What can help period pain? – Part 2

Having spoken previously about why poor posture is bad for you, I wanted to move on to give you a simple exercise that helps promote good posture.  Brugger's exercise routine is devised to activate postural muscles weakened and simultaneously stretched by a prolonged sitting posture. Slumped Position Check the tension in your upper back and shoulders in the slumped posture and then in the Brugger's position, to see if you notice any difference as the muscle tension is dramatically reduced. Brugger Exercise Posture Step By Step Guide

1. Sit perched towards the edge of your seat; this will naturally place your lower back into a curve (lumbar lordosis) with your butt sticking out a little.  As you do this your breastbone (sternum) will naturally lift up.
2. Separate your legs to 45 degrees each side with your feet turned out slightly and in line with your knees.
3. Your shoulders are relaxed and down with your chin tucked in, making the back of your neck longer – imagine a piece of string is attached to the top of your head and someone is lifting you up.
4. Fully straighten (extend) both elbows and arms.
5. Make sure you keep your shoulders down and imagine your shoulder blades [scapula] are pushing down and together to form a V.
6. Turn your thumbs out (externally rotate), palms up.
7. Separate your fingers.
8. You should now be in the position show above in the Brugger's exercise posture picture.
9. Hold for 30 seconds.

Ideally you should perform the Brugger's exercise once for every thirty minutes of sitting, so why not try this once a day. PS The Science This exercise was developed by a Swiss Neurologist called Alois Brugger MD,  the exercise is neither a traditional stretch or strengthening technique but works neurologically by being complementary to the way your body is wired to work. Our bodies are neurologically much stronger in all of our flexor muscles. This is displayed perfectly if we look at a person with a neurological disorder, e.g. cerebral palsy; their body naturally has increased tension (hypertension) in the flexor muscles, also known as the spastic posture. This demonstrates our natural prosperity to an Upper Cross Posture which often develops when we sit for prolonged periods of time in a slumped position. Muscles work in groups. When one group is working then the opposing group are unable to work (inhibited).  An easy example to visualise of this is when you place food in your mouth. To do this you flex your fingers, wrist muscles, bicep muscles and pecs., all flexors. However, to be able to do this you have to inhibit your finger extensors, wrist extensors, triceps, rhomboids etc. This is called reciprocal inhibition. If you were unable to do this you would be unable to feed yourself. The Brugger exercise works on the principal of reciprocal inhibition. When doing this exercise you are activating all your extensor muscles and therefore inhibiting all of your (usually hyper activated) flexor muscles.  

A new study has discovered that dog owners:

• live longer
• less likely to suffer a heart attack

The protective effect of having a dog is increased if the dog is a hunting dog e.g. a terrier or a retriever. However it may not be owning a dog itself that helps you live longer but the lifestyle of dog owners.  This is because dog owners have to walk the dog so they are more active.  During these walks they may bump into other dog walkers and talk so there is increased social contact.  In addition the dirt the dog brings into your home changes the dog owners gut microbiome making them less susceptible to a heart attack. What ever the reason the statistics are impressive.  The risk of premature death drops by around 33% and the chances of a heart attack is reduce by 11%, according to researchers who studied the health of 3.4 million swedes of which 13% owned a dog for up to 12 years. To focus in on the benefits of dog ownership, researchers focused in on single people living alone as this is recognised risk for heart disease. One potential flaw in the is study is that people who choose to get a dog may already be more active and social and hence less likely to develop heart disease anyway. Reference https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29150678

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone as the body can manufacture it (via exposure to UVB radiation from sunlight) as well as absorb it from food. So in the dark winter months when safe sun exposure is impossible without going on holiday, your can become depleted in Vitamin D.  (see signs).  So I want to explain how can you boost your vitamin D levels? Probably the simplest way it to take a vitamin D supplement, I would recommend D3 as this is the most natural form of vitamin D.  In addition vitamin D is found in the following foods.

• Sardines
• Wild caught Alaskan salmon
• Egg yolks
• Cheese
• Beef livers
• Butter
• Breakfast cereals fortified with vitamin D
• Yoghurt fortified with vitamin D

However it should be noted that it can be difficult to optimise your vitamin D level just from food sources. Vitamin D is well known to prevent osteoporosis and promote strong bones and teeth but its role in disease prevention is probably less well known.  So in the next few blog posts I want to look at its role in disease prevention starting with the immune system.