A Wake Up Call For Wellness

With yet another election campaign in full swing, our political leaders are once again making promise after promise of what they will do for Canadians, how much money they will save, and how much money they will spend. I know, promises, promises…we’ve heard this all before. What’s caught my attention this time are the promises they’re making yet again to pump millions and millions of more taxpayers dollars into healthcare. Does this really make any sense? Is healthcare what’s really needed, or should our focus be on prevention and wellness?

Doctors, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry seem to have formed the basis of healthcare and the health industry. However, it is a well known fact that pharmaceutical drugs, whether prescription or over-the-counter, are making people sick and killing them each and every day. Shouldn’t the health industry really be called the illness industry? The billions of dollars spent each and every year on healthcare seems to focus strictly on treating the symptoms of illness, rather than prevent illness and help people live a healthier life.

You Are What You Eat

We’ve all heard the phrase “you are what you eat”. It’s a popular phrase in that it does hold some truth to it. The foods we eat contain a wide variety of essential and nonessential nutrients, as well as other substances that can affect our body functions.

There are six classes of nutrients known to be essential for human beings. They are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Our body needs all of these nutrients to maintain healthy functioning. Without sufficient or balanced intake of any of these vital nutrients, disease can develop.

Our body is constantly changing. We are not the same person we were a month ago. Although we may look the same and don’t notice any change, the substances that make up the tissues and organs of our body are continually changing. We tend to think of tissues such as bones, the heart and blood vessels, and nerves as being solid and permanent, but they are in fact in a constant state of renewal. How incredible is it that all of the cells of the skin are replaced every month, or the cells lining the intestinal tract are replacing themselves every 1 to 3 days. How about taste cells rejuvenating every 7 days, and red blood cells turning over every 120 days. Wow, isn’t the body remarkable! 

Feel Revitalized Everyday

With the arrival of spring, it’s so nice to be able to open up the windows again and let the warm fresh air fill our home. How rejuvenating it is to begin spring-cleaning both inside and outside of our home and once again experience the many joys springtime has to offer. There are also many great articles and advertisements about the importance of detoxification and spring-cleaning our body.

Well, I was originally going to join with the ranks and write an article about the importance of spring-cleaning our body, when it occurred to me that we should actually be supporting our elimination system on a daily basis through diet, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle. Not just every spring.

Have A Heart

February is Heart Month, so you’re probably hearing a great deal about what to do to keep your heart healthy. Eat this and not that, exercise more, get more sleep and reduce your stress level. This amazing organ works hard to keep us alive, so let’s take a brief look at what the heart and the rest of the cardiovascular system does for us, and what we can do to keep it running smoothly.

The cardiovascular system consists of the heart, blood vessels, and blood. It nourishes each body cell by transporting nutrients throughout the body. In fact, “cardio” refers to the heart, and “vascular” refers to the blood vessels.

The heart’s function is to pump oxygen-rich blood throughout the blood vessels to every living cell in the body. The human heart is divided into four chambers - two on the right (right atrium and right ventricle) and two on the left (left atrium and left ventricle). Each chamber has a different function and each chamber of the heart has valves that close when the chambers push blood out. The sound of a valve closing is the sound of a “heartbeat”. Over a person’s entire lifespan, the heart must continuously beat by repeated, rhythmic contractions. If the heart stops beating, the body cannot function and will result in death. About the size of a person’s fist and weighing less than one pound, the heart is located between the lungs, slightly to the left side in the center of the chest. Depending on what you read, a healthy human heart beats on average 72 beats per minute, functions as a double muscular pump, pumps almost 2,000 gallons (approx. 7,500 liters) of blood every day, and during an average lifespan of 70 years, the human heart will beat more than two and a half billion times and will have pumped enough blood to fill over 100 full-sized swimming pools!

Nutritional Supplements Are Important For Optimal Health

It’s estimated we are receiving only 40 percent of the nutritional value of food nowadays. Some reports suggest this is untrue while many reports go even farther by saying this figure is actually lower. In any case, unless you are fortunate enough to have a garden close by with organic fresh food you can harvest and eat on a daily basis, I believe the food available in the supermarket does indeed lack in nutrition.

Many fresh foods travel great distances and many foods are processed to increase shelf life. To obtain the highest possible yield, producers are forced to rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides for their crops, while other producers use growth hormones, antibiotics, and inhumane confinement for animal production. (By the way, from what I understand about antibiotics given to animals destined for the dinner table…they are not necessary if the animals are kept in clean, un-crowded environments where they are able to stretch their legs and get fresh air and sunshine daily. Another reason to shop organic.)

The Real Secrets To Long-Term Weight Control

Now that the holiday season is over, many people may be noticing their clothes have gotten a little tighter around the waist and perhaps gained a few extra pounds from over-indulging. Some will have made New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and some will have made the resolution to get more exercise. These are both great resolutions and easy to keep, as long as they are included as part of an on-going health routine.

We are constantly inundated with all the ads on television, radio, and in magazines and newspapers, about how ‘this plan’ or ‘this product’ or ‘this new exercise routine’ is the ideal way to lose weight. And what about all the reality shows of heavy people parading themselves in front of the cameras hoping this will be the way to loose those extra pounds. Let’s face it. North Americans are preoccupied with their weight. Even though tens of billions of dollars are spent on weight loss products and services annually, North Americans are gaining weight faster than they’re losing it, and the incidence of obesity is on the rise.

Have Yourself A Merry Green Chistmas

The human body is very complex, therefore it’s important to nourish it with the proper nutrition it needs to perform optimally and maintain good health. To quote Dr. H. E. Kirschner, MD, “There is absolutely no substitute for greens in the diet! If you refuse to eat these ‘sunlight energy’ foods you are depriving yourself, to a large degree, of the very essence of Life.”

Green leafy and cruciferous vegetables are packed with a powerhouse of nutrition for whole body health. They are rich in vitamins (including vitamins C, E, K and many of the B vitamins), minerals (iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium), protein, unsaturated fats, phytonutrients (including beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect our cells from damage), chlorophyll and antioxidants. Consuming green leafy and cruciferous vegetables can help build our immune system and can dramatically prevent disease such as cancer and heart disease. Some of the more popular leafy green and cruciferous vegetables include: broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnip, rutabaga, kale, radishes, watercress, spinach, parsley, collards, and sprouts such as alfalfa sprouts. Calorie for calorie, they are one of the best sources of nutrition available.