Research Exposure Therapy 1. A Case study on mood.
OK so this one might be a little different.
I thought that this year I would do something I have never done here before and actually use this blog space more like an ongoing blog.
To remain registered as a chiropractor, Martin and I have to meet certain standards, and part of those standards is ongoing education.
Often Martin and I will find ourselves reading research papers or hear about new research that changes how we practice, or has us excited about how we practice that has significant impact for the clients that we are lucky enough to see.
As always, we meet weekly, discuss the information and then try to implement it into our practice as we constantly strive to improve our care, but there might be a lot of you who are actually keen to learn along with us.
Which leads me to this post, I am not sure what form this will take eventually, but what I was wanting to do with them is not to just present the information like a summary of the research, but I would love for people to see what information is out there and then understand why it is significant to us at Align and you as a client.
I’m not intending to explain the methods etc, though I will always provide the citation for you. My goal is to outline what is some interesting research I have come across, and hopefully encourage people to understand more, perhaps it will be relevant to them or to a loved one, but we would like to encourage you to discuss it with Martin or myself if it does pique your interest.
So without further preamble. The research:
Hughes F. (2020) “Reduction of cortisol levels and perceived anxiety in a patient undergoing Chiropracticmanagement for neck pain and headache: a caseReport and review of the literature,” Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic, https://journal.parker.edu/index.php/jcc/article/view/95
Now to start with, a disclaimer, this is a case study only and as such is a starting point for further research, NOT a definitive research answer. Individual results of care may vary. If you have any questions about research design and why some are more highly valued compared to others, please ask Martin or myself.
In this case study, a chiropractor was managing the care of a lady suffering from neck pain and headaches.
As part of the care provided, the chiropractor had the client complete surveys regarding her mental state as well as for pain etc. and the client also had her cortisol (or stress chemical) levels measured at the outset and as reassessment points in her care.
What was discovered was that through ongoing chiropractic care including adjustment and home advice, not only did her neck pain and headaches improve, but the client’s cortisol levels decreased significantly as well as the client herself feeling less anxious in her day to day life.
This particularly stood out to us as anxiety was NOT what the client was intending to have managed by the chiropractor, nor was it the focus of the chiropractor’s care plan for the client, yet areas outside the initial complaint significantly improved, creating a better quality of life for the client.
This was significant to me as it certainly reflects what we often see in practice with out clients. Often we will have clients state how much more relaxed they feel after an adjustment, or that they can breathe easier, or a “weight has been lifted from their shoulders”.
This has been particularly common throughout the last 2 years as we have had…lets say more stress than is normal in our day to day lives because of the pandemic.
The main reason I was inspired to write something here though is because often when we are busy or when people have significant injuries etc that we are managing, as a practitioner it is easy for us to focus on just the issue clients might present with and in doing so, we might be missing significant contributing elements.
For clients this might be more important, as imagine if there was another issue you were putting up with and even though myself or Martin were in a position to help, we are not aware that we could be working with you to get on top of other issues at the same time.
At Align we use specific surveys to get a snap shot of where a client will be in regard to mood, energy, concentration and attempt to track these over time, but going forward, I want to make sure I am encouraging our clients to make sure they are getting the most out of their care.
If there is something else bothering you or you aren’t sure we could help with, then we would love for you to feel free to ask us. Hopefully we are in a position to help you, but even if we are not, I am confident that we will be able to find the right person who CAN help you with whatever issue you might have.
The advantage of being a practice that is over 30 years old is that we have contacts in many fields to help clients get where they need to go, because sometimes chiropractic, as wonderful as it is not the answer. But I bet we can find someone for you who is.
So next time you get adjusted, pay attention to how you feel, do you feel more relaxed? More alert? Sharper? Freer? We’d love to hear about what you find.
8 of our best stress busters!
This post is for anyone who feels they are holding onto the stress of 2020 or are struggling to feel up to speed in 2021, who could use a quick circuit breaker to manage their stress and feel more themselves.
As our live become “normal” again, with nearly everything being back at full capacity, very few places requiring face masks and your social lives (or at least your family’s social lives) picking up pace, many of our clients have been finding themselves more fatigued, worn out and just generally more stressed than they were back in the before times (aka pre March 2020).
