Health and Wellness Archives - Page 6 of 17

4 Healthy Getaways for Fall

Sometimes, you need to recharge. It can be hard to do in a busy life – work, family, kids, friends, hobbies, chores, errands…. So why not get away for a bit? Even a few days is enough time to rest, breathe, and get back at it. We’ve gathered a few therapeutic retreat options that might be just what you need.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Stephen Liu

Yoga in Banff

Image courtesy of Flickr user Matthew Ragan

If you want to get away for some self-reflection but wilderness isn’t really your thing, this yoga retreat at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is for you. The retreat includes two nights’ luxury accommodation at the hotel, gourmet meals, and a selection of yoga & meditation classes as well as a few nature walks around beautiful Lake Louise. Worried about a retreat being too rigid? The schedule is entirely optional – attendees are free to join activities as they wish (meaning you can sneak away for a mid-afternoon savasana). Namaste.

6 Surprising Foods That Will Help You Sleep All Night Long

It’s a commonplace of holidays: the turkey dinner concludes, your eyelids start to droop. You sneak away from the table to pour yourself into a comfortable seat and snooze the snooze of a thousand snoozes (at least until, ahem, the dishes are done).

The yawning doesn’t come over you because you’re lazy or full, although you may be both. Turkey contains an amino acid called L-tryptophan, which produces in the body two chemicals that make you want to get comfortably horizontal: melatonin and serotonin.

Interesting: Turkey, famous for its soporific effect, contains only modest amounts of tryptophan. A handful of other foods contain much higher concentrations of the amino acid. And all are cheaper and easier to prepare than a Christmas turkey.

More importantly, they’re easy to consume before bedtime, and will help you sleep more quickly and restfully. Who needs Ambien when Mother Nature’s on your side?

Toasted sesame seed bread

Sesame seeds are small, but they contain high amounts of tryptophan. Why bother with toast when you could simply throw back a handful, you ask? Bread’s carbohydrates increase your blood sugar, causing your body to produce insulin and, afterwards, the calming chemicals serotonin and melatonin—the ultimate drowsy combination. Sesame is the sleep superstar, but all kinds of seeds—pumpkin, squash, sunflower, in particular—are excellent before bedtime.

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Raw Nuts

Before bed, a handful of nuts is just what the Sandman ordered. Almonds, pistachios, and cashews (their butters are also excellent, just steer away from the heavily salted or sugared) are very high in tryptophan. Bonus: Nuts also contain magnesium, a mineral that calms your muscles and nerves.

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Fresh Fish

Fish are dense in tryptophan, in addition to being the best natural source of Omega-3s. Salmon is the champion, so definitely try it out. Whatever your choice, don’t neglect your Omega-3s. Research shows the fatty acids discourage intermittent waking through the night, and can add as much as an hour to your sleep. Small surprise, really: If there’s one thing salmon know about, it’s going the distance.

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Cherries

Cherries are so efficient at inducing sleep, they might have been manufactured in a lab. Where most soporific foods induce the body to produce melatonin by first introducing tryptophan, cherries leapfrog the first step and give you a straight shot of melatonin. This is rare. (Melatonin is the chemical that most strongly influences your sleep-wake cycles.) One caveat: before stuffing your mouth, make sure you’re not allergic. Treefruit like cherries are difficult on some people’s systems.

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Cow’s Milk

Experts don’t fully agree there is evidence that this age-old home remedy actually works. That’s because, like bananas, milk contains the amino acid L-tryptophan, which turns to 5-HTP and releases serotonin, which relaxes you. Milk is also high in calcium and magnesium, both known to have a relaxing effect. Milk alone may do the trick, but you’ll boost its effectiveness by taking it with a carb-rich oatmeal, granola, or toast.

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Mozzarella Cheese

If you’re like me, you hear an echo of your grandmother telling you that cheese before bed will give you nightmares. Mozzarella is the exception to the rule. Pound for pound, mozzarella cheese contains twice as much tryptophan as the lean protein. May we suggest a piece of Silver Hill’s Squirrelly Bread with a single slice of tomato, laid over with fresh buffalo mozza or bocconcini, drizzled with balsamic vinegar, a few drops of olive oil, and freshly ground black pepper?

Now you’ve got the tools. Happy sleeping!

