The Apple - February 2016 by Western HSSA

Issue 2 December

Happy Holidays Health Studies!

2014

The Apple The Holiday Issue

The Apple - February 2016 HSSA's online Newsletter We are proud to present the first issue of The Apple for the 2016 year! Included are upcoming events within the School of Health Studies, recap of past events from January, relevant news and events in the field of Health Sciences and a nutritious recipe for you to try out.

The purpose of this newsletter is to help keep the student body up to date and informed of what's happening within their faculty, any upcoming events and things to look out for. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, or perhaps a recipe you'd like to subimit or an article topic you'd like to suggest, feel free to email us at westernhssa@gmail.com!

WHAT IS YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTION? HOW ARE YOU STICKING WITH IT SO FAR? TARA: Graduate. KYLEEN: My resolution is to continue not give in to all of the chocolate cravings (only some) MIN: Working out more regularly, eating cleaner and finding a summer job. We'll see how that last one goes!

JENNA: Equal balance of school work as well as doing other fun activities

Check out our website:

www.twitter.com/WesternHSSA

www. westernHSSA.com

NINA: To do my readings on time

Like us on Facebook:

MARISKA: Didn't have one!

www.facebook.com/HSSA

ABBY: Didn't really have one for this year

Snapchat: uwohssa

JENNIFER: My resolution is not to buy food on campus. It's working out well but sometimes I have to randomly leave campus because I get too hungry

If you have any articles or recipes you would like to submit, please directly message us through our Facebook page! www.facebook.com/ WesternHSSA

JANUARY EVENT RECAP: Guest Speaker Series On January 19th HSSA had their 2nd annual speaker series! AndrĂŠ Picard, Globe and Mail's health columnist gave a presentation to students and faculty about the past, present and future of health care. The presentation was

followed by a Q & A session where students had the opportunity to get their questions answered. The Great Hall provided coffee, tea and cookies for everyone after the talk. The Bookstore also sold copies of AndrĂŠ Picard's

Midterm Season is upon us! Make sure that you know the dates your midterms are scheduled on! Tips for studying: - Make a study schedule and stick with it! - Take breaks when necessary - Feed yourself nutritious meals (use some of our recipes!)

most recent book "The Path to Health Care Reform" which were then signed by Mr. Picard himself! Overall the Speaker Series was a great success and thanks to everyone who joined us! See you next year!

Last year, we heard your pleas for study spaces! HSB will be open for the exam season from 6:00 am to 10:30 pm 7 days-a-week. Happy studying!

Valentines Day Food Fest Looking for something different to do this Valentine’s Day? Whether you’re sticking around in London or celebrating a few days early, are some great food places to try in downtown London!

Marky’s Crepe Cafe

By: Mariska Batohl

These crepes are to DIE for. I highly recommend trying at least three things on the menu. picture: marbatohi

Stobie’s Pizza The quality of pizza is amazing and the slices are huge. Check their twitter to find out if you’re eligible for a free slice!

Prince Albert’s This diner is great for late night greasy food, but their bestseller are the milkshakes. Be sure to try one on your next visit!

Sakata’s sushi If you love sushi and ramen this is the place for you. They offer a diverse menu so everyone can enjoy! picture: julesjlceats

William’s cafe This may seem like your average chain sandwich restaurant but don’t be fooled! The waffles here are fluffy and delicious.

The Church Key’s Bistro A great atmosphere for a relaxed dinner. Lots of pub styled food like butter chicken poutine.

The Bag Lady The breakfast here is mouth watering. Try to make a reservation, the place is super busy on weekends.

