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Tracey shares how to look after your feet when walking!

Your baby has been crying constantly for hours, you’re exhausted, your house looks like a hurricane hit and no one has eaten properly for about three days. This is a very familiar scenario for lots of parents of new-borns. We all know that babies cry. But some cry more than others….help is here!

A healthy immune system is essential in helping you to resist colds, fight off respiratory viruses or defend you against a whole host of other infections. But did you know that nearly 70% of your immune system is found in your gut?

As an Osteopath I recommend some form of self care to all my patients as what we do with hands on treatment in clinic is a kickstart but it is then up to you and what you do on a daily basis that will make the effects of treatment last longer and hopefully get you feeling better quicker. This then also helps for the medium-long term plan which will educate you on what is normal and what is stiff or tight so you can work on areas before they become a bigger issue. 

Foam rolling is slightly controversial with some saying it’s a great way to relieve sore muscles and others claiming that if it is done badly it can cause more damage than good to the body.

So what are the dos and don’ts of using a foam roller?

As much as we love to see you, the summer months surge in gardening activity is responsible for a surge in appointments as a result of garden related back strains and shoulder injuries. Lifting pots and starting the lawn mower are classic injuries along with the overuse of pruning and reaching overhead with hedge trimmers.

These are the 5 First Aid Remedies I always have close-to-hand and when travelling - especially with children. When reaching for the paracetamol, consider using a homeopathic remedy instead…

Typically, we are a little dormant at this time of year, the Winter keeps us in our chairs a little longer as we stretch out the working day.  But with the lighter evenings approaching we will be getting back into the garden and just like the spring flowers we will be prepare for our burst of energy for Easter holidays.

MLD relaxes the sympathetic nervous system (the network of nerves that helps your body activate its “fight-or-flight” response), reduces pain and enhances the activity of the immune system.

A warmth in the air has an irresistible pull - suddenly the garden needs sprucing up after winter, or the tennis courts have dried up enough for a proper game, or a long hike planned after a long time spent indoors. All fantastic to do, but if you haven’t done anything physical since October, it can be quite a shock to the unsuspecting body.

Our bodies are like a car - they need fuel to run. What we put into them determines how well they run especially when it comes to energy production.

As some of you may be aware if you have seen me in clinic, I am crazy about football but unfortunately I tore my ACL just over 2 years ago. I tried to manage it as best as I could but after 3 relapses where my knee kept giving way during exercise I had an MRI and met with a knee consultant. And so I booked my surgery…for a few days before the start of the World Cup so I could recover whilst watching every minute of football…obviously. 

Practitioners recommend the pelvic tilt when your lower back hurts, as the tilting activates the deeper abdominal muscles so that the lower back muscles don’t have to take as much strain - so they relax. The tilt can be done in standing, or as a small Cat Stretch on hands and knees, but the safest way, which also gives the most feedback - via the floor - is a basic pelvic tilt when lying on your back.

In 2003, two friends, Travis Garone and Luke Slattery, discuss recent fashion trends and the sharp decline of the moustache. Inspired by a friend’s mother who was fundraising for breast cancer awareness, they decide to make the campaign about men’s health and aim to fundraise for a prostate cancer charity. The 1st Movember has 30 guys willing to take up the challenge. By 2021 there are 6.8m Mo bros and Mo Sisters involved.

When was the last time you thought about your bone health? The chances are that it’s not something you often think about, especially if you’re young. But bone health is something you should pay attention to. Whether you’re 17 or 70, eating the right foods, doing bone strengthening exercise, and getting enough calcium and vitamin D, will all increase your bone density and minimise bone loss.

The Tour de Test Valley was held on a fabulously sunny and autumnal day a couple of Saturdays ago near Grateley. It was their 10th, the biggest (with over 153 cyclists young and old) and best event yet. They have raised over £40,000 for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably - a mental health charity) and still counting. For a £10 donation to charity, Tracey and Sarah from the SOP team gave sports massages to the tired legs, shoulders and backs of many grateful cyclists throughout the day.

As we leave summer behind and look ahead to the darkening shorter days of winter, there is one vitamin that deserves our attention: Vitamin D. Vitamins typically are not made in the body – we get them from food. However vitamin D isn’t actually a vitamin – it’s a hormone and it is made in the skin from exposing a form of cholesterol to UV sunlight.

