Worried about a Buddy?
Men have a suicide rate 3x higher than women
Buddy up for men’s suicide prevention.
In Crisis? Call or text the suicide crisis helpline 988.
If your safety is at risk, call 911 right away
May 17 is World Hypertension Awareness Day
A day to learn about managing blood pressure for better heart health. Hypertension means there is too much pressure in your blood vessels. Over time, this can damage them and can increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Managing high blood pressure may include changing what you eat, managing your body weight, being physically active, limiting alcohol, engaging in relaxation practices, reducing/ stopping tobacco use, and can include medication.
Consume more of:
– Vegetables and Fruits: They are packed with fibre and nutrients that can help lower blood pressure. Fresh, frozen or canned varieties can all help lower your risk. At meals, try to fill half your plate with vegetables and fruits.
– Whole grains: Whole grain foods include all parts of the grain and have important nutrients like fibre, vitamins, and minerals. If choosing a bread or a cereal, look for “whole” or “100% whole grain”.
– Beans, peas, and lentils: Replace meat with beans, peas, or lentils at some meals. Add kidney beans, chickpeas, and lentils to soups, casseroles, salads, and pasta sauce.
– Foods with calcium: Try to have at least 2 servings daily of calcium-rich foods like milk, yogurt, fortified plant-based beverages.
Eat or drink less off:
– Refined grains: Refined grains have parts of the grain removed when they are being processed, so they have less fibre and sometimes fewer vitamins.
– Added sugar: Sugar, syrup, or honey added to food and drinks.
– Added salt, packaged or processed food: Salt contains a mineral called sodium. Your body needs small amounts of sodium to work properly. Most Canadians eat almost 2 times the sodium they need.
– Caffeine: Caffeine is found in coffee and coffee-based drinks, tea, sodas and energy drinks. Limit caffeine to no more than 400 mg a day. This is equal to 2-3 cups or 500-750 mL of coffee.
When you start with small changes, eating what you eat or drink seems more manageable—your heart will thank you for it.
Visit: ahs.ca/nutritionhandouts and search “Nutrition and Lifestyle Choices to Manage Blood Pressure”.
AHS Wellness Article
Food Allergy Awareness Week is May 11-17
Raise awareness by sharing “Food Allergy Myths and Facts”
Myth: Food allergies are not that serious.
Fact: Food allergies can be a life-threatening disease.
Myth: Eating a little bit of a food that you are allergic to won’t hurt you.
Fact: Even a trace amount of a food allergen can cause a severe reaction called anaphylaxis in some people.
The food a person is allergic to must be completely removed from their diet for them to stay safe and live well.
Myth: Each reaction will get worse and worse.
Fact: Food allergy reactions are unpredictable.
Myth: Food allergies are the same as food intolerances.
Fact: Food intolerance does not involve an immune system reaction.
Myth: If a food allergy test is positive, you have a food allergy.
Fact: Positive skin prick or blood test results for a food allergy are not always accurate and can sometimes give “false positive” results.
Myth: Peanut allergy is the most dangerous food allergy.
Fact: No single food allergy poses a greater threat than another.
Myth: A food allergy always develops in childhood.
Fact: A food allergy can occur at any age, well into adulthood.
Myth: Antihistamines will stop an allergic reaction.
Fact: Antihistamines can help relieve some symptoms like an itchy mouth or skin, but they DO NOT stop anaphylaxis.
Myth: Once you develop a food allergy, you cannot outgrow it.
Fact: It is possible to outgrow your food allergies with age.
However, allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish are less likely to be outgrown.
Myth: If you don’t have an allergic reaction within 30 minutes of being exposed to your allergen, you won’t have one.
Fact: Symptoms can start within a few seconds of eating a food allergen, but it can take up to 2 hours for symptoms to appear.
Myth: If a food doesn’t traditionally contain an allergen, or you don’t see the allergen listed in the description, it’s safe to eat.
Fact: Allergens can appear in unexpected places.
Answers for the Hearing Aid Consumer: Fictions and Frontiers
On May 8th, 2025 become a wise consumer of the hearing aid industry!
Call H & H Optical and Hearing Centre to RSVP for this event (403) 823-2020
Thursday May 8th, 2025 at 1pm – The Pioneer Trail Senior Centre
Understanding Prediabetes
Prediabetes occurs when blood sugar levels are higher than normal but are not yet high enough to be classified as Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). T2D is a chronic condition where the body is unable to use insulin properly, leading to high blood sugar that may result in other complications like heart disease or nerve damage.
What causes prediabetes?
Our body uses blood sugar (glucose) for energy. The hormone insulin helps move the glucose into our cells to be used for energy. In prediabetes, insulin does not work as well as it used to.
For people with prediabetes, it is important to know that blood sugar levels are affected by what and when you eat. Tips for eating to manage blood sugars include:
1. Limit juices and drinks with added sugar: Choose whole fruit or flavor water with lemon or lime.
2. Eat 3 meals a day, with about 4 to 6 hours between meals. This can manage blood sugar and feelings of hunger.
3. Build your plate according to Diabetes Canada: Cover ½ your plate with vegetables. Cover ¼ of your plate with whole grain products or starchy vegetables. Put protein foods on the remaining ¼. Visit diabetes.ca/nutrition to find the healthy eating section with additional tips.
