Life in death: Walk/​Run for the Care with Ian Anderson House

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Dr Aoife

For those of you don’t know, I’m a part of a rockin’ team called Finola’s Fans!

My mother, Finola Earls, the head of the the team, passed away from can­cer three years ago under the care of a hos­pice for can­cer care called Ian Anderson House.

Ian Anderson House is a pretty spe­cial place. It is 100% fun­ded from dona­tions, and at the end of life, patients and their fam­il­ies are able to get the care they need. They need to raise $700,000/year for oper­at­ing costs. To do this, mul­tiple fun­drais­ing events are run yearly, includ­ing an event called Walk/​Run for the Care.

Finola’s Fans has par­ti­cip­ated in the Walk/​Run for the Care for the past sev­eral years, and last year our team through the gen­er­ous sup­port of our col­leagues, friends, and their fam­il­ies raised $3500 dol­lars for Ian Anderson House, the highest amount raised at Walk for the Care in 2012. We were really excited, but we know that we can do more. Every dol­lar makes one more person’s life jour­ney that much more com­fort­able as it comes to its end.

Finola's Fans 2012

Finola’s Fans 2012

Our team would love if you could help us touch more lives through the Ian Anderson House, and con­sider donat­ing, if you can. Click this link if you can donate. We also would love to see you walk­ing or run­ning with us; Sunday June 9th, at Mentor College in Mississauga, 11:00 am. The weather has been amaz­ing for the last few years. Bring your fam­il­ies and wear toxin-​friendly sunscreen!

Posted in Cancer, Colon cancer, Death, Grief and loss, Palliative Care | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you Type A for Anxiety?

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Good morn­ing my Type A friends.

You know who you are. You are the per­son oth­ers rely upon to get the job done. You show up. You give good sup­port and advice. You’re a good friend. You are read­ing this blog right now because there are other sides to your fab­ulous self…

Anxiety and Type A personalities

Worry cre­ates stress..and the cycle con­tin­ues.
Compliments of thecord.ca

Continue read­ing →

Posted in Adrenal fatigue, Anxiety, Body-Mind Medicine, Mental Health, Stress Management | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sniffle, sniffle, sneeze — Natural Treatment for Your Allergies!

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Yes, spring is arriv­ing, and how do I know? Itchy, watery eyes with a very runny nose and feel­ing exhausted = des­per­ate need for nat­ural allergy treat­ments ASAP. Anyone else? natural treatment for allergy Continue read­ing →

Posted in Allergies | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Eczema and the body-​mind connection

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Most of you know my per­sonal con­nec­tion to eczema and dermatitis, but this is not a post just about dermatitis! More pro­found is the body-​mind con­nec­tion and how they cause phys­ical dys­func­tion or improve upon it, or how more simply, what we think and feel can cause phys­ical reac­tions in our body.

Dr. Aviva Romm, both herb­al­ist and MD, wrote a won­der­ful example in her blog today that is a fab­ulous read on the body and mind in health, and how our hearts (or feel­ings) really do impact our bod­ies. I simply had to share this with all of you.

Courage, as she iden­ti­fies, is the abil­ity to recog­nize the things we really need to change in our lives to achieve our health­i­est selves. I couldn’t agree more. Fabulous food for thought.

Think: are there things your body expresses that your mind might be try­ing to communicate?

Posted in Body-Mind Medicine, Eczema, Personal Growth, Skin, Skin disorders | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Reinventing the body, resurrecting the soul

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Morning reflection

Spring brings the oppor­tun­ity for change, and shak­ing off the old, wel­com­ing new life, new growth… lit­er­ally and fig­ur­at­ively. With the grey winter days this year, I am so look­ing for­ward to the sun and bright­ness of green and spring and everything it brings!

The title for today’s post was bor­rowed from Deepak Chopra, the author of the book Reinventing the body, Resurrecting the soul: How to Create a New You. In my per­sonal lib­rary, it is a book I added to my self-​growth rep­er­toire about 4 years ago. A valu­able addi­tion to any lib­rary for those of you inter­ested in the con­nec­tion between your body and mind.

