WEforum Newsletter: February 2018
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What to Give Up for Lent? Smoking? Cursing? How About Plastic?
For Lent, many Christians give up indulgences like tobacco, alcohol or sweets, or transgressions like lying and swearing. And for Anglicans, don’t forget synthetic fabrics, wet wipes, and those little boxes that hold dental floss.
The Church of England has asked people to add a new culprit to the list of ills they forsake for the six weeks of penance that begin on Ash Wednesday:
plastics
. Specifically, the church wants people to avoid the plastic consumer products and packaging that have become
a major environmental problem
, polluting oceans and rivers, fouling beaches, killing wildlife and clogging landfills.
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Along with some of the easier-to-follow suggestions, like buying clothes made of natural fibers or taking reusable bags to the grocery store, are others that might require more effort, like using “a
bamboo toothbrush
or a toothbrush with recyclable heads.”
The church’s “Lent Plastic Challenge” arrives on a wave of anti-plastic sentiment and legislation in Britain and across Europe, as more people conclude that the first element of the motto “reduce, reuse, recycle” should take precedence.
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Scientifically Proven Benefits Of Mindfulness And Meditation
The practice of mindfulness and meditation has been around for thousands of years but has gained interested in the business world primarily because we now have the ability to do the one thing that was never possible before—see how these practices change the wiring and the makeup of our brains.
1.
Mindfulness Reduces Anxiety
2. Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Implicit Age and Race Bias
3. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) May Prevent And Treat Depression
4. Increase Body Satisfaction
5. Mindfulness Meditation Improves Cognition
6. Mindfulness Meditation Help The Brain Reduce Distractions
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After poring over all the evidence, experts declare coffee is (mostly) good for you
By Kendall Powell
"It's impossible that we still struggle to decide if coffee is healthy or unhealthy," says Giuseppe Grosso, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Catania in Italy: Good for hypertension one week. Bad for hypertension the next.
To address this vexing situation, Grosso and his colleagues collected all studies on the health effects of coffee, systematically reviewed the evidence, then
offered up their bottom line
in
the Annual Review of Nutrition.
Specifically, they looked at 127 meta-analyses, which lump together and statistically analyze studies on similar topics. A few of the studies were randomized controlled trials on coffee or caffeine administration, but most were observational studies of real-world coffee and caffeine consumption habits. (None of the review's authors were paid by any food or beverage company.)
For each meta-analysis, the team calculated the strength of the study's designs and conclusions and then ranked its evidence for relationships between coffee and health on a scale from "convincing" all the way down to "limited."
No studies showed a "convincing" level of evidence — not surprisingly, since observational studies lack the rigor of gold-standard trials that use placebo controls. But several found "probable" evidence that coffee-drinking is associated with a decreased risk of many common cancers — including breast, colorectal, colon, endometrial and prostate — with a 2 to 20 percent reduction in risk, depending on the cancer type.
The review also found risk reductions of 5 percent for cardiovascular disease and around 30 percent for both Type 2 diabetes and Parkinson's disease. A coffee habit was also associated with a lowered rate of death from any cause during the course of a study. Great news for coffee drinkers!
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First, coffee beans contain phytochemicals (some of which are also found in fruits, vegetables, chocolate and tea) that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. All of the diseases linked to protective effects from coffee start with low-level inflammation, and anti-inflammatory dietary chemicals circulating in the body could calm it down.
Second, caffeine and other phytochemicals have specific effects on enzymes that regulate liver function, insulin and glucose metabolism, and DNA repair. All could act favorably to fend off Parkinson's, Type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Sadly, Grosso notes that none of the analyzed data pertains to his home country's coffee habits: "For 99.9 percent of Italians, coffee is espresso and anything else is 'dirty water,' " he says. Italians' typical espresso intake is only about one ounce a day — a paltry 50 to 75 mg of caffeine. In other parts of the world, he has seen people guzzling much larger volumes of coffee and tea, he says. "It was absolutely important to know if this was having an effect on health."
The review's conclusion: Our "findings indicate that coffee can be part of a healthful diet."
