Hello and welcome to Living in the Lehigh Valley, a health and wellness show for everyone.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Coming up on this episode, a new place to play.

Wait till you get a look at what they're calling the step in the right direction for sports in the area.

- Plus, if you need that morning coffee to get your day going, you won't want to miss this.

How all those warnings about caffeine might be more myth than fact.

- Well, there are benefits to drinking coffee.

It increases our alertness.

It makes us more energetic, elevates our mood.

It increases athletic performance.

- And they are cute and cuddly but also a lifeline for those who cannot see.

We'll explore the world of Seeing Eye dogs, learning how they are trained and what they do once they are in service.

- If someone is going bowling, our dogs get to go bowling with them.

If someone is running to Wal-Mart, the dogs go to Wal-Mart with them.

So really providing them as much exposure in the community as possible.

- But first, temperatures may be dropping, but things are just heating up on a newly built indoor field.

For more on that, we welcome Genesis Ortega.

Genesis, it's great to see you.

- Good to see you, Brittany.

- So this place you recently took a tour of, this new turf.

- Yeah, it's a pretty cool, neat area.

It's an indoor turf field and it has a large sports performance training center within it.

- It sounds pretty big.

What do they do with all that space?

- It's pretty significant, considering that it's going to allow athletes, scholastic teams and club sports to use the field year round.

You don't realize how much of a market there is for space like this, especially here in Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley, where the winter months are cold and filled with snow.

- Yeah, I guess they don't have to worry about that in California or Florida.

But here it gets cold.

- It gets cold here, yes.

And especially as club team sports continue to grow, it's an opportunity for teams across the valley to get the practise that they need year round regardless of the weather.

And while it's called the St Luke's Sports Rink, the owner is actually Mike Bender, well known in the Lehigh Valley lacrosse landscape and the head boys' lacrosse coach at Parkland High School.

He's partnered with St Luke's to bring this facility, his passion, to life.

- Just having access to a facility like this I think is a huge step in the right direction for sports in the area.

My vision is essentially this.

You know, we've replaced, we've renovated.

We've put a lot of money and time and investment into this property.

- Michael Bender is the owner and manager of the St Luke's Sports Rink in Whitehall, the newly renovated facility off 7th Street open for business on November 1st.

It's 25,000 square feet, with an indoor turf field that the owners say is unlike any around.

- This is the largest indoor facility in the Lehigh Valley.

It's full field, which benefits larger events, leagues and tournaments that we're able to host.

- And aside from its size, Bender says the field also offers other advantages for sports.

- I think the playing surface is really unique.

One, it's brand-new.

Two, you know, it's indoor turf infill system.

So it's safe and reliable.

There's a bunch of benefits when it comes to indoor versus outdoor, especially once the cold weather hits or, you know, nights begin to get darker.

- That's one of the reasons boys' lacrosse coach Bradley Bachman has chosen to practice here, but also because he says it's a better playing experience for younger athletes - With lacrosse, they have to develop stick skills, passing and catching the ball.

And most of times when they're younger, they don't pass and catch it as frequently as they should.

So here, when we miss the ball, it just hits the wall and comes back into play.

It's not like they miss it and it rolls out of bounds and the play has to stop.

You miss the pass, it hits the wall, it comes back, someone's picking it up and we're playing so the action really doesn't come to a stop.

- Bachman's son, Benjamin, is on the team.

He's played lacrosse on several surfaces but likes playing here a lot.

- I like it because there's barricades all around, so if the ball goes over, that means it's out of bounds, but it rebounds back.

So you have another chance of going back to goal.

this as their space to practice.

In fact, Mike Bender says the biggest demand for the winter comes from youth sports.

- Sports, club teams, organizations train all year round.

Having access to a facility like this I think is a huge competitive edge for organizations in our area.

There's been a huge demand for an indoor facility and we're very excited to partner with St Luke's and provide this.

- Bender says St Luke's soon will be offering sports performance training on site.

- You know, our big piece is education.

So it's not just providing the training, it's educating our athletes on health and training habits, nutrition, and that way it'll help them throughout their careers.

- Hoover says the move to partner was strategic, as youth sports becomes more competitive and year round.

