Health & Home (September - October 2021)

ISSN 0115-0839

BLUE ZONES Raquel M. Asuncion: Living Long, Giving Much

CONTENTS SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2021

REGULARS

4

iContact Michelle Anne P. Diamante

The Proof of Long Life

6

Finance

Alvin M. Sta. Ana

10

Funding Your Retirement

Home Gardening Saul L. Roylo

Okra

About the Cover Longevity and Generosity. How does one become a nonagenarian? Is it in what you eat or how you sleep? Or is it in how you give?

Nanay Raquel Asuncion’s life story (see p. 28) offers insights we may well heed.

Cover photo by J.O.B. Photo Video Photo manipulation by Gabriel S. Tiano Photos and illustrations in this issue are from shutterstock.com unless credited otherwise.

COLUMNS

14

Grace in the Act

Blue Zones

Truly Free

13

16

Education

Anxious and Contagious

Last, Least, But Not Lost

21

20

Modern Homemaking

5

Here and the Hereafter

Pr. Leonardo C. Heyasa, Jr.

Personal Answers

Dr. Sheryll Ann M. Castillo

Dear Doctor

Linda L. Varona

Expedito S. Perlas, Jr.

Corazon DC Hernandez

National Institute on Aging

Preventing Parkinson's Disease

Fall-proofing Your Home

27

Consult Your Lawyer

32

Arts & Crafts

Loss of Earning Capacity

Cool Sock Dolls

31

34

People & Places

33

Standpoint

Atty. Silvino L. Sumagaysay, Jr.

Food for the Family

Dr. Miriam R. Estrada

"Guard Your Mouth, Protect Your Life" Nathanlie M. Baldoza

42

The Woman in the Dark Learner’s Lab

Mary Grace L. De Guzman

Which Animal Lives the Longest?

Czarina V. Budayao

Rajah Sulayman (as told to John Holbrook)

Broken Bowsprit

36

Children’s Corner

41

Word for the World

Arthur S. Maxwell

Bad Boys and the Bears

Jecsoon O. Mariñas

Immortality

COMING UP. . . Heart of Gold • Joy Mendoza: Finding My Silver Lining • A School Community Pantry •

Blessings of Giving • Squash in the Garden • Being Proper During Virtual Meetings • Donating to a Minor

44

The Power of Hope Series

46

#AThousandWords

47 47

Julián Melgosa and Michelson Borges

Vicious Circle Ritzmond Rei D. Depra

Light From the House Who Is Jesus?

Notes From the Frontlines Elizabeth R. Tamaño

A Reward and a Legacy

#HHBlueZones

FEATURES

8

A Letter to the Old Folks

Remembering one’s angels with wrinkles

Jisty Dana A. Frias

9

Obesity: What to Know and What to Do AMSA-WVSU

When chubby is no longer funny

12

A Little Mixed Up

Bart Beck

A humorous take about “senior moments”

24

Understanding the Needs of the Elderly

Dr. Chamberlain I. Agtuca, Jr.

And caring for them tenderly

18

Kind Things Children Can Do in the Family

Karen Holford

Beyond doing the dishes

22

Two Simple Flips: Culinary Medicine Tips

Dr. Mechelle A. Palma

More of the good stuff; the bad, just enough

28

38

Raquel Asuncion: A Life for Others

Janet R. Tolete

Longevity may not be about “me”

The Blue Zones

Dr. Linda L. Varona

What we can learn from centenarians

Kind Things

By KAREN HOLFORD

1 2

Pray for each person in your family.

Cut out some big paper hearts and write on each one: “Kindness was here!”

Leave a heart behind whenever you do something kind.

3 4 5

Read a story to a younger sibling.

Cheerfully obey mom and dad the first time they ask you to do something.

Write a love note to mom and dad and hide it in their bed.

6

Draw a picture of flowers (or make a bouquet of paper flowers), put it on the table, and tell mom to pretend that they are real flowers from you.

7 8 9

Learn how to do a helpful chore really well, and then do it whenever it is needed.

Spend five minutes each day doing something to tidy your room.

Say thank you whenever your parents have made you a meal.

10 11

Put your dirty clothes in the laundry basket every day.

Lead a short family worship for your family.

