We now offer Laser Therapy - Here's what you need to know:

Laser Therapy or Phototherapy is “a therapeutic physical modality, using photons (light energy) from the visible and infrared spectrum for tissue healing and pain reduction” as defined by the North American Association of Laser Therapy (NAALT). Also known as low level laser therapy (LLLT), cold or soft laser therapy, low energy laser therapy or laser therapy, the therapeutic light energy can be produced by either LED (light emitting diodes), SLD (superluminous diodes, or super bright LEDs),or low level laser diodes.

How does it work?

Light energy penetrates through the skin and is absorbed by the mitochondria of cells of all types. Light energy is converted into bio-chemical energy, restoring normal cell function.  This process may take up to 24 hours to complete.

Effects of Phototherapy/Laser Therapy

• Increases Circulation and Angiogenesis

• Reduces or Eliminates Acute and Chronic Pain

• Reduces Inflammation and Swelling

• Stimulates and Improves Nerve Function

• Strengthens and Repairs Bone and Soft Tissue

• Increases Mobility and Muscle Function

Conditions Treated with Phototherapy

Based on the research and literature:

• Arthritis (osteo and rheumatoid)

• Carpal tunnel syndrome (repetitive strain injuries)

• Acute and chronic pain conditions

(post operative, neuralgia, fibromyalgia or muscle tension/spasms)

• Soft Tissue injuries, strains and sprains

• Wounds (post operative, acute and chronic)

• Swelling and edema

• Inflammatory conditions (e.g. tendonitis, bursitis)

• Bone fractures and orthopedic implants

Treatment Schedules

Acute Conditions:

Week 1, daily to 3 times per week, after this, 2-3 times per week, 6-15 treatments in total.

Chronic Conditions:

2-3 times per week, up to 15 to 25 treatments in total.

Regular treatment schedule enhances accumulative effects and outcomes.

Click here for more information.

GOT BACK PAIN? TRY THIS BEFORE GRABBING THOSE PAINKILLERS!

The 2017 Canadian Guideline for Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain and the American College of Physicians suggest trying various treatments or therapies that can be offered by chiropractors, like spinal manipulation, exercise, and other non-drug therapies. These alternatives are non-addictive and can even be more effective in reducing your pain and getting you back to your regular life!

Consider chiropractic as your first line of defence against pain. Here are just some of the treatment options chiropractors may provide:

1. It’s time for an adjustment 

Spinal Manipulation: Chiropractors deliver precise adjustments to the vertebrae of the spine to help you get moving smoothly and feel less tension.

2. All hands on deck 

Multidisciplinary Rehab: Pain can affect us in many ways, and the starting point isn’t always clear. Work with multiple health care providers to address the physical, psychological and social or occupational factors contributing to your pain. Check out our team at Synergy!

3. Movement is Key 

Exercise: Chiropractors can prescribe exercise to help improve function and reduce your pain. Once the initial pain subsides, specific exercise programs may help you avoid future flare-ups!

4. Change your focus 

Mindfulness Based-Stress Reduction: Reduce your stress by changing how your brain processes pain. Meditation, breathing exercises and body awareness techniques can help you change the way you experience pain.

5. Pinpoint the issue 

Acupuncture is a technique where fine needles are inserted into specific areas of the body to address pain and function. Dr. Jennifer Corey is trained to offer acupuncture along with a variety of other treatment options.

If you’re looking for pain relief without putting yourself at the risk of opioid dependence, visit synergywellnesscentre.com and book an appointment with Dr. Clemenhagen and the Synergy team!

What does Craniosacral Therapy do to help with concussions?

This is the 4th in a series of blog posts where Certified Athletic Therapist - Alex Barton and Certified Craniosacral Therapist - Liw Bringelson discuss concussions, and explain what we can do to help before and after your concussion.

Why Craniosacral Therapy?

Healing from a concussion is an important and complex process.  Craniosacral therapy (CST) can help in both general and localized ways.  

As mentioned in the previous blog post, at the general level CST allows the body and nervous system, which has been shaken up by the impact and trauma of the injury, to “re-set”.  This reset allows the body to heal, from a more balanced place.  For example, if you’ve had a significant injury such as a broken bone, the first thing to do is to set the bone, so that it can heal in the correct position.  In the case of a concussion, there isn’t a broken bone, but the principle of restoring the body and nervous system to “balance” still applies.  It is important to allow all systems in the body to get back into pre-injury position to allow the healing to take place.

At the localized level, Craniosacral Therapy can support your body to release tension in the soft tissues which can then allow the bones in your skull (aka cranium) to realign.   For example, if you’ve fallen backwards and hit your head on the ice -- not only has your brain experienced a collision inside your skull, but your parietal bones may have jammed into the frontal bone.

