Community News
Good Posture Can Prevent Pain & Injuries

Having good posture not only makes you look strong and healthy, it’s also a critical factor in preventing pain and injuries. For recreational activities like golf, skating, yoga or running, posture actually plays an important role in performance. Posture is critical in preventing workplace injuries that come from repetitive stress or sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day. Physiotherapists can help you discover how to improve your posture by demonstrating positions and stretches for when you start to feel the tension in your body. Make the move to see a physiotherapist!

Stay Active with the Active Pass

With the weather getting cooler and the days getting shorter, it’s easy to make excuses for ditching the spring and summer exercise routine. The City of Nanaimo Active Pass will keep you moving. It allows unlimited access to all public drop-in sessions, including swimming, skating, gymnasium sports, weight rooms and more! One of the best ways to end the day is by relaxing in the sauna or steam room at Nanaimo Aquatic Centre or Beban Pool – also a benefit to your Active Pass purchase. For more information, please see the Fall and Winter Activity Guide.

Visiting a Loved One in a Care Home

Visiting your loved one in the care home helps them to stay emotionally engaged. Here are some things to keep in mind when visiting. Respect the resident’s privacy. Knock before you enter the room and step out into the hall when personal care is being provided. Be warm in your interactions and use a gentle touch. Keep the conversation positive and refrain from arguing. Encourage your loved one to share happy memories from the past. Don’t stay too long. Look for cues that your loved one may be getting tired or stressed.

Profile: The Medicine Shoppe

The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy offers personalized service. Through their Pharmacy at Home Program, complimentary home visits help you manage your medication schedule or set up your blister pack. Free delivery service is available anywhere in Nanaimo, Lantzville, Nanoose, Errington, Parksville and Qualicum. At their location on Departure Bay Rd near Country Club, certified injection pharmacists are onsite to give flu shots, shingle shots and travel vaccines. They also offer Blood Pressure, BMI and Diabetes Monitoring, Foot Care and Compression Sock Fitting and a compounding laboratory to prepare customized medication. Mel and Kristen Azcarraga, pharmacists and owners, are proud to serve their community.

Profile: Peggy Hoult, Healthcare Navigator

You are definitely not alone. Peggy Hoult can help caregivers reduce stress and save money by providing information, advice and support to successfully navigate the financial and administrative side of accessing health care services. Attend an inexpensive group workshop to learn about the costs and availability of both private pay and subsidized options for home support, respite care, assisted living, long term care, palliative care and end of life care. Follow up with Peggy for a personal consultation to review your particular situation and to apply for various benefit programs.

Easy Travel with a Portable Electric Scooter

Is the thought of long corridors at the airport or the cruise terminal putting you off from travelling? Travelling with a mobility scooter on a plane may seem daunting to organize, but today you can have the independence and freedom to travel wherever you like. Today’s portable light weight electric mobility scooters make it a breeze to reach your gate or cabin on the ship. Folding mobility scooters are great options as they can easily be brought with you everywhere. When travelling by air, inform the airline that you are travelling with a scooter and provide weight/dimensions and battery type. Don’t forget the charger cord!

Maintaining Intimacy in Menopause

Menopause brings about a host of changes that can make intimacy painful or impossible. Genitourinary syndrome of menopause can cause symptoms of extreme burning, pain, and tissue tearing with intimacy. Early symptoms can respond to over-the-counter vaginal moisturizers and lubricants. More severe symptoms require a visit to the medical doctor. Prescription vaginal hormones can safely and effectively relieve the symptoms and return a couple to intimacy. If a woman doesn’t want to use hormones, then new laser therapies like MonaLisa Touch® and TempSure VitaliaTM can also be safely used to treat symptoms and restore vaginal health. Great skin at any age – Let us show you how!

Fentanyl is Stealing Our Kids

The opioid crisis continues to escalate, not showing any signs of going away soon. We must protect our “kids” — which, by the way, our kids are always our kids, no matter their age or ours. Please listen and don’t react or preach. Make a safe space for drug use conversations. If they are going to use anyway, for example, encourage them not to use alone. Also let them know about the O.A.T. Clinic in White Rock, where they can get their Suboxone or Methadone. Love them, support them, try and get them help.

Raise Mentally Healthy Kids

A strong foundation in childhood can lead to a healthy, happy, and productive life. Parents can help support positive mental health by forming strong and caring relationships with their children. What are some ways in which parents can support positive mental health in their kids? Connect – talk and listen to their feelings and experiences. Be active together – take a walk and build physical activity into family time. Take notice – encourage and praise the positive behaviours and choices your children make. Keep learning – encourage your child to learn from both positive and negative experiences. Give – your time, your words, your presence.

Financial Fitness: Tax Loss Harvesting

Securities trading well below cost have unrealized capital losses valuable to the investor. Tax Loss Harvesting is the act of voluntarily taking losses for the purpose of creating a current tax deduction to offset realized gains. The purpose is to minimize tax liabilities and keep the asset in the portfolio, where it can benefit the most from compounding. Poorly-performing securities not expected to recover in the near term are candidates for harvesting. Should the investor wish to stay in that asset class after the loss trades, they can purchase a substitute security with a high correlation to the original.

How Much Vitamin D Do I Need?

Vitamin D, produced by the body in response to sunlight, is a key hormone whose deficiency has been implicated in over 100 diseases. From October to April, low “D” levels are very common in Canada as the sun is too low in the sky is to stimulate Vitamin D. Getting “D” from your diet is difficult, so supplementation makes sense. Even better is to get your “D” from light – either a quick trip to the sun – or stopping by and using the Solius booth at the Wellness Garage. Solius stimulate 10x more Vitamin D with 100x less UV energy, making it a safe and natural way to get your “D”.