Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, and I'm Grover Silcox.

On this episode, the CDC recently changed the childhood vaccine schedule, leaving some confused about what they should do to keep their kids safe.

The experts weigh in.

Plus, it's Heart Health month.

An area physician is joining us in the studio with some ways to improve our cardiovascular health.

Then there have been advancements in medicine for our four legged friends.

We will take you to a veterinarian in the valley helping dogs with their arthritis pain.

First up, the childhood vaccination schedule is different from what it was at the start of the year.

That's right, the Department of Health and Human Services scaled back the list of recommended shots for children and went from 17 recommended vaccinations to 11.

The move has parents divided on how to proceed in order to keep their children safe from disease.

A new childhood vaccination schedule is now in place, reducing the number of recommended vaccines.

The update comes from the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services and the centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So important to protect those that can't protect themselves.

I mean, I got every shot in the book when I was pregnant with him.

Jordan Freedman, her husband and three year old daughter, welcomed a new family member just days after the change was announced.

It was so nerve wracking because we did everything with her up to even extra vaccines, so with him we were like, okay, can we please make sure we get the help?

We can please make sure we stick to the old guidelines.

The Friedman's are patients at Children's Health Care, a private pediatric office in Allentown.

Question is, are we following science or are we following politics at this point?

And so it was very shocking because a lot of the things that we're eliminating are diseases that have been eradicated because of vaccines.

Patients are very frustrated.

They're very upset, they're confused.

And that's the biggest thing that we're finding is that they're just unsure, because we're here as pediatricians to guide them.

And that's what we're doing.

The CDC now recommends vaccinating against 11 diseases, no longer broadly recommending protections against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis or RSV.

We're going through the worst influenza epidemic in our country that we've had in more than 30 years.

Doctor Jeffrey Jarry is the senior vice president for medical and academic affairs at Saint Luke's University Health Network.

He says he encourages continued research and understanding in medicine.

There is nothing wrong with a reevaluation of vaccines, protocols, which ones should be given and which ones shouldn't.

The physician has decades of experience in preventing and treating infectious diseases.

The way it should be done is that you need to ask a whole bunch of different stakeholders for their opinion, and that includes many of the academic bodies that represent your broad swath of physicians like the Academy of Pediatrics, the Academy of Family Practice, the Infectious Disease Society, the American Public Health Association.

That was not done.

Gerry says protocols are also in place for decisions to go through the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIp, which he said did not happen before the new recommendations.

HHS says the decision was made based on how peer nations approach vaccines.

When you look at the United States, we have a population that's somewhat greater than 340 million people.

Currently, Denmark has a population of 6 million.

It's been described to be about the same as Wisconsin.

Secondly, their population is much more homogeneous.

Our population is very diverse.

Protections against the diseases taken off the list are now only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or if their doctors recommend them in what's called shared decision making.

I feel like it's a good step towards body autonomy and letting people choose what is best for them.

Humans are different, and it's great to allow people to personalize their health care according to their body.

Alexa Searcher is a mom of four with a fifth on the way.

She started out vaccinating her children, but stopped when her oldest started regressing in his development.

We felt like we were kind of in the dark.

We wish there was something to question, and we didn't know there was something to question until something went wrong.

Her son was diagnosed with autism and is non-verbal.

She says she doesn't think vaccines are solely to blame, but the diagnosis gave her reason to pause her children's vaccination schedules.

We found out through genetic testing that he, is sensitive to heavy metals, breaking down heavy metals in his body and absorbing essential minerals.

It's a gene that I pass down to him, and I also passed down to my third born, not my second born.

And, And we're waiting for our fourth born.

So after that, we just totally stopped vaccinating our children.

And until we got some deeper understanding of how they might respond to the ingredients in the vaccines.

Extensive research shows no link between vaccinations and autism.

Still, Zurcher says she wants more information when it comes to her children's health.

Any parent that wants to vaccinate their child, you what you feel is the best for your child.

I feel like we definitely should have the choice of being like, we're going to delay that because I don't feel comfortable.

I don't feel like I'm totally informed with everything yet.

Insurance companies in Pennsylvania are required to still cover most of the vaccines, even those not recommended through 2026.

We still have the Pennsylvania guidelines, and that's what we're following, and that's what the schools are following.

And so they have to get their mandated vaccines in order to go to school.

We just want to make sure we do what's best for him.

It's worked for her.

And she's been phenomenal.

So I want to make sure do the same thing for him.

