,

Acupuncture Provides True Pain Relief in Study

acupuncture victoria bcA new study of acupuncture — the most rigorous and detailed analysis of the treatment to date — found that it can ease migraines and arthritis and other forms of chronic pain.

The findings provide strong scientific support for an age-old therapy used by an estimated three million Americans each year. Though acupuncture has been studied for decades, the body of medical research on it has been mixed and mired to some extent by small and poor-quality studies. Financed by the National Institutes of Health and carried out over about half a decade, the new research was a detailed analysis of earlier research that involved data on nearly 18,000 patients.

The researchers, who published their results in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that acupuncture outperformed sham treatments and standard care when used by people suffering from osteoarthritis, migraines and chronic back, neck and shoulder pain.

“This has been a controversial subject for a long time,” said Dr. Andrew J. Vickers, attending research methodologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the lead author of the study. “But when you try to answer the question the right way, as we did, you get very clear answers.

“We think there’s firm evidence supporting acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain.”

Acupuncture, which involves inserting needles at various places on the body to stimulate so-called acupoints, is among the most widely practiced forms of alternative medicine in the country and is offered by many hospitals. Most commonly the treatment is sought by adults looking for relief from chronic pain, though it is also used with growing frequency in children. According to government estimates, about 150,000 children in the United States underwent acupuncture in 2007.

But for all its popularity, questions about its efficacy have long been commonplace. Are those who swear by it experiencing true relief or the psychological balm of the placebo effect?

Dr. Vickers and a team of scientists from around the world — England, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere — sought an answer by pooling years of data. Rather than averaging the results or conclusions from years of previous studies, a common but less rigorous form of meta-analysis, Dr. Vickers and his colleagues first selected 29 randomized studies of acupuncture that they determined to be of high quality. Then they contacted the authors to obtain their raw data, which they scrutinized and pooled for further analysis. This helped them correct for statistical and methodological problems with the previous studies, allowing them to reach more precise and reliable conclusions about whether acupuncture actually works.

All told, the painstaking process took the team about six years. “Replicating pretty much every single number reported in dozens of papers is no quick or easy task,” Dr. Vickers said.

The meta-analysis included studies that compared acupuncture with usual care, like over-the-counter pain relievers and other standard medicines. It also included studies that used sham acupuncture treatments, in which needles were inserted only superficially, for example, or in which patients in control groups were treated with needles that covertly retracted into handles.

Ultimately, Dr. Vickers and his colleagues found that at the end of treatment, about half of the patients treated with true acupuncture reported improvements, compared with about 30 percent of patients who did not undergo it.

“There were 30 or 40 people from all over the world involved in this research, and as a whole the sense was that this was a clinically important effect size,” Dr. Vickers said. That is especially the case, he added, given that acupuncture “is relatively noninvasive and relatively safe.”

Dr. Vickers said the results of the study suggest that people undergoing the treatment are getting more than just a psychological boost. “They’re not just getting some placebo effect,” he said. “It’s not some sort of strange healing ritual.”

The NewYork Times | Health & Science                                                                                                                                                              By Anahad O’Connor

/0 Comments/by

Is your desk slowly killing you? (Infographic)

It’s no secret that the nature of work has changed over the past fifty years. Most of us no longer rely on brawn to bring home the bacon, but instead rely on brains to navigate the knowledge economy.

But could this change in work habits slowly be killing us?

Click through the infographic below to find out more.

The team at Diversified Health Clinic has collected a few statistics that demonstrate what many of us have started noticing more and more: not only we getting fatter as a result of work, our our sedentary desk jobs are starting to take a sinister toll on our health. Never to fear – there are some solutions, from simply eating less and exercising more, to changing the way you work.

Have an idea on how to fight off your deathly desk? Let us know!

Many doctors in Victoria BC promote regular exercise and a change in diet as a treatment for metabolic syndrome.

/0 Comments/by
,

What is Dry Needling or IMS physiotherapy?

