Community News
5 Benefits of a Healthy Love Life

Having sex regularly can do more than make you feel closer to your partner—it can actually make you physically healthier! Here are 5 health benefits of making love:

1. Boosts Your Immune System. People who have sex frequently have higher levels of what defends your body against viruses.

2. Boosts Your Libido. The more you have sex, the more often you crave it!

3. Improves Bladder Control. Good sex is like a workout for your pelvic floor muscles. When you have an orgasm, it causes contractions in those muscles, which strengthens them.

4. Lowers Heart Attack Risk. A good sex life is good for your heart. During one study, men who had sex at least twice a week were half as likely to die of heart disease as men who had sex rarely.

5. May Make Prostate Cancer Less Likely. Going for the gusto may help ward off prostate cancer. Men who ejaculated frequently were less likely to get prostate cancer during one study. (source http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide)

Heather Cameron, Liberated Connections
LiberatedConnections.com

Allery Relief with NAET®

NAET® was discovered by Dr. Devi S. Nambudripad in November of 1983. Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques, also known as NAET, are non-invasive, drug free, natural solutions to alleviate allergies of all types using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing, and treatment procedures. The varieties of techniques applied include acupuncture/acupressure, chiropractic, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine. We know that many symptoms, such as headaches, backache, joint pain, indigestion, or a cough, are often triggered by food and environmental sensitivities. If left untreated, these reactions may eventually cause illness. This therapy often alleviates adverse reactions to egg, milk, peanuts, penicillin, aspirin, mushrooms, shellfish, latex, grass, ragweed, and flowers. In addition, people who suffer from allergens such as perfume, animal dander, animal epithelial, make-up, chemicals, cigarette smoke, pathogens, heat, cold, and other environmental substances also find relief.

Reference www.naet.com. Dr. Maria Sabrina DiBernardo, D.C., Village Chiropractic Centre

How to Eat Mindfully

It makes sense that we actually have to set an intention to slow down as we pick up our fork. We’ve all scarfed down a meal and not long after feel like we swallowed a bowling ball. Recognizing physical fullness is part of mindful eating and ditching dieting. Ideally, you can gift yourself 20 minutes to eat mindfully, the time it takes to register fullness. If you only have 5 minutes, make them mindful minutes. Create a speed bump on your plate by taking a moment to visualize what half of your serving looks like. Once you are half done put your fork down for a moment. How full are you? Place your hand on your belly if it helps you connect. If you’re still hungry continue eating slowly and mindfully, until you feel physically satisfied. The goal is NOT to eat less, it’s to FEEL GOOD!

Lisa Kehler, Off Your Plate Nutrition, www.offyourplatenutrition.ca

Do You Have a Bad Knee?

Knee Osteoarthritis is the leading cause of lower extremity disability. Osteoarthritis is defined as degeneration of joint cartilage and the underlying bone. Some risk factors that increase your risk of having osteoarthritis are age, history of trauma to a joint repetitive activity and obesity. People who suffer from osteoarthritis usually have muscles weakness, altered muscle function, increased joint stiffness and lower aerobic fitness. Research suggests that exercise and education on weight-loss are the first lines of treatment for osteoarthritis. The most beneficial forms of exercise include; flexibility training (stretching), strength training (squats) and cardiovascular training (bike/walking). Physiotherapists are equipped with skills to assess and treat people who suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee. Physiotherapy includes techniques to help the joint move better through massage and mobilizations as well as providing you with a specific exercise program that is tailored to your needs and to make it the most enjoyable for you.

Kristy Maksymyk, Prairie Trail Physiotherapy, www.prairietrailphysio.ca

Clean Eating: Easy Ricotta Protein Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups ricotta

4 eggs (or 1 cup egg whites)

½ cup natural sweetener of choice

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp orange zest (opt)

Instructions: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners and then spray the liners. Mix everything until very well combined. Evenly divide batter into muffin tin. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. The tops are golden brown when done. Makes 12. Great warm or cold and a healthy dessert served with maple syrup, berries and greek yogurt. Switch up to savory by omitting vanilla, sweetener and orange zest. I like sundried tomatoes, parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning for a pizza version. Original recipe: Laura Hickman, www.bakingoutsidethebox. com.

