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Complimentary Consultation, Frequently Asked Questions FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) , Complimentary Consultation Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) WHERE IS MY OFFICE? My main location is the Collingwood Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic located at 516 Hurontario Street, at the corner of 9th Street, in Collingwood. I have a second location at the east end of Wasaga Beach at the River Road Professional Centre, at the corner of Zoo Park Road, sharing space with the Wasaga Family Foot Clinic. DO YOU NEED A MEDICAL REFERRAL? There are three or four chiropractors that the local physicians do refer to, including myself. However, you DO NOT NEED a medical referral. It is as simple as calling Megan at the front desk (445-5401) and asking for an appointment. WHAT ARE MY FEES? The fee for your initial visit is a very reasonable $55. Each additional visit is $30. There may be additional fees for extended visits and services. These will be discussed with as relevant. WHAT HAPPENS AT YOUR FIRST VISIT? Your initial appoi

Low Back Pain

Dear Gentle Reader: The following is a thorough discussion of low back and originates from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Accessed from:  http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/backpain/detail_backpain.htm It is not my intention to plagiarize this work, but rather than re-invent the wheel, so to speak, I have provided the majority of the article and added my own comments along the way. If you have lower back pain, you are not alone. Roughly 90% of the population with have some degree of back pain in their lives. Perhaps 30% of people will experience some degree of ongoing back pain, with 10% having pain severe enough that it is interfering with their life and work activities. That is, it is common! Low back pain is a leading cause of work place disability and the second most common reason for visits to the medical doctor — only headache is more common. Fortunately, most occurrences of low back pain go away within a few days. Others take much l

Osteoporosis

What to eat to keep your bones healthy: A reprint from the Globe and Mail. My appreciation to Ms. Beck for her informative, accurate, and concise articles. From: Globe and Mail, Nov. 09, 2010, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/leslie-beck/what-to-eat-to-keep-your-bones-healthy/article1791671/ Leslie Beck It’s estimated that nearly two million Canadians live with osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become weak and brittle, increasing the risk of fracture. In fact, one in six women will suffer a hip fracture during her lifetime – greater than her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer (one in nine). But it’s not only women who get osteoporosis – at least one in eight men over 50 have the condition. It affects mainly older adults, but it can strike at any age, even well before you hit your 50s. Risk factors for osteoporosis include older age, suffering a bone fracture after age 40, family history, low bone mass, cigarette smoking, inactivity, excessive alcohol c

What to eat to keep your bones healthy: A reprint from the Globe and Mail. My appreciation to Ms. Beck for her informative, accurate, and concise articles. From: Globe and Mail, Nov. 09, 2010, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/leslie-beck/what-to-eat-to-keep-your-bones-healthy/article1791671/ Leslie Beck It’s estimated that nearly two million Canadians live with osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become weak and brittle, increasing the risk of fracture. In fact, one in six women will suffer a hip fracture during her lifetime – greater than her lifetime risk of developing breast cancer (one in nine). But it’s not only women who get osteoporosis – at least one in eight men over 50 have the condition. It affects mainly older adults, but it can strike at any age, even well before you hit your 50s. Risk factors for osteoporosis include older age, suffering a bone fracture after age 40, family history, low bone mass, cigarette smoking, inactivity, excessive alcohol consumption and long-term use of corticosteroid medications such as prednisone and cortisone. Whether or not you’re at high risk for osteoporosis, it’s never too late to make dietary changes that help keep bones healthy throughout life. Get enough calcium: Adults aged 19 to 50 need 1,000 milligrams of calcium each day, and older adults require 1,200 mg. Teenagers need 1,300 mg of the mineral daily and children aged 4 to 8 should get 800 mg. One cup of milk, 3/4 cup of plain yogurt and 1.5 ounces of cheese each contain roughly 300 mg of easily absorbed calcium. Other sources include fortified soy beverages (300 mg per 1 cup), sardines with bones (3 ounces has 325 mg), canned salmon with bones (3 ounces has 188 mg), cooked Swiss chard (1 cup has 102 mg), cooked broccoli (1 cup has 62 mg) and almonds (1/4 cup has 92 mg). If you can’t get enough calcium from food, take a supplement. Calcium carbonate pills typically offer 500 mg of calcium and are best absorbed when taken with or immediately after a meal. Calcium citrate supplements provide 250 to 350 mg per tablet and are well absorbed at any time. Most multivitamins do not contain enough calcium to suffice as a supplement. Take vitamin D: This nutrient enhances calcium absorption from foods and is essential to preventing osteoporosis. While exposure to sunlight provides vitamin D, from October to April the sun isn’t strong enough to produce vitamin D in the skin. Osteoporosis Canada recommends a daily vitamin D3 supplement of 400 to 1,000 IU for adults under 50 who don’t have osteoporosis. After 50, a daily supplement of 800 to 2,000 IU is recommended. If you’re over 50 – or have osteoporosis – take vitamin D year round. Eat leafy greens: Spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens, kale, rapini and arugula are rich in vitamin K, a nutrient needed to build bone. Studies have linked higher vitamin K intakes with a significantly lower risk of hip fracture. Scientists speculate it takes a daily intake of 200 micrograms of vitamin K to protect bones from thinning – an amount that can easily be obtained by eating 1/2 a cup of cooked greens each day. Reduce salt: Excess salt causes calcium to be excreted from the body. Keep your daily sodium intake under 2,300 mg. Adults require no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day. Read labels to choose packaged foods that are lower in sodium. Eat more meals prepared at home rather than in restaurants. Curb caffeine: Caffeine, too, can increase calcium excretion – especially if you’re not meeting your daily requirement for the mineral. Limit your caffeine intake to 450 mg per day (1 cup of coffee has 100 to 175 mg; 1 cup of black tea has 45 mg). If you have osteoporosis, aim for no more than 200 mg. Avoid soft drinks: Many soft drinks – diet and regular – contain phosphoric acid, a flavour additive and preservative. Consuming too much may cause bones to lose calcium, making them weaker. Limit alcohol: Consuming more than two drinks per day can reduce bone formation and interfere with calcium absorption. If you drink, limit your intake to seven drinks per week (women) and nine per week (men). Lose weight sensibly: Crash dieting for an extended period – consuming 1,000 calories or fewer per day – can cause bone loss. Experts suggest a threshold of at least 1,200 calories per day is needed to maintain bones. Aim to lose weight at a safe rate of one to two pounds per week while meeting you daily calcium needs. Exercise regularly: Weight-bearing exercises – walking, jogging, stair climbing, hiking – help maintain bone density in your legs, hips and lower spine. Strength training helps strengthen muscles and bone in your arms and upper spine. Exercise can also improve posture and balance and, as a result, reduce the risk of falling and breaking a bone.