The overall advice I received from talking with the experts was to just talk to your primary care doctor, have an open dialog about what is best for your care plan.

Thanks, Brett.

February is Heart Health Month, a time to raise awareness about how to care for the very organ that keeps us going here now with some important information about cardiovascular health.

As Doctor Nitti made a cardiologist for Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to have you.

Doctor Nader, why is it so important for us to be talking about heart health and to acknowledge the whole month and raise awareness about this?

So it's really important to know that in the United States, one person dies every 34 seconds from cardiovascular disease, which is quite alarming when we think of the leading cause of death.

So it's really important that we get the information, not just about the signs and symptoms, but how we can help just the different genders as well.

Correct.

Yeah.

What are some of the key signs and symptoms?

So mostly we think of exertional chest pain radiating down the left arm.

And that's like what we think of the classic symptom.

But individuals can have worsening shortness of breath that's out of the norm for them.

They can have nausea, vomiting, heartburn symptoms, some symptoms that we wouldn't even consider being a turn to cardiovascular disease.

So these are discussions that need to be had with their primary doctor right.

And I know Lehigh Valley Health Network has an extensive women's heart health program.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that and why you have something so specific?

So the Women's Heart and Vascular program is a fairly comprehensive program.

We really try to focus on different aspects of cardiovascular care, both in males but obviously predominantly females.

We have a very strong cardio oncology program to help with our cancer patients.

We have a high risk cardio obstetrics program to manage our patients throughout the course of pregnancy.

We have a heart health after preeclampsia program.

So individuals who have adverse pregnancy outcomes.

We think about preventative cardiology.

So there's a lot of different components.

Those are just a few that we've really tried to develop over time.

Absolutely.

All right so Doctor Mehta what are some basic ways to improve heart health.

So I think when we think of ways to improve cardiovascular health, we really should think of the American Heart Association's life, essentially.

There's aspects to it.

Sleep care, managing our weight, our cholesterol, our blood pressure, our sugars.

But the most important things that really, as a preventative cardiologist that I focus on is our lifestyle patterns of both exercise activity and food.

I think a big component that we can make a difference is making sure we follow healthy dietary patterns.

Doctor Nidhi Mehta, a cardiologist for Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health.

Thanks so much for coming.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Like people, when dogs get up, you know, in age they often suffer from osteoarthritis.

Stella, a frisky and lovable pit bull, loved to run and jump.

But as she got older, even walking a block from her home became painful.

Her pet parent, Amy, took her to one veterinarian and specialist after another, until finally one vet recommended a specialty procedure in Pennsylvania that led Amy to Allentown.

Eastern Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Center, a specialty practice where Stella finally found relief.

Like many seniors, Stella, a ten year old pitbull, struggles with osteoarthritis.

That's how her pet parent, Amy, brought her all the way from their home in New York to Allentown.

Eastern Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Center for a new treatment.

She is so loving and cuddly and snuggly and she's just like the most loving dog.

Stella loves hiking and motion and playing, and like Stella, is just a very active dog.

Over the last two years, she's been able to do less and less and less of that.

I mean, at this point, she struggles to walk, will go a couple of houses down and she's limping and we have to turn around.

I don't think I don't have any treats.

I know osteoarthritis, just like in humans, basically is a breakdown of cartilage and, an increase in bone production and destruction in a joint that can be accentuated by inflammation.

That's when we tend to see our pets get more stiff, more sore, have more difficulty going up and down stairs.

The Allentown Center now offers Silverton a relatively new treatment to reduce joint pain from osteoarthritis.

It's injected into joints that are affected with osteoarthritis, and what it basically does is the radio therapeutic particles destroy the inflammatory cells, which decreases inflammation, and the joint makes the patient feel less pain, improves their mobility.

And by doing this, even though the device doesn't actually stay in the joint for a long period of time, it produces pain relief for them for up to a year.

A lot, and can actually slow the progression of osteoarthritis over the long term.

Over the last 2 to 3 years, she has developed very severe osteoarthritis in her elbow like medications were ineffective anymore.

We just we were not really able to get her the relief.

She needs.

All right, let's vacuum her and roller it.

Currently, there are a limited number of veterinary practices that provide this innovative procedure.

We are actually the 100th facility in the United States to have this technology.

So we feel very fortunate.

Doctor Barrett Fisher is the only veterinarian licensed to perform the procedure at the center.

We're a team of three in our department here in pain management.

Okay, joint number three.