They're eager to provide sports medicine services like athletic training for younger ages - To provide that sports performance training, it helps us start that training at earlier ages so we can help prevent some of those overuse injuries that we would see later on in the high school years and college years.

Rates at the St Luke's Sports Rink vary by the time of year, and Bender says winter is their peak season.

That rate is $220 an hour and discounts are available for certain schools and larger clubs.

- We have a great variety of pretty much any field sport: lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, softball, baseball.

We also have some flag football, even some rugby.

- And Bender says even though the place just opened, they're almost booked for the winter season.

- It's such a need for some people and some families and some kids as an outlet.

So, you know, seeing these kids and families enjoy what they do and, you know, having some sense of normalcy is is really what brings joy to me.

- Now, as we heard in the piece, there are still a few renovations in the works, but for the most part the space is now open for teams to use.

As business ramps up, Mike Bender is hoping people see the facility as a venue not only for practises and games but also for leagues, tournaments and special events.

- Genesis, it's amazing.

At even the youth level, the school level, it's still such big business.

- It really is.

And I like to think of it this way.

Not everyone is going to play sports at a higher level, so it's an opportunity for people to play the sports that they love to play year round.

- Yeah, they can do it 365.

All right, Genesis Ortega, as always, thanks for joining us.

- Thanks, Brittany.

- And did you know...?

Up next, for many, a cup of joe is what gets them going in the morning, but it's been long debated as to whether or not coffee is good for you.

So here now with some fascinating facts about one of America's favorite beverages is our own Grover Silcox.

Grover, welcome.

- Thank you, Brittany.

Good to be here.

- I know I have to start my day with a cup of coffee.

- You and me both.

We are among the 150 million Americans who together drink 150 billion cups.

- I knew it was a lot.

I didn't know it was that many.

But that's a lot of caffeine.

- It really is.

You know, as an avid coffee drinker, I got to thinking, what are the pros and cons of consuming all that caffeine?

In recent years, it seems we've been hearing that coffee is healthier than most folks once believed, myself included.

But what do the experts say?

Well, I went right to the source and got to the bottom of things over a cup of joe at a local coffee shop.

For millions of people, the day begins with that first cup of coffee.

- Most people drink it because of the energy it gives them.

And then also you have the warmth, the comfort.

- Luke Santana serves a lot of coffee drinkers at his Wise Bean coffee shop in Bethlehem.

- From seven to about ten is the busiest time every day.

- Millions of Americans love and even depend on coffee.

But how healthy is it?

I put the question to Suzanne Ickes, a clinical dietician with Lehigh Valley Health Network.

- Well, there are benefits to drinking coffee.

It increases our alertness.

It makes us more energetic, elevates our mood.

It increases athletic performance.

- It seems that health experts have changed their thinking about coffee in the last couple decades.

- I used to think it caused osteoporosis.

Studies now show that that's not the case.

We used to think that it increased cardiovascular disease.

Studies show that's not the case.

We used to think that coffee increased the risk of fibrotic cysts.

And that's not true either.

It's high in antioxidants, and that assists in weight loss.

- But what about the addictive power of coffee?

- Coffee is the most popular psychoactive drug on the planet.

So here's how it happens.

The caffeine molecule is very similar to a molecule called adenosine.

Adenosine attaches to our brain cells, and then what it does is it makes us feel tired.

So caffeine attaches to those brain cells instead of adenosine, and therefore we don't get tired.

And we're putting out more dopamine, adrenalin and cortisol, so we get that energetic rush that goes along with the coffee drinking that people like.

- So how much of a good thing is too much, considering that the Food and Drug Administration recommends we limit caffeine intake to no more than 400 milligrams a day?

- Like, a typical home-brewed cup of coffee, about an 8oz cup, is about 90 milligrams.

So four, let's say, four and a half cups of that.

But if you drink more than that, you tend to get jittery.

If you're prone to anxiety, you could get anxiety attacks.

People will experience heart palpitations.

Also, it could interact with some medications that you're on.

Some people get GI, you know, let's say diarrhea from too much coffee.

And it affects your mood.

Some people can become edgy or mean, even.

- Is there a quick way to determine the amount of caffeine in, say, a 16 ounce cup of coffee?

- Believe it or not, the light brew is higher in caffeine and the dark roast is lower.

