True.

Understanding the reality and the science behind this can be life changing: the more we understand, the more aware we are and the better equiped to execute actions that affect us positively, not negatively.

The reality is that most of us have and still do over-ultized food and under-ultized movement. Quite frankly, this can become a vicious cycle that takes effort and motivation to interrupt. There is no denying that that "eat right" and "move right" can each on their own and together create a beautiful and encouraging domino effect on our well-being. Each make up a health basic in our health foundation. When the health foundation cracks or is not prioritzed, abusing food and ignoring exercise repeats by default mode.

The science can be simply worded. Without a doubt, food espeically sugar-laden or carbohydrate-like foods (which break into sugar quickly) increase our feel-good neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine, which gives a false/temporary "high". With respect to the "high", we all desire to feel it, however it does not have to be achieved through poor health measures, rather it can be achieved through eating right and moving well.

Commit to you.
Commit to your best self.

To living in health,
Dr. Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's & Family Natural Health Expert

As a wedding gift, Dan and I were gifted with a well-loved book, The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. Although, most of us are aware of what-seems-to-be commonsense love theories, it’s helpful to re-visit and re-gauge each others’ “love languages” better.

The 5 Love Languages explores 5 ways of loving and being loved.  Gary Chapman explains that each of us has a “primary love language” and a “secondary love language” that ultimately exemplifies love to us and meets our emotional need to feel loved. Point on point, when our partner chooses to speak or implement our primary or secondary love language, we feel loved. In return, our partners feel most loved or comforted when their primary or secondary love language is spoken and implemented by us.

The 5 Love Languages include: Words of Affirmation – Quality Time – Receiving Gifts – Acts of Service – Physical Touch: exploring the book is highly recommended. A generalized sneak peak to the 5 Love Styles are below...

1. Words of Affirmation: Verbal compliments, words of appreciation. For example,  “Wow, you look great tonight”

2. Quality Time: Undivided, intentional time directed towards her/him. For example, Talking without the TV on.

3. Receiving Gifts: Visible, material symbols of love. For example,  Flowers for no special occasion

4. Acts of Service: Actions speak louder than words. For example,  Cooking a meal

5. Physical Touch: Thoughtful touching. For example, Holding hands in public

Both Dan and I feel most loved and understand how to love each other through love language #4, “Acts of Service”, to us this means, timely efforts since acts of services come in small and big packages. Be it making the bed or having dinner ready for the other. And, in the spirit of in the moment self-discovery, you can complete the 5 Love Languages Quiz available at 5lovelanguages.com

To living in health (and love),
Dr. Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's and Family Natural Health Expert

A resounding theme in practice these past weeks relates to many patients reporting to be gluten-free which has helped immensely with their "not so great" symptoms. Yet, they are not completely symptom free or re-experiencing their original symptoms.

Although, a bit wild sounding and complicated, we may need to consider the possibility of "Gluten Cross Reactivity"...simply meaning that your body may still think you are eating gluten even though you have given it up. To truly grasp this concept and read more in-depth regarding this, please refer to the link below via Sarah Ballantyne, The Paleo Mom.

Gluten is a protein found in glutinous grains (wheat, spelt, rye, barley, kamut). If you are gluten sensitive/intolerant, your body's immune system deems gluten "not good for you", creates "gluten antibodies", attacks the gluten and inflammation is produced. "Gluten cross-reactivity" investigates the possibility that your body's immune system may be attacking a non-gluten food because it looks similar in structure to gluten. Point in point, the body's immune system attacks a food that is not gluten (ie. dairy, corn) although looks like gluten to the immune system; this creates inflammation and contributes to symptoms.

The take away message directly from Sarah Ballantyne blog's is "depending on exactly what antibody or antibodies your body forms against gluten, it/they may or may not cross-react with other foods. So, not only are you sensitive to gluten, but your body now recognizes non-gluten containing foods as one and the same."

Via her research, Sarah mentions that approximately 20% of those who are gluten sensitive may need to consider a possible cross-reaction with respect to achieving better health and well-being. There a handful of foods to be noted as "risky" or "questionable" in a possible immune system attack.

