The Health Benefits of Easter Chocolate

It’s the month of Easter. What better way to celebrate than to talk about chocolate’s warm, milky goodness? Everyone has a favourite, but if you want our opinion (or read up on the latest health research, which we do a lot – something of an occupational hazard for osteopaths) the darker the chocolate the better it is for you. But that doesn’t mean we recommend you demand dark chocolate and nothing but dark chocolate from the Easter Bunny. Why? Read on to find out.

Dark chocolate is generally considered better for you than other varieties because it contains a higher percentage of cocoa solids. Cocoa solids contain antioxidants called flavonoids, which research has associated with several health benefits, including:

•   Improved heart health: Flavonoids can help lower blood pressure, improve blood flow, and reduce the risk of heart disease.

•   Better brain function: Studies suggest that the flavonoids in dark chocolate can improve cognitive function and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

•   Reduced inflammation: Antioxidants help reduce inflammation in the body, which has been linked to several chronic health conditions.

By its nature, dark chocolate contains less sugar than the hyper-sweet stuff. Plus, we know sugar can increase inflammation in the body, be addictive, trigger bizarre insulin reactions, and contains nutritionally useless calories (oh, and it’s a nightmare for your oral hygiene too). But it’s important to remember that it still contains some sugar and fat so you should enjoy it in moderation! But what if you don’t enjoy it? That’s OK – you can get flavonoids from tea, fruit and vegetables. It’s not an essential part of your diet – after all if your ancestry is European, Australasian, African, Asian, or North American (anywhere but South America) your ancestors survived without it for tens of thousands of years! 

So, I Should ONLY Eat Dark Chocolate, Right?

But with all those health benefits why would we suggest you shouldn’t celebrate Easter with a dark chocolate frenzy? As osteopaths, psychology isn’t our main thing, but we do know our patients. We know that the exercises we prescribe need to be more than “good for you” they need to be achievable for where you are right now - and maybe even a little bit fun.  With that in mind we suggest that the healthiest chocolate is one you enjoy: one you can take a bite or two of and feel satisfied. If you don’t like dark chocolate you’ll eat it, and then probably eat some more because you feel a bit deprived and disappointed and then you’ll raid the kids’ dairy milk stash because that’s what you wanted in the first place. 

So, we suggest you ask the Easter Bunny to bring fewer, better-quality Easter Eggs with some dark chocolate and some of whatever you and your family like. And while Easter is a time for chocolate it’s also a time for family and, for many, for faith. You’ll enjoy your Easter Eggs more if you don’t fixate on them and enjoy a range of Easter foods and Easter activities instead. How about boiling eggs in water with food colouring added for old-fashioned family fun? Or perhaps the Easter Bunny could bring some craft activities for some family craft time.

Whatever you do to celebrate we hope you enjoy it. We look forward to seeing our patients again soon after the few days off to rest and reset. We’re always to here to help with your health goals. Call us on 0439379847 to make an appointment with the osteopaths at Holistic Hands Osteopathy for support in living your healthiest life. Have a great Easter everyone.

Recovering from RSI with Osteopathy

The human body is meant to move. It’s not meant to move like a machine in a factory – repetitively performing one action. And yet office work, modern technology and many manual jobs force us to move in such a way. Even our leisure time is invaded with some sports, hobbies and instruments encouraging limited, unbalanced, repetitive movement patterns. If we’re unlucky Repetitive Strain Injury (or RSI) can be the result. And it can be debilitatingly painful. So let’s talk about recovering from RSI with osteopathy.

What Is RSI?

Repetitive Strain Injury, also called Occupational Overuse Syndrome, is really a descriptive term for overuse injuries rather than a specific diagnosis. The condition can affect any part of the body although it’s more common today in the wrists and forearms due to our reliance on computers and keyboards at work. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a type of RSI, as are bursitis and tendonitis. We have a lot of names for it: tennis elbow, texter’s thumb, housemaid’s knee, trigger’s finger, Rubik’s wrist (when Rubik’s cubes had everyone obsessed). The list goes on. In fact, when the condition was first described back in 1700 by Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini after observing industrial workers, he noted more than 20 categories of RSI.  It's simple really - repetitively performing one action without rest can cause inflammation and damage to the body’s soft tissues and nerves. Symptoms can include tingling, numbness, shooting pain and burning sensations, excessive weakness and fatigue, and clumsiness.

What to do about it?

Firstly, please don’t ignore the mild, early symptoms. A small annoyance can become chronic pain if left untreated and continually exacerbated.  Now some commonly given advice is to stop doing the activity causing you pain. But as osteopaths we know that’s sometimes not realistic or desirable: a guitarist with a gig coming up can’t just stop practising and a keen tennis player shouldn’t have to give up the sport they love. And we all have to work!

So, what can be done to prevent it?

Ergonomics

Take the time to ensure your work (and play) space is ergonomically sound. Check that your desk, chair and monitor are set at the right height. Similarly, make sure you’re playing with the right sporting equipment for you.

Rest

Take breaks throughout the day and move differently during them. The repetitive nature of typing, playing the piano or swinging a golf club is a problem, but so too is the limited range of motion those actions take you through. Take a moment to stretch and move in an alternative pattern (a few wrist rotations if you’ve been typing for hours for example.)

