Why Do I have Aches and Pains?

A little bit of inflammation spread all over the place is one possible culprit as to why you have aches and pains. Inflammation in one particular area e.g. a joint contributes to the breakdown of that joint causing osteoarthritis - please note that this process can take several years. Inflammation seems to be suppressed at night which accounts for more aches and pains first thing in the morning. It is also related to metabolic syndrome: being over weight, poor fitness and ageing. Smoking, inactivity, stress and sleep deprivation make inflammation worse - they don’t so much make you feel old as literally age you.  

Inflammation can make the pain of Fibromyalgia worse. If you aren't familiar with what Fibromyalgia is, according to the Mayo clinic it is an unexplained sensory dysfunction resulting in widespread oversensitivity to stimuli, exhaustion, and mental fog, among other things. 

Inflammation hasn't been proven to make stress and the associated pain of it worse but there are strong links to suggest that it does. Short term stress is ok for us, such as being stressed when sitting in traffic causing you to run late but long term stress i.e. more than 3 months is not ok for our body and health. Sleep disturbance is one cause of long term stress.

What can you do about it?

• Eat a healthy diet - intermittent fasting and ketogenic diets (low carb) for short periods of time can help as well. Try to reduce your animal and animal product intake.

• Lose weight

• Exercise: including lifting weights

• Reduce stress: through whatever means that is for you - having a couple of alcoholic drinks after work each night isn't a good idea

• See a sleep specialist if you have any sleep issues

• See one of our chiropractors or Andrew, our remedial massage therapist to help reduce your pain

If you would like help with your stress levels or aches and pains, get in touch with us so we can help you out or book in online.

This has been adapted from https://www.painscience.com/articles/inflammation-chronic-subtle-systemic.php

What might be causing my pain?

It might be coming from your fascia.

What is fascia?

You have most likely seen it before. It is the thin, yellowish, white-ish stuff that is wrapped around meat. In your body, it is wrapped around individual muscle fibres, muscle bellies, nerves, blood vessels and organs. It connects your musculoskeletal, circulatory and nervous systems together.

It was initially thought that fascia was just a connective tissue scaffold helping to give the body its shape and hold it together. It is now being discovered that cells move throughout our fascial system transporting nutrients and waste products. It has also been found that cells within our fascia communicate with our Central Nervous System.

Fascia can be damaged in a variety of ways but the most common ones are:poor posture, RSI, child bearing, sports injuries, car accidents, falls, wear and tear and inflammation, which is often due to ageing. When an area of fascia becomes damaged, it develops cross-linking fibres of collagen to help it heal, these do not go away once the area has healed and they actually cause the fascia to move less. The fascia develops adhesions or scar tissue, as a result, it becomes stiffer and stretches less. Over time, the by-products of sugar and sugar itself get stuck in these adhesions causing even more stiffness. Think of healthy fascia being like nicely, combed hair where the hair strands are parallel and unhealthy being like a big knot in the hair that is hard to comb out. Apart from being really stiff and in-elastic, it becomes more painful as well.  It is also going to lead to joint stiffness eventually, which causes pain. Scar tissue is more sensitive to pain than normal tissue. Fascial injuries aren't usually seen on imaging even very detailed ones like MRIs.

So, what can be done about it?

To keep our fascia healthy we need to be well hydrated but we also need movement to help get the water into it. So, another reason to exercise and stretch. If this doesn't help with your pain, see one of our chiropractors as we help to restore the correct motion to your joints which takes the pressure off the fascia. We also will do soft tissue work to allow the fascia to move more freely. Many of our clients have benefited greatly from seeing, Andrew, our remedial massage therapist as this also helps to loosen stiff fascia.

This has been adapted from https://www.doctorschierling.com/fascia.html

If you experience any back pain please get in touch with us so we can help, please contact us or book online.

Plank Progressions

Planks are great for helping to build your core muscle endurance but they do get a bit boring after a while. Check out this video if you want to challenge yourself further. Remember to squeeze your butt whilst you're planking to avoid your back taking unnecessary load which may lead to injury.

If you experience any pain, please contact our chiropractors to see if there are any areas that need addressing.

