What is Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS)
Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) is an approach for the diagnosis and treatment of myofascial pain syndromes of neuropathic origin. IMS, developed by Dr. Gunn in the 70’s is based on Western medical science and the radiculopathic model of pain.

Radiculopathic pain or neuropathic pain occurs when nerves in the peripheral nervous system malfunction and become super sensitive following minor irritation. These supersensitive nerves then misinterpret harmless signals from the body as exaggerated pain. This leads to chronic ongoing pain without any physical signs of permanent injury or inflammation. These supersensitive nerves also cause contracture of the muscles they supply and/or pass through.

How IMS works
IMS treatment utilizes small fine solid acupuncture needles to specifically target shortened muscles. The point of insertion of the acupuncture needle is usually at the epicenter of taut, tender muscle bands. They can also be inserted at the spine, where the nerve root may have become irritated or supersensitive. Penetration of the normal muscle by the needle is painless, however, a shortened ‘supersensitive’ muscle will ‘grasp’ the needle in what can be described as a ‘slightly painful, cramping sensation.’

With the insertion of the needle, 3 main things are accomplished:
1. A stretch receptor is stimulated in the muscle, which produces reflex relaxation and lengthening of the affected muscle
2. Inserted needle causes micro-trauma in the tissue, which in turn causes a release of Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF.) PDGF stimulates synthesis of collagen and proteins which acts as healing agents that help repair damaged tissues and nerves.
3. The treatment creates an electric potential in the muscle which causes the nerve to start functioning normally.
Treatment Frequency
Patients are usually treated once a week, to allow time for the body to heal itself between treatments. The number of treatments required depends on several factors. These include the duration and extent of the symptoms, presence of scar tissue, and the person’s individual rate of healing.

Benefits of IMS
As the neuropathic muscle shortening is released by the IMS treatment, supersensitive nerves and the areas that they serve become desensitized and return to normal function. As normal muscle length is restored, pressure and irritation around the nerve is alleviated.
Therapists at Polyclinic Rehabilitation Institute have over 20 years of combined experience performing IMS treatments and have a high success rate in resolving many clinical issues in less than 8-treatments. Treatments can be scheduled by contacting our office.

Phone: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

If you’re still feeling knackered from the recent time shift, you’re not alone. Changing the time throws a kink in the fragile and sensitive human biological clock, leaving many people feeling continuously jet lagged for a few weeks.
An hour might not sound like a big deal, but if you or your friends and coworkers are any indication, it makes for some groggy and grumpy days, bouts of insomnia, and feeling generally off.
It’s not just a hunch — scientific studies have demonstrated various ways in which the bi-annual time change messes with our health.

The body has genes that flip on and off to keep us in a steady rhythm of sleeping and waking. When we throw those genes off beat by artificially changing the time, the effect extends into the rest of the body, including muscles, the skeleton, the pancreas, etc. The disruption is felt body-wide.
This disruption dulls the brain and throws the body’s systems off, resulting in serious and even fatal consequences for some people.

For instance, past studies have shown driving fatalities, workplace injuries, and heart attacks go up after the spring-forward change in time. An Australian study found that even suicides increase after the time change.
Unsurprisingly, work productivity goes down as well, causing losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Night owls, people who naturally are more inclined to stay up late and sleep later in the morning take the longest to recover.

Worst of all, some studies suggest our bodies never really adjust to time changes. We’re designed to sync with natural changes in light throughout the year, not artificially inflicted ones.
How to recover from shifting clocks?

Although people complain and we see a spate of news stories every spring bemoaning the change in time, we’re nevertheless stuck with it until politicians add it to their to-do list.
Understanding the effect of the time change on your body can help you better know how to ease the transition into suddenly waking up an hour earlier.
Avoid overdoing it for a while. Because you know your whole body is struggling to adjust to being thrown out of whack, don’t expect too much from yourself. Avoid scheduling high-risk or energy demanding activities the week after the time change. And be extra careful driving.

Schedule in some naps and restful mornings. If you’re like most people, you’ll be sleep-deprived for a week or two. Take a lunch nap in your car at work, let yourself rest on a weekend morning, and be extra disciplined about getting to bed early enough.
Wear orange glasses at night. Wear some orange safety glasses a couple of hours before bed to shield your eyes from artificial blue light from light bulbs, the TV, and computer and phone screens. This facilitates production of sleep hormones and will help ease you into the new schedule.

