Community News
Garden Tips – Grow Your Own Food

Growing your own food is a great way to help you eat healthy, stay in shape, save money and enrich your life in many other ways. The main question that every gardener asks themselves is “How can I grow more food?” Here are three tips to help you plan your garden this year: grow vegetables like pole beans, vine tomatoes, and cucumbers vertically up fences and trellises to help save space for other plants. Some vegetables benefit from being grown near each other; such as beans and lettuce, tomatoes and basil, and peas and carrots. This is called companion planting. Adding flowers to your garden will also help to improve yields in your garden. Flowers not only attract pollinators, they also feed predator insects like hoverflies and ladybugs. These insects help protect your garden by consuming pests like aphids and beetles.

Brian Prince, Farmer, Prince Acres CSA
princeacrescsa.com

Psoriatic Arthritis: Supplemental Treatment

Approximately 14% of psoriasis sufferers (a chronic skin condition that causes red patches on the body) will develop psoriatic arthritis, a form of inflammatory arthritis. The symptoms of psoriatic arthritis range from mild involvement of the fingers and toes to burning, stiffness and pain in the lower spine and sacrum. When the joints of the toes and ankles are involved deformity may occur which results in pain when weight bearing and discomfort wearing footwear. Custom insoles (orthotics) and extra-depth footwear may offer improved foot comfort by relieving high-pressure areas on the soles of the feet and toes. In some cases, orthotics can be designed to correct joint alignment to reduce ligament strain.  As well, there are shoe modifications that are available to improve shoe comfort or ease walking stress. Ask your doctor for a referral and make an appointment with a Pedorthist to see how orthotics and footwear can relieve your foot pain.

B.D. Mitchell Prosthetics and Orthotics
MitchellPandO.com

Compassionate Help for Seniors

Did you know that most seniors fear losing their independence and that they struggle with their own loss of capacity to manage their day?   On your last visit to Mom’s house, did you noticed that it was not as spotless as it used to be, there were bills marked “FINAL NOTICE” and that food was going bad?  Perhaps Mom admitted that, since Dad passed, she finds it hard to manage the household and she is really lonely; but says “Don’t worry, I am fine!”  Of course you do worry and feel guilty that you cannot always be there for her. Arranging to have someone make a home visit for companionship and provide support with tasks in the home is a perfect solution.  Managing the household and keeping your Mom engaged in normal activities can be all that is needed to keep her at home. Help is available to develop your family plan. Having a plan in place will provide peace of mind for family members who know that Mom is no longer isolated and alone.

Zel Hopson, Home Help
seniorshomehelp.ca

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Juice Cleansing

Juice cleansing, also known as juice fasting, is a fasting method or a detox diet where a person will consume only fruit and vegetable juices to acquire essential nutrients while abstaining from consuming food. Is juicing really as good as it is cracked up to be? Benefits: 1) You can easily reach your daily dose of fruits and vegetables; 2) Your body can easily absorb the nutrients; 3) Reduces product wastage. Drawbacks: 1) You most likely won’t lose weight; 2) Too much natural sugar can lead to blood sugar spikes; 3) Your body doesn’t actually need a juice cleanse or detox (your body naturally detoxes everyday); 4) It can get very expensive; 5) You are not getting the fiber. Best option: consume whole foods, and try blending them into a smoothie rather than juicing.

Sheldon Lee, Vios Nutrition
kerux.vioslife.com

Welcome to the Wellnessnews!

We are proud to launch the second edition of the Wellnessnews on Central Vancouver Island! To us, Healthy Living means making positive choices and taking ownership and action to improve and enrich our lives in all key areas; physical, mental and spiritual. In order to achieve Healthy Living, we need information about positive health practices and a guide to the resources available to us. Wellnessnews Choices for Healthy Living strives to be the resource that showcases local health practitioners and businesses that can help the people in our communities achieve their goal of health and wellness.

Teresa Ostman and Isabella Ostman
Leverage Marketing Inc., Publisher, Wellnessnews Central Vancouver Island
wellnessnews.ca

Acupuncture For My Pet?

The goal of acupuncture is to promote the body to heal itself. From a Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) perspective, veterinary acupuncture encourages healing by correcting energy imbalances in the body. Acupuncture enhances blood circulation, oxygenation, nervous system stimulation, and the release of anti-inflammatory and pain relieving hormones. Acupuncture also aids in the removal of metabolic wastes and toxins. Unlike prescription and over-the-counter pain medications, veterinary acupuncture lacks potential adverse side effects for your pet’s internal organs. Your pet’s medications or supplements will not adversely interact with veterinary acupuncture treatment; therefore, it can safely be used in conjunction with traditional health care.