Jamming the bones into each other creates a restriction in the frontal suture, which means the bones are not able to move in a healthy manner with relationship to each other.  CST can release this restriction, and allow the bones to move better.  When the bones of the skull are able to articulate, the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid can happen more efficiently, thereby facilitating the healing process of your brain within the skull.  

For more information about CST, how we can help you or to book an appointment please email Liw (findingquiet@gmail.com) or call (705) 446-5828.

Concussion Blog Series: What can WE, your therapy team, do to help with concussions?

This is the 3rd in a series of blog posts where Certified Athletic Therapist - Alex Barton and Certified Craniosacral Therapist - Liw Bringelson discuss concussions, and explain what we can do to help before and after your concussion.

If you have experienced a significant blow to the head, take it seriously!  Our bodies are complex systems, and while we may be able to “shake off” an injury, there can be long-term, significant effects.  If you have “bumped your head”, “had your bell rung”, “are seeing stars” then you may have experienced a head injury.  As we discussed in the first post of this series, there are many types of symptoms that may happen with a concussion.The first thing to do after experiencing a head injury is to seek out a professional opinion.  

As a Certified Athletic Therapist (Alex Barton), one of the most important parts of my job is in assisting players to identify concussion symptoms.  Based on what I see, from the sidelines, I can help the athlete and others around them to make informed decisions about continued playing and treatment.

The first thing to do after experiencing a head injury is to see your doctor for a full diagnosis.  Depending on your symptoms, your doctor may suggest changing your daily routine to support brain healing and recovery from your injury.  For example, one challenge in today’s world is to avoid screens (phones, computers, TVs).  There are therapies and protocols which may assist in supporting you and your brain to heal.

After receiving the diagnosis, you can work with the Synergy Health and Wellness team to determine appropriate treatment and rehabilitation plan to return to regular daily activities and get back to competition.  

As discussed in the last blog (click here), Alex Barton, Athletic Therapist has completed specialized training through the The Shift Concussion Management Program (SCMP) which allows her to properly assess concussions, interpret results and rehabilitate. This testing protocol  helps to better diagnose the concussion so we can understand what the problem is. If we can better understand the problem, we are able to recommend more specific treatment.

For example, if you were diagnosed with a knee injury, a generic knee strengthening program would allow you to get better, but it would probably take longer. Alternatively, if we are able to more specifically identify the injury, such as a 2nd degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL), then we would be able to give you a more specific rehabilitation program.  That is what ImPACT and SCMP allows Alex to do!

In addition to a more specific rehabilitation program, we can support your brain and central nervous system to rebalance and repair itself through Craniosacral Therapy.  Liw Bringelson provides this form of light-touch bodywork, which supports your central nervous system to “re-set” and then the healing can progress from a state of balance.

The combination of Craniosacral Therapy and Athletic Therapy provides the best environment for you and your brain to heal from a concussion or traumatic brain injury.   

For more information about how we can help you or to book an appointment please email (alexbarton@synergywellnesscentre.com or findingquiet@gmail.com) or call (705) 446-5828.

Concussion Blog Series: What to know before you have an injury

So You Think You Have a Concussion - The Importance of Baseline Testing

This is the second installment in a series of blog posts where Certified Athletic Therapist - Alex Barton and Certified Craniosacral Therapist - Liw Bringelson discuss concussions, and explain what we can do to help before and after your concussion.

As discussed in the previous Blog (click here), concussions are difficult to diagnose and are diagnosed through symptoms. Hence, having a snapshot of the brain’s ability to think and function, before an injury is vital.  You can do this by having your child or yourself participate in a baseline test before engaging in physical activity or sports.

If you or your child is diagnosed with a concussion, the testing can be repeated, and the post-injury results can be compared with the baseline, to support rehabilitation and return to activities of daily living and play.  

What is Baseline testing?

A baseline test is a test that is taken before any concussion, activity or treatment has occurred. Baseline testing data is valuable in determining the athlete’s’ pre-injury (normal) level of cognitive functioning. It is a tool in our toolbox which we feel is part of an effective concussion management program because it measures what we can’t see – cognitive (brain) function.

Are you or your children engaged in contact sports?  Many sports have opportunities for significant contact with other players or parts of the field of play which may result in a potential traumatic brain injury (TBI), like a concussion. For example:

• Hockey - Other players, sticks, pucks, boards, ice;

• Football - Other players, helmets, ground;

• Alpine skiing - Other skiers, trees, rocks, ice;

• Equestrian sports - Horses, jumps, ground.

Remember that the faster an athlete is moving, the greater the force transferred inside the skull when it comes to an abrupt stop due to a collision.

Alex Barton, Athletic Therapist, has completed specialized training through the The Shift Concussion Management Program (SCMP) which allows her to properly assess concussions, interpret results and rehabilitate.  The SCMP uses  ImPACT (https://www.impacttest.com/) as part of the testing after an individual sustains a concussion.  This is a type of neurocognitive testing  done using a computer to test word memory, visual memory, verbal memory, visual motor speed and reaction time. This testing suite helps to record neurocognitive function.

