How To Manage Stress During The Unknown
The outbreak of COVID-19 may be stressful for people. Fear and anxiety about a disease can be overwhelming and cause strong emotions in not only adults but also children. We at West Bay Pharmacy want to give you some helpful tips and pointers in managing your stress during this time. Coping with stress will make you, the people you care about, and your community stronger.
Stress during an infectious disease outbreak can include:
- Fear and worry about your own health and the health of your loved ones
- Changes in sleep or eating patterns
- Difficulty sleeping or concentrating
- Worsening of chronic health problems
- Worsening of mental health conditions
Here are some reminders that are necessary while managing the unknown. This was not part of the plan but yet we are here. We hope these help you preserve your energy through this process.
Things To Be Reminded of While Quarantined:
- It’s okay to move through the various stages of grief
- Take care of yourself
- People can experience the same thing and have different reactions
- Being busy is not an accurate measure of worth
- Connection is healing
- Surrender by embracing what is
- Hobbies are important
- There’s always a way to help others
- Be content
- Be grateful for the little things
- We can’t force people to do things
- Sometimes we have to wait
- The wait is not always easy
For some of us, spending time alone is a real struggle. Being alone doesn’t have to be lonely or boring. Find ways to make the time you have with yourself enjoyable. Are you comfortable spending time alone?
How To Enjoy Your Own Company:
- Get to know yourself (journal or explore self discovery questions)
- Play by yourself (cards, games, coloring)
- Explore your hobbies or find a hobby
- Have a solo date (movie night, special dinner, dance party)
- Speak to yourself kindly (the way you would to a friend or a kid)
- Embrace the solitude (meditate, think, rest)
You got this! We hope you’re staying safe and sane while the world is on this temporary, unexpected detour. We want you to know that we are here for you. If you need to get in touch with us, fax or e-mail us here.
Take care and stay safe.
West Bay Pharmacy
Finding Peace In A Pandemic
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, many of us have had time to reevaluate our lives and the people around us. After all, it’s always easier to appreciate things when they are suddenly taken away from you, even if it’s temporary. Therefore, it’s no surprise most of us seek human comfort now more than ever before and are finding ways to have wholesome social experiences even while following the rules of social distancing. We at West Bay Pharmacy have comprised a list of ways to connect while being quarantined:
Things Not Worth Postponing:
- Telling people that we love them
- Apologizing when we are wrong
- Making necessary changes
- Showing self-love
- Finding joy
- Living intentionally
- Spending time with people we care about
The fear, anxiety, and uncertainty many of us may be experiencing at the moment does not have to consume us. Instead, be deliberate about reclaiming who we are and making space for things that nurture us and allow us to support those around us. Although we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, it’s important to remember to keep our core values and continue supporting each other. A crisis does not mean:
- Our boundaries no longer matter
- We stop caring about the people around us
- We need to suppress/deny our emotions
- We should go back to unhealthy yet familiar relationships
- Our healing and growth will have to stop
- We have the right to lash out or mistreat others
- Our emotions become invalid
Let’s remember that we can learn and grow even in difficult times – if we let ourselves. This journey will look different for everyone, but we are an active agent in how life experiences shape us. Here are just a couple of things we think hard moments can teach us:
- Resilience
- Patience
- Love
- Endurance
- Forgiveness
- Awareness
- Adaptability
What are your personal lessons from experiencing this pandemic? What has it taught you? Thanks for taking the time to read this. We are still open at all three locations for your health and life needs!
10 Tips to Improve Your Heart Health
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number 1 cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. CVDs are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and include coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic heart disease and other conditions. As February is the month of Heart Health, we at West Bay Pharmacy encourage everyone to be mindful of their health and start taking better care of their heart!
Here are some easy to follow tips to increase your heart health:
Give up smoking
Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. If you’re a smoker, quit. It’s the single best thing you can do for your heart health.
Smoking is one of the main causes of coronary heart disease. You will feel the effects within the first 24 hours. Statistics say just a year after giving up, your risk of a heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker.
If you’d like more information on how to quit smoking, here is a helpful article.
Get active
Getting – and staying – active can reduce your risk of developing heart disease. It can also be a great mood booster and stress reliever.
Do 150 minutes of moderate-high intensity aerobic activity every week. One way to achieve this target is by doing 30 minutes of activity on 5 days a week. We have great gyms and fitness classes offered on island. If you want something more cost-efficient and outdoors, not to worry. We live on a beautiful, tropical island with access to the beach being just a hop, skip and a jump away. Consider doing beach walks, beach yoga, or long swims as part of your weekly activity.
Manage your weight
Being overweight can increase your risk of heart disease. Stick to a healthy, balanced diet low in fat and sugar, with plenty of fruit and vegetables, combined with regular physical activity. Use the BMI calculator as a starting base for your fitness goals. From there, you can plan your meals and activity accordingly to achieve your goals and stay heart healthy!
Eat more fibre
Eat plenty of fibre to help lower your risk of heart disease – aim for at least 30g a day.
Eat fibre from a variety of sources, such as wholemeal bread, bran, oats and wholegrain cereals, potatoes with their skins on, and plenty of fruit and veg.
Cut down on saturated fat
Eating too many foods that are high in saturated fat can raise the level of cholesterol in your blood. This increases your risk of heart disease. Here are examples of foods that are high in saturated fats:
- fatty cuts of beef, pork, and lamb
- dark chicken meat and poultry skin
- high-fat dairy foods (whole milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, ice cream)
Choose leaner cuts of meat and lower-fat dairy products like 1% fat milk over full-fat (or whole) milk.
Get your 5 A Day
Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day. They’re a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals.
There are lots of tasty ways to get your 5 A Day, like adding chopped fruit to cereal or including vegetables in your pasta sauces and curries. Living on a beautiful island we are access to a large variety of exotic fruits and vegetables such as yellow squash, avocados, callaloo, cassava, calabash, spring onions, pineapples, tomatoes, peas, chili, peppers a great range of citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, bananas and plantains.
Cut down on salt
To maintain healthy blood pressure, avoid using salt at the table and try adding less to your cooking.
It may seem difficult or even impossible to cut down on your salt intake as salt makes everything delicious, but that’s all part of the conditioning. Once you get used to food without salt, you’ll crave it way less.
Watch out for high salt levels in ready-made foods. Most of the salt we eat is already in the foods we buy.
Check the food labels – a food is high in salt if it has more than 1.5g salt (or 0.6g sodium) per 100g.
Adults should eat less than 6g of salt a day in total – that’s about 1 teaspoon.
Eat fish
Eat fish at least twice a week, including a portion of oily fish. Fish such as fresh snapper, mahi mahi and wahoo are a source of omega-3 fats, which may help protect against heart disease. We have a great
Drink less alcohol
We all know alcohol is good to avoid for many health reasons. Regularly drinking more than the NHS recommends can have a noticeable impact on your waistline. Try to keep to the recommended daily alcohol limits to reduce the risk of serious problems with your health, including risks to your heart health.
Read the food label
When shopping, it’s a good idea to look at the label on food and drink packaging to see how many calories and how much fat, salt and sugar the product contains.
Understanding what’s in food and how it fits in with the rest of your diet will help you make healthier choices.
Happy February and Happy Heart Health Month Cayman! Wishing you a healthy month and we hope this blog post sparked some inspiration in you to take care of your heart.
Until next time!
Health Tip: Get Enough Quality Sleep!
The importance of getting enough quality sleep cannot be overstated. It may be just as important as diet and exercise, if not more. Poor sleep can drive insulin resistance, throw your appetite hormones out of whack and reduce your physical and mental performance. In addition to all of this, it is one of the strongest individual risk factors for future weight gain and obesity. One study showed that short sleep was linked to 89% increased risk of obesity in children, and 55% in adults.
