Category Archives: head, neck and back

Breathing

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The act of breathing is something that most of us don’t usually give a second thought to because we don’t need to think about it in order to do it. Respiratory illnesses such as lung cancer and emphysema have received much recent attention in the media through anti smoking campaigns but there is more to healthy lungs than abstaining from smoking.

Occupational breathing hazards in mining,  spray painting, construction, demolitions, agriculture and even cleaning can harm your airways too as can living in heavy traffic zones,  infact a government study found several years ago that more people died from the effects of air pollution annually (2006) in Australia than from road accidents. Australia is not a place that really springs to mind for most when air pollution is discussed.

Orthostatic pneumonia (not viral) is a common cause of death for invalids on full bed rest, when a person needs to spend most of their time lying down in bed the lungs do not work very efficiently, eventually they weaken and lose their ability to clear themselves especially if there are colds and flu about. Respiratory tract infections by themselves can be a real nuisance for the young and strong too, they always seem to happen when we least have time for them and costs the ecomony at large big-time.

No discussion about breathing would be complete without talking about asthma, the use ( and sometimes abuse) of asthma medication has been on a steady rise for some time now. There are strong allergy links for many who have asthma, climate is often a factor (cold and dry in particular), stress can bring  attacks on very quickly and being unfit with a lousy diet never helps either.

With so many things that can impair our breathing it is fortunate that there are many things that we can do to help protect our precious airways. A good place to start is good posture, ask any one to take a deep breath and the first thing they do is stand or sit up straight, it is impossible to fill your lungs without straightening the spine, if slouching is your normal posture you are doing your lungs no favours.

Cardio vascular exercise  helps your lungs, mucous secretions can settle in our lungs over time, cardio vascular exercise helps clear them and aids the cilia (fine hairs lining your airways) to sweep out dust and other particles that you accidently breath in. More specifically for asthmatics, training your breathing with the Buteyko method of breathing exercises has performed quite creditably in medically supervised trials in Australian and British hospitals in recent years. Test subjects found that they could reduce their dependance on medication and  they even looked calmer and more energised doing the Buteyko exercises.

Air filters and de-ionizers can clean up room air quite well and for people who have to live and work in excessively dry air environments may find air humidifyers useful, the lining on our airways is moist for a reason , it helps to trap air borne dust and bacteria, dry air can make us more susceptible to colds and flu.

If you are in some doubt about what hinders your breathing an allergy test might be worth having.

Jaw Tension

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Jaw tension (Bruxism) is the term given to chronic tightening of the jaw muscles. Jaw tension can give you headaches, keep your partner awake at night as you grind your teeth and  generally give you a tight, angry looking face.

Gum chewing produces and worsens jaw tension, your jaw muscles (masseters) don’t need this sort of exercise. The masseters do need to be stretched though, regular stretching exercise can help alleviate jaw tension. Whenever you yawn your masseters stretch, exercises that mimic yawning are good for your jaws. Giving your jaw muscles some circular, mild massage with your finger tips, can help relax your masseters.

The most common cause of jaw tension seems to be stress related, getting angry about things, particularly things you feel constrained to talk about can trigger it. The next time you get really cross about something ask yourself if your jaws feel tight, until you make self observations like that you will not realise whether you react like this or not.

Worry, anxiousness and intense mental concentration can cause tension in the jaws too, our facial muscles react constantly to what is going on inside our heads. Alot of people adopt the strangest facial expressions when deeply engrossed in something, grimacing and frowning can happen for the same reason that  clenching does. Pained expressions can cause you pain (and they won’t make you look pretty either).

There are also those who party pretty hard and long with drugs like ecstacy, ice and speed, these drugs can cause alot of jaw tension. This cause of jaw tension can wreck your teeth while you are still young.

Jaw tension effects your voice too, particularly if your jaw tension has a restrictive effect on how wide you part teeth when you are talking. Speaking with a barely open mouth muffles the natural resonance of your voice, people have much more pleasant talking and singing voices when they do not suffer from jaw tension. Jaw tension causes one to mispronounce words more often too.

A dentist once told me that about half of all his patients suffered from jaw tension, apparently it is that common. With so many good reasons why it is better not to have jaw tension it is such a shame to put up with it when you don’t have too. Soft tissue therapies (osteopathy, massage, chiropractic, acupuncture ) can help loosen your jaws and speech therapy can help you retrain your jaw muscles by making you more aware of how you use them.

Jaw tension can give you the worst headaches and grinding your teeth in your sleep can create stress between you and your partner (and prematurely wear your teeth out). Some of the nicest and most tolerant people I have known are also the worst jaw tension sufferers because they hold it all in on the inside.

People who don’t care about offending others rarely seem to get jaw tension.

Work out your Work Out II

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One of the most frequently exercise-neglected areas of the body is your abdomen. The abdominals help hold your spine straight and your digestive organs in place, they serve a very important function. Young women with good abdominal tone fair much better in the labour ward than their flabby sisters, good abdominal tone helps your digestion and the cosmetic appeal of a flat belly on men or women is so obvious it hardly needs mentioning.

Sit ups and crunches may still be the most commonly used abdominal exercises but they are not best practice and are likely to cause or worsen lower back pain. They do not work the most important abdominal muscles, overwork your hip flexors which are probably already too tight and are bad for your posture. With the weight of your upper body rocking vigorously backwards and forwards over your lop sided hips, the SI (sacro-iliac) joints become even more off-centre and can cause chronic lower back and hip pain.

A lot of people give up on their abdominal tone because the only exercises they were brought up to believe in just give them back pain. One way you can help your abs is to suck your belly in and tense it several times through the day and hold it there for a couple of minutes each time, you can do this even sitting at your desk at work. Doing this will help keep your back straighter too.

