Posts belonging to Category 'blogs'

Did you know that Osteopathy is one of 14 roles known as Allied Health Professionals to the NHS?

There has been a lot of press coverage recently about restructuring of local NHS services to reduce pressure on key areas. One of the approaches being used it to encourage involvement of AHP practitioners. There are 14 different AHP Professions on the list, all of which are degree-educated and autonomous, meaning that they work independently without the need to be referred by a GP. One of those professions is osteopathy.

Although osteopathy isn’t itself widely available on the NHS (yet…), AHP status means that we’re recognised by the NHS as being able to “…provide system-wide care to assess, treat, diagnose and discharge patients across social care, housing, education, and independent and voluntary sectors.”

If you’d like to find out more about how osteopathy works within the NHS and AHP framework, you can find out more on the NHS website: www.england.nhs.uk/ahp

Terry has provided Sports Massage at the Moore Osteopathy clinic in West Bridgford for the last five years. He has recently been working to rehabilitate double World Racketlon Champion Izzy Bramhall, who he treats on a weekly basis after specialists told her she would have to give up competing due to extensive knee damage and an osteo-arthritic elbow.

Izzy had a partial knee replacement and an elbow arthroscopy and thanks to the therapy provided by Terry, and Izzy’s determination, she has since won 3 World Championship Medals and the European Seniors Tennis Championship.

Izzy said, “Without the care and expertise of Terry at Moore Osteopathy, these successes would not have been possible. He totally understands what I need, uses various techniques and always makes me feel like I can perform to my best ability. Terry makes such a positive difference to both my physique and well-being, that’s why I go every week”.

However, sports massage isn’t just for athletes. The treatment can also help relieve many day-to-day problems such as repetitive strain injury, sprains, tension and fatigue. A 60 minute sports massage allows enough time to talk about your medical history, sport and training regime and tailor each treatment to your requirements.

If you’d like to book an appointment, you can book online or give us a call on 0115 981 5134.

In the UK, 100,000 new cases of skin cancer are detected each year, with more than 2,500 people dying annually. Although treatment is improving, the rates of the most fatal of skin cancers, malignant melanoma, is rising faster than any other common cancer.

As Osteopaths, we usually see patients in a state of partial undress to observe their posture and movement. At the same time we will often observe for skin changes as part of their assessment and may ask you about moles on your skin. If there are any concerns, we will recommend that you seek medical help.

Prevention

When the sunny weather finally arrives in the UK, or when we take our well-earned trips abroad, it can be tempting to embrace the sun. However, it is important to remember the importance of sun safety. One of the main preventable causes of skin cancer is UV exposure, but the following tips can help you stay safe this summer.

Sunscreen – It takes around 20 minutes for the skin to absorb sunscreen, so it should be applied before going out into the sun. Sunscreen should be reapplied at least every two hours (though this may be less depending on your skin type), and sooner if you’ve been swimming or sweating. It is best to use sunscreen that is SPF30 and has a five-star UVA rating.

Cover up – Although it’s not great for getting a tan, the best sunscreen is clothing. Wearing a t-shirt and a hat can prevent skin damage.

Timing – The sun is strongest around noon, so you should avoid being in the sun at this time as it can take very little time for skin to burn.

Detection

With early detection, skin cancer can be treated effectively. The following tips help to increase the chances of spotting possible skin cancer:

Know what to look for – Skin cancer varies, so any concerns about abnormal skin conditions should be checked. However, the most common signs of a malignant melanoma follow the ABCDE checklist.

Check yourself regularly – You should routinely do a full body check of yourself, making note of any moles that are worth keeping an eye on, and getting any that cause concern checked by an expert. If you think a mole is growing or changing, it’s worth measuring it and taking a photo, so you can be sure if there is any change.

Get help – It’s not easy to see every part of your body, and your back is one of the most common places for skin cancer to occur. See if there’s someone you can ask to help you or ask your osteopath to check the skin on your back for you.