Do you have trouble sleeping at night? Here’s a tip: Avoid Bright Lights Before Bed! When we’re exposed to bright lights in the evening, this disrupts production of the hormone melatonin. An interesting “hack” is to use a pair of amber-tinted glasses that block blue light from entering your eyes in the evening. This allows melatonin to be produced as if it were completely dark, helping you sleep better.
West Bay Pharmacy
Taking Care of Your Health!
Health Tip: Drink More Water!
Drinking enough water can have numerous benefits. One important factor is that it can help boost the number of calories you burn. According to 2 studies, it can boost metabolism by 24-30% over a period of 1-1.5 hours. This can amount to 96 additional calories burned if you drink 2 litres (67 oz) of water per day. The best time to drink water is half an hour before meals. One study showed that half a litre of water, 30 minutes before each meal, increased weight loss by 44%.
Avoid that sugary drink – sugary drinks are the most fattening things you can put into your body. This is because liquid sugar calories don’t get registered by the brain in the same way as calories from solid foods. For this reason, when you drink soda, you end up eating more total calories. Sugary drinks are strongly associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and all sorts of health problems.
Keep in mind that fruit juices are almost as bad as soda in this regard. They contain just as much sugar, and the small amounts of antioxidants do NOT negate the harmful effects of the sugar. Simply put…just drink more water!
West Bay Pharmacy
Taking Care of Your Health!
Medication Management Tips That May Save Your Life
If dealing with multiple medications is a daily challenge for you or a loved one, you’re not alone. Nearly 40 percent of older adults take five or more prescription drugs. These strategies can make managing multiple medications easier, and safer.
Fill your prescriptions at one pharmacy.
This makes getting prescription refills simpler – so you’re more likely to take medications as directed. It also helps your pharmacist protect you from drug interactions. Jessica Merrey, PharmD, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Certified Geriatric Pharmacist explains: “The risk for side effects and drug interactions rises with each additional medication you take. Using one pharmacy keeps your medication records in one place, so the pharmacist can evaluate your risk and work with your doctor to avoid potential problems.”
Use a pill dispenser or other reminder system.
“A pill box with compartments for each day of the week – and for morning, noon and night if you take medications several times a day – lets you know at a glance whether you’ve taken your medicines yet,” Merrey says. “Your pharmacist may be able to fill your pill dispenser for you.”
You can also keep a medication schedule to remind you what to take, and when. (Post it on your refrigerator or inside a kitchen cabinet door.) “Make taking your medications part of your daily routine. Try setting a timer on your phone, watch or alarm clock,” suggests Merrey. “You might always take them after you brush your teeth in the morning, for example.”
Get prescriptions refilled early.
Running out could allow health conditions to worsen. Check expiration dates frequently and discard any medicines that are out of date. Your pharmacist may even be able to help you get multiple medications on the same refill schedule so that you can make fewer trips to the drugstore.
Make a list—and update it regularly.
Keep a list of the medications you take – with the name of the drug, the dose, how often you take it and why. Put a copy in your medical files at home, carry one in your wallet to show your doctor, and give a copy to a loved one or friend in case you have a medical emergency. “Don’t assume all of your health care providers know about all of your medications,” Merrey says. “A list is essential. It can also help your doctor look for the sources of any side effects or interactions you may be having.”
Get a yearly “brown bag” review.
Toss everything you take (prescriptions, over-the-counter remedies and supplements) into a bag and take it to your annual check-up for a review. “With age, the body absorbs and breaks down medications differently. Your doctor may change the dose of something you’ve used for a long time,” she says.
If you have any other questions or concerns about your medication, speak to your physician, or stop by one of our three locations and speak to one of our Pharmacists. Remember: we are here to help you!
Tips to stay healthy for summer
Summer is here, the time where everyone wants to hit the beach, have fun swimming, play volleyball, party, and hang out with friends and family. It’s the time where most people want to stay fit and keep or achieve a “summer body”.
Nevertheless, there’s just too much sugary and junky temptations so what does it really take to stay healthy as summer is coming up? Here are a few tips to help you stay fit for the upcoming summer.
