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Is “Getting Fitter” a perennial New Year’s Resolution

By Back Pain, Prevention

Getting Fitter? A perennial New Year resolution?

Help and advice is at hand.

If your New Year’s resolution is to get fitter, faster, stronger or to be more active then hopefully this advice will help you achieve your goals.

Normally in January and February my Sports Clinic starts to see a steady rise of people who have taken up an activity, sports or increased the frequency of their chosen activity as they achieve New Year’s resolutions or may be just a promise to themselves to get fitter.

The most common is a recurring pain or old injury that has flared up or new aches and pain in neck, shoulder upper or lower back. Read More

3rd January 2017
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Knee Pain? The problem could be above and below

By Osteopathy

A female patient, 26yrs old, recently came to the practice with pain underneath her left knee cap. It also clicked occasionally and was much worse after the gym or running and walking up the stairs. It had been getting progressively worse for the last 6 months.

On examination the patient’s knee had no obvious mechanical injury to her ligaments. There were signs of a little wear and tear. However what was obvious was that the patient significantly pronated on her left foot and her left pelvis was anteriorly rotated.

The diagnosis was patella femoral syndrome.

TREATMENT – OSTEOPATHY, SPORTS MASSAGE AND THERAPEUTIC EXERCISE

This involved articulation and manipulation to the foot , the fibula head and the SIJ and lumbars to address the rotation. Sports massage to the muscles inserting at the knee including gastrocnemius, hamstrings, tfl, itb and quads and a recommendation to purchase orthotics to help her pronation.
The patient was also given therapeutic exercises to strengthen her core stability, relax and stretch her ilio-psoas and so reduce her pelvic tilt.
After two treatments the patient reported a complete cessation of pain. She had also ordered the orthotics.

LONG TERM SOLUTION

Now I recognise that not every patient will respond in the same way but this global approach to the patient’s knee pain, combining osteopathy with remedial  and sports massage and therapeutic exercise is a typical example of how I treat. And for this patient it was very effective at addressing her problem.  Long term she will need to use her orthotics and maintain her therapeutic exercises. But now the management of her pronation and potential future knee trouble is within her own control.

29th June 2015
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Osteopathy helping Mum’s with bad backs

By Pregnancy
Introduction
The biological changes that take place in the female body as it prepares for birth have a significant impact on the musculoskeletal  system.
Increased hormone levels (progesterone and relaxin) increase ligament laxity especially around the pelvis as it becomes ready for labour.
Increased weight at the front as the ‘bump’ grows increases the load and stress on the back muscles and the anterior core stability muscles. So not only do the back and postural muscles have to cope with the extra load and a changing centre of gravity but they also have to do so with little help from the ligaments too.
SLXLM

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28th January 2015
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Osteopathy and prevention of hamstring strain recurrence

By Hamstring, Prevention

preventing-ham-string-reoccurence-issuesOsteopathy and recurring hamstring strain prevention

Introduction
The prevalence of hamstring strains amongst people who play sports that involves running and or jumping is high. Also once a hamstring strain has occurred the risk that it will happen again is much higher.
Research (Sherry MA , Best TM et al 2011) has confirmed what osteopaths have long understood that the angle of the pelvis and trunk strength often play an integral role in the strength of the hamstring and the prevalence of repeated strains in sportsmen and women.
Osteopathic treatment to realign the pelvis combined with therapeutic exercise to increase core stability and hamstring strength is a very effective way of addressing this.
I am going to share a recent case which illustrates how an osteopathic approach helped an amateur runner break the cycle of recurring hamstring strain.

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4th December 2014
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How osteopathy can help patients with Arthritis

By Arthritis, Osteopathy

dealing-with-arthritisArthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis
Patients can suffer from either Rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. The two conditions are quite different. The first is an auto immune response where the body evokes an inflammatory response in a joint. The synovial membranes within the joint are attacked by the body’s own white cells (antibodies) and they become inflamed, red , swollen. The bone starts to degenerate. Joints tend to be affected bilaterally. That is to say on both left and right. Eg both hands or knees, elbows etc.
Treatment includes drugs to reduce the body’s immune response – steroids are given at the beginning. This can help but as the disease progresses stronger drugs are employed such as methotrexate or cyclosprorin.

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7th November 2014
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Poor posture at work and its impact on our bodies

By Back Pain
Poor ergonomics at work can lead to back pain

Poor ergonomics at work can lead to back pain

What do we mean by posture?

In effect we have two posture states. Active and Passive. Active posture is when you are controlling your muscles actively to achieve a certain position. Over time the body can ‘learn’ the posture and it can be assumed very easily without much thought. Dancers for example learn a posture as do horse riders.
Passive posture is when the body naturally assumes a position of ease. A person’s standing posture or sitting posture is the one that the body naturally goes to. However because the human body has an amazing ability to adapt to its surroundings so our posture can adapt over time to lifestyle conditions we find ourselves in.
Athletes have different postures to hairdressers, builders or office workers.
It is this adaptability of posture based on our surroundings that can cause us problems. As we work at desks, in front of computers, typing, answering the phone for hours at a time our posture changes to adapt to these activities.

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2nd September 2014
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