Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Family/Health section. To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:
- Lee Eldrige
The Athlete Tribe
- Dr. Michelle Wright
Dr Michelle Wright is a British-trained General Practitioner and Director of HealthFirst, providing physical First Aid training and Mental Health First Aid training, as well as Health Education, throughout Switzerland (www.healthfirst.ch). She also has a regular radio show about health on World Radio Switzerland. Believing that prevention is better than cure and that we should be treating the root cause of illness, Dr Michelle is also a Lifestyle Medicine enthusiast. - Birgit Suess is a Swiss-American who grew up between the US and Switzerland and speaks English, German and Swiss-German. Because of a worldwide shortage of Speech Therapists, she uses technology to connect special needs students around the world with English speaking Speech Therapists. With almost 20 years of experience as a Speech Therapist and 10 years experience with Teletherapy, she is a pioneer in the Teletherapy world. Her personal specialty is working on social language with high functioning children on the Autism Spectrum. Her passion is finding new and innovative ways to help children with special needs.
- Dr. Irina Schurov is a Nutritional Neuroscientist with a PhD from Cambridge University (UK) and over 20 years’ experience in science and health-providing services. She created and founded LiveRight, an initiative to help others through nutrition and wellbeing strategies. By building an educational platform around healthy eating habits, by restoring the relationships between people and food, by supporting your individual circumstances and through personalized coaching in nutrition, she wants to help you and your family achieve the optimal balance between help and life.
- Dr. Penny Fraser
Dr Penny is a British-trained Emergency Medicine doctor, who lives in Geneva. She is also the mother of two busy little skiers aged 7 and 8. Along with Dr Michelle Wright and her other colleagues at HealthFirst, she has a passion for delivering health education and First Aid training to the English-speaking community in Switzerland
by Milena McRae, www.milenamcrae.com
I’ve heard it said that some people live ninety years and others live one year ninety times. The difference is that those living their years to the fullest are living their dreams. We are all capable of living our dream lives when we open ourselves up to possibilities and opportunities.
We have been trained to look at conditions to determine what the opportunities and possibilities are for our lives, though these conditions can be limiting when viewed with just the five senses. When we live outside the standard senses and use intuition, imagination, and perception we are able to more clearly see our heart’s desire and the dreams that will bring us the happiness we yearn. We all have an inner voice but it is not one of reason or logic...it is the voice of guidance. This voice may not make sense to anyone else but it is there to help us recognize and nurture the thoughts that build dreams of our very own.
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
Growing up in an Arabic family meant that hummus was a staple in our home. Whenever we had to bring something for school events, my mother would make hummus.
Something wasn’t going well? Eat hummus. Something to celebrate? Lets make hummus.
So yes, I do like my hummus. And for a long time, I stuck to my mother’s traditional hummus recipe. Then one of my Food Coaching clients casually mentioned she had thrown in a few sun-dried tomatoes to my hummus recipe. Sun-dried tomatoes and hummus? I was intrigued but did I dare mess with such an institution?
Next time I made hummus, I tentatively added a few sun-dried tomatoes. It blew me away. Excited by the idea of re-creating hummus, I started experimenting. I added in zucchini in summer. Pumpkin in autumn. Some raw beetroot in winter.
And I discovered that there is no one way of preparing hummus - that there were endless varieties of this delicious dish.
I put together these recipes and guidelines to help you get started. Once you understand the building blocks, you will know what you want to add more or less of - keep tasting as you prepare food and trust your intuition!
Click here to download my Everything Hummus Guide and Video.
Mild head injuries are common, especially in children and during contact sports. They can occur when the head is hit by a moving object (e.g. a ball, car or fist) or when the head hits a stationary surface at speed (e.g. the ground, a wall etc.)
The brain ‘floats’ within the bony skull in some liquid called cerebrospinal fluid. This liquid allows a small degree of movement of the brain. If the skull is hit, then the brain may bounce or twist inside the skull. This can lead to a disruption in the electrical activity in some of the brain cells, causing them to malfunction for a short while. It is this malfunction that causes the symptoms of concussion.
The symptoms of concussion can include:
- A brief loss of consciousness at the time of the injury (followed by a rapid, spontaneous recovery)
- A loss of memory of the accident itself or the few moments before the accident happened (amnesia)
- Feeling dizzy
- Nausea
- Mild headache
These symptoms will, by definition, resolve within hours to days in most cases but may sometimes last for weeks in a few. Once all the symptoms have settled down, then a certain diagnosis of concussion can be made. There is no permanent damage to the structure of the brain when someone has concussion.
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
I recently met a woman called Rita Rütsche who does "bodywork" through a very unique approach. Following a number of helpful sessions with her, I was curious to know more about her approach and work. For anyone else who might be interested, here is the interview I did with her.
What exactly do you do?
I teach people to become more aware of their bodies so they can change disturbing behaviour patterns in their lives. I help them become conscious of how they walk through life, and what made them into the person they are today.
Through this process, they become aware of conditioning and influences. They are then able to find the freedom to make choices that are more fitting to their qualities and potential, that come from their heart, rather than being driven by common beliefs and other people’s expectations.
This is important because we are constantly influenced by the beliefs of our parents, our surroundings, our teachers at school etc from the moment we are born. Even though their aim is to provide a frame to grow and evolve in, they also transmit their fears, pains and limiting beliefs about life and about ourselves.
So even though these sources of influence give us a sense of security because of their familiarity, they also create dissatisfaction, physical discomfort and erroneous choices in our lives.
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
There are few foods or drinks more imbued with memories and sensuality than coffee.
Which often brings up this question: Is coffee healthy?
As a Food Coach, my usual response to that question with any food or drink is: It depends - and it is no different with coffee.
Coffee is a great illustration of how nutritional research reveals both sides of a food or drink.
On the plus side…
Coffee has been shown to increase alertness, improve mood and energy, concentration and even athletic performance. It is also a great source of antioxidants and has even been shown to help prevent disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
On the not so sunny side…
Coffee has been shown to increase blood pressure, increases stress response in the body, spike blood sugar levels, can exacerbate gastro-intestinal problems, inhibits the absorption of nutrients, increases the risk of urinary and prostate problems in men and hormone-related problems with women such as PMS.
