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Lifestyle Tips for the New Blood Pressure Guidelines:
This year’s new blood pressure guidelines mean that many people are suddenly learning that they have hypertension. What does it mean? Why the change?
We have known for years that risk of heart disease and stroke goes up with increasing blood pressure, even below the 120/80 threshold that we call normal. The new guidelines are meant to stress the importance of lifestyle changes for even mildly high blood pressure.
So what should you do if your blood pressure is high, but not so high that you need blood pressure medicine? Read on to get 9 tips for managing your blood pressure...
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Free & Low-Cost Ways to Be Active
In this New Year, give yourself a gift by moving your body every day! Physical activity improves your energy and mood, along with your physical health. At a minimum, try to make sure you get up and move every hour. Find Philly-specific ideas and inspiration for every day of the week at www.phillypowered.org. New features include a calendar of events (all free or less than $10) and a 5-minute movement break video.Challenge yourself to work a movement break into your workday in some way! Check our blog and follow up on social media for updates on upcoming walking groups, at-home workouts, and new programming partnerships. Make sure you share and post your success on social media with the hashtag: #mymovesmyway.
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Why not get your office moving? Play this video at work and follow along with Philly Powered's latest movement break video. Find even more inspiration at PhillyPowered.org.
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Banish tobacco from your life in 2018
The holiday season can be a tough time for someone becoming tobacco-free. Stress, alcohol and other tobacco users can be strong triggers for a tobacco user. There are a few important steps that any tobacco user can take to make a fresh START in 2018:
- Set a recovery start date - This could be 2-4 weeks out to allow time to get ready or sooner if you're ready.
- Talk to others – Getting extra support is proven to improve your chances of being tobacco-free. Bring supportive and encouraging family, friends and co-workers into your recovery from tobacco use. Also, consider resources in the community, such as the PA Free Quitline (1-800-Quit-Now) where you can get FREE tobacco treatment medications and coaching over the phone.
- Anticipate your triggers and develop coping skills – Your triggers can happen whether you use tobacco or not. Develop coping skills that are healthy and productive for your triggers like taking a brief walk or calling/texting someone in your support network.
- Remove any remainders or reminders of tobacco use – Get rid of all tobacco products in your home, vehicle and workplace and have a 100% tobacco-free policy in your home.
- Talk to your health care provider about options for tobacco treatment medications – Tobacco treatment medications when combined with behavioral coaching can more than double your chances of being tobacco-free!
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Walk with a Doc PHL (1/10/2018)
Come walk with us! This January, Get Healthy Philly will start a series of monthly walks in Center City and later in North Philadelphia in partnership with Walk with a Doc. Walking is an easy, low cost way to better health – studies show that walking regularly can help prevent heart disease and diabetes, improve your mood, and even help your balance and coordination. The walks will include a brief talk about a prevention/wellness topic and then a chance to chat with family physician (and Get Healthy Philly director) Cheryl Bettigole and other Get Healthy Philly staff members about health and wellness.
Free to all who’d like to join, we’ll have t-shirts, pedometers, and other giveaways. All you need to bring are comfortable shoes. Our first walk will kick off from the Municipal Services Building (meet outside at the iron) at noon on January 10, 2018.
Follow Walk with a Doc on Facebook for future dates.
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Smoke-Free Philly Coalition Meeting (1/10/2018)
Location: The Urban League of Philadelphia, 121 S Broad St.
Date/Time: Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Attend the next Smoke-Free Philly Coalition meeting on Wednesday, January 10, 2018, 6:00pm - 7:30pm, at The Urban League of Philadelphia, 121 S Broad St. The SmokeFree Philly Community Coalition brings together tobacco control practitioners, experts, and advocates to help build a healthy and smoke-free city. Please RSVP Elissa Martel at elissa.martel@phila.gov if you or your colleagues are planning to attend.
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Cooking Matters Tours at ShopRite on Fox St.
 Cooking Matters store tours are FREE and will discuss healthy eating on a budget with practical skills to use at any grocery store. These tours are held on Mondays at the ShopRite on Fox Street but the times vary. You can RSVP to the tour leader Alex via email at aevenson@phmc.org or call/text at (215) 469-1716.
- January 15 @ 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm
- January 22 @ 11:00 am and 1:00 pm
- January 29 @ 11:00 am and 1:00 pm
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Active Design/Healthy Communities: State of the City (1/24/2018)
Location: Center / Architecture + Design, 1218 Arch, Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Date/Time: January 24, 2018, 8:00am - 10:00am
Event Cost: FREE. Registration required.
A child in Society Hill is expected to live 20 years longer than a child born in Strawberry Mansion. How can public health join forces with design to not only address these inequities but also go further to promote physical, mental, emotional, and civic well-being? Join the AIA Philadelphia’s Active Design/Healthy Communities Committee, in partnership with Fit City PHL, to kick off our 2018 series of conversations about the intersection of health and design. We will hear a presentation about the current Health of the City from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health Chief Epidemiologist, Raynard Washington, to ground the discussion in Philadelphia-specific data. This will be followed by a case study and conversation about how the new South Philadelphia Community Health Literacy Center connects health and urban design on the ground.
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Health Justice Summit - Philadelphia
Location: Howard Gittis Student Center at Temple University
Date/Time: Saturday, March 17, 2018, 8:30am - 12:00pm
Event Cost: FREE. Registration is required.
Get Healthy Philly, in partnership with a wide range of community organizations, health activists and faith leaders, will convene the City's first Health Justice Summit. This event is free.
