Tag Archives: prevention
Urban Dandelions
Yes, reported cancer rates have risen in recent decades. Cancer now touches many of us, be it through family members, friends, or our own health experiences. 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 2 – 10% of all cancers.
In other words, there are many things you can do to enhance your overall health, and dramatically decrease your risk of developing cancer or a recurrence of cancer.
Join Dr Mahalia Freed, ND, to learn more about concrete ways that you can not only reduce your risk of cancer, but live a healthier, richer, more fulfilling life.
Register through Gilda’s Club, Toronto, to reserve your space. Call 416-214-9898.
Let’s go outside and play! Join me, Mahalia Freed ND, for an herb identification and plant story-sharing walk. The medicine we need is in our backyards, in our laneways, and in the green spaces throughout Toronto. Learn how to find it, and what deep healing it offers! From pregnancy tonic to allergy relief, heart medicine to liver support, our city is rich in medicine. This walk will cover plant identification, as well as the medicinal and energetic actions of the plants we find.
Please RSVP to Mahalia to reserve your spot.
The weeds in your laneway? Heart medicine. The stinging bush in the ravine?
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
by Mahalia Freed, ND
“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 27th 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.
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.
please call us to book your 30 minute appointment: 647 428 7200 Continue reading →
Film Screening & Facilitated Discussion
by Mahalia Freed, ND
Concerned about the implications of our contaminated world on human health? 
Today one in three people will get cancer. One in four will die from it. In the 1950’s, women in industrialized countries were at a one in twenty risk of developing breast cancer over their lifetime. Today that risk has skyrocketed to one in eight. Cancer can have many causes. Seventy to eighty percent of women with breast cancer have none of the “official” risk factors: family history (5-10%), hormonal and reproductive factors and a high fat diet. However, breast cancer rates are increasing all over the world and may be but the tip of the iceberg of other environmentally-linked diseases. Come to a screening and discussion of Exposure: Environmental Links To Breast Cancer and learn what you can do to decrease your risk and that of your community.
To register, please call Gilda’s Club at 416-214-9898.
www.dandelionnaturopathic.ca
www.womenshealthyenvironments.ca
By Dr Mahalia Freed, ND
Why do you take a prenatal multivitamin?
Does it have everything you need to stay healthy during pregnancy? (No!)
Does it contain all the nutrients your baby needs for optimal growth? (No!)
Multivitamins are sometimes described as a supplement “insurance policy”. Do you have the right insurance?
People don’t question whether or not to take a prenatal multivitamin. Even those who wouldn’t think to take a vitamin when not pregnant or trying to conceive assume they should take a prenatal. The intention behind this is noble, if somewhat symptomatic of the health concerns I see in practice: when nurturing another life, people are way more responsible than they are for themselves alone. Riding this trend, I encourage you to use the motivation of pregnancy or pregnancy preparation to enhance your own health. I also encourage you to work with a practitioner to determine what nutrients YOUR body needs, and in what dose.
Fact: nutritional needs change during pregnancy. You need more protein, more calories, and more of a variety of specific nutrients (for those of you who like the details, see chart below for an incomplete list of top nutrients).
Continue reading →
by Dr. Mahalia Freed ND
People come in to consult with me because they want something to be different. They want to be able to sleep, they want to have a baby, they want enough energy to enjoy their downtime, they are tired of struggling with depression, they are tired of picking up every bug during cold & flu season. 
While the details of treatment are unique for each person, every healing journey involves the integration of new lifestyle habits and/or ways of thinking. This means more than simply trying something new and finding that it makes you feel good, but truly integrating a change so that things ARE different from now on. This means going beyond the latest wonder-supplement for immunity or depression. Instead, we go within, to discover what it is that has thrown off your body’s natural balance in the first place.
What formula can we follow to get you there?
I can’t count how many times I have seen variations of the following scenario: I am working with someone and we come up with a plan, eg. work out 4 days a week. At their follow-up, they have been to the gym once, and then … it fizzled. They resolve to meet the same goal again. And again, despite telling me it is what they want to do, and telling me how they know they will feel better, they don’t do it.
Why not do it?
Why would someone tell me they want to exercise, ask for and agree to the plan, and then not do it?? I don’t view this as a patient being “noncompliant”. This is your care, your process. Your responsibility is to yourself, not to me. My job is to help you get where you want to go, to help you find balance in your life and within yourself. The question, then, is what is the obstacle to you taking this step that you tell me you want to take? What is the gap between what you say will be good for you, and what is right for you now, in this moment?