Dry Needling or IMS | physiotherapy victoria bcTrigger point dry needling, also referred to as intramuscular stimulation (IMS) and/or intramuscular therapy (IMT) is an invasive procedure in which an acupuncture needle is inserted into the skin and muscle. 

It’s actually considered part of physiotherapy, and is not acupuncture.

IMT treatments at Diversified. Read more about here.

What is Trigger Point Dry Needling?

Trigger point dry needling is physical intervention that uses dry needles to stimulate trigger points, diagnose and treat neuromuscular pain and functional movement deficits. 1

As the name implies, dry needling is primarily directed at myofascial trigger points, which are defined as “hyperirritable spots in skeletal muscle that are associated with a hypersensitive palpable point in a taut band”.2

Physical therapists around the world practice trigger point dry needling as part of their clinical practice and use the technique in combination with other physical therapy interventions.  A high degree of kinaesthetic perception allows a physical therapist to use the needle as a palpation tool and appreciate differences in the density of those tissues pierced by the needle.3

Although some people refer to trigger point dry needling as a form of acupuncture, it did not originate as part of the practice of traditional Chinese acupuncture. The difference being that there are distinct anatomical locations of myofascial trigger points within muscle tissue, whereas acupuncture points have point specificity on the body.

There is substantial medical literature on IMS and dry needling that has been subjected to peer review. Trigger point dry needling has been used following a variety of different schools and conceptual models.  According to these models, when the flow of nerve impulses is restricted to an area of the body, all innervated structures, including muscle, spinal nerves, sympathetic ganglia, adrenal glands, sweat cells, and brain cells become atrophic, irritable, and supersensitive.4,5

Many common diagnoses, such as achilles tendonitis, lateral epicondylitis, frozen shoulder, chrondromalacia patellae, headaches, plantar fasciitis, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, myofascial pain syndrome (MPS), and others, might in fact be the result of neuropathy, and associated myofascial trigger points.4

Intramuscular therapy has been very successful for patients with chronic low back pain and sciatica symptoms. Shortening of the paraspinal muscles, particularly the multifidi muscles, can lead to disc compression, narrowing of the intervertebral foramina, and/or cause direct pressure on the nerve root, which subsequently would result in peripheral neuropathy and compression of super sensitive pain receptors, resulting in pain and dysfunction. 4,5

In layman’s terms, the treatment uses acupuncture needles, to target specific muscles that have contracted and become shortened. These shortened muscles compress and irritate the nerves. This treatment can greatly reduce tightness and pain, while increasing flexibility and range of motion.

The treatment involves dry needling of affected areas of the body without injecting any substance. The needle sites can be targeted at the site of taut, painful muscle bands, and/or can be near the spine where the nerve root may have become irritated and super-sensitive.

An important note is needling  of a normal muscle is painless. In contrast a shortened, muscle will ‘grasp’ the needle and produces a  cramping sensation. Intramuscular dry needling can reduce pain and soften these trigger points, while increasing flexibility and range of motion.

  1. 1.Dommerholt J, Mayoral del Moral O, Grobly C.  Trigger point dry needling. The Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy 2006; 14(4): E70-87.
  2. Simons DG, Travell JG, Simons LS. Travell and Simons’ Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual. Vol 1. 2nd ed. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
  3. Mayoral del Moral O. Fisioterapia invasiva del sindrome de dolor myofascial [Spanish; Invasive physical therapy for myofascial pain syndrome]. Fisioterapia 2005;27(2):69-75.
  4. Gunn CC. Radiculopathic pain: Diagnosis, treatment of segmental irritation or sensitization. J Musculoskeletal Pain 1997;5(4):119-134.
  5. 5.  Cannon WB, Rosenblueth A. The Supersensitivity of Denervated Structures: A Law of Denervation. New York, NY: MacMillan, 1949.

