Do you have tight hips? – part 1

The standard theory of heart disease states that fatty foods cause the arteries to "clog up" and narrow, which is a major feature of cardiovascular disease.  Researchers have discovered that a lack of sleep seem to have more to do with hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) than a fatty diet. Not getting enough sleep on a regular basis can cause a buildup of plaque in the arteries, which causes them to stiffen and eventually close. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital now think that hardening of arteries has more to do with a "neuro-immune axis" linking sleep to the cardiovascular system.  Sleep helps regulate the production of inflammatory cells and maintain healthy blood vessels, and so it would follow that lack of sleep has the reverse effect. The researchers demonstrated the effect on a group of laboratory mice.  Although the cholesteral levels of sleep deprived ice remained the same, they developed larger arterial plaques and had double the number of inflammatory cells known to contribute to hardening of arteries. Reference Tall AR, Jelic S. How broken sleep promotes cardiovascular disease. Nature. 2019 Feb;566(7744):329-330

Way back when I first started at Barclays, one of the first clients I treated was returning to work after being signed off with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  Which is a common and painful disorder of the wrist, caused by pressure on the median nerve which creates numbness and tingling in the fingers.  At its worse it can lead to loss of grip and permanent numbness in the fingers. Repetitive computer use thought to be one of the causes, but scientific studies have shown contradictory results.   A recent review of the scientific evidence found that frequent computer or mouse use can nearly double the risk of developing the condition.  Repeated tapping, scrolling and swiping on your smartphone or tablet can also lead ot carpal tunnel problems.  If these sort of repeated movements are the cause then improving your posture will help.  But it is also worth ruling out other possible causes such as:

• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Thyriod Disease

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