Mindfulness

    Health psychology was a really great class today, talking a lot about empathy and how to effectively communicate with patients, and people in general to ensure that they feel heard and that what they say matters. Before the full lecture though, we talked again about mindfulness and being in the present moment. To solidify this talk, Dr. Creech took us through a guided meditation in class, and then gave us a break to go outside and enjoy the sun. The whole experience has given me more understanding of how important mindfulness really is. We spend so much of our day thinking about the past and the future (even as I write this I'm worrying about work I have to do later tonight), and yet the present has so much importance. Past and future are important, but it is really the present where we actually exist. A smart guy once said, "life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop to look around once in a while, you might miss something."

   Through our discussions about mindfulness, I've also come to realize how important it is when it comes to speaking with patients, and also with our friends and families, really anyone we speak to. Think about the last time you spoke with someone, anyone. Were you completely in the present moment while you listened to them, or did your mind drift off at times onto things what happened that morning or what you need to do later that day or even right after you finish talking? It can be very difficult to stay present because our minds have so much information, how could they not wander? However, exercises like meditation and practicing mindfulness have the ability to get you focused on what is happening right now, and with practice comes to ability to remain present when you need to. This is something I plan to work on myself as I go through the program at CCNM, because my hope is that when I am in the room with patients in the future, I can forget about everything else in my life at the time, be mindful and present, and provide the patient with what they need. Hopefully this will also transfer to my social life as well, because though patients are obviously important, the important people in my life deserve the same attention as well.

    For those of you who would like to work on their own mindfulness, I suggest trying a short guided meditation such as this one. It is important with meditation to be in a quiet room where you can be comfortable, get in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Focus on breathing in through your nose and out through the nose because this engages the parasympathetic nervous system which will help you remain relaxed. Just focus on breathing in slowly, taking a pause, and then breathing out slowly, and repeat. As you focus on your breath and the sensations of your body, past and future dissipate from your mind, and the practice of mindfulness really begins. It is difficult and takes a lot of practice (I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be yet), but the benefits are well worth it.

(if animals really are like this, it must be nice to be so present with little worries)

Carotenoid "Glow"

             Monday’s botanical medicine lecture was pretty interesting. We just continued looking at different types of phytochemicals, but we also got to smell and taste a lot of essential oils. Some of them have very intense smells! One of the phytochemical categories we looked at today was tetraterpenes, also known as carotenoids (such as beta-carotene and lycopene). This brought up an interesting discussion about something known as the carotenoid glow. In addition to many of the health benefits that carotenoids provide (e.g. some carotenoids are “provitamin” A), they are also pigment molecules that can have an effect on the colour of your skin. The yellowish colour of your skin is influenced by melanin (which changes in response to the sun) and carotenoids. In a recent study in Evolution and Human Behaviour, researchers found that people found skin that was yellowish due to carotenoids looked healthier and more attractive than skin that was yellowish due to melanin. This is great news because it means you can eat healthy to get all the health benefits of carotenoids, and also have better looking skin without needing to do lots of unhealthy tanning. So get out of the sun so much and make sure you eat lots of vegetables, your body will thank you, and your skin will look great!

(the face in the middle shows the woman’s natural colour, the face on the left shows the effect of sun tanning, and the face on the right shows the effect of eating more carotenoids over two months. What do you think looks better?)

Clubs Week

        This week was clubs week which is overall a pretty exciting time. I’m used to Laurier where there is one day devoted to clubs for first years during orientation week, and then occasionally they set up in the concourse. For this week, the front lobby was set up with a bunch of tables, and over the week tons of sign-up pages were set out for a bunch of different clubs. I was really impressed with the number of clubs there are (over 20) considering that the school population is so small (can’t be more than 500-600 students), compared to Laurier which maybe has 50 clubs, but over 14000 students! I signed up for almost all of the clubs since I decided it would be better to get all the emails and decide what to go to when I get them. One of them I’m pretty excited for is the Dragon Boat club (CCNM Nightshade!). I think we’ll just start with working out for this semester, but in early winter we get to actually go in a dragon boat and race, so that’s going to be pretty exciting. There’s also lots of cool clubs to learn about different topics with free lectures and seminars, like the business club, pediatrics club and geriatrics club. 

                           (a real dragon boat in action, it looks like a lot of fun!)

Graffiti Pub

         It’s the end of week 2, and the NSA just ran a really great event called Graffiti Pub. This is another event that’s supposed to help first years bond, and also helps the first years meet some of the upper year students. We were all given a white t-shirt that had our class logo and said “Class of 2017,” and the graffiti was to use permanent markers and write messages on everyone’s shirts. The party started in school which was lots of fun, and then we moved together as a huge group taking the subway to get to Yonge and Eglinton. There we got to a bar and met up with the NSA, and eventually some upper year students we got to meet. We had a good time with some food and beer, and messing around writing messages on everyone’s shirts with markers. There were lots of funny messages, I got to know a lot more names, and had a really good time with everyone. It was definitely more of a first year event, but I did get to meet a bunch of upper years too, and even got to see Vanessa (my Unity Summit team leader) again. All in all, it was a good night to relax after the first full week of school.

(group picture in our shirts at school before heading to the bar; mine wasn't cut yet so it's kind of boring here)

First Full Week

     It’s been a whole, full week now and I have to say, I’m pretty exhausted. This is definitely a lot more school than undergrad was, especially last year since I had so little class (jeez I had Monday and Friday off second semester last year, and now I have 11 courses!). Anyway here is a list of the new classes I had this week

Monday

Botanical medicine: Dr. Gowan teaches this course, and he comes from a background in toxicology so he has a very interesting take on everything. He’s explained that this course is like learning a new language, so it’s definitely going to be hard. But I’m pretty excited because it seems like a pretty cool topic; we’ll be learning the basics of botanical medicines which include things like teas, tinctures and essential oils. I also hope to be able to spend some time in the Paracelcus Herbal Garden and actually be able to identify some plants in the future.

Clinical physiology: Dr. Gratton teaches this one, and it looks like my background with physiology and having taken physiology in my last semester at Laurier will definitely be helpful. I like how the concepts are very clinically focused, and we’re going to do practicals where we get to apply what we learn in the lectures directly; it’s especially great that practicals are during lecture time, so this means there will be less lecture material overall. I’m especially excited for vitals when we get to learn to take blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer and listen to heart sounds with a stethoscope (and buy my very own medical equipment!).

Thursday

Health psychology: This is going to be a really interesting course, one I’m very excited for. I think one of the things that worries me the most about being a future ND (aside from the business stuff) is patient rapport and being able to deal with all the mental-emotional stuff. Dr. Creech has a really good background in psychology and it looks like we’re going to get a really good foundation here, especially with a lot of practicals to actually put the theory in action.

Asian medicine: So we do have Dr. Montgomery (my intern Shahin said he’s really good), but this course is still kind of scary. Again we’re told that this course is going to be like learning a new language. It’s definitely going to be interesting and I can see how this is going to be useful (I mean, TCM has been around for over 5000 years, they must be doing something right), but it’s going to be hard, especially for my scientifically oriented brain. Dr. Montgomery’s two favourite answers I have in my head right now: “it depends,” and “it isn’t always so.” Groan.

Friday

Biochemistry: This is the last new course I have. The course outline is almost the same as CH350 from Laurier, so I think it shouldn’t be too bad. I probably could’ve got out of it, but I think I was a little too worried about having trouble with OSAP after getting out of two courses, so it’s probably better to just take it. Dr. Fraser is a PhD so I don’t know exactly what to expect, but hopefully we’ll look at processes in a way that helps understand some of the treatments I’ll be giving in the future.

So all in all that totals to 10 courses (I was able to get out of research)! Going to be a lot more class than undergrad.

