Hats off to all the moms and dads out there.

Seriously, you deserve it.

Being a parent is easily one of the hardest tasks that anyone will endevour in their lifetime. There are all kinds of challenges and obstacles, and what’s worse is they not only multiply as your kids get older, they also get way more complex as time goes by.

One day your kid’s biggest problem is needing a diaper change, the next, they’re deciding what career path to follow.

One of the most important, and most difficult challenges in raising a child is ensuring they develop a healthy level of self-esteem. A lack of healthy self-esteem lies at the root of all kinds of mental health disorders, and is fundamental to creating success in almost all aspects of your child’s life, from social relationships to academic and career success down the line.

The late Dr. Nathaniel Branden, arguably the preeminent author and researcher in the field of self-esteem defined self-esteem as:

“The experience that we are appropriate to life, and to the requirements to life. Self-esteem is: confidence in our ability to think, confidence in our ability to cope with the basic challenges of life and confidence in our right to be successful and happy, the feeling of being worthy, deserving, entitled to assert our needs and wants, achieve our values, and enjoy the fruits of our efforts.”

Building your child’s self-esteem is much more complex than simply handing out hi-5s or giving indiscriminate compliments — it is a deliberate, complicated, multi-faceted process that requires understanding, patience and persistence at home, at school and in the community.

Win the morning, win the day…

The morning is one of the best opportunities for building self-esteem in your kids.

True, there is probably a lot of chaos in the morning too, but there is also opportunity for goal setting, task completion and genuine, directed praise.

Many successful authors, business people, and parents cite the mantra “win the morning, win the day”, meaning that even small victories early on in the day create positive momentum for the rest of the day.

In the context of building self esteem, the same principle applies, in that creating opportunities for building self-esteem early on will not only reinforce positive actions from your kids (ie. making their bed), but on a subconscious level encourages them to seek out other opportunities to build on their self-esteem.

We put together a simple checklist to help you take back your mornings and set up a great day for your kids. Click here to download it now.

The Danger Of Praise

I’ve already knocked the idea of praise for its own sake when it comes to building kids’ self esteem — and just to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with praising your child… However, as Dr. Branden states in his book The 6 Pillars of Self Esteem: “inappropriate praise can be just as harmful to self-esteem as inappropriate criticism”.

We must be careful about describing and appropriately placing our praise. The more specifically targeted our praise, the more meaningful it is to the child. Praise that is generalized and abstract leaves a child wondering what exactly is being praised.

If we state what we like and appreciate about a child’s actions, manner, or accomplishments, we remain factual and descriptive, leaving the child to make their own mind up about themselves. This is a powerful way to encourage your child to build healthy self-esteem, through their own judgements of themselves and their actions, rather than from an external validator, like a parent or teacher.

Make Them Feel Visible

Visibility essentially equates to attention, and attention is currency to kids.

Feeling visible means feeling seen, heard and understood, which is essential to the healthy development of self-esteem. This may seem elementary, but it goes a long way in the social development of a child.

The simplest way to encourage a child’s sense of visibility is to look at them when they are speaking (literal visibility). Making eye contact with your child is a non-verbal communication that they matter.

The next most simple way is taking opportunities to empathize with them — when they come to you with emotion, recognize and acknowledge their state. For example, if a child bursts into the house after school, full of joy and excitement, and Mother says, smiling “you’re happy today”, the child feels visible. Compare that to how a child feels if Mother yells “do you have to be so noisy?”

When I was young, listening to my dad take work calls, I remember noting how calm and polite he was when talking to clients, and how different it was to how he spoke to my brother and I. I’m sure he meant no harm, but at the time, it made me feel as though we were less important than his colleagues and clients. In my own mind, I was less visible than people he didn’t even like.

When we convey love, appreciation, empathy, acceptance and respect, we make a child visible.

In my opinion, a lack of self-esteem is one of the most insidious, most widespread, and most detrimental issues when it comes to raising children. A lack of healthy self-esteem limits them immeasurably in life, as it colours all of their thoughts, feelings and interactions.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on December 5, 2017.

There should be no debate or contention that good sleep is a fundamental requirement for being healthy…

Seriously, can anyone think of a single strong argument against sleep being a fundamental requirement to functioning at 100%?

And yet, on average, we really struggle with it…

Around 60,000,000 prescriptions for sleeping pills were prescribed in the US in 2011.

It’s estimated that 62% of Canadians suffer from sleep deprivation.

Even in Australia, the financial burden of sleep deprivation and its related disorders has reached a staggering 5.1 BILLION dollars.

