Grand Travel and Your Bucket List

Other PEOPLE TRAVEL

Friday, February 10, 2012

We all have a bucket list of places to see before we die. In fact, there is a book with a similar title in the travel section of bookstores. If your bucket list includes plans to take your grandchildren, do it sooner rather than later, especially if you’re taking them out of school for the trip.

When my grandsons were four and six, I took them on a trip to Italy. Their parents came too and we all worried at the time about taking them out of school, junior kindergarten and grade one at the time. My sister, a retired teacher, advised taking them. “They’ll learn more on the trip than what they miss in five days of school,” she said. They don’t remember much about the trip, unfortunately, but for me, it was a wonderful memory. And perhaps, subconsciously, they learned something.

After that trip, every time I travelled, my oldest grandson asked if he could “hide in my suitcase” and come along.  In retrospect, I wish I had taken him, because now, at fourteen, he barely acknowledges my existence and certainly wouldn’t be seen in public with me, let alone entertain the prospect of travelling with someone so ‘old.’

We have, unfortunately, a small window of opportunity to take our grandchildren on a vacation that fits in with family schedules and school attendance. And, there are compelling reasons to take them out of school for a trip. Generally, in the off season, which is code for when school is in, rates are cheaper, deals are more appealing and crowds are fewer in the usual tourist haunts. And there’s a benefit too of being away from the din of electronic games and television for both grandparents and kids.

There are other advantages to taking children out of school for a trip, especially if there’s a chance for enrichment. Seeing snow in the Rockies, or viewing The Grand Canyon, the Roman Forum or the Eiffel Tower in 3D is a geography or history lesson itself. With funding cuts in the education system, field trips that take kids on larger-than-life excursions like the ones above are tucked into the past.

Certainly, there are mixed reviews regarding the wisdom of taking children out of school for a vacation. Teachers are the best experts in sanctioning the trip. The child’s usual performance in school is an issue. A conscientious student will catch up; a slack student may have problems. The grade level is another issue. Students in secondary school, while they are the ones who may actually learn from an enrichment trip, have heavier workloads than children in the lower grades of an elementary school. For older grandchildren in secondary school, the decision to take the trip is theirs. They know best how missing school may impact their success. If the child is involved in athletic teams, coaches should be informed of the plans as well.

It’s important that the child’s parents give the teacher advance notice of the planned trip and arrange for any homework that should be completed during the trip so the child doesn’t fall behind. Often the time of year is critical in the education system and finding out whether there are important tests your grandchild will miss is critical to planning the trip around an appropriate time.

There should be, if necessary, time allotted on the vacation for doing homework. Perhaps math problems can be solved on the plane or spelling tests given before heading out for a day of sightseeing.

When possible, plan the trip over a time period that coincides with a holiday such as Easter or a professional development day so that fewer ‘school days’ are missed.

The child may benefit even more, besides enjoying the company of a grandparent, from a trip that has some educational value, especially if the destination is a place the child is currently learning about in history or geography.

To sweeten the deal, buy a souvenir gift for your grandchild to bring home to her teacher.

-Bonnie Baker Cowan

http://www.zoomermag.com/people/grand-travel-and-your-bucket-list/37325#more-37325 

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Do you get enough calcium?

A total of 1.4 million Canadians or 1 in 4 women and 1 in 8 men over the age of 50 have osteoporosis. Osteoporosis refers to bone loss that causes "thinning" or weakening of the bones. Because bone loss occurs without symptoms, osteoporosis often goes unrecognized for many years until one or several fractures occur. Since bones are made primarily of calcium, eating calcium-rich foods helps keep bones strong. At the same time, it helps the heart, blood, and muscles work properly.

Other factors also affect bone strength, such as genetics, amount of weight-bearing exercise, and exposure to sunlight. Sunlight is necessary because it affects the level of vitamin D in the body, which helps the absorption of calcium.

Since the body can't make calcium, we have to get it from the food we eat.

Getting the most calcium from your food

The amount of calcium you absorb from the foods you eat depends not only on how much calcium is in the food, but on how easily it's absorbed (bioavailability), the amount of calcium already stored in your body, and what you eat with the calcium-rich food.

