Pain in or around your heel may be due to plantar fasciitis, or more correctly, plantar fasciosis. It can feel like a bruise or burning pain under your heel, tender on firm pressure. It usually starts for no apparent reason but can be the result of poor anatomical alignment of the foot and/or tight calf muscles. Poor standing and incorrect movement patterns in walking can put uneven load on the plantar fascia, which is a thick band of connective tissue along the sole of the foot that … [Read more...] about Plantar Fasciitis
Back Care
Back Pain Prevention The spine is designed to be in the upright position. If you are bending or sitting for a prolonged period, stand up and lean back a few times. This reverses stress on soft tissue and bony structures in the low back. Arching the back in standing is a simple exercise and is very effective for preventing acute onset of low back pain. If sitting for long periods, use a lumbar cushion. This maintains the normal curves in the spine (which is designed to be in the upright … [Read more...] about Back Care
Common Shoulder Problems
The 2 most common problems presenting to the clinic are Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen shoulder) and Rotator Cuff degeneration. Frozen shoulder is usually of insidious onset, more commonly found in females than males. It can be present from a few months to 18 months. Rotator Cuff injuries are a common presentation to the clinic. They often occur as a result of normal activities of daily living, such as lifting, but may also be the result of a sporting injury or a fall. Tendon pathologies are … [Read more...] about Common Shoulder Problems
Exercise
Use an expert If you have pain, exercises should be commenced only after you have been assessed by someone who is qualified to deal with musculoskeletal problems. It's not a case of one size fits all. If people start exercising inappropriately they can easily make their condition worse. Exercises should be prescribed after a thorough objective and subjective assessment by someone who has knowlege and experience in dealing in conditions which present with pain, movement impairment or … [Read more...] about Exercise
What is a Frozen Shoulder?
A frozen shoulder (or adhesive capsulitis) is when your shoulder becomes acutely painful and loses freedom of motion as a result of inflammation of the capsule of the shoulder. It usually starts for no apparent reason and can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months to recover completely. Thorough initial assessment is important to determine that a stiff, painful shoulder is not a rotator cuff problem, which requires a different treatment plan. There are three stages in a frozen … [Read more...] about What is a Frozen Shoulder?
Travelling Tips
Lumbar Rolls When sitting for prolonged periods it's wise to place a lumbar roll in the small of the back. It's common for back pain to begin after sitting in a slouched position for too long. When travelling an inflatable back cushion can be purchased at a low cost and could save you from spoiling your holiday by getting a bad back! Also important is to interrupt prolonged sitting at regular intervals. The best way of doing this is by standing up and bending your trunk backwards a few … [Read more...] about Travelling Tips
Tendinopathy
Chronic tendon pain: no signs of chemical inflammation. Implications for treatment? Tendons are renowned sources of chronic symptoms in a wide range of upper and lower-limb disorders. This is not chronic inflammation, as inflammatory cells are never found in this degenerated tissue. With continued prolonged or repetitive loading, micro-trauma in a tendon may result and an inflammatory response is triggered, the first stage on the road to recovery. This is followed by tissue repair and … [Read more...] about Tendinopathy
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis occurs when bones lose minerals, such as calcium, quicker than the body can replace them, resulting in a loss of bone thickness. This causes bones to become brittle, with a higher risk of breaking than normal bones. Women are at greater risk of osteoporosis due to the rapid decline in oestrogen levels during menopause, which causes bone to lose calcium and other minerals at a much faster rate. From the age of 25 until the time of menopause, bone mass remains relatively stable, … [Read more...] about Osteoporosis
Mindfulness
What is Mindfulness? You may have heard of a recently popular approach to bring more focus and calmness into our busy lives. This approach, called mindfulness, is promoted by many health and educatory bodies. With all the things around us, all demanding our attention, we often end up navigating through life on autopilot. Dr. Chris Walsh describes mindfulness as one of the most powerful ways in which we can deal with and overcome psychological, emotion and physical stress. He describes it as … [Read more...] about Mindfulness
Headaches
Headache can often be coming from the upper cervical spine, commonly called cervicogenic headache. The pain is usually associated with some degree of pain and stiffness in the neck. A common cause of headache is poor posture especially when the head is held in protruded positions for long periods such as in sitting using a computer. As the spine is designed to be in an upright position, long periods of sitting with the head forward can stress upper cervical spine segments and refer pain into the … [Read more...] about Headaches