Problems with plantar fasciitus?

Chances are that you may have read the title and still be none the wiser…

Well, plantar fasciitus is that deep pain you get into the sole of your foot, which is made worse for walking and often can be worse in the morning.

It is caused by an inflammation of a sheet of connective tissue which helps support the arch of your foot. Make no mistake it is really painful, and can cause severe problems for sufferers.

Strain and stress to this band of fibrous tissue can be caused by sudden changes in weight bearing motions during sports activities, a weak flat foot, abnormal pronated conformation, wearing shoes with little or no arch support, extended hours of standing on a hard floors and, sadly for most of us, carrying alittle too much weight.

If you think you are suffering from it you need to get your doc to check it out first. pain in the foot can be a precursor to many things (which I won’t list for fear of scaring you).

Once you are sure that it is an inflammatory problem, then try using a tennis ball rolled under the foot to help gently massage the affected area. Stretch out the bottom of the foot over a step, or telephone directory (actually the only good use for the Yellow Pages in my opinion) and take it a bit easier… see sometimes my advice ticks all the boxes.

Stay healthy, but do it your way

At least I post regularly…. well every 3 months or so.

Folks

I’m really sorry for the haphazard approach to posting on this blog. it was my intention in setting it up to try to get a story out every week.

Believe it or not, I failed because I have been writing for a whole bunch of other people on a weekly basis and have not had chance to get on with my own stuff.

Anyway, enough of this.

What about the furore over the cuts in NHS budgets and decline in care offered… oh, yeah that’s right there hasn’t been one has there.

The basic service offering for most hospitals has been protected, so they say. But today I learnet that a friend of mine with a serious back condition cannot get an MRI scan because ‘ there’s no budget left this year’ and even if there was he wouldn’t be able to get an operation if needed until April when the new funding year starts.

How does that work?

If there is a clear clinical need, a requirement to get someone who can’t walk let alone work back on his feet and the kit there to do it – why isn’t it happening?

Mark my words, the managers of teh PCT’s will be squirrelling their cash away, looking after their salaries and those of their flunkies – and to hell with the nurses and patients.

Don’t let them get away with it… make lots of noise NOW!

NA

Long Time Away…..

My sincere apologies for the break in transmissions.

It really came about due to errors of a technical and a personal nature. Let me explain.

My aged PC was wheezing its last and I know that I should really have created a back up for my files, logins and passwords……… but I hadn’t. Guess what, it happened.

BANG!

My electronic life in tatters. It has taken me an awful lot of charging around to get back on air – at last!

In my time away we have seen several interesting developments in my bipolar world of healthcare & football.

In the case of the latter we witnessed the scenes of several football games interrupting some highly entertaining vuvuzela concerts in South Africa. The whole event came to life when France went on strike, England forgot to play, and the youth of Germany exploded at the hands of the Spanish.

The final was all about the plucky English ref, and the nasty foreign cheats….. or so the Daily mail would have it. In fact, I enjoyed the whole thing – apart from the lack of English spine.

Oh, and the final cheeky monkey moment of the Spanish players putting a Barcelona shirt on Fabregas…. I don’t think so amigo’s!

On the health front we have seen a new government take power, and of course the NHS comes in for scrutiny. And what has the BMA done to help……. yes that’s it, promise to cut homeopathy, thereby saving £4m per year. Surely they missed the £1.2b that they spent on worthless flu drugs last year.

I think they would have been better controlling that rather than a few bottles of water.

I’m not condoning homeopathy, mostly as I know very little about it, but I do object to the good men and women of the BMA who deem that everything out of their direct control is wrong and dangerous. There are many good, safe and effective treatments available from regulated professionals such as acupuncturists, chiropractors and osteopaths. We are not snake oil salesmen.

Let the public have a choice. If it works for them, so be it.

Be healthy.

It Didn’t Last Then

OK, so we (as in Arsenal) got taken apart yesterday by a Man Utd side who looked like they meant business.

