Eating to help reduce anxiety

This week the daily mail reported that three in four office workers blame desk for sickness: badly set up desks and chairs cost companies 7bn each year. Rather than sitting in silence or popping pain killers to ease headaches or back pain,  here are my top 7 tips for staying healthy while working at your desk.

1. Sit up straight.  As you read this post, if you’re not running to an appointment or standing, how are you sitting? Really take notice of how you are sitting and poised. Are you legs crossed? Is your back hunched over as you read this? Or are you sitting up straight?  If you are sitting ensure that you are sitting up straight, not slouched, with your head directly over your torso and your feet on the ground, using a foot rest if necessary.
2. User a wrist support.  Repeatedly bending your wrists up and down (extension and flexion) compresses structures inside the carpal tunnel in the wrist. This can cause pain and lead to injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.  Place the heel of your palm on a wrists pad to minimise wrist pain.
3. Use a headset.  If you spend a lot of time on the phone user a head set rather to avoid holding the phone to your ear by raising your shoulder which may cause neck & shoulder pain.
4. Don't bang the keyboard instead use a light touch.  Try to use the minimum amount of force necessary to depress the keys. The tendons from your fingers connect near your elbow, so striking the keys too hard can lead to problems you might not associate with your keyboard-for example, pain and inflammation in your elbows (Epicondylitis).
5. Look straight ahead.  Maintaining proper eye level with your computer monitor is essential. This helps you avoid straining your back, neck, shoulders, and arms. In addition, proper eye level reduces unnecessary eye strain. To accomplish this sit in your office chair and stare straight ahead. You should be looking directly at the center of your monitor. If you are not looking at the center of the screen adjust the monitor until you have the correct measurement and use a monitor riser where necessary.
6. Save your work, save your shoulders.  Working as a massage therapist who specialise in Acupressure Neck & Shoulder massage withing an office environment, I know muscular tension in shoulders causing neck and shoulder pain is a common problem.  To minimise the build up of muscular tension in your shoulders, every time your save your work or send an email simply circle your shoulder three times clockwise and then three times anti-clockwise.
7. Book a massage.  If you are feeling the stain and pain for working long hours at your desk then book a massage which are highly effective at relieving neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain and tension headaches.

I know lots of my readers take part in sporting competitions and they always want to perform at their peak and win.  So is it best to abstain the night before a competition?  Certainly here is a myth that abstinence before sporting activities improves performance? But does it? Researchers at the University of Florence reviewed hundreds of studies to determine if there was any truth in the myth that abstinence helps performance.  They found no evidence to support the myth that abstinence before a sporting competition improves performance.  In addition they found no evidence that having sex the night before impairs performance the next day.  They came across one study that found marathon runners did better the next day after having sex the night before. All sporting competitions are as much about the mind as the physical activity.  So the impact of sex the night before on marathon runners may be psychological.  Maybe that is why the organisers of the Rio Olympics distributed more than 450,000 condoms in the athletes' village during the 2016 Olympics. Reference Stefani Laura, Galanti Giorgio, Padulo Johnny, Bragazzi Nicola L., Maffulli Nicola, 2016, Sexual Activity before Sports Competition: A Systematic Review,  Frontiers in Physiology, Vol 7, pg 246 http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2016.00246

I know when I worked in IT I would often leave the office mentally very tired and depending upon how trying the day had been somtimes I was just mentally exhausted but often I was not physically tired.  The simplest solution to this conundrum is to go down the gym and burn of the excess physical energy and going to the gym also helps to switch off from work.   However there are times when we are injured or feeling run down when this is not possible, so then what can you do? Recently I have seen a few people in clinic who are in this situation.  This means they are stuggling to switch off from work and relax.  So  I wanted to share a few tips on how to handle this if it happens to you. Depending upon the injury you can:

• Start taking the stairs at work - even if you can't walk up all the flights of stairs for example if you are based on the top floor, you can walk up some flights and take the lift for the rest.
• Go swimming instead of going to the gym.
• Get of the train or tube one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way (this obviously depends upon your commute).
• Go for a walk in park or any type of greenery.
• A lot of museams in London have a late night opening, so why not go walk around a museam.
• If you have a garden, do some gardening.