By Aysha Nuttall - Acupuncturist

​Summer is the season of yang. It is a time of joy, heat, and abundant energy.  The days are long, filled with sunshine and there’s a feeling that anything is possible.
The abundance of the summer time yang energy also brings on summer time injuries.  Sprains and strains are common at this time of year.  They tend to go untreated and usually ignored.  This can lead to further injury and develop into chronic pain.  It’s important to rest and get proper treatment when an injury occurs.  Treating the injury with acupuncture can help to reduce inflammation, increase blood circulation, decrease pain and prevent the development of chronic pain.
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Overheating during the summer months can also be a problem.  Eating smaller meals and cooling yin foods can help to prevent heat stroke or summer-heat which can keep you away from the fun yang activities.  Some of the foods to include in your diet are watermelon, lemon, peaches, oranges, asparagus, sprouts, broccoli, cucumber, spinach, seaweed, cilantro, mint and dill.

Summer is also the season of the heart.  In western terms, it’s a time to join in activities that pump oxygen rich blood through the body.  In Eastern terms, it’s a time to nourish the spirit and engage in the things that bring joy to your life.  Together this means to climb that mountain you’ve been wanting to climb, but make sure to take the time to enjoy the view and take care of yourself afterwards. 
This summer focus on what you love.  Whether it’s running, biking, kayaking or just being active in your community acupuncture will help you to feel better and perform better.  Remember, anything is possible if you stay healthy this summer.

IT'S BACK!
A core strength class that will help increase stability of the spine and pelvis and prevent injuries. 
​The class is moving to a new location on Fitness Excellence, a full-service gym located behind London Drugs off Kilpatrick Ave in Courtenay.


Every Wednesday in January and February from 12:30-1:00pm. The 30 minute class at lunch will start with a short dynamic warm-up and get right into exercises. It will change each week and have a take-home program for the following week. 

Become a member of the Fitness Excellence Gym and you can take this drop-in class. This gym also has cardio equipment, weights, or yoga studio.

​Book early or it will be sold-out! 

The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles that help move and stabilize the shoulder joint. Damage to any or all of the four muscles and the ligaments that attach these muscles to bone can occur because of an acute trauma or throwing injury.  This damage can cause significant pain and disability with range of motion and use of the shoulder joint. It can become chronic and lifelong injury unless something is done.
The shoulder is a ball-socket joint that allows the arm to move in many directions. The rotator cuff muscles are the dynamic stabilizers and movers of the shoulder joint and adjust the position of the humorous (upper arm bone) and shoulder blade during shoulder movement.
The four rotator cuff muscles include the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor.
Other muscles that help move and stabilize the shoulder include the deltoid, teres major, corachobrachialis, latissimus dorsi, and pectoralis major.

When the rotator cuff is damaged, a variety of issues arise:

• Pain and spasm limit the range of motion of the shoulder. The muscles do not make the small adjustments within the joint to allow the humeral head to move smoothly.
• Fluid accumulation within the joint due to inflammation limits movement.
• Arthritis and calcium deposits that form over time limit range of motion.

The severity of injury may range from a mild strain and inflammation of the muscle or tendon and can lead to a partial or complete tear of the muscle. Accessory muscles in the back, chest, or neck will compensate and posture will be affected (Upper Crossed Syndrome). Early treatment is best for proper recovery and preventing future flair ups.

Treatment Options:

Depending on how long or the severity of  the shoulder injury the therapy options change. With an acute injury (24-48 hours) immediate reduction of inflammation is recommended. Best practice is to slowly move the joint through range of motion every few hours and lightly massage the area to flush out excess fluid and swelling. With a more sub-acute or chronic injury, manual hands-on therapy is recommended including:

Active Release technique (A.R.T) can reduce the tension in the muscle and release fibres to restore normal motion around the shoulder joint. Graston Technique will break down scar tissue preventing the injury from becoming chronic. Joint mobilizations will prevent restrictions in the joint and help release the muscle tension. 

