back pain | Taylor Osteopathy Kettering

Inflammation. A tasty rehab soup?

Ice or heat therapy for pain, which should you use? I explain it like this…It’s a soup!

For this recipe you will need:

One piece of soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament)

1tsp – Prostaglandin D₂

1tsp – prostaglandin E₂

½ tsp- prostaglandin F₂

½ tsp – prostaglandin I₂ (which is also known as prostacyclin)

1tbsp – thromboxane

5ml – Bradykinin

Pinch of histamine to flavour

Method:

Place the soft tissue in a vulnerable or weakened position. Repeatedly perform a strenuous activity until there is some discomfort. If you prefer to have the tissue already prepared, it may be called injured.
Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl to create inflammation.
Place the soft tissue on a surface and insert some of the inflammation into the tissue and rub the remainder over the surface.
Leave to rest overnight, or until you feel; an ache, throbbing, warmth or redness to the tissue, sharp pain when moving.

The result, a delicious inflammatory soup!

Do I treat my injury with ice or heat then?

This is how I explain inflammation to my patients. It begins to make sense when it is broken down into smaller parts. Inflammation is not just one substance.

It is a mixture of many hormones (hormones are chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream to create a change elsewhere).

In an acute injury the cells surrounding the injured body part release inflammation. The role of each inflammatory hormone is slightly different, but they all in the aid of helping the injured tissue to heal faster.

Some inflammatory hormones interact with blood vessel walls to relax them (vasodilation). This allows more blood flow to the injured tissue which brings with it the healing properties it needs to recover. Other hormones interact with the nerve endings, sending signals to the brain, effectively telling you stop doing what you are doing, or you will damage yourself further. This is a good thing. This signal is called pain.

The idea behind applying heat to an injury is that it vascularises the area. It promotes blood flow to the injured tissue. Helping spasmed or tight muscles to relax, or injured tissue to heal, faster.

This is not to say that only heat should be used. Sometimes injuries are just too painful to deal with.

Discomfort can make it difficult to concentrate on tasks and can also make you partially or completely immobile. Here, ice can help. In this instance, the cold can reduce the inflammation being produced so there is less pain. The outcome of this is that you may be able to concentrate on a task or move more freely which has the effect of relaxing muscles and improving blood flow… But only if you move! Be warned though, this will also increase your healing time, so there is a trade of sorts to be had.

Of course, all of the above assumes the individual has no underlying health concerns such as chronic inflammation or any inflammatory disease.

COVID-19 Facemasks, don’t judge me…

Osteopath, Kettering, COVID-19

Let us rehab safely, welcoming everyone

COVID-19 Facemasks, don't judge me... Taylor Osteopathy

Your osteopath treatment for neck and back pain hasn’t changed but it seems like since mid-March 2020 everything else has!

The advent of daily lifestyle restrictions, along with forced hygiene and cleanliness protocols in businesses, was necessary to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Thankfully, it worked.

Fast forward 18 months; the schools have reopened, and people are beginning to return to work. Thankfully, life is seemingly getting back to normal.

Looking out my clinic window, I can see people gathering in groups, hugging, and possibly forgetting, or ‘choosing’ to forget, the trials for the last two years. Nationwide restrictions and rules have been relaxed. Fewer people seem to be sanitizing their hands when entering and exiting shops, whilst many are also choosing to not wear masks. To be clear, I pass no judgement on people that decide they do not want to wear face coverings. The rules have relaxed, and those people have decided that they want to try to continue with life as they were pre-March 2020, and that is totally ok.

But…

As primary healthcare professionals, osteopaths, like other allied health professionals, are governed by a body that regulates us as clinicians. The guidelines that are set out to us are to make sure that we can make sure that everybody remains safe. That is what the guidelines are for. As a result of this, all healthcare clinics must advise that patients wear face coverings when arriving for treatment, to reduce the risk of transmission to those that are more vulnerable in our communities.

If a person is medically unable to wear a face-covering or chooses to not wear one due to their personal belief or opinion, we are still able to provide treatment, but the clinic must adjust for your visit. For this reason, many clinics, including our own, will ask that you make yourself available to be either the first or last client of the day. This is so that the clinic rooms can adequately aerate before the next person is due to attend.

It can be a bit of a pain for all involved, but the guidelines are there to help contain the spread of the virus and keep us all safe.

If you have any questions, regarding arranging a consultation, please do not hesitate to contact us. We shall be happy to answer any questions you may have.