THE CASE FOR A MORE RESTFUL SLEEP

When I ask to patients in practice about why they don’t get more sleep the response is usually something like: “I don’t have time… I have too much to do… I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” and I TOTALLY get that — it never seems like there are enough hours in the day…

…And the waking hours we do have are always jam packed!

Wake up, get the kids breakfast, take them to school, work, pick the kids up, after school sports, cook dinner, eat, cleaning up — and then you still have to prep for the next day because you need to do all of this again tomorrow.

Insufficient sleep has adverse effects on well-being, cognitive and psychomotor function, alertness, productivity, safety, learning and mood, and is also implicated in a range of other pathological processes, including metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders.

A lack of sleep can dramatically affect a number of important processes, including:

• Cellular repair
• Immune system activity
• Memory and problem solving
• Mood and mental health
• Inflammation
• Weight gain

In fact, it goes even deeper than that — a 2013 study found that by REDUCING the amount of sleep you get by only one hour changes the activity of over 500 genes, primarily effecting those promoting inflammation and immune response, as well as groups of genes linked to cancer and diabetes. These changes were REVERSED when an extra hour of sleep was added back into the same test group.

We’ve already put together a tonne of information on how to create the perfect night’s sleep…

In this article, I want to attack this issue from the other side — I want to share with you what NOT to do. More specifically, lets look at specific foods to avoid for better sleep.

Coffee

Okay, there isn’t really much of a deabte about this one. Coffee is a major source of caffeine, which acts as a neuro-stimulant. Stimulants of this kind cause an increase in brain activity, particularly sympathetic nervous system activity, making it harder to fall asleep. To be safe, you should make sure your last cup of java happens BEFORE 3pm.

Alcohol

Once in a while you may reach for an extra adult beverage to help you wind down and relax before bed. Bed news is, while alcohol can make you feel drowsy, it actually prevents you from fully entering REM sleep — the deep type of sleep where all your healing and growth takes place. Several hours of REM sleep is required in order for you to wake up feeling refreshed and rested.

Junk Food

Foods high in trans fats and sugar like chips, cookies, fries and other late night snack foods are bad for you for a number of reasons. One reason is that these foods put undue chemical stress on your body, making it more difficult for it to perform tasks like healing, growth and — you guessed it — sleep.

Chocolate

Chocolate, like coffee, contains caffeine. This, plus sugar and other preservatives make for a difficult night’s sleep.

Dried Fruits

As well as typically being high in sugar content, dried fruits like apricots, dates and cranberries are high in fibre. Eating high fibre foods close to bed can be a lot for your body to digest, leading to indigestion, bloating, cramping and gas. Anybody (else) out there ever woken themselves up?

Green Tea

HUH??? I thought green tea was supposed to be good for you!?

Well it is — it has a load of fat burning, antioxidizing, liver cleansing power. BUT it also naturally contains theobromine, theophylline and caffeine, all of which act as stimulants, causing disturbances in sleep.

Obviously food isn’t the only thing that affects people’s sleep — there’s stress, fitness, other health conditions, and perhaps most insidious, the use of technology throughout the day.

Click below to download “Reboot Your Sleep — 4 Ways Technology Is Destroying Your Sleep And What To Do About It” and learn how to engineer the perfect night’s sleep.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on October 24, 2017.

If you’ve been paying attention at all to the fitness and nutrition world, you would have come across this new ‘fad’ diet. Much like paleo, the ketogenic diet is steeped in controversy… dietitians seem to hate it, athletes and bloggers seem to love it…

And with so many books, blogs and articles to read through it can be so tough to know what’s healthy and what’s not.

I wrote this blog to simply, succinctly answer two questions:

1. What the heck is the ketogenic diet?

And…

2. How is the ketogenic diet different than Eat By Design?

The ketogenic diet is, by definition, not a fad diet — its use extends back as far as the Greeks.

In more modern history, some traditional tribal cultures, such as the Inuits in Alaska have been known to live on a ketogenic diet without knowing or meaning to. And the use of this diet has also been used as a formal treatment for epilepsy, beginning in the 20th century.

So while there may be some hype around it in recent years, it is certainly not a new or recent invention.

What the heck is the ketogenic diet?

Imagine for a second that your car engine could burn both gas and diesel… If you’re a penny-pincher like me, you’d probably want your car to burn diesel most of the time (it’s much more efficient) and save your gas for the passing lanes.

Well it turns out your body has essentially this same makeup although the ‘diesel’ side of things is largely dormant when we eat a standard, high carbohydrate diet.

The ketogenic diet activates or amplifies your diesel engine which allows you to generate energy from fat (for example your stored fat) much more efficiently.

To understand this, here’s a quick metabolism review:

First of all, ‘metabolism’ just means the processes your body uses to convert food into energy.