I know that along the jour­ney of life, many of us are sick of the self-​improvement, and the feel­ing that when you have finally accom­plished one “les­son” or “goal”, that some­thing new comes up to pay atten­tion to… It sounds simple to whip through a book to begin the seeds of change, under­stand the changes we want to make in ourselves, and then imple­ment the changes, isn’t it? Of course, if it was that easy, we would all be the people we want to be the minute we fin­ished read­ing the book. If we could all be like Johnny 5 :)

Today of all days is the first day of The Meditation Challenge, a free chal­lenge run quarterly with the Chopra Center, includ­ing Oprah this year who is also lend­ing her voice to the med­it­a­tions over 3 weeks. It is a prac­tice that Deepak Chopra has put his energy and time to pro­mo­tion as a part of the many things that can assist us on our jour­ney to being bet­ter people. The kind of changes that a prac­tice like med­it­a­tion can bring to your evolving self are fairly simple, but very profound:

  1. Decreased stress
  2. Decreased blood pressure
  3. Increased deep sleep
  4. Increased sense of self
  5. Increased feel­ing of calmness
  6. Increased self-​esteem
  7. Increased immunity

Why can a tech­nique like med­it­a­tion help us on our jour­ney of self-​improvement?

When we know ourselves best, in a place where our minds are calm and free of clut­ter, we can do and be the kind of people we know we can be because the answers we seek we already know.

Change hap­pens and holds firm in this place, and becomes part of us.

The jour­ney of self-​improvement is then a jour­ney, some­thing that we take interest in what we will exper­i­ence rather than what we must endure.

Please join me and mil­lions for the next few weeks in con­nect­ing with our-​true-​selves.

Posted in Mental Health, Personal Growth, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Real love: Heart healthy behaviour

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Happy Valentines’ Day! Yes, this “hol­i­day” is very com­mer­cial, but per­haps we can think about it as a day other than one to stuff ourselves with candy and chocol­ate, or whether we have a “date” to cel­eb­rate with (which in truth, is irrel­ev­ant). Valentines’ Day should be a day of love, love of all kinds, and atten­tion to keep­ing our phys­ical hearts and emo­tional hearts clean and clear.

5 Heart Healthy Nutrients for our Physical Heart

  1. Omega-3’s: My favour­ite source is fish oils, but algae-​based oil (my vegan friends) is also from the sea and both types sup­ply enough good essen­tial fats that reduce car­di­ovas­cu­lar incid­ents (heart attacks) whenever they are included in the diet in ample supply.
  2. Magnesium: When used after car­di­ovas­cu­lar epis­odes (heart attacks), mag­nesium sig­ni­fic­antly pre­vents a sec­ond­ary attack by allow­ing the heart to pump more effi­ciently and with improved rhythm.
  3. CoQ10: Also known as ubi­quinol, CoQ10 provides energy to cells, and for muscle cells spe­cific­ally (of which the heart is a large muscle), CoQ10 improves con­tractil­ity and takes pres­sure off weakened heart tis­sues. It is an import­ant part of cho­les­terol syn­thesis (yes, we still need cholesterol).
  4. Plant ster­ols: Good cho­les­ter­ols from plants help our body to syn­thes­ize good cho­les­terol and add to the total good cho­les­terol (HDL or Happy Cholesterol as I nick­name this for my patients) in our body. When we have bet­ter qual­ity cho­les­terol, then we have reduced inflam­ma­tion and more supple arter­ies, mean­ing less pres­sure on the heart to pump overall.
  5. Amino acid sup­port: Taurine and L-​arginine are two amino acids that have the capa­city to reduce blood pres­sure when used appro­pri­ately and admin­istered by your natur­o­pathic doctor.

Of course, in addi­tion to the 5 points above, exer­cising 3 – 4 times weekly at a mod­er­ate pace, eat­ing a clean diet, and being adequately hydrated are all very import­ant to heart health. Those go without saying!