Kosmo’s The final place to try out on your Valentine’s day food fest is Kosmo’s. They are well known for their sandwiches and panini’s! picture: thehungryhoe

Mental Health By: Jennifer Helen Lee

Mental illnesses affect 1 in 5 Canadians, or about 20% of the population. But this is not the whole picture; out of all those affected, youth bear a disproportionate burden of mental illness in Canadian society. As a student, stresses are especially high, and this can exacerbate underlying mental illnesses. It is likely that each one of us knows someone who is currently battling a mental illness. A mental illness that you may come across is eating disorders. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Each disorder is characterized by different symptoms, however, the common ground between the disorders is a disturbance in eating patterns which result in a wide range of adverse physical, psychological, and social consequences. Thanks to public health awareness campaigns, the stigma and ignorance around eating disorders has been greatly reduced in comparison to a generation ago. It is fairly common for us and our peers to have a basic knowledge about these issues. But the average person is still in the dark about some crucial aspects of dealing with

eating disorders—namely, what do we do when someone close to us develops or is diagnosed with an eating disorder? This is especially relevant when living with a person with an eating disorder, be it a roommate, sibling, or a partner. How do you tell them that you suspect they have an eating disorder? Are there certain foods that trigger episodes? Could you solve the problem by simply cooking meals and forcing them to eat? Watching someone close to you destroy their health is no easy task, especially when to an outsider, the solution seems so simple. The key to helping someone through their eating disorder is realizing that eating disorders do not stem solely from a poor body image. Rather, the disordered eating patterns are a manifestation of feelings of anxiety, powerlessness, depression, and a lack of ability to cope with negative emotions. The hardest part is broaching the subject. Make sure the focus is on their health and feelings, not how they look. Avoid using “you” statements that place blame, such as “You just need to stop bingeing”. Instead, use “I” statements that focus on your feelings, such as “I’m concerned

about you because I’ve heard you throwing up multiple times after meals”. Express your concern, and encourage them to seek out appropriate treatment. They may still become defensive, or deny that they have a problem. That’s ok, each person’s recovery is different. They may not be ready to recognize that they have a problem. The important thing is to let them know of your concerns and that you will support them if they decide to seek treatment. The hardest part about supporting somebody with an eating disorder is realizing how limited your ability to help them is. You can’t “save” a person from an eating disorder the way you can save a person from drowning; forcibly dragging a person with an eating disorder to therapy will do nothing. The desire to get help must be genuine. The best that we can do, as bystanders to their struggles, is to let them know that we care about them and to encourage them to seek professional treatment. Let them know you will love them no matter what. It is surprising how powerful unconditional love is in helping a person heal.

Things You Can Do Now to Prevent Heart Disease LATER By: Abigail Dzur Did you know that 1.6 million Canadians are living with heart disease or the effects of stroke? Did you know that the actions you take now could greatly affect your health in the future? Did you know that the month of February is Heart Month? So what better time to take our heart health seriously and make a healthy change in our lifestyles! According to the Heart and Stoke Foundation up to 80% of premature heart disease and stroke is preventable by adopting healthy behaviours. If you are living an unhealthy lifestyle and are currently at risk for heart disease here are some tips to prevent heart disease and stroke! 1. Know your history and risks Heart disease can be genetically passed down for generations. Talk to your doctor about your family history and see what extra measures you should take to improve your heart health now.

2. Quit Smoking Did you know that if you quit smoking now it could add more than two years to your life and once you get to be middle-aged it can triple your chances of death by heart disease or stroke? It is proven that smoking greatly increases the risk of heart disease, lung disease, peripheral vascular disease, and stoke. 3. Reduce Stress Stress contributes to heart disease and if serious can cause heart attacks or even death. As students I know stress is something we all suffer from and try every exam season to overcome. It is easier said than done to reduce stress levels but with a positive attitude and a conscious effort made stress can be decreased. Through regular exercise, adequate sleep, striving for good relationships, laughing, volunteering or even just taking time to breath deeply can all contribute to stress reduction.