Your body has different metabolic pathways to generate energy for the brain and the body. When you eat food, it is broken down by your digestive system into 3 essential parts:

1. Macronutrients
2. Micronutrients
3. Everything else/waste

The micronutrients enter the bloodstream and become tissue, enzymes, hormones and other substances in the body and waste gets passed through the digestive track and gets made into… well… you know what.

Macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) serve two purposes — to become the building blocks for our cells (you literally are what you eat) and fuel for the furnace of your body. Like coal in a furnace or wood on a campfire, your body burns macronutrients to generate energy.

Normally, our diets contain a mix of carbohydrates, protein and fat. Protein isn’t great for energy creation, so we only really use those if we have to. That leaves carbs and fats.

Carbohydrates are usually in ample supply, and our body preferentially breaks them down to create glucose.

An over-abundance of glucose in our bloodstream, however, creates a whole host of problems, from systemic inflammation to pancreatic and liver disease.

There is also a back-up generator, which switches on when carbohydrates are hard to come by.

This system breaks down fats to form energy in a different way. The ketogenic diet utilizes this metabolic pathway to produce energy for the brain and the body.

The ketogenic diet uses high dietary fat intake to feed this backup generator and produce ketone bodies — hence KETOgenic diet (ketone making). These ketone bodies can be used by both the brain and the body to produce energy.

This system is incredibly intelligent as an energy production system when you consider the survival pressures that were on the human race once upon a time — cold, long winters where food was much harder to come by and was therefore carefully rationed, followed by spring and summer season where food sources were much more abundant.

In times when people were starving or consuming way less calories, the production of ketones from their own fat cells helped them survive famine.

There are two ways to switch your body from burning carbohydrates to burning fats:

1. Fast — for healthy individuals, a short term of little or no calorie intake will necessitate that your back up generator kick in.

2. Increase the amount of fat you eat and significantly limit the amount of carbohydrates you consume.

This kinda sounds like it fits into Eat by Design — after all, Step 4 of Eat By Design is ‘Increase Quality Fat Intake’… And there are definitely benefits to running off fats as a primary fuel source:

• More even insulin response
• More appropriate hunger and satiety signals and
• Weight loss, just to name a few…

However, while the ketogenic diet is a very carbohydrate restricted diet (which can have some serious downsides if you’re not careful), Eat By Design, by contrast, is a carbohydrate appropriate diet.

On a ketogenic diet, your carbohydrate intake is limited to about 5%-10% of your total calories for the day. Protein makes up another 10%-20% and the remaining 70% of your caloric intake should be fats.

For most people this is really tough to achieve and even harder to maintain. Not just because the process of transitioning into ‘fat burning’ can sometimes be unpleasant, but because depleting your carbohydrate stores entirely may cause a drop in mental and physical performance.

While the ketogenic diet was once recommended as a cure for epilepsy, and now is very frequently recommended for certain weight loss and body composition goals, Eat by Design has always had one objective — to meet the nutritional requirements to get and remain healthy.

Eat by design is a strategy to fulfill our requirements for fuel, based on 3 main criteria:

• Foods that we as humans are best adapted to;
• Foods with the highest nutrient density and;
• Foods with the least amount of toxicity.

According to Eat by Design, the level of carbohydrate an individual should consume is determined based on an individuals metabolism and energy expenditure. Generally speaking, someone who exercises more will function and perform better consuming more carbohydrates and vice versa.

Following these key criteria makes it much easier to identify foods that ultimately will hep you thrive — not just survive.

Now What?

This week, take stock of how much you’re eating, and more specifically the ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fat. You don’t have to bust out your calculator (although you can if you want,) just an estimate will do. If you’re like most people, it’s probably skewed on the high carb, low fat side.

Next, over the same period write down how you feel and perform and make note of any obvious connections.

Comment below to let us know what you discover!

Are you looking for ‘biggest-bang-for-your-buck” strategies to get your diet on track once and for all?

Click below to download the Eat By Design Quick Start Guide.

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Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on August 23, 2017.

You’ve all seen it

The condition which affects millions of Canadians every single year, and costs our health care system billions.

Osteoporosis.

Like you, I hate math, but love statistics, so if you’ll let me have this indulgence…

Osteoporosis will affect 1 in 3 Canadian women, and one in 5 Canadian men.

Fractures from osteoporosis are more common than having a stroke, heart attack or breast cancer combined

Every time an osteoporotic patient falls and breaks their hip, it costs around $22,000 to repair, and upwards of an additional $40,000 if they then become institutionalized.

28% of women and 37% of men who suffer an osteoporotic hip fracture will die as a result, within the following year.

For such a pervasive issue, very little thought is given to assessment or prevention until people hit their 40s and 50s — but by then it is often too late. The real time to start is age 6–12.