Repetitive Strain Injury

Repetitive Strain Injury! Repetitive strain injury is typically caused by rapid, repeated use of muscles and joints (hammering), or by holding a muscle in a sustained load/position (using the computer mouse). It affects a broad variety of people from athletes such as tennis players and golfers to trades people like jackhammer operators and assembly line workers. Video gaming, and even crafts like knitting are all associated with repetitive strain injuries. It is not the one time that you do the activity that hurts you… If it were you would likely know enough to stop… or I hope you would. Rather, each time you do the activity, there is a little bit of injury. Normally, if you do the activity once in a while, the tissue heals and all is well. With repetitive strain however, you re-injure the tissue before it has healed. Inflammation, the normal healing mechanism of the body sets in and a gradual onset of numbness, tingling and burning sensations, swelling and aching pain are among the

Low Back Injury: 92% Satisfaction

An Environics survey* identified that among recent back pain sufferers who went to a chiropractor, “an overwhelming majority” of nine in ten (92%) were very (69%) or somewhat (23%) satisfied with their treatment. This compares well with our own survey were patients reported well over 85% satisfaction with the results of their treatment, and their impression of experience with the clinic. This is gratifying as we work hard to understand and meet the needs of each of our patients and clients. In addition to an accurate diagnosis and plan of management, I help the patient understand how they came by their injury so they can best avoid it in the future. I often recommend medication to help a patient through a tough period, yet when the pain diminishes does not mean that the injury itself is resolved. The pain of a relatively minor injury may subside within a few days, yet it may take at least a few weeks for the tissue to stabilize and the injury to heal. More severe injuries may tak

A multivitamin a day may keep heart attacks away

A multivitamin a day may keep heart attacks away Readers will be familiar with my evaluation that supplementing one’s diet with good multivitamin is smart in today’s modern world. According to new a study published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who took a one-a-day supplement were 40 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack than their peers who didn’t use multivitamins. A Nurses’ Health Study reported that regular multivitamin use was linked with a 24 per cent lower risk of heart disease. A study of more than one million healthy U.S. adults, demonstrated that multivitamins were associated with a 25 per cent lower risk of dying from heart disease. Another study included 33,933 Swedish women aged 49 to 83 years, the vast majority (93 per cent) having no history of heart disease. At 10 years of follow up, women who were free of heart disease upon enrolling in the study, taking a daily multivitamin reduced the risk of heart attack by 27 per cent. T

Vitamin D

More Information On Vitamin D. Studies of vitamin D have been on the rise in recent years, and with good reason— a 2009 estimate suggests that nearly three quarters of teens and adults in the U.S. are deficient in this vital nutrient. Vitamin D deficiency not only causes rickets, a skeletal disorder in which the bones are soft and weak, but has also been associated with a rapidly increasing range of chronic conditions like cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Now, two new studies suggest a link between vitamin D and neurological disorder: Older people with insufficient vitamin D levels may be more likely to develop Parkinson's disease and experience cognitive decline. Humans can obtain vitamin D by eating oily fish or fortified foods, and it is also photosynthesized in the skin upon exposure to adequate amounts of ultraviolet B (UVB) rays in sunlight. Major factors that influence vitamin D status in humans include season, latitude, age, skin tone, diet an

Tension Headaches

BACK FACTS: Headaches 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 way to combat tension headaches is through lifestyle changes. Here are some helpful tips. Exercise regularly . This can help reduce the frequency and intensity of headaches. Exercise relieves stress, relaxes your muscles and increases the levels of beta-endorphins, which are your body’s natural stress relievers. So don’t just sit there, go for a walk, bike ride or run. Healthy lifestyle . Behaviours that promote general good health may help prevent headaches. This includes following regular eating and sleeping schedules and avoiding excess caffeine and alcohol. Stress management . Stress is a commonly reported trigger for tension type headaches. Reduc

FAQ: What is the basis for Chiropractic?

FAQ: What is the basis of chiropractic? The nervous system affects all tissues of the body, directly or indirectly. This is most evident when a nerve is pinched in the neck or lower back. Typically a person will feel numbness and/or a pins and needles sensation and/or pain along the course of the nerve. A little bit of irritation on the nerve can create a nuisance- it may bother the person but doesn't stop them from their daily activity. A lot of compression on the nerve can create disabling pain and over the long term lead to loss of reflexes and muscle function. Sciatica is a pain typical of a pinched nerve in the lower back. Pinched nerves are commonly caused by the bones in the spine being out of proper alignment and/or arthritic deterioration of the spaces that the nerve passes through. The goal of chiropractic treatment is to relieve the pressure on the nerve where it is compressed, where it emerges from the spine. In less complicated cases, a simple adjustment of the j