Community News
Smartphones and Health

Smartphones are incredibly powerful devices. Increasingly we rely on them to run our life. One of the latest trends is toward mobile health or mhealth. Many applications have been designed to help you live healthier and manage your chronic illnesses. Here are some our favorites: Misfit wearables is a great low price entry to fitness trackers starting at $25. Askthedoctor.com will get your health questions answered in a jiffy, and glooko.com has an amazing platform for people dealing with diabetes. One of the biggest issues faced by patients today surrounds management of medications. 55% of Canadians above 45-65 are on at least one prescription medication. Using a smartphone to manage and track your meds has been proven to improve adherence, keeping patients healthy. If you are on multiple medications this may be the best and quickest thing you can do for your health today.

www.poprx.ca

Book Club: Healing and Transformation

Healing and Transformation through Transcendental Meditation (TM) by Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal. Learn the basics about this ancient technique, and for seasoned meditators, broaden your knowledge and deepen your understanding. Rosenthal’s central point emphasis on TM changes the brain, and can help a vast array of different people to live longer and better lives, and achieve lifelong success.

www.normanrosenthal.com

Clean Eating: Thai Carrot Coconut Soup

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups carrots cut into 1” pieces
1 green onion
5 tbsp. shredded, unsweetened coconut
1 tsp. turmeric
½ tsp. sea salt
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 date
2 tbsp. fresh lemongrass (finely chop the heart of 2 stalks)
1 tbsp. freshly chopped ginger
1 avocado –half to blend and half cut into ½” – ¾” pieces for topping
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro (to mince for topping)

Directions:

Blend all ingredients, except avocado and cilantro, until smooth.
Add half avocado and blend.
Pour into bowls.
Sprinkle top with avocado pieces and minced cilantro.

From Uncooking with RawRose by Rose Vasile
www.rawrose.com

Compassionate Beauty Care

There are many thoughts that go through a person’s mind once a cancer diagnosis is received. What does the future look like and how will my life be changed. What common activities that I do now, will be affected by treatment and subsequent side-effects?

One thing that does not need to change is pampering yourself.  You may think that a trip to the spa is not something you want to experience while being in treatment. Not only is there the possibility of increased infection because your immune system is low, there is the discussion that you will need to have with the esthetician, that may make you uncomfortable.

Perhaps, going to a place that provides safe and hygienic manicures and pedicures is something you would consider. Where the treatments are non-invasive, no cutting of cuticles, no razors used on feet, just simply therapeutic services that are focused on the individual going through any cancer. Having a facial with no extractions, just comforting and customized for your skin. Using all natural products that contain no carcinogens or any toxins. Products with ingredients listings you can pronounce and recognize. The best part – not having to explain what you are going through because we know.

The Unexpected Gift
www.theunexpectedgift.ca 

One Simple Change

Most of us strive to live a healthier lifestyle. Finding the right place to start is a challenge. Eating right, exercising regularly, and still making time for family, friends and our own needs can seem like overwhelming goals. Instead of attempting to conquer our health all at once, what if you started by setting more manageable goals? Making small changes today can lead to great health benefits down the road. Physical activity: Get More Exercise. Most people look at exercise to burn energy and lose weight. Think of exercise as a way to gain energy and stimulate your body and mind. With many demands fighting for your attention, it is a challenge to find time for a trip to the gym. Start with simple activities you can incorporate into your daily routine. One simple change can make a big difference in how you look and feel.

Sandy Lefley, Juice Plus+
www.slefley.canada.juiceplus.com

A Better Sleep

Reflexology is a natural healing art based on the principal there are reflexes in the feet, hands, and ears that correspond with every organ, gland, and system in the body. Through application of pressure on the reflexes, Reflexology improves circulation, relieves tension, and helps promote the natural function of related areas of the body. This process may assist you in achieving better sleep by relieving tension and encouraging the body to return to a state of homeostasis. Reflexology helps the body enter a state of relaxation, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and supporting the body’s self-healing ability. When you work to support your body, your body will work to support you!

Nichole Guthrie
www.nicholeguthrie.com

Care about Your Hair

Hair loss is a sensitive matter for chemotherapy and radiotherapy patients. For those undergoing treatment, capillary and sebaceous gland activity is sharply reduced, causing the scalp and skin to dry out considerably as well as leading to temporary hair loss. The Térapo Médik™ Well-Being

Care Kit lets you fully hydrate your scalp during treatments, ensuring vigorous regrowth after hair loss. It contains two sets of lotions and shampoos made with gentle natural ingredients that relieve dry scalp and hydrate to ease discomfort experienced during and after treatment. Undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment is already a lot to deal with. However, hair loss during this time can be even more distressing. While the Well-Being Care Kit is unable to prevent the loss of hair, their natural ingredients will nurture before and throughout treatment. A great way to help kick start your hair growth for stronger, fuller, healthier hair!

City Looks
www.citylooks.ca 

Caregiver Pharmacy Support

It can be difficult to be a caregiver and manage multiple or complex medications for a loved one. It is important to ensure medications are taken appropriately to help maintain good health. A visiting pharmacist provides personal support with regular medication delivery and home consultations. The pharmacist reviews a client’s prescription drugs and over the counter medications to advise if there are any drug interactions and makes adjustments as necessary. This level of support can reduce emergency room visits and hospital stays and results in strong, trusting relationships between clients, caregivers and pharmacists. The visiting pharmacist also provides seamless care for hospital discharge patients and works closely with other health professionals to deliver a high level of care to the client. Care is tailored to specific individual needs such as assisting with blood pressure readings, adding medications as needed to adherence packaging and making changes in an efficient manner.

Teresa Giesbrecht, Care at Home Pharmacy
www.careathomepharmacy.ca

Book Club: Gut

The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ. By Giulia Enders. The gut’s nervous system, food intolerances, allergies, gut bacteria and the science of bad breath are detailed, suggesting the body’s “most underrated organ” plays a greater role in our overall wellbeing than we might have otherwise thought. Throughout the book, Enders points out, it is the gut that most frequently presents us with some of life’s most pressing questions. Pick up a copy at your local book store.

Clean Eating: Easy Healthy Borscht

Ingredients:

4 cups of organic beef broth
1 cup diced carrot
½ cup garden peas
1 cup chopped green beans
1 cup chopped potatoes
2 cups beets with stems and leaves diced
1 onion chopped
4 fresh sprigs of dill
2 Tbsp Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients into a crockpot and cook on low for 6-7 hours. Alternately, cook on top of the stove until the vegetables are soft enough to eat. Serve topped with sour cream.

 

Burn Fat, Don’t Abuse Carbs

Many leading scientists, medical professionals, and nutrition experts agree the ketosis lifestyle is the pinnacle of health and wellbeing. Ketosis is a natural metabolic state where the body burns fat for most of its energy rather than carbohydrates. Fat offers the body 225% more energy than carbohydrates. Today, most people have sugar-burning bodies, not fat-burning bodies. Fat-burning bodies typically experience better energy and fewer cravings due to balanced blood sugar levels. Typically, without several days of fasting or sticking to unrealistic diet plans, our bodies cannot reach ketosis and take advantage of this energy. So unless you have serious discipline and nowhere to go, nutritional ketosis has been believed to be out of reach… until now.

David Warfield, ForeverGreen Ketopia
www.warf.fgxpress.com