4. Exercise Surprise, surprise exercising regularly reduces risk of heart disease and stroke! Exercise has so many benefits for the body, it improves mood, increases ability to sleep well, increases energy levels and it reduces anxiety, depression and many other conditions and diseases. 5. Change your Diet Eat more vegetables and fruits, choose whole grains, and consume more nuts, legumes, and seeds. Increase your healthy fat intake (monounsaturated fats) and decrease the unhealthy kind (saturated and trans fats). With these simple changes your risk of heart disease and stroke can be greatly reduced! The earlier you make and maintain these changes the healthier you will be in all aspects of your life. Happy Heart Month!

Thoughts with Profs with: Dr. Ken Kirkwood By: Tara Chen Name: Ken Kirkwood Courses Taught: HS4610, HS2610 Hometown: Kingston, Ontario Previous schools studied in (and what degrees): Queen’s (BA Honours), Queen’s (MA), Western (Ph.D.) Years @ UWO: Since starting as a Ph.D. student – 17. As faculty member of SHS - 12 Email address: kkirkwo2@uwo.ca Favourite place on campus: U.C. Hill (I met my wife there) Interests/Hobbies: Being a “Prince” in my daughters’ imaginative games Fun fact: I claim the title of being Canada’s “Heaviest Half-Marathoner” having completed three in 2006-2007 while weighing 285 lbs. Why did you become a professor? Not too many other people get to touch the number of lives that we do. You come to university thinking you know everything, and you discover that you know ‘squat.’ The

person who can best guide you at that point is a professor. When I look out at first years, I see potential. It can turn out great, or a waste. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it go to waste. What’s the hardest part about being a professor? What’s the best part? In the last five years, it’s the mental state of the students. They come to me seriously ill, and have very little – if any – reserves to fight on. There is a cycle which produces and reproduces this problem at the University, but no one is doing enough to break that cycle. The best part is the moment when you are teaching when everyone is engaged. You can see everyone’s eyes, and you can tell that they are thinking with you. It’s the ‘zone’ of teaching. Do you have a favourite memory of a student that you taught or something that happened in one of your classes? I was teaching HS2610 on

Friday mornings at 8:30am one year, and I had a mature student from Iran in the class. At one point, she raises her hand and talks about the ethics of qualified healthcare workers who immigrated to Canada but can’t work. She was a midwife, but had to do additional schooling to qualify to practice in Ontario. She started getting madder and madder, and kept repeating the phrase “Dr. Kirkwood, can you tell me the difference between a Canadian vagina and a Persian vagina?” I don’t think the word “vagina” has been uttered in my class so many times in a row. And she was serious, she wanted me to answer! What do you say to that? Finally, I said “Of course, nothing.” And then she sat down, and we carried on. Tell us something that students don’t know about you Nobody from my Father’s side of the family ever went to university. A lot went to prison. I’m the first, and only, who stayed out of prison and went to university.

What was your favourite course when you were a student? Do you have a crazy story from your undergraduate years you’d like to share? Dr. Geoff Smith was a legendary history professor at Queen’s. He had been at Berkeley in the late 1960s, and liked to play the role of the “Merry Prankster.” He would do anything in class at any time. One time he read Alan Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” with all the lights turned off. The poem liberally uses the word “fuck,” and you didn’t hear that every day in class in the 1990s. Later, Dr. Smith was my MA advisor, and one day he was discussing revisions on my thesis, when he grabbed two putters and a golf ball, and we proceeded to play miniputt in the hallways of the History department. One of his colleagues stepped out of

her office and almost blocked my putt. Geoff yelled “Don’t interfere with a ball in play!” His colleague didn’t seem surprised, upset, or confused by any of it. “It’s just Geoff being Geoff,” she told me later. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen at Western University during your time here? Pressures on students, and their collectively diminishing mental health. We are headed for a crisis. Do you ever check Rate My Profs? I have checked out other Profs. I discovered once that a student gave a colleague of mine a chili pepper with the comment “I would love to see him washing his car with no shirt on and getting all soapy.” I’ve never let him forget that comment.

