Is slouching that bad for you? – part 2
One of our biggest bad habits is slouching. In part 1, I discussed how slouching can be linked to higher blood pressure, but that is not the only health issue…
It may cause heartburn…
Slumping doesn’t just wreak havoc on your spine but also, in turn, on the alignment of the whole body.
According to some experts, one of the consequences can be heartburn — where stomach acid travels into the oesophagus, causing chest pain.
Slumping doesn’t just wreak havoc on your spine but also, in turn, on the alignment of the whole body
‘The pelvis is like a bowl, and when we stand up straight we hold it flat,’ says Robert McCoy. ‘But as you shift forward, the bowl tips forward and the contents, such as the stomach and digestive organs, shift, too.’
Over time, the sphincter muscle at the bottom of the oesophagus, which usually stops acid coming back up, becomes out of line with the oesophagus and stops working efficiently, leading to heartburn.
So think before you slump!
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If you suffer from headaches, you need to read this…
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.

Is it time to talk about sleep?
While it may not seem the most obvious time of year to start talking about sleep, we can often forget when the sun is out our natural instinct is to go out and play sport or socialise. In addition summer is often a time when things naturally slow down in the business world so we can be tempted to pack in as many things as possible before it gets busy at work. This means at this time of year we can often find out ourselves feeling depleted and short on sleep due to hot summer nights which are not condusive to a good nights sleep. I know I have blogged in the past about sleep, here are my tips for a good nights sleep . I have talked in the past about how we feel good if we get a good nights sleep but the medical profession is still unclear about why we need sleep. What is clear is that sleep is a huge clear out of thoughts and feelings that accumulated during the day - and this is critical to our health. The medical profession has many theories about why we dream or need to dream - what is agreed on is that parts of our brains are very active when we dream and that dreaming improves our ability to solve problems and be creative. The key question about sleep is often how much sleep do I need. I don't focus on a figure but go by how my body feels. That means sometimes it needs more sleep and sometimes less sleep. What I focus on is the quality of sleep which I judge by how refreshed I feel in the morning.

Bowel health checklist
The basis of our health and wellbeing is our guts ability to digest what we eat and absorb all the nutrients. However it is common for people to have digestive issues such as gas, bloating, food intolerances and IBS. Given the guts importance to wellbeing, I would like to focus on digestion and guts in the next few articles which will include tips for healthy stomachs, large intestine and small intestine. Lets start with talking about bowels. Your bowel movements reflect both your lifestyle and gut health. So how should you judge your bowel movements:
- There should be no discomfort or straining when you go to the loo, and no smell of gas.
- Stools should come out easily, smoothly and all in one piece.
- Stools should be 10 - 15 cm long, medium brown in colur and shouldn't be smelly, stick to the lavoratory bowl or float.
- If your stool floats it could be due to too much fat or gas in your diet - usually from excess sugar, fizzy drinks or beans.
- A very smelly stool can be a sign of undigested food or waster that has been sitting in your bowel for a long time. It can also be a sign of poor absorbtions or lactose intolerance. If your stool is smelly and looks greasy it may be a sign of coeliac disease so you need to book a check up with your doctor.
- Going to the toilet 2 -3 times a day is optimal but anything from 2 - 3 times per day to 2 - 3 times per weeks in normal.
- Any changes to your normal pattern should be reported to your doctor.

