Dr Peter’s Top 10
Posted: Feb 06 2013 Topic:
Dr. Peter’s Top 10 Healthy Habits
- Regular Chiropractic Adjustments
You live your life through your nervous system. Chiropractic care helps your nervous system to function at its full potential without interference. It’s not just about back pain!
- Eat Whole Foods
Add plenty of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, fish and pastured meat to your daily diet. Avoid processed foods that often have added sugar, salt, preservatives and are often depleted of nutrients.
- Supplement Your Diet
Today’s industrialized production of foods has led to lower nutrient levels contained within these foods. To compensate for this depletion of nutrients in our daily diets follow these four simple steps:
A) Take a Multi-Vitamin
Choose a high quality supplement in which the nutrients come from whole foods.
B) Add Essential Fatty Acids
A daily supplement of fish oil and flax oil helps provide the essential fatty acids that are not readily available in most North American diets.
C) Take Vitamin D
In Canada we need to supplement Vitamin D every month of the year – except June to August.
D) Add a Probiotic
Having the right intestinal flora (good bacteria) is essential for good health and immunity.
- Drink Lots of Water
Ideally you should consume a glass (8oz) of water every hour. Water is the most important nutrient in your body – it’s as simple as that!
- Move Your Body
Good circulation is paramount to good health and exercise promotes circulation to your body’s tissue. Your fitness regimen should consist of cardiovascular exercise, strength training and stretching. Avoid the Squamish trap of overdoing it – there is such a thing as too much exercise! Stress greater than your body’s ability to adapt to it is harmful, so exercise within your limits.
- Get Adequate Rest
Healing and regeneration occur while we sleep so ensure to get at least 8 hours of sleep each evening. After intense exercise proper recovery is very important and getting adequate rest will aid in a speedy recovery.
- Meditation
Numerous health benefits can be attributed to meditation due to the moderation of chronic stress on our systems.
- Learn New Things
Your brain needs stimulation, like every muscle in your body, or it will atrophy. Partaking in habitual tasks or even tasks that you are good at is not enough stimulation. So get out there and learn something new today!
- Be Social
Spend quality time with family and friends. Community involvement can add to your spiritual and overall sense of well being.
- Have a Purpose
Whether it be your career, volunteer work, raising your family or a combination of different things that you make your life’s work, know that with purpose and focus yours will be a healthier life.
Chiropractic Adjustments Improve Brain Function
Posted: Dec 12 2012 Topic:
Chiropractic Adjustments Improve Brain Function
The intent of the chiropractic adjustment is NOT to move a vertebrae that is “out of place” back into alignment. That is simply a side effect. The intent of the adjustment is to restore communication in the body so that an individual is maximally able to heal and organize itself.
The brain is the master controller of all that happens in the body. The brain’s messages are transmitted to every organ and tissue in the body through the nervous system. Chiropractic adjustments not only improve the communication between the brain and the body but actually have a positive effect on activity within the brain itself.
The following study demonstrated that brave wave activity improved after a chiropractic adjustment as measured with EEG. This research is ongoing and is showing similar results.
This is why people under chiropractic care often report improvement in things like depression, anxiety, sleep patterns, energy levels, memory and concentration to name a few.
I don’t see my role as a chiropractor as resolving your back problem. My intent is to make sure that your innate capacity to heal and regulate all the functions of your body is maximized. The resolution of your pain is a pleasant side effect of your body working as it was designed.
http://www.torquerelease.com.au/Effect-of-Chiropractic-adjustment-on-brain-wave-pattern.pdf
Our Values
Posted: Nov 27 2012 Topic: Chiropractic
Technical Excellence- We aim to provide you with the best, most effective care possible delivered with care and present time consciousness. Our job is to help you be at your best and we take it very seriously.
Continual Learning- We constantly strive to perfect our skills and grow as practitioners while keeping current with the latest research so that we may provide you with the best care possible.
Education- We share our knowledge with our patients. We aim to lead by example with respect to healthy lifestyle choices while meeting people where they are in their health journey.
Safety- Our care is remarkably safe. Our adjusting techniques were chosen in part because of their gentle nature and safety.