Gardening and Your Back

We have seen quite a few clients recently who have hurt themselves whilst gardening. It can be quite a strenuous activity so warming up your body beforehand by rotating your arms forwards and backwards, doing some light squats and reaching down for your toes is a good start. At the end, do some gentle to moderate stretching to loosen up your muscles and minimise pain the next day. 

Gardening tip: If you are using a mattock, make sure you aren't using your back to bring you back up to the starting position, use your Glutes (butt muscles). Using your back to generate the movement is a great way to strain a muscle or sprain a joint.

If you experience back pain whilst gardening, please reply to this email or book online, as we can help you.

It Takes Time

When starting treatment, people and this includes myself, want to see results straight away and some people do.  For lasting changes it really does take time for our body to heal and become strong again, especially when our muscles and connective tissue have tightened up and are full of scar tissue which pulls us back into our old, incorrect posture.

I was reminded of this recently when I had a moment of frustration about my back still giving me issues after I had an unstable pelvis late in my 2nd pregnancy.  Whilst I am significantly better than I was (I could barely walk from 36 week's of gestation), I had to remind myself that I hadn't given it enough time or adequately done rehab exercises to strengthen my spine to get myself back to great spinal health.  I am now being vigilant about doing my exercises!

So, just remember - Rome wasn't built in a day... It takes time for our body to heal.

Stronger is Better

I hope you enjoyed the October Long Weekend and have adjusted to the clock going forward.  I love this time of year as the days are getting longer.

People tend to get back into exercise if they let their exercise regime lapse over winter. I want to share with you a wonderful exercise to help strengthen your core stabilising muscles, it is called the Pallof Press. It is so important to have a strong core to minimise spinal injury.  Please take a look at this video on our new Riverside Chiropractic YouTube channel.   We will be uploading more videos to our channel in the near future which is very exciting.

We will be uploading more videos to our channel soon which is very exciting.

Yippee!!

Hooray for the arrival of spring! Recently I've been getting stuck into my garden at home by removing some small trees and lots of weeds.  It struck me as to what a good workout it was as well as other DIY activities, however, it is potentially quite damaging for one's spine.  Some of these tips might be really obvious to you but nevertheless a reminder is always good.

1) Vary your position when doing a prolonged activity eg if raking do it from the right and left hand side of body and when weeding change from between crouching, squatting and kneeling.  Doing a deep squat is best as it takes pressure off the balls of your feet and calves. 

2) Stretch: your muscles can get a really good workout so loosening them up when you finish will help you to not only feel better but also reduce the likelihood of injury later on.  Our resources page contains stretches. 

3) Bend your knees not only when you lift heavy pots and plants but also when picking up light objects such as a trowel or a paintbrush.

Gardening and DIY can be a great workout however it predominantly works the muscles at the front of your body so one still needs to do exercises to help strengthen their spine.  This helps to keep it healthy and reduce pain. Some of these exercises are: bridges, vertical row and core muscle exercises.  My colleagues and I can help you out if you have any questions regarding looking after your body whilst gardening.

Thrills, Spills, Pills 2

Welcome to ‘Thrills, Spills and Pills 2’.  It is an article containing three tips which reflect the three different types of stressors we typically experience in our lives.

Thrills: Mental and Emotional Stress – relationships, work, finances etc
Spills: Physical Stress – Sitting, sports injuries, training, car accidents etc
Pills: Chemical Stress – Diet, alcohol, cigarettes, pollution, supplements, medication etc

Thrill Tip: The 10 Min Practice: this is an exercise to help purge yourself of a negative self-image. If you are constantly beating yourself up, this exercise is great to reset your thinking. Here’s how it works: every morning, before you do anything else, write down every negative thought about yourself that you have. Try to aim for at least 20 things. Really be brutal with yourself. Then turn around each statement and write down the list again, this time writing the opposite of each thought.  This is another one that only seems to work if you hand write it out.

Spill Tip: Ever wanted to increase your low back mobility? Probably the best exercise for this is the full squat. Here’s how to do it: stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart and with straight arms held out in front (this helps with balance but is not essential). Slowly squat down into a full squat position. Your buttocks should almost be touching the floor and your heels should be flat on the floor. Let your tailbone sink down and under. If you’re having difficulty balancing, use a pole, table, doorframe etc to hang onto and lean back until your heels are flat. Aim for 10 minutes cumulatively per day.

