Are you an athlete? Here’s what you need to know about taking care of your body

Are you an elite athlete, weekend warrior, avid cyclist or fitness fanatic? If so, you need to find a naturopathic sports medicine clinic to help you reach your peak performance level. A sports medicine clinic should be equipped to help you with two important aspects of training: nutrition and manual therapy.

Sport Nutrition:
Misguided nutritional choices can negatively affect muscle building and repair, endurance and power abilities, energy levels, gastrointestinal health, joint health, inflammation, injury recovery and immune health.
Here are some key things to consider when thinking about ideal sport nutrition.

Protein
Meeting daily protein requirements is essential for muscle repair and muscle building. Intense training without getting the right amino acids via diet or supplementation can result in prolonged recovery time, post-exercise muscle pain and instability. Additionally, protein is required for immune health, which means inadequate amounts could contribute to frequent colds and infections.

Daily protein intake for a training athlete is at least 1.2 g/kg body weight. This can be difficult to meet, so a good quality protein powder and branch chain amino acid supplement can help. When looking for a protein powder, look for a whey isolate with at least 20g of protein per serving.

Fat    
Healthy fats are important in the prevention and recovery of injury. Specifically, not consuming enough unsaturated fat in the form of omega-3 fatty acids can increase systemic inflammation, which may prolong healing time. In female athletes specifically, consuming healthy fats are important for the production of sex hormones, which influence menstruation, fertility and osteoporosis risk.

Healthy fats are unsaturated fats (omega-3 and 6 fatty acids). Great dietary sources include olive oil, fatty fish, eggs, lean meats, avocados, nuts and seeds. It’s also a good idea to supplement daily with a good quality fish oil. High dose fish oil can be especially helpful during acute inflammation (sprains/strains).

Whole Food Diet   
An athlete’s diet should be based around whole-foods, which means avoiding processed foods and refined sugars. A poor diet can increase inflammation in the body and aggravate the gastrointestinal system. A whole food diet is also high in antioxidants.
As much as possible, cook your food from fresh ingredients. Avoid anything packaged, processed or refined.

Supplements to Enhance Performance    
In addition to dietary recommendations, added supplements can be helpful during training.
Ask your sports medicine clinic about:
CoQ10 (antioxidant, important in cellular energy metabolism) B vitamins (important cofactor in many cellular reactions)Rhodiola(adaptogen to manage cortisol levels)

Sport Manual Therapy:
The solution to training-related pain and injury is rehabilitation using safe, effective and sustainable modalities. A naturopathic sports medicine clinic will help you prevent and quickly come back from injury.

Here are some effective manual therapies used to treat pain and injury…
Muscle Pain     
•    Hydrotherapy
•    Castor oil massage
•    Cupping
•    Active Release Therapy
•    Acupuncture
•    Trigger Point Release
Joint Pain
•    Electroacupuncture
•    Range of Motion Exercises
•    Anti-inflammatory supplementation (Curcumin, Fish Oil, Boswellia, etc.)
Injury Rehabilitation
•    Hydrotherapy
•    Acupuncture
•    Kin Taping
•    Rehabilitation exercises
•    Electroacupuncture
•    Massage
•    Manual work to break down scar tissue

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Green Base Health Consulting: A Refreshing New Naturopathic Clinic

Introducing Green Base Health Consulting, a new naturopathic clinic aiming to revolutionize the practice of naturopathic medicine. We believe you deserve the health you want, and aim to provide nothing less.

Green Base Health Consulting is a new naturopathic clinic that opened in January 2015. This vibrant, urban-feel clinic space stands to revolutionize the naturopathic approach to your health care.  We promise you’ve never seen health care like this, and we encourage you to experience the benefits first hand.

The naturopathic clinic is located in downtown Kitchener (Ontario), an up-and-coming area surrounded by tech companies, healthy independent cafes, a medical center and beautiful re-furbished condos. Upon entering the space, the traditional stiff clinic vibe is immediately dissolved by a sense of calm and comfort. You’re offered a tea or water, and invited to sit and relax in the waiting room before your appointment time. Surrounded by current research and medical journals,Green Base marries comfort and daily lifestyle with healthy practices. You can live a young, urban life in today’s society and still embody your ideal health.

At Green Base we believe you deserve the health you want, and aim to provide nothing less. Our mission is to build the base of your health, thereby transforming it in an effective, practical and sustainable way. As with any structure, the base is the most important part and the strength of the base determines the strength of the structure itself. Your health is no different. The integrity of its base is determined by the quality of your lifestyle choices. In our busy lives, it’s easy to neglect this initial layer, but Green Base stands to affect change in health care by directing integration of healthy choices into everyday life.

Where does a naturopathic clinic fit in with the rest of your health care? In our current system, there is an emphasis on symptomatic treatments yielding short-term solution and possible complications. We acknowledge this as a necessary part of medicine. But, what if your symptoms could be addressed while you were working on long-term resolution? This is the space Green Base occupies. We build the base of your health, so you can work towards attaining the health you envision long-term. Green Base is a naturopathic clinic that offers a natural and sustainable adjunctive approach to enhance and optimize your current treatment plans and overall health. We do not stand for naturopathic medicine as an alternative to conventional treatments.

 Our team consists of highly trained, board certified naturopathic doctors. Green Base NDs each have an individual medical focus and are all dedicated and passionate about the art of naturopathic medicine toronto. A differentiating factor about this naturopathic clinic relative to others is our focused approach. Rather than treating as generalists, we commit to mastering specific areas. Individually we are the best in our field, and together we are capable of addressing your complete health picture. Green Base NDs see value in mastering specific areas rather than treating a broad spectrum at a mediocre level.Furthermore, Green Base practitioners practice what they preach. They embody the lifestyle they recommend on a daily basis. If we suggest it, we’ve tried it and found it to be effective.

