Part of keeping healthy when reaching the later years in life means evaluating different areas of personal health and fitness through regular testing.

About 200 senior citizens came to Hancock College Saturday to do just that.

The fifth annual Senior Health and Fitness Expo featured vision screening, skin cancer screening, podiatry evaluation, nutrition consulting, and fall prevention tips.

Three of the most popular attractions at the Expo were the blood glucose and cholesterol testing, physical fitness testing and bone density evaluations. All of the attractions at the Expo were at no cost to visitors.

Jana Righetti, exercise physiologist for Marian Medical Center, presided over the Physical Fitness Testing Area at the Expo. Here, seniors were able to participate in several tests and exercises that measured flexibility, muscular strength, and cardiovascular endurance.

"They'll actually know what they need work in," Righetti said of the fitness testing area. "For instance, if flexibility is a problem, they will know they will need to incorporate stretches or maybe look for a community education program or a physical fitness program in the area that works on the flexibility or on strength or cardio. They'll just kind of know which area they need to work on and what they're doing well on so far because a lot of them have physical fitness programs they're involved with."

Santa Maria resident Teresa Graves, 71, is part of a physical fitness program and agreed.

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"Aerobics class is helping me, so doing this fitness test shows me the results of my aerobics training," Graves said.

The blood glucose test involved a small prick on the finger to place a tiny amount of blood on a cassette, which is fed into a machine that revealed cholesterol and blood sugar levels in about seven minutes.

"Tests check whether a person has a high level of glucose in the blood to determine if the person is at risk of diabetes," said Laurie Smith, Administrator for Best Care Central Coast Home Health Agency, who directed the blood testing. Smith said people were advised through advertisement not to drink or eat anything from midnight the night before the blood test, until after the test was taken.

"I wish they had started the Expo earlier," said Meredith Grubbs, 54. "Because of the blood work, you can't eat. Otherwise, it was great that they held this."

The Expo was held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Lompoc resident Sandra Skinner, 66, was in the blood glucose testing room to check on her cholesterol. Skinner said she attends various health fairs, "as all seniors should" and appreciates the relaxed atmosphere at these events.

Linda Cohen, 62, wanted to check if she was at risk for osteoporosis, a degenerative bone disease.

"Osteoporosis is a problem that runs in my family," Cohen said before getting an X-ray taken of her heel bone on a machine that provided results within seconds.

Anthony Hales, a Certified Densitometry Technologist, brought his X-ray machine to the Expo to help seniors measure their bone density.

"People lose bone density because of aging," Hales said. "The loss of bone density can be accelerated by smoking and eating disorders."

Hales added that bone density loss can be treated with proper medication.

"Cholesterol and bone density are so important and a lot of people don't follow up on that," Graves said, "This is just a great thing for seniors."

The Senior Health and Fitness Expo will come to Lompoc at the Lompoc Valley Community Center from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 14.

* Staff writer Neil Nisperos can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 108, or by e-mail at nnisperos@pulitzer.net.

Feb. 6, 2005