Through the years I've worked as an osteopath, I've seen firsthand the intricate relationship between gut health and overall well-being. The gut, often referred to as our "second brain," plays a crucial role in digestion, immune function, mood regulation, and more. When our gut is out of balance, it can manifest in various symptoms throughout the body. But did you know you can help improve your gut health, and the flora of bacteria within  your gut, to improve your health? Here are five tips to improve your gut health and enhance your overall health and vitality: 1. Embrace a Fiber-Rich Diet: Incorporating plenty of fibre-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes can promote a healthy gut microbiome. Fibre acts as fuel for beneficial gut bacteria, helping to maintain a diverse and thriving microbial community. Aim for a variety of colorful plant-based foods (eat the rainbow!) to ensure you're getting a wide range of nutrients and fibre types. ...

 Welcome to the weird world of Fascia! It's a phrase that some of you may have heard, along with myofascial release therapy, and it's becoming a key component of the body as we research more and more and understand it's role better. That's all well and good, but what IS fascia, and how is it relevant to you? Let's look a little further at what this mystery tissue is, where it's found, what it does and how we can treat it. Read on for more information... The Fundamentals...  At its very basic level, fascia is a connective tissue in the body. For many years, medics thought that it was simply a packing material to fill gaps, but science has disproven this! Fascia is like the skin on a sausage which wraps around the muscles, but as science has investigated it more, we now know that it webs throughout all the tissues of the body to encase everything together, wrapping around individual muscles, nerves and blood vessels! Yet, fascia isn't just about muscles, it joins in patter...

Your guide to a pain free festive season! We all look forward to some time off work over the forthcoming festive season, whether you prefer to celebrate with family or head out adventuring somewhere fun, but none of us want to be lumbered with unforeseen back pain. With a few little changes to your activities in the run up to Christmas, we've got Christmas all wrapped up so you can relax and enjoy yourself! Look after yourself this year:  Making a few small tweaks to your normal routine can help you feel good, why not give the following tips a try? Lighten your Load - When did you last muck out your handbag or the bag you carry? Take out anything that you don't need to carry that day such as a water bottle, extra keys, overstuffed purse of receipts? A few minutes to organise your bag will see your neck, shoulders and arms thanking you for removing the extra luggage they won't need to carry! Take your wallet out of your pocket! Sitting on a wallet in a back pocket or having that wa...

I'm sure you'll all agree with me when I say it's been a VERY long 2 months of lockdown. For the protection of my own family members, I've had to remain closed during the peak of the virus, but I have been following guidelines set by the Government and the General Osteopathic Council very closely and continuously reassessing the situation. Thankfully, I'm very pleased to say that the clinic will be re-opening as of Monday 1st June 2020, however, there have to be some big changes for the foreseeable future, and I'd like to take a moment to outline those here: - Everyone, without exception, who comes into clinic will need to undergo screening for Covid19 symptoms and potential exposure, and this will need to be done every time you attend. The appointment confirmation and reminders that our system sends out will have a link to a screening questionnaire you can fill in remotely, and it only takes 10 seconds. The details you respond with will be kept securely with your records and will show...

It's becoming widely accepted that we can change the state of our bodies by changing our diet. There is a plethora of information out there which suggests that we can help some diseases by assessing how prolific our gut flora is. The same is true for inflammation – the foods we eat can help our body fight inflammation or can keep triggering it. Your immune system is an amazing system. It becomes active when it recognises anything that is foreign e.g. an invading pathogen, cell damage or chemical irritant, and creates a biological response to try and remove it. The signs and symptoms of inflammation can be uncomfortable, but it is showing the process by which the body is trying to heal itself. Inflammation is fine on a short-term basis, after all, it's designed to help heal and protect the body, however, over longer periods inflammation can be an enemy. Many major diseases such as heart disease, arthritis and depression have been linked to chronic inflammation. Where does diet come into...

We're all acutely aware that we lead a busy lifestyle, and often we tend to cut corners to "fit everything in" through the day. One of the easiest areas to skip is eating a healthy diet. Here's some quick and simple tips that aren't time consuming but will help you stay healthy...Keep a water bottle with you:Staying hydrated throughout your day is important help keep your tissues in tip top condition. Opt for the more durable glass or steel water bottles, rather than those made of plastic. If it has to be plastic, opt for BPA free ones. Eat at home more often and plan your leftovers:Home cooked food can be far healthier than ready made dishes. By cooking at home we can avoid consuming hidden salt, fat and sugar and when working out cost per portion it's often cheaper. The best bit is, if you cook a little too much, you can use left-over's for another meal!Maintain regular veggie intake by drinking green juice:Veggies are just as important as fruit is, and although we might no...

When life is busy it's easy to forget that taking time out for yourself is vital for your health and well-being. In a society where we all rush around at full speed it can be easy to get caught up in the fast living rollercoaster but what happens when it all gets a little too much?  Our body reacts to stress whether you want it to or not. We have 2 components to the autonomic nervous system which controls our bodies; the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.Put in simple terms, the parasympathetic element controls the things we do without thinking, such as our heartbeat, breathing and digestion. On the flip side, the autonomic nervous system controls our 'fight or flight' response which kicks in when we are stressed, making our heart rate and breathing rate increase. This response also makes our blood pressure increase and directs blood to the muscles to prepare them to react quickly if needed.Used short term, the fight or flight response can be useful, for instance if y...

 It's that time of year where everyone you meet has a cold, and people sneeze and cough and splutter spreading germs in your direction! Sadly, nothing can be done about that, but you can do a lot of simple things to help support your immune system through the cold winter months. Hopefully the information below will give you some ideas to get started... Your Immune SystemThe immune system is the body's natural defence against infections and illnesses that lurk in our environment. Whilst immune function is robust, it is a delicate system that can be quickly tipped off balance by many factors, including stress, poor diet, low mood, tiredness and many other things. Your blood contains White Blood Cells which help form part of the body's immune system by fighting invading organisms within the body and destroying them. Increased alcohol consumption and a diet too rich in sugar can depress the action of these cells, weakening the action of the immune system. Obviously, this is not a good...