4. Choose foods with fibre: Aim for 30 grams or more per day.
Fibre slows down digestion and helps maintain stable blood sugar levels.
5. Choose unsaturated fats: Prediabetes increases the risk of developing heart disease. Replacing saturated fat in the diet with unsaturated fat can help decrease this risk.
Getting active to prevent prediabetes
Physical activity helps your body use insulin to lower blood sugar levels. Start slowly and build up to 30 minutes each day, 5 to 7 days a week. Brisk walking, swimming, cycling, or resistance training. Even a brief 10-minute walk after a meal has been shown to improve blood sugar levels
Excess body weight is a factor that may contribute to having prediabetes and the development of T2D. A reduction as little as 5% of initial weight can greatly reduce the risk of developing T2D.
Set achievable goals and take small, gradual steps to ensure that your approach is sustainable.
GiveLifeAlberta
One organ donor can save up to eight lives and one tissue donor can dramatically improve up to 75 lives. April is National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Month – a time to honor those who have given the gift of life and to share your donation decision with those who need to know.
How to Act on Your Good Intentions
A deceased person can donate organs such as lungs, heart, kidneys and liver – and/ or tissues such as eyes, skin, bone and tendons. If you’re interested in leaving these gifts, please register your decision online at GiveLifeAlberta.ca or in person at a motor vehicle registry office. Donor cards don’t exist anymore; if you have signed the back of your Alberta Health card in the past, you are asked to join Alberta’s registry in one of the ways above.
Albertans are also encouraged to share their wishes with their loved ones. Generally, if someone is eligible to donate at the time of their death, the Give Life Alberta donation team will check the registry and inform their family about their donation decision. It will then be up to their family to decide if they’d like to proceed with donation or not. Many previous donor families have found that decision was easier if they knew what their loved one wanted.
Sharing Your Donation Decision
Donation discussions don’t need to be grim. The national award-winning Give Life Alberta public awareness campaign All the Ways portrays creative ways one could tell their family they’d like to be a donor; for example in the form of a cake, a card or even a t-shirt. Families could also spark the conversation by watching public awareness videos and real-life donor and transplant recipient stories on GiveLifeAlberta.ca
Constant Need for Organs and Tissues
While Alberta marked another record year in 2024 – with 317 deceased organ and tissue donors — there are more than 500 people waiting for life-saving transplants in our province. Last year, 33 people on the wait list died.
For contact information and to learn more about organ and tissue donation, visit https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/gf/Page18846.aspx
AHS wellness Article
April 2025 Seniors Initiative Lunch and Learn
Drumheller Legion Branch #22 invites all seniors and their caregivers to attend their Community Seniors Initiative
Lunch & Learn – Protecting Your Assets
Tuesday April 15, 2025
Lunch and Learns are open to all seniors as well as caregivers in the community, free lunch will be provided.
For more information please call 403-823-5611
Testicular Cancer Awareness Month
It’s Testicular Cancer Awareness Month – Every man should know there’s support.
The message is clear: Know. Thy Nuts. Get to know how your pair’s hanging. That way, any unusual changes, like a lump, swelling or pain, become more easily noticeable. If you do notice something different over time, book a doctor’s appointment to get it checked out.
How to check in 3 easy steps:
Know Thy Nuts | All you need to know about testicular cancer and checking your testicles https://ca.movember.com/men-s-health/testicular-cancer
Testicular cancer resource center & information: https://nutsandbolts.movember.com/
Movember – About Us – Testicular Cancer Projects & Work
Getting Your Gut On Track
Gut microbiome is the community of microbes (bacteria) that live in your colon that influences your health.
There are many foods that support a healthy gut microbiome which is linked to better overall mental and physical health.
– Whole plant foods should make up the majority of what you eat: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes and nuts that have undergone limited processing. A variety of whole plant foods has been shown to help improve feeling of fullness and can help your body to be more sensitive to the insulin.
– Protein foods to support gut health are plant-based protein foods and fatty fish. Examples of plant-based protein foods are kidney beans, chickpeas and lentils, nuts like walnuts or almonds and fatty fish like Arctic char, mackerel, herring, salmon, sardines and trout. Beans and nuts contain fibre, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals) which can help to increase the helpful gut microbes. Fatty fish has omega-3 fatty acids which help lower inflammation.
– Fermented dairy foods that have live bacteria (like kefir and yogurt) can increase the good bacteria in the gut microbiome.
– Low fat milk, yogurt, and kefir with little or no added sugar and lower milk fat, lower fat dairy (2% M.F. or less) is recommended over higher fat dairy foods like cheese because they are lower in saturated fat. Saturated fat is linked to inflammation
– Limit red meat: Small amounts of lean red meat can be included in a healthy eating pattern, as red meat has many nutrients including protein. It is recommended to be included in smaller amounts because it can contribute to inflammation.
– Avoid processed meat: Avoid or minimize them because the curing agents in processed meats contribute to cancer forming compounds when they are digested by gut microbes.
– Try a Mediterranean style of eating – it has been shown to help support a healthy gut microbiome. It includes lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, peas, lentils, fish, nuts, and olive oil. If you are looking for practical ways to eat in a way to support a healthy gut microbiome, visit ahs.ca/nutritionhandouts and search for Mediterranean Style of Eating.
AHS Wellness Article