One by one, the 18 women around the table at East Liberty's Vintage senior center named their chronic ailments.

High blood pressure. Glaucoma. Allergies. Back pain.

Some mentioned just one disease and quickly passed their turn to the next person. Others took a minute to run down a geriatrician's grab bag of conditions.

Arthritis. Insomnia. Diabetes. Obesity.

"I have so many things wrong it's hard to list," said one gray-haired woman, Geneva, an organ transplant veteran with a heart problem, diabetes and osteoporosis.

She and the other women -- men were allowed, but none enrolled -- were in the first day of an intensive program to help them learn to manage chronic disease. It is based on research at Stanford University and funded by a $197,000 grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation to train 200 older adults over two years at Vintage. They are supposed to become more aggressive about maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle in the face of whatever condition might challenge them.

Participants pay nothing to take six weekly workshops lasting 2¹/₂ hours each. They practice helpful techniques such as meditation or other distractions to manage pain. They develop personal action plans of habits they pledge to follow to achieve goals. And they learn how to better deal with medical professionals by asking them questions and educating themselves about their chronic conditions.

Developers of the Stanford University Chronic Disease Self-Management Program say follow-ups with the participants there showed long-term health improvements, increased exercise, fewer hospital visits, less fatigue and other gains. Much of the difference is attributed to a sense of empowerment that participants feel after they're educated about how to manage chronic disease.

"You can do nothing, or you can pro-actively manage your condition, and the difference in those two styles really has to do with quality of life," said Kate Lorig, director of the program at Stanford, who noted that people over age 60 average 2.2 chronic illnesses they have to live with. "The program gives people not only the skills to manage, but the confidence that they can actually do so."

The 18 women -- 17 of them African-American -- in the Thursday class at Vintage supplement another 20 attending Tuesday sessions this fall. Another 35 took it last spring. Two of the spring graduates are peer leaders in the current classes, assisting Vintage staff members who received special training at Stanford.

One of those peer leaders, Geraldine Henderson, 70, of East Liberty, said she's been exercising more ever since taking the workshops and feeling better about her ability to endure glaucoma.

"I read the Internet now and take more questions to my doctors," she said. "I ask for alternatives. ... This sort of empowers you. You see some people with these chronic illnesses who just give up, like they're waiting to die."

During their first class two weeks ago, the women practiced how to distract themselves from pain -- something many of them live with -- and found how much more quickly time passed if they were meditating, singing, focused on happy thoughts or using other tricks.

They each began work on an "action plan," pinpointing what they would begin doing differently to manage their health better, and how often they would do it. Most of them said they would increase the amount of walking they do.

Erma Dalton, 72, of East Liberty, looking athletic in her sweatpants and sneakers, said she would dedicate herself to reading more, because she's already physically active. Although it was only the first day of class, she was enthused about the potential.

"Maybe hearing suggestions of other people will help me," said the former teacher's assistant, who suffers from insomnia, pain and allergies. "By sharing ideas, maybe you have a better framework of everyday living."

Part of the Pittsburgh Foundation's funding of the program will be used for University of Pittsburgh researchers to follow up with the participants six months after the workshops, to assess how their health may have changed.

Tom Sturgill, the Vintage program director who was leading the class, explained that chronic conditions require individuals to be much more involved in their treatment through behavior and medications than acute illnesses and injuries, where a doctor takes precedence. Part of the challenge is to communicate better with relatives and friends about the condition, and any help that is needed with it, in addition to health professionals.

Mr. Sturgill said that recruiting men for the workshops has been a challenge, and not because they're any healthier than women. "Men in general tend to be not as much joiners," he said, and they are less pro-active about their health.

In coming months, he said, Vintage will advertise a class only for men, in hopes that it will be more comfortable for them.