The core of diabetes prevention and treatment relies on diet modification and exercise. The outcomes delivered when such strategies are utilized are of a very large and important magnitude. Yet, the ability to include a supplemental strategy to enhance these outcomes is certainly desirable.

Back pain is extremely common and has been experienced by almost everyone at one point in life. The official name for low back pain is lumbago, and it is literally defined as pain in the lower back. There are many possible causes for back pain, and often it is not even possible to identify a specific cause. If this is the case, it might be called nonspecific.

Are you spending enough time outdoors? A recent study found that gardening can be a promising strategy to improve fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and physical function in cancer survivors.^[1] When we think about all of the different health habits that could have high return on investment, fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity are at the top of the list.

Menopause can be formally assessed when there has been no menstrual period for 12 months. At this point, the ovaries stop performing their function. The process happens gradually and is an individualized process. Some women experience a steady decline in the frequency of their menses, while others have sporadic menses until finally they stop.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is the process that occurs when the heart does not pump blood effectively. Congestion then follows in the lungs and peripheral tissues. CHF can occur in both ventricles or just on one side, although it will often progress to both sides. The symptoms include breathlessness and difficulty breathing, usually made worse by lying down

Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that involves a distortion of reality. The symptoms of schizophrenia vary depending on the patient, but are often described as either positive or negative symptoms ⁽¹⁾. Positive symptoms are things that are not normally there, but that people with schizophrenia experience.

Psoriasis is a chronic skin condition that may have varying levels of symptom intensity. It causes skin cells to grow very quickly, which results in thick silvery or red patches of skin ^[1]. Usually, skin cells grow and turn over once a month and new skin grows to replace the old skin.

Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) is a health promoting treatment that involves short exposures to air temperatures below −100°C ^[1]. WBC treatments last approximately 2-5 minutes and the frequency of treatments can vary based on the purpose of use. The patient is placed in a small cabin that emits a dry cold mist that is suctioned from a neighbouring liquid nitrogen tank.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the medical name for anxiety. Everyone worries about important things in life, such as family, work, and health. People who have GAD are extremely worried about these and other smaller things, even when there is little reason to worry about them. There are multiple ways in which the worrying of GAD is worse. The first is the intensity of the worry.

The “stomach flu” or a “stomach bug” are the common names for what is officially known in medicine as gastroenteritis. Gastroenteritis essentially means “inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract”; it usually involves the stomach and the intestines. It causes a set of highly unpleasant symptoms: usually a combination of diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and abdominal cramping.

Pyelonephritis is the result of a progressive urinary tract infection, when a lower urinary infection travels upward into the upper urinary system. The lower urinary infections originate in the bladder and urethra, while the upper urinary infections involve the ureters and the kidneys. The kidneys filter the blood, so pyelonephritis can be potentially dangerous because an infection could then spread into the bloodstream.

S-Adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is a molecule that is distributed widely throughout the body and is crucial in a number of biochemical reactions. SAMe first garnered research attention in the 1970s, and has been used as an antidepressant in Europe since that time. However it has not become available in North America until the last 15 years or so. Biochemically, SAMe functions as a methyl-group donor, and works in the same pathways as folic acid and vitamin B12.

Sinusitis is the inflammation of the sinuses. The sinuses are actually a system of openings or cavities that are part of the skull. The largest one is the maxillary sinus, located near the cheekbones. It is often the one that most people complain about when they are experiencing facial pain. The other sinuses include the frontal sinuses, the ethmoid sinuses, and the sphenoid sinuses.

Liver diseases include a number of different health conditions; in conventional medicine, they are bundled under the umbrella term “hepatology”, which typically includes the health conditions related to the liver, the gallbladder, and the pancreas. Over the last several years, there has been an increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicines, especially herbal therapies, among patients with liver disease.

Plant sterols and stanols, also known as phytosterols, are a class of steroid-like molecules naturally found in plants such as vegetables, nuts, and vegetable oils. Over 200 plant sterols have been identified; some of the most commonly occurring plant sterols include beta-sitosterol, campesterol, and stigmasterol.

An emerging area of study is dedicated to studying the impact of early life factors including nutrition on the development of disease later on in life. The fetal origins of adult disease (FOAD) are a field devoted to investigating the link between maternal/fetal conditions during prenatal life, and chronic disease risk in adult life. Although this makes intuitive sense, the extent of its influence was not realized until relatively recently.