Part of the "Myth Busting" series

Sit up straight?#

Everyone knows what good posture is, right? When you're sitting in a chair you have a neutral pelvis, a straight back, shoulders back and chin tucked in. You brace your core. You NEVER cross your legs. You have your arms and elbows at 90 degrees to your chest. Ta da! That's it. Perfect posture. Now you just need monitor at eye height and a yoga ball or a special orthopaedic chair to sit on so you can hold that posture. All day.

After all, bad posture is the main cause of back pain, isn't it? Sitting slouched in a chair with your shoulders slumped forward causes muscle imbalances, and muscle imbalances cause pain - right?

Part of the "Myth Busting" series

Sometimes as chiropractors we can be so lazy. Especially in how we explain things to patients. We say things like:

• Your spine is out of alignment
• Your back is too flat/curved
• Your neck is stuck
• Your hip is out
• Your pelvis is tilted
• One leg is longer than the other
• Your arches have collapsed
• Your disc has slipped (see a previous post for a big rant on this one!)

If you haven't noticed already from my blog posts, I'm really interested in pain! And in September 2021 I had the fantastic opportunity to take part in the first ever public health campaign in the UK to focus solely on persistent pain.

The Flippin' Pain campaign seeks to engage, empower and educate the public on the true nature of persistent pain, by changing how we think about, talk about and treat pain. For a whole week we travelled around Lincolnshire talking to the public and to healthcare professionals and conducting our own research. The event itself had 3 aspects:

Part of the "Myth Busting" series

We've talked before on my Facebook page about how discs don't really slip. But there's some exciting new research with even more good news for discs!

Disc bulges can re-absorb (resorb). That means the bulge can suck itself back in. Spontaneously. With no surgery or treatment necessary.

Part of the "Myth Busting" series

Welcome to the start of a new series here at the Flourish blog. We'll be busting some commonly assumed truths, general ignorance and persistent myths about a range of health and wellness topics. Up first - discs!

The intervertebral discs sit between the bones of the spine. They're composed of a gel-like material (in the picture below this is called the nucleus pulposus) surrounded by a mesh of fibres (the annulus fibrosus). Whenever there's any movement through the spine, the discs act like little shock-absorbers, to dissipate the force and protect the bones of the spine from any impact.

All the techniques described below are demonstrated on my Facebook live video about this topic.

Knee pain is relatively common in the UK and the good news is that it's often very easy to treat! Here are my top tips for knee pain.

1 - Hands on!#

The most common form of knee pain is muscular, that is, pain caused by tightness, tension or weakness in the muscles of the knee. In 90% of cases it's the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) muscle which is the culprit, so here's what you can do to help:

Ouch!#

If you're a bit squeamish you might want to skip this paragraph, because earlier this week I managed to slice into my thumb with a chopping knife while I was preparing dinner. The cut is reasonably deep and it bled quite a lot, but happily it is now healing nicely, even though it looks like a bit of a Franken-finger.

But it got me thinking about the healing process and how amazing it is. Specifically, it reminded me of a big debate that happened in the Sports Science arena several years ago on the best way to treat acute sporting injuries. Until then, the standard treatment had been known by the acronym RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. All of these actions were specifically targeted at reducing inflammation.

Part of the "What is...?" series

We commonly associate whiplash injuries with car accidents or collisions, but whiplash can occur any time your head moves suddenly, such as a fall where the head is jolted backwards, or as an sporting injury in a contact sport like rugby.

Unlike more serious injuries, like a fracture, the pain of whiplash may not develop for a day or two after the initial injury. But the pain that develops from it can be debilitating, because it often causes severe stiffness, spasms, neck pain and headaches.

Part of the "What is...?" series

Osteoporosis is often known as the "bone thinning" disease that strikes in old age - but is this an accurate description? And is it an inevitable problem in old age or are there steps for you to take right now that will make a difference?

Osteoporosis is not a painful condition, but it does make bone fracture more likely. If a bone fracture occurs in a major bone (like the hip) in an elderly or vulnerable patient then this can lead to complications. The most serious of these is blood clots, which can go on to cause heart attacks, strokes and pulmonary embolism.

Part of the "What is...?" series

In a previous blog post, we talked about the two different types of arthritis - osteoarthritis and inflammatory arthropathies (a.k.a. rheumatic diseases). This post will concentrate on inflammatory arthropathies, the most common of which is rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

RA is a type of autoimmune disease - the immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of the joints, thinking it is a foreign substance. This causes the joint to become red, hot, swollen and stiff. The symptoms are particularly worse if you've been sleeping or had a period of inactivity. You can also get "flare-ups" where the symptoms become particularly severe. It often runs in families, and is more common in women and in the over 50s. It can sometimes have effects in other areas of the body, such as the eyes, heart and lungs. It's also common to get other symptoms like fatigue and poor appetite. No-one knows why the immune system starts to behave this way, and the only known risk factor is smoking.