Sit Up Straight

We’re often told to sit up straight, type with our feet flat against the floor, and keep our shoulders relaxed. Thanks to the field of ergonomics, we now have these tips—and plenty of others—that help us to keep our bones and joints healthy while on the job....

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Diabetes & Mental Health Coping strategies for anxiety and depression

An often forgotten, and even neglected, aspect of type 2 diabetes is the mental health burden that patients with this disease face. Thankfully, there are lifestyle strategies and natural supplements that may help patients cope with diabetes-related stress and depression. Diabetes: mind and body Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder caused by an absolute or relative lack of insulin. Type...

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Therapeutic Drawing

Wondering how to calm down in the midst of overwhelming deadlines? Grab a pencil. Mindfulness can be achieved by bringing attention to seeing or sensing, hearing or tasting, as is done in meditation, but visual art can offer a further tool by providing a focus for sensory perception. Drawing, for instance, can help us connect with our sense of sight, slowing down our seeing and making it...

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Ten benefits of meditation

As modern life becomes increasingly stressful, it seems there is never enough time for all we need to do. So the idea of carving out more time for a commitment to sit–and meditate–may seem absurd. Take just a moment or two to consider some of the real benefits of meditation and you may be surprised at how much easier it can be to manage life’s challenges....

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Smooth Running

Glucosamine sulphate occurs naturally in joint structures in the body and is an important compound in the manufacture of cartilage, which covers and protects the ends of bones. When cartilage degeneration leads to loss of mobility and accompanying pain, glucosamine sulphate supplements can help. Cartilage degeneration is the main cause of osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis....

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Alzheimer's Know the signs, lower your risk

“Honey, have you seen my keys?” It’s not uncommon to misplace items from time to time. What is uncommon and not part of the normal aging process is not knowing how to use your keys. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease that involves both the buildup of amyloid plaque outside brain cells and abnormal protein structures, or “tangles,” inside the nerve cells...

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Yoga for Type 2 Diabetes

Routinely inviting relaxation into our day is important for all of us, particularly when facing emotional or physical challenges. If you’re managing type 2 diabetes, make time to check in with your physical well-being with yoga and mindfulness....

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Treat Your Brain Well, Your life depends on it

If you can use an ATM machine, set your alarm clock and remember why you set it, write a cheque, go back to work after a coffee break, and remember to pick up groceries on the way home, then the chances are you don’t have a brain injury. The things that you and I do almost without thinking can cause severe difficulty for those with traumatic brain injuries....

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Get Fit with HIIT Better workouts in less time

Less time on the treadmill with greater health and fitness results? It may sound too good to be true, but according to recent research studies, less is more when it comes to workouts that are based on high intensity interval training (HIIT)....

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Joint Healthy Exercise, Easing osteoarthritis

More than 100 types of arthritis exist, affecting people of every age, physical condition, and ethnicity. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, about 60 percent of Canadians with arthritis have difficulty participating in recreation or leisure activities, though keeping active is key. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis. It affects the joints in the body; particularly...

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Solutions to Male Depression

If you’re a man with symptoms of depression or chronic fatigue, and have been offered an antidepressant, you may want to consider checking your hormone levels first. Recent evidence shows symptoms of depression and fatigue in men may be linked to declining adrenal, thyroid, and sex hormones, namely testosterone. After about the age of 40, men increasingly experience symptoms of fatigue and...

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The Truth About Sports-Enhancing Supplements

Here’s the lowdown on the most popular sports supplements. Caffeine Claim: improves athletic endurance Research: enhances performance of trained athletes when low to moderate doses (3 to 6 mg/kg) are taken in supplement form enhances performance when taken 15 to 30 minutes before exercise Benefits high-intensity exercise such as soccer and rugby Risks: can cause insomnia, nervousness,...

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10 Exercise Benefits for Men

Listing the benefits of exercise sounds a bit like the start of a late-night infomercial for some gadget that sounds too good to be true. Feel happier? Live longer? Stop memory loss and help prevent cancer? But it is true … and all this could be yours for just three weekly workouts of 50 minutes each! While weight loss is an important result of exercise for many people, exercise has far broader...

