Community News
Take Care of Yourself

Providing long-term care for a loved one can be very taxing and time-consuming. With spring around the corner, we are all itching to leave our cozy winter hearths and get back to being active. By bringing in in-home elder care, you can take time to care for your health. Care for your loved ones frees up time for tackling your next challenge and helps ensure that you can enjoy the good things in life, going forward. If you or someone you know would benefit from in-home care, reach out to explore the options available.

Online Health and Wellness Resource

Wellnessnews Choices for Healthy Living® invites you to check out the WellnessHub, your online Health and Wellness resource for Vancouver Island. The WellnessHub features hundreds of local business and practitioners offering services and products. In addition, there are hundreds of health tips, articles and podcasts on a variety of topics. It is easy to search, access and share information. While you are checking out the WellnessHub, don’t forget to subscribe to receive a monthly email letting you know about events and the monthly contest. You can also read the digital version of our five island editons of the newsletter.

Natural Pain Relief

Do you know that lack of stability and balance accounts for a large portion of foot, leg and back pain issues? Today, wellness consumers want products to enhance their quality of life and are asking for natural, safe solutions for more energy, pain relief and enhanced mobility. VoxxLife socks and insoles with HPT optimize the user’s stability and balance at the nervous system level and provide relief from aches and pains with drug-free proven technology. Voxx Human Performance Technology (HPT) is based on 45 Years of research in Neuromuscular Science, Chiropractic Neurology and Reflexology.

Elderdog – Help for Senior Dog Owners

If you are a senior (55+) dog owner who has trouble taking care of your dog, Elderdog can help. They will help care for your dog so that you can keep love in your home. Elderdog’s volunteers provide free assistance to older dog owners living in Nanaimo, Oceanside and Ladysmith. Their many services include dog walking, transportation to vet appointments and food delivery. If an owner is unable to temporarily care for their dog due to hospitalization or surgery, Elderdog provides foster care in a pre-approved home. To find out more, arrange services or volunteer, visit their website.

Retirement Living

When you hear the words “independent retirement living”, what comes to mind? Do you think of *tasty home-cooked meals, *five-star plated celebrations, *fun-filled activities with friends, *weekly housekeeping and linen service and *24/7 emergency care when needed? This is what retirement living can offer and more. Whether relaxing in the privacy of your individualized senior apartment or indulging the company of others in a main living room, patio side lounge or dining room, you can be sure that your retirement will be a pleasurable one. Retirement is a time to relax and enjoy being with friends. After all, friendships are gifts to be treasured!

Meditation for Mental Wellness

The benefits of sitting quietly and going within are profound. The deep state of rest produced by meditation triggers the brain to release neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. These chemicals play many roles related to well-being, including increasing feelings of happiness, decreasing feelings of pain, and reducing the side effects of stress. Studies have found that meditation and mindfulness can decrease symptoms related to depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mood-related disorders, without side-effects that might be experienced while taking medications. Meditation can play an important role in maintaining and improving your mental health and well-being safely and effectively.

Wealth & Well-Being

Questions for Your Financial Advisor. It’s important to meet with your financial advisor annually to ensure everything is on track. Here are some key questions to ask. 1) How have my portfolio and net worth performed? Ask about performance and influencing factors. 2) Are all of my goals still on track? If not, get an explanation and plan to address this. 3) Do I need to make any changes to my plan? Share any life or goal changes. 4) Is my plan making the most of tax strategies? 5) What should I concentrate on in the coming year? Get a clear plan of action.

The Dental Diet

Nutrition plays a major role in dental health, helping to ensure gums, teeth and tissue are healthy and free from tooth decay, gum disease and other issues. It’s important to eat a healthy, balanced diet for dental health, which includes enough protein, calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, folate, and omega-3 fats. Vitamins A, B, C, and D are also important, as are antioxidants. Some great things to include in your dental diet are probiotics from fermented foods, cranberries, soy products, CoQ10, echinacea, garlic, ginger, ginseng, arginine, and green tea. It’s best to avoid heavily processed foods, especially ones high in sugar.

Puzzles for a Strong Mind

Puzzling is a mental workout that stimulates both sides of the brain. Studies have shown that jigsaw puzzles can help improve visual-spatial reasoning, short-term memory, and problem-solving skills, as well as reduce the rate cognitive decline and dementia. Puzzling can also help improve your mood by boosting dopamine production. It also helps reinforce connections between brain cells, improving mental speed and thought processes. Engaging yourself in puzzle-making can serve as an exercise in mindfulness and help relieve stress. Puzzles are also a great way to exercise the small muscles in fingers and eyes, which is especially true for those with arthritis or who have experienced a stroke.

Ask The Expert

Q: I often see glowing rings around lights. Someone told me this isn’t normal, is that true?

A: Halos around lights are from haziness somewhere. If it’s not because of something in the atmosphere, then this may be from foggy or scratched spectacle lenses, old contact lenses, swollen corneas, or opacities within the eye, like cataracts. Time for a checkup!

Class IV Laser for Chronic Pain

Chronic Pain? Acute Injury and a lot of swelling? Try Class IV Deep Tissue Laser which kick starts your body’s own healing capacity 2-3 times! It’s clinically proven by the World Health Organization to reduce pain and restore function to tissues. Injuries need blood flow and circulation to heal and laser does just that. Common ailments that have proven successful are: muscle strains, tendon injuries such as rotator cuff tears, as well as joint sprains. Even acute swelling or bruises can be treated with laser to accelerate the healing process and decrease scar tissue formation!