Techniques

Dr. Ryan Mac­don­ald is pleased to offer his patients the ser­vices of Chi­ro­prac­tic Care and Acupunc­ture. Dr. Mac­don­ald was cer­ti­fied in Active Release Ther­a­py (ART®) in 2007, and is a cer­ti­fied provider of Con­tem­po­rary Med­ical Acupunc­ture (AFCI).

So What is Chiropractic Care?

Chi­ro­prac­tic is one of the largest pri­ma­ry con­tact health care pro­fes­sions in Cana­da, treat­ing approx­i­mate­ly four and a half mil­lion Cana­di­ans annu­al­ly with drug free, non-inva­sive, hands-on care.  At Tow­er Chi­ro­prac­tors our Doc­tors assess dis­or­ders relat­ed to the spine, ner­vous sys­tem, and joints of the extrem­i­ties pro­vid­ing accu­rate diag­no­sis and treat­ment. Focus­ing on how the body’s neu­ro­mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem is func­tion­ing on a whole, our Doc­tors are able to not only cor­rect the symp­toms that are pain­ing you but iden­ti­fy under­ly­ing issues or con­di­tions that can be caus­ing chron­ic and recur­rent com­plaints.

Our Chi­ro­prac­tors incor­po­rate mul­ti­ple modal­i­ties and ther­a­pies into our treat­ments as to best address the spe­cif­ic needs of each patient.   Chi­ro­prac­tic manip­u­la­tion, also referred to as adjust­ment, is used to treat areas of decreased move­ment in the joints, there­by reduc­ing pain and increas­ing joint func­tion, which improves over­all health.  Myofas­cial ther­a­pies, Motion Analy­sis, Dynam­ic Trac­tion and Exer­cise Pre­scrip­tion are uti­lized by our Chi­ro­prac­tors to treat and rehab a myr­i­ad of injuries per­tain­ing to sport spe­cif­ic injuries, injuries of the hips, knees, shoul­ders, wrists, TMJ and spine.  By approach­ing each indi­vid­ual as unique, using evi­dence based test­ing and incor­po­rat­ing mul­ti­ple modal­i­ty treat­ments, patients can trust in the qual­i­ty of care and expect results.

 What is Acupuncture?

Acupunc­ture is the prac­tice of pierc­ing the body with thin, ster­ile nee­dles at spe­cif­ic acupunc­ture sites through­out the body.

Accord­ing to the Chi­nese, ener­gy chan­nels (or merid­i­ans) run in reg­u­lar pat­terns through­out the body, and our over­all well-being is depen­dent by a bal­anced and smooth flow of ener­gy through these merid­i­ans. Defi­cien­cies, block­ages or imbal­ances in ener­gy, blood or ner­vous impuls­es may even­tu­al­ly lead to a decline in well-being or an assort­ment of ill­ness­es, and a vari­ety of fac­tors can dis­turb the flow of ener­gy, such as dis­ease, stress, anx­i­ety, fear, poor nutri­tion, infec­tions or injury. Insert­ing acupunc­ture nee­dles in sites along these merid­i­ans can stim­u­late the ner­vous sys­tem and cir­cu­la­tion, and re-estab­lish a smooth and bal­anced flow through the merid­i­ans.

The goal of Acupunc­ture is to treat the whole per­son, restor­ing bal­ance in the phys­i­cal, men­tal and spir­i­tu­al aspects of the indi­vid­ual.

Although often described as an effec­tive means of pain man­age­ment, Acupunc­ture is a method of treat­ing a wide vari­ety med­ical con­di­tions and syn­dromes. These include PMS, TMJ, M.S., Osteoarthri­tis, Rheuma­toid and Pso­ri­at­ic Arthri­tis, strokes, ver­ti­go, Fibromyal­gia, Chron­ic Fatigue Syn­drome, Asth­ma and Sinusi­tis, as well as pain man­age­ment and con­trol. We also treat dif­fi­cul­ties aris­ing from (or result­ing in) emo­tion­al and social prob­lems, such as weight con­trol, smok­ing and addic­tions, insom­nia, stress, anx­i­ety, ten­sion and fatigue.

What is Functional Myofascial  Release?

Func­tion­al Myofas­cial Release is a non-inva­sive,  mul­ti modal­i­ty, soft-tis­sue treat­ment process that locates and breaks down scar  tis­sue which caus­es stiff­ness, weak­ness, pain, numb­ness and dys­func­tion in the  body. FMR is used both as a treat­ment for Repet­i­tive Strain Injuries, and for  opti­miza­tion of ath­let­ic per­for­mance.   FMR is a man­u­al treat­ment by which the  prac­ti­tion­er approach­es the mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem from a bio­me­chan­i­cal view  and using their hands in con­junc­tion with spe­cial­ly designed instru­ments works  at break­ing down adhe­sions restor­ing prop­er func­tion.