She has severe osteoarthritis in both her elbows.

And she has osteoarthritis in both of her knee joints her stifle joints as well.

So we are going to treat all four joints today in her last one.

Most times we can do it under sedation.

And they don't have to be under full anesthesia.

Depending on the joint that we're going in.

We prepare the medication pretty quickly.

We have to do it in a special lab, and by the time we get that prepared in the animals sedate, it can be as quick as five ten minutes.

Quick, quick and easy.

According to Doctor Fisher, about 80% of dogs will eventually suffer with osteoarthritis.

Usually, dogs in the older ages are going to be more affected.

But we do have young patients that either have, misalignment of joints when they are born, either as some sort of congenital or hereditary issues that can set them up for osteoarthritis.

This innovative procedure itself typically takes about 5 to 10 minutes.

Once the dog recovers, the owner receives a checklist of do's and don'ts.

Be mindful like you're going to.

She's going to be restricted in activity for the next three days.

Kind of keep it quiet side for elimination purposes only, okay.

And then slowly build back to normal activity okay.

Dogs can typically go home same day even up to a couple hours afterwards.

Yeah.

This is usually very quick.

Dogs typically are very comfortable.

Very rarely will have a dog that maybe has a little bit of inflammation or just be a little stiff for a couple days, but most dogs do great, don't have any problems.

And then we typically expect to see results from this.

Treatment start to occur in about 30 days.

We have the owners come back and we take videotape.

We look at the before and afters, and usually we're celebrating.

Doctor Fisher also has some do's and don'ts for the pet parent as well.

The biggest thing is that there is a, short time period, usually about two weeks with most patients where if the if they typically sleep in bed with the owner, they're not allowed to do that.

So typically there's some contact issues or contact, restrictions.

I should say for the first couple of weeks you're still able to pet your dog, feed your dog, walk your dog, do all of those sorts of things.

Two weeks after the procedure, Amy shared an after video with a note that said, quote, this is one week after treatment.

I'm blown away.

She hasn't run like this in about 18 months, unquote.

Stanley took her.

Oh my goodness.

Stella, the cuddly pitbull who lost her bouts, hadn't found it again.

As mentioned in the story, there are limited veterinary practices where Sunovion is available.

Stella and Amy came all the way from New York for the procedure.

The treatment is not cheap.

It's $4,000 per treatment.

It lasts about a year and then the dog can get it again.

It was amazing to see the whole procedure and how quickly Stella recovered from it.

I just love seeing that growth.

That was a happy ending for our little pet friend.

It really was.

And she was a cutie.

She was as cute and as gentle as could be.

What a doll.

Thank you for sharing that one.

My pleasure.

Now it's time to head into the kitchen.

Here on living in the Lehigh Valley with some sweet treats.

Perfect for the season of love.

Here in the kitchen on living in the Lehigh Valley.

We are taking the seasons of sweets and making it a little bit healthier.

February, of course, is Valentine's Day month, and so we are making some recipes that are a little bit healthier that your sweetie will still love.

Joining us today is Brooke Griffiths.

She is the executive director of the Blue Zones Project in Allentown.

Great to have you.

Thanks for having me.

And we have Amanda Petro Bono, and you are the director of operations and Culinary medicine at the Kellen Foundation.

Great to have you as well.

Glad to be here.

Ladies, thank you so much for joining us.

You or two, initiatives are joining up to make the Valley just a little bit healthier.

And so, Amanda, we're going to start with you.

What does the Kellen Foundation do?

Yeah.

So we are a nonprofit, focused on making the healthy choice easy choice here in the Lehigh Valley.

We have a lot of great initiatives with our Kellen Kitchens, with our Kellen mobile market, our lifestyle medicine, as well as our overall, community focus on getting people the healthy food to their doorsteps, right, or making it at their own house.

So we have been loving partnering with Brooke and the Blue Zones Project because our, missions aligned.

And the goal here is just how can we make these tips and tricks easy for people to do with their own house?

Wonderful.

And, Brooke, the Blue Zones initiative, it's something we've been hearing about in the Lehigh Valley for the past few years, and you just wrapped up the first year of the actual initiative in Allentown.

So for those who don't know, tell us a little bit about the Blue Zones initiative and what's happening in Allentown.

Sure.

So what the Blue Zone project does is take about 20 years worth of research that Dan Buettner and National Geographic did around the world, and learning, from the populations where people lived the longest, the happiest and the healthiest without really having to try.

