Spiderman on the job! — from Halloween in Harlem by Amy Stein |
Oh, the places you can go…
Welcome to the first of what I hope is many newsletters/blogs regarding the remarkable amount of things there are to do in New York City that address the health of the body, mind, and spirit, in many cases without overly-stressing the wallet.
I determined that these postings would be of great use, because in my office, you can regularly hear me advising the following to my patients:
“The mission is to keep the body free of nervous system interference. The way to do that is to optimize the following:
Pleasure – Get out or go inward and bathe yourself in physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental pleasures.
Natural Living – Natural food, fuel, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, home/office construction.
Exercise/Stretching – without professional guidance, at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity, 30 minutes of weight bearing, 30 minutes of stretching a day. There are professionals who can help you curb these numbers, too!
Meditation/Prayer – Twenty minutes twice a day can dramatically improve your health!
Correct Supplementation – not all “nutritional” supplements are alike!
Rest – 6 ½ – 7 ½ hours of sleep a night. If necessary, take a power nap instead of a sugar snack or a Red Bull!
Proper Posture – Proper posture supports the structure and function of your body.
Connection with Others – Hug your family and friends often! It’s good for you!
Chiropractic – Keep your nervous system clear of interference with regular chiropractic adjustments.
We need all of these. Without them, we are a wreck to our friends, families, and ourselves and a heart attack or cancer victim waiting to happen. You know it as well as I.
Unfortunately, I usually get half-smiles and nods in return as if they are telling me, “Yeah, Doc – I’ll be running right across town to wait three hours on line at Trader Joe’s and sign up for indoor rock-climbing at Chelsea Piers just as soon as my boss lets me out of that project at 9:00 tonight. I can barely make it to see you for a quick adjustment!”
I got to thinking that putting ideas of fun, easy to do things in our neighborhood in a fun, easy-to-read blog would be helpful. For those who have taken an interest in this, please let me know if you know of any events and places that we can all visit.
For now, I’ll start out with my favorite haunt every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings: Green Gourmet on Lexington Avenue.
Places to Go:
Green Gourmet
790 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10065
212-759-7811
This wonderful little treasure opened just around the corner from my office in March of 2010. Before, it housed a typical New York convenience deli where you go to get bagels and coffee in the morning (if you didn’t already make yourself a healthy breakfast before you left the house, of course) – as well as sandwiches and typical groceries that you can get in a conventional grocery store. In other words, I ever hardly went there.
When Susy took over the premises last spring, she recognized a screaming gap in the New York Convenience deli experience in our neighborhood of Lexington and 61st Street. She put her vision to work: a New York convenience deli with a healthy twist: a heavy emphasis on natural, organic, and high-end products.
She renovated the entire store front and modeled it to make it attractive to the local residents as well as the masses of people walking Lexington Ave. between the 63rd Street F train and the 4,5,6,N,Q,R transfer at 60th Street. It has everything a local deli should have: impressive breakfast and lunch choices, a wide beverage selection, quick-munch power bars and quality chocolates, not to mention great organic coffee and teas. It also boasts an impressive selection of organic produce and grocery choices one can usually find only at Fairway, Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage. The prices are on par with those will find at the natural mega stores (save Trader Joe’s), which works just fine because you definitely save in convenience and travel expense. She has also begun incorporating a natural health, bath and beauty selection that is expanding weekly with new and varied choices.
What’s more, they provide catering services to local businesses and families who need wonderful natural dishes that they can trust to be flavorful and lovingly prepared. Although they are all tremendously camera shy, Susy and her staff are very friendly and knowledgeable. Everyone there knows that this is a special place, and everyone takes pride in its offerings. If they don’t have it, ask and they will probably know where to get it…fast.
Whenever my patients need something quick to eat, I send them immediately to Green Gourmet. Without fail, they come back wide-eyed at the brilliant little gem I have right around the corner.
I have become particularly addicted to their yogurt cocktail made fresh daily, with Greek yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, almond granola and a layer of yummy honey on the bottom for $2.99 a 12 oz serving. You will see me almost every working morning between 8-9 a.m. grabbing one of these delectable concoctions and running back to my office around the corner to start my day.
No longer do we workers and business owners have to jog to 2nd and 1st Avenue to replenish our organic household grocery supplies, get a delicious soy candle or haunt a Starbucks clone for fresh organic coffee. Visit Susy and company at Green Gourmet and let her know what a nice little place she has. It’s her special baby, and she’ll be very pleased you noticed.