 

/0 Comments/by

A Playful Discussion of the Concept of Fluid Lifestyle and Ignite Retreat

I began ‘working out’ when I was 16.  I’m 41 now.  Yup, that’s right.  I used to wear the electric blue full body spandex suit and jump up and down for an hour almost every day at aerobics classes.  My instructor had similar tights but her outfit was topped by the spandex g-string body suit over the tights… Those were the days!!

 I must admit at that fresh age, I was exercising for ‘the pursuit of the perfect body’, with little awareness of the manifold benefits of physical activity.  It was not long into my exercise routine though that I became addicted to the shift in energy (many a bad mood turned happy), the reduction of stress, the confidence in my body from increased strength and balance, and the sense of accomplishment that exercise afforded.  It has taken me years, however, to really understand that the pivotal key to exercise is its ability to bring us into the moment and to make us stay present.

When I am doing squat leaps, running stairs, or sitting in the chair of utkatasana in yoga for thigh quivering minutes, I am not thinking about anything but what is in that exact moment… breathing, focusing, and maintaining alignment (OK and maybe trying to not fling sweat at my neighbors).  All the busy rush of my mind is forced out.  It does not matter.  Presence and breath are the ultimate gifts of movement.

Likewise any act of creativity can slow the mind to the simplest task at hand.  I used to endeavor to make crafts as Christmas gifts for years while I was in university (as a means to save money, but also as a statement against mass holiday consumption).  I am not sure how the recipients of the gifts felt about them – but I loved the process!!  Choosing a project, sitting there for hours cutting, pasting, ripping, weaving, painting.  I would often forget to blink…  Again all else melts away and alignment with the moment unfolds.

I have created Fluid and Ignite Retreat as an opportunity to explore the magical energy of inspiration and joy that arise from just such delicious expansive moments of breathing, creating, moving, tasting, playing.

We each have our own paths but I believe that our purpose is to expand our consciousness while here on this planet.  Why not start by making choices that honour our bodies and create the possibilities for this expansiveness of body, heart and soul?

Ignite Retreat

Fluid Lifestyle Presents:

Ignite Retreat… Spark the Fire of Creativity and Movement.  Autumn Equinox, September 20-23, 2012

Unleash your energy, activate your inspiration, learn, stretch and dance into joy. Experience the peaceful setting and deep beauty of Stowel Lake Farm, an organic farm and wellness centre on the south end of sun drenched Saltspring Island.  Ignite your inner fire with creativity and movement. Find balance and soak up the abundance of the harvest season.

 Connect with your breath, still your mind and indulge your body in a daily series of sensual, flowing yoga classes with Maria Filippione. Get your body moving and feel the rhythm of the Groove Method with Sarah Smith. Learn the practice of using hot beeswax, colour and encaustic techniques to create your own work of art with artist Maria Middleton. Feast your senses with a field to table cooking class with Stowel Lake Farm’s Haidee Hart. Divine your personal vision, deepen goals, and tap into the energy of your creative voice in a writing workshop with Danielle Janess. (No experience is necessary  to join in any of these options.)

Cory Judge has been passionate about personal health and fitness for years. She holds a degree in Environmental Studies and Geography from UVIC, but found her path led outside the mainstream and into the entrepreneurial world of artisan design.

For more information or to register go to Fluid

E: info@fluidlifestyle.ca

P: 250-886-5551

/1 Comment/by

Diary of a Want-To-Be Marathoner!

Diary of a Want-To-Be Marathoner! So, it’s been about 7 weeks since I began training with the Frontrunners marathon clinic for my first full marathon this October. I am still smiling. Still loving every minute. Still saying ‘Bring it on!’

I ran in the heat while I was in Winnipeg for a week, that was exhausting! 28C at 8:30 a.m. is just too much; actually, it felt more than a little foolish (read: stupid) to be running any real distance in that heat. Boy was I glad to run on the one morning of rain (used that for my long run), and even more glad to get back to more moderate temps in Victoria. And, even in my brush with celebrity (I sat next to a few guys from Canadian rock band Trooper on the flight home), we talked running – awesome!