It’s almost as if consciously we WANT to be back to normal, but our bodies haven’t decided to go along with us yet.
There are many possible reasons as to why this is, but the main themes I am hearing is that people are just waiting for the next round of lock downs to hit us at any moment, and the other is that a lot of people actually LOVED the slow down in the pace of their lives.
A lot of us are struggling to return to the glorification of being busy and the constant social demands on our attention and time.
Especially in Melbourne, we spent more of the last year being afraid of too much direct human contact than we did out in society. Now we are headed back to office and not only do we have to retrain our brain to be OK with having people around, but we have to be “on” all day, not just for the Zoom meetings we had!
It really takes a toll on us and has left a lot of our clients drained.
We know you don’t have time to research the best steps you can take to get back to feeling you, if only someone would accumulate years worth of stress related blogs in one easy to locate place and post it on their website amirite??
As always, we’ve got you covered!
May I present, here, for the first time in one place, the best of 6 years of stress specific blogs to get you back on track!
And No, one of the steps won’t be “Get adjusted”. If you’re on this blog you already know how relaxed and good you feel when you’re adjusted. This list is about what YOU can do, from the comfort of your own home to take control.
So without further waffle from me….
8 of our best Stress Busters
Make Stress your friend.
As you know, just saying “don’t let it get to you” is about as useful as a passport in a pandemic, but did you know you possess a huge power over how your body FEELS like it responds to it?
There is no making stress disappear but as I discussed in 2015, there may be a simple way to have lasting impact on what your body physically DOES with the stress and therefore changes how you feel about it.
when you have 15 minutes, watch the video as Kelly McGonigal explains it much better than I can.
The importance of saying ‘NO’.
Not just for little kids to annoy your parents, ‘no’ can be a powerful stress reliever.
You’ll heave heard of FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out?
Well let me introduce JOMO, the Joy Of Missing Out.
If you have ever had a social event coming up and been wishing that it would get cancelled, then you need to connect with JOMO and embrace saying ‘NO’ more often.
Look at your upcoming weekends and recognise, its OK if we don’t do multiple things every day, I won’t say yes to dinner with ‘X’ or breakfast at ‘Y’s house. It’s OK to have enjoyed a few quiet weekends over lock down, to not always be available to everyone. After all, if your friends and family needed down time, you’d understand…and I hate to sound like your mother but if they DON’T understand your need to have some time to yourself then maybe they weren’t very good friends in the first place.
Improve your sleep!
As discussed at length on many occasions on this blog (most recently HERE) getting a good night of sleep is potentially the most important thing you can do for yourself.
For an explanation as to what sleep DOES to us to keep us healthy and reduce sleep, read the blog here about an interview with a sleep expert, but for Martin’s hottest tips on how to GET good sleep, watch the video.
Exercise your demons.
“I really regret that exercise I did and now I feel more stressed out” - Literally no one. Ever
This might seem really obvious but it is worth remembering. Pick an exercise you love to do and give yourself time to do it.
(Foam) Roll your way to relaxation.
Again, this one will seem a little too simple, but as Martin explains in this post, using a foam roller to help get rid of your tight stress shoulders and gert your body breathing again isn’t only easy to do but hugely effective as well!
Screen your screen time.
Think about what you’re doing on your screens and when.
Research shows that if the very first thing you do when you wake up is check your email, subconsciously you’re starting your day on someone ELSE’S agenda, and this increases the stress chemicals in our blood from the beginning of your day, and things cascade from there.
Try getting out of bed, setting a routine, even if its a short one like “I will have a shower and then open my email once I have made breakfast”, that way you open them on YOUR terms.
Also, while thinking about screen time, your devices will all have night modes for their screens, TURN THEM ON. Have them come on as the sun sets and timed to come back to normal as your day starts.
Theres a lot to this but basically, the orange/red of a night mode screen doesn’t wake your brain up the same way the blue/white light of a normal screen does. You’’ll fall asleep faster and better.
Meditate.
This one is obvious and yet feels like it will be impossible to fit into your day and even harder to stick with. There is some good news though, research shows that meditation is like exercise, the more you do it the easier it gets and SOME IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN NONE.
