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 […]
Category archives: Stress Management
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 […]
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 […]
Inflammatory back pain explained.
Low back pain is tricky; frustratingly, even for the most highly trained, experienced practitioners aided by imaging, knowing the exact cause of someone’s pain is often impossible. Hence, people leave consultations clutching the non-specific low back (NSLP) diagnosis and sometimes with unanswered questions. NSLP is categorised into three subtypes: acute, sub-acute and chronic, and means […]
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 […]
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 […]
Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease, the thyroid gland part 2
Hypothyroidism is the medical name to describe an underactive thyroid gland. It often results from the autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s disease. Also known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis.
Thyroid disorders, the inside scoop
Thyroid disorders are prevalent, about one in 20 people have some kind of thyroid disorder, which may be temporary or permanent. Although they can affect anybody at any age, including children and babies, they mainly occur in women. A
Coronavirus/COVID-19, stress less by getting informed.
While I appreciate that you are probably feeling bombarded with news and updates about this virus. As a healthcare professional, it concerns me that growing misconceptions and myths around this rapidly changing health crisis are causing people to feel increasingly concerned about how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
Pain management, ways forwards
The previous post, “pain what’s really going on?” looked at pain from a medical and scientific point of view to understand how pain can be categorised, the variety of words to describe pain, and the regular healing times, which may help people avoid slipping into persistent or chronic states. This post will look at current best […]
Pain, what’s really going on?
Pain is tricky; it can be a valuable and potentially life-saving protection mechanism. You only have to touch something unexpectedly hot to appreciate that the resulting OUCH was helpful because it made you pull your hand away and prevent possible further injury. But what exactly is pain?
The Relaxation Response
A variety of techniques can help our nervous system back into balance. The relaxation response is one of the simplest because it works like a braking system to brings our body and mind back into a state of equilibrium.