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Stress-Busting Exercises - Stop, breathe, & stretch

Stress, for many people, is something to dread. For others, it is the means to their existence. While stress is a natural occurrence, and our response to it has helped us evolve and survive through the centuries, too much stress on a regular basis can be detrimental to our health. Over 30,000 years ago the Cro-Magnon man needed his body’s response to stress to be swift, especially when hunting...

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The Fast and the Furious

After 15 minutes of inching forward during the morning commute, it’s almost your turn to merge when a driver cuts in front of you. Your pulse races, you lay on the horn, and mutter a few choice words. Driver alert: aggressive driving behaviour negatively affects your physical and psychological health. While there is no consensus on a definition of road rage, Leon James and Diane Nahl, professors...

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Lecithin One of the healthy fats

Your mother may never have admonished you to take your lecithin, but this healthy fat is essential for the normal function of every cell in our bodies. Lecithin directly affects nerve and brain function, fat transportation, and metabolism, and protects cells from oxidation. Lecithin contains a phospholipid called phosphatidylcholine, which is absorbed by the intestinal mucosa and metabolized...

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Lose Weight with Weights

It is a widely-believed myth that training with weights will make you resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. Women especially often shy away from the bench press and other weight machines, afraid of building too much bulk. In doing so, they miss out on a host of health benefits–better posture and alignment, osteoporosis prevention, strength and weight loss.Huge, glistening, rippling muscles will not develop overnight, or even with regular weight training. Testosterone is necessary...

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Feed a Healthy Weight

If weight loss was a colour, it would be green. It’s no coincidence that green vegetables factor heavily in most weight and health maintenance programs. Fruits, vegetables, and sea vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and macronutrients (fats, proteins, and carbohydrates including fibre), as well as many other cofactors to keep digestion smooth, metabolism on track, hormones...

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Lose the Bulge-Not the Carbs

Advocates claim that low carbohydrate intake will improve our body’s insulin/blood sugar balance, thereby fostering weight loss. Although preliminary research has shown slightly more weight loss over the short term with lower carbs, long-term studies demonstrate otherwise. A recent one-year randomized study compared many of the leading diets, including low-carb diets and the traditional...

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Add Some to Lose Some

Although a nutritious diet and regular exercise are key to losing weight, research shows that there is more you can do to shed pounds. Dietary supplements can play an important complementary role in regulating metabolism, suppressing appetite, and curbing sweet cravings....

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Effective Weight-Loss Programs

There are hundreds of weight-loss programs that vow to help create a lean, muscular body with little body fat. The reality is that while most popular diets and programs produce short-term results, the majority of people fail to achieve and maintain their weight-loss goals in the long run. The real solution is taking a rational approach to weight loss by utilizing scientific breakthroughs...

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Eat Early; Eat Less

Changing eating patterns may lead to easier weight loss. Research published in the Journal of Nutrition (2004) followed participants and their eating habits for seven days. Those who ate more in the morning had less total food consumption for the rest of the day, while the others in the group generally ate more as the day went on, with less time between food consumption. This resulted in higher calories consumed and less calories burned as activity levels dropped in the evenings. Starting...

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Exercise Smarter-Not Harder-for Weight Loss

We all know that exercise is essential for weight management because it burns calories. But how much and what kind of exercise is best? Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh enrolled 201 overweight, sedentary women as participants in a one-year study. They were randomly assigned to one of four exercise groups: (1) vigorous intensity with high duration; (2) moderate intensity with high duration; (3) moderate intensity with moderate duration; or (4) vigorous intensity with moderate duration....

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Getting Juicy

Another day, another round of nagging guilt. Yet again, you’ve failed to consume even close to the seven to 10 servings of fresh fruits and veggies recommended by Canada’s Food Guide. The question is, just how does one go about adding these healthy foods into an already busy lifestyle? Here’s one terrific way: fresh juices. If you happen to have a juicer packed away, think about starting...

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