In fact, research shows you can start to get the benefits of meditation even from very short periods of doing it, the song “Someone like you” by Adel or “Strawberry swing” by Coldplay have been shown to start you in the right direction (personally, I’m an Enya man).
Why not try challenging yourself to listening to a song that relaxes you quietly while you take a minute to yourself for a week? Then after you prove you have 3-4 minutes to do that, the jump to a 5 minute guided meditation in an app like ‘smiling mind’ doesn’t seem like such a giant leap!
Try, Try again
Read our 3 simple steps to help keep a healthy change going.
No one expects you to be perfect or to do all 8 of these recommendations at once! Give yourself a break, you deserve to find out which of these tips suit you and only YOU can find out how they fit into your life.
As always, if there is anything we can do to help, any extra info we can provide, then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us!
Our 3 tips for keeping a Healthy change going
If you’re looking for some pointers to keep up your new years resolutions, then this post is for you.
No need for a massive post this time, the best and longest lasting changes are almost always small, its doing them for the long haul that makes them worthwhile!
Our 3 tips for keeping a healthy change on track are:
1. Avoid all or nothing!
Lots of people start with the intention of achieving 100% of their goals - no sugar ever, exercising every day, or meditating every morning etc.
The problem with committing to 100% is that life doesn’t always allow for 100%. So often it feels like once you have gone off track then there is no point getting back on!
You tell yourself that it will never work and you fail back into your pre-resolution pattern. Getting off track is normal! The secret is to accept that it’s going to happen and get straight back on.
After a tiring day at work it’s easy to feel the urge to skip your exercise. Exercising before work means that you have prioritised the important (your long term health) over the urgent.
2. If exercise is your resolution, consider doing it in the morning.
If you're one of the people heading back to work this week, you probably already know that it’s harder to fit a workout in when work takes up so much of the day.
After a tiring day at work it’s easy to feel the urge to skip your exercise. Exercising before work means that you have prioritised the important (your long term health) over the urgent.
3. Listen to your body.
Changing can be tough on your body. If regular exercise is new to you, taking a rest day is super important and can help you avoid an injury.
Getting a checkup to see if everything is working the way it should is also a great idea.
As always, we wish you the best of luck with your new goals, please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you achieve them!
A quick way to move and soothe your neck
This post is for anyone missing their normal routine and would like some tips on getting rid of the tension and restriction they are starting to feel in their neck, upper back and shoulders, but don’t have the time to watch or go through the whole sequence as described by Martin in an earlier video.
As most of you are aware, during the stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne allied health are only allowed to practice on a more urgent basis, meaning that a lot of our regular clients are missing out on getting their regular adjustments as well as maintaining themselves while living in lock down.
Never fear however as Martin and I are still in practice!
If you have a specific issue please do not hesitate to contact the practice so we can see how we can keep you going.
Below is the next instalment of our “Move and Soothe” series of posts.
Many of you expressed that although the original video was very helpful, it was a fairly long run time, so…you asked for it and we have delivered!
Martin has whipped together a quick video about how to keep yourself moving at home, helping your neck keep moving, free up a lot of the tension you have felt building, especially over the last few weeks of stage 4 lock downs.
As usual with our videos, the transcript is available below.
Enjoy!
0:00- intro
Hi, Martin here from Align Chiropractic. This is another follow along, move and soothe video. This one is designed to be a quick routine that you can do maybe in the middle of the day, or when you don’t have as much time. It’s really oriented at releasing tension, improving movement through your neck, and then extending out into the shoulder area.
So the idea here is that we use a sequence that we would use when we’re providing chiropractic care to deal with problems, which is we’ve got to create movement in the system first before we can then change alignment. Improving movement and alignment are the key to then creating changes in the way all the soft tissues work, so releasing tension, allowing nerves to function better. The nerves functioning better is what then translates into muscles functioning better because nerves control muscles, then that’s what creates an environment where you can create a spine that’s both more balances and more stable. So we look at is as movement, alignment, and then balance and stability come as a result of that. If we try and create stability without having movement and alignment- much less effective.
1:17- description
So let’s get into it. With this one you can do it either sitting at your desk, so if you’ve been spending hours doing this and you’re starting to notice that tension building up, or you can do it standing.