And what we do here in Allentown and across the Lehigh Valley is shape the systems and places around people so that they're just nudged towards healthier choices in their everyday life by partnering with, work sites and restaurants, grocery stores, schools, community partners like Kellyn Foundation, where we're able to just start to make small tweaks so that people are improving their well-being without having to rely on their willpower.

Wonderful.

And we're going to learn some of those small tweaks in the kitchen today.

Amanda, you have some wonderful, tasty, but nutritious recipes for us.

Which one are we starting with today?

So we are going to start with brownie hummus, which is one of my favorites.

We're going to have, chickpeas or any other type of beaten.

Right.

So for today I actually have chickpeas and cannellini beans.

I find when we blend stuff up, the cannellini beans sometimes do a smoother texture.

So I like to combine the two.

Okay.

I have agave, so you can use any sweetener of choice.

So if you have maple sirup, if you have honey, all of that is fine.

It's just typically a liquid sweetener will do better in this recipe.

Okay.

And this is our this is our substitute for sugar.

The white sugar.

Yeah.

So often when we are doing our recipes, trying to kind of nudge them towards a healthier shift, then we have dark cocoa powder.

This is something it's unsweetened, but it adds a really big punch of flavor, that really velvety chocolate that all of us crave, especially during the winter months.

At least I do.

And then we also have just a little bit of sea salt and then vanilla.

Great.

All right.

So how do we get this recipe started?

So what?

It's it's very easy.

You do need something like a food processor or a blender.

I mean, you could try mashing it up in a bowl, but you're not going to get the consistency that you're looking for.

The last thing to sweeten it is, some type of plant milk.

Right.

And to make it, a little bit more smooth.

If you don't have plant milk or any type of milk at home, you could use almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, regular milk.

All of that is fine if you're on a pinch.

You can even use water.

Luckily, the other flavors here are for it enough that you don't need it.

By Brooke.

If you could fill this up, about a quarter of the way for me, that would be fantastic.

What I'm going to do is I'm just going to add my beans into my food processor.

I know this is it may freak people out.

A dessert with beans, right?

But I promise you, in the end of this, you were going to give this to you.

All right?

We're.

We're going for a brownie batter texture.

I like it exactly.

And you know what?

When you're having dessert, especially at the end of the day, I always feel better if it includes fruit or something or something nutritious.

I don't feel so bad about having that sweet treat at the end of my day.

Yes.

No.

And I it it helps, right?

Because then with the beans and the chocolate and then the fruit, all of those things are actually filled with fiber, right.

So they keep us full.

Fun little thing is, ten grams of fiber.

If we eat ten grams of fiber every day.

You're actually reducing your risk of dying from chronic disease by 10% every ten grams.

So adding things like this, like fruits or beans, you're helping yourself while eating something that's delicious.

And that plays right into blue zones.

Brooke, we're we're we're thinking and talking about living longer.

So how does incorporating these nutritious swaps into your diet?

How does that help you live longer?

It does.

One of the core pillars that we learned from the other communities around the world is that eating wisely is really important.

So fresh fruits and vegetables and having that plant plant, you don't need to adopt a completely vegetarian diet.

But if you treat, meat as sort of your condiments, special occasions and really focus on more heavy plants, plant and to try to pair your meals with social connection, is really important.

So if you're able to enjoy your meal with friends and family, and get that social connection, that's also going to add more good years.

I love that.

And so we don't need to eat alone at the table.

Find a partner, find for even a stranger just to talk to.

It's important.

It's it's a healthy choice to make.

Yeah.

Great.

All right.

So we're going to blend that up.

In the meantime are we cutting any fruits and vegetables.

Yes.

While I'm setting this up we're going to cut up.

I have today some apple, some strawberries, a pineapple.

You can really use anything that's on hand.

Right.

And I like to keep this in my fridge, a platter that I can easily stick out for when my kiddos come home or my husband and I come home.

It's something that you can just grab from that's not as much of like, oh, I have to make something right this second.

It's already prepped.

So yeah, if you want to cut those up, however, it's easy to eat.

I would be happy with it.

And then we're going to food process this about 15 to 30s.

Right.

We're just looking for a smooth texture.

I don't want to know that there's beans in here while you're blending that up.

What are some of the other beans you can substitute into there?

Yeah.

So a lot of times when we are doing things like, chocolate brownie hummus works with black beans as well.

Okay.

Yeah, I'll stop it here.

It does look like brownie batter, right?

