Caregiver's Thrive Guide Simple survival strategies :: Emotional and Mental Health

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Caregiver's Thrive Guide
by author Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

“For me, one sign of ‘caregiver burnout’ was crying in the car,” says Marc Silver, author of Breast Cancer Husband (Rodale Books, 2004). “Evidently a lot of guys do it, and it’s a welcome release.”

Relieving stress helps you stay healthy as a caregiver—because if you’re not taking good care of yourself, you can’t take good care of others.

Eldercare Coach Janice Wallace says that some people don’t even realize they’re caregivers. To reveal one, she asks, “Are you worried about someone? Do you help her find solutions? Do you check in with him at regular intervals?”

Caregiving involves a wide range of activities, such as calling a depressed friend regularly, looking after someone who’s just home from the hospital, monitoring the medications of aging or ill parents, or providing full-time physical or emotional support.

“You’re at a higher risk for stress and burnout if you’re caregiving alone, have complicated family relationships, or aren’t receiving support from your family or employer,” says Wallace.

These suggestions from experts will take you beyond surviving to thriving as a caregiver.

Find the right doctor
“If you can, choose a doctor who will exchange information with you—not just prescribe medications,” says Ontario-based acupuncturist Nancy Winlove-Smith. And if your loved one’s illness is complicated, make sure your doctor is up for it.

“Some doctors prefer not to take on the hard cases. Ask your doctor how he or she feels about the challenge of a complicated patient.”

Be good to yourself
“You’re juggling caregiving responsibilities, work stress, increased family duties, and a bigger share of household chores,” says Silver, whose wife survived breast cancer. “This heavy load comes with a big side dish of worry: How is my loved one doing? What will happen?”

Silver stresses the importance of taking time out: yoga, spiritual retreats (even just for 10 minutes), funny movies, afternoon hikes, gourmet meals, or coffee with a close friend.

Discover demarcation
“On my way home from work, when I passed a certain bridge on the freeway, I turned off the radio and inserted a CD. It was a deliberate symbol of de-stressing,” says James Storrar, a mental health nurse in Stonehouse, Scotland. “Now, simply driving under the bridge relaxes me. I leave my work behind, on the other side of that bridge.”

Choose a specific physical landmark (or even a room in your house), and intentionally change your mindset as you near it. Soon, you’ll automatically relax as you approach your place.

Rally your on-the-job forces
A support system at work can significantly decrease your stress level. Our eldercare coach advises preparing in advance before talking to your boss. “Discussing your caregiving responsibilities requires as much pre-planning as asking for a raise,” says Wallace.

“Be prepared with a list of your accomplishments, and focus on the value you add to your workplace. Also, share specific ideas about a more flexible schedule.” She also recommends knowing your company’s human resources policies and your rights as an employee.

Think outside the box
Margaret Entwistle lives near Peterborough, Ontario, and takes full-time care of her mother, who struggles with cancer and Alzheimer’s. “My stress reliever is fostering puppies,” says Margaret. She volunteers with the Lions Foundation of Canada’s Dog Guides program, which places puppies in family homes for one year.

Margaret’s furry friends infuse her with the energy she needs to take care of her mom—plus, she’s improving the world in her own way.

Let it out and ask for help
“Cry, curse, and shout,” suggests Silver, who considers his car a safe place to express all his feelings. “It feels great! And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. No one can read your mind. Once I yelled at my kids because they didn’t help as I dragged groceries from the car on a rainy afternoon. My older daughter said, ‘Gee, Dad, if you’d just ask, we’d be happy to help.’”

Tina Bishop, RN, takes it a brisk step further: “Get your family involved by assigning different duties to different family members on different days.”

Think long-term
“I ask my clients what it would be like to be doing what they’re doing—and more—in five years,” says Wallace. “Some people turn pale at this question.” Even if the thought of the future is daunting, your best bet is to tackle it head-on.

Balancing short-term stress-relief techniques with long-term solutions will ensure you thrive as a caregiver.

Warning signs of stress or burnout

insomnia
irritability
inability to concentrate
hopelessness
fatigue
bursts of ill temper or anger

More survival strategies

support groups
hobbies
writing, painting, sculpting, or sketching
spa days
gratitude journals
scrapbooking or photo-organizing
day trips
professional counseling
spiritual retreats

Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen, a full-time freelance writer on Bowen Island, BC, is the creator of the website Quips & Tips for Achieving Your Goals. theadventurouswriter.com/blog

Source: alive #318, April 2009

Stress-Busting Herbs
Strengthen your adrenal glands. It's the key to dealing with whatever life throws your way. The person who claims not to be affected by stress is either dead, living an illusion, or lying.

