by Matthew Poulter | Jun 16, 2014 | Chiropractic |
Start something that matters with Cherish Uganda When Charlie and I first dreamed of owning our own chiropractic clinic, we were still working in Essex. Life was great, we had busy successful lists, but the time had come to do our own thing. Having worked for other people, we learnt how they did it, but it was important to spend time thinking about how we wanted to do things. Whilst on holiday, I read a book recording the success of a company called Toms Shoes. This company had the idea of tithing at its core. Whilst travelling in South America, Blake Mycoskie, the young entrepreneur who went on to create Toms Shoes, noticed how many children were barefooted. He wanted to create a sustainable way to help resolve this situation, so set up his company with the concept of ‘One for One’. For every pair of stylish espadrilles they sold, they gave away a free pair of shoes to people in South America. Not only is Toms Shoes now a multimillion pound international business, it has also helped tens of millions of people at the same time. This concept enthralled me but the big question was how do you apply it to a Chiropractic clinic? I came back from holiday bursting with ideas. I shared them with Charlie over several glasses of wine and through the Sauvignon Blanc haze we created the core belief that our clinic is now built on. The idea was simple: our patients will gain health and at the same time give health to others. So for every treatment someone pays for, £1 will go to charity. The charity would be based in an environment where £1 can achieve far more than it would here in the UK....
by Charles Herbert | Jun 6, 2014 | Chiropractic |
Do you have the weight of the world on your shoulders? Well, you do have a heavy weight on your shoulders. Your head! The average human head weighs 8-12lbs (4-5kg), that’s about the same weight as a bowling ball! The thing that stops you noticing the weight of your head is the suspension in your neck. What I mean by this is the curve in your cervical (neck) spine has a natural 43 degree arc, like a banana, that acts like suspension for your head. As you move around, whether walking or sitting down, the curve in your neck compresses like a spring to take the pressure of your head off your body. Sometimes, due to bad posture whilst reading or working at a computer (or texting!!), you can move your head forward of your shoulders. This common posture is called forward head carriage (FHC). FHC has 2 main effects: it reduced your 43 degree (suspension) arc in your neck, and it moves the weight of the head forward from your centre of gravity. Loosing your internal banana As you move your head forward it places increased stress on your neck and shoulders. For every inch you move your head forward you head effectively weights 10llbs more! You can feel the effect of that when you next pick up a bowling ball (we have one in our centre in Bristol so please ask us). Hold the ball close to your chest and feel the weight of the ball, then move it away from your body and feel how much harder it is to hold. That is exactly what the...
by Charles Herbert | May 28, 2014 | Chiropractic |
What causes sciatica pain? One of the most common things people complain of, when the come to see us, is sciatica. When we ask where is hurts, some point to their leg, some to their back and a few to their shoulder. Clearly not everyone is clear exactly what it is, so what is sciatica? Sciatica is not, strictly speaking, a medical diagnosis, it is a symptom of an underlying medical condition. It is a lay term for pain that extends down the leg; pain that can really, really, really hurt! Common symptoms of sciatica: Most often it starts in the lower back and travels into the thigh; it can travel further down the leg to the foot and toes Sciatica is not only felt as pain, it can be felt as a burning or tingling sensation In advanced cases there can be numbness or weakness of the leg muscles Sciatica mostly affects one leg, rarely does it affect both What causes sciatica? A bit of anatomy to begin with. Sciatica gets its name from the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs from your low back down each of your legs to your toes. It is formed from the nerve roots (nerves that come out of the spine) L4-S3 at the bottom of the spine. All these nerve roots join together to form the largest nerve in the human body; about the size of your index and middle finger together. The sciatic nerves feeds each of your legs with messages from the brain and back again. This allows you to move your legs and walk, feel sensation when something...
by Charles Herbert | May 21, 2014 | Chiropractic |
What is a ‘trapped nerve’? Most people who come to see us at The Chiropractic Centre in Bristol have a form of ‘trapped nerve’ causing their pain. A lot of Chiropractors will also call this ‘trapped nerve’ a ‘subluxation’. The question is, what is a trapped nerve? To start with, your nerves go everywhere throughout your body. They nerves control everything; every movement, sensation, thought and emotion. They do this by linking your brain to your body. Your brain is like a big computer that sends messages down through the spinal cord and out through the nerves between each vertebrae to the whole body. In fact, you have so many of them that if you removed every cell apart from your nerves you would still be recognisable! You can trap a nerve just about anywhere in your body; a trapped nerve in the back is perhaps one of the most common types. So you can see, the nerves of your body are very important indeed! How do these nerves get trapped? Well, there are many different ways to trap a nerve, however I’m going to explain the one that we see most commonly. The spinal column and nerves are housed within the spine. Trapped nerves are mostly caused by a build up of poor posture and stress A trapped nerve is caused by two things: big traumas, like a car crash or falling down the stairs, or, most commonly, small repetitive traumas, like poor posture and stress. So essentially it is because of our modern lifestyles that we don’t look after our spines very well. So when these traumas happen...
