Hello all.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here.

I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line.

I am also a Certified Posture expert with the American Posture Institute.

Last time we talked about mindful and mindless posture.

And since a lot of you are house-bound right now and interacting with technology way more than you normally would, I thought today we would have a quick review.

Whether you are using your cell phone, tablet or laptop, keep your chin up. Keep your eyes looking straight ahead (no looking down), keep ears over the shoulders and keep your back straight.

Maintain this posture whether you are standing or sitting. And if you are sitting take a posture break every 30 minutes.

Remember that healthy posture means a healthy body and right now we need to do every single little thing that we can to stay healthy.

And these tips apply to everyone of all ages.

If you have any questions or need my help in any way, I am always here for you guys.

Just reach out … 905 335 LIFE (5433).

It is estimate that up to 50% of WAD (whiplash associated disorder) patients will develop chronic symptoms such as neck and upper back pain, headaches, dizziness, emotional and cognitive disturbances, referred pain and physical dysfunctions.

FM (fibromyalgia) is also characterized by long-term persistent symptoms such as widespread musculoskeletal pain, sleep disturbances, cognitive disturbances, fatigue and physical dysfunctions.

Both WAD and FM patients share similar chronic debilitating signs and symptoms.
But the question is … why is this the case?

In one study, researchers evaluated cognitive loss, central sensitization (a highly sensitive nerve system associated with chronic pain) and health-related quality of life in chronic WAD patients, FM patients and a control group with no known chronic conditions.

Participants in both the WAD and FM groups exhibited significant cognitive impairment, central sensitization and decreased health-related quality of life suggesting that brain injury plays a significant role in each condition.

In WAD injuries, the mechanism of injury causing cognitive loss ( the brain’s inability to process information) appears to arise from the brain slamming into the inside of the cranial vault (skull).

In a rear-end collision, the brain 1st hits the back of the skull followed by rebounding and hitting the front of the skull often times causing a concussion (brain bruise).

A 2011 study found that among 326 WAD patients with persistent neck pain lasting more than 3 months, up to 14% met the criteria for FM.

A 2015 study that looked at the health histories of 939 FM patients identified trauma as the participating factor in 27% of cases. Based on these findings, it’s clear that the whiplash process could be a significant contributing factor for developing FM.

While we typically associate whiplash with motor vehicle collisions, such injuries can also occur in sports collisions, falls and physical assaults.

It is also possible that a greater percentage of FM cases may be due to trauma the participant simply wasn’t able to recall.

It is clear that chronic WAD and FM are potentially debilitating conditions and seeking treatment after trauma, such as a motor vehicle accident, is critical for mitigating the risk for chronic symptoms.

The good news is that both FM and WAD patients respond exceptionally well to chiropractic care.
 
Studies have reported that the inclusion of chiropractic care enhances recovery in acute and chronic WAD as well as FM patients.

If you would like to investigate this further, please call me at 905 335 LIFE (5433).

Hello all.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here.

I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line in the Beacon Hill Plaza.

I am also a Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist with the American Posture Institute.

Today we are going to discuss intelligent posture.

Upright/erect posture is the most intelligent posture amongst all living things.

We have evolved from crawling around on all 4’s to hunched over caveman to an upright, erect bipedal being.

But somewhere along the way, something went terribly wrong.

Our posture system is collapsing.

We are becoming more caveman-like as we hunch over computers, cell phones and tablets etc.

The human posture system is de-evolving at the speed of technology.

Bad posture is mindless. There is no thought, no awareness, no preparation, it is reactive and this is how we develop bad posture habits.

Good posture on the other hand is mindful. There is a moment by moment awareness of where you are, what you are doing and what part of your body you need to stabilize.

Mindful posture is proactive as opposed to reactive.

Example …. you need to spend a couple of hours at your computer. So you think first how you are going to sit with healthy posture and when you are going to take your posture breaks.

Example …. you need to lift and move an object. So you plan it out first how you are going to perform this task without hurting yourself.

You remind yourself to engage your core muscles and lift with your legs and not to twist while carrying a heavy object.

Postural mindfulness needs to become habitual. It needs to become the ‘norm.’

