Yes, we’re all too busy, too stressed, too whatever to even think about eating right or exercising more.
But take it from Dr. Nanette Kass Wenger: If you don’t make time to cut down on the saturated fats and empty calories or take a brisk walk a couple of times a week, you had better be prepared to try to survive heart disease, diabetes or something equally life-threatening.
Wenger, chief of cardiology at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and a professor of cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, shared her no-nonsense approach to improving one’s longevity with the 700 or so Denverites who were at the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom on Sept. 25 for a luncheon benefiting the University of Colorado Center for Women’s Health Research.
Carrying extra pounds, she noted, is a big contributor to heart disease. Her best advice for figuring out if you need to lose: “Strip, then stand in front of a mirror.”
How you reduce is a personal choice, but something as simple as a half-hour’s worth of exercise per day — done at once or in 10-minute increments — coupled with a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and lean protein can put you well on your way.
Sheri Hart chaired the luncheon, at which University of Colorado Denver chancellor M. Roy Wilson and Drs. Judy Regensteiner and JoAnn Lindenfeld, the center directors, also spoke. A $25,000 grant from the estate of Bill and Connie White, whose Denver public-relations firm once was one of the largest in the region, helped underwrite the event.
Special guests included sisters Catherine Campbell and Carole Hayward, who recently established the center’s Cooper Family Endowed Lectureship; Nancy Anschutz and daughter Sarah Hunt (a gift from the Anschutz Family Foundation is helping build a new facility on the Anschutz Medical Center campus in Aurora that will house the CWHR and other groups); Marcy Benson, wife of University of Colorado President Bruce Benson; Gay Cook, who recently stepped down as CWHR executive director to become program vice president for the Colorado Trust; and Judi Wagner, a Gold Sponsor and founding chair of the CWHR board.
Pam Bansbach, Nancy Benson, Margaret Garbe, Jane Yale, Sue Clinton, Peggy McClintock, Lindsay Hickel and Susie Mammel were guests at a table hosted by the chair of CWHR’s community advisory board, Toni Cohig; nearby were former CU-Denver chancellor Jim Shore and his wife, Chris; Susan Kirk; Virginia Newton; Nan Eklund; Lin Carlson; Joy Johnson; Mary Sissel; Mary Lee Beauregard; Dori Biester; Crissie Snow; Karen and Steven Leaffer; Nancy and Richard Gooding; Connie Graham; Chiara Del Monaco; Nan Oudet; Terry Matthews; Dr. Anne Lynch, recipient of the 2007 List Family Foundation/CWHR Junior Faculty Research Development Award; and the Drs. Amy Huebschmann, Stacie Daugherty and Daniel Barry, the 2008 awardees.
Tracey Blustein, executive director of the Adoption Alliance, also was there, along with Paula Peri Tiernan, Kent and Glenda Winker, Arlene Hirschfeld, Sandy Morrison, Jeff Swanson, Jane Prancan, Barbara Grogan, Joyce Cashman and Kim Morrill.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
