Can Exercise Improve Brain Health?
Most people understand that exercise is important for the health of your physical body, but many are not aware of the effects of exercise on brain health. The benefits of exercise are numerous, and I think it is one of the most productive things you can do to ensure a long and healthy life. When it comes to the reasons why we should exercise, one of the best ways I have heard it described is that, “Exercise is the best medicine. Take it daily!” It not only helps you stay healthy, but can also act as the antidote for [...]
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo Treatment (BBPV)
What Are the Symptoms of Vertigo? The awful feeling of motion when you’re perfectly still – vertigo. Not to be confused with dizziness (the feeling of being lightheaded, woozy, or unbalanced). Vertigo can happen for a number of reasons in a number of different situations – at sea, in bed, an adverse reaction to medication, too much to drink. People often feel nauseous, off-balance and describe involuntary eye movements. Most episodes of vertigo occur spontaneously and can be triggered by something as benign as rolling over in bed (a very common description by clients). What is Benign Paroxysmal Positional [...]
Things People Living with Disability Can’t Take for Granted
Things People Living with Disability Can't Take for Granted Living with disability can make things that able-bodied people take for granted very hard to achieve. Take for instance: Independence I don’t mean this in a metaphorical, abstract and autonomous way. Although if I wanted to, I could write a convincing argument for that as well. In this case, I mean independence in the literal sense, in respect to very simple aspects of daily life. Take for instance, cutting food, tying your shoes and the ever important being able to use your own legs to reliably carry you wherever you want [...]
Adaptive Yoga: Good For Every Body, Every Ability
When you think of yoga, the first things that might spring to mind are young, beautiful, fit, sexy people wearing fashionable workout gear and twisting their bodies gracefully in a lot of ways that the average person can’t imagine. You might look at it and think “I’m not that flexible; I’ll never be that flexible. I can’t do that.” I have spastic cerebral palsy; I looked at the movements and range of motion that seemed to be required of yoga and I knew there was no way my body could achieve such things. When I was a teenager, I worked [...]
Universal Design For All People: Beyond Mobility
When people think of the word ‘accessibility’ as it relates to the physical environment, most would tend to think of things in terms of what it means for wheelchair users. For example, stairs outside or inside a public establishment are a barrier to wheelchair users, a shortage of elevators cause barriers for wheelchair users, and inaccessible transit and non-kneeling buses are barriers to wheelchair users.But issues of accessibility do not just affect those of us in wheelchairs—it extends to anyone with any type of impairment, mobility or otherwise and beyond. What about the elderly woman in a walker? The older [...]
How to Recognize Concussion Symptoms
Concussion is a hot topic getting a lot of media attention lately. Professional athletes living with concussion symptoms have brought the topic to front page headlines, despite having been a common occurrence for many years. I can remember at least parts of my first concussion experience. Growing up in Kingston, Ontario, a proverbial hotbed of hockey, skating came shortly after walking as a developmental milestone in seemingly every child’s early years. My dad used to take me to public skating at a local rink where I would race around without a helmet, my blond hair flowing in the cold [...]