More on this next time but if you have any questions on this topic or any other health concerns you may have or your kids may have, please call me.

Consultations at Life Chiropractic Centre are always free of charge and they also include a detailed posture scan.

The phone number to call to schedule your appointment is 905 335 LIFE (5433).

Remember that good posture is by design and not by circumstance.

Life Chiropractic Centre is a family chiropractic and postural correction facility.

Hello everyone.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here and I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line.I am also a Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist with the American Posture Institute.

Today you are going to learn about the 2 components to a healthy posture system; orientation and stabilization.

Orientation is how your body aligns itself or postures itself in response to sensory input.

Three examples of sensory input are what you see, what you hear and what you feel.

And here are some examples of what can happen ….If you are not using your reading glasses and are squinting and sticking your head and neck out so you can see what you need to read,you are creating a forward head posture.

If you cannot hear out of your right ear as well as the left, you will tend to turn your right ear towards the source. This will resultin head rotation.

If you have a pinched nerve in your neck, and your neck is tilted over towards your shoulder, this is a torticollis.

Forward head posture, head rotation, head tilt (torticollis) – these are all different types of posture distortions in Posture Quadrant 1.Stabilization – this is the process of stiffening one part of your body to allow for a free and full range of motion of another part of yourbody.

Example … if you need to reach for something on the top shelf, you need to stiffen your core and your legs to allow your arms to move freely.

If you have a posture distortion in your lower back (Posture Quadrant 3) and you have lower back pain and a weak core (you cannot have one without the other), you would never be able to stabilize yourself to perform this task.

Good posture therefore is absolutely critical for you to orient yourself properly and stabilize yourself properly during any activity that you do …. sitting, standing, walking, running, lifting, lying, golfing, cleaning the house – it doesn’t matter.

More on posture next time, but if you have any questions on this topic or any other health concerns you may have or your kids may have,give us a call.

Remember consults are always free of charge and these include a detailed posture scan.

Our phone number is 905 335 LIFE (5433).Remember that good posture is by design and not by circumstance.?
?

Hello all.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here. I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line in the Beacon Hill Plaza. I am also a Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist with the American Posture Institute and a canfitpro certified Personal Training Specialist. 

Over the next few months we are going to take a deep dive into posturology which the scientific study of posture.

And what I will be sharing with you has the potential to change your life, improve your health-span and your life-span both, and even improve your kids health.

I know a lot of you are wondering right off the top how this information would be appropriate for kids, so I would like you to consider the following facts:

For the first time in history, the life-expectancy of children may be less than that of their parents.

Over 50% of kids have Posture Distortion Patterns in their spine. Kids are becoming more slumped, more sedentary and more sick.

67% of students already have Tech Neck posture.

Kids with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder show signs of compromised postural stability.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, 2019), kids with increased screen time have decreased white matter in their brain for language and literacy skills.

Increased use of technology has resulted in a steep decline in posture. Poor posture is the silent contributor to the overall state of health of our kids.

And think about this; our kids will be interacting with technology for the rest of their lives. And they will be interacting with technology for many more years than we will be. Generation-C kids were born with technology.

So not only is it important for us as adults to learn how to maintain healthy posture, its especially important for our kids to learn how to maintain healthy posture.

We will get right into this starting next week. I will make sure it is easy to understand, factual and even practical.

Please join us then and tell your friends. It’s important!

Our phone number in Burlington is 905 335 LIFE (5433).

Hello everyone.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here.

I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line in the Beacon Hill Plaza.I am also a canfitpro certified Personal Training Specialist and an American Posture Institute Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist.

Last time we discussed fibromyalgia (FM) and one of our viewers inquired about sleep and the FM patient.

It is a known fact that many fibro patients suffer from chronic daytime fatigue, have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep and not feeling well rested in the mornings.

If you suffer from FM and any of these ring true for you, I have a few helpful hints to share with you today.
 
Noise and light; block out as much external noise as you can with earplugs or a soothing sound machine on the night table beside your bed.

And block out any external light with heavy curtains/blinds or use an eye mask.
Food/meals; avoid large meals at least 2 hours before bedtime.

