wellness

The Importance of Proper Breathing for Health and Wellness

Posted by

Have you ever felt your breath catch? An awe inspiring view, a new love across the room, a shock from unexpected news? Have you ever felt really short of breath, like there isn’t enough air in the room? Lots of things can make us feel short of breath, some exciting (the new love across the room, the view), some scary (the sound of unknown feet on a dark night, shocking news), exertion and even some diseases.

Therefore a caveat – if you think that your shortness of breath, particularly if linked with a new or persistant cough, could be of pathological origin, go and see your primary medical provider for assessment and treatment.

Breathing is the most fundamental process of life, something we have done since the moment we were born and the last thing we shall do. It is something we never notice until it becomes the only things we can do and is also, uniquely, one of the only autonomic actions that we can control.

Hold your breath. Just stop. No in, no out, just pause. If you are relaxing and have no known underlying issues, you should be able to last 20 – 30 seconds before the desire to breath kicks in. Physiologically, this desire is driven by the change in Carbon Dioxide, not the drop in Oxygen.

The ability to control your breathing, and your response to it, is a wonderful gift, that can help relieve headaches, reduce your perception of stress, control anxiety, increase athletic performance and even change your mood.

And, if your breathing is restricted mechanically, there is research based evidence that manual therapies can also help improve this, increasing your functional effective volume and respiratory mechanics, also helping with the above issues.

At the Clinic, we have spent years working with specialists and carrying out research ourselves on best ways to treat, unlock and improve breathing, from relaxation exercises to breath control systems, and manual therapies to address underlying function issues.

Book today online and talk to us to experience the benefits.

The empty tool box

Posted by

At some point, the tool box is empty. There is nothing else you can offer. This is hard to acknowledge, both as a professional and a patient.

For a complementary practitioner, practicing honestly, this is the point where you have a conversation with the patient, and offer to refer on, either to a fellow professional or back to their medical practitioner.

For the hospital medic, they often carry out one more test, make a referral to another team or wait and see. This is almost always with the best intentions, but also because admitting you’ve reached the bottom of the toolbox is hard.

For the GP, at the front of patient care, it can be especially hard, since the patient has spent their life believing that medicine can fix whatever the problem is and finding out that there isn’t an easy pill, operation or test that can solve it all is challenging.

But sometimes it has to be admitted that the issue doesn’t have an answer, especially with some chronic conditions and mental health. Its at this point the person is vulnerable to quacks, charlatans and an alternative health tribe who offer an apparent quick fix in return for lots of money.

A lot of alternative treatments are wonderful, offer real benefits to people and can improve lives if used sympathetically and appropriately, but there are always grifters and con artists in every field.

Reiki may offer space, acupuncture can take a completely different view of a problem, an antidepressant can numb the emotions and help the patient get on with life, perhaps while waiting for the world to change around them, a painkiller can allow a return to activity that may help resolve the pain if well managed.

But sometimes, the toolbox is empty.

And then we have to get on with life anyway, rebuilding what we have into a structure that supports us now.

Find the tools that work for you, learn how to use them effectively, add to the box as often as possible and acknowledge that sometimes, the box is empty.

On: Tendons and Ligaments

Posted by

Tendons tether muscle, ligaments link bone.

But both can be damaged, become weakened, or scarred.

So how can we, both as practitioners and people, prevent this, or at least minimise its impact?

Prevention is always better than a cure, and therefore ensuring the tendons (when reading tendons, assume ligaments as well, although there are differences in all sorts of subtle ways) remain strong is vital.

Note – If you are currently taking medications, especially certain antibiotics, check with the pharmacy regarding soft tissue effects. For example, Fluoroquinolone antibiotics have a rare side effect with regards to soft tissue, so if you are prescribed those, it may be sensible to reduce training load during and after the treatment.

Tendons can be trained, like any other tissue, and research indicates that they respond best to cycles of isometric tension, of approx 10 – 30 seconds, with 30 – 50 seconds rest. Initially, it doesn’t even matter what joint position you are in, as long as the tendon is under tension, and pain free. Over time, you can increase the load and the number of cycles you carry out, to ensure continued development.

There is also some evidence that longditudinal supplementation with collagen (preferably from biologically similar connective tissue) is beneficial, especially when consumed with vitamin C.

Once you have a stable, platform, you can work on repairing any scarring or weaknesses in the tissue by using long duration concentric / isometric / eccentric training movements, through the pain free range of motion. For example, a squat under light load, with all three phases taking 10 seconds, although this time is individual.

Finally, there is also some evidence that early, and safe return to loading after injury can help reduce the time to competition, since the stimulus causes the scar tissue to form beneficially, rather than scattered.

TLDR: tendons can be strengthed, healthy tendons can increase your overall performance, isometric exercises are beneficial to tendon health.