The foods in question for those with a gluten sensitivity:

• dairy
• oats
• yeast (brewer’s, baker’s, nutritional)
• instant coffee
• milk chocolate
• millet
• soy
• corn
• rice
• potato

In visit, we discuss the probability of any of the above foods contributing based on your food choices, diet history. Two options exist for further investigation - either elimination of the food(s) or IgG food sensitivity testing. I liken this to being a health detective, we are searching for the missing puzzle pieces to our health, "gluten cross-reactivity" needs to be searched through.

For Further In-Depth Reading via Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD , click here 

To living in health,
Dr. Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's and Family Natural Health Expert

First of all, what does ergonomic mean? It means optimum design for comfort to avoid stress or injury.
Have you ever had an ache or pain that no matter how many therapies you've tried, it just doesn't seem to go away? Chances are you have the ergonomics of one of your common spaces to blame. Lets look at 3 common places and outline proper ergonomics for you.

#1 Your Desk/Workspace
- Your chair should be at a height where when your feet are flat your knees are bent to 90 degrees, and with your butt all the way back in the seat, your hips are also at a 90 degree angle.
- Your keyboard should be in front, at a height so that with your arms to the side relaxed, your elbows are at 90 degrees
- Your screen needs to be directly in front of you at eye level. Do not be looking down towards the screen or to the side.
- You can help the release of stress on your back by having a stool under the desk to put one or both of your feet up on. Having your knees slightly higher than your hips and hips a little more than 90 degrees with aid in digestion.

#2 Your Car
- Your seat should be close enough to the pedals that when your feet are in place there is a slight bend to the knee
- Your hands should also be close enough that when reaching for the steering wheel you have a bend in the elbows, and the height of the seat so that your hands, when at the ready, are lower than your shoulders.
- Your knees - If you can tilt the seat, have it at an angle so that your knees are slightly higher than your hips

#3 The couch/Lounging at home
(don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to sit with feet flat on the floor and back straight, although this IS ideal)
- When watching TV or just relaxing, you want to make sure that what ever it is that has your attention, you are looking straight at it. DO NOT sit parallel to a TV and turn your head to the left or right to look at the screen. This = recipe for disaster.
- Put your feet up, support your lower back by putting a pillow under your knees or bending them.
- Make sure your head is supported by either sitting in a seat that has head support or propping a pillow behind your head if the top of the couch.

And finally, the common denominator for all of these locations is:
- Make sure your WHOLE body faces the direction you are looking.
- Hips and shoulders need to be square... we square?

Melissa Kennedy, D.O.M.P, Osteopathic Manual Practitioner

Let's talk about the most common and widely known nerve entrapment of the distal limbs....carpal tunnel syndrome!
As one of the leading causes for absence in the office-type work place, it also costs WSIB hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Not only does it effect the individual but their home life and work place.

Carpal tunnel is when the median nerve in the forearm is pinched at the wrist.  Symptoms commonly include tingling, numbness, weakness and pain in the wrist and hand. We will all experience symptoms similar to this at some point in our life, however, does not always mean we have carpal tunnel syndrome. There are ways to prevent all together, diagnose, reverse symptoms if not yet progressed to syndrome and ease symptoms once presented with carpal tunnel syndrome.

The following suggestions are for personal care:

#1: Make sure you take adequate breaks from typing and use a cushion at the edge of your keyboard to prevent pressure on the carpal tunnel, as in on the median nerve within the small space in the wrist.

#2: If you are at the point where you are experiencing symptoms, then ice your wrist(s) for 10-15 minutes at a time, once or twice an hour until issues have subsided.

#3: Avoid any activities or movements that irritate it such as weight bearing activities like push ups or some yoga poses.

#4: Stretches and strengthening of the wrist and hand are useful; consider investing in a stress ball or gripper for squeezing exercises and an elastic band for opening the hand exercises.

#5: As long as you aren't relying on this frequently, another helpful thing is using non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS); these can help reduce inflammation, thus reduce the pain and contribute to healing.

#6: If you have progressed to the point where it is a constant issue and you are diagnosed with syndrome, consider investing in wrist braces to wear at night to relieve pressure while you are sleeping.

#7: In addition, Manual Osteopathy, Massage, Acupuncture, and Chiropractic care are a way to relieve pain, and Naturopathic care can help with supplementing your diet with anti-inflammatory rich properties. For example, a good option for any inflammation in the body is to have a diet rich in turmeric and omegas.

