Health Blog

One of our most necessary emotions is laughter, as without it life would be a long, hard, miserable road. In the brain, laughter releases the hormones of happiness called ‘endorphins’. These increase your desire to live which actually helps you heal. Life is worth living when there’s room for humour. Often it takes a conscious [...]

At any age, prevention is better than cure. It is always worthwhile to keep the pelvis and lower spine in good ‘running order’ so no undue pressure is exerted on the circulatory system to and from the legs. As you become older, lymphatic drainage is important along with exercise and adequate rest for the legs. [...]

The disc between each vertebra is there to act as a shock absorber as we bounce along. It’s there to separate the spinal bones so that they don’t rub and wear. When we don’t correct spinal sprains, we allow the discs to wear unevenly and, over time, degeneration of the spine occurs. A direct injury [...]

This can have many causes, the most common of which is a pelvic sprain, requiring ice. Another cause is an irritated (commonly termed pinched) nerve which causes spasms of the muscles and requires heat. Knowing the difference is the chiropractor’s work. The sooner you have your back adjusted the better. If a child has backache, [...]

Usually, this is the result of an uncorrected shoulder injury. The tendon in the front of the shoulder has rolled out of its groove when the fascia is torn. We are talking here about a very neglected injury. It takes years for a shoulder to get into such a state. Because the injury was not [...]

As with all the auto-immune illnesses, high doses of steroid usually sort out the problem very quickly indeed; the pain goes, the ESR drops, the headaches disappear and the risk of blindness vanishes. The good news is that the response is speedy: the bad news is that you may need to take steroids for a [...]

The prevention of head injury and brain haemorrhage is simple, but often neglected. If you are given head protection in your job, or for driving a motorcycle or pushbike, then me it – it’s not macho to do without. Motorbike helmets are deceptive – they are very effective in reducing head injury, but they rapidly [...]

Classical migraine is common migraine plus an aura. The most frequent type of aura is disturbance of vision – blurring of vision, flashing lights in front of the eyes, moving zig-zag lines, distortions of vision or blank spots in the field of view. Other aura symptoms include tingling or numbness in fingers, lips or tongue, [...]

For most febrile illnesses, paracetamol and/or aspirin, fluids, and bed rest are all that is needed. Don’t worry if the patient doesn’t eat for a few days; it doesn’t matter. Even in small children a period of up to a week without food is unlikely to cause any problems; after