The campus will be both a world-class research center and a nexus for community engagement, spawning citizen scientists and making health equity everyone’s pursuit.��It will consist of two historic buildings on West Muhammad Ali Boulevard totaling 133,000 square feet and an adjacent garden space.

The launch of the New Vision of Health Campus is made possible by a commitment from health advocate Christina Lee Brown of Louisville valued at $47 million by the university. Brown is providing $30 million over 20 years to support the  and is giving rent-free use of the buildings to the university, equating to a $17-million in-kind donation. In a special meeting earlier today, the UofL Board of Trustees approved a lease granting UofL use of the property, which is owned by Brown. The university plans to seek additional partnerships and financial support for the campus and its mission.

“We are incredibly grateful to Mrs. Brown for this generous gift of support and this special space in the heart of the city,” said Lori Stewart Gonzalez, interim president of UofL. “On this new campus, UofL researchers will increase our understanding of the many aspects of our environment that contribute to optimum health for everyone, here and beyond. It embodies our commitment to health equity.”

“To grow from our past and promote long, fulfilling lives, we shouldn’t chase any single cause. We live in a complex, interdependent world where history is our shared legacy and health is our shared aspiration,” Brown said. “By honestly recognizing our common stories, we can frame a new vision of health which unifies us. It can inspire healthier lives, healthier communities and a healthier world.”

�ճ���� will include specially designed laboratories and offices for the that will engage researchers and community members to learn how natural, cultural and personal environments impact health. Institute researchers work with community partners to discover how to build healthier cities, creating insights and models to improve health in Louisville and around the world.

The research will be directed by Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the UofL Envirome Institute, professor of medicine and chief of the UofL Division of Environmental Medicine.

“Our quest is to pursue the new vision that health is a resource that needs to be cultivated through conducive physical and environmental conditions,” Bhatnagar said. “Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a resilience that helps individuals withstand all forms of stress. We want to move the discussion of health away from disease and instead focus on actively promoting health before disease occurs.”

The UofL Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute was created in 2018 with a $5-million gift from Brown that charged UofL researchers to take a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to understanding how the human-environment interrelationship affects peoples’ lives and to convert that knowledge to actionable steps to promote human health. This research and the new funding announced today support the university’s grand challenge strategic research priority of “,” an initiative to lead a transformative shift in how we understand, promote and recover health through all stages of life.

Research highlights from the Envirome Institute include the , documenting the health impacts of living among greater levels of vegetation, the , tracking the presence and spread of COVID-19 in the community through testing of individuals and wastewater, and research to document the effects of smoking and vaping on health. Bhatnagar is co-director of the American Heart Association’s Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science, and the center’s research was employed as key evidence for ending the sale of flavored vaping products in California. The institute also houses the only NIH Superfund Research Center devoted to studying the effects of superfund chemicals on cardiovascular health, diabetes and obesity.

“This is UofL research that could transform the way we promote well-being by revealing and decoding the factors that affect it,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “We are proud to work with Christina Lee Brown and appreciate her continued support to further this important effort in advancing our health. Together, we will help people here in Louisville and around the world live lives that are not just longer, but healthier and more resilient.”

The gift announced today is the single largest philanthropic gift in the university’s history.

The launch of the New Vision of Health Campus is made possible by a commitment from health advocate Christina Lee Brown of Louisville valued at $47 million by the university. Brown is providing $30 million over 20 years to support the and is giving rent-free use of the buildings to the university, equating to a $17-million in-kind donation. In a special meeting earlier today, the UofL Board of Trustees approved a lease granting UofL use of the property, which is owned by Brown. The university plans to seek additional partnerships and financial support for the campus and its mission.

“We are incredibly grateful to Mrs. Brown for this generous gift of support and this special space in the heart of the city,” said Lori Stewart Gonzalez, interim president of UofL. “On this new campus, UofL researchers will increase our understanding of the many aspects of our environment that contribute to optimum health for everyone, here and beyond. It embodies our commitment to health equity.”

“To grow from our past and promote long, fulfilling lives, we shouldn’t chase any single cause. We live in a complex, interdependent world where history is our shared legacy and health is our shared aspiration,” Brown said. “By honestly recognizing our common stories, we can frame a new vision of health which unifies us. It can inspire healthier lives, healthier communities and a healthier world.”