The tip of Fergies nose glowed like a red beacon in the dugout as he basked in a job well done….. and we slunk home having seen our boys humbled by the second of our greatest foes (following the mauling by Chelsea previously).

Still, the mark of the die hard fan is to rise up against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and face the world. Must say though that any patient who even mentions that they are a fan of Man U are getting the more advanced treatment techniqes applied to their aliments today!

Stay healthy your way, but out of my way today!

NA

Top Of The League…… In January!

I couldn’t let it pass without comment, but it seems that the team who were written off as no hopers after suffering a defeat to Chelsea in November which left them 11 points off of the league, are now league leaders.

OK, a bold statement which is subject to a deal of criticism – and justifiably so.

1) In order to achieve our lofty perch we have beaten Bolton twice (and they are currently the Premier League equivalent of whipping boys) without looking as though we really had any potency.

2) Chelsea have a game in hand over us.

3) Our next four home games are against Villa, Fergies Flappers, Chlesea and Rafas Bane – so we are going to be tested slightly more than we have been against Sunderland, Everton and Bolton X2 (with respect to a very good Everton side that is).

4) It is Arsenal we are looking at here – and I’ve been here so many times in the last 5 years as far as the title goes.

All that said, I’m loving the league right at the moment, and the sight of Fergie getting a slap from Tevez on Tuesday and moon faced Alladyce having to stand up and sit down more often than a toddler at a party game in the League Cup has just added to the delight.

Bring on May!

Chin Chin

NA

The Curse of the New Years Resolution

The phone started to ring on Monday morning this week with the first of the victims of a common New Years resolution – “I WILL get fitter”.

“Hello, is that the osteopath?”
“Yes, how can I help?”
“Well, its probably just a pulled muscle, but can I come in and see you because I’ve been at the gym all weekend and now my back/leg/shoulder/knee/ankle/neck… (etc) has begun to ache”

Familiar to anyone out there?

Basically, the combination of media inspired guilt, over indulgence at Christmas and New Year blues tends to cause a panicked rush to the nearest gym, and a feverish assault upon every machine and workout session available.

Let’s draw a comparison for you, imagine that you are currently driving a nice old Ford Sierra, you know a real good car of its day, one which does a fine job of getting you, the kids and assorted luggage from where you are to where you want to be without too much hassle. Sure, the sills are getting a bit rusty, and occasionally its a real bugger to start, especially on a cold day but it does a job, with a little TLC. Now imagine that you have just entered it into this years F1 competition, with big demands being made on every component to operate at 100% efficiency all the time. Where the margins of error are zero and any failure is catastrophic.

I know you can see where I’m going with this. You’re not that dumb.

So why do the same to your body? It (and indeed you) have been working on a typical daily routine of;

- Get up, feel a little creaky & stiff but a hot shower soon sorts you out
- Sit for 1/2 hour over breakfast and the paper
- Sit in the car and drive an hour to work
- Sit at your desk for 4 hours with occasional trips to the coffee machine
- Sit over lunch for an hour
- Sit at your desk or in a meeting room for four hours
- Sit in the car for the hour and a half drive home in traffic
- Sit on the settee for a well earned beer/glass of wine and your dinner

And you decide to change this overnight to;

- Get up, half hour stretches and sit ups in the bathroom
- Half hour jog and sprint mixes across park
- Day at work as before, although now have regular trips to water fountain and very light lunch with fruit and salad
- Drive to gym
- Hour work out with free weights
- Half hour spin class
- 5,000 Km on running machine
- Protein shake and fruit dinner in health spa bar
- Shower & home

Wonder why you only last for two days before something goes ‘pop’?

I applaud anyones efforts to look after themselves, but please let yourself into it gently. Start with a walk to the shops to get the paper and maybe a gentle after work swim and then over the course of two weeks build up to getting into the gym. Work with a qualified trainer (all gyms have them) to design a program specifically for you, and get them to check this after a week and then every two weeks to keep it relevant. Above all, if it starts to hurt then stop. Don’t ever think that you can run off an injury, all that will happen is that it will get worse, then become a barrier to your fitness.