The first thing we are going to do is we’re going to double up and do our move and soothe together. So, we’re going to be moving our spine through ranges of motion, getting it to that end range of motion to encourage full range of motion in our neck, And we’re going to be applying a little bit of a release to the muscles that most commonly tighten up as a result of stress, or as a result of postural stress. With this one, you don’t need any equipment- in some of the other move and soothes will use a spiky ball, a tennis ball, or a lacrosse ball, but for today we are just going to be using our hands so that it’s super easy to do wherever you are
2:11- breathing
I’m going to be incorporating the physiological ‘sigh’ breathing that you might have seen on other videos. It’s an approach that I came across through the research of a neuroscientist called Dr Andrew Hubermann. I won’t go into a whole lot of detail, but basically it is where you take a deep breath in through your nose, and then when you get to that point where it’s tight, you just take a little breath over the top- so it’s a double breath. And then relax.
2:47- Lateral Flexion
So, to start off we’re going to be doing lateral flexion- probably the most important movement for us to have. To incorporate a soothe, what I’m going to get you to do is just reach across with the opposite hand and apply some pressure to this muscle up here and apply some pressure to this muscle up here in your upper trapezius or levator scap muscle. So just feel in there and find a point that’s feeling a bit tight- it’s right there for me, and then we are going to incorporate breathing in through our nose. Then we’re going to the other side, and then we’re going to breathe back over this side. Just letting that relax. I’m going to go one more time- breathing over to this side. Now just swap hands, and one more. That’s it, now we go to rotation
Rotation 4:20
So, hand across and this time, we’re going to be focusing on rotation away from the side that our hand is. So, breathing in. Swapping over. Breathing in, breathing in. Last one. Shrug your shoulders up and let them relax.
Conclusion: 5:38
There we have it. Just a quick follow along to help you release some tension, improve the movement, and have a much healthier, happier spine.
The top 11 tips for improving your sleep - how to sleep your way through lockdown
Supporting your sleep cycle.
This article is for anyone who needs to address how they are sleeping, want’s to feel more rested or are looking for the best thing they can do for themselves to make the most of our new lockdown.
I have written about sleep on this blog before but when I was asked to speak about this topic in a webinar last week I realised that this topic is too important to leave further down the list of blog posts we have accumulated thus far. Also, for reasons that will become clear shortly, this is actually a perfect time for all of us (especially Melburnians) to be assessing their sleep habits.
I wish I were writing this under better circumstances, but unfortunately we have all found ourselves back were we were several months ago.
Lockdown 2.0 - This time it's frustrating.
Obviously Victoria’s current situation is less than ideal but it has actually highlighted to me the importance of today’s topic.
This could not be coming at a better time for us all, who among you reading this found during the lock down that days just rolled together and that it was hard to find any real rhythm?
I want to set a challenge to all of you during this lock down period, and that is, I want you to genuinely and honestly re-appraise your sleep habits and find ways that you could improve them, then set yourself the goal to make the most of your lock down by creating new habits that WILL change your life.
I don’t often use this term, but in terms of habits or activities you undertake to improve your health and your life, sleep is like a magic bullet.
It has probably the largest impact of any one activity you can undertake.
Speaking of undertakings, the research indicates that it takes just 3 weeks to set a new habit. People in Melbourne have been given 2 rounds of that time to set new habits up and really hone them before hopefully getting to enter the world a little more normally again. Make the most of it!
So now, having said all that, I want to come clean to you.
I come from a bit of a weird back ground with sleep.
If I am really honest, I was always known amongst my friends as someone who just flat out doesn’t sleep. This was until just over 2 years ago Martin the other chiropractor that I work with exposed me to some information that TERRIFIED ME.
The information was an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast with Professor Matthew walker who is the author of a book called “Why we sleep”.
Now academically, I was already aware that sleep was good for me, I was convinced that I was just one of those people who didn't need as much sleep as everyone else. I just genuinely believed that lack of sleep obviously didn't affect me as much as it seemed to affect everyone else.
The reason we became interested in sleep in our practice is that we take care of a lot of people with stress related issues. As I am sure many of you are aware and especially if you have ever read my blog posts or spoken with me in the practice, stress is perhaps the leading cause of illness in Australia and as it turns out, poor sleep and lack of sleep is one of the leading causes of increased daily stress.
