Ouch! What to do when you sustain an injury

Pulled a muscle?

Sprains and strains to muscles and joints happen to all of us and for most they are a painful but temporary, reminder to be a little more careful.  Prompt action can help your body to heal faster and may prevent further injury or prolonged pain.

Strained or 'pulled' muscles often happen when we over exert untrained muscles, train without properly warming up or try to go beyond a joint's natural flexibility.  Sometimes we feel the pain straight away, however some injuries might not cause pain until later on.  What can you do?

Remember RICE (Relative rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation), using these can help to relieve the pain and start the healing process.

Relative rest:  The first thing to do if you feel pain is to reduce the offending activity - pain is usually your body's way of telling you that there is something wrong that needs your attention.  It can be normal to feel a little sore after exercises for a day or two, but if it is more than this, pushing through the pain is rarely beneficial.

However, movement stimulates the healing process so stay as mobile as you comfortably can.  Try to keep the joint moving through a comfortable range of motion, without forcing it to the point of pain.  This will help to encourage blood flow and keep your joint flexible whilst it heals.  This is particularly relevant for back pain as gentle exercise, such as walking, can help.  You should slowly build your activity levels up as soon as your symptoms begin to resolve and as soon as you are able.

Ice: Cooling the area using an ice pack can help to reduce swelling and pain.  Wrap a thin tea towel around the area so as to avoid direct skin contact and then apply the pack to the injured area for 10 - 15 minutes.  You should repeat this several times per day for the first 72 hours.  This will help to control inflammation, making it easier for your body to get blood and nutrients to the area and resolve the injured tissues.

Compression:  Gently applying a compression dressing may help to temporarily support the injured joint and reduce swelling, though remove this immediately if there are signs that this is reducing the circulation to the area (numbness, pins and needles, the skin turning white or blue etc).

Elevation: If the injury is in the lower limb (knee or ankle), elevating the area a little can make it easier for your body to drain fluids that might accumulate around the area, causing swelling.  For example, if you've hurt your knee, sitting down with the knee raised on a low foot stool may ease your pain.

Seek medical attention.  If you have pain that can't be controlled with over the counter painkillers, can't put weight on the injured limb, experience paralysis or loss of sensation or the swelling is very bad seek help from your local A&E department, urgent care centre or telephone 111 for advice.

If the pain or swelling fails to improve within a week, a visit to an osteopath may be beneficial.  They will be able to assess the injury, advise you on the correct treatment and can provide some manual therapy which may help it get better faster.

Fascial Release therapy at Absolute Health

Fascial Release pain relief therapy

Myofascial or Fascial release is a manual therapy that can often have profound effects on the body and is used to treat chronic pain conditions that often do not respond to other forms of treatment.

Fascia allows movement between structures in the body but can develop adhesions following trauma or injury, preventing normal function.  Fascia interweaves within and across muscle groups to form a silk-like bodysuit, which helps the body’s musculoskeletal system transmit and amplify force. It also acts as a natural shock absorber, making the body more resistant to injury. Fascia is a vital component of human physiology and there is growing evidence that fascia is the most pain sensitive tissue in the body.  Breaking down adhesions (and trigger points) can allow the brain to dampen down pain signals that are no longer helpful for the body, after healing has occurred.

Abnormal fascial tension can lead to chronic pain in areas such as the neck, shoulders, lower back, and hips. So, if you’re feeling slightly immobile or are in full-blown pain, dealing with any problem in your fascia is really important to help speed recovery.

Unfortunately, muscle fascia doesn’t show up well on an X-ray or MRI. Maybe that’s why most medical professionals aren’t looking at fascia as a contributing cause of injury, movement dysfunction and chronic pain.

Fascial Release Treatment

Fascial release therapy involves a gentle massage using fingers and thumbs and the 'Fascial Edge Tool' to find and release stiff and tightened areas. Normal fascia should feel pliable and elastic. The therapist will begin massaging and stretching the areas that feel rigid with light manual pressure. The process is repeated multiple times over any 'trigger points' that are found (areas of tight muscle that cause pain to radiate in a specific pattern) until the therapist feels that the tension is fully released.

Who benefits from Fascial Release?

Patients with myofascial pain syndrome frequently benefit from this type of therapy. People who experience chronic headaches may also find relief from Fascial Release. Gently massaging on tightened muscles in and around the neck and head may reduce headaches.

If you have a chronic back ache or pain in the upper back, then there could be an underlying trigger point or fascial problem which would benefit from Fascial Release.

If you have not had a diagnosis for your condition you should seek advice from your GP or an Osteopath before booking in for treatment, to ensure there are no other problems that have been overlooked (e.g. a joint problem or arthritis).

Call Absolute Health today on (0116) 282 7766 to make an appointment with one of our Registered Osteopaths.



Part of this article was extracted from: http://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-pain/myofascial-release

Persistent Pain

We all feel pain from time to time. When someone injures themselves, specific nerves recognise this as pain, which in turn triggers the body’s repair mechanism. As the problem resolves, the pain tends to improve and usually disappears within 3-6 months. This type of pain could be argued to be beneficial: if it hurts, you are likely to try and avoid doing whatever it is that has caused the pain in the future, so you are less likely to injure yourself in that way again.

