Community News
5 New Year’s Resolutions to Boost Your Health

It’s a new year and a perfect time to start good healthy habits. Here are five tips to drive your immune system into gear so you can live 2017 full of strength and vitality! 1. Exercise. The Canadian Diabetes Clinical Practice Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of cardio plus two sessions of resistance training per week. 2. Eat more fruits and vegetables. The Mediterranean diet has been proven to lower one’s risk for heart disease and improve longevity. 3. See your doctor for routine checkups. Screening early for disease can help prevent or lessen problems from the disease. 4. Get vaccinated. This allows your body to fight off infections. Check with your doctor, nurse or pharmacist to see whether you are up-to-date. 6. Reduce stress. Meditate, do yoga and get plenty of sleep. Make time to pamper yourself!

Care At Home Pharmacy, www.careathomepharmacy.ca

The Best Way to a Persons Heart

This Valentine’s day, you might be thinking the best way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. While this may or may not be true, research shows one of the best ways to optimal mental health is, indeed, through the stomach. What you eat is critical to the health of your entire body including brain health. Many of the nutrients we digest are essential building blocks of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that regulate mood, appetite, sleep, weight and a myriad of other processes that work to keep us functioning properly. Diets containing whole grains, fresh fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, lean meat, and fatty fish as well as probiotic-rich foods like pickles, sauerkraut, and kefir are associated with better physical and mental health. Omega 3 fatty acid and vitamin supplementation can play an integral role in our mental health, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Always consult your healthcare provider before making lifestyle changes.

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

3 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

Are you looking to kick-start your metabolism? Here are a few tips! 1. Build Muscle. Your body always burns calories, even when you’re doing nothing. Your resting metabolic rate is much higher if you have muscle. After a session of strength training, muscles are activated all over your body, raising your average daily metabolic rate. 2. Keep Drinking. Your body needs water to process calories. If you are even mildly dehydrated, your metabolism may slow down. To stay hydrated, drink a glass of water or other unsweetened beverage before every meal and snack. 3. Power Up With Protein. Your body burns many more calories digesting protein than it does with carbohydrates. As part of a balanced diet, replacing some carbs with lean, protein-rich foods can boost metabolism at mealtime. Good sources of protein include lean beef, turkey, fish, chicken, tofu, nuts, beans, eggs, and low-fat dairy products. Now get ready to become a lean, mean, calorie-burning machine!

www.disabilitytaxcreditwinnipeg.com

Book Club: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. www.goodreads.com

Home Remedies for a Cough

Did you know that onions can be used to cleanse airways and reduce congestion? Try a poultice of roasted onion to the chest every few hours. They can also be drunk as a warm broth. Cabbage also works well, as it has an extraordinary ability to draw out toxin. Crush the leaves with a rolling pin until the juice starts to appear. Place 3 or 4 leaves over the chest and cover with gauze. You can also drink the juice of a cabbage sweetened with a little bit of honey. Adapted from the book “The New Guide to Remedies” by Paragon Staff

6 Ways to Alkalize Your Body

Did you know that your immunity is based on how alkaline your diet is? Having an overly acidic diet eventually leads to a weakened state, and our bodies become susceptible to disease. Here are six ways to alkalize – and healthify – your body! 1. Drink plenty of water. Drink half your body weight in ounces every day to keep your body systems regulated. For an extra boost in alkalinity – add lemon! 2. Trade coffee for tea. Green tea is highly alkaline. Try jasmine, Sencha or Matcha. 3. Kick that sugar habit. Use stevia, coconut sugar or small amounts of honey in place of sugar. 4. Eat more greens. Vegetables are highly alkaline and oxygen rich. Consume fresh green vegetables often as possible. 5. Move. Exercise to create more oxygen and qi flow in the body and to avoid stagnation. 6. Reduce stress. Meditate as often as possible, practice deep breathing, do yoga, and get plenty of sleep

Treating Bell’s Palsy

Bell’s palsy is a paralysis or weakness of the muscles on one side of your face. Damage to the facial nerve that controls muscles on one side of the face causes that side of your face to droop. The nerve damage may also affect your sense of taste and how you make tears and saliva. A special treatment protocol using micro-current was created specifically to treat Bell’s palsy and reverse its effects. The protocol involves a regular series of treatments that deliver a very low electrical current to the affected parts of the face. By recharging the electrical components of the cells, the face has the power to “lift” again, and paralyzed facial expressions “release” and regain a normal appearance. Because of the success of this protocol, it is also used a non-surgical facelift treatment. Unlike other electrical stimulating devices, the micro-current instrument delivers a healing current which is barely perceptible, and deeply relaxing. Many people fall asleep during the treatment.

Cheryl Fedeluk, CurrentExpressions.ca

Be Stress-Free with Reflexology

Stress is definitely something that we all deal with. Chronic stress affects us in so many ways and influences our healing on an emotional and physical level. For most of us, stress is caused by work situations, home situation, parenting, lack of money, car problems, loss of a loved one, or other possibilities like health issues or post-traumatic stress. Our sympathetic nervous system provides the fight-or-flight response to stress. Sympathetic nerve stimulation increases the heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. The gastro-intestinal tract is affected, blood sugar can have fluctuations, and the adrenal glands become weakened and eventually exhausted. When you have a reflexology session, the parasympathetic nervous system is improved, and the body is brought back to a normal, relaxed functioning. When our body is relaxed and rested, this is when the healing happens.

Rositha Jeanson, Balance and Harmony, www.rositha.ca

Set Yourself up to Succeed

Every year, masses of people—maybe even you—choose a list of resolutions for the New Year. Generally, these are habits they will try to do every day or habits they will try to avoid for as long as they can. Unfortunately, many of these resolutions are gone by the wayside or forgotten by February. A major reason for this is that it’s deceivingly difficult to develop or deny ingrained habits ‘cold turkey’. Set yourself up to succeed: Set small, attainable goals, and add more steps as you complete each one. Remember to reward yourself. This way, you gradually work your way toward the life you want and the necessary changes and experiencing much more ‘success’ along the way. Short, measurable goals and smart resolutions will reduce stress and anxiety in the New Year. This, in turn, will build self-esteem helping you to have the courage for those long-term goals.

Patty Parsons, www.parsonstherapy.com

Marijuana & Alzheimer Connection?

A recent study showed significantly lower levels of blood flow in the brain for marijuana users than nonusers. It was found that the right hippocampus was the most affected, damaging regions of the brain important for memory and learning. These are the same areas affected by Alzheimer’s. Often used for regulating relaxation and controlling excitability, marijuana is more than a “feel good” aid; it brings well documented beneficial calming effects to the whole system. All in good measure, however! When overused or abused, marijuana can lead to dependency and mess with your memory and emotions. There are other non-invasive strategies for those who seek that sweet spot. Brainwave Optimization helps the brain function better by relaxing its frequencies. Once the frequencies between the brain lobes are balanced and harmony is established so the back to front thought process flows, that inner potential in all of us has a chance to blossom.

Joanne Couture, RMFT, RSW, La Loba, www.lalobatraumarelease.com

Book Club: Year of Yes!

How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person, by Shonda Rhimes. Shonda was an expert at declining invitations others would leap to accept. With 3 children at home and 3 hit shows on TV, it was easy to say that she was too busy. But in truth, she was also afraid. Shonda’s introvert life revolved around burying herself in work, snuggling her children, and comforting herself with food. Shonda’s sister muttered something that was both a wake-up and a call to arms: You never say yes to anything! The comment sat like a grenade until it detonated. Then Shonda knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her.