January 28, 2016
The philosophy of vitalism that many chiropractors subscribe to holds that the force that sustains the body, heals the body. It’s a philosophical standpoint that some love and others are neutral to. After all, we have a mounting pile of proof that chiropractic works. We have thousands of happy people leaving our practices feeling better, living better, and regaining health. Isn’t that what matters at the end of the day? Let us take pause to consider this though: if the body (and its master, the mind) can indeed heal itself, where is the evidence? According to Lissa Rankin MD, a […]
January 26, 2016
Ten short years ago, a great postural concern for chiropractors was the way backpacks were worn by students and young people. They were commonly slung over one shoulder, often heavily weighted with text books and other items. It took some time for this trend to change. In 2015, it is far more common to see the backpack worn over both shoulders – still too low in most cases, but a move in the right direction. However, a new postural concern has entered the arena, and it has to do with smartphones, texting and social media usage. According to numerous surveys, […]
January 26, 2016
The percentage of Australians aged over 65 is increasing by the year, as part of a near-global trend towards ageing populations. As this trend progresses, chiropractors may find themselves caring for an increasing number of elderly people. Gregory Petsko, an American biochemist and scholar, says the ageing population presents us with a problem: “Unless we do something to prevent it, over the next forty years we are facing an epidemic of neurological disease on a global scale [1].” “For twelve thousand years, the distribution of ages in the human population has looked like a pyramid with the oldest on top. […]
January 21, 2016
Brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is a topic that many neurologists, scientists and chiropractors have known about for quite some time. Todd Sampson’s ‘Redesign my Brain’ is a TV miniseries that set about trialing the concept in practical ways, making the topic easily understandable to people from all walks of life. Series one aired in 2013, featuring three episodes on creativity, intelligence and ‘mind over matter.’ Series two aired last year, and it opened on a topic close to many a chiropractic heart: adaptability. Todd Sampson is on a mission to prove that any brain can be trained to cope with the […]
January 21, 2016
For some, bedtime is relaxing. The cares of the day fall away as you are lulled into the land of nod, where you rest and recharge before awaking fresh and ready to face the new day. For many others, this scenario is but a dream. Bedtime for them is a time of frustration marred by the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. Data now shows us that up to 35% of adults have brief symptoms of insomnia, 15-20% have short-term insomnia and around 10% have chronic insomnia [1]. Perhaps it wasn’t always so. The Hunter-Gatherer’s brain would have easily […]
January 19, 2016
“When I get sick, I’ll go to the doctor. When I have a bad back, I’ll head to the chiropractor.” How many times have you heard it said? This ill-fitting cliché around what a chiropractor does is something we battle when taking our message and the power of our adjustment to the world. We aren’t about ‘cracking’ backs. We’re about empowering wellness, changing the structure and function of the brain, and enabling the body to heal itself. We know that. Unfortunately, it can seem like the world is stuck in a sickness-centred paradigm and doesn’t quite ‘get’ us. We offer […]
January 19, 2016
Of all the organs in the body, the brain is surely the most complex. So much so that despite the all the advancements of the modern age, no computer equaling its flexibility and processing power has yet been developed. There are literally billions of neurons and synapses that make up this complex system, hence mapping it on a cellular level has been a task so big that it has not been attempted – that is until now. Imagine the potential discoveries that could be made if we could see inside the brain, and see the neuronal pathways as they crisscross […]