The cobra.

This is really good for all of you that sit down at a desk driving a computer all day. Sitting increases the pressure on your spinal discs and this exercise is the antedote. If you suffer sciatica then this is likely to be good for you too.

Start lying flat, face down on the floor. Lift your head first then your chest keeping your elbows in touch with the floor. Keep your shoulders down, your arms should just be supporting you gently not supporting your whole body weight. Done properly you’ll feel some work being done by your lower back muscles. Then return to the floor placing the chest down first followed by the head.

10-12 repetitions should be enough, do them slowly, remember to breathe and do them every evening after work.

For further exercise advice call to speak to the Winchester chiropractor Mark Kennedy on 01962 843242 and don’t forget when you subscribe to our newsletter The Back Page we’ll send you our ‘Exercise of the month’, Low GL recipe of the month and lots of useful health promoting advice.

Just click the link to FREE INFO on to home page to sign up!

Sounds familiar?

Everyone starts off the New Year with resolutions, but how many actually stick to them and follow them through? What is the difference between those that succeed and those that don’t? As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, many people are filled with a wonderful sense of optimism and determination to reach their goals that coming year. Sometimes this enthusiasm lasts for a couple of days, maybe even a week, or a fortnight, but then that determination begins to slip and it becomes so much easier to stick to your old habits.

Often it is the battle between willpower and our emotions that causes the ‘blockage’. In the end emotions always win over willpower and so we can find ourselves stuck.

But there are ways to consistently achieve your aims, ways to reach your goals and resolutions and then exceed them!

I use hypnotherapy with my clients as a life-changing, goal orientated therapy that produces sustained results. I provide a bespoke, professional service in a supportive and caring environment.

I use the following strategies to help my clients reach their goals and complete their resolutions:

1. Identify clearly what you truly want to achieve and keep it simple – if you over-complicate things, they will be much harder to follow!
2. The motivation needs to start with you – so make sure you identify what it is that you want to achieve – not what your partner/friend/children want. You will not be determined enough to make the changes that need to happen in your life if this motivation does not come from deep within.
3. Make your goals and resolutions realistic – do not overwhelm yourself with targets that are too big to reach – break everything down to smaller goals (short-term, mid-term and long term). Reward yourself when you reach your milestones.
4. Write positive affirmations as to why you want to reach your goal – for example – “I am losing weight to feel fit and healthy, I am stopping smoking to lead a longer, more energetic life”. It helps tremendously to focus on the positive benefits of reaching your goals and resolutions.
5. Write your resolutions and goals down, somewhere where you can view them daily. You are making a contract with yourself and this will help to reinforce your actions.
6. Spend a few moments each day visualising how you will look/feel and act when you have reached your goals and resolutions. This is an extremely powerful hypnotherapy technique and the more your sub conscious mind visualises how you will look/feel and act in the future, the quicker it will help you to get there!
7. Get support! My clients truly benefit from my ongoing support and I am fully committed to inspiring, motivating and empowering them with my hypnotherapy sessions and techniques.

Contact me at The Winchester Sports and Spine Clinic on 01962 843242 for a free ½ hour initial consultation.

By Mandy Papas, Hypnotherapist (DIP, Hyp, CP) Cert.SportsHyp (CSH)

Lose Weight, Burn Fat, Feel Great!

These are the claims made by Patrick Holford if you follow his healthy eating plan. The basic idea is that it’s the amount of sugar available to us in the form of glucose which causes our body chemistry to become unbalanced in favour of storing fat and leaving our energy boosting adrenal glands exhausted. The end result of this is weight gain and tiredness, especially after a meal and first thing in the morning when we can experience massive blood sugar lows.

The key to steadily, safely and permenantly losing weight in Holford’s opinion is to balance your blood sugar by eating the right kinds of carbohydrates. For example a whole punnet of strawberries has the same effect on your blood sugar as only half a bannana, both foods we would consider healthy but you can eat considerably more of one than you can the other without destabilising your blood sugar. In his book he describes in detail how to choose the combination of carbohydrates that will keep your blood sugar balanced and how to combine essential proteins and fats for an optimum healthy weight loss and energy boosting diet.

Look at the following check list to see whether you might benefit from changing your eating habits.

Are you:

• Tired most of the time?
• More than 7lbs over your ideal weight?
• Prone to PMS?
• Suffering from poor memory and concentration?
• Quite often low or depressed?
• Plagued by dry skin, in need of daily moisturisers?
• Having difficulty sleeping?
• Often feeling anxious or stressed?
• Prone to indigestion or bloating after food?
• Often constipated – that is, you rarely go twice a day?
• Suffering from dark circles under your eyes?

