Sabrina Carnevale

Type 2 diabetes diagnosis spurred businesswoman to get active and healthy

Michelle Bergen never imagined that a health scare three years ago would lead to social media stardom.

Investment in opportunities to boost physical, mental health pays economic dividends

Physical activity can not only have a positive effect on your physical and mental health, it can also give the economy a boost.

Make way for the clean-up guy

For Dan Gordon, keeping his neighbourhood clean is all part of a day’s work. Unpaid work, that is.

The longtime Osborne Village resident equips himself daily with a trash picker, broom and dustpan and cleans up his neighbourhood.

“I really like spending my time doing something valuable in the community,” he says.

A former street patrol volunteer with the Bear Clan, Gordon was inspired during an Earth Day clean-up to tidy up his own backyard.

Time spent at home has reshaped what employees want from the office

Office workers used to, well, work in offices. Then the pandemic hit. And since it was first declared, entire organizations have been upended.

As workplaces face down the third year of the crisis, engaging workers to return to offices or hybrid work arrangements will require both empathy and flexibility.

In February’s Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, nearly a quarter of workers reported that they have been working exclusively at home. A little over 30 per cent are working part-time at home and part-time in the office.

“I think people find change difficult. We got comfortable when we were forced to work remotely, which we’ve done successfully, but then the shift to going back to work is another level of change. I think that’s been difficult for people,” says Roberta Connon, principal and general manager of InterGroup Consultants in downtown Winnipeg.

City woman chose medically assisted death in church where ALS sufferer had raised her family

When Betty Sanguin decided to end her life with medical assistance, one of her final requests was for it to take place at her church.

Her family helped fulfil her wish. Surrounded by loved ones, including her six children, Sanguin, 86, died in March at her “crossing over” ceremony at Churchill Park United Church. The entire procedure took 15 minutes.

A lifelong volunteer, her life changed forever last spring when she was diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

This was the first provision of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to take place in a church in Manitoba.

Lockdowns, social-media pressures amplify impacts of disordered eating, lack of body acceptance

Given the mental-health issues teenagers face every day, it should come as no surprise that the pandemic has elevated their stressors to new levels.

Pandemic lockdowns have led to substantial changes for young people, such as disruptions to eating, physical activity and social patterns, which can be risk factors for developing an eating disorder.

The Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba (MDAM) wanted to know more, so they piloted a disordered-eating program last spring.

“(The program) started off with a heavy disordered-eating focus but then we really tried to incorporate body image, diet culture, stereotypes, beauty, all of those things — because there’s so many other components to it,” says Andrea Smith, facilitator of the Disordered Eating and Body Image Workshop at MDAM.

Whether simple or structured, journalling can be great aid for personal growth

Once the territory of teenagers, journalling has evolved from sticker-covered notebooks to a marker of the so-called self-care movement, alongside meditation and holistic living. And for good reason: scientific studies have shown it to have significant mental and physical health benefits.

There are the obvious benefits, like a boost in memory, mindfulness and communication skills. But studies have also found that writing in a journal can lead to better sleep, a stronger immune system, improved stress management and more self-confidence. And none of these advantages require you to be a good writer.

There are several styles and methods to choose from; however, journalling is essentially creating time in your day to write down whatever comes to mind. Some people use colour-coded pens, a blank notebook or the latest app. Purists may stick to the tried-and-true spiral notebook for journal entries; however, typing entries on a computer or phone can yield similar effects that are just as positive, especially if it’s more convenient for you.

Artist Andrea Schroeder, founder of the Creative Dream Incubator in Winnipeg, has been teaching online journalling and meditation classes for more than a decade.

Social work dean promotes technique for positive impact

Many people practise mindfulness with the hopes of becoming more present, more focused and less judgmental. Research shows that mindfulness practices give us greater control over our emotions, and help regulate emotional responses and reduce anxiety, which can increase our capacity to be empathetic, think clearly and act with purpose.

In essence, mindfulness is any exercise that encourages you to focus on your sensations and thoughts in the present moment. It was popularized and became more mainstream in the West in the 1970s and ’80s.

