Mental Health

Book Haul

On Friday afternoon I had the sudden premonition that my local library would close due to uncertainty around Coronavirus. This was just after I learned that libraries in the nearby communities of Markham, Oakville and Mississauga were closing. So out I rushed around 4:30 pm, hoping against hope that the library would still be open and, thankfully, it was.

I scooped up some books from my "For Later" virtual library shelf and picked up one on my hold shelf, the April selection for the book club, so that was a wonderful bonus!

Just as I got home at 5:00 I saw on Twitter that, indeed, the library would close at 6 pm for at least 3 weeks, a tragedy in my life!

Here's my haul:

This stack includes 2 cookbooks on the right and does not include the Tom Clancy book I grabbed for Don off the Quick Read shelf - I figured, if the library closed, he'd have more than the 1-week limit to read it.

I should admit right now that I likely won't read all these novels. I often pick one up and put it down, finding it not to my liking, so it's good to have some choice available. I find no shame in not reading a book - life's too short and there are too many other books.

I'm presently reading Patti Callahan's Becoming Mrs. Lewis but looking forward to Last Friends,  the last in Jane Gardam's "Old Filth" Trilogy, another Richard Russo book - I really love his writing - and another new novel from William Kent Krueger, whose past books I've also liked. 

  

There are also many novels on my Kobo that I've bought over the last few years when I find them on sale. I'll save those for travel. At home, I absolutely prefer a book in my hand. 

Finally, I've started but haven't finished the audio version of Michelle Obama's Becoming so will make an effort to listen to that over the next few weeks of no-visits-to-the-library. 😞

HaHa!! While verybody else was in the grocery store stocking up on essentials I was running in desperation to the library. 

Therapy Horse

We've all heard of therapy dogs who are trained to visit people who are sick, disabled and/or elderly. What do you think about a therapy horse!

Peyo is a 14-year old stallion in France who visits retirement homes, hospitals and hospices to visit the patients. Of course, there is a lot of advance preparation for his visits - he is thoroughly washed, brushed and braided. His hooves are meticulously cleaned and oiled. He wears a coat and is accompanied by his best friend, Hassen Bouchakour, who has also prepared Peyo by teaching him manners and how to walk on different surfaces as well as the art of backing out of tight spots.

The equine visits have inspired and moved patients in many ways. Non-verbal patients have uttered a first word. Alzheimer's patients have had old memories triggered. Others have been moved to both smiles and tears. It is always an emotional encounter between horse and patient.

The following video explains a lot more about Peyo, though it is in French, so far, unfortunately, without English subtitles.

If you're interested, there's a bit more information here.

Benefits of Urban Trees

Benefits of Walking

Walking for Health

This is a UK promotional poster, but relevant everywhere.

Balance

Have you ever suffered from a balance problem? By that I'm not thinking of our ability to juggle the various aspects of our lives without dropping something, I know a lot of us have trouble with that.

No, I'm referring to our ability to stay upright. The experts all warn us that our balance decreases as we age. That's unfortunate but inevitable. Many people experience motion sickness, a temporary and nasty short-term balance problem.

However, if you are dizzy or the world seems to be whirling around you, and you feel extremely nauseous, you probably have some sort of balance problem that needs immediate medical attention. There are several possible causes of a lack of balance, some quite serious.

I follow Dana Meise on Facebook. 

He's a middle-aged avid Canadian hiker who has spent chunks of time over several years walking the TransCanada Trail from the Atlantic to the Pacific and ultimately to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River Delta, approximately 100 km from the Arctic Ocean. His trek was named Expedition of the Year by the Canadian Geographic Journal. At the moment, he's in Dawson City, Yukon sideswiped by - you guessed it - a balance problem, with accompanying dizziness, vertigo and nausea. Unfortunately, he has passed the 2015 weather/available daylight window of accessibility to the far north, so he will have to take some time to recover and try again next year. We wish him well.

