If you have been in a car crash you may have experienced the most common injury to the upper spine --- your neck. Common symptoms include joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, arm pain and leg pain. These symptoms occur when the vertebral joints and associated muscles and nerves are subjected to uncommon forces and movements associated with a car crash.

The BC Chiropractic Association has developed a car crash injury pamphlet titled “After the Crash: Taking the soft out of soft tissue injury.” The pamphlet discusses common symptoms associated with car crashes, treatment and prevention. Please CLICK HERE to view this pamphlet.

Most important, if you have been involved in a car crash we urge you to have an examination by your family chiropractor as soon as possible to support the recovery process. 

Lets hear it for Dr. Cameron and her fellow team members of the Mentor Mariners, who finished first in the Mixed Jade Division (B Final) of this year's Dragon Boat Festival! Congratulations are extended to all participants. Race results of this year's festival can be found HERE.    

Please see the slideshow below for pics of the afternoon. If your browser cannot load the slideshow please click HERE.

We also have a short video (below) of the Mentor Mariners (boat #2) participating in a race. If your browser cannot load the video please click HERE to view.

Dr. Audrey Cameron is participating in this weekend's Dragonboat Festival in Nanaimo. The festival begins today, with racing taking place on July 9th and 10th. If you're looking for something a little different and a lot of fun, make an effort to attend this year's competition. The event is made that much more meaningful to the community because its purpose is to create awareness and raise money for the fight against cancer locally. Please visit the Dragonboat Festival website HERE for more information and a full schedule of events.

By the way, Dr. Cameron's Team is called the Mentor Mariners. As with all team participants, they are paddlers united in the fight to beat cancer. Come on down and help cheer them on!

Please note, if your browser has difficulty loading the slideshow below, please click HERE.

Break the Silence on Mental Health!

Last Sunday (May 1st), thousands of co-workers, friends and family stepped forward as one community for one cause – kids – and raised close to 2M (pledges and contributions were still being tallied at the time of this post). Beginning at the Country Club Mall, Nanaimo's  "Walk So Kids Can Talk" participants enthusiastically completed the 5km walk to help kids. 

As a sponsor of Walk So Kids Can Talk, Woodgrove Pines Clinic's Dr. Stacey Scott, staff and friends participated in Nanaimo's walk, helping to raise money and awareness in doing their part to help make a difference in the lives of kids across Canada. It was a beautiful day that ended with good results and lots of fun. Dr. Scott thanks everyone who made pledges on her behalf!

For more than 20 years the Kids Help Phone has been there for kids. Their mission is to improve the well-being of children and youth in Canada by providing them anonymous and confidential professional counselling, referrals, and information through technologically-based communications media.

We'd like to remind everyone that Kids Help Phone’s Walk website accepts donations year-round. It's not too late to collect outstanding pledges either.

Every dollar raised gives a young person hope!

Please note, if your browser has difficulty loading the slideshow below, please click HERE.

Did you know that a study done in 2002 looking at health-care costs among patients who utilized chiropractic (vs. those who did not), found that patients who included chiropractic in their health-care showed annual health costs of $4,400 compared to $8,100 per year for patients without chiropractic?

Did you also know that a conservative estimate reports an annual savings (in Canada) in the ballpark of $4 billion dollars by substituting chiropractic care for medical care of musculoskeletal conditions?

Wait a minute! Can that be right?

You bet.

A recent article published in the Canadian Chiropractor by Dr. Pran Manga PhD and Don Nixdorf D.C., took a look at the current fiscal crisis in our health care system and the strategies used to alleviate this burden. To that end, one of the main strategies suggested was to shift the burden from medical doctors to chiropractors for spine and related conditions. Amazingly, this shift alone represented approximately one third of daily office visits to MD’s in both Canada and the United States!

Remember Chiropractors are primary care providers, meaning we are doctors and no referral is necessary to see us!

The chiropractic profession is acknowledged to be among the safest forms of care for musculoskeletal complaints and demonstrates optimum outcomes such as shorter recovery times with fewer relapses. So the next time you hear of someone with some sort of joint sprain or muscle pull, recommend a visit to the chiropractor – their health will thank you and our economy will too! ~ AC