Here’s How to Prevent Colds & Flu

washing-hands

The Best Prevention
The very best way to prevent colds and flu is to wash your hands often and teach your children to do the same. You should wash your hands before and after shopping trips (most supermarkets and drug stores now provide gel dispensers or wipes for this purpose), and always before eating/preparing food and after blowing your nose, or wiping your child’s. Here are a few more pointers:

Remember to wash your hands after touching elevator buttons, keypads, public phones, doorknobs and stair rails.
Avoid handshakes whenever possible, and go wash your hands afterwards if you do greet someone this way. (Meet-and-greet events, cocktail parties and similar gatherings where food is offered are prime environments for viruses to spread.)
If someone coughs or sneezes near you, move quickly away and/or cover your nose and mouth. If you have a cough or cold, be sure to use a tissue or sneeze into the crook of your arm.
For adults and children over 12 years of age, consider taking an immune-supporting supplement like non-drowsy COLD-FX® or COLD-FX® Extra Capsules.COLD-FX® may be taken preventatively as well as to reduce the duration of a cold.
Be sure to attend to the basics of good health and a strong immune system: get a minimum seven hours of sleep nightly, be physically active every day, and eat lots of healthy fruits and vegetables, low-fat protein and whole grains.

Although there are no guaranteed ways to prevent catching a cold, with a strong prevention strategy, you increase your chances of staying healthy throughout the winter months.

(This article was previously published in October 2011.)

9 Fantastic Gadgets That Will Ramp Up Your Health & Fitness

Fitbit

With its surge in popularity over the last year, there’s no avoiding the usefulness of the Fitbit. From the Zip, which tracks your steps, calories, and distance, to the Apple Watch-like Surge, there’s a Fitbit for everyone. The happy medium seems to be the slim and lightweight Flex, which is affordable and functional – it’s even got the sleep tracking capability.

Fitbit Aria

Fitbit’s smart scale tracks your weight, body fat percentage, and BMI, and connects to your Fitbit data through the free Fitbit app for iOS and Android. The Aria is available in both black and white for the design-focused fitness buff.

Taylor Smart Scale

Best Health Gadgets - Taylor Smart Scale

The second option for a smart scale is the Taylor Smart Scale. It’s extremely accurate, and connects to your smartphone through Bluetooth to track your weight. It even allows you to set goals and track progress within the scale’s user interface. Or, you can connect the data with our next suggestion.

My Fitness Pal

The app that tracks your eating habits and calorie intake also serves as an aggregator of data. It can sync with both your Fitbit and your Taylor Smart Scale to create a cohesive summary of your fitness goals and progress. Accessible from both your smartphone and your desktop computer, My Fitness Pal is easy-to-use and effective in helping you track data and get fit.

Jabra Sport Plus Headphones

Once you step up your cardio (gotta put that Fitbit to work!), it might be worth upgrading those old Walkman headphones. The Jabra Sport Plus model is wireless, so there’s no concern about tangled cords. For tunes, you can listen to iTunes or Spotify through Bluetooth from your smartphone, or if you don’t feel like hauling any extra weight along, the headphones can connect to FM radio.

Quitbit

If you still haven’t been able to kick the habit, new technology will soon be available to help you out. The Quitbit lighter tracks your cigarettes to help you better understand your habit. The accompanying smartphone app allows you to view your smoking trends and cigarette spending, and lets you share with friends (in case peer pressure helps your efforts!). You can even limit your cigarettes by pre-setting your smoke times – the Quitbit will only allow you to light up at the scheduled time.

Smartmat

The Smartmat is the world’s first intelligent yoga mat – or, it will be. Though the exciting new product isn’t available for purchase yet, it is in final stages. Funded through Indiegogo, the mat is intended to teach the user yoga. An accompanying app guides the user through yoga classes, and the responsive mat gives the user verbal instructions on how to improve their form. Namaste, technology.

QardioArm Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor

If you’re kicking up your cardio, it’s worth investing in a blood pressure monitor. The QardioArm is compact, easy to use, and dependable. Nothing should stop you from living life to its fullest.

Netatmo Weather Station

Best Health Gadgets - Netatmo Weather Station

The Netatmo allows you to view info about your home’s condition, right on your smartphone. It will tell you what to expect in terms of temperature, humidity, indoor air quality, noise pollution, and monitors CO2. When the air quality deteriorates it chooses the right time for you to ventilate your home or room. Plus, you can personalize the settings to keep you comfortable.