Get an assessment of a shoulder injury at Fit Chiropractic and Sport Therapy. 
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If you've been struggling with pain in your back, hip, shoulder, elbow, hands or feet for months or even years, you may want to consider Prolotherapy (aka regenerative injection therapy). This simple yet powerful technique uses the body's own healing abilities to restore structure and function to the injured area, by giving it a little nudge.
Ligaments and Tendons are notorious for taking a very long time to heal. In fact, often they will not make a full recovery at all. Surgery is often considered the only solution. Actually you would make a quicker recovery breaking a bone than tearing a tendon or ligament.
Most adults will recover from a broken bone in 6-8 weeks. Tendon, ligaments, and even cartilage however don't receive the rich blood supply that bone does, so the healing process can become stunted. We've all met someone who's shoulder or knee has never been the same since developing their injury. Those tendons and ligaments have never had the chance to fully heal.
Prolotherapy accelerates and reminds the body to continue and complete the repair process of these ligaments and tendons. How does it do that? With a little sweetness! By injecting a proliferating agent such as Dextrose (aka sugar water) into the injured/scarred area, we sightly irritate the tissue. This stimulates the body to elicit a small controlled inflammatory response, much like if you cut yourself. Inflammation isn’t always a bad thing. In fact it is a vital part of the healing process associated with the recruitment of growth and other healing factors that instruct the injured tissue(s) to proliferate or multiply, thus remodelling new connective tissue over the area.
Prolotherapy does not simply repair injured cells, but lays down brand new cells in and around the injured tendons and ligaments, thereby strengthening and tightening the connective tissue to create stable joints.
So what's the end result? Reduction or elimination of pain, increased range of motion, and
usually permanent healing.
In a nutshell Prolotherapy is a highly effective treatment that helps re-establish proper form and function, so you can continue living the active lifestyle you always have!
By Dr David Milanovich, ND

  
Dr David Milanovich received his training as a Naturopathic Physician from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto, where he co-founded the men's health awareness week, and was a member of the sports medicine group. Prior to that he studied kinesiology at the University of Calgary, and received his bachelors of science degree from the University of Victoria, where he also competitively rowed, competed in triathlons, and was member of the athletic advisory committee. 
After many years away, Dr Dave is happy to call the Comox Valley home again. He is also a father or two, and a qualified yoga teacher. Blending his passion in sport, yoga and medicine, has given Dr Dave a unique perspective, particularly in the field of athletic performance, pain management and sport injures. While specializing, and certified in Regenerative Injection Therapy (aka Prolotherapy), and PRP, nutritional counselling, laboratory testing, and vitamin injection therapy are among the services Dr Dave offers to help patients continue living active, healthy and pain free lives.
When not in the office, you’ll find him working out in the gym, sweating in the yoga studio, and hiking on the many gorgeous trails and mountains in the Comox Valley. Book in with Dr David online here. 

These Sweet Potato Pancakes are high-protein and gluten-free. Sweet potatoes are so good for you! Peanut flour works well with this recipe, but you can use any flour you’d like. Egg beaters or eggs, your choice, are whisked in. If the batter is too thick, you can add a touch of milk, dairy or not, to get the right consistency.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cooked mashed sweet potato
• 1/3 cup egg beaters or 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup peanut flour (you can use any kind of flour you want)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda and baking powder
• 1 tsp honey or coconut palm sugar
• dash salt and even bigger dash of cinnamon
• if the batter is too thick add some milk of your choice

Mix well, make sure all the sweet potato is mashed. The batter is pretty thick so I spread it out when I scoop them on the hot skillet. Cook as you would normal pancakes. They don’t “bubble” like normal pancakes, so watch that they are cook thoroughly, but not burned.

These pancakes can be topped with real maple syrup, honey, apple butter or apple sauce. You might choose to use no topping at all. They are already naturally sweet from the sweet potatoes!

With any medical condition, it is important to control the inflammatory process that slows down healing. Often after an injury the body reacts by producing inflammatory products that are to (over) compensate for the stress. It may be an acute accident with a sprained ankle or it may be a chronic whole body condition like arthritis. By eating fresh healthy food it is a essential way to help your body reduce the excess inflammation and will accelerate healing.


1.       Vegetables should make up the bulk of your diet. Variety is really the spice of life, particularly when it comes to fruit and vegetables. Aim for at least 10 different types of vegetables/Day with half being cooked and half being raw. Try to plan your meals ahead of time and ideally use fresh or frozen products, no deep fried or salted products.

