Lifestyle

I have been pondering lately about why it is that osteopathy seems to be such a useful tool for improving physical comfort and mobility; surely we are built to self-maintain in good health and working order? Yet most people seem to benefit greatly from treatment, whether they are physically active or not.

The answer is complex in detail, but simple in summary: lifestyle!

The truth of the matter is that we are living in a man-made environment, whereas we have spent millions of years evolving in the natural world. Our mind and body have been honed by nature to do one thing, whilst we are steadfastly determined to do something else entirely. Osteopathy respects this natural heritage, and tries to redress the balance somewhat.

What does this have to do with your stiff back?

Put simply, if you don’t use your body the way it was designed to work, it (i.e. you) will suffer. (Notice that I am distinguishing between your body and your self, which is a man-made distinction, and will be the subject of another blog in the near future). For example, human beings were not designed to sit in a chair all day, year upon year. I find it ironic that much is made of “the right way to sit”, whereas ultimately there is no right way; it’s a bit like saying “what’s the right way to hurt my body?”.

Many of the physical, stuctural problems that people encounter with their body is the result of the chair, but it is by no means the only culprit. I mention it here, because it is the accepted way most people spend a huge amount of their precious life, slouching in a chair, just like I am right now. Chairs are a fact of life, but the ill-effects of using them can be greatly moderated by what else you do with your body.

So what do you do about it?

This is a very good question. As someone once said, a good question is difficult to answer, and a very good question may have no answer at all! The point I am making is that it is worth keeping an open mind to what might constitute an answer, because it can be a constant source of enrichment in your life. Many of the wisest souls in the world of health and welbeing have been driven to their understanding through extreme illness or disability; the Chinese character for ‘crisis’ also means ‘opportunity’. So your back ache could be the start of a new chapter of investigation, discovery and enrichment in your life. The most important thing you can do about it is to begin looking for health: investigate, experiment (within reason), and gradually you will begin to make a difference to your own health experience.

Whilst there can be no universal answer, there is a good chance that your back problems are going to improve with conservative treatment. There are always exceptions, and this is a good reason for seeking advice as to whether there is any cause for concern, but most back ache can be at least improved if not transformed by regular, focussed exercises. By that I do not mean a 30 minute run on concrete roads in an old pair of trainers. An osteopathic assessment will look at the structure of your back and the way it moves. Treatment is then designed to bring the structure back towards alignment and balance, and work on the mechanics of joint motion to create ease of function (i.e. movement). And as the musculoskeletal structure (i.e. your spine and limbs) begins to return to functioning in the way it was designed, there is commonly a corresponding sense of ease and wellbeing that patients often comment on as an unexpected bonus.

I am an osteopath in Ealing (and also Uxbridge twice a week) where I provide treatment and pain relief for back pain, neck or shoulder ache… Do get in touch if you have questions or want some advice whether osteopathy can help you.

As the cold rainy weather settles in, many of our patients in Ealing and Uxbridge are reporting epidemics of flu, colds and various upsets ravaging their families and colleagues at work.

So it seems like the right time of the year to offer some tips to boost your immune system. If you are feeling under the weather, or want to try and fight-off the colds this winter then our top 10 tips are as follows:

• Watch your diet
  Stuff yourself with as much seasonal fruit and raw or lightly cooked veg as you can; choose brown over white – for bread, pasta and rice; prefer grilled or poached oily fish (tuna, salmon) over red or white meat – and generally, eat less rather than more;
• Optimise your intake of natural minerals and vitamins
  by juicing 250-300 ml-worth of mixed fruit and veg. For example, combine apple, carrot, celery and a little grated ginger;

• Consider botanical immune boosters
  such as turmeric in curcumin form, echynacea, bromelain (found in pineapple stem), liquorice and co-enzyme Q10;