Get it confirmed – If there is a mole or other skin problem that is causing concern, get it checked by an expert as soon as possible.

The ABCDE check list

If you find a new mole, have an existing mole that you think has changed, noticed any of the following signs, or you have a concern about a mole or other skin condition, it’s always best to have it checked.

Asymmetry – Is it an uneven shape?

Border – Are the edges of the mole uneven?

Colour – Are there different shades of black, brown or pink?

Diameter – Does it have a diameter larger than a pencil eraser? (6mm / ¼ inch)

Evolving – Has the mole changed size, shape or colour?

As always, if you have any questions about a mole or skin mark that’s giving you cause for concern, just ask us and we’ll see if we can help. Stay safe 🙂

Chris Thompson

We’re proud to announce that we’ve are now offering a dedicated Fibromyalgia Clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Associate Osteopath Chris Thompson.

Chris trained at the European School of Osteopathy, graduating in 2011 with his Masters degree. For the last three years he has been working in private practice in Wellington, New Zealand, but has recently made the decision to return to the UK. Chris treats with a variety of osteopathic methods, primarily using gentle cranial osteopathy and functional techniques, tailored to each individual patient.

“Fibromyalgia, is a complex problem with no proven cause. In practice I have found that these conditions seem to result from a combination of factors resulting in overload of the body and therefore an inabiliy to function fully. One of the largest of these factors is often mechanical dysfunction in the body  and it is this in combination with other loads on the body such as stress and poor nutrition that can lead to the chronic pain and tiredness.

Osteopathy can help with the mechanical problems, and by reducing this strain can lead to much better function and in some cases complete resolution of symptoms.”

To book in a specialist appointment with Chris, give our reception team a call on 0115 981 5134 or book online here.

What is fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia (FMS) is a widespread musculoskeletal pain and fatigue disorder for which the cause is still unknown. Fibromyalgia means pain in the fibrous tissues in the body.

Most patients with fibromyalgia say that they ache all over. Their muscles may feel like they have been pulled or overworked. Sometimes the muscles twitch and at other times they burn. More women than men are afflicted with fibromyalgia, but it shows up in people of all ages.

(taken from http://ukfibromyalgia.com/what-is-fm.php)

How could an Osteopath help?

Osteopathy offers a natural way to manage pain, without painkillers. Osteopaths are focussed on finding the cause of the pain, rather than just treating the symptoms. Treatment of the tight muscles and stiff joints of the neck, thorax and back can relieve the build-up of muscular tension that may lead to symptoms. Cranial osteopathy techniques can also help reduce pain. An osteopath will also advise on exercise, posture and lifestyle changes which may help to keep the pain at bay.

To book in a specialist appointment with Chris, give our reception team a call on 0115 981 5134 or book online here.

Everywhere you look on social media are the standard before-and-after photos associated with a 6, 8 or 12 week “body transformation”. I’ve always been intrigued by what these actually entailed, so I thought it was about time that I tried it to see what I could achieve.

Under the guidance of Real World Fitness here in Nottingham, I followed an exercise and diet plan for the 12 weeks in the lead-up to Christmas 2016, focussing on what I could achieve without any ‘extreme’ measures, which I’ll elaborate on later.

My starting point was a weight of 87.4kg, chest measurement of 40.9 inches and a waist measurement of 37.2 inches.

By the end of the 12 weeks, I weighed 81.2kg, had a chest that measured 42.9 inches and a waist of 35.2 inches.

So I lost over 6kg and actually changed my body proportions – not bad for a 3 month experiment!

So what did I do….

Training/exercise

Training was almost entirely restricted to full-body, resistance-based, weight training. I was initially training 2-3 times a week but, by the end, was regularly training 4 times a week, for around an hour each time.