5 Healthy Heart Habits for your Emotional Heart

  1. Express your love. If you love your friends and fam­ily, tell them or show them as much as you can. Giving love will get it back to you, and think of how warm you phys­ic­ally when you express positivity?
  2. Express “neg­at­ive” emo­tions appro­pri­ately. Repressing feel­ings con­sidered “bad” like anger is not healthy because it cre­ates stress in your body, but scream­ing at every­one you meet because you are hav­ing a bad day isn’t appro­pri­ate either. Learn to express your feel­ings in a way that hon­ours your needs but respects oth­ers. Get them out so you can move on.
  3. Develop lov­ing beha­viours. Find organ­iz­a­tions or char­it­ies that make you feel like lov­ing and giv­ing, the best parts of your­self, and get involved. Your efforts will cre­ate joy and love for oth­ers that money can­not buy.
  4. Forgive oth­ers, and for­give your­self. It doesn’t feel good when someone hurts your feel­ings, or when you hurt someone else unin­ten­tion­ally. Holding onto the emo­tions of anger or sad­ness are really only tak­ing away from you. Forgiveness provides a lot of peace to a weary, burdened heart. Don’t know how? Ask for help from a trus­ted mentor, good friend, or health professional.
  5. Love thy­self. You are imper­fect, and that’s okay. What you have to offer the world will be appre­ci­ated by many dif­fer­ent people, and that is pretty cool.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Nasty Norovirus

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Norovirus.
AKA the Norwalk virus.
AKA the bod­ily flu­ids virus.
AKA you-​are-​not-​going-​to-​work-​or-​meeting-​anyone-​for-​dinner virus

Norovirus, com­ple­ments of the Guardian

Continue read­ing →

Posted in Infections, Viral infections | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

10 Easy Ways to Start the New Year with a Clear Conscience

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Dr Aoife

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you have had a rest­ful (some­what) and peace­ful (as much as pos­sible) hol­i­day break, because it is a new year and fresh start if you want it to be. Or do you? January is the dreaded month of dis­cip­line for some…

Why do we have a hate-​on for January?

  1. It’s cold and dark
  2. We have to go back to work or our nor­mal, less-​exciting routine
  3. We can­not jus­tify our slov­enly beha­viour of over­in­dul­gence in sugar, chocol­ate, bak­ing com­bined with little phys­ical activity
  4. We are forced to acknow­ledge we have had a role in #3
  5. We are unable to talk ourselves out of #3 and #4 because every­one else is on a diet, exer­cising, or com­plain­ing about not want­ing to do either
  6. The all-​or-​nothing beha­viour that our spe­cies has been doing for cen­tur­ies is ulti­mately exhaust­ing to repeat and think about

Wouldn’t it be nice to go into January with a renewed sense of self that has been bal­anced and good dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son without the frenzy of hav­ing to restart?

It would. It might also be a pipe dream.

10 Easy Ways to Start Your New Year with a Clearer Conscience

  1. Drink water.
  2. Eliminate white sugar for a few days.
  3. Have one caf­fein­ated drink a day, prefer­ably in the morning
  4. Bring your lunch a few times dur­ing the week.
  5. Introduce green veget­ables into at least 2 parts of your day.
  6. Make sure that pro­tein is a sig­ni­fic­ant por­tion of each meal, whether veget­able or meat source.
  7. Try to eat more lean meats like tur­key and chicken and or fish, pos­sibly from organic sources.
  8. Forget you know any­thing about baked goods, cook­ies, or ginger­bread men.
  9. Go to bed. Earlier than you have ever gone to bed before. You prob­ably need double that amount.
  10. Try to be com­pas­sion­ate to every­one around you. How do you feel without cook­ies in your life?
  11. (Bonus) Remind your­self that if you mess up 1 – 9 you will do this all again next year.
Posted in Health Moderation, Naturopathic Medicine, Personal Growth | 1 Comment

Truly enjoying the holidays: Social stress tips to a ‘saner’ you

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Dr Aoife

Only 7 days left every­one until the “big day”, and for many people, the hol­i­days are more stress­ful than enjoy­able. It’s not just the fin­an­cial pres­sure, but social inter­ac­tions can be at the best of times a strain. Having a busy sched­ule on top of it can make the hol­i­days feel like more of a drag and we end up miss­ing the point of hav­ing a hol­i­day. Continue read­ing →

Posted in Body-Mind Medicine, Mental Health, Stress Management | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Soothe your sore throat with herbs

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Dr Aoife

At this time of year with all of us trapped indoors in recir­cu­lated air, get­ting sick is likely. When I have a sore throat, what kind of things do I turn to as an ND for myself and my patients?

