There's something magical about exercise. It impacts the body in many different ways, and all of them are good.

Exercise burns calories, improves cardiovascular health, tones muscles, boosts mood, and now scientists are learning that it also thwarts one of the most-feared symptoms of aging, memory loss.

Researchers at UC Irvine are conducting a 15-site national study on the effects of aerobic exercise on adults with mild memory problems. They are hoping to document evidence that will allow physicians to write prescriptions for exercise.

“Exercise is medicine,” said James Hicks, director of UC Irvine's Center for Exercise Medicine and Sport Sciences.

To date, no effective drug therapies to treat dementia have been found.

“Since 2002, 420 clinical trials on drugs targeted for Alzheimer's have been launched. All of them failed,” Hicks said. “No drug will change its trajectory. But physical activity might.”

Another UC Irvine professor, Carl Cotman, agrees.

“That concept has exploded. That's where the future is: understanding how exercise alters disease trajectories and improves outcomes,” Cotman said.

Cotman's research showed that exercise increases production of a substance called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which aides in learning and memory and facilitates connections among nerve cells. It's so critical to brain function that it has been dubbed “Miracle-Gro for the brain.”

“Exercise builds brain health,” Cotman said. “It makes you more efficient. You're thinking cleaner. It introduces a state of readiness.”

UC ANR educators encourage Californians to exercise

While scientists study the impact of exercise at the molecular level, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources nutrition educators continue to emphasize the importance of physical activity when they teach youth and families ways to improve their lives with healthy eating and movement.

UC ANR's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is offered in 24 counties in California. It is administered by UC Cooperative Extension offices. EFNEP educators help limited-resource families gain the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behavior necessary to choose nutritionally sound diets and improve their well-being. 

Families who participated in the program have said that it transformed their lives for the better. They have changed what their family eats, switched to low-fat milk instead of whole milk and have fruit for snacks. They eat more vegetables and fruit and thaw meat and poultry in the refrigerator. Some walk daily, others play games with their children. Almost all use store ads and unit pricing to get the best shopping deals.

CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California is another nutrition education program administered by UCCE. It helps children and adults choose a healthy lifestyle by encouraging good food habits and decision making skills. Adult nutrition education is provided at no cost to low-income families. The youth nutrition education program provides support and resources to preschool through high school teachers in low-income schools to deliver nutrition and physical activity education in their classrooms.

CalFresh Healthy Living, UC helps families find parks in their neighborhoods so they can stay active, and shows how they can join sports team and locate public pools. The training acknowledges that it can be difficult to add exercise to busy lives, and helps participants overcome the barriers.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend:

• 2.5 hours of moderate physical activity per week, or 30 minutes five times per week
• Strength and resistance training two times per week
• Flexibility exercises two to three times per week

“Perhaps the most common barrier is a lack of time,” said CalFresh Healthy Living, UC nutrition program coordinator Austin Cantrell. “In order to implement an exercise routine into our lives, many of us will need to plan out our day and see where we can fit exercise into our schedule.”

An important thing to remember, Cantrell said, is that exercise doesn't have to happen all at once.

“If you exercise for 10 minutes three times throughout your day, you will have met your 30-minute requirement,” he said. “If we exercise for 10 minutes before we go to work, take a 10-minute walking break while at work and exercise for 10 minutes after work, we will meet our recommended amount of physical activity for the day.”

A way to save time is engaging in vigorous physical activity, which cuts exercise time recommendation to 75 minutes a week. How can you tell the difference between “moderate” physical activity and “vigorous” physical activity? Examples of moderate activity are walking or gardening. Vigorous physical activity includes running, sprinting or swimming.

“Typically, you will be able to hold a conversation during moderate activity, but will be unable to sing,” Cantrell said. “During vigorous activity, you will not be able to have a conversation without considerable shortness of breath or pausing.”

Some people feel more motivated to be physically active by combining it with activities they enjoy.

“Spend time with your children playing outdoors or playing sports,” Cantrell suggests. “Seek social support by joining walking clubs or recreational sports leagues.”

Sources:

Should doctors write prescriptions for exercise? By Shari Roan, UC Irvine

Overcoming barriers to exercise By Austin Cantrell, CalFresh Healthy Living, UC

View four videos profiling UC ANR staff and academics, (top left to right) Jairo Diaz, Fe Moncloa, (bottom left to right) Maria de la Fuente and Aileen Carrasco-Trujillo. Find the links to the videos at the end of this post.

