It’s easy to rally for such a great group of guys! The Calgary Roughnecks are awesome! I had a blast learning how to play lacrosse this morning. Capt. Tracey taught me how to do a proper bunny hop – thanks TK! Props to the kids from the National Sport Academy for running drills for BT.
Check out playoff action Sunday May 3rd at the Dome – game time is 3pm but the party starts at 1pm! www.calgaryroughnecks.com
The guys at Kensington Fitness gave us tons of tips this morning on how to get into summer shape! If you’re looking for a great group of trainers, Paul and Sherwin are a couple of walking fitness encyclopedias. Of course – you should consult a doctor before starting a fitness program.
The good news: seems like interval training is the way to go if you’re tight on time. 20 min of cardio sounds good to me! Circuit training is also effective for cutting down on time in the gym and fat loss.
The bad news: according to my Biosignature Analysis (back fat test), I do not fall into the carb category.
The good news: red wine is full of healthy goodness!
One billion! can you believe it! last week Apple sold it’s one billionth App for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Talk about a license to print money! Sure many of the Apps are free, but I’m sure the big A made plenty of cash off iPhone addicts. I’ll admit it made some money off me as well. Here are a few of the Apps I’ve downloaded.
Shazam – Free
Music is everywhere. In your car, on the street, on TV. Ever hear a commercial and wonder who sang the song? Wonder no more with Shazam. Just hold your iPhone up to where the music is coming from, wait 20 seconds and Shazam will tell you what song it is, and who sings it. Shazam will even take things a step further by sending you lyrics, discography, and give you the option to buy the song right form your phone. Not bad for a free App!
UrbanSpoon – Free
“So, where do you guys want to go out to eat tonight?”
“I don’t care. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“Anywhere, doesn’t matter.”
Sound familiar? Let your iPhone decide for you. UrbanSpoon will randomly select a restaurant in your city for you to try out with decent reviews. Think of it as a slot machine. You just shake your iPhone and the wheels begin to spin. You can lock in certain neighbourhoods, the type of food or even the cash you’re willing to spend. or keep it completely random! Urbanspoon will introduce you to restaurants you didn’t even know existed! This is one very popular App!
Simplify – $3.99
Don’t want to load up your iPhone with music? Stream it from home instead. Install Simplify on your iPhone and PC, sync the two and you will have full access to your iTunes music library on your iPhone no matter where you are (as long as you have 3G or wireless signal). You can also share your library with your friends. How cool is that! The only thing it won’t stream is DRM files and music purchased form iTunes. Boo.
Be careful with this one. Very handy yes, but the more you stream the more cash it could cost you since you are paying your carrier for bandwidth.
What are your favourite Apps? Post them so other BT viewers can check them out!
X Men: Origins: Wolverine opens this weekend. While Hugh Jackman is all jacked up for the title role, I think I’ll go check out the flick for Canada’s own Ryan Reynolds. That boy is talented!
Feeling inspired? Check out BT Wednesday. We’ll be on location at the Kensington Fitness Studio learning how to get in shape for summer. Stay tuned for tips! I’ll post them apres le show.
The Empty Bowl Benefit closes in soon so get your bids in!
I’m fillin’ my bowl full of swag with a little help from my friends! Tickets to the smash musical hit Evil Dead! Broadway Across Canada goodies! AND a fabulous bag of Joe Fresh Makeup (the bronzer/highlighter are both amazing!!)
As much as I bug Andy about his 3 squares, whichever bowl gets the bids means the Calgary Food Bank wins! www.calgaryfoodbank.com
Kind of sad the doctors had to take matters into their own hands, but thank goodness they did. Now patients with back pain don’t have to wait years to see a surgeon. They can get referred to this new clinic, Caleo Health, and get the help they need faster – right from diagnosis to recovery.
Here’s the story.
Patricia Aben is doing physiotherapy.
She’s recovering from back surgery.
She was diagnosed with a herniated disc in 2007. She was told it would be 12 to 18 months before she saw a surgeon- and she was in the worst pain of her life.
“The waiting is quite difficult, the waiting list is quite long so I was extremely happy to get into Caleo here.”
Caleo Health opened in January 2008, and Aben had her doctor refer her. Within weeks, she saw the surgeon.
“They were kind enough to get me in very quickly , I saw the surgeon quickly, I had surgery within a matter of weeks so I was very relieved.”
Aben got in so fast because Caleo Health uses a triage process, where patients see a family doctor and physiotherapist first.
Mark Lewis, a chiropractor and Director of Operations for the clinic, says it helps patients get the care they need quicker.
“The people that need to get to the surgeons, get to the surgeons, the ones in the cue, tying up the cue, can be disemminated where they need to be such as a phyiotherapist or chiropractor.”
Or family doctor or kinesiologist. Getting triaged costs 100 dollars, but it’s good value, says Doctor Richard Hu – one of the surgeons who came up with the idea for the clinic.
“Most people don’t need surgery, and don’t want surgery so that’s why we wanted to bring a broader range of services and assessment for people with back and spine problems.”
With all the specialists under one roof they can communicate easily about each patient’s needs. And patients like Aben don’t feel lost in the shuffle.
