Dr. Wayne Coghlan: Chiropractor - Locum tenens

An investment that pay you now, and in the years to come. It takes very little investment in dollars and effort to move into a new house ...and let it fall apart. Ignore the loose shingle and water gets into the walls and footings. Ignore the moisture on the window sills and eventually the windows rot out. Neglect the crack in the foundation wall and the frame starts to shift. Without any effort, bit by bit, the house deteriorates until it is no longer fit to live in. In the same way, it takes very little investment and effort to neglect your health. Every time you overdo the body becomes distorted. Every time you underdo, the body weakens. Bit by bit, you deteriorate until your body is no longer fit to live in. The trouble is, you are stuck in it. With the house you live in, fixing little problems and keeping the place in order does take investment of some time, and effort, and money. Yet, the house stays comfortable and remains fit to live in for many years. Invest in your health. Ge

Back pain, neck pain, and headaches are the most common reasons why Canadians first consult a chiropractor. Every time you overdo, there’s a small amount of damage done to your spine. Vertebrae (the bones of the spine) can slip out of position or move improperly as muscles pull. In a few days the muscles heal, the pain eases, yet the vertebrae stay out of place, creating a chronic but unfelt vertebral distortion. This causes pressure on nerves and sensitive tissues and can lead to fixation (a sticking together) of two or more vertebrae. When the position and movement of vertebrae become distorted there is abnormal pressure on the disc and joints. Eventually the joints deteriorate into a condition called degenerative joint disease. You may know this as arthritis (comparable to a car becoming rusty). Constant lifting, bending, poor posture, etc., put consistent stress on your joints. It’s usually not the one big thing that you did, but the many small and repetitive thing

Weighing in on Weight Loss. There is much talk currently about regulating the diet/weight loss industry. I will leave that up to the reader to opine on the dangers, merits, and extent that Big Brother ought to protect the public from itself. However, as with many things in life, BUYER BEWARE. Keeping one's weight under control is important to promote a longer and healthier life. The number one indicator of adult onset disease is excess body weight. I refer you to http://drwaynecoghlan.blogspot.com/2008/10/losing-weight.html. Weight loss, however, is a very challenging thing for most people to manage and sustain. Many people are desperate to find a better answer and .... in a free society there are those entrepreneurs who will take advantage of persons vulnerable, if not desperate. BUYER BEWARE. I recall a review of weight loss centres and their long term effectiveness. The research supported that for people who did adhere to their program, they were successful in temporaril

Respectfully submitted for your evaluation. As you are sitting now at your computer station, allow yourself to slump in your chair…if you aren’t already. Give it a minute or so to give it time to sink in. Answer a few more emails if you wish. As you are now sitting slumped, take notice of how you feel in your chest….try taking a deep breath. You will likely be feeling constricted and the deep breath will be less than satisfying. Notice the feeling in your shoulders, the heaviness in your arms.. .. perhaps tension or fatigue in the back of your neck. Notice the tone in your facial expression…. Jaw, eyes…. Take notice of how you feel inside yourself. What is your personal energy like? Do you feel much like doing another hour of work or perhaps a desire to go sit slouch on the couch? If you typically adopt this slumped posture, you may be feeling a headache developing in the back of the head or around the head or behind the eyes. How about the pain in the shoulder… if you are living in a

There is an idea gaining traction that our modern idea of eight or so hours of uninterrupted sleep is more an unnatural response the demands of commerce. In pre -industrial Europe, people would typically go to bed as it became too dark to work, would have a period of deep sleep for a few hours, be wakeful though the wee hours of the night, and then enjoy a second lighter sleep until dawn. The wakeful time at night was occupied by meditation, prayer, stoking the fire, making love. During the full moon, people would be more active doing chores, visiting with neighbours, maybe pillaging. Perhaps this is the root of the perception that behaviours become more extreme during the time of the full moon. In many countries not governed by the demands of Western commerce, this pattern of sleep continues. in such cultures, sleep is supplemented by a mid-day nap or siesta. We find a similar pattern in most other higher primates. Ergo, that time spent awake through the night, and that groggy time yo

The fun of corsets. Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/socialstudies Jan 09/09. ".... "The corset is a vilified article of clothing. It was and is blamed for a host of feminine miseries, both physical and spiritual, for ruining women's bodies and for closing their minds. It is interesting to note, however, that while women wore them, it was male doctors who led the campaign against the corset. Most women were for it. ... Wearing a corset is a little like finding oneself in a permanent embrace, a hug around the middle that goes on and on. This is pleasant and vaguely erotic - a squeeze that lasts." Ahem... Corsets also provided a degree of stability to the lower back and forced the lady to attend to better posture. It had to.. it was too uncomfortable to slump or bend over at the waist. We find a comparable device with industrial back supports (see picture). These devices became popular through the 90's when they were touted as being preventative for low back

"The term syndrome refers to the association of characteristics that often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others." Wikipedia. Standing straight when one leg is shorter is the equivalent of standing sideways on a hill. The person cannot help but lean to the shorter side. The spine may compensate, to limit leaning to the short side, by tilting the upper body in the opposite direction. This produces a "scoliosis" or sideways deviation of the spine. NOT GOOD. Often a person will try to compensate for a short leg by perching on short leg, usually with the other leg bent at the knee and turned out...effectively shortening the long leg. NOT GOOD. Rather than balancing the pelvis, fatigue and strain usually causes the pelvis to over compensate. In either case, the distortion of the spine unevenly loads the joints and muscles, and promotes faster wear and tear, and injury. If you, or someone you care about, is