5 Tips For Better Bone Health

Our bones support us – literally – throughout our lives. It’s especially as we age – and when those bones start to creak a little – that we tend to become more aware of the importance of bone health, and of the risk of osteoporosis, a disease marked by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue (which often leads to increased bone fragility and breakage). But keeping our bones strong and healthy should be a priority at any age.

Visit londondrugs.com/osteoclinics to schedule an appointment to learn more about bone health.

We spoke to Tanya Long, Senior Manager of Education for Osteoporosis Canada, about ways that you can boost your bone health at any age. She offers these five tips.

Balance Your Diet

A well-balanced diet, says Long, is one that features foods rich in calcium, adequate protein and plenty of fruits and vegetables. Foods like these not only ‘feed’ the bones, but provide other nutrients that are important for bone health, too.

Get Enough Calcium

Food, Long says, is the very best place to get your calcium. But if, for any reason, your food sources are not adequate in terms of providing the calcium your bones need, speak to your doctor. You may then consider taking a calcium supplement, on your doctor’s advice.

Supplement Your Vitamin D

Osteoporosis Canada recommends routine daily Vitamin D supplementation all year round for adults. Vitamin D, Long explains, isn’t always easily found in food sources and she says sun is simply not a reliable enough source of Vitamin D. Seek medical supervision, however, if you’re thinking of taking more than 2,000 International Units of Vitamin D per day.

Exercise

We know that exercise is crucial in building and maintaining strong bones. Long says your exercise routine should include strength training (such as wall push-ups or working with free weights), balance and posture training, as well as weight-bearing activity (weight-bearing means any activity requiring you to be on your feet, like dancing, walking, stair-stepping, etc.)

See Your Doctor

Over 50? Talk to your doctor about a fracture risk assessment, which will tell you your risk of breaking a bone in the next 10 years. Also, all women and men 65 years or older should have a bone mineral density test. If you are at high risk of fracture, Osteoporosis Canada recommends medication, on advice from your doctor. Find out more about the role of medication in treating osteoporosis here.

To find out more about osteoporosis and bone health in general, please visit the Osteoporosis Canada website.

And find out more about how to identify your osteoporosis risk factors – and how to minimize that risk – at one of London Drugs’ Osteoporosis Screening Clinics.

Five tips to master stress this Back-to-Busy season

With the hustle and bustle of the back-to-busy routines, some may be susceptible to the stress that comes with it. To make sure that you stay healthy and stress-free this fall, here are five tips to help you master stress, and be in your best shape for the back-to-busy season.

1. Get enough sleep

Sleep is a huge necessity that many individuals don’t get enough of. In fact, sleep is what keeps us healthy, in shape, and feeds us enough energy to deal with our busy lives. Here are a few suggestions to make sure that you are leaving enough time in your life to get your suggested 8 hours of sleep, and are maintaining healthy sleeping habits during the night.

Fitbit Flex

The Fitbit Flex is the perfect device to track your sleep quality. By simply leaving the wrist band on during the night, the Fitbit Flex will track your sleeping stats and record it back onto any smart device you sync it with. Not to mention, it has a built in alarm that will silently wake you in the morning. During the day, it will even track steps, distance, and calories burned.

Timex Tech Watch
In order to keep your day on track and ensure enough sleep, why not think about investing in a watch? The Timex Tech Watch has two alarms that can either be set to a daily or one day option – perfect for waking up in the morning or reminding you it’s time for bed. Think about utilizing the forward/bark setting for easy use as well as enjoying the comfortable resin strap to keep on during the night.

London Drugs carries a wide diversity of watches from designer to tech. View the full line of watches here.

5 Ways to Sharpen Your Brain When the Kids Head Back to School

It can be so much fun having the kids home for the lazy hazy crazy days of summer (and, in some cases, it’s even better if they are off at camp!) But September will be here soon, and that relaxing combination of slowing down, sun tanning, and perhaps one too many Slurpees can make it hard to shake off ‘summer brain.’

This can pose a problem, because when school starts again, parents are expected to snap out of the stupor and help with homework and all the new concepts on the curriculum.

If you think that’s stressful, you’re not alone: a UK study last year found that helping with their children’s homework was a cause of significant stress for lots of UK parents. A quarter of those surveyed said they considered their children’s homework tasks to be too hard, while nearly two thirds admitted there have been times when they were unable to help because it was too taxing.

