The onset of menstruation is a physical and emotional event in a person’s reproductive life. Most will have their first period between the ages of 10 and 14, and depending on the type of contraception used, they will menstruate monthly until menopause typically around age 51.
Category archives: Lifestyle and General Health
Avoiding the mishaps and misunderstandings of Christmas
Christmas can be a fabulous time of year. However, according to the NHS and The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), there are more accidents and mishaps involving humans and our four-legged friends than usual around the festivities.
5 mindful movement to ease joint stiffness
Where do you live? In your head, body or both? The reason I ask is that, as a health professional and movement teacher, I meet many people who live in their heads, and their body is just this thing hanging below their lower eyelashes, I kid you not!
SAD, prevention and management
If you’re in the U.K., it won’t have passed you by that the nights are drawing in (it seems a tad early to me); the shorter days remind me to welcome autumn, but I do so with mixed feelings. While I love the hues of the season and the prospect of wrapping up in cosy […]
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week.
Mental Health Awareness Week is a yearly opportunity to increase our understanding of mental well-being and stamp out the stigma. around mental well-being. This year’s theme is Anxiety and what we can do to prevent and manage it. Anxiety is the body’s natural adaptive mind-body reaction to perceived and genuine stress or future danger. It is […]
Baker’s cyst
Medically, a Baker’s cyst is called a popliteal cyst, a fluid-filled sac that causes tightness and a bulge behind the knee. It can be painless and go unnoticed until there has been increasing inactivity. When there is pain, it is usually worsened when bending or fully straightening or activity levels increase.
ADHD in Adults
ADHD is a developmental disorder and mental health condition that affects behaviour and is often thought of as a condition that only affects children. However, research suggests that around 4% of adults have this condition, but many are oblivious because it was not recognised in childhood.
Is mindfulness meditation making you feel like a failure?
And more anxious too? Pounding heart, heavy breathing, churning stomach and sweating hands can be some signs and symptoms of anxiety, along with the need to escape. It is a horrible, distressing experience, often accompanied by embarrassment and shame.
Do you understand your emotional needs?
At the end and beginning of the year, folks often reflect or carry out a life audit because we cannot take anything for granted, including our physical or mental health. Depending on individual factors such as genetics, culture, identity, and upbringing, we have our own unique emotional needs; they are feelings or occasions where we […]
Persistent Pain is a genuine condition
Pain is the primary reason people go to the doctor, but 1 in 3 general practitioners (GPs) reports feeling “unprepared” to treat pain. While this may frustrate you, it’s not their fault because, like most healthcare professionals (HCPs), we receive little or no training around the pain that doesn’t go away as expected during our […]
Seasonal Affective Disorder, and light therapy
It’s September, and the nights are drawing in so quickly it’s reminded me that this is the critical time to put measures in place if you have or are at risk of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Winter depression is the other name for SAD; it’s a type of depression triggered by the change of seasons, […]
Are you at risk of burnout?
While many people, especially those in the corporate world, have heard the word “burnout”, it’s not recognised officially as a medical term. If you read my musings regularly, you know that education and myth-busting are my primary passions inside and outside of my treatment space. In healthcare, burnout is called mental exhaustion or mental fatigue; “it is […]
Raynaud’s explained
Most of us will have experienced numbness or tingling in our fingers after getting a tub of ice cream out of the freezer or when it’s really cold outside. For most folks, this is a short-lived unpleasant experience.
Pain, why does it hurt so much?
Physical pain is essential to the human experience; it’s the body’s protective alarm system. It’s a subjective experience that is challenging to convey to others. Especially if there are no obvious outward clues, our ability to tolerate pain is as individual as our fingerprints and shaped by many factors: genetics, previous pain experiences and our […]
Do you understand the “core”?
The “core” is scientifically called the lumbopelvic-hip complex (LPHC). It’s everything our head, arms and legs attach too, the torso or trunk of the body. Most often its acts as a stabiliser and force transfer, yet people focus on training it in isolation as a prime mover, with exercises like sit-ups, crunches, and planks. If […]
Fibromyalgia explained
Fibromyalgia is a mysterious long-term condition involving widespread chronic pain without a known cause; it’s more frustrating than a diagnosis. Some people will eventually discover a specific reason. Still, most times, the condition appears triggered by a physically stressful event, such as an injury, infection or having a baby. Or an emotional upset, such as […]
Ashwagandha, the wonder herb?
Ashwagandha is a popular ancient medicinal herb used in Ayurvedic medicine for over 2,500 years. It is becoming popular in the west because of its history of helping to reduce stress, the primary ‘disease’ of twenty-first-century life.
Turmeric and Curcumin, what’s the inside scoop.
Turmeric is best known as one of the quintessential spices used in much of Asian cooking. Also called Indian saffron, it gives curry it’s distinctive yellow colour and has warming earthy, pungent flavour which smells a little like mustard, probably because it’s one of the ingredients used to make it.
Adaptogens explained
Adaptogens are non-toxic plants (herbs and roots) which can help the body resist physical, chemical or biological stressors. Chinese and Ayurvedic healing traditions have used these herbs and roots for centuries, and they’re having a revival. Turmeric is probably the most popular food adaptogen.
The thyroid gland part 4, subclinical hypothyroidism explained
Are you tired all the time, gaining weight while eating the same amount of food? Is your skin dry and your hair falling out too? It can be easy to dismiss these symptoms as being down to living through a typical UK winter when many folks feel under par, suffer the effects of central heating […]