Yes, the bane of our lives and one of THE most common causes of the troubles we see. It’s not uncommon for people with physical jobs to think that they’d be much better off with a desk job. But I can assure you I’d much rather be in a physical job than being sat at a desk all day at Norwich United insurance (or Arriba as they’d now be called – if they were real).

Our bodies are designed to move. We’re still, at heart, hunter gatherers. We’ve not evolved a whole lot in the last 10,000 years. Back then, before cars, X-boxes and Starbuckses, we moved around… a lot! Our day consisted of running around hunting stuff, wandering around gathering stuff, sleep and…. not a lot else.

There was some other activity (we had to make other hunter gatherers for example!) but basically that was it. It was a very active lifestyle. It’s been estimated that we’d do at least an hour of vigorous aerobic activity every day and periods of “weight-lifting type” activity regularly each week. Nowadays we drive to work, sit all day, drive home and crash out on the sofa. To be fair most of my patients are different to this and walk the dog, cycle, do the garden and run regularly (not usually all the same person you understand).

The aim of this entry is not to be an all-encompassing treatise on working posture and sedentary ergonomics … rather a quick reminder about a couple of key points relating to activity:

1) Get up and move around regularly. Ideally, every 20 to 30 minutes go for a stroll for a few minutes. Even if you just get up and have a stretch standing in front of your desk, it’d help.
2) Drink lots of water. Yes, I know I bang on about it but it helps to keep you alert and means you have to get up to go to the loo regularly too! I won’t repeat myself too much here – see my other blog about water.
3) Meetings. If you have any control over how they’re run, make sure that those present get up and stretch every half-hour or so. You’ll get so much more out of them. It combats fatigue (and boredom). More alert people get more done. It really will help and don’t let anyone sit-out the stretch breaks.
The key is (as is so often the case) little and often. You’re much better off doing a bit of cardiovascular work every day, even taking the stairs rather than the lift, than you are doing nothing all week and then going berserk at the squash court for 45 minutes once a week. Just a few changes here can bring huge rewards in the long term.

Ok you’ve read for long enough now, up you get and have a stretch… go on .

During my time in practice, I’ve seen many people who’ve overworked and taken liberties with their spines for many years. They get away with it for a long time and then, one day, bang, they’re picking up a pencil and their back “goes”.  So, was it the pencil or was it all the other times of misuse and strain finally coming to a head?

It is, of course, the latter. It was the “straw that broke the camels back” as they say (though as a chiropractor it’s not one of my favourite turns of phrase!). Did they have a back problem five minutes before their sudden symptoms or for many years before? The answer is usually the latter. Would we have been able to detect that? Almost certainly.

Alarm bells

Problems often build up over many years. A fall here, a heavy lift there, stress, tension, overwork, repetitive motions, sitting for long periods, etc. It all adds up and eventually reaches a level sufficient to trigger the body’s alarm bell; The backache, sciatica, neckpain, headaches etc. Doesn’t it make sense to deal with those effects on your spine on a regular basis rather than waiting until they overflow again?

This is why we advise everyone to get checked and why we recommend checking and correcting your spine on an ongoing basis after, of course, we’ve helped your body to heal by removing interference. It’s SO much easier to keep you well than to get you well.

Just like you’re wise to look after your teeth it pays to look after your spine. Don’t wait for the alarm bell? After all, your spine and nervous system controls everything – so how important is that?!

Yours in health

Neil Folker

So… Your spine’s started to click a lot more now has it? Fine. It’s to do with how your body responds to the changes in flexibility as a result of the beginning stages of chiropractic care.

First let’s just briefly recap on what a subluxation is. It’s a part of your spine that, in a nutshell, is stiff and doesn’t work as it should. Very often there are compensations in other levels in your spine that move more than they should. The more flexible a joint is the more easily it can move enough to click or pop. So… you’ve got some stiff and some extra flexible joints (that may click a bit more easily – occasionally).

Now you’re getting adjusted the tight parts start to loosen up. So you’ve got the loose compensating parts and now some increasingly normal flexibility parts. Net effect? Generally loose….so… when you then stretch that area of the spine, sometimes reaching out to a cupboard or just having a general stretch, then the overused part can move to such an extent that it will click by itself. Now, as time goes on and the spine settles down to work normally at all levels, then the clicking will decrease as everything goes back to working normally.

So nothing to worry about and, in the words of Tom Jones, it’s not unusual.

Yours in health,

Dr Neil

Symptoms are your body’s attempt to alert you when things are getting really bad! The trouble is that the problem itself often starts long before you see the signs and it’s only then that we think to see someone about it. For example, tooth decay is present long before the actual toothache starts (that’s why we can end up getting unexpected fillings).