Many researchers say that the best bet for getting calcium is to eat dairy products like milk, yogurt, and cheese because they are high in calcium, and the type of calcium they contain is easily absorbed by the body.

Foods which contain oxalates or phytates, however, interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium.

High-oxylate foods

• Fruits:
• blackberries
• blueberries
• citrus peel
• Concord grapes
• Damson plums
• gooseberries
• raspberries
• red currants
• rhubarb
• strawberries
• Vegetables:
• amaranth
• beet leaves
• cassava
• collards
• leeks
• okra
• parsley
• purslane
• spinach
• sweet potatoes
• Swiss chard
• Beverages:
• beer
• berry juices
• coffee
• cola
• Ovaltine®
• tea
• Other foods:
• almonds
• chocolate
• cocoa
• peanuts
• peanut butter
• pecans
• poppy seeds

High-phytate foods

• barley
• beans
• bran and wheat cereals
• corn chips
• nuts
• oats
• rice
• rye bread
• sesame seeds
• soybean meal
• wheat bran
• wheat germ

For example, ½ cup of cooked spinach has 122 mg of calcium, but the bioavailability of that calcium is close to zero because spinach is high in oxalates. If you rely on vegetables as your source of calcium, you should choose low-oxalate vegetables more often, such as kale, broccoli, bok choy, mustard and turnip greens.

How much calcium do you need?

Unfortunately, North American men and women aren't getting enough calcium.

In order to keep your bones healthy, get enough calcium every day and choose low-oxalate, low-phytate fruits and vegetables.

Recommended calcium

Age (years)	Intake per day
1 to 3	500 mg
4 to 8	800 mg
9 to 18	1,300 mg
19 to 50	1,000 mg
Over 51	1,200 mg

During pregnancy and lactation, recommend calcium changes:

Age (years)	Intake per day
under 19	1,300 mg
over 19	1,000 mg

The US National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine can provide more info on recommended intakes.

Calcium rich foods

The following chart lists the amount of calcium found in many common foods.

Click to enlarge

*add 100 mg for each portion of calcium-enriched milk or yogurt

Written and reviewed by the MediResource Clinical T

http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=1544&channel_id=10&relation_id=10999 

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Climate change and your health

On some days, you look out the window to check the skies for rain or snow. You stretch an arm out an open window to gauge the temperature or turn on the local news to find out the day's high. Day to day, the weather may decide your wardrobe or your route to work. Season to season, you may notice fluctuations from colds and flu to allergies and sunburns. But what about the climate and the overall quality of the weather over time? Can climate change impact your health?

Climate change in a nutshell

People use a lot of energy, and most of the energy we've used over the last century has been created through the burning of non-renewable fossil fuels. The fossil fuels we use - including the gas in our cars and the coal that still heats some homes - release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

CO2 is also produced naturally by the environment and is an essential part of many natural processes, such as plant photosynthesis. CO2 is naturally regulated to keep the amount of it in balance between the atmosphere and the land and the ocean.

However, this CO2 and other greenhouse gases appear to be accumulating and trapping the sun's heat and radiation in the atmosphere. This increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is caused by the change in our climate: air and water temperatures have risen and weather patterns have begun to shift. Basically, we have managed to change the world's climate.

How climate change may affect your health

In the years to come, our world's climate will become warmer and more unpredictable. Climate change and global warming have been acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a threat to human health, especially to those living in the poorest regions of the world.

The heat is on. Climate changes may bring about more frequent heat waves and the health problems that accompany extreme heat: heat stroke, dehydration, respiratory problems, and cardiovascular distress. With hot, dry conditions, some areas of the world may see more droughts and depleted crops, which would contribute to hunger and malnutrition. In urban areas, extreme heat can worsen smog and pollution. Unpredictable shifts in temperature can take people by surprise. The very young, the very old, and the very frail, tend to be most negatively impacted by heat waves.

Rain and its runoff. Inconsistent patterns of rain could result in more frequent catastrophic hurricanes and flooding. Floodwaters can compromise water safety and become breeding grounds and transporters for any number of waterborne illnesses. Floodwaters contaminated with human or animal waste can trigger diarrhea outbreaks due to bacteria, as with cholera, E. coli, and typhoid, or from viruses like hepatitis A.