If you are at the point where none of the above helps your situation, consult your physician to see if surgery is a possible option. Although the last resort, it will give you a better quality of life and relieve the pain.

Cheers to pain free wrists and better quality of life,
Melissa Kennedy, DOMP, Osteopathic Manual Practitioner

My favourite  appointment with you is the initial appointment.  Without a doubt, it is also the most challenging due to its nature of being time and emotion sensitive.  I am with gratitude to all my patients – you are my best teachers.

#1: You allow me to enter into your health story and ultimately into your life story.

#2: You strongly voice your expectations of “our health teamwork”, you passionately need + want change.

#3: You quickly learn that I am wired like a Naturoapthic Doctor yet excited like a cheerleader.

#4: You realize that this type of healthcare really is the perfect balance between health and care.

#5: You gain clarity on where you are, where you want to be and what the road map ahead looks like.

#6: You understand the theoretical-sens that every year of “feeling off” requires 1 month of “being on” with respect to self-care, self-work, herbal regime,  determination to do the magic outside the treatment room.

#7: You smile at the fact that I ask you to stick out your tongue – and use the appearance of your tongue as a physical exam tool to confirm and consider your health status.

#8: You are intrigued by us investigating your “everything is normal” blood work. Just because the values are in the reference range doesn’t always equate to normal and fine.

#9: You catch the cheerleader virus – you become empowered and inspired to be the best possible version of yourself. You begin to collect more pieces to your health puzzle...the puzzle slowly comes together.

#10: You teach me in more ways than I can express.

Thank-you to my past, current and future patients.

To living in health,
Dr. Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's & Family Natural Health Expert

Osteopathy can be considered a "lifesaver" in many ways, not only does it help with physical symptoms, it can  aid in reduction of depression, anxiety and stress.

Depression, anxiety and stress are strongly interconnected to pain. When your day-to-day activities are interrupted because of pain, it becomes frustrating and the lack of "the normal you" becomes overwhelming.

I have seen/heard about personal, professional relationships and self-relations affected by the torment of being in pain every day. You can become dissociated from yourself, easily irritable, distressed and lose the joy in life. This is not the real you.

Sometimes pain is actually caused by depression, anxiety, and stress. The constant holding in your worries and thoughts can promote tensing of your muscles, digestive upset and irrational thoughts, which can over time, lead to a weak and unstable body prone to disease and disruption. In the end, you are in a vicious cycle: stress causing tension; tension causing pain; pain causing stress and struggling moods.

Not only does manual osteopathy help to relieve the pain and break the vicious cycle, it is actually very soothing and encourages mind-body relaxation. In addition, osteopathy improves circulation of your blood, lymphatic system and cerebral-spinal fluid. This increase in circulation will bring the proper nutrients to the brain, as well as allow hormones to release properly and flood the body with the "happy chemicals" (dopamine, serotonin, endorphins). In particular cranial (head) osteopathy re-establishes the connection between brain and body, this will naturally reduce depression.

Let me help you become a better you.
Book an appointment today to experience "better" health tomorrow.
Melissa Kennedy |Manual Osteopathic Practitioner

Consistency in these 3 routines will be life changing.
Honest.

I am 100% naturopathically-wired. I was raised in an environment that questioned the reason for a symptom and always explored natural approaches to health and healing.

Somewhere along my practice, I realized that I am also a cheerleader.
Yes, a cheerleader with your best interest in mind. I believe in you, I cheer for you and even high-five you.

As a cheerleader, my goal is to empower you to step into your best potential by taking action. What I have realized is that our action needs to be consistent in order to create that forward shift.  The 3 routines below  (as adapted from Robin Sharma) are routines that I encourage you to put into action and be accountable to.  I want you to create the magic.

 1. The Morning Routine - Fire it Up
Take the first 60 minutes of your day and create a routine that primes you physically, spiritually, intellectually.

Get physical:  Physical activity releases dopamine (makes you feel alive, almost on fire). It fuels up your day.
Get spiritual: Mediate or write down your ambitions for the day, repeat a mantra "I am capable".
Get intellectual: Invest into your learning. As you learn more - you can achieve more.
 