Responsiveness- We listen to our patients. We are here to serve you and appreciate your feedback.
Five Star Service- We want to be the Four Seasons of health care. Still working on it so let us know how we can do better.
Home like Experience- We want your visit to our office to feel like you are coming to visit us at our home. We want to know you as people and for you to have a relaxing, enjoyable experience. We want it to be a special break from your hectic lifestyle.
Respect Your Time- Your wait in our office will typically be 5 minutes or less.
Community- We are active members of the community and aim go give back whenever possible.
Communication is Key
Posted: Oct 26 2012 Topic:
Here is a quote from a pioneering medical doctor Gabor Mate:
“A new discipline, psychoneuroimmunology, studies the connections between the brain areas that process emotion, the hormone secreting glands, the nervous system, and the immune apparatus. And here we confront the inadequacy of language. Even to speak of ‘connections’ implies that somehow these are separate entities that are linked to each other. Reality knows of no such separation. There is no emotional system distinct from the hormone-producing organs, no nervous system divided from the immune defenses.
There exists in living persons one super-system of which the emotional centers, neurological pathways, hormonal glands and immune organs are all aspects. They are all wired together electrically by nerve fibers and all speak the same chemical language. They do not, and can not, function is isolation from each other.”
The body is designed to heal and regulate itself and constantly adapt to its external and internal environment. Spinal subluxation impairs the communication within your body therefore it can not organize, heal and repair itself properly. The purpose of chiropractic is to improve the communication so that you will function as your best.
Is Our Water Making us Sick?
Posted: Sep 06 2012 Topic:
This week I had an ah-ha moment. Over the Labor Day weekend our family spent a wonderful weekend camping on Cortes Island. We stayed at the Tai-Li lodge which I highly recommend.
Over the course of our four day stay I noticed a gradual improvement in my digestive health. I won’t give you the details but I found this peculiar since my wife Ange and I already pay very close attention to our diet and lifestyle. My diet was not much different from what I eat at home, in fact, being on vacation, I was indulging in a few more treats and glasses of wine.
The conclusion that I have reached is that the difference was in the water. The tap water was from a well and we drank bottled water. I am not a big fan of bottled water because of the environmental impact and the possibility of carcinogens like BPA leaching into the water. The experience did highlight for me the detrimental effects of drinking tap water from our municipal supply.
I have always found that the water in Squamish has a strong chlorine taste and smell. I am surprised at myself for not putting 2 and 2 together before now but the purpose of chlorine is to kill microorganisms. Our health depends on trillions of healthy bacteria living in our gut and on our skin. The chlorine in tap water could potentially eliminate the “good bacteria” that have a profound influence on our health.
My immediate thought was that my family should switch to filtered water for all of our drinking and cooking. When I started researching this issue I discovered that much of the chlorine we consume is in bathing and showering! It turns out that our skin is quite efficient at absorbing chlorine and that we consume a lot of the chemical from shower steam which contains higher concentrations than the water. Studies have proven that we actually absorb more chlorine this way than from drinking chlorinated water.
My recommendation is make sure your family is only consuming filtered water and consider filters for your bathing needs as well.
If you would like to learn more about the huge importance of “good bacteria” visit mercola.com and check out this great TED video http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jonathan_eisen_meet_your_microbes.html
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Misdiagnosed
Posted: Jan 30 2012 Topic:
This week a patient came in for his first visit. He is suffering from chronic recurrent back pain. In any consultation I will take a thorough history to see if there are any related problems and get a complete picture of an individual’s overall health. It was revealed that he had undergone surgery about 20 years ago to relieve carpal tunnel symptoms.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition where the median nerve is compressed at the wrist. The median nerve originates from nerve roots of the cervical spine (neck) and travels through the arm to the hand. Typical symptoms include numbness, tingling and pain in the hand and fingers. A person may also have pain in the wrists and loss of grip strength. The symptoms often come on at night.
