Our holistic nutritionist Trish Krause, invites you to join a FREE 5-day Sleep Better Challenge and get some information and tips on how to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep.
Starting on Sunday July 11th, Trish is going to go live on ZOOM for 30 minutes each day to talk all things sleep:
I’m so happy to be presenting again to the women at this weekend’s Bliss B4 Laundry retreat at Camp Kawartha! This year’s workshop: “Resolving Insomnia!” Here are some of the important resources I’ll be sharing with them this weekend:
You might be wondering whether your pharmaceuticals are interrupting your sleep, or whether a pharmacist can help you choose a safe over-the-counter drug to treat the occasional restless sleep. We asked Tarek, our Clinical Pharmacist, a few targeted questions about how he approaches insomnia with his clients.
Apparently, the world record for the longest time staying awake, achieved by a teenager in in the 1960s, is 11 consecutive days. Can you imagine how awful he must have felt? How irritable, illogical, and accident-prone, he must’ve been? Even chronic, small bits of sleep deprivation are associated with development and progression of chronic illness, and about twice the risk of a car accident. And yet,
Fatigue and low energy is one of the most common concerns that patients come to see me for. Sometimes the fatigue is a new symptom but for the majority of people, it is something they have been struggling with for years. In many cases it presents itself gradually, like a slow but steady decline. Now they find themselves with so little energy they can’t do the activities that they want and it is affecting their quality of life. There are many different root causes for low energy but one’s hormonal state is usually a major player. I want to briefly cover two hormonal issues that can lead to low energy.
According to the Canadian Sleep Society, up to 40% of Canadians have insomnia symptoms and up to 13% qualify as having a sleep disorder. Generally speaking, if you’re distressed by poor sleep at least 3 nights a week for a minimum of 3 months, and there is no obvious explanation for your sleep problem (such as a drug side-effect or crying infant), then you qualify as having insomnia disorder.
Sarah Knight, PhD, RM
How energy flows through the body is intrinsically linked to how we function during the day, and how we sleep at night. If you have ever lain in bed in the middle of the night, eyes wide open, mind and body alert, then you will have a clear understanding of this.
Life force energy, or “chi”, moves through our bodies in a 24 hour cycle. Just like a boat travelling down a river, there are specific times of the day where our chi is most active along certain energetic pathways (called “meridians”) in the body. For example, most people rise during stomach time, 7-9 am, when the stomach chi is most active. This is a good time to have your first meal, and signals to the rest of the body that you have arrived in to this new day.
Bio-identical hormones offer treatment options for menopausal symptoms such as insomnia and anxiety. They also play a role in men’s health, and fertility. Dr. Angela Hunt, Naturopathic Doctor at KIHC, is pleased to announce the addition of bio-identical hormone prescriptions to her practice. For more information, please attend her complimentary information session next month, or visit our facebook page. Call or email to reserve your spot – registration is required for this event.
Tuesday September 27th, 7:00pm
Free Admission
Workshop Space at KIHC
Dr. Sonya Nobbe, ND
People often ask me for a supplement or herb that preserves brain health and treats changes in brain function, such as decreased word recall or concentration. However, well before an effective supplement support can be chosen, the following basic principles must be addressed, as changes in brain function are commonly a consequence of the body compensating for some other disturbance.
1. Eat fresh, local, organic produce, when possible. Organic vegetables produce their own pesticide chemicals that protect our bodies from inflammation and damage. Some of these chemicals, generally called phytochemicals, are directly linked to optimal brain function and nerve protection.
2. Figure out why you’re so tired all the time! Many of the underlying mechanisms of chronic fatigue also cause poor brain function. For example, thyroid hormones are also brain hormones