2. Work Routine – 90 Day Rule
Over the next 90 days, get to work on time and use it productively. Press GAME ON, do not get distracted and be "busy being busy". Be deliberate. Put real purpose behind each action - make an impact so you can move forward.
 
3. Night Routine – Gratitude
It is said, that we get from life what we focus on. When you start to wire in the psychology of gratitude - you release dopamine (feel-good neurotransmitter) & oxytocin (love hormone) - you feel inspired, blessed and even happier.

Train your brain to dig deeper in order to end your day on a good note. Pull out your journal and investigate what 3 good things happened today - look for what is great in life vs. what is wrong in life.

This is life-changing.
Change your life.
I'm cheering for you.

To living in health,
Dr. Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's & Family Natural Health Expert

The word "doctor" actually means "to teach".
This is the heart and soul of my practice - to teach my patients about their health, about their bodies, to best answer their unanswered questions with clarity so that they can put the knowledge into practice.

In the world of fertility, this knowledge into practice is powerful to promote (or prevent) a pregnancy. Understanding your fertility signs raises awareness of your "fertile window" and allows for an empowered action. We will dedicate the post to conception during the fertile window and dig into your 2 best fertility signs.

The fertile window is 6 days in total, give or take. It spans across the 4 days leading up to ovulation (cervical mucus is noticed, sperm can survive for approximately 5 days), ovulation day and the day after ovulation (the egg can survive 12-24 hours after ovulation).

Your best 2 fertility signs are 1) Cervical Mucous as a prediction of the start of your fertile window and approaching ovulation and 2) Ovulation confirmation via Basal Body Temperature Charting.

>>> Sign up for a Basal Body Temperature Chart & Simplified Charting Instructions HERE

1) Cervical Mucous (To Predict the Eventual Ovulation)

What: Cervical mucus changes during the menstrual cycle due to hormonal changes and it indicates fertility days and predicts ovulation. First, it can provide insights into the beginning, the peak and the end of the fertile window. Second, the cervical mucus also gives opportunity for sperm to travel up the vaginal tract and into the uterus.

How & When: As you transition from Day 1 (the first day you bleed) to mid-cycle (ovulation), the egg (and follicle) starts to grow and begins to produce estrogen. Estrogen increases in amount/potency closer to the ovulation as the follicle continues to grow, the estrogen stimulates the cervix to open up and produce more "sperm friendly" mucus.

Appearance: The cervical mucus changes from a thick, sticky mucus (at the start of the cycle = low fertility) to a thinner, slippery, and slightly stretchy mucus (closer to mid-cycle = peak/high fertility) noted it as "egg white" consistency.

How to Use This Information: Track your cervical mucous. Recall that the "egg white" mucus indicates the fertile window and predicts eventual ovulation. Even more so, it indicates the start, peak and end of the fertile window. For ex., your beginning of the fertile window begins when the mucus is felt or seen. Your peak of the fertile window is when the mucus is clear, stretchy, slippery. The end of your fertile window is 3 days after the last day of egg white (or peak) mucus.

2) Ovulation via Basal Body Temperature (BBT) To Confirm Ovulation

What: Typically ovulation occurs in mid-cycle, it refers to the release of a mature egg from the ovary which travels down the Fallopian tube to the uterus, eventually. Your day of ovulation varies, it marks the 2nd last day of your fertile window with the day after ovulation being the last since the egg can last 12-24 hours. The purpose of ovulation is to allow the egg to be fertilized by the sperm, ultimately to procreate. If no fertilization takes place, the egg dies off and the cycle restarts.

When: In hormonal balance, ovulation occurs mid-cycle. For ex., in a 30 day cycle, it would occur on Day 15. However, we want to become aware of the pattern of ovulation via BBT charting as to confirm and highlight ovulation patterns.

How Temperatures Change: Estrogen dominates the first half of the cycle priming the uterus and encouraging the release of the egg from the follicle in the ovary. Estrogen is a cold hormone and temperatures are lower from Day 1 to ovulation. Progesterone dominates in the second half of the cycle and prepares the uterus for any potential implantation of a fertilized egg. Progesterone is a hot hormone and temperatures are higher after ovulation to end of cycle.

