Homeworking doesn’t need to be a pain in the neck! By Lynne Midwinter MCSP, Chartered Physiotherapist With many employees being advised to work form home, this article is more timely than ever – read the advice below from Physio & Therapies and remember they are available for Skype, Facetime and telephone consultations as well as hands on Physio sessions from…
By Kerensa McKie, Chartered Physiotherapist at Physio & Therapies Ltd, Todmorden.
Yes, it is that time of year again… the sun is out, Wimbledon is on the TV and fine weather players are blowing the dust off their tennis rackets! So, it comes as no surprise that the tennis related injuries have started to appear at Physio & Therapies.
Like any physical activity you need to plan ahead and get fit for the season, this means starting with general fitness and then adding some specific tennis activities and exercises. Many issues with racket sports can be negated by making sure you get your body ready for the increased level of activity 6 weeks or more before the season starts. However, there are still things you can do if you are better at enthusiasm than planning!
With 15 million people visiting their GP each year complaining of back pain and 150 million working days lost each year in the UK due to back pain, getting prompt assessment and effective treatment for back problems is key to a fast recovery.
Back pain can be debilitating and very scary, but the good news is that most episodes of back pain resolve quickly. If however the pain hasn’t settled within two weeks research suggests that assessment and treatment by a Physical therapist is recommended.
Did you know that 70% of the population won’t be taking over the counter or prescription medicines correctly?
Every day I see clients who have been to see their GP with various pain issues. Usually they have been prescribed anti-inflammatories; such as Ibuprofen, paracetamol or codeine phosphate. Despite being informed on a set dosage and course they are, in the majority, not following this advice. The usual comment I hear is that they “don’t like taking pills” or they “don’t want to mask the pain in case they make things worse” or they “do not want to become reliant on pills”. If people have collected the prescribed drugs they often only take some or one of the drugs issued. It is at this point I ask if the medicines are helping? Most say “No” and they only take a tablet when they feel their pain is bad enough.
And therein lies the problem. If you only take the medicines now and then or just one and not the other, you are usually wasting your time.
Hi, I am Kerensa McKie at Physio and Therapies ltd. Today I am going to talk about a problem that has been coming up a lot recently …… what to do when or if you sprain your ankle.
Amazingly 25,000 people in the UK sprain their ankle every day!
So, I will be giving you 3 top tips for what to do to aid your recovery from this common injury.
By Lynne Midwinter, Chartered Physiotherapist
With gardening listed as a hobby for over half the adult population of the UK there are a lot of people at risk of injury now that the weather is improving and the start of gardening season is here.
At Physio & Therapies the first warm weekends in the spring and early summer usually brings us a rash of injuries from back strain to stiff shoulders presenting at our clinic, so here is our advice on how to avoid unnecessary discomfort.
The most important piece of advice is to pace yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your garden won’t be either! Break jobs down into manageable chunks and give yourself the reward of a break with a cup of tea when you’ve done each part. It’s best to stop every hour for at least 10 minutes.
Come and join me for a one day immersion into the wonderful world of Homeopathy. Not sure what it is? How do you use it? How often do you take the remedies? Are they safe? All these themes will be explored during the day ensuring that you will go home a more confident prescriber, able to treat minor acute health problems.
Using it myself in a first-aid situation was how I discovered Homeopathy and experienced first hand its efficient and gentle capacity to restore health.
Lets go back to April 2012….I had landed a job cheffing on a yoga retreat in Greece for 3 weeks over Easter. Sounds great doesn’t it? And it was, but it was REALLY hard work. Cooking for 40 people everyday and evening is a difficult task, coupled with the Mediterranean heat it meant I wasn’t getting enough sleep and not enough sleep plus hard work takes its toll on the body.
In today’s post I am going to give you a few tips on how to help yourself when you have achey, tender knots in your muscles.
Muscle knots appear in various muscles in the body and are known as trigger points. You can tell if you have one because if you press or squeeze them they can hurt! Often a lot! They can also radiate pain into another part of your body, so you might squeeze your leg muscle but feel a pain in your foot, for example. Here at Physio and Therapies they are one of the most common things we find when we assess clients who come for help with a wide range of problems.
About now every year at Physio & Therapies we start to see the ‘new year resolution’ injuries. So today I am going to have a little rant about over doing it …… then I will give you some top tips on how to stay safe while you’re getting fitter!
So what is a New Year resolution injury? Well you know how it is, after the excesses of Christmas you decide to do something about your fitness, your weight, your waistline and then, after one too many drinks, you find you have signed yourself up to a fun run or a marathon for charity!
When arriving to do my ‘Women’s Health’ elective placement in 2000, I thought I’d observe Pregnancy classes, talk to ladies about bladder care, teach exercises to do after a Hysterectomy, and teach Pelvic Floor exercises. To my horror, I met my clinical educator for the next 6 weeks… coming out of fracture clinic with a BROKEN right arm! So I became her right hand, LITERALLY! That afternoon, she guided me through a vaginal examination of a new mum with weak pelvic floor muscles and leakage after having her baby; rectal Biofeedback on a 25 year old gentlemen who had been in a diving accident which left his anal sphincter weak and we examined a lady with a vaginal prolapse and taught her how to manage it. From then on I was hooked and most of my training since has centred around Pelvic Floor/Continence.
‘Women’s Health’ is now more often called ‘Pelvic Health’, in many hospitals/clinics not only because it is a more accurate description, but in sympathy with the poor men having to hide at the back of the waiting room of the ‘Women’s Health’ clinic!