Bugs spreading bugs. Insects and other animals act asvectors (carriers) of infectious diseases that can be transmitted to people. As the climate grows warmer, mosquitoes, ticks, and other disease vectors spread into new territories and live for longer periods of time than they normally would. With longer lives and wider reach, these vectors have new and more numerous opportunities to transmit infections like malaria, Lyme disease, or dengue fever.

Pollen and other allergens. Climate shifts could also shift the growth patterns of certain plants. This becomes troublesome when those plants are irritants or allergens. Scientists have noted proliferations of stronger, more abundant poison ivy, ragweed, and earlier onset of pollen season.

The climate has changed. Have you?

The climate is the context in which we live, and it's impossible to escape it. It also feels like the kind of thing over which you have little control. While you can't cool a heat wave or pacify a surging hurricane, you can begin to turn the climate tide through your own individual actions.

Be a proactive weather watcher. You can tune in to the weather report for a forecast of the temperature and overall conditions. Will it rain? Do I need a jacket? Warnings and bulletins alert people of pending extreme weather events, like tornadoes, tsunamis, or floods. Additional forecasts and advisories can warn you of various day-to-day fluctuations in atmospheric conditions.

Keep an eye on the barometric pressure and wind velocity, as factors like these can impact your health. Many news forecasts will issue UV warnings to rate the strength of the sun's ultraviolet radiation on a given day. Pollen levels and air quality indexes warn of days with high smog, pollution, or allergen levels. On days with higher warning levels, you would know to take extra precautions to protect your health. Some of these include:

• wearing sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses to protect your skin from UV radiation
• staying indoors during days of high smog, especially if you have medical conditions that can be affected by poor air quality (e.g., asthma)
• drinking lots of water during extreme heat warnings to prevent dehydration

Help those who need it. Those who have limited resources to adapt to climate changes and extreme weather shifts can fall victim to the elements. During extreme weather shifts, remember those in your area who may need extra support: the elderly, the homeless, or the economically challenged. Act on the behalf of their health and safety by making material or financial donations to help provide fans or air conditioning and cooling units during a heat wave, blankets or coats during an intense cold snap, or shelter after a catastrophic storm.

Think globally, act locally. As you move through your days and make choices, the wider world should stay in your thoughts. Even if you live in a big city and work all day in an office, you are part of the natural world. The small decisions you make each day impact everyone else, albeit in gradual, cumulative ways:

• carry reusable shopping bags instead of plastic bags
• take public transit, carpool, walk, or ride a bike instead of driving your car
• invest in a safe, reusable water bottle instead of buying single-serving plastic water bottles
• turn off lights when you don't need them - switch to more efficient appliances, and shut them down when not in use

Amy Toffelmire

http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=4375&channel_id=10&relation_id=10998

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

How to become an optimist

ARTICLE BY: CYNTHIA ROSS CRAVIT

 - SEP 08, 2011

When times are tough it's easy to expect the worst. But a positive attitude benefits your health, your happiness -- and your productivity.

Research shows that having a positive attitude can make a huge difference in promoting better health and an improved sense of well-being — which in turn can lead to improved confidence and productivity.

And while optimists are often accused of oversimplifying or being unrealistic, the Mayo Clinic says that people who tend to view situations in a positive light experience a higher level of both physical and mental functioning than their pessimist counterparts.

Optimists, for example, have:

- Greater resistance to catching the common cold

- Reduced risk of coronary artery disease

- Easier breathing if you have certain lung diseases, such as emphysema

- Better coping skills during hardships

- Less negative stress

Further, studies have found that optimistic people decreased their risk of early death by a full 50 per cent compared to those who were more pessimistic. (For more, see Will your personality determine how long you live?)

Retrain the brain

If you’re not a natural optimist, can you change the way you think — and become more upbeat? Experts say yes, that with practice, people can basically retrain their brains to think more positively. Mainly this has to do with monitoring — and changing, if necessary — the ’self-talk’ or the automatic stream of thoughts that runs through your head, endlessly, every day. These thoughts can be either negative or positive, and can be based on logic or on misconceptions and lack of information.