Enjoy the energy of your commitment to fitness, but make you activity relevant to you. Get healthy your way, stay healthy your way.

The Sporting Injury

It has come to that time in the football and rugby season that we start to see the aches & pains hobbling into clinic.

The chronology of these injuries is always the same, the player starts to feel pain in their back, hip, knee or foot in one of the early games, but resolve to ‘run it off’ – yeah always works that one. They don’t say anything because they want to keep their position in the team, so play on loaded with painkillers and crippled for two days after a game.

Still they soldier on until it gets to the point that their partner forces them into our clinic at gunpoint because they can’t stand the whinging any longer.

Recognise the pattern anyone?

Give me a chance chaps, come in when if first hurts, that way the treatment is simple, effective and quick – honest!

Be healthy your way, but your better off doing it my way!

Thierry – No!

Oh the shame, the aggro from irate Irish supporters and even the FAI.

I genuinely believe that VaVaVroom Tel is embarrased by the way he manufactured the goal that sends Ireland out of the World Cup – and he should be, however, there is no way that FIFA will sanction a replay.

Just a couple of thoughts here;

1) If the events had been reversed, i.e. if the story was the same but it was Keane handling in the box for a pass to O’Shea to score, would FIFAs stance be the same. Er no, it wouldn’t would it because all Platini and Blatter wanted was to see France go through, and that way they generate more interest in the Cup and therefore line their pockets with more sponsors & advertisers cash.

2) I seem to remember that Ireland were awarded a bogus penalty against Georgia in the group stages, but there was no clammer to have the game replayed The game changed as a result of that goal just as much as the knock out.

3) Everyone capable of breathing knows that the modern professional game needs goal line technology and the video ref. That is apart from FIFA, who continue to state that they are going to put more match officials in place instead. Why? There is no coherent reason being offered, so you have to ask why. It is bound to be something to do with power, money or control, betcha.

4) I heard someone proposing that Henry should be banned from the World Cup……. get real. He may well get a ban for bringing the game into disrepute or whatever, but the World Cup is only a spectacle because of players of his ilk. That was why the ex Manc one trick pony from Portugal is all over the media and promotion for the competition – and he didn’t even play in the qualifiers!

So, I feel desperately sorry for the Irish, and it would have been good to have got through – but it was never going to happen from the moment that FIFA suddenly introduced seeding into the qualifiers – that showed their intent. If it hadn’t of been a Henry handball, you may well have seen Platini take out Shay Given with a snipers rifle before the end of the penalties.

Schumachers Neck – A New Diagnosis

I’m not a huge F1 fan, but I am happy to watch a bit of the races and have enjoyed some of the British triumphs in the recent past, however, the world of motorsport and Osteopathy clashed in fine style to other day.

A patient arrived at clinic complaining of pain into his neck, which was made worse by trying to look over his shoulder, in either direction. He also complained of a dull aching into the top of his back and along one shoulder. There was no history of trauma, no headaches, no visual disturbances and no problems with balance. So it seemed to be a common problem which involves some of the small joints along the spine getting stuck together (imagine two sheets of glass with water between them, they’ll slide a certain amount but not gap easily) which sets up protective tension in the muscles of the neck and upper back.

Once I had treated the poor fellow, and thankfully returned him to pain free movement, he asked whether an osteopath could have treated the great German and allowed him to race in Valencia.

I am sure that his management and team would have explored a range of options for his rehabilitation – however, if they want to give osteopathy a try give me a call!

One Result Does Not A Season Make…

Look, I know all about early season form and the risks of reading too much into it, after all I’ve been and Arsenal fan for too long to start that particular trait. But, having travelled to Goodison with the faithful, I was completely blown away, the only other time when I felt like that in the last twelve months was (beleive or not) FC Porto at the Emirates when Bendtner turned a corner and played well.

Let me delight in the way Arsenal played on Saturday, even against lacklustre opposition.

See the entry on 4 August and maybe, just maybe……

NoAxe