The dark roast, which I happen to prefer, that would be about 260 milligrams of caffeine from a Starbucks dark roast.

The medium roast is going to be somewhere in-between, and their blonde roast for a 16oz, 360 milligrams.

Now, keeping in mind, the limit is supposed to be about 400... - How does caffeine affect sleep?

- Caffeine stays in your system about four to six hours.

People are affected differently by caffeine.

So some people, they can go to sleep after they drink a cup of coffee.

Other people, they will be staring at the ceiling.

I know myself, I have to usually quit drinking my caffeine probably by two o'clock in the afternoon.

- How easy is it to become addicted?

- You know, it only takes about two or three days of continuous use to get addicted to caffeine because of the way it alters our brain cells.

So what happens is when people try to stop, especially cold turkey, they can get a headache, they can feel nauseous, they can feel very lethargic.

It takes about seven to 12 days to wean yourself from caffeine.

- What about other caffeinated products?

- Milk chocolate, 1oz, and this represents 1oz of milk chocolate, has nine milligrams of caffeine.

All right?

Dark chocolate has a bit more.

1oz would be about 12 milligrams.

And, very interesting, white chocolate has zero.

Chocolate milk only has about five milligrams of caffeine, a cup of tea generally about 25 milligrams, a 12oz soda about 33 milligrams.

- What about those caffeinated energy drinks?

- But then, when we get to the energy drinks, we see a wide variety of difference.

We could have anywhere from 140 milligrams to 300 milligrams in a 16oz beverage.

This little guy has about 220 milligrams of caffeine, this one right here 300 milligrams of caffeine.

This guy right here has about 120 milligrams of caffeine.

- Many of the highly caffeinated drinks with names such as Cotton Candy, Birthday Cake and Monster appeal to children.

What about kids and caffeine?

- The American Pediatric Association recommends that children under the age of 12 do not consume caffeine.

And then for children ages 12 to 18, it's only 100 milligrams a day.

So if they grab one of these 300 milligram drinks, well, they're way over from the start.

How does that affect their behavior?

I think this is something that parents and teachers have to be aware of.

- So what's the bottom line?

- It seems like there's a lot more benefit than we used to know.

Try to stay under that 40,000 milligrams of caffeine.

Pay attention to your body, see how you're responding.

And, parents, be aware of how much caffeine is in the beverages that your children are consuming.

- After all is said and done, you know, it's amazing how much you can learn over a good cup of coffee.

According to World Coffee Portal, there are more than 37,000 branded coffee shops and coffee oriented restaurants in the US.

Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts are the largest.

More men drink coffee than women and more people drink it in the morning than any other time of day.

- I got to say, Grover, I love a good Dunkin' cup of coffee.

I know the Starbucks/Dunkin' debate rages on.

How about you?

How many cups do you have a day?

- Actually, by the end of the day, Britney, I could bench press a Buick.

That's how caffeinated I am.

But seriously, five cups a day, which is above average.

- Yeah.

- I just have to have it.

I love it.

- I have a morning and early afternoon.

I have to have it early afternoon or else, you know, that whole sleep issue...

Does it impact your sleep at all?

- Well, I stop at 4:00 p.m. so, you know, by the time I go to sleep, I sleep like a baby.

You know, I have a little binky and a little blankie.

- I love that.

Five cups, though.

- Five cups.

- Do you put anything in it?

I got to ask that.

- I do.

I put skim and sometimes just a little bit of sugar free caramel.

- Ooh, fancy!

I like that.

I like that.

Awesome.

That was a tasty little story there.

- Yeah.

- I need a cup of coffee!

- I know, me too.

- Grover Silcox, as always, thanks so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Well, many non-profits across the country have had to change operations in the pandemic, but a school for Seeing Eye dogs says they're still going strong.

Their services still help people here in the Lehigh Valley.

- Sit.

Good boy, Felix!

- Born with full vision, Debbie Rozear of Allentown lost her sight at an early age to glaucoma.

- As I was losing sight, I tell everybody I ate, slept and cried.

- But then a light entered her life in the form of a four legged friend.

- When I got my dog, it was just a total life changer because I could go out on my own, I could get on the buses.

I could basically do anything that I wanted to do.

- The Seeing Eye program gave Rozear a new outlook on life.

