Rx: Haiti Benefit Brings Stars in Support of Haiti

Rachel_Naomi_Rx_Haiti_BenefitMick Jagger, L’Wren Scott, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts are among the concerned celebrities who have contributed generously to Dr. David Colbert’s efforts to raise funds and awareness for Haitians who lost limbs in January’s earthquake.  They all appeared last Thursday in New York City to help host a benefit for Hanger, Inc., the largest designer and distributor of prosthetics in the world.   The money raised will help Hanger continue to bring replacement limbs and crucial medical care to the more than 5,000 Haitians who lost arms and legs in the earthquake.  One of the evening’s highlights was a live auction featuring signature guitars rounded up by Mick from his friends Bono, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams… and a red Baby Grand piano signed by Mick himself.

The Medical Experts at WebMD Give Thumbs up to HSRD

photo-7Maybe because it’s both fast and natural….

High School Reunion Diet is becoming the go-to plan for New York’s top actors and models, many of whom endorsed the book.  If you haven’t read it yet, and still don’t realize how very much even small adjustments in diet can improve your looks and rejuvenate your skin… waste no time ordering it at Simonandschuster.com or amazon.com.  If you’d like to know a bit more before you buy, here is an expert evaluation from Web.MD….

The High School Reunion Diet

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD

WebMD Expert Column

The High School Reunion Diet: What It Is

Want to look your best at your high school reunion? The High School Reunion Diet promises to help you look slimmer, healthier, and younger in 30 days — just in time for that reunion or other special event.

The No. 1 secret to glowing, younger-looking skin, according to author David Colbert, MD, a New York dermatologist, is a diet of healthy, unprocessed foods. Such a diet, he says, is “better than Botox,” Colbert says.

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“I noticed my great-looking clients [who include actresses Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz] were also the ones who ate whole, fresh foods from their gardens, and so I began researching how a healthy diet could help you lose weight and turn back the hands of time,” he says.

Processed foods, sugary beverages, and other forms of sugars are the reason Americans are fat, Colbert says. He also believes that, like the sun, sugar ages the skin and body. “It can spike blood sugar to dangerously high levels and cause inflammation, which makes you look old,” he says.

In his eating plan, these foods are replaced with natural, nutrient-rich and, preferably, organic foods from your local farmers market.

“Eliminating most processed foods (including sugary food and drinks) is the single most important thing you can do to improve your appearance, weight, and health,” he says.

The High School Reunion Diet: What You Can Eat

During the first, “detox” phase of The High School Reunion Diet, you focus on eating only “true” foods, including:

Brightly colored vegetables, especially green ones

Some whole fruits (only berries and the occasional apple, orange or grapefruit)

Nuts

Lean meat

Healthy fats

Omega 3 rich fish

Eggs

Herbs and spices

Dieters are encouraged to drink lots of water — six to eight glasses or more. Tea and coffee are OK, too.

Here’s a sample menu for Level 1:

Breakfast: Egg white omelet and coffee

Snack: Half a cup of plain yogurt, 1/2 teaspoon agave, and 1/2 cup blueberries

Lunch: Salad with goat cheese, walnuts, cherry tomatoes, and vinaigrette

Snack: Two celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter or cottage cheese

Dinner: Salmon, roasted broccoli, green salad with veggies, sparkling water

After losing 5-10 pounds during the first two weeks, dieters advance to the second phase for two weeks or longer. This phase includes more fruits, plus whole grains and wine with dinner, and is similar to the recommendations of the U.S. government’s Food Pyramid.

What’s not on the menu during either phase are foods labeled processed: Sodas (diet or regular), fruit juices, sugary beverages, sports drinks, beer, liquor, trans fats, instant and fast foods, and anything containing sugar in all its forms (such as high-fructose corn syrup).

But the author says some minimally processed foods can be healthy, like steel-cut oats, tuna packed in water, and (rinsed) canned beans.

The book suggests that you supplement the diet with a multivitamin with minerals, a fish oil capsule, vitamin E and vitamin C to ensure you’re getting all the nutrients you need, plus an extra dose of antioxidants and omega-3s. The bottom line, Colbert says, is that foods that don’t come wrapped in a package are more likely to contain healthy nutrients, fats, fiber, and antioxidants.

“All the additives, preservatives, sugars, salt, and food colorings in our food supply are not natural and the culprits to our unhealthy nation of overweight and obese people,” Colbert says.

The first phase of The High School Reunion Diet is designed to help you get over your “addiction” to poor-quality food, Colbert says. In phase two, you’ll whittle your waistline and work toward youth recovery.

There’s no counting calories or carbs in The High School Reunion Diet. And although it encourages exercise, there’s no fitness plan outlined in the book. Indeed, The High School Reunion Diet makes clear that it’s not a “diet” per se, but a road map for eating for beauty and health.

Still, if you replace processed junk foods in your diet with the healthier, more natural ones touted in The High School Reunion Diet, you’ll cut calories and lose weight as a result.