Reducing stress is actually soo important to spinal health that in our practice we have a special interest in stress management.
Martin and I have completed courses on adjusting and management techniques aimed specifically at stress reduction and sleep promotion.
So today, I wanted to break down for you, what exactly IS sleep? How much do we need? I want to discuss what happens to us when we don’t get it sleep and finally, my 11 best tips to improve your sleep.
The Background
It has taken millions of years to develop into homo sapiens. We came into anatomical being at least 315,000 years ago, with our modern behavioural and mental capacities being at least 60-80 thousand years old.
We have only had a reliable and controllable ability to erase the night using electric light for - give or take - 150 years. Since that time, humans have become the first and only known species that actively and persistently forgo sleep.
Think about that, no other species will choose any activity over sleep outside of a survival situation.
For us, far from being a survival situation, it means, to stay up and watch Netflix, scroll Instagram, or generally to just get a few jobs done without anyone interrupting us.
Think about that...why is it that WE choose to avoid rest, when no other mammal will do this naturally?
And apparently this is incredibly common, according to Matthew Walker, 1 out of every 2 people are sleep deprived, and almost 1/3 of those people are sleep deprived on 6 hours sleep or less. But let’s face it, have you ever heard any person say to you “you know what, I am just getting soo much good sleep at the moment!”
SO the first thing to ask ourselves is;
HOW MUCH SLEEP ARE WE MEANT TO GET?
As humans we need between 7 and 9 hours of good QUALITY sleep for our body to operate the way it is intended to.
Thats not just physical time in bed,
Quality in this sense refers to our biological imperative to get through all of the stages of sleep for an appropriate amount of time, in order for our brain to recharge.
What are the 4 stages of quality sleep?
stage of sleep:
1. Awake,
2. light sleep,
3. deep sleep,
4. REM (Rapid Eye Movement), and repeat.
Awake time is the time spent in bed before and after falling asleep. It also includes brief awakenings during the night.
As I said earlier, quality sleep contains appropriate time spent in each of 4 stages of sleep.
Although all 4 stages of sleep are essential to the quality of your sleep, I wont get into the nitty gritty of how sleep works specifically, it can be more complicated than my level of specific understanding and that would involve MANY blogs about that topic alone, so just to hit the high notes here today, I am going to GROSSLY oversimplify everything.
Stages 1 and 2 are your “set up” stages of sleep, they are the period where your body begins to turn off your monitoring systems and relax the “awake” portion of sleep, changing your heart rate and breathing to eventually get into stage 2 and eventually into deeper levels. This is also the stage where you can have a power nap as long as you don't doze for more than 20 minutes.
Stages 3 and 4 are where you get down into deeper levels of sleep.
In Stage 3, your brain waves become very long and slow and become much less responsive and harder to wake up, while your brain “paralyzes” your body in a type of muscular incarceration so that during stage 4, otherwise known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, you don't get up and start acting out your dreams…it sounds scary but its a handy survival mechanism. You have probably experienced this lock down first hand if you have ever suddenly felt awake at night time but been unable to move your body.
Stages 3 and 4 are where most body replenishment occurs. This type of sleep is excellent for cardiovascular health, metabolism, and most importantly, removal of waste products that accumulate in your brain throughout the day.
SO...WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DON'T GET ENOUGH SLEEP?
Think honestly about how many hours you spend sleeping and if you are honest, what sort of quality do you believe you actually achieve?
When we sleep for fewer than 7 hours, our performance, both physically and mentally dimities by 10%.
When the hours we sleep are fewer than 6, our performance is decreased by 30%.
30%.
That means if you average fewer hours than that, like I did over a 15 year period from year 11 onwards, my ability to work, to remember, to drive, to study or even enjoy downtime with my friends and family was down by 10-30%.
Equally as scary, the research suggests that people who are sleep deprived are actually incapable of measuring the negative effects of lack of sleep on themselves. It's like knowing your exact blood alcohol while drinking (a comparison that will become more relevant in Part 2 of this post). We know we have been drinking but have no actual way to know if we are .05 or not until its measured externally.
