Naturopathic Doctor, BodyTalk Practitioner, Writer, Speaker, Educator, Kale Crusader

St John's Wort in bloom

Flower essences are energetic, or informational, remedies made from the flowers of plants.  They are gentle and deep acting, and are most commonly used to support emotional health and personal growth. One familiar example is Rescue Remedy, a combination of flower essences (from the Bach line) popular for anxiety and shock. Many people carry Rescue Remedy in their bag, finding it effective emotional first aid for calming down enough to drive home after a fender-bender, facing their ex’s divorce lawyer without breaking down, getting through a funeral. In my practice I use flower essences to support heart healing, move through grief or trauma, overcome tobacco addiction, develop healthy body image, allow for true personal expression, help someone find their life path, and so much more. The subtle, powerful healing of a correctly prescribed flower essence is magical to witness, and gratifying to experience.

These days, I often choose a flower essence as part of someone’s naturopathic treatment plan. It may complement a homeopathic, or fill in the gap between counseling regarding relationship patterns and a custom tincture for a lung infection.

Case example:

“Sally”(JG), a perimenopausal woman in her 50s who came to me for help resolving her hot flashes, digestive discomfort (bloating) and fatigue. When Sally first came to see me, she was depressed, but she had felt like that for so long, it had started to feel like all there was. As is common for people who are used to doing everything themselves rather than trusting others to help, she was not very expressive or open with me at first. We started out by improving her diet, increasing exercise, and ensuring that all her particular nutrient needs were met. For Sally, this meant more leafy green vegetables, less packaged food, and more variety in grains. She decided to begin yoga classes, and start walking more regularly. I prescribed a couple foundational supplements for energy and mood, and custom-formulated a botanical tincture to help decrease her heavy menstrual bleeding and eliminate hot flashes. I also suggested a journaling exercise. She came back and reported that she felt slightly more energy, as well as no more hot flashes, and no more heavy menstrual bleeding. Progress, right? Great, but her mood was still very “up and down”, and in my office she seemed down even while positive about the changes thus far. Next step: botanical formula for mood. Follow-up: helped a bit, but still “up and down”. Meanwhile, her periods continued to improve, and her bloating resolved once we identified and eliminated her particular food sensitivity.

When things are getting better on a physical level, but seem “stuck” on an emotional

Larch branch

level, a flower remedy can help. In Sally’s case, we started with Larch, a Bach essence for self-confidence and speaking your truth, often indicated for women with thyroid concerns as part of their picture. After one month on twice daily Larch drops, the effect was clear: Sally shared more with me than she ever had previously – confidence in speaking your truth. Amazing progress! We continued to incorporate flower essences into the treatment plan over the next 6 months, with consistent healing progress. Recent update: Sally and I are now working on the next level of her health. That is, with the help of the flower essences and the development of trust in our relationship, she is able to access deeper information from within herself regarding her true purpose. Further, Sally is now able to contemplate the changes needed to bring her current life into alignment with her passions and sense of what she meant to be doing. As she integrates this information and begins to make changes, I have seen her physical health concerns shift and lift even further. Witnessing her healing and that of many other clients affirms for me that personal growth is part of health. It is so clear that supporting personal growth must be part of truly holistic care, and flower essences are an ideal tool with which to provide this support.

Flower Essence Q&A

Q: How do flower essences work?

A: There is now solid science – from Einstein on forward – demonstrating that matter is energy. We know that the energy contained in a liquid can be used to influence human energy fields to help resolve ailments. This is what flower essence liquids do. When you take flower essences, the energy they contain affects your energy field, which in turn may shift your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state.

Q: Is this the same as essential oils?

A: No. Essential oils contain concentrated biochemical components of the plants from which they are extracted, while flower essences are closer to homeopathic remedies in nature, in that they are energetic imprints of their source.

Q: How do you make a flower essence?

A: A flower essence is made by infusing the blossoms of a particular plant, bush, or tree in water in the sun. The liquid is then diluted and “potentized” in a method similar to the preparation of homeopathic remedies, and preserved with brandy (or a nonalcoholic substance, if need be). The result is a highly diluted, “potentized” substance that embodies the energetic patterns of the flower from which it is made.

Q: Is there scientific evidence that flower essences are effective?