• Drink less caffeine and alcohol
  and, needless to say, tobacco and occupational drugs which threaten to overpower your waste elimination organs (liver, spleen and kidneys);
• Consider multi-vitamin supplements
  If you are feeling very depleted, or under pressure to recover, consider some good quality high potency multivitamins and minerals: Cytoplan or Lamberts are considered good brands; we’re not great fans of supplements, but sometimes there’s little choice;
• Ensure good fluid intake
  Aim for six to eight 200ml glasses of fluids per day: water and natural fruit-juices are in; tea, coffee, and high caffeine, fizzy drinks are out;
• Replenish your body with electrolytes
  If you have been suffering from vomiting or diarrhoea for any duration; 1 litre of homemade electrolytes can be made up by adding 1/3 L fresh apple juice, 2/3L water, 2 tea-spoonfuls or raw cane sugar of honey and 1 tea-spoonful of sea-salt – to be sipped within a day;
• Go for daily exercise and deep breathing
  Aim for a daily brisk 30-minutes walk in the fresh air – try for two to four 30-minutes sessions of light exercise a week, and invest in 200 bounces per day on a bouncer/mini-trampoline to stimulate your lymphatics!
• Treat yourself to manual therapy
  You’d expect us to say that but… a couple of sessions aiming at stimulating good blood and lymph flow, activating the waste elimination organs and encouraging good whole-body function is a sound investment this time of year;
• Get some decent rest - this is not a great season for regular partying (end of year excepted!) – aim for 7-8 hours of daily sleep, aiming to have retired to bed by 10 O’clock to give your body a chance to repair itself.

We hope these tips don’t come over too much like a one way ticket to boot camp. On the upside, using them may just allow you to reach the end of the year in top form to fully enjoy Christmas and new year celebrations.

With our best wishes of good health!

Can we help? This is our blog highlighting what we at Bridge to Health do. If you want a friendly chat with an osteopath – please contact us at Uxbridge Osteopaths / Ealing Osteopaths.

This was a question from a patient who was concerned that he might have something seriously wrong with his neck because the clinical treatment alone was not enough to maintain relief of his symptoms. As an osteopath, it is an interesting statement because it points to a fundamental misconception of what constitutes

“doing something to your neck”.

For the patient, sitting in a chair at work 5 days a week was a natural way of life, and not something he expected to result in too many consequences. In terms of biomechanics, that starts to look suspect on many levels, not least in terms of the moulding effect on posture. There is an old saying,

“of all the inventions of Man, nothing is as cruel as the chair”.

What happens to your neck when you sit down is this.

When you sit, you lose the natural inward curve of your low back; the result is that your upper body and head is tilted forward, and therefore you will pull your head back to level your gaze. The modern preference for eye-level screens will exacerbate this unless you maintain the curve in your low back; similarly, leaning forward will exaggerate it. The net effect is that the back of your neck is compressed, much as if you were stood looking at the night sky, or painting a ceiling for hours at a time. The difference in these activities may seem significant to you, but as far as your body is concerned, you are squashing the base of your neck whichever way.

This means that over time, the region around the base of your neck will tighten, and movement will be reduced due to joint compression. Taken over days, weeks, months and years, the effects become more ingrained in the body structure, and you lose the ability to move freely.

Osteopathic treatment can help to counteract the long-term consequences of deskwork, but prescribed exercises will play a big part; without restoring adequate everyday motion to an area, your body will tend to trade off mobility for stability.

The stiffening that my patient was experiencing is a natural economy of needs that your body performs: where motion is used, it will tend to be maintained; where it is not used, it will be discarded. There is truth in that other old saying “use it or lose it”.

I am a registered osteopath in Ealing, and neck pain and back pain are just two complaints/conditions/injuries that we treat. If you have any questions or need some advice, please do contact us. (The Ealing clinic is on The Green, literally a four minute walk from Ealing Broadway).

At the end of a recent treatment session, a patient asked me what was the best type of bag to get from an osteopathic perspective.

My mouth opened and closed a few times before anything came out, followed by a few embryonic thought bubbles. Since then I have given the question some more thought in order to identify what I see as the salient issues concerning bags and backs.

1. Make sure it is fit for purpose
   If you have any specific equipment you have to carry such as a laptop, camera, etc. Someone else has already worked out some of the ergonomic issues for you, so looking at relevant task-specific bags will help you make an informed choice, even if you subsequently buy something else.
2. Make sure it is appropriate for you
   This is less easy to define as we are all unique individuals, but the sort of issues you should take into account are any specific medical or physical conditions that may be affected by carrying the bag. Beyond that, we all have certain postural tendencies and movement patterns that will be influenced by carrying (see below).
3. Carry as close to your body as possible
   This affects both your choice of bag and how you use it. The further away from your body it is, the harder a bag will be to carry, and the more it will alter your posture and movement. This means that a bag should be as flat as is practical, so that you can position the extra weight around your body rather than away from it (bags that you can fit under your arm are much easier to carry than wide bags that bash against your legs).
4. Consider where in relation to your body the extra weight will be placed
   You will automatically use your body to lean away from a bag in order to maintain balance, and then you will use your neck to restore your head to level, with your eyes looking straight ahead. The more weight you are carrying, the more exaggerated this compensatory pattern will be, and the more worthwhile considering whether a wheelie bag is more appropriate.

