Author : YOUR HEALTH Wellness

YOUR HEALTH and backpacks

Back to school often means back to school shopping. Ensuring your child has the proper equipment to get them to and from school is just as important as their other school supplies. Making sure your child has a proper fitting backpack and knowing how to pack it can help them avoid injury.

Tips for helping to keep your back healthy while working in the garden

Now that it is gardening season again, here is a reminder of some important things to keep in mind to keep your back healthy.

The benefits of infant massage

Massage therapy benefits people of all ages – even the littlest among us! And its never too early to start infant massage. Find out more about how infant massage can help infants and caregivers.

Are you a new mom? Are you feeling stressed, anxious, tired, or sad?

Don’t let stress, anxiety or exhaustion stop you from enjoying your time with your baby. Acupuncture might be an effective treatment option to help naturally get your body back to its normal healthy balance and function and get you back to feeling your happy and energetic self.

Acupuncture for arthritis

September is National Arthritis Month! Arthritis has become one of the most common chronic diseases, affecting millions of Canadians. The term arthritis is a general term for over a hundred other joint related conditions; however, the disease is often classified into two main types: inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis.

The link between your back health and backpacks

With back-to-school well under way, student’s backpacks are only going to become heavier as they get filled with homework and assignments. It’s important to consider how the weight of a backpack can affect the overall health of your back! Here are some helpful tips to consider when packing and carrying a backpack.

Neck pain and cervical facet syndrome

Neck pain is a common occurrence and complaint treated by chiropractic doctors. As primary health care providers, chiropractors are highly trained to diagnose and treat conditions related to the nerves, muscles, ligaments, and joints of your body. Cervical facets are the neck joints that form by adjacent vertebra (bones) that stack up on each other and allow for movement. These joints, like the joints in your low back, can become inflamed, irritated, or injured and cause pain and other symptoms leading to cervical facet syndrome.

Hypnosis for fertility

Hypnosis for fertility is a mind and body technique that prepares your mind and body for conception. Studies from around the world show the positive effects of hypnosis on fertility, such as the ability to reduce stress and increase your chances for conception. When we experience stress, our bodies produce Cortisol, which can inhibit the implantation of a fertilized ovum, delay ovulation, and reduce the number and motility of sperm. Hypnosis helps you feel physically and mentally relaxed, so that you can lower your stress levels. According to an Israeli study presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Berlin in July of 2004, hypnosis can effectively double the success of IVF treatments.

Benefits of massage therapy for children

Massage therapy is not only beneficial for adults, but also for our children as well, as they are often involved in sports and camps all summer, and then prolonged sitting in school throughout the rest of the year. Caught between play, school, sports, and countless demands, children have a good deal of stress. Stress raises blood pressure, lessens the immune defense and can contribute to problems such as childhood obesity. Not to mention carrying those heavy backpacks to and from school!

What is a trigger point?

Carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis, tendinitis, angina pectoris, and sciatic symptoms, along with many other pain problems, are often misdiagnosed and are, in fact, trigger point referral pain.

Ten tips for keeping your back healthy

Here are 10 tips to think about to keep your back healthy.

Managing migraine headaches

If you suffer from migraine headaches, you know how debilitating they can be. When migraines strike, we feel powerless. Days of missed work, nausea, aversion to light and sound. All you can do is curl up in the dark and wait it out. But, there are ways to manage migraines before they begin.

Lowering your blood pressure the natural way

Your arteries are the pipes that carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Your blood pressure indicates how quickly your blood moves through your arteries. Chiropractic care and massage therapy can help keep your blood pressure lower.

YOUR HEALTH and delayed onset muscle soreness

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) occurs as a result of predominantly eccentric contractions which may be made worse, especially if you are performing a new exercise. DOMS may be associated with muscle damage but, in many cases, other physiological markers indicating tissue damage are not present. Therefore, any prophylactic or therapeutic interventions alleviating muscle damage or physical discomfort can be considered effective if the concern is DOMS.

How does acupuncture work?

The single most frequently asked question by our patients is: “How does acupuncture work?” There are several modern theories to explain acupuncture’s effectiveness.

