Try these practical tips to help you shore up your immunity
and avoid cold-weather ailments.
More than 1,000 years ago, Hippocrates described the common
cold. Since then, doctors, nurses, herbalists, shamans, and
healers of every sort have been confounded by colds and flu.
Over the years, these ailment have been treated with
everything from cold baths and wet feet to chile peppers and
tobacco. At one time, fevers – common to flu – were thought
to be caused by an excess of blood and were treated with
leeches.

Read the rest of this entry »

October to April is flu season, when the influenza virus
causes infection in the airways. Every year, countless
otherwise healthy Canadian adults and children miss work and
school due to the flu. Often confused with a cold, the flu
causes headache, chills and dry cough, rapidly joined by
body aches and fever. Read the rest of this entry »

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

Child receiving an oral polio vaccine.

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (the
vaccine) to produce immunity to a disease. Vaccines can
prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by a
pathogen. Vaccination is generally considered to be the most
effective and cost-effective method of preventing infectious
diseases. The material administrated can either be live but
weakened forms of pathogens (bacteria or viruses), killed or
inactivated forms of these pathogens, or purified material
such as proteins. Smallpox was the first disease people
tried to prevent by purposely inoculating themselves with
other types of infections; smallpox inoculation was started
in China or India before 200 BC.[1] In 1718, Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu reported that the Turks had a habit of
deliberately inoculating themselves with fluid taken from
mild cases of smallpox, and that she had inoculated her own
children.[2] Before 1796 when British physician Edward
Jenner tested the possibility of using the cowpox vaccine as
an immunisation for smallpox in humans for the first time,
at least six people had done the same several years earlier:
a person whose identity is unknown, England, (about 1771); a
Mrs. Sevel, Germany (about 1772); a Mr. Jensen, Germany
(about 1770); Benjamin Jesty, England, in 1774; a Mrs.
Rendall, England (about 1782); and Peter Plett, Germany, in
1791.[3]
The word vaccination was first used by Edward Jenner in
1796. Louis Pasteur furthered the concept through his
pioneering work in microbiology. Vaccination (Latin:
vacca—cow) is so named because the first vaccine was
derived from a virus affecting cows—the relatively benign
cowpox virus—which provides a degree of immunity to
smallpox, a contagious and deadly disease. In common speech,
‘vaccination’ and ‘immunization’ generally have the same
colloquial meaning. This distinguishes it from inoculation
which uses unweakened live pathogens, although in common
usage either is used to refer to an immunization. The word
“vaccination” was originally used specifically to describe
the injection of smallpox vaccine.[1][3]
Vaccination efforts have been met with some controversy
since their inception, on ethical, political, medical
safety, religious, and other grounds. In rare cases,
vaccinations can injure people and they may receive
compensation for those injuries. Early success and
compulsion brought widespread acceptance, and mass
vaccination campaigns were undertaken which are credited
with greatly reducing the incidence of many diseases in
numerous geographic regions.

　
October to April is flu season, when the influenza virus
causes infection in the airways. Every year, countless
otherwise healthy Canadian adults and children miss work and
school due to the flu. Read the rest of this entry »

What you need to know this winter.
People with swine flu may experience body aches, chills,
cough, fatigue, fever, headache, loss of appetite, and sore
throat.
This cold and flu season you’re probably wondering most
about the H1N1 virus and the likelihood of either becoming
exposed to it, contracting it yourself or it spreading into
a pandemic which could potentially threaten your health as
well as those around you. Read the rest of this entry »

By the end of winter, our body is weak and more susceptible to infections, due to increased deficiencies and stress the negative effects the  cold season has on the human body;   our diets contain less fresh vegetables and fruits, our requirements for vitamins and nutrients increase because of the extra stress cold weather causes, our activity level drops….to the point that

By now, your body is SCREAMING FOR PROTECTION Read the rest of this entry »

Valentine’s Day is just a few days away, and there’s no easier way to say “I  LOVE YOU” than with a sweet chocolate surprise. Here is a decadent, guilt-free dessert for you and your sweetie to enjoy.

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries

Description

Toasted sesame seeds add extra crunch and a tasty surprise to this delicious dessert. Look for large strawberries with stems for the nicest presentation.

Makes 10 (2-piece) servings Read the rest of this entry »

When people in your close acquaintance are suffering with colds or other infections, Echinacea may be used as a prophylactic. Read the rest of this entry »

Be it because of decreased sun light exposure, less fresh air or increased work load, the end of winter is a tough time for “happy” Canadians…

Depression occurs in 10 to 25 percent of women, twice as much than in men and is known to affect approximately 2.6 million Canadians. Eighty percent of adults are also at risk of suffering from depression in their lifetime. In some case depression can become so severe that a person loses touch with reality and experiences hallucinations. But like other disorders it’s not something you “get over” by your own effort. It needs to be managed and controlled by combing a healthy lifestyle and treatments. http://www.askdoctoranca.com/self-tests/et

At this time of year it’s easy to feel sluggish, as if the energy is just draining from your body. The temptation is to reach for those stodgy comfort foods, to draw the couch closer to the TV and conserve as much energy as you can by doing as little as physically possible during the remaining  winter months.

If this is how you feel now, there’s a good chance that the person who emerges from hibernation at the end of the winter will be a bigger version than what now exists. Months of heavy food and inactivity will inevitably take its toll on your waist line.

However, during the winter months our bodies seem to crave stodgy food. There’s nothing more appealing than freshly baked muffins, filling the air with sweet cinnamon odors at this time of year…..yummm  

There are several reasons why our eating habits  can change when it’s cold and dark. Now, most people live in centrally heated houses but for our ancestors, the onset of the cold weather was a signal to start laying down an extra layer of fat. In this day and age it’s no longer applicable to take on extra calories to combat the cold. However, it is possible that we are still programmed in some way to do so. Read the rest of this entry »