People to See:
Ana Nieto, Health Mentor
Super Slow Studio at Transform Fitness
133 E 58th Street, Suite 902
New York, NY 10022
646.286.6264
info@superslowstudio.com
Ana Nieto is used to New Yorkers telling her she hasn’t much time to transform them. Located on the 9th floor of the bustling 133 E 58th Street business high rise, she is very well aware that the people who live and work in her neighborhood do not have time to work out….which is primarily why they come to her.
Ana is a personal trainer in a style of workout called Super SlowTM – a high-intensity, 30-minute workout that builds your core strength and maximizes lean muscle development in one workout for the entire week! That’s right, folks…you too can increase your testosterone levels, give yourself anti-aging benefits, help your cardiovascular system and strengthen your bone density in just one 30-minute workout a week.
I’m sure you’ve heard about this method. It became very hot about three years ago; that’s when a few of my patients came to tell me they had found this remarkable method of strength training. I was dubious at first, but when I got a look at the research and met a few of the personal trainers, like Ana, who specialize in this superbly-urban form of workout, I was sold on recommending it for my busiest patients.
Ana herself began teaching this method of training in 2000. She moved to Transform Fitness in 2004 and has a thriving client base. Ana has a penchant for clients with medical issues, and her style of workout is very good for people with low back pain issues. She is especially adept at working with post-surgical clients as well as keeping pregnant women and new mothers fit. She also goes out of her way to cultivate relationships with health care professionals so she can make certain her clients get the most effective care along with their strength training.
When I asked Ana what her favorite part of her job was, her reply was that she enjoys seeing people achieve the results they desire in less time than they expected. She recounted a particular client who had excruciating pain from a herniated disc –pre and post surgery. With Ana’s help, she was able to regain most of her range of motion and is virtually pain free at this point (to learn more, read the testimonial on the web site listed above).
I asked her what her clients could generally expect to gain from these once-a-week workouts. She hesitates to make sweeping claims as to results, but she said that people usually lose a clothing size within 12 sessions. She usually advises people, instead of scale-watching, gauge the way your clothes fit your body. Fat is four times as bulky as the same weight in muscle. It’s lean muscle you want, more than arbitrary weight loss.
Ana is at her E 58th Street location Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at her Sag Harbor, Long Island location Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you e-mail her, she will happily offer you a free 15-minute consultation. Take her up on it. She’s very knowledgeable and skilled, and you know you need to work out…at least one time a week!
Things to Do:
All Souls at Sundown – An Evening Meditation of Jazz and Poetry
6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m., First Sunday of the month, from October to April
All Souls Church
1157 Lexington Ave. (@80th St)
New York, NY 10075-0495
(212) 535-5530
info@allsoulsatsundown.org
I can’t say enough to encourage you to attend these free events. You don’t have to belong to All Souls Unitarian Church, nor be of any particular faith system (or any faith system, for that matter), to fully appreciate the beauty and calming quintessence of combining some of the world’s best poetry with the musical stylings of some of the city’s most impressive jazz musicians.
Reverend Galen Guengerich conducts these sermons on the first Sunday of each month from Fall to Spring, at 6:00 p.m. It is the perfect way to end the weekend and start the week – full of moving contemplation and warm fellowship. If you need any one event to remind you what makes living in this city wonderful, it is this one – walking in the winter streetlights past the upper east-side bakeries and candy stores to enter a grand edifice of a New York church for sweet refreshments, great music and poetry, good company and inspiring meditation.
I remember when I first attended one of these services last December, frazzled and annoyed because I still had not gotten done what I needed to get done for the week ahead, and it was Sunday evening already. I had promised myself that I would go and see what this thing was about. I was so glad I got myself out of my apartment to attend.
I sat in the pew of All Souls, completely taken in with the gorgeous architecture and lighting of the sanctuary. Rev. Galen read from the work of Billy Collins while Ben Williams and Aaron Goldberg soothed us with jazz piano and base. I enjoyed some non-alcoholic sparkling cider and refreshments afterward with others attendees, met the musicians, had a nice chat with Rev. Galen, and felt like I had actually done something wonderful for myself.