Currently we are up to 2 1/4 hours of running at a time on our long runs, and are increasing the intensity of the workouts on our Wednesday evening meetups at the store. It’s still hard to find the energy for an intense run at the end of a work day, but totally worth it. And I feel like I am actually running LESS on the clinic’s set schedule. But likely running smarter. Last Saturday we ran 2 hours, and Silvia, our run leader, told me that I should run even slower. Guh. I may never finish the marathon at this pace.

We have been through all the different workouts on Wednesdays, and I was very surprised to find that I *really like* the hill training, and *love* the tempo runs. It is a new challenge to introduce these things into my other, shorter runs, and I know that it will make me stronger. And I can keep doing them, even when I’m not ‘training for a marathon’. Oh, and my running group has decided that we are going to do a half marathon race in place of one of our regular runs in September. Aaaaahahahahahahaha! That’s like saying ‘half marathon for fun’. I think I have crossed the line.

However…. True confession: I still haven’t signed up for the marathon. But before you give me that knowing smirk, it’s not about ‘if’, just about which start time. I’m a bit afraid that I will go out too hard if I start with the masses, and then not be able to finish; starting early on the other hand (the other option, for walkers and slow runners) means getting up even earlier to start in the dark but it will definitely be cooler and there will be waaaay less people to contend with. But for the early start you have to estimate a 5h30+ race time… I don’t know if I can even entertain the thought of running that long. Ultimate goal: to finish the race, period. Oh, and have fun doing it!

Carol works for a local coffee roaster and compensates for her excess caffeine (and love of bacon) by running as far and as fast as she can in her free time, when she’s not singing in a choir or knitting a sweater.

Running Clinic by Victoria Frontrunners

/0 Comments/by

Is Your Poo Healthy?

Is your poo healthy?Have you ever wondered how often you should poo, or if your poo was healthy?

Okay, after we get passed the awkwardness of this topic most of us would admit we are a little intrigued…

How often we use our bowels and what our poo looks like tells us a lot about our general health and well being.

Without realizing it many of us put ‘clag-like’ products into our bodies 3-5 times a day – such as white bread, multi-grain breads (grains and seeds simply added to the ‘glue’ in many multi-grain bread varieties doesn’t really help that much either) and other white flour products.

We race around and forget to eat fruit and vegetables, drink water or exercise, and then we may wonder why we have bloated tummies and only poo once every few days.

Unfortunately, if we don’t tune in to our bowel health and teach our children to do the same  -then over a period of time our whole body including our brain function will start to be affected.

WHAT MAKES POO HEALTHY?

So now that we’ve started to tackle this topic we need to really engage – you are going to have to look twice at your poo —YEP that’s right you will need to actually look at the shape and then the colour.

A HEALTHY POO:

  • Tells us when it is ready to come out
  • Slips out easily
  • Needs no coaxing
  • Is well formed (poo should look like a brown banana with a point at one end or take on an S shape)
  • Is well hydrated (poo that looks like little balls wadded together has been in the colon too long)

WHAT IS NOT A GOOD SIGN?

  • Having no urge
  • It hurts
  • It takes a long time
  • Is always very loose and fast
  • Looks like little balls or pieces
  • There’s blood or mucus

