A Little Imbalance is Good For You

As an osteopath I don’t expect to see perfection.  I don’t see perfectly straight backs.

As far as I’m concerned the perfectly straight back simply doesn’t exist, despite the fact that some professions with an interest in physical therapy seem to almost scare patients half to death with the warning that their spine isn’t straight, that there’s a scoliosis (a posh term for a twist in the spine).

Let’s look at this sensibly.  Most of us are right handed or left handed. Even in folk that are apparently ambidextrous there will still be a dominant side.  This natural imbalance in the way we use our bodies inevitably results in different development on either side of the body.

If you are right handed the chances are that your right shoulder, arm, wrist and hand is stronger than the other side.  To be stronger there will be better muscle development. It also means that the right shoulder is probably naturally held a little further forward and a little lower than the left shoulder. The flexibility will also be different.  The dominant right arm generally moves more so the right shoulder girdle will tend to be more flexible, whereas the slightly weaker left side doesn’t get as much exercise and is probably stiffer through the shoulder.

This natural imbalance will also occur through the low back, pelvis, hips and legs. Footballers, karate experts, and dancers will all have a preferred leg, a stronger leg or a more flexible leg. So no great surprise that there will always be one leg slightly longer or shorter than the other! 

Imbalance is normal, so long as it’s a little imbalance.  All ‘normal’ folk out there will be walking around with imbalance and they won’t be suffering because of it. Obviously if the imbalance becomes more than a little imbalance then things can go wrong; muscles will complain, joints will stiffen up, aches and pains will kick in.  This is where osteopathic treatment can help to get you back to your normal imbalanced self where you can function happily and comfortably again . . . even if it’s not perfectly balanced.

So if a therapists starts making tut tutting sounds as he mentions a difference in leg lengths, if there are disapproving noises when he describes the twisted pelvis, and if there is a sharp intake of breath when there is talk of a curve in the spine . . . . DON’T PANIC.  Remember that imbalance is normal and expecting to achieve perfection is an unrealistic goal.

Of course that’s not to say you shouldn’t strive to achieve perfection. The closer you get to a balanced structure the better your body will perform, but for mere mortals living a normal life a little imbalance is no bad thing.

I’m happy to admit that as an osteopath I strive to get patients back to a lesser degree of imbalance, to the level of imbalance that’s normal for them. I’m just a therapist, I’m not a magician.

Osteopathy and Eczema?

How on earth can osteopathy be used to treat eczema?  My youngest daughter is now 8 months old.  Born at home, breast feeding went well and continues, weaning is going great and she’s been generally very healthy but there has been an issue with her skin.  She has eczema and all in all it’s getting better with sensible skin care approaches and some homeopathic input.  However, she’s now at a stage where if she gets stressed the first thing she does, even before starting to cry, is to scratch.  So the obvious thing to do is to bring her along to see Lisa for some osteopathic treatment isn’t it?

Osteopathy and eczema shouldn’t be such a bizarre combination if you follow the basic wholistic treatment idea.  The word ‘wholistic’ get’s used a lot nowadays to describe treatments but the fundamentals of what exactly it means to be wholistic often gets lost in translation.  When it comes to treating people we have to remember that they’re complicated things so an osteopath might stick his or her fingers into a sore bit of someone’s back but that sore bit is connected to many other things.  And it’s not just physically connected, there’s also a mind and emotions and belief systems that are connected to that physical pain.  It’s the whole idea of saying that a patient isn’t just a physical body. Don’t forget the mind and the spirit. . . . Very hippy / New Age idea maybe, but common sense none the less.

Everyone will know that when they’re stressed it has a physical impact on the body.  The shoulders might tense up, the breathing might get shallow, tension headaches might kick in so stress isn’t just a psychological thing.  Physical treatment such as osteopathy has a direct effect on the stress response, so if stress is what triggers the eczema then effectively calming down the stress response will ease the eczema.

With an 8 month old baby obviously the osteopathic treatment techniques used need to be adapted and this is where the more subtle so called cranial techniques come in useful. Lisa has had extensive postgraduate training in cranial osteopathic techniques and paediatrics so she’s the lady to see.  Let’s hope it calms down the scratching.

Of course it’s not only babies that can get stressed so even us adults could do with a little bit of de-stressing from time to time.  Given that it’s holiday time it could even be argued that some folk have to cope with more stress during their holidays than at other times!  School holidays, budget airlines, time with family, shattered expectations . . . sometimes it’s a dangerous mix.