Life & Space Re-Design

Spring is the perfect time to get rid of the old and embrace the new. Find clarity about your wants and needs and action plans for your dreams and goals. Turn your inner vision of your ideal space into specific design features. Create the space that reflects your style and personality, values and beliefs. A space that supports your goals and the life you want to enjoy. It is the time to get rid of clutter – literally and virtually – and of what keeps you stuck. Time to get out of overwhelm and procrastination and break down the mountain into manageable parts. Create a space that you will love, one that will offer optimal function and comfort, nurture and support your soul and your life.

Emmanuelle Stathopoulos MAC-MSC. InnerDreamToOuterForm.com

The Inner Conflict

There are many beliefs and experiences stored in our subconscious mind. Whatever is stored there affects how we feel and act. Issues evolve when the conscious mind wants or believes one thing, but the subconscious mind wants or believes something else. If the conscious mind (5-10% of our potential mind power) and subconscious mind (90-95% of our potential mind power) are in conflict, the subconscious always wins. It is simply larger and stronger. It doesn’t matter how irrational the behavior is, we continue to engage in it because the subconscious feels it is serving a purpose of some kind. For example, someone who smokes cigarettes knows logically that smoking is harmful and wants to quit. However, there are messages stored in the subconscious that smoking is cool, or it helps manage stress, or that quitting is too hard. These messages override the logical desire to stop smoking.

Scott Metcalf, RCCH, A Beautiful Mind Hypnotherapy, ABeautifulMindHypnotherapy.com

How Important Are Enzymes?
  1. Enzymes build, orchestrate and unify the physical expression we call “life.” They seem to know precisely what to do and when to do it.
  2. They “assemble” molecules during their formative growth and they take molecules apart when individual cells are fractured.
  3. Enzymes create and modulate every system in the body.
  4. Enzymes help assemble a human body from a one-cell organism into a 50 to 70 trillion-cell life form
  5. Enzymes are involved in repairing the body when it is damaged; they transport, use, and transform oxygen molecules and every other nutrient the body needs; they break down metabolic waste and the by-products of cells; they quench free radicals, and they split off unwanted molecules from nutrients, adding necessary ones. The physical existence of every human being and the existence of all other living organisms is totally dependent upon the ability of enzymes to do their job. People get sick and diseased because they lack enzymes. People focus on vitamin and mineral supplements, but we need enzymes in our body before vitamins and minerals are effective. We have many that eliminated their most challenging illnesses. From death-bed cancer to cancer-free in 60 days. Cancerous tumors were expelled from the body with the use of our powerful proteolytic enzymes and patented proteolytic probiotics. People have taken up to five hundred (500) caps with no deleterious effects. And there is a huge difference between pancreatic and plant enzymes.

www.LeadingEdgeHealth.org

Financial Fitness

Spring’s officially sprung, and April brings us thoughts of Easter. Remember the baskets with the coloured cellophane nest filled with chocolate Easter eggs and other goodies. We approached this time with anticipation. How satisfying now when we look at our ‘nest egg’ of savings that we have set aside for emergencies, a special trip or our retirement. How much should we have set aside? The answer to that question varies greatly among financial advisors. Commonly, people think of setting aside one month’s salary, but it is best to determine how much you need to meet all your basic obligations for one month and start saving with that amount in mind. After that, you can save to have two months of expenses set aside and more after that. Saving for retirement should be just that, not a nest egg that we keep dipping into but set aside for the ‘golden years.’

Doris Minervini, Abakhan & Associates Inc., Abakhan.com

Worried about the Trumpocalypse?

How are you feeling about Donald Trump? Are you checking the news for updates on American politics? You are not alone! Sudden large shifts in our world can be very anxietyprovoking. Values and expectations about what’s normal are being fundamentally challenged and argued over. At the same time, at a personal level we can sometimes start to catastrophize, worry, start thinking in unhelpful ways about the what-ifs. Questions may arise – how can this be happening? Why can’t I let this go? What does this mean for me? How can I make a difference? Maybe you know your response is understandable and legitimate, but you disagree with someone close to you. Counselling can provide a safe place to figure it out – whether you want to vent, find a new way to direct your energy, change some habits of mind, or just feel heard.

Mary Munro, MA, MC, MaryMunro.ca