TIPS TO FOSTER BOWEL HEALTH

  1. If you are a parent it is important to make poo habits and digestive health part of natural family conversation. The easier it is to talk about poo the easier it is too correct poor habits.
  2. Two to three good bowel movements a day is considered optimal digestive health.
  3. Drink plenty of water – on average at least 30ml for every kilogram (or 1ounce for every pound).
  4. Cut out too much Coffee (dries out the bowel), Refined sugars (breeds bad bacteria), Antibiotics (avoid wherever possible as they strip away good bacteria) and Processed foods – you could just remember to cut out CRAP, but that would be cheeky!
  5. Eat stacks of fruit and vegetables, strive for 10-15 pieces a day. One ‘piece’ is considered roughly the size or length of your hand – such as one apple or one carrot.
  6. Remember to chew not just swallow food. Slow down be mindful of what you’re eating. Chewing food and then continued chewing of our food helps kick start the digestive process.
  7. Focus on eating foods that ‘look-like’ how nature intended them. Consume foods that look the same as they did when they were extracted from the ground or the garden. Remember there are no white bread plants!!
  8. Eat whole- grain products preferably kamut, spelt and quinoa and gluten free grains as they help flush fat and cholesterol out of your system. Don’t mistake whole-wheat products for whole-grain.
  9. Perform some form of sweaty exercise 5 days a week. When we are stagnant our bowels become stagnant.
  10. De-stress and slow life down. When we stress we typically are not moving with the flow of life. De-stress and let your life and bowels flow.
  11. Check your ‘bowel transit time’. When the digestive system is working well, bowel transit time ranges from 12 to 24 hours.

 To easily test transit time, simply eat a brightly coloured food such as beetroot (at least one or two whole beets), take a mental note of the time it is eaten, and then check each motion to see when a dark red poo emerges.

Alternative foods you could trial include corn and sesame seeds. Ironically, corn is a grain, not a vegetable, and is extremely hard for the body to digest and assimilate.

As corn passes through the digestive tract mostly undigested, it is a particularly useful food for this transit test.

7 REASONS WE MAY BECOME CONSTIPATED 

We can’t poo when:

  • We haven’t drunk enough water
  • We haven’t eaten enough fibre or bulk (fruits and vegetables)
  • Our spine is not aligned (vertebral subluxations affects nerve messages between the brain and bowel) Chiropractic assists the nervous system re-create body order
  • Our foods are not well combined (an imbalance in consistency or flavouring)
  • We haven’t exercised enough
  • We are emotionally tense
  • We keep ourselves too busy (we rush them from one activity to another

So while poo may be an awkward topic, it makes sense to check-in with our body and identify how our bowels are coping with our lifestyle stressors. If we have children then it is wise to make bowel health a very normal part of family discussion.

Clearly we are not just talking about bathroom habits – we are appreciating that a lack of health affects so many aspects of our lives. When our bowels work well they extract the vitamins and minerals we need to thrive and they remove the toxins we gather from modern living.

Good bowel health gives us energy and vitality and allows us to fight off infections and illness. Healthy bowels create healthy bodies.

When our body is working well then so too are our minds and we are then better able to integrate and connect with the world around us.

Written by
Dr Jennifer Barham-Floreani
B.App.Clin.Sci, B.Chiropractic   

Email: drjennifer@welladjusted.me

/0 Comments/by
, ,

Knee Pain

Knee pain is a common complaint that affects people of all ages. A few reasons one may be experiencing knee pain include: a sudden increase in one’s training or activity schedule, the commencement of a new sport or activity, a change in footwear, improper training technique, or muscle imbalances and/or alignment issues.

Understanding what is causing your knee pain is the first step in treating it, and there are many possible causes of mechanical knee pain which include:

patello-femoral syndrome, patellar fracture, bursitis, Ilio-tibial band friction syndrome, patellar or quadriceps tendinopathy, ligament injuries/sprains, Meniscal injuries/tears, Osteoarthritis, Osgood-Schlatter’s disease,  Loose Bodies, etc…

 Knee pain is one of the most common cycling injuries. The most common cause of knee pain in cyclists in ilio-tibial band (IT band) syndrome. The IT band is a thick band of fibrous tissue that runs down the outside of the upper leg from the hip area to the knee. Pain usually results when the IT band becomes too tight and therefore rubs over the bony prominences of the knee. The IT band has direct attachments to the tensor fascia latae (TFL) muscle, which runs down along the outer front of the thigh/hip area and acts to help flex and abduct the hip. This muscle, which is used consistently in cycling, often becomes shortened and/or tight, thereby increasing tension on the IT band and contributing to knee and/or hip pain.