Green Base Health Consulting provides high quality care. We practice evidence-based medicine and remain up-to-date with current research. We welcome questions and will explain and rationalize our treatment suggestions. Naturopathic Doctors tend to be misunderstood in terms of what they do and how they do it. Unfortunately, predispositions of ‘witch craft’ and non-research based medicine are sometimes correct, but not at Green Base. If you have a question, we will provide an explanation.

Green Base uniqueservices include:

•    Acupuncture
•    Chronic pain management (osteoarthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia)
•    Doula Support
•    Cosmetic acupuncture (facial rejuvenation acupuncture)
•    Nutritional counselling (for the management of chronic disease including diabetes and cardiovascular disease)
•    Pediatric care (eczema, allergy, asthma, vaccination support)
•    Pregnancy care (morning sickness, constipation, UTIs, lactation support)
•    Sport nutrition (pre and post workout, endurance vs. power nutritional recommendations)
•    Teen health (skin conditions, menstrual difficulties, mood disorders)
•    Naturopath weight loss
•    Women’s health (painful periods, infertility)

Green Base is a naturopathic clinic toronto aiming to empower change in every individual that comes through the door. Living any other way than with the health you want is less than what you deserve.

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How to Relieve Pain from Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a functional somatic disorder, characterized by the insidious onset of chronic pain (Kim et al, 2015). FM generally presents with widespread musculoskeletal pain, causing debilitation and severe impacts on health-related quality of life (Rusu et al, 2015). In addition to muscle pain, fibromyalgia is characterized by a low overall pain threshold, muscle stiffness, chronic fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbances and memory loss (Cerda-Olmedo et al, 2015). Many people suffering from this condition have difficulty working and carrying out activities of daily living (Rusu et al, 2015). The global prevalence is estimated to be between 2-8%, with a greater proportion of females to males affected (Cera-Olmedo et al, 2015).

The cause of Fibromyalgia is still not fully understood, although many theories have been proposed. For example, altered cytokine (immune marker) profiles and autoantibodies have been shown in FM patients (Cera-Olmedo et al, 2015). There is also evidence of anatomical changes in the brain of those experiencing chronic pain. Specifically, reduced gray matter has been noted in certain areas including the basal ganglia and thalamus (Kim et al, 2015). Furthermore, increased gray matter has been reported in the cerebellum (Kim et al, 2015). Other theories focus on mitochondrial dysfunction and increased oxidative stress (Sanchez-Dominguez et al, 2015). Specifically, disruptions in the mitochondrial chain activities and increased levels of oxidation are suggested to play a role in peripheral nerve damage, leading to diffuse pain (Sanchez-Dominguez et al, 2015). Whatever the cause, the abnormalities in FM patients may be a product of genetic make-up, aging or environmental factors (or a combination of all) (Kim et al, 2015).  Furthermore, a link has been suggested between chronic infection and fibromyalgia (Cera-Olmedo et al, 2015).  The diagnosis of FM is purely clinical, meaning it is based on presenting symptoms and health history (Cera-Olmedo et al, 2015).

Fibromyalgia treatments are difficult to implement for a number of reasons, but mostly because the etiology is not yet understood. Short-term benefits have been found with pharmacological interventions, but long-term resolution has not been demonstrated (Wang et al, 2015). First-line medications include analgesics and antidepressants, which are associated with risk of adverse events with chronic use (Wang et al, 2015). Furthermore analgesic tolerance is a real concern whereby long-term ingestion of the same dose of medication is no longer effective.

Natural fibromyalgia treatments are important to implement because they are safe and free of adverse effects. Specifically, a combination of pharmaceutical and natural therapies is an ideal approach to the management of this condition.

Natural fibromyalgia treatments include lifestyle modifications, exercise, mind-body work, acupuncture and nutraceutical supplementation. Lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease, including smoking, obesity, poor diet, high blood pressure and unregulated blood sugar are commonly associated with fibromyalgia (Rusu et al, 2015). Therefore, treatments should begin with nutritional counselling, smoking cessation and healthy weight management to minimize these risks.

Exercise has been shown to be an effective tool for relieving symptoms of pain and stiffness. Mild-moderate aerobic exercise at 30-45 min, 4 days per week is a suggested guideline (Wang et al, 2015). Walking is a great way to implement a consistent exercise routine. Thai Chi is also beneficial in the treatment of FM (Wang et al, 2015). Not only does it help to alleviate physical pain, but it also benefits mental-emotional wellness through a heavy meditative component.  

Regular meditation sessions help manage the emotional pain associated with fibromyalgia (Porter et al, 2010). Daily breathing exercises are an easy way to begin the process, and can benefit feelings of depression and sadness.

Acupuncture is useful in providing immediate pain relief (Porter et al, 2010). It works by stimulating a release of natural endorphins and opiate chemicals that decrease the perception of pain in the central nervous system. Acupuncture also works by triggering sensory pathways to the brain that inhibit pain through neural transmission along the spinal cord. If needling is too aggravating, acupressure (which is the application of local pressure where an acupuncture needle would be inserted) is a gentler alternative.

Other fibromyalgia treatments include supplementation with magnesium, L-carnitine and S-Adenosylmethionine (SAMe) (Porter et al, 2010). Magnesium is important in relieving muscle hypertonicity, while L-carnitine and SAMe target mitochondrial functioning and cellular methylation pathways.

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