Category Archives: Mental Health

Has your husband been acting a little odd lately? Driving too fast, changing car lanes aggressively and cutting people off more so than usual? Is he more openly hostile than ever before, while at the same time more sullen and introverted, cutting himself off from friends and family? It could be your cat. That’s right. ...click here to read more

Don’t call me crazy! There’s a stigma surrounding mental health issues, like depression, phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder, that prevents people from asking for help. That has to change. When it comes to people affected by cancer or heart disease, statistics are easy to find. Mental illness, though, is not so clear-cut, but numbers appear ...click here to read more

Feeling a little blue? Lonely, listless and in your pajamas until noon? I can’t blame you. In some parts of North America, we’re in a record-breaking deep freeze. The days are short, dark and pretty darn cold and I feel as though I need to take up ice fishing to make the most of the ...click here to read more

Waking up to a fresh pot of coffee is routine for many of us. We can’t get out of bed without it! Having an additional two or three cups to get through the day seems normal, but could your daily coffee intake be taking its toll on your health? Your dependency on coffee could mean ...click here to read more

Traditionally used in human and veterinary medicine, the drug, ketamine, now promises to be a fast, effective treatment of depression in patients unresponsive to other medications. New research conducted by Japan’s RIKENCenter for Life Science Technologies – and published in the journal Translational Psychiatry – reveals that ketamine works by boosting serotonin in the parts of the brain ...click here to read more

Holidays can be so joyful. They are full of celebration, beautiful décor, reunions with family and friends; not to mention the delicious variety of foods and gift-giving that comes along with them. However, when the music stops, the family and friends go home, and it’s time to put those festive decorations away and go on ...click here to read more

Vitamin D is known to increase bone strength by improving your body’s ability to absorb calcium. However, that isn’t the only trick up the sunshine vitamin’s sleeve. New research has shown that vitamin D can actually fight depression, and reduce pain in type 2 diabetic women experiencing depression. RELATED READING: Why your Multivitamin Isn’t Giving ...click here to read more

What a difference, watching how my older patients treat their brain health versus how my younger patients do. A skipped appointment, confusion about how to take a prescription, or a forgotten instruction from our last visit sends my older patients into a spin of nervous panic, embarrassment, defensiveness, a string of excuses, and several assurances ...click here to read more

Dementia is a mental health condition that is quickly becoming a major health concern around the world.  Approximately 35.6 million people suffer from the disease worldwide and 7.7 million new cases are diagnosed each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  Dementia involves a deterioration of memory, thinking, and behavior.  And eventually, it interferes ...click here to read more

For many of us, the thought of hot chocolate brings to mind happy childhood memories of being treated with it’s frothy sweetness on cold days, or sipping on it for it’s sleepy warmth before bedtime. However, a Harvard Medical School research team recently proved a case for us older folk to continue indulging in hot ...click here to read more

If you’re out and about with friends, it’s important that you’re able to separate background noise from important, meaningful conversation directed at you.  As it turns out, the oxytocin hormone – also known as the “love hormone” for its role in sexuality, reproduction and social bonding – may also play a key role in the ...click here to read more

Six minutes a day – three in the morning, and three before bed. That is all the time it takes to maintain a sparkling white smile. These six minutes, however, may prove to be far more important to your future well-being than anyone could have ever imagined. The Connection between Dementia and Gum Disease A ...click here to read more

You may not have ever stopped to think about it, but you’re constantly engaged in inner speech. As you read this right now, you are using your inner voice. This process is largely unexplored; however, two recent experiments published in the journal Psychology Science have revealed a brain signal, called corollary discharge, that plays an important ...click here to read more

Stress can impact our lives in various ways, and most people have reported experiencing that feeling of pressure at one point or another – whether at home with the kids, or at work, or juggling the day-to-day responsibilities of everyday life . Few will deny that stress is an unhealthy state of body, mind or ...click here to read more