Blue Zones | Vital Connections
Story 141

Krista Howell: As we said, we have visitors today. I'm actually really proud of you guys for coming to class, knowing there'd be a video here.

Speaker 2: Well, we've got to have something to cheer up our lives.

Krista Howell: Yeah. And it makes you guys a part of the Blue Zones, you're important, there's purpose.

Krista Howell: My name is Krista Howell, I'm the cardiac rehab exercise physiologist, and I've been part of this program at Adventist Health Sonora for about 33 years.

Paula Saccullo: I'm Paula Saccullo. I'm 90, I was 90 last December. Honestly, I like to exercise. I'm one of the crazy people. We always tell each other, "If you're not here, we talk about you." That's our own incentive to keep coming.

Cas Munoz: I'm Cas Munoz, M-U-N-O-Z. I'm a coach, I coached football and baseball at three high schools for 45 years. I love fishing. I love boating. Married a couple of times, and it's a tough life at my age, because what the hell do you do for entertainment?

Janean Snyder: My name is Janean Boyer-Snyder. I'm 82. I worked at Lockheed, working on the Hubble Telescope and the Space Station, which was quite exciting, actually.

Christine Wheeler: I'm Christine Wheeler, preferably Chris. I'm 86 next month. My husband and I have been married 66 years, which is quite a little milestone these days. Krista is the most special person in many ways, and we all think so.

Krista Howell: Cardiac Rehab program is insurance-based for patients post having bypass surgery, stent replacement, having a valve repair, heart attack, stable angina, or heart transplant, or congestive heart failure. And so most insurance companies cover 36 visits, so when they're done, then they're kind of just sent out on their own, so why not have classes?

Christine Wheeler: You're beating me. I kind of like to stand next to Phil, as you saw me. That's my position in class, and that's his position. The rest of everybody, I don't know what they do, but when we're on the treadmill, we sometimes talk.

Paula Saccullo: Dean and I are kind of the cutups. We have the dirty... Not the dirty jokes. Please, no dirty jokes. We have the corny jokes.

Krista Howell: Loosen up your lower back.

Speaker 7: The joke of the day.

Krista Howell: OK, joke of the day.

Speaker 7: Joke of the day. Why did the cab driver quit his job? Too much talking behind his back.

Paula Saccullo: I have one little guy that I... Cas. We've got him to adjust his cane higher, and his wife's happy because we do kind of pick on him a little bit, "Get going, get going. Move, move."

Cas Munoz: I got up to 240 pounds, and I'm now 179. So I feel good. Life can be crude, but I'm going to give it all I got, and when the man upstairs says it's time, I'll be ready to punch in.

Krista Howell: This particular class has been my longest group together, and probably about 15 years for most of them. It is just a connection when I started seeing the community talk about the Blue Zones and aging, and then I said, "Well, can I have a piece of that here?" And they're just active. They tend to work plenty hard. I'm more like, "No, no, just slow down a little bit," because your body gets better by just being active throughout your day, and having more vitality. They mean a lot, and they're family in here, as all our patients are when they come in our doors.