The will include specially designed laboratories and offices for the that will engage researchers and community members to learn how natural, cultural and personal environments impact health. Institute researchers work with community partners to discover how to build healthier cities, creating insights and models to improve health in Louisville and around the world.

The research will be directed by Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the UofL Envirome Institute, professor of medicine and chief of the UofL Division of Environmental Medicine.

“Our quest is to pursue the new vision that health is a resource that needs to be cultivated through conducive physical and environmental conditions,” Bhatnagar said. “Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a resilience that helps individuals withstand all forms of stress. We want to move the discussion of health away from disease and instead focus on actively promoting health before disease occurs.”

The UofL Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute was created in 2018 with a $5-million gift from Brown that charged UofL researchers to take a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to understanding how the human-environment interrelationship affects peoples’ lives and to convert that knowledge to actionable steps to promote human health. This research and the new funding announced today support the university’s grand challenge strategic research priority of “,” an initiative to lead a transformative shift in how we understand, promote and recover health through all stages of life.

Research highlights from the Envirome Institute include the , documenting the health impacts of living among greater levels of vegetation, the , tracking the presence and spread of COVID-19 in the community through testing of individuals and wastewater, and research to document the effects of smoking and vaping on health. Bhatnagar is co-director of the American Heart Association’s Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science, and the center’s research was employed as key evidence for ending the sale of flavored vaping products in California. The institute also houses the only NIH Superfund Research Center devoted to studying the effects of superfund chemicals on cardiovascular health, diabetes and obesity.

“This is UofL research that could transform the way we promote well-being by revealing and decoding the factors that affect it,” said Kevin Gardner, UofL’s executive vice president for research and innovation. “We are proud to work with Christina Lee Brown and appreciate her continued support to further this important effort in advancing our health. Together, we will help people here in Louisville and around the world live lives that are not just longer, but healthier and more resilient.”

The gift announced today is the single largest philanthropic gift in the university’s history.

The research, led by Aruni Bhatnagar, professor of medicine and director of the UofL Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, was published ahead of print in the .

Previous studies have shown that proximity to green space — trees and other vegetation — can lower blood pressure levels and the risk of heart disease. A number of environmental factors may come into play, including increased opportunity for outdoor exercise, reduced mental stress and socioeconomic status. However, the relationship between vascular (blood vessel) health, green space and air pollution has not been fully explored.

In this , researchers looked at the arterial stiffness of adult volunteers with co-occurring conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, that put the volunteers in the moderate-to-severe risk category for heart disease.

“Although we have known for a long time that exposure to air pollution has adverse effects on our blood vessels, this study shows that those who live in greener neighborhoods may be less affected,” Bhatnagar said. “Therefore, one way of preventing the harmful health effects of air pollution may be to make neighborhoods more green.”

Using study participants’ residential addresses and data from the U.S. Geological Survey and local Environmental Protection Agency monitoring stations, the research team analyzed environmental factors where the volunteers lived, including:

• Vegetation index, including the amount of and variation in greenness levels within 200-meter and one-kilometer (0.62 miles) radii around each volunteer’s home.
• Particulate matter, tiny toxic particles invisible to the naked eye, in the air.
• Levels of ozone, a colorless, toxic gas and significant air pollutant.

At times when the particulate matter and ozone levels were high, participants had higher levels of arterial stiffness, however, those who lived in areas with more flora had better blood vessel function. Trees and other greenery offset vascular dysfunction that air pollution causes, the researchers explained.

In previous work, the researchers found that individuals who live in areas with a large amount of greenness show lower exposure to volatile chemicals and have greater household income. In the current study, they explored the relationships between greenery, air pollution and arterial stiffness and found a similar correlation between the U.S. Geological Survey’s normalized difference vegetation index and average household income. Even when adjusting for self-reported lifestyle habits such as exercise and smoking — 70% of the volunteers were nonsmokers — the researchers found that “the effects of green spaces on hemodynamic function are largely independent of median household income, physical activity levels and tobacco use.”

“These findings indicate that living in green areas may be conducive for vascular health and that the [favorable] effects of greenness may be attributable, in part, to attenuated exposure to air pollutants such as [particulate matter] and ozone,” said Daniel Riggs, UofL biostatistician and the study’s first author.

This research was conducted in conjunction with the Green Heart Project, a first-of-its-kind study of the effects of plants on human health, led by researchers at the .