                  (it's only the second week and it feels like there's so much work already!)

Unity Summit

               Unity summit was an amazing time! This was basically like going to camp for 2 days, lots of fun. So we got to school Thursday morning and signed in, and were put into groups, then went on buses with our groups to the YMCA camp in Orillia. On the bus the NSA (Naturopathic Students Association) members tried to keep us awake and get us involved in some bus games, this wasn’t so bad. Once we got there we were immediately put into our groups and told that we had to come up with a skit related to our group modality (my group was manipulation, or Manip! for short). This was a little intimidating in the morning, but we had a few ideas flowing, I’ll get back to that later.

                So after getting set-up in our cabins (kind of dirty, but honestly better than what I thought, I really thought we’d be in tents or something), we met back as a big group and went through the day. There was a good mixture going back and forth between talks from guest speakers and fun events like an amazing race (Manip! won this which was awesome, especially after swimming in freezing cold water at the end and then running across camp with wet shoes!). I especially liked the talk by Bob Bernhardt, it was a lot more inspiring than the original one during orientation (which seemed a little more business, getting out the information he had to). After dinner we had more time to work on our skits, then we did some cool bonding/initation-like stuff outside, and then went inside to do our skits for everyone. My group went first and had a ton of laughs, it was lots of fun to do. Watching everyone else was lots of fun, seeing how creative everyone was. And finally the NSA did a huge skit, pretending to go through all 4 years of school; it was really funny, I was really impressed with what they came up with. After their skit was over, we had a sudden breakout into a dance party which was awesome and lots of fun. The night finished off with a bonfire in the grotto, which was a great time making smores and listen to some talented people play guitar while we sang along and made new friends.

                The next day was also great with more fun activities and speakers. The final activity was another really cool intiation-trust exercise, and by the time we were on the bus going home I really felt part of a new community. Overall unity summit was a really great experience and I highly recommend anyone who goes to CCNM in the future make sure the take part in it. I am definitely considering being a unity summit leader in the future because I know how much fun it was and can be for everyone. It’s was also a really great way to get to know a lot of the people in the program, and I feel a lot less intimidated by the group now.

                                 (aerial shot of the camp, it's a really green and beautiful place)

Second Day

    So today we had a regular full day of classes, nothing special for orientation at all. I guess we have to get started, but at least unity summit is tomorrow which will be relaxing and fun. I still don’t know too many people in the program, I tried to sit beside some new people and talk to them, but it’s still quite intimidating. Oh and I forgot to mention, but it looks like I’m one of maybe 10 or so guys in a program of about 100 people. So ya, intimidating. Anyway here are the new classes for the day.

Principles of Research: This course is taught by Dr. Gratton who will also teach physiology. It looks like a pretty basic research course looking at general types of research and how to do a critical appraisal. I’m looking into getting out of this since I did a thesis last year and think I know research pretty well.

Anatomy: This is the course I’m probably the most scared for since I didn’t do so well in undergrad anatomy, but at least I have the background. Dr. Terzic (pronounced Terzich) teaches this one. He’s an MD from somewhere in Europe, but he’s been teaching here a long time. He seems pretty nice and funny, made a lot of random jokes. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Ethics and Jurisprudence: This is the first part to the course, the rest is taught in fourth year, so this just a minor introduction. The class is taught by Professor Pownall, he’s the school lawyer so he obviously knows a lot about this stuff. The content seems a little dry, but it’s definitely important. This course is only once every other week, with the opposite week being dry anatomy labs.

                     (hopefully I can actually label all this by the end of the semester)

First Day at CCNM

Just letting you know, these next few blog entries are going to be retrospective, looking at the first few weeks of school. They were quite busy and so I didn’t really have time to get started on the blog, but once I’ve got these out of the way my plan is to make a post at least every few days just about interesting topics we learn or I learn through my own studying, or student life and other stuff.