So if it does become all a bit too much over the summer some osteopathic input might be just the thing to calm the system down.  Of course we’re also around to pick up the pieces after the luggage induced injuries, the over enthusiastic activity holidays and the plain old seized up car journey backs.

Give me space

Oh no, not another slipped disc!

Let’s get this right, discs don’t slip. If there is one way to make an osteopath hold his head in his hands and moan a little it’s to say ‘I’ve got a slipped disc’. The discs in the spine we are talking about here are well and truly glued and welded to the vertebrae in-between which they sit. There is no way one of them can slip. Are we clear on that now?

So if it doesn’t slip what does it do? Like the rest of the body, if a disc is not treated particularly well it wears out. The nice strong ligamentous shell that encases the slightly more fluid gel like centre can dehydrate, crack and warp.  Eventually a bulge can appear on the disc as it fails under the pressure and, on a really bad day the disc may even herniate or burst allowing the central gel core to leak out.

If a disc herniates you’ll know about it. The leaking gel will press on to the nerve arising from the spine at that level and that pressure will be made even worse as a result of the inflammatory reaction that occurs around the disc.  Inflammation means swelling and swelling in a confined space right next to a nerve is not good news. Pressure on the nerve produces intense pain that normal pain killers won’t touch along with pins and needles, numbness and weakness along the path of the nerve.  This most commonly occurs in the bottom of the back and affects the leg on one side but it can also happen in the neck and affect an arm.

If it gets to the herniated disc stage often surgery is the only way forward.  Better to catch the problem at the slightly warn out bulging disc stage so you don’t have to go down that route.  Bulging discs are not uncommon. Many folk with have them and not know that they are there but eventually, a bit of extra stain or pressure on the spine will push things over the edge. There might be localised pain around the area and protective muscle spasm. The muscle spasm itself can be really very painful.  There may also be signs of the nerve pinching if the bulge is big enough to press on a nerve root, so the pins and needles and numbness may occur. This is your body sending you a warning. Treat this the right way and it won’t necessarily deteriorate into the full grown disc herniation.

The way forward is to create space. The disc has essentially collapsed, usually to one side.  It acts like a deformed balloon, as the bulge appears the structure collapses to the side of the bulge so compressing everything on that side, nerves included. The natural tendency for the body is often to lean to the opposite side in an attempt to take pressure off the bulging side. The muscles all around the area want to hold on tight in an attempt to protect the area so spasm sets in. The problem with spasm is that it compresses things together, which is the opposite of what you really need.  We’re looking for space, to decompress the disc and give it room to reduce the pressure on the nerves.

Creating space by stretching and reducing the muscle spasm is the way forward.  And no, we won’t be following that up by ‘putting the disc back in place’.  If it never came out in the first place it won’t need putting back in!

Breast Feeding and Osteopathy

There must have been a baby boom over Christmas because already we’re seeing more than normal numbers of post natal patients (mums and dads!) to start the year.  Interestingly it’s not just the usual pelvic and low back aches and pains which have been presenting to us. There have also been a number of breast feeding related issues.

If you were to do a Google search for ‘Breast Feeding and Osteopathy’ it’s interesting to see that the majority of the articles that come up are related to potential problems with the baby and how cranial osteopathy can be of use.  Whilst that maybe true I find it strange that more emphasis isn’t placed on the mother. The regular feeding routine, especially through the night time hours can leave its mark on mums’ body. Feeding a little one when you’re half asleep in the early hours of the morning can see you slumped and twisted in all sorts of awkward positions, resulting in a stiff and achy back.  The tensions introduced by poor feeding posture along with the constant strains on the system from nursing a baby can lead to a slowing down of milk flow.

Stiffness across the upper back and shoulders along with a slumped posture with rounded shoulders effectively can restrict the flow of milk to the breast(s).  It can also reduce lymphatic drainage away from the breast resulting in an increased risk of mastitis. You may find that one breast seems to be favoured by the baby possibly because the flow of milk seems better on one side.  This can mean that mum ends up holding the baby on one side more than the other which increases the physical imbalance on the body which further complicates the problem.  Osteopathy can work really well with these sorts of problems.

Of course it might also be useful to get the baby checked over to see how he or she is coping with breast feeding.  This is where cranial techniques can be very effective. It maybe that the birthing process has left baby with a preference for turning the head in one direction and struggling to turn the opposite way. This obviously has potential implications for breast feeding so sometimes both mum and baby need some attention.