Inflammation

Inflamed?


Inflammation is the body’s defense against a perceived threat. The purpose is to destroy the offending agent and contain damage to the injured tissue. Inflammation can be from an old sports injury, poor dietary choices, infections, environmental allergies, and even food intolerances. It is also a major contributor to the accumulation of plaque that clogs our arteries.

Do you have inflammation?

It can be hard to determine if you are at risk because the signs of inflammation tend to be vague. Common symptoms include joint pain, abdominal bloating, weight gain, diarrhea, constipation, gas, skin trouble, headaches, low energy and even depression. So many of us struggle through the day in discomfort thinking it may be normal or simply due to aging.

Pain is never normal. Naturopathic Doctors can help.

Is your diet to blame?

More than half of North Americans have a food intolerance that they have not yet identified. That is a huge amount of bloated people living in pain!

Your body may be unhappy with the meals you have been eating, but may not let you know about it for up to three days. This is called delayed hypersensitivity. The lag time in your symptoms can make it even more difficult to identify the offending agent.

There are several ways to determine which food is the culprit. An elimination diet or blood tests can be prescribed by your Naturopathic Doctor in order to discover the inflammatory agent. Once found, the intolerant food can be avoided for a period of time then gradually re-introduced. Often this treats the intolerance long-term, and life can go on without discomfort.

Anti-inflammatory diets and lifestyle practices can be put into effect quickly and easily in order to improve your quality of life. Call a Naturopathic Doctor for an inflammatory evaluation today!



Melissa Piercell, BScH, ND
Nutrition House – TD Centre
66 Wellington St. West
Toronto, ON, M5K 1G8
416-854-8732

100 Days of Fitness Cont'd

I hope you had a great Christmas season and a safe and
cheerful New Years!

Let’s get right into ‘business’. I know that some of you
are on track with your 100 days of consecutive activity
(which is awesome), and I also know that many of you
have fallen off track.

Many different obstacles can derail your 100 days of
fitness, but should not ‘kill’ your drive.

A few years ago I saw a young man enter a gym in my
neighbourhood. He managed to get up a flight of stairs
to enter the gym, and gracefully down an additional set
of stairs that lead to the main gym.

Now this may not sound like a big deal to you, but this
young man had lost the use of his legs and was navigating
up and down stairs in his wheelchair!

I don’t think you or I have as good a reason as he does,
to let our health regime slide.

Don’t take things for granted, get back on track if you
have fallen off…if you have keep on the path of your
journey, keep on truckin’!






Personal Regards,

Wayne Campbell


Wayne Campbell, President
Full Spectrum, Fitness & Wellness
416-648-9087
www.athleticadvantage.ca
Helping Everyone Improve Quality Of Life

Acupuncture -- A Treatment For Musculoskeletal Injuries.

Acupuncture, once a therapy foreign to western medicine, has grown in popularity and is now a common therapy practiced by manual therapy and sports medicine health care practitioners for the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries. Musculoskeletal injuries are any injuries that affect the muscles, joints, ligaments, and bones of the body. There is currently evidence that shows positive benefit for acupuncture for a variety of musculoskeletal injuries. While acupuncture research is advancing every day, many patients are left wondering: What is acupuncture? How does it work? What is it good for? How safe is it? Who should I see to determine if it is a reasonable treatment for me? This article will help guide patients in their understanding of acupuncture.

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting one or more needles into specific sites on the body surface for therapeutic purposes. The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory of how acupuncture works is based on the concept of “energy” called “Qi” that flows through energy meridians in the body. According to TCM theory, disease is associated with an imbalance of the flow of “Qi” and acupuncture is utilized to correct this imbalance.1

While the TCM “Qi” theory has existed since the origin of acupuncture, it is a very difficult and counter-intuitive theory for western science to accept. How are acupuncture’s effects explained by western science? A large area of research points to a concept called neuromodulation.

