Early detection can lower the chance of requiring surgery!
How to screen at home:
Body Levels. When looking at your child from behind, we are asking two questions: are the shoulders level? Is the pelvis level?
In the same position, ask your child to bend forwards. When doing this, we are screening for an obvious hump or bump on one side.
Below is our YouTube video featuring Dr. Fung explaining how to do a scoliosis screening. If you need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
Dr. Fung explaining how to do a scoliosis screening.
The Vagus nerve has been recently a popular topic in the world of social media. That is likely because of its impact on the Central Nervous System. This is the system that controls your stress/anxiety and balances it with your calm/rest/digest feelings.
It is important to have a good balance of Rest with Stress but often with those who have suffered a concussion, their stress response is too high, too elevated, for too long. The concepts covered in the video include:
Laughter / Socializing
Cold Water Exposure
Deep Breathing
Laughter:
Laughter is recommended daily. Some good options include watching a funny movie, video or reel OR reading a funny book. If you have a friend who has a sense of humour you enjoy, hang out with them more.
Cold Water Exposure:
Cold Water Exposure is recommended to spend 11 minutes a week working towards building your exposure. You should start slow and for a limited time. Splashing cold water on your face, neck and upper back is good way to start. Then building towards some time in the shower. A recommended cycle to work towards in the shower is 60 seconds of warm water, following by 10 seconds of cold water.
Deep Breathing:
Deep Breathing is recommended for 5 minutes daily. It is helpful to find the breathing pattern that works for you. There are many options of mindfulness breathing. It will be very important to focus on an exhale that is longer than an inhale.
If you’d like to be part of this meeting in the future, please email mlevtov@completebalancehealth.com.
If you’ve suffered a concussion and need to be treated, please call our clinic, Complete Balance Health Centre, at (416) 769-1163.
Concussion Therapist Miles Levtov presenting a recap from the latest concussion education group meeting.
Have you ever felt like you try an activity, and then you are absolutely wiped out for the rest of the day and maybe even the next day? A common activity pattern is to do too much, for too long and run out of your useable energy for the day. It is important to pace your activities so you can accomplish more through the day, while slowing and gradually building your tolerance to activities.
Sometimes it is helpful for people to think of their energy levels as a cup of water. Some days your cup may be more full than others, and that is okay! As long as you keep that in mind and use a helpful pacing strategy, you can get through your day, as well as accomplishing tasks.
Learn more from our video featured on YouTube. The video is presented by our concussion therapist, Miles.
One of the most common questions that is asked is what exercise can i do if I have a concussion?
There are a few reasons why one may experience increased concussion symptoms during or after exercising.
When you’re exercising, your brain needs more blood. If your autonomic response incorrectly sends your brain too little or too much blood, then you will feel significant symptoms.
Another reason for symptoms during exercise may be due to neck function. If you’re doing a High Intensity Interval Training with lots of head movement, then your neck muscles may be causing headache or dizziness.
What exercise can you do with a concussion?
Aerobic exercise, either on a bike or a treadmill, at a level below your symptoms can help your recovery. It is important exercises at a level called sub-symptoms threshold. This is usually measured via your heart rate.
It’s important to seek concussion treatment. The number #1 predictor of recovery time was how quickly after a concussion injury you were in to see a health care professional trained in concussion management.
Once you have mastered the floor angel glide exercise, you can progress the wall angel glide, then the seated angel glide.
The shoulders and arms position are the same as floor angel glide. However, you will likely to notice that wall angel glide is bit more challenging than the floor glide. The seated angel glide is more challenging then the standing wall angel glide.
Many people with shoulder injury because there is a postural imbalance in the shoulder girdle including the shoulder blade (scapula). In order to truly strength the shoulder and prevent further injuries, retraining the scapula is very important.
Here is the first and the most simple exercise. Floor Angel Glide. This exercise can be performed as pre-work out warm.
Key points:
Keep the shoulder blades, elbows and wrists on the floor during the entire movement. So the arms will be gliding on the floor like snow angel.
Only perform the range of motion within the range where you can keep the arms flat against the floor
Start with 10 reps upto 40 reps. Should be done slowly. Do not rush through this.
Many people like to go to the gym to get stronger. However, some people ended up injuries while exercises. We have patients with injuries are trying to get back into regular exercises too soon. So when we should do what? Here are 4 basic principles that I apply in my practice.
Flexibility. Depending on your exercises, your sport and your activities, you must have sufficient flexibility of your joint and muscle to perform. Performing activities with insufficient flexibility will lead to compensation in other body parts.
Stabilization. Once you have gained sufficient flexibility, you would want to have sufficient strength to stabilize the joint. Otherwise, it would lead to impingement injuries or other repetitive strain injuries overtime.
Strength. Once you have stabilized the joint, you can begin to increase your intensity and load to improve strength.
Power. This may not be needed for everyone. Once you have sufficient strength, you can attempt to increase load and speed.
Follow these rules, it will help to decrease the risk of injury in many different activities.
This is a very popular exercise prescribed by your physio, chiro or trainer. Bird-dog. I love the use of a stick to ensure a proper setup and posture. Make sure you have also mastered the basic core exercises.
If you have mastered the basic muscle recruitment of the inner core as demonstrated in Inner Core-Part 1, please go ahead to try the more advance exercises with more dynamic movements as demonstrated in this video. Once you have mastered the inner core trunk core, the trunk muscle is now truly stabilized. It will help to decrease low back injuries due to weakness. You would find other abdominal exercises to be easier as well.
MaxT3 incorporates scientific principles and fierce intensity into a complete fitness system. Our 2-DVD set includes 12 workouts, with more than 80 exercise moves!
Ask Dr. James 