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Live Long and Prosper – Secrets to Longevity

Sauna, Cold Plunge, Wim Hof Breathing and Hydrotherapy: The Canadian Guide to Healthy Aging After 50 Aging in Canada does not mean slowing down. It means finding new ways to keep the engine humming. While many over 50 are focused on diet and exercise, there is a growing trend toward using heat, cold, and breathwork as tools for longevity. Saunas, cold plunges, and hydrotherapy are not just wellness fads. They are backed by real science and, in true Canadian fashion, they are also hardcore. Sauna and Longevity Here is a fact that should make you sweat with excitement. A long-term Finnish study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that men who used the sauna four to seven times per week had a 50 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who went once a week (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015). That is not a typo. Fifty percent.

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Health

Breast Cancer Awareness For Senior Women: Prioritizing Health, Screening, And Support

Breast cancer awareness is important for women of all ages, but it becomes especially crucial as we age. Senior women, in particular, need to remain informed about their breast health, keep up with regular screenings, and understand the unique factors that come with aging. With more women living longer, the incidence of breast cancer increases with age, making awareness and prevention key to maintaining health and well-being. Understanding Breast Health as We Age As women age, changes in breast tissue are natural, and it’s important to differentiate between normal aging and potential warning signs of breast cancer. Understanding what’s normal for your body and recognizing any unusual changes can help with early detection. Aging and Breast Tissue: With age, breast tissue becomes less dense and more fatty, which can make it easier to detect lumps or other abnormalities. However, it’s still crucial to remain vigilant about breast health. Continue to

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Health

What do to before & during a bout of cold or flu

Three things are certain in life: Death, taxes and the flu. Both the common cold and the flu are viral infections that can’t be cured by medication, though symptoms can be mitigated. As with many of life’s problems, time and rest is the greatest healer. It comes for us all eventually, but the best way to stave off a viral infection is to keep in tip-top shape. Support The immune system is a complicat- ed network of reactions that, to this day, is not completely understood. Taking care of your whole body can give it the best chance to do its job. Keep your healthy lifestyle choices consistent. Avoid smoking, eat a balanced diet, make time for a good night’s sleep and exercise regularly. Even a half hour walk every day can make a world of difference to your body. Multivitamins: Especially if you follow a restrictive diet, a good quality

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Longevity

The art of being slow

The positive in the pandemic is that it has forced us to re-evaluate our lives. This is the message of Dr. Greg Wells, a performance physiologist and senior associate scientist at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. Wells’ latest book, Rest, Refocus and Recharge: A Guide for Optimizing Your Life, comes at a time when we could all use some help for living our best lives. INSTEAD OF MULTITASKING, THINK SINGLE TASKING. Take a step back from the manufactured and imposed busyness of our past experiences and embrace this opportunity to slow down, calm our brains and rejuvenate our bodies. “So, this idea of constantly pushing and having to be busy has been upended recently,” says Wells. “We now have an opportunity to reimagine the future and slow down.” How? By taming those electrical waves in our brain and shifting gears. There are four main categories of brainwaves. All four are active at

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Longevity

Coming back from paralysis

Who could predict that the experience of contracting and recovering from this debilitating disease could teach so much? ON January 9 of 2013 I found myself standing at the reception window of the emergency wing of our hospital. By evening I could no longer stand and by next morning I had lost the use of my hands, legs and abdomen. Over the next three days I continued to lose the ability to work any muscle below my throat. I had Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a variant of multiple sclerosis, where the myelin coating on the signal lines between brain and muscle was being destroyed. This was scary, to say the least, especially since I had GBS once before, in the year 2000, and knew I could lose ability to breathe, to swallow and to talk. I could die. I was afraid of those possibilities as I lay in the Intensive Care Unit. I

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