Adrienne Brodeur has written an excellent article in The New York Times about balance. Not only is it well-written, but it contains some vital information as well and a reminder that it isn't necessarily a bad thing to slow down. I'd love to just copy and paste it into this blog post, but since that's a no-no, here's the link and I hope you have time to read it.

Literal Balance, Life Balance

Measles

Four cases of measles reported in Toronto yesterday. All four are unrelated. Just shameful in a time when we can easily protect our kids and ourselves!

First Moon Party

This is a pretty funny spoof involving some creative parenting. It's actually an ad for Hello Flo , a tampon subscription service which I've never heard of. I'd be horrified to hear that any parent ever treated their kid this way, but the ad is amusing.

More details:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/girl-fakes-getting-her-period-and-pays-price-hilarious-new-ad-hello-flo-158405

Lyme Warning

That's a deer tick. It's only about the size of a sesame seed and it might be carrying Lyme Disease, an illness that is becoming more and more common in Southern Ontario. Because Lyme Disease is relatively new to our area, doctors are often slow to diagnose it after a person has been infected.

The best policy is to check yourself, your kids and your dog for ticks after working or playing outside in the garden or in tall grassy or forested areas. Check everywhere, including under arms and in the groin. When you find a tick, remove it carefully with tweezers right next to the skin, so that no part of the tick remains in the body.

The proper technique for tick removal includes the following:

• Use fine tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible.
• Pull backwards gently but firmly, using an even, steady pressure. Do not jerk or twist.
• Do not squeeze, crush, or puncture the body of the tick, since its bodily fluids may contain infection-causing organisms.
• After removing the tick, wash the skin and hands thoroughly with soap and water.
• If any mouth parts of the tick remain in the skin, these should be left alone; they will be expelled on their own. Attempts to remove these parts may result in significant skin trauma.

The tick needs to be attached and feeding for 24 to 48 hours in order to transmit disease, so don't panic if you have to remove a tick, but make sure you do that check and get it before it has a chance to do the damage.

 

This is the classic "bulls-eye" rash that 80% of people develop if they have been infected with Lyme Disease. The other 20% of people may not get any rash at all. Early symptoms of the disease include feeling awful, debilitating fatigue and joint and muscle pain. Get yourself to a doctor if you suspect you might have Lyme Disease and insist on being taken seriously! The latter stages of the disease don't bear thinking about. You should leave the doctor's office with a script for antibiotics. 

More About Knitting

I heard a CBC commentator on the radio this morning say that when he was at the top of one of the Winter Olympic Snowboarding runs he spotted either a volunteer or a spectator (I'm not sure which) sitting in the sunshine.....knitting!! Apparently knitting is very popular in Russia.

This sighting prompted me to post the latest on the scarf I'm knitting and to add a couple of extra things about knitting. 

Here's my scarf so far:

 

As you can see, it's getting quite long. I'm determined to finish the entire ball of yarn before casting off.

 

Now onto the Ravellenic Games 2014: A group of knitters (the challenge was dreamed up in 2006 by Toronto knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Yarn Harlot) is participating in a side event to the 2014 Winter Olympics which involves each knitter setting a personal knitting goal to achieve during the course of the Sochi Games. This goal could be a first knitting project ever, as in learning to knit, or learning a new technique or taking on a really big or difficult project. The idea is to cast on during the Opening Ceremonies and cast off during the Closing Ceremonies, though if you missed the opportunity yesterday, what's to stop you now? 

 

I wonder if the knitter at the top of that snowboard run was participating in the Ravellenic Games. 

 



 

The other knitting news, or at least it's new to me, is Stitchlinks, a social network that believes that stitch-work, and knitting in particular, can have a beneficial effect on our health.  