Slippery elm soothes sore throats

Continue read­ing →

Posted in Cold and Flu, Sore throats | Tagged | Leave a comment

Health moderation: Conferred immunity with fermented foods

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Dr Aoife

Tonica, a Canadian brand of Kombucha star­ted in Toronto

In the winter sea­son, I see a lot of people in my office either with a cold or flu try­ing to get rid of their ill­ness or ask­ing for the proper guid­ance for vitamins/​herbs/​foods that will pre­vent colds and flu. Today’s dis­cus­sion will focus on the pre­ven­tion aspects, as there are some easy but very import­ant things you can do involving food to improve your immune system.

I’m sure most of you know about pro­bi­ot­ics, and the import­ance of good bac­teria in our health. For those of you who don’t know, there are little bugs (bac­teria) that live hap­pily in our digest­ive tracts. They make vit­am­ins, they improve the move­ment of the bowel, but more import­antly have a role in how are body responds to the many invad­ing vir­uses, bac­teria, para­sites, fungi…and the list goes on…on a daily basis. When we have a good strong pop­u­la­tion of our own bac­teria, we absorb nutri­ents more read­ily, make our own vit­am­ins, avoid colds and flu, and our diges­tion moves along the way it should. Irritable bowel, food aller­gies, Crohn’s and colitis all improve in the face of good bac­teria. Continue read­ing →

Posted in Fermented food, Gastrointestinal, Immune System | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Working towards your 20% with eczema (atopic dermatitis)

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Dr Aoife

November is National Eczema Month! Anyone else noticed their skin is get­ting a little drier every day?

The skin is a pretty import­ant organ, and espe­cially when you feel restric­ted by it when it is not healthy. As an indi­vidual who has sens­it­ive skin, I actu­ally do under­stand the frus­tra­tion of try­ing to get bet­ter but noth­ing works (or appears to work). Continue read­ing →

Posted in Atopic Dermatitis, Eczema, Skin | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Handling stress when things don’t go according to plan — Deepak Chopra– draoife.com

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Dr Aoife

Hello to all! I have been absent in my blog­ging as of late, but some­times what is ger­min­at­ing is more import­ant than a lot of idle chat­ter :) The health mod­er­a­tion series will be con­tinu­ing this week, but there are some inter­est­ing things I felt you all must read in the meantime.

The Chopra Center is con­duct­ing another 21-​day med­it­a­tion chal­lenge, and as some of you read that I enjoyed my pre­vi­ous exper­i­ence so much I have signed up again. This one is entitled Abundance, or how to attract more abund­ance into our lives in whatever way we see fit. My exper­i­ence this time is equally as valu­able as the last time, but I’ll share that when I’m fin­ished. Continue read­ing →

Posted in Body-Mind Medicine, Mental Health, Personal Growth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What to expect with miscarriage: Infant and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Day

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Dr Aoife

I am priv­ileged to work with many indi­vidu­als, through­out their lives on many dif­fer­ent paths. Grief and loss is an intrinsic part of my work, as every day through­out our lives we exper­i­ence loss that is a part of liv­ing. Acknowledging life and those who have past is an essen­tial part of many cul­tures, and in the North American tra­di­tions in mer­ging many cul­tures it would seem we are adept at this, how­ever in prac­tice we are slightly more reluct­ant to dis­cuss grief and death. It is an import­ant part of liv­ing to recog­nize losses and to incor­por­ate them into our daily lives, and to move for­ward and grow from these exper­i­ences. Continue read­ing →

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Health moderation: Coffee consumption conundrum

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Dr Aoife

As prom­ised, health mod­er­a­tion series is off to a start, filled with sar­casm and just enough research and data to appease even the most crit­ical of indi­vidu­als and hope­fully less para­noia sprinkled in. Coffee is the topic of this con­ver­sa­tion, and con­sid­er­ing so many con­ver­sa­tions, rela­tion­ships and life events revolve around cof­fee dates and meet­ings, it just makes sense to start with it first. Continue read­ing →

Posted in Health Moderation, Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments