On February 14, Valentine’s Day, Open Door hosted Women & Heart Health at the Open Door Port Chester. Participants received a warm welcome from Andrea Ruggiero, Executive Vice President of Community Health. Open Door’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Daren Wu, delivered an informative interactive talk about the ABC’s of heart health including getting to know your A1c blood glucose, understanding blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. He shared advice on preventive measures to improve heart health which included eating well, staying physically active, getting enough sleep and quitting or reducing smoking. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and enjoyed refreshments.
Our partners from Family Services of Westchester’s COMHPS team provided important information about how emotions can affect our hearts and bodies in general. Kylie Robertson, Team Lead shared tips on how to cope with stress and then led the group in an interactive activity where they wrote messages of gratitude to the staff of Open Door and created a gratitude wall with their heart-inspired messages. Sonia Ahuja, Associate Director of Wellness and Nutrition also shared important information about diabetes prevention and Zumba class offerings.
Thank you to all who helped make this event a success, and to all who participated and wore red in honor of American Heart Month.