Occasionally the pain continues even after tissue healing has finished. When pain continues after this point, it becomes known as persistent (or is sometimes referred to as chronic) pain. This type of pain is not beneficial and is a result of the nerves becoming over-sensitised, which means that a painful response will be triggered much more easily than normal. This can be unpleasant, but doesn’t necessarily mean that you are doing yourself any harm simply by moving. You could think of this as a sensitive car alarm that goes off in error when someone walks past.

Watch a YouTube video about Persistent (chronic) pain - http://youtu.be/RWMKucuejIs

Persistent pain is very common and effects over 14 million people in the UK alone. It often does not respond to conventional medical interventions and needs a different kind of approach, but there are many things that you can do to manage your pain yourself with the support of your osteopath, your family and loved-ones. Keeping active, performing exercises and stretches can help, learning to pace your activities so that you don’t trigger a flare-up of your pain as well as setting goals and priorities are all very important and can help you to maintain a fulfilling lifestyle.

For more information on how to manage your persistent pain, speak to your osteopath or visit http://www.paintoolkit.org/

Are you sitting comfortably?

Do you suffer from back pain whilst at work?

Did you know that back pain is one of the most common causes of absence from work?

Every year over four million working days are lost due to back pain, a pain which can affect on someones ability to do their job.

With the right measures, pain prevention and management, there is evidence to show that working can be effective in helping the employee's return to fitness or with pain management.

Even with preventive measures some employees will experience back pain at some stage, it is therefore important to implement some kind of policy in order to keep people active and in work.

Management requires identification of the relevant risk factors and flexible policies which deal with the individual case by case.

There are various measures which have been helpful for employees suffering back pain such as; avoiding heavy lifting and promotion of physical activity, however some period of sick leave may be unavoidable.

In recent years the number of office based jobs has risen resulting in many people sitting hunched over a desk for many hours a day. Lack of activity and bad posture have cumulated in a growing number complaining of back pain. However there are a number of things you can do, for example:

• Be aware of your posture
• Take regular breaks
• Exercise regularly
• Talk to employer to adapt the working environment

Here at Absolute Health Clinic we deal with many people suffering back pain and offer various treatments such as; Osteopathy, Acupuncture and massage.

Please call us on 0116 282 7766 for further information and a FREE consultation during BackCare Awareness week only - 6th to 12th October 2014. (Don't forget to tell us where you saw this offer)

Are you missing the point?

 *** Acupuncture treatment can help back pain *** 

Nearly a third of people admit to having poor posture, which means we are heading for a back pain epidemic.  

The recent Acupuncture Awareness Week highlighted back pain and how our lifestyle choices are putting our backs under too much strain.

Many of us sit at desks all day, then go home and sit for the rest of the evening - eating meals on laps, working with laptops, slouching on the sofa... some of the many things that lead to bad posture.

As your posture deteriorates it makes it much easier to strain the muscles and irritate the nerves around your back joints.  This can trigger bouts of back pain which if left untreated can go on for months or, in some cases, years.

Acupuncture is a great alternative to taking pain killers for back pain problems.  Rather than masking symptoms, it actually changes the way the brain perceives signals from the body.  It allows the brain to dampen down pain signals, especially useful if the pain response is no longer useful (e.g. if a body part has healed after an injury, but the brain is still protecting the area, as if it is damaged).

Acupuncture is based on ancient principles which go back nearly two thousand years.  Very fine, sterile needles are inserted painlessly at specific points of the body to trigger a healing response.  The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends acupuncture for persistent, non-specific lower back pain.  Its guidelines recommend that GPs should offer a course of 10 sessions of acupuncture as a first line treatment.

It is a shame then that 40% of people would only consider visiting an acupuncturist as a last resort!

The NHS admits there is reasonably good evidence that acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic back pain, as well as dental pain; pain and discomfort during gastrointestinal endoscopy; headache; nausea and vomiting after an operation; pain and discomfort during IVF procedures; and osteoarthritis of the knee.

Simple lifestyle changes together with acupuncture treatment could save millions of people taking pain medication every day.

If you are suffering with back pain (or any other problem that is causing you to reach for the paracetamol tablets), come along to Absolute Health for a consultation.  We will try to offer a suitable treatment to help you get back to health and help you reduce the need for pain killers. 

Call Absolute Health today on 0116 282 7766 - let us help you to Get The Most out of Life!

Look after your feet!

Read the NHS top 10 tips on how to look after your feet, with special advice for the over-60s.

The good news is that looking after your feet can prevent most of these problems.

Your feet take the weight of your whole body, so foot problems can quickly lead to discomfort and affect the way you walk. This can in turn cause knee, hip and back pain.

Investing a bit of time and thought into caring for your feet now can prevent them causing you pain later.

Foot facts

Each foot contains 26 bones and more than 100 ligaments.

Your feet contain more than a quarter of all the bones in your body.