Dynamic Traction

Dynam­ic Trac­tion or Flex­ion-Dis­trac­tion, is a gen­tle,  chi­ro­prac­tic treat­ment pro­ce­dure uti­lized for back and neck pain. The  doc­tor is in con­trol of the treat­ment move­ments at all times. Flex­ion-Dis­trac­tion is uti­lized for many con­di­tions  includ­ing: Low back dys­func­tion, Disc Her­ni­a­tion, Bulging Disc,  Sci­at­i­ca, Steno­sis, Spondy­loles­the­sis, Tran­si­tion­al Seg­ment dys­func­tion. Flex­ion-Dis­trac­tion Works to increase  the inter­ver­te­bral disc height by remov­ing ten­sion on the nerves and annu­lar  fibres in our discs by improv­ing spac­ing and increas­ing cir­cu­la­tion. Prop­er­ly  applied flex­ion stretch­es the lig­a­men­tum flavum, reduc­ing steno­sis and it opens  the apophy­seal joints and reduces pos­te­ri­or disc stress. Dynam­ic Trac­tion  improves pos­ture and loco­mo­tion while reliev­ing pain cre­at­ing a state of  well-being.

Kinesio Tape/ Leukotape   Application

Kine­sio Tape is spe­cial­ized, latex free, mate­r­i­al hav­ing 140%  elas­tic­i­ty match­ing that of the skin. This gives non-restrict­ing sup­port which  allows mus­cles to per­form a full range of motion, eas­i­ly and com­fort­ably.  Kine­sio­tape is a great sup­port for ten­don and  lig­a­ment injuries and is a fan­tas­tic rehab great aid for ath­letes.  By hav­ing a durable 3 to 4 day wear­ing peri­od,  Kine­sio­tape avoids the has­sle of apply­ing and remov­ing tra­di­tion­al sports tapes  every few hours. The unique Kine­sio Tap­ing Method struc­tural­ly lifts the skin  and allows the flow of body flu­ids under the appli­ca­tion area. This reduces  ede­ma, inflam­ma­tion, and dis­com­fort.

Leuko­tape is the orig­i­nal high­ly adhe­sive,  rigid strap­ping tape. This is used in the treat­ment of patellofemoral syn­drome,  pos­tur­al syn­drome as well as hip and shoul­der pain.  It’s high ten­sile strength and aggres­sive adhe­sive enables it  to hold the struc­tures in prop­er align­ment even when the wear­er is engaged in  sport.

Infrared  Therapy

Infrared heat has been clin­i­cal­ly proven to pen­e­trate the skin to  depths of 5.9 cm, while tra­di­tion­al heat pads reach no deep­er than 2–3 mm. Due  to this Infrared has been proven to reduce inflam­ma­tion and relieve pain by  increas­ing blood flow cir­cu­la­tion. By expand­ing the diam­e­ter of blood ves­sels  and accel­er­at­ing the removal of waste prod­ucts from mus­cle fibres areas on  injury expe­ri­ence greater lev­els of heal­ing.  The infrared devices func­tion at a tem­per­a­ture  of 40–45ºC, a safe tem­per­a­ture range that will not  will not burn, blis­ter or dehy­drate your skin. This makes treat­ment safe for  the elder­ly, chil­dren and indi­vid­u­als with sen­si­tive or thin skin.

Exercise Prescription

Whether  an ath­lete or an indi­vid­ual who believes in opti­mal func­tion­ing, you under­stand  the impor­tance of activ­i­ty. Regard­less of the Hands-on treat­ment you may be  receiv­ing, Active Home­care is the key to a full and speedy recov­ery. When the  prop­er exer­cise pro­to­col is assigned, an indi­vid­ual is able to increase  sta­bil­i­ty, strength, pro­pri­o­cep­tion and endurance in the com­fort of their own  home/gym. The assigned exer­cis­es are com­bined spe­cial­ly to cor­rect each  individual’s spe­cif­ic issues.  A prop­er­ly  pre­scribed exer­cise pro­gram will dra­mat­i­cal­ly increas­es the recov­ery time and  mag­ni­fy gains seen from the Chi­ro­prac­tor.

So please come and vis­it Dr. Mac­don­ald at Evolve Chi­ro­prac­tic & Well­ness.
Book your appoint­ment today by call­ing (403) 474‑7722