A: Yes, there is both clinical and double blind placebo-controlled study evidence that shows clear efficacy of flower essences. For example, this study http://www.flowersociety.org/cram2.html, titled, “Flower essences reduce stress reaction to intense environmental stimulus” found that two flower essence combos outperformed placebo in calming specific areas of the brain that respond to stress.

Q: How do I choose which essence or essences are right for me?

A: There are many flower essence repertories and guidebooks available. My favorite one is here: http://www.fesflowers.com/fes_books.htm#rep

You can choose remedies for yourself, based on the particular emotional state you are working with. In some cases, this can be amazingly effective. However, I strongly suggest working with a practitioner in choosing essences. Prescribing accurately requires a certain amount of objectivity that most of us cannot muster about ourselves. Despite my familiarity with the flower essences, and my training, I do not prescribe to myself, as I know I do not have the best perspective from which to do so.

It took me years of resisting and suffering to develop and sustain a regular meditation practice. I share my tips and lessons in this article, Confessions of a Reluctant Meditator, or Tips for Fitting Meditation into Your Life.

If you are the kind of person who likes to know the why of things, here is a very brief summary of why meditating will be beneficial for you, too:

The evidence

As a naturopathic doctor I am well-versed in the evidence and clinical applications for meditation. It is amazing how effective various kinds of meditation can be. An unsophisticated PubMed search on the term “meditation” yields 2, 215 studies. Depression? Meditation may be as effective as medication. Cancer? Meditation improves mood, sleep, immune system, quality of life. Stress? Meditate to lower blood pressure. Heart disease? Yup. Meditation helps. Indeed, mindfulness-based stress reduction for heart disease, chronic pain and many other conditions is taught at hospitals and in private practices across North America based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD.

Even more compellingly, my clients are a fantastic and inspiring bunch. They tell me that meditation practice helps them manage anxiety, gives them energy when their work involves long hours and traveling, keeps them happier, helps them connect more with their friends and family. So not only do I know about the benefits from reading the studies, I know about it from clinical practice.

The bullet points:

• It feels good.
• It is free.
• It can help restore emotional clarity and balance, making you feel better if you are stressed or sad.
• It can energize you when you feel tired (though it’s not a substitute for quality sleep, you type A’s out there!).
• It can help you tap your inner wisdom when you feel uncertain about a decision.
• It can reclaim stillness from the frenzied pace of modern day life, readjusting the skewed balance between being and doing.
• It can reconnect you with your intuition and creativity.
• It will give you unexpected gifts (for me this has included concrete reassurance when things felt dire, and recently, the name of a remedy I hadn’t consciously heard of that was the perfect fit for someone in my care with a complex clinical case).
• It doesn’t have to be hard.

Want some tips to help you find a way to integrate meditation into your full life? Get started here. And please share what works and doesn’t for you!

I am delighted to tell you that I proved myself wrong this year.

In the past 12 months I have gone from a firm, “meditation is for other people” identity, to being a person who strategizes to find that time in my day.

Huge shift!

Yup, despite ‘knowing better’ via the clinical evidence I saw regularly and the clear benefits in the research, I was sure it was something I couldn’t do. I truly believed that meditation was great for other people – but not for me. I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t quiet my mind, didn’t feel “good” at it. And you know, overachievers like me, we like to be good at things right away.

In effect, I was seeking less challenge, more comfort zone.

Sound familiar?

But, why leave the comfort zone? Well, you can’t grow in the comfort zone. And I got to the point where the benefits of growth outweighed my need for the ‘safety’ of the familiar. I felt like there was more within me but I couldn’t access it. I was frustrated. And stressed out. The tools I had weren’t enough to get me where I wanted to go. And then one more person told me meditation would allow me to get there, right after I finally found the type of meditation that resonates with me (see lesson #1 below). And I tried it. And I liked it. So I did it again. And again. Interestingly, leaving the comfort zone has felt great. So much for holding ourselves back to avoid hard, painful things. In retrospect, resisting meditation was a lot more painful.

I share this in case you – unlike myself – are gifted with the ability to learn from other people’s mistakes rather than needing to make them all yourself.

I hope you find the lessons I’ve learned and the tips I’ve gathered helpful on your own journeys. Why? Because meditation IS good for you (details and evidence via this link).

