Spring is a season of clichés — birds singing, bees buzzing and people falling madly in love. The love sickness can be blamed on one very real thing. Dopamine! Dopamine is a naturally occurring chemical your brain uses to make you want things. There are other systems involved in love, but when it comes to new love, dopamine is the main culprit. The newness of spring provides an ideal context for starting a new relationship. The changing weather and sunshine energize us — especially after hibernating all winter. We’ve survived winter and now it’s time to start your search for love with the help of an experienced matchmaker.
Community News
Not All Water Is Created Equal
Water is essential for your health. It is also very important to consume the right KIND of water. Drink ‘GOOD WATER’ such as mineral water or hard water, which has lots of calcium and magnesium. Find water with a strong reduction power that has not been polluted with chemical substances. This can help keep your body at an optimal alkaline pH levels. Some say that alkaline water can help prevent disease, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and also aid with digesting acidic foods. Besides the possible health benefits, it can also be used for cooking, beauty, and cleaning.
Avoid Slips and Falls
As the weather gets nicer, we become more active outdoors, going for runs or long walks. Here are a few tricks to decrease your chance of injury when you’re out and about.
When taking a step, instead of having the foot far in front of your body, try taking a smaller step so the foot stays closer to your body. This keeps your body perpendicular to the ground and allows for a more stable base. Practice balance exercises, and strengthen your hips and core, to keep your body strong and able to react to changes in your centre of gravity.
Learning-Related Vision Disorders
While 20/20 vision is a great start, our vision is also related to how well our eyes work together with our brain to process visual information. Many children who suffer with vision problems can go undiagnosed since learning-related vision disorders may not be revealed through a regular eye exam. Lack of eye movement control, focusing difficulties, poor visual memory, and much more can make learning seem overwhelming. Without fundamental visual skills, children may have more difficulty with reading, writing, and comprehension at school. A developmental optometrist diagnoses and provides treatment options for learning-related vision disorders.
Hooray For Spring!
Spring cleaning can be a pain in the butt – so here are a few tips to help make it more manageable. When the grass needs raking, be sure to alternate holding the rake on the right and left to avoid overloading the muscles on one side. When bending over to bag the grass, make sure you are bending from the hips (hip-hinge) rather than curling the lower back. If you need to work from the ground for a while, it is a better idea to kneel with kneepads or squat. If you start to feel your back muscles tightening, stop what you are doing and take a break.
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?
Eye Care for All-day Computer Users
Depending on the study, 50 to 90 per cent of people who are on their computers a lot experience issues with their eyes, including eye strain, red eyes, and eye twitching. Unfortunately, those of us using computers for work can’t just turn them off and walk away; we need to find ways to care for our eyes in spite of our computer use. The first step is to get an eye exam to evaluate how your eyes are doing today. After that, there are actions you can take to protect your eyes as much as possible, such as reducing ambient lighting and using floor lights rather than overhead fluorescent lights.
Do You Need to Take Vitamin B12?
Vitamin B12 plays an essential role in red blood cell formation, nerve function, cell metabolism and DNA production. It can be found in meat, poultry, fish and dairy, or as a supplement. Your body can store vitamin B12 for many years so most individuals will not have a B12 deficiency. However, the following people may be more prone to deficiency: vegetarians/vegans, older adults, or people with digestive tract conditions that affect the absorption of nutrients. Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to fatigue, anemia, muscle weakness, intestinal problems, nerve damage, and mood disturbances. Visit your physician or pharmacist to discuss whether you should be taking a vitamin B12 supplement.
Garden Guru
Want to get the most out of your garden this year? Here are a few tips passed down through the years. When planting your seeds, always plant three in a hill: one for the good, one for the crow, and one to grow. Plant crops that grow above ground during a waxing moon, and plant crops that grow below ground on a waning moon. A homemade pesticide can be made from tobacco to spray your plants. And lastly, some have found that burying a piece of iron beside your roses will make them more fragrant. If it worked for our grandparents maybe it’ll work for us too!
Living an Intentional Life
Mind, body, and soul work together to make the best of our lives. Innate health and natural talent is amazing; however, it’s also necessary to be intentional. We need to put in the effort to care for each part of our being. Medical check-ups and dentist appointments are well embedded in our lives. Other expressions of healthy living, such as yoga and psychotherapy, have gained ground because they truly enhance our lives. This makes us stronger and more resilient. What are you doing in the studio of your mind, body, and soul to make the best of your life?
Walking – The Activity of a Lifetime
Exercise does not have to be complicated. We almost always have access to somewhere to walk, and walking is a great activity. If you are going to walk and haven’t done so in a while start slowly. We recommend increasing the length of the walk by 10% per week maximum. If you have been walking and want to know what you can do to increase your intensity, speed up or add some stairs to your walk. Getting to a moderate to vigorous intensity during your walk requires you to be at a point where you are working so hard that you are feeling challenged and almost out of breath.