 Artichokes - Avocado - Peppers - Broccoli - Beets - Carrots - Cauliflower - Cucumber  -  Corn - Eggplant - Radish - Spinach - Turnip - Tomatoes - Squash - Snow Peas - String Beans -  Zucchini               


2.       Fruits are also very beneficial to keeping essential nutrients to accelerate healing but they are higher in fructose (sugar) content and can spike an insulin response when eaten in excess.  A moderate amount each day (4-5) will help keep the healing process going.

        Apple - Apricot - Banana -  Blackberries - Blueberries -  Cantaloupe - Cherries - Coconut - Figs - Grapes - Kiwi - Orange - Mango - Nectarine - Papaya - Peach - Pear - Pineapple - Plum - Raspberries - Strawberries - Tangerines - Watermelon                                                     


3.       Nuts and Seeds are essential sources of minerals, healthy fats, and protein. These are all important elements to fight inflammation. Keeping a bag or container of them at your work or easy to access at home they are the perfect snacking foods when you are hungry.  It is best to eat them raw.

        Almonds - Cashews  - Filberts - Flax Seeds - Macadamias -  Pecan - Pistachios -  Sesame Seeds - Walnuts - Peanuts - Pumpkin seeds


4.       Meat & Fish is best to eat wild or free range organically-grown animals.

        Lamb - Buffalo - Beef (grass fed) - Venison -  Elk -  Turkey - Salmon (wild) - Sardines - Trout - Halibut - Mackerel 

Addressing the health needs of your growing children through natural chiropractic health care.

There are a growing number of parents who are seeking alternative and natural forms of health care for their family and there is a lot of information out there to navigate through. The purpose of this article is to help you better understand your child’s special health needs and to address some common questions that parents have about chiropractic care for kids.

Is chiropractic care safe for children?
Yes! There have been several large-scale research studies verifying the safety and effectiveness of chiropractic care for kids. The amount of force used to adjust an infant is comparable to the amount of force you use to test a ripe tomato at the grocery store. Those of you with kids know that they are certainly able to withstand a lot more pressure than that! Chiropractors have been helping kids lead healthier lives for over 100 years. Dr Derek has a very gentle touch and will treat your kids with the utmost of care.

Why do kids need chiropractic care?
Bones model in response to outside physical stresses placed upon them (a concept known as Wolff’s Law) and proper joint motion is need to distribute these forces for optimal bone development. There are periods of time when skeletal growth is accelerated (growth spurts) during which balance within the muscles and joints is especially important. Just like the bones of the skeleton, your child’s nervous system is also developing at a rapid rate. The nervous system includes the brain, the spinal cord, and all the millions of nerves that serve every inch of your body and control most of its functions. Just like the bones need proper joint motion for optimal development, so do the nerves in order to develop optimal communication (or innervation).

When should I start bringing my kids in?
It is never too early to bring your child to the chiropractor. Infants just minutes old are often checked by the loving hands or the family chiropractor and it is not uncommon to stop by the chiropractor’s office on the way home from the hospital. The birthing process is physically strenuous for both mom and baby, so it is best to get them both cared for as soon as possible afterwards. That being said, it is never too late either! Children may enjoy the benefits of chiropractic care at any age or stage of development.

To have your child looked at call the office at 250.871.3674 or book online. 

Gardening!

An important reminder for myself and everybody else entering the "garden season" is that there are an increased number of injuries when starting up again for the season. The heavy lifting of fresh sand or mulch, twisting to pick those far reaching weeds, and hunching for extended periods of time can all contribute to the straining and spraining of our sensitive soft-tissues. 

Luckily, a few simple exercises can help prevent aches and pains. Most importantly, increasing core stability will improve our abilities to maintain bending postures for prolonged periods of time.  Recent research recommends that building the endurance of core abdominal and lower back muscles is more important than actually “strengthening” the low back.  Keeping correct posture with strong abdominal muscles will prevent injury down the road and enable you to garden at all ages.  If you would like some more information on these exercises and to have your own personal biomechanics (walking, bending, lifting, kneeling) properly assessed, stop by the clinic and ask Dr. Derek.