Working Well
We spend most of our lives at work. We make friends, network with colleagues and plan our retirement years based on our active lives in the workplace.

The Healing Power of SAMe
One of the most exciting and promising nutritional supplements to come to market this year is S-adenosyl-methionine, (SAMe.

Surviving Stress
Have you ever pushed yourself for so long that you feel as though your resources are depleted and there is little or nothing left to draw on? When stress becomes as much a part of everyday life as breathing and eat.

Beating the Blues
It's always tempting to recommend successful holistic remedies to your friends--in the case of depression, it's absolutely necessary.

Put the Ho Ho Ho Back into Your Holidays
Depression is sometimes a component of the Christmas season for a variety of reasons. Typical responses to the emotional overload of the holiday rush are overeating, overdrinking and generally overdoing.

Timely Tips for Seasonal Stress
Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year. The winter holiday season is an intense time. Children become over excited from anticipation and then from sugary seasonal treats.

Coping with Grief
Death and the resulting period of grief are natural processes. The survivor will get over it. Time heals all wound.

Antidepressants
Antidepressant medications are the first line of defence used by most medical doctors and psychiatrists for treating depression. Newer medications are advertised as "improved," with "fewer risks and side effects.

Free From Demons!
One Man's Success Over Mental Illness Mental illness really is a misnome.

Get a Handle on Stress
O Excellent, I love long life better than figs. --William Shakespeare Stress is like the card that finally tips the balance on the house of cards, bringing everything crashing down. An immune system that is in top operating order will only be minimally affected by small stressors.

Stress Management
We've all felt our "fight or flight" response go into action--a sudden increase in blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, metabolism and blood sugar that helps us react quickly to stressful situations. When the danger is over our parasympathetic nervous system takes over with a compensating period of relaxation.

Keep Workplace Stress in Check
We've all been there--stress-filled days at work, mounting chores at home and endless tasks on our to-do lis.

Winter Blues
While most depression lifted as they resumed normal routines, some have persistent symptoms that require intervention. Mild to moderate depression is not incapacitating and usually improves after three to six weeks.

Fear and Depression-And the Power to Overcome
My small herb importing company saw a sudden surge in business during that critical time. Our sales in relaxing herbal teas such as valerian and balm mint quadrupled, and nature's antidepressant, St John's wort, catapulted to sales levels we had never seen before.

Herbs for Hectic Times
Famous author and personality Deepak Chopra likes to tell a story about a medical doctor who had not had a check-up for 25 years. When the doctor finally was compelled to get a physical for life insurance requirements, a large dark spot was found on his lung. It was diagnosed as inoperable cancer. A couple of months later, the doctor was dead.

Life Acts, I React
Stress is a much-talked-about issue today. Current literature points to the impact it has on emotional, mental and physical health. I get very concerned when researchers tell me that stress is a main contributor in the development of both emotion- and age-related illnessess, including the dreaded cancer.

Are You Overdue For A Brain Lube?
The consumption of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids-the beneficial fat found in fish and fish oil-can reduce the symptoms of, and even prevent, a variety of psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, severa.

Holiday Stress Soooothers
Christmas holidays are supposed to be festive and a time of relaxation. Yet for many, this season is the most stressful time of the year. Planning meals, vacations, buying presents, and everything else can wear the mind and body down.

The Heartfelt Life
New in the medical profession thought about the connection between emotion and heart disease until recently. There was no mention of heart function and relationships with ourselves, our loved ones or the world around us.

Avoiding Adrenal Exhaustion
Driven to be superwoman at home and on the job, you can overtax your hormones and eventually suffer burnout. But there is hope and hel.

Addiction by Prescription
The medical establishment's drug approach to normal fluctuations of mind and emotion is seriously flawed.

Developing Your Personal Nutrient Plan
Each of us would do well to become more educated about our body and then develop a personalized vitamin-mineral program to suit.

The Source of Your Stress
Occupational noise is annoying, distracting and inhibits productivity, essentially impacting the bottom lin.

Young and Stressed
Often unnoticed and untreated, stress is a huge factor in the health of Canadian children.

