Top tips for preventing sports injuries

Sitting in office chairs for long periods of time not only affects your muscles but impacts the disks in your spine. In humans over 5 years of age, there is no direct blood supply to the jelly like nucleus of the intervertebral discs. The intervertebral discs therefore rely upon fluid inflow and outflow for their nutrition: when you lie down, the pressure comes off the discs and they expand, absorbing water and nutrients as they do so (rather like a sponge expanding and sopping up a spill on the floor). Unloaded Disc Filling with nutrient rich liquid When you stand up, the discs are compressed and their watery component is squeezed out, thus removing waste products at the same time. Loaded Discs Being Compressed Similar squeeze/expand cycles are occurring every time that we move, both day and night. This means you must move in order to “feed” your discs and keep them healthy. The disc squeeze/expand cycle is crucial to spinal health.  It is well proven that your degenerative disc "disease" progresses faster over time if your discs can't alternate compression with expansion.  As sitting more than half the time at work is associated with herniated discs (or slipped discs) and sciatic nerve pain in those older than 35, so try to get up and move as much as possible.

As things are now back to full swing after the summer holiday, and before things get too budy, I wanted to share with you a piece of research that while being 3 years old is still highly relevant.  Researchers were looking at the effectiveness of listening to self-administered hypnosis stress reduction CD's to boost resilience. Eleven subjects took part in the study, all healthy, normally coping and functioning individuals - were provided with a self-administered hypnosis stress reduction CD, to be used for a minimum of 5 days a week over a 12 week period.  The CD contained two different hypnosis tracks, one to be played before sleep (25 minutes in duration) and the other to be played in the morning (lasting 7 minutes). The aim of the CD was to recondition the stress response, by minimising the participants "excessive emotional and physical reaction to perceived work and life stressors, while facilitating their coping skills and resilience."   Chronic stress and anxiety have been associated with inflammatory changes in the body, and high level of inflammation have been lined to a number of acute and chronic conditions.  Blood tests were used to measure the level of inflammatory response and self-reported measures (using the StressScan assesment) were taken pre and post intervention. While the study size is small, it provides some suggestive evidence that a self-administered stress reduction program that is time efficient may be clinically effective for modifying the stress response and boosting resilience. Reference Schoen M and Nowack K (2013)  Reconditioning the stress response with hypnosis CD reduces the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and influences resilience: a pilot study.  Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 2013; 19 83-88 http://www.ctcpjournal.com/article/S1744-3881(12)00088-6/abstract

There is plenty of evidence to show that lifestyle can have an impact on fertility.  Here are some tips to boost fertility based on scientific evidence: 1.Cut the caffine In one study, women who consumed a cup of coffee or more a day were half as likely to become pregnant, per menstrual cycle, as women who drank less than that. 2. Stop smoking 3. Avoid Alchol. Even moderate drinking (five or fewer drinks per week) has been linked to infertility. 4. Maintain a healthy weight. Being either excessively overweight or underweight can contribute to infertility in women. 5. Manage stress As infertile couples tend to be more stressed than fertile couples, relaxation techniques like meditation and yoga may help. References Wilcox A, Weinberg C, Baird D 1988 Caffeinated beverages and decreated fertility. Lancet. Dec 24-31;22(8626-8627):1453-6 Augood C, Duckitt K, Templeton AA, 1998 Smoking and female infertility: a systematic review and meta-analysis.  Human Reproduction Jun; 13(6):1532-9 Coelho C, Julio C, Silva G, Neves A 2009 Tabacco and male infertility: a retrospective study in infertile couples Acta Med Portuguese Nov-Dec; 22(6):753-8