A study published in the Journal of Paediatrics in 2000 found that by modifying regular physical education classes to include more jumping, skipping and hopping, children were found to have significantly higher bone mineral density at 8 month follow up compared to children who participated in the regularly scheduled physical education classes.

The study, conducted on Canadian kids in the third and fourth grade found that by simply implementing hopping and jumping movements into the regular phys-ed curriculum led to increased bone density at the trochanter of the hip, one of the areas of the hip most commonly broken in a fall in an osteoporotic patient.

Previous studies have also indicated that the time to most effectively build strong bones is in the pre-teen years, not after 50, when most people start to think about it.

In fact, Osteoporosis Canada even refers to osteoporosis as “a paediatric disease with geriatric consequences” (not unlike structural distortions in the spine, developing in childhood and adolescence and developing silently until adulthood).

For such a prevalent issue in the elderly population, the solution is profoundly simple…

And unlike other ‘prevention’ strategies, which are actually just early detection, implementing a solution is childhood could ACTUALLY prevent this condition from every occurring in an individual.

The easiest solution would be for changes to be implemented into the Canadian phys-ed curriculum to reflect the recommendations of this study…. but since most of us don’t have that much time to kill, here’s 3 easily implemented tips to help your kids develop strong bones and ward off osteoporosis in their later years:

1. Shock Loading

Put down your jumper cables, this is a different kind of shock.

The reason the jumping, hopping games and play made a difference in bone density at the hip in the studies mentioned above is due to Wolff’s Law — which basically means that bone grows fastest and most dense in the areas under the highest stress load.

Jumping and bouncing ballistically stresses bones, causing your body to lay down more bone to reinforce it.

In the study, the exercise changes that were implemented were very simple, and cost nothing — 10 tuck jumps, 3 times a week plus jumping, hopping and skipping twice weekly during physical education classes.

The additional exercises took no extra time, resources or training, and were implemented as games, dances and gymnastic activities that the children were already familiar with — for example, playing tag but instead of running, all players become frogs or kangaroos and have to hop around to catch each other.

2. Eat More Greens

Healthy bone formation requires a constant and adequate supply of nutrients, including calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, Vitamin D, Vitamin K and protein, many of which are available in dark leafy vegetables.

Dark green leafy vegetables, including spinach, kale and turnip leaves are high in nutrients that are more bio-available than that found in dairy products. Eating a variety of nutritious vegetables has a tonne of health benefits (which is why it is featured as Step 3 of Eat By Design.)

3. Get Lifting

Despite what rumors and myths you may have heard, weight training for kids is not dangerous, IF lifts are performed with good technique and properly supervised.

In fact, it is necessary to properly develop bones, joints and muscles in a healthy, functional way.

If you’re local in Kanata, Crossfit 613 has a great kids program that enables kids to develop strength, mobility and fitness, and is, most importantly, FUN!

To learn more about how you and your child can fulfill all the necessary requirements for healthy movement, join us at our next Move By Design Seminar.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on July 18, 2017.

It’s been 60 years since Susan Olivia Poole first patented and produced a children’s toy that has stood the test of time — the Jolly Jumper.

Based on a traditional swaddling technique, the Jolly Jumper is now promoted as a ‘baby exerciser’, and is distributed by some of the biggest box stores and brands in the world, from Amazon to Walmart.

This device, I’m sure, has been a godsend for thousands of mums and dads who just need a little ‘hands free’ time so they can get chores done around the house.

Sometimes, I’m sure putting your baby in a jumper is the only thing that will buy you a few minutes of peace, when all other attempts to quell a tantrum fail.

And we all know that exercise is good for everyone, even babies, right?

While the Jolly Jumper may provide hours of ‘bouncing around and giggling to no end’, when it comes to the healthy development of a child’s nervous system and skeleton, you may be surprised to hear that it can actually present some huge issues.

Neurology

The order in which an infant progresses through motor skills is very important.

Each skill serves as a precursor for the next, progressing from rolling to sitting to crawling to standing to walking.

This is the typical pattern infants undergo when progressing through locomotive development. This developmental process is more than just developing the muscle and joint strength to handle standing and walking.

A child will reach each new phase of development as their neurological development allows, but by putting your non-walking child in a Jolly Jumper or exersaucer, you are effectively encouraging them to skip developmental steps, potentially leading to delays.

Development of balance and trunk control is fundamental to the process of learning to crawl, stand and walk. Placing a child in an upright apparatus that isolates and controls these variables takes away an opportunity for them to develop these skills. Additionally, the use of a baby walker or exersaucer has been found in some studies to delay independent walking.