Still, with a few weeks of summer left there’s still time to prep, so here are a few ideas on how to make heading back to school less of a headache.

Speed it up

Quick: What element is represented by the letter K in the periodic table?

If you thought to answer “Krypton” (like celebrity rocker, Gene Simmons) then you may need to start watching Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.

The popular trivia show tests adults on basic facts learned in elementary school, and has stumped many contestants. In fact only two – a Superintendent of Schools and a Nobel laureate – have been able to answer the final Million Dollar Question.

Ease your brain back into gear by playing along with trivia game shows like this, Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Better yet, challenge the kids to the board game versions of these shows, or other brain training classics like Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.

By the way—“K” in the periodic table is for potassium. But we all knew that.

Move it

Fractions, geometry, decimals… if these words remind you more of alternative rock bands than math concepts, it may be time for some remedial math study.

Start by practicing everyday math skills without relying on Siri or your smart phone calculator. Next time you have to help calculate the amount for a tip, to convert from pounds to kilograms in a recipe or double-check the grocery bill, do it all in your head! Sound too hard? Recruit the kids! Use back to school shopping as an opportunity to teach them about money and budgeting.

Jog it

Was it Jane Eyre who ran off with Holden Caulfield? Did Mr. Atticus get with Hager Shipley? Or was that Gilbert Blithe??

Decades later, characters and stories from the classics you once read and loved in school may now not exactly be top of mind. But many of those books are still found on school curricula today, so you may just get a chance to share these very same classics with your child this year.

While speed reading To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables would be fast…picking up the DVD version may be faster still, and enough to jog your childhood memories.

Feed it

So-called ‘superfoods’ like blueberries and broccoli have long been known to make us brainier—but eating those repeatedly may get super tedious.

With the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables available as fall approaches, this is an excellent time to stock up on healthy – and affordable – alternative brain foods, and to try some new flavours.

For example, for your salad:

Leave out the lettuce; instead use a blend of spinach, collard, turnip and mustard greens that are much higher in folate, a B vitamin which is crucial for brain function.
Try a fresh handful of sage, an easily found herb known to be an outstanding memory enhancer.
Throw in some pumpkin seeds: they are chock full of omega 3 and 6 – fatty acids found to help with our thinking skills. Tote these smart snacks around for you and your kids to enjoy at anytime.

Rest it

The last weeks of summer don’t have to be all about study…remember to take a moment to relax and recharge your batteries. Research shows that our brains benefit from regular downtime. Whether you nap, meditate or take a walk – regular mental breaks can help increase productivity, replenish attention, and encourage creativity, for you and the kids too!.

Now, no matter how much brain busting prep you do, you’re still not likely to know the answer to all of your child’s homework problems—but that’s ok; the most important part is being available to help. Even if you don’t know the answers, sorting them out together can be fun and educational for both you and your child.

So get ready, and good luck!

4 Healthy Getaways for Fall

Yoga in Banff

6 Surprising Foods That Will Help You Sleep All Night Long

Toasted sesame seed bread

Raw Nuts

Fresh Fish

Cherries

Cow’s Milk

Mozzarella Cheese

Here’s How to Prevent Colds & Flu

9 Fantastic Gadgets That Will Ramp Up Your Health & Fitness

5 Tips For Better Bone Health

Balance Your Diet

Get Enough Calcium

Supplement Your Vitamin D

Exercise

See Your Doctor

Five tips to master stress this Back-to-Busy season

1. Get enough sleep

5 Ways to Sharpen Your Brain When the Kids Head Back to School

Speed it up

Move it

Jog it

Feed it

Rest it

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4 Healthy Getaways for Fall

Yoga in Banff

6 Surprising Foods That Will Help You Sleep All Night Long

Toasted sesame seed bread

Raw Nuts

Fresh Fish

Cherries

Cow’s Milk

Mozzarella Cheese

Here’s How to Prevent Colds & Flu

9 Fantastic Gadgets That Will Ramp Up Your Health & Fitness

5 Tips For Better Bone Health

Balance Your Diet

Get Enough Calcium

Supplement Your Vitamin D

Exercise

See Your Doctor

Five tips to master stress this Back-to-Busy season

1. Get enough sleep

5 Ways to Sharpen Your Brain When the Kids Head Back to School

Speed it up

Move it

Jog it

Feed it

Rest it

Archive

Categories

Pages

Newsletter

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