A typical week would consist of a mixture of upper and lower body, pushing and pulling movements, with a session looking like this:

• Barbell Press – 4 sets of 6
• Weighted dips – 4 sets of 6
• Military press – 4 sets of 8
• Barbell rows – 4 sets of 8
• Cable lateral raises – 4 sets of 12

There was no ‘cardio’ on top of this programme, other than staying as active as possible outside of the gym. To help me focus this, I bought a pedometer and really tried to hit 10,000 steps a day. For me, this meant walking to work a couple of times a week and on days where I hadn’t hit my target, going out for a walk in the evening after dinner. Not much fun in the cold, wet winter months I can testify!!

I also bought a cheap (and a bit rubbish) exercise bike off Ebay to go on if I was unable to get out for a walk. I limited this to 20 minutes maximum and only did it a couple of times a week, so no long, boring cardio sessions for me – excellent!

Diet

I was adamant that I didn’t want to spend hours on end, ‘prepping’ repetitive food into little tupperware boxes at the weekend, I wanted to eat ‘normal’ food and to eat meals with my family at home.

So we opted for a ‘flexible dieting’ or ‘If it fits your macros (IIFYM)’ approach, where the overall daily calorie amount and macronutrient breakdown of protein, fat and carbohydrates was predetermined but could be met using any mixture of foods, meals and servings.

For me this was:

• 2,230 calories per day
• 40% protein (223g)
• 25% fat (62g)
• 35% carbohydrates (195g)

This approach was ideal for me as I could stick to a ‘normal’ eating regime of breakfast, lunch, dinner and then an extra meal in the evening, to make sure I met all my targets. My personal approach to nutrition promotes eating as wide a range of foods as possible, so again, it suited me.

However it did mean becoming extremely au fait using My Fitness Pal and getting into the habit of weighing EVERYTHING that I ate. To be honest it was a pain in the beginning but you soon get used to it. Eating out was difficult and, if I’m honest, I did take the scales out with me a couple of times during the 12 weeks… Another reason to not do this experiment in the run-up to Christmas!

But overall, I didn’t feel hungry, got it right most (!) of the time and just ate regular food. Even it did mean more of certain foods, such as protein, than I was used to.

Overall Thoughts

I can’t help but be very proud of the end results. I worked REALLY hard during the 12 weeks, not just in the gym but also making sure that I was hitting my targets with daily activity outside the gym and, perhaps most importantly, the food, both in terms of overall calories and also the individual macros. Of course, I didn’t get it right all the time but it generally seemed to get easier as time went on.

Yes, it did get repetitive at times and I did tire of all the weighing and planning, but wherever possible I mixed things up to keep myself motivated. The prospect of a photoshoot at the end certainly helps keep focus! Without that focus….?

Looking back, the key for me wasn’t any fancy diet or elaborate training plan, it was all about… CONSISTENCY. And by that I mean: training 4 times a week, EVERY week, watching what you eat, EVERY day and keeping active EVERY day. I think prior to this I was following an unofficial 5:2 diet, where I ate and exercised well during the week and they it all went a bit haywire at weekends! The only way to get decent results is to think of it all as a 7-day a week plan… every week!!

And What Now?

Although the photos looked great and the scales were very flattering, I must admit that by the end of the 3 months I was beginning to find the gym-based training a little repetitive and not necessarily something that I could envisage doing indefinitely. That said, I would be happy to continue with this style of training in the short term but I found that by the end of this project, I felt stiffer and less mobile than I had for a long time. Mobility and flexibility has always been important to me.

So, my training from here will certainly take elements from the above training but not be limited by it. I intend to add in more mobility work and bodyweight exercises to keep my muscle mass and shape whilst challenging my movement and mobility.

Overall my main priority is to maintain the good results that I achieved and the lessons that I learnt in terms of nutrition have been invaluable. I did find that over 220g of protein a day was rather high, so I’ll drop that down to somewhere around 200g (or even a little lower) but otherwise, will leave things as they were. That said, I do like experimenting with my diet to find out what works best for me, so I might experiment with some high-fat or carbohydrate manipulating options instead….

Let’s see what I can do in 2017….!

Richard

Wow, what a year! A LOT has happened at the clinic and within the team so here’s a little run down of some of the things we’ve been up to over the past 12 months.