Holford says that in Britain the average person ticks seven of these boxes and that 30 days on his diet will leave you feeling lighter, leaner and more energetic. Three months of this style of eating could see you shedding 2 stone.

I have decide to give this diet a try, not so much for the weight lose component but to crack my sugar addiction and to protect myself against the western disease of the moment, diabetes. An enormous number of my mothers family died from diabetes related conditions and so I must be careful from a genetic perspective.

I would be delighted to help support you if you’d like to join me and I will certainly feedback to you all how I am doing and feeling. You can find Holford’s book on amazon.

The school year is well under way and already we are plagued by constant runny noses and chesty coughs, worm infestations, sore throats, tummy aches and chronic tiredness causing temper tantrums and general irritability and tearfulness.

This is our first experience of school and it is wonderful to watch Isabella grow and enjoy her new surroundings but as a parent, we weren’t quite prepared for all the things listed above and I have been informed by more experienced parents that this is just the beginning of many years of challenging physical symptoms and behaviour so we shall see what the future holds.

I feel very lucky that I can dip into my bag of homeopathic remedies to help ease the symptoms, so I thought I would share a few tips as most remedies and other natural products are readily available over the counter alongside the more conventional treatments.  In particular I would like to talk more about worms.

This is a very unpleasant condition which can frequently occur in young children causing symptoms including: itchy bottom, threadworms in the stools and around the anus and sometimes, mild colicky pain, irritability and being unsettled.  If there is an outbreak at school and you suspect you child is affected, in addition to the over the counter medication which must be taken by the whole family, good self help measures include:

• Cut down on sugar intake as the worms thrive on it.  Encourage him/her to eat as much raw fruit and veg as possible, particularly apples and carrots.
• Improve on basic hygiene at home, such as using one towel per child and encourage regular hand washing to prevent spread to other family members.
• Put Vaseline round the child’s anus at night as this will deter the worms laying their eggs.
• Consider treating other children in the family preventatively (or in the case of a school outbreak) with homeopathic remedies.

The main homeopathic remedy in the treatment of active worms is Cina (wormseed) and should be the first one to consider particularly if your child is bad tempered and extremely irritable.  Other indications for it include an itchy sore bottom, increased hunger, teeth grinding at night and nose picking.  Give the remedy in the 6 or 30c potency three times a day for up to a week and repeat if necessary with re-infection.  This can also be the preventative treatment for siblings.

Nat phos tissue salts (available in health food shops) can help to alter the acidity of the gut, rendering it unfavourable for threadworms.  These can be given morning and evening for up to a month alongside other treatments.

Silica is a very useful constitutional remedy to consider if the worms keep returning after treatment but at this point it would be wise to book your child in for a full homeopathic assessment where a remedy will be selected specifically for your child.  Their current symptoms, along with their general constitution, emotional state etc will be taken into consideration.  I believe that Homeopathic remedies will gently lift the child’s immune system to another level and bring about physical and emotional health.

My clinic days are Tuesday Wednesday and Saturday.  Please don’t hesitate to call first if you are not sure or would like to ask any questions.

Special offer:  Book your child in for an initial consultation and get two free follow-up appointments included in the price (to be used by the end of January).

Mel Owen-Browne BScRSHom

Chiropractor and dance instructor Francesca Wuytack came from Belgium to the UK to study chiropractic after being so impressed with the care she had received for a back injury sustained through her dancing. This summer she graduated from the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic top of her class with the award of highest academic performance.

In addition Francesca was one of 24 runners up (out of 1200 entries) in the 2011 British Council’s International Student Awards; SHINE. This competition celebrates the achievements of international students and the contributions they make to life in the UK.

This month Francesca takes up a position as associate chiropractor at Winchester Sports and Spine, Orams Arbor where she will pursue her particular interest in the care of children and pregnant mothers. She will combine practice life with study for her PhD. in pregnancy and peadiatric care.

Francesca says, “Naturally, I delight in treating adults of all ages too, I absolutely love what I do, striving to deliver the highest standards of care to all my patients. Apart from the dancing that I can thankfully still enjoy now; in my spare time I can often be found enjoying the countryside, riding my bicycle, cooking and generally enjoying everything that Winchester has to offer!”

Mel owen-Browne

Spring is here!! Finally, the daffodils have come up and I have released my two little girls from the dreaded buggy and coats so that they may feel a little happiness and freedom again.  Feeling trapped has got to be a horrible feeling for an 18 month old who still hasn’t spoken her first word so it is lovely to allow her to roam and take her time along the pavements and literally stop to smell the flowers.  She is positively glowing with excitement and it’s a joy to see.