Lisa Kehler, www.offyourplatenutrition.ca

Product Spotlight: OxyFresh Dental Gel

Are you experiencing mouth pain? Try a natural alternative to oral pain gel. Oxyfresh Dental Gel offers instant relief to sore and swollen gum tissues. Condition, soothe and deodorize your teeth and gums with Super Relief Dental Gel from Oxyfresh. With a super-fresh wintergreen flavor, Super Relief Formula delivers powerful healing power with Tea Tree Oil, Chamomile, Aloe Vera, Essential Oils and Folic Acid. Super Relief Gel is formulated with Oxyfresh’s patented odor-eliminating combination of zinc and Oxygene® to promote fresh breath by neutralizing the volatile sulfur compounds responsible for halitosis. Super Relief Dental Gel also helps eliminate canker sores, speeds healing of oral cuts and scrapes, deodorizes oral wounds and conditions irritated gums.

Sarah Sangalang, www.reflectionsdentalhealth.ca

Assessing our Relationships

There comes a time in our lives when we are in need of evaluating our relationships to assess what life is giving and serving us and what is no longer meeting our needs and holding us back. It is important to distinguish between unfinished resentments that need to be expressed and cleared in order to open up communication and ease between friends, versus getting stuck in old entrenched patterns that have nowhere to go and keep being played out. One of the biggest gifts we can give ourselves is surrounding our lives with loving and kind people. Creating an inventory of who is in your life, where you are spending your time and how enriched you are feeling is valuable information. Sometimes a person comes into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime, and we don’t always know their purpose in advance!

D’Arcy Bruning-Haid, www.souls-journey.com

Who Should You Know Better Than Anyone Else?

Have you ever met a celebrity? How many family and friends do you know on a personal level? Whose advice do you take over anyone else’s? Now here’s a good one for you – do you know yourself? Often, we are so focused on work, family, friends and daily distractions that we have never taken the time to get to know ourselves. As an example, I was so busy trying to be the best at everything and become an all-star at life, that for years I ignored myself and the aspects of me that needed TLC, growth, and attention – until my health and happiness reached an all-time low. Then I got to know myself in a hurry! In order to prevent problems from arising OR to dig yourself out of them – I highly recommend that you connect and listen to… You. It may be surprising what you can resolve for yourself.

Shannon Russell, BodyMind Freedom Solutions, www.thedashmethod.com

Float Your Way to Happiness

People generally have heard about floating by the terms “pods” or “tanks,” and start to feel claustrophobic. Float “Cabins” are different. Float Cabins come as large as four feet wide, eight feet long, and nearly seven feet high, and they are easily accessible easy to come out of with standard swing or sliding doors. Within each float cabin, 10 inches of water is infused with up with 1,000 pounds of dissolved Epsom salts, this makes the water extremely buoyant. With the option to remove light and sound, you experience the sensation of floating through space. Other options include the ability to play your own music and enjoy colour therapy as well. Floating regularly helps reduce physical and mental stresses on the body. The brain gives out alpha waves associated with meditation that allows the body to recover from stress and relax. Floatation therapy is a simple way to invest in your own health and happiness.

Fluid Float Studio, www.fluidfloat.com

Have You Tried Kefir?

Kefir is a unique cultured dairy product and one of the most probiotic-rich foods on the planet. Drinking Kefir has incredible medicinal benefits for your digestion and gut health. It’s tart and refreshing flavor is similar to a drinking-style yogurt, but it contains beneficial yeast as well as friendly probiotic bacteria found in yogurt. The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in combine symbiotically to give superior health benefits when consumed regularly. It is loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals and contains easily digestible complete proteins. For the lactose intolerant, kefir’s abundance of beneficial yeast and bacteria provide lactase, an enzyme which consumes most of the lactose left after the culturing process. Drink up for benefits to your immune system, your bowels (see you later, IBS symptoms!), and your bones. It helps fight allergies, improves lactose digestion, supports detoxification, and even kills candida.

Disability Tax Credit, www.disabilitytaxcreditwinnipeg.com

Positive Mental Health is a Laughing Matter

While living with mental illness is no joke, laughing for positive mental and physical health seriously works. In fact, evidence supports the claim that a joyful heart provides a similar benefit to that of medicine. Although not considered a replacement for medical treatment, some doctors are using laughter as an adjunctive therapy. In the short and long term, laughter has been shown to, 1. Stimulate/boost the immune system; 2. Alleviate pain; 3. Reduce anxiety and stress; 4. Reduce depression; and, 5. Promote a sense of hopefulness. What if you don’t feel like laughing? No problem, fake it until you make it. Physiologically speaking, for the most part, your body doesn’t know the difference. And, faking it often leads to the real thing which may be exactly the health supplement you need to get to the positive side of negative circumstances.

Sean Miller, Canadian Mental Health Association, mbwpg.cmha.ca