Don’t mean to brag (I actually love bragging), but having been consulted by a lot of World and Olympic champion athletes I can tell you that one of the biggest issues they face is how to prevent recurrence of injuries. When it comes to hamstring tears, there is very strong evidence that we can reduce the risk of suffering one by performing a simple (but incredibly challenging) exercise.
The New York Times recently posted an article outlining how this exercise works. Here’s a great excerpt and a link to the full article. I …

For those of you who aren’t already aware, GP’s can refer you to see an Osteopath under a Medicare scheme covering allied health practitioners. It’s called the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) Scheme and it covers up to 5 treatments per year and refunds you approximately $45-50 of the treatment cost. If you have a “chronic” condition, meaning you have had an injury for a couple of months or more, your GP can refer you under this scheme.
That’s your tax dollars hard at work people – take advantage of it!
If you …

Being a massive nerd, I found this article incredibly interesting. If you’re a sufferer of chronic pain you will find it interesting too. Chronic pain is a very complex situation. It’s a lot more involved than just the same pain you had for a minor injury hanging around for a long time. For example, there can be changes in the nervous system that involve types of nerve receptors that normally report on things like pressure morphing to become pain receptors. What this means is that when you feel pressure in …

I just found a great video on the New York Times website (so highbrow) that demonstrates a number of exercises for improving your ankle stability. This is particularly important for anyone who has ever sprained or injured their ankle ligaments, but I recommend these exercises for anyone participating in sports. Having good stability will help in a number of sports such as running, touch football, soccer, netball, aussie rules (go the mighty Swans!) etc etc etc. It may even come in handy when you’re wearing the wobbly boot after three …

My ongoing quest to become a professional sports star took me to the Dunc Gray Velodrome on Saturday. A few old mates of mine hired the Olympic Velodrome (wasn’t even that expensive) and we did a 1 hour session learning to ride around a cycling track. I could not believe how steep that banked curve is – 42degrees!
I was looking good to become a pro when the coach motioned to me to slow down. I assumed it was because he was worried that my bike was going to disintegrate due …

As you would all no doubt be aware (seeing as I have’t stopped talking about it for the last month or two) I spoke at a seminar in Tasmania last week. After a lot of hard work it went really well. It was a great experience and I learnt a lot, and really enjoyed teaming up with one of my oldest friends, Physiotherapist Toby Watson from North Curl Curl Physiotherapy (previously Brisbane Lions and Tour De France). We had fantastic feedback and have been asked to do a few more …

A new study has come out saying that the best treatment for arthritis is exercise. This makes sense and is something I’ve long believed and I may even have posted about it once before with respect to knee arthritis and tai chi.
The pain associated with arthritis comes from things like the muscles tightening up around the joint (to try to stabilise it), the joint losing mobility and there being less fluid in the joint.
It would make sense then, that exercise would help. Exercise increase your flexibility, your balance, promotes blood flow …

New research has come out questioning the effectiveness of spinal injections. Titled “Time to reconsider steroid injections in the spine?”, the article in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia lists the following points, which I’ll post for your consideration:

The largest of these showed marginal short-term (2-week) improvement in the steroid and local anaesthetic group over the saline group for the primary outcome (leg pain), an effect that was not sustained by 4 weeks.
Short-term relief is a common finding in studies that use local anaesthetic in the active group.
We …

I just read an article in the New York Times Health section answering a reader query about knee pain when walking down stairs. This is a really common occurrence and I thought the information in the article was pretty good so I’ve posted the link to it here.
Basically, you want to have good strength and flexibility in your knee joint. If your knee is stiff then the joint becomes compressed, so do plenty of stretching. And if your knee is weak or unstable (which can be a sign there is …

Seasons Greetings! Many of you will no doubt still be under the pump at work, clocking long hours all the way up until Christmas. Hopefully you then get some time off with family and friends to recharge the batteries. I certainly get the impression when talking to patients that 2013 has been a long, hard year, so it’s important to use your break wisely. You don’t want to be starting 2014 still feeling the hangover of this year. Aim to look after yourself, enjoy yourself, and get the right mix …