Despite the fact that this patient had surgery at the wrist, the symptoms have persisted. Subsequent to the history and examination I felt that x-rays of the cervical spine were warranted. The x-rays revealed severe degeneration of the lower neck between C4and C7. These are the levels that give rise to the nerve roots that supply the arm.
When the spine is subluxated it causes premature wear and tear. The discs deteriorate and bone spurs develop. The passages through which the nerves travel become narrowed. It is important to remember that the nerves that come from the spinal cord control and regulate every single function in your body. When your spine degenerates it can distort the messages and have extremely detrimental effects on your health.
In this particular case the cause of the nerve irritation was misdiagnosed. The primary impingement was not at the wrist but in fact at the spine. This misdiagnoses is extremely common. It is my experience that almost all cases of so called carpal tunnel syndrome involve nerve irritation at the spine.
To see the level of degeneration that this patient has, the problem would have been progressing for decades. Had he had the correct diagnoses and the proper chiropractic care the picture would have been very different for both the symptoms in his hands and his overall health.
If you or someone you know has “carpal tunnel syndrome” please get checked by a chiropractor to make sure the problem is not in your spine.
Resolution of Chronic Conditions
Posted: Jun 13 2011 Topic:
Resolution of Chronic Conditions While Under Chiropractic Care
As most of my patients know, I am constantly taking courses and upgrading my skills so that I can deliver the best care possible.
When I began my career as a chiropractor back in 1997, I thought I was pretty good at what I was doing. I was helping a lot of people with back and neck problems and I was seeing good results from my care. A few years later, after having my hands on thousands of spines, I realized how much my skills had improved compared to when I was fresh out of school. The wonderful thing is that this evolution has continued over the years. With the techniques and plans of management that I am using now I am seeing results that I didn’t know were possible a few years ago. I hope that 15 years from now I can reflect back and think that I didn’t know very much at this stage!
The greatest and most exciting thing in the evolution of my care is learning how to address chronic problems that have often been present for most of the patient’s life. This is what ignites my passion and makes it a pleasure to come to work every day: making positive changes in peoples lives.
Here are a few recent comments from patient’s progress evaluations forms;
“For the first time in my life, the past two months I haven’t had menstrual cramps”
“I feel taller, less slouched, mentally healthier, not as depressed and have more energy”
“I am most happy about improved sleep, relief from menstrual cramps, relieved headaches, increased alertness, regular bowel movements, improved digestion and my back pain is gone”
“My chiropractor is my super-hero – I would be in a really bad place without his care and attention. I am optimistic about my future whereas before I was worried about how my back problems were going to affect me now and as I get older”
In almost all of the progress evaluations I have done recently patients indicated that they had improved energy and vitality. Other common experiences include better digestion, improved circulation, improved bowel function, improved breathing, better emotional control and ability to handle stress. WOW! INCREDIBLE!
The explanation is simple. Your nervous system coordinates every function in your body. The spine houses the spinal cord that is the super-highway for all the nerve communication that happens in your body. Damage and dysfunction that has accumulated in your spine will affect your body’s ability to regulate and heal itself. Chiropractic care improves the health of your spine and your nervous system allowing your body to function the way it was designed.
Dr. Peter
Rotator Cuff Injuries
Posted: Dec 15 2010 Topic:
Firstly, what is the rotator cuff? The rotator cuff is a group of four small muscles that support the shoulder. The shoulder is a very unstable joint and relies on the rotator cuff to provide forces compressing the arm bone into the scapula (shoulder blade) for stability.
Another function of rotator cuff muscles is to position the upper arm correctly when raising the arm up so that the arm does not butt up against the acromion (the bone to which the collar bone attaches) and damage sensitive structures.
The rotator cuff is often injured or strained. There are a couple of reasons for this. The muscles are small so it is not difficult to overtax them. They are supporting a very unstable joint so if there is any trauma to the shoulder they are susceptible to injury.
The most common rotator cuff injuries are not due to trauma but to repetitive strain. Often this injury progresses without symptoms.
Chiropractic care plays an important role in preventing this injury. All of the muscles in your body rely on nerve supply from the spinal chord. Muscles are activated by impulses from the nerves that cause the muscles to contract. Without this nerve supply the muscles would be completely flaccid and paralyzed.