Act out your favorite Bible story, sing your favorite songs, and pray for your family and friends.

12 13

Set the table before a meal without being asked.

Ask mom or dad what you can do to help, and do whatever they ask.

Health & Home ︱ 18 ︱September–October 2021

Two Simple Flips Culinary Medicine Tips

By DR. MECHELLE A. PALMA

T

he right kinds of food prepared the right way can heal diseases and help people eat their way to the best of health. That’s not quackery or magic. It’s medicine. Culinary medicine to be exact.

Culinary medicine is an emerging evidence-based practice that blends meal planning and cooking with medical research to attain optimal health outcomes.

The practice, in particular, adds to current nutrition techniques by merging the concept of food satisfaction with an actual understanding of how food and nutritional choices influence human metabolism and pathology.

Killed softly Sixty-eight percent of all deaths in the Philippines are caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, chronic pulmonary disease, and cancer.

Between the ages of 30 and 70, there is a 29 percent chance of dying prematurely and unnecessarily due to these chronic conditions.

These diseases drive up healthcare expenses, social care needs, and welfare assistance needs. NCDs also increase one’s risk of getting infected and dying from COVID-19.

Without a doubt, vigorous NCD prevention measures should be adopted in the Philippines as soon as possible.

Hurdles Despite the data and the consensus on the importance of providing lifestyle advice and intervention to people of all ages, the hurdles are numerous and complex.

Our modernized and industrialized lifestyles exacerbate the inactivity crisis and promote bad eating habits. The predominance of processed meals

and the quantity of low-cost, rapidly produced tasty snack items contribute to unhealthy eating behavior.

Lack of time to make homecooked meals and a shortage of whole-food, plant-based options are also frequently cited.

As a result of these challenges, food policy recommendations in developed countries are shifting away from a prescriptive and nutrient-focused approach and supporting healthy eating habits that may be applied in homes, offices, and communities.

The lack of nutrition education among healthcare workers is also another critical barrier.

Continuing education For decades, most medical schools in the United States have failed to meet 25 hours of required nutrition lectures.

There is a scarcity of knowledge about how diet affects metabolism, pathophysiology, and overall health. Preclinical learnings about dietary principles are rarely applied in clinical settings.

A growing number of medical schools in the US, however, are now offering culinary medicine electives as part of their continuing medical education programs.

One of these is a culinary coaching course produced by the Harvard School of Medicine in partnership with the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine.

Health & Home ︱ 22 ︱September–October 2021

Understanding the Needs of the Elderly

By DR. CHAMBERLAIN I. AGTUCA, JR.

M

Health & Home ︱ 24 ︱September–October 2021

models not subjects of article

y dad lived with me for 12 years until he passed away in 2016. I really thought back then that living with an elderly was way easier than raising a terrible tyke. It did not take long before the issues of living with an old person gradually unfolded before my eyes and made me realize the difficulties that Dad and I would have to go through.

While raising kids entails a lot of patience and hard work, dealing with an elderly requires the same amount of effort, understanding, and empathy.

And while you are at it, you might as well possess the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22, 23).

Remember, you are taking care of a once able-bodied member of society who knows more about life than you do and that the only thing that hinders him from functioning fully well in the community and in your home are the myriad changes that the years have exacted upon him.

Understanding the needs of the elderly will help you anticipate the woes that they will go through. Although nothing will ever prepare you for the actual experience, setting your mind for such eventuality is part of getting the task done.

A Lif e RAQUEL MAGSALIN-ASUNCION

for Others

By JANET R. TOLETE

H

er day starts with a prayer and Bible reading, usually at five in the morning.

As soon as the sun is up, she is brought out in her wheelchair to bathe in sunlight and feed about a hundred little Eurasian tree sparrows (or maya, socalled) that have gotten used to flocking for food in her yard.

She nurtures them, happily giving what she can offer, then she lets them fly free. With such beneficence she has lived her life of nine decades and counting.

Childhood and faith

Health & Home ︱ 28 ︱September–October 2021

photo/rogeRGSabio

Raquel was born on September 24, 1927, in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, to Leonora (née Lazaro) and Pedro Magsalin. She was the sixth of 12 siblings.

