Buzz Buzz Buzz ... Clinic News
Many of our young patients are up to their necks in exams; it’s a tough time of year for them mentally, but don't forget the physical affect it has on their spines. Make sure they break regularly, get plenty of exercise, sleep and eat quality food. Try and avoid sugar rich snacks that will make them moody and irritable. Prepare quick snacks of smoothies, veggie sticks with hummus and other dips, seeds and nuts for them. Water should be drunk frequently to keep the brain well hydrated. See below for some more tips on tech neck and healthy eating…
If you missed our newsletter last month we are sorry - there were some technical issues with the site that generates it. Have a quick peak at www.beestonchiropractic.co.uk/newsletters/ to view anything you might have missed.
We've been super busy at the clinic with back to back appointments, and our waiting list has been building up. Unfortunately we've had a spate of missed appointments recently, so we'd like to politely remind our patients to check their text reminders that they receive the day before their appointment. If you have an issue with your appointment and can’t attend then please call us so we can rearrange it. This way we can ensure everyone gets the treatment they need, when they need it!
Have you changed you GP recently, address, or any other details on your personal records that would be helpful for us to know? Drop us an email and we can update them.
Keeping Technology Healthy for Teens
Teenagers can be at risk from suffering back or neck pain due to sedentary lifestyles and the excessive use of technology. Findings from the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) show that 40% of 11 to 16 year olds in the UK have experienced back or neck pain. More than one in seven (15%) parents said their son’s or daughter’s pain is a result of using a laptop, tablet or computer. The research revealed that almost three quarters (68%) of 11 to 16 year olds spend between one and four hours a day on a laptop, tablet or computer and 73% spend between one and six hours on the devices. More than a third (38%) of parents said their child spends between one and six hours a day on their mobile phone. Chiropractors are now noticing a rise in the number of young people presenting with neck and back problems due to their lifestyle choices.
Today, the BCA is encouraging parents to limit the time their children spend using technology and instead encourage more active pastimes over the holidays. Based on a two hour period, young people spend more time on games consoles (33%) than doing an activity like riding a bicycle (12%). When asked how much time their teenager spends on their bicycle, one in five (21%) parents admitted that they don’t have one. Nearly half (46%) of parents questioned, acknowledged that their children don’t spend enough time exercising, despite NHS guidelines stating that children and young people between 5 and 18 years old need to do at least one hour of physical activity every day.
More people under the age of sixteen are being seen with back and neck pain, and technology is so often the cause. Young people are becoming increasingly sedentary which is damaging their posture. There is the tendency to sit in a hunched position when working on computers and laptops, putting a lot of strain on the neck. Learning how to sit properly and keeping active will help to keep young people healthy and pain free. It’s important that parents seek help for their children from an expert as soon as any pain starts – if conditions are left untreated it could lead to chronic back and neck problems in later life.
The BCA offers the following top tips for parents to help their teenagers reduce the risks of back and neck pain:
- Get your kids moving: The fitter children are, the more their backs can withstand periods of sitting still. To increase fitness levels, your child should be more active which can be achieved by doing activities including walking to school, riding a bike or going for a run.
- Teach them how to sit: It’s important that children learn the correct way to sit when they’re using a computer. Teach them to keep their arms relaxed and close to their body and place arms on the desk when typing. Make sure the top of the screen is level with the eyebrows and the chair is titled slightly forward, allowing for the knees to be lower than the hips and the feet to be flat on the floor. Using a laptop or tablet away from a desk will encourage poor posture, so limit time spent in this way.
- Don’t sit still for too long: Make sure children take a break from the position they’re sitting in on a regular basis and stretch their arms, shrug their shoulders and move their fingers around – this helps to keep the muscles more relaxed.
- Lead by example: Maintaining good posture and promoting good back health is something that everyone should be doing, adults and children alike. If you make it a priority, it’s easier for your children to see the relevance.
- Seek medical advice: Seek professional advice if your child is experiencing pain which has lasted for more than a few days. If your child wants to be more active, check that there are no medical reasons why they should not exercise, particularly if they are not normally physically active.
Avoid Back Pain When Flying
Anyone who is a frequent flier will be quick to tell you that long-haul flights don’t do anything to help aches and pains. Cramped leg room, uncomfortable seating and being confined to a small space are all the aspects of long-haul flights which people dread, even more so when you already suffer from back pain. Did you know that according to a survey by Spine Universe, an overwhelming 88% of people report experiencing increased back or neck pain after a flight. But those flights don’t have to be a complete pain in the back! Our advice below should help prepare you for those long-hauls!