40% increase in patients

We’re extremely proud to announce that year-on-year we’ve seen a 40% increase in the number of patients that have come in to see us. This means that we’ve been able to help a lot more people than we ever have before!

We pride ourselves on offering our absolute best to everyone that comes to see us and it sounds like word is spreading! A massive Thank You to everyone we’ve met this year, we hope that we’ve been able to help.

A bunch of Mudders

May this year saw 4/5 of the team (sadly Terry was otherwise engaged) take on the Tough Mudder Half obstacle race at Belvoir Castle. After a couple of very muddy hours, the team emerged, battered and bruised… but we survived! We also picked up a ‘Teamwork of the Day’ award which gave us the use of a hot jacuzzi at the finishing line! It almost made it all worthwhile… almost 😉

Richard’s on the Telly

It was a big year for Clinical Director Richard who made it onto National TV this October… for about 5 seconds! The program was ‘Extraordinary Pregnancies’ and focussed on Kat, a local lady who was still competing in pole dancing despite being heavily pregnant. A film crew descended on the clinic early one Tuesday morning to film Richard treating and talking to the patient for a couple of hours.

It seems like most of it ended up on the cutting room floor but he still had time to shine. Click on the image above to see the full appearance… don’t blink!

Building Bridges

As you probably know, we’re keen on building connections to other professionals and businesses and this year was no exception as we met and grew relationships with some really interesting folks:

Future Health – by name and by nature! These guys are a VERY impressive setup based on Nottingham Innovation Park offering stem cell harvesting and banking. It really is cutting-edge stuff. Have a look at our thoughts when we went to visit in November – Future Health blog.

Real World Fitness – Richard has been training at RWF for a couple of years now but they moved from rather modest premises into their own standalone gym space in Cowlick earlier this year. We think it’s the best facility of it’s type in Nottingham and definitely worth a look if you’re interested in a quality, no-nonsense approach to your fitness training.

… and what about next year?

You know us, we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We’ve got big plans for next year, including expanding the team and offering new services but without losing our core values: we want to consistently offer the best treatment, advice and service to all our patients and help everyone that comes through our doors. Simple as that.

And with that, we’d like to wish you a vey Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hopefully see you again in 2017!

As an osteopath I have to undertake at least 30 hours of CPD (Continual Professional Development) each year. This usually takes the form of discussion with colleagues, online research and learning, training courses and relevant events. I always try to use a number of different methods to reach my hours and a particular favourite is Therapy Expo at the NEC in Birmingham.

This is the second year that I’ve been to this event and it didn’t disappoint. Two days of excellent talks about topics ranging from paediatrics to pregnancy to sport injuries to new technology to marketing ideas, it really does have it all. I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone in our field.

However it’s not just about the content of the event, I believe that there is real value in going to events like this, beyond the nitty gritty.

1. Time to listen

We spend most of our time in a 1-to-1 situation with patients, so conversation is often quite personal and direct, with lots of interaction. It makes a change to sit down, relax and listen to someone speaking about a topic of interest with the time and freedom to make notes, think about what they’re saying and be led on a journey.

2. Time to catch up and have a coffee

Every time I go to events like these I bump into friends, colleagues and peers and have the time for a cup of coffee and a natter. Yes this is often led by ‘shop talk’ but conversation soon wanders and we can switch off… even if it’s for a little while.

3. Time to be exposed to new ideas

This year I saw exoskeletons being demonstrated and saw the impact that they had on a people who’d had life-changing accidents. Not directly relevant to my practice perhaps but absolutely inspiring. I really must get one for work….

4. Time to reflect

I usually find myself in at least one of the marketing and business talks and if I’m honest, I find that I’m already putting into practice a lot of what is suggested. That said, as the speaker extols the virtues of social media, harnessing referrals or implementing business systems, I find myself thinking about my business, what is working and what could be improved. EVERY SINGLE TIME I come away with new ideas…

5. Time to plan

But of course, plans need to be made. The ‘great‘ thing about the NEC is that there’s always traffic on the roads or delays on the trains meaning that there’s plenty of time to start thinking about short term and long term plans. It’s no coincidence that my productivity shoots up after attending events like this one. The trick is maintaining that over the whole year 😉

So, see you next year?

