LOCAL Houston | The City Guide APRIL 2015 | Page 6

Local April.qxp_002houston 3/23/15 2:14 PM Page 6

LETTER
FROM THE
EDITOR

BEHIND
THE COVER

Creative director Gabriella Nissen shot the board
game Operation for our health and wellness cover.
A mix of nostalgia and a spin on how
complicated medicine has become, the game, is
battery-operated and tests the player’s hand-eye
coordination and fine motor skills. Invented in
1964 by John Spinello, a University of Illinois
industrial design student who sold his rights to
Milton Bradley for $500. Today, Hasbro makes
the game with an estimated worth of $40 million.

“HEALTH” AND “WELLNESS” –
words we throw around and either
take for granted or are on a constant
search for balance. We could have simply packed this issue with profiles of doctors
and their practices, but we didn’t want to read that. So instead we found a range of
local professionals making a difference or doing something different.
From The Integrative Medicine Program at MD Anderson quite literally fighting to teach
humanity the massive benefits of prevention, to a doctor who froze his brain practicing
what he had been preaching to his patients, ultimately making him a more stern, but
probably better doctor. From a woman who since a child had an affinity for older
adults and naturally started a practice of geriatric care, to a forensic doctor by day
and state-of-the-art knife maker by night, to a dermatologist (whose dream job was to
be a college football sports announcer) who shares common skin misconceptions
based on personal experience. And more.
What I took away from putting this issue together is that prevention is key. We need
to slow down. Take time to eat our meals and respect not only the food we are putting
in our bodies but our bodies themselves for getting us through the day. Through this life.
We need to keep moving to exercise not only our body, but mind and spirit. And meditate, taking deep breaths to release staleness and reinvigorate our beings. This may
all sound great to some of you and hippie-dippie to others. But at the end of the day,
it’s simple: How long do you want to be around? Because our bodies can only take
so much abuse.
Namaste.

Carla Valencia de Martinéz
Editor-in-Chief
Photography by Gabriella Nissen

6

L O C A L

| april 15

We thought we would be able to head over to
Target and pick up the game but much to our surprise the original has been updated to reflect modern times. So we did what any other team would
do and headed to Facebook and texted our
contacts to hunt down an original Operation.
Thanks to Alexa Junek for lending us her game.