Spine

You may be surprised to hear that in the womb and early phases of life, our spines’ look more like cat’s than adult humans (you know, minus a tail).

While adult spines have more of an ‘S’ shape, infant spines only have one curve, making them more like a ‘C’. The cervical (neck) curve develops in the first 3 months of life, as the baby starts to lift its head and gain head control. The lumbar (low back) curve develops at around 6–8 months when baby starts to crawl and sit independently. These curves will continue to develop until the child has finished growing.

As a Chiropractor, it does not make sense to me, to place such a delicate, developing spine under the stress and strain of ballistic loading (that’s what happens when your baby bounces in a sling or jumper).

While there is clear evidence that bouncing and jumping is a great form of play in later childhood, in the developing spine of a baby, the forces involved may create structural distortions within the spine and create problems in the future.

Pelvis

Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH) is a destructive condition of the hip that commonly affects infants and children, and is caused by abnormal stresses on the hip joints and pelvis.

The International Hip Dysplasia Institute says the following about baby carriers, toys and other equipment:

“The most unhealthy position for the hips during infancy is when the legs are held in extension with the hips and knees straight and the legs brought together, which is the opposite of the fetal position. The risk to the hips is greater when this unhealthy position is maintained for a long time. Healthy hip positioning avoids positions that may cause or contribute to development of hip dysplasia or dislocation. The healthiest position for the hips is for the hips to fall or spread (naturally) apart to the side, with the thighs supported and the hips and knees bent. This position has been called the jockey position, straddle position, frog position, spread-squat position or human position”

The positioning of the sling in the case of the Jolly Jumper does not support the thigh and hip at all — in fact it recreates the exact position that can contribute to the development of DDH.

I know what you’re probably thinking… “Now what am I supposed to do when my baby is screaming and won’t be consoled? The only thing that calmed them down before was that damn Jolly Jumper!!”

Surprisingly enough, that’s a pretty common issue with mums that we care for in our practice. They, like you, sometimes find themselves silently screaming, “WHAT DO YOU WANT???”

Insert Chiropractic Here

A child with signs of stress in their nervous system, or structural distortion in their spine may present with irritability, difficulty sleeping, breastfeeding, or even the dreaded colic, just to name a few.

Chiropractic care is equally important for children as it is for adults — after all, both have a spine and nervous system 🙂 , and both need them to function at their best in order to learn, thrive, and develop to their potential.

When was the last time your child had their spine and nervous system checked? If the answer is anything other than “in the last month”, then click below to request your complimentary paediatric spinal consultation.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on June 14, 2017.

“Sugar is sugar is sugar is sugar.”

You may have heard this mantra repeated again and again by a variety of health coaches and low-carb advocates, including us…

But not all sugars are created exactly equal.

“What about honey? Is that okay?” is a very commonly asked question at our Eat by Design seminars.

First off, let’s define what we mean by ‘okay’.

Eat By Design is a strategy to fulfill the food and fuel requirements of the body to optimize health (vs. just not get sick), based on three key criteria:

1. Foods we are best adapted to.
2. Foods with the highest nutrient density.
3. Foods with the least toxicity.

Honey does have some benefits for human health and ancestral studies and ecological studies of modern hunter-gatherer communities suggest that we are well adapted to honey…

However, there are definitely some drawbacks too.

In this article, I’m going to try to sort out the good from the bad, the sweet from the sticky. 🙂

Honey Benefits

Immunity

Raw honey has been shown to have significant benefits for the immune system. A study from Cardiff University showed that eating honey directly increased the number of immune cells produced by the body. Other anecdotal evidence suggests that regularly eating locally sourced honey can improve allergy symptoms in spring.

Wound Healing

Many studies have now shown honey to be effective in the healing of both acute and chronic wounds. In fact, it was a go-to resource even in the time of the Greeks and Romans.

An article published in an international peer-reviewed journal cited 17 randomized controlled clinical trials reporting positive findings for the use of honey in wound care. As a result of this research, honey has been found to have the following properties:

Anti-bacterial & Anti-Fungal

Manuka honey, a particular type of honey made from Manuka pollen, has been found to effectively eradicate over 250 different types of bacteria, including MRSA, a particularly resistant strain of harmful bacteria.

All types of honey release hydrogen peroxide, which explains their general anti-bacterial effects, however it seems that Manuka honey has some special ingredient that makes it particularly effective.

Do you know how honey is actually made?

It takes about 60000 bees, visiting around 2 million flowers, just to make ONE POUND of honey. And during that time, it comes into contact with billions of bacteria, including some healthful, ‘good’ bacteria. The bacteria found in some types of honey includes Lactobacillus and Bifido bacteria, two bacterial strains which are commonly found in conventional probiotic supplements.

