With the return of school comes the return of daily backpack wearing. Backpacks are designed with two shoulder straps to distribute weight evenly. Wearing only one strap at a time with the weight of textbooks and laptops can cause shoulder muscle strains and muscle imbalances. Long-term muscle imbalances can leave people, especially young, growing adults, susceptible to long-term injuries such as tendonitis. These injuries can be painful and bothersome to recover from. The best way to avoid these backpack-related issues is to use the backpack as intended. Your shoulders may thank you for it.
Community News
Keeping Cold & Flu Bugs at Bay
At this time of year, I’m sure you know it’s important to get rest, eat healthy, and exercise so your immune system can function at its highest potential. However, life gets busy and the next thing we know, we’re under the weather with a cold or flu bug. For moments like these a little help to fight those bugs can provide your body much needed welcome relief. Consider a high-quality cold-pressed oregano oil and black seed oil. Look for a combination with vitamins A & D added to give your immune system the best tools to beat the bugs and jumpstart your immune system!
Core Exercises and the Pelvic Floor
Core Exercises and The Pelvic Floor Your abdominal muscle strength may exceed the ability of your pelvic floor. If you have, or are at risk of, pelvic floor problems, it is important you train for the “weakest link” and out your pelvic floor first. There are several ways to modify your core exercises to protect your pelvic floor. *Crease strong abdominal exercises. *Reduce the level of your abdominal muscle exercise program. *Avoid breath holding by exhaling with effort. *Maintain good posture. *Lift your pelvic floor first and hold it during the exercise, then relax after. *Notice how many repetitions you can do before your pelvic floor muscle tire. You may need to add some rests or reduce the number of repetitions until your pelvic floor muscle fitness improves.
Getting Enough Magnesium
Our diets are providing less magnesium than they used to. The composition of what we eat and the quality of our foods has drastically changed over the past hundred years, and this has made it difficult for even the most health-conscious Canadians to get enough magnesium.
Magnesium is involved in many processes throughout the body. Overstimulating these processes will result in an increase in our magnesium requirements. For instance, when we suffer from high stress, our body produces a hormone protein called cortisol. Producing and regulating this hormone means spending and excreting more magnesium. High-sugar diets also cause more magnesium to be used.
Essential Oils for Stress Relief
Scents are powerful — a simple smell can immediately trigger a powerful memory, place, or person. Scents have power to evoke emotions and memories instantly and can directly impact our bodies through our nervous system. If you experience stress (like most of us) – relaxation is only a whiff away! The best essential oils for de-stressing include rose, clary sage, frankincense, lavender, bergamot, marjoram, ylang-ylang, lemon, geranium, orange, sandalwood, chamomile, and vetiver. An easy trick for alleviating tension in 30 seconds flat? Massage an oil blend with calming scents into your temples, which are pressure points.
Exercise for SAD
SAD stands for Seasonal Affected Disorder, which is mainly attributed to the reduction in sunlight hours in winter and is your body’s reaction to the changes in season. With SAD you might feel sluggish or moody, have a loss of appetite, and even lose interest in activities you normally love. One way to combat these feelings and the wintertime blues is to get your body moving! Exercise, even light exercise, has been shown to improve mood and energy through increased blood flow and the release of certain endorphins, as well as improve sleep and alertness, and reduce anxiety and stress.
Pet Health: Product Review
It’s officially cold season, and not just for people. While dogs can’t “catch” a cold from their humans (the viruses that cause colds in people are generally species-specific), many viruses do infect dogs, such as canine adenovirus type 2, canine respiratory coronavirus, and canine parainfluenza virus. It’s important to see your veterinarian if your dog is ill, but the HB Naturals Cold & Congestion Essential Oils Blend is a natural and effective remedy to be used in conjunction with traditional veterinary care. The natural ingredients found in this product include Eucalyptus radiata, Cinnamomum camphora (Ravintsara), Melaleuca quinquenervia bs. viridiflora (Niaouli), and Cannabis sativa (hemp seed) oil.
Should You Stop Driving?
As we age, driving may become more difficult or stressful due to health issues, vision problems, or slower reaction times. So, how can we tell when it might be time to stop driving? If you answer yes to some of the following questions, consider having a conversation with your doctor or looking into getting a driving assessment done. Ask yourself: Have I had some accidents, even minor ones? Do I get lost even on roads I know well? Do I have trouble staying in my lane? Do other drivers often honk at me? Do things seem to appear out of nowhere?
The Body’s Three Brains
Did you know we actually have three brains in the body and when they work together, they create harmony and thus less stress? First, we have the head brain, which is meant to gather information about an issue. Then we have the heart brain, where we learn how we relate to an issue. Finally, we have the gut brain, which is where our decisions actually are required to come from. Many of us try to make our decisions with our head brain and get overwhelmed, as it was not designed for this. What is required is more focus on our heart brains and our gut brains – creating more harmony in the body and the mind when they all work together
Time for Change
Access Bars – A simple body process that is changing the world. There are two things that will change anything in your life; choice, and Access Bars. The Access Bars are the very core and foundation of Access Consciousness. It can be the starting point of a great adventure, and it can be something you add to your life that will assist you in creating a greater ease with everything. Access Bars has assisted thousands of people to change many aspects of their body and their life including sleep, health and weight, money, love making and relationships, anxiety, stress, and so much more. During a Bars session, a practitioner lightly touches 32 points on your head over the course of an hour to an hour and a half. Touching the bars allows for the electromagnetic charge that holds thoughts, feelings, and emotions in place to dissipate, allowing you to perceive
Medication: Take with Questions!
Medication mix-ups can and do happen. Asking questions is a powerful action that can improve medication safety. It’s easy for even the average person to lose track of what they are taking and how often they are taking it. Ask your pharmacist and other members of your healthcare team about your medications. Be sure to ask questions every time a new medication is prescribed, given, or purchased. And finally, ask questions in the hospital, at the pharmacy, and during healthcare appointments. Questions save lives; it’s safe to ask.