 As injury can often be a problem of overuse, or misuse, it is important to avoid the temptation to do too much (especially if just starting out with a new sport/activity, or commencing a training season). To avoid misuse of muscles, and prevent injury, it is important to ensure appropriate training technique and equipment fit (ie: bike fit).  With cycling, it is important to add in a stretching program for your lower extremities to help maintain a healthy and appropriate muscle length while training.

 In order to determine the cause of one’s knee pain, a comprehensive examination of the knee is completed and the appropriate treatment plan is outlined.

Treatment for knee pain can include:

1)    Electrotherapy such as ultrasound to decrease swelling, pain, speed up cell turn over and thus enhance healing and recovery.

2)    Interferential current may be used to decrease swelling or joint effusion, decrease pain, and speed up recovery.

3)    Heat may be used to decrease pain and increase range of motion

4)    Ice may be used to decrease inflammation and pain

5)    Soft tissue work to improve circulation, break up adhesions, decrease muscle tightness or tension, decrease pain

6)    Joint mobilizations to increase range of motion, decrease stiffness, increase circulation, and decrease pain

7)    Passive stretching to increase muscle length

8)    Taping to improve muscle function or joint alignment and decrease pain

9)    Comprehensive exercise program to correct for muscle imbalances, increase flexibility, improve strength / stability / proprioception.

 Below are a few exercises to help prevent knee injuries:

  1. Glute med strengthening – use theraband or stretchy tubing tied around ankles. In standing with legs straight and core contracted, side step (with straight legs) to left against the resistance of the band around the ankles. Continue for a minimum of 15 steps or until fatigue and then return to the starting point by side stepping to the right as above.
  2. Double leg or single leg squat, either on a BOSU or on the ground with a stability ball against the wall (your back leaning against the stability ball).
  3. Hamstring, Hip flexor stretching, and IT band rolling on foam roller

Remember to follow the PRICE principle if you believe you’ve sustained an acute knee injury, until you’ve been assessed from your health care practitioner.

P – Protect: Avoid anything that could cause further harm/injury or increase pain

R – Rest: Discontinue any and all physical activity as much as possible

I – Ice: Apply ice, 15-20 min max, 3-4 times/day

C – Compression: Wrap the injured area with a tensor bandage etc applying pressure around the area (to help decrease swelling and inflammation)

E – Elevation: Sit or lie with the limb or injured area elevated

Written by Jessica McCartie M.P.T.

/3 Comments/by
,

Meet The Man Figuring Out What To Do With All That Plastic Waste

The recent winner of a prestigious environmental prize, Mike Biddle and MBA Polymers are changing what we think of as recyclables.

When the Gothenburg Prize called Mike Biddle and told him he’d won this year, he didn’t understand the message at first. “I couldn’t get the Swedish accent. I thought they wanted me to be a judge,” he says. “When they said, ‘Oh no, we want to give you the prize,’ I was literally speechless.”

The Gothenburg, which focuses on sustainable development, isn’t the Nobel, but it’s prestigious enough (Kofi Annan and Al Gore are previous recipients). Biddle is bashful about why he was chosen, but thinks it may be because he’s “stuck with something for 20 years,” and achieved something “quite difficult.”

If my coffee maker or vacuum cleaner dies, you can take it to Goodwill, and that’s about it. They throw the rest away.

“That’s why you don’t see hundreds of companies like us out there, sorting plastics. We figured out how to do it, and took it to a commercial reality. That’s not something you always see with new technologies.”

MBA Polymers, the company Biddle founded 20 years ago, goes after the recyclables others don’t want, or don’t know how to deal with: plastics from coffee makers and toasters, TVs and cell phones, fittings from cars and trucks, and so on. These materials are actually more valuable, and more plentiful, than steel, Biddle says. But they don’t get recycled in high volumes, because they’re more difficult to separate from the waste stream.

