You might not have heard of nootropics, but the word is often heard amongst groups of people who are deep into the biochemical interworking of the body and the mind. Some or many of it has little to no scientific studies to support their use, but there are many resources on the Internet touting certain benefits of different nootropics. In essence, nootropics are any substance one can take that is purported to increase one’s cognitive abilities, memory, and learning ability.

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On October 13th, 1989 The United Nation’s General Assembly made a call for an international day to promote risk-awareness and disaster reduction. October 13th was hailed as the “International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.” Disasters can come in many different forms — both natural or artificial. This observed day is dedicated to encouraging a global culture of reducing the risk of disasters. Reducing the risk starts by first identifying potential risks to not only ourselves and our communities, but to the world. This isn’t just a day for ourselves to look at disaster risk reduction, such as preparing our homes for earth quakes, or checking our fire extinguishers, but to see our community and our fellow countries and what risks might be looming.

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According to the CDC, around half of people suffering from arthritis are actually younger than you might think with only 49.6% of sufferers being over the age of 65. Arthritis literally stands for “inflammation of the joints:” Arthro refers to joints and itis denotes inflammation. In the spirit of World Arthritis Day on October 12th, let’s talk about the many different kinds of arthritis. We will talk about Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Childhood Arthritis, Lupus, Gout, and Fibromyalgia.

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World Homeless Day is an annual day intended to spark conversations about the homeless populations around the world. Unfortunately, our community has suffered a significant rise in the unhoused over the past two years. When the pandemic hit, the ability to work from home made moving to the Comox Valley a desirable plan. Not only were houses cheaper, the population was a gentle number and the activities and views afforded by the valley encouraged many people from the mainland to move over in droves.

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As I will cover homelessness or people who are unhoused next week, I won’t dive too much into the lack of housing for our current population in the community of the Comox Valley and its surrounding municipalities, but I did want to touch on this UN-declared day dedicated to the needs for all people to have a place to call home. Although we have the power to provide everyone a home, it just isn’t happening around the globe.

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