Health Redesigned Blog

It's that time of year when the cold and flu bugs are flying all over. I'd like to think I'm pretty good with hand hygiene but that's only part of the picture. All you need to do is step into an elevator where someone recently sneezed and whamo- you're sick.

That's pretty much what happened to me. I woke up fine one morning and then in the hour before bed I started to feel run down. By the middle of the night I had knives stabbing my throat, joint aches and a stuffy nose. Nothing like a dramatic entrance. Thanks cold and flu season.

If you have a steady salaried position, getting sick is no big deal. Stay home for a few days, rest up and you'll be fine. Only as an entrepreneur that's not how it works. If I don't work, I don't get paid. There's no one else to pick up my slack. For every day that I miss work, that means I have one more day of things to catch up on. So what's a gal to do? While we can't entirely avoid getting sick (unless you want to live in a bubble) there's a few...

This week's blog post is a repost from Mercedes at Vida Health and Wellness. It's a great article that talks about how sexual function has many components to it. Mercedes is a physiotherapist in Calgary who specializes in women's health issues such as painful intercourse, embarrassing leaks, pelvic floor health for any stage of pregnancy, breastfeeding support and more. Be sure to check her out!

And now for the post....

The status quo

Many of the world’s academics will agree that physical and emotional intimacy are basic human needs. We are a social species and we seek relationships that fulfill these needs. Friendships make us happy and are integral to our social fabric, but many people also seek a different type of connection: a physical one. This drives us to find a partner, a mate, and ultimately a fellow parent. The enjoyment of a sexual relationship is human nature for a reason.

If this is the case, though, why were we (collectively) having 15% less...

I recently posted an answer on Quora to the question, “Is 5000 calories a day too much for a sedentary lifestyle?” I shared it on Facebook and then had a fabulous follow-up question about counting carbohydrate calories from an amazing lady. I thought the two were too good not to share because it’s such a poorly understood topic. As a society, we are really good at overestimating our calorie output and underestimating our intake. We struggle to determine the appropriate amount of calories we truly need to meet our needs. (Hint- it’s likely much lower than you think.) Studies even show that by having a lower calorie intake, you’ll likely be setting yourself up for better longevity. So, how many calories do you really need? Here’s what I shared:

In most cases, you’ll need less than 2000 calories per day to support a sedentary lifestyle. To figure out how many calories you truly need, you can start by calculating your resting metabolic...

Checking your blood pressure may be one of the most important things you do today. As a nurse who works on an acute stroke unit, I see the impact of prolonged high blood pressure or hypertension, firsthand. It’s not pretty. The saddest part is that the damage from uncontrolled blood pressure is very preventable. Hypertension Canada states that 50% of Canadians stop taking their blood pressure medication within the first year of therapy.  Unfortunately, high blood pressure often has no symptoms, so it’s difficult to know when you have it. It can slowly creep up over time and you have no idea it’s been there. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. So what can you do to prevent irreversible damage?

Identifying Hypertension

The most important part of treating hypertension is knowing that you have it. “I feel fine,” is NOT an ok assessment of how your blood pressure is doing. Ever hear of the frog in the boiling pot of water? He...

Managing diseases has become the staple of our health care systems. You get sick, you go to the doctor, they treat you, and you get better, right?

Disease management is so much more than that. Unfortunately, with our deteriorating health, our health care systems are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. Regardless of where you live, trends are showing that health care costs are continuing to skyrocket.

This increase in diseases could be from a number of different factors. We have increased longevity due to medical advancements, so by living an extra thirty to fifty years, we are more exposed to opportunities to become sick or injured. In addition to living longer, we’ve experienced a lot of changes over the past several hundred years. We are now exposed to more refined foods, chemicals, pesticides, excessive fats, sugars, salts, increased use of feedlots, and GMOs. To add to that, we have increased stress, less sleep, artificial light exposure, decreased activity, and...