Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2020 i Zoomer Magazine

Years, like resolutions, come and go, but there is something about the end of one decade and the beginning of another that has particular portent. Each decade is a work in progress, developing like an old-fashioned photograph into something definitive only after the moment has passed. But with awareness and intention, we can decide going in, as much as humanly possible, what the next 10 years will be like – one day at a time. But with that a diminishing return, we thought it best to bring in the experts. For the best strategies to navigate the life changes that invariably come at this stage and that can affect our sense of self, Leanne Delap spoke to therapists and life coaches for “Inside Out,” (pg. 44). The upshot? Your…

pet care is self-care From lowering blood pressure and stress to improving self-worth and social connection, our animal companions are good for us. Return the favour! mindfulness is happiness Whether it’s what you wear or what you read, where you walkor what you stream, choose with intention to foster joy the comfort of your home Safe and sound, stylish and sustainable, make it a sanctuary whether you’re welcoming guests or appreciating some me-time…

TRENDY NEW BEVERAGES often create buzz because of the supposed health benefits, especially when they’re mentioned on social media. “They’re given hype by influencers, so people want to try them,” says Théa Demmers, a registered dietitian at Concordia University in Montreal. But drinking your calories may often mean taking in extra sugar or falling short on dietary fibre. Besides, not all these concoctions have evidence to support their health claims – some even carry risks. We’ve got the juice on five of the latest liquid fads. CELERY JUICE Kim Kardashian tried celery juice for her psoriasis. Miranda Kerr says it gives her more energy and eases indigestion. But celery is 95 per cent water, so any purported benefits such as reduced inflammation and fatigue are likely due to the…

At long last, we have made it to Mustique. Capping off a glorious new season of The Crown, Princess Margaret visits the private Caribbean isle, one whose very name conjures up pictures of heady goings-on under a smouldering sun and is, moreover, synonymous with the jet set she helped define in the ’60s and ’70s. The occasion for this particular trip by the younger, showier sister of Her Majesty the Queen? Nothing short of a lovey-dovey get-away with boy toy Roddy Llewellyn, a passionate gardener and would-be baron nearly 20 years her junior. (Margaret is played by Helena Bonham Carter this season, who took over the role from Vanessa Kirby, who, like all the principals on the show, is part of an elaborate casting waltz for Season 3.) “How…

RETIRE THE “R” WORD I was just reading Libby Znaimer’s “The “R” Word” in the November/December issue of Zoomer. I find that I am getting a bit annoyed by articles describing or implying that retirement is like a jail sentence; that we are losing purpose; that we are losing our identity. I consider myself a lucky one who had a chance to retire at 60. I’ve been retired now for over a year and I don’t feel that I don’t have purpose in life or lost my identity. Just because I don’t have my work title behind my name does not mean that I don’t have identity or purpose. I very much enjoy the time I now have that I never had before for so many different things or…

GENETICIST AND HARVARD Medical School professor David A. Sinclair has been on Time magazine’s list of “100 Most Influential People in the World” for his work on prevention and reversal of age-related disease. He’s confident we can live longer and healthier, and that’s the premise of his recently published book, Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To. Tara Losinski What’s more important in your work, quantity or quality of life? David A. Sinclair It’s 100 per cent about quality. It just turns out that if you’re not sick or you don’t have a disease of aging, you don’t die – unless you don’t cross the road safely. You have an increased, what we call, health span. And if you extend health span, you automatically get…

COREY MINTZ ONCE had a guest who, when offered a labour-intensive platter of poultry, refused it because she didn’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. No matter how many times Mintz, a food writer and author of the 2013 book How to Host a Dinner Party, explained that he bought the chicken and brined, breaded and fried it himself, she conflated it with KFC. “I don’t eat fast food,” she told Mintz, who hosted about a thousand people between 2009 and 2013 for his Toronto Star column “Fed.” “In her head, it was an industrialized product that only existed like that,” said Mintz. “It was not a thing that was made from chicken.” Eventually, he gave up and offered more salad. As the holiday season rolls around, fresh off the five…

MARGARET ATWOOD is renowned for her speculative fiction, but even she didn’t foresee her 80th year proving so fruitful. She kicked off 2019 with VH1’s Trailblazer Honor, while The Handmaid’s Tale sequel, The Testaments, broke Canadian first week sales records in September, landing a TV adaptation and Atwood on the cover of Time. In October, she collected her second Booker Prize – shared with author Bernardine Evaristo – becoming the oldest winner ever, before Canada’s Queen of Letters met the actual Queen to receive the Order of the Companions of Honour for her “services to literature.” And after announcing she’d donate half her Booker winnings to support educational initiatives for Indigenous Canadians, she closed out the year with Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word Is…

■ THE CASE A 65-year-old woman collapses at a store. She is unconscious for about 30 seconds. An ambulance is called, and the woman is brought to the emergency room (ER). The patient was normally healthy, known only to have high blood pressure (but was not on medication), and she also smoked on occasion. In the ER, she complains of severe left foot pain. ■ THE SYMPTOMS She had suddenly lost consciousness. No faint feeling, no confusion, no seizure-like movements, so possibly an arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat that does not effectively pump blood to the brain). But why the foot pain? So painful she required IV pain medications. Her heart rate and blood pressure were elevated, but all else was relatively normal. ■ THE TESTS Electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood…

THIS TIME, it was my friend Tina. She sounded angry on the phone. Then came the tears. Tina had just been diagnosed with lobular breast cancer, a relatively rare form of the disease. The aftermath of the diagnosis can be the worst time – you don’t know what you are facing, and the very idea that you have cancer is terrifying. But Tina got all the necessary tests and underwent a double mastectomy in a matter of weeks. “I just wanted it out of me,” she says. She can’t say enough good things about her treatment at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. But what came after highlights the anger and frustration so many of us feel. Health care is the subject all the main parties ignored in…

Many Canadians have tried hard to lose weight – over 60 per cent of us are obese or overweight, according to Stat-istics Canada – and been frustrated by the lack of results. But instead of giving up, perhaps they should try something else. Not every strategy works for every person, and science backs that up, says Dr. Shahebina Walji, medical director of the Calgary Weight Management Centre. As one of the co-authors of the upcoming Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Obesity, Walji has been combing the literature. “A big theme we have come across is that weight-loss approaches need to be tailored to the individual,” she says. “There’s no cookie-cutter approach that works for everyone.” One 73-year-old woman from Ontario recently made international headlines for losing…

It caused quite the stir when Lancôme, the French luxury cosmetics brand, signed actor Isabella Rossellini as its “face” in 1982. And it was not just because she was the spitting image of her mother, Ingrid Bergman – the star of Casablanca and other classics – or that Rossellini was an edgy up-and-coming Hollywood muse. Or that signing the exclusive contract made her the highest paid model in the world. The buzz among us beauty editors was that she had managed to land this at the advanced age of 30, ancient in beauty advertising years. By 1996, at 43, Rossellini was out. “They told me they needed somebody younger,” she has said of that time. “The advertising was aspirational and, even though they have clients of all ages, the…