At Synergy Health and Wellness, Alex can also administer a full battery of tests that include visual coordination, balance and vestibular testing.

For more information about concussion testing please call or email (alexbarton@synergywellnesscentre.com) or call (705) 446-5828.

You have a Concussion, now what?

Through a series of blog posts, Certified Athletic Therapist - Alex Barton and Certified Cranial Sacral Therapist - Liw Bringelson will describe concussions, and explain what to do when you or your child is affected by one.  

WHAT IS A CONCUSSION?

An Athletic Therapist’s Perspective - Alex Barton

Being an Athletic Therapist, I deal with concussions on a regular basis.  I am the first one out on the field to help the athlete. From there I determine based on a symptom list and using the SCAT test  if the athlete can return to play or not. I work on the sidelines with high level athletes and coaches where the word ‘concussion’ is still considered taboo. I have heard coaches say, “Oh, he’s just seeing stars” or, “He just had his bell rung. He’s fine.”  Some of them feel concussions are considered a sign of being weak, because “...back in their day they didn’t get them…” but concussions have been around since ‘back in their day’, there just wasn’t the research or knowledge that there is today.

New light is being shined on the subject, from many directions, including:

• a Hollywood movie, Concussion (directed by Will Smith);

• NHL news of players, such as Sidney Crosby suffering, and being sidelined by, multiple concussions;

• stories about the impact of head injuries to athletes in high school sports.

Concussions are now an everyday topic. For example, Dr. Bennet Omalu (whose story was the basis for Will Smith’s movie) received a lot of attention for research and the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).  He identified patterns of injury in the brains of retired NFL players.  After they retired, they reported experiencing symptoms such as clinical depression, severe psychiatric problems, memory loss, personality changes and aggressive behavior.  After they died, Dr. Omalu attributed these significant changes in cognitive and social behaviour to the multiple concussions each suffered throughout their careers. This emerging information has raised the bar on the importance of preventing, identifying and treating concussions in athletes, from youth to professional competitors.

What IS a concussion?

A concussion is a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. This injury can be caused by a direct, or indirect blow to the head, face or neck.  The impact of the brain within the skull causes a series of complex pathological processes and chemical changes in the brain. These changes can cause depletion of energy in the system, among other symptoms.

Concussions are “invisible injuries” as they are not observable from the outside of the body.  Furthermore, this type of injury cannot always be seen with diagnostic imaging and is normally diagnosed using the following list of symptoms:

• Headache

• Dizziness

• Neck pain

• Nausea or Vomiting

• Loss of balance

• Poor coordination

• Trouble focusing on objects or words

• Poor concentration

• Feeling “foggy”

• Confusion

• Amnesia, or poor memory

• “Flashing lights”

• Blurred or double vision

• Seeing “stars”

• Irritability or emotional changes

• Ringing in ears

• Slow to follow direction

• Decreased playing ability

• Easily distracted

• Vacant stare

• Drowsiness/fatigue

• Difficulty falling asleep

• Feeling “off” or not like oneself

 These symptoms can occurs minutes after the initial injury and up to 48 hours later, making it very important to pay attention to how you are feeling after a head injury occurs. Diagnosis is critical.

At Synergy Health and Wellness Centre, we have an Athletic Therapist (Alex Barton) and  a Craniosacral Therapist (Liw Bringelson) who bring skills and experience to assist in concussion and post-concussion syndrome management.  

For more information about how we can help you or to book an appointment please email (info@synergywellnesscentre.com) or call (705) 446-5828.

What is Craniosacral Therapy (CST)?

Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a gentle, hands-on method of evaluating and enhancing the functioning of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord.  This branch of manual therapy was developed by an osteopathic physician, Dr. John Upledger.  It is based on the tenets of osteopathic medicine[1]:

1.      The body is a unit; the person is a unit of body, mind, and spirit.

2.      The body is capable of self-regulation, self-healing, and health maintenance.

3.      Structure and function are reciprocally interrelated.

4.      Rational treatment is based upon an understanding of the basic principles of body unity, self-regulation, and the interrelationship of structure and function.

The role of the CST therapist is as a catalyst and facilitator.  The therapist assists the client’s body to release restrictions and blockages throughout the body to return to optimal balance and self-healing. 

Treatment

During a standard CST treatment, the clothed client lies supine on a massage table for approximately 45-50 minutes. During this time the therapist evaluates the craniosacral system, treats and re-evaluates the client’s body both globally and locally.  Treatment includes manual therapy using minimal pressure (as light as 5 grams), working primarily from the pelvis to the large bones in the head.  This treatment serves as an invitation to the body to release tensions in the fascia, as well restrictions within the membrane system in the cranium.