It's starting to come together.

If you look above it, there's still some of the bean texture.

So you go a little bit longer and depending on your food processor, might take longer than this massive one.

And especially with kids, I know we keep bringing up the kids, but especially with kids, if it looks a certain way you can get them to try it or eat it.

It's easier for them to test it out if it looks like bread.

Brownie batter.

Now I'm getting it.

Even if it does have beans in it.

I think that might go for husbands today.

Yeah that's right.

Okay, I like it.

I think a lot of people, if it looks appetizing, they'll give it a try.

Right.

So we are also going to show how to make no bake energy bites.

And essentially it's like no bake healthy cookie dough.

So this is something and I have it over here if it's okay to do while Brooke is, well absolutely on food.

So I have my ingredients are rolled oats.

I have, cranberries and dark chocolate chips.

I have flaxseed meal, which might be something that people have not heard about before.

This is, ground up flax seeds and it's a great source of omega threes.

And it's also great for fiber.

So adding this in, can help boost the nutrition value.

You can also use it as a substitute for eggs and bacon.

So you can make a flax egg if you don't have an egg on hand.

I have peanut butter, agave, vanilla and chia seeds.

All right.

Great.

So what do we do with all of that?

You just throw it in a bowl I love it I love this.

It's like a no bake brownie batter.

Yeah.

So if you want to help, you could throw this okay in here.

And then we're going to do our flax seed meal if you want to add the fun part.

Wonderful.

Cranberries and these these don't look like Hershey's bars.

Is this like a healthier version of our chocolate or what?

Chocolate are we reaching for?

To make it a little bit, we are doing dark chocolate.

If you have Hershey at home and you don't have time to run out, go do it like that's fine.

But if you're trying to make a little bit of a shift, like we're saying, dark chocolate, less sweet and chocolate, that's going to kind of help with having less of the sugar content for this one, but still tastes good.

So, if you don't mind throwing that, I gotta make sure there and then I have peanut butter.

Now we can adjust this recipe to be whatever you guys have on hand.

If you need an allergen swap, you could always do, sunflower seed butter.

You could do cashew butter.

Any of those, will work.

Some people, you could do Nutella, but maybe do a little bit less.

But I mean, that would be good too.

So that's for the extra tree.

Yeah.

I mean, that's the Valentine's Day tree.

And then this is for the every day, right?

Yeah.

So we have whole grains, we have fiber from, the different additives.

We have nuts and seeds, which will give us some good healthy fats too.

So these, while tasting like cookie dough will be something that can really fuel your day, and help you stay full through.

Really?

I grab these for breakfast, you can grab them for snacks on the go.

Like, throw them to the kids for car rides, finish up our energy bites, and one more time.

Brooke, while you're cutting that, how can folks get more information about the Blue Zones Initiative?

Our website is the best place to get connected.

You can sign up for our newsletter there.

We have our events published there, and that's Lehigh valley.com.

And on there you can sign up for our newsletter.

We send out a monthly newsletter, which will give you updates on what activities happening across the Lehigh Valley, what events we have coming up so they can check that out on the website.

And then the Kellen Foundation.

How can we get more information about Kellen?

If you look at how healthy food.org, you'll see our weekly menus.

There's pickups throughout the Lehigh Valley.

And you can kind of pick up a few things, see if your family likes it and it can help with these shifts.

Wonderful.

All right.

Last thing.

We get to scoop out our energy bites here, right?

Yes.

So all you have to do there about two tablespoons.

We put them down here.

They can look rustic if you want.

You can roll them.

If you want your kids to have a hand in this and have fun.

Now, are you serving, room temperature or are we putting them in the fridge?

So I typically like to do I, have them be chilled so they come more together and, and get a little bit more.

They're great this way, but they're more like a granola bar.

If you chill them, the they will stay together better.

And then often I like to meal prep these on the weekend, put them in the freezer for easy grab and go.

And then if I have this recipe, it makes about 16 of them.

We can kind of grab them throughout the week.

Wonderful.

Amanda from the Kellen Foundation, Brooke from Blue Zones and Allentown.

Ladies, thank you so much for sharing these awesome recipes.

Let's just put this out real quick so we can show folks at home what they look like next to our brownie batter hummus, and we are ready to have the perfect, nutritious, sweet treat.

Ladies, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

That look delicious.

And that will do it for this episode of living in the Lehigh Valley for PBS 39.

I'm Grover Silcox and I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Hoping you stay happy and healthy.