Sarah is a Reiki Master and Bioenergy practitioner, and has been immersed in a journey of energy healing since she began her training in 2006. She spent 15 years living in Ireland, and it was there that she received her teachings and set up her first practice. In the summer of 2015 she returned to Canada, and joined the team at KIHC.
Fatigue Management Course Phillip Wendt OT
Kingston Integrated Healthcare Inc. is offering an energy management course designed for adults in the community with fatigue secondary to a chronic illness.
To benefit from this course, your fatigue must be severe enough to have a negative or inhibitory impact on your daily life and function. This six week program aims to:
• Decrease fatigue by teaching ways of managing and conserving energy.
• Teach the importance of rest and the proper use of technology, equipment, and body mechanics,
• Help you in designing schedules in order to balance lifestyle and re-integrate daily activities without over extending yourself.
The sessions will use lectures, discussions, and activity stations to teach this information. Homework activities will be assigned to customize learning to your specific situation. The program will involve one 2-hour session every week. Participants are expected to attend all sessions, participate in class discussions and activities, and complete all homework assignments.
Instructor: Phillip Wendt, OTReg.(Ont.)
Occupational Therapist
When: Mondays 2-4pm, June 8th to July 13th
Where: 541 Palace Rd, Kingston, ON
Cost: $300* for six weeks
*course cost may be covered under insurance plans or other payment providers. Please contact KIHC with questions.
by Carol Belanger, BA, RM, BHS
Many have seen the internet photos of the numbers of stacked sugar cubes representing the amount of sugar in various products we consume. I remember feeling horrified the first time I viewed this series of photos, even though I knew these products had a fair amount of sugar in them. For example:
Product Sugar Equivalent shows in cubes:
Small bottle coke (250ml) 16 ½
Ben and Jerry’s ice cream small tub 19 ½
Vitamin Water 7
1 cinnabun 14
Tall can Arizona ice tea 18
Small box raisins 7 ½
3 chocolate chip cookies 2 ¾
I asked my kids recently if they could eat a sugar cube. They answered yes. My husband explained that it had been a real treat to be given if not a whole then a partial cube of sugar to suck on. So in my efforts to impress upon my kids that they didn’t know how many sugar cubes they would have to eat to equal their treats, I explained that the bottle of coke that is a treat for them has 16 ½ cubes worth of sugar in it. Loosely in the bottle, the pile comes up almost to the bottle of the label! Their reply was, ‘So.’ Reflecting their complete lack of understanding of the problem.
They understood better when I told them that their liver helps with digestion. That it would convert sugar to glycogen and return it to the bloodstream a little at a time over the course of the day to keep their energy going through the day, signaled by the pancreas. But if they ate too much sugar or carbs at one time, the liver would convert it to fat instead and store it in the body. And that later it would take more of their energy to convert their fat stores to energy and they would likely feel more tired and want to just eat again. With so much emphasis on child obesity rates, plus peer pressure, there is quite a lot of awareness at the school level about being a healthy body size and structure. But energy levels are not understood by them.
So I then explained, that if they did some exercise – specifically yoga or qigong, they could Cultivate energy for themselves without food, or food conversion. This required more explanation.
Click here to read our entire online January e-newsletter on inflammation and pain.
Dr. Sonya Nobbe, ND
INFLAMMATION. We’re told that it causes anything from heart disease to arthritis to aging. Medical science has developed countless pharmaceutical and surgical interventions to suppress or circumvent its destructiveness, to alleviate pain and treat chronic disease. We even have drugs that affect how our DNA is involved in the generation of inflammation! But now science is starting to understand the long-term consequences of this approach, including the real possibility that our anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals are actually contributing to prolonged low-grade inflammation that makes us more ill. There are safer, more complete ways of addressing the inflammation that causes pain and disease.
Inflammation is a whole-body complex biochemical process initiated by the body’s immune system as a response to some form of “danger”, such as an injury or infection. It’s the red soreness of a scratch on our skin, the ache in our lower back, the stomach pain that follows a meal that didn’t agree with us. It’s the body’s warning that something isn’t right and so… we suppress it.
Click here to view our entire online January e-newsletter on inflammation and pain.
Dr. Sonya Nobbe, ND
Please see “Inflammation: What Exactly Is It, and How Does it Cause my Chronic Pain“.
1. Eat a clean, whole foods diet that includes some raw veggies daily. Many of these foods have natural anti-inflammatory properties as well as nutrients that support optimal organ and tissue function. Processed foods of any kind are linked with inflammation, chronic disease, and premature death. Food intolerances such as gluten or dairy are also linked to chronic disease and pain. Please speak with a Naturopathic Doctor or Holistic Nutritionist to optimize your diet for reduced inflammation.
2. Relax. This branch of the nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, has some real healing potential. Meditation, Qigong, and time in the quiet outdoors are repeatedly associated with decreased pain and inflammation. Many older philosophies suggest that consciously working with the pain, rather than against it, provides significant relief.
3. Breathe. Our bodies detoxify
