Vicaria Health provides counseling and guidance services for general health problems. We focus our work mainly, although not exclusively, on the Hispanic community. We tend to difficulties and needs in relation to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. We handle preventive medicine elements, promote healthy lifestyles and healthy nutrition, as well as offer health education to keep chronic diseases under control and prevent other ailments. We collaborate with family physicians and other health professionals to help you understand your diseases. We guide and accompany you in making decisions regarding your overall well-being. We serve you through appointments in person or online, in Spanish and English. Our professionals are graduates of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition of New York, the Health Coach Training Program, and are also doctors with more than 20 years of experience in General Medicine, Urology, and Pathology.

The vicaria flower grows abundantly in the warm climate of Cuba. As girls we remember playing among them in the gardens and our grandmothers used them to cure eye diseases and other ailments. Upon arriving in Canada, it was very gratifying to see the large number of these flowers that adorn the streets during the summer. Catharanthus roseus is its scientific name, a species of Catharanthus native and endemic to Madagascar. Its synonyms include Vinca rosea (the basionym), Ammocallis rosea, and Lochnera rosea. This species is grown mainly as an ornamental plant. There are numerous ornamental cultivars with flowers of different tones than the original ones: white, mauve, orange, scarlet, reddish-orange, and combinations between them. There are antibiotic properties attributed to it, both in internal infections and in the skin, to lower cholesterol and cure malaria. The plant has traditionally been used to treat diabetes and hypertension, but the adverse effects and its high toxicity make it not advisable for internal use. The decoction of its petals is used for eye diseases such as conjunctivitis, surfer's eye (pterygium), and to strengthen eyesight. 

C. roseus is used in plant pathology research as an experimental host for phytoplasmas. The substances vinblastine and vincristine extracted from the plant are used in the treatment of leukemia. Vincristine sulfate is prescribed for acute leukemia. It is used, in combination with other oncolytics, to treat Hodgkin's disease, malignant non-Hodgkin lymphomas, rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, osteogenic sarcoma, and breast cancer. It is also used for chemotherapy treatment of transmissible venereal tumor in canines. Robert Noble and Charles Thomas Beer isolated vinblastine from the Catharanthus roseus plant of Madagascar. Vinblastine's usefulness as a chemotherapeutic agent was discovered when mice were injected with an extract of the plant to study its effect (tea from the plant was a popular remedy for diabetes). The extract caused a decrease in the number of white blood cells; therefore, it was speculated that vinblastine might be effective against cancers of the white blood cells such as lymphoma. Due to its ibogaine content, it can be hallucinogenic and is cited (under the synonym Vinca rosea) in the Louisiana State Act 159.

Common names in different countries..

• ​In Ecuador: it is known as chavelita or chabelita.

• In Colombia: it is known as cortejo or chocolata.
• In Cuba: it is known as vicaria.
• In Panama: it is known as chavelita, chabelita or vinca.
• In Mexico: it is known as ninfa, teresita, maravilla, hierba doncella, margarita or chula.
• In Nicaragua: it is known as primorosa.
• In Dominican Republic : it is known as catalana.
• In El Salvador: it is known as chula.
• In Spain: it is known as alegría de la casa, chavelita, dominica, pervinca de Madagascar, vinca de Madagascar, vicaria, vicaria blanca, violeta blanca.
• In Venezuela: it is known as chipe, primorosa o buenas tardes.
• In Peru: it is known as chabelita.

• In Honduras: it is known as guajaca.

• In Costa Rica: it is known as maravilla.
• In Guatemala: it is known as chatita o chula.
  

• In Canada: it is known as Madagascar periwinkle, rosy periwinkle and vinca rosea.