YOUR HEALTH and icing tips: Cold Beer and Nachos

Most soft-tissue injuries involve some degree of inflammation. It is important to slow the inflammatory response to prevent further tissue damage and scar tissue development. An easy way to assist your body with the healing process is to apply ice to the area. But how much is enough? How must is too much? A fun acronym – Cold Beer And Nachos – helps clients remember the stages the skin goes through to find the right length of time.

Tips for picking a backpack

With back-to-school on the minds of kids and teens everywhere, little thought is given to the backpack – beyond maybe what it looks like! Read on for a little lesson on proper backpack wearing that might save you and your kids a real pain in the neck … and back!

Massage therapy and exercise

We often think of a massage therapy as an unnecessary indulgence; however, in the athletic world, it can be quite the opposite. Many sports massage techniques enhance the body’s own recovery process, improving the athlete’s return to training and competition, and reducing the risk of injury.

Stress: what is it exactly?

What causes stress is unique and different for each person, but comes from the same place: our thoughts and feelings around the stressor. If you can review your thoughts around stressors, you can start to change what stresses you.

YOUR HEALTH and chakras

Chakras (energy centers) are part of your energy body. They receive, generate, store, and transmute energy throughout your body. There are seven major and several minor chakras. Each chakra influences the functions of various organs and body systems and contribute to your feelings of physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Healing with Reiki

Often, healing needs to take place on the mental, emotional, and spiritual level before a physical healing is possible. Reiki helps in this process by dislodging the lower and slower energies allowing them to be released; thus restoring the natural flow allowing the body to do what it does so well: heal itself.

YOUR HEALTH and soft tissue therapy

Tissues injured by acute trauma or chronic strain from overuse become tight and stiff. Scar tissue also builds up around these tissues and binds them together, creating pain, inflammation, and reduced mobility. YOUR HEALTH offers several soft tissue therapies to break up scar tissue and improve movement.

YOUR HEALTH and postnatal massage

Postnatal pregnancy massage is a wonderful way to take care of yourself, at a crucial time when all your energy and efforts are centered on caring for your newborn. Postnatal massage re-energizes you as a new mother, supporting the body in regaining its pre-pregnancy condition.

YOUR HEALTH and prenatal massage

There are many joys in pregnancy, but with them come aches and pains. The aches and pains are due to the physiological changes affecting the musculoskeletal system and most of the organ systems. These changes start in the first week and continue throughout the pregnancy and some months after birth.

YOUR HEALTH and massage therapy research

A research study revealed that a ten minute massage can trigger anti-inflammation signals in muscle tissue to help decrease pain in damaged muscles, and also produces an increase in the production of mitochondria cells, which contribute to muscle endurance and play an important role in the healing process.

Lifestyle changes that can reduce male infertility problems

Infertility in Canada affects between 11-15% of couples. When it comes to male infertility, there are numerous possibilities to rule out. Problems can usually be addressed through lifestyle change and supplementation of nutrients and should be the first line therapy for men as they are both the least costly and invasive of treatment interventions.

YOUR HEALTH and massage for cancer treatments

Massage therapy has been shown to reduce anxiety, pain, and nausea in cancer patients. In recent studies, massage therapy has been shown to improve quality of life, decrease anxiety, increase range of motion and function, and improve body image post surgery. Two specific types of massage that can benefit cancer patients are lymphatic drainage massage and scar massage.

Why does my neck hurt when I sit at my desk?

Today’s use of computers, and days that are mostly spent crouched over a desk, can leave your neck and upper back tense and sore. The posture we sit in daily creates rounded shoulders and a head constantly stuck out staring at a computer screen. This results in soreness and tightness in the upper back,neck, and pectoral muscles, and a weakness in the mid back muscles and front neck muscles. This syndrome is referred to as Upper Cross Syndrome and is the result of chronic poor posture and not enough attention to the rest of our bodies.

YOUR HEALTH and hypnosis

We often look for answers outside when the best solutions lie within us. Exploring our inner awareness opens up many new doors. Hypnosis can help us connect with this inner awareness and discover the multiple possibilities that we might not have previously been aware of.