How to reduce the risk of back and neck pain before your flight
- Keep up a regular exercise and stretching regime, particularly in the week before, so your muscles are as relaxed as possible prior to your flight.
- Pack lightly so you don’t have the added strain of carrying or lifting your luggage
- Make sure you have ibuprofen or another form of pain medication in your carry on bag, ready to use if your back or neck pain becomes really uncomfortable
How to alleviate back pain during your flight
- Support your back and neck with small pillows or blanket throughout your flight
- Keep your knees and hips levels, as to reduce the stress on the lower back while you’re seated
- Walk up and down the aisles, and use the spaces at the ends to stretch out your neck, back and legs
- Stay hydrated! Keep drinking water throughout your flight to avoid dehydration, which in turn can cause joint stiffness and can make your journey more uncomfortable
Remember if you are on a long-haul flight, it’s important to keep moving around to prevent muscles and joints from stiffening up.
Eating to Beat Stress
Chronic stress can have a negative effect on our physical health as well as our mental wellbeing. It can play a role in our susceptibility to illness and disease, but also in day-to-day functional problems such as pain and stiffness. There are many steps we can take to improve our ability to cope with stress; nutrition is one of them. Here's a guide on what and how to eat to better manage stress…
Balancing your Blood Sugar
To cope well with stress we need our food to provide us with balanced, sustained energy. Foods that quickly break down into glucose and are quickly absorbed (such as sugary foods and fast-releasing carbohydrates) may give us a burst of energy, but can cause our blood sugar to peak and then dip. This can actually increase our body’s stress response and stress hormone levels, as well as making us feel irritated and out of control. Here are the fundamental steps to balancing your blood sugar:
- Eat primarily whole foods: vegetables, animal foods (eggs, fish, unprocessed meat, unsweetened dairy foods), nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, and some fruit. Avoid sugary snacks, refined carbohydrates and other processed foods such as breakfast cereals. Make sure every meal includes a good serving of protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates. The primary protein foods are the animal foods mentioned above, and nuts and seeds, and beans and lentils. Healthy fats are found in nuts and seeds, oily fish, avocados, and coconut. Complex carbs are found in vegetables, whole fruit (i.e. not fruit juices), whole grains, beans and lentils
- Eat regularly: Skipping meals or leaving too long between meals can cause your blood sugar level to drop too low, which can also trigger a stress response
- Getting enough food: As well as eating regularly, getting enough food is important when you’re dealing with stress. Going on a weight loss diet (whether it’s low-calorie, low-carb or low-fat) during a stressful time can be particularly bad for your stress levels. Instead, now is the time to focus on balancing your blood sugar as outlined above, by eating regular meals, getting enough protein, healthy fats and non-starchy vegetables and cutting the refined carbohydrates and junk foods. You should find it easier to manage your weight – or weightloss – by eating in this way anyway.
Healthy Snacking
Although regular snacking is not the best thing for everyone, it can be helpful if you’re coping with stress, again by helping to keep your blood sugar on an even keel. Your snacks need to be based on whole foods, and contain some protein and complex carbohydrates. Examples include:
- Two or three oatcakes with one of the following: a tablespoon of hummus, guacamole, cottage cheese, half an avocado, a hard-boiled egg or a teaspoon or two of nut butter (e.g. almond butter).
- A pot of natural yoghurt (without added sugar) with some berries and/or a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds mixed in.
- A wedge of left-over home-made frittata/omelette.
However, you shouldn’t need to be snacking more than once between meals; constantly ‘grazing’ can have a negative effect on your weight and your digestion!
Magnesium-rich Foods
The mineral magnesium plays a vital role in our psychological health, including our mood and how well we cope with stress. It’s thought that both physical and emotional stress can increase the body’s need for magnesium, and that having a low magnesium to calcium ratio can actually increase the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline.* The best food sources of magnesium are green leafy vegetables such as kale, chard and spinach; seeds and nuts; and whole grains – especially buckwheat and rye.
B Vitamin-rich Foods
B vitamins also play a vital role in our energy as well as our psychological function. The various B vitamins are found in different foods, but the best all-round sources include eggs, oily fish, organ meats (especially liver), seeds and nuts, and beans and pulses. Luckily these are also foods that are great for our blood sugar balance!