Get some sunshine during the day. Our bodies were designed to wake and sleep according to the light of the seasons, not an industrialized schedule. Get as much natural light as you can during the day and avoid artificial sources of blue light (computer, TV, smart phones) in the evening.
For more bright ideas that will benefit your health, please contact our office.
We will gladly help you out at:

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

Most people are aware of the fact that chiropractic care can help ease back pain. However, there are some benefits of visiting your Toronto, ON chiropractor consistently that are less well-known. These advantages may just make your life better and healthier.
Perks of chiropractic medicine entail:
1. It stimulates natural healing. While most other treatment plans involve the use of medications and potentially surgical procedures or injections, chiropractic care supports your body in repairing itself naturally.
2. It reduces kid’s ear infections. Many boys and girls suffer from regular ear infections, and are often prescribed antibiotic drugs. Some kids have a decrease in otitis media after getting consistent chiropractic care.
3. It can ease stress. Chiropractic neck adjustments have been shown to reduce stress hormones and alter how the body processes pain, so you can walk out of our Sunnyvale office feeling better.
4. .It can ease digestive difficulties If you have a hard time with digestion, repeated chiropractic visits can often reduce symptoms.
5. You get a better night’s sleep. When you’re not sidelined with back or neck pain, your standard of sleep improves, enabling you to feel more focused and full of energy.
6. It can lower your blood pressure. If the spine is misaligned, things like your blood pressure are not maintained properly, putting you at risk of these types of health issues.
7. It can improve your balance. The more durable and healthy the spine is, the less difficult it is to balance, potentially preventing a injury due to a lack of stability like a slip and fall.
Chiropractic works to restore the health of your central nervous system, so your entire body can reap the benefits. To experience the perks of regular chiropractic care, schedule an appointment with PRI today!

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

Works Cited
Ogura, Takeshi and Manabu Tashiro, Mehedi,Shoichi Watanuki, Katsuhiko Shibuya, Keiichiro Yamaguchi, Masatoshi Itoh, Hiroshi Fukuda, Kazuhiko Yanai. Cerebral metabolic changes in men after chiropractic spinal manipulation for neck pain. Alternative Therapies. 2011, November/December; 17 (6): 12-17.
McMasters KL, et al. Blood pressure changes in African American patients receiving chiropractic care in a teaching clinic: a preliminary study. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine 2013; 12(2): 55-59.
Knutson G.A. Significant changes in systolic blood pressure post vectored upper cervical adjustment vs resting control groups: a possible effect of the cervicosympathetic and/or pressor reflex. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapy 2001;24(2):101–109.

When we think of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) we think of the boys — they’ve received the lion’s share of diagnoses and attention. But turns out we’re focusing mainly on characteristically boys’ symptoms, leaving a lot of girls in the dust with their symptoms and very bad outcomes in adulthood.

While boys act out and are hyperactive, ADHD in girls expresses itself more as disorganization and inattentiveness. Symptoms include a tendency toward daydreaming, trouble following instructions, and making careless mistakes. These symptoms can lead to feelings of shame for girls who feel the pressure to perform. They see these symptoms as personal flaws instead of a neurological condition.

Sadly, this continual sense of failure can lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and a four to five times greater risk of self-harm and suicide.
These girls are more likely to have fewer friendships and get into unhealthy and abusive relationships that mirror their inner lack of self worth.
Girls tend to develop ADHD later than boys and it can get worse as they get older. Many don’t get diagnosed until adulthood and spend their lives trying to manage it on their own and feeling shame about it.

Missing the cues of ADHD in girls
The diagnosis of ADHD in girls has increased 55 percent in recent years, compared to 40 percent for boys. Despite this increase, many girls still go undiagnosed (while there is over diagnosis of boys).
This is because the symptoms of feeling unfocused and disorganized lead to depression and anxiety. As a result, girls miss out on services that may help their symptoms in childhood and instead are prescribed anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications, which can exacerbate symptoms of ADHD. Many doctors also believe girls can’t get ADHD.

ADHD in adult women
As women take on careers and raising children, masking their symptoms of ADHD can become more difficult. The researchers found that adult women with high IQs and ADHD suffer from constant feelings of being frantic and overwhelmed trying to manage day-to-day basics. Adult women have become the fastest growing users of ADHD medications.