Benefit for Haiti: More Prosthetics on the Way

Here is the link to the Huffington Post article: Benefit for Haiti: More Prosthetics on the Way

Benefit for Haiti: More Prosthetics on the Way

By Alicia WhitakerHuman

Posted: May 5, 2010 2:33 PM

Shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, teams of doctors volunteering to help made their way to Haiti with supplies and equipment for field hospitals. The horrific result of this particular earthquake and its impact on a country of fragile buildings led to an unprecedented number of amputations – the current estimate is upwards of 5,000 people. In other major earthquakes, lost limbs have numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands.

One of those doctors was Dr. David Colbert, a NYC-based dermatologist and internist who also has experience as an emergency room physician with advanced wound care expertise. Trained in France, he speaks fluent French and has learned enough words in Creole to make an enormous difference to the frightened patients he encountered early in the crisis, who were coping with crushing injuries and serious infections in broken limbs that made amputation the only option. Some had waited for treatment for several days and their limbs now could not be saved.

Colbert assisted in several emergency amputations, including one for a young man named Wilfred who insisted he’d rather lose his life than his leg. It was Colbert’s job to convince him otherwise, and he promised the skeptical Wilfrid he’d find him a state-of-the-art prosthetic. The boy was wheeled into surgery.

2010-05-05-drCwithPatient.jpg

Colbert came back to NY determined to raise awareness and money for prosthetics and the related services that make them work in a country where low-tech is the approach of choice because of issues with money, infrastructure and skills. He reached out to the Ivan Sabel Hanger Foundation, allied with Hanger Orthotics and Prosthetics, the world’s largest maker of prosthetics , and decided to partner with them to make it happen.

Terry Reed, an NYC-based author and screen writer and a recent collaborator with Dr. Colbert on a diet and nutrition book, The High School Reunion Diet, recently traveled to Haiti and headed to the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles, now the site of a prosthetics clinic. Here’s her report on what she found:

“During the earthquake, hundreds had been transported here over rough roads from Port-au-Prince and lay waiting in the courtyard for medical attention. When the Hanger people offered materials and expertise for the devastating number of amputees, the hospital gave Hanger a building for a clinic. In the front of the clinic, the technicians fit limbs for the people who arrive on crutches, in wheelbarrows, on the backs of mopeds. There’s a wing where the therapists teach the newly fitted to walk. They make the prosthetics in the back of the clinic, in a factory. The knee joints, elbows and other mechanical parts are flown in, but much of the artistry happens on site, where a custom leg is created by hands that understand the mysteries of weight bearing and tibia bones and patellas. The day I was there, a small team of hard-working designers and technicians made sixty three legs.”

Back in New York, designer L’Wren Scott, a friend of Dr. Colbert’s, enlisted the help of her boyfriend Mick Jagger to spearhead a benefit that will take place on Thursday, May 6. Together with Dr. Colbert, Reed, David Scott and other members of the doctor’s newly-formed foundation, they have attracted a large group of celebrities who are lending their names, donating goods for an auction and giving money for the cause. Among them are Rachel Weisz, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michelle Williams, Sienna Miller, Jude Law, Helmut Lang, John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Naomi Watts, Zac Posen, Christopher Niquet, Edie Falco, and Margery and Ted Mayer.

Auction items include art and photography, couture gowns and jewelry, guitars signed by Jagger and the Rolling Stones and a number of other special donations from artists, designers and musicians.

The benefit and auction will be held Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at The Greenhouse, Scholastic, 557 Broadway, New York. The event includes a VIP Reception from 6 to 7:00 PM and a Cocktail Party and Auction from 7-10PM Tickets, list of auction items and more information are available at www.nydgfoundation.org/haiti

NYDG Foundation Haiti Benefit- Mick Jagger, Dylan, Bono, Springsteen, Guitars 4:30PT May 6

Water, Water, Water!

A person’s body is about 60% water and almost everyone has heard of the 8-glass-a-day rule. However, most Americans go through the day without enough fluid. Oftentimes we’re completely dehydrated.

Which is one of the worst looks for your complexion. Not to mention, it’s horrible for your brain! Even mild dehydration can effect our short term memory and cognitive functions.

So even if you follow the High School Reunion Diet to the letter, you’ll need to stay up on your water intake as well. Great diet alone won’t knock 20 years away.

One of my favorite ways to remember to drink enough is this: carry a reusable water bottle around in your purse or briefcase. I make sure to keep it filled throughout the day, topping it off at the sink after every bathroom break or run to the copy machine. When my bottle is in front of me and full I find the task of drinking isn’t so daunting.

Auction May 6th, Rx: Haiti

Keith Richards Guitar. Gibson Custom Shop ES 355. Ebony with Gold Hardware.  Signed by Keith Richards. Up for auction at Rx: Haiti Benefit, this Thursday, May 6th.  Please see newyorkdermatologygroup.org

Rx: Haiti Benefit and Auction

Rx: Haiti Benefit and Auction