Avoid Overdoing Stimulants
Many of us turn to stimulants such as tea and coffee when we’re feeling stressed. But stimulants of any kind also trigger the body’s stress response. Try to keep your coffee consumption in particular to a minimum. Tea can have a gentler stimulating effect so can be better tolerated, but keeping it to one cup a day can still be advisable. Try to introduce calming herbal teas such as chamomile and spearmint – especially later in the day. Note that alcohol can also act as a stimulant as well as a relaxant. It also disrupts your blood sugar balance. Keep alcohol to a rare treat and stick to one drink only.
* Seelig MS. Consequences of magnesium deficiency on the enhancement of stress reactions; preventive and therapeutic implications (a review). J Am Coll Nutr. 1994 Oct;13(5):429-46.
Learn To Breathe To Reduce Stress
Our modern ways of living mean that our everyday lifestyle puts us in an almost constant state of excitement, whether we have something to be genuinely thrilled about or not! This can cause emotional problems including irritability, anger, and depression along with physical symptoms like headaches and stomach aches. Luckily, simply learning to breathe using certain techniques can help you to alleviate these issues. Many people that chiropractors see are suffering from stress in some way or another, whether this is muscular tension or poor sleep, both of which can impact heavily on day to day life. Practicing focused breathing exercises can help you relax and relieve the tension you’ve built up during the day and, done before you go to sleep, can help you slip off more quickly into a better quality sleep.
First, it is important to find a comfortable position for these breathing exercises. The most popular position for this is lying comfortably on your back, with a small pillow or book propping up your head, without straining your neck. If lying or sitting in an alternative position is more comfortable, this is fine too. The next step is to breathe using proper techniques. Ordinarily, throughout the day, you may tend to take small and shallow breaths. In contrast, breathing exercises involve taking deeper, fuller, longer breaths. A deep, relaxing breath should start in your stomach. If lying on your back, it can be helpful to place your hands on your stomach to feel it rise and fall with your breath. With deep breathing, your stomach, chest and collar bones may rise and expand, but your shoulders should remain still, without rising towards your ears. While doing this, it is important to focus on your breath. The point of breathing techniques such as this are to alleviate stress, not to give your mind the opportunity to dwell on stressful thoughts. Sometimes it can help to count each breath in and out, counting up to ten before beginning again. Alternatively, you might like to count each breath itself to ensure that you are breathing deeply. It is normal to count around 5-6 seconds in, hold for a few seconds, and exhale steadily. This is a great technique to practise in the evening and before bed.
During stressful incidents, you may tend to breathe shallow and quickly. This is effectively what happens in the fight or flight response and in times of stress can lead to hyperventilating. Therefore, when experiencing a stressful situation, at work, in traffic or with another person, it can help you dramatically to take a few deep breaths from your stomach to help calm down. Many people spend most of the day sedentary, sat at desks, and breathing shallow breaths. Taking just a few minutes a day to focus on breathing will help both body and mind.
Smoking and Lower Back Pain
Many people will easily link smoking to the symptoms of coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath, but how many people who complain of aches and pains in the lower back will think it could be related to lighting up a cigarette?
Smoking can have a range of negative effects on the body, but it is the interruption of the body's transport system and the supply of fresh blood and nutrients to certain areas that can ultimately cause pains in the lower back region. If you do smoke, it's important to be aware of the risks you may be putting your body through; it's not just the lungs that suffer when you inhale cigarette smoke, but the general health of the whole body.
For those that decide to stop smoking, there are various ways in which you can help the body adjust to a healthier way of life, here are a few tips:
- Drink plenty of water, as it helps to flush nicotine from the body
- Cut down on caffeine by drinking less tea and coffee as caffeine can act as a stimulant and induce nervousness
- Walk briskly for half an hour a day - you'll be more positive, burn up stress and calories and develop more energy and endurance
- Think positively about what you are doing. Instead of thinking that you are depriving yourself of a cigarette, think of all the good you are doing for your body
We treat all conditions that affect any muscle or joint in your body, from your head to your little toe! One of the most common complaints that we treat is back pain and Chiropractic is recommended by the government authority, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) for acute and chronic back pain. Some of the other conditions that we treat are neck and headache, shoulder pain, leg and hip pain, knee and foot pain, sciatica and arthritis. Our registered Chiropractors all have at least five years of training. Treatment costs can be covered through most health insurers. If you are in any doubt, we are always very happy to talk with you on the phone to see if your condition will respond well to Chiropractic treatment. Call the clinic now to arrange an appointment time that works for you. 0115 9225085 If you would like to opt-out of receiving these newsletters please follow the unsubscribe link below, email alex@beestonchiropractic.co.uk or let us know at your next appointment.
