It’s that time of year again. The majority of schools have started back up and your daily routine can finally return to normal during this often-stressful period of the year!

New teachers, friends, stationary and uniforms are just some of the changes that many children are currently facing in these first few weeks back and the question I am asking today is how can we make this year better than the last? And how can we better their schooling year?

Imagine you’re an Olympic sprinter. You’re chasing your first ever gold medal and you feel you have a very good chance at winning this time around. Your training went perfectly, your body feels in top form and you’re the most confident you’ve ever been for a race.

Now imagine, that as the gun signals the start of the race, you slip just ever so slightly, your perfect start is ruined and the rest of the sprinters now have a head start of a few hundredths of a second. Will you still win the race?

It’s common knowledge that we are living longer and longer and a quick Google search tells me that there are anywhere from 150 to 600 people that are currently 110+ years old. On top of this the aging population in New Zealand continues to grow; the 2013 Census showing 73,000 people above the age of 85, this was a 29.4% increase in this age group compared to the 2006 Census (Yes, I love a good stat.)

 I am going somewhere with the points above and that is the conversation around ‘quality of life’, which has been coming up A LOT in practice lately

Have you ever had car trouble? I sure have and it is certainly not something you can plan for. When I was a student driving an absolute bomb of a car, not long before the summer break my engine light started to come on. At first it was intermittent but then it became constant and this is when I started to notice that something just wasn’t running quite right.

Everyone loves a good sleep, whether it’s sleeping for a solid 12 hours or a simple half hour nap in the afternoon, we’ve all been there. But why do we sleep? Do we understand just how much our sleep really affects us?

With the kids going back to school and the rest of us back at work I want to bring posture to your attention. With those heavy school bags and long days in the office, posture is something to be aware of, even during our downtime.

We are always being told to sit up straight, stop slouching and stand tall. But why is good posture important and how do we achieve it?

ollowing on from our blog ‘Why should I take my infant to a chiropractor’ I wanted to write about the benefits of children being seen by a chiropractor, so I started researching and writing and writing and writing. Only to realise that I cannot cover all the benefits children can experience when receiving chiropractic care in one blog! So instead I have decided to break it down and focus on a different benefit each blog;

Many people are guilty 'self-adjusting', whether it be twisting their head to get that ‘pop’ in the neck, getting a bear hug from a friend or stretching over the back of a chair to get that satisfying ‘pop’ in their back to relieve the feeling of stiffness. But is this safe or could this habit be causing long term damage? 

We see a lot of babies at EBC and subsequently talk with parents who are trying to make the best decisions for their precious little ones. There is so much information for new parents to filter and digest when it comes to parenting that it can become overwhelming. Combining this with the busy lives we live it is challenging to find information that we can rely on. The author of Well Adjusted Babies and Ticklish, Dr Jennifer Barham-Floreani is a fantastic resource for parents wanting a holistic approach to raising healthy, happy and resilient children.