Glaucoma is a complicated ocular disease whereby elevated intraocular pressure damages the optic nerve causing vision loss. There are different types of glaucoma and often there are no symptoms. There is currently no cure for glaucoma, but there are treatment options if it’s detected early enough. If you experience any of the following symptoms, you should seek immediate help: Loss of peripheral or side vision, tunnel vision, seeing halos around lights, sudden vision loss, or a cloudy-looking cornea. Optometrists are trained to test and interpret for glaucoma with specific qualified instrumentation.
Community News
Advanced Dentistry
Experience state-of-the-art dental technology at Pristine Dental. Our digital scanner ensures precision in same-day crowns, eliminating the need for multiple visits. We employ 3D scan technology and advanced sterilization systems for comprehensive care. Say goodbye to waiting with our same-day mouthguards. Restoration dentistry, including crowns and bridges, is streamlined with CEREC, allowing for creation and placement in a single appointment. Trust Pristine Dental for efficient, advanced dental solutions. Let us take care of your smile with cutting-edge technology and personalized, same-day services. Your oral health is our priority – embrace the future of dental care with us.
Winter Pet Safety
It’s important to practice diligence when bringing your pets outside as they can suffer from hypothermia and frostbite. Exposed skin on noses, ears and paw pads are at the most risk during extreme cold snaps. For this reason, short-haired dogs often feel more comfortable wearing a sweater—even during short walks. Rock salt and other chemicals used to melt snow and ice can irritate the pads of your pet’s feet. Wipe all paws with a damp towel before your pet licks them and irritates their mouth. Consider opting for booties to keep your dog’s paws extra warm and comfortable, all while protecting them from irritants.
CBT for Mood Disorders
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective way to help people who are struggling with mood disorders, like depression and bipolar disorder. These disorders can make life really hard, so it’s important to find ways to help people feel better. CBT is a type of therapy that has been proven to work well. It helps people understand and manage their feelings, thoughts, and actions.
CBT is built on the idea that thoughts, feelings, and actions are all connected. It is thought that wrong or twisted thoughts can make mood disorders worse. CBT teaches people to find these wrong thoughts, like when someone always thinks the worst will happen or blames themselves too much. When they notice these thoughts, they can try to change them to more reasonable ones. This helps them see things in a better way.
CBT also helps people handle strong emotions. This is important when it comes to mood disorders because emotions can get out of control. With CBT, people can learn skills like mindfulness, which means paying attention to the present moment. This can help them feel more in control of their feelings. Learning these skills doesn’t just help in tough moments, but also makes it less likely for the bad feelings to come back.
One thing that’s great about CBT is that it’s well-organized and doesn’t take forever. People who do CBT work with their therapists for a set number of sessions. They work together to make goals that can actually be reached. This makes people feel like they’re making progress, and it gives them hope and motivation. Also, because CBT is time-limited, it focuses more on practical solutions than just thinking and talking.
CBT has a trick up its sleeve called “behavioral activation.” This is really helpful for people with depression. When someone is depressed, they often stop doing things they used to enjoy. Behavioral activation helps them start doing those things again. By doing things that make them happy or feel good, their mood can improve. This shows that changing actions can change feelings and thoughts too.
Studies have shown that doing CBT alongside taking medicine can make people feel even better. This is because CBT deals with the mind and behaviors, while medicines work on the brain’s chemicals. So, the two treatments can team up to tackle mood disorders from different angles.
There are websites and apps that let people do CBT activities at home. These digital tools have things like lessons, interactive games, and even virtual therapist chats. They can’t replace talking to a real therapist, but they can be super helpful, especially for those who can’t easily go see a therapist in person.
By giving people practical skills, CBT helps them take charge of their own healing journey. It’s useful by itself or with medicine. CBT gives hope to people who are fighting mood disorders and helps them get back control of their feelings and thoughts.
We are Here to Help!
Short wait time for intakes and entering individual counseling or programs and support. Our evening programs provide programming if you are unavailable during the day due to work, school, child care, or other commitments.
EXPLORING OPTIONS – Our co-ed pre- recovery evening program is designed for participants who may be awaiting a program in a residential setting, mandated to attend, experiencing problems and wanting to explore, if indeed there is a problem. The program is goal oriented, focused on participants’ recovery goals, whether harm reduction or abstinence, deciding to attend a residential program, or staying clean and sober while awaiting a residential program.
“Working a full-time day job limits my options for recovery programming. Exploring Options gives me the opportunity to continue working my regular hours while also working towards my recovery goals. The materials provide important information, and the sessions are always interactive and engaging. Exploring Options has helped me identify my reasons for continuing my recovery journey. The support from the group and its facilitators helps me make better decisions in my day-to-day life and keeps me accountable. I am very grateful for the Exploring Options group!”
WORK SOBER – Building a New Life for Recovery is designed to give participants who have been sober for a while, the skills and support to reinforce and strengthen their sobriety. We follow the principles of adult learning philosophies and motivational interviewing to engage our participants ensuring that topics covered meet their current recovery needs and skills. Topics focus on understanding what relapse is or isn’t, knowing and identifying the warning signs, managing triggers and cravings and planning for success. Other topics include: grief and loss in recovery, setting healthy boundaries, and dealing with boredom, etc.
