Spine 101: Anatomy The Goal of this series of articles is to: Help you understand how your spine works and what can go wrong with it. Help you understand and gain access to the most effective treatment or treatments for your back problem. This information is meant to complement care you are currently receiving from…
Winter Wellness Tips and Shoveling Snow Most people understand that physiotherapy helps in the treatment of injuries, but did you know that we can also help with injury prevention. Even a single visit with your therapist may help you prevent an injury. This becomes even more important during the winter/holiday months when we have wet…
Spine 101: Types of Spinal Pain By definition, this is pain that happens when your spine is stressed by physical or mechanical loads. It is pain that predictably changes its intensity and/or location depending on our movements, positions, and activities. It may occur from abnormal stresses being placed on normal tissue (if you bend your…
Spine 101 Treatment of Spine Problems – Active vs. Passive Generally, non-surgical management of back problems can be divided into two types of care: Passive and Active. Passive treatments are things that are done to you in an effort to alleviate your pain and improve your mobility. This means that you, as the patient, do…
The Core Essentials to Physical Health and Well Being Core Essential number 6 – Sleep: Sleep is a dynamic form of rest that conserves energy and permits reorganization of brain activity. The deepest stages of sleep, in particular, seem to reflect homeostatic processes for the mind and the body. Our anabolic hormones are released mainly…
The Core Essentials to Physical Health and Well Being Core Essential number 5 – Breathe: Breathing is not something we typically think about – we just take it for granted. However, it is a finely tuned bodily process that is easily put out of tune when we are in pain or stressed. A normal respiratory…
The Core Essentials to Physical Health and Well Being Move your Mind: Part 1b: Meditate Peaceful Imagery Peaceful imagery is a calming technique that works when you choose what you think about. Calming affects thoughts and emotions. You can either go back in your memory or off into your imagination to find a place that…
The Core Essentials to Physical Health and Well Being Move your Mind: Part A: Meditate Relaxation is the opposite of the body’s response to stress – the counter for the “fight or flight” response. When a relaxation response occurs your muscles feel loose or limp, or warm and heavy, or at times, light and…
I am not normally much of a tech guy, but I have always used a heart rate monitor to help track my exercise intensity etc. Understanding how my body responds to the different stresses I apply to it helps me refine/progress my exercise routines. It also alerts me when I am pushing myself too hard,…
Core essential number 3 – Move your Muscles: The number one cause of long term disability in the modern world – more than cancer, more than heart attacks, more than strokes, are musculo-skeletal problems. It is a common assumption that as we age, we will experience a gradual loss of muscle function, arthritis, and…