portland health and wellness news
........taking health and wellness to a whole new level
June 2006 - Vol 3, Issue 3
In This Issue
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Greetings!
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Welcome to our new and improved newsletter! For those of you not familiar with Portland Health and Wellness, we are a small clinic located in inner southeast Portland offering a refreshing approach to health and disease prevention. By offering individual services as well as health-based classes and workshops, we are able to provide a variety of tools for improving your health in profound and meaningful ways. Every newsletter will focus on a health topic we hope you will find of interest and value. Look for important information on the effects of stress on health in our July newsletter.

PH&W waiting room
We are very pleased that 2 outstanding clinicians have joined our team: Donald Altman, MA and Juleeanna Andreoni, MS, RD. In addition to being a psychotherapist, Donald is a former Buddhist monk and award-winning writer. Donald provides individual psychotherapy and also offers '12 Weeks to Mindful Eating', a program he developed to help individuals develop a healthier relationship with food. Juleeanna is a clinical nutritionist with a broad range of experience. She is certified in adult, adolescent, and childhood weight management. Christine Howard, PsyD continues to offer individual psychotherapy. Her areas of professional interest include eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and mindfulness. Marcela Vinocur, MD serves as the director of PH&W's unique weight reduction program. She also maintains a psychopharmacology practice. Last but certainly not least, Rodolfo Puente, M.Ed. is our new Executive Director.

By popular demand, we have started a weekly weight loss support group led by our nutritionist. Currently the group meets every Monday from 10:30am to 11:30am. Regular attendance is encouraged but not required. The cost is $15 per session. Please call for additional details.

In the future, we will offer more evidence-based classes and workshops addressing a variety of issues such as stress management, improving your diet, weight management, and disease prevention. Additional health-centered cooking classes will be offered this summer. Look for a special appearance by Birgitta Hellman, author of "taste this: ordinary ingredients, extraordinary flavours".
  • June 5......Forging a Dynamic Relationship; a workshop series for couples
  • June 10 ...Healthy Cooking for 1, 2, or 3
  • June 19....Why Diets Don't Work; a medical perspective
  • July 12......Stress Management for Busy Professionals
  • July 22......Intro to Weight Management
  • Aug 30......12 Weeks to Mindful Eating

For up-to-date information about our upcoming workshops and classes, please check our website or give us a call. Pre-registration and payment are required for all ph&w events and space is limited to 12 (cooking classes are limited to 8). We strongly encourage early registration.
Many people start diets around this time of the year. If you are planning to go on a diet, read this article first.

Contrary to popular belief, "crash diets" or fad diets can help you shed those unwanted pounds in the short haul, but not in the long haul. In fact, drastic diets that promote rapid weight loss can spell danger down the road. There are several medical complications associated with very low calorie diets, such as formation of gallstones. One largely- ignored complication, however, is loss of lean muscle mass. Since muscle burns more energy than fat, rapid weight loss can make it much more difficult to maintain weight by lowering your metabolic rate. In the long run, rapid weight loss can lead to rebound weight gain.

In fact, there is now limited scientific evidence indicating that people who diet actually gain more weight than those that don't. In a poster presented at the 2005 National Association for the Study of Obesity, researchers Alison Field and colleagues found in a 7-year study that adolescents who engaged in dieting actually showed greater weight gain than those who didn't. In fact, the longer these adolescents dieted, the more weight they were likely to gain. In sum, it's important to think about the potential long-term effects of dieting. The safest path to lasting weight loss and improved health is by eating a healthy, balanced diet. Summer is a great time to load up on fresh vegetables and fruits, and, of course, going for long walks or bike rides.

copyright 2006 portland health and wellness

We are very interested in your comments and suggestions. Please let us know if you have a topic you would like to see covered in future newsletters. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
the staff of
Portland Health and Wellness

phone: 503.236.4506