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 Tanya Jeannet, Rockmybaby
Full-time live –in and live-out nanny salaries range between 3500CHF – 5000CHF per month gross on average depending on experience and qualifications and number of hours worked per month (full time standard hours are 43 hours a week in Zurich for nannies – each canton varies on standard hours too). For live-in nannies, an amount of 990CHF can be deducted from their salaries for food and accommodation. Hourly rates for nannies range between 20CHF-35CHF per hour gross on average, once again depending on experience and qualifications.
On top of the gross salary, the employer has to add his/ her contributions to AHV / AVS as per below, Accident Insurance and BVG (if salary above annual threshold of 21 150CHF). The employer is also responsible for deducting the employee contributions from the monthly gross salary and paying them to the appropriate institutions.
by Johdi Woodford, Little Bird Pilates
The use of the word ‘butt’ bothers me a bit here, as I’m used to using British English, (you know, the one the Queen speaks!?), and so I would usually say ‘bum’, but that sometimes makes people think of a beggar-type person, and I’m trying to stick to anatomical parts here, and then derrière sounds so pretentious, but whatever the semantics, know that this post is for all of us, because it’s all about people who sit, what that does to them, and how they can avoid the major pitfalls of sitting. Oh no! That’s right, I’ve already written about that here.
Ok, now I’ve jogged my own poor memory, this time, I’m going to outline 3 ‘moves’ that we can do to lessen the impact on the parts of our body that tend to bother us? Think neck, shoulders, lower back, and hips, and think, simple, fuss-free strategies for breaking the sedentary cycle. With anything, any activity, in life, as humans, and as bipeds, if we engage our lower abdominals, think the lower half below the belly button and then lift our lower back bones, we work all the rest of our bodies. It’s all to do with a mights structure called the Thoracolumbar Complex, but don’t worry that now, just read on! If you spend long periods sitting, these 3 moves will help in many different ways that should become evident as you do them regularly. They’re easy and they work, trust me!
By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
This is a simple, tasty recipe that you can serve either warm or cold.
The combination of tastes and textures in this recipe is incredibly interesting to the tastebuds, particularly due to the umami (http://www.healthwise.ch/umami-or-how-to-make-more-satisfying-meals/) combo of garlic / onion / Feta / olives. If you lightly toast the pumpkin seeds, this also makes them more umami and lends a more enticing texture.
Ingredients
- 4 sweet potatoes – medium sized (about 500g)
- 1 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 onions or scallions, chopped
- 200g Feta cheese, diced AND/OR olives
- About 2 tablespoons parsley or coriander, chopped
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- Green vegetable of your choice – here I added some steamed broccoli as a side to make a more complete meal but you can also add a handful of spinach leaves or chopped kale at the end and simply stir through to wilt the leaves slightly.
“…my hands were going pump, pump, pump. It was so basic in a way – no fancy beeping machines, hospital bed or team of medical doctors in white coats. Just the wet ground, me in my old jeans and some bystanders with a phone.”
Dr Penny Fraser, medical doctor and founder of HealthFirst, talks to her:
So, what happened that damp evening in December?
“I was on the way to pick up my six-year old daughter from her school friend’s party, when I turned a sharp bend in the road and saw a man lying in a hedge. Then I saw his bicycle lying nearby and two people standing looking at him. This looked a bit worrying to me and I thought my skills as a nurse and First Aid Trainer might be useful. So I pulled over and parked safely a little way ahead.”
What did you do next?
“I grabbed my phone and car keys then approached cautiously wondering what I might find. I asked the two bystanders what had happened and whether I could help. They both looked rather blank, shocked really, and told me that they had no idea what had happened. It was a bit wet on the ground but I just pushed into the hedge where he lay and spoke to him. He didn’t reply and when I rubbed hard on his collarbones, he just lay there unresponsive. I think he was about 60 years old and he looked very pale – white-ish or grey but the evening light was fading and it was difficult to tell.”
by Johdi Woodford, Little Bird Pilates
Alignment is how the body moves; how the various parts move alongside each other to ensure that there’s no friction or restriction. Posture is static, it’s how you choose to hold your body when you’re not moving and it’s probably been influenced by your culture, your background and the activities you do.
Compare a ballet dancer to a footballer, for example. See the 2 photos in this article if you’re in doubt as to what the difference may be.
Alignment is more important to work on than posture because, with correct alignment (note I didn’t say ‘good’ alignment) what you are actually working towards is bringing all your muscles back to their optimum length, and (re)educating your body as to its best position for pain-free movement.
And why should you care? Because when your musculoskeletal system is aligned, all your body systems can function properly, for as long as possible, with the least amount of unnecessary wear and tear. Sounds good, right?