My two important lessons:

1)    There is no ‘one-size fits all’ with meditation, just like there is no one magic nutritional supplement that is right for everyone. Once I realized this, I stopped trying to fit myself into someone else’s favorite kind of meditation. I found one that was right for me. As someone with a short attention span and a tendency to be “doing” all the time, Shamanic journeying fits, as it gives me a focused something to do while I am breathing and observing. I found I really liked how I felt afterwards. And I liked the gifts it brought me, each and every time. Even when I approached it metaphorically kicking and screaming. Simple – and eventually kind of addictive, in the good way.

2)    Limiting my personal growth with pronouncements like, “meditation is for other people” is only as fun as laughing at myself is later on – when I prove myself completely wrong, again. I am now resolved to limit the limiting pronouncements.

Tips for incorporating regular meditation into your already full life:

1)    Most importantly, be a seeker. Be open and find the sort of meditation practice that works for you. Is it Transcendental? Mindfulness-based stress reduction? Guided meditation? Visualization? Chanting? Shamanic journeying? One of the many specific yogic meditation practices, from Kundalini chanting and breathwork to Sahaja yoga’s mental silence? One of many Buddhist meditation practices? Walking? Sitting in nature? Prayer?

Once you’ve found something that works for you,

2)    Schedule it into your planner. Block off the time or it will get swallowed by the many important tasks and even greater number of unimportant distractions that gobble up our days. Very first thing in the morning is the most popular time to set aside time for stillness. Interesting, isn’t it? Here is the tone for the day: Calm, still, centred, grounded. When you put it like that, why don’t we all do it?

3)    If possible, create a corner in your home that is set up for meditation. Having the space ready, welcoming and comfortable removes some practical and psychological obstacles. It doesn’t have to be a separate room, though it is helpful to have a door that closes if you share your house with others.

4)    Do it together. Meditating weekly with a group can help to deepen and reinforce your home practice. Or meditate with others in your household!

5)    Modern times, modern technology. Use YouTube and other electronic resources. Seriously. Whether you are looking for guided visualization or shamanic drumming, you can find it online, for free. Use those 10 minute clips as your company or motivation if this is helpful.

6)    Be flexible about the details. At the cottage for the weekend? Meditate on the dock. Meeting cancelled? Close your office door, close your eyes and breathe into your heart centre for 10 minutes.

For more about stress management and the impact of meditation on your brain, see for instance Alice Walton’s article, Eat, Smoke, Meditate: Why Your Brain Cares How You Cope.

Ready to take stress management to the next level? Want to use meditation as a tool for getting clear as you “feel your way forward” to total health? Join us for this Toronto workshop, Wednesday November 30th, 2011.

What works for you? What doesn’t? Share your meditation experiences on my facebook wall or via twitter. Change is possible, folks, and it feels good!

Lately it seems like pretty much everyone knows someone who has been affected by breast cancer. Indeed, current statistics are that 1 in 9 women in Canada will get breast cancer in her lifetime, or 1 in 8 women in the US. Understandably, this reality and the associated media attention has created a lot of fear. But what the media doesn’t emphasize is that the majority of cancer is caused by “diet & lifestyle” and environmental factors rather than genetic heredity, which in fact accounts for only about 7% of breast cancer.

In other words, there are many things you can do to enhance your overall health, and dramatically decrease your risk of developing breast cancer or a recurrence of cancer.

Below is a list of my top 10 tips for proactive breast health and overall hormone-balancing. For more information, and for an individualized health plan, consult with Mahalia Freed, ND or your naturopathic doctor.

1.     Be in touch—know your breasts, be familiar with their changing lumps; get regular breast exams, consider baseline and regular screening via non invasive, non-radiating breast thermography.

2.     Go with the flow—Ensure optimal functioning of your lymphatic system by: wearing proper-fitting bras & wearing them less often, doing gentle dry skin brushing, and/or using therapeutic oils such as herbal breast/chest oil or castor oil.

3.     Get physical—Regular physical activity and minimal alcohol consumption are associated with lowered rates of breast cancer.

4.     Sweat it out—Regular saunas, especially infrared saunas, promote excretion of some of the cancer-causing chemicals we accumulate in our tissues.