5. Chose a bag that allows you as many carrying options as possible
   The more variety of carrying options you have, the less you will exaggerate any one postural tendency, and the easier it will be to relieve any stains that develop in the course of everyday use. A bag with back straps, a shoulder strap and a handle gives you plenty of options for variety; a bag with a single strap may limit you to a single carrying method.
6. The way you use the bag is generally more important than what type of bag it is
   Buying a spanking new bag that you carry in the same old way probably wont make much difference to your posture, health or symptoms. By all means try to find something that suits you, but take the opportunity to increase your awareness of your habit patterns, and if eg. you always carry on one shoulder, try changing shoulders regularly; you may discover something that helps you for free.

Lastly, if it all seems too confusing you can always get in touch with us; we may be able to make some suggestions, although there is no substitute for talking face to face in a treatment session (we are located in Ealing and in Uxbridge).

nb. At the recent back show at Earl’s Court, Mathieu saw something called the healthy back bag. The company are in the process of redesigning their computer carrying bag, and have a wide range of fashionable bags; well worth a browse.

I must admit Peter and I approached our visit to the Back Show with a mixture of wariness and cynicism, expecting to come across an endless array of dubious gadgets, miracle potions, and the-definitive-solution-to-all-back-pain-at-an-almost-affordable-price…

In the event, we spent a really absorbing couple of hours meeting a wide range of enthusiastic professionals, each contributing something specific and positive to the complex patchwork of musculoskeletal pain.

We first met Katie Baylis of Putnams, a family-run firm specialised in an extensive range of orthopaedic products. Having just written a blog post about choosing a pillow, Peter was interested in their pressure relief cushions. You can review the range on their website but Bridge to Health patients can order through us to get a discount.

A short while later, we were sampling the unique footwear concept of Terra Plana, a company that has designed a shoe aiming to deliver the same experience and benefits to foot and body as if you were wandering around… bare foot. We were so bowled over by the experience that we instantly purchased a pair each, and I have scarcely used anything else in clinic since, feeling far less tired than previously by the end of the day.

A Terra Plana shoe using bare foot technology

We then spent ten minutes lounging around in the best office chair I have ever come across, the SwingSeat^TM designed by SmartMotion Technology. Pricy, but if you are going to be chained to a desk all day… it’s the next best thing to a walk in the park – and we can offer discounts, so speak to us first!

We then chanced upon the Healthy Back Bag Company which manufactures an alluring range of stylish bags designed to carry light to moderate weights whilst minimising spinal damage. I was favourably impressed by their laptop bag, as I’m constantly badgering patients to carry theirs more smartly… take a peak at the catalogue.

I also spend a lot of time trying to tempt patients to spend more time swimming, which is why I was happy to come across the Art of Swimming, an organisation led by Steven Shaw that has imported Alexander technique’s postural framework to the swimming pool. Their teaching program sounds very exciting and may well be available in a swimming-pool close to you.

I quickly visited the stand of the National Osteoporosis Society which publishes a set of handy self-help booklets, and our friends and colleagues at the Pilates Foundation and at the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique (STAT) as the show began closing.

Time was running out as I passed the Back 2 stand which promotes the MastercareMini^TM, a very practical light “inversion table” (a device allowing you to stretch your back by hanging upside down), which as a back sufferer always makes me drool. The ushers were converging on us by that time, but I will be investigating that contraption in the near future.

We will definitely be returning to the 2010 Back Show next year, scheduled at the Olympia 2 on 24th and 25th September (dates to be confirmed). Indeed, I would recommend you do so yourself!

Having reached the supposedly mature haven of my mid-forties, I try not to get too easily worked up by the nonsense dished up by our national press on the subject of health and nutrition. However, I failed miserably when I read the lead article of Wednesday’s Evening Standard. It dealt with an allegedly rigorous report produced by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which concluded, after 12 months gravely studying 50 years of comparative research, that organic food has no significantly greater nutritional value than conventionally produced food.

The article mused that this earth-shattering conclusion would no doubt cause great prejudice to the organic food industry, and concluded with a quote by Gill Fine, FSA Director of consumer choice and dietary health:

“This study does not mean people should not eat organic. What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food”.

Great stuff – but for one small detail: the reason why most people pay extra for their organic food has nothing to do with calorie count or vitamin content. Equally, the organic food industry has to my knowledge not used nutritional content as a major argument in favour of its produce.

Rather, customers are willing to pay the organic premium not to be poisoned by the hormones, antibiotics and pesticides being pumped into conventionally-produced meat and vegetables. It is with this in mind that with our nutritionist hats on, we recommend organic food-source to our patients, budgets permitting.

In this light, Gill Fine’s conclusion is highly pernicious, as it links the absence of nutritional difference with the false deduction “therefore” that organic food has no additional health benefits. In fact, organic food most definitely does have the critical health benefit of not loading our digestive tract with toxins that it cannot easily metabolise – although rather conveniently, there is not sufficient scientific research on the long-term effects of pesticides on human health, and pesticides are only anecdotally related to liver and bowel cancer, other tumours and chronic systemic diseases.

I for one will most definitely be feeding my family organic food for as long as I can afford to do so, and strongly recommending that our patients do the same. I was somewhat reassured to read this evening of the backlash against this report by some nutritionists with a conscience, and I hope that the FSA will in due course be fully exposed and shamed for misinformation and dereliction of duty.

“Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine your food”

(Hippocrates)

As holistic osteopaths, we take a keen interest in what our patients eat: frequently, a patient’s symptoms can be largely linked directly to their diet; equally, sound nutritional advice can improve that person’s health, stamina and wellbeing beyond recognition. Our aim is to avoid dieting, but to shape a healthy, enjoyable and sustainable diet.

In this post, one of our patients provides a first-hand illustration of this positive transition.

Christine: Confessions of a Serial Dieter

When your clothes are tight, you can’t climb the stairs or walk along the road without feeling out of breath and aching joints, and you have indigestion most of the time, then something has to be done. Up to that point, I had tried every diet book known to man plus I had done the rounds of all the slimming clubs (group therapy just isn’t for me but it works for some). I had been a dieter on and off for over 30 years and something different was called for but I didn’t know what.

It was then that I spotted a Bridge to Health leaflet in my church. I contacted Mathieu and he asked me to keep an honest diary of all food and drink that passed my lips plus the emotions and feelings I encountered throughout the day. Even as I was writing I could begin to see where I was going wrong. It’s funny how a person can live a fantasy of being a healthy eater when we are clearly not. Delusional – definitely…

The next step was to have a one to one with Mathieu. He had carried out a study of my diet diary and came up with a very useful analysis of what was going on. I felt quite amazed that he had found “areas of strength” – that made me feel immediately better that I actually had some, and of course went on to suggestions for improvement and things to consider. Straight after the appointment I went shopping for food. I filled up a trolley with all the things that had been missing from my diet.

Since then I have been enjoying what I eat much, much more. I have switched to eating lots more fruit and raw salad vegetables and nuts. I don’t feel and act as if I am “on a diet” because I am not. I am gradually changing my previously unhealthy eating habits for healthy ones. I am gradually drinking less tea and coffee, having hot water instead especially first thing in the morning. I am trying to get out for a walk every day. You will note that I have used the word gradually, in the past I have found that stopping something immediately in a “giving up” sort of way, just doesn’t work for me, I end up with cravings which I give into.

How do I feel now a few months on? Well, clothes are looser, weight is coming off slowly (but I don’t keep jumping on and off the scales like I used to), the back ache and knee aches have gone, and best of all no more indigestion.

At long last I think I have found an approach to eating that is working for me.

Christine B.

Can we help you? Telephone Bridge to Health on 01895 200050 to talk directly to an osteopath (not a receptionist) – or email us if you prefer. We are based in Uxbridge, at the Fitness First health centre on Uxbridge High Street (a 4 minute walk from Uxbridge station on the Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines).

Related posts

• Can Osteopathy affect acid reflux and high blood glucose/cholesterol?
• Using a Diet Diary – Our approach to diet plans and nutrition advice

Every day of the week, we are visited by patients complaining of lower back pain, neck pain, head-aches, shoulder, elbow or wrist strains.