Her father was one of the first Filipino pastors of the Seventh-day Adventist Church when it began in the Philippines.

“My childhood was happy because I was always with my father wherever he was assigned. That’s why I had so many friends. It was also sometimes difficult. We didn’t have a maid, so I did most of the household chores,” recalled Nanay Raquel.

Inspired by her father’s profession and practice, Raquel lives her life in faith.

“Whenever I make a decision, I pray and seek the Lord’s help before I do it,” she stated in Filipino.

War and youth This faith was soon severely tested. Days before Christmas of 1941, when Raquel was just 14, Japanese forces attacked the Philippines hours after they did Pearl Harbor. World War II broke.

To escape the heat of war in Bataan, the Magsalins traveled with Filipino soldiers during the infamous Bataan Death March in April 1942.

Along the way, Raquel’s family suffered hunger, injury, and disease, leading to the loss of a few members, including her stepmother.

Providentially, some locals in Pampanga took pity on them and nursed them back to health.

They eventually found their way to Baesa (now in Caloocan City).

Editha, Raquel’s only daughter, related that back then, “Nanay was disguised as an old woman. She wore old clothes and had her head always covered, so she would not be raped by Japanese soldiers.”

Peace and love With the war over, young Raquel aspired to become a nurse. Her visit to a sibling in Silang, Cavite, however, shifted her course.

A young man, Enrique “Ikeng” Asuncion, was so smitten with her beauty that he relentlessly pursued her, courting her every night until she said yes.

In 1947, Pastor Magsalin officiated the wedding of his 18-year-old daughter to the 20-year-old gentleman from Cavite.

Their union bore seven children whose names all start with an “E,” like their father.

photos courtesy of Editha A. Mariscal

When she lost her mother when she was 9, her father and his faith grew more significant for her.

Raquel Asuncion with her husband and children through the years.

When she was still a young lady, Nanay’s fondest memory was of taking a stroll with friends. When she got married, her favorite travel companions became her husband and children.

“My happiest memories were of our family traveling and eating together,” Nanay Raquel recalled, “and my biggest achievement in life is that I have been able to raise all my children well.”

Her brood include an accountant, a realtor, a restaurateur, and an interior designer. One of her sons is the entrepreneur behind Silcafe coffee.

With their mother teaching them songs and stories about God, many of them later shared the same faith.

Business and politics From selling copra, the Asuncions were able to widen

their reach and acquire properties.

Farmers from all over Cavite later supplied them with coconuts that they bought and sold.

When they had enough capital, they went into buying and selling lots. Then, politicians started to notice Enrique and motivated him to run for mayor.

Tatay Ikeng became the town mayor of Silang from 1956 to 1971.

Editha recalled how politics affected their family.

“Election time was the most difficult, with the campaign and the expenses. Tatay used his own money,” related their middle child.

“When he became the mayor and when the governor was not an ally, he did not ask for funds but got money from his own pocket instead, just to make sure that projects were completed.”

Good thing Tatay Ikeng found an able and reliable life partner in Nanay Raquel.

Health & Home ︱ 29 ︱September–October 2021

The BLUEZones

By DR. LINDA L. VARONA

“The calculus of aging offers us two options: We can live a shorter life with more years of disability, or we can live the longest possible life with the fewest bad years.

As our centenarian friends have shown, the choice is largely up to us.”

—Dan Buettner

B

efore the turn of the second millennium, two independent researchers, Dr. Gianni Pes from Italy and Professor Michael Poulain from Belgium, discovered something interesting in Sardinia, Italy. Instead of living in random locations, centenarians (those living to 100 years old and beyond) were concentrated in specific areas. The researchers marked these places with blue circles, giving birth to the term “blue zones.”

Eventually, Pes and Poulain joined hands with National Geographic Fellow and Explorer Dan Buettner who was also doing research on other

groups of people around the world with the highest concentrations of centenarians.

In 2005, Buettner caught the world’s attention when he published his research findings at the National Geographic identifying areas of longevity and the secrets of the residents’ long lives.

Five areas The team of Dan Buettner, in cooperation with National Geographic and the U.S. National Institute of Aging, eventually labelled these places as “blue zones:”

Health & Home ︱ 38 ︱September–October 2021

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