Health & Wellness

  Hi,  Brrr – winter temperatures are right around the corner! Some of you may be jumping for joy, while others may not be so happy! However, most of us know that moving our body is very important for our mental health, as well as our physical. Hey, it’s even important for our spiritual health when you get right down to it.   Just how does moving help our mental health? When we engage in movement (and by the way, we were really created for it), our body releases endorphins which are hormones in the brain, and we’re in a better mood. If we exercise outside during the day (and I would only recommend short times outdoors, depending on the weather), we are also getting some coveted Vitamin D from the sun. This helps support our bones, muscles, and teeth, to name a few benefits.   In fact, during some highly challenging times in my life when I’ve lost loved ones, I made myself stop by the gym and hop on the treadmill, just for 10 minutes. It made a huge difference in how ...

  Hi! Perhaps the most common mental health malady across the entire globe is depression. Just about everybody has experienced depression - some less, some more - across their lifespan. Did you also know that, while we have different languages and cultures, people across all the nations show feelings - especially on their faces - in the same manner?   Many people have experienced much more than depression, as there are at least 200 classifications of defined mental health conditions in our diagnostic manuals. Just how does it feel when you’re in the throes of a clinical depression? Does it affect your physical body, your spirit, or just your mood? If you’re paying attention, you’ll find yourself answering “all of the above.” You’re only human! That is why it’s important to have a holistic mental health approach.   This means that you will get support that considers more than just your emotional state. A competent practitioner will also look at your thoughts, physiology, s...

  Hi! Many people have heard of this – seasonal affective disorder – but for those who haven’t, I’ll describe it here. Seasonal affective disorder (yes, and its nickname or acronym is really SAD!) is thought to be a depressive state but related to the changing of the seasons. Mostly people who are diagnosed with this disorder find that symptoms start around the fall and go through winter into early spring. Your energy is low, and you feel kind of moody. Then suddenly when spring is in full mode and into summer, those symptoms seem to go away.   That’s one way you can tell if it’s a depression due to other things (like school starting for kids?!), or the one really connected to the seasons. There is light therapy available, and purchasing a specialized lamp is not very expensive. Of course, there are medications available too. And you might find that a little Vitamin D supplementation can be of some significant help.   Some other symptoms are having trouble sleeping, maybe...

  Hi! ​Have you ever heard this before? Did you know that stress can break down your immune system and make you more vulnerable to getting sick? Even the American Psychological Association says that long-term stress can do this. Sick, right?! To make matters worse, if you’re under a lot of stress, you’re probably not eating right anyway….   So how does this happen? Stress creates the hormone called cortisol, which can suppress your immune system by lowering the lymphocytes in the blood and this also interferes with the white blood cell communication. White cells, to review, come along when something invades our body and threatens it. So, we’re left without this vital defense, or at least, we’re weakening it.   Who is not under stress most of the time? Our bodies think this is our norm and continue to pour out the stress hormone, even after we’ve calmed down. If you are experiencing this, you’re liable to be irritable, angry, anxious, or even have thoughts that don’t want ...

  Hi! ​Oh no – those temperatures (not to mention humidity) are going down, and we finally are getting some relief from the heat. For those of us who are happy to see summer in the rearview mirror, it’s good news. However, it’s also typically the season where we can start to get sick. This year we have a bit more to be concerned about – we not only have colds and the flu, but we’re also watching out for that old coronavirus, COVID. (By the way, did you know that the common cold is also a coronavirus? It’s just a name for the type of virus, of which there are many strains.)   If you frequently get sick around this time of year, you may want to pay extra attention to these tips which can help you avoid getting sick, or at least not getting sick as severely. Most of these tips can fall under the category of common sense, although it’s not common sense for many people who have never been exposed to these maxims.   For those of you who know what I write about, it won’t be any ...

  Hi! ​Certainly, I think nearly everybody would agree that these are trying times. It’s been about two and a half years since this pandemic was proclaimed … worldwide.   Many of us don’t know what to think or do. Should we be worried or not so much? What are we to think when there is so much contradictory information coming down the pike, right?!   First of all, our beautifully crafted human bodies are designed to fight off marauding invaders successfully. This means anything from a virus (as is the case here) or a bacterial growth, a bite from a predator in nature, etc. (We do this through our immune system.)   Our bodies are so wondrously designed that even if we are genetically programmed for certain weaknesses (and we are), there are more natural ways to quell the expression of those adverse gene combinations which leaves us feeling, well … pretty darned good!   I’m living proof of that. If you haven’t been following my writings, then I’m here to tell you I...

  ​Vaping is a “thing” now. People believe it is a safer, less toxic alternative to traditional smoking of cigarettes. But first let’s see if this is really better than smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products.   Vaping is another word for smoking e-cigarettes. It is known colloquially as JUULing. Some people are trying to use it to help stop smoking. While it is currently unknown exactly how many chemicals are present in the process of vaping (heating nicotine and adding flavoring and other chemicals to create a water vapor), and we know that at least regular tobacco products contain about 7,000 chemicals, we can easily see that it’s still very harmful. By the way, harm reduction in alcohol use, called controlled drinking, does not work well at all according to many studies. Can you draw a parallel here with tobacco? At least think about it!   Because nicotine is present in both products, we know that vaping is still highly addictive. If you are vaping, you are like...