Conscious party: Ladies Workout Asheville celebrates 20 years in business with a fitness fundraiser

For movers, Ladies Workout Asheville’s anniversary fundraiser offers an obstacle course and walk-a-thon. Casual attendees are welcome to browse vendors to a DJ set, enter a raffle, participate in work-out demos and take the little ones inside a bouncy house. Festivities take place in the gym’s parking lot on Friday, May 20.

WNC employers create healthy workplace options

Workplace health initiatives are cropping up in Western North Carolina. Large hospital systems such as Mission Health and Park Ridge, as well as business owners and organizations like the Western North Carolina Medical Society, are starting to think “inside” the box: They’re creating in-house wellness programs that help employees lose weight, lower stress, get more exercise […]

No wrong doors: Integrated health care program offers one-stop solutions

Unless you’ve just emerged from the wilderness after several decades, chances are you’ve heard some of the roiling discussions going on across the country concerning the current state of the health care system. Whether it’s presidential candidates working on a policy speech or an individual making home budgeting decisions, implementing a comprehensive health care reform […]

Update: To the brink and back: Opioid abuse and treatment in WNC

Amid escalating use and abuse of opioids nationwide, the number of local narcotics-related overdoses has increased rapidly in recent years. The drug naloxone can temporarily suspend those drugs’ effects, and the Asheville metropolitan area leads the state in confirmed cases of opioid overdose reversal, according to the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition.

Nearly $500,000 raised to expand MAMA services

In emergency situations where every second counts, the discovery made thousands of years ago by the Greek mathematician Archimedes still holds true: The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, that can be difficult to find in the winding mountain roads of Western North Carolina — well, unless you’re airborne. (Photo courtesy of Mountain Area Medical Airlift)

Vital signs: Taking Buncombe County’s pulse

In less than 10 minutes, a doctor or nurse can get a read on a patient’s overall health and well-being just by checking a few key indicators: pulse, blood pressure, temperature and respiration rate. But how do you assess an entire community’s vital signs? And if you don’t, how will you know what the biggest problems are and how best to allocate scarce resources? (cover design by Emily Busey)

Mission opens new center to help blind, visually impaired

With an oven, microwave, refrigerator and stove, the training kitchen inside of Mission Health’s recently opened Low Vision Center at Asheville’s Industries for the Blind looks no different from any other kitchen. However, for Tony West, he sees the kitchen differently — primarily through smell and touch. (Above, Tony West works at Industries for the Blind in Asheville. Photo by Caitlin Byrd)