• Knitting can boost our self-confidence and focus our concentration, improve our self-esteem and provide an outlet for excessive energy.
• Knitting can be meditative, causing us to relax, lowering our stress and anxiety (and our blood pressure). 
• While relaxing, knitting can also stimulate our brains, especially if we are learning something new.
• Knitting can be a social activity, as people communicate, share and encourage each other.
• Knitting makes us happy, through our senses of touch and sight.
• In the end it provides us with an article which we can either enjoy ourselves, with a sense of accomplishment or give as a gift, thereby making someone else happy. 
• Is there even a downside to knitting??   



Here are the Stitchlinks Aims:   

• To promote the use of therapeutic knitting and stitching through our research.
• To provide support and friendship and build a global network of friends who understand and care.
• To combine the knowledge gained from our research with practical health information to help you lead a more fulfilled life.
• To provide up-to-date information in a down-to-earth format and a dynamic resource for those managing long-term illness, their carers and medical staff.
• To provide information for those wishing to take a preventative approach to healthcare.
• To motivate people to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and to provide ongoing motivation and support in the self-management of health problems.
•  To provide information for those using therapeutic knitting and stitching in healthcare, schools and the workplace.  
• To provide information and support for those wishing to teach therapeutic knitting to individuals or run therapeutic knitting groups.
• To promote crafting and certain other activities as a means of keeping people mentally active, motivated and socially engaged.

Stitchlinks has a research arm, pioneering research into the benefits of crafts, in particular knitting, and through this work developing therapeutic approaches which could change the way we, as a society, view and prioritise wellbeing and treat long-term medical conditions.

I think most people would agree that all stitch-work provides an enjoyable, creative and healthful benefit to practitioners. Why else would we take it up? I sure hope I can at least finish my scarf by the end of these Olympics - that's my goal now.

No Excuses, No Limits

Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli: This amazing young Montreal man was on Ellen last week.

 

He made it to the finals of So You Think You Can Dance Canada in 2010. Keep some tissues handy.

 



 

Here he is on Ellen. 

 

Is Fowl Foul?

Canadian Thanksgiving is just over a month away. Time to think about poultry!

Do you wash your roasting chicken before prepping it for the oven? I have always rinsed chickens and turkeys, inside and out, before roasting. It just felt right. I wonder if I'm a rinser because my mother was....

The late great Julia Child promoted chicken-rinsing and her word was gospel, wasn't it?

 

One thing I would NEVER (shudder!!) do, is plop my raw chicken on a wooden cutting board or touch my glasses without first thoroughly washing my hands.

 

Now food safety experts are telling us NOT to wash the chicken, washing being both unnecessary and possibly even less safe, since the  process of rinsing the bird can cause bacteria on the skin of the chicken to be spread to other surfaces in the kitchen, even as far as 3 feet away.

 

 

 



Apparently the most important thing to remember is to cook the chicken or turkey to the correct internal temperature before removing it from the oven: 165°F, according to both the FDA and Health Canada.

I'm not sure I'm convinced and old habits are hard to break.

How to Remove a Tick

This could be good information this summer in Southern Ontario, now that ticks have become more common in our area thanks to global warming. Deer ticks are apparently common in Scotland where there are a lot of deer, so I'm glad I saw this before I left.



Hidden Sugar

I just wish this video could be slowed down a bit. I had to keep stopping and rewinding.

World BMI's

This chart is pretty interesting. I copied it from Visual.ly Unfortunately I had trouble sizing it so it could by seen properly.

Naked Rambler

Two days from today will be the first day of my long distance walk in Scotland. I've been looking forward to and training for this adventure for several months. There will be lots of people on the trail, so I'm not worried about walking solo.....or at least I wasn't worried until I heard about Stephen Gough.

Stephen Gough, the naked rambler, makes his way south through Peebles in the Scottish Borders, following his release from Saughton Prison yesterday after serving his latest sentence on October 6, 2012 in Peebles, Scotland. The rambler has 18 convictions and has been in prison on and off since 2006 with offences ranging from not wearing clothes in front of the sheriff, breach of the peace and contempt of court.