You can use a magnet to extract metals, or sort them by hand: They have different colors and tell-tale densities. But plastics are much less distinguishable. They have infinite different colors, share similar densities, and have no electrical or magnetic properties that make sorting easier. Hence, metals are recycled at an estimated 90% rate, while plastics have only a 5% to 10% rate. The rest ends up in landfills, burned in incinerators, or shipped to dangerous and inefficient sorting plants in the developing world.

MBA Polymers takes waste from “shredders” that have already separated out metals, then isolates up to 40 plastic types in a multi-stage process. It produces virgin plastic pellets that can be reused in the same way as traditional plastic, but with an 80% savings in energy, and a lower cost. Biddle calls this “above the ground mining,” and thinks there is a huge potential, if only we could see used plastic as a resource, instead of as a disposable good.

MBA has three plants so far–in China, Austria, and the U.K. But it’s still only scratching the surface of what gets thrown out every year. In fact, the overall problem of un-recycled plastic is getting worse. While many developed countries now collect standard recyclables such as PET Coke bottles and milk jugs, the rates for other plastic types are pathetic. Computer and electronics waste is the fastest growing part of the world’s waste stream.

If you can get the collection right, the economics take care of the rest.

Biddle says the problem isn’t necessarily technological. Plants like his, while costly upfront, are economical. The issue is having reliable incoming waste streams, which means better collection in the first place. “Single-stream recycling has gone a long way to solving the problem of household waste. But if my coffee maker or vacuum cleaner dies, you can take it to Goodwill, and that’s about it. They throw the rest away.”

“But if you can get the collection right, the economics take care of the rest. The problem in developed countries is the first mile from the home to the recycling plant.”

The issue in developing countries is different, Biddle says. There are thousands of “pickers” who already sort through the trash looking for materials they can sell to make some extra money. There is no lack of willingness to sort the waste, or manpower to do it. The problem is that the work is often unsafe, and the economic opportunity and environmental benefits aren’t maximized. “Pickers can play a vital role if we can figure out how to get them to collect stuff and bring it to processing centers like ours,” he says.

Biddle’s currently looking at ideas for coordinating informal pickers into organized teams, possibly working in some kind of public-private partnership. And he thinks he can improve incomes, and health and safety standards, as a result.

“[The pickers] don’t necessarily get treated fairly in my experience. We’re trying to get around that and give them another option, and provide a more environmentally safe way to market,” he says.

Written by Ben Schiller

Ben Schiller is a staff writer for Co.Exist, and also contributes to the FT, and Yale e360.

/0 Comments/by

Diary of a Want-To-Be Marathoner!

Diversified Health would like to welcome Carol Schwall as she blogs her way through the aches and pains, and her experiences as she trains for her first full marathon  in October, here in beautiful Victoria BC.

I’m a runner.

I love running, I never have to force myself to go for a run. Sometimes I will forget for a moment that I just went for a run, and feel ready for the next run already soon after. Running in the pelting rain is my favorite. I enjoy the solitary factor, with just Runkeeper and a playlist to keep me company. I say that I’m a runner, and yet, I still don’t feel like one. I guess it’s like people who have been overweight for a long time and then slim down a lot – they still identify as ‘fat’. Well, I still feel out of shape, even though I have shown myself that I can sustain bipedal forward motion for over 2 hours at a time. Go figure.

Diary of a Want-To-Be Marathoner! I’ve only been running for 21 months (that’s 1 3/4 years). Over the last year I ran 2 half marathons, a few 10k races and a handful of other, shorter races. It seems like the time has come for me to challenge myself to a full marathon. That’s right, 26 miles. 42.2 km in Canadian. Until now, sheer persistence and willpower have edged me past the 10k mark and into the 21.1 km races. No real training, just running a bit further each time. But I know that to be able to run 42.2 km sustainably, I will need real training. So on the spur of the moment I joined a 16-week running clinic. We meet to run twice a week – Wednesday after work and Saturday at 8:00 am – and there are 2 easy, short ‘homework’ runs. We will do hills, stairs, speedwork, and just plain distance running. See, that last one is the one I like best. No problem getting out there and just running. It’s the hard work that I balk at, so that’s why I’m training with a group led by experienced long distance runners.