Imagine the compound interest of life lost over 15 years of being 30% less of yourself. I am certain I would likely still be at Align, and I know I would still be a chiropractor, but who knows how much further I would be in my career, how much more I could have given to my clients or how much more I could have enjoyed those years?
WHAT HEALTH ISSUES DOES IT CAUSE?
Short answer? Heaps. Almost everything in fact.
According to more recent research, the shorter you sleep, the shorter your life.
Fewer hours of sleep predicts all cause mortality. Put simply, you’ll be dead sooner and the quality of your life will be worse.
Fewer than 6 hours of sleep leads to a decrease of physical endurance and function of 30% due to lactic acid build up as well as the bodies ability to expire our breath, but anything below 7 hours has been shown to impair us, with decreases in our peak muscle strength, peak running speed and our vertical jump.
Coupled with this fact is that it has been shown that sleep and frequency of injury has a linear relationship, stating that 9 hours of sleep Vs 5 hours of sleep leads to a 60% increase in the probability of injury.
Another more functional element to sleep is that it has been shown to improve learning performance (in rats at least) by 20-30% as it is thought to be the time when our brain strengthens its connections when learning something new.
Have you ever been trying to learn something new or studying and come to a point where you are just stuck so you give up for the night?
If your anything like me, I know that you found that the next morning it just clicked. Things you were struggling to learn just came to you, or you could remember the whole piece of information correctly.
It appears that while we sleep the brain literally prunes away the unnecessary elements of the pathways and streamlines your new skill.
Another health issue lack of sleep causes, is weight gain. Sleep doesn't just help you lose weight, it actually helps you keep it away!
Lack of sleep decreases the body’s levels of a hormone called Leptin, who causes the sensation of satiation (aka - feeling full). At the same time, the hormone ghrelin (the guy responsible for NOT feeling full, and making you hungry), is ramped up.
It has been shown that people who sleep between 5-6 hours a night will eat 200-300 MORE calories a day, equalling roughly 70,000 calories a year, leading to 10-15 pounds (or 4.5-6.8kgs) of obese mass a year.
Worse, you eat more of the WRONG THINGS, going for heavy hitting carbs and heavy processed food, while simultaneously staying away from leafy greens etc.
So just to clarify…on average, if you slept more than 7 hours a night, you would eat fewer calories, crave better quality food and with no extra effort or will power necissary, you would have to manage up to 7kgs of fat FEWER, each year.
Do you know any other “magic” weight loss solution that can offer all that with zero negative side effects and at zero cost?
More importantly, insufficient sleep according to the podcast, degrades our DNA.
Specifically it has a negative effect on immune response genes, decreasing their reproduction. At the same time, we get increased chronic inflammation, increased stress response leading to cardiovascular disease and an increase in the expression of genes related to the promotion of tumour growth.
Apparently this is most exemplified by people who do shift work. Night shift workers suffer from higher rates of obesity, diabetes and cancers, most notably bowel, prostate and breast cancer.
This is apparently so prevalent Matthew Walker states, that the World Health Organisation now classifies night shift work as possible carcinogen in and of itself as 4 hours of sleep even for just one night, causes a remarkable state of immune deficiency, a significant drop in anti cancer cells in our immune system.
Sleep deprivation affects your sex hormones too, in fact, Men who sleep 5-6 hours a night will have testosterone levels 10 years their senior, a critical element of health, strength, muscular performance etc, in short, it ages you a DECADE (apologies for not having the data for women too but you can safely assume similar effects can be found).
Consider how you are when you're deprived of sleep; reduced alertness, impulsive, lack of ability to concentrate, difficulties with learning and memory.
What do you think happens to your brain when you are like this for weeks, months or even YEARS on end?
While we are awake our brain builds up toxicity, especially a protein called ‘Beta Amyloid’. You may have hear of this protein before as it is the main mechanism in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease. When we sleep properly, the process of sleep wipes our brain, reducing build up of Beta Amyloid.
Insufficient sleep across lifespan now appears to be one of THE most significant lifestyle factors in determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Simply put: wakefulness causes low level brain damage and sleep offers reparatory function.
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan have arguably had a huge effect on our world today. They were both known as having strong wills with sharp minds. They were both also famous for getting around 4-5 hours of sleep a night. They both died with Alzheimer’s.
