In my work with athletes, ranging from park runners up to World and Olympic champions, one of the key differences I’ve seen that separates the elite is that they know when to push themselves, and they know when to back off. They know that missing half a session because you’re concerned about an injury is better than pushing on, getting hurt, and then missing an entire week, if not more. The number one priority, no matter what event you are training for, is to get to the starting line in …

As you saw in my previous article , breathing can help improve the tone of the Vagus Nerve. This has been linked to reduced stress and anxiety levels, reduced heart rate, reduced blood pressure, and even reduced risk of dying from cancer.
A 2016 article talked more about the link between stress and cancer, saying that stress acts as a ‘fertiliser’ by increasing the number of lymphatic vessels draining from the tumour, but increase flow in existing vessels. “So not only do you get new freeways out of the tumour but …

Here is a great article I just read which outlines in basic terms the key differences between back pain that is straightforward and musculo-skeletal in nature, and back pain that is coming from a more serious underlying condition. A lot of times when the pain is severe it can be extremely concerning, and this article helps explain a lot of what is going on.
Some key points:
People understandably assume that the worst back pain is the scariest. In fact, pain intensity is a poor indicator of back pain ominousness.
Herniated discs aren’t …

As you’ve no doubt recently heard, there are calls to make codeine a prescription drug. It is currently an over the counter pain reliever and something that a lot of people routinely use. Chances are you have used it yourself and if so, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. A new report published in The Medical Observer says that for the decade 2000-2009 the number of deaths from taking codeine in Australia more than doubled. Here are some of the key points from the article:

Almost half of these …

As an Osteopath I see a lot of people with disc injuries. People are understandably concerned about doing damage to their discs, as they play an important role in the structural integrity of the spine, and live very close to nerves and the spinal cord, so they can cause a lot of pain and other problems.
There have been a number of studies where researchers take members of the general population and perform scans on them. they are trying to find out how many people actually have a particular injury. For …

What I’m going to look at in this posting relates to how quickly one should start addressing a complaint of low back pain. Historically, people suffering from low back pain have been told to rest, sometimes for very long periods. It’s time to right this wrong.
I have treated plenty of people who 20 years ago were given a neck collar for a minor car crash and wore it for 3 months despite no evidence of any tissue damage, because “that was what they did back then”. Researchers have compared the …

A recent article in the online journal Medical News Today has reported findings of a study into yoga poses and scoliosis. The study found that “erforming a single yoga pose for 90 seconds for at least 3 days a week could reduce spine curvature in patients with scoliosis in as little as 3 months.”
The pose is the side plank (pictured), which involves lying on one side of the body with straight knees, and propping up the upper body with the elbow and forearm.
On average, participants did the side plank pose for …

I just read an article on the Medical Observer website which said that the Therapeutic Goods Administrator (TGA) “will ramp up warnings on NSAID packages after a safety review found over-the-counter diclofenac was associated with liver damage and that NSAIDs in general were linked to adverse cardiovascular effects”.
The TGA has now suggested that these medications come with the following warning: “Warning: In rare cases, diclofenac has been associated with serious liver injury”.
A couple of choice quotes from the article:

Doctors have also been warned to avoid using prescription NSAIDs in patients with previous …

Last week 60 Minutes ran a story on the perils of prolonged sitting. For a long time I’ve been a firm believer that the length of time you spend sitting is a lot more important then the position you sit in. This is true for musculoskeletal conditions like back pain, neck pain and headaches, but now we’re seeing that this is true for general health conditions like cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. This only takes 12 minutes and is well worth your time. Get up and move Australia!
To watch the story click here.

I guess a lot of you saw the recent articles (such as this one in The Australian) questioning the effectiveness of Paracetamol for back pain. This is newsworthy because it is probably the first thing a doctor would recommend for back pain, so we want to know if it actually works. It has very few side effects, if any, so it’s almost certainly not going to be dangerous to take, but according to this new research, there may not be much point.
The study in question looked at 1,600 people with …