December is a good month to evaluate where you are at, in terms of your health. A Christmas break allows you a little time to reflect on the four levels of your health and how they feel: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels of your health. Take a health inventory. These four levels offer a more comprehensive evaluation.

In North American culture, the most emphasis is generally put on the physical state of health so I will start there. Your energy ( scale of 1 to 10 on average) and how much productivity you can offer in terms of a contribution are one example of your physical side of health. Where does your energy lie on average and how much physical stamina do you have? How is your energy for your working life? Do you engage in regular cardiovascular exercise? How often and for how long? Do you work on strength? What do you do to build your strength up? Some people like to lift weights, others like to do yoga or pilates to build strength. Are you balanced in terms of your cardio vs strength? What feels right to you?

Evaluate your sleep- do you sleep well and for how long in hours? How often do you wake? What wakes you up? Do you wake well rested or do you have to hit snooze five times? If you could sleep in on weekends, how long would you sleep for? Do you have more energy after exercise or less?

How is your digestive health? How often do you have a bowel movement (now it is getting more personal!) You can make your health inventory as detailed or as minimal as you want. Take some time to think about it. Write a few notes down. A detailed health inventory at the end of the year will then assist you to create health goals on all these levels of healing when the new year begins.

How is your immune system? Did you get sick more or less than last year? Did you get colds or flus? Did you have to take antibiotics?

What area of your physical health needs the most attention? What does your intuition say? You can go through each area of your body and ask yourself how is this area feeling? Are you getting any aches or pains anywhere? Go through every area of you body and check in with it- how does this area feel? How is it functioning?

How well do you take care of your physical health, in terms, of nutrition? Do you eat mainly a whole foods diet or do you eat on the run and rely on processed foods? Do you take time to lovingly prepare nutritious food for yourself or your family? Are you aware of the foods that are most compatible for you and your health needs? Have you been tested for food allergies?

Diet is the foundation of health. Eating a whole foods diet requires more time than most people want to admit but is a must if you are looking to improve your physical health. It is good to start there as most people do not eat a perfect diet and could stand to improve on their diet.

An appointment with a naturopathic doctor goes into a detailed health inventory of your health. I am just touching on a few questions to ask yourself about your physical health at the end of the year to keep your dialogue alive about your physical health. To make an appointment with me, please call Parallel Wellness at 4032321283…I will touch on the other levels of your health inventory in another post…

 

I am taking an online course in medical intuition right now and it really emphasizes opening up to extrasensory perception. We all know our five senses and the varied information that our five senses provides us in the way of feedback but it talks about how important our intuition is in providing us information. I am more open to intuition and interesting experiences showing up in my world than, for instance, my father who is a retired doctor might be. I believe the environment around us is always talking to us and we just have to listen and tune into it on some level to experience its “richness.”

I will start by relaying that I attended a memorial of one of my former patients that died near the end of September of this year. This was a dear patient of mine that I had lost track of for a number of years; she resurfaced some fifteen years later and told me that she had pancreatic cancer. Well this is the worst cancer to get. I gave her all the information that I had and referred her to my colleague that specializes in cancer. I worked with her in some sessions to deal with the emotional heaviness of such a diagnosis. At the end of August she emailed me to tell me that she was going on her dream trip to Europe and that she would be back in three weeks. I sent her an email about the time when she was supposed to return. Sadly, her brother called me in October to tell me that she had passed away after she had come back from her trip.

I was quite shocked and shed some tears that she had died and lived such a short life and that she was now gone. Her brother told me that there was going to be a memorial and that he would let me know when it was. He emailed me shortly thereafter and I went to the memorial about three weeks ago. I went by myself and arrived a little early. I had been talking to her spirit that day and was happy to be there to honor her spirit. The memorial was held at a community center. I had to use the bathroom before the ceremony started. When I went to wash my hands, I pressed on the soap dispenser and it shot out at me. I pressed it again and it shot across the room. I felt my irritability with the soap dispesnser be quickly replaced with laughter. In that moment, I knew my former patient was paying me a little visitation. She was a joker and very light hearted. I believe she was relaying to me that she was okay on the other side. I laughed and thanked her for showing up. I left the bathroom and thanked her family for honoring her and thanked some of the people that showed up to appreciate her life.

I had another interesting experience when I went to Portland last weekend for a course. When I left Calgary on my flight, it was delayed. I had a tight connection in Seattle to make. Well I barely made my connection which was good, but my luggage didn’t make the flight. When I got to Portland and went to claim my baggage it did not come. Instead of getting angry and impatient about my lost luggage, I talked to Alaskan Airlines and they assured me that my baggage would make the next flight and would be only an hour late. The airlines gave me a food voucher for dinner; I got some nutritious takeout and waited at the baggage claims for the next hour. When my luggage came, I looked for a courtesy phone to call for a hotel shuttle. Unfortunately, the courtesy phone did not have my hotel listed and I was unsure of how to call them as I did not have a cell phone with me.

An angel of a man happened to strike up a conversation with me at the very time that I appeared a little confused as to what I should do next. He asked me if I needed to borrow his phone and I said yes, that would be amazing. Then he said give me the number and I will call the hotel and ask for a shuttle. I do not know why he was so helpful to me but it was late and I was just grateful for his help. He proceeded to reach the hotel by phone and was told that a shuttle would not arrive for at least another 40 minutes. He said I would be happy to take you to your hotel. My wife is picking me up and there is room in the car. My intuition registered that this was a good guy and an angel who was agreeing to help me out. So I accepted the ride. He said the hotel was on the way and I would be there in 20 minutes. This is an example of being open to what shows up in your world. If you believe the universe is a friendly place and you have an open mind, you might be amazed at all the blessings that show up for you. I had an amazing weekend course in Portland and the whole weekend I felt like I was in flow and was looked after.

I did a talk downtown on Leaky Gut Syndrome and the importance of our microbiome this week. The microbiome is becoming a big topic in the medical community. In fact, it is the second genome project. Microbes are believed to outnumber our human cells by approximately 10:1 and have a huge influence on our body. The microbiota is a collection of microorganisms, including bacteria, living on and within us. The number of beneficial species living within us in a healthy population is thought to be ~85% good and 15% not so good. There are 500 plus species of bacteria in us, thought to add up to 100 trillion ‘bugs’.

These gut flora are influenced by geographical location in which you grew up in, diet and even your parent’s resident gut flora. With the number of individual’s opting for a C-section versus a vaginal birth (and this is sometimes a medical necessity), it is important to remember that exposure to some of these bugs is good for you. This is why it is beneficial to be born via a vaginal birth. Getting exposed to your Mom’s bugs on exiting the birth canal is good for your young immune system. Sanitation, of course, is necessary too, but not to the detriment of the microbiome. Some drugs can harm our microbiome, especially antibiotics, but other prescription drugs like pain killers, can be hard on these critters as well.

Our resident gut flora have so many jobs to keep. Their main role is digestion and immune surveillance. If you think about your digestive tract, it is your biggest exposure to the outside world. The tube that starts at your mouth and travels all the way to your anus is a big source of exposure to bacteria, viruses, parasites, yeast and many other bugs. When the contents go through your digestive tract that you ingest, your microbiome acts as a protective barrier to keep the good guys in and the bad guys out. The gut flora help us digest our food, synthesize nutrients such as B vitamins and K2, absorb minerals, regulate inflammation, and establish the proper immune response to incoming antigens. We need to thank our microbiome for all it does to keep us well!

We need to do our part to support our microbiome. Reducing toxin intake where you can have an influence is important. For instance, buying organic food, especially when it comes to the dirty dozen can be helpful. Avoiding processed food, artificial sweeteners and food additives can support these critters. Limiting refined grains, processed meats, sugar, and emphasizing the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes in the form of peas, lentils and beans bring in the fiber needed to support the growth and diversity of the microbiome. Prebiotic fiber source examples include apples, artichokes, asparagus, garlic, leeks and oatmeal.  Intake of these make our intestinal bugs happy. Probiotic food sources are also important for support of these bacteria. Choose raw souces of sauerkraut, kim chi, organic tempeh, organic miso, unsweetened plain organic yogurt with active cultures, for starters. Rome was not built in a day. Choose one thing you can implement today to build a better microbiome! To learn more about your microbiome and it’s critical role in your health, book into see me at Parallel Health and Wellness in downtown Calgary.

References: Eat Dirt, Josh Axe; Nature 2007