It’s a similar thing with our spines. Your spine is amazing and will adapt and work around problems that develop over the years as a result of falls, traumas, poor lifestyle habits, work stress etc. In fact, because your body is so good at adapting to traumas, accidents and poor habits, you may be pain free for months or years. Eventually, however, your body becomes overwhelmed; your spine can’t compensate anymore and rings the alarm bell, or in other words, lets you know by producing symptoms. So… you’ve been “feeling” ok, whilst your spine has been slowly going downhill and may now be in quite a bad way, both structurally and symptomatically. Furthermore, if we ignore our symptoms, which are just our body’s cry for help, and even put up with them for years, problems can become chronic. Degenerative changes can start to take place.

The good news is that chiropractic works quite quickly. We have a saying in chiropractic that pain is the last thing to come and the first thing to go. Unfortunately, the fact that this often happens can lull us into a false sense of security. Occasionally, I hear people say “I’m feeling so much better, I think I’ll leave it for now” by this they mean their chiropractic care.  Now, this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you are feeling better, that you are better. This is simply NOT SO! To think in this way, is to say that lack of symptoms equals good health.

Now you know that symptoms are merely your body’s alarm bell, what do we , as chiropractors, go by when assessing the health of your spine? Function is the answer. As a chiropractor, I go by how your spine is functioning. Of course I’m interested in your symptoms, but function is my main concern and it’s the way I assess how you’re doing. My aim is to get you to recover as well as your body is able to. This means getting you out of pain and then ensuring your spine is functioning well. Meaning that we make sure that the muscles and ligaments are doing their job in supporting your spine – something they can only do when your spine has been stabilised and everything is given the time to strengthen. This means going through the Initial stage to correct the problems in your spine and then the Reconstructive stage to stabilise your spine and allowing muscles and ligaments to strengthen. Only then can maintenance keep you at your best.

Chiropractic aims to help you be the very best that you can be. Together we can make sure you’re not just symptom free but problem free and that you stay amazing!

Yours in Health

Neil Folker

Why sugar-free doesn’t equal problem-free!

It occurred to me the other day when I stopped to fill up with petrol how much cola dominated the drink shelves there. I know, I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but really, when you look at it, there is a ton of the stuff in there. There is admittedly a lot of water there too but, and it’s a big but, there is a sneaky rise in the number of flavoured, sugar-free waters now too. So, I thought it’d be a good time to have a quick review of the dangers of artificial sweeteners.

Why is it that most of the people who are overweight drink diet drinks? Why doesn’t sugar-free work?

There is evidence that sugar substitutes make you fat. It seems that if you have these chemicals instead of sugar it dupes your body into thinking it’s had something sweet BUT a little while later its as though your body realises and says “Hang on a minute I haven’t had sugar after all!” and then proceeds to give you carbohydrate cravings. As a result of that you can put on more weight.

The whole area is full of controversy as animal studies are one of the primary sources of research into this. Rats, it’s been discovered, break down Aspartame (the most common artificial sweetener) in exactly the same way we do and they suffer from a number of toxic effects even at low levels! It’s claimed that some of the worst effects are neurological and it has been found to inhibit neural growth – it messes up your brain. Reported and documented side effects in humans include:

Headaches

Dizziness

Seizures

Mood disorders

Memory loss

and vomiting and many many more

Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Why would anyone drink something that has the potential to do that to them? Now, some of these side-effects affect a small proportion of individuals but would you want to take that risk? I should add that there are only a few studies that have rigorously tested these findings and it would appear that they show up more on the longer term trials. It’s with remembering that Aspartame started life as an ulcer drug NOT as a food additive – so every diet drink is a “dose of medicine” that you don’t need!

So my message here (which is as easy to see coming as the big red lorry when they play the “holidays are coming” advert) is drink the fluid your body actually needs. The one it’s meant to have, water. I know, I know, I’m very boring but fizzy drinks have been shown to interfere with your bone density and, through these toxic sweeteners, your nervous system. So, if you really must have some cola stuff at least go for small amounts of the sugar stuff.

Sugar, bad though it is, is at least slightly more natural and you have a better chance of coping with it. In small quantities!

Remember the artificial sweeteners come in many forms – there’s Aspartame, Acesulphame K, Sorbitol, Saccharin (now banned in the US), Sucralose: so you have to be vigilant on those food and drink labels. They are even hidden away in things like vitamin C tablets (esp. those fizzy ones) and, I noticed the other day, chewing gum – it’s full of the stuff!

If you’d like to find out more here’s a good place to start

http://www.aspartamedangers.com/

All in all the basic message is a simple one, drink as natural a drink as you can…. preferably water. That way you are much more likely to stay healthy, hydrated and be your best.

Until next time

Yours in health

Neil Folker

Chiropractor