Chattanooga First Seventh-day Adventist hosting Health Expo

First Seventh-day Adventist Church will introduce health and wellness information and tools during its first-ever Health Expo April 10 from 1 to 5 p.m.

“Health and wellness have been hot topics today, and people are now more engaged in their own healthcare than ever before,” said Matthew Tinkham Jr., assistant pastor, who hopes the expo will become an annual event. “We want to empower people to improve and maintain their health by giving them the tools they need.”

The expo will feature screenings for everything from blood pressure and vision to mental health tests for depression and stress. Many will be performed by medical professionals, including doctors, nurses and chiropractors. Free chair massages will be available.

Health lectures will be given throughout the day, covering topics such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other common illnesses that can be caused by poor diet and too little exercise. The YMCA will demonstrate exercises that can easily be used in the living room at home.

Church members will sell the congregation cookbook, “Pleasures from the Good Earth,” and provide free samples of several of the included recipes.

“I’m excited about this expo,” said Tinkham. “I’m excited that the church is doing this for the community. Part of having a good and satisfactory life is to have good health.”

Tinkham said Seventh-day Adventists already focused on health at both a local and national level. The New Start program is a national initiative that focuses on nutrition, exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air, rest and trust. There is also as an initiative within the church called the In Step for Life program, which focuses on taking those extra steps toward health every day.

“Seventh-day Adventists were a people mentioned in a longevity study by National Geographic,” said Tinkham. “As a world-wide church, we try to operate on very solid health principles.”

For more information call 299-5480.