Although winter is beautiful, many people experience fatigue and seasonal depression and lose the momentum to invest in their health. Massage therapy can be a great way to help relax, revive, and recharge your body from the stresses of winter.

Are you having trouble falling or staying asleep? Do you wake up still feeling tired and unrefreshed? If so, you might be suffering from insomnia! Insomnia is defined as the inability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and/or waking up early in the morning. It can lead to fatigue, lack of concentration, irritability, anxiety, learning disabilities, and depression.

If you’re an athlete training to improve in your sport, you might find that you reach a plateau in your training or performance. To increase your performance and train more effectively, you can combine sport-specific training and massage therapy, specifically fascial release.

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.

People seek out the Alexander Technique for a wide range of reasons, including managing stress, addressing postural issues, and skill enhancement. However, prevention and recovery from injury is probably one of the most common motivators. Two recent articles detail how the Alexander Technique can help address some of the risk of injury associated with certain types of work.

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

As performing artists and others have long suspected, it turns out that good posture impacts on more than just the way you look. According to a study published in the Journal of Health Psychology, “posture tends to be associated with more positive mood, more resilience to stress and better self-esteem.” The results of the study correspond to what people have reported for years as a result of their Alexander lessons: not only does posture tend to improve, but also mood, overall fitness, and resilience to stress.

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.

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.

You may have noticed your toddler sitting in the W position and have wondered if it is okay for them to do so. The answer is absolutely not! Here are a few reasons why your toddler should not be W-sitting during playtime.

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.

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.

When our blood sugar levels are imbalanced, we get cravings. Different foods alter our blood sugar levels at different rates. Certain foods can cause our blood sugar levels to spike and subsequently fall, leaving us feeling tired, hungry, and craving carbohydrates and sugary foods. Understanding what causes cravings can help us minimize those cravings.

A review of recent research identified that chiropractors can potentially play an enhanced role in the prehabilitation and rehabilitation of surgical patients. Much of the data has focused on total joint arthroplasty, but there is data to support similar interventions for other surgeries, such as spinal disc replacement surgery. Current research suggests that arthroplasty patients are well served by a pre-operative regimen focusing on diet, education, exercise, range of motion therapies, and post-operative rehabilitation.

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.

Preparing and shopping for the holidays can not only be stressful, but it can also be a big a strain on your back and neck.  Preparing for the holidays can be like an athletic event and you should treat it that way. Here are a few tips on how to make sure that your holiday shopping and gift wrapping stays pain-free.

With the change in weather and beautiful fall colours comes a time that we have grown to dread … cold and flu season! Here are some tips to help support your immune system.

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.

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!

Tension type headaches (TTH) are one of the most common forms of headaches, yet they are not well understood. Most people describe having a band of pressure around their head that can last from 30 minutes to a week. TTH can be related to muscles tightening in the back of the neck and scalp. One of the best ways to combat tension headaches is through lifestyle changes.

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.

Now that the weather is improving, it’s time to start taking our exercise routines outside, whether it be running, walking, or playing sports. No matter what our choice of exercise, it is essential to have good support on our feet. The function of a running shoe is to protect the foot from the impact of movements, while also permitting the body to reach its maximum potential.

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

Now that the weather is much more agreeable, we are all raking, lifting, digging, kneeling, and planting in our yards, which is very hard on our joints! Poor gardening techniques can lead to repetitive strain injuries, increase degenerative joint and disc problems, cause sprain and strain injuries to muscles throughout the body, and increase wear and tear to joints and muscles.

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.

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.

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.

When you consider that a shovelful of snow weighs five to seven pounds, you realize how much weight you have to lift to clear your sidewalk or driveway – on average, several hundred pounds! These tips will help keep your back in top shape.

Many new moms have been bringing in their babies for assessment and have many questions on why their baby favours looking to the one side or may have difficulty nursing on both sides.  Here is one condition that I frequently see in my practice and what we can do to help.

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