Optimize Sports Chiropractic

Optimize Sports Chiropractic Through comprehensive neuromusculoskeletal (neuro-orthopedic) evaluation, diagnosis and individualiz

At Optimize Sports Chiropractic, we take a holistic approach to health care, with a strong focus on the entire neuromusculoskeletal system, which includes the spine, the extremities (e.g. foot/ankle, knee, shoulder), joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and the nervous system.
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Through comprehensive neuromusculoskeletal (neuro-orthopedic) evaluation, diagnosis and individualized multi-moda

l management, Optimize Sports Chiropractic is dedicated to help you achieve optimal Movement, Function, Performance and Health.

28/07/2026

“I’m dizzy” tells you almost nothing. 

Lightheaded, spinning, rocking, pulling, foggy — these are five different perceptual experiences, and they point to five different parts of the nervous system: autonomic, peripheral vestibular, central vestibular, cervical, and multisensory/limbic. 

In persistent post-concussion syndrome, these systems rarely fail alone. A patient can have autonomic dysregulation, otolithic dysfunction, cervical proprioceptive mismatch, and visual dependence all at once — which is exactly why symptom-matched treatment (“do vestibular rehab because the patient is dizzy”) so often stalls or backfires. 

Objective testing — VOG/VNG, positional testing, neuro-visual testing, tilt table, posturography, cervical exam, — is what lets you match treatment to mechanism instead of guessing from a single vague word. 

Watch the reel for the breakdown

“I’m dizzy” tells you almost nothing.  Lightheaded, spinning, rocking, pulling, foggy — these are five different percept...
27/07/2026

“I’m dizzy” tells you almost nothing. 

Lightheaded, spinning, rocking, pulling, foggy — these are five different perceptual experiences, and they point to five different parts of the nervous system: autonomic, peripheral vestibular, central vestibular, cervical, and multisensory/limbic. 

In persistent post-concussion syndrome, these systems rarely fail alone. A patient can have autonomic dysregulation, otolithic dysfunction, cervical proprioceptive mismatch, and visual dependence all at once — which is exactly why symptom-matched treatment (“do vestibular rehab because the patient is dizzy”) so often stalls or backfires. 

Objective testing — VOG/VNG, positional testing, neuro-visual testing, tilt table, posturography, cervical exam, — is what lets you match treatment to mechanism instead of guessing from a single vague word. 

Swipe through for the breakdown

21/07/2026

SCAT6 and SCOAT6 are the standardised backbone of concussion assessment — but they were built as triage tools, not diagnostic ceilings. 

SCAT6 does its best work in the first 72 hours.
SCOAT6 extends that into the subacute window with vestibular-ocular, mental health, sleep, and cervical screening layered on.
Even so, these remain screening measures: a brief flag, not a quantified diagnosis. 

For persistent post-concussion symptoms, the domains that actually explain why someone isn’t recovering — autonomic dysfunction, oculomotor/vestibular pathology, neuro-visual processing, motor coordination, cervicogenic contribution, neuroinflammation — need objective, diagnostic-grade testing beyond what a screening checklist can capture. 

A normal SCOAT6 doesn’t mean resolved. It means the screen didn’t catch it. 

Save this for your next PPCS case review, and tag a friend or colleague who needs the reminder that the standardised tools are the floor — not the finish line.

SCAT6 and SCOAT6 are the standardised backbone of concussion assessment — but they were built as triage tools, not diagn...
20/07/2026

SCAT6 and SCOAT6 are the standardised backbone of concussion assessment — but they were built as triage tools, not diagnostic ceilings. 

SCAT6 does its best work in the first 72 hours.
SCOAT6 extends that into the subacute window with vestibular-ocular, mental health, sleep, and cervical screening layered on.
Even so, these remain screening measures: a brief flag, not a quantified diagnosis. 

For persistent post-concussion symptoms, the domains that actually explain why someone isn’t recovering — autonomic dysfunction, oculomotor/vestibular pathology, neuro-visual processing, motor coordination, cervicogenic contribution, neuroinflammation — need objective, diagnostic-grade testing beyond what a screening checklist can capture. 

A normal SCOAT6 doesn’t mean resolved. It means the screen didn’t catch it. 

Save this for your next PPCS case review, and tag a friend or colleague who needs the reminder that the standardised tools are the floor — not the finish line.

14/07/2026

Concussion. Long COVID. Trauma. Three completely different injuries — and yet the symptom picture so often looks the same: fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, mood changes, a nervous system stuck in overdrive.

Why? Because they all converge on the same circuit — the limbic system. Amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, insula, and their connection to the prefrontal cortex and brainstem, working together to appraise threat, consolidate memory, and regulate the autonomic nervous system.

When that circuit is disrupted — by neuroinflammation, structural change, or threat-conditioning — the result is the same downstream pattern regardless of the original insult: sensitized threat detection, impaired top-down regulation, and autonomic dysregulation.

Watch the reel for the neuroscience behind why PPCS, Long COVID, and trauma-history so often present the same way — and what that means for how we rehab them.

Concussion. Long COVID. Trauma. Three completely different injuries — and yet the symptom picture so often looks the sam...
13/07/2026

Concussion. Long COVID. Trauma. Three completely different injuries — and yet the symptom picture so often looks the same: fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, mood changes, a nervous system stuck in overdrive.

