Washington County Weekend Post

GMTODAY.COM SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 2021 • WASHINGTON COUNTY POST • 3A It's time for the West Bend Park & Rec activities to be announced! The Summer booklet will feature all of the scheduled activities that the West Bend Park, Recreation and Forestry Department will offer for Summer 2021. Get your copy in the Daily News on March 26 and the Washington County Post on March 28. The booklet is also available at the West Bend Parks & Recreation Department, West Bend Library and West Bend Chamber of Commerce. Many people have a won- derful resource at their disposal just minutes from their homes. This resource can transport them to dis- tant lands, teach their children valuable lessons and serve as a great place to meet new friends. So what is this magical place? The local library. Libraries are filled with books for adults and chil- dren. But libraries have even more than books to offer, making them an invaluable resource for the entire com- munity. The following are just a handful of the many great reasons to visit your local library. • Reading may help improve long-term mental health. A 2001 study from researchers at Case Western Reserve University found that patients with Alzheim- er's disease were less active in early and middle adult- hood in regard to intellec- tual, passive and physical activities than people who did not have AD. Young adults and middle-aged men and women who visit their local libraries and check out a good book might decrease their risk for cognitive decline later in life. • Reading can improve your vocabulary, even as you get older. Reading for pleasure as a child has long been linked to helping young people age 16 and under develop strong reading and math skills. But a recent study from researchers at the University of London that examined how the vocabularies of more than 9,400 people developed between the ages of 16 and 42 found that vocabulary con- tinued to improve long after teenage years. By continuing to read books from their local libraries into adult- hood, adults can further develop their vocabularies. • Libraries provide lots of free entertainment. Libraries are home to thou- sands of books, but that's not all you can find at your local branch. Newspapers, maga- zines, CDs, and DVDs are some examples of the forms of entertainment available at local libraries. Better yet, such entertainment is free to card holders. • Libraries offer age- appropriate programs for kids. Some parents may lament the lack of programs available for their young- sters. Such parents are urged to visit their local libraries, which are often home to many programs that can inspire kids to read and fos- ter their creativity. The scope of kid-friendly pro- grams at your local library is wide and may range from sing-a-long sessions for tod- dlers to group art programs for preschool-aged children to STEM-based programs for elementary and secondary school students. The local library is an invaluable resource than can benefit people of all ages. Great reasons to visit your local library The many ways walking benefits your body Life changed dramatical- ly in 2020. When the World Health Organization declar- ed a COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, hundreds of mil- lions of people across the globe were forced to change how they go about their daily lives, including how they exercise. Health-conscious adults accustomed to exercising at local gyms had to find new ways to exercise in the wake of the pandemic. Many gyms were forced to close in areas hit hard by COVID-19, and that left many people with- out access to fitness equip- ment like weights and cardiovascular machines. Resilient men and women soon found ways to exercise, and many of them embraced walking. Though walking might not provide the same level of intensity that fitness enthu- siasts are accustomed to, the Arthritis Foundation ® notes the various ways walking benefits the body. • Walking protects against heart disease and stroke. Walking strengthens the heart and protects it against heart disease. The AF also notes that walk- ing lowers blood pressure. In fact, post-menopausal women who walk just one to two miles per day can lower their blood pressure by near- ly 11 points in 24 weeks, while women who walk for 30 minutes a day can reduce their risk of stroke by 20 per- cent. • Walking strengthens the bones. New York-based Plancher Orthopedics and Sports Medicine notes that walking can stop the loss of bone mass for people with osteoporosis. • Walking can lower risk for cognitive decline. Walking also has been linked to a lower risk for age-related cognitive decline. A study from the University of Vir- ginia Health System found that men between the ages of 71 and 93 who walked more than a quarter of a mile per day had half the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease compared to men who walked less. In addition, a study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that age-related memory decline was lower among women ages 65 and older who walked 2.5 miles per day than it was among women who walked less than half a mile per week. Foot traffic increased as people were forced to find new ways to exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Walking is a great way to stay in shape and even pro- vides some lesser known benefits for people who walk each day.

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