Erik Goodman’s Foundation exercises are amongst the best I seen for abdominal core strength, they have the advantage of being mainly executed in the a standing position making them more accessible for older people and exercise multiple muscles simultaneously, you can see some of these demonstrated on Youtube.

Chin ups (Pull ups) are another good example of multiple muscles being strenuously and symmetrically put to work at the same time, your lats, biceps, upper back, wrist flexors and abs are all engaged with this exercise that only requires an overhead bar to support your body weight.

Walking or running up stairs can be a convenient whole body way to fit short burst of exercise into your busy day, you don’t need to be in a gym to exercise.

Swimming is an exercise that works multiple muscles simultaneously though obviously not nearly as conveniently. Cardio unlike stretching and strengthening requires more time dedication but can be easily accommodated by walking or cycling to work and back.

Some stretching exercises work numerous muscles at the same time too, if you want to make exercising more compact and time efficient you will find some good examples in Self Massage & + 40 Fitness.

Headaches

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At some time most of us will suffer headaches for the good reason that there are so many things that can cause them, some causes such as head trauma are obvious but did you know that constipation, allergies, sitting in the wrong chair or even the wind can do it to you.

Headaches can be and often are connected to other things that go on inside your body. In the case of headaches that are caused by constipation for instance, the cause of your constipation may be dehydration, dehydration in itself (without any accompanying constipation) can also be a cause of headache, therefore drinking more water may fix both problems at the same time. If having a bowel motion makes a headache suddenly vanish the chances are that your headache may have been caused by too long an interval between trips to the loo.

Stress is a very well known cause of headaches,  stress hormones change blood chemistry, stress also changes your posture and body language because our bodies instinctively tighten up as part of the fight and flight response, these postural changes can stiffen neck muscles that then refer pain to your head- remove the stressors and the headache improves.

Jaw tension is a common stress response that can cause severe headaches, some bodyworkers believe that jaw tension is usually the product of really wanting to tell someone else how their behavior causes you  anger or worry but you decide that “spitting the dummy” will only make matters worse so biting down even harder is an unconscious way of keeping all your frustration on the inside. If your partner has ever complained that you grind your teeth in your sleep or your dentist comments that clenching your teeth is wearing down your tooth enamel you are a likely candidate for jaw tension headaches. Maybe you should speak your mind more.

Eye strain and bright light can give you some pretty fierce headaches too, if you work indoors and are reading all day (like off a computer screen) give yourself frequent short breaks where you are looking at distant objects, this helps to not only give your short range eye muscles a rest but also to sit straight again when you return to your desk thereby reducing the chances of a posture induced headache. If you work outside always remember your hat and sunglasses.

Hormonal headaches can get severe too and can be similar to migraine headaches, the difference being that men don’t get hormone headaches and some say that hormone headaches are usually one sided. Changes in the estrogen/progesterone balance that precipitate hormonal headaches can be brought on by being premenstrual, menopausal, the commencement or cessation or altering of oral contraception and after having babies (especially if the baby doesn’t sleep well!).

Headaches can be diet or allergy related too-, alcohol, caffeine, chocolate and chilli are often completely off the menu for migraine suffererers and there are other  times that people discover to their amazement  other seemingly healthy foods can do it too, I once knew a naturopath who had a client who tested positive to carrots in an allergy test- her client stopped drinking carrot juice and her headaches stopped!, sometimes the cause of headaches can be quite surprising.

The neck and jaw techniques in Self Massage can help you a lot.

Arthritis

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There are many forms of arthritis ( the word means joint inflammation), by far the most common form is osteo-arthritis (OA) characterised by cartilage thinning at the ends of the bones where they meet other bones to form joints. All the joints are lined with cartilege, the smooth, slippery-when-wet nature of cartilege allows the bones the slide easily against one another and they can absorb shock. Considered to be a normal process of aging if you live long enough, OA can interfere with smooth joint movement.

If your genes have been passed on by OA sufferers it can predispose you to it, contact sport will greatly increase your chances of getting it as will being chronically overweight and unfit.

OA is the number one cause of needing hip and knee replacement surgery, you can sometimes actually hear and feel the bones grinding against one another in OA sufferers- when it gets to that stage it can get quite debilitating and very uncomfortable.

The good news is you can help yourself by following some sensible strategies. Walking and running on grass is easier on knees than the pavement. Wear good joggers check your running posture. Getting regular massage is useful, it helps free up muscle and joint action. Sometimes muscles tighten and increase the pressure inside your joints reducing your comfort and performance. Physio, osteopathy, chiropractic, massage and acupuncture are useful in combatting the effects of OA. Alkaline diets can reduce joint inflammation too.

There are other less common forms of arthritis such as rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis and unfortunately some people can suffer from more than one type at the same time.

Climate can play a part in the severity of arthritis, OA for instance usually feels worse during cold weather where rheumatiod arthritis (RA) will be more acute when the weather is hot.

Arthritis can also be compounded by other problems such as weight gain, tendonitis and shin splints, causing pain to radiate further from the joint itself along your legs, a common location for OA. Arthritis often effects people’s spines and hands too which can be extremely debilitating, basically where ever you have cartilege you can get arthritis.

Some arthritis sufferers find pharmaceutical medications quite satisfactory in controlling their symptoms but for others the side effects just aren’t worth it, if your stomach lining is a little on the sensitive side for instance you may be one of those people.

If you do get aching joints don’t just fob it off as getting older, be open to the possibilities and try them enough times to show some results.

Please remember to massage your “good side” too, when you are limping it adds to the wear and tear of the good side. It is common for knee and hip replacement patients to have a second joint replaced in fairly quick successuion so make a point of looking after both sides.