LD Expert Julian Sanders talks Back-to-School Gadgets on Edmonton’s CTV Morning Live – CLICK TO VIEW
The days are shorter, the kids are restless, and you’re starting to organize the return to your “regular” schedule. Yep. It’s back-to-school time again. READ MORE
Tired of tangled headphone cords? Want to move parties to the patio seamlessly? Need mood music for moonlight picnics? How about mountaintop tunes for your next big group hike? All this and more is now easier with the growth in wireless audio.
Despite the vinyl resurgence, most audiophiles also enjoy digital and streaming music. So it’s fitting that the related tech is advancing steadily.
Here are some of the best wireless audio options at London Drugs: READ MORE
The original advocate: Gene Wilder, the first Willy Wonka, from the 1971 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
It’s not clear that Willy Wonka’s river flowed with dark chocolate. If it did, Roald Dahl’s lunatic chocolatier was on to something miraculous, and 40-odd years ahead of the rest of us. A host of recent European studies all point to the same delightful fact, namely, that dark chocolate is a superfood with many surprising health benefits.
The secret, as close readers of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will recall, is the cacao bean. Beloved by Oompa Loompas (see below), it is chocolate’s main ingredient. Cacao gives chocolate its robust taste, and though it’s packed with healthy flavonoids and theobromine, you won’t want to eat it by itself. (It’s disgustingly bitter.) Cacao gets an assist—in flavour, not health effects—from the milk, sugar, and butter in common chocolate bars.
Here are seven delicious facts about chocolate we bet you didn’t know—with accompanying images from one of the all-time great children’s movies.
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The good news: A recent study of 31,000 Swedish women confirmed chocolate’s cardiovascular benefits. Over nine years, subjects that ate one or two servings of dark chocolate each week cut their risk for heart failure by a third.
The even better news: A 2015 German study found that a daily square of dark chocolate lowered blood pressure and reduced heart attack and stroke by 39 per cent. Credit goes to the antioxidant compounds called flavonoids, which increase the flexibility of veins and arteries. A chocolate bar has five times the flavonoids of an apple.
And one caveat: Those antioxidants come with generous helpings of sugar, milk, and butter. The less sugar it takes to help the medicine down, the better, however. Stick to chocolate 70 percent cacao or higher, and limit yourself to 200 grams a week.
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Take note, Augustus Gloop.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have discovered a wonderful, if counterintuitive, fact—that the dark (chocolate) path leads to a lighter you. Because dark chocolate promotes greater feelings of satisfaction than its lighter cousin, it diminishes cravings for sweet, salty, and fatty foods. Sticking to your overall diet is now easier than ever. When snackishness next strikes, reach for a modest portion of dark chocolate. What could be sweeter?
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Smart enough to outwit Slugworth?
Researchers at the University of Nottingham have found that drinking cocoa rich in flavanols boosts blood flow to key parts of the brain for 2 to 3 hours, which can improve performance and alertness in the short term. An Oxford study looked at chocolate’s long-term effects on the brain by examining the diets of more than 2,000 people over age 70. They found that those who consumed flavanol-rich chocolate, wine, or tea scored higher on cognitive tests than those who didn’t.
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With luck, the kid turns out better than Mike Teavee.
A 2004 Finnish study found that pregnant women who ate chocolate daily handled routine stress better than expectant mothers who abstained. Even better, their babies pregnancy were more active and “positively reactive”—a measure encompassing traits such as smiling and laughing.
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Don’t panic, it’s only a psychedelic boat ride.
When the going gets tough, the tough often turn to chocolate. Turns out that’s a pretty smart thing. The fiendish part of stress is the cortisol it releases into your system. But Swiss scientists have found that a 30-gram dose of dark chocolate every day for for two weeks diminished cortisol levels, significantly easing stress. Next time you’re in the midst of a stress episode, skip the ice cream for a piece of dark chocolate.
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Blueberries, represented here by Violet Beauregard, are another diabetes-fighting superfood.
In a small Italian study, participants who ate 45 grams of dark chocolate each day for a fortnight saw their potential for insulin resistance drop by half. “Flavonoids increase nitric oxide production,” says lead doctor Claudio Ferri. “And that helps control insulin sensitivity.”
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The Oompa Loompa diet is rich in cacao beans.
London researchers wanted to test the sun-screening capacity of flavanols, a class of flavonoids. Their findings were shocking. After three months of eating chocolate dense with flavanols, subjects developed a resistance to sun exposure. It took them twice as long to develop the redness that indicates the beginning of sunburn. Subjects who ate conventional chocolate, low in flavanols, experienced no such protection.
PRESS RELEASE — Thanks to a generous donation from the London Drugs Foundation, first-year medical students at the University of British Columbia will be the first in Canada to use a new state-of-the-art 500-pound, 5-foot by 3-foot 3-D anatomy visualization table.
