ION Osteopaths

Here's a short video on neck stretches, it explains a way to stretch your neck that will avoid that problem where you 'over stretch' and actually make your neck worse !

Breathing,  the simply act of taking a breath.  It is automatic and we do it as much a s 30 000 times a day.  As simple as the process is the internal chemistry and the effects are felt in every cell in your body.  

Understanding breathing:  The Chemisty, the Science.

Skip this bit if you don't want to know the ins and outs (Ha! pun intended of breathing). I have kept it as simply as I can but that may be too much for you.  I feel you, move on.

 As we breath in Oxygen rich air it is absorbed in the lungs, where it travels into the blood system. Blood travels around the body delivering oxygen so  by the time it gets back to lungs it  is carbon dioxide dense and oxygen poor.   The carbon is released from the blood we breath it  out.  This keeps the balance in the blood and in our body. 

What causes us to breath in and out is controlled by the respiratory center which is located in the brain stem which sends messages...

Is your pillow causing your neck pain?  Probably not.

I was bored last night. I don't often feel bored, it usually means I am tired. It was only 7 15 and even thought I have made a commitment to going to bed earlier 7.15 is crazy early. Instead I hunkered down with a book.
I happened to read about how 400 000 Americans were so badly injured by pillows, beds and mattresses in 2007 that they required hospitalization!

It strikes me as very odd that you could inflict such damage upon yourself with a pillow that you require a trip to hospital.

What exactly are these people doing with their pillows? No judgement, just an obserbvation.

Speaking of pillows - (do you see what I did there )

We get asked almost everyday if we recommend a certain type of pillow to help with neck and back pain.
To be totally honest Jonathan always says:

"It makes very little difference and anyone telling you "this wonderful pillow will fix neck, back or shoulder pain" is . . . . well trying to sell you...

We've been treating for so many years now that we know for sure that most people don't have a regular stretch routine. And before I lose you, no this is not going to telling you how bad you are for not stretching it's just human nature, because unless we get a reward from something we're unlikely to keep doing it.

So why don't people get rewarded by stretching, because 

1. It's uncomfortable or painful - and we give up after a day or so

2. It's doesn't give any quick improvements

But that's becuase like dieting we steam into it with no real idea what we are doing, overdo it and at best just kill our enthusiasm and at worst injure ourselves.

So what the answer - well the magic bullet of stretching is the foam roller, but you've got to use it corrctly so if you've got one and you've been bashing it up and down your body, no stop ! That is ok if you like punishing yourself, but to make it the magic bullet you've got to do less not more, you've got it to use 2...

The skinny on Cold thermogenesis

So Jonathan and I have been recently throwing ourselves into our pool at 6 in the morning. Jonathan goes for the brutal dive in then rapidly swims 4 lengths. Shivers for about 5 mins then gets out. I who can’t stand the thought of freezing water in my ears, ease myself in slowly. Torturous like until I am up to my neck. After about 3 minutes the bliss feeling takes over and I soak for anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes depending on my day. Why you may ask, are we doing this? Well for a few reasons:

1. To practice what we believe to be beneficial, before unleashing it on our people
2. Because the research about doing it is very interesting
3. It actually is quite amazing how great it makes us feel
4. We are completely nuts, clearly.

Let me sum up a few points here so you can get started. Jonathan and I both started by just doing it, and to be honest as long as you do not have any major heart complaints you can just go for the ‘get in the...

To RICE or not to RICE?

Here's a quick guide to how to self treat an acute injury. ('Acute' just means the injury is new as opposed to 'chronic' which means you've had it for months or longer.)Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation (R.I.C.E) - is the most common advice, but is this best & if it is what does this actually mean you should do.Rest Definitely important especially if it's an injury to the limb, but the closer the injury is to the spine the more important it will be to move that area. So for an injury to the ankle rest it as much as possible. For an injury in the low back say in the muscles in your flank, rest would mean not doing movements that caused a lot of pain - but gentle movments & stretching that caused no pain or just a little will speed your recovery. This would also be true for an injury close to the spine, even for a disc injury, gentle movement which doesn't cause pain will start to re-establish normal movement in that area & help drain...

If you want to know a great stretch for plantar fasciitis then watch the video below. I won't waste time explaining here what plantar fasciitis is as there are plenty of web pages that will do that for you & if you have the condition then it will probably be causing you some grief so I suspect you will already have been motivated to research what it is.

Stretch For Plantar Fasciitis

Do the stretch in the video for 30 - 60 days, you only need to do the stretch for one or 2 minutes before you go to bed at night.  The problem with stretching is often that you forget to do it or you don't have the room etc - this one just needs you to kneel by your bed, & your trigger to do it is going to bed which everybody does every day!

How soon will it improve

You will see some improvement faster than 30 days but you need to stick with this stretch. Your  plantar fasciitis took at least several months (possibly years) to develop so you don't expect to fix it in a day....

CranioSacral Therapy, also commonly known as CST has been around for many years but has been gaining in popularity recently.  Here at Ion Osteopaths, we are all CST or cranial practitioners as well as osteopaths.  Jonathan is fundamentally a cranial osteopath, and this is where it can get a little confusing so let me clear some of this up.

CST was 'invented' by a man called John Upledger, and he was an Osteopathic Doctor in the USA he realized that skull bones move and the profound effect that this could have on how he treated his clients.  He also realized that you didn't need to be an Osteopath to do this work, so he started teaching it to anyone who was interested, and it has now become a worldwide teaching institute.  There are many other schools that also teach CST.  Within the Osteopathic community, there are osteopaths who practice - cranial osteopathy - from which CST was derived.

There will always be robust discussion...

What is Colic?

Often you will hear the phrase don’t worry “its just colic” they’ll grow out of it. That’s fine if and when they have grown out of it. But when you have a screaming baby that’s in pain you need an answer to “what is colic” and you need to know how you can help your baby.

During the thousands of treatments to babies and children that I have given the most common questions I am asked about involves colic & reflux. 

Colic is simply distress caused by a digestive issue,  there are lots of different types of digestive issues some more serious than others, they can be categorized as Standard Colic, Reflux, Gut Irritability, Lactose Intolerance and Other Allergies.  It is  worthwhile knowing the different types and identifying which type your child has – if for example it falls into the category of lactose intolerance and your baby is on formula that contains...

There are many types of headaches and just as many causes of headaches.

Rest assured that majority of headaches are not serious - they can be debilitating and frustrating but mostly headaches are more a sign that something is amiss rather than a sign of a serious problem.  

However - never ignore a persistent or an extreme headache, especially one that wakes you up or causes speech problems or numbness.  If you have these symptoms, then seek urgent medical help.

To help you understand your headache and some of the causes and symptoms let's start by taking a look at the different types of headaches and what causes them.

A Sinus Headache

This kind of a headache is felt in the front of your face behind your eyes and into the top of your cheekbones.  It can be an intense stabbing pain that is often accompanied by a cold of the flu or seasonal allergies.  

The sinus cavity becomes irritated and inflamed or fills up with mucus and infection causing the...