Ki-Hara classes starting in March on Wednesdays!

For those of you following Michael McCann Jr.’s recovery process please feel free to follow on his blog
http://longroadbackandforward.blogspot.com/

Tools for Nourishing Change – Anti-inflammatory Cooking Workshop

        Join us for a cooking workshop with Heidi Lescanec – both a Naturopathic physician and chef, passionate about good food nutrition and the art of creating nourishing and beautiful meals. Heidi brings her diverse culinary experience and knowledge of food as medicine to use in the kitchen in a spirited and inspiring way.

Feeding ourselves well plays a role in everything we do. Knowing how to choose and ENJOY whole food is a form of dedication to the self.

Through demos and sampling of snacks and dishes found on the anti-inflammatory diet, you will learn:

• How food can become true soul nourishment to our often neglected bodies
• How to use mealtimes as opportunity to use food as medicine for the body and soul at least three times a day!
• How the diet choices we make daily can impact our energy, hormones, mood and overall wellness

          Eating well leads to lifelong benefits on all levels – inspiring positive and           creative desires about what you put into your body; a fundamental           foundation for good health and vitality.

          Date: Thursday January 13, 2011

          Time: 6:00 – 8:00 pm

          Price: $35.00 + HST

          Please contact us at 604.931.2225 to register. Maximum 15 participants so

          book your spot today!

Last year we made the heart-breaking decision to cut down thirty four trees gracing the side of our building. For years their root system had been costing us thousands of dollars as they interfered with and were constantly becoming tangled in the plumbing beneath the building. The removal of the trees has left us with a great big space to fill, both in our hearts and on the newly exposed side of the building, so we are putting a call out to Artists to help us create a mural on the East facing wall of Port Moody Integrated Health building.

On July 24th, 2010 we held a visioning session and invited members of the Port Moody community to get together, brainstorm and share their ideas regarding the future of community, sustainability and wellness. It is from these shared ideas that we wish to build the body of the mural.

As an Artist, what can you envision and create that evokes hope and passion toward a positive future on the topics of community, sustainability and wellness? Our hope is for the mural to look as if it is exploding out of the wall, with bricks tumbling away; an idea whose time has come.

Interested Artists please submit:

• a maximum one page write up discussing why this project interests you, containing your views of the future of Community, Sustainability and Wellness
• your CV/ Portfolio

We will choose five finalists who will receive $100.00 each to create a mural mock-up and from those five we will choose the Muralist who we feel is right for the project. The chosen Muralist will recieve $4000.00 to complete the mural, this rumuneration will include paint, scaffolding and other materials.

Please submit to Port Moody Mural Project 2306 St. Johns Street, Port Moody BC V3H 2A9 or email us at customercare@integratedhealth.ca

Please submit applications Wednesday Oct. 13th, 2010.

As of September 1st we will be welcoming back Christine Schachtner, one of our massage therapists. Christine has been on maternity leave for the past year with her first baby, John.
We are also saying a very fond farewell to Andrea Allegretto, whose been Christine’s locum for the past year. Andrea is heading off to travel Europe for a month before settling down for a year of schooling to finish her Science degree.
Christine: welcome back we’ve missed you!
Andrea: take care and we will miss you!

We can finally say a big Congratulations to Dr. Monique LeDoux and her Partner Leif on their newborn son Jonah Kristian; born on July 18, 11 days overdue, and weighing 8lbs 13oz! Monique and Leif are thrilled to welcome another healthy boy into their family and say that their older son Hayden is adjusting well to his new role of Big brother

We finally figured out what to do with that big blank wall! We are painting a mural on the side of the building that overlooks the church parking lot and would love your input!
Please join us on Saturday July 24 from 1:00 to 4:00pm as we brainstorm about three areas – community, wellness and sustainability. What do you imagine Port Moody will look like in these areas in the future?
Your ideas will be captured by a graphic reporter, and will form the basis of a mural to be painted on the east wall of our building.
Call 604.931.2225 for more details. Find us on Facebook at Our Wall.

The first week of May is Naturopathic Awareness Week. It’s also the National Allergy Awareness Week and a perfect occasion to talk about natural ways you can reduce your seasonal allergy symptoms and eventually eliminate them altogether.   Yes, it IS possible!