I have some theories.
I think that it often comes down to whether or not we are listening – truly listening – to our bodies. Is the voice that says I “should” exercise coming from outside of you, when instead your body just wants some stillness? Are you exhausted? Are you resolving to do weights because your read somewhere that doing weights is the best for your bones, but what really resonates for you is ballroom dancing? Or, it might be a matter of being stuck in all-or-nothing thinking: “I have to be a saint, and never allow a morsel of sugar or white flour to pass my lips. Otherwise there is no point and I should just eat a whole package of cookies since I’ve messed it up anyway”. The accompanying guilt, shame and blame when we set ourselves to “fail” in these ways paralyzes us into inaction. And, well, we all know how good – or not good – this kind of cycle feels when we are stuck in it.
What can we do instead?
1) Observe where you are, and practice compassion. Judging oneself harshly only leads to shame and blame, and lasting change cannot be built on these emotional states. Are you are feeling exhausted because you are watching tv or surfing the internet each night until the wee hours? Observe this pattern. Perhaps you will notice that this habit allows you to fall into sleep without feeling something (loneliness, sadness, fear, grief) that you wish to avoid. Be kind & gentle with yourself.
2) Look underneath the behaviour you want to change, and try to track it back to the root. So, if you are eating cookie dough ice cream each evening because you are sad, rather than resolving to stop eating the ice cream, resolve to address the sadness.
3) Identify goals that come from within you. Find yoga yucky but love being outside? Make walking your restorative exercise time.
Sustainable change comes from a place that is rooted deeply inside you. By looking at what you are doing and why, you can come to understand the root of the behaviour. From this root, guided by the principles of observation and compassion. you can rebuild a strong foundation that will take you where you want to go.
Mahalia Freed is a naturopathic doctor happily living and practicing in downtown Toronto. In her family practice, Mahalia has a special focus in endocrinology (including PMS, PCOS, thyroid concerns), mental health, oncology, fertility, and perinatal care.
Join Drs Mahalia Freed ND and Angela Warburton TCM for a two part series examining the 
foundations of a whole person model of cancer care. Learn how to enhance and complement western medical treatments based on the most recent research findings. Use natural medicines to boost effectiveness of chemotherapy & radiation, address side effects, speed recovery from surgery, enhance the immune system and improve energy. Incorporate dietary, supplement and lifestyle recommendations to prevent recurrence and optimize health.
In this talk we will start by examining the evolution of cancer care, and the role traditional Chinese medicine and naturopathic medicine in prevention, treatment & recovery. We will look in some detail at lifestyle factors including diet, stress, sleep, exercise, and laughter, exploring research findings and always bringing it back to what this means for people who are healing from cancer, or looking for active prevention strategies. We will also discuss environmental risk factors, and spend some time exploring supplements and herbs used in cancer prevention and treatment. Finally, we will end by highlighting the characteristics found in those who have “remarkable recoveries”. You will take home a handout with lifestyle and diet tips, resources for more information, and the list of remarkable recovery characteristics.
Please reserve your spot by registering with Gilda’s Club @ 416-214-9898.
Part One Wed. April 27th, 2011. 6:00-9 pm
Part Two: Wed. May 11th, 2011. 6:00-9 pm
Join Drs Mahalia Freed ND and Angela Warburton TCM for a two part series examining the foundations of a whole person model of cancer care. Learn how to enhance and complement 
western medical treatments based on the most recent research findings. Use natural medicines to boost effectiveness of chemotherapy & radiation, address side effects, speed recovery from surgery, enhance the immune system and improve energy. Incorporate dietary, supplement and lifestyle recommendations to prevent recurrence and optimize health.
In this talk we will start by examining the evolution of cancer care, and the role traditional Chinese medicine and naturopathic medicine in prevention, treatment & recovery. We will look in some detail at lifestyle factors including diet, stress, sleep, exercise, and laughter, exploring research findings and always bringing it back to what this means for people who are healing from cancer, or looking for active prevention strategies. We will also discuss environmental risk factors, and spend some time exploring supplements and herbs used in cancer prevention and treatment. Finally, we will end by highlighting the characteristics found in those who have “remarkable recoveries”. You will take home a handout with lifestyle and diet tips, resources for more information, and the list of remarkable recovery characteristics.
Part One Wed. April 27th, 2011. 6:00-9 pm
Part Two: Wed. May 11th, 2011. 6:00-9 pm
Please reserve your spot by registering with Gilda’s Club @ 416-214-9898.
