Guest Speaker
Taking Care of Your Aging Parents
As our parents age, we, as a family unit, need to make significant decisions about our parent’s health. Dr. Melina Roberts will be sharing stories of her personal experience with her parent’s and patient’s health challenges and how important it was to understand what all your options are before making decisions. She will also discuss the naturopathic approach to chronic health issues as a true option with great effectiveness.
WHERE: YMCA Crowfoot
WHEN: Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
TIME: 7:30-9:00pm
New Therapy Offered
We are excited to be offering OZONE THERAPY now!
Ozone Therapy has been used worldwide in medicine for over 125 years with dramatic success and safety. There are over 6000 medical papers proving ozone therapy to be effective and safe in the treatment of numerous disease processes. In Europe ozone has been used for 50 years by over 10,000 physicians. In North America only a small number of Naturopathic and/or Medical doctors currently use medical ozone for treatment of disease.
Ozone is three atoms of oxygen attached together, or O3. Ozone therapy provides oxygen to the body which increases the total amount of oxygen available to the tissues. Ozone enhances circulation throughout the body; stimulates oxygen delivery to cells, tissues, and organ; activates the immune system; and is germicidal, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral.
Featured Articles
Inflammation: Key Concept in Treating Disease & Supporting Optimal Health
BY: DR. JULIE MILLER
Inflammation is one of the body’s self protection mechanisms; the aim being to remove harmful stimuli, such as damaged cells, irritants or infections, and initiate the healing process. We have all witnessed the effects of inflammation due to injury, when the affected area becomes red, warm, swollen, painful, and mobility declines. Fever, body aches, and fatigue, common symptoms associated with the flu, are signs that your immune system is mounting an inflammatory reaction to eradicate the offending virus. Both of these are examples of acute inflammatory reactions that should subside once the threat is taken care of and the body begins to heal. However, the problem lies not in the inflammatory process itself, but if it becomes unchecked or runs out of control. Also, persistent stimuli (eg. toxins, allergens, infections, recurrent injury) can continually activate the inflammatory process resulting in tissue damage and cellular dysfunction. Although chronic inflammation has been linked to major diseases such as Alzheimer’s , type II diabetes, cancer, arthritis, heart disease, and auto-immune conditions, the effects of chronic, low grade inflammation can be much more subtle. Fatigue, muscle aches and pains, allergies, chronic congestion, digestive disturbance, frequent infections, swelling, weight gain, skin rashes, acne, menstrual problems, and poor concentration are all associated with chronic, low grade inflammation.
Causes of chronic inflammation are diverse and can be caused by both internal and external factors:
- Chronic Infections: low grade bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic infections continually activate the immune system resulting in inflammation. The digestive tract, sinuses, and teeth are examples of areas that can harbour such infections.
- Poor Nutrition: Diets high in pro-inflammatory foods such as sugar, refined carbohydrates, trans-fats, processed meats, processed and fast foods, and artificial food additives.
- Lack of foods abundant in essential vitamins, minerals, and anti-inflammatory fats and phytonutrients. Examples are colourful, anti-oxidant-rich, fruits and veggies and foods high in omega 3 essential fatty acids such as chia, flax seed, and wild salmon.
- Food Intolerances: as assessed on an individual basis, food intolerances contribute to local inflammation within the digestive tract as well as systemically. The most common food intolerances include: gluten, cow dairy, eggs, citrus fruit, tomato, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and soy.
- Toxicity: environmental chemicals (eg. pesticides, PCBs, dioxins, phthalates) and heavy metals (eg mercury, lead, arsenic) are major causes of immune dysregulation and chronic inflammation.
- Obesity: fat cells (specifically abdominal fat cells) secrete inflammatory chemicals that fuel the fires of inflammation and contribute to insulin resistance and type II diabetes.
- Blood Sugar Imbalance: high blood sugar, as a result of poor diet and lack of exercise, leads to high insulin, both of which are pro-inflammatory state and lead to type II diabetes
- Psychological Stress: prolonged stress alters the ability of cortisol to regulate the inflammatory response thus contributing to runaway inflammation.
Although acute inflammation is a necessary process in the body, it is important to address chronic inflammation. Diet is the foundation of any plan to reduce inflammation in the body in that avoiding foods that feed inflammation and choosing foods that fight inflammation will significantly lessen the inflammatory load. It is also important to support the organs of elimination; the kidneys, liver, and digestive tract, to enhance detoxification of inflammatory-producing toxins. There are also specific supplements, such as specially formulated enzymes (eg Wobenzym®), curcumin, resveratrol, and green tea that act as potent anti-inflammatories. As outlined above, there are many factors that can contribute to the inflammatory process, including imbalance of the immune system, so it’s important to assess each person individually and treat them accordingly.
Detoxification & Bowen Therapy
BY: DIXIE BENNETT
The weather keeps teasing us, but in the mean-time everyone is getting the itch to leap out of hibernation into the great outdoors. During the winter months our bodies have been storing up unnecessary materials. As part of maintaining healthy habits, spring is also a time of cleansing, besides going through the act of cleasning you may want to seek alternative support such as Bowen Therapy. Bowen Therapy is a gentle approach that encourages proper functioning of all body systems, including those responsible for getting rid of toxins. Bowen Therapy can help support stimulation of the various organs including the liver and gallbladder, that assist in removing toxins from the blood. Lymphatic drainage is important in the overall support of the body to assist with proper removal of toxins. Bowen Therapy can also provide assistance in aiding your body to deal with disturbances of the digestive system, constipation, respiratory congestion and other ailments that may arise while your body is detoxing. Your body will function more effectively when the toxins have been released. During the detoxification process it is important to drink plenty of water, eat a healthy balanced diet and to go for a gentle 30 minute walk daily.
Your Health Questions Answered
Is there a problem with soy?
There was research on soy approximately 30 years ago, that evaluated at the health of Asian population and questioned why the Asian population was healthier and free of many common diseases seen in the Western world. One of the conclusions that they came was due to the soy in their diet that was not commonly seen in the Western diet that made the big difference. So the Western world started to consume soy in all different forms and in true Western fashion, consumed it in large amounts. With the increased demand came an agriculture business that needed to keep up with the high demand and begin to make higher yields in shorter periods of time and thus came fertilizers and genetically modified sources to aid in meeting this demand. Unfortunately now in the 21st century, most of our soy sources are genetically modified and chemically-laden. The truth is that the Asian populations consumed small amounts of soy that is fermented (like miso and tempeh) and non-genetically modified sources.
Featured Recipe
Chewy Chocolate Brownies (Gluten-Free)
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