Self help for a stiff neck
Neck cramps, also known as a stiff neck, generally occur when the neck muscles weaken over time due to overuse or poor posture. An example of over use of your neck muscles, is when we are doing abdominal exercises and start to feel it in you neck – if this happens remember you are exercising your neck not your abdominal muscles! If you regularly get a stiff neck then consider your posture when you use a computer, drive or look at your smart phone.
When You have a Stiff Neck Self Help Procedure
1. Find the sore spot and place one hand over it.
2. Firmly push into the affected area with your fingers, but not hard enough to cause a sharp pain. Any pain should feel like a good pain as its accompanied by a sense of relief or release.
3. Turn your head slightly in the direction opposite of the cramp and bend it diagonally.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 3 around 20 times.
If you find you can’t quite hit the spot then why not book in with us.
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This one if for my fellow women – sorry guys! Part 1
Around half of all women will get cystitis or some other unirary tract infection (UTI) at somepoint in their life. The female anatomy makes women more susceptible. Having had cystitis many years ago I can vouch for the pain. As some women are prone to suffer multiple episodes, I wanted to share some natural options to help them stop coming back. Cranberry Juice 300-500ml of unsweetened cranberry juice or 400mg of concentrated cranberry extract twice a day appears to be sucessful is preventing or reducing the number of urinary tract infections (UTI). However, there is limited evidence that cranberry can stop a UTI once you have it. Acupuncture Acupuncture was put to the test against sham acupuncture (the needles go into the wrong place or inserted in the wrong way) or no treatment for UTI prevention. After six months 85% of those who had genuine acupuncture sufferend no UTIs compared with 58% of those of the sham group and 36% of the untreated group. In another study UTI-prone women receiving acupuncture twice a week had half the rate of infections compared to those receiving no treatment. References https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27251185 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9612877 https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12721123
What can help carpal tunnel syndrome?
Previously, I discussed what carpal tunnel syndrome is and how desk based workers have an increased risk. So what can you do to help youself:
- Vitamin B6 - Carpal tunnel syndrome has been linked to low levels of vitamin B6, so suplementing with the vitamin may help. In fact, several trials have found B6 may alleviate the symptoms, even in people who are not deficient in the vitamin.
- Yoga - In one study a yoga based therapy was more effective at easing carpal tunnel syndrome than improving grip strenght than wrist splints or no treatment.
- Acupuncture - In one radomised control trail, acupuncture was just as effective as steriod treatment,and it was also better at reducing sleep disturbance and improving never conduction than the drugs and came with minimal side-effects.
Action plan for a healthy small intestine
The small intestine is as wide as your thumb and around 5.5m long. It is both a food blender and assimilator as it digests more of your food than your stomach. Food stays in the small intestine for 1 - 4 hours before moving on to the large intestine for further processing. Maintaing a healthy small intestine is all about controlling your bacteria levels and mucus build-up on your intestinal walls which can cause havoc and deplete your energy levels. If you have bloating, gas and loose bowel movements you may have a small intestine issues such as:
- Candida
- IBS
- SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth
- Cut out imflammatory drugs e.g. asprin, paracetamol and avoid alchol.
- Take L-glutamine and butyric acid both of these can help heal the gut, but check with a nutritionalist first as dosage is important.
- Drink slippery elm tea which calms inflamation of the small intestine and helps relieve IBS.
- Up your intake of vitamins A and D - liver is an excellent sourch of these vitamins which protect the mucus membrane of the gut.
- Eat more antibacterial foods such as garlic, honey and sauerkraut which preven the growth of Candida, fungus and yeast infections.
- Take oregano oil (Oregnano Vulgaris) which has been shown to stop Candidan in its tracks.
- Take probiotics daily - look for a count of 50 billion or more in each dose.
- Take prebiotics daily - to feed the probiotics. Or eat food prebiotic foods such as sauerkraut or kimchi.
- Go gluten free. Cut out gluten for an entire week and keep a food diary to check if your symptoms improve.
- Mimosa pudica an ayurvedic herb is brilliant at wiping out parasites.
- Eat more ant-parasitics such as garlic, thyme, chilli, tumeric and ginger.