Sounds like we should all go out and stock up on honey right!?

Not so fast… along with these benefits comes some challenges. Honey can present some significant health and ethical challenges if it is not sourced or delivered properly.

For one thing, honey should never be given to children under the age of 12 months.

In the past there have been some cases of very young children contracting botulism from eating honey.

Infants are still developing their gut flora and natural immune system — it’s not yet ready for everything the world has to throw at it. Older children and adults have the necessary tools and equipment (a sturdier immune system) to neutralize this problem.

There’s also a big difference between raw honey and highly processed or ‘artificial honey’.

Artificial honey is synthetically made from sugar or corn syrups mixed with food additives, preservatives and artificial colours.

Although the ratio of sucrose and fructose (simple sugar molecules) is the same as raw, natural honey, the effects on your body are very different. In one study, supplementation with real honey decreased triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, increased HDL cholesterol, and even decreased plasma homocysteine.

On the contrary, the artificial “honey” raised triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. Other similar studies have found that natural honey results in more stable blood sugar and insulin response when compared with artificial honey following meals.

Eat by Design isn’t a low-carb diet, but rather, it is a carb-appropriate diet.

So, much like fruit, starchy vegetables, nuts and seeds, honey makes the list of By Design foods, BUT just like other carbohydrates need to be matched to the metabolism, and the activity levels of the individual.

Are you ready to turn the page on your unhealthy diet?

Click here to download the Eat By Design Quick Start Guide and get started on the path to a healthier, fitter and more energetic you!

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on May 25, 2017.

Many of you have seen the challenge board in the reception area of The Wellness Group — every month we post a new healthy habit for you — either adding or subtracting something from your regular health routine.

But this new year, Dr. Gibson upped the ante on me. In addition to my other first quarter goals and objectives, he laid down a new gauntlet…

We sat opposite each other in the consult room at the office, just about to wrap up on our quarterly meeting… With a subtle smirk I’d seen before, usually while debating with his 5 year old on the benefits of going to bed, he uttered the following challenge:

“I think you would really benefit from giving up your social media for the quarter”.

My face must have betrayed the wave of anxiety that washed over me. He held his hands up defensively, as if I had pointed a weapon at him.

“Hey, it’s totally up to you, I just think it would be good for you”.

Over the next week I thought about it and decided that whether he was right or wrong about the benefit, I’d give it a go — what’s the worst that could happen?

Full disclosure, I didn’t last the full 12 weeks, I got to about 6 weeks and started to crack…

But I did want to share with you all three important things that I learned from the experiment:

1. 99.9% of the notifications you get are probably neither interesting, relevant, nor important in any way.

I never realized how many useless buy/sell groups I was subscribed to until I let all those notifications pile up at once.

A lot of the addictive properties of social media begin as FOMO — fear of missing out. But believe me, you’re probably not missing anything.

2. You steal time back.

Ever arrive at a train station only to watch your train pulling out of the station? Or just 5 minutes too late for late night El Caminos?

Well I have…

The point of this is NOT about the merits of being on time for public transport, rather minutes spent across the day add up, and sometimes can have consequences.

On average, people with smartphones check them about 150 times per day (literally) — that’s about every few minutes if it’s calculated over a 12 hour period. And a lot of those times are going to be FB/Insta/Twitter/SM related.

Add up all the ‘quick insta scrolls’ across the course of the day and I bet you’ll be surprised at how much time you actually lose on social media.

3. You care way less about dumb stuff.

When you’re constantly on social, it is way way easier to get worked up about trolling and comment wars that go on in forums and Facebook groups.

Since this is where most of my notifications come from in the first place, not having my attention constantly drawn away from important tasks to be a passive, frustrated spectator of the latest debate amongst outraged members of some Kanata community Facebook group was definitely a win, not just for my productivity’s sake, but for my soul.

The available research on social media’s effects on the brain is actually pretty damning.

Several studies looking at use of Facebook in particular, have suggested that Facebook use may increase anxiety, feelings of inadequacy and depression. A 2017 study even showed that increased user activity led to substantial decrease in self-rated mental health — i.e. the more you like, click on links and update you status, the worse you feel about yourself.

Studies have also shown that social media changes how you think about the world too.

Studies using fMRI have shown that subjects are more likely to like, and place greater importance on articles, links, photos and posts that have more ‘likes’ or re-tweets.

Study subjects were shown two identical pictures, one with 50 ‘likes’, the other with only 5; when shown the picture with 50 ‘likes’, pleasure and reward centers in the brain were stimulated far more strongly than it’s ‘less popular’ counter-part. This was especially true if subjects recognized a photo as theirs, or one taken by a friend.

