Green tea, from the tea plant Camellia sinensis, with it’s metabolism-boosting, antioxidant and anticancer powers is now expanding its talents, entering into the world of skin care, especially acne treatments, and experiencing great success.
When I was very small, the tree at my parent’s house became sick and was cut down. I don’t exactly remember the great pine tree, but I remember it’s large, rotting stump, which was left as evidence of its towering existence on the lawn of our front yard. As a replacement, the city planted another tree in its place: a ginkgo tree.
What was once a disappointingly small, skinny sapling now towers over the two-story house, its trunk the diameter of my outstretched arms, an alarming reminder of the passage of time. I have always been fond of our ginkgo tree, with its delicate, fan-shaped leaves and its aire of exoticism, but I am developing an entirely new relationship with the plant as I begin to discover its array of clinical uses as well.
I am currently reading the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, MBSR, a mindful meditation program that I am currently taking, and I came across this paragraph that I thought was worth sharing with all of you:
“You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the word health itself means ‘whole’. Whole implies integration, an interconnectedness of all parts of a system or organism, a completeness. The nature of wholeness is that it is always present.
Every year in High Park, in Toronto, thousands of tourists gather to see the cherry blossoms. These puffy white-pink clouds create a feeling of lightness and cast surreal shadows over the grass. Families park themselves for the day to enjoy the fluffy pink caves of flowers, individuals do yoga flows on the grass, tourists snap pictures, couples snuggle under the puffy canopies. It’s a beautiful sight, and a great free, natural event to attend as we celebrate the ever-changing phenomenon that is nature. Here are some shots I took while enjoying the sites with family, friends and my beloved dog, Coco.
Taganga, Colombia
What does space mean to you? Is it a necessity? A status symbol? A burden?
A friend and I recently went to see a documentary at the Toronto Hot Docs festival called Tiny: A Story About Living Small. The doc follows a young couple who embark on the project of building their own tiny house, measuring roughly 100 square metres, in order to secure their footing in an increasingly growing movement of downsizing living spaces in favour of simplicity.
After feeling the rush of adrenaline from the completion of our 3rd Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), I woke the next day with that sharp tingling in my throat, indicating that I was about to get a cold. It seems my body loves to get sick at inconvenient times… Ok, I realize that that statement is unnaturopathic. As naturopathic medical students, we’re always saying that we need to work with our bodies, never push ourselves to our limits, work with the healing power of nature, take time to rest and regenerate, etc. But, who the heck has time for that? I have 600 assignments due tomorrow, clinic shifts to shadow and practical exams, plus a Dog Therapy Day to plan. There’s just no time to be out of commission.
Luckily, there are ways to help the immune system kill those annoying bugs faster and more efficiently. Torching upper respiratory tract infections is really where naturopathic treatments have a chance to shine. When I get a cold and can’t afford a day or two off, I simply throw everything I can at it. No mercy. Hasta la vista, baby.
This article was first published in My Yoga Online.
With the growing rates of obesity in our society, combined with the tendency for most people who successfully lose weight to gain it back only a short while later, it’s obvious that something is flawed in our society’s general weight-loss strategy.
I realized it one day, while spending a particularly delicious Saturday in one of the armchairs of the living room, feeling the sun warm my back as it streamed through the shutters: for the first time in a while, I didn’t feel stressed. Coco was draped across my back, lying on the back of the chair. As if on cue, he let out a long puff of a sigh, his eyes closed. Coco is never stressed, I thought to myself. And then I realized it: Coco is more naturopathic than any doctor could hope to be. As Dr. Stargrove said, at The Gathering in Chicago, “nature knows more than doctors ever will.” And Coco, with is furry body and leathery paws is much closer to nature than any of us will ever be.
Every year the naturopathic student community holds a philosophical conference at one of the accredited naturopathic medical schools in North America. For three days, naturopathic medical students and “elders” – seasoned professionals in practice for about 20 years or more – gather together in an event called (fittingly) The Gathering to share philosophical insights about the art and practice of naturopathic medicine. I have personally attended twice: my first year, in 2011, it was held at our own Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM) in Toronto, Canada, and this year, in 2012, it was held at the National University of Health Sciences (NUHS) in Chicago, Illinois. Both times it hasn’t failed to be less than inspirational. Here are some golden nuggets of naturopathic insight from three amazing naturopathic doctors:
It’s astounding when I reflect on the fact that three years of immersion in naturopathic medical philosophy haven’t remedied the need for a quick-fix pill. The pill itself has changed, to become more “natural” (with the assumption that natural is far superior to a synthetic derivative of the same drug with similar pharmaceutical effects), but our desire remains the same.