ADHD and nutritional medicine
With any neurological disorder, including ADHD, we always seek to support the brain as much as possible. This can mean looking at foods that are inflammatory to the brain (gluten is a primary one) and gut health, another known link to brain health. For more advice, please contact my office
For further info, please see a nutritionist at PRI who will guide you into proper nourishment patterns. We’ll be more than glad to help you when you call or follow these links:

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

One of the fastest growing sports in Canada is CrossFit, a combination of work outs and work out competitions that set standards to determine who are some of the fittest people on earth. CrossFit workouts focus on strength and conditioning by creating a combination of aerobics, calisthenics, and weight lifting exercises.

The CrossFit Games are an annual competition held every summer since 2007, where athletes from around the world gather to compete in intense and unpredictable workout challenges that ultimately result in a title holder who has displayed amazing feats of physical fitness.

As one can imagine, the intensity of CrossFit workouts and competitions raises the risks of sports injuries to a high level, with some researchers of biomechanics arguing that these risks outweigh any benefits that might be gained in physical fitness. With this in mind, CrossFit’s popularity continues to grow because it shows fast results for fitness gains across all levels of measurement for both men and women, including improved cardiovascular capacity, core strength, strengthened postural muscles, and overall better functionality of movement.

Recently, chiropractic care has become a supplement for those who engage in CrossFit training as a means to minimize injury. Participants in CrossFit training who receive chiropractic training before and after competing have a greater chance to continue competing at a high level of potential. As the sport grows, so may its demand for chiropractic assistance.
From a chiropractic perspective, patients engaged in CrossFit training develop a tightness in their muscles and joints more rapidly than in other sports, and this makes them high risk candidates for injury. Chiropractic therapy can offer a CrossFit athelete advanced soft-tissue therapy which helps the musculoskeletal system to release stress faster and recover rapidly in order to perform again at a high level.

Chiropractic movement analysis can bring to light issues that normally are hidden beneath the surface of the skin. By honing in on the particular, individual movement dysfunctions of a patient, a doctor of chiropractic can tell athletes what CrossFit exercises to modify or avoid. Furthermore, exercises can be tailored to help correct a movement dysfunction for better performance in the future.

Whereas a typical medical doctor might have pain killers, cold and heat packs, and the advice to give working out a rest, chiropractic therapy has a different approach. Because it begins with a deep knowledge of the musculoskeletal system, chiropractic care is a hands on alternative that can keep athletes engaged in CrossFit at the top of their game
At PRI, we have a dedicated training facility and a team of trained physiotherapists and chiropractors, who will help improve your CrossFit game. We look forward to helping you out!

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

Some injuries happen and there’s nothing you can do about them, but there are some ankle injuries you can prevent. Volleyball and Basketball players are extremely susceptible to ankle injuries from all the jumping and landing involved in the sport. You can land incorrectly or land on someone’s foot, both of which can result in a sprained ankle.
By strengthening and improving range of motion for your ankle, you can lessen your chance of injury. Ankle injury prevention is about getting the joints loose so you’re able to react quickly and move in multiple directions.
Ankle sprains, while common, can be avoided if you train smart. Perform these ankle exercises barefoot daily to maximize strength.
1. Ankle ABC’s
This exercise will help to increase your range of motion (ROM). Sit with your foot hanging off the edge of a table, or prop it up on some pillows so the ankle is in the air. Then trace the alphabet with your toes. This will encourage movement in all directions.
2. Dorsiflexion Stretches
While seated in a chair with your foot on the ground, take a rolled up towel and place in the ball of your foot. Gently pull back on both ends of the towel bringing your toes towards you until you feel a light painless stretch. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then repeat 3 to 5 times.
3. Toe Curls
While seated in a chair place a hand towel on the floor. The surface should be smooth, such as a tile or wooden floor (carpet is not recommended). While keeping your heel on the ground, curl your toes and grab the towel with your toes to scrunch the towel. Let go, and continue scrunching up the entire length of the towel. When you reach the end of the towel, reverse the action by grabbing the towel with your toes, scrunching it, and pushing it away from you. Repeat, until you have pushed the entire length of the towel away from you.
For more helpful ideas on how to keep your ankles strong and prevent ankle injuries, please reach out to PRI specialists:

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

Rehabilitation is widely recommended as an effective strategy in the management of peripheral neuropathies, useful to maximize the patients’ physical disability and to maintain their quality of life. Indeed, despite the lack of consistent data about its effect on the functional outcome of neuropathic patients, physical exercise was shown to improve neuropathic symptoms, balance and proprioception.