Many of them are busy professionals from companies and organisations in the Uxbridge and Hillingdon area. As we gather background information relative to the causes of injury, many of these patients will rather insightfully say

“it must be posture-related”.

In a sense, they are right: as office workers sit at their desk all day, increasingly hunched over their computer screen, so their chest and neck muscles tighten, compressing the vertebrae in their neck, straining their mid and lower back muscles, causing their shoulders, elbows and wrists to function at unnatural angles, and to sustain repetitive strain injuries; and as they cross their legs in these interminable meetings, so their pelvis may become twisted, resulting in lower back pain and lower limb complaints. The current prevailing mood of heightened stress is but an extra potential trigger of the injury process…

However, there is a degree of fatalism in incriminating posture, in other words it is often seen as an inevitable fact of life.

As osteopaths, we hope you would expect us to disagree strongly: with a little awareness focussed on understanding the mechanism of injury, altering the layout of work stations, improving working posture and implementing some basic lifestyle and postural exercise routines, the frequency of work-related injuries can be radically altered.

Over the coming weeks and months, Bridge to Health’s osteopaths will be stepping up their campaign to increase public awareness of how to prevent these types of injuries.

Our June health offer to local employees living or working in and around Uxbridge will centre on a postural assessment and osteopathic treatment, coupled with some practical exercises to enhance posture.

We will also be speaking to our corporate clients to encourage them in a pragmatic approach to work-station ergonomic assessments, coupled with employee training in workplace injury prevention practices.

If you believe you’re suffering from the effects of poor posture, feel free to contact your local osteopath on 01895 20 00 50 (the address for our Osteopathic Clinic in Uxbridge is here). If you think that a conversation with your company’s health and safety representative would be helpful, they are welcome to visit our website www.bridgetohealth.co.uk and then to contact us on the same number.

You do not necessarily need an orthopaedic pillow from a specialist supplier (with a specialist price attached); broadly speaking, you just need something that maintains your body in good head, neck and back alignment. Because of this, the sleeping position you favour is important to your requirement:

if you sleep on your side, you will need a higher pillow than if you sleep on your back, and if you sleep on your front, you probably don’t need one at all.

If you sleep on your side, try to use something that supports your neck as well as your head (this is a feature of orthopaedic pillows, but you can achieve the same result with a bit of effort by tucking the pillow under your neck). If you are struggling to find a comfortable sleeping position for your neck, it may be worth seeing an osteopath in order to assess your vertebral alignment and posture.

Finally, the softness of the pillow is a matter of personal preference so long as the support is adequate.

In April, Peter joined Bridge to Health in Uxbridge, and in his first post on our blog he describes his approach to osteopathic healthcare. Welcome, Peter.

Having trained alongside Mathieu and Marcus, I do not expect to present a radical departure of osteopathic style; however, I do have my own background influences.

I came to osteopathy in the interests of developing and consolidating my awareness of anatomy, physiology and biomechanics; prior to that, I worked with a number of Oriental disciplines, most notably Shiatsu, which is a Japanese form of bodywork performed on a futon mat that manipulates the circulation of Ki (or chi) within the body to enhance health and wellbeing.

The great therapeutic strength of energetic forms of bodywork is in the harnessing of what you might call “life-force”; the great therapeutic strength of western biomechanical bodywork is in the utilisation of anatomical and physiological knowledge and understanding. The synthesis of the two opens up intriguing possibilities.

However, that is all very well, and reminds me of a quote I came across the other day:

in theory, theory and practice are identical, but in practice, they aren’t.

So what does all this have to do with your frozen shoulder, low back pain, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, RSI, runner’s knee, stiff neck, bad posture or whatever it is you have that concerns you?

Well, from a practical perspective, treatment is an ongoing multifaceted concept, which may involve anything from manipulation, mobilisation, massage, circulatory stimulation, lymphatic drainage, cranial osteopathy etc. to stretches, exercise activities, dietary adjustments, work-desk reorganisation etc.

But treatment also involves you as a life-force – i.e. a force of life, with the ability to affect change; you yourself can be a far more effective agent of change than any therapeutic intervention, so somewhere along the line, and in whatever way I feel suits the individual concerned, I try to bring that life-force to bear on whatever may be of concern, in the belief that the best service I can offer is to assist the individual in removing some of the barriers to radiant health that they may have inadvertently acquired, and remind them of their own amazing ability to affect change and flourish.