Your health: Challenge 22 to raise awareness about veterans' struggles

Exercise event to support veterans

Twenty-two veterans commit suicide every day.

To shine a spotlight on the issues facing veterans on their return home, the Daily Herald, in partnership with the Elk Grove Village Park District, Push Fitness, and the Heart of a Marine Foundation, is sponsoring Challenge 22 on Saturday, April 22,

Join the Daily Herald's Fittest Loser contestants in tackling multiple workout stations with themed challenges. See if you can do 22 push-ups, 22 situps or 22 jumping jacks and help bring awareness to those affected by war.

The event is free and open to all ages. A special children's section will allow young ones to participate as well.

Registration opens at 9:30 a.m. with the event going from 10 a.m. to noon at Pavilion Fitness, 1000 Wellington Ave., Elk Grove Village.

Registration is encouraged, but not required. Go to events.dailyherald.com.

4 ways to improve focus and memory

Normal aging leads to gradual changes in many skills associated with thinking and memory. For example, you might find it harder to focus your attention and absorb information quickly. The slowdown in processing can lead to a bottleneck of information entering your short-term memory, reducing the amount of information that can be acquired and encoded into long-term memory.

Harvard Medical School suggest the following four strategies to help enhance your focus and ability to attend to the information presented to you.

1. When someone is talking to you, look at the person and listen closely. If you missed something that was said, ask the person to repeat it or to speak more slowly.

2. Paraphrase what is said to make sure that you understand it and to reinforce the information. For example, if someone says, “We can see the movie either at Loews Theater at 7:30 or at the Paramount at 7:50,” you might respond, “Which would you prefer, 7:30 at Loews or 7:50 at the Paramount?”

3. If you find that you tend to become distracted during conversations, try getting together with people in quiet environments. For example, you could suggest meeting at someone's home instead of at a noisy restaurant. If you do meet at a restaurant, sit at a table near a wall. If your companions sit against the wall and you sit facing them, you'll be able to focus on them without having your attention wander to other diners.

4. You can improve your ability to focus on a task and screen out distractions if you do one thing at a time. Try to avoid interruptions. For example, if someone asks you something while you're in the middle of reading or working, ask if the person can wait until you're finished. Don't answer the phone until you've finished what you're doing — let voice mail take the call.