As health practitioners, we know stress can be bad for health. It can act as a barrier to adaptation and put undue pressure on the endocrine system. It can fire up the sympathetic nervous system designed only for fight or flight, and keep it fired up for an extended amount of time. But try telling…
With an encouraging bank of evidence slowly building around the chiropractic profession, and a world of work yet to be done, it’s important to mark each positive move in terms of research. One such study that may have flown under the radar focused on the link between chiropractic care and inflammatory markers, giving preliminary indications…
How many of us in our clinics have seen individuals become pregnant under chiropractic care, where they were never able to become pregnant before? How many of us have seen individuals with depressed immune systems suddenly become well by being adjusted? How many children have we seen whose immune or behaviour issues dramatically improved while…
In 1998, James Gilmore and Joe Pine of the Harvard Business Review wrote an article that tracked the development of consumerism over decades. It was called “Welcome to the Experience Economy” and it introduced a powerful phenomenon that has changed the face of how we shop, not just for goods but for services as well.…
We are very excited to announce that another Spinal Research Foundation facilitated research has been published in a highly reputable journal [1]. The study, undertaken by Heidi Haavik, Kelly Holt, Bernadette Murphy and others is published in the journal Neural Plasticity. And the results are very exciting for chiropractic! The journal Neural Plasticity boasts an impact…
Since its inception roughly 14 years ago, Crossfit has morphed from a health-fad into a bona fide health movement that has swept the world. It claims to reap faster results in terms of health, fitness and weight loss due to its combination of Olympic lifting progressions, gymnastic skills and high intensity cardio workouts [1]. But…
A collaboration between chiropractic research leaders Dr. Heidi Haavik and Dr. Bernadette Murphy has reaped international recognition, as the World Federation of Chiropractic bestowed the Scott Haldeman Award on their work. The award winning study was facilitated by the Australian Spinal Research Foundation. The study titled ‘Neck pain participants show impaired ability to perform a…
The chiropractor’s role has changed greatly over the last forty years. As it evolves further into the future there comes a necessity to marry two powerful aspects of our cause: the philosophy of vitalism and the evidence base for what we do. Dr Gerry Clum sat down with Spinal Research following the Dynamic Growth Congress…
Neurogenesis, or the birth of new brain cells, has long been associated with the increasingly popular topic of neuroplasticity. As research on this relatively new topic advances, we are also starting to see that cognitive decline with aging need not be something we simply accept. Up until the 1990’s, the major school of thought surrounding…
Findings from a new study suggest that a misalignment of sleep timing is associated with metabolic risk factors that predispose to diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease [1]. The study asked participants to sleep 12 hours out of time with their normal sleep-wake routine. It mimicked a phenomenon known as “Social Jet Lag” where work schedules…
Norman Doidge’s first book, The Brain that Changes Itself, was a game-changer. It shone light on the revolutionary discovery of neuroplasticity: that the brain was not hardwired as previously thought. This new idea stood in stark contrast to centuries worth of thinking that told us we were born with all the brain cells we would…
When it comes to diet, there are a lot of voices out there telling us what to eat, but since books like “The 5:2 Diet” burst onto the scene a few short years ago, there are now voices telling us how to eat. Mark Mattson, a Professor of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University and…
We’ve known for a long time that some petrochemicals pose not-so-good news for health. We have seen research revealing that some BPA’s (that hide in certain plastics) bind to oestrogen receptor sites and fool the body into thinking it contains more oestrogen than it does. And we have long held notions that cosmetics and perfumes…
Few of us haven’t had some sort of encounter with motion sickness. Some suffer aboard boats or carnival rides, while others have had to pull the car over on a drive through sweeping hills so a partner or sibling can ‘have a talk to Mother Nature.’ Motion sickness is a fact of life for many…
Something happened at about the same time as the 1980’s opened for business. Low fat, no fat and skinny food and drink alternatives started lining the shelves in supermarkets. Diet soft drinks reigned supreme, all so the general population could enjoy all the perks of food but without the calories. Promising a reduction in heart…
“When you turn on the stress response, and you can’t turn it off, now you are headed for disease,” said chiropractor and author Joe Dispenza in his recent Ted Talk [1]. But Joe wasn’t talking about tangible, real-time stressors. He was talking about the human capacity to turn on the stress response by thought alone. …
Career planning starts young, sometimes even occurring in childhood as youngsters pretend to be doctors, nurses, mums, dads, builders, dancers and an assortment of superheroes. These dreams, while cute in the carefree days of childhood, can often carry over into the more serious career planning process that takes place later. But how do you encourage…