Posture

Working in a misaligned posture places extra load and aggravation on your body. So sit, stand and move well through whatever activity you’re doing. It’s important to note, that having your environment set-up with ergonomics in mind will help with this, but even the best chair can be slumped in! If you’re really too tired to move well then it’s time for that rest we mentioned earlier.

Treatment

Make an appointment with the osteopaths at Holistic Hands Osteopathy by calling 0439379847 today.  The sooner you make an appointment the sooner we can help you. If you have only niggling pain, but it’s becoming persistent, please take action before it becomes debilitating. If you’ve taken steps to improve your workstation, implement rest breaks and moved mindfully, but find things have not improved in forty-eight hours, we advise you make an appointment as soon as convenient. But don’t despair if you have left it too long and are suffering chronically. It might take a little longer, but we can still help. It’s what we do! 

After an initial consultation to understand your discomfort and its causes, your treatment will most likely include massage, stretching, and possibly the realignment of some affected joints.  Your osteopath will also advise you on exercises and stretches to bring relief.  While a cure is unlikely to be instantaneous, your osteopath is uniquely skilled to assist in recovery from RSI. By promoting blood flow to stiff or painful soft tissues and returning the body to a balanced alignment, your osteopathic treatment enables the body’s own healing mechanisms to work efficiently.  

We look forward to seeing you at the clinic and helping you back to tennis, golf, gardening, guitar-playing, writing, sewing (or working) with less pain.

Vertigo: symptoms and treatment

Welcome back readers! This month we are switching focus to the head, and specifically a condition which causes a person to feel dizzy. We welcome you to the world of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). In simple terms, a non-serious sudden attack of dizziness brought on by a change in head position.

What is vertigo?

Vertigo is a type of dizziness where a person experiences the sensation of whirling, spinning or swaying. A person will usually feel that they, or objects around them are moving when they are not. There are several causes of vertigo, with the most common cause being BPPV. Other common causes include Ménière's disease (vertigo with hearing loss and ringing in the ears) and labyrinthitis (inflammation of the inner ear).

The ear is made up of an outer, middle and inner section. The outer ear is the ear that we see on the head and the opening that leads into the head itself. This connects to the middle ear — a small area inside the head which houses the ear bones, connects to the inner mouth and also the inner ear. The inner ear is the section which houses our hearing and balance organs — the cochlea and the vestibular system. It is this most inner section which is involved with BPPV.

What causes BPPV?

The structure of the inner ear is quite complicated. It is a maze of hollow chambers and canals all connected together and filled with fluid. There are three semi-circular canals which are expertly positioned to detect movement in the 3 planes that our head can move (nodding up and down, tilting left and right, and looking left and right). Inside the chambers live tiny crystals which, when movement of the head occurs, move and send important information to the brain about what type of movement is occurring. Sometimes these crystals become detached from the chamber and move into the canals where they can play havoc.

Basically, the crystals move through the fluid which stimulates nerve endings in the canal. The nerves then send a message to the brain which the brain perceives as movement, even though the head isn’t actually moving. Because this information doesn’t match with what the eyes are seeing and the ears are detecting, we experience vertigo. It is one big mismatch of information which is tricking the brain. And the effect is quite unpleasant!

An attack of BPPV can be brought on by a quick change in head position, when rolling over in bed, sitting up from lying down, or when looking up to the sky. A recent head injury or degeneration of the inner ear system can precede episodes of BPPV.

Signs and symptoms

The main symptoms as discussed include a sensation of spinning or swaying. People may also experience feelings of light-headedness, imbalance and nausea. Attacks will usually only last a period of a few minutes and may come and go. It is not unusual for a person to have a period of symptoms followed by a period of no symptoms for months at a time. If symptoms persist for longer than a few minutes at a time, then it is likely the vertigo is from a different cause.

Some conditions that cause vertigo can also give symptoms of headache, hearing loss, numbness, pins and needles, difficulty speaking, and difficulty coordinating movements. Episodes of vertigo may also be much longer or constant. If you experience any of these symptoms they should be reported immediately as they could be signs of more serious issues, which will need to be investigated.

Can it be treated?

BPPV is very treatable. Many people with dizziness end up seeing their GP first, but it is common for a GP to refer these cases to us here at Holistic Hands Osteopathy for ongoing management. After a thorough session of questioning and assessment, if we are happy with our diagnosis of BPPV, then we can get to work right away.

BPPV can affect any of the semi-circular canals mentioned above. For treatment, we need to first bring on the symptoms. It sounds sadistic, but it is necessary to ensure we resolve the symptoms for you. Treatment for BPPV consists of a series of head and body movements where you start seated, move into a lying down position and end sitting upright again. This series of movements is known as the Epley Manoeuvre and is used to treat the most common form of BPPV. If the source of the problem is coming from a different canal, then the treatment will be slightly different.

We then send you away with some general do’s and don’ts. You may have to keep your head relatively still for the rest of the day (sorry, heavy exercise is not recommended at this stage) and to sleep propped up for the first night after treatment. We will then organise for you to come back in within a few days to reassess and if necessary continue with another treatment.

Final comments…

Interestingly, we often get patients come in who think they have vertigo, but in fact, it’s other structural issues contributing to their dizziness (which we diagnose and treat). That’s why it’s so important that we have a thorough consultation, to ensure we develop the right treatment plan for you. If you think you are experiencing vertigo, please come in and speak to us. Osteopaths are highly trained medical practitioners who can help treat more than you think. Call us today on 0439379847 to book your consultation.