“I wish, I wish Caleo had been open when I was first diagnosed. It would have saved a lot of time, a lot of difficulty.”
For more information, visit the website,
Also – if you’re looking for a family doctor – there are 3 at Caleo Health accepting new patients!!
Here’s my “call to action” — see the picture above??
It’s my “art work” for the Calgary Food Bank’s “EMPTY BOWL BENEFIT”. My bowl is titled “3 Squares” — simple, I know – but that’s the point…..The Food Bank aims to provide 3 Square Meals per day to each Calgarian in need.
You can help the Food Bank out, by “bidding” on my bowl – it’s an online auction taking place – and bids are collected at: www.calgaryfoodbank.com
This week’s prize winner — and it’s a BIG ONE — is ERIN M. – Erin is the lucky winner of our “Cereal Blowout” — she has won a TON of cereal from “Kellogg’s”.
Keep it locked here for more chances to win !!!!
Oh, and GO FLAMES GO !!
-a
All I can say, and Hayden’s mom can say is thank god for some of these doctors at the Alberta Children’s hospital. Without them, little Hayden probably wouldn’t have survived. She was born with only 10 percent of her intestines. So, she had to have surgery and be fed intravenously. But a team of specialists at the ACH make sure those feeds go well and Hayden gets what she needs. It’s remarkable.
Here’s the story.
One year old Hayden Kretschmer acts like most kids her age. But she’s very different.
Hayden’s mom Marina Eason explains, “she was born with about 23 centimetres of intestine and usually babies have about 300 centimetres, so she didn’t have very much.”
This is why she spent the first 9 months of her life at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“It’s hard because none of my friends had sick kids, I’d see my friends bring their babies home and have normal healthy children.”
But Hayden is doing so well because of a team of specialists at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. They help babies live off of intravenous feeds.
Doctor David Sigalet says, “we have a dietitian, we have a nurse, a gastroenterologist specialist – every day looking at what’s going on with these children.”
It’s an approach that’s being modelled in children’s hospitals across North America, because these IV feeds have serious side effects.
“Susceptibility to infection and problems most dramatically with jaundice, so poorly functioning livers,” says Dr. Sigalet.
One way to help these babies with their feeds is to train their parents how to do it at home.
Hayden gets 6 bottles during the day and all IV feeds happen at night and mom and dad look after everything.
And Doctor Sigalet says that’s best for baby.
“If families are taking care of the child and all IV steps they actually have a lower rate of infection than they do in hospital because there’s less cross contamination.”
Doctor Sigalet also performs a unique surgical procedure called a “STEP surgery” to help these babies absorb food.
“We can take the bowel and go across it with one of these staplers and go one after the other like origami and it ends up being more narrow but longer so we end up with more useful surface area.”
Hayden has had 2 of these surgeries. And Doctor Sigalet expects she’ll be off her IV feeds in about 6 months.
And Hayden’s mom is thrilled.
“That seems like nothing, like I can’t wait, we’re getting there.”
Hammacher Schlemmer is known for its quirky, unique gadgets. The company seems to have something for everything. It’s latest device, the Digital Photograph Converter, aims to help you turn those old photos laying around your house into digital files on your computer. But does a device used to dummy down the process give you good results?
I had no idea Irritable Bowel Syndrome was so prolific. One in ten Calgarians are suffering from this disorder. But thankfully there is research underway at the U of C that could help. And it might only be 5 to 10 years away.
Here’s the story.
Katharine Mccombe has lived with irritable bowel syndrome for 18 years. It leaves her unable to work, unable to eat during the day, and in an incredible amount of pain.
“The pain is beyond anything -beyond any other symptoms – it’s absolutely excruciating.”
And those symptoms are embarassing. Mccombe says they make her socially unacceptable.
“It’s not appropriate for an adult not to be able to make it to the washroom on time, or not be able to control their gas.”
But research underway at the University of Calgary could one day help people like Mccombe. Doctor Keith Sharkey is looking into molecules called “endogenous cannabinoids.”
“These are chemically similar to cannabis, but they act on the same receptor as the cannabis plant in your body.”
And historically cannabis has been very effective in treating gastrointestinal problems.
Doctor Sharkey says “we know the cannabis plant has been used medicinally for centuries and one of the things it’s used for medically are GI disorders.”
Doctor Sharkey and his team are working on 3 or 4 approaches with these cannabinoids that could help people with IBS.
Sharkey says,”endogenous cannabinoids appear to play a role in moderating inflammation in the gut and we know inflammation is associated with IBS and other bowel disorders.”
What’s most promising about this research is these cannabinoids are made by the body itself – so there are likely to be few side effects.
“Endogenous cannabinoids are safe because they’re made by our bodies and if we can find a way of harnessing them for example harnessing their action, it’s unlikely to have any side effects and maybe some benefits.”
And that’s exactly what Mccombe is hoping for. Some kind of medication that would actually work so she could get her life back.
“It would be absolutely fantastic, and I always have hope but to be honest I can’t imagine it.”
For more information on IBS and other gastrointestinal problems visit the website: