Last year’s relaunch of Huntington’s Kitchen gave Dr. Joseph DeLapa another opportunity to help residents of his native Tri-State Area live better lives—by leading healthier ones.
The director of Marshall Health Network’s Senior Pain and Wellness Center volunteers to periodically teach two Kitchen classes: Dining with a Doc and Seniors Focus Friday.
“It could be said that proper health starts in the kitchen with what you eat,” said Dr. DeLapa, a native of Proctorville, Ohio, who joined MHN in 2017. “Huntington’s Kitchen is helping educate the public about healthy options and lifestyles.”
Unfortunately, conditions such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and addiction are endemic to the region. According to Dr. DeLapa, Huntington’s Kitchen is essentially serving as an outreach center for local healthcare providers to connect with the community.
These monthly sessions are part of an ongoing series of classes offered at the Kitchen. Over the years, the attractive facility has evolved into a community hub, focusing on healthy cooking and lifestyles in an effort to improve the health of area residents.
“We especially appreciate the contributions physicians like Dr. DeLapa make to the work of Huntington’s Kitchen,” said Isabel Cross, who took the reins as Director in early 2024. “Health management and improvement and cooking tips all correlate to healthy eating. Food can indeed be medicine.”
Dining with a Doc is a monthly two-hour session that includes dinner and a health-related presentation, with a $30 fee for the meal. Senior Focus Friday classes are free, with each session highlighting a different health theme, such as heart health, cancer prevention, preventing falls, or pain management.
Pain management is of particular interest to Dr. DeLapa. He explains that chronic pain conditions often have multiple contributing factors, including poor diet, lack of exercise, isolation, and chronic degeneration of bones and joints.
His goal is to educate and offer seniors alternatives for the treatment of chronic pain. He notes that the Western diet is heavy on “pro-inflammatory” foods such as refined sugars, starches, and highly processed items.
“Over the years at Huntington’s Kitchen, I have discussed how just adding a few healthy options—such as vegetables, specific herbs, healthy fats, and lean proteins—can lead to overall less pain and inflammation,” said Dr. DeLapa, who earned his medical degree at Ohio State University. “Examples of these ‘anti-inflammatory’ style diets would be the Mediterranean or Asian diets.”
In addition, Dr. DeLapa hopes to break the negative stigma often associated with pain management. He sees the Kitchen as the ideal venue for small, focused educational groups where patients can ask questions and connect with healthcare providers in a relaxed atmosphere.
His community involvement includes longtime membership in the Foundations’ Medallion Society, a group that recognizes contributors who offer significant support to Hoops Family Children’s Hospital and other MHN Foundations programs.
