Get your springtime started on the right foot.
If beautiful spring weather doesn’t inspire you to get healthy, I don’t know what will. Well, maybe this: the Phoenixville YMCA hopes to inspire healthy nutrition and exercise in the community with its Spring Into Fitness 5K. The race, which takes place at Phoenixville High School, is open to both runners and walkers of all levels. The top overall male and female finishers will receive cash prizes, and medals will be awarded to the top male and female in each age group. Food and refreshments will be provided to all participants and proceeds will go towards the Phantom Phitness Club, a local program dedicated to educating the community about leading a healthy lifestyle. Find more info and register here.
$20 until April 17th, $25 after, race day is April 27th at 9 a.m., Phoenixville High School, 1200 Gay Street, Phoenixville.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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The brand behind the high-intensity workouts popular with adults also makes a version for kids as young as three. But is it safe?
 Courtesy CrossFit KOP When I first heard about CrossFit Kids, I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical. Here’s what I know about CrossFit: it’s sweaty, intense and competitive. Is this kind of workout appropriate for kids as young as three—not to mention, safe?
“CrossFit depends on the age of the athlete and their level—that’s true of adults and kids,” says Aimee Lyons, owner of CrossFit King of Prussia who has run the gym’s CrossFit Kids program since 2009. “If I’m working with a kid and I feel like he should be in a different class, I’ll let the parents know.”
Unlike the adult version, fun—not intensity—is the focus of CrossFit kids, the idea being that if you can get a kid to have fun while he or she works out the health benefits will follow. The actual workouts vary by age—at the KOP CrossFit gym, kids are broken into age groups between three to five-year-olds, six to 12, and 13 and up—but they usually start with a warmup, such as an obstacle course, followed by time to work on a skill. Just like with adult CrossFit, form and execution are king here, so kids will work on things like perfecting their squats or push-ups. Then comes the workout, which incorporates what they learned in the skill portion. “So if I taught squats,” explains Lyons, “I might have them do A.M.R.A.P.—as many rounds as possible in X amount of time of five squats, five box jumps and a bear crawl.”
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A new Center City wellness center focuses on the needs of moms and babies.
 Looking back on my years as a teenage monster (I remember it clearly; I turned 20 just last year), I can safely say that my mom deserves an award—or at least an “I Survived My Daughter’s Hormones” T-shirt. It’s clear: Moms and moms-to-be need all the lovin’—and support, and resources—they can get.
Enter Mama’s Wellness Joint. After building a local following through years of teaching yoga in Philly, Paige Chapman decided to found a family wellness center at 1100 Pine Street, set to open on October 5th. Mama’s Wellness Joint was born out of the idea that Philadelphia women and families need a safe and welcoming space to learn more about how to better care for themselves and their children.
Chapman will provide women and families with a range of alternative-wellness workshops and yoga classes meant to address the needs of women and their families before and after giving birth. On the jam-packed roster are adult, prenatal, postpartum and kids yoga classes; Mommy and Me and Daddy and Me classes; workshops including meditation, ayurveda and nutrition; and fertility-support groups. An in-house masseuse and retail space with all-natural products for mom and baby round out the offerings.
Related Post:
Special Delivery: Why Philly Moms Are Choosing Midwives
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In a city brimming with world-class physicians, more and more moms-to-be are choosing midwives. But why?
 Mindy Drossner used midwives to deliver Maya, 7, and Brandon, 3. For Mindy Drossner and her husband, Michael, using a midwife to deliver their two kids was a no-brainer. They liked the homey environment and private suites at Bryn Mawr’s midwife-run Birth Center. Plus, Drossner wanted to give birth sans drugs, and thought that would be easier under the care of a midwife, whose goal is to usher women through delivery epidural-free. “Women have had babies like this forever,” says Drossner, 35. “If they could do it, I could, too.”
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Doctors still don't know a lot about how the brain reacts to concussions and why some patients fare better than others. New research could change that.
 It’s always about this time of year when everyone starts talking about concussions. It’s no coincidence: Concussions are the most common type of brain injury. And with gobs of kids heading back to school for preseason and busy fall-sports schedules, concussions are on a lot of minds. (Pardon the pun.)
It’s certainly no coincidence that early last month, a new Pennsylvania state law went into effect, implementing new rules on schools, parents and coaches for how to handle athletes with suspected concussions. The law is an effort to curtail the rising rate of youth concussions; one national study found that ER visits for concussions doubled between 1997 and 2007.
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Music, food and fun at the Jenkintown Whole Foods Market.
 As an addendum to our recent beet talk, I wanted to point you to this: the Fresh Beets Music and Food Festival at the Jenkintown Whole Foods. On Sunday, August 5th, join Whole Foods in celebrating everything local—from musicians to chefs and food—for free. The festival will be happening in the grocery store’s parking lot, where the mobile stage will be buzzing with local artists like the Jeffhouse Band, New Kings of Rhythm, Peter Moses, David Joel Quartet and David and Melissa.