When the body hurts, it can be hard to motivate yourself to add on exercise. What if it starts hurting more?

Pilates is a way of aligning the body, so that muscles and ligaments are moved at optimum length and strength around a joint, or along the spine. This means that with Pilates, your body gets used moving in a more flowing and flexible way.

Pilates exercises can be adapted to start at any level, added on to an already existing exercise schedule, or as the first baby steps towards moving with confidence…

6000 years ago, it appears that man was already performing what we can now call complimentary medicine. Early man discovered, without the NHS, to use touch to alleviate pain, maggots to remove infected flesh and herbs to help heal a number of different ailments.

The new football season is finally back after what seems like a long 3 months…luckily we had the joy and success of the Women’s Euro’s to grip the nation! We are now 2 games into the new premier league season and already we have seen some high profile injuries, so what can we do to try prevent such injuries ourselves?

I regularly see patients complaining that they have hip pain and pointing to their sacroiliac joint (SIJ) and then other’s pointing at their hip joint saying that they have pelvic pain. It is confusing because most people don’t realise that they have joints in their pelvis and unless you’ve sat in long lengthy university anatomy lectures it’s not obvious at all. Have a look on the diagram then read on!

As a child I loved playing in the dirt and climbing trees so I guess the natural transition was to engage in nature and then gardening. I also love being outside so not having enough to do with work and my sports, I decided seven years ago to take on an allotment.

There is no quick or simple answer but let’s start with the basics. Precious cuddles time, the ‘skin to skin’ time for bonding - this contact releases oxytocin known as the 'love or bonding hormone'. It helps in many ways in which to comfort both mum/dad and baby and results in less crying and sleep. This also stimulates the release of other feel-good hormones, such as dopamine and serotonin, while reducing stress hormones, such as cortisol and norepinephrine.

Hayfever is an allergic reaction to pollen (the allergen) which can ruin the seasonal pleasure of spring and summer for severe sufferers, causing distressing and debilitating symptoms, or may be just a mild irritation for others. Dr Gill Pearson explains how homeopathy can help.

Sarah Sellick explains why just showing up and going through the motions isn’t enough to get fitter and see the results you want. Read on for tips on how to get the best out of your exercise.

It is often said that men, for some reason, do not seem to look after their health as well as women. Wives can become frustrated with their husbands because they prolong seeing their osteopath or other health care professional. They put up with the pain! Or they seek help reactively to pain rather than trying to prevent it. Nicola has written an article about osteopathy and how early intervention with aches and pains can help in the long run.

Because osteopaths look at the body as whole when treating, making us great practitioners, sleep patterns often come up in case history questioning. This is because lifestyle factors have such an important role to play in the healing process.

We use our sleep time to recover and repair. Our immune system strengthens, allowing us to fight off viruses and bacteria, our brain function increases meaning that we suffer from less depression and lack of motivation, and we release hormones that build and strengthen muscle. We basically reboot!

✍ With the Womo women's health course in full swing and having recently been so focused on the girls, this month it’s all about the guys!

Statistically, men are less likely to lead healthy lives, and are more likely to smoke, drink and have heart and obesity related conditions. 1 in 5 will die before the age of 65. Fortunately men’s health is increasingly in the spot light, and awareness is being driven through the media with events such as Movember, International Men’s Day and Men’s Health Week.

We all start the New Year with new goals that we want to achieve in the coming year and we usually do well until February and March come around and things start to go back to how they were before. Those visits to the gym can become less and less frequent and you start to struggle for motivation. So what can you do to keep on the right track? Here are some little tips and tricks…

Anneli has just attended a course by physio Philippa Satchwell that gives new information on how Pilates can help you if you have have osteoarthritis, joint replacements, frozen shoulder, rotator cuff injury, low back pain, spinal stenosis, osteopenia or osteoporosis.

Some FAQs from men:

Q) Can you help with headaches too?

Q) I don’t know what you do but it helped my back and was very gentle. What was it?

Q) Do pelvic floor muscles apply to men too?

Yes!

Pilates is a movement programme that was put together by Joseph Pilates, who initially taught it to injured soldiers in the First World War.

Appreciating the moments on my way; I enjoy being outdoors walking, cycling and all the amazing displays of the seasons. This Autumn has shown me great beauty and appreciation for natures’ wonders.

Being able to stand on one leg for 20 seconds is a proven method of checking your overall health. Why? Anneli explains.

When the respiratory system is under duress, the rib cage becomes tight, the lung capacity is shallow and the nervous and muscular systems struggle to relax. Sarah explains how to alleviate this.

Change is at the heart of Psychotherapy and as the Summer drifts out of view and the scent of Autumn draws closer, I always find myself wondering about change. How do we bring about change and what stops us from changing?

The chest is an incredibly important part of the body; it is the seat of the heart and the lung and many of us ignore the health of these organs and put them under increasing pressure by soldiering on when we have a respiratory infection, not exercising adequately and engaging in bad habits such as smoking and vaping. We are also constantly exposed to environmental toxins, bacteria, viruses and moulds.

Lockdown has prompted us to look outside our usual routines and lifestyle to find alternative ways to exercise, entertain and take care of ourselves, and there has been a boom in wild swimming.

Read on for top tips on wild swimming and all it’s incredible benefits

When did you last swing a golf club, hit a tennis ball, run the length of a hockey pitch or tackle another player in a match? Or maybe you would have done none of these things, but are instead going from no gardening at all straight into long days bent over a flower bed and vegetable patch? Whatever you are doing - Pilates can help you stay injury free.

Hayfever is an allergic reaction to pollen (the allergen) which can ruin the seasonal pleasure of spring and summer for severe sufferers, causing distressing and debilitating symptoms, or maybe just a mild irritation for others. But homeopathy can help.

Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release (SMR) technique. It can help relieve muscle tightness, soreness, and inflammation, and increase your joint range of motion.

In a society that so highly values positivity, independence and resilience, there is often little room for expression or sharing of our more uncomfortable emotions like hate, desperation, apathy, anger, disappointment.

Did you know that not all pain is treated the same by our brains and bodies?

We can think of our brains as an old fashioned phone switchboard operator and sensory and pain messages as the phone calls waiting to be put through.

This lockdown has felt very different from the one last March. During the first lockdown the sun was shining, being off work was a bit of a novelty, a time when we could finally get those jobs done in the garden or home, enjoy no school runs or take up new hobbies.

Most people love sleep but many of us have been struggling with this favourite past time during the coronavirus pandemic at a time when boosting immunity through sleep has never been more important. It is so frustrating but hopefully this advice will help.

There is plenty of scientific evidence that shows that regular exercise helps sleep.

The key here is “regular”. So many of us struggle with creating lasting exercise habits - we think we need to go from doing nothing to spending hours exercising each week, which we then can’t keep up for more than a week or two.

One of the advantages of this latest Lockdown for new parents is the precious cuddle time, the ‘skin to skin’ time for bonding. This contact releases oxytocin known as the 'love or bonding hormone'.

When the pelvic floor is weak, dysfunctional and a bit leaky, the go-to solution is usually to try to strengthen it from below, ie. lifting the pelvic floor with exercises.

This is often not enough as it doesn’t address the load coming down from above. The pressure from the organs above continues to add to the dysfunction and can result in prolapse.

We are obviously designed to carry our organs in our pelvis on the pelvic floor, so why do they get so ‘heavy’ and cause leaking and prolapse?

Being in our comfort zone is well, comfortable. It’s a place where your activities fit a routine that minimizes stress and risk. So it’s tempting to stay there, especially if it’s resulting in a steady and consistent performance.

But what if stepping out creates the perfect opportunity to improve your performance, to feel proud of yourself and to feel the buzz of achievement?

When the body is tense and under stress it produces unhealthy levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can contribute to weight gain, sleeplessness, digestive problems and headaches. Massage therapy has been shown to decrease cortisol levels in the body.

Come and see our Massage and Reflexology practitioner Sarah Sellick.  She is in the practice every Thursday…

There’s been a little buzz on our Facebook page recently over a clip we posted in April. It was simply an MRI image of a person breathing, but it has reached nearly a million people and been shared thousands of times.

The way you breath is fundamental to the health of your organs, and it is often the first mechanism to be affected in times of pain, stress and anxiety. Read on to understand why, its wide reaching effects, and practical advice on correct breathing mechanics and exercises.

