As a part of the federal budget passed earlier this month by the government of Canada, appointments with Naturopathic Doctors are now exempt from GST/HST.  This means that GST/HST is no longer charged to patients on appointments fees that are booked with their Naturopaths. For more information on how Naturopathic Medicine can help to improve your health, or to book an appointment, please call 613-290-6115.  Graham Beaton is the Naturopathic Doctor at Ottawa Collaborative Care […]

A new Australian study published in 2013 by Coombes et al. [1] looked at the effects of corticosteroid injections and physiotherapy as treatments for lateral epicondylalgia, aka “tennis elbow”. Lateral epicondylalgia is a painful, and often pesky, condition in which the tendons of the forearm extensor muscles that attach at the outside of the elbow (the lateral epicondyle) become painful from overuse. Overuse of these muscles can come from a variety of activities, such as […]

Complimentary and alternative therapies are becoming an increasingly popular choice for the treatment of headache symptoms in both adults and children.  In a recent review paper by Schetzek S, Heinen F, Kruse S et al., the author’s aim was to summarize the current evidence existing around the various alternative therapies used in the treatment of childhood primary headache syndromes. Following a review of the literature, the following findings and conclusions were made: strong evidence exists supporting […]

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a painful condition of the wrist and hand that results from compression of the median nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway on the palm-side of your wrist; the tunnel is made up of your 8 small carpal (wrist) bones and a thick band of tissue known as the transverse ligament. The median nerve can become compressed in this narrow space due […]

Ginger isn’t just for tummy aches or a mix for Canadian rye.  Researchers have now discovered that ingesting three grams of either ginger or cinnamon daily for six weeks can lower blood levels of IL-6, the gene primarily responsible for our muscle soreness following a run.   Both ginger and cinnamon consumption resulted in lower IL-6 levels, however reduced muscle soreness was only reported in the group consuming ginger. One of my favourite drinks (winter […]

As reported by the Centres for Disease Control & Prevention, osteoarthritis (OA) is more physically limiting then lung disease, heart disease and diabetes mellitus.  In particular, osteoarthritis of the knee  is quite common and can be extremely limiting and in many cases debilitating.   We know the elderly are more prone to slips and falls, and with an increased incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis in today’s society, the importance of addressing pain and dysfunction in the lower […]

As published recently within the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sport, researchers in Luxembourg found that runners who regularly alternated between two or more different models of running shoes were 31% less likely to suffer from repetitive/overuse running injuries compared to those runners to stuck to a single pair of shoes.  By alternating between shoes, the feet and legs are forced to move in slightly different ways, thereby slightly changing which muscles (or more specifically […]

Pedorthists are like chicken soup for the sole. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with Neil Rosenthal (Certified Pedorthist and Pedorthic Technician) at SoleFit this week. He began by asking me about my walking and running habits, history of injuries and other physical activities I’m involved in to get an idea of the journey my feet carry me through in a typical week. Then, he took a look at the running shoes I […]