Maybe 6 or 12 weeks is too much of a commitment for you, but I would encourage anyone to get rid of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even 72 hours and see what kind of effect this experiment has on your mental state.

It certainly had a big impact on me.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on May 8, 2017.

This may sound crazy… bear with me….

The cure for your back pain may be in your foot.

As a life by design chiropractor, I’m always on the lookout for the Core Problems that create dysfunction in the body.

And one thing I’ve learned in the process of helping hundreds of families get their health on track is that YOUR problem isn’t always THE problem. Kinda like how if you step on a dog’s tail, it barks, but that doesn’t mean the problem is its mouth.

Your body is made up of many different tissue types.

One of these types of tissue is called FASCIA.

Fascia operates as a kind of sheath, covering the surface of muscles and nerves to allow them to move and glide freely over one another without constantly getting stuck. It’s a clever invention of the body to allow multiple muscles and tissues to overlie each other, making movements like running, throwing and jumping not only efficient but possible.

The fascia also flows together and connect tissues together in a kind of ‘soft skeleton’ structure.

In this way, the base of your skull is actually directly connected to your big toe.

Due to these connections, the cause of your back pain may actually be in your foot.

You’re probably aware of the concept of compensation — like having to work harder to cover for a lazy colleague in your office. When fascia in your foot becomes tight, scarred and full of adhesions, the result is often that other regions have to pick up the slack. Now, under the excess strain from covering your lazy foot, the fascia covering your lower back starts to give you pain.

There’s research to back this up too.

A recent study published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies demonstrated an immediate improvement in hamstring and lower back mobility after simply rolling a tennis ball under the sole of the foot.

This principle applies to all of the fascia in the body.

That’s why a fundamental part of the recommendations we give our patients is soft tissue mobility… and it’s not only important that you do the exercises regularly, but hopefully now you understand why it’s so important that you also mobilize the tissues that aren’t sore or don’t seem related.

What’s more, improving the health and mobility of ALL of your muscles and fascia will not only help to resolve your secondary problems (insert the pain you’re experiencing here), but in fulfilling your mobility requirements you are actively improving muscular strength, recovery, and power.

A recent article reviewing credible studies fascial mobilization techniques found that fascial mobility exercises improved joint range of motion, muscle stiffness, recovery post-workout, and maximum power output. So whether you have back pain or not, you should be doing this.

How do you mobilize your fascia?

I’m glad you asked… 🙂

Click here for instant access to our 12 minute Soft Tissue Mobility Video to learn how to mobilize your fascia.

There’s so much to gain and nothing to lose. What are you waiting for?

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on March 16, 2017.

Okay, so maybe not Ridley Scott’s aliens, but there are definitely foreign puppeteers pulling the strings from inside your body.

The good news is that they are fairly happy to coexist with you, instead of bursting out of your chest like Porky Pig at the end of a Bugs Bunny cartoon…

You’re probably aware that there are trillions of bacteria that live in your stomach and intestines, but their importance and influence in maintaining your overall health may not have been highlighted to you…

Your gut microbiome (the bacteria in your gut) play a role in:

• How often and how badly you get sick…
• How well you digest food and extract nutrients…
• How prone your body is to store belly fat…
• Your moods and risk for depression…
• And even the development of ADD/ADHD in kids!

And now, new research suggests that the bacteria in your gut interact directly with your central nervous system, and can even create sugar cravings.

Researchers from multiple universities in the US have concluded that your gut microbiome influences your eating and dietary choices and favours the consumption of the particular nutrients they thrive on rather than passively living off whatever nutrients you choose to send their way.

Some gut bacteria like fiber. Others (like you) loooove sugar.

So depending on the diversity of different bacteria types in your microbiome, you may be compelled to eat one way or another, in order to accommodate your tiny house guests.

When bacteria break down food molecules in your gut, they produce waste materials (just like us). Studies on chocolate cravings have found that even when eating identical diets, people who crave chocolate have different microbial breakdown products in their urine than people who are “chocolate indifferent”. Different ‘breakdown products’ means different bacteria in their tummy.

So what? Well, those ‘breakdown products’ are one of the few substances in our body that are able to slip through the blood-brain barrier and mimic hormones that signal hunger or satiety, amongst other things. That’s right — bacterial poop influences your brain to change when and what you want to eat. Crazy, eh!

Bacteria are also able to produce neurotransmitters — chemicals normally produced by nerve cells to communicate with other nerve cells.

According to some sources, about 50% of the dopamine (your reward hormone) and up to 90% of your serotonin (your happy hormone) is produced in your gut.

Bacteria in your gut may also influence your ability to learn and form new neural connections (and maintain old connections).

