Tips to help you sleep
If you are a regular reader of this column you will know that I always look at each patient as an individual and again insomnia is no different. What works for one may not work for another and may even make them worse. In particular, when individualising a treatment plan it is foods and vitamins and minerals that differ in how they help. For example, some people may be aided by carbohydrates before bed, others protein. On the minerals side calcium, magnesium or potassium can help, but it will also vary person to person.
However, there are enough basic tips that everyone can try that can achieve good results. Firstly avoid all caffeine products, the main culprits being coffee, tea, colas and chocolate. Also tobacco, alcohol and sugar can be nervous system stimulants so avoid these too close to bed time. Reserve the bedroom primarily for sleep, so no watching tv, playing video games, working on a laptop, doing paperwork or even exercising which will be priming the mind for activity not rest.
Regular exercise during the day however has been researched to improve sleep patterns. It has to be regular though, not the occasional piece here and there. Another useful tip is to not spend too long trying to get to sleep. Spend no longer than 30 minutes trying and then get up and leave the bedroom if you haven't successfully fallen asleep. Do something productive for a while and then return to bed to try and sleep again. This helps habituated the mind to sleeping in the bedroom only. Sleep tight.
Tips for a healthy Spine written for Sussex Bootcamps
Back pain article for Bootcamp Newsletter
What I hope to achieve in the article is to give you a few of the tips that I give out daily to my patients at The Perrymount Clinic. Some tips may help you prevent any re-occurrence of back pain you have had previously and others may be able to help you reduce the frequency that you get pain. Give them all a try and see which works well for you.
Water intake
Firstly let’s look at water consumption. Apart from the whole body needing adequate hydration to function properly the spinal disc (intervertebral disc) specifically need water to stay “plump”. It is well known that we are taller in the morning and we shorten through the day as our spinal discs are gradually squashed by gravity acting on us as we stand throughout the day. The reason we are taller in the morning is that over night the discs have an automatic function of cleverly dragging fluid back into themselves. It is when this space narrows that problems occur like arthritis, as the joints are closer together, or nerve entrapments (sciatica) as the decreased space causes the nerve to be pinched. So by drinking adequate water you will be making it available for your discs to use, keeping maximum distance between the vertebrae.
Exercise
Most people consider exercise to benefit their cardiovascular health, but your joints and spine will love it too. Exercise will help on many levels, improving circulation, shifting inflammation, releasing “feel good” chemicals, but I want to look at two points, and Bootcamp does these amazingly well (I’m a big fan!). Firstly exercise will mobilise you spine, increasing the movement between the vertebrae and improving your flexibility. Most patients need this to balance work life with exercise as most people have sedentary jobs in front of a PC or on the phone, which basically causes stiffening and tightness through the musculo-skeletal system.
Secondly, exercise will strengthen our “core” muscles, or tummy. Think of your abdomen as the front of your back, and it therefore needs to be strong and functioning correctly to support your spine, particularly the low back. Again the Bootcamp team incorporate core strength into their circuit routines.
Posture
This is my number one point as it applies to everyone! You must make sure you have good posture, particularly when doing what you do most often through the day, so if it is standing then stand well, sitting at the PC, sit well, driving all day, sit well in your car.
The spine basically has 3 curves to it and your weight should be evenly distributed through them to give minimal strain on the ligaments and muscles. Compensations occur if the posture changes in one curve, adding strain to that curve and the others, creating opportunity for injuries. Take for example slouching over a PC, your head and neck are thrown forward and to compensate the low back curve flattens and this predisposes to disc injuries. You can experiment and try this yourself. You must basically check your posture from head to low back and make sure they are all in alignment, not just the part of your spine that hurts. You probably need a spinal assessment by an osteopath to fully examine this.
This is a condensed version of a longer e-book download that is available at www.theperrymount.com .