According to the Mayo Clinic, some common forms of negative self-talk include:

Filtering. This happens when you magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter out all of the positive ones. For example, after a fantastically productive day at work, you suddenly realize you forgot one task – and it is this task you focus on instead of the ones you did accomplish.

Personalizing. In this case, when something bad occurs, you automatically blame yourself. Did your company lose an important account? You think it must be entirely your fault — when in reality other factors came into play.

Catastrophizing. This happens when you automatically anticipate the worst in any given situation. Your boss asks to see you? It must be bad news.

Polarizing. In this instance there is no middle ground: You view things as either good or bad, black or white. You feel that you have to be perfect or that you’re a total failure.

Silence the internal critic

Instead of automatically giving in to them, challenge your negative thoughts. You can weed out negative self-talk by replacing thoughts that are based on irrational thinking with rational, positive ones. For example, if you’re feeling out of the loop at the office, instead of saying to yourself: “No one bothers to communicate with me”, say instead, “I’ll see if I can open the channels of communication.”

Copyright 2009-2011 All Rights Reserved - ZoomerMedia Limited.

http://www.50plus.com/lifestyle/how-to-become-an-optimist/2021/

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Healthy Brain - Challenge yourself

Just as physical activity improves your body's ability to function, studies show that keeping your brain active may help reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Research is showing that by using your brain, you increase its networks of connections. A brain-healthy lifestyle also emphasizes the importance of overcoming routine and monotony in our daily lives. By approaching daily routines in new ways, you engage new or little used mental pathways. Since the evidence suggests that mental stimulation enhances brain activity and may help maintain brain health throughout life, it is important to put your brain to work. Challenging your brain doesn't have to be difficult. It can be as simple as dialing the phone with your less dominant hand or as complex as learning a new language. Remember, the goal is to give your brain a new experience and a workout each and every day.  Play games to challenge your mind – chess, word and number puzzles, jigsaws, crosswords and memory games.  Pursue a new interest such as learning to play a musical instrument, taking a course or going to the theatre.  Break your routine – take a different route to the store or change the order of your morning routine.  Involve one or more of your senses in a novel way - write your name with your opposite hand or count out coin change by using your sense of touch.  Read a book – discuss it with a friend.  Pursue cultural activities like going to plays, museums, concerts, galleries.  Keep up hobbies such as sewing, carpentry or take up a new hobby.  Cross train your brain – try a variety of mental challenges.  For some great ways to take action on brain health, visit our BrainBoosterTM pages. Note: Your abilities, health situation and interests should be taken into consideration when choosing brain healthy activities. If you have questions about your own situation, speak to your doctor or health-care provider. For a reference list of studies regarding Alzheimer's disease and brain health, click here. [This information is also available in an information sheet you can download from this site.

http://alzheimer.ca/english/brain/challengeyourself.htm

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

Music Helps Ease Pain & Anxiety of Cancer Patients

The saying music soothes the soul has proven to be more than a catchy phrase.  Over the years, frequently listening to music has been linked to a number of health benefits which includes reducing stress.  A recent review of 30 studies published in the Cochrane Library found that music therapy helped cancer patients reduce anxiety and pain while improving overall quality of life. 

Joke Bradt, PhD., and associate professor of creative arts therapies at Drexel University and her colleagues reviewed studies that included 1,891 cancer patients who went through different forms of music therapy.  In all of the studies, participants commonly listened to music and in some cases also played instruments, sang, or created rhymes along with control groups the received standard treatment.  Improvements linked to the different music therapies included: reduced anxiety, improved pain and mood, lower blood pressure, heart rate, and overall improved quality of life. 

Bradt concludes that there is need of more research and tests in order to see which type of music therapy is most effective, but says that programs should be tailored to the individual’s tastes and skills.  “It’s not like when you go to a doctor with a headache, and he prescribes a specific type of medicine that will help me with my headache and also help you with your headache,” Bradt explains. 

More in depth studies are needed to know the true extent of the benefits that music may have, however the results are promising.  Robert Zatorre, Ph.D., a cognitive neuroscientist at McGill University sums it up saying, “the cost involved with music is very small compared to other kinds of interventions. How well it works – say, compared to drugs – is another question, but the side effects are very minimal as well.  The worst thing that can happen [when] someone doesn’t like music is that they can turn it off.”  So whether you suffer from a chronic illness or not, listen to some music to help brighten your day and improve your mood.    

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon), Hamilton and surrounding areas.

10 tricks to play on your body

Clear Your Nose
To relieve sinus pressure, alternate between pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth and pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. Your vomer bone runs through the nasal passage to the mouth so pushing on these two points causes the bone to swing like a see-saw. This motion loosens congestion and can clear sinuses in under 30 seconds.

Hold It In
According to Larry Lipshultz, M.D., the chief of male reproductive medicine at Baylor College, the best way to hold it in when nature calls is to think about sex. Sex preoccupies the brain which makes your body more comfortable in those situations.

Resist Pain
The next time you get an injection cough when the needle sticks into you. According to German research, coughing causes a temporarily higher pressure in the chest and spinal canal which inhibits the part of the spinal cord that is conducive to pain.


Clear Your Throat
If you have a tickle in your throat scratch your ear. Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in New Jersey says that "when the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm...[that] relieves the tickle."

Ease Your Toothache
A Canadian study found that rubbing ice on the back of the webbed area between your thumb and index finger reduces toothache pain by as much as 50 percent compared the control group. The nerve pathways in that area of your hand stimulate an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.

Relax Your Eyes
When your eyes are getting weary, perhaps after little sleep or too much time in front of a computer screen, perform this little trick as much as you'd like. Close your eyes, tense every muscle in your body, take a deep breath, and, after a few seconds, release your breath and muscles at the same time. This action can trick involuntary muscles such as the eyes into relaxing as well.

Stop A Nosebleed
Most nosebleeds come from the front of the septum. If you put some cotton in front of your upper gums and press hard on it from the area below your nose, the flow from the septum will be slowed and often the nosebleed lessen significantly.

Wake Your Hand Up
The next time your hand or any other extremity falls asleep rock your head from side to side or walk around. This tingly sensation in your upper body is often caused by a bundle of nerves being compressed in your neck which can be loosened by stretching your neck. If a part of your lower body falls asleep walk around (as awkward as it may feel) and the nerves in your lower body will be sure to loosen up.

Take Someone Down
A person is at his sturdiest and strongest when standing up straight on two legs. However, if one foot is not even keel with the other by even half an inch, his or her hips will be mis-aligned offsetting the spine. When the brain senses that the spine is weak, it shuts off the rest of the body's physical defenses making it difficult for the person to exert force.

Last Longer Underwater
Before you are preparing to take a long dive under water, take several quick breaths beforehand. The sudden bursts of oxygen clears out the buildup of carbon dioxide in your lungs which lowers blood acidity. According to Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Auburn University, "this tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen.", which can potentially add 10 seconds of air underwater.

Source: Men's Health

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.

Seniors use video games to stay sharp

As individuals age, their cognitive skills tend to decline. However, some seniors have taken to video games to stay sharp and fit in a fun way. Here are just four of the ways that video games can help your cognitive performance.

1. According to Psychology and Aging, playing complex video games after receiving training may improve the cognitive function of seniors.

2. Aside from improving their cognitive functions, video games, which require seniors to juggle multiple tasks, may also improve their ability to perform other everyday tasks.

3. Research conducted in the past indicates that Nintendo Wii games can be successfully used to help treat seniors with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses of a psychological or psychosocial nature.

4. Preliminary studies have shown that video games with a strategic element may help older adults keep their brains sharp.

So while the common image of playing video games appears dormant and mind-dulling, studies seem to show the contrary. More and more research is coming out just as fast as Wii games are selling out proving that certain video games can legitimately improve senior’s health by keeping them active, both physically and mentally.

Courtesy of Home Care Blog

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Home Care Assistance offers the highest quality 24/7 live-in home care in the Region of Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills, and Milton), Region of Peel (Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon) and Hamilton.