So without further adue, the first day of school:

I left home pretty early to make sure I’d get there on time (orientation started at 8:30am...). Unfortunately I had some parking problems at the TTC lot, full! So I drove all the way to Fairview Mall and parked there, and  took the subway back to school, seemed so ridiculous but at the time I didn’t know about any other options, so I felt like I had no choice. I got to school and there was a huge lineup to get our orientation package; I tried to be friendly and talk to people in line, but it was pretty intimidating, such a big crowd of new faces. After getting our packages (including lots of free goodies like omega-3 from Ascenta and protein powder from Orange Naturals), we went into Classroom 4 where I soon learned we’d spend the majority of the year. The morning went with a bunch of talks from upper year students, professors, we had a tour of the school (I talked to a few more people during this time), and then lunch catered by Hearty Catering (organic, gluten free, all that good stuff) in the classroom during another talk. We got to hear from Bob Bernhardt, the president of the school (and an amazing man who has done so much for the school and the profession, I’m sure I’ll touch on him in the future), and also Nick DeGroote, the dean of academics.

After these talks we actually had all 3 of our classes that are normally on Tuesday (on the first day jeez!), but at least they were shortened to 50 minutes rather than the usual hour and 50.

Clinic 1 – This is taught by Dr. Khalili and seems like it will be a useful course. We’re just going to start learning the basics of what working in the clinic is like and the types of procedures that are done (not treatments, but stuff like charting and meetings, how to do patient intakes), and this is going to include a mock patient intake in class, and getting to go shadow one of the supervisors in the clinic later this term.

Naturopathic Philosophy and History – This is a really interesting course taught by Dr. Godfrey. He’s been teaching here for over 20 years and has tons of experience, he’s a pretty interesting guy. The content seems a little over my head to start, getting very spiritual and the words “cosmic consciousness” come up a lot. I guess I’ll do my best to get something out of this class, I mean it’s obviously here for a reason.

Homeopathic Medicine 1 – This course is taught by Dr. Kimberly-Taylor, and is one that I’m coming in the most skeptical about. I did a little bit of reading about homeopathy before school started, and have to say it seems like a really strange concept, and I’ve read a lot of skepticism especially from medical doctors. But I’m going to try to be as open as I can about it, we have 3 parts to homeopathic medicine, one every year. And I know that naturopathic medicine is really good and since homeopathic medicine is a big part of it, I think it’s worth trying to make the best of it. Who knows, maybe I’ll like it.

                After classes ended, I took the advice Dr. Khalili gave us and decided to go to the clinic. I’ve been having a lot of neck pain since the summer (I had 2 massage therapy appointments for it that helped but it’s still there). Lucky for me, Tuesday is the Sports Medicine specialty shift, so my problem is the kind of stuff they’re really looking at. My interns name is Shahin, he’s a fourth year student who has been working in the clinic since the summer so I have some confidence in him. After a bit of an intake with questions about what’s been going on, he started with a cervical manipulation, my first one ever. The popping sound kind of scared the crap out of me, and we actually only went one way. After that he did some acupuncture, also my first time, and used a heating pad. The acupuncture was actually pretty cool, there were a lot of needles in me but I barely felt any of them go in. He also used an electrical stim on some of the needles, and it felt just like a muscle stim that I’ve had in physio in the past. At the end he recommended taking a magnesium supplement (specifically magnesium glycinate) and using some robax heating pads for a little while. I felt pretty good after the treatment, but it’s been a long first day so I’m really tired. Hopefully I’ll feel better soon.

                                                     (The front entrance of CCNM)

Introduction

Hi Everyone! I'm Noah.

I am in my first year of the four year Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND) program at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM) in Toronto, Ontario. I have created this blog in order to document my studies at CCNM to introduce people to this field of medicine and give some insight into what it is like being a student at CCNM.

I hope to keep this blog light, fun and readable with interesting stories and useful facts.

You can expect posts about student life, naturopathic medicine and its modalities, CCNM and probably some posts about food as well because I love cooking and baking (when I have time!)