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3rd Annual Fit Crawl Rocked!
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Forget bar crawls,
WEforum's record-breaking Fit Crawl
proves health and wellness are in for 2018. More than 250 participants took part in WEforum's third annual Fit Crawl on Saturday February 3rd, an event that was one of the first of its kind in the country when it first launched in 2015. Organized in partnership with
Monmouth Medical Center/RWJ Barnabas Health.
The price of admission for this full day of health, wellness, and self-empowerment gave people a unique opportunity to sample three fitness classes with some of the hottest boutique fitness studios in Monmouth County including:
AB Fitness, Aspire Fitness, Clementine Cycling, Coastal Core Fitness, Even Flow Yoga, Fuel Fitness, Live Life Moving, LB Kass DANZhouse, New Shrewsbury Cardio Tennis, Mega Cycle, Our Team Fitness, Perspirology, Pilates Blast, POE Fair Haven, Powerflow Yoga, Pure Barre, Renaissance The Studio, Synergy Hot Yoga, Tandem Cycle,
and
Younique Yoga.
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Fit Crawlers celebrated their victories at the post Fit Crawl Happy Hour hosted by
Renaissance The Studio
, where guests enjoyed mouthwatering offerings from Chef Marcy Ragan of
Relish Your Chef
and Jen Asfar of
The Healthy Palate
, refreshing acai bowls from
Playa Bowls
, and specialty cocktails crafted with organic cold-pressed juices from
Juice Basin Asbury Park
.
The event was proudly sponsored by the
New Jersey Plastic Surgery Center
and
Zoono, GermFree24
.
The Fit Crawl brought women together from across Monmouth and Ocean Counties to unleash their inner health warriors for themselves and their fellow community members with all proceeds raised at the event going torward funding free health and wellness programs offered by Monmouth Medical Center/RWJ Barnabas Health. Says first-time Fit Crawler Tara Breslow-Testa, "I loved spending the day with other women in the community getting my sweat on for a terrific cause."
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Mark Your Calendars !
4th Annual Fit Crawl
Saturday, March 2, 2019
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WEsupport
is a Support Group for mothers navigating their child's ADHD and other sensory integration related disorders.
Next Meeting:
Thursday, March 15th
The Kilkeary Home
89 Third Street, Fair Haven
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Dine and Chat
Join
WEforum
and
Jersey Entrepreneurial Mom's
for an evening of networking and learning how to make your home efficient and more environmentally friendly with Clare Broderick from
Greener Cleaner LIVING
.
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Wednesday, April 24th
7:00 pm
Location: TBD
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Greener
Cleaner
LIVING will be sharing ways to make your home greener and cleaner – benefiting your family’s well-being, your wallet, and the environment.
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Save The Date
WEforum Health & Wellness Conference
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Plan to join us for a great day of educational lectures, invigorating discussions, breakout sessions plus an extensive vendor fair!
November 13 & 14, 2018
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Thank you to our 2018 sponsors!
We appreciate your support to make vital health care information accessible to the entire community.
Sponsor Opportunities
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Other Local Events of Interest
VNA Health Group's The Power of the Purse: Ladies Handbag Auction
Thursday, May 3rd, The Riverhouse at Rumson Country Club.
The SOURCE at Red Bank's CASINO Night
Saturday, March 24th, 7pm to 11pm, at The Molly Pitcher Inn, Red Bank.
DANZhouse FITtrip with LB Kass and Sloan-Taylor Rabinor
May 4th - May 6th in Miami, Florida.
Free Meditation courtesy of OhanaLa (
www.OhanaLa.com
) -
Classes are always free and open to all. Details below:
- Wednesday, February 28th, 11:00am - 12:00pm (Meditation for Coping with Grief). Stephy's Place - 210 Front Street, Red Bank
- Every Sunday - 5:15 pm (once per month closest to Full Moon. SynergyHotYoga - 623 River Road, Fair Haven.
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When you
educate
a woman, she
empowers
her family,
and together
WE
can
evolve
a community.
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