The purpose of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15–October 15) is to recognize the contributions and vital presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States. President Lyndon Johnson first approved Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, and it was expanded to a full month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Why does Hispanic Heritage Month run from mid-September to mid-October? The date was chosen to bookend two milestones for Spanish speaking countries: the celebration of independence from Spain for Mexico, Chile, and, five Central American nations (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica) and Columbus Day / Día de la Raza. This day is mostly celebrated by the Italian Americans rather than Spanish-speaking immigrants.

In the fabric of our society, the impact of Hispanics is undeniable. It is important for the new generations that our contributions in forging this great nation are valued beyond food and music. From astronauts to physicists, Hispanics have contributed to better our lives. A few examples:

• Luis Walter Alvarez was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968.
• Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz is a Costa Rican American mechanical engineer, physicist, former NASA astronaut.
• Ellen O. Ochoa is a Hispanic-American engineer, former astronaut and former Director of the Johnson Space Center.

UC ANR joins in the celebration of Hispanic heritage by profiling four Latino academics, advisors, educators who serve their communities, day after day, applying the UC ANR public values:

• Fe Moncloa - 4-H Youth Development Advisor, UCCE Santa Clara County
  
  
• Jairo Diaz - Director of the UC Desert Research and Extension Center
  
  
• María de la Fuente – UC Cooperative Extension director in Monterey County and UCCE Farm & Master Gardener Advisor, Monterey & Santa Cruz counties.
  
  
• Aileen Carrasco-Trujillo - Bilingual Nutrition Educator, UCCE Santa Clara County

Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

Patti Wooten Swanson, left, provided practical tips for San Diego County residents to eat healthfully, avoid foodborne illness and save money.

Helping people attain financial security and healthy, active lives has been a career passion for Patti Wooten Swanson, UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for San Diego County. Wooten Swanson, who joined UC Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2001, retired July 1, 2019, from a career of research and outreach focused on family financial management and nutrition education to help San Diego County residents improve their lives.

Melinda Opperman has worked with Wooten Swanson on several campaigns promoting financial wellness that received proclamations from the San Diego City Council, mayor and board of supervisors.

“She was instrumental in improving people's financial lives and promoting the common purpose of financial wellness. Her work was critical,” said Opperman, executive vice president of Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management in National City.

In 2005, Wooten Swanson launched the annual San Diego Saves, part of the America Saves campaign, to encourage San Diegans to improve their financial security.

“The basic message is to encourage people to build wealth through systematic savings over an extended time, with an emphasis on saving and paying down debt,” Wooten Swanson said at the time. She persuaded consumer advocates, credit unions, banks and other local businesses to offer savers' clubs and money-management workshops. As part of San Diego Saves, several financial institutions offered savings accounts that could be opened with as little as $5 and no fees for 12 months.

In her research, the Cooperative Extension advisor found that people were more successful at building their savings if they wrote down a goal, such as buying a car. Wooten Swanson also encouraged saving through payroll or checking account deductions, saying, “You won't miss what you can't see.”

In her blog Small Steps To Health And Wealth, Wooten Swanson provided practical tips for consumers to eat healthfully, avoid foodborne illness and save money.

She also authored UC ANR's Financial Caregiving Series for adult children of aging parents. Recently Wooten Swanson co-chaired the Money Talks workgroup that developed “Living on Your Own” guidebooks, currently in production. The guidebooks outline living expenses low-income youth and young adults should consider before moving to their own apartments. As UC Cooperative Extension advisor emeritus, she plans to promote the Living on My Own program at professional society meetings. 

An active community member, Wooten Swanson served on the San Diego County Food System Initiative leadership team and as a research partner with a volunteer gleaning program that provides fresh produce to food insecure families. She also trained social workers to give their clients just-in-time money management information.

Her contributions to the field of family and consumer sciences were recognized with the 2018 Leader Award from the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences' California affiliate. The National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences honored Wooten Swanson with its 2018 Excellence in MultiState Collaboration Award (Eastern Region) for her contributions to a NIFA Extension Project, and its 2017 Continued Excellence Award for her leadership and promotion of the professional development of others.

Wooten Swanson earned her Ph.D. in consumer science at Texas Woman's University, an M.Ed. in vocational education at North Texas State University and B.S. in home economics at Texas Christian University.

After a busy 44-year career in education, Wooten Swanson is enjoying spending more time with her husband, Jerry, at their home in San Diego and traveling. Once Quicken, her English springer spaniel, gets certified as a pet therapy dog, she plans to volunteer to cheer patients at Scripps Mercy Hospital. 