The skin on your feet has more than 7,000 nerve endings.

There are more than 125,000 sweat glands on each foot, more than anywhere else in the body.

Your feet produce an eggcup’s worth of sweat each day.

Wash your feet often

Don’t go to bed without washing your feet. If you leave dirt on the skin’s surface, it can become irritated and infected. If your feet are dirty, wash them every evening with soap and water.

Dry your feet well

Dry your feet thoroughly after washing them, especially between the toes which is where germs such as Athlete's foot can easily breed. Then, apply a moisturising foot cream (not body lotion).

Remove hard skin

Gently remove hard skin and calluses with a pumice stone or foot file regularly. 

Cut toenails carefully

Always trim your toenails straight across, never at an angle or down the edges. This can cause ingrowing toenails which are painful and may require surgery.

Shoe shop in the afternoon

Shop for shoes in the afternoon. Feet swell as the day goes on and if shoes fit in the afternoon when your feet are at their largest, you can be assured they will always be comfortable.

Footwear tips for work

If you have to wear heels at work, wear comfortable shoes to and from the office and only wear your smart shoes once you're in the office. Also, try to vary the heel height, between low, medium and high. Ask your chiropodist for advice about the best footwear for you.

Change your socks often to avoid foot odour

Change your socks daily. Read advice from the Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists on buying socks.

Watch out for foot bugs in communal changing areas

Wear flip-flops to avoid catching athlete's foot and verrucas when you use public areas such as gym showers, swimming pools or hotel bathrooms. 

Take care with flip flops

But don't wear flip-flops all the time. They don't provide support for your feet and can give you arch and heel pain if you wear them too much.

Foot pain advice for over-60s

If you're over 60, foot care becomes even more important. Age takes its toll: your skin thins, your joints begin to stiffen and your feet become more vulnerable to the cold.  It can become difficult to care for your own feet if back or hip stiffness prevents you fully bending forwards.  Don't neglect your feet though - ask your local chiropodist to check the state of your toenails and skin on the feet if you have any discomfort when walking.  A regular check-up can prevent any serious problems developing, so give Absolute Health a ring to book your next foot health or chiropody treatment.

Advice provided by the NHS Choices website http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/foothealth/Pages/Healthyfeet.aspx

Benefits of Osteopathy

The benefits of seeing an osteopath

If you suffer from pain it might be a good idea to see an osteopath, but what can you expect from them and how much does it cost?

Massage and soft tissue stretching are some of the treatments an osteopath will use

One in four visits we make to the GP is for pain affecting the bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves (musculoskeletal pain). Osteopathy, a hands-on therapy devised in the 19th century by the US physician and surgeon Dr Andrew Still offers a gentle way to help relieve such pain and stiffness without the need for medication and more invasive treatments such as surgery.

Who can benefit from seeing an osteopath?

Although often thought of as a treatment for back and neck pain, osteopathy can help a wide range of conditions, including repetitive strain injury, postural imbalances caused by driving or work strain, arthritis and minor sports injuries. People over 50 often have some osteoarthritis in the spine, which can manifest itself as stiffness and aching and the occasional acute spasm. Osteopaths aim to reduce chronic tension in the muscles and ligaments to improve mobility of the spine, which in turn can make the back or neck feel much easier and reduce the number of acute episodes. Osteopathy can also help with aches and pains associated with osteoporosis, although obviously it can’t cure the condition itself.

What does treatment from an osteopath involve?

An initial consultation usually takes from 45 minutes to an hour and subsequent treatments 30 to 40 minutes. At a first visit the osteopath will want to know all about the problem that brought you there and will ask about other medical conditions before performing a physical examination. You will be asked to perform a few simple movements so the osteopath can observe your posture and mobility, and he or she will gently palpate your joints, tissues and ligaments to detect any tenderness or imbalances. After this he or she will treat you using a number of different techniques. These include soft tissue stretching, massage, something called ‘muscle energy technique’ that helps to reduce muscle spasms, manipulation of the spine and other joints and other gentle techniques designed to rebalance the body and stimulate healing. Treatment is usually quite gentle but can be a little firmer depending on the patient.

You may be asked to remove some clothing for examination and treatment. After the treatment the osteopath may prescribe specific exercises to help keep you supple and prevent pain returning and/or advise you on the use of ice packs and other non-invasive ways of easing pain, posture and other lifestyle habits. If you can’t get to a clinic the osteopath may be able to visit you at home, although this is likely to be much more expensive.

How many osteopathy sessions should you have?

Recent injuries can often be eased within just two to four sessions. More chronic problems may take longer to resolve – usually between six and twelve sessions but sometimes more. Some people find that coming in every few months for maintenance treatments helps keep them mobile and pain-free, in conjunction with exercising and a healthy diet.

How much does seeing an osteopath it cost?

At Absolute Health, initial consultation and treatment costs £60 with follow-up treatment sessions costing £37.

Original article by Patsy Westcott, Saga website, published 17 July 2012

Extract from http://www.saga.co.uk/health/body/osteopath-benefits.aspx