And to accompany the entertainment, the lot will be filled with farmers’ market vendors, locally made food, live farm animals and tons of children’s activities to keep the tots occupied as you peruse. Christina Pirello, an authority on health foods, will then steal the show with a live cooking demo, where she’ll be dishing out a generous dose of how-to-eat-healthy cooking tips. For a full list of vendors, check out the event page.
FREE, Sunday, August 5th from 2 to 6 p.m., Whole Foods Jenkintown, 1575 The Fairway, Jenkintown.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Our region is ripe for growing some seriously amazing produce—if only people would take advantage of it. That's where Greener Partners comes in.
 Swiss chard at Greener Partners' Hillside Farm in Media When was the last time someone told you they wanted to be a farmer when they grow up? Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a farmer-to-be, someone totally in touch with how food goes from seed to table. That’s probably because less than one percent of Americans claim farming as an occupation, according to the EPA. And quite frankly, that’s a problem.
But Greener Partners, a farm-based non-profit, is helping to fix this. Four years ago, a group of innovative entrepreneurs got together and decided they would get Philadelphians back in touch with the land around them by opening accessible, educational and, most important, functional farms.
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Go ahead—let your kid lick the kitchen floor.
 Still think you’re protecting your offspring by keeping that pump-bottle of antibacterial soap on the kitchen counter? A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center says you may be setting them up for more allergies instead. The researchers checked the urine of almost 900 kids ages 6 to 18 for antibacterials and preservatives found in everyday personal-care products like soap, toothpaste and mouthwash, as well as for the presence of certain antibodies that are elevated in those with allergies. “We saw a link between level of exposure, measured by the amount of antimicrobial agents in the urine, and allergy risk, indicated by circulating antibodies to specific allergens,” reports lead investigator Jessica Savage.
The findings fit squarely with the “hygiene hypothesis,” which claims that without exposure to common germs in childhood, we don’t have the opportunity to develop healthy immune systems. When that happens, those systems misfire and overreact to foods, pollens, and other harmless substances.
The researchers found that kids with the highest urine levels of the antibacterial agent triclosan also had the highest levels of food IgE antibodies—and thus the greatest risk of food allergies. Those with the highest levels of another antibacterial agent, propyl paraben, were twice as likely to have environmental allergies.
The message here: Don’t freak out if you find your kid licking the kitchen floor or sucking on the dog’s paws. The more germs, the better when it comes to building up immunity for the long haul.
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A new study found that family mealtime improves physical and mental health.
 • Today’s shocking statistic comes from a research team at Rutgers University, which found that American families spend 40 percent of their budgets on eating out, typically not together. It’s an alarming trend when you consider the host of evidence that links dining out regularly with obesity and nutrition deficiencies. Earlier this week, TIME reported on the study, which culled data from 68 other studies on the issue. Researchers found that eating family meals at home correlates to better physical and mental health, particularly for kids: They get more fruits, veggies, fiber, calcium, and vitamins in their diets; eat less junk food; have lower BMIs; show fewer signs of depression; and feel more connected to and supported by their families. TIME has more, including how TV-watching as a family doesn’t count as quality time and eating fast food—even if consumed at home—won’t help improve a family’s dietary bottom line.
• The illusive ‘G-spot’! Someone confirmed that it actually exists! (Or, well, maybe not.)
• Hey Broad Streeters, when you pick up your race packets at the expo on May 4th and 5th, you can enroll in a cancer study, too. The Philadelphia Business Journal has details.
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A local mom says that's exactly what happened when she was told her daughter, Amelia, wouldn't be receiving a kidney transplant at CHOP.
UPDATE, 4:50 p.m.: CHOP’s press office just responded to my request for comment with the following:
“The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia does not disqualify potential transplant candidates on the basis of intellectual abilities. We have transplanted many children with a wide range of disabilities, including physical and intellectual disabilities. We at CHOP are deeply committed to providing the best possible medical care to all children, including those with any form of disability.”
According to CBS Philly, Chrissy Rivera says CHOP has contacted her about discussing her daughter’s case further.
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Last Thursday, Chrissy Rivera vented to the Internet. She recounted the story of what happened to her at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on January 10th, when a doctor in the nephrology department sat down with Rivera and her husband, Joe, to go over the logistics for an upcoming kidney transplant their daughter, Amelia, was due to undergo.
Amelia was born with a condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS), a diagnosis in which a person is missing part of a chromosome and suffers a variety of birth defects, including developmental retardation. The lifespan for people with WHS is unknown, as some die in infancy and some live into adulthood. The condition occurs in an estimated 1 in 50,000 births; some 35 percent die within the first two years of life.
The Riveras received Amelia’s WHS diagnosis three days after she was born and found out soon after that she’d need a kidney transplant down the road. That was nearly four years ago. Just before Christmas, they learned the inevitable had arrived: It was time to get the transplant on the books. READ MORE
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