Baltimore County, MD Time of Your LIfe, 30 Jun 2021

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From YouTube: CIGNA: Sponsors Making a Difference!

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Monica L. Schmude, President, Mid-Atlantic Market
CIGNA

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Events like bcda's, get ready, get set, get fit, can only be possible through generous support of sponsors.

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With us today is monica schmude, president of cigna mid-atlantic market.

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monica,. Welcome to the show.

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Ethel,, thank you so much for having me..

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It's so wonderful to see you again.. I'm really excited to speak with you about the get ready,.

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Get set, get fit, walk, run, that's happening in september.

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Cigna's proud to serve again as the presenting sponsor as we've done for the past nine years..

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I just couldn't be more pleased to support the program.

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Bcda is thrilled to offer a run, walk every year,.

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But particularly after covid. for the ninth year,, as you said, cigna, is our presenting sponsor of the get ready, get set, get fit, 5k run walk.

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monica,. Can you talk about cigna's commitment to the event,, their level of participation, and also the relevance of the event in the aftermath of this pandemic?.

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Absolutely, as you said,.

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The baltimore department of aging creates just such a terrific event that brings seniors in our community together.

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Now this year, both virtually and in person, and we get moving,, we get healthy..

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The event focuses on that. as a presenting sponsor of the event again, this year,.

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Cigna has the opportunity to help you all bring this event to.

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Life for the seniors and for really people of all ages in the community.

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We're so honored to work with baltimore county as such a prominent client.

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Of ours and also serve the community in the area through this kind of event.

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We work with many seniors, as you know, throughout baltimore county, with our medicare advantage. Programs.

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We're always looking for ways to help to promote the health and well-being of those seniors..

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We seek out partnerships like this one with community organizations who.

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Offer this fun and healthy environment for seniors to engage with each other and also with us., I'm personally thrilled that the event is coming back after the pandemic,. If you will.

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It's a challenging time for all of us,, but especially for our seniors, and we can't forget that.

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They were so impacted by covid-19 and really that social isolation,.

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The challenge after being housebound for so much of the past year,.

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It's really great for our seniors to have this kind of opportunity to get together and enjoy some fun physical activity. That's going to help to improve both the body and mind.

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A total whole health approach, kind of event.

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I know that cigna's philosophy is strongly supports. Physical activity.

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Can you explain to our viewing audience why?.

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Ethel, you're right about that.

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I want to remind people we know. Exercise has.

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Such an impact on our physical and emotional well-being.

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It's especially important that our seniors continued to stay active, to stay healthy.

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I know we all want to be independent..

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We all want to remain active and do the things that we've always done later in our later years..

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It's really important to incorporate physical activity into your daily routine and do that now.

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There's lots of ways to incorporate physical activity in.

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What you do and how you do it is really up to you as personalized.

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Whether you're participating in this kind of event a run walk,.

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Or you're just trying to keep up with your grand-kids., it's really never too late to start exercising.

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now,. It's also beneficial that our seniors know that exercise.

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Leads to some really positive impacts to your health.

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It decreases the risk of falling..

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We want to decrease that risk., it increases your stamina,, but it also improves your total quality of life..

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Quality of life is a term that we've all become very used.

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To these days, because we've been through so much change in the last year and a half,.

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Our routines have really been turned upside down..

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If I could, for a moment, talk a couple more moments here about another really important thing to consider concerning your health.

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As we age,, we think about our own endurance and as.

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We get older and endurance overall, declines.

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But the good news is: our bodies are amazing.

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And our bodies will respond to endurance, training.

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What is that? well, endurance training is anything that keeps you moving.

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It's walking,, it's running,, cycling, dancing,,.

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Any other activities that just get the increased heart rate and increased breathing.

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That's an endurance exercise., it's good for your heart,, it's good for your lungs,, it's good for your circulatory system and building that stamina, like I mentioned.

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The last thing I'll say about this, that exercise and that endurance exercise can help prevent so many age-related diseases,.

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Things like diabetes, heart, disease, and stroke.

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really important to think about an event like this is just one more way to support that overall, health.

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Monica,, the social aspects of the run walk are also very beneficial.

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Can you share how events like these can energize attendees?.

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Speaking of energized,, I get energized even thinking about this event.

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I love everything about it.

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Runs, walks,, these kinds of events are really.

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Beneficial to not only physical but emotional well-being.

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I personally I'm already looking forward to seeing people in september at the event.

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I know many of your viewers are probably looking forward to this as well.

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It's such a highlight to all get together on that morning.

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It's a, for me, not to be missed. Event, if you will., it always fills my soul with gratitude,, but it also reminds me to keep moving and it's really motivating to me.

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There's also additional benefits to our mental health.

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That are achieved by participating in events like this.

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What we do know based on research is that depression is really common among.

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Older adults and exercise itself offsets that it has an antidepressant type effect.

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Getting together with friends and family for exercise or walk around.

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The block or creating those opportunities to socialize and.

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Keep your body moving can help to deal.

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With those signs of depression and also relieve the feelings of loneliness.

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I'm going to spend a moment if we could, ethel, on loneliness.

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Cigna conducted a study on loneliness prior to the pandemic and.

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Found out that over half of the baltimore residents feel lonely.

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Those numbers have only increased during the pandemic,.

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As you could probably imagine., what is that feeling of loneliness??

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It's a feeling of feeling left out.

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participating in these kinds of events with other people in a fun and.

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Healthy way can really reduce those feelings of feeling lonely.

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We also know exercise,, your viewers may not realize this, also helps to increase mood and also helps with memory overall.

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There's just so many benefits to coming to events like this and then just keeping your body moving through this time.

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Excellent., as you know,.

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Monica,, this is an inter-generational event..

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Would you mind sharing with our audience why they should support this fun event at any age.?

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Here's just one more reason: I really love the event..

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It's such a good opportunity for people of all ages to come out for that day. Fun.

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Fun and lots of fitness going on.

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like in past years,. We always would encourage people to participate with.

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Their kids and their grand-kids and their neighbor's brothers and uncles.

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Just everyone showing up to support each other and just encourage that healthy lifestyle.

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I think this, ethel, is an opportunity for us to inspire.

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Our kids to really get active and really instill in them.

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At a younger age that hopefully they'll carry that feeling.

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Of activity as they progress through life.

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It will become a habit and a behavior that they incorporate in their day-to-day life.

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It's never, ever too late to start..

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I really hope that seniors will take advantage of the summer and the warmer weather now to get outside and get active,.

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But also use it as a way to prepare to show up at.

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This event in the fall and celebrate that moment of health.

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That really ties to what teresa shared in a previous segment.

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Of trying to tell people to move from the couch to the 5k.

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We're going to be providing some resources and tools for doing that.

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Monica,, thank you for being on the show today, on behalf of baltimore county department of aging..

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Thank you for cigna's continued support and sharing your valuable time to discuss the run. Walk.

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I'll look forward to seeing you at the run. ethel,. It's always a pleasure to speak with you.

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And thank you for the opportunity to join. You today., we'll be at the event in september. cigna's, going to show up, our team there as always, we're going participated in the run, walk.

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we're going to just be there cheering on the participants and sharing additional health information.

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I'll see you there and thanks so much for letting me join the program. Today.

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Thank you. we're going to take a short break.

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When we return learn about a new program supported by the university of maryland's extension called summer, youth, employment, programs,, cyber-seniors.