For us mums though, shaking off the winter blues can be hard, particularly after a bad night or at the end of a long day with the kids.  Our energy might still be low and we might be feeling just generally out of sorts and not as healthy as we would like. A good constitutional Homeopathic remedy can sometimes make all the difference and help us to be our best selves again, feeling balanced, positive and at peace with the world. A full consultation will look at all aspects of your health, including not only all your physical symptoms, but also your emotional life, stress levels, anxieties, dreams and sleep patterns.  A remedy chosen specifically for you should kick start the process back to the health and happiness you deserve.  As mums, we give out so much to the little people and a lot less to ourselves.  It’s Mother’s Day this month so treat yourself to something that will make you feel much better.  If you are not sure about Homeopathy as an option, I am offering 15 minute free assessments to help you decide if it might be for you.

In the meantime, take a leaf out of my little girl’s book… walk very slowly and admire the natural beauty around you, say NO to anything you really don’t want to do and take a nice long afternoon nap when you can.  I hope to see you soon.

Today the Daily Mail reported on the fashion concious males latest trend, the man-bag. These are satchels and messenger bags worn over the shoulder which can apparently weigh on average almost a stone (the equivalent to a dozen bags of sugar). Carrying laptops, mp3 players, phones and gym kit these bags can cause back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and poor posture. It is certainly a good idea to alternate the shoulder upon which the bag is carried and keeping the strap short to bring the weight closer to your centre of gravity will also help.

Winchester chiropractor Mark Kennedy says, “popular figures in sport and the media like David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand and Brad Pitt are all deveotees of the man-bag and top designers such as Louis Vuitton have designed special bags for devices like ipads which are sure to become the must have accessory for the well heeled tech enthusiast”.

Let’s just hope Beckham and his ilk don’t take to wearing high heels, the man-bag seems to be here to stay but surely there are limits to these chaps metrosexuality.

Over done the turkey and mince pies? Maybe one too many glasses of wine ?

Now there is a natural solution to treating the excesses of Christmas and New Year with the UltraClear and the UltraClear Plus 10 day Express Program range from Nutri.

Winchester chiropractor Mark Kennedy will show you how to use these products to best advantage helping you get that healthy glow and feeling of vitality that you’ll love.

UltraClear products are naturally pure, patented supplements for overall metabolic clearing and the removal of potentially harmful toxins which can be associated with certain serious (and not so serious) health conditions.

Who would benefit from taking UltraClear?

Anyone who’s been consuming excess alcohol or caffeine, breathing in cigarette smoke and eating a diet high in refined sugar and processed foods. And who hasn’t been doing some of that in the last few weeks? Doing these things can result in symptoms many people recognise:

• Fatigue
• Poor skin and hair
• Dark circles under the eyes
• Indigestion
• Hormone imbalances
• Headaches and painful muscles and joints

It is virtually impossible to avoid all toxin exposure.

It would be nice to think that by eating a healthy diet, avoiding smoky atmospheres and excess alcohol, your liver will be well looked after and help you remove toxins effectively but unfortunately it’s not that easy. Unavoidable toxins affect most people’s everyday life at some point – often in the form of;

• Pollution
• Pesticides and agro-chemicals
• Household detergents/cleaning agents
• Cosmetics and toiletries
• Stress
• Food additives
• Medicines (Ibuprofen/paracetamol)
• Textiles and soft furnishings

Since it is impossible to avoid all these things it is a good idea for everyone to give their liver the nutrients it needs to harmlessly and effectively clear out the toxins that have built up.

So if you are facing the New Year feeling tired and emotional instead of full of joy and vigour then why not ask us about the UltraClear program, you’ll love the way it makes you feel in just 10 days!

A 10 day UltraClear plus programme of nutrition retails at £48.00, Call before the end of January and we will pay the VAT for you. That’s 20% OFF! making your health investment just £38.40.

Call 01962 843242 before 31st January 2011, book your appointment and get your 2011 off to a healthy start.

With an interesting irony our 3000th patient is (drum roll) Miss Zoe Bean, who being only one week and one day old when her mother brought her to the clinic for her first appointment will have to wait 18 years before she can toast her good fortune. Still, it is a bonus for her proud parents and we are sure that Zoe will not begrudge mum a relaxing massage or reflexology session after her work of the past 9 months.

Thank you to everyone who has referred friends and family to Winchester Sports & Spine this year, your support is so important to us and although you didn’t win the champagne remember that we do reward everybody who refers a patient to the clinic with 20% off vouchers to be used at their next appointment.

Have a Merry Christmas  and don’t forget that gift vouchers for massage, reflexology and Indian head massage are available from clinic reception for those difficult to buy for loved ones. 01962 843242

Mark Kennedy