NATUROPATHIC INSPIRATIONS

NATUROPATHIC INSPIRATIONS Ingrid Pincott N.D.

Seven Steps TO TAKE CARE OF Your Heart

Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in Canada for both men and women. I hope to inspire you to make baby steps of change towards a healthier heart. You have heard over and over again, “exercise, don’t smoke and eat a good diet.” Here are some fresh ideas for you.

Exercise can be as simple as starting with what I call a “block walk”. Use an app to help monitor your steps and calories if that works for you. 30 minutes of brisk walking 3 times per week gives 25% risk reduction, 20- 30 minutes of light resistance weight training 3 times per week gives 46% reduction! Sportsplex and Strathcona Gardens offer great classes. The aim is 150 minutes per week.

Stopping smoking is easier said than done so don’t let it stop you from making the other changes I am suggesting. Consider acupuncture along with Stop Smoking supplements from Healthyway Natural Foods Market.

What is a healthy diet? It is a diet with higher protein, lower carbohydrates and low sugar. It is the same diet I recommend for prevention of diabetes: 5 cups of vegetables, 1 cup of carbs in the form of beans and legumes rather than rice, potatoes and breads; 2 cups of protein that are from lean meats, free range eggs and poultry, wild fish, nuts and seeds. Avoid all soda drinks except carbonated water with nothing added. Avoid all artificial sweeteners as they increase craving for sweets and don’t help with weight loss. Eating fresh fruit is much better than drinking their juices. Avoid any foods with a long list of unidentifiable ingredients!

Getting enough sleep is critical for lowering stress hormones in the body as well as detoxifying the body and brain. We need 8-10 hours per night so adopt a healthy sleep hygiene leaving the electronics alone for 1-2 hours before bed. Yoga and meditation are other ways to lower stress hormones and help with sleep.

Know your numbers. 80% of heart disease is preventable! Ask for the following: HgA1c; Homocysteine over 10; Blood pressure over 140/90; Lpa; PLa2; MPO; CRP and triglycerides. My favorite: the PULS test offered by Lifelabs measures inflammatory markers ie IL6, MCP-3, Ecotaxin and CTACK. The PULS test identifies modifiable risks BEFORE a cardiac event.

Cardiovascular supplements lower inflammation in the cardiovascular system: 2 tbsp olive oil, vitamin D, B vitamins, K2, garlic, curcumin, ginger, magnesium, cinnamon, 3000mg EPA and DHA fish oils, selenium, resveratrol and berberine.

Electromagnetic stress is hard on the electrical pathways of the heart so turning off the WIFI router at night and taking extra magnesium and selenium may help to regulate heart rhythm.

Your naturopathic physician can help you develop a personalized treatment program to help you avoid drugs and surgery and help prevent heart disease.

Joseph McLean

The great snowfall of 2020 was underway, and the city was sinking under a fluffy white blanket of doom. Between the piles of slush and silt, the kids and I strode bravely towards the forest, hand in hand, mitten in mitten.

As their guide and adventure leader, I was the first to notice when we stopped making progress. We had become stuck at a small hill, climbing to the top only to skid back down again. By unspoken agreement, the children had decided to make this a ski run, leaping & sliding on their heels all the way to the bottom, dragging their wide eyed father behind like an awkward parachute.

After a few breathtaking rounds of this, I realized that something had to be done. Squinting through darkening skies, I saw on the horizon a store known for selling winter gear. We discussed our options, recalibrated our adventure. And went in.

At the back of the store, past seasonal decorations and a strange array of plastic penguins, was the place they sold sleds. It was a lonely place, shelves mostly empty, for the great snowfall of 2020 had not gone unnoticed. But from the slim pickings we found two unlikely heroes: a 24” foam disc decorated with eager puppies, and a strange contraption simply called Snowbob.

“It’s okay to change our adventure, isn’t it,” Ryan mused. “I really like to hike in the forest, but it snows so rarely. And sometimes it’s nice to just go crazy down a hill.”

Down to the park we hurried with our plastic steeds, down to the crazy hill with the long runout. Snow was falling quickly now, a storm that would break records for the town. The sun had set, the streets were empty except for the occasional scraping dash of the snowplows. It was perfect.

At first the sledding was hard. The children, swaddled in 50 layers and looking like large woollen dryer balls, were unfamiliar with the physics involved. One does not step onto a primed sled, unless one wishes to descend the hill upside down and backwards. The wipeouts were colossal, the laughter was infinite. And eventually from the chaos, as the whole coast hunkered down for the snowstorm of the decade, two genius sledders were born.

We drank our thermoses dry, laid down brave new lines, dumped litres of snow out of our boots. Kevin surprised us all by tying together two runs and dropping like a plush cannonball into the dark, whooping all the way. When the teenagers arrived with their crazy carpets, Ryan was quick to point out where the hazards and jumps were. And when the teenagers got bored and wandered off, my kids were still there, still there until bedtime, blazing up and down that hill like it was their own Olympics, their voices high and sweet and proud, glittering and shining through the snow.

Joseph McLean lives in Powell River, spending his days with two young kids, a laid-back cat, and a fantastic wife named Katie. He has repaired a lot of computers; seen a number of mountain tops. Facebook.com/GrowingUpCoastal Photo © Joseph McLean

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