Why? Because they all converge on the same circuit — the limbic system. Amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, insula, and their connection to the prefrontal cortex and brainstem, working together to appraise threat, consolidate memory, and regulate the autonomic nervous system.

When that circuit is disrupted — by neuroinflammation, structural change, or threat-conditioning — the result is the same downstream pattern regardless of the original insult: sensitized threat detection, impaired top-down regulation, and autonomic dysregulation.

Swipe through for the neuroscience behind why PPCS, Long COVID, and trauma-history so often present the same way — and what that means for how we rehab them.

07/07/2026

Why does your body feel like it’s running on empty — even after “rest”? 🔋⚡

ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, Long COVID, Post-Viral Syndrome and POTS often get treated as separate, mysterious conditions. But a growing body of research points to a shared biological story underneath them: chronic neuroinflammation, overactive microglia (the brain’s immune cells), and mitochondria that simply can’t keep up with energy demand.

One of the most exciting recent findings? Brain inflammation alone — without any exercise — can shut down muscle mitochondria via an IL-6 signalling pathway. That’s a real physiological explanation for post-exertional malaise, not a motivation issue.

Swipe through to see how this all connects — and where photobiomodulation (low-level light therapy) may fit in as an emerging, low-risk therapeutic option, especially visible light (violet, green and red) wavelengths that directly support mitochondrial energy production.

This is general education, not medical advice — always discuss therapies with your treating clinician.

Why does your body feel like it’s running on empty — even after “rest”? 🔋⚡ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, Long COVID, Post-Viral S...
06/07/2026

Why does your body feel like it’s running on empty — even after “rest”? 🔋⚡

ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, Long COVID, Post-Viral Syndrome and POTS often get treated as separate, mysterious conditions. But a growing body of research points to a shared biological story underneath them: chronic neuroinflammation, overactive microglia (the brain’s immune cells), and mitochondria that simply can’t keep up with energy demand.

One of the most exciting recent findings? Brain inflammation alone — without any exercise — can shut down muscle mitochondria via an IL-6 signalling pathway. That’s a real physiological explanation for post-exertional malaise, not a motivation issue.

Swipe through to see how this all connects — and where photobiomodulation (low-level light therapy) may fit in as an emerging, low-risk therapeutic option, especially visible light (violet, green and red) wavelengths that directly support mitochondrial energy production.

This is general education, not medical advice — always discuss therapies with your treating clinician.

Why the mCTSIB is particularly valuable after concussionFrom a physiological perspective, the mCTSIB aligns closely with...
01/07/2026

Why the mCTSIB is particularly valuable after concussion

From a physiological perspective, the mCTSIB aligns closely with the pathophysiology of concussion because postural control depends on the central nervous system’s ability to integrate three major sensory inputs:

* Visual input (~10% under stable conditions)
* Somatosensory (proprioceptive) input (~70% under stable conditions)
* Vestibular input (~20% under stable conditions)

After concussion, these weightings can become disrupted due to impairments in vestibular pathways, visual processing, cervical proprioception, or central sensory integration. The mCTSIB deliberately manipulates vision (eyes open vs. closed) and somatosensory information (firm vs. foam surface), forcing the brain to “re-weight” sensory inputs. A force plate then objectively quantifies how successfully the individual adapts under each condition.

This approach offers several advantages over observational tests such as the BESS or mBESS:

* It provides continuous quantitative data (e.g., sway velocity, sway area, path length) rather than binary error counts.
* It can detect subclinical impairments that are not apparent on visual observation.
* It helps identify which sensory systems are contributing to postural instability, allowing clinicians to tailor rehabilitation rather than prescribe generic balance exercises.
* It enables serial monitoring, with objective metrics that can track recovery over time and potentially support return-to-play or return-to-work decisions.

Taken together with the SCOAT6 development papers—which acknowledge that foam conditions improve discrimination when objective postural sway is measured—the evidence supports a logical progression: if the goal is to maximise sensitivity and personalise rehabilitation, instrumented mCTSIB on a force plate represents a more physiologically informative assessment than observational balance testing alone. This doesn’t replace the SCAT6 or SCOAT6; rather, it extends assessment beyond screening into objective evaluation of the underlying balance impairments that often persist after concussion.

The removal of foam balance testing from the SCAT6 and SCOAT6 is often interpreted as evidence that foam conditions aren...
29/06/2026

The removal of foam balance testing from the SCAT6 and SCOAT6 is often interpreted as evidence that foam conditions aren’t important.

The research says otherwise.

In fact, the SCOAT6 development papers acknowledge that foam conditions of the full BESS demonstrated better discrimination between concussed and non-concussed individuals when objective postural sway measures were used.

So why were they removed?

The answer appears to be practicality rather than performance.

The SCAT6 was designed to be used anywhere in the world—from elite sporting environments to rural clinics and sidelines. Requiring specialised equipment such as foam pads or force plates would have reduced accessibility and implementation.

This highlights an important distinction:

A test can be practical without being the most sensitive option available.

While the SCAT6 and SCOAT6 remain valuable concussion assessment tools, clinicians should recognize their limitations. Research continues to suggest that more challenging balance conditions, dual-task paradigms, and objective (force plate) postural sway measurements may reveal deficits that observational testing can miss.

The question shouldn’t be whether the SCAT6 and SCOAT6 are useful.

The question should be:

Are we measuring enough to truly understand an individual’s balance dysfunction after concussion?

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720 Nicholson Street
Fitzroy North, VIC
3068

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