Natrual Ways to Reduce Anxiety – Part 2
Having explained what anxiety is, I want to look at how people can help themselves to reduce their anxiety levels.
Whether you suffer from occasional anxious thoughts to a full blow anxiety disorder yoga can be helpful. Once study found that women who practiced yoga twice a week for two months reduced their anxiety levels significantly.
Another scientific study found that regular yoga was more effective than walking for improving the mood and anxiety levels in healthy people. Current thinking is that Yoga may work by boosting the levels of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutryic acid) in the brain – which acts as an inhibitor in the brain reducing anxiety.
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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!Is exercise beneficial for Neck & Shoulder pain?
The first reaction when we are in pain is often to take a painkiller. I know from experience in clinic, when that the painkiller stops working that is when our clients book a massage. But would exerise help? To me it is counter-intuitive to exercise when in pain so I was interested in a recent study that looked into this. A study of 176 people investigated if the standard Fustra20Neck&Back exercise programme (scroll to bottom for full details) for reducing pain and increasing fitenss of office workers with neck or lower back pain works. All the participants sat for at least 6 hours a day at a desk and had experienced at least 2 episodes of moderate pain in the last month before the study started. The study participants included both men and women between 30 - 50 years old. Half were asigned to the exericse group and half to the control group. The exercise group carried out the Fustra20Neck&Back exercise programme for 1 hour twice a week for 10 weeks. More than 90% of the particpants in the exercise group found that the intensity of the pain and fequency of the pain decreased significantly. Improvements in neck & shoulder flexibility and quality of life were also recorded. However there was no significant differences in lower back pain. Reference
Fustra20Neck&Back exercise programme The programme comprised a 10 minute aerobic warm-up on a cross-trainer. Then 10 functional flexibility exercises, four strength exercises, five core exercises and a 10 minute cool down. Click below to see the 10 functional exercises for your shoulders.Effectiveness of a standardised exercise programme for recurrent neck and low back pain: a multicentre, randomised, two-arm, parallel group trial across 34 fitness clubs in Finland
Click below to see the strenght and core exercises.
