The health & fitness events on our radar this week
 Eating Local: Preserving the Best of Summer
September 4th, 1:00 PM
Learn how to save your favorite summertime treats in jars so you can enjoy them all year long. The menu will consist of fresh fig and lemon preserves, hot pepper vinegar, roasted tomato sauce, and Texas-style pickled okra.
Sur La Table, 690 West Dekalbe Pike, Suite 2068, King of Prussia; $69 per person; For more information, call 484-612-0046 or e-mail cooking081@surlatable.com.
Urban Escapes Summer Camp
September 3rd – September 6th
Grab your yoga mat and head for the hills this Labor Day weekend with Urban Escapes Philadelphia on a three-day retreat to the Kittatinny Mountains. Your retreat will be packed with guided hikes, yoga sessions, campfire parties, pick-up games, and 500 acres of serene relaxation. Afterwards, cool off with a dip in the private mountainside lake, then kick back and relax with a family-style dinner. READ MORE
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Hit the green for a good cause this Monday
 If you need another excuse to get on the green one last time before the end of summer, the Sixth Annual Kidney Open on Monday, August 30, is it. Held at Wilmington’s DuPont Country Club, the low-key afternoon will be filled with friends, family, rounds of golf, tasty summer fare—and all proceeds will benefit the Gift of Life Organization, which strives to service the unmet needs of patients awaiting transplants by offering housing, meal service, and support to their family members.
“It’s a very blue collar golf tournament,” says Dan Sinnott, former CEO of Temple University Hospital and coordinator of the open. “It’s not fancy … It’s friends coming together. We don’t spend money on a lot of other things because we want the majority of the money to go towards the Gift of Life organization.” READ MORE
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Wellness Week is on its way. Sign up now to score prime appointments and classes
 Philly’s first-ever Wellness Week is kicking off September 20th and, throughout the week, some of the area’s best yoga studios and spas will be offering classes and spa appointments for either half-off or a totally doable $50. If you sign up for emails at Deal Days — it’s free — before August 15th, you’ll be able to start booking the prime spots that fill up fast 5 days ahead of everyone else. The complete list of participating spas will be made available to Deal Days registrants on August 20th. READ MORE
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July 31st. One day. One neighborhood. Seven free dance workshops
 Philadelphia’s first annual National Dance Day is this Saturday, July 31st, and there are a ton of cool dance-loving things going on. Four local dance companies (Philly Dance Fitness, Lindy and Blues, Major Moment Studio, and Messiah Danceworks) will be offering seven FREE dance workshops, from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m, scattered throughout the Graduate Hospital and Rittenhouse Square neighborhoods. There will be everything from blues, cardio bellydance, and hip hop to African jazz, salsa, Zumba-thon, lindy hop, and an end-of-the-night social dance and performance by the pros. (Check out the workshop schedule here.) No dance experience or partner is required. Wear sneakers or dance shoes and bring your friends!
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The weather is warm and the gyms are stuffy. Break out of your routine with a fun workout on the water
 Illustration by Justin Renninger Whether you grab a few friends or the family for a day of canoeing or want to up the burn a bit and try your hand at kayaking, both of these water workouts ensure you’ll be sore the next day—your arms! your core! your back!—and feel refreshed from time spent in the great outdoors. Check out our list to find a spot near you! READ MORE
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Buy tickets now to see him in September
 Courtesy of abcnews.com ABC News Anchor/Reporter Bob Woodruff and his wife, Lee Woodruff, have been chosen as the guest speakers for Bryn Mawr Rehab’s Upcoming 40th Anniversary Gala. The Woodruffs were chosen due to Bob’s personal experience with physical and cognitive rehabilitation after he was injured by a roadside bomb in 2006 while covering the war in Iraq and how the experience affected his wife.
This year’s 40th Anniversary Gala Celebration will be on Wednesday, September 29, 2010, at the Philadelphia Country Club. For tickets, call 484-596-6071.
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PCC hosts a free, fun-filled day of canoeing and kayaking on the Schuylkill River
If canoeing and kayaking is something you’ve always wanted to try or get your little ones to experience, this weekend you can do it for free. The Philadelphia Canoe Club Open House will be a family-friendly day of outdoor activities. When you need a break from paddling, check out the whitewater and flat-water boat rides, the noon race, or enjoy some food and music. Used boats and equipment will also be for sale. Sunday, July 11th, 10AM-4PM, Philadelphia Canoe Club, 4900 Ridge Avenue
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If you want to get out and have a good time this 4th of July, check out the fun, active events taking place Independence Day Weekend. There will be patriotic dancing and live music at the Star Spangled Country Dance at the American Legion Hall in Newtown on Friday, July 2nd, and you can score swing dance lessons at the Yankee Doodle Dance Party at West Chester’s Carousel Ballroom on Saturday, July 3rd. End Independence Day weekend with the 4th of July 5K in Broomall, and you won’t have to feel one bit guilty about enjoying some of those BBQ favorites.
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There may be a biological reason why depression and other stress-related psychiatric disorders are more common among women compared to men. Studying stress signaling systems in animal brains, neuroscience researchers found that females are more sensitive to low levels of an important stress hormone and less able to adapt to high levels than males. The research appears online today in Molecular Psychiatry.
“This is the first evidence for sex differences in how neurotransmitter receptors traffic signals,” said study leader Rita J. Valentino, PhD, a behavioral neuroscientist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Although more research is certainly necessary to determine whether this translates to humans, this may help to explain why women are twice as vulnerable as men to stress-related disorders.” [CHOP.edu]
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Two out-patient facilities coming this summer
 Penn Medicine plans to open two additional out-patient centers this summer in Valley Forge and Woodbury Heights, New Jersey. Penn Medicine at Valley Forge, a 90,000-square-foot facility, is currently under construction, and will house more than 50 primary care and specialty care physicians, and on-site laboratory and radiology services. The three-story building will also serve as a primary care training site for University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine students. Penn Medicine Woodbury Heights [shown], a 37,500-square-foot facility, will also house primary care and specialty care physicians, on-site laboratory and radiology services, physical therapy, and an optical shop.
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