Dizziness or vertigo?

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I’ve had a few people lately with dizziness and vertigo. There are many causes of these and I can only help with some. It is vital to get checked by a doctor as soon as possible and get a proper medical opinion.  A couple of those people were found by the doctor to have nothing obvious wrong. That brings me to some causes I’ve seen that sit a little outside the usual medical realm.

Jaw misalignments and tensions can cause pressure on the inner ear where our balance mechanisms are housed. Bowen Therapy is quite useful for alleviating jaw tension and misalignment. Of course, you must also look at other remedies, such as a splint from a dentist to prevent tooth damage to some chronic grinders. Many of the people with jaw misalignments have problems with clenching and grinding and some have a history of orthodontic work.

Another place for the dizziness to come from is extreme tension in the occipital region at the top of the neck. This can also bring a feeling of nausea. Several people who have presented to me with dizziness have had near-immediate relief from releasing this area and this area also relates to jaw tension, so often people have both areas affected. Neck tension can be relieved by massage, Bowen Therapy or various other therapies such as osteopathy or chiropractic. Of course, you may also need to examine sleeping posture, ergonomics and other activities to eliminate potential causes of the tension.

So remember, your first stop should be a medical doctor to eliminate any potential serious problems, but finding nothing, consider your jaw or uper neck as potential causes.

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary Health

Help to quit smoking

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I received an email from a wonderful colleague of mine the other day detailing the loss of her aunt to a smoking related cancer at only 59 years of age. Michelle White is a hypnotherapist practising at Newtown and is looking to help reduce the agony of loss for others by helping them to quit smoking and give their bodies a chance to repair and heal.

As soon as you stop smoking the body begins the repair process. The cilia in your airways come back to life and start cleaning those precious channels and taste and smell improve quickly. Over time, other cells damaged by years of toxins and oxidative stress will replenish and regenerate.

At college, I had a class in iridology. I was, at first, sceptical, but after looking at the irises of friends and family I was reasonably convinced. One person I examined had quit smoking some 10 years earlier and showed the “healing” lines described in the texts in her lung and chest areas. That was after 20-odd years of smoking. It isn’t too late to stop.

Michelle is making a special offer to encourage people to stop. She is reducing her regular rate to just $99 until the end of July to encourage people to quit. You can contact Michelle on 0407 590 599 or check out her website at www.mmhypnotherapy.com.au.  Just mention the codeword “suzuki” when booking to receive the discounted rate.

To the best of health.

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary Health

Can you help our Homeless?

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It’s almost time again for Sydney Homeless Connect -  a great day in which people who are without a permanent home, or who are at risk, are connected with services to assist them or just give them a lift. Can you help?

I’ve been involved the last two years and had a really great time. The day is held in the Lower Town Hall on Druitt Street and the atmosphere is great – uplifting and smiley all around. There are haircuts, massages, medical checks and various services such as legal and tech help, along with clothing available and a good feed. If you are keen to help or know someone who can offer assistance on the day, please go to the website for contact information or registration. It’s on the 4th of June.

Here’s a little video from last year – you may even spot me!

Sydney Homeless Connect 2012

Bracing your shoulders

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I’ve had a bit of a run of patients with problems around the shoulder area. One common cause of this is using the wrong muscles to stabilise the shoulders when using the arms. The scapula (shoulder blade) is highly mobile with bony joints only with the clavicle (collar bone) and humerus (upper arm). The rest of the stabilisation is done purely by your muscles. To get an idea of how mobile a scapula can be, just watch a cat sauntering along – the shoulder moves through quite a range.

When performing tasks with the arms – be that typing on a computer, cutting vegies for dinner, weights at the gym or boxing, the shoulder needs to be stabilised to ensure that the movement is precise and strong. If the shoulder isn’t stable then the arms will be all over the place. One of the key muscles for this is the serratus anterior. It ties the scapula to the ribs and helps to move the scapula forward and to the sides. Also stabilising the shoulder are the trapezius, levator scapula and rhomboids and it’s these I want to talk about today.

Many people, from sitting at a desk or from habit, use the upper trapezius (runs from the upper scapula up the neck), levator scapula (from the inner corner of the scapula up the neck) and rhomboids (inner edge of scapula, running diagonally upwards to the spine) to stabilise the shoulder blade. This has the effect of pulling the shoulder blade upwards towards the head, as well as back. These muscles are easily overloaded and can bring on headaches, shoulder and neck pains as well as nausea and dizziness in stronger circumstances. Next time you’re working away at the gym or cutting stuff for dinner, take a second to think about how you are using your shoulders. Do this throughout your day and see if you can establish a pattern of not over-engaging the upper muscles.