Pill Tip: Ever tried to start the day with a smoothie but found it unfulfilling? Were you hungry only an hour later? Try the following to supercharge your smoothies: ensure that you add plenty of fat and protein. Do this by adding two raw eggs and a whole scoopful of high quality protein powder. You may also wish to add a tablespoon of coconut oil or a some full-fat, pot-set, organic, biodynamic yoghurt. The extra fat and protein from these additions will bring your smoothie to a much more satisfying level.

Microwaves: Are They Bad For Our Health?

Let’s take a look at whether microwaves are really something to be scared of.  There are 2 main points that I shall be discussing which can affect our health:

1. Does it destroy the nutrients in food
2. Are they dangerous?
 
Cooking food by any method starts to break down vitamins and other nutrients.  There are 3 factors that impact this process: time, contact with water (the most important factor) and intensity of the heat.  So, boiling food actually has the most impact on its nutrient content as they are lost in the water unless you plan to consume the cooking liquid as well.  The advantage of a microwave is that in most instances very little water is added and the cooking time is quite short. (1)
 
To help reduce the cooking time further, cover the food so that it steams as well.  According to the CSIRO, proteins, fats and carbohydrates are not greatly affected by cooking unless they have been slow cooked.  Personally, I am quite a fan of slow cooked lamb and food is to enjoy as well as nourish. (2)
 
Interestingly, cooking increases the lycopene content, which is an antioxidant, in tomatoes, it does reduce the amount of Vitamin C which is also an antioxidant. (3)  Lycopene may be beneficial in helping to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. (4)
 
Whilst eating raw food is great because the nutritional content hasn’t been compromised by cooking, it is harder to digest the nutrients.  Cooking starts to weaken the cell wall and break down proteins making them easier to digest. (5) Eating a variety of cooked and raw vegetables is probably the best way to go and summer is a great time to eat a delicious salad!

In terms of safety, if you are going to use a microwave,

then make sure you use a glass or ceramic container to reduce the likelihood of chemicals leaching out into the food.  Also, if you cover it with cling wrap make sure it doesn’t touch the food for the same reason.  Another common misbelief with microwaves is that its radiation can damage human cells, unlike X-rays which can. Microwave radiation is not energetic enough to break molecular bonds. It is considered non-ionizing radiation. Microwaves can heat water, including water in your body, and this can have biological effects. That’s why microwave ovens are shielded. The best advice is not to use a really old microwave that may not be functioning well. Also, don’t stand directly in front of the microwave when it is operating. Radiation falls off quickly with distance, so stand a metre away and any minimal radiation leakage will be harmless. (6)

1, 5, 6: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/microwaves-and-nutrition/ 
2: http://www.livestrong.com/article/368262-do-microwave-ovens-destroy-food-nutrients/#page=1
3: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf0115589?prevSearch=rui+hai+liu&searchHistoryKey=&
4: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/13/3/340.short
 
So, I hope this has shed some light on the issue as I hear a lot of people comment on how bad they are for us but really that is just a misconception.

Avoiding Back Injury Whilst Training

Back pain affects 80 percent of the population. 99 percent of cases are non-life threatening, and may be the result of :
- Muscle strain
- Joint strain 
- Disc strain

Symptoms can range from a mild ache to severe pain, not only in the back but also radiating down either one or both legs. The good news is there's a lot that can be done to help with the management of symptoms and get you back to a normal, pain free lifestyle.

Here are some tips for avoiding back injury while training:

* A strong core is the key to preventing back injuries. Ensure you engage your core muscles i.e. keep them contracted during cardio and resistance training

* Keep a neutral pelvis and lumbar spine at all times

* If you are suffering back pain, stick to exercises involving little to no low back movement and low impact cardio

* Rowing - Keep back straight, bring shoulder blades in and down with every stroke

* Horizontal/seated leg press - is to be avoided as it does not encourage core stabilizers and can cause disc injury

* Keep arm weights below shoulder level - to avoid neck strain. Also, avoid poking your chin out whilst exerting yourself

Pain is not normal; it indicates that there is a problem, pushing through it may cause extra harm. If you are experiencing pain or discomfort during or after training, come and see one of the chiropractic team at Riverside Chiropractic for a full assessment, x-rays can be taking if required and treatment provided.