To understand this concept, one must first recognize that the body is comprised of multiple transmission systems that send pain and inflammation signals to the brain and other areas of the body. Acupuncture has demonstrated, in animal and human studies, the ability to modulate these signalling systems in the body. Acupuncture has the ability to affect pain by stimulating reflex systems in the spinal cord, decrease activation in the pain centres of the brain, stimulate the secretion of endorphins and enkephalins (molecules that help modulate pain), and stimulate pain modulating hormones in the blood.1,2

What does all this scientific jargon mean? Acupuncture appears to have the ability to modulate the nervous system’s control over the signalling mechanisms in the body responsible for relaying signals for pain and inflammation. By modulating the nervous system, acupuncture has the ability to decrease pain, create an anti-inflammatory state in the body, and increase blood flow to injured areas to help stimulate the healing process. These effects have influence both locally at the injury site and systemically throughout the entire body.

With basic science research identifying these acupuncture-specific effects, it seems intuitive that these benefits should be seen clinically as well. Recently, there has been clinical research that has investigated the effects of acupuncture for a variety of medical conditions. In 1997 the National Institute of Health consensus conference stated acupuncture was supported by positive evidence for a range of conditions and the World Health Organization in 2003 concluded acupuncture has been proved for 28 medical conditions. By examining musculoskeletal injuries alone, there is currently evidence that has shown positive benefits for acupuncture for the treatment of shoulder, elbow, knee, low back, headache and neck pain.3-7

Acupuncture is a great therapy for chronic painful conditions like knee osteoarthritis where pain and inflammation has traditionally been treated with drugs that may exhibit unwanted side effects with long term use. Some clinical research has shown that acupuncture may help decrease dependency on drugs or is a great therapy to utilize in conjunction with pharmacological therapy.1

With acupuncture becoming increasingly popular, how safe is it and who should I consult to determine if it is a good therapy for me? Acupuncture has been described as a very safe therapy. However, as with all health care therapies, there are always risks in certain instances. Serious side effects are rare, but they can include injury to the lungs and organs if it is performed improperly around the thorax. A responsible and well-trained acupuncture professional is knowledgeable of these potential adverse effects, and in the hands of these well-trained individuals; side-effects are rare and acupuncture is a safe therapy.8

The importance of consulting a well-trained professional is important both for the effectiveness and safety of the therapy. In Ontario, a certified acupuncture practitioner must be a regulated health care professional who has completed post-graduate training in acupuncture methods. By consulting a regulated health care professional you ensure that they have sufficient knowledge to identify who is and who is not a candidate for acupuncture treatment and you ensure they have sufficient knowledge in human anatomy to perform acupuncture properly without side-effect. If anyone is interested in acupuncture as a potential therapy, the best thing to do is contact a registered health care professional who is a certified acupuncture practitioner. Prior to performing acupuncture, you – the patient – should have a discussion about your specific case and the role acupuncture can have in the treatment of your injury.

Acupuncture is no longer considered an alternative therapy. It is now common place in the field of manual therapy and sports medicine. Western science has identified pain modulating and anti-inflammatory effects with acupuncture treatment. Clinical research is mounting and there are positive research studies for a variety of musculoskeletal conditions. The responsible use of acupuncture in the hands of a competent health care practitioner can help expedite recovery and make life and sport more enjoyable for those suffering from musculoskeletal injuries.



Dr. Alex Lee
BSc (Hons), DC, D.Ac (cert)
Sports Performance Centres
www.sportsperformancecentres.com