5.     The clear choice—Minimize exposure to harmful estrogenic chemicals: do not microwave in plastic (or at all!), convert to storing food & water in glass or stainless steel, avoid PVC products, eat organic more often, avoid mainstream canned food (tin cans contain Bisphenol A in the lining).

6.     Spice up your life—Include turmeric, a classic Indian spice, in your cooking to decrease inflammation and inhibit cancer; include Rosemary for enhanced phase II liver detoxification & estrogen metabolism.

7.     Right for the gut—Freshly ground flax (1-2 tbsp daily in a smoothie/on salad/in cereal) is not only a great source of fibre (aim for 30 g of fibre per day), but will help to eliminate highly active estrogen, improve gut flora, and is clinically proven to decrease tumor size.

8.     B is for …Brassicas—A family of veggies, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, and bok choy that not only contain loads of vitamins and minerals, but also contain indole-3-carbinol, a substance known to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells and stimulate cancer cell death.

9.     Eat this up—Aim for a rainbow of colours in your 8 daily servings of vegetables and fruits; choose whole foods rather than processed foods; include lentils & beans.

10.  A well-oiled machine—Choose healthy fats: olive oil, fish oil, organic animal products (and grass-fed if beef, elk, venison, buffalo…)

Mahalia Freed is a Naturopathic Doctor practicing at Sage Health and Wellness Clinic in downtown Toronto. In her family practice, Dr Freed has a special focus in endocrinology, mental health, oncology, fertility, and perinatal care. For more information on cancer prevention, health news, and recipes, follow her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MahaliaFreedND or on twitter: @MahaliaFreedND

Join Erin Bentley, M.A., PhD (candidate) and Dr. Mahalia Freed, ND, to discover how accessing your emotional wisdom can deeply transform your relationship with stress – as well as your mind-body health!

Learn the nuts and bolts of the pervasive effects of stress on your physiology, and take away empowering strategies that will help you begin to ‘Feel Your Way Forward’ to a state of total health. Implement some simple suggestions to find greater energy, vitality, creativity, joy; and decrease your risk of diseases from Crohn’s to cancer, IBS to Alzheimer’s.

In this workshop, you will:

• Discover how our emotional landscape is tied to stress;
• Explore the physiological and biochemical implications of stress and stress management;
• Learn how healthy processing of our emotions (through observation, acknowledgement, authenticity, and compassion) can improve physical and emotional health by altering our stress response;
• Discuss and practice specific strategies for ‘feeling your way forward’, including: cultivating a deeper awareness of our emotional landscape; healthy boundaries; and authentic yes’s and no’s.

Click here to register now!

Contact: If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Erin at erin (at) erinbentley (dot) com; or Mahalia at mahalia (at) dandelionnaturopathic (dot) ca

Facilitators’ Bios

Erin Bentley, M.A., is a mentor, healer, writer and public speaker. She holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of British Columbia; and is a PhD candidate in the department of Sociology at York University in Toronto, Ontario. For four and a half years, Erin has run a home-based healing practice. She mentors the beautiful outsiders of the world to leverage their deep yearning for life-change into epic self-transformation by helping clients to move through grief, pain, and fear so that they can recover the promise of their lives. For more about Erin, see her website.

Mahalia Freed, ND is a Naturopathic Doctor, BodyTalk Practitioner, Writer, Speaker, Educator, and Kale Crusader. People who receive naturopathic care with Dr. Mahalia Freed feel better. Her clients get pregnant, get energized, find their healthy body weight, overcome anxiety and depression, and leave digestive health concerns behind. From allergies to PMS, IBS to fatigue, Dr Mahalia Freed listens – and you get results.

Mahalia is a advocate of ‘the New Holistic’. Using the depth and breadth of her training in naturopathic medicine, Mahalia can help you take your health to the next level, physically and emotionally. Her doctor’s toolbox includes herbal medicine, nutrition & supplementation, homeopathic medicine, counseling, as well as Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture – all complimented by energy modalities such as BodyTalk and Reiki.

If you are looking for healing that includes personal growth as well as care for body, mind and spirit, this is it!