When your spine is misaligned the nerve supply to your muscles may be compromised and the rotator cuff muscles may be put in a position of mechanical disadvantage. If the rotator cuff muscles are not firing properly then the shoulder will lose stability and the upper arm may butt up against the supraspinatus tendon causing degeneration and eventual failure. Chiropractic care ensures that your nervous system is functioning without interference. This way the muscles will be able to fire with full power and perform the complicated actions that are required for good shoulder function. I believe that most rotator cuff injuries would be avoided if people did a combination of preventative chiropractic adjustments and postural exercises.
If you are in the unfortunate position of having a rotator cuff injury chiropractic care is essential. All rotator cuff injuries involve misalignments of the cervical and upper thoracic areas of the spine. In some cases the misalignments may have caused the shoulder injury and in other cases the misalignments are a result of the stress on the body caused by the shoulder injury. In any case proper healing is impossible without the adequate nerve supply.
If You Knew What I Know
Posted: Dec 15 2010 Topic:
There is an old adage in chiropractic that goes,“If they knew what you knew, they would do what you do”.
The “they” in that sentence is chiropractic patients or potential chiropractic patients. Well, if my practice members knew what I knew, and they did what I do, they would all be getting adjusted a minimum of once per week even when they are free of any symptoms. Thankfully, many of you are!
It could be argued that it is easy for me to get adjusted because my wife is a chiropractor and I don’t have to pay for care. It may surprise you to learn that although I do get adjusted by Dr. Ange frequently, I travel to Vancouver every week to be adjusted by a chiropractor that uses Torque Release Technique (the adjusting technique that I now use primarily). I value my adjustments so much that I am willing to take a half day out of every week to invest in this aspect of my health.
If you are surprised by this or you think that this blog is shameless self promotion, I believe it is because you don’t know what I know. My mission is to help you lead a healthier life not just through chiropractic care but healthy life choices.
I believe that there is a large disconnect between what I know I am doing for my patients and what my patients perceive I am doing. The importance of regular chiropractic care is not its ability to relieve back and neck pain (although that is a benefit). The true benefit is a healthier functioning nervous system. The spine exists to protect your central nervous system. If your spine is not functioning properly then your spinal cord and the nerves that exit the spine can be stretched or irritated. These nerves control every function in your body and influence every aspect of your health. When the nerve signals are altered you are not living up to your potential!
The true benefit of chiropractic care is not experienced when you get adjusted because you have an ache or a pain. This is crisis care, dealing with symptoms instead of the underlying cause. Pain usually arises when a problem has been building up for months or often decades. To restore optimal function to a spine and nervous system that has long term damage takes years of regular care. I know that it takes commitment. I know that it is an expense. The payoff for those that do make the commitment is invaluable. It is more energy, better immunity, better sleep, greater strength, less depression, fewer headaches, better digestion…the list goes on and on.
The time to start regular chiropractic care for you and you family is not when a health crisis arises. The kids I see in my practice have spinal misalignments that I know if left unchecked would lead to the same type of problems the parents are having. Kids in my practice have benefited from reduced asthma symptoms, decreased headaches and the elimination bed-wetting.
I know that not everyone will embrace a chiropractic lifestyle. Some people still choose to smoke knowing full well that it is killing them. I feel that it is my duty to tell the truth as I know it. Then it is your choice.
What’s With the Shoes?
Posted: Sep 29 2010 Topic: Chiropractic
Over the past year I have taken several courses and spent hundreds of hours learning new techniques to better help my patients live healthier lives. The two techniques that I use are Torque Release Technique and Thompson Terminal Point Technique. These chiropractic methods utilize body signals to determine where adjustments need to be made and do not rely on symptoms. This makes sense to me because my experience over the years has taught me that the main problem is rarely where the pain is. Symptoms often arise where the body is working hard to compensate for a problem.
So How Do These Techniques Work?
Your spinal cord hangs in suspension within your spinal column. As you know the spinal cord carries the signals back and forth from your brain to all of the organs and tissues in your body. That is why the health of your spine is so important.