- It was a lot more independence that I don't have.

- Virgil is her third Seeing Eye companion.

- Good boy!

Good boy!

The Seeing Eye is a nonprofit organization that works with people with visual disabilities, pairing them with a guide dog.

- We are famously known for our German shepherds.

We have Labradors, golden retrievers and then we cross-breed our Labs and our goldens so we have Lab golden crosses.

- Shannan Rager is an area coordinator in the Lehigh Valley.

She explains the Seeing Eye started in the United States in 1929 and is the oldest guide dog school in the world.

Based in Morristown, New Jersey, those who decide to train a Seeing Eye dog do so voluntarily.

- The families raise the dogs from about seven weeks of age until typically 16 months of age, and they're responsible for a myriad of things.

The most important is house manners, making sure the dog has the basic skills that a dog would need.

- Part of the training also includes taking the dogs wherever the family goes.

- So if someone is going bowling, our dogs get to go bowling with them.

If someone is running to Wal-Mart, the dogs go to Wal-Mart with them, so really providing them as much exposure in the community as possible so that when they are matched with a graduate, they are very familiar going into different locations.

- The dogs are taught to become a team with their owner, but they are not the only ones who have to learn how to work together.

Rozear says her training lasted weeks.

- You learn how to use elevators, escalators, turnstiles, metal detectors.

Anything that you can think of, they put you through that.

- When the blind person gets paired with a pup, the dog is already trained to help with daily tasks.

- So cute!

I had to ask Rager, after investing more than a year into a puppy, what's it like for the volunteers giving that dog up?

- If you ask any one of our puppy raising families, typically their answer is yes, it's very hard to give the dogs up.

There are usually tears involved because they fall in love with the dogs.

But when you see really what these dogs were meant to do and watching them with the graduate and being matched, it really gives you that sense of knowing that you have done a really good job and you've done something selfless for someone else.

- Witnessing the trust between Rozear and Virgil, it's easy to see why people raise these purposeful pups and send them out to be a guiding light.

- It's a lot of hard work, but it's well worth it.

- And as I mentioned, Virgil is Debbie's third dog, and she's so confident in him that they now do 5Ks together.

Those interested in training a puppy can check out the Seeing Eye website.

And for those who are not ready to commit quite yet, Rager says there are opportunities to get involved in the program, doing things like puppy sitting short term.

And using a guide dog is just one way those who are visually impaired can overcome barriers.

There are other resources for those who are losing or have lost their sight.

Many of those resources can be found at Sights for Hope, formerly the Center for Vision Loss, which serves Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe Counties.

Here now is executive director and CEO Dennis Zehner.

Welcome so much.

- Thank you, Brittany, for having us.

- Thanks for being here, Dennis.

So why don't you start off, if you could, telling us a little bit about Sights for Hope and what you do there?

- Sure.

At Sights for Hope, we transform lives by empowering people with visual impairments to thrive and live independently through our variety of services, which give them the skills and the supports and the solutions to navigate everyday life.

- OK, so what are some of the services that you offer there?

- Sure.

So, many of the services we do are life skills, education programs, and these are one on one and group education programs which literally teach people how to navigate everyday life and do the same things you and I do but do so in a different way because they have a visual impairment.

We also in the community do a lot of support services, including our guided transport services.

We do counseling and support groups.

We also have a great low vision care center where people work with a specialized optometrist.

And what they do is they learn about the different devices and techniques and the different technologies that are available to them every day.

Also in the community, we do a lot of prevention services.

We do screenings for preschool children and we also do prevention education programs.

And something that's very important, if we can't directly bring someone to the solution, we can also refer them to another organization like the Seeing Eye Group.

- Sure.

I was going to just say the Seeing Eye seems like it goes hand in hand with Sights For Hope.

- It does go hand in hand, because what we do is we take a personalized approach.

We believe that everyone's definition of independence or thriving is different.

And for some people, they might want to use a cane or they may want to use some other technique or they use what they want to use a Seeing Eye dog.

And we're there to connect people with those resources.

- And so much of what you do, it sounds like socialization is a big thing here.

Why is that so important to this community?

- Socialization, of course, is important.

I think we've all experienced that through the pandemic, where we feel isolated.