 

This picture in the National Post a couple of months ago got my attention pretty quickly, but in reading the article, I understood that Mr. Gough is merely trying to express his freedom to (un)dress the way he was born and means no harm to people on the trail. Unfortunately for him, the authorities are not sympathetic to his cause and he has ended up incarcerated more than once, including six years in solitary confinement (I say, neat way to be assured of a private room). More often than not, he gets released on bail and is released from jail, naked, of course.



Not leaving much to the imagination



When he was 40 and living in Vancouver with his girlfriend and their two children, he says he had an epiphany. "One day I was walking", he says, "and something happened. I realized on a fundamental level I'm good, we're all good, and you can trust that one part of yourself." If he was good, he rationalized, then  his body should be nothing to be ashamed of. His reasoning brought about a break-up in the relationship with his girlfriend and ever since, he has felt compelled to challenge society with his views on nudity.



Maybe you remember Canadian, Gwen Jacobs , then a student at the University of Guelph, trying to make a point about nudity back in 1991, when on a hot day, she removed her shirt, just the same as a man does, to get a breeze on a 33C day. She was arrested and charged with committing an indecent act. Ultimately released with a $75 fine, she won the right for all women to go topless if they wish (most Canadian women prefer to be clothed). Such a non-issue in Europe!

Gwen Jacobs as a 19-year old student

 





Of course, if Stephen Gough is presently in jail, I won't be meeting him on the trail, so maybe I'll never know how liberal I really am. Then again, a non-encounter might save me from heart failure. 

Your Adrenal Glands

A team from the University of Toronto, including a PhD student and two U of T alumni have created a video as part of a challenge by Scientific American and guess what!!....it won!

The contestants were instructed to create a two-minute video explaining a body part or process in a fun and engaging way using common household items, such as string, rubber bands and paper clips. The U of T team, Dorea Reeser (MSc 2009), Raluca Ellis (PhD 2011) and Nogel Morton (BA 2011 VIC) chose to feature the adrenal glands which help regulate the body's response to stress.

The judges were impressed with the educational value, clarity and polished quality of the video as well as the team's humour and use of the required props.

There was no cash prize for winning the competition, but Reeser said that the judges' encouraging comments were wonderfully motivating and rewarding.

There's a lot of information crammed into these two minutes.

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day !

This is the day we celebrate our wonderful blue planet

 

and every year at this time we are reminded to make changes in our lifestyle that will have a positive impact on our environment. Often we say to ourselves, "Why should I bother to make changes to my comfortable life when so many people, businesses and industries don't bother. My change would be but a drop in the sea!"

I think the choices we make in our individual lives have a mushrooming effect. If many of us make small changes, maybe we will inspire another person or another family and maybe, together, our efforts will eventually have a wider effect on preserving our amazing planet for the generations to come. The personal advantage is that the small changes we make now at home may enable us and our children and grandchildren to become healthier and to live longer, more meaningful lives.

Here are a baker's dozen of easy ideas to reduce the impact of our feet on the earth:

1. Eat locally when possible, taking advantage of farmers' markets to support local growers.
2. Reuse plastic bags: especially the ones for produce. Take them back to the store again and again - the grocery chains don't care what plastic bags you use (or don't use: why do people think bananas, for example, have to go in a plastic bag?!) Most of the time most of us remember to take our bins and grocery bags to the store. Now start taking back those plastic produce bags. The bonus is that when you come across the nice big ones, you can reuse them again and again for large items like celery or broccoli or a big bunch of kale. Even better, start using reusable fabric mesh bags for produce: make them yourself in the sizes that you prefer. Making produce bags is on my short list of things to do soon.
3. Support sustainable fishing practices and eat fish responsibly.
4. Avoid foods with a lot of additives. Keep it simple! And healthy!
5. Check out your cosmetics for unhealthy ingredients. Lipstick, for example, is a bad one for lead. Do some research into what you are putting on your body. Our skin is an organ and it can absorb chemicals which can be detrimental to our health.
6. Let's not idle the car any more than necessary. So bad for breathing.
7. Clean out the car's storage area(s) often so you are not lugging a lot of unnecessary junk around. Use less gas.
8. Walk more. When in town, park your car, then walk from there to run your errands. Good to slow down and good exercise too.
9. Here's one I struggle with: we in North America use too much household water. Let's find ways to reuse water in the kitchen instead of pouring it down the sink. Use a bowl of water to wash vegetables, then keep it handy to rinse your hands or wash a few dishes. Don't run the water any more than necessary. Let's be mindful about our use of water - it's precious!
10. Don't buy bottled water. It's not necessarily better tasting or healthier than tap water. If in doubt, use a filter.
11. Take your reusable mug to the coffee shop.
12. Cut apart those plastic sleeves for cans so that an animal or bird will not get its head or beak stuck.
13. Don't litter!

#13 is a big one for me. I live in southern and south-central Ontario and I just cannot believe the stew of litter that pollutes our towns, cities and country roads. It is disgusting to the max!! It is truly alarming that the extent of garbage strewn across our landscape is worsening year by year. I don't believe the problem stems only from people littering (though I suspect certain drivers are tossing empty beer cans out their car windows, an alarming thought in itself). What might be an even bigger cause of this eyesore is the wind that is blowing our garbage and recycling far and wide. So let's make sure our garbage containers are secure from winds, animals and birds. If it's too windy today, our garbage and recycling can go out next week instead.

In towns and cities, days are often set aside at this time of year for picking up litter and many civic-minded families join in. One day a year is not enough! And in the countryside nobody seems to feel a responsibility for cleaning up (though I confess that on my walk yesterday I saw two people collecting litter along the roadside). A pond that I walk past almost daily has plastic bags, snack bags, "disposable" coffee cups and lids and those plastic sleeves that cans come in floating on the surface alongside the muskrats, ducks and frogs that are raising their families there. Does anyone else care?

Our wildlife is asking for help.

Here are some more ideas on reducing our carbon footprint.

The High Price of the Fully-wired Life

Many of us love our laptops, smart phones, tablets and reading devices. We love them so much, that it's hard to part with them at the end of the day. In fact, some of us sleep with them, so as not to miss any in-coming messages or in case we think of something that needs doing during the night. But at what cost?

When we use our electronic devices close to bedtime, though, the stimulation from their use can delay our ability to fall asleep. Video games keep our brain hopping. Work-related worries can be stressful. Stress and excitement can cause our body to enter a "flight or fight" mode in which cortisol, the stress hormone produced by the adrenal gland, is released. As a result there is a delay in the ability to fall asleep.
 
In addition, the glow from the devices themselves suppresses melatonin, the hormone that is sleep-inducing.
 
And, by the way, working in bed can cause neck and shoulder injuries, which can also cause discomfort and mental stress.
 
Before we know it, we're only getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, just not enough to stay healthy. Several phases of sleep are essential for brain health. For example, REM sleep is associated with learning and theta brain waves are linked with creativity. So getting enough quality sleep each night is a must.
 
What to do?

1. Turn off electronic devices 15 or 30 minutes before going to bed. A hotel in Manhattan, the Benjamin, has a sleep concierge team which guests can ask to alert them to turn off their devices at a certain time to allow for a wind-down period before bed. Similar to a wake-up call, this is called a work-down call.
   Some companies have reportedly banned business emails after hours and Volkswagen, in Germany, shuts of work emails to employees Blackberrys a half-hour after their shifts.
2. Keep your bedroom a device-free zone.
3. Disconnect the kids. A TV in your child’s bedroom has a negative effect on sleep quality. Give him or her a relaxing book to read before bed instead of the remote.