The spinal cord is surrounded by connective tissue and the outer layer is called the dura or dura mater. There are several points where the dura attaches to the bones of the spinal column. So essentially this is where the spinal cord is attached to the bone. In all other areas it is suspended within the spinal column. If there are misalignments of the bones where the dura is attached then the spinal cord is stretched and compromised. When this occurs, nerve signals are distorted and your body does not function properly. As a result you may experience fatigue, lethargy, improper sleep, digestive problems, ear infections and countless other complications because our nerves control everything! Your body will respond to the misalignments by twisting and compensating to achieve the ideal tension of the spinal cord. This may result in musculo-skeletal pain.
When you are lying face down on the table I am closely monitoring changes in your leg lengths. This is where the shoes come in. It is much easier to see changes in leg length when there is a flat surface to observe. With bare feet it is nearly impossible. Boots don’t work either because I am also observing changes in heel tension. The change in leg length and heel tension occurs because of the body compensating for nervous system irritation caused by spinal misalignments.
Next, I will ask you to turn your head. This changes the tension on the spinal cord if there is a primary misalignment in the neck. I am able to see this change by observing subtle changes in your leg lengths and heal tension.
You will also feel me lightly touch certain points of your spinal column. These are the points of dural attachment. By gently pushing the bone in a certain direction I am able to observe changes in leg length that indicates where chiropractic adjustments need to be made.
Using this technique I am able to determine the EXACT location of the primary misalignment and the direction that it needs to move. I will use an instrument to adjust the misalignment. The instrument is very gentle but thousands of times faster than I can adjust with my hands. It is the speed of the impulse and the precise location that makes these adjustments so effective. When the primary misalignments are addressed the areas of the body that are compensating will come back into alignment in the subsequent days.
Using these methods of adjusting I am seeing the best results of my career. There is not always the immediate relief that is experienced when a joint is manipulated but when the changes start to occur they are more profound and the adjustments hold longer.
For people that want temporary relief from back pain by getting an occasional spinal manipulation this is not the technique for them and I am not the right chiropractor. If you want a better functioning nervous system that will let you live your best life I will do everything in my power to help you.
I have done my best to describe my method of adjusting, but this is just scratching the surface with respect to the science behind these techniques. There was a study published in Nature, one of the worlds most prestigious science journals, on how Torque Release Technique was used in a controlled study to help addicts recover from their addiction(s). The patients under care not only saw changes in their addictions, they also had dramatically improved depression and anxiety scores when compared to the control group. This is the Power of Chiropractic!
To learn more about Torque Release Technique please visit the following websites;
http://headbacktohealth.com/TRT.html
Yours in health,
Peter
My Diet Can Affect My Spine?
Posted: Jun 16 2010 Topic: Chiropractic
Absolutely!
I recently had a woman come into my office with far less tension in her body and fewer misalignments than normal. This particular patient has been a regular, bi-weekly patient for quite some time. She has had a history of episodic back and neck discomfort that has been ongoing for years and there are often several areas in her spine that are not functioning optimally. Certain areas are stiff and tender to palpation and I will often need to do several adjustments to re-align her spine and balance her nervous system.
On this particular occasion things were different. I asked her about any changes that she had made recently that could account for what I was feeling and she explained that she had been on a dietary cleanse for the past week. Suddenly it all made sense and was just as I had suspected.
Misalignments of the spine often referred to as “subluxations” by Chiropractors are caused by stress on the body. When you experience stress beyond the body’s ability to deal with it the nervous system becomes overwhelmed and the spine is affected. The spine seizes up between spinal segments and tissues become tense. This is due to the interaction between the nervous system and the spine. We often overlook two major categories of stress that the body is subjected to on a daily basis – chemical stress and emotional stress. We all know that poor posture, accidents, falls and other physical stresses affect the body but few of us are aware that what we eat, the environments that we are exposed to, the range of feelings that we have, etc. impact our spines just as much if not more. When this particular patient was cleansing through her diet she was eliminating foods that are chemically toxic to her body enabling her to physiologically function as her body was designed to. Decreasing the chemical load on her body decreased the stress on her nervous system and thus decreased the number of subluxations in her spine.