Lindcove Research and Extension Center recently held a gala event to kick off its fundraising campaign “Sweetening the Future of Lindcove.” Donations from the campaign will create an endowment to support a community educator, who will greatly expand the outreach capabilities ofLindcoveREC and help train the next generation of citrus growers and consumers. The endowment will complementUCANR's plans to expandLindcoveREC's conferencing and teaching facilities.

Lindcove Research and Extension Center hosted a gala event to kick off its fundraising campaign “Sweetening the Future of Lindcove.”

The event is described in the following article published in Citrograph magazine.

Sweetening the Future of Citrus at Lindcove

Beth Grafton-Cardwell, Lindcove REC director, aims to raise at least $2 million in donations that, combined with the UC ANR funding, will provide the facilities improvements and program support to take Lindcove REC educational outreach into the future.

On Oct. 4, Director Beth Grafton-Cardwell held a gala at the Lindcove Research and Extension Center and officially named its conference center the “Ray Copeland Citrus Center” after the late Ray Copeland. It is very fitting that the Center be named after Ray, because as superintendent of the field station from 1965-1987, he was instrumental in developing the orchards, facilities and the relationships with the first group of scientists who conducted research here. Susan Fritz and Karen Bray, daughters of Ray Copeland, spoke about their father's achievements and their memories of growing up living at Lindcove. Jim Gorden, chair of the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Committee and local grower, also spoke about his many years of partnership with Ray and Ray's contributions to the citrus industry. 

Grower Jim Gorden spoke about his partnership with Ray Copeland and Ray’s contributions to the citrus industry.

The gala was also an opportunity to honor Georgios Vidalakis, the Director of the UC Citrus Clonal Protection Program (CCPP) and specialist and professor of plant pathology at UC Riverside. The CCPP program is a world-renowned program that brings in new citrus germplasm from around the world, cleans it free of disease and provides the California nursery industry and homeowners with ‘clean' budwood. Lindcove REC is the location from which the budwood is distributed. In 2019, The Citrus Research Board and the UC Office of the President co-funded a $1 million endowment. Vidalakis was awarded this “Citrus Research Board Presidential Researcher for Sustainable Citrus Clonal Protection Endowment.” Vidalakis spoke about the endowment funds and their importance for supporting the CCPP program at Lindcove.

Susan Fritz and Karen Bray, shown with their mother, Mary Alice Copeland, spoke about their father’s achievements and their memories of growing up living at Lindcove REC.

The gala was also the kick-off for a fundraising program to improve the conference center area and outreach programs at Lindcove REC. During the past 25 years, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) and the Citrus Research Board have partnered again and again to develop high quality facilities and equipment for research. These facilities include the packline and fruit grading system, screenhouses and greenhouses to protect citrus from pests and disease, and a modern laboratory with high-tech equipment. The Citrus Research Board also provides funding to the scientists for the majority of the 30 research projects conducted at Lindcove REC each year. These facilities and projects have given Lindcove REC a world-renowned reputation as a Center of Excellence for citrus breeding, horticulture and pest management.

While research at Lindcove REC is cutting edge, outreach programming has been limited because of Lindcove's small staff, small conference center and undeveloped roads and parking around the conference center. The current outreach program focuses primarily on tours and field days for growers, pest control advisers and nurserymen.  For the general public, outreach has been limited to a yearly master gardener workshop, bringing in local Ag Academy high school students for one-day experiences with ag mechanics and ag science and the December fruit display and tasting. UC ANR recently committed to provide funds to redevelop the outreach facilities at this location to better serve the needs of the citrus industry and the local community. The redevelopment plans include constructing a larger conference center to create a hub for citrus industry and University interactions. This building could be used for 300-person industry meetings or subdivided for committee meetings. Plans also include building a youth experiential laboratory where students are taught agricultural science and then taken into a nearby demonstration orchard for hands-on learning.

Lindcove REC named its conference center the “Ray Copeland Citrus Center” in honor of its late superintendent, shown here on the cover of California Agriculture in 1969.

Beyond facilities improvements funded by UC ANR, additional funds are needed to support staff who specialize in education to develop the outreach programs and to provide equipment for these new outreach facilities and that is why a fundraising campaign has been initiated. The Ray Copeland and Jim Gorden families together have very generously contributed $150,000 as a match for funds donated by others to the fundraising campaign “Sweetening the Future of Citrus at Lindcove.” The goal is to raise at least $2 million in donations that, combined with the UC ANR funding, will provide the facilities improvements and program support to take Lindcove REC educational outreach into the future.  With these changes, Lindcove REC will continue to attract top research programs, provide a hub of interaction between the research community and the citrus industry, train local youth and educate the general public about citrus. 

For more information about the campaign or to make a donation, please visit the campaign website at lindcovecitrus.com.