How to Prevent Running Injuries – Part 2

In my lifetime I have seen more and more people become what a friend insightfully called amateur athletes.  This is due to the impact of the public health campaign to get to us to recognise the importance of regular exercise to keep us healthy.  This has led to more people going to the gym regularly taking part in all forms of sporting competitions. I appreciate I am older than most of the clients who visit out clinic.  But when I was growing up it was quite rare for people to go the gym or for adults to take part in sports-based competitions who were not professional athletes. A recent review published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine concludes that sleep is an important determinant of health, wellbeing and performance in collegiate athletes, it is not always a priority for them.   In addition sleep allows the body to repair itself which is crutial if you are working towards a fitness goal e.g. a triathalon or marathon or big hockey game etc This made me wonder about the clients we see at the clinic, who are juggling demanding careers, personal fitness goals, busy social lives, families and sometimes living in environments that are not conducive to restorative sleep. So, I wanted to leave you with a question, how much of a priority is sleep in your life? Here is a reminder of some Sleep tips Reference https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/12/731.full

So in the past I have talked about how any activity can help you chill out as long as you enjoy it and it absorbs you including video games.  But what about Origami? The ancient Japanese art of Origami has recently seen a surge in popularity due to the fact it can be done any-time, anywhere, with materials that are often to hand in stressful environments such as schools and offices. It may seem complicated, but thanks to YouTube, and online course platforms like Udemy, anyone can make learn to make simple creations from table decorations to paper aeroplanes without spending a fortune on expensive tools or equipment. According to paper folding guru Himanshsu Agrawal (who has five world records to his name- including the creation of a 44 foot human being and a 105 foot dinosaur!): “Origami is inherently geometric; as you fold from one end to the other, the movement becomes rhythmic. It soon feels like you are detached from the world.” The act of folding paper has been shown time and again to help decrease anxiety and increase feelings of inner calm. The beautiful film “Between the folds” takes a deeper look at the art of paper folding and it’s many benefits for health and its a good place to get more information.

I am sure everyone knows that everyone needs to reduce their salt intake.  This message from the government has been the cornerstone of their public health campaign for a number of years.  It has resulted in food manufacturers producing "reduced salt" ranges of goods and reducing the amount of salt in our favorite brands. We all know that too much salt in our diet raises our blood pressure which in turn can lead to heart disease, stokes and heart attacks.  New research has shown that when people reduce their salt intake, their is a 31% reduction in the number of them suffering headaches.  Interesting researches noted, that the differences between healthy and unhealthy diets had no significant effect on headaches. Importantly the reduction in headaches was the same in people with high blood pressure as normal blood pressure. (see full article http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/12/e006671.full) It is estimated that just under half off all adults suffer from regular headaches, if you are one of them, maybe its time to consider the levels of salt in your diet. Anyone looking for more information on the impact of salt in their diet should visit http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/index.html a government backed website.