There are various health benefits of Spinal Manipulation and adjustment . Here are 10:
1. It relieves pain
2. It increases range of movement
3. It improves physical function
4. Increases blood circulation
5. It stimulates neurophysiology
6. It improves digestive function
7. It breaks joint fixations
8. Increases the body’s capacity to compensate
9. Releases nerve entrapment
10. Creates a powerful psychological effect of elation
The journal Arthritis Care and Research has published findings showing that women who regularly drink fat-free or low-fat milk experienced a delayed progression of knee Osteoarthritis.
However the findings also show that those who regularly ate cheese had an increased progression of knee Osteoarthritis.
The dietary information of 2148 individuals was gathered at the start of the study and the joint space of the knee was regularly measured via X-ray after 1, 2, 3 and 4 years.
It was seen that those who drunk more milk up to 7 glasses per week, the joint space width decreased.
No significant link was seen in men.
A study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy has shown the effects of acupuncture to be beneficial to neck pain.
17 patients with acute neck pain, were divided into two groups. One group received dry needling to trigger points whilst the other group remained untreated.
The treated group showed significantly better improvement with 33% reporting less pain immediately after treatment and 66% reporting less pain after 1 week. They also reported improved movement of the neck.
The plank exercise helps strengthen midsection, upper-body and lower-body muscles along the front of your body. Planks also strengthen inner core muscles that support your joints. The rectus abdominis and transverse abdominis that form your outer and inner abdominal muscles, respectively, are primary supporters during plank exercises. The abdominal obliques also stabilize the plank position isometrically. Upper-body stabilizers include the pectoral and serratus muscles. Lower-body stabilizers include the quadriceps, sartorius and tensor fasciae latae.
Plank exercises help increase flexibility in posterior muscle groups throughout your body. Your shoulder girdle expands and stretches various muscles around your shoulders, collarbone and shoulder blades. Pressing the front of your thighs upward and lengthening your legs as much as possible stretches the hamstrings that form the back of your thighs. Plank exercises also stretch the arches of your feet as your toes hyperextend to support your weight.
Plank exercises have aesthetic benefits that can enhance your appearance by improving posture. Planks activate core muscles, including the transverse abdominis and iliopsoas, which stabilize your spine and hips. Plank exercises help prevent or reverse postural deficiencies, including lordosis and posterior pelvic tilt. Lordosis, or swayback, results from abdominal weaknesses that overextend your back; it tends to make your buttocks stick out. Posterior pelvic tilt, or flat back, results from hip flexor weaknesses and flattens the normal curvature of your spine.
Plank exercises might provide mental benefits that improve your mood. Plank exercises stretch muscles that commonly stiffen throughout the day and contribute to stress. Sitting at your desk might tighten muscles along the back of your thighs when your legs remain bent for several hours. Tension also develops in the shoulder girdle, if your shoulders tend to slump forward. The website Yoga Journal recommends plank exercises for stress reduction, because planks can help calm your brain. Plank exercises might also help to suppress anxiety. Symptoms of depression may improve if you perform plank exercises.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/500440-what-does-the-plank-exercise-benefit/
Following are some guidelines of how to achieve good posture and ergonomics in the workplace and other situations.
It is important to note that an overall cause of bad posture is tense muscles, which will pull the body out of alignment. There are a number of specific exercises that will help stretch and relax the major back muscles. Some people find that meditation or other forms of mental relaxation are effective in helping relax the back muscles. And many people find treatments and activities such as massage therapy, yoga, tai chi or other regular exercise routines, or treatments such as chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation, etc. to be helpful with both muscle relaxation and posture awareness and improvement.
http://www.spine-health.com/wellness/ergonomics/posture-straighten-your-back
The headline news today is that scientists have proven that positive thinking can help beat the pain of Osteoarthritis. The research that took place at the University of Manchester was funded by Arthritis Research UK.
This is another case of age-old knowledge being claimed by science as revolutionary scientific thought. It really isn’t.
Basic Osteopathic philosophy states that the body is a unit. Our mind, body and spirit are individual domains that are interlinked to create a whole. These domains interact with and influence each other.
By this principle, if you are emotionally stressed you can experience physical symptoms such as tight muscles in your shoulders, headaches, nausea, indigestion. The body can lead onto emotional stress also, for example when concerned over physical symptoms you can get emotional symptoms like anxiety. This is a good illustration of how the mental and physical states are interlinked and influence each other.
Placebo effect is another good illustration. This is when a sham treatment is administered whilst the patient believes they are being given a treatment to target their ailment. In the early 1800’s placebo was commonly used as a treatment in itself. The only way placebo could work is if the mind, spirit and belief systems can affect the physical domain.
I very often say to my patients to keep a positive mental attitude as I have noticed that it can speed up the healing process.
This basic piece of medical common sense is front page news today. The newspaper article further patronizes its readers by showing a picture of a hand with labels of the index finger, middle finger and ring finger.
Scientists, please do give attention to basic medical philosophy but please give credit to where credit is due!
And on a positive note, I truly hope this research helps a lot of arthritis sufferers out there.
It has long been said in jest that the brains of men and women work very differently. Perhaps this is true as Neuroscience studies at University of Pennsylvania suggests.
Neuroscientists have found that there is greater connectivity from front to back in one hemisphere in the brains of men, whereas there is more connectivity between the left and right hemispheres in women.
This is potentially, evidence that backups our gender stereotypes that men are single-task focused whereas women are better multi-taskers.
