Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester
We can teach you how through our Mindfulness program Living Balance…a unique method offered as a 4-week workshop developed by a licensed psychotherapist and yoga master that incorporates scientific information and group sharing with gentle yoga and meditation.
Saturdays (3-4:30)
11/19, 12/3, 12/10, 12/17
Call or email for more information or go to our website:
914-262-9898
Northern Westchester Hospital and Phelps Memorial Hospital present the Millwood Community Health Fair on Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Millwood Plaza (site of the former A&P)
230 Saw Mill River Road
Millwood, NY 10546
Highlights include:
• Phelps Executive Chef “Joe” serving up healthy cooking demos, tastings, and nutrition activities • Taste one of Northern Westchester Hospital’s refreshing Centennial Smoothies • Ask the Dietician! Tips on nutrition and exercise • Put a spring in your step! Learn about posture, balance, injury prevention, strength and flexibility from a Northern Westchester Hospital physical therapist • Blood pressure screenings and tobacco cessation guidance • Q&A with Northern Westchester Hospital Clinical Breast Specialist • Raffle tickets for surprise give-aways…and so much more!
Maria Simonetti, Director of Community Health Education and Outreach for Northern Westchester Hospital stated, “A health fair is an excellent way to bring people together, engage the community and share health and wellness information in a fun and interactive way. Providing health and wellness education to the community is an essential part of a hospital’s mission and to bring this event to the Millwood community with Phelps Memorial Hospital, our Northwell Health partner in this region, is extremely gratifying,”
Robert Lane, Vice President for Development and External Affairs of Phelps Memorial Hospital stated “Phelps Memorial Hospital has a long-standing commitment to health and wellness in our community. For instance, our mobile medical unit has been involved in and supports many athletic and cultural events in and around our region. We are proud to provide interactive and educational outreach, along with our Northwell Health partner, Northern Westchester Hospital, to our Millwood neighbors at their Community Health Fair”.
New Castle Supervisor Rob Greenstein stated “with the departure of the Millwood A&P there is a void in our community. This Saturday we will fill that void by bringing together two world-class community hospitals for a Community Health Fair. I want to thank Northern Westchester Hospital and Phelps Memorial Hospital for organizing this wonderful event.”
By Deborah Raider Notis
In 2010, Dina Khader opened the Khader Center in Mount Kisco for health and wellness. Khader, a practicing dietitian and nutrition consultant for more than 26 years, is dedicated to developing personalized regimens to help her clients become increasingly stronger and healthier.
Khader, originally from Jordan, lived all over the world throughout her childhood and she eventually settled in New York. She experienced and learned from many different cultures–witnessing malnutrition first hand in many poor countries. With an incentive to study nutrition to help fight hunger, she pursued becoming a registered dietitian and integrative nutrition consultant.
“I had a serious reaction to the polio vaccine when I was 15 months old,” says Khader, who faced a variety of health issues at an early age. “Originally, no one thought that I would be able to walk, and when I did walk, I walked with a limp.”
When she was 13 years old and living in Abu Dhabi, Khader attended a yoga class during which the instructor told her that eating red meat could be harmful to her joints. Khader did her research and decided to change her diet and exercise routine to strengthen her body and immune system. Realizing the incredible impact that a regulated diet and lifestyle routine could provide, Khader dedicated her life to studying nutrition.
Khader leverages her strong clinical background as a dietitian and nutritionist, her unique knowledge of the effects that specific medicines have on the body, and her healing techniques to help her clients. A graduate of New York Medical College with an MS in Nutrition, she worked in several hospitals and started the nutrition program for the Saw Mill Club in Mount Kisco before opening the Khader Center.
“I do practice what I preach,” says Khader, who is committed to “eating really, really well,” and exercising a lot. After developing her own, personalized health and nutrition plan, Khader started building targeted nutrition strategies for her clients. She works with clients with a variety of objectives, from those focused on weight loss to clients looking for anti-aging techniques to people suffering from cancer or those struggling with hormonal issues. “I incorporate a number of cutting-edge, integrative strategies, individually tailored to the needs of each client.”
Khader’s cutting-edge techniques include a computer software program that helps to determine which organs in a client’s body are most stressed. She also employs epigenetics, a method of genetic testing designed to identify and alter a client’s overall health. Additionally, Khader’s mud-packing technique helps people to heal after injuries or surgical scars. “We address the trauma through a targeted application of specially mixed volcanic clay that is designed to restore the body’s natural electrical circuit. The results have been life-changing as the clay is very effective at addressing toxicity,” notes Khader.
