What is Natural Healthcare?

The human body is designed to work like a well-oiled, perfectly crafted machine. Each individual system, including the nervous, digestive endocrine systems to works with our organs in synergy to keep us in optimum health.

However, just like a machine needs maintenance and upkeep, so do our bodies. All too often, we wait until something “break” before we realize there is something wrong or take any steps to fix the problem. All too often those solutions are reactive. We take medicine, have surgery, visit multiple doctors, whatever we think will fix our issues.

However, there is a growing trend toward practicing natural, reactive medicine and taking steps to correct our diet and lifestyle that will prevent or slow down the development and medical conditions and the progression illness.  Around the world there is an increased interest in preventative medicine as well as an increased demand for Nutritional Supplements and Natural Healthcare Products.

In fact, 75% of Canadians currently use some form of non-drug therapy to manage or prevent a health condition.

What is Natural Healthcare?

So what does it mean to receive natural healthcare? Natural healthcare is holistic in nature meaning that the body and all of its systems are viewed a whole with the root causes of distressing symptoms being examined. For instance, many patients don’t simply have sore joints, weight gain and fatigue, they also have insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition that can be treated with diet and exercise. You can medicate the sore joints with Advil, work on the treadmill for hours and drink sugary caffeinated drinks to stay alert but in the end, you will end up treating a diseased pancreas that cannot process sugar any more with insulin.  In naturopathy, there are many interdependencies and the root cause of an issue is treated, as well as its symptoms with the intention of making the symptoms disappear altogether.

Natural Healthcare is More Popular Than Ever

To give you an example of how popular alternative health care services have become, in 2008, Americans spent $33.9 billion on complementary and alternative medicine practice and products.  According to NIH (National Institutes of Health New from information gathered from the National Center of Health Statistics this enormous amount of money was spent on herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic services, acupuncture services and similar.[1]

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com

For more information about The Pinewood Institute for the Advancement of Natural Medicine courses including course outlines, detailed descriptions of courses and information about upcoming training sessions, please go www.pinewoodinstitute.com.  You can also send us an email using our email form at http://pinewoodinstitute.com/contact.aspx or call us at 416-656-8100. If you prefer to fax the number is 416-656-8107.

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[1] Americans Spent 33.9 Billion Out-of-Pocket on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NIH NEWS, February 20, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2014. http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2009/073009.htm

Vegan Sources of the Amino Acid Cysteine for Gorgeous Hair

Sometimes, when people go on a calorie-restricted diet, they might find themselves suffering from a small amount of hair loss. This is why it might be essential for you to take the amino acid supplied cysteine whenever you are fasting or on a low calorie diet. 

Amino Acids and Your Hair

If you want hair that is thick, gorgeous and invulnerable to stress, environmental damage and the consequences of calorie deprivation then you might consider taking amino acid supplements.  All in all, there are twenty essential amino acids that you must have adequate amounts of in order to stay healthy and active.  Thankfully, all of them are available from vegan sources.

As you might remember being told in science class, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. The acids break down the food that we consume so that they can be rebuilt into the fibres that make up the tissues of the human body as well as stimulate the hormones in our body to produce energy and repair damaged cells.

Hair Growth And Low Calorie Diets

Hair is made completely of protein and in order for it to stay nourished and grow, it needs a consistent supply of amino acids. The amino acids that are most essential so that you can maintain beautiful locks are phenylalanine, valine, tryptophan, threonine, isoleucine, methionine, histidine and especially cysteine.  These eight amino acids the ones most important to build protein for hair.

When it comes to protein, hair follicles are very needy. Hair follicles require a constant supply of amino acids in order to be able to sustain a nutrient rich bed for each hair and they require a lot of it as the cells in a follicle grow fast and divide quickly. If your hair follicles lack the required protein, vitamins and energy, the hair follicles may not be able to produce any fibres.