From June 10-19, researchers conducting Phase II of the tested members of the Louisville community for both the presence of the novel coronavirus in the participants’ nasal passages and for antibodies against the virus in their blood. Samples were collected at five community drive-up locations across Louisville by UofL Health and researchers from the . Samples were analyzed by UofL’s Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease in its Regional Biocontainment Laboratory.

To obtain a representative sample for the study, households in Jefferson County were organized into geographic regions based on U.S. Census Bureau tract boundaries. Households within each region were sent invitations to participate in proportion to the population of that region. Within the regions, areas that had higher concentrations of non-white residents were sampled at a higher rate to increase their representation.

Invitations were mailed to a total of 18,232 addresses. Based on the ages and sexes of all adults in the household as provided by those responding to the invitation, one adult from each household was asked to provide a sample.

The researchers tested 509 people who responded to the mailed invitations. An additional 1,728 community members booked appointments on their own and were tested after hearing about the study in the news or on social media. Many individuals who were invited to participate did not book an appointment.��

Of the 2,237 individuals who were tested, 10% were non-white. The ages of tested individuals was as follows:

• 21% between 18-34
• 40% between 35-59
• 40% age 60 or older

Residential locations of the 2,237 participants are shown in Map 1 (below). Overall, nearly 0.4% of the population of Jefferson County was sampled.

Analysis of the study data found that at least 0.05% of the participants had an active infection during the time of the study and approximately 4% (5.1 to 3.2%) of people had detectable levels of antibodies in their blood, indicating they had been exposed to the virus earlier in the year.

“These results allow us, for the first time, to more accurately estimate the spread of coronavirus within our community. If we extrapolate the results from this study to the general population, it would suggest that as many as 20,000 people may have been exposed to the virus – many more than the 3,813 cases reported in the city by the end of June,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the Brown Envirome Institute.

This difference may be due to the fact that people did not have symptoms and were not aware they were infected.

“We were told by several participants that they believed they had COVID-19 before testing was widely available. Nonetheless, our preliminary data suggest that the estimated number of people who have had COVID-19 may be 4 to 6 times higher than those who have tested positive to-date,” said Rachel Keith,assistant professor of environmental medicine at UofL who conducted the study. “This suggests that the virus is much more widespread in our community than previously estimated. I believe this indicates a need for continued and widespread testing, including antibody testing, which plays an important role in understanding the spread of disease.”

“The random sampling of the population also allows us to calculate the true mortality associated with COVID-19,” Bhatnagar said. “Previous estimates of COVID-19-related mortality have varied from 0.5 to 15%. However, given that the city had reported 209 deaths by the end of June, our results suggest that the rate of mortality associated with the virus, at least in Kentucky, may be 1.3%. This is significantly higher than the 0.65% rate suggested by the CDC. Our research suggests that many who are infected with the virus nationwide have not been tested and that there is urgent need to continue random testing so that we can calculate the most accurate mortality rate.”

The study data also provide an estimate of the spread of the infection in Louisville.

“Because participants were drawn from all parts of the city, we could estimate which areas have had the highest rates of infection,” Keith said. “Although we are still analyzing all our data, our early results show that the highest cluster of individuals exposed to the virus is in Western Louisville. (See Map 2, below). We found that the prevalence of exposure was twice as high in non-white participants as in white participants. Most (54%) of those who tested positive for the antibody were between the ages of 35-59 years old,” she said.

The researchers cautioned that because so little is known about SARS-CoV-2 and because the rates of community infection and exposure are changing rapidly, the results of this survey are applicable only to the period of June 10-19.

“Although many individuals had detectable levels, the amount of antibodies in blood varied greatly among the participants,” said Kenneth Palmer, director of the CPM. “As a result, we are not sure to what extent they are protected from re-infection. Indeed, some of our early results show that the levels of antibodies decline rapidly within a month. Therefore, we are planning to re-measure individuals who had antibodies in their blood to see if those levels are maintained over time and, if so, for how long.”

Currently, the researchers are repeating the antibody test in those health care workers who were found to have anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during . They also plan to repeat community-wide testing in Jefferson County in September.

This study was supported in part by the James Graham Brown Foundation. The Co-Immunity Project is a collaboration of the UofL Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council and three health systems in Louisville – Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare and UofL Health.