“I can help clients achieve dramatic health improvements without relying on extreme diets or potentially dangerous drugs,” states Khader. Ultimately, her goal is to change lives for the better. And, in the end, isn’t that what we all want?
Deborah Raider Notis is a writer and co-owner of gamechanger, LLC (gamechangernow.com), a free referral service connecting Westchester families to highly qualified, competitively priced academic, athletic, music, and art instructors. In addition to contributing to the Inside Press, Deborah’s writing can be found on suburbanmisfitmom.com.
By Lynda Cohen Loigman
Throughout my life, I’ve done a lot of different things in an effort to be “healthy.” I’ve tried multiple diet and exercise regimens. I’m diligent about yearly mammograms and I go to my doctor when something doesn’t feel right. I’ve made an effort to reduce stress. I am mindful of mindfulness. It’s true I haven’t always succeeded, but since entering adulthood I have tried my best to pay attention to all of the factors that can shape a person’s physical and mental well-being.
Except for one.
For the longest time, I didn’t understand how important that one thing was to my overall happiness. For years and years, I ignored it, until I was practically ill from its absence.
As a child, I drew all of my older brother’s book report covers and made all of his shoebox dioramas. My parents didn’t know how to stop me. It wasn’t just the art projects–I tried to do his written work too. But by the time he got to seventh grade, I was banned from helping, and was told to find other ways to express myself. I made dolls out of walnut shells and tiny aquariums out of empty tic-tac boxes. I wrote stories and poems. I sewed and colored, and while I did those things I belted out every song I could remember from the annual television airings of West Side Story and The Sound of Music. My parents begged me not to spill glue on the floor. They asked me to stop singing so loudly in the kitchen. They told their friends I was “creative,” but it didn’t really feel like a compliment.
As I got older, it was hard to find time for craft projects, but I held on to a few creative pursuits. I wrote poems (bad ones) and I acted in my high school’s musicals. In college I was in an a cappella group. But once I was in law school, my creative life came to a screeching halt.
Don’t get me wrong–a lot of wonderful things happened to me during law school and throughout my legal career. I met my husband, we got married and had our first child. After eight years of practice, I quit my job and we moved to Chappaqua. A few years later, we welcomed our son and our family was complete.
When our youngest was in preschool, I had several hours to myself each morning. But the more free time I accumulated, the worse I felt. Despite the beautiful town we live in, the wonderful friends, and the daily satisfaction of helping to raise our family, I was discouraged. I went back to work part-time–but the sense of purpose I craved didn’t materialize. I was unhappy, and I was pretty sure I knew why.
The word creative is defined as follows: “relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” Was making paper dolls with my daughter creative? Making up silly rhymes for my son? Singing with my children, dancing, reading them stories? Of course it was. All of those moments were creative, important and incredibly precious. But there is a difference between creative play with children and personal creativity.
I have friends who are miserable unless they exercise vigorously every day. I have friends who have given up meat or dairy because it makes them feel better. I have friends who take medication to lower cholesterol or blood pressure or to curb painful anxiety and depression. So why couldn’t I recognize that I needed a creative outlet to feel healthy? Perhaps I knew already, but I wasn’t able to admit it. After all, isn’t that common when it comes to our own health and wellness? We put off exercise, we promise to start our diet tomorrow, we refuse medication that might help us because we see it as an admission of weakness.
I’m happy to report that I finally made my creative health a priority. It took turning 40 to give me the push that I needed, but I enrolled in a writing class, and after six years, I finished my novel. Now, writing is my medicine. The process, and all that comes with it, is as important for my personal health as any diet or exercise.
We all have things we need to do to stay healthy. Maybe your doctor has told you to stay out of the sun. Maybe you’re on Prilosec or Lipitor or Ambien. No one is going to give you a prescription for creative fulfillment, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need one. If you need a strong dose of it, chances are you already know. Hopefully you won’t wait as long as I did before you add it to your life.
Lynda Cohen Loigman, whose Chappaqua Library’s presentation is featured on the opposite page, grew up in Longmeadow, MA. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. She is now a student of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, and lives with her husband and two children in Chappaqua. She is a failure at enforcing reasonable bedtimes. Her first novel, The Two-Family House, was published recently by St. Martin’s Press.
By Matt Smith
“The quality care you have come to expect from White Plains Hospital is now even closer to home.” So says the advertisement announcing the opening of White Plains Hospital’s New Medical and Wellness Center, located in Armonk. By providing services for ailments not necessarily severe enough to require emergency room visits, the hospital staff hopes that the center will “fill a gap [in terms of health services] in Armonk and the surrounding communities,” states Rafael E. Torres, head of emergency medicine at WPH, and medical director at the new Center. And this past autumn, on Tuesday, November 17, they (officially) did just that.
“We have been a trusted provider of quality health services for residents of Northern Westchester for years,” states WPH President and CEO Susan Fox. “We are pleased to now make many of those exceptional services available closer to home for this community.”
At 99 Business Park Drive in Armonk: The new 24,000-square-foot facility–the first of its kind in Westchester–houses an urgent care center, open 3-11 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends; a diagnostic imaging center, open 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends; and several other medical offices.
Of special note, the urgent care center is the first and only one in the county, a feat in which the entire WPH staff takes great pride. “I’m sure others will follow,” says Frances Bordoni, vice president of business development. “But right now, we are the first.”
The facility is keeping in step with technological advancements. “We’re moving on to a system called EPIC,” explains Bordoni. “All of the information [regarding] your vitals, including your weight, will are input into the computer without a human person having to type it in.” Patients will have state of the art options such as a silent MRI, a 64-slice CT scan, sonohysterography, bone densitometry, and pediatric radiology.
Of all the services offered by the Medical and Wellness center, Bordoni believes the community will benefit most from pediatrics. “We decided that pediatrics should be [its own separate entity], rather than [be] mixed in with the rest of the specialties here,” she explains. She adds that pediatric ward will feature two different waiting rooms, so that “well” visitors can be separated from those not feeling well, stating: “Most pediatric offices just separate it by chairs.”
Another exciting feature of the new Center is the 3D UltraSound–a service rare in other clinics and hospitals–and 3D Breast Mammography. “One of the things I always hear from colleagues and friends is how long it takes them to get a mammogram appointment,” notes Bordoni. Commenting on how “quick and easy” their process is, she adds that “I think this [service] will be a tremendous asset to our facility.” Another plus? Women who take the mammography exam will be able to get their results the same day.
In keeping with their mission of emphasizing wellness above all in regards to their approach to medicine, the hospital staff also plans to roll out a series of programs in conjunction with Equinox Health Center, also located within the complex. “Our plan is to develop a joint program whereby an exercise regimen and personal trainer would have an individual tailored approach for each patient based on their medical conditions, history and concerns,” explains Dr. Kay Lovig, a WPH endocrinologist, and co-proposer of the project.
Lovig notes that the programs will specifically focus on topics such as weight loss management, high blood pressure management, cholesterol intake, dealing with diabetes and other chronic conditions, and dieting, to name a few. “Overall, I think it will be great,” comments Bordoni, who joins Lovig as co-spearheader. “We’re really looking forward to collaborating [on the project].”
But, of course, while the proximity to the health club is indeed beneficial, the central location of the Wellness Center begets essential medical advantage–most notably and most importantly, for those patients who need it, the ER is roughly 15 minutes away. “Living in the community, I just found that [this type of center] wasn’t at my fingertips,” comments Bordoni, speaking on the center’s location, “and it’s very important to have [a center like] this at your fingertips.”
Adds Dr. Lovig: “I’m from the area [and] I think [such a center] is something that’s definitely been lacking. It will definitely be helpful [to area residents].”
But location aside, the Medical Center and the hospital alike–or really, any hospital for that matter–is only as good as the manner in which its run. Those interviewed stress WPH is committed to attentiveness and care, in the fullest sense of the words, placing a premium on quality over quantity, when it comes to addressing patients’ needs. “There really is the emphasis–from administration down–on not treating patients as numbers,” comments Dr. Lovig. “People care about their patients here. It’s a very connected environment.”
Additionally, “it [has] a totally different feel than any other medical space I’ve seen,” notes Bordoni. “It’s a one-stop shop, but in a very boutique-type way.” She credits that feel to the hospital staff. “It’s really about the physicians, both here [at the Medical Center] and at the hospital.” Bordoni goes on to explain how each physician is “really collaborative…in their [initial] decision-making, and [in deciding] next steps with a patient.”
Of course, she states, at the end of the day, “the main goal is really to keep patients out of the hospital, and living well and healthfully in their own communities.” But, if patients had to choose a hospital to spend their time while ill, Bordoni makes it clear that there is truly no better choice than White Plains Hospital.
“We really provide tertiary care,” she continues, citing such specialists as the “stellar” oncologists and those who run catheterization labs and clinical trials, in addition to various thoracic, spine, and vascular surgeons, among all the other “terrific” physicians. At White Plains Hospital, she says, “You really do get the whole team. Whether they’re in the hospital or whether they’re here [in the Medical Center] or in New Rochelle, [the physicians and specialists] are all part of the same team, so it is one seamless machine.” She pauses, then smiles, before she adds, proudly, “which makes us exceptional every day.”
Please visit wphospital.org/armonk.