As for me, I have zero fu**s to give about my rating on R.M.P. If you could be a superhero, what would your super powers be? I think being a Jedi Knight would be decent. Any tips for students? University is a paradox. If you focus on grades, you will miss way too much learning to be of any use in your profession. If you don’t focus on grades, you will learn more and often do better on the evaluations.

The Grad Column: Emma Scotchmer By: Kyleen Wong

Name: Emma Scotchmer School: McMaster University at the Waterloo Campus Program: Medicine Favourite Health Sciences Course: Gerontology in Practice Hi Emma, thank you for interviewing with The Apple. I’m sure a lot of students are interested in learning from your experience as a student in the medical program at McMaster. I’d like to ask you what your aspirations were during your undergraduate career. Actually, I thought medicine was a slim chance so I prepared for a career in health policy and aging. My main goal was to find a way to advocate for older adults since they tend to be isolated from society especially if they have a chronic disability or dementia. I wanted to find a way to bring older adults and younger adults and children together again in daily interactions. I loved

kids and I loved older adults…so I tried to combine them. What did you do in your undergraduate years to prepare yourself for grad school? Honestly I actually focused on having a balanced life… which I know is weird for someone trying to get into medical school, but maybe it helped with the anxiety and stress of trying to get in. Having many school backup plans in case medicine didn’t work out was also a very important factor. It allowed me to realize that there were so many careers in health care and all of them have so much impact on human lives. I talked to professors, made lots of friends, had fun, joined one or two clubs that I actually cared about and played intramurals. Also…Health Studies at Western actually prepared me so well for the Multi-Mini Interview for medical school. We learn all about social determinants, health policy, ethics, law, sexuality, aging, childhood development, innovation and much more. Basically I

realized that our courses will actually prepare us for any career in health care since they all intersect. Were there any classes, extracurricular activities, or other experiences that shaped your current career path? Gerontology in Practice with Dr. Zecevic and Aging and Marginalized Populations with Dr. Savundranayagam were my two favourite classes and both were part of the pivotal moment in third year when I realized what I wanted to do. I also did research with Dr. Savundranayagam, who was an incredible mentor, which also shaped my interests and career path. Health care law and health innovation were also classes that made me realize all of the politics, laws and exciting opportunities for change that are in health care. I was the president of Right To Play Western, which is a club that focuses on sport and play for development. Working with the community, the university students and even connecting with Right To Play headquarters made me realize how important play and activity are in providing

purpose and confidence in younger people. This is also so important with older adults so I realized there was a parallel between the two passions of my life. I also volunteered in retirement homes and was a part of the Health Studies Students’ Association (is that what you still call it?). The main experience that shaped me was my two grandmothers with dementia though. Their interaction with society, medicine and the health care system was lacking and I wanted to change it. The one thing I would tell people is stick with one club that really interests you in first and second year and watch it grow and you might end up being the head of it one day. Don’t try and do everything. Test a few clubs or extracurriculars and then choose one that you are passionate about. Why did you choose to go to medical school and why at McMaster? Were there other professional programs or schools that you were interested in? I chose to go to medical school since there are a lot of problems in the

healthcare system and I wanted to change some things, especially in caring for older adults. As everyone probably knows…Health Studies at Western is where you learn how messed up Canada’s healthcare system is. Therefore, as a doctor, I knew I would be able to relate to practitioner issues and I could use some of my health sciences background to understand the policy and laws behind the changes. That way I could see it from both sides and impact people on a day to day basis and try and implement bigger changes. I only applied to Mac Medical School…I didn’t have the chemistry, physics and organic chemistry background so I doubt I would have gotten in anywhere else and I liked their team-based learning and hands-on practice. I originally was going to go to London School of Economics in England for health policy, but then I realized I would have a bigger impact on day to day interaction being a practitioner. I also applied to King’s College in London for Health Policy and Aging, Public Health at UofT and

Queens and I applied to the Western Health and Aging grad program. They are all excellent programs and would suggest them to anyone. What is the structure of the medical school program at McMaster? What do you like best about your program? What would you like to change? The structure at Mac is very different than other medical schools, though a few schools are changing to become like it. It is focused on problem based learning; so going through patient cases, researching on your own what the person has and then working in groups to solve it. We also get hands-on clinical experience from day 1 since that is really the best way to learn. I love the patient interaction that I get and the amount of free time. The free time can be used for many things like actually having a social life, studying a bit more or taking a nap. The one thing that I would change is having a bit more pharmacology brought in, but most you learn later when you are actually practicing.

What is a typical day like?

undergraduate students?

A typical day…haha a typical day is different every day at Mac. I guess it is kind of like 4th year undergrad? Sometimes you will just have tutorial for 3 hours and free time for the rest of the day. Or lecture and then a clinical experience placement. Or anatomy and practicing clinical skills. It is all about learning as a group and practicing…not memorizing as much.

You don’t have to know what you want to do and what your passion is at the end of school. So don’t freak out! Just apply to programs that interest you, work or travel for a year or just volunteer at a place you care about. Your career or many job opportunities usually falls into place by itself. Also, health care is the best place to be since there are so many different avenues you can take. Focus on self-care as much as you can. Make sure your interests and dreams allow you to have a healthy life too, which I am sure you guys all know since you are in Health Sciences. ;) Also, talk to your profs. If I hadn’t talked to the two aging professors at Western, I would have been lost. They help direct you to research or volunteer opportunities and they see you have a passion and can form a relationship with you.

What are you future career goals? Where do see yourself in five, ten, twenty years? My future goal is to either become a family medicine doctor or a geriatrician (older adult specialist). I see myself having my own clinic and advocating for more intergenerational activities or places for better mental health and fun and trying to help older adults live a healthy and emotionally stable life. Is there any advice you would like to share with current Health Studies

Okay, last thing: any food hacks that you would like to share with us? Cooking quinoa in a rice cooker? I don’t know, I am not very good at cooking. At one time I was on a study diet of mini eggs and broccoli…but I swear I’m better now! Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Emma! We really appreciate it and we know that a lot of students will find your perspective as a recent Western Health Studies and current medical student insightful!

Healthy Ways to Diet - Without letting the New Year's Resolution Fads Take a Toll on Your Body By: Jenna Williamson With the new year underway, and wanting to stay with our new years resolutions, it is hard not to let the fad of dieting take a toll on our bodies in a unhealthy/unnatural way. Many of us want to stick to these resolutions but may find it hard to balance with the time required and what is available. We are also not sure if what we are doing is actually working or good for our bodies. Many people start these diets because they believe they are overweight, when in fact a lot of people are actually under weight. http:// www.healthunit.org/ nutrition/hottopics/dieting/ dietfacts.htm. What a lot of people don’t realize is that 95% of people who lose weight on a diet will sooner or later gain it back. http:// www.healthunit.org/ nutrition/hottopics/dieting/ dietfacts.htm. Ones weight and the numbers on the scale are not what

determine if you are healthy or not, there is a lot more that needs to go into ones health and healthy eating. Healthy eating means you follow Canada’s food guide recommendations and include all the proper portions and foods they suggest. More tips to stay on a healthy eating track are to eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full, and don’t force yourself to stop eating foods you enjoy, and to include moderation and balance in your eating. If you engage in physical activity your weight will stay where you are hoping and you will avoid what one calls yo-yo dieting. Yo-yo dieting means you are constantly fluctuating because one week or month you may be eating healthy foods and limiting all other intakes of “bad” food, but the next month you are back to your old eating habits which means your metabolism

with be fluctuating and not working in the beneficial way you are hoping. New years resolutions are something everyone hopes to stick to, but without doing it in a healthy realistic way, you will not see the changes you were hoping to experience. Remember, follow the Canada Food guidelines, eat when you are hungry, stop when you are full, and enjoy all food types.

Valentine's Day