So as you can see, I’m a big fan of getting out of the office, going to events like these and having my horizons broadened. Even if it just gives you some headspace to think about what you’re doing, how it could be improved and what you can do to make both yours and your patients’ experiences that little bit better, surely that’s got to be worth it.

We recently had the pleasure of a visit to Future Health Biobank, the largest stem cell bank in the UK, based very close to our clinic in Nottingham.

We’re really interested in the latest health technology and developments and were blown away by what they do there. I must admit, I thought that stem cell harvesting and storage, in the treatment of future illness and disease, was within the realms of science fiction, but it is in fact, very real… and actually quite affordable.

They provide five main services:

• cord blood and cord tissue stem cell banking
• dental pulp cell banking (from lost baby teeth)
• adipose (fat) stem cell banking
• non-invasive prenatal testing
  • Down’s Syndrome, Edwards’ Syndrome, Patau’s Syndrome
• new born screening testing
  • Coeliac disease, lactose intolerance etc

In a nutshell, stems cells can be taken from the umbilical cord, lost baby teeth or even fat cells, stored in the facility in Nottingham and them retrieved if they’re needed in the future, to treat a on of a number of illnesses. At the moment, stem cells are routinely used in the treatment of some leukaemias and anaemias but there’s a lot of research being carried out about what the stem cells could be used for in the future. This list actually includes autism, cerebral palsy, type 1 diabetes and all sorts. In fact there are over 300 therapies in clinical trials at the moment! Who knows what the future might bring….?

If you’re interested in what they could do for you and your family, give them a call on 0115 967 7707 and have a chat. They’ve even given us a discount code to take 10% off the cost. Just mention ‘MHC01’ when you speak to them.

We’ve also got some flyers at the clinic so why not had a read of one of those, next time you’re in. VERY interesting stuff!

The results are in!

About 6 weeks after sending off my home testing kit (as seen in Part One) I received an email from 23andMe telling me that the results were in. It’s all available through the website, which lets you browse through as much or as little of the information as you wish. Some of the information is pretty frivolous but other parts are really quite important so one must tread a little carefully through all the data on display.

The results are divided into two main areas: Health and Ancestry.

Ancestry Results

This section is the more self-explanatory as it looks at your personal DNA blueprint in terms of geography, your maternal and paternal lines. It also looks at your ‘Neanderthal DNA’…

Unsurprisingly, I’m 99.7% European but only 57.7% is classed as “British & Irish”, which is less than I expected. It does confirm that I have some Scandinavian DNA (4.8%) which maybe goes some way to explaining my interest in minimalist furniture and cold weather! Maybe 😉 The 0.1% “unassigned” DNA is intriguing… alien?

The website also looks at how much of your DNA is closely related to Neanderthal DNA. The average is 2.7% and mine is… 2.9%. Yeah, thanks for that guys!

Health Results

This is probably the more interesting section, with the potential to impact on our day-to-day lives. It’s also the main reason why I wanted to do the test in the first place.

The section is broken down into 4 main sections plus a collection of Health Tools, to further investigate the results specific to you. The sections are:

• Genetic Risk Factors
• Inherited Conditions
• Traits
• Drug Response

Genetic Risk Factors

These reports show your results for specific genetic variants that are associated with a higher risk for developing certain health conditions. They don’t tell you whether you definitely will, or will not, develop the condition but rather, whether the risk is there. Of course there are other genetic variants linked to these conditions that are not covered by these reports and environmental and lifestyle factors can also contribute to these conditions.

The list of conditions is rather, erm, specific and I honestly say that none of them are anything that I’ve ever even thought about:

However, there are also a handful of ‘locked reports’ which are probably more interesting/important for the average joe (like me).  Some folks would rather not know, so you need to actively click on the reports to see your results, which is a nice feature.