In addition to her private practice in downtown Toronto, Mahalia is also a guest lecturer at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Eight Branches Chinese Medicine Academy, and the Institute for Traditional Medicine. A renowned speaker and workshop facilitator, Mahalia enjoys providing public education in areas including natural medicine for hormone balancing (polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS, PMS, fertility); pregnancy; work / life balance; stress & digestion; you and the new holistic; and complementary care for cancer prevention and treatment.

For recipes, research news, health information and upcoming events, become a fan on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MahaliaFreedND or follow Mahalia on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/MahaliaFreedND

It’s time to grow, and Dr. Mahalia Freed, ND can’t wait to welcome new and existing patients to Sage Health and Wellness Clinic, the new home for her naturopathic services. Come visit as of Sept. 12th, 2011.

For more about Sage, see www.sageclinic.ca .

This salad is build around a spicy cilantro pesto recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen. Thank you, Lorna, for the many tasty meals you have contributed to since I bought this book in 1999! Find her book here: http://lornasass.com/cookbooks/complete-vegetarian-kitchen It is a valuable kitchen resource for tasty and wholesome vegan meal ideas, or for a primer on how to cook beans or grains, or how to assemble an awesome salad, every time.

1 batch Cilantro Pesto (recipe below)

1 can black beans (Eden is BPA-free) or 2 cups cooked black beans (about 1 cup soaked and simmered)

1 cup raw quinoa, cooked in 2 cups water

1 large carrot, grated

1 red pepper, diced

1 stalk broccoli, cut into bite size florets/pieces and steamed

sprouts if you have some on hand

avocado if you have some on hand

whatever other veggie you are inspired to add

Cook quinoa in 2 cups of water with a bit of salt. While quinoa is cooking, chop veggies and put into salad bowl, leaving the avocado aside. Make the pesto. Remember that quinoa cooks faster than rice and take it off the heat when it is done (about 15-20 minutes)! Letting it sit with the lid on for a few minutes helps make it fluffy. Combine all ingredients (except avocado) and toss. Add avocado to individual bowls.

Serve warm for a 1-bowl week-night dinner, and pack up leftovers for a delicious – if garlicky – lunch.

“Coriander Pesto”

From Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen

Cilantro is not only delicious, and cleanse-friendly, it also supports detoxification as it nourishes.

Note from Lorna: Great served over plain boiled beans or grains, or on bean and grain salads.

1/3 cup olive oil

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice, approximately

1 cup tightly packed minced fresh cilantro (coriander)

1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts or sunflower seeds, finely chopped

1 large clove minced fresh garlic (or more to taste)

1 tsp mild chili powder

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp sea salt, or to taste

1. In a food processor or jar, combine all the ingredients.
2. Use immediately or store in a well-sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
3. Makes 1/3 cup

Stinging Nettle in High Park

Blood tonic, anti-inflammatory, detoxifier. The thorny bush in your yard? Calcium source, uterine tonic. Learn how to apply the medicine growing around us to support & enhance our own health. Using the “weeds” of Guelph lake conservation area as our teachers, we will touch, taste and talk about plants as medicines. Leave with a handout outlining medicinal uses local “weeds”, along with some recipes. Mahalia Freed, ND’s naturopathic practice has a special focus on botanicals for hormone balance and mental health: www.dandelionnaturopathic.ca

For information on Hillside Festival, please see www.hillsidefestival.ca

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” – Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson is one of my heroes, and May 27^th was her birthday. There are many reasons to honor her memory and her work by sharing a small piece of her story. Author of the seminal book on the impact of pesticides on environmental health, Silent Spring (1962)(View book), she died of breast cancer in 1964, at age 56. A biologist and writer with a deep passion for the natural world, Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and by so-called “men of science” for her research. Not only did many people try to deny the truth of what she was saying, but they dismissed her for the simple fact of her biology; that she was a woman, working as a scientist and a writer at a time when this in itself was a challenge. According to biographer Linda Lear, Carson “courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment”(from www.rachelcarson.org).

Why beat this “pesticides are bad” thing over the head? Don’t we already know that pesticides cause serious, irreparable damage to human health? DDT was in fact eventually banned in North America after Carson sounded the alarm about the carcinogenic and hormone-disrupting insecticide. A leftover from WWII, DDT went from killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes in combat zones to killing the pesky mosquitoes that are abundant in North American summer. Although it was never tested, and it was known to kill a wide variety of insects on contact, it was advertised as safe & healthy for kids. It was even sprayed over them at swimming pools.