“I’ve always come away with hope and a ‘new’ way to look at a personal problem. Listening to others who are on longer journeys than I, has been so very helpful presenting an issue or possibility – giving us time to react and discuss how we have dealt with this personally, or would like to learn to deal with it. This helped me rebuild relationships with friends and family by showing I can be honest with my church friends, and with my brother about my addiction and my journey. I am grateful I now have a place to go for support in my journey of recovery to a new life”
CONTACT US TODAY: Call SRWC at (204) 956-6650 or email [email protected] to make an appointment or get more information about our various programs.
DONATE TODAY: St. Raphael Wellness Centre Inc., 5th Flr. 280 Smith St. R3C 1K4 Donations can also be made online at srwc-mb.ca or E-Transfer [email protected]; or Credit Card, call (204)956-6650)
Substance Abuse Affecting Your Career?
Is substance abuse affecting your job or education? THE COST: Alcohol use and abuse in the workplace among full and part time workers aged 18-65 has now become a major source of revenue loss to small, medium, and national corporations. The direct and indirect costs of substance abuse cost to the Canadian economy, and Canadians is more than $38 Billion dollars per year. The costs to health care, criminal justice system, and lost productivity costs Manitoba over $1.4 Billion dollars, which amounts to $1,094 per person per year in Manitoba regardless of age. (Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research).
MYTH: It is the illegal drugs that are the problem – Opiates, Fentanyl, Heroin, Meth, etc.
FACT: While illegal, drugs are certainly a problem, Alcohol is still the #1 drug of choice of Canadians and Manitobans, resulting in staggering personal and economical costs for our economy, and devastating to the health of individuals and their families. We have not even begun to calculate the increased overall health and economic costs of alcohol abuse due to the stresses of COVID, such as Issues with relationship violence, absenteeism, sick leave, disability, Worker’s Compensation, insurance claims, damaged equipment, and litigation, to name a few. YOU CAN REGAIN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE
SRWC is a unique recovery-oriented community-based agency which offers pre and continuing recovery and family programs as well as individual and couples counseling. We have gender specific as well as co-ed programs morning, afternoon and evening to meet your individual needs.
Benefits of Magnesium for Heart Health
Every cell in the body needs magnesium. It helps keep muscles strong and nerves alert. And a new study in the journal Circulation suggests that daily magnesium supplements can even help an ailing heart. Lead author C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, Director of the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, says that magnesium supplements enabled heart disease patients to exercise for longer periods and appeared to protect their hearts from the stress of exercise. Patients who took magnesium had better blood vessel function and their hearts showed less stress during treadmill exercise compared to the placebo group.
PEMF: A Powerful Anti-Aging Therapy
Humans are biological, chemical, and electrical beings. As such the health of our 100 trillions cells are constantly being challenged through the natural aging process and environmental factors such as Wi-Fi, cell phones, power transmissions, and food additives. This takes a significant toll on our cellular health. Enter PEMP (pulsed electromagnetic field therapy), the sole proven technology for enhancing our health on a cellular level through the increased flow of electrons. This powerful therapy reduces chronic pain and inflammation, eliminates toxins, increases bone density, improves brain function (FDA approved for Alzheimer/Parkinson’s) and more. PEMF regenerates all cells and accelerates the healing process.
February is Heart Health Month
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, often goes unrecognized and untreated because there are no symptoms. Your pharmacist can help you reduce your risk for heart attack and stroke, by: 1. Reviewing your medications, helping you take them as prescribed and managing potential side effects. 2. Teaching you how to use a blood pressure monitoring device properly and testing your blood pressure regularly. 3. Advising you how to maintain a healthy weight, and a diet that’s low in sodium. and 4. Guiding you through a step-by-step quit smoking plan. Learn more about how to keep your blood pressure under control by speaking with your pharmacist.
Clean Eating Recipe
Easy Red Lentil Soup. Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil. 2 carrots. 1 onion. 3 cloves garlic. 2 tsp each ground cumin & turmeric. 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper. 1/4 tsp cayenne. 1 pkg. 900 ml. vegetable broth. 1 cup dried red lentils. 1/4 cup chopped parsley. 3 tbsp. lemon juice. Directions: Heat oil in large saucepan. Cook carrots, onion, and garlic until starting to soften, 3 to 5 min. Stir in cumin, turmeric, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Cook 1 min. until fragrant. Stir in broth and lentils; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook 25 min. Stir in chopped parsley and lemon juice.
Igniting Your Passion
Awakening your tender heart opens your passion and life force, welcoming the juices that frees your soul to ~Pass-I-on ~ wherever you go & in whatever you do. Embodying and knowing that each breath matters; where we put our focus and attention, what we value and how we choose to spend our time is who we become. Take nothing for granted as you taste the many flavors of desire that energize your joy and pleasure. Swim in that pool each day, bathing yourself and igniting your fire that fuels your heart to thrive. Choose to become curious and impassioned with and by life.
