Category: Health & Fitness - Page 25

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Boxing vs. Parkinson’s Disease

By Dave Matlow

Several Westport area residents afflicted with Parkinson’s disease (PD) today participated in a first-time boxing therapy session intended to combat the progressive neurological disorder that affects nearly a million Americans.

Westporter Brian Welsh (r), 78, spars in the ring with former Golden Gloves champ Rich Dean. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The session took place at Rich Dean Boxing Fitness studio, 10 Bay St., and was led by Rich Dean, former Golden Gloves boxing champ and past member of Jamaican Olympic team, and Josh Lander, a chiropractor, who practices at Westport’s Willows Medical Center on Kings Highway North.

Program coordinator and “cheerleader” Don Harris of Weston said the event was inspired by a “CBS Sunday Morning” report in November 2015 by CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl whose husband, Aaron Latham, is afflicted with PD. Latham called it “the incredible shrinking disease.”

Lander said it has been long known in the medical community that vigorous exercise is effective therapy for movement disorders such as PD. He said the rigorous intervals of boxing movements increased blood flow to the brain.

Putting Up a Fight

Westport area residents with Parkinson’s disease held their first boxing therapy session today at Rich Dean Boxing Fitness studio, 10 Bay St. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Blumenthal Bill Would Speed Generic Drug OK

By Kyle Constable

www.ctmirror.org

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., plans to introduce legislation intended to speed up FDA approval of generic prescription drugs and combat the “astronomic rise” in the cost of health care, he said today.

The bill, titled the “Fast Generics Act,” will be sponsored by Blumenthal and a number of other legislators. He announced the proposal and called for more federal action to combat high prescription drug prices during a panel discussion at Hartford Hospital.

“The astronomic rise in health care costs is due to lax enforcement, broken markets and, unfortunately, unvarnished greed,” Blumenthal said during the event. “There are more fundamental problems that need to be addressed. Many of the companies are too big – and are monopolies – and have misused their monopolistic power.”

Blumenthal called for stronger enforcement of federal antitrust laws and more transparency in drug costs, saying that claims of research and development necessitating the cost increases need to be verifiable.

Click here for more of story

Friday, January 15th, 2016

DPH Asks to Report Suspected Zika Virus Cases

By Arielle Levin Becker

www.ctmirror.org

The state Department of Public Health has asked health care providers to report suspected cases of Zika virus – a mosquito-borne illness being investigated for possible links to birth defects in Brazil – to state and local health officials.

No cases of the disease have been reported in Connecticut, according to DPH. A case was confirmed in Puerto Rico in December, and cases have been reported in travelers, but the virus has not been transmitted elsewhere in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus is usually mild, but a possible link between Zika virus in pregnant women in Brazil and birth defects in their children is being investigated, according to DPH.

“All people, especially pregnant women, who are traveling to areas where Zika virus is found, should take precautions to avoid mosquito bites to reduce their risk of infection of Zika virus as well as other mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue and chikungunya,” Dr. Raul Pino, acting DPH commissioner, said in a statement today.

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Monday, December 21st, 2015

Talking Education

Academy Award-winning director Michael Moore gets together tonight with former Staples High School Principal John Dodig at Westport’s Vespa restaurant following the screening of Moore’s new film “Where to Invade Next” at at Bowtie Cinemas Royale 6 in Norwalk. The film is an expansive, subversive comedy in which Moore, playing the role of “invader,” visits a host of nations to learn how the United States could improve its own prospects. In France, Moore marvels at the exceptional quality of the cuisine served in its public schools and in Finland he spotlights its education measures, including doing away with homework and seeking to educate the whole person, rather than merely training students to pass a standardized test. Dodig said he told Moore his entire career has been devoted to promoting similar goals for his students. Also in the audience and at the reception was Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) WestportNow.com photo

Wednesday, December 16th, 2015

Comings & Goings: Second Location for Sun Reflexology

Sun Reflexology opened today at 877 Post Road East in the shopping center near the Sherwood Island Connector. The new salon is the second location in Westport for Sun Reflexology, which will continue to operate its first site at 1543 Post Road East, which opened in 2011, according to Hannah Sun, the owner’s daughter. The salon’s brochure describes reflexology as “a technique that works critical points on the hands and feet that improve the entire body’s health – the reflexologist views the hands and feet as a mirror image of the entire body and every organ.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Wednesday, December 9th, 2015

Chipotle Westport Business Slows

Westport’s Chipotle Mexican Grill, 376 Post Road East, was not doing much business tonight amid confirmation that more than 120 Boston College students have reported symptoms associated with the highly contagious norovirus since eating at a Chipotle restaurant near the school. In another outbreak, since October, 52 people have fallen ill from E. coli traced to Chipotle locations in nine states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The Westport restaurant opened in June. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Sunday, November 29th, 2015

Westport Connection: First Hospice Home in Lower Fairfield County

By James Lomuscio

UPDATE A Westporter says the first hospice home in lower Fairfield County won’t be in Westport because “nobody wants to confront their mortality.”

Artist’s rendition of the new hospice house. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Inspired by Westporters who initially hoped lower Fairfield County’s first residential hospice would be in their hometown, Fairfield County Hospice House (FCHH) will have its official groundbreaking attended by state and local officials Wednesday, Dec. 2, at noon in Stamford.

Westporter Larry Weisman, a retired land use attorney and co-chairman of the FCHH board, said that the six-bedroom home planned on 1.25 donated acres has been six years in the making. The nonprofit FCHH originally considered using space on Westport’s town-owned, 22-acre Baron’s South property, “but we knew that was not going to work out,” Weisman said.

“It’s a hard sell because nobody wants to confront their mortality,” said Mary Lou Weisman, who has worked with her husband on the project. “But in a hospice, a peaceful death and taxes are what we all have in common.”

Sunday, October 25th, 2015

NYT Columnist Jane Brody: Exercise Daily

There was a full house today at the Westport Center for Senior Activities for a talk by New York Times personal health columnist Jane Brody. In the event sponsored by AT&T and the Friends of the Senior Center, Brody urged her audience to be careful with what they eat and to exercise every day. “I don’t make a daily decision to exercise. I just do it,” she said. Brody, 74, will mark her 50th anniversary of writing her column in November. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

Comings & Goings: Rich Dean Boxing Fitness to Bay St.

Rich Dean Boxing Fitness has opened at 10 Bay St., lower level next to Post 154 restaurant. Owner Rich Dean, 45, born in the Bahamas and raised in Yonkers, N.Y. is a three-time Golden Gloves champ (1987, 1994, 2000) as a featherweight and then junior welterweight, an Olympic boxer in 2000 in Sydney, Australia and two-time gold medalist in the Empire Games, 1999 and 2000. He said he is the only certified boxing fitness trainer in Fairfield County. His business offers one-on-one personal training “Olympic-style” and also conducts small Olympic boxing style fitness classes for both men or women. “It’s light sparring without the bruises,” Dean said. “We’re a fitness gym in a boxing environment.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com