Health is Wealth

I am blessed to say that once again, my writing has been featured on Fr. Anthony's site. This time, my post is about suffering and pain, and how to communicate with God during these times : http://franthony.com/how-long-o-lord/ I will be honest with you, I find that when I get overwhelmed by the troubles in this world, it becomes difficult to do anything. And sometimes, the hardest thing to do during tribulations is to pray. We all have times when we don't feel like talking to God - and this is harder when we feel angry or fearful that God has forgotten about us. Here is a little secret: God can never forget about us . He loves us unconditionally. And He has His eyes on you all the time, His hands around you to protect you, and His ears ready to listen. I know that sometimes it is hard to pray and communicate with God when we are facing obstacles because we don't understand why things are happening as in our lives. But know this: 'all things work together  for the g...

By now, you must know that I love relating brain changes and science to what I can. The differences that occur in the brains of patients with ED are still being studied. Remember how we talked about differences in neurotransmitters and hormones, such as dopamine, leptin, etc? Well, I was able to find a document that summarizes many different studies and what brain changes were found to occur in ED patients. I'm not suggesting that you even try to read the document, as it is long and uses a lot of scientific and research terminology. However, for the purpose of referencing, I will provide a link to it here: http://anp.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/10/24/0004867413509693.abstract . The picture here is an extremely simplified depiction of the brain and different regions and their functions. So, what changes in the brains of ED patients? One of my favourite changes to discuss is what happens to the amygdala and the limbic system . This is the part of the brain involved in emotions. ...

Have you ever laughed so hard that your cheeks started to hurt? I have! Laughter is arguably one of the simplest ways to feel happy . It can be because of a silly joke, a funny movie clip, or even an embarrassing moment...but the results are the same: when we laugh, we feel better. We feel good. It is almost as though for a single quick moment, our worries are gone from our minds. For that quick laugh, we can think of nothing else but the hilarity that has just occurred. Now, more than ever, the world needs some laughter... Wouldn't it be great if we actually had studies to support that laughter is good for our health? Well. it appears that we do! I did a lot of research on this, and there is quite a bit of literature out there on this topic. For the sake of time and my fingers that have to type all this out, I have chosen a few articles to discuss here. The first was a large, cross-cultural study that tested the relationship between laughter and health: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih...

Last week, as I mentioned, I was asked by NEDIC to be a special guest panelist at their event, 'Healthy Bodies, Healthy Attitudes". It was an honour to be invited by NEDIC to be a speaker at this event! For those of you who came, thank you! For those who could not make it, my family was so kind as to record my portion of the night. You can watch me relay my story at the conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EENucWmfcTI My hope is that my story can inspire others. I hope that my story shows others that regardless of how ill you or someone may be, there is always hope . You ought not to give up. I hope that my journey demonstrates how perseverance, God, love, support, and hard-work can truly produce positive outcomes. I pray that the message is clear: ED are mental illnesses, not choices. But that doesn't mean that those who suffer are hopeless. On the contrary. It may take time, effort, pain, and struggles. But recovery is fully possible. And it is definit...