Thank you, Miss Rachel Carson, for this victory for us, the creatures of the earth.

But now, this year? There remain in use hundreds, if not thousands, of chemicals whose safety has never been proven, and this is the toxic soup in which we swim.

Let us not forget, we all live downstream. There is no safe place to spray Atrazine, a popular water-soluble pesticide that turns male frogs into females when it contaminates their habitat. There is no safe place to emit heavy-metal-contaminated smoke, known to affect sex development and asthma rates in children. We all live downstream.

Let us Remember Rachel Carson, and continue on in her effort. Let us wonder at the beauty and the mysteries of the earth, and speak out against environmental destruction.

(To learn more about Atrazine – banned in Europe in 2004, but still heavily and current usage/campaigns to ban its use, see this treehugger article, sign this petition to ban atrazine in the US and search for local campaigns.)

For more information about environment, health, and action you can take, see:

http://environmentaldefence.ca/

http://www.ewg.org/

http://www.panna.org/

http://www.womenshealthyenvironments.ca/

and many others.

please call us to book your 30 minute appointment: 647 428 7200

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.
Current research indicates that 1 in every 9 women in Canada will get breast cancer in her lifetime. That means an average of 445 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer each week. With these alarming statistics, pro-active women do everything they can to detect possible problems early.

Breast Thermography, otherwise known as Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) is a diagnostic procedure that creates images based on a careful detection and analysis of skin and tissue temperatures. These images allow practitioners to see where there is abnormal chemical and blood vessel activity in breast and body tissue. The ability of DITI to detect thermal signs that may suggest a pre-cancerous state of the breast at an extremely early stage, is a useful tool in early detection.

Benefits of Breast Thermography:

• Thermography is a non-invasive test. An infrared camera creates an image of your breasts and body by measuring heat. There is no contact of any kind, no pain, no radiation.
• Signs of possible cancer or pre-cancerous cell growth may be detected up to 10 years prior to being discovered using any other procedure (including mammogram). This provides for the earliest possible detection of pre-cancerous and cancerous conditions.
• Breast Thermography is painless and safe, using no radiation or compression. It can be used effectively and safely for all women including pregnant or nursing women, women with fibrocystic breasts or dense breast tissue, and women with breast implants.
• It is safe. Over thirty years of clinical use and more than 8,000 peer-reviewed studies in medical literature have established thermography as a safe and effective means to examine the human body.  It is FDA approved in the United States since 1982 and has been used there and in Europe for over twenty five years.
• Accurately detecting changes. Each patient has a particular infrared map of their breast. Any changes in this infrared map on images taken over months or years, may constitute an early sign of an abnormality. All images are kept on file for several years for comparison with previous images.
• No worrisome waiting around. You will get your results within a week of the test/procedure. All images are read by certified physicians of DITI. If a pathology is suspected, this information is used to recommend further examination and tests.

Why do I need to do thermography when there are mammograms?

Mammograms detect structural changes, so a lump or mass of a size detectable on X-ray is already present in breast tissue by the time a problem is found. The next step is further investigation by ultrasound and/or biopsy to diagnose the nature of the lump or mass, and to make treatment decisions. At this point, it is often too late to implement preventive strategies alone, so medical intervention is the norm.

In comparison, breast thermography detects functional changes in breast tissue before tumours form or when they are too small to be detected with X-rays. Detecting breast cancer at its earliest stage is when there is the greatest potential for successful treatment. The addition of breast thermography to the front line of early breast cancer detection is good news for women.

Your Thermographer – Lynn Schott RN

After experiencing her own breast cancer scare, Lynn began to look into the use of thermography for early detection. She wanted to help other women avoid the anguish that she and her family had experienced. With a medical background of 9 years in nursing, she has seen first hand the results of not using this type of preventive testing. Her experience working with cancer patients and helping them get coverage for their costly cancer treatments awakened her to the increasing prevalence of cancer. No longer willing to just watch it happen and try to sweep up the pieces, Lynn took the training with the American College of Clinical Thermography to be able to offer this early detection procedure to the public and is now offering thermography clinics at Lifecycles Wellness.

Call 647-428-7200 to book your appointment or e-mail info@lifecycleswellness.com for more information.