Mice studies have shown that mice lacking a gut microbiota have decreased levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) in the learning and memory centres of the brain. BDNF is primarily responsible for maintaining the strength of connections between neurons and maintaining older connections.

So if your gut bacteria are dictators, controlling your thoughts and feelings to further their own agenda, how do we harness this influence to make it work for us?

Install The Right Bacteria With Probiotics

One of the few dietary supplements we recommend at The Wellness Group is probiotics. The bacteria contained in Life By Design Approved probiotic supplements will help to support your digestive, immune and nervous systems in a healthy way.

Cut Out Added Sugar

Feeding those bacteria that cause you to crave sugar will only strengthen their grip on your mind.

Eat Fruits And Veggies High In Fiber

Broccoli, brussel sprouts and berries are not only packed full of nutrients, many healthful gut bacteria thrive on high fiber, low sugar diets.

Eat More Fermented Foods

Fermented foods such as kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi come complete with healthful bacteria that colonize well in your gut.

Eat By Design

Eating By Design not only supplies you with the essential nutrients your body needs, it is also the diet of choice for many of the healthful bacteria in your gut. The more you feed them, the more they grow. And the more they grow, the more that they will suppress the cravings coming from those bacteria who want you to eat chocolate all the time.

Click here to download your copy of the Eat By Design Quick Start Guide.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on February 23, 2017.

I think it’s safe to assume that most of the people reading this blog have at least one thing in common…

In the last 3 or 4 weeks, you’ve all taken a minute to reflect on the year that was 2016 and what’s coming up for 2017.

If you read my blog this time last year you’ll know how I feel about New Year’s Resolutions, but as much as the new year is a time for reflection and goal setting, it really boils down to one thing.

Habits

If you’re a member of our practice, you know that we’re into promoting healthy habits, in fact, we’ve chosen 12 of the most powerful and impactful health strategies from each category (eat, move, and think) and challenge you each month to complete them.

Setting goals is one thing, and a great habit to take on in and of itself, however, the REAL key to achieving your goals and living your dreams is ACTION.

Consistent, Congruent Action, Over TIME.

Action oriented habits, however, can be pretty tough to develop from scratch.

Anyone who’s tried to quit a bad habit — like smoking — or tried to start a good habit — like going to the gym — knows that it takes a lot of will power not to fall off the wagon in the first week.

In fact, the research now shows that it takes on average 66 days to form a new habit, not 21 as was previously thought. That’s a lot of time and a lot of willpower required to keep you on track.

While there’s no substitute for consistent action, here are some tips to help keep you on track.

Accountability

Having an accountability buddy can drastically improve your changes of reaching your goal(s).

An accountability buddy is someone to hold you to your word.

Often times when people keep their goals and aspirations private, they fail to live up to them. In their head, it’s a pretty safe move, because if they fail, nobody else saw it.

The external motivation/pressure of having someone check in on your progress at regular intervals adds urgency and primacy of the goal, pushing you to get stuff done.

How much would you get done if you had a daily deadline?

Currently I have an accountability partner who checks in with me daily to see if I’m journaling every day (one of the healthful habits I said I wanted to add this year).

To up the ante, I recommend that a penalty be enforced by your accountability buddy for non-completion of a task. It could be monetary, or time related, or both. Personally, I recommend donating a large chunk of money to an organization you really don’t like.

Technology

You use your phone for just about everything else in your life, so why not put it to use to help you add a new healthy habit.

There are a number of ways that you can do this, but the app I recommend for tracking your habits is called Habit List. (Try HabitBull if you’re an Android user.)

Habit List allows you to nominate habits you want to adopt, habits you want to drop and keep on top of them.

Link Your Habit To A Strong WHY

Changing a habit can be really hard work, so why would you put yourself through it?

Seriously, ask yourself: ‘Why am I doing this?’

Linking habit changes to a core value will make the change more compelling — if it’s not, it will more than likely fall by the wayside.

PRO TIP: Really go deep on your WHY.

For example, if the habit I want to adopt is going to the gym 4 times a week, before I set foot in the gym, I need to really ask myself multiple times why I want to do this…

Me: “WHY?”

Also Me: “To lose 10 pounds.”

Me: “WHY?”

Also Me: “To be healthier.”

Me: “WHY?”

Also Me: “To live longer.”

Me: “WHY?”

Also Me: “To meet my grandchildren.”

You can see how digging deeper into your why creates a totally different and more compelling reason to stick to your guns when it comes to creating healthful habits.

Apply these 3 tips to your habit tracking and see how much more quickly you reach your goals for 2017!

For more strategies to help you create the life you want (and deserve) click below to download your copy of the Think By Design Manual.

Originally published at mykanatachiropractor.com on January 26, 2017.