rooms for people who say, ‘I want to know all about what kind of art classes you have,’ or ‘I want to know what kind of language classes you have.’ They’re all going to be bundled in different rooms so that people can wander in and learn about the classes.”

OLLI members defy stereotypes of slowing down with age.

“We have a 90-plus club,” Monroe said of about 40 people who are 90 years or older. “If they’ve been a member for at least five years, they get free membership. We recognize that these people are still very, very active. We have a 102-year-old who is extremely active. She plays a big bass drum in a band, and she loves it. She’s also into ceramics and painting.”

Members can also sign up for trips that are part of the OLLI program. These include day trips to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Griffith Observatory and Old Town San Diego. Other options are one-day special event trips including a harbor cruise, a Pacific Symphony performance and a group trip to see a Hollywood Bowl show.

An upcoming overnight trip is planned to Joshua Tree National Park, led by a geologist who will take the group to various geological sites in the area.

Longer, more adventurous trips are also offered. “This coming year we have an Alaskan trip planned,” Monroe said, “and they’re looking at going to the Galapagos Islands.” Past trips have taken members to China, Egypt, and Italy.

Along with the many offerings in the spring program is a unique trip to New York City, scheduled for March. Cal State Fullerton musical theater BFA students will be performing in a club called 54 Below, and that department has invited OLLI members to accompany the students and enjoy the performance as well as a week in New York.

For more information on OLLI, visit olli.fullerton.edu or call 657-278-2446

While serving in Afghanistan, Justin Gardiner managed to take college courses between his duties as an infantryman. “We only had a couple of computers that had internet access,” he said, “so I’d run up to there and download everything onto a thumb drive, then come back and then work on my stuff on my laptop all week.”

Under these difficult circumstances, Gardiner kept taking classes whenever he could, and it paid off in ways he could not have imagined.

Today, he works as an adjunct professor at Santiago Canyon College and is the code compliance manager for the city of Cathedral City, positions he is thrilled to hold. From infantryman to college professor at Santiago Canyon College and city manager has been “a nonstop crazy journey,” said the 37-year-old veteran.

Born in the San Fernando Valley city of Northridge, Gardiner was home-schooled until he attended Cathedral City High School. He joined the Army as an infantryman and was stationed in Germany with the 173rd Airborne. Whenever he could, he took college classes on his computer.

He deployed to Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009. “As an infantryman, I was assigned to the personal security detachment,” Gardiner explained. “We were essentially the bodyguards for the command sergeant major and the battalion commander. So anywhere they went, we went.” Still, he said, “I was pumping out college classes while I was downrange.”

Gardiner sustained a serious injury to his left ankle and was awarded a Purple Heart. He returned to Germany for several years and then came home to California.

Eventually, he earned his associate degree in criminal justice, and after he got out of the Army, he was hired on as a police officer. He continued to take classes, working around his job schedule.

“I was going to National University to earn my bachelor’s,” Gardiner said. “We met once a week on Tuesdays and then all day on Saturdays. I would schedule my break or lunch hour around when class was supposed to meet,” he said. “I’d have my radio on and all my equipment — I’d be in full police gear — and I would sneak into the back of class, and I’d radio in that I was taking my break, and if an emergency happened, I was available. There were times when I had to pop up, and take off and run out, and say, “Sorry, professor!”

Despite the obstacles, Gardiner earned his bachelor’s degree in homeland security and emergency management with a minor in criminal justice administration. When an opportunity came up in Riverside County in the code compliance department, Gardiner applied for the job and was hired.

Code compliance was an exciting new challenge, “especially coming from my background in the military and law enforcement,” he said.

Code compliance, he said, is “essentially holding property owners accountable to the city standards and ordinance and municipal code.” The purpose is to create safe, clean neighborhoods in which people can thrive. “And if we’re providing that, then it’s going to entice other people and other businesses to come to this city, invest their money here, and raise their families here,” Gardiner said.

This means identifying abandoned vehicles parked all over properties, property maintenance issues such as green pools of water that are mosquito breeding grounds, visual blights, and accumulated rubbish throughout a property.

Gardiner eventually went to Cabazon in unincorporated Riverside County, working as a code officer, where he excelled. “Within my first year I was elected to the Board of Representatives for the California Code Officers Association,” he said.

Gardiner still needed to earn his certification for code enforcement officer status, so he enrolled at Santiago Canyon College because it offered every class he needed. He met Sergio Verano, the program administrator for the code compliance courses.

“What I liked about Santiago Canyon College was that in the code compliance courses, I wasn’t dealing with college professors, but with subject matter experts in the field who were sharing their knowledge,” he said.

His training as a police officer and the fact that he had also trained others in his career, gave him a good foundation for code compliance work. Several SCC administrators noticed Gardiner’s enthusiasm and experience and reached out to see if he would be interested in becoming a part-time code compliance professor.

“I was totally shocked,” he said, and after a few interviews, he was hired.

Another reason SCC felt like a good fit was the college’s Veterans Center. Gardiner said it is the best he’s ever encountered. “I’ve been to quite a few higher education facilities, and I’ve dealt with quite a few veterans centers. None of them can hold a light to Santiago Canyon College.”

What makes SCC’s Veterans Center special? “Their attentiveness to the veterans and the welcoming vibe that they have,” said Gardiner. “They work above and beyond to make sure that their veterans are getting taken care of.”