“We are deeply grateful for this timely philanthropic support that enables us to begin the next phase of the Co-Immunity Project,” said Neeli Bendapudi, president of the University of Louisville. “It is vital for decision makers to have the information to track virus activity as the economy continues phased reopening. Knowing where the virus is will help us avoid a second wave.”

Watch a video of the virtual news conference .

The new investment will support unique, three-step testing of individuals in the community for COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 antibodies along with testing of wastewater. The goal is to develop a real-time picture of the virus – a “radar” – beginning in Jefferson County, with the hope of later spreading this model to other affected communities worldwide.

“The James Graham Brown Foundation is pleased to join the efforts of the University of Louisville and other funders in this crucial work that will benefit and inform how we manage the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mason Rummel, president and CEO of the James Graham Brown Foundation.��“The University of Louisville and the Co-Immunity Project team’s swift action and proactive approach will help our community mitigate the impact of this virus now and in the future.”

A substantial gift from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence and other individual donations enabled the completion of Phase I of the research, which included the testing of more than 1,000 health care workers in all three area hospital systems: Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare and UofL Health. The results of this work will be shared very soon.

The JGBF gift will help the project launch its Phase II, in which some 22,000 community members will be tested for the virus and associated antibodies.

Households will receive invitations in the mail to participate in this research from UofL. From those who sign up in response to the mailing, individuals will be selected to participate in testing based on age, race, sex, background and location to create a sample that matches the demographics of the overall population of Jefferson County.

A new group of participants will be selected every six weeks for virus testing and antibody testing. If someone receives the mailing and signs up on the Co-Immunity Project website, they may be called right away, they may be called for a later group or they may not be called.

Participants in this project will receive more than COVID-19 diagnostic tests. They also will be tested using cutting-edge antibody testing available at UofL to determine how much immunity was generated by such exposure and to identify those with the best immune responses as donors of high-quality plasma for treating patients with advanced COVID-19. This antibody testing is more accurate, specific and reliable than most antibody tests, providing much more significant data.

The three-step antibody testing to understand and make use of patient immunity is conducted at the UofL Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (CPM), which has established a high-throughput, real-time assay for antibodies from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus variant that causes COVID-19.

This comprehensive testing program identifies people with antibodies, their levels and quality, and tracks the evolution of the participants’ immunity. The CPM will utilize its NIH-designated Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, one of just 12 such facilities in the United States and the only one in Kentucky, to test for the neutralizing activity of the antibodies.

“It is very important that the citizens of Jefferson County respond to this call for participants,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the Envirome Institute. “We cannot do this research without the participation of residents from every part of the metro area.”

Scientists from across the globe will have access to the resulting anonymized data for future study on the effectiveness of antibody therapy. The data also may be used to better identify individuals who are better able to fight off the coronavirus.

is a collaboration of the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, along with Louisville’s three major health systems, Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare and UofL Health.

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Among the authors for this work were researchers from the , Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, Louisville Metro Office of Civic Innovation and Technology, Family Allergy & Asthma, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Propeller Health, University of California Berkeley, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, University of Texas at Austin and Colorado State University.

Coal-fired power plants are known to emit pollutants associated with adverse health effects, including increased asthma attacks, asthma-related ED visits and hospitalizations. In 2014, coal-fired power plants accounted for 63 percent of economy-wide emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in the United States. Historically, Kentucky has ranked among the top five states in the U.S. for emissions from power generation.

Starting with a pilot in 2012, the city of Louisville embarked on a project called , which aimed to use data from digital inhaler sensors to gain insights into the impact of local air quality on the burden of respiratory disease in the community. More than 1,200 Louisville residents with asthma and COPD were equipped with sensors produced by , which attach to patients’ existing inhalers and deliver insights on medication use, symptoms and environmental factors to an app on their smartphone.

Between 2013 and 2016, one coal-fired power plant in the Louisville area retired coal as an energy source and three others installed stricter emission controls to comply with regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers took advantage of these circumstances to analyze the impact of the coal-fired power plant energy transitions on residents’ respiratory health, using data from Propeller and local hospitals to assess how asthma-related symptoms, ED visits and hospitalizations changed over time.

The study looked at the frequency of the total number of asthma-related ED visits and hospitalizations per ZIP code in Jefferson County, where Louisville is located, as well as the frequency of asthma rescue medication use among 207 people. Data on rescue medication use for asthma was used as a proxy for patients’ symptoms, as patients use their rescue medication for acute relief from symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath.

