After years of throwing toxic waste into a landfill, one Scottish municipality decided it was the perfect location to build a high school for students with special needs. But just seven years after the school opened, teachers and parents of Buchanan High School in Coatbridge are outraged that four staff members have developed the same...
Maria Sykes
The Hearty Soul Team
Marie Sykes is an Ontario based writer with a background in research and a love for holistic wellness. She's especially interested in boosting awareness for women's health issues. Once a shunner of gyms, Marie has found an appreciation for weight training and HIIT circuits. She enjoys trying cuisine from all over the world, and she also enjoys not caring two cents what other people think her body should look like.
Tori Geib of Bellefontaine, Ohio suffered from chronic back pain. Since it’s estimated that about 80% of Americans will at some point experience back pain, it certainly wasn’t unusual when she sought medical attention. Tori’s Shocking Story Tori visited three different rheumatologists in an attempt to find the real cause of her chronic back pain....
Babies have a knack for bringing families together, but they can also create new friction in close relationships that weren’t there before. One exasperated mom found herself in an awkward situation upon realizing her breastfeeding baby was not welcome at a family wedding. The frustrated mom writes, “My cousin invited us to his wedding in...
Dark chocolate “sunbutter” cups, 2-ingredient chocolate mousse, dark chocolate avocado blueberry muffins. So many recipes, so little time! But the good news for you fellow chocolate-fiends is that your cocoa obsession could have some positive health effects on your brain. Chocolate Makes You Smart? A study published in the journal Appetite found a link between...
A UK mother recently shared her unsettling close-call with sepsis. The condition accounts for over 1 million hospitalizations in the USA and remains one of the top 10 killing diseases in America. (1) Make sure you can recognize the early warning signs, including this mom’s important example. What is Sepsis? Sepsis is an inappropriate immune...
Is your intuition telling you that your hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s is causing your chronic pain? I’ve got news for you.. your intuition may be right. Let me show you how hypothyroidism causes chronic pain… but most importantly, let me help you learn how to fix it! To start understanding how this works, you really need...
Over the past few years, more and more research has been published revealing just how fundamental our gut microbiome is to our health. It can affect everything from our response to fear and negative stimuli, to our weight and mental health, to whether or not we develop autoimmune diseases such as lupus and type 1 diabetes. Now, a new study published in The Journal of Immunology has found...
It seems that everywhere you turn these days, someone is taking ordinary everyday items and bringing them into the future. This is the case of the smart window blinds that double as solar panels and slash your energy bill by more than half. Finally, proof that the word ‘smart’ can be attached to anything to...
Getting enough vitamin D is one piece of your overall health and wellness puzzle. Reaching healthy levels can be more challenging for people with little exposure to sunlight, people with darker complexions, and people whose diet doesn’t contain many vitamin-D rich whole foods. A vitamin D deficiency has been linked to: But (and this is...
Arthritis wears away at the cartilage of a joint, which is the cushioning material between bones. This can cause inflammation and irritation of the synovial lining, which produces the synovial fluid that helps protect and lubricate the joint. When arthritis affects the joints of the hands, it can cause pain and stiffness. That pain can get worse whenever you use your hand a...
Much like antibiotic resistant bacteria in recent years, “super bugs” of another type have adapted to survive common treatments. Chemical-resistant head lice has been a growing problem, with news stories covering the “super lice” since 2015. (1, 2) Unfortunately, just like antibiotic resistant bacteria, “super lice” also seem like they’re here to stay. At least...
If there was one thing you could do to improve all aspects of your life, one thing that would improve everything else in a profound way… would that intrigue you? We focus so much on yo-yo diets, calorie counting, fitness trackers, and finding the latest lifehacks on social media, that we end up overlooking the...