This past Saturday we had our first small group long run. This time there were only 3 of us. We are the slowest marathon group in the clinic, but I don’t care. Our run leader, Silvia, has done several Ironman triathlons, and is a regular marathon and ultra trail runner. She goes on 5 hour trail runs for fun. She knows her stuff. As we ran for one hour, we chatted about pace and negative splits, about carrying water and what ‘recovery run’ means. We covered about 10 km, choosing our route as we went. We start these runs at 8 am, but I still think it may get too hot on the longer runs, as we inch closer toward the marathon in October.

This evening we did about 8 km, with 5 long sets of stairs smack dab in the middle. That’s the hard work part. But I didn’t whine, nope, I just trudged up and down with the rest of them. Mind you, I chose to do only 4 repetitions, because my lunch was long used up, and we still needed to run back. But I feel great, and certainly earned my dinner.

This is going to be fun! Heck, it already is! And the 42.2 km? I’ll get there in time.

Carol works for a local coffee roaster and compensates for her excess caffeine (and love of bacon) by running as far and as fast as she can in her free time, when she’s not singing in a choir or knitting a sweater. 

Running Clinic by Victoria Frontrunners

/0 Comments/by

Are You a Breakfast Person?

Are you a breakfast person?We have all heard for years that breakfast is the most important meal of the the day……here’s why.

It is from our brain that messages are sent to other parts of the body to get them moving and working well.  If our brain is not fed, it will act in a slow and sluggish manner, which will impact greatly on the rest of our body.

The brain requires glucose or blood sugar to provide it with energy to function, whilst the muscles of our body need glucose to activate them and get the body working physically.

If you deprive your body of food in the morning you may find that you feel tired, dizzy and irritable and that your concentration is poor. It may take you longer to carry out tasks or you just might not feel up to anything mentally strenuous let alone physical. You will probably find yourself snapping at people unintentionally, especially if under stress and you will no doubt soon start to feel pangs of hunger as the morning wears on.

If you don’t eat anything in the morning, you will most likely find yourself craving something sweet to eat, as your body cries out for a quick fix to boost energy levels. If you are at work and it is not yet time for lunch, this is one of the moments when you may find yourself reaching for something very unhealthy,  it is likely you will be so hungry that you grab twice as many unhealthy snacks to eat before lunch or even end up eating all of your packed lunch by 11.30 am.

After a good night’s sleep and with an empty stomach in the morning, it makes sense that the best way to start the day and to energize and revitalize your body, is with a filling, nutritious and healthy breakfast that will keep you satiated until the next meal.

Our body needs a healthy breakfast packed full of vitamins and nutrients whilst also providing energy and fuel for the brain.  The best types of foods to be eaten at breakfast are complex carbohydrates such as whole grains including oats, rye bread and millet together with a small amount of dried fruit and freshly squeezed juice.

These foods have a low GI (glycaemic index), which means that they release glucose steadily and slowly into the bloodstream, unlike the unhealthier breakfast choices mentioned earlier. Consequently, these foods will keep you fuller for longer, prevent unhealthy snacking, keep energy levels steady without dipping and provide you with essential vitamins and minerals that may be missed at other meals.

Many people like to consume some form of protein in the morning, as protein balances blood sugar levels and recent studies have also proven that concentration levels are enhanced if some form of protein in consumed during the breakfast meal.

Studies show that adults who eat breakfast in the morning perform better at work, have a healthier body weight and are more physically fit than those folks who skip breakfast, so get cooking!

Thanks to helpwithcooking.com

/0 Comments/by