Many of you noticed the return of your allergy symptoms (argh!) with the first window of warm weather during the Olympics in February and flowers burst out in bloom. Your body creates these allergy symptoms in response to its environment. When mast cells in your nose, mouth, eyes and throat come in contact with allergens they release histamine. This chemical creates the annoying symptoms you generally experience such as itchy eyes and throat, runny nose and sneezing.

Most over the counter medications act by stopping the release of histamine from mast cells – in other words, suppressing your body’s natural immune response to it’s environment.  Anti-histamines might get you through the current season, but doesn’t solve the problem long term.

To find a long-term solution, we need to dig deeper and ask the question: why? Why is the body reacting to the allergens in the first place?  Usually it’s because the body is out of balance in two areas: immune and detoxification.   By addressing these areas, plus other individualized barriers to health, you can create long-term resolution of symptoms.

A Naturopathic approach to resolving allergy symptoms includes nutrition, lifestyle counselling, botanical medicine, homeopathy and targeted nutrients to support your immune system function and help your body lighten its load by detoxifying effectively.

Here are 5 things you can start doing today that will help you to begin saying goodbye to your seasonal allergies:

1. Eat foods high in vitamin C – they help stabilize your mast cells and reduce the release of histamines: Raspberries, papaya, cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and broccoli
2. Eat liver friendly foods – it’s one of the organs responsible for eliminating toxins: Onions, garlic, and lightly steamed broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, and Brussels sprouts
3. Food Allergy Assessment - Talk to your ND about this –food allergies can be at the root of immune system imbalance and over activation.
4. Drink lots of fluid – divide your body weight (lbs) in half. This is how many ounces of water or decaffeinated herbal teas you should be trying to drink in a day – this will help your body eliminate waste.
5. Do a Seasonal Detox – doing a 10-21 day detoxification protocol each fall and spring gives a break to your immune system and all organs involved in metabolizing and getting rid of toxins.

These five simple steps are an excellent start to bringing your body back to its natural balance. Every step you take will help you on your journey back up the River of Health.

By: Dr. Vivian Lord, Naturopathic Physician at Port Moody Integrated Health

Check out Ki-Hara Resistance Stretching in Dara Torres’ new book Gold Medal Fitness: A Revolutionary 5-Week Program. Dara swears by Resistance Stretching as a way to keep her body pliable and strong as she ages, and maintains it as one of her secrets to success for winning Silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing!

The removal of the trees has changed more things than I would have thought. So first, let me start with some of the facts.

There were thirty-four trees and their root system was costing me thousands of dollars. Each time the washrooms were out of order, it was because the debris from the trees had blocked the pipes. The latest incident was that the roots had destroyed one of the pipes and was leaking into the ground. Where the pipe broke was underneath the foundation of the building.  The trees are actually on the property belonging to the church. I wrote a letter to the church council asking them to remove the trees and outlined the cost and damage that was occurring. The result was that all thirty-four trees were cut down, chipped or hauled away, and the stumps will be ground down. The root system will eventually die and no longer impact the sewer system for the building. And for that, I am very grateful.

What surprised me though was how sad I was to actually see those trees come down. It was much more emotional for me than I would have thought. I think the PMIH staff would probably all agree about the emotional aspect as well, and I know that seeing those old boys down on the ground touched many of the patients who had appointments on those days. The trees provided shade and coolness in the summer, offered privacy, a home for raccoons and squirrels (which in turn provided some fun moments for Newman, our resident Jack Russell), and most importantly, a vital part in keeping our environment and air cleaner. I was also somewhat surprised at how esthetically unappealing that side of the building was without those trees! While I don’t regret that they’ve been removed, I am very aware of how much sadness I also felt and the wonderful benefits those monster cypress trees provided.

We are currently looking at ways to help off set the environmental impact that the removal of the trees will cause, as well as all the machinery that was required to aid in the clean up. Our intention if to find an organization that we can contribute to that will plant 34 trees (and maybe a few more) in the name of the Saint Andrews Church and PMIH. We will update our web site with this information once we have this finalized.

In the meantime, I would like to thank those thirty-four old guys for all the work that they did over the years. I have kept a couple of pieces to keep their spirit with us all. And I would like to thank all of you who come through the doors at PMIH for your care and concern about our environment (the global one and PMIH).

Thanks,

Dr. Michael McCann