Whilst working, many of us are not aware of what our posture is like. The risk from poor posture comes from a reduction to the movement in the joints of the body, along with repetitive patterns of strain. When we get pain from our poor posture, medical advice and physical therapy treatment will often be required to reduce the imbalances created over a period of time. So what can we do to avoid these restrictions? Well, quite a lot, beginning with good sitting posture! In an ideal world, good posture includes the head being positioned over the top of the spine and the buttocks, with a slight 'S' shaped curve through it. Neck and shoulder muscles should have even tension at the front and back of the body, and the lower back should be in its natural curved position.It's advisable to support your pelvis against the back of the chair. Good posture makes breathing and digestion more efficient by helping to de-compress the front of the body. Chair Ergonomics. When working in the office, there...

​Osteopathy is a system of medicine that focuses on treating, and preventing, painful muscle and joint problems. By using specific hands-on techniques, Osteopaths focus on creating balance within the body. Osteopaths use joint mobilisations and manipulations (the 'click') together with stretching and massage techniques to increase the flexibility of joints and body tissues. This helps to relieve muscle tension, relieve muscle spasms and improve tissue health, all of which help the body to heal itself. Osteopaths are commonly thought of for treating back pain, and while this is something osteopathy can work really well for, osteopathy can be used to treat a variety of other things too, such as:• Neck pain• Shoulder pains, e.g. frozen shoulder• Elbow problems, e.g. tennis elbow • Hip and knee problems• Arthritic changes• Sports injuries• Generalised aches and pains• Headaches, particularly those arising from tension and neck problems• Migraine prevention• Nerve pain such as neuralgia or ...

So many people we see struggle with the effects of poor sleep, so, in aid of National Sleep Awareness Week, we thought this would be an excellent topic to talk about! A good night's sleep is as vital to your health as eating the right things and exercising. Your physical and emotional wellbeing depends on getting enough, yet we're living in sleep-deprived times. Some people like to be competitive about how much sleep they get, like being sleep deprived is a badge of honour, but it's not good for our bodies. Scientists say we're now getting an hour or two less sleep each night than we were some 60 years ago. Each person has different needs when it comes to how much sleep we need. We should be waking up feeling refreshed in the morning, and the ability to wake without an alarm is a good indicator that you're getting enough sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you may be irritable or agitated, be unable to concentrate properly, have blurred vision, be clumsy and disorientated or slow to ...

Spring and summer are a wonderful time of year. Back are the lighter nights that provide us with beautiful displays of colour as the sun sets. Nature wakes up from the long winter months; birds sing, and animals start to shed their thick winter fur. Trees and plants finally begin to grow leaves again and start flowering as the weather warms up, but alas, this means only one thing for some of us: Hayfever. Hayfever is an allergic reaction by the body to the inhaled dust and pollen from trees, flowers and grasses that causes the mucous membranes of the eyes and nose to inflame and causing running of the eyes and nose; and let me tell you, it's downright miserable! The most common Hayfever symptoms include:• A runny nose• Red and itchy eyes• Scratchy or sore throat• SneezingWe can also experience wheezing and shortness of breath alongside the above symptoms. Almost all sufferers have generalised feelings of fatigue, much like a cold is beginning.How long do the symptoms last for?For some ...

It's no surprise that sports injuries go hand in hand with participating in our chosen sports, but did you know that osteopathy can play a key part in keeping you fit and functioning at full capacity? We often (mistakenly) hear that osteopaths can't treat sports injuries and that the athlete needs to see a sports massage therapist or a physiotherapist, but you may be surprised to find out that when it comes to sports injury treatment osteopaths can hold their own! Here at Nene Valley Osteopathy, we work with many sports players from all disciplines and levels with great results. Osteopathy not only looks at the injury and how that itself can be improved but also assesses your general health and how your body performs to treat you accordingly. Similar to a Sports Massage Therapist, we can use a variety of soft tissue techniques including massage and trigger point therapy plus some specialised extras like mobilisation, stretching and manipulation (the 'clicking') which, together with oth...

We commonly see patients in clinic presenting with sciatic pain that is often described as a deep, gnawing pain from the back or the buttock and into the back or side of the leg that is sometimes electric, shooting or stabbing. It can occur without lower back pain, and sometimes it can cause a limp when walking. Sciatica is a very painful condition that can be grouped with a family of pains called neuralgia. Neuralgia literally means "pain with a neurological cause", or pain that is due to nerve problems – but that's not enough to make a diagnosis. We commonly see many primary health care practitioners use the phrase 'sciatica' as a diagnosis, but the word sciatica merely means the patient has pain in the leg, rather than be a proper analysis of the cause of the pain. To get to the root cause of the pain, we need to look at what can cause sciatica? Is all sciatica the same? Several different things can cause sciatica. Possibly the most common cause of sciatica is when one of the nerve ...