If you suffer from chronic misalignments of your spine and/or other health problems and are trying to get to the bottom of it consider the different types of stress that you could be experiencing. Here are some examples in order of most to least detrimental to your body and health (in my opinion):
Emotional Stress:
- job dissatisfaction, relationship issues, financial issues, lack of personal time, unresolved hurts, poor self-esteem, loss of a loved one, etc.
Chemical Stress:
- poor nutrition (including eating junk food), alcohol, smoking, dehydration, toxins in your home, work and/or outdoor environment (i.e. off-gassing from furniture, carpets, paint, pesticides, pollution, etc.)
Physical Stress:
- poor posture at home and at work (standing, sitting, sleeping), repetitive movements, prior injuries, accidents, falls, etc.
Stress is an inevitable part of North American society. You won’t be able to completely eliminate all stress from your life however managing stress and trying to minimize the stresses that your body is exposed to will help your body function better. Regular Chiropractic check-ups to ensure that the spine is aligned and the nervous system is functioning optimally are a great way to gauge how your spine is being affected by the stresses in your life and to ensure that it is aligned so that problems do not accumulate over time and further compromise your health.
All the Best,
Dr. Peter
My How Far You Have Come…
Posted: Apr 26 2010 Topic: Guest Blog
Is the thought that ran through my mind as I stood in front of 25-30 Squamish Rotarians shaking and then dancing. I had offered to give a talk on Mind Body Medicine to my local Rotary club of which I am a member. Giving talks is not something I have a lot of experience in nor is it something I feel entirely comfortable doing however, I was motivated by my passion for the subject matter and my desire to start working through some of the fears that have held me back both personally and professionally.
Shaking is an active or expressive meditation that is followed by a brief period of silence and then dancing. It is an excellent way to release chronic tension in the body and break up the "stuck" ways of being (both physically and emotionally) that we all have to some degree or another. I learned about shaking and dancing through my training with the Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington, DC and while it is not something very many people have done before in my experience it has proven to be a real crowd pleaser. With this crowd however, I was unsure. The Squamish Rotary Club is comprised of a mix of young newcomers to the community (with myself being the youngest member at 35) and older pioneers of the community. Lunch meetings typically involve remaining seated and I really wasn't sure how shaking or dancing for that matter was going to go over with the table of 85-90 year young men. I was taking a risk.
I should mention at this point that my fear of standing in front of the Rotary Club last Thursday was not limited to a fear of public speaking. I have spent most of my life believing that I was not a good dancer. This belief was instilled in me at a young age by my peers and reinforced (heavily) over the years by my inner critic to the point that the only time I would even attempt dancing was with alcoholic drink in hand and it was never done for the shear joy of moving my body. My first experience with "shaking and dancing" at the Professional Training Program in Mind Body Medicine opened my eyes to an entirely different experience of dancing and to how incredible it feels to move my body without judgement and for the sole purpose of doing it because it feels good. That said, I had not yet taken my new found love for cutting a rug outside the comforts of my own living room.
So here I was eyes closed, standing in front of a group of practical strangers, my first "Introduction to Mind Body Medicine" talk under my belt, grooving away, conquering my fears and having FUN!
I start my first blog with this story as fear has been one of my biggest obstacles and it is what has prevented me from sitting down to write a blog for over a year. Every time I have thought about writing my fear has reared it's ugly head and convinced me that I don't have anything to say or that someone else is saying it better. The expansive feeling of accomplishment I drove away from Rotary with on Thursday has inspired me to work through this fear as well. I ask you to be patient with me as I morph into a blogger. I'm not sure at this point what shape it's going to take. I will write about health and wellness topics, that is a given, but I will also give of myself personally to this blog and share with you the journey that I am on to discover myself and where I fit into the grand scheme of things in this life.
I welcome your feedback and would love to hear about how you are working through your own fears. Please email me at ange@tantaluswellness.com.
Now I am off to shake..and dance...
May you be happy and healthy,
Ange