The Importance of Cysteine

The most important amino acid for growing hair is cysteine. This is because cysteine contains sulphur molecules. That is why when you burn a bit of your hair, the air smells a bit like sulphur.  Sulphur is essential for ensuring that the bulb of each hair is firmly rooted in the scalp.  Sulphur is also part of the keratin protein chain that interlace with each other to produce strong chemical bonds called bisulfide bonds. This is what gives hair, what is called “tensile strength”.  The hair can be stretched a little before it breaks.  This is just one reason why taking supplemental cysteine or consuming it can be so crucial during a low calorie diet.

Food Sources of Cysteine

Foods from animal sources such as cheese, milk, yogurt, fish, eggs, poultry and beef provide all the nutrients needed for hair growth and health, including cysteine.  However, if you are on a low-calorie diet or trying to stick to a vegan then it might benefit you to know that oatmeal, sesame seeds, minimally processed soy foods, spirulina and wheat germ are good sources of the amino acid.  Here at the Pinewood Health Institute we sell our own Alka Greens+ powdered drink that can help dieting individuals balance their amino acid profiles as well as receive adequate amounts of cysteine while dieting.

For more information or to book a consultation about our restorative healthy and active diet and weight loss programs visit the Pinewood Natural Health Centre website that has a list of full services and products at www.pinewood.ca or call our Toronto Office at  (416)-656- 8100.  We also have an office in Pickering, Ontario at (905)-427-0057. You can also email us at info@pinewoodhealth.ca and we would be happy to answer any question that you have about our holistic health services.

16 Quick Tips to Help Keep Lost Weight Off for Good

At the Pinewood Health Institute we offer several different programs to help you lose weight including diets that include HCG injections combined calorie-restricted diets. Once you have gone through this type of program, it should then becomes your goal to keep that weight off for good by maintaining some healthy habits.

Here are sixteen quick tips for helping maintain your hard-won weight loss.

1. Drink at least eight ounces of water for every ten pounds you weight every single day to make sure that your body remains in state of perpetual cleansing and well hydrated.
2. Look for hidden sodium on food labels and try to choose foods with less than 5 mg of sodium in them for best results.
3. If you can eat it raw, then do not bother cooking it. Raw foods take more calories to digest and therefore help you keep the pounds off.
4. Eat foods that are high in protein with just a few foods with carbohydrates to enhance your weight loss potential.
5. To save yourself from just grabbing any snack when you are hungry be sure to keep plenty of freshly cut-up vegetables and healthy dips like salsa or chick pea to satisfy any cravings you gee between meals.
6. Brush your teeth with strongly scented toothpaste in order to help control food cravings. The strong taste of fennel or mint in your mouth helps deter you from eating for a while.
7. Substitute green tea for that morning cup of coffee. Some types, such as matcha and gunpowder green tea contain just as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. It is also diuretic that can help you get rid of fat.
8. Eating two small squares of dark chocolate before a meal helps curb your appetite so you do not eat as much.
9. When you do eat, practice portion control and be aware of how easy it is to add calories to your body by heaping foods on your plate.
10. Cut down on alcoholic beverages completely. Stick to having half a glass of red wine a day. If you absolutely must drink then make it a vodka and club soda and keep it to less than three drinks a week.
11. Drink a shot of apple cider vinegar (1 ounce) to help immediately make your system more alkaline.
12. Stay away from butter and margarine and use as little oil as possible when you cook; add healthy oils like olive oil to salads.
13. Bake instead of fry and if at all possible, forget cooking the food at all and serve it raw.
14. Stay away from any carbonated drink including club soda, diet drinks and carbonated waters.
15. Be mindful about snacking and avoid thoughtless snacking in front of the television set or while working
16. Instead of snacking take up a hobby that occupies your hand such as knitting or crocheting so you are less likely to want to snack while watching television.

Just by doing these few simple things, you can help distract yourself from indulging in the bad habits that might have been allowing the pounds to subtly start creeping back on your frame.

For more information or to book a consultation about our restorative diet and weight loss programs  visit the Pinewood Natural Health Clinic website that has a list of full services and products at www.pinewood.ca or call our Toronto Office at  (416)-656- 8100.  We also have an office in Pickering, Ontario at (905)-427-0057. You can also email us at info@pinewoodhealth.ca and we would be happy to answer any question that you have about our holistic health services.