Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Watch out for Winter Hibernation


The clocks have changed and we’re running out of daylight very quickly now.  It’s tempting to head towards a state of hibernation but that potentially means stiffening up and leaving yourself open to injury.  Hopefully Mulberry Osteopaths have helped to get you back on track and we hope that you have managed to keep the old aches and pains at bay successfully over the spring and summer. However, don’t let it all go pear shaped with the change of the seasons!

Top of the list of advice is to stay active which can sometimes be harder to achieve with the shorter days. The long hill walks and leisurely games of golf maybe a bit trickier to fit in so indoor activities may need to take over.  Perhaps it’s time to think about a yoga or Pilates class. It might even be worth looking at winter time gym memberships.

The swimming pool could be another good idea to keep you moving through the winter. There’s also the added benefit of having access to saunas and steam rooms to help you defrost the body on some of the colder days ahead.

Also remember to keep warm when you’re outside. A cold muscle is going to be easier to injure than a nice warm pliable muscle.  School kids might think it looks great to walk around in the freezing cold without a coat but hopefully you’re more sensible than that.  Get the layers on and make sure the hat, scarf and gloves are on hand.

Simply getting outside during the limited daylight hours is in itself useful.  We take the sunlight for granted during the long days of summer but the impact of daylight on the mood should not be underestimated.  In extreme cases folk suffer badly with SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder) becoming depressed, fatigued and apathetic in the absence of daylight. This has the knock on effect of making the sufferer less active, potentially more sensitive to pain and ultimately more prone to injury or recurrence of an old injury.  If it’s a bright crisp autumn or winters day try to make sure you go for a walk or potter around in the garden.
It’s the time of year to take it easy with your activity and treat your body with some respect.  Remember that you are potentially a bit stiffer than you might like and the muscles are probably a bit tighter than usual so don’t go mad in the garden without a gentle warm up stretch.  Also watch out for the crazy snow clearing activity should that be required. Great for a good cardiovascular workout but your back may not like it so much.

Try not to be the one ringing for an emergency appointment with us over the next few months.  

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

The Problem and the Pain


Funnily enough the problem isn’t always where the pain is!

Osteopaths are used to seeing people in pain.  After all that’s usually why folk come to see us in the first place. They are hoping that we can relieve or ideally remove the pain.

As far as I’m concerned, one of my jobs as an osteopath is to make sure patients have a better understanding of why they are in pain.  It comes as a surprise to many people when they find out that the bit that hurts is often not really the site of the underlying problem.

We are talking basic mechanics here.  If one area stops working something else normally has to work harder to compensate.  The classic example of this which I seem to be seeing a lot of recently is pain and tension around the hip and buttock.  Okay so we know where the pain is but when we look to see how things are working we find that in actual fact the hip is moving really well and it’s often the base of the back which is stiff and ridged even though there’s no back pain.

The pain around the hip is related to the tension in the muscles and soft tissues that are being worked so hard as a result of the low back essentially not pulling its weight.  Treatment therefore is relatively straight forward. We soften up all the over worked muscles but, more importantly, make sure we back that up with waking up the low back so that it starts moving again.  Working the muscles around the hip alone may provide some temporary relief but patients often find that the problem recurs because the underlying problem has not been addresses.

So the moral of the story is that the problem isn’t always where the pain is.  Step back and take a look at the whole thing.