I don’t remember the nonsense that I “had to get done,” but I remember the beautiful hour I had there. That’s what makes doing things for yourself so important: when it gets right down to it, the minutiae of life drags your experience of time the way barnacles slow down a boat. If you don’t make certain to take time, how will you ever have time?
Be in the Know: Why is Doing Any of this Important?
When it comes right down to it, natural methods of health and wellness are unquestionably the best choice. Find the simplest solution to a problem first. Turning to artificial methods before trying natural methods is, at best, counterintuitive; at worst, dangerous. As in all things, you are your own best advocate. There are professionals – myself included – that you can go to for direction. We will give you the best we have to give; however, our best of intentions is never as good as your own intentions for you. No one is going to care about you the way you care about yourself (certain mothers excluded!).
Case in point: the following article is reprinted from The New York Times
When Drugs Cause Problems They Are Supposed to Prevent ~ News Analysis
By GINA KOLATA
Published: October 16, 2010
New York Times
In the past month, the Food and Drug Administration has concluded that in some cases two types of drugs that were supposed to be preventing serious medical problems were, in fact, causing them.
One is bisphosphonates, which is widely used to prevent the fractures, especially of the hip and spine, that are common in people with osteoporosis. Those drugs, like Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva, will now have to carry labels saying they can lead to rare fractures of the thigh bone, a surprising new discovery that came after another surprise — that they can cause a rare degeneration of the jawbone.
The other is Avandia, which is widely prescribed for diabetics, whose disease puts them at risk for heart attacks and heart failure. Two-thirds of diabetics die of heart problems, and a main reason for taking drugs like Avandia is to protect them from that.
But now the F.D.A. and drug regulators in Europe are restricting Avandia’s use because it appears to increase heart risks.
In the case of bisphosphonates, the benefits for people with osteoporosis still outweigh the risk, bone experts say. And no one has restricted their use.
But the fact remains that with decades of using drugs to treat chronic diseases, the unexpected can occur.
Something new is happening, said Daniel Carpenter, a government professor at Harvard who is an expert on the drug agency. The population is aging, many have chronic diseases. And companies are going after giant markets, huge parts of the population, heavily advertising drugs that are to be taken for a lifetime.
And the way drugs are evaluated, with the emphasis on shorter-term studies before marketing, is not helping, Dr. Carpenter said.
“Here is a wide-scale institutional failure,” he said. “We have placed far more resources and requirements upon premarket assessment of drugs than on postmarket.”
Dr. Jason Karlawish, a University of Pennsylvania ethicist who studies the ways new treatments are developed and disseminated, expressed a similar concern.
“The point is not that the drugs are bad, but that drugs for these chronic diseases present a novel set of challenges about how to assess their safety,” he said.
But such discussions make Dr. Ethel Siris, an osteoporosis expert at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, nervous. Bisphosphonates have been extensively studied, she said, and the thigh fractures from bisphosphonates — while surprising — are very rare. Dr. Siris’s fear is that people who really need the drugs will turn away from them.
It is not clear how the nation should respond to the new era of widespread drug use for chronic diseases.
“The basic underlying theme is that we don’t have good long-term safety indices for common chronic diseases that we are treating with major drugs,” said Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, director of the Maine Center for Osteoporosis Research. Dr. Rosen, in addition to studying osteoporosis, was on an advisory committee of the drug agency that examined the evidence that Avandia was linked to heart risks.
The difficulty is in figuring out how to assess the safety of drugs that will be taken for decades, when the clinical trials last at most a few years.
Today’s system, which largely consists of asking doctors to report adverse reactions and of researchers’ attempts to look at patient experiences in a variety of diverse databases, like records of large health plans, is ineffective, medical experts agree.
“There has to be a better system,” Dr. Rosen said.
Congress recently gave the drug agency the power to require studies after drug approval, but the agency has used it sparingly.
Some, like Dr. Rosen and Dr. Carpenter, would like large clinical trials after a drug is approved and continuing for years, even for drugs that met all the premarket requirements.
Dr. Karlawish questions whether this is practical. Once a drug is approved, it can be difficult to persuade doctors to assign their patients randomly to one approved treatment or another, and the sort of studies being suggested would go on for many years, making them difficult.
He favors something different — the development of a national electronic drug database that would reveal drug use and complications. In the meantime, Dr. Karlawish said, he could not help marveling at the paradox of drugs causing what they were supposed to prevent.
“This is priceless,” he said.
Have a safe, fun Halloween!
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