The aim of the #LoveYourHealth campaign is to highlight that by simply taking time for yourself everyday to eat well, drink more water, sleep lots, move often, relax more and love your body, it will ultimately improve your wellbeing and reduce the risk of chronic mental and physical illness.

To help you move more, we have created the 10 minute Kitchen Workout...

If you crave to fit into a size 12, run a mile, be beach body ready or be headache free, what happens when you reach that goal? Do you stop the quick-fix exercise programme, fad diet or other temporary solution? What happens to the motivation to keep doing what you are doing?

What happens if you never reach that goal? Do you give up?

Leaking urine when lifting, jumping, sneezing, walking and running is a sign of leaking pressure.

How can you fix this?

Having just returned from another hugely successful humanitarian trip I’m now trying to put my experiences into words.

We saw 1500 patients in 2 weeks, sometimes treating up to 350 patients in a day. Read on to find out about the places we visited and some of the incredible patients we treated.

Emma, Tracey and Joe will be travelling out to Kenya in November to work for the Divinity Foundation, providing humanitarian aid to women and children living in some of the most poor and remote regions of the country.

Read on to find out about thier work providing healthcare, protection and education for girls at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Why do you want to 'stabilise' your core?

Core stability came from studies into low back pain, it was never meant to apply to the general population, and for most people, there are better ways of working these muscles.

So how should I strengthen my core?

What are you trying to achieve when you plank or crunch? Do you think your body or back or core is unstable?

No test has ever shown the spine is unstable, or how 'increasing stability' will reduce pain.

We need to think far more carefully about the language we use and the ratioanle behind the approaches we choose.

Having read some recent reviews and evidence to support a rehab programme for Plantar Fasciopathy, I wanted to share it with you. Read on to find out about a comprehensive rehab plan.

I look at why pelvic floor exercisies are not the answer for pelvic floor complaints, and why breathing, posture and pelvic position is the solution.

You aren’t fragile. You are strong. If you can take a step back and look at all the good your body is doing, I guarantee you, it will far out weigh the bad. 

Pain and inflammation is a necessary part of healing. Trust your body and what it is telling you, it is working hard all by itself to get you pain-free again.

With our struggling NHS, overstretched mental health services, and prescriptions of anti-depressants doubling in the last 10 years, what can we do for ourselves to feel better and avoid (or reduce) medication? 

Have you heard of Ecotherapy? Read on.

Our friends at Studio Yoga, Houghton are running their next course on Monday 30th January. 
Best practise for the management of low back pain is for an integrated approach, offering a package of care, including Osteopathy, exercise like Yoga, and medication when necessary. Read on for all the details.

What do we actually mean by 'posture'? What is good and what is bad posture (and what even is ugly posture? Did you see the photo!?)? Read on to learn about your posture, the causes of bad posture, how to self-check and what to do to correct it.

It has recently been reported that the NHS will struggle to cope in the coming months with the influx of winter related ailments. Find out how you can help, by choosing alternative healthcare for non-emergency conditions, such as self-help at home, visiting your local pharmacist or Osteopath, and calling 111 for out of hours help.

Strictly Come Dancing star, Laura Whitmore, recently posted a photo on Instagram of her injured ankle, with tape and a foam roller. 

Foam rolling is now a popular method of self-massage, but there are limitations and dangers to indiscriminately rolling your muscles.

Joe Batey, Sports Osteo, gives you the low down on Foam Rolling and how to avoid injuring yourself.

Who says you shouldn’t do them once you’re over the age of 10? I was ticked off as I sailed down aisle nine, wind in my hair, washing powder and tissues flying past me. A tap on the shoulder ‘Don’t you think you should stop doing that?’ ‘Never,’ I cried as I whizzed up aisle ten!

Remember, our bodies were created to move. If we don't keep our bodies moving, there is much we stand to lose.

A smashing event for our Sports Osteo Joe Batey

Six patients an hour had Joe working hard for the whole afternoon! Read on for the news from the event and some great post race recovery advice.

What an incredible weekend we have had; stretching, massaging and advising 100's of riders and runners.

Thank you for coming to find us, we loved meeting and treating you all!

Read on for all the news from 2 incredible events.