Blogs

With a simple, homemade tactile box, your children can practice describing items that they experience through touch - a fun activity for stimulating imagination, and also good for turning your children into word maestros.

Here's how you can put together a fully functional tactile box with materials lying around your home:

Find an old shoe box and cut a hole in one end. Make sure your child's hand can fit inside the hole. Read more

I'm not sure how long foam rollers have been around, but over the past several months, I've discovered how powerful a therapeutic tool they can be for promoting and maintaining optimal physical health.

The idea is simple enough: Using your own body weight and agility, you roll specific muscle groups against a firm foam roller to mimic a deep, gliding massage. Read more

The other day, an acquaintance, knowing that I am a chiropractor, asked me for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth on whether he should or shouldn't see a chiropractor for his chronic low back pain. Read more

One dietary goal that I've long had for myself is to eat a head of dark green lettuce every day. I find that regular intake of lettuce (being sure to chew it thoroughly before swallowing) helps keep my teeth feeling strong, and of course, I like knowing that my body is getting steady inflow of chlorophyll and plenty of minerals that it can use to keep all of my organ systems healthy. Read more

The other day, I was driving along a semi-busy road when I noticed that the driver of an oncoming SUV was clearly texting away on her cell phone. I instinctively hovered my right foot over the brake and did the same with my right hand over the horn, ready to swerve and honk if needed. Read more

Patterning is a basic math-related skill. I remember when I was in kindergarten (yes, I swear I do!), the classroom had a bin of these little interlocking blocks. Each block was a different colour. We had to follow instruction sheets that displayed the blocks arranged in certain patterns, to see if we could use the blocks to recreate the patterns on the sheets. Read more

The ability to estimate is an important math skill. When practicing how to estimate, kids are learning that math and numbers can be fun. In math, if you know how to estimate pretty well, you can develop an idea about a possible answer to a question without doing a lot of work, and your estimate can let you know if you're on the right track as you are working toward the full solution. Read more

During my first few years of private practice, for most cases of jaw pain and dysfunction, I applied a carefully executed manual adjustment to the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ), also known as the jaw joint, found in front of each ear. This is the protocol that I learned as an intern from a supervising clinician. Read more

If you chew gum on a regular basis, please consider the following:

1. Chewing gum causes unnecessary wear and tear of the cartilage that acts as a shock absorber in your jaw joints. Once damaged, this area can produce pain and discomfort for a lifetime.

2. You use eight different facial muscles to chew. Unnecessary chewing can create chronic tightness in two of these muscles, located close to your temples. This can put pressure on the nerves that supply this area of your head, which can lead to chronic, intermittent headaches.

If you ever find yourself at a Korean restaurant and unsure about what to order, know that you can't go wrong in ordering bi bim bap (pronounced bee-beem-bahp).

Bi bim means "mixed," while bap means "rice." But bi bim bap is far more than mixed rice. It calls for perfectly cooked rice with a number of well seasoned vegetables, mixed with sesame oil and just a touch of red chili paste. If you enjoy mushrooms, eggs, chicken, or beef, you can add any one or all of these items to create your own version of bi bim bap. Read more