Exercise and sports are usually classified as two different things, however, they require the same thing from every body: performance. Even for the most gentle of athletes, or for the rest of us "weekend warriors", understanding how food affects and fuels our bodies...
Your blood pressure is a good type of pressure that you'll want to know all about. Normal blood pressure means your body is healthy and working within its limits to peak capacity. The good news is that maintaining your blood pressure within normal limits is absolutely...
Pre and probiotics are referred to as "functional foods"; foods that provide some health benefits beyond traditional nutritional values. What are Prebiotics? Prebiotics, sometimes known as fermentable fiber, are non-digestible bits of food that we eat. Why would we...
This month, we continue our year-long series on the basic vitamins and minerals necessary to good health and focus in on calcium. "Calcium for strong bones and teeth" is a phrase that all of us are familiar with. And while this is absolutely true, how many of us know...
In today's hectic pace, day turns to night far too quickly for those of us with too much to do. More and more of us are working longer hours, long past the time when we should be winding down from the day's activities. Working outside the home during the day means...
Sitting atop each kidney are small, yet vital, organs called adrenal glands. These little powerhouses are involved in myriad essential functions affecting our body such as immune function, producing hormones, regulating stress levels, bodily responses to stress, blood...
A woman’s life has so many stages and changes; physical maturation in our early teens, marriage, pregnancies, nursing, motherhood, and ultimately watching our daughters go through the same stages. Then we get a “pause”… physically and mentally, when we can review the...
Weather can be a deciding factor on how you feel about a day. A sunny day energizes you when you have a multitude of tasks to accomplish. A gray, dreary day will likely make you feel like you want to crawl back under the covers. A bright, snowy day can lift your...
Vitamin B1 is part of the complex of B vitamins which act as coenzymes. We've all heard the term "coenzyme" but what does it mean? Well, let's put this into a more logical order: An enzyme is "a protein, produced in cells, that acts as a catalyst speeding up the rate...
Sciatica (pronounced sigh-at-ee-kah) is a condition that involves the sciatic nerve and causes pain, weakness, numbness, or "pins and needles" in the lower back, leg, or foot. Starting in the lower spine and running down the back of each leg, the sciatic nerve is the...
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) has identified and recognized three conditions with distinctive, predictable behaviours as chronic and definable eating disorders; anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating. The CMHA goes on to advise that eating...
Vitamin E is a true collective effort. Originally discovered in 1922, it is only in the last decade that we've realized that vitamin E is actually made up of eight compounds all together and is an indispensable member of the body's antioxidant army, searching out and...