How to Use This Information: Low temperatures are observed before ovulation, some women experience an ovulation temperature dip, higher temperatures are observed after ovulation. Chart your cycles to note patterns of ovulation, ovulation happens on the last day of lower temperatures and a rise in temperature confirms ovulation.

You should see a "bi-phasic pattern" - a temperature difference between your pre-ovulation (low temps) and post-ovulation (high temps) when plotted on a BBT graph. The rise in temperature is usually about 0.2-0.4 degrees Celsius, the rise is due to the corpus luteum (lining of the egg) producing progesterone (our heat-inducing hormone).

Combining Your Best Fertility Signs: The BBT can observe or confirm ovulation therefore you need to observe your cervical mucus before ovulation in order to bring awareness and prediction to your "fertile window" patterns. Recall, the fertile window are the cervical mucus days before ovulation, the day of ovulation and 12-24 hours after ovulation. Once temperatures have shifted, you are no longer in the fertile window.

Note, your BBT is your body temperature at rest in the morning after 3 hours or more of uninterrupted sleep. It needs to be taken at approximately the same time every morning. The actual temperatures are not as important as is observing a "bi-phasic pattern" showing a difference from per-ovulation to post-ovulation. 

 >>> Sign up for a Basal Body Temperature Chart & Simplified Charting Instructions HERE

To living in health,
Dr. Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's & Family Natural Health Expert

This blog post acts as Part II and a continuation of  "Belly Flab to Belly Flat"...

To improve our health status (via decreasing silent inflammation = fat) and to improve our comfort levels (via decreasing belly flab), let's turn our attention to another belly flab culprit, stress and cortisol.


To bring about clarity, cortisol is our alert or stress hormone that is released from the adrenal glands. In alert mode, it provides that natural feel-good energy and brings about alertness upon waking (ie. children in the AM). In stress mode, it puts us into survival state when we interpret a situation as stressful (ie. chased by a dog).

Cortisol is actually protective and phenomenal, it allows us to adapt in response to "whoa, stress!", essentially survive, exit survival mode once the stress is dealt with. Unfortunately, it is becoming more common that our stress response is activated too often and remains activated too long; the body does not exit survival mode, and we are exposed to excess circulating cortisol.

The take-away is that too frequent or too constant release of cortisol due to a perceived stress can be damaging, no longer protective and contribute to abdominal fat, general inflammation, muscle breakdown, sleep loss, increased cravings and that "Frantic Fanny" or "Nervous Nelly". The issue is that chronic stress contributes to chronic cortisol circulating,; unused cortisol influences fat to be deposited at the belly! The goal is to deflate our daily stress and inactivate our stress response, whereby survival mode occurs less and survival mode is exited quicker.

To tone down survival mode and exit survival mode quicker, 6 general steps are suggested:

1. Improve your stress resiliency (the degree to which stress impacts you) via a solid health foundation to stand upon.
Focus on: Eat Right. Move Right. Drink Right. Breathe Right. Think Right. Sleep Right. Poop Right.
Note: These 7 Health Basics will be an eventual blog. Even just practicing 2 or more will create a positive ripple effect.

2. Analyze your stressors
Tip: Make a list, make your stressors visible. Ask yourself which ones you will accept? change? reject?
Note: This exercise can be powerful...after all, awareness brings change.

3. Balance your blood sugars
Balance sugar = Less insulin = Less body stress = Lower cortisol (Refer to Part I of Belly Flab to Belly Flat)

4. Physical Activity
A definite recharge to the nervous system, an opportunity to be in the moment and "let go"

5. Practice an Adrenal Lifestyle
Focus on:  Bed before 11pm. Create structure and routine. Physical activity. Say “No” to that which does not inspire you. Laugh often. Blood sugar balance. Positive thinking. Make time for things/people/places that recharge you. Make time for stress deflation (talking, art, nature, mediation, cuddling, tea, reading, baths, movies).

6. Investigate any digestive stress
Digestive stress is a common invisible body burden/stress that increases cortisol.
Tip: Multiple rounds of antibiotics may create less beneficial bacteria at the colon
Tip: Do you suspect any food sensitivities contributing to inflammation (a "fire" that the body perceives as stress)?

To living in health,
Amy de Oliveira, Naturopathic Doctor
Women's & Family Natural Health Expert