If you get hungry in the evenings, have a small protein snack (a hand full of
almonds or a half a cup of yogurt or cottage cheese) and a cup a calming tea or a cup of warm milk especially can help you to fall asleep.

Exercise; aerobic exercise is highly beneficial during the daytime as it releases endorphins (feel good hormones) into our body, but not advisable within 3 hours of bedtime. If you want to do a 15-20 minute full-body stretch routine in the evenings before bed, this would be an
excellent thing to do.

Sleep habits; try and get to bed the same time every night and avoid long naps during the daytime. A 15-20 minute nap not within 8 hours of bedtime is okay.

Stimulants; avoid things such as alcohol, nicotine, sugar, caffeine etc. as they can prevent you from falling into a deep sleep.

Chiropractic care; a lot of literature and studies are pointing to the main cause of FM as being neurologic. The sympathetic part of the nerve system (the fight or flight part) is being stimulated repeatedly in the fibro patient thus not allowing the body to rest properly, and causes the accumulation of inflammatory chemicals into the muscle tissue. This is what causes those nasty trigger points.

Chiropractic adjustments have a very calming and soothing effect on the nerve system and will help to turn down the sympathetic response.

This is why so many FM patients find chiropractic care to be a huge benefit for them.

I hope you find this to be helpful and as always, if you have any questions on this topic or any other health concerns you may have or you children may have, please call me.
Remember too that consultations are always free of charge and these include a free detailed posture analysis.

Our phone number in Burlington is 905 335 LIFE (5433).

Hello everyone.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here.

I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line in the Beacon Hill Plaza.I am also a canfitpro certified Personal Training Specialist and an American Posture Institute Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist.

Today is going to be for those people who may be suffering from fibromyalgia.

?Fibromyalgia is a very common and chronic condition where patients describe widespread pain not limited to one specific area of the body.When considering exercises for the fibromyalgia patient, whole body exercises must be taken into consideration.

And one of the most importantexercises is the free squat.A problem with squatting however can be that we lose proper form when we are in pain.

Pain can cause us to compensate in certain ways thatresult in the development of faulty movement patterns which can irritate the hips, knees, ankles and especially the lower back.

Remember that the lower back is your 3^rd Posture Quadrant – the stability quadrant for the entire spine.Squatting properly will strengthen your hips, stabilize the lower back and make it way easier for you to get through your daily activities; walking,sitting, standing, stair climbing, getting in and out of bed, the car etc.

The free standing squat is by far the safest and most effective for the fibromyalgia patient and they are quite easy to do.Stand with feet shoulder width apart, stick your butt out a little bit to maintain that arch in your lower back and crouch down as far as you comfortably can and then stand up straight again.

Stand beside a wall or a chair if you need to for extra support and balance.Try and work up to 3 sets of 15 squats which you can do 2 or 3 times per day.Regarding fibromyalgia always keep 2 things in mind; one is that many fibro patients find chiropractic care hugely beneficial and secondly, fibromyalgiais currently the third most common diagnosis made by rheumatologists.

And as many as 25% of diagnosed cases are attributed to an earlier traumaticevent of which whiplash ranks number one.So, if you have had a whiplash injury (sports injury, bad fall, concussion, car accident etc.), you are at a greater risk of developing fibromyalgia.

But it doesn’t have to be this way because I can help.All you have to do is call us to schedule an appointment for your free initial consultation which also includes a free detailed posture scan.This the best place to start and the number to call is 905 335 LIFE (5433).

Hello everyone.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here.

I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre in the Beacon Hill Plaza on Guelph Line.I am also a canfitpro certified Personal Training Specialist and an American Posture Institute Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist.

Today I am going to share another case history with you. Case histories are excellent learning opportunities.

I recently had a mother and son come in for a consultation.

They both had been going for chiropractic care for over 25 years and due to circumstances,they needed to find another chiropractor.In a situation like this, I always find out what their level of understanding is regarding chiropractic care and the posture system.

So, I asked them if they were familiar with the 4 posture quadrants, spinal misalignments, posture distortions, spinal degenerative arthritis etc. and they answered ‘no’ to most.

