Skip to main content

A Healthy Positive Attitude for 2016!

A Healthy Positive Attitude for 2016!
Free stock photo of dawn, sunset, person, womanThe start of a new year is filled with New Year’s resolutions, ideas and plans to make changes for the better and to improve our quality of life. It’s a great time of year to reflect and think of all the many things we would like to accomplish or improve upon in our daily routine.
It is also a time when cooler temperatures make us want to stay indoors and cozy up on the couch watching our favourite shows. Many of us find ourselves feeling a little more fatigued and drowsy with little energy leftover for exercise. With the added lack of sunlight exposure in the winter months, our bodies produce less Serotonin levels, which many researchers believe can negatively affect us in many ways including our mood, memory and appetite and sometimes even lead to depression.  Serotonin is a hormone that is produced in our pineal gland in the brain from exposure to light; it is a feel good hormone!
One of my main goals for 2016 is to focus on healthier habits, exercise, and positive thinking. I find it difficult to keep up with my regular exercise when it gets cooler out. Also with a lack of sunlight and regular activity, it’s the time of year I usually start to become more fatigued, stiff, and burdened with occasional headaches and pain.
Here are some healthy tips that I would like to implement and also share with you on how to stay feeling healthy, energized, and refreshed during the winter months!
  1. Get a healthy sleep – try to wake with the dawn and sleep during the period of greatest darkness – to normalize healthy hormone release
  2. Morning walks – Get outside for fresh air and soak in the daylight.
  3. Vitamin D supplementation - consult with your medical doctor on the appropriate dosing. On average the human body requires 600-1000 IU of vitamin D per day, which is difficult to obtain naturally during the winter months due to the lack of sunlight and UVB rays.
  4. Exercise 15-30mins daily – Exercise boosts serotonin release! If you can’t find the time to go to the gym, find your favourite video and get moving at home! Get that heart rate up!
  5. Acupuncture – As a Medical Acupuncture Provider and graduate from McMaster University, I have seen the profound benefits acupuncture can have on a patient’s overall health and state of mind. I enjoy regular acupuncture sessions to help reduce and alleviate pain and decrease fatigue and stress with an end result of feeling relaxed and re-energized!
A little more about ACUPUNCTURE – it is a therapeutic technique that uses fine, single-use, solid needles to help modulate and treat pain and dysfunction. One of the main effects is an increase in local blood flow that ultimately helps speed up healing of the injured tissues.

Main Effects:

↑ Blood flow                    ↓ Anxiety and stress
↑ Healing                          ↓ Fatigue and drowsiness
↑ Energy                           ↓ Pain (analgesic response)
Find a local Acupuncture provider near you and enjoy a relaxing and calming acupuncture session!

Happy 2016!

~ Dr. Romana


References:
1. Sansone, R.A., Lori A. Sansone. Sunshine, Serotonin, and Skin: A Partial Explanation for Seasonal Patterns in Psychopathology? Innov Clin Neurosci. 2013 Jul-Aug; 10(7-8): 20–24.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The amazing world of Yoga Tune-up® Therapy Balls!

Course materials I recently attended The Roll Model Therapy course with Rachelle Gura, a certified Yoga Tune Up®, meditation, and Pilates teacher, to expand my knowledge and skill of rolling out tight tissue and trigger points. If you haven’t heard of or been exposed to Yoga Tune-up® Therapy Balls, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss with you how great they are! Yoga Tune-up® therapy balls were developed by Jill Miller, the co-founder of Tune Up Fitness Worldwide and creator of the corrective exercise format Yoga Tune Up® and The Roll Model Method®. Yoga Tune-up® balls are these cool “grippy, pliable rubber balls that help eradicate your aches and pains and reform your body from the inside out.” They are a great take home treatment tool that I recommend to many of my patients, family and friends that are in need of joint and muscle pain relief, stiffness, and tissue tension when I’m not around! They work differently than other tools that you have around yo...

The Famous Millennium Syndrome: Text-Neck Syndrome

The famous Millennium syndrome: Text-Neck Syndrome It's a busy time of year with most of us starting to stay indoors as the cooler temperatures approach us. So many of us have our heads glued to our laptops and smartphones that, if it hasn't already, is causing a tonne of strain on our neck and upper shoulders. Some of us develop neck pain and tightness in our shoulders and when it gets really bad, a constant, nagging headache sneaks up on us.  This is called  Text-Neck !  Text-neck syndrome  is a constellation of symptoms caused by a sustained stress and strain to our neck and shoulders from holding our neck forward, sometimes looking down, with our upper back hunched forward. Many of us do this for 8 hrs a day! That's a long time to hold your head in that awkward position, which is why many of us are developing text-neck! The pain and headaches are signals from our brain that something is wrong. So how do we fix...
Welcome to my  Healthy Tips Blog!  I am happy to be able to share with you great tips on how to stay healthy, fit and feeling great! I will be posting great tidbits on a regular basis that I hope you will find educational and inspiring. Please stay tuned! ~ Dr. Romana