[HTML1] In our first and second segments, Life, Love and Health: Special Edition Executive Producer Christopher Springmann speaks with Arlene Kershaw, Vice President of Senior Services and Medical Rehabilitation for Easter Seals in New Hampshire. Her mission is creating and running programs that allow older citizens to remain in their homes and communities. “No one wants to give up that sense of independence, especially in American society,” says Ms. Kershaw. “We are fiercely independent people. New Hampshire is a fiercely independent state. And the idea that you no longer can negotiate life on your own, be it mobility or living where you want to live, on the terms that you want to live, it’s very, very difficult to face as one gets past the ability to do this on their own. And that kind of fierce independence makes it difficult for many seniors to ask for help. Which is unfortunate because, by asking for help a little bit early, on might save them and their families and communities — really, our whole society — some heartache. We could prevent the disasters that often happen as seniors become less and less able to cope on their own.” This is what lies at the heart of Seniors Count, a community-based program that focuses on aging in place and in-home senior daycare.
In our third and fourth segments, we hear from Dr. Jeanette Newton Keith, Director of Bariatric Medicine for Kaleida Health at Buffalo General Hospital in Buffalo, New York. She was a speaker at the recent National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference, entitled “Lactose Intolerance and Health,” which dealt with questions like, “Who has this condition?” and “What does it mean for building a healthy diet?” The starting point in this conversation would be Dr. Keith’s description of lactose intolerance. “Lactose intolerance is the symptomatic ingestion of lactose,” she says. “In other words, when people consume lactose-containing foods such as milk or milk products, they may have GI symptoms. The reason this occurs is because there is a normal physiologic process where the lactose or the enzyme that breaks down the milk sugar decreases over time. When excess lactose reaches the colon, in most people that process is asymptomatic, despite producing gas, acids and methane gas. But in some people, it causes symptoms such as gas, bloating, diarrhea and abdominal discomfort. But it’s important to understand that lactose intolerance does not necessarily mean that you cannot consume dairy foods. What we have found is similar to consuming a high fiber diet. If you start small and gradually increase the amount of lactose in the diet, it increases tolerance. The symptoms associated with lactose intolerance are absolutely identical to those that are associated with consuming a high fiber diet too fast.”
Segment A (0:00 – 11:00)
Life Love & Health: Special Edition producer Christopher Springmann speaks with Arlene Kershaw about Easter Seals New Hampshire & the Seniors Count program.
Segment B (11:01 – 22:00)
Arlene Kershaw on aging in place and in-home senior daycare
Segment C (22:01 – 33:00)
Christopher Springmann speaks with Dr. Jeanette Keith about lactose intolerance and the DASH eating plan.
Segment D (33:01 – 44:00)
Dr. Jeanette Keith on the nutritional benefits of dairy
More about Arlene Kershaw
Arlene L. Kershaw, M.A. is Vice President Senior of Services and Medical Rehabilitation at Easter Seals New Hampshire and Director of Seniors Count. She began her senior services career in 1980 and ran a senior center, developed a hospital-based senior department, and taught college level courses on aging issues. In her 12 years as Director of Senior Services at Easter Seals New Hampshire, she oversaw the state’s largest Adult Day program, managed an in-home care program, supervised the local ADRC (ServiceLink), and founded Seniors Count. This program received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant and an AoA Communities Aging in Place grant. Ms. Kershaw served as the NH Gubernatorial Delegate to the last White House Conference on Aging in 1995 and was an Alternate for 2005. She chaired the National Easter Seals Senior Services committee and co-chaired the New Hampshire State Conference on Aging. She received the 2007 National Adult Day Services Association Ruth Von Behren Award for outstanding national contributions to the Adult Day field. Ms. Kershaw is a widely respected and nationally recognized speaker in the field of senior issues.
More about Jeanette Keith
Jeanette N. Keith, M.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Section of Gastroenterology/Clinical Nutrition at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York. She is the Director of Bariatric Medicine for Kaleida Health and the Director of the GI Nutrition program at Buffalo General Hospital. In Nutrition, her main clinical focus is the medical management of obese patients, especially those with GI and nutritional complications following bariatric surgery. In GI, her main focus is enteral nutrition. Research interests include the GI and nutritional implications of bariatric surgery, calcium and vitamin D metabolism, lactose maldigestion, and women’s and minority health. She earned her M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. She subsequently trained in general Internal Medicine at Indiana University Medical Center, completed a Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and spent a three-year NIH-supported fellowship in Clinical Nutrition at the University of California-Davis. Dr. Keith was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Nutrition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham prior to joining the faculty at the University of Buffalo. She is an active member of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), and the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN).
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