This anecdotal evidence is hardly proof of the research but it raises a few questions about the concept, two people with very active minds and social lives (two factors previously thought to be predictive of the disease) got it anyway.
Now you might be saying to yourself:
“I’M ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO DOESN’T NEED THAT MUCH SLEEP…SO I’M ALL GOOD RIGHT?”
Wrong.
Well…at least its a safe bet that you're wrong anyway.
You’ll remember that Matthew’s research has shown that people are completely incapable of determining how much they are affected by sleep deprivation.
I was convinced of my own ability to get things done when I was working off lower levels of sleep, but it turns out, like you, I am completely unqualified to make that assessment.
Negative effects of your lack of sleep can ONLY be assessed by external sources and measurements.
Although studies show us that there is a population of humans that can function as normal from just 5 hours of sleep, but those same genetic studies show that is a group of less than 1% of the population.
In fact, you're MORE likely to be struck by lightening in your life time than to be one of those people, so you should probably assume that you aren't one of them.
SO…WHAT CAN I DO THEN?
Get to sleep. Seriously, its as simple and as difficult as that.
The minimum you should aim for is 7 hours! 7-9 hours appears to be our sweet spot as humans.
11. WAYS TO IMPROVE SLEEP:
Consciously think about sleep hygiene. Make it something you factor into your health routine like you do exercise.
Regularity; try go to bed at same time.
Decrease light; Try away from screens for at least an hour before bed or at LEAST have your screens on night mode. Think of circadian rhythm, no blue light, black out curtains, eye masks.
Halve the number of lights on in your home in an evening. Apparently, if you are in an environment with no lights at all, we fall asleep 2 hours earlier.
Keep it cool, brain decreases temp by 2-3 deg fahrenheit to initiate sleep. always easier to sleep in a room thats too cold rather than too hot. We fall asleep faster and deeper in cold.
Wear fewer clothes to bed. Again, its a heat thing.
Try to have warm feet and hands. It helps keep your brain cool as it stakes blood away from your core. You could also try having a hot bath or shower before bed, it brings blood to the surface then your core body temp plummets when you get out of the water and you're more ready to sleep. The reverse is true for waking up, studies have shown that its the rise in temperature in the morning not just the light that wakes you.
Time your exercise, try to exercise earlier in the day, hormonally exercising earlier sets you up to sleep whereas later in the day it can wake you up.
Eat earlier and go for a short walk, help your body digest so it isn’t working soo hard when you are trying to settle down to rest.
Decrease stress in other areas of your life, meditate, work on your posture, breathing exercise, plan opening your emails etc, decreasing stress chemicals will allow your body to relax faster and more fully, letting you get to sleep.
Watch the Joe Rogan podcast I talked about a lot of my information coming from here. It goes into a lot more detail if you are that way inclined, but it is worth the watch. It is also available as a traditional podcast.
AND REMEMBER
Sedation is NOT the same as normal sleep, pills and alcohol might help you nod off but they do not allow you to go through the full normal stages of sleep and so you will miss out on a lot of it’s benefits. Be sure to discuss your inability to sleep with a health practitioner about improving your sleep hygiene as Matthew Walker states in the podcast that sedatives are an absolute last resort.
Sleep is NOT like a bank, you cant accumulate debt during the week and then make it up on the weekend.
Lastly NO ONE tells you to stay awake on a problem. “Sleep on it” so that you can have a fresh perspective is a suggestion with no cultural boundaries.
Accumulated wisdom for centuries has promoted sleep as a way of better tackling your problems, getting things done and improving your life.
Ankle Sprains...are you doing it wrong?
I don't know if its the time of year or if I have just been noticing it more, but it feels like there has been a lot of ankle injury limping into the practice in the last few weeks.
Ankle sprains and strains are common, they are not just for sports people and most importantly, are usually really poorly managed when they happen.
Sure, getting people out of pain doesn't usually take too long but there is a lot more to it than that.
As a lot of you already know, at Align a big part of our practice is looking after families. There are a few things you notice when you have families with school aged kids coming in and one of the more common injuries we will see is ankle sprain or strain.
So what do I mean by poorly managed? The problem is, getting on top of these very common injuries is at the same time, very important but very BORING to deal with.
