Dr. Wayne Coghlan: Chiropractor

http:// From: Alex Hutchinson. Globe and Mail, May 22, 2009. A lex Hutchinson draws on the latest research to answer your fitness and workout questions in this biweekly column on the science of sport. The question What type of exercise is best for maintaining strong bones? The answer The key word here is "maintain," as 95 per cent of your mature skeleton is already in place by the age of 17 for girls and 19 for boys. Once you reach adulthood, it's basically one long fight against the slow but inexorable loss of bone strength - and the key to that fight, many of us assume, is weight-bearing activities. But the latest research shows that resistance-training exercises like lifting weights can also play a crucial role in bone health - and in some cases are even more effective than weight-bearing activities such as elliptical training. "Over the past decade, people have realized that bone is more dynamic than we thought. It's actually a pretty

Here is a link to the Ontario Chiropractic Association for their brochure, "Plant and Rake Without the Ache." This is a decent bit of information that covers how to manage loads, lifting with care, and some stretching. http://www.chiropractic.on.ca/ecms.ashx/ba3623fb-081b-4585-8d7c-ef6592fa2287/PlantandRakeDocument/GardenTri-fold.pdf

Here is a reasonable overview of low back pain from Consumer Reports Health.org What is back pain? http://www.consumerreports.org/health/conditions-and-treatments/back-pain/what-is-it.htm

Relief for your aching back: What worked for our readers Our survey respondents tried an average of five or six different treatments over the course of just a year. About 80 percent of the adults in the U.S. have been bothered by back pain at some point. The Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center recently surveyed more than 14,000 subscribers who experienced lower-back pain in the past year but never had back surgery. More than half said the pain severely limited their daily routine for a week or longer, and 88 percent said it recurred throughout the year. Lower-back pain disrupts many aspects of life. In our survey, 46 percent said that it interfered with their sleep, 31 percent reported that it thwarted their efforts to maintain a healthy weight, and 24 percent said that it hampered their sex life. Where to go for treatment When back pain goes on and on, many people go to see a primary-care doctor. While this visit may help rule out any serious underlying disease, a surprising number

The May 2009 issue of Discover magazine (May 2009, pg. 14) reports that fruits and vegetables sold in the United States are becoming less nutritious. Agricultural and likely distribution has favoured quantity at the loss of quality. Other reasons to be concerned about the level of nutrition we realize - the level of vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients we actually absorb and are available to support metabolic function - range from food selection, storage, processing and cooking, digestion and absorption, and how lifestyle issues of stress, antibiotics, smoking and alcohol consumption. The leading indicator of adult onset disease is being over weight. It is wise then to manage our calorie (food energy) intake. Yet to balance off calorie consumption in our generally sedentary culture, it becomes hard to meet our nutritional (food quality) needs by diet alone. (Many people can count the number of steps they take in a day to under a thousand, compared with the old order Ami

Dear Reader: There has been a faction of the Chiropractic profession that has rallied around the evils of vaccination. They make some interesting arguments and personally, I don't like the notion of injecting microbes and preservatives into my body. One must also be mindful that vaccinations are developed and marketed for the purposes of making corporate profits. It is not public health officials encouraging young women to be vaccinated against viruses related to cervical cancer. The source is the private interest motivated by profit that is promoting public demand. It requires robust government regulation and vigilance to ensure that the public good is not undermined. Yet from a public health perspective, the benefits of vaccination outweigh the real and perceived risks. The foundation of responsible democracy is for ordinary people to make informed decisions. If this blog has piqued your interest, do a bit of research for yourself. Please note that while some chiropractors may p

Back pain, neck pain, and headaches are the most common reasons why Canadians first consult a chiropractor. Every time you overdo, there’s a small amount of damage done to your spine. Vertebrae (the bones of the spine) can slip out of position or move improperly as muscles pull. In a few days the muscles heal, the pain eases, yet the vertebrae stay out of place, creating a chronic but unfelt vertebral distortion. This causes pressure on nerves and sensitive tissues and can lead to fixation (a sticking together) of two or more vertebrae. When the position and movement of vertebrae become distorted there is abnormal pressure on the disc and joints. Eventually the joints deteriorate into a condition called degenerative joint disease. You may know this as arthritis (comparable to a car becoming rusty). Constant lifting, bending, poor posture, etc., put consistent stress on your joints. It’s usually not the one big thing that you did, but the many small and repetitive things that you do. Of

Weighing in on Weight Loss There is much talk currently about regulating the diet/weight loss industry. I will leave that up to the reader to opine on the dangers, merits, and extent that Big Brother ought to protect the public from itself. However, as with many things in life, BUYER BEWARE. Keeping one's weight under control is important to promote a longer and healthier life. The number one indicator of adult onset disease is excess body weight. I refer you to http://drwaynecoghlan.blogspot.com/2008/10/losing-weight.html. Weight loss, however, is a very challenging thing for most people to manage and sustain. Many people are desperate to find a better answer and .... in a free society there are those entrepreneurs who will take advantage of persons vulnerable, if not desperate. BUYER BEWARE. I recall a review of weight loss centres and their long term effectiveness. The research supported that for people who did adhere to their program, they were successful in temporaril

The fun of corsets. Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/socialstudies Jan 09/09. ".... "The corset is a vilified article of clothing. It was and is blamed for a host of feminine miseries, both physical and spiritual, for ruining women's bodies and for closing their minds. It is interesting to note, however, that while women wore them, it was male doctors who led the campaign against the corset. Most women were for it. ... Wearing a corset is a little like finding oneself in a permanent embrace, a hug around the middle that goes on and on. This is pleasant and vaguely erotic - a squeeze that lasts." Ahem... Corsets also provided a degree of stability to the lower back and forced the lady to attend to better posture. It had to.. it was too uncomfortable to slump or bend over at the waist. We find a comparable device with industrial back supports (see picture). These devices became popular through the 90's when they were touted as being preventative for low back

"The term syndrome refers to the association of characteristics that often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others." Wikipedia. Standing straight when one leg is shorter is the equivalent of standing sideways on a hill. The person cannot help but lean to the shorter side. The spine may compensate, to limit leaning to the short side, by tilting the upper body in the opposite direction. This produces a "scoliosis" or sideways deviation of the spine. NOT GOOD. Often a person will try to compensate for a short leg by perching on short leg, usually with the other leg bent at the knee and turned out...effectively shortening the long leg. NOT GOOD. Rather than balancing the pelvis, fatigue and strain usually causes the pelvis to over compensate. In either case, the distortion of the spine unevenly loads the joints and muscles, and promotes faster wear and tear, and injury. If you, or someone you care about, i