Undress Your Stress
Do you ever find yourself saying, "I'm so stressed"? Well, what does this mean exactly? Stress is a very broad and often misunderstood concept.

Depression and Immunity
Regulating or balancing immune function may be the best defence against depression. The sad fact is that one in five of us will suffer depression at some time in our lives.

Drug-Free Treatments for Depression
Over the course of a lifetime, up to 12 percent of men and 20 percent of fen will suffer from a depressive illness. It is a highly recurrent illness where 80 percent of patients who have had one depressive episode will experience another one. Depression, when it hits, can be crippling to the individual and to the supporting family members.

Stories We Live By
For many people, the word "trauma" triggers images of terrible events afflicting the innocent: abuse, the death of loved ones, war, or natural disasters. The consequences of trauma on emotional health are well known and include mild to severe depression, anxiety, and panic attacks to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Beat the Blues
Higher fish consumption is associated with a decreased risk of depression, postpartum depression, and suicidal thought.

Don't "Waist" Time!
Most people these days will tell you that they are stressed. Chronic stress has been linked to North America's five leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung disease, accidents and cirrhosis of the live.

When is it Depression?
Over the years, prescriptions for antidepressants have multiplied. According to Statistics Canada 10 percent of the population age 18 to 24, nine percent age 25 to 44, 6.

Mood Boosters
Some people are almost always in a good mood. They're happy, even-tempered, and always see the bright side of situations. They don't take themselves too seriously and they love to laugh. Keeping on the sunny side of life seems to come naturally..

The Science of Mood Foods
Why is it that the majority of diets seem to go down in a hail of cookies and ice cream? The answer usually lies in our inherited biochemistry. Back in the good old days (a few thousand years ago), food was not as plentiful as it is today.

The ABCs of Hypothyroidism
Thyroid hormones affect every cell in the body. In hypothyroidism, the amount of hormone secreted by the thyroid gland does not meet the body's demands.

Holiday Stress
Ho, ho, hold the stress. The coming holiday season is supposed to be full of laughter but many find it full of stress. It has been estimated that about three-quarters of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related problems..

The Stress and Diabetes Link
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Down with Depression
Depression is the most common psychiatric ailment in Western society. Depression affects around 1.4 million people in Canada at any given time and is the second leading cause of long-term disability among workers.

Anxiety
Often starting with a gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach, anxiety is a natural warning signal, part of our built-in "fight or flight or stress response.

Beating Christmas Stress
In an infamous experiment in the 1960s, lab researchers wanted to examine effects of stress on rats. First, they took an individual rat, isolated it, then injected it with increasing doses of amphetamines until, in the name of science, the poor rat died. Next, researchers did the same to a group of rats in a confined area..

Stress Busters
Children often feel our stress at this time of year, so what can we do to lessen its effects? We don't want stressed-out children to bottle up their emotions, creating emotional and physical effects. You can help your children develop skills to express and release their feelings to maintain good emotional health..

Alleviating Anxiety
Anxiety is a funny thing. If relaxed enough, you may, when faced with stress, become sharper, brighter, and better able to tackle the stress you fac.

Stressed Out
If you're like so many other people, you're stressed from the moment you wake up until you hit the sack some 16 hours late.

Stress Less
The alarm goes off at 7 am. You manage to drag your body out of bed. Once you've been jolted awake by that large cup of coffee, the mental list begins in your head. Before you realize it, tension mounts and you've worked yourself up into a frenzy..

Suffer Less From Stress
Do you feel stressed a lot of the time? Maybe you're convinced that nothing can be done, except moving to a remote island and throwing away your cell phone. Wait a minute, though.

Swallowing Emotions
From the mind/body perspective, physical illnesses may be expressions of basic psychological wounds, developing out of the emotional defences we construct to avoid feeling pain.

Stress and Your Health
Burnout has been defined as a state of mental and/or physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. The physical toll of burnout can be very high, yet it is often overlooked as a key influence on health.

Sunshine For the Mind
Maybe it's one of those cloudy grey days. Or maybe it's just hard to get motivated for the same old routine. Perhaps you're feeling trapped in your job or a relationship that's seen better days.

What Do I Do With All These Feelings?
With Christmas having come and gone, many of us may be suffering from a post-holiday hangover-not just from the drinking, but from the spending, the eating, the partying and the dealings with family, too. So what exactly do we do to not get depressed and discouraged?The key lies in the ability to process our emotions..