The thing to do if you do find yourself in this pattern is to strengthen the lower part of the trapezius (runs from the scapula down to the middle spine) and the latissimus dorsi, which runs from under the arm to the lower spine and pelvis. Teaching these muscles to engage draws the scapulae down and back and takes pressure off the upper shoulder and neck. At the gym, the exercises that immediately spring to mind are the lat pull-down and the seated row. With pull-downs, you grasp a bar above your head with the hands wider than shoulder width apart. You then raise your chest and pull the bar down towards your chest. As you do so, concentrate on bringing the scapula down and together. This will engage the latissimus but also the lower trapezius. Wide-grip chin-ups also perform this action. The seated row involves sitting and pulling a handle towards the chest. You must again concentrate on sitting up high and squeezing the scapulae together and down to engage the lats and lower traps.

Hopefully this helps some of you to establish some better muscle-usage patterns and avoid a pain in the neck. Bowen therapy and remedial massage can, of course, help turn off those over-engaged muscles.

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary Health

Upcoming courses of interest

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There are a couple of courses coming up that may be of interest – a Bowen course for practitioners only and a lymphatic drainage course open to both practitioners and the public.

On the 13th and 14th of April, Glenn Stammers and Derrick Edmunds will be running practitioner days for Bowen therapists. I’ve done courses with both gents before and found them to be both thoroughly enjoyable and also really useful in terms of development. And to top it off they are both great, friendly guys. The course will be at Blacktown and is $165 per day. You can contact Glenn on glenn@internode.on.net .

The other course is the 20th and 21st of April at the Endeavour College of Natural Health Sydney Campus at Railway Square (right at Central Station on George Street). It’s a two day lymphatic drainage course that can be used for CPE/CEU points for some associations. While predominantly aimed at practitioners of bodywork or health (thus the CPE points) to teach the basics of lymphatic drainage and the lymphatic system, it is also possible for people outside of health professions to attend. It would be useful for those with a loved one who suffers with a lymphatic insufficiency. In the last course I had a lovely young woman learning so that she could help her grandma. She picked things up surprisingly well for someone with no anatomical knowledge or bodywork experience, so I’m pretty confident that others can too. The course is $350 for the two days and can be checked out or booked at http://www.endeavourshortcourses.edu.au/course/lymphatic-drainage .

I hope to see some of you at one of these great courses.

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary Health

Jog your memory

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Dementia and Alzheimer’s are a huge problem in Australia and around the world. That is why I’m proud to sponsor the Alzheimer’s Australia Memory Walk & Jog, scheduled for Sydney on May 5th (with The Hunter on September 8th and the Illawarra on October 13th) to help raise funds. Funds will go to support carers, those with this disease, and into awareness programmes.

According to Alzheimer’s Australia there are 320, 000 Australians living with dementia and it is currently the third biggest cause of death. I’ve known people touched by this and I’m sure most of you do too. Alzheimer’s isn’t just for the elderly either – it can strike as early as your 30s, while you are still raising a family and building a career.

You can help protect yourself by keeping physically and mentally active and maintaining a good diet low in sugar and by eating plenty of good oils such as fish and seeds and nuts.

For more information on Alzheimer’s and Dementia go to Alzheimer’s Australia and for more information or to register for the event go to this page for the Memory Walk & Jog.

Are you looking to detox?

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It’s that time of year when people start to think about detoxing. Summer is drawing to its close and the barbecues and parties are slowing down. We’ve had the Sydney Festival and Mardi Gras is almost done. So, enough of the alcohol and food, you say? Well, as well as the usual detoxification of cutting back on alcohol, sugars and fats, it may also be worth your while considering some lymphatic drainage as an adjunct therapy.

The lymphatics are not very well known to your average Joe but are essential in recycling proteins in your body and removing rubbish from your system. The lymphatics pick up cellular wastes, dead cells of all kinds and any pathogens (bacteria, viruses and fungi) that get into your body and carry them back for treating. Pathogens are taken care of by various white blood cells and your liver breaks down and processes various compounds while your kidneys help expel them from you.

A treatment or two during a detox can help to assist the process by manually stimulating the fluid containing the wastes back up to the blood. Be warned that you may find yourself peeing more than normal, having some skin outbreaks or in rarer circumstances, even feeling a bit sick afterwards.