Stay hydrated
Drinking water is very important because your body depends on water to carry out a lot of things including helping your cells and tissues to work properly, lubricate your joints, regulate your body temperature, and keep your skin hydrated. Its no doubt that you’ll at some point be in the sun and keeping your skin well-hydrated makes it more resistant to sun burns. You can have fun, stay fit and stay hydrated!
Stay active
Hit the gym, play some sports, or go for a jog. There’s so many ways that you can stay active don’t just sit at home doing nothing, get up and go out, get active. Being active will continuously push your body to be better and can have present and long-term benefits, just staying active can improve the quality of not only your summer but your life. Exercising will boost your energy and makes your body work more efficiently so that you can tackle summer head on!
Eat healthy
Eating healthy is essential to developing and keeping your body in good shape, by mixing eating healthy and being active you can maintain a healthy weight and fit body for the summer. By eating healthy stuff like fruits and vegetables your body maintains its strength so that you can have fun in the summer!
Get sleep
Sleeping is very important to staying healthy and fit, sleep is the time where your body gets to repair itself including repairing tissues and blood vessels, in addition to growing muscle. Lack of sleep can affect how you function during the day, your appetite and immune system so overall make sure to get that rest.
Protect yourself from the sun
Make sure to wear sunglasses, hats, and sunscreen to prevent sunburns, which are not just painful but also bad for your health.
Relax
You have been working hard and it’s time for you to slow the pace a little and enjoy the season and allow your body to rest.
Above all, it is the time to give yourself the opportunity to relish in the season all while maintaining your health and fitness.
Overhydrated? It’s a Thing
A few months ago we discussed the importance of drinking water. Following up on the importance of water and staying hydrated it is equally as important to not become overhydrated. Yes – it’s possible to drink too much water.
read more →
8 reasons why you should take multivitamins every day
Fruits and Vegetables provide the essential nutrients we need for everyday functions. The daily recommended fruit and vegetable servings for an adult is on average between 1.5 – 2 cups of fruit and 2 -3 cups of vegetables per day. This can be hard to meet when you are in and out of meetings, being the boss and balancing a hectic lifestyle – or in between naps. Smoothies and fresh juices can help increase the vitamin intake but are you getting all the vitamins you need or too much of one and not enough of another? A daily multivitamin can help guarantee that you get all the vitamins and minerals you need, and what you don’t need your body will get rid of – yay healthy liver function.
Here are 8 reasons why a multivitamin should be a part of your everyday routine:
- Having sufficient vitamins and minerals daily today will help your body in the future. As you age your body needs more minerals and vitamins so starting the habit now will help you, in the long run, to ensure you get the nutrients you need.
- Many vitamins and minerals come from a variety of plant and animal sources but it’s difficult to get them all in one day without constantly eating everything in sight – a multivitamin ensures you get all the nutrients needed for the day.
- Having sufficient vitamins and minerals helps your body protect itself from heart diseases, cancer and other health conditions making your immune system stronger.
- Sufficient vitamins and minerals help your hair, skin, and nails to thrive. Consistent vitamin and mineral intake also allows your brain to function at its optimal level. Be on top of your P’s and W’s and look great doing it.
- Vitamin deficiency can sometimes make you feel lethargic or tired – a multivitamin can keep you energized without the caffeine or the crash.
- Daily vitamin intake can help your body naturally flush toxins out of your system and help to keep the liver healthy.
- Multivitamins rich in anti-oxidants can improve muscle strength – so if you are working out, keep those vitamins coming to keep your hard-earned strength up.
- Multivitamins provide the right dosage of B-complex to help reduce stress and manage anxiety – something everyone could always use a little help with.
Stop by and speak to one of our pharmacists about which multivitamin is right for you and make a small change to better your health.
Why do we drink water?
Designer bottles are everywhere. They have catchy sayings, are eco-friendly and have cool features to keep your water cold for longer. But are you drinking enough? Everyone has heard the ‘8 glasses a day’ rule. There is more to it than just the number of glasses you drink because mom says so. read more →