Why use Craniosacral Therapy?

Most clients express feeling deep relaxation following a session.  CST treatments can also serve as a “re-boot” of the central nervous system, allowing the body to re-align and function more effectively.

CST is particularly indicated for conditions such as migraines, post-concussion syndrome, vertigo and TMJ issues. 

Clients have also found regular CST sessions to be a useful strategy to assist in the management of systemic chronic conditions, including chronic pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, Parkinson's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. 

If you have questions about CST, or wish to book an appointment, contact Liw Bringelson at Synergy Health and Wellness Centre in Collingwood, ON. 

[1] http://www.osteopathic.org/inside-aoa/about/leadership/Pages/tenets-of-osteopathic-medicine.aspx accessed 1 Feb 2017

Yoga Therapy 'Low Back Program' at the Leisure Time Club

Synergy Health and Wellness Centre's Yoga Therapist, Joanne Pineau, is offering the 'Low Back Program' in a group setting at the Leisure Time Club. The classes will take place Tuesdays from February 21 to April 4, 2017. See the poster for details. Additionally, you can contact us through the form below for more information. 

Building Your Core, So Your Back’s Not Sore

 

You often hear about the importance of strengthening your core. This is true and important, but it is recommended for many reasons over and above just achieving your dream body.

Many people have back pain and this can sometimes be caused by weak abdominal muscles. In fact, developing strong abdominal muscles may actually help prevent back pain by enabling proper spinal alignment, making you less prone to back injuries. Your abs anchor your frontal core, and if they are weak, the other structures supporting your spine, such as back muscles, will have to work harder. By developing stronger core muscles, you’ll be less likely to injure or strain your back muscles.

Below are three exercises that help build your core, so your back’s not sore.

Rope Climb

Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you and feet turned out, toes pointed. Contract your core muscles and roll your shoulders forward creating a curve in your back. Lift and move arms in succession as if you were climbing a rope, twisting your core slightly with each reach. Repeat 20 times.

Circle Plank

Start in a plank position with abs tight. Pull right knee in and circle it clockwise, then counterclockwise. Keep the rest of your body stationary. Repeat five times and then switch legs.

Oblique Reach

Sit with knees bent and feet on floor. (A) Straighten right leg. Roll spine into a C-curve. Place left hand behind head and extend right arm. (B) Twist body to the left, roll back a bit more (and hold for one count), then come up. Do five reps and then switch sides.

Try these exercises to help tone your core, three to four times per week for about 15 minutes. Your back will thank you.

Sources: 

• http://www.spineuniverse.com/wellness/exercise/building-core-strength-reduce-back-pain

• http://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/core-strengthening-exercises-00000000054969/

Happy New Year! Need to catch up on your Zzzz? Some helpful tips for Restorative Sleep.

Many people would agree that there’s nothing better than a good night’s sleep. Stressful day at the office? Long hours running errands with the kids? All this can be repaired with restorative slumber.

On the other hand, not getting the eight to nine hours of sleep that you need may leave you feeling grumpy and tired all day. But here’s something you may not know: you have far more control over the quality of your sleep than you think.

Choose a good mattress

If you wake up with aches and pains that were not there when you went to bed, it may be time to get a new mattress. A good mattress supports the natural contours of the body, letting your muscles and joints fully relax.

Test your pillow

The quest for a restful night’s sleep should always include a proper pillow. Keep in mind that your head weighs eight to twelve pounds. A good pillow provides comfortable support for your head, neck and upper back muscles so they can get some much-needed rest.

Don’t sleep on your stomach

Canada’s chiropractors recommend sleeping on your back or side. These positions allow your head, neck and spine to relax into their natural alignment. This reduces stress and strain on your muscles and joints that can disrupt your sleep and lead to aches in the morning.

Get to bed on time

Try to go to bed at the same time every night – even on weekends – to keep your sleep cycle in a regular rhythm. Avoid naps, but if you must, limit naps to less than 30 minutes, and be sure to have your siesta before 3:00 p.m.

Wind down

Avoid caffeinated beverages, heavy meals, alcohol and vigorous exercise within two hours of bedtime – they can all disrupt sleep.

Bedtime rituals

Some people like a hot shower before bed while others like to listen to relaxing music, watch TV or read. These cues let your body know it’s time to prepare for sleep.

Light up your life!

In the morning, open the curtains or blinds soon after you wake up. Bright light helps to regulate your natural biological clock.

Still sleepless?

If you can’t fall asleep after 30 minutes of tossing and turning, get up and do something boring in dim light until you feel sleepy. Try not to look at the clock – it may only make you feel anxious.

Sleep is an important aspect of your overall health – both your body and mind rest and refresh while sleeping. If you have continued difficulty getting a good night’s rest, consult a health professional such as a chiropractor who can help identify the problem and find solutions.