Elevate Chiropractic Blog - Elevate Chiropractic

Crawling – it’s great for your brain, co-ordination and your core

28/11/2016

A proper cross-crawling pattern is something babies usually develop around 6-8 months and it helps develop the connection between the left and right side of the body. Unfortunately it something that as we get older we hardly ever do. Maybe it is something we should consider adding to our daily routines? It is great for the brain/body and according some research it can even help your working memory. Continue reading to see what they found and how to do a proper cross-crawl pattern. (I couldn't help but add a photo of my daughter, Bailey, after she learnt to crawl).

How movement can affect your stress

24/10/2016

One of my favorite quotes from Einstein is “Nothing happens until something moves”. This quote is great from a body and health perspective, as movement is life. If you are not moving, you are not functioning well. I recently came across an interesting article that described a new understanding of how movement controls our stress response. This peaked my interest as, in general, most people have a fair amount of stress in their lives these days. We all know that prolonged stress is not good for our health, so if movement can help control our stress response, it makes moving even more important. Continue reading to see how movement is linked to stress.

Exercise your brain with simple neuroplasticity exercises

27/6/2016

We all know that exercise is important for keeping our bodies in good shape, but have you thought about exercising our brains? Our brains have an amazing capacity to change. We can improve its ability to function and actually reshape the physical structure of our brains. How do we do this you may ask? Well, you can do it through neuroplasticity training exercises. Continue reading to find out what neuroplasticity is and what the exercises involve.

New Research shows chiropractic care can increase, strength, decrease fatigue and improve the brains ability to drive muscles.

20/3/2016

New ground breaking research published in Experimental Brain Research is starting to show the powerful effect chiropractic care has on the body. According to one of the researchers, Dr Heidi Haavik, the study has shown that when a chiropractor adjusts a dysfunctional area of the spine, “we change the way the brain processes what going on in our bodies. Hence we are able to better process all that sensory information from through-out the body, and control the body in a better way.” How much do you think a chiropractic adjustment could increase strength in a muscle by? Continue reading to see what the study found and the amazing results. You will be surprised.

Can music improve your health?

16/12/2015

The answer is that it probably can. Research is starting to show that listening to music can actually be therapeutic. Previous research has shown that music can be beneficial for mental health, such as depression, but more recent research is suggesting that music could be more widely incorporated into health care settings. Recent studies have found that music can help reduce pain & anxiety, it can also be an effective stress reliever, it can enhance memory and it can help recover from brain injury. Continue reading to see what they found.

Exercise: It can increase young adults' brain function

4/10/2015

It is well known that exercise can help boost your brain function. It has been thought that this occurs mainly in the older populations as young brains are at their prime and peak cognitive ability, hence do not benefit from exercise. A study from the University of Otago has shown that this is not the case. Exercise can help the brains of young adults as well. Continue reading to see what they found.

Study on twins shows that exercise can increase your grey matter

12/5/2015

We all know that exercise is good for your body and I have written several posts in the past on this topic. Some new research, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in March this year, involving identical twins suggests that it can have a big impact on your brain. The study showed that a twin who worked out regularly had significantly more gray matter in their brains than the twin that did not exercise as much. This increase was prevalent in the area of the brain involved in motor control. The exciting part about using identical twins in this type of research is that they have the same genetic makeup and usually have grown up in a similar environment. This means that the differences in the brains were more likely due to the exercise habits than other genetic factors. Continue reading to find out what they did.

Why you should try "OM" chanting

8/2/2015

I have watched lots of movies/TV and seen monks, people meditating and doing Yoga, “OM” chanting. I always thought that it must be a relaxation/meditation type activity, but being scientifically minded, I like to know how and why things work. This chanting has been around for hundreds of years so it must work, but why? I came across some research that looked at “OM” chanting and what effect it has on the brain. I am not sure what it is, but I have always found meditation difficult. After reading this research, I think I may try it again and see what effect it has on me.

Could exercise protect your eyesight?

15/1/2015

In previous posts I have talked about how exercise can help creativity, memory and how important it is as you age. These effects are over and above the usual benefits of exercise. I came across some interesting research that suggests exercise may even be able to help your eyesight. Yes, you read that right, your eyesight! The research suggests that exercise may reduce the risk of Macular degeneration. This is where neurons in the central part of the retina deteriorate. So what did they do in the research? Continue reading to find out.

Can a Chiropractic adjustment change the brain?

24/11/2014

I have been practicing chiropractic care for a while now and know the benefits of a chiropractic adjustment. Being a small and relatively young profession, chiropractic care has in the past, lacked the research to back up what we do and the effect it can have on the body. This is definitely changing with numerous research projects helping explain what how chiropractic care works. In fact one of the foremost researchers in chiropractic care, Heidi Haavik, studied at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic (where I studied) and is the head of research at the college. She has some amazing projects on the go and was featured on Seven sharp a few weeks ago talking about the effect of chiropractic care and how it can improve your sex life! Watch it here. I recently came across a research paper looking at the effect of manual therapy in Resting-State Functional Connectivity and how this manual therapy can modulate or affect pain. The results of the research were quite interesting. Continue reading to find out what they found and what it means.

Can simply thinking about a task make you better at it? and 5 ways to improve your brain fitness

13/7/2014

Some interesting new research has shown that you can actually “change” your brain through thought itself and that mental effort can actually result in physical changes to your mind and body.

When imagining an action, it requires the same motor and sensory programs in the brain that would be used if
you were actually doing it. New research has shown that those who mentally practiced playing the piano achieved the same accuracy level as those who physically did it.

On the same note, people who imagined doing strength-training exercises increased their muscle strength by 22%, compared to 30% among those who physically did the exercises. Taking this a bit further, the research showed that when you focus your mind on a specific muscle during a workout, you work that muscle 22% harder. So by focusing on what you are doing at the gym can enable you to get a better workout.

In fact, just believing that your daily activities are exercise has also been shown to improve physical fitness. Harvard researchers informed one group of hotel housekeepers that their daily work qualified as exercise, whereas a control group did not receive this information. Four weeks later, those who believed their work was a form of exercise had a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index, even though their behaviors hadn’t actually changed at all.

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