This research has been criticised by Neuropsychologists at Oxford University for not accounting for how connections can change over time due to changes in behaviour and environment.
The health of the parents before and during pregnancy is of utmost importance to health of the baby.
Most mums experience morning sickness which resolves by the 12th-14th week. Some mothers continue to suffer throughout the pregnancy. This will result in altered eating habits to calm the nausea which will mean the baby is low on certain vitamins. Taking supplements including folic acid and vitamin D3 should help.
Smoking is obviously not good during pregnancy. Babies are likely to develop smaller in smoking mothers and more likely to succumb to cot death. Children of parents who smoke are more likely to suffer from bronchitis and asthma.
Alcohol ingested by the mum can be harmful to the baby particularly within the first 8 weeks potentially causing foetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol consumption creates damage to the central nervous system causing learning difficulties in the child and predisposes them to mental health problems and drug addictions.
When the mother gets ill during pregnancy, sometimes the illness and the medications taken for it can have an impact on the developing baby. Acute infections and diabetes can have effects on baby.
Drugs such as cocaine, LSD, heroin etc. taken during pregnancy have a direct effect upon the nervous system of the foetus and can delay development. It must be remembered that opium derivatives are prescribable and strong painkillers and sedatives should be avoided during pregnancy if possible.
Severe asthma in the mother with her experiencing attacks can temporarily deprive the oxygen levels to the baby can have a lasting effect. Thus it is important to keep asthma well managed during pregnancy.
Emotional stress during pregnancy can affect the base line levels of hormones such as cortisone and adrenalin as the mothers constant hormone levels set base line for baby thus creating a baby that is more tense, clingy, irritable and restless.
Within the womb, baby should be completely surrounded by amniotic fluid and thus protected from external pressures. When there is large baby vs a small uterus or twins there may be consistent compression from the uterus or from the presence of the sibling. This can cause moulding of the baby which can be commonly seen in children with a cone head or plagiocephalic/brachiocephalic presentation.
If you feel a consultation would be of benefit to you or your baby contact Elite
0203 514 8957
The traumatic effects of labour upon the baby
People commonly think that babies are born perfect without any structural strains because they are so young and flexible. This is actually not true.
Labour is not just a difficult process for the mum it is also extremely traumatic for the baby. Its first experience before it enters the wide world.
It goes from an environment where the baby is cushioned and protected by amniotic fluid into the world where it first experiences gravity and tractions, lumps and bumps.
During labour, the uterus exerts tremendous forces in order to expel the baby plus he/she must pass through the natural resistance of the birth canal and the mother’s bony pelvis. Quite a journey!
Most of the stresses and strains experienced by babies during labour are naturally released slowly afterwards. But some strains within some babies can remain unresolved. The child grows around these strains causing them to grow in a distorted way.
It is said the aesthetics of health and beauty is symmetry of the body and the face. If you carefully study the majority of people’s faces you can see facial asymmetry as one eye lower than the other, a bent nose, a flat head on one side. Assuming they haven’t receive any kind of trauma to the head or face, then they are reflections of remnant strains that the child had to accommodate during their growth phase.
The stresses and strains relating to labour can be easily and quickly resolved with osteopathic treatment when they are babies as tissues are very pliable but as the body gets older the stresses and strains become more embedded and the tissues less adaptive so can be very difficult if not impossible to eliminate in the adult.
A paediatric osteopath can help by using a variety of gentle and subtle manipulative techniques to help release the strains within the cranium. The younger the child, the easier and quicker the resolution of these stresses.
It is in the authors opinion that all babies should be osteopathically checked to ensure the musculoskeletal system and cranium is neutrally aligned.
If you feel a consultation would be of benefit to you or your baby contact Elite
0203 514 8957
MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
Multiple Sclerosis is a lifelong condition that usually affects the young aged between 20-40 years of age, usually females more than males.
MS is an autoimmune condition where the immune system becomes confused and attacks the myelin coating of the nervous system. Where the attacks happen, plaques and lesions are left behind on the nerve and sometimes the nerve itself can be damaged.
The damage and the presence of the plaques cause the nerve impulses that travel along the nerves to slow down, become distorted or even stop.
Therefore the symptoms experienced by sufferers varies between people depending upon the degree of damage and which nerves have been damaged.
Some symptoms are:
• Optic neuritis
• Loss of balance
• Difficulty walking
• Dizziness
• Urinary incontinence/retention
• Bowel incontinence/constipation
• Fatigue
• Memory loss/difficulty concentrating
• Depression
• Pain
• Sexual disturbance
• Muscle stiffness/spasm
• Speech difficulty
• Difficulty swallowing
• Tremor
Once the damage to the nerves has been done, the damage is unlikely to reverse as the recovery rate for neural tissue is incredibly slow.
Orthodox treatment approach are disease modifying drugs such as Beta-Interferon injections, Glateramer Acetate and Tysabri venous infusions. These should be discussed with your doctor.
Although MS cannot be reversed that leaves patients in a difficult position as they must still manage their symptoms.
Osteopathy and Chiropractic and also Acupuncture can help patients manage their symptoms of pain, muscle stiffness and spasm, speech and swallowing difficulty and fatigue. With treatment and time patients may even notice improvement in concentration, mood, emotional disturbance and general mobility and flexibility.
Sufferers would also benefit from Pilates, Callanetics, meditation, exercise, modified diet.
If you need help with MS symptoms, contact us at Elite
info@eliteosteopathy.co.uk
http://www.eliteosteopathy.co.uk
0203 514 8957
Elite Osteopathy Chiropractic London 