They say sitting is the new smoking. That is, the risk sedentary lifestyles pose to health and mobility is as significant as a cigarette habit. Beyond the catchy tagline lies a serious problem, though. According to World Health Organisation data, more than three-quarters of all adolescents and one in four adults do not meet the…
Chiropractic and immune function has been a topic of interest in and around the ASRF tribe for some time. How the chiropractic adjustment might modulate the plethora of functions that go into maintaining health through supporting immunity, adaptability and autonomic nervous system balance will always be of utmost importance. On that front, a recent study…
Depression affects more than 280 million people worldwide each year, making it one of the leading causes of disability. While medication and psychotherapy remain mainstays of treatment, growing evidence highlights the role of the nervous system (particularly the vagus nerve) in regulating emotional and mental health and resilience. Recently, we covered one such study, in…
When you hear the term fish vertebrae, it might sound unusual, even a bit whimsical. But in radiology, this term describes a real and recognisable pattern seen on spinal imaging. It refers to a smooth, inward-curving shape on the top and bottom of certain vertebrae, making it resemble the body of a fish. In adults,…
There’s nothing quite like a good night’s sleep. When we wake up refreshed after a solid stretch of rest, it resets our body and mind. Sleep is essential for physical recovery, emotional balance, and learning among many other functions of a healthy life. Yet, for many people, getting enough high-quality sleep remains a struggle. Poor…
It’s a terribly sad thing to say, but this one is about a condition that’s been called the suicide disease: a grim reflection of the pain and hopelessness a person can feel when they suffer from Trigeminal Neuralgia, which may render even a light breeze or the simple act of cleaning one’s teeth unbearably painful.…
Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common childhood disability, affecting movement, posture, and muscle control due to a brain injury that occurs during pregnancy, birth, or shortly after. While it’s prevalence has decreased over the last 25 years, dropping from 2.4 per 1000 live births to 1.5 per 1000, it still remains a leader in…
When we think of human performance, most of us picture physical training – weights in the gym, endless laps in the pool, or strict diets. While those things are undeniably important, there’s something deeper that shapes every ounce of strength, speed, and endurance: the nervous system. What happens when we adjust the subluxation to remove…
For decades, chiropractors have recognised the importance of subluxation not only in postural aesthetics (how people appear or move), but also in how the spine and nervous system function. While chiropractic care has long been linked to improvements in musculoskeletal pain, such as headaches, chiropractic research and case report data are now beginning to indicate…
It was a condition made famous by the inimitable Celine Dion. Prior to that, it was simply a condition that languished in obscurity, with a prevalence of 1-2 sufferers per million. While it was first recognised in literature in 1956, it hasn’t reached public discourse until now, owing equally to its low prevalence and to…
We know this monster well: migraines are thought to affect 15% of the global population, though that number could be much higher given that many sufferers opt to self-medicate rather than seek medical care. For those who suffer from migraines, the impacts on quality of life and daily function during an episode are immense. From…
If you’ve ever had a patient whose snoring was bad enough to send their partner to the spare room, you’re not alone—and neither are they. That rattling, rumbling noise we call snoring is more than just an annoying habit. In many cases, it’s a sign that there’s dysfunction in the way the upper airway is…
When it comes to measuring nervous system states, we have some tools in our toolbelts, but each of them represents only a part of the picture or a small snapshot in time. To this end, chiropractic research is increasingly looking for ways to detect subluxation, and to verify the results this has on the nervous…
There’s an idiom in chiropractic circles that gets repeated a bit: that we aim to add years to life and life to years. For a long time, this is a statement that was aspirational in its nature but more recently, the focus of research has shifted to measuring quality of life. Case reports are an…
The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a relatively new concept in the world of neuroscience. This is the part of our brain that chugs along when we are not focused on tasks. It’s whirring away in the background when we are daydreaming, when our minds are wandering and when we are introspecting. Here, in the…
COVID-19 is the world health phenomenon we are still trying to wrap our collective heads around. While the days of lockdowns and COVID wards have ended, it seems the health crisis hasn’t, as our understanding of long COVID and the other impacts of such a wide-reaching crisis reveals itself in domains like mental health, economic…
Whether it’s skin care, brain health, aging, energy, or inflammation, the topic of antioxidants has made its way into modern health discussions in a big way. Sadly, we tend to talk a little less about what these anti-oxidants are fighting? What is the problem they seek to solve? And does the answer always need to…
There are a of myriad things for parents to consider as their kids reach adolescence. Alongside the sentimentality of how their childhood vanished so quickly, parents now have to consider social and internet safety, raging hormones, the elastic issue of independence and much more. One issue seems to disappear in the flurry of things that…