The Swedish “Sectra” table and technology allows students to interact with digital patients in detail, using a “virtual scalpel” revealing human anatomy and physiology that will greatly enhance traditional teaching in the lab.
UBC’s Dr. Bruce Forster, head of UBC’s department of radiology says, “Medical imaging has become a critical component of patient diagnosis and treatment in virtually all medical disciplines.”
The London Drugs Foundation is extremely proud to be able to continue its commitment to health and education with the donation of this first-ever Sectra table to the UBC Faculty of Medicine.
PRESS RELEASE — Thanks to a generous donation from the London Drugs Foundation, first-year medical students at the University of British Columbia will be the first in Canada to use a new state-of-the-art 500-pound, 5-foot by 3-foot 3-D anatomy visualization table.
As the weather turns cooler and swimsuits get packed away in favour of sweaters, it’s a great time to start a fun fall read. Grab one of these great reads and de-stress with a quiet evening with a book. You deserve it!
Preview: We could summarize this novel in one word – EPIC. This multi-generational love story spans both space and time. It is global in scope and starts before the Second World War, keeping the reader wrapped up in the powerfully emotional story until it reaches present day. A word of advice, keep tissues handy.
Good For: Bathtub reading, Romance fans.
Preview: An Australian soldier returns home from WWI and takes a job as a lighthouse keeper with his young, vivacious wife. Unable to conceive, they one day find a baby alongside a dead man in a boat that washes ashore on their small island. They adopt the child in secret, but such choices always have consequences.
Good For: Rainy days, Book clubs.
Premise: This whirlwind tour through the 20th century demonstrates how it was deeply unlike the rest. The book covers everything from relativity to the internet, global wars to global warming, as Higgs, a truly gifted communicator of complex ideas, helps readers to finally unpack just what the heck happened.
Good For: Provoking thought, History buffs.
Premise: Providing a timely and much-needed point of view, this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet tells the true story of her youth and coming-of-age as a black, female artist. Raised by a fiercely loving single mother, Smith relates her struggles to define herself within and against complex cultural and historical forces.
Good For: Memoir lovers, Mothers & daughters.
Premise: What happens when Kimball, a plucky New York writer with no rural experience, takes up impulsively with a highly ambitious young farmer planning to revolutionize the industry? An amazing true-life success story.
The Dirty Life chronicles their first year together both as a couple and as business partners running their farm. The catch? They ethically produce complete weekly grocery plans for their customers.
They even use compost as fertilizer and horses instead of tractors!
Good For: Gardening buffs, Getting inspired.
Don’t be fooled by the scorching temps, the tinkle of ice cream trucks and the sweet smell of sunscreen: summer is drawing to a close. You can’t fight it. It’s already that time of year. (Remember: the next step after denial, is acceptance.)
While the prospect of having the kids back in school delights many a parent, remembering the busy-ness of the school routine can quickly turn that delight to dread. If this sounds familiar to you, it might be time to revisit your strategy: getting organized early can make all the difference.
Here are some ideas to get you ready before it’s all systems go.
Whether you DIY, get an app (the Wunderlist app is definitely a fave) or download one of the thousands on Pinterest to choose from, first things first – get a list! Start one for school supplies, lunches, clothing – it’s amazing how good you can feel ticking off to-dos.
Having a calendar for important school dates (and work and personal dates too!) is a must for any sane human being. For the digitally inclined, Google Calendar is an obvious choice: it’s free and easy to use on all your family’s devices. But dry erase calendars for home and work can be invaluable – they are always “on”, and don’t require batteries. Try giving each family member a different coloured marker for some seriously sensational scheduling!
Check out this beautiful (and minimalist) printable calendar currently making the rounds on Pinterest.
This school season, think bentos instead of bags. Current lunch-box hotness trends towards nutritionally balanced works of art; perfect triptychs of fruit, veggies and string cheese. Sandwich boxes are an easy way to keep it all sorted; note the colour tabs on this one for the ultra-organized. The best part? No wizardry required.
Personalized labels have come a long way from the drab, peeling stickers that used to adorn every kid’s school supplies. Today’s labels are built to last—and the choices have expanded too. You could stick with the traditional self-laminating variety – or, better yet, stick-on some bling. Your kids will love bejewelling their book bags, notebooks, pens (and themselves) with stickers and DIY jewelry sets to help them keep track of their favourite school stuff.
Once school begins there are so many rules and routines to follow it can all be so…boring. Put a bit of fun into it with a back to school game. Scavenger hunts can be a fun way for little ones to find hidden school supplies (and then for parents to teach them how to put them away). They can also be used with somewhat older kids, to help teach new skills and concepts…just don’t forget the prize at the end!
When all is said and done, the back to school busy is brief and before you know it you’ll find your groove – so don’t sweat the silly stuff! If all else fails, eat cake.