Typically, when someone experiences a visual impairment, they say that one of the biggest things they feel is isolation.

When the pandemic began to rage, of course, we had to go and we had to do our programs in a virtual manner.

And that isolation grew, and our clients kept telling us they wanted to get back together as soon as they could.

So that's why we made it a priority to safely get our clients back together whenever they could.

They say it's so important just to connect with other human beings.

- I think we all felt like that.

- I think we all felt like that.

During the pandemic, what we learned is that we are in the mental health business, as is almost any service provider, because many times the biggest barrier to independence is between the person's two ears.

It's their mind-set.

- So what are some of the other ways that the pandemic has changed or altered what you do from day to day at Sights for Hope?

- Sure.

Well, we've come back mostly with our programs back in person in a safe way since June, but a huge impact has been on our vision screenings.

Generally, we do our screenings at preschool registrations or kindergarten registrations in the spring.

Now the spring of 2020 in the spring of 2021, there were very few, if any, screenings.

So what's unfortunately happening is we have two groups, two classes of kids are starting school and what we know from our knowledge is one in ten of them has an undetected vision problem.

And of course, when you have a vision problem, you can't read very well.

You sometimes have trouble concentrating and you're not able to succeed in the classroom like you should.

- Sure.

So it's really important to get those screenings back on track.

Are they getting somewhat back on track?

- We're getting somewhat back on track right now.

We're hoping in the spring of 2022 to really begin to catch up in a very important way, because when you think about it, these screenings can change a child's destiny in one minute.

- I wanted to ask about who is eligible for the programs at Sights for Hope - obviously you're mentioning preschool students, but then at the center itself?

- Sure.

Well, our services for clients and patients are for people who live in Lehigh Valley or Monroe County, and they have to have a visual acuity of 20/70 or worse in their best eye with best correction, which basically means it can't be corrected with glasses or contact lenses, or an equivalent loss of visual field.

Most of our clients, about 65% of them, are ages 65 and up.

Also about 85% of our clients come from low income households.

But there's no financial qualification either way.

If you live in those three areas and your site qualifies in those areas, you can be a client of ours.

- Dennis, is this for folks who were born with vision loss, or maybe are these for people who lost their vision along the way, or everybody?

- It is for everybody.

A majority of our clients are people who start like you and me and will go through later in life, either through macular degeneration or cataracts or diabetic retinopathy.

They lose their sight later in their lives and have to make that big adjustment.

- And how do clients reach out and get involved if they are interested?

- Well, clients can reach out.

Of course, if you're in the Lehigh Valley, call: Or if you're in Monroe County: - There's two separate offices, right, at Lehigh Valley and the Monroe County?

- Our Lehigh Valley office helps the people in Lehigh, Northampton County, and our Monroe County office helps the people in Monroe County.

But we're one great organization that serves the area cohesively.

- Sure.

Dennis, what are the goals over the next few months to a year?

- The goals of our next few months and the next year are to continue to expand our services and reach more people who need our services.

Nationally, it's said about 3% of the adult population would qualify under our standards.

That means 3% of the adults in these three counties qualify.

And that means there are a lot of people out there who need our services yet don't take advantage of them yet, and we want to connect them and bring them that independence and empowerment.

- Absolutely.

What if folks want to get involved, contributing, either volunteering or via donation?

- Sure.

What we have, we have a lot of great opportunities, of course, for volunteering for our programs and through our services, but we also have great opportunities to make a donation.

We also have a great new community partnership program.

Now, this is great for businesses, where they're not only supporting what we do but they're becoming part of an interactive community with each other.

So I'd take a look at our community partner program, especially if you're a business, and contact our advancement office.

- It sounds like you have some wonderful programs, a wide array of programs.

Dennis Zehner from Sights for Hope, thank you so much for joining us.

- You're welcome.

My pleasure.

- And on the next Living in the Lehigh Valley, healing through massage.

Whether you are suffering from chronic pain or just need to relieve some stress, we'll dive into the world of massage and see what a few minutes of rest and relaxation can do for your overall health, especially during a very busy season.

- I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in 2018, 2019, and I started coming, like, every other week and then every three weeks and every month and now it's 2021 and I still didn't have surgery.

- That will do it for this episode of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

We hope you will join us next time.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.