If you are lucky enough to have avoided issues with your ankles, I am willing to bet we all know SOMEONE we went to school with who rolled their ankle early on in high school, and by year 12, nearly overtime they took to the field, court or even walked next to you down the street, they would put their foot down at one point and over they would go!
In practice, we often here this described as their "bad ankle".
Structurally there is usually nothing "bad" about their ankle, so why do they have such a problem?
A "Bad Ankle"
In my experience, up until recently, treatment for most ankle injury would consist of people would ice on their ankle till the swelling went down and they could walk on it without pain, then they would hope for the best until inevitably, the next episode of the "bad ankle" would happen, increasing in frequency, leaving them with no confidence in their own body and an inability to enjoy playing sports or exercise how they should be able to. Sound familiar?
The reality is, when you really sprain your ankle, what you are actually doing is causing damage of specific ligaments around your foot and ankle. The pain from these injuries is just one part of the issue. The other, equally important part is the movement issues that a sprain will introduce into our ankle's support systems.
I touched on these movement issues in my last blog about posture but in a nutshell, when we injure tissues it can cause movement control issues in the affected joint, making it harder for our nervous system to be certain of how to position and manage that joint in the future.
This is why it's so important that any management of these injuries includes longer term rehab thinking, as well as care for the immediate area and work on the connected support structures.
In my next blog, I plan to outline some important points you want to be thinking about if you have an acute ankle sprain, as well as what you can do if you already ARE someone with a "bad ankle"
In a slump...Is it time to stand tall and stop your mum from nagging you?
Good Posture...I know, I can feel how bored you are already. I don't blame you. Can you even count how many times you have been nit picked about slouching?
And why the hell should you care right? I mean, who cares that you slump a little? Plus, its so hard to stop doing! You try so hard to be upright when you first get to your computer but sure enough, 2 hours later you find yourself leaning into the screen of your computer with your shoulders hanging from your ears and a back hunch that would make Mr. Burns envious.
A man displaying woeful posture...in need of nagging
As a Chiropractor, 2 things happen often in my life.
The first is that at almost every time I am introduced to a person or group, most people instinctively straighten their backs and sit or stand taller, as if they all instinctively know that 'Good Posture' is important (even if we don't know why) and that its something we only think about when prompted to (even though we know deep down that our posture isn't great in the first place)
The second is that poor posture is one of the leading causes the issues that we see in our practice every day!
Low back, neck pain, jaw pain, shoulder injury, predisposition to spinal degeneration, carpal tunnel type symptoms, migraines and tension headaches are some of the most common symptoms we see day in and day out and it doesn't take much Googling to find that a lot of these problems are either caused by, or at the least made worse by, poor posture.
So, how does having bad posture lead to these issues?
The answer is actually really simple and its actually a major part of understanding what we do as chiropractors:
Nervous system feedback and the body’s position in space
"The deeper layers of muscle are concerned with ‘sensing’ our position in space and relaying this information to the brain. If this function is taken over by muscles... (As a result) the brain gets an incomplete picture. The brain assumes that the body needs to be propped up to counteract the effects of gravity, so it triggers further muscle contraction. This adds to the general fatigue and pain felt by the person with poor posture." - The Victorian Government's better health website
The issues with poor posture appear to go beyond just the physical mechanics as well!
If I told you to imitate a person who is stressed out, anxious or depressed, I bet you would tighten and slightly raise your shoulders, pushing your head forward and making you shorter. Sound familiar?
Some authors discuss that consistently being in this position might actually lead to deepened depression, increases in perceived stress, circulation issues, as well as negatively affecting digestion, breathing mechanics and the we way we are perceived by ourselves and others!
So what can we do about it? Well I'm here to tell you that dealing with posture is both simple AND challenging.
Simple in that there are very basic ways that we can start to work on and improve how our body holds itself, yet challenging in that as Australian's, we are sitting or lying down for an average of 23 hours and 47 minutes, so we have a lot practice at bad posture to try and work against!
Over the space of a few more blog posts, I am hoping to talk you through some strategies to start tackling this problem, but until then, if you have any questions, or if yourself or someone close to you needs help getting out of their slump, please do not hesitate to contact us at Align on (03) 9696 1057.