In fact, this is also excellent after you’ve recovered (well and truly) from things such as heavy ‘flu’s or glandular fever. You musn’t arrange a treatment too soon afterwards as, if the bacteria or virus is still active, it can spread the infection in you and make you quite ill.

A full body treatment takes around 90 minutes (more if you’re really big or tall) but treatment can be tailored to fit an hour if you’re time poor as many of my patients are.

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary Health

Good luck to all in the Huski Tri

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Good luck to all my patients doing the Huskisson Triathlon this weekend. I hope you all thoroughly enjoy yourselves. I’ll take the opportunity to throw in a few reminders about doing endurance events.

Firstly, don’t try anything new on the day! Eat similar foods and follow similar routines to your training. Don’t use a different sports drink or gel to what you have used in the past. Don’t eat a wildly different meal the night before. And don’t decide that now is the time to try barefoot running for the first time. Stick with warm-ups and stretches you have previously tried and stick with your plan and pace.

Make sure you eat at the end! Even if you don’t feel like eating, get something into you. A smoothie or something easily digestible is a good start. You must replenish your muscle glycogen and give the body protein for repair. I’ve seen a few people after these events continue to lose weight for a week or so afterwards as their body catabolises muscle. Eating in the half hour or so afterwards will help reduce this.

Time your massage or other therapy. Many people leave it a little too late to get a massage before the event and risk being left sore for the start. Plan a massage halfway through your taper week to give recovery time. Be careful with massage afterwards too as if you have any bruising, it can be exacerbated by massage too soon. It’s a good idea to wait a day or so. You can use Bowen therapy at any time as it’s non-inflammatory, but remember that it can take a few days for its full effect, so if using it as a pre-event loosener, it can be best to have it up to a week prior.

And always remember to have fun.

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary health

Polishing off with the piriformis

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The last mention of bum muscles for a while will be the piriformis. I see a fair few problems relating to this one muscle, and the end result is often sciatica. That’s an inflammation or irritation of the sciatic nerve that can come from the spinal outlets but also from direct pressure from a tight piriformis.

The piriformis attaches at the anterior surface (the inside) of your sacrum and the greater trochanter (the lump on the outside of your hip) of the femur. It essentially externally rotates the hip (turns your foot out) but also abducts your femur when your hip is bent.

Problems arise when the muscle becomes too tight. This can often be from poor habits that we get into, such as walking or standing with the toes pointing out. Be aware when doing exercises such as squats that the feet should point roughly forward and not be in a Charlie Chaplin stance. Tension in the piriformis can cause the belly of the muscle to put pressure on the sciatic nerve, which is quite thick.

In a small percentage of people, the sciatic nerve can actually pass through the piriformis muscle, heightening sciatic pain. It is important to also build the gluteus maximus to take pressure of the deeper muscles of the buttocks. Bowen Therapy or remedial massage should aid in reducing tension that is present.

And gluteus medius

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The last post on the gluteus maximus naturally gives way to talking about the other muscles of the area. Today I’ll discuss the gluteus medius. This muscle sits underneath the gluteus maximus, attaching at one end to the ilium of the pelvis and at the other to the greater trochanter of the femur – that’s the knobbly bit you can feel when you stick your hip out to one side.

This muscle isn’t used for standing in the same way that gluteus maximus is. This one is essential for walking. It, together with the gluteus minimus and the tensor fascia latae, supports the body upright when one foot is raised from the ground. Essentially, it stops you from falling over to one side when walking. The action of the muscle is to abduct the femur – that is, take the thigh away from the midline of the body. It also turns the knee inwards (internal rotation) when the hip is flexed (knee raised in front) and turns the knee outward (external rotation) when the hip is extended (leg behind you).

The test for this is to get a patient standing level and then ask them to raise one leg slowly. If the opposite hip drops, it suggests a weak or impeded gluteus medius. Another sign that can be observed is the tendency to scuff the inside of the shoes. A weakness in the medius can lead to the inside of the feet rubbing past each other when walking.

But never fear, it’s not the end of the world. If your muscle is in spasm, Bowen therapy or remedial massage can help. If the muscle is weak, then good old clams can help to strengthen it. Lying on the floor on your side with the knees bent slightly in front of you, slowly raise the topmost knee in the air while keeping the ankles together and then close. It looks kind of like a mollusc opening and closing it’s shell. Of course, you really need to get this checked professionally and not do a Google Doctor on yourself!

 

Michael Alcott – Sydney Complementary Health