Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is one of the ways you can monitor your health and empower yourself. What is it? ~ Simply put, it’s a measurement of how quickly our body can shift between parasympathetic (a relaxed, calm, sleepy, slower digestive state) and sympathetic (an excited, adrenaline based, fearful, faster state) nervous states. If you’re training, stressed, starting to feel a little off, or want a spur to begin better breathing practices, checking out HRV is a great place to start! Most people understand the concept of heart rate and can make a stab at taking their own pulse (the

Wellness Embodied is proud to support the Glenoma parkrun. This Cairns parkrun takes place every Saturday morning from 7am at Glenoma Park, visit the parkrun website for more information. Supporting parkrun is just one of the ways the Wellness Embodied team strive to attain their vision, of making Cairns the healthiest city in Australia. In conjunction with our support of this event, we are working with our local GP’s to improve the physical health of our Cairns community, and work towards more “social prescribing”. What’s that? ~ Social prescribing is a new initiative for health practitioners to use a more

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common disease characterized by progressive airflow limitation and tissue destruction. It’s most commonly caused by smoking and is seen in people over the age of 40. The disease is linked with ongoing airway limitation and inflammation. It causes problems with breathing, especially breathing air out of the lungs, and problems with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the lungs. Other problems that may be caused by the disease are changes to the breathing mechanics (pattern), breathlessness, reduced heart function, problems with skeletal muscles and lower overall fitness. Usually, the most common

Diabetes is a serious, chronic metabolic condition that results in abnormally high blood sugar. For our bodies to work properly, we need to convert glucose (sugar) from food into energy. Insulin is the essential hormone in our bodies that controls this process. Insulin is produced by the pancreas and allows the glucose we get from food, to be absorbed from the bloodstream into the body’s cells. In someone with diabetes, this process can’t occur and instead of being absorbed, the glucose from food stays in the bloodstream, resulting in abnormally high blood glucose levels. There are a few types of