Drug Response

OK, so this is interesting. This section looks at the way that I do/can/could respond to some common and not-so-common medications. So I have a ‘rapid’ response to PPI meds (for acid reflux, indigestion etc) which is interesting, although they’re not necessarily a medication that I particularly use, but have done in the past. In fairness, they did seem to work!

It’s worth noting that you can click on each of those results to find out more about what the medications are for and what the results mean.

Inherited Conditions

These reports show your results for specific genetic variants that can cause certain health conditions. Many of these conditions are recessive, meaning that they only occur when you have two variants for that condition, one inherited from each parent. If you have inherited just one variant, you are said to be a “carrier”. Carriers usually do not have the condition, but can pass the variant on to their children. These reports cover only a subset of possible variants that may be linked to a condition, it’s therefore possible to have other variants not covered by these reports.

All kinds of stuff in here, 50 + conditions,  but I’m ‘absent’ of all of them, so nothing to see here….

Traits

A real mixed bag this section. ALL kinds of information on display from the frivolous (ear wax type?!) to the interesting (lactose tolerance – I’m likely intolerant apparently but I wouldn’t say that I have any issues) to the inaccurate (eye colour = “likely brown”, erm, mine are green) to the more important (response to diet, exercise, pain etc).

Again, loads of information here with links to individual studies, outcomes and gene research. For example, when talking about diet, it references three studies:

• Effect of monounsaturated fat = marker rs1801282
  • I’m CC – “A diet high in monounsaturated fat is not likely to have beneficial effects on BMI or waist circumference.”
• Effect of saturated fat on obesity risk = marker rs5082
  • I’m AG – “Typical odds of obesity on both a high and low saturated fat diet.”
• Effect of fat intake on body mass index (BMI) = marker rs662799
  • I’m AA – “A high fat diet (30% of calories from fat) is associated with higher BMI.”

From this I think it suggests that a high fat diet probably isn’t for me as I don’t carry the gene variants that benefit from high fat diets. This is really interesting to me as I’ve always thought that carbohydrates were my nemesis? Maybe not? I’ll need to experiment to find out more.

Oh yeah, apparently I’ve got an increased risk of ‘male pattern baldness’… not such a surprise that one 😉

What next?

To be honest, I’ve been a bit blown away by the sheer volume of information on offer here and there’s plenty more reading to do to really get to the bottom of my personal data.

As I’m primarily interested in the effects of diet and exercise, the next step is to send my data off to DNAFit to get their more detailed reports back. I’m hoping that this will further inform my training and nutrition planning. Fingers crossed 🙂

What do you think? Going to get your DNA tested?

Did you know that osteopaths can help treat lower back, joint and muscle pain during pregnancy?

Experiencing some degree of  pain during pregnancy is completely normal and to be expected, however some women suffer more than others. Don’t worry, osteopathy can often help!

What are the symptoms?*

• Pain felt across one of either side of the lower back
• Pain that may spread into the buttocks, hips and thighs
• Some women also experience clicking or grinding sensations upon movement
• The pain may be most noticeable when walking, climbing stairs, getting out of a car, standing on one leg or turning over in bed.
  • Ref: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/pelvic-pain-pregnant-spd.aspx

What do osteopaths do?

We’ll start with a detailed case history, looking at the pregnancy so far and any issues that you may have had in the past. Then we’ll look at your overall posture, your lower back and your pelvis to see where the pain might be coming from.

Treatment often involves soft tissue massage, loosening restricted joints and creating good posture, balance and stability throughout the lower back and pelvis. You’ll also be given some exercises to do at home to strengthen the muscles supporting the joints of the back and pelvis and to maintain good alignment.

Hannah Williams is our osteopath who specialises in treating ladies during pregnancy. If you’d like to come in for an assessment and treatment with her or one of the team at our clinic in West Bridgford in Nottingham, give us a call on 0115 981 5134 or email us at info@mooreosteopathy.co.uk.