Aquatic therapy is a rehabilitative approach proposed for different medical conditions: the aquatic environment facilitates patients with functional limitations, who feel a safer setting and are consequently more motivated to the training. The physical properties of water help to improve patient stability and to allow limbs movements, by offloading the body weight, exerting resistance against the body segments and giving proprioceptive inputs. Moreover, the warmth of a physiotherapy pool helps muscle relaxation and seems to reduce pain perception.

Several research articles evaluated aquatic therapy as possible gait and balance training of neurological patients and demonstrated beneficial effects mostly in Parkinson’s disease and stroke. A limited number of studies, even if affected by small sample sizes, made a comparison between aquatic and on-land training, showing best balance results of the former for the same diseases.

Results of these studies conclude that there is no strong evidence for a significant contribution from aquatic therapy, when contrasted with the same time spent in on-land physiotherapy, to an intensive rehabilitative program tailored for patients affected by a peripheral neuropathy.

However the research also concluded that due to the high sense of stability that the water can provide and its effects on pain perception, the water environment could be mostly suitable for the rehabilitation of those neuropathic patients with high fear of falling or pain. In these cases, aquatic therapy could be considered as a strong alternative strategy to the conventional physiotherapy.
PRI is one of the few facilities in Toronto that offers both land and aquatic physiotherapy rehabilitation. To find which one is most suitable for you, please reach out to:

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com

Nutrition experts recommend women consume less than 25 grams, or 6 teaspoons, a day of added sugar (9 teaspoons for men). Yet the average Canadian consumes almost 20 teaspoons a day! And that doesn’t even include fruit juice, a known sugar bomb.

How did we allow ourselves to stray so far?
Powerful lobbyists with deep pockets played a big role in our overly lax boundaries with a substance that is tanking the world’s developed nations.
Recent findings show that 50 years ago the sugar industry quietly paid for research to blame fat for heart disease and minimize sugar’s role.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat
Of course, now we know that the highly inflammatory effects of excess sugar are a major contributor to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases.

Unfortunately, the propaganda campaign didn’t stop 50 years ago; it’s still going strong today.
Sickly sweet sales and marketing
For instance, a grape-juice funded study shows grape juice is good for brain function, despite it packing a whopping 36 grams of sugar per cup, more than what a person should consume in an entire day. Sugar is so degenerative to the brain that scientists now call Alzheimer’s type 3 diabetes.

Coca-cola spent more than $130 million dollars to fund research essentially saying exercise is more important than diet in the weight loss battle. While exercise is indeed important, how you fuel your body is equally important. We’ll assume Coca-Cola did not fund the studies showing a link between the obesity epidemic and soda consumption.
And, in a brazen show of hubris, the National Confectioner’s Association funded research that concluded children who eat candy weigh less than those who don’t. Despite being nay-said by one of its own scientists, the study nevertheless went on to be published in a respected journal.

Although food giants can buy their way into scientific journals, investigative journalists find these studies are poorly designed, incomplete, and only highlight the positives while ignoring the negatives. Because the average journalist is not trained in how to discern good research from bad, bad studies get ample press.
To spotlight these problems, one science writer conducted a hoax study that concluded eating chocolate causes weight loss and watched the media play it up.

Can you believe science?
Yes, but please be mindful of fads.
Does that mean you can’t believe any science? No, plenty of good research is still happening.
The trick is to ferret out the nutritional guidelines based on hundreds of solid studies and read the headline grabbers (chocolate linked with weight loss) with healthy skepticism.

At the end of the day, some nutritional truisms have held fast over the years:
•Eat lots of different vegetables every day
•Eat a whole foods diet (avoid processed foods)
•Avoid or minimize sugars, junk foods, sodas, and juices
•Eat healthy fats
•Avoid the foods to which you are sensitive (gluten and dairy are common ones)
•Exercise daily
•Cultivate positive experiences, habits, and thoughts

Ask the nutritionist in our office for more information on how to feed your body the right way.
We will gladly help you out at:

Tel: (416) 477-1101
E-mail: reception@priclinic.com
Web: www.priclinic.com