Full House for Senior Health and Financial Fitness Expos in Downtown and Southern Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Eagle, Home Reporter and Brooklyn Spectator hosted two well-attended health and financial fitness expos within the last two weeks, one at Dyker Beach Golf Club on Thursday, Oct. 4 and another at St. Francis College on Friday, Oct. 12.

There were food, fun and freebies for those attending, along with informative booths provided by hospitals, realtors, law firms, local businesses, therapists and karate instructors.

In all, there were some 25 exhibitors at each expo offering information packets, product demonstrations and all kinds of free promotional items. There were raffles, prizes galore and a 50/50 raffle.

At the Dyker Beach expo, three keynote speakers delivered highly informative talks revolving around medicine and health care. NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island’s Chief Gastroenterologist Dr. John Trillo; Maimonides Medical Center’s Director, Interventional Cardiology in Cardiovascular Care Director Robert Frankel, MD; and United Healthcare and AMP Insurance Brokerage’s Sales Agent Louis Peters each presented a keynote speech.

At the St. Francis expo, the keynote speakers were NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island Chief of Cardiology Dr. Nicholas E. Brodyn, SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s Director of Audiology Dr. Sal Saleh and Maimonides Medical Center’s Women’s Heart to Heart Department of Cardiology’s Director Dr. Inna Nelipovich.

Accessible Dispatch, a program that connects the community to wheelchair accessible taxis all throughout the five boroughs, handed out literature about its service.

“It’s not just for individuals in wheelchairs, it’s for anybody in the community who wants to use it,” Community Outreach Director Steven Williams told this paper. “You don’t have to qualify or go through a medical assessment or exam. Anybody can use it. All you need is a telephone. There are three easy ways you can access the service. You can download our app: accessibledispatchnyc, go to our website or call our dispatch line. It’s just a wonderful way to make New York City more accessible.”

Certified physical therapist Marcello Sarrica explained what makes Sarrica Physical Therapy unique.  “We try to go above and beyond,” he said. “We do all one-on-one sessions unlike traditional physical therapy facilities that often double and triple-book patients. We value quality over quantity and ultimately the patient benefits from that hands-on, one-on-one approach.”

Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care, located at 1516 Oriental Blvd. in Manhattan Beach is one of the only facilities that has private rooms facing the ocean. “It’s a 400-bedroom facility on 10 acres of land with a lot of greenery and other amenities like onsite free parking,” said Community Outreach Liaison Thomas Ryan. “And we can facilitate all rehabilitation needs.”

Chiropractor Dr. Carey Skorski of Bay Ridge Holistic Health explained, “Holistic health care is a way to see what’s interfering with your health holistically so we check patients for nutritional deficiencies, toxicity, nerve interference from emotional and physical stress,” Skorski said. “And we help patients maintain their balance for better health.”

Trillo’s keynote speech revolved around gastrointestinal health and prevention. He identified colon cancer as the third leading cause of cancer death in this country for both men and women equally.

“We have excellent screening tests to help prevent colon cancer,” Trillo said. “There are a number of them, with the first being a colonoscopy. Everyone should have a colonoscopy starting at age 50 and every 10 years until the age of 75.”

He also discussed other tests that are used to identify colon cancer for those refusing to have a colonoscopy, adding, “Some cancer screening is better than no screening at all.”

He stressed the importance of being aware of and preventing the disease before it happens. “If we’re able to prevent it then we’ve done our job by giving you a longer life and better quality life,” Trillo said.

Frankel said that Maimonides has a long history of heart care excellence. He reminded everyone that the first human heart transplant performed in the United States was in 1967 by Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz at Maimonides Medical Center.

He also said that the pacemaker was partially developed and designed at Maimonides. “I can tell you that we have been No. 1 in interventional cardiology procedures for many, many, many years,” Frankel said. “In fact, for the last eight years in a row we’ve been No. 1 in the entire state of New York.”

Peters shifted the focus from medicine to healthcare when he spoke about new Medicare procedures. “We are Medicare specialists and we have about 1,500 Bay Ridge clients,” Peters said. “We offer every plan at our office at 77th Street and Fifth Avenue. We have 10 plans and can assist you in all of your Medicare needs.”

He encouraged guests to learn more about the high deductible F Medicare supplement plan, which he called “the most amazing product out there.” He also recalled that he used to deliver the Home Reporter when he was eight.

At the St. Francis expo, Brodyn offered some fascinating life-saving tips about heart health. “Our heart is similar to a basement boiler,” Brodyn said. “It has two chambers on the top and two chambers on the bottom that pump blood to the body.” He explained that women tend to outlive men and that heart disease in women often occurs later in life. He stressed the need to use common sense and not to ignore the warning signs of heart disease.

Saleh spoke about the need to maintain healthy audiological health with the motto “hear better, feel better.”  He explained that it’s not just people 60 and over who suffer hearing loss, but babies also can suffer from it.

He talked about SUNY Downstate’s focus on this issue and discussed all the audiology services it provides.

“Thirty-six million people suffer from hearing loss,” Saleh said. “One of the most common problems is young people using headphones and raising the volume too high in order to hear their favorite lyrics.”

He also discussed the major improvements made in modern hearing aid technology. “There are now invisible devices that sync up with your iPhone,” Saleh said. “And remember, the longer you wait, the harder it is to remedy hearing loss.”

Maimonides’ Nelipovich discussed women’s risk factors for heart attacks. She offered a visual presentation detailing the various symptoms of heart failure and talked about the various heart failure programs offered at Maimonides.

“We have a world-class arterial fibrillation program, an aortic aneurysm dissection program and a vascular surgery program among many others,” Nelipovich said.

Other exhibitors included AARP Bay Ridge branch, AARP Bensonhurst/Ovington Chapter, Advanced Hearing Center, Aetna, the Allure Group, AXA Advisors, Bay Ridge Holistic Health, Bay Ridge Vision Care, Ben Bay Realty Co. of Bay Ridge LLC, the Bensonhurst Center, Brooklyn 4U Realty, CERT, Connors and Sullivan, Eyewear Girls, Humana, Knights of Pythias, Pro Health Urgent Care, Norwegian Christian Home and Health Center, American Cancer Society, Caption Call, Dime Bank of Brooklyn Heights, doTerra, MTA Reduced Fare, NYU Langone and WMA Karate.

Russell Craig Targove was the master of ceremonies at both expos and Howard Latting performed Tai Chi demos to promote WMA Karate’s senior self-defense and wellness classes. There were also blood pressure screenings and other activities throughout each event.

Guests were exceedingly pleased with the scope of the expo. “I come to this expo every year and this is one of the best I’ve ever been to,” said attendee June Johnson. “It’s very informative and I’ll certainly be back.”