References

1) Ernst E. Acupuncture – a critical analysis. Journal of Internal Medicine. 2006;259:125-137.
2) Cho ZH, Hwang SC, Wong EK, et al. Neural substrates, experimental evidences and functional hypothesis of acupuncture mechanisms. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. 2006;113:370-377.
3) Green S, Buchbinder R, Hetrick S. Acupuncture for shoulder pain (review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2005.
4) Green S, Buchbinder R, Barnsley L, Hall S, White M, et al. Acupuncture for lateral elbow pain (review). Cochrane Databse of Systematic Reviews. 2002.
5) Melchart D, Linde K, Berman B, White A, et al. Acupuncture for idiopathic headache (review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2001.
6) Furlan AD, Van Tulder MW, Cherkin DC, Tsukayama H et al. Acupuncture and dry-needling for low back pain (review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2005.
7) Trinh KV, Graham N, Gross AR, Goldsmith CH, et al. Acupuncture for neck disorders (review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2006.
8) Peuker ET, White A, Ernst E, Pera F, Filler TJ. Traumatic complications of acupuncture. Arch Fam Med. 1999;8:553-558.

21 Days To Form A Habit...

They say (although I am not exactly sure who 'they' are), that it takes 21 days to form a particular habit. So I guess I am 7 days away from developing a habit of exercising daily.

Now, I want you to realize that although I am performing an activity daily, I am varying my activities and the levels of intensity that they are performed at.

I am on track though and have enjoyed the journey of the 100 Days of Fitness so far. For those of you who know me, you know how much I hate to jog...but I decided to change things up a bit and went out for a 5km jog last week. Now I must confess, I did not break any records on the 5km run, but I felt that I should participate in an activity that is outside of 'my wheelhouse'.

I also used the TRX training system (which I love!!)...my training partner Wai, and myself, decided to perform a 'Freestyle TRX' workout...we each made up our own routine on the 'fly' and decided to include the video evidence online.

Keep the faith, and keep moving!



Wayne Campbell

www.athleticadvantage.ca

20 minutes of agility drills

A great way to work some variety into your program is to perform some agility work. I usually tend to use agility work as a warm up prior to my workouts (in place of or in addition to skipping).

But it can also be used as a conditioning routine. Performing 30-45 seconds of different footwork drills in succession for 3-5 minutes can be extremely challenging, and has a few bonuses

1. You will become much more coordinated
2. If you are a weekend warrior it will assist you in your activity of choice (basketball, touch football, squash etc.)
3. It will add variety to your workout regime

When you first begin to incorporate agility drills to your workouts, you should practice 'perfect' footwork before working on increasing your speed (and using agility drills as a conditioning session).

Remember 'Practice Makes Permanance' and there is no benefit to performing these drills without proper form.

Check out a few different drills in this post, there is a speed progression to each drill so that you view the steps easier than you would be able to at full speed.




Wayne Campbell
416-648-9087
www.athleticadvantage.ca

On Track This Week...

Okay, so personally I began my 100 days of fitness on Nov 1st. For those of you who don't exercise regularly, this is a great way to get yourself into a habitual pattern of being active.

The activities that are outlined in the program/challenge vary in levels of intensity and will allow your to be active every single day without getting overuse injuries (as long as you rotate between 4-5 of them).


So as promised in my last post here is my report for the last 4 days...

Dec 1st - 15 minutes of skipping
Dec 2nd - Strength Training
Dec 3rd - 5 km run
Dec 4th - 60 minutes of boxing

Gotta stay in the groove, as I know some of my contacts who are in the challenge will not let me slack off...man peer pressure can be a great motivator at times :-)!!

Wayne Campbell
www.athleticadvantage.ca

101 Days of Fitness??

Well it's actually 100 Days of Fitness, to help people get through the holiday season without looking like the Michelin Man.

We provided a list of different activities with time parameters for people to choose from, as well as a calendar to input their activity results.

They need to perform an activity once a day for 100 days beginning Dec 1st.

Sooo, since I have challenged all the individuals on my contact list, I need to lead by example. So today I embarked on the 100 Day journey (1 day ahead of schedule), here is what I did...

5 rounds of

3 minutes of skipping
20 seconds of Chin Ups
20 seconds of Russian Twists
20 seconds of Push Ups


More updates to follow...I will not post every workout, but I promise I will be honest if I miss a day!


Wayne Campbell

www.AthleticAdvantage.ca