Ted Smith, PhD, director of the Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil in the UofL Envirome Institute and co-author of the study, said the work confirms important connections between environment and health.

“At the Envirome Institute and the , we are pioneering an approach that puts a focus on place in medicine – the places where people live and how their location affects clinical outcomes,” Smith said. “This research is a great example of the impact of environmental factors on people’s health. Air pollution first affects the lungs, but we know that when people breathe pollutants, it also affects other organs, including the heart.”

The study spanned 2012 to 2017, when four coal-fired power plants in Jefferson County either retired coal or installed stricter SO₂ controls. The researchers found that energy transitions in the spring of 2015 resulted in three fewer hospitalizations and ED visits per ZIP code per quarter in the following year, when comparing areas that had high coal-fired power plant emission exposure prior to the transition to those with lower levels. This translates into nearly 400 avoided hospitalizations and ED visits each year across Jefferson County.

At the individual level, the Mill Creek SO₂ scrubber installed in June 2016 was associated with a 17-percent immediate reduction in rescue medication use, which was maintained thereafter. The study also found the odds of having high rescue use throughout a month (on average more than four puffs per day) was reduced by 32 percent following the June 2016 energy transition.

“AIR Louisville brought together local government, public and private partners and residents for a common mission: To leverage local data to help push for safer and healthier air,” said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. “This study demonstrates the public health impact of retiring coal as an energy source or further controlling coal-fired emissions.”

“This study was unique in its ability to measure asthma morbidity based on both hospitalizations and daily symptoms, and to leverage an abrupt change in environmental exposure to more directly attribute changes in asthma exacerbation to changes in coal-fired power plant emissions,” said Joan Casey, PhD, lead author of the paper and assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

The main funding for the project was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Support also was provided by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, Norton Healthcare Foundation, Owsley Brown Charitable Foundation, the American Lung Association, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The contents of the research and related materials are solely the responsibility of the grantee and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USEPA or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Nature Conservancy is overseeing the planting of approximately 8,000 trees and shrubs in the designated neighborhoods. Researchers with the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute will compare data about the health of people living in the neighborhoods and air pollution levels collected before the plantings with data collected two years after the vegetation is planted. The results will provide insight into how the additional vegetation affects the health of people in the community.

“Our primary objective is to understand how increasing greenness affects the risk of heart disease within the community,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD, director of the at the University of Louisville, who oversees the project. “Heart disease remains the leading cause of death throughout the world. We can treat heart disease with stents and statins, but we cannot prevent the disease. If we can show that putting in more trees will lower the incidence of the disease, even by a fraction of what it is, that would be a major achievement.”

The Nature Conservancy is planting the trees and shrubs in designated residents’ yards at no charge to property owners.

“We’re excited to enter the next phase of the Green Heart project,” said David Phemister, state director for in Kentucky. “Tree plantings at this scale require strong partnerships and deep engagement with the community. Green Heart is not just a science experiment – it is a deep investment to bring more nature to neighborhoods in the heart of Louisville.”

The residents’ health is being assessed by UofL researchers through the Health, Environment and Action in Louisville (HEAL) Study. The HEAL researchers obtained health information from approximately 700 participating residents of the Taylor-Berry, Jacobs, Hazelwood, Oakdale, Wilder Park and Beechmont neighborhoods before the planting began. They collected information such as blood pressure, cholesterol, heart health and other health indicators. The same participants will be evaluated again in two years to determine if these health indicators have changed.

“We wanted Louisville to become maybe one of the first cities in the country that makes its decisions through the lens of all forms of health,” said Christina Lee Brown, benefactor of the Envirome Institute. “That is the Envirome’s objective. This project is a magnificent example of healing our community from the roots up.”

In addition to the Envirome Institute and The Nature Conservancy, the project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and is supported by partnerships with Metro Louisville, Louisville Grows, Washington University in St. Louis, Hyphae Design Laboratory and the United States Forest Service. The total cost of the five-year project is more than $15 million.

A UofL video about this project is available on .

“Those discussions forced us to think about how our physiology depends on the attributes of our home planet. The question about what to include in the Mars transport vehicle is a wake-up call for those insensitive to the elimination of biodiversity and poorly conceived urbanization globally,” said Ted Smith, PhD, deputy director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville. Smith also is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for NASA’s Translation Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) and organized the workshop.

