Which country in the UK copes best with pain?


www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2233354/Fascinating-map-reveals-Welsh-people-lowest-pain-threshold-UK-West-Country-neighbours-cope-best.html

"Giving Your Body a Tune & Balance".

We all know that regular servicing of our cars helps to ensure trouble free motoring and can save us a lot of money in repair bills. We should have the same attitude to our bodies but few people do.

The difference between our cars and our bodies is that our cars cannot repair themselves. Cut yourself, tear a muscle, break a bone and the body’s self repair mechanisms go into action. Strain your back or your neck or any of your other joints and again the body takes action to sort out the problem as best it can.

But note the words "AS BEST IT CAN". In many cases when we strain ourselves in accidents and falls or when lifting the body cannot sort itself out so instead it adapts itself to the strain and in doing so minimises the effects of that strain. This results in the pain diminishing and, in some cases, disappearing altogether.

Because of this many people, after injuring themselves, don’t bother to seek help but wait to see if the pain will go away on it’s own. And quite often it does. But this does not mean that the problem has been resolved, only that it has now been masked.

Then when their back or neck suddenly gets acutely painful they will say to their osteopath, "How could this happen, I didn’t do anything?" Which is exactly right. They didn’t do anything when they had minor hurts but now, after several minor hurts that the body is coping with, it can’t cope any more.

And the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back can be as simple as bending down to pick something up or sleeping in a strange bed with a different to normal thickness of pillow.

Regular osteopathic check ups 2 to 4 times a year will not guarantee that you won’t hurt yourself if something fairly traumatic occurs but it will ensure that you won’t get acute consequences to minor events. And if you have regular check ups and then have a major trauma it will be much easier to treat and you will recover much quicker.

Also, quite often when you pick up your car after a service you notice immediately how much better it is running. Because the deterioration has been slow we just don’t notice it until it’s serviced. Well it’s the same with our bodies. 

Patients often comment on how much better they are moving after a check up and how much better they feel in themselves.

Most of us get into a routine of regular dental check ups so why not establish a similar routine of regular musculoskeletal check ups. And this should include children too.

Hemel Hempstead looking beautiful this morning

Very thought provoking..............

Cave bacteria could help develop future antibiotics

Bacteria found in caves could provide the clues to help produce antibiotics needed in the fight against drug-resistant superbugs, explains Prof Hazel Barton.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19520629

Back pain - The hidden dangers of your holiday

As the summer is drawing to an end most of us have had a chance for a bit of rest and recuperation but a lot of us come back from our holidays with more than just a tan! In the practice there is a sharp rise in holiday related back pain. Whilst a holiday is a time of relaxation and an escape from our day to day stressful lives, it is quite often this change from our normal lives that can create a whole new set of problems.Whether you are taking a long haul flight or packing up the car this is not a good time to be suffering with back pain.

It starts with the build up to the holiday, often finding ourselves overloading our work commitments in an attempt to meet all deadlines before the final working day is finished. As if this wasn’t enough there is the packing not just the act of packing but the sheer amount that we stuff into our cases (or is that just me?!). Then we have to carry the thing down the stairs and hoist it in and out of the car.

Lifting hand luggage it into the overhead lockers in a cramped cabin also has it’s dangers, especially if you have children that require you to retrieve something from there numerous times during the flight!

So now the journey is over and done with we convince ourselves that the annoying ache in our back will resolve itself during the holiday. Not always the case. We then have to contend with the rigid bed and lumpy pillows, not to mention the unpacking. The final insult is often the sunbed.....be aware that lying on your front can be the position that aggravates the lower back the most.

Changes in our routines are often what lead to injury so whether you are going to be more or less active than normal on your holiday bear these top tips in mind :-

• Pack downstairs.
• When lifting a suitcase bend from the knees and try to lift suitcases together in order to share the load equally.
• Pack less!
• Use an inflatable neck pillow on the plane to avoid neck pain and get up and move around on the plane or take regular breaks if you are driving a long way.
• When lifting bags from an airport carousel try to stand close to the carousel and bend the knees.
• Try to use wheeled cases to reduce lifting.
• Drink plenty of water to avoid muscles becoming dehydrated.
• Drink alcohol in moderation to avoid reckless behavior and injury!
• When driving do not carry your mobile phone or wallet in your back pocket. If you do it can create an abnormal sitting position tilting one hip higher which may cause you to have problems.
• When swimming (especially if you are not a regular swimmer) try not to do lengths of just one stroke, and vary the stroke to use other muscle groups. If you can only do breast stroke try not to hold your neck out the water for long periods and vary by putting a float between your legs to rest your low back.
• Keep active. We tend to lay around more on holiday so take a daily walk to compensate.
• If you suffer with regular back pain visit the osteopath before your trip.

Runners Knee

One of the most common running injuries I see is ‘runners knee’ pain on the outside of the knee due to friction between the iliotibial band (a band of connective tissue stretching down the outside of the thigh to below the knee) and the outside of the knee joint. It is most often felt when running downhill. Iliotibial band syndrome is common in runners who perform unbalanced, repetitive exercise such as running only on one side of a crowned road, or only running one way around a track. Most roads slope off to the sides and running along the edge causes to the outside foot to be lower than the inside foot. This in turn causes the pelvis to tilt to one side and stresses the IT band.

The Iliotibial band is a hard area to stretch effectively so It is advisable to use a foam roller regularly to keep it nice and loose.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHBDim_fzk




Whatever your goal remember to gradually increase your exercise load gradually. This will allow your body to adapt to the new demands being placed on it. 

Unexplained Pain?

Making sense of your pain

How many times have you woken up in the past to find that you have a new ache or pain. Where does this pain come from?

The sensations we experience in our bodies are not random. The complexity of the human  body can make what we experience seem random.

When we experience pain in a muscle or around a joint, a common assumption is that the problem is right there with that muscle or joint. This may seem self evident but it’s not quite that simple. It could be referred pain. This is a pain that originates in one place but shows up in another.

For example a common presentation in the clinic is pain on the side of the neck and shoulder and down around the shoulder blade. Each joint in the neck has a distinct area of referred pain so patients are often surprised to find that the pain they feel in the shoulder blade is in fact from the neck and that joint problems at the top of the neck may cause tension headaches. See the diagram below by N. Bogduk

Each vertebrae in our spine has a corresponding spinal nerve, these can also give referred pain, as the diagram below shows. An example of spinal referred pain is sciatica which arises from the irritation of the spinal nerves at L4 and/or L5,S1.

Internal organs may also give referred pain. The sensory nerve supply for the heart originates from the spinal nerves at T1-4 in the upper back so the pain felt during a heart attack is in the left arm or shoulder. Pain in the right shoulder may also be referred from the liver and gallbladder

Referred pain is therefore something that needs to be considered in all patients complaining of any type of pain in order to make an accurate diagnosis. These referral patterns are something that osteopaths are highly trained in.