The promise of vacation also brings the promise of upset stomachs, painful sunburns and poor digestion if you’re not prepared. To help people avoid getting sick, we spoke to Dr. Courtney Holmberg, a Toronto Naturopath. She helps patients create individual treatment plans, and says there are natural items you need to pack before you head […]

I like to spend these summer days happily working outside in the bush harvesting plants for Algonquin Tea Company. I am also planning a number of camping trips in the coming months. This year I will be doing my outdoor adventures with a higher level of mindfulness than usual because Lyme-bearing ticks are on the […]

While having lunch with a group of friends recently, I had been sharing how challenging it can be to stay optimistic in these times of change. Someone in the group joked that humans might be a bit slow to outwardly show any strong markers of evolution, but animals are clearly teaching us the way forward. […]

Since I moved up to the Ottawa Valley from Toronto 20 years ago, the winter temperatures have definitely been getting milder. When I first arrived, the locals used to measure the quality of the winter by how many days were -40C  or colder, and when it’s that cold it doesn’t snow. Now a temperature of […]

Here we stand at the prow of a new year, and already we can feel the currents of change ahead of us. From a numerological perspective, 2017 (2+0+1+7), is the beginning of a nine-year cycle of new growth. I would add that – energetically – all those endeavours that hold more light (serving the highest […]

When I first noticed the small red bumps on my neck, I thought they were bug bites. After all, I had just returned from the cottage where the mosquitos were hungry.  The next day I felt more bumps on the back of my neck. Although they were itchy they didn’t really feel or look like […]

 What is Margarete Jentschura’s Secret? (Editor’s note: We were amazed when we heard that Margarete Jentschura still visits her family-owned health food store in Muenster, Germany every day – at 103 years old! So we asked her grandson, Roland Jentschura (MSc), how she manages this.) Vitality: Hello Roland, by now your grandmother is over 103 […]

By the time you read this, Mars will no longer be retrograde (which it was from April 17 to June 29). During this retrograde period, there was also a ‘grand cross’ smack in the middle of it. Did you notice during this period that you found your personal story being taken apart in such a […]

My Mom died at dawn on May Day as my sister read her a poem by Rumi. It’s the same poem that was quoted in last month’s Sacred Journeys column. Mom loved poetry. Over the years, we often heard her quote from a poem by Robert Frost: “Like a piece of ice on a hot […]

How I Healed My Thyroid by Taking Charge of My Health Every challenge creates an opportunity for growth and transformation. At the age of 31, I was diagnosed with thyroid disease while expecting my second child.  Although my beliefs were such that the conventional medical approach did not completely resonate with me, awareness helped create […]

Every word and thought carries a vibration. If we are surrounded by healthy relationships and love, we hear the words that nourish our soul, and in time, these words become part of who we are, how we feel, and what we believe about ourselves. When we experience abuse or spend time in an environment that […]

Here we are in February – heralding the season when we take time to acknowledge the power of love (especially romantic love). Over the last seven years, I have been either ‘lightly’ dating or spending time on my own. Last spring my beloved turned up, and since then love and I have been on quite […]

And My Amazon Journey To Restored Health Nothing can convert you into an environmentalist and champion of alternative medicine faster than your own brush with severe illness. In my case, a journey that began with working in a mercury-contaminated area of the Amazon has taught me a lot about the connection between human health and […]

How I Learned to Undiet My Life

I was never a cook. It just didn’t matter to me. That is, it didn’t matter until it had to – until my health, and the direction of my life, depended on it.

Local friends of mine began meeting last month to plan an invitation for a Syrian family to our neighbourhood. The sense of community is strong here. To sponsor a Syrian family we are required to come together as a group and commit to caring for them financially and socially for a year. It is very […]

Environmental Working Group – Cancer Prevention Edition Environmental Working Group’s adopted adage, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, could not possibly be more apt when it comes to the toxic soup of chemicals we are exposed to every day – in our cleaning products, the foods we buy at the supermarket, […]