School of Complementary Therapies

05/24/2026

In case you aren’t aware…

Friendly reminder for the warmer weather around the corner ☀️

If you’re taking antidepressants (like SSRIs/SNRIs), your body may have a harder time regulating temperature, which can make you more prone to overheating and dehydration.

This includes meds like:
• Sertraline
• Citalopram
• Fluoxetine
• Duloxetine
• Mirtazapine
(and others)

As the heat picks up:
💧 Drink more water than you think you need
🌳 Take breaks in cool/shaded spaces
🧢 Wear what keeps YOU comfortable
🧴 Use sunscreen if you’re outside
🚫 It’s okay to cancel plans if your body says no

Heat + sensory overload + meds = a LOT.
Take care of yourself first 💛

05/23/2026

Plant these for bees

Happy World Bee Day 🌼🐝
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee . . . -Emily Dickinson
One mature tree can have millions of flowers - don't cut it down.
One native seed planted can rematriate a meadow.
One backyard garden can link to millions of bee-yards for bees of every stripe around the world!
Do it for yourself, your grandchildren...and the bees🐝Bzzzzzzzzz! What are your favorite pollinator plants?

05/23/2026

Rest and repair lovelies…

I’ve spent most of my life not being good at resting. Early childhood programming!

Even now I can value myself on productivity at times.

Then I remember:

1) I am not the script (that programmed negative voice we all have in our heads)

And

2) Rest is necessary to live a healthy life.

And it’s like pressing a re-set button!

I’ve learned to slow down. To savour downtime. To give up guilt.

And it feels absolutely fabulous.

It’s never too late to change our minds. Rest and play are becoming part of the plan. And I highly recommend it!

Big love 💕
Jacqueline

05/22/2026

Not for me.

Essentially it’s like growing cancer cells in a Petrie dish…then eating them. 🤮

Mondelez International—the corporation behind Oreo, Cadbury, and Toblerone—has been investing in an Israeli biotech startup called Celleste bio. The goal: grow cocoa butter from cells in a laboratory bioreactor instead of farming actual cocoa trees. They’ve already produced nearly a dozen prototype chocolate bars. They’re aiming for commercial release by 2027. Their official reason for doing this is climate change is disrupting cocoa supply chains and driving prices up. Essentially, a lab is cheaper than a farm.

Celleste Bio extracts cells from real cocoa beans and places them into industrial bioreactors—large tanks fed vitamins, minerals, water and sugar. Within seven days those cells multiply and produce cocoa butter—the fat that gives real chocolate its snap, texture and melt. They call it “bio-identical” stating it has the same fatty acid profile as conventional cocoa butter. What it doesn’t have is research on long-term effects, a farm, a tree, or a farmer.

The reformulation happens through small ingredient changes every few months. Small enough that your taste buds adjust before you even notice.

Real cocoa butter—the fat in ancestral chocolate—contains stearic acid, oleic acid, and natural antioxidants. It’s one of the few saturated fats that does not raise LDL cholesterol. Humans have eaten it for centuries. What replaced it in reformulated products: refined palm oil, shea fractions and industrial emulsifiers—processed at high heat, stripped of nutrients and engineered in a lab to mimic mouthfeel. Your body doesn’t process these the same way. Your gut microbiome doesn’t recognize them the same way. The bar tastes similar—the biological response isn’t.

First the butter, then the meat, now the chocolate. Every ancestral whole food is being quietly replaced by a laboratory version—always framed as more sustainable, more ethical and more efficient.

Read your labels carefully. Buy from brands using single-origin traceable cocoa and avoid foods labeled as “chocolate flavored”, “cell-cultured chocolate”, “bioengineered” or any variation of those phrases🙌🏻

What do you think, will you eat the lab “grown” chocolate?

05/21/2026

I’ve lived this healing…

05/21/2026

‘Bee safe’ means slowly murdering bees. 🐝

05/21/2026

We are drenching living foods in chemicals…do you think this is ok?

05/20/2026

The biology of belief…our understanding becomes stronger…

When the mind perceives that the environment is safe and supportive, our cells are preoccupied with the growth and maintenance of the body.

05/17/2026

It’s time to start asking questions about what we are eating. Go natural. Go organic.

Approximately 90% of cheese produced in America relies on a genetically engineered enzyme originally developed by Pfizer. Known as fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC), this lab-made enzyme replaces traditional rennet derived from calf stomach linings.

The enzyme does not require disclosure on ingredient labels. It is typically hidden under generic terms such as "enzymes," "microbial rennet," or "vegetable rennet." The FDA approved FPC in 1990, declaring it "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS) based on a 90-day rat feeding study. Independent long-term health studies on this enzyme remain limited.

The industry classifies FPC as non-GMO because the genetically modified organism is removed during processing, leaving only the purified enzyme in the final product. However, it cannot be used in USDA Organic cheese due to its origin from a genetically modified process. To avoid this enzyme, consumers can seek USDA Organic certified cheese, Non-GMO Project verified products, or European varieties like Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Source: Mogaznews. (2026). Americans ditch cheese after learning Pfizer's ingredient is now found in 90% of dairy products.
Image: CNET