We then proceeded with a detailed posture scan which indicated that posture xrays were warranted.When we sat down to go over their posture xrays they were both shocked.

They were shocked at how much their posture systems had collapsed and the degree of spinal degenerative arthritis in their spines. Especially because they had been going for chiropractic care for years.

But it was for the most part pain-relief care only.

The takeaway from this case history is this … even though these patients did benefit to some degree from their previous chiropractic adjustments, there is a way to maximize these.

When you have a road map or a specific treatment plan designed to correct any posture distortions and you follow this up with regular chiropractic check-ups, you will get way more out of your chiropractic care.

Remember it is the chiropractors training and expertise that determines how often, when and where you need an adjustment.

And this will vary depending upon whether your chiropractor is a pain-relief (short-term benefits) chiropractor or a posture correction (long-term benefits) chiropractor.

To find out the status of your posture system, just give us a call.

Consultations are always free of charge and these include a detailed posture scan, also free.And this is an excellent place to start.The number to call is 905 335 LIFE (5433).

Remember always that good posture is by design and not by circumstance.

Life Chiropractic Centre …. helping families just like yours build vibrant, healthy, drug-free lives for over 25 years in Burlington, Ontario.

Hello again.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here and I am a Burlington, Ontario Chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line.

This is the time of year when most of us make some new year’s resolutions.

Resolutions can be a good thing but they can also be deflating especially when what you want to happen doesn’t. In fact, some surveys show that a high percentage of resolutions (85-90%) fall by the wayside.

So, what could we do to change this? Because resolutions can be very empowering.
What if we made just 1 resolution instead of 2 or 3 or 4?

Pick that one thing in your life, the most important thing that you know needs to change for the better.

And focus only on that 1 thing.

Do you need to make better food choices? Do you need to recommit to your chiropractic health care?

Do you need to exercise with regularity? Do you need to build better relationships with yourself, your family, your friends?
 
And when you make a commitment to yourself that you are going to focus on that 1 thing, and you do, then you will experience results. And results are empowering and can often be life-changing.

The resolution then is really between you and your self.

All the best in the new year everyone.

This is our version of the “roaring twenties!”

Remember always that good posture is by design and not by circumstance. Life Chiropractic Centre …. helping families just like yours build vibrant, healthy, drug-free lives for over 25 years in Burlington, Ontario.

Hello everyone.

Dr Brad Ivanchuk here.

I am a Burlington, Ontario chiropractor at Life Chiropractic Centre on Guelph Line in the Beacon Hill Plaza.

I am also a canfitpro certified Personal Training Specialist and an American Posture Institute
Certified Posture Expert and Postural Neurologist.

Today we are going to learn about lower back pain and its relation to your spinal discs which are the cartilage pads or shock-absorbers between each pair of vertebrae throughout your
spine.

The unfortunate thing is that almost every single person will experience low back pain at least once in their lives, to one degree or another. I am seeing kids in my clinic who are only 10 years old and they are already complaining of back pain.

And due to lack of proper attention and continual postural collapse, this becomes a chronic problem for a lot of people.

Regarding your spinal discs, there is no real such thing as a slipped disc. Discs are firmly attached to the vertebra above and below. The two most common things that can happen to a spinal discs are they can decay or degenerate (this we have discussed many times before), and they can bulge or herniate.

We have learned already that posture distortions in the lower back and pelvis can cause decaying discs, but they can also cause bulging discs in the lower back as well.

If you suffer from back pain, try this simple test to see if it may be related to your spinal discs.
When you bend forwards at the waist and this seems to offer you some relief, you most likely have a decaying disc(s).

If the opposite is true and you get some relief when you bend backwards at the waist, you most likely have a bulging disc(s).

But the good news is that chiropractic care and postural correction can help both of these problems.

If you and/or your kids struggle with lower back pain, you really do need to get a thorough check-up.

Consultations here at Life Chiropractic Centre are always free of charge and these also include a detailed posture scan.

This is the best place to start.

The number to call is 905 335 LIFE(5433).


Remember always that good posture is by design and not by circumstance. Life Chiropractic Centre …. helping families just like yours build vibrant, healthy, drug-free lives for over 25 years in Burlington, Ontario.