The purpose of the Summit is to foster conversation and consider strategies to help improve the health and well-being of communities disproportionately affected by health disparities. These disparities can result in a difference in life expectancy that can range up to 20 years in some neighborhoods.
The Summit will provide participants with an opportunity to establish networks, share experiences and discuss strategies to organize communities and affect government and non-government policies that impact the quality of life in neighborhoods across the city. This will be a half-day event featuring two break-out sessions with panels including:
- Nutrition & Food Justice
- Movement for Mental and Emotional Well-being
- Inclusive Health & Wellness Practices
- Healthy Cooking
- Health Ministry in Faith-based Organizations
- Meditation & Yoga as Stress Relief
- Civic Engagement
Please wear comfortable clothes and shoes. Register for this event at healthjusticephl.eventbrite.com or click below.
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Community Schools Spotlight
Healthy kids are better learners. Get Healthy Philly is proud to partner with the Mayor’s Office of Education and the School District of Philadelphia on a Healthy Schools component to Philadelphia’s Community Schools Initiative. Check out some of the ways Community Schools are increasing access to healthy food.
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How Early Childhood Education Providers Use the Board of Health Recommendations
 At Get Healthy Philly, our Healthy Early Childhood Coordinator, Shannon Dryden, has been conducting messaging regarding the Philadelphia Board of Health Recommendations around Beverages and Screen Time in Early Childhood Settings. Sharing information at the Southeast Regional Key monthly provider meeting was a great opportunity to start conversations about healthy practices and have a little fun. We have also been able to provide PHL Pre-K educators with training around the recommendations most recently on “Reducing Screen Time.” Highlights included thoughtful discussion, a movement break with teachers and educators participating in a silly dance to “The Banana Song,” and hearing all of the great practices that centers already have in place! This has been an ongoing theme as the recommendations are shared with all providers who continue to highlight improving nutrition and physical activity through their own stories here.
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Strawberry Mansion Project: Youth Tobacco Use in North Philadelphia
Youth from Strawberry Mansion presented findings on Oct. 19 at City Hall from a survey examining attitudes and knowledge about smoking and tobacco products that they administered over the summer to their neighborhood peers.
The Get Healthy Philly Summer Youth Tobacco Survey project, made possible by the Mayor’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion, involved ten youth aged 14-18. The youth were hired and trained by Philadelphia Department of Public Health staff and a project coordinator to design and administer a survey measuring youth attitudes about tobacco use. During the six-week project, the youth collected 417 surveys from other youth and young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 at local recreation centers, libraries, health fairs, and other community gatherings. Read about the final results here.
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Council Hearings on Flavored Tobacco
On October 27, 2017, Councilman Curtis Jones led a joint hearing of the City Council Committees on Public Safety and Children and Youth hearings on flavored tobacco. Numerous physicians, faith leaders, youth and community advocates shared their perspectives about how these products contribute to youth and adult tobacco use.
Tobacco products infused with candy, fruit and menthol flavors make it easier for kids to start and harder to quit. These products are also aggressively marketed to Philadelphia’s low-income communities and communities of color. For more information on flavored tobacco click here. Prior to the hearing, Councilman Jones expressed his concern over flavored tobacco in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia Health Commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, followed-up with an op-ed on how flavored tobacco kills more Philadelphians than opiates and firearms.
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Get Healthy Philly in the News
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Articles on Nutrition and Physical Activity:
Articles on Tobacco Policy and Control:
Other cool things in the news:
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Mahmud Iqbal, Research and Evaluation Associate
 We are pleased to welcome Mahmud Iqbal as our newest team member. He joins Get Healthy Philly as a Research and Evaluation Associate and will be supporting the division’s data and evaluation needs. Mahmud comes to us from New Haven, Connecticut where he completed his Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology at Yale University. He completed his BS in microbiology and immunology at the University of British Columbia.
His past research has included projects on antibiotic resistant infections, tuberculosis treatment in Bangladesh, and childhood obesity in Georgia, US. He has worked in a variety of academic, government, and non-profit settings including work at Oxfam Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and he has an interest in pursuing better health for disadvantaged groups. Mahmud can be reached at Mahmud.Iqbal@phila.gov or at 215-685-5579.
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Healthy Communities Interns
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In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Education and Community Schools initiative, we have five Healthy Communities Interns serving as champions for healthy environment and lifestyle changes at their schools and in their neighborhoods. The interns are working closely with their Community School Coordinators to support their health programming and projects. So far, the interns have learned about core public health concepts, engaged students and faculty at their schools around the importance of physical activity, and they have designed and implemented movement breaks at their schools during the day. We look forward to continuing to support our interns healthy school initiatives in the coming semester!
Meet the Healthy Communities Interns:
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Dei’a Willis is a senior at Kensington Health Science Academy. Dei’a would like to become an OB/GYN or midwife.
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Desmond Kirton Jr. is a senior at Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School. Desmond is studying barbering.
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Alfremiri Florentino is a senior at Kensington Health Science Academy. Alfremiri is passionate about dance, particularly Latin dance styles.
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Najah Thomas is a junior at South Philadelphia High School. Najah is interested in studying engineering in college.
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Symantha Jones is a senior at South Philadelphia High School. Symantha would like to pursue a career in social work.
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Get Healthy Philly is an initiative of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
We envision a Philadelphia where all residents can live, work, learn, shop, worship, and play in environments that promote healthy eating, active living, and a smoke-free existence.
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We Want to Hear from You!
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