At the next Beer with a Scientist, Smith will discuss what planning for long-range space travel reveals about the need to preserve our home planet’s health for our own survival.

Smith’s talk will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12, at , 8023 Catherine Lane. A 30-minute presentation will be followed by an informal Q&A session.

Admission is free. Purchase of beer or other items is not required but is encouraged.

Upcoming Beer with a Scientist events:

• July 17:  Jason Chesney, MD, PhD, will discuss recent advances in using our own immune cells to cure cancer.

The free clinics will be held in Smoketown starting Feb. 9 and last into the spring and early summer. Participants will learn how healthy their heart is and their risk of heart attack and stroke, and those who need treatment will be given a referral for care. Health insurance is not required.

Inspired by Smoketown’s Muhammad Ali, who trained for boxing in the neighborhood, “Heart of a Champion” is a partnership between the UofL schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health and Information Sciences; the Have a Heart Clinic; UofL Physicians; the UofL Envirome Institute; Surgery on Sunday; the American Heart Association; UofL’s Get Healthy Now; IDEAS xLab; Dare to Care; YouthBuild; Smoketown Family Wellness Center; and several Smoketown-area churches.

“With February being American Heart Month, it’s the perfect time to kick off these screenings,” said Erica Sutton, MD, a general surgeon with UofL Physicians and associate professor at the UofL School of Medicine who will lead the UofL doctors staffing the clinics.

“This is a model for community-engaged care, where we work with partners in the community who are taking care of a population we want to reach. It’s important for us not just to open our office doors to people, but really provide a presence for health and access to care by going out into the community.

“In Smoketown, there’s an abundance of heart disease, and we have the ability to make an impact on risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and smoking. And screenings are a well-known tool to identify heart disease before the heart is irreversibly damaged. The saying ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ really rings true here. Not only is prevention or identifying the potential for heart disease easier and more cost effective, but it’s healthier than trying to cure it.”

American Heart Month is a program of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The month aims to encourage and motivate everyone to adopt heart healthy behaviors, including screening for risk factors.

Referrals will go to the Have a Heart Clinic and University of Louisville Physicians, and Surgery on Sunday also will be providing services. Sutton also volunteers with Surgery on Sunday.

The clinics will be held at churches and community centers in the Smoketown neighborhood. UofL doctors will staff the clinics, assisted by students and residents from school.

Other UofL faculty involved include cardiologist Andrew DeFilippis, MD, an expert in cardiovascular diseases whose research focuses on cardiovascular risk prediction, and cardiothoracic surgeon Kristen Sell-Dottin, MD.

Clinic dates

No advance registration is required. Dates and locations for the clinics are:

• Bates Memorial Church (620 Lampton St.)
  • Feb. 9 (Saturday) from 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
  • Feb. 10 (Sunday) from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Smoketown Family Wellness Center (760 S. Hancock St., Suite B100)
  • Feb. 23 (Saturday) from 12 to 2 p.m.
• Coke Memorial United Methodist Church (428 E. Breckinridge St.)
  • June 2 (Sunday) from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• Grace Hope Presbyterian Church (702 E. Breckinridge St.)
  • (TBD)
• Little Flock Missionary Baptist Church (1030 S. Hancock St.)
  • (TBD)
• YouthBuild (800 S. Preston St.)
  • (TBD)

Clinic services

Participants will get screenings for factors that affect heart health, such as blood pressure and cholesterol, body mass, diet, exercise, use of tobacco products and sleep. Arterial ultrasounds also will be available.

A heart health profile will be provided, as well as information on actions to take to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Those who attend will also be able to participate in short informational sessions on diet (including how to cook healthy foods), exercise (including low-intensity options), better sleep and smoking cessation.

Heart disease prevention

In addition to screenings to learn risk, the likelihood of heart attack and stroke can be reduced by:

• Lowering cholesterol (consider what you eat)
• Burning calories every day (exercise or walk) and strength training (you can use your body to strength train)
• Decreasing stress (meditate or relax)
• Eating a healthy diet, including heart-healthy foods
• Stopping smoking
• Finding a physician

.��For questions about the Heart of a Champion program, contact Lora Cornell, senior program coordinator at the UofL School of Medicine, at 502-852-2120.