Studies show mindfulness and related practices can also help with raising awareness and even assist in minimizing bias. While research is ongoing, this all suggests mindfulness and compassion practices can serve as important resources in addressing systemic change.

Michael Yellow Bird, dean of the faculty of social work at the University of Manitoba, has worked extensively in mindfulness, introducing it to Indigenous programs and teaching it to Indigenous communities and organizations.

Feeling your oats?

There’s a lot of buzz around fibre — and for good reason. While all fibres are types of carbohydrates, there are several varieties. One example is beta-glucans — a soluble fibre that has been linked to gut, heart and immune health.

To learn more about the health benefits of beta-glucan, researchers at the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) are conducting a nutritional study looking at how and if eating beta-glucan derived from oats affects blood pressure.

Fibre is a super-nutrient. It slows the absorption of glucose — which evens out our blood-sugar levels — and lowers cholesterol and inflammation. A fibre-rich diet is associated with better gastrointestinal health and a reduced risk of heart attacks, strokes, high cholesterol, obesity and Type 2 diabetes

“The goal of this project is to find out whether beta-glucan from oats has any effect on managing a healthy blood pressure,” says Dr. Sijo Joseph (Thandapilly), a research scientist with AAFC and co-investigator of the study.

Miscommunication, lack of urgency complicate prostate cancer battle

Three years ago, Les Ferris was told he had three to six months to live. A year at most.

The urologist who gave Ferris his prostate cancer diagnosis in 2018 was the same one who told him months earlier that his prostate was fine — no lumps or irregularities. He also told Ferris to come back two months later and that his PSA — prostate-specific antigen — would be “normal.”

“My diagnosis has been plagued by doctor illness, doctor egos and bad luck,” says Ferris, 66, a farmer from the south central Manitoba community of Holland.

PSA is a protein produced by tissue in the prostate, which is a small gland that sits below the bladder in males. Prostate cancer occurs when the cells of the prostate begin to grow uncontrollably. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.

Study tracks benefits of membership at medical fitness facilities

Nandita Selvanathan manages two heart conditions — both of which have caused her chest pains and repeated hospital visits.

“What was bothering me in my daily life was my frequent hospitalization. I went to the hospital quite a few times. That’s never a pleasant experience,” she says. “With my chest pains, I had drained energy, both mentally and physically.”

Selvanathan, 63, has two structural heart concerns — shrinkage of a heart valve and a dilated aorta. She has also experienced an arrhythmia and heart palpitations (rapid heart rhythms or skips) and notes that having high blood pressure “doesn’t help.”

At the suggestion of a friend, Selvanathan went to the Wellness Institute in 2015 to participate in the cardiac rehabilitation program. The education and supervised exercise regimen is designed for people with cardiovascular disease who are recovering from a heart attack, stents, peripheral artery disease, heart failure or irregular heart rhythms.

Teenage artist finds creative process helps her tap into emotions, find sense of self

Faiza Malik found more than peace and safety when she and her family arrived in Canada from Afghanistan nine years ago — she also found art.

The 16-year-old credits art and creativity with helping her transition to a new life. Now she wants to work with local kids to give them access to resources she never had growing up.

“I started painting when I first arrived in Canada when I was in Grade 2 or Grade 3. We had those little art projects in school and I was always excited to do those things because I was using my hands and creating something new,” Malik says. “Art wasn’t really a thing that was available in Afghanistan.”

She admits the culture shock was all-consuming when she and her family, including her mom, dad and three siblings, first arrived here.

Greeting the day with a structured ritual can reduce stress, build confidence

While many of us enjoy the occasional surprise or change of pace, we generally like to know how our day is going to unfold. We thrive on structure and predictability.

But what we used to take for granted has been upended by the pandemic and it can be challenging to try to reclaim some semblance of control. One way to keep our spirits up and help restore that sense of control is through rituals, especially those in the morning.

A morning ritual can be simple, from a 10-minute meditation session, to a series of morning tasks, such as brushing your teeth or washing your face, to brewing your morning coffee. When we wake up, we may be physically awake but our minds are still warming up. Studies have shown morning rituals promote higher energy levels and less stress throughout the day.

They help awaken our minds, help us get a fresh start and can be those slow moments when we have quiet time to ourselves.