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Taking Care of Your Mental Health
Mental health refers to a person’s emotional and psychological well-being. Mental illness is an umbrella term used to describe any type of mental health condition that affects a person’s mental or emotional well-being. Common types of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); while other mental health conditions include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorders and phobias. All of these can affect a person’s overall sense of wellbeing, impacting their ability to work, study, interact with others and handle everyday activities. Mental health is important at all stages of life; from childhood and adolescence all the way through to adulthood. Over the…
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Healthy Resolutions for the New Year
The most common resolutions that people make going into a new year include weight loss and healthy eating. These resolutions often mean that people will make drastic changes to their diet and fitness plans; but these drastic changes are also some of the reasons why people don’t necessarily see the immediate results they expect. While we should all strive to keep our bodies as healthy as possible, there are things you can do to make it a bit easier to follow through on those new year’s resolutions that you’ve made. • Exercise: Vowing to get more physical activity is never a bad thing. While some people might find it easy…
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Acne Awareness
Acne is a common skin condition that affects as many as 5.6 million Canadians. Among those cases, 80 to 90 percent are teenagers, while it also affects 20 to 30 percent of adults between the ages of 20 and 40. While acne is often referred to as “pimples”, it’s usually more complex than that. In fact, there are as many as three different subtypes and six different types of acne that one can be diagnosed with, including the following: • Comedonal acne • Inflammatory acne • Cystic acne • Whiteheads • Blackheads • Papules • Pustules • Nodules • Cysts Whiteheads: This type of acne falls under the subtype of…
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Increasing Energy and Productivity at Work
While some people might dread going to work, for others it can allow them to feel productive and as if they’re making positive contributions not just toward the company they work for and their fellow employers, but to society as well. However, work can, at times, be both stressful and exhausting – whether from long work hours, trying to meet deadlines, or just the commute to and from the job – which means there is a potential risk of developing mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, along with a decrease in energy levels and feeling “burnt out,” so to speak. The feeling of mental exhaustion and fatigue can…
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How Food Can Impact the Mind
If you have ever heard the term “stress eating,” then you should know it’s not just something that was made up. In fact, the mind plays a pretty significant role when it comes to the way we perceive food and the thought process behind eating, as hunger is partially controlled by part of your brain known as the hypothalamus; and while the research surrounding food and things like stress and depression is still considered to be somewhat inconclusive, there are still suggestions that there may be strong links. As mentioned, hunger is controlled by the hypothalamus. This is the part of the brain that regulates everything from body temperature to…
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The Sugar Epidemic: Sugar Addiction
Whenever you eat something that is sweet, the hippocampus (a horseshoe-shaped structure with a band of nerve fibres that connects the hippocampal structures in the left and right hemispheres of the brain) enables you to remember the taste. This then results in the formation of habits, causing you to want to reach for that sweet treat over and over again. This sets off a domino-like effect and causes your dopamine levels to rise. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter and hormone that plays a role in many different bodily functions, including movement, memory, motivation and pleasurable reward. Which is why, when you consume sugar, the brain thinks of it as…
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Healthy, Natural Ways to Find Pain Relief
Thousands of Canadians suffer from pain every day. Pain can be acute and a result of something like a scraped knee, sprained or broken bone, which will get better over time, or can be chronic and much more severe – such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, migraines, or other pain disorders. Regardless of the cause, the goal is to find relief. Over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen are typically the go-to medications of choice when it comes to those that are seeking pain relief. However, too much of these medications over a prolonged period of time can lead to other health complications such as kidney and liver problems, ulcers, and more.…
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How the Environment Can Impact Your Health
Pollution is one of the biggest concerns when it comes to our environment. As humans, we’re actually responsible for most of the pollution that gets released into the environment. What we don’t realize, however, is that breathing in all that pollution can actually have a detrimental impact on our health. Air pollution can be classified into two types: Visible or invisible. Things like smoke, dust and haze are considered “visible” pollutants and can oftentimes be smelled, while other pollutants like carbon monoxide are considered “invisible” as they are without color and odour. Another common example of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuels. For example, oil, coal, as well…
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How the Brain Changes as We Age
As our bodies develop, so do our brains. We adapt, we learn, we make memories, and become smarter. However, just as your body eventually changes over time, the brain goes through changes as well. The brain’s aging process begins in your late twenties, which results in neurons being lost. By the time you reach your sixties, the brain begins to shrink – and while this might sound startling, it’s a natural process that happens to everyone. When we are born, we’re born with the following: Billions of neurons, reflexes, and basic survival skills. As we grow up, those neurons get bigger and work harder, and also aide in everything from…
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Fighting Food Cravings
Fact: When we feel hungry, we eat. Also fact: We eat when we aren’t necessarily hungry but have certain cravings for foods, like salty potato chips or sugary sweets such as chocolate, cakes, and candy; and sometimes these temptations can be hard to resist. However, these food cravings are often an indicator that our bodies are missing something. Below are some of the most common reasons as to why we might experience food cravings, and what you can do to crush them and ultimately replace certain unhealthy foods with ones that are better for you. LACK OF WATER: Also known as dehydration, this can often manifest itself as hunger. Common reasons…