Working Well
You're sitting at your desk, slouching at the end of a tiring day, stressed about deadlines and staring at a computer screen, but focusing instead on your headache, stiff neck, sore hands, or aching back.

Emotional Homeopathy
Homeopathic remedies can assist people who want to work on their emotional, mental and spiritual growth and development. The remedies can help people who strive to achieve a more positive mindset and a feeling of well being. Negative moods, thoughts and actions can bring about imbalances.

Look for Balance and Feel Balanced!
Research has catapulted emotional health to the forefront of wellness. The consensus now is that mental health is the new frontier for peak performance and quality of life, while stress and depression its nemesis.

De-Stressing Our Children This Holiday Season
When we think of the holiday season, weconjure up images of beautifully wrappedpresents, out-of-town relatives, and delicious food. Yet, even though the holidayseason can be filled with joy and abundance, this time of year can also bequite stressful for adults and children.

Dosing the Doldrums
It was the New Year and the fifth cloudy day in a row when I finally decided to give up looking for outdoor activities that demanded sunny weather. Instead, I called a good friend to suggest we hit the latest blockbuster movie.

Rough Day?
Time to relax and rejuvenate. Right? So why are we still feeling stressed? Medical science now knows that stress is a contributing factor in virtually all disease.

Triumph Over Stress
Nicole stumbled into my examination room clutching her stomach. She'd had severe abdominal cramps for over two weeks. Tense and anxious, Nicole was convinced that she had developed some terrible disease like cancer.

Moving Beyond Worry, Stress, and Fear
Nearly 2,000 years ago Epictetus, the Roman slave who became a Greek philosopher, wrote, "We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.

Stress and Your Metabolism
Is everyone stressed these days? According to Kenneth Pelletier, PhD, author of Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer (Stanford University Press, 2002), between 80 and 90 percent of all illnesses are linked to stress, and 75 to 90 percent of all visits to the doctor are for stress and anxiety-related concerns.

Don't Worry-Be Thankful
Everyone worries. Will I get the promotion? Will I sell my house? Will my daughter make the hockey team? Do I worry too much? All these thoughts can overwhelm us and affect our quality of life.

Relaxation Response
Fifty-one percent of Canadians are overweight and 59 percent report feeling moderately stressed. Coincidence? Nutritional psychologist Marc David doesn't think so. In his book The Slow Down Diet (Healing Arts, 2005), David suggests that if we want to burn calories at maximum levels, we may need to calm our stress levels.

Rest Assured
Many of us have become so driven and overwhelmed by the demands of work and life that we tend to place a low priority on taking a regular time out to self-heal and regenerate.

Craving Carbs and Feeling Depressed?
Patients with atypical depression responded favourably to treatment with chromium picolinate, a mineral closely involved in healthy blood sugar balance and insulin response. It is probably safe to conclude that most depressed patients with carbohydrate cravings and weight gain should receive chromium supplements. Good nutrition and exercise can also treat depression.

Conception's Catch-22
We've all heard of couples who spend years undergoing all manner of tests, procedures, and infertility treatments in trying to conceive their first child. Many achieve their miracle through adoption-and then successfully conceive. Researchers have been studying the stress/fertility paradox and some are now suggesting a link.

Got Guilt?
You know guilt: it’s that uneasy feeling you get when you think you’ve done something wrong. But did you know that guilt can be either positive or positively toxic? Many people who suffer from toxic guilt don’t have a clue that guilt is the problem. Could you be one of them?

The Role of Reflexology in Wellness
Reflexology is an effective way to relieve stress. Ask anyone who has experienced reflexology; they will describe how it relaxed them, and they often go on to describe the benefits that resulted.

Five Steps from Fine to Fabulous
We all have the power to influence our health and well-being through the choices we make every day.

Postpartum Survival Strategies
In some traditional cultures, women take the first 30 days after the birth of a baby to recover from pregnancy and childbirth and learn how to care for their new baby. However, in many modern cultures women are expected to bounce back and return to managing their jobs and households almost immediately.

Exercise for a Positive Mind Set
Regular exercise may be one of the best ways to enhance powerful mood-lifting brain chemicals that may work as natural antidepressants. It enhances overall brain function and helps to alleviate depression, one of the most common disorders of our time.

Food and Mood
The relationship between food and mood is mediated by both psychological and physiological factors. It is clear that food can influence mood while mood can influence food choices. It is a complex relationship and based on taste, experience, expectations, culture, stressors, and nutritional status.

Take the Pressure Off
Many people believe their only recourse during anxiety attacks is conventional medication. In fact, homeopathic remedies treat emotional imbalances without drug side effects and chemicals, and yet do not interfere if medications are needed.

Sugar, Obesity, and Depression
In a study of adults with fructose intolerance, reducing dietary fructose resulted in a 65-percent reduction in depression scores in only four weeks. There is mounting evidence that obesity and depression share a close relationship. Regular exercise can make a world of difference for the depressed.

Antiaging or Healthy Aging?
With the growing number of baby boomers entering their golden years, interest in antiaging is at an all-time high. Although we may not be able to stop the aging process, healthy aging can help minimize the effects of time by optimizing our health along the way.

Ho, Ho, Ho...Hardly
As many as 5 percent of us deal with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in winter, when the days get shorter and we are literally getting less light in our lives-and to our brains. Fortunately, there are natural ways to boost your mood and help you enjoy the holidays and weather the January slump that sometimes follows.

Natural Stress Reduction
Casein hydrolysate and magnolia bark, two supplements with a sedative effect, may help decrease the release of the body's stress hormones and fight the battle against belly fat. Fat cells in the belly have three times the number of stress hormone receptors and therefore attract three times the amount of stored fat to the region.

Fish oil reduces disease risk in animal offspring

Stress management for diabetes control

Broken Heart Syndrome

Say It with Organic Flowers

Move Your Mood

Active Healing

Soak Up the Relaxation
Long-term emotional or environmental stresses can be hard on the body, mind, and emotions. Quality essential oils have powerful yet subtle effects on emotions and can help relieve stress and anxiety when used in baths, massages, or in aromatherapy diffusers.

10 Healthy Ways to Restore Inner Balance and Calm
The children are getting on your nerves, nothing's going right at work, and it looks like it's going to stay that way until your holiday. You're feeling stressed, like nearly half of Canadians (45 percent) who told Ipsos Reid in a 2006 survey that their stress levels are out of control.

Food and Mood
Food affects mood, influencing the production of neurotransmitters in the brain. Our moods, in turn, affect our desires for certain foods.

Hope for Mental Illness
I have evaluated and treated hundreds of patients struggling to overcome the challenges of mental illness. In the majority of cases, the addition of complementary treatments has improved their quality of life and treatment outcomes.

Dealing with Depression
Depression is much more than simply a case of the blues. It is a medical condition that can range from mild to severe, with a significant impact on quality of life.

L-theanine
Job pressures, family responsibilities, financial pressures, traffic, and time management are just a few of the stressors most of us face on a daily basis. Prescriptions for drugs that are supposed to improve anxiety, mood, and sleep are at an all-time high.

Adapting to Stress
What is stress, exactly? Simply put, it is any change to our normal physiology that can be brought on by a stressor-anything from sudden, traumatic experiences to smaller, ongoing pressures that seem ncontrollable. Even joyous occasions are associated with a degree of stress.

A Day in the Life...
She jumps out of bed; rushes to the bath; notices her belly, avoids the scales; dashes to the kitchen, no time for breakfast, then out the door; grabs a coffee on her way to work; up the elevator; straight to her desk, face like flint, no time for hello, too much to do.

Yes, You can Care too Much...
A family caregiver, according to the Caregivers Association of BC (caregiverbc.ca), is anyone who provides unpaid care and support to an adult friend or family member who is disabled, chronically ill, frail, or elderly.

It's Your Life to Live
From crackberries to virtual reality, North Americans are addicted to speed, technology, distraction, achieving, and packing as much as possible into each day. While this lifestyle offers excitement, it does not leave much room for fulfillment, contentment, or health on any meaningful level.

A Season of Stress
It was the Hungarian-born researcher Hans Selye who first began piecing together the puzzle of human stress in the 1930s.

Planning to Ward Off Post-Season Blahs
No one could ever accuse me of being a grinch-the weeks and days leading up to December 25th are a flurry of shopping, baking, and planning. The day itself is always a good time, too-though seldom exactly how I had envisioned it. But then it's over...

A Good Place to Work
Money matters-but it's not the only thing we care about. To ensure employee retention and satisfaction, enlightened employers know the value of developing a healthy workplace culture.

You May Be Physically Fit...But Are You Financially Fit?
Sue and Mark and their two children live an active, healthy lifestyle. Yet Sue suffers from insomnia and tension headaches and she's had a series of colds over the past year. Sue visited the doctor recently. The diagnosis? Stress. Seems that anxiety about the family's finances is making her sick.

Diagnosis: Depression
In my opinion, all cancer patients are heroes. Fate has given them a difficult road to travel. Cancer rivets them-and us, if they are our loved ones-to an emotional merry-go-round. Some cancer patients succumb to grief and suffer from depression. However, there are things they can do to face and manage the challenges on the journey ahead.

Relax
As a working mom trying to balance all of my responsibilities, tension can feel overwhelming at times. That's when these five stress-busting exercises can really help. After 10 minutes invested in any one of these exercises, I usually feel relaxed and ready for anything. Try these quick, easy ways to combat stress and anxiety. You'll find they fit easily into even the busiest day.

Take a Deep Breath
Stress is pervasive in our frenzied lives, but how many of us know how to truly relax? To find the answer to this question, I talked to stress management guru Eli Bay and discovered that you don't have to be lying on a beach in the Bahamas to unwind.

Daily Spiritual Rituals
We've all known people who, despite the challenges and stresses they face in their daily lives, manage to project calmness and serenity that belie the surrounding maelstrom. Have you ever wondered how they achieve such tranquility?

High Anxiety
Your heart is racing and your palms sweat. Perhaps you're worried about that big speech you have to give or you're rushing to meet a demanding work deadline. There may be another much likelier-yet far less understood-explanation.

Worrying Ourselves to Death
Have you ever tried counting your worries? While drafting this article I managed to squeeze in worries about my gobbled-down breakfast, my half-baked plans for the rest of the day, and what I can do to ease pain in various aching body parts-to name but a few ever-nagging worries.

Packrats and Clutterbugs
You walk through the front door and immediately encounter the clutter-a stack of unopened mail sitting on the hall table, along with a tangled heap of gloves, scarves, hats, keys, maps, umbrellas, and shopping bags.

A Story of Survival Love
Deeply in love, Sara and I married 17 years ago. Three years later, Sara was diagnosed with mild depression, and over the next few years she was re-diagnosed several times with ever more serious conditions.

The Sandwich Generation
When Naz Deravian became a mom for the first time, she found herself embracing her new baby girl, Luna, and her new role, with utter joy. But the 36-year-old actor was also worried about her own mom, who at the time was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Stand Up to Back Pain
Most back and neck pain is not the result of an isolated injury but of ongoing stress. Our spines and back muscles work together to hold us up, but we must care for them to avoid strains, sprains, and soreness. Here are five strategies for banishing back pain, safely and naturally.

Remember Rhodiola
A herb that was widely used by ancient Nordic seafarers is still being used by monks of the Himalayas. The therapeutic properties of this Arctic herb, rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea), have also been impressing modern researchers.

The Spectrum
Dean Ornish is a high-profile name where alternative medicine is concerned. A 30-year veteran of North America's controversial diet wars, Ornish is consistently lauded by the scientific community for his work in reversing heart disease and other illnesses through dietary and lifestyle changes.

Seasonal Stress-Busting
The holiday season can be a time of comfort and joy, but it can also be a time of stress as we cope with overeating, overspending, traffic jams, holiday travel, office parties, and family dramas.

Mud is Not a Four-letter Word
Mud has a dirty reputation. Soil, mud, dirt-they're words associated with the unpleasant side of life. We say someone has a soiled reputation. When someone is in trouble, his name is mud. When people are speaking unfavourably of each other, they're dishing dirt.

St. John's Wort
After suffering from depression for years, Kelly Martin finally decided enough was enough. He dragged himself to his doctor's office, and 10 minutes later the Calgary business manager walked away with a prescription for antidepressants.

Stress Less
Many Canadians suffer from stress. It’s the root cause of numerous health challenges we experience. Finding ways to reduce stress is essential to improve our health and our quality of life.

Beat Winter Blues
SAD is characterized by fall and winter depression, excessive sleep (hypersomnia), increased appetite with carbohydrate cravings, and weight gain, which alternates with normal moods and behaviour in the spring and summer.