Striving to stay healthy takes effort

By Patricia Villers
Register Staff
pvillers@nhregister.com

    Good health: we all try to attain it, and maintain it.
    On Saturday my daughter and I attended Griffin Hospital’s second annual Women’s Day of Health.
    We enjoyed it last year and planned to return this year. Fortunately we both were able to attend, along with about 100 other women of all ages.
    As I listened to keynote speaker Delphine Geraci, a bariatric nurse, discuss how most women perceive their physical appearance in a negative way all I could think of was “she’s absolutely right.”    
    Women can be their own worst enemies, and as Geraci said they need to remind themselves to take a step back and realize how important they are to the people in their lives, be it family, or friends, or both.
    In addition to Geraci’s talk, “Bringing Out the Aphrodite in You,” the day included breakout sessions. Participants could choose three of five to attend.
    We attended a presentation about preventing cancer led by Zandra Cheng, a breast surgeon who is director of the Hewitt Center for Breast Wellness at Griffin Hospital.
    She is a brilliant woman, and I have a special place in my heart for her. She operated on me just over a year ago and I feel like I owe her my life.
    Cheng said she is honest with her patients, but that in one survey 20 percent of doctors who responded said they had lied to their patients. She said they included lies of omission as well as lies about the seriousness of the patient’s illness.
    In another session called “Acupuncture and Beyond,” led  by Lisa Rosenberger, a doctor of naturopathic medicine, and Holly Major, an Advance Practice Registered Nurse, we learned about therapeutic touch. They said it was “a contemporary interpretation of several ancient healing practices.”
    The method re-balances the energy in a person’s body, they said, and can be helpful with anxiety and pain, among other things. They also said the goal is to treat the cause of the imbalance, “not just the symptom of the disharmony.”
    The third session I attended, while my daughter learned CPR techniques from Cathi Kellett, a Griffin Hospital Valley Parish Nurse, was led by a physical therapist.
    Nancy Corvigno talked about problems related to incontinence in a talk called “Don’t Make Me Laugh.” But her lighthearted presentation about a serious subject did just that: it made us laugh.

   Note: Did anyone reading this post attend the Women’s Day of Health? If so, what did you learn? Would you considering attending next year’s event?
    I know I plan to do so.