Category Archives: Health & Fitness

By Jill Nagy

Capital Cardiology Associates opened an office at 34 Congress Street in Saratoga Springs last fall, with a formal ribbon-cutting in December. This is the practice’s sixth office in the Capital Region.

The Saratoga office is a temporary location. In the fall of 2025, they expect to move into a new multi-speciality practice in a new building near the Wilton Mall. The Wilton location will also include a cardiac urgent care walk-in office, a “hallmark of Capital Cardiology,” according to Dr. Lance Sullenberger, the chief operating officer and a 15-year veteran of the practice.

Dr. Nicholas Kondo, a long-time Saratoga cardiologist, is at the new Saratoga office for three-and-a-half days a week. Other physicians from other offices will rotate in as needed. In Dr. Kondo’s absence, a nurse practitioner, nurses, and other medical personnel will be available. Some of the staff members have transferred to Saratoga from other offices; others are new hires. The office is equipped for diagnostic imaging. Dr. Kondo is currently accepting new patients, according to the organization.

By Susan Elise Campbell

The strategic focus of Jill Johnson VanKuren since she took over the helm of Saratoga Hospital as president and CEO in September 2022 has been on establishing a Center for Successful Aging that meets the needs of the community’s growing population of seniors. At some time during the third quarter of 2024 the Hospital will be switching over to a new electronic medical records system that VanKuren said “will provide the backbone” for a comprehensive center that brings together services supporting seniors along a continuum of care throughout the aging process.

“Albany Med is about to start their implementation of a new medical records system in the first quarter,” VanKuren said. Then affiliates under the Albany Med Health System will follow. 

Saratoga Hospital is slated to integrate its records around October, she said, and “that is the Hospital’s main focus for this year.”

“This implementation has actually been several years in the making for us,” according to VanKuren. “It is more difficult than one might think to transition to a new EMR on face value, much less to do it as a large system with many different perspectives melding into one.”

But for VanKuren, the change means more than just coming under an improved EMR that reaches across the entire Albany Med network, she said.

“It’s the basis of my strategy as a new leader in developing the Center for Successful Aging,” said VanKuren. “This is a collaborative, interdisciplinary model of care as people age that starts with integrated medical recordkeeping among those disciplines.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Looking into the year ahead, Glens Falls Hospital is expanding or introducing several services designed to help improve the experience of being a patient in, or a visitor to, the hospital, according to President and CEO Paul Scimeca. 

“We are very proud of the care we provide,” said Scimeca. “We are a safety net for a very large service area, which covers 6,000 square miles of the Adirondacks.”

Many patients funneling down to Glens Falls Hospital from this large region need care for age-related medical conditions, reflecting the demographics of the general population. 

Others have behavioral issues to address and few places to go. To benefit this segment of the community, Scimeca said the hospital is in the process of relocating its Behavioral Health Crisis Unit so that it can be expanded from seven beds to 13.

By Christine Graf

When it comes to working out, consistency is key. A person reaps more benefit from exercising regularly over a long period of time than from performing periodic extreme exercise routines. 

“Many people have this all or nothing mindset,” said Mike Sirani, co-owner of Capital District Sports and Fitness in Round Lake “They think that if they start working out that it has to be five days a week for an hour every time and that they have to go really hard every workout. But, when you have a busy schedule, that can be difficult to stay consistent with.”

It is for that reason that Sirani said it is important to be realistic when setting fitness goals. 

“It’s about finding a routine that fits into your schedule and one that you can consistently do every week. You need to do an honest assessment of where your life is at. The most important thing in order to see progress is being consistent.”

Taking that scary first step is something Ryan Carpenter, owner of Simple Strength and Conditioning in South Glens Falls, experienced firsthand. The former Marine started going to the gym in 2015 at a time when he weighed 335 pounds. 

“I got sober in 2012, and when I stopped drinking, I replaced the alcohol with sugar and food,” he said. “I was super heavy, had aches and pains, and was feeling like crap. That’s when I decided to make some serious lifestyle changes.”

By Paul Post

John Jacobs has just the thing for Baby Boomer cycling enthusiasts who find uphill climbs a bit more daunting than they used to be.

 Velotric e-bikes allow people to keep pedaling their way to health and fitness with help from modern technology that takes the strain off tired muscles and achy joints.

 Inside Edge in Queensbury has three different models that have been leaving the store as quickly as Jacobs can stock them, he said.

 “I had no expectation that we’d be selling these as fast as we have,” he said. “A lot of ‘snowbirds’ with second homes up here have been coming in. They live up around North Creek where there’s hilly terrain. They like to ride, but they’re getting older. These bikes are all designed to assist you. What they really do is smooth out the hills. It allows you to go somewhere fairly quickly, still getting some exercise but not struggling against a big headwind or steep hill. You’re going to go right through.”

 Jacobs is director of sales and development for Inside Edge’s parent company, Reliable Racing Supply, an industry leader in ski racing equipment founded by his late father, Tom, a 1952 Winter Olympian and National Skiing Hall of Fame member.

By Mary Beth McCue

Healthy life-style and trauma work are simply “life work.” Where have we been, where do we want to be, what are the options to getting there?  

Preferably all for the better of humanity, and the best path for ourselves. We all interconnected with these factors in the human quest for a peaceful purposeful and joyful existence. It can and should be achieved from within.

When we experience trauma, a series of neurological events occur in the body leading to negative mental and physical impact. Trauma is our unique response to experiencing a stressful event. Depending on how we process it, or not, will determine health, and everything in our lives. 

The amygdala area of the brain can (generationally) hold events, including the intensity and impulse of emotion that comes along with these memories. Many neurological series of reactions connect to the GI, but potentially all areas in the body. Discovering the areas of stress and trauma, and how they feel in the body are significant to lifestyle changes and healing. 

A colleague and teacher of mine psychiatrist James Gordon, MD, founder of The Center for Mind Body Medicine (cmbm.org), shares great points in his many teachings and trainings on the role of nutrition and healing trauma.  The mental and conventional health fields have generally been slow to recognize the role nutrition can play in every persons life. 

This all has been changing over the last couple of decades as more and more research and clinical practice’s like functional nutrition become widely accepted and demanded from the consumer.  The Smiles trial  and the Helfimed study are two of many examples of how diet plays a significant role in treating depression, which is based in unresolved trauma. 

Many studies have found that a functional nutrition approach to eating is foundational to health and healthy aging, along with nutritional supplements which have been proven to significantly reduce or resolve anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms, and support the recovery of addictions. 

Two Albany Med Health System facilities—Saratoga Hospital and Glens Falls Hospital—have earned high grades for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group for fall 2022.  

The two hospitals lead the Capital Region, with grades of A for Saratoga Hospital and B for Glens Falls Hospital. These high marks place both hospitals in the top 25 percent of New York state facilities for this report. 

The Leapfrog Group is a nonprofit watchdog organization that serves as a voice for health care consumers and purchasers, using their collective influence to foster positive change in U.S. health care.

“Our Leapfrog score reflects our culture of safety and 24/7 commitment to protecting patients from preventable harm and errors,” Saratoga Hospital President and CEO Jill J. VanKuren said. “The A grade is a tribute to our team and a source of assurance to our patients, who can be confident they’re receiving care at one of New York’s safest hospitals.” 

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assigns letter grades twice a year to nearly 3,000 U.S. general hospitals based on over 30 measures of patient safety. Thirty percent of U.S. hospitals earned the highest rating of A. Twenty-eight percent earned a B.

The Flower & Fruit Mission of Saratoga Hospital is donating $225,000 to buy new labor and delivery beds to enhance the childbirth experience at the hospital’s Mother/Baby Unit.

 Flower & Fruit Mission President Stephanie Collins announced the gift in December at the annual Snow Ball, the organization’s signature holiday party. The event netted $30,000 and honored recently retired Saratoga Hospital President and CEO Angelo Calbone for his 16 years of service to the hospital and the community.

 The new beds will put the finishing touches on a $2.7 million unit renovation, which created a modern, comfortable birthing environment rooted in best practices for maternity care. The $225,000 is in addition to a previous Flower & Fruit Mission gift of $250,000 for the renovation.

 “The Flower & Fruit Mission has helped shape women’s health care in Saratoga County for more than a century,” said Sarah Bunzey, RN, director of Women’s Health Services at Saratoga Hospital. “Every mother who delivers at Saratoga Hospital—and every baby born here—benefits from the Mission’s foresight and extraordinary generosity.”

By Jill Nagy

With the acquisition of Goodemote Physical Therapy in Saratoga Springs, Capital Area Physical Therapy and Wellness, headquartered in Malta, has grown to three offices (the third, in Queensbury).

Within a month, it will have 13 physical therapists on staff and eight administrators.

The practice began in 2013, with only two therapists, Dr. Andrew Gaetano and Dr. Evan Marsh, who had been college classmates.  

 “We did everything, at first,” Marsh said, from greeting patients to cleaning the restrooms. “But, slowly and surely, it been to grow.”

Currently, the practice sees approximately 1,400 patient visits a month in Malta; about 500 (but “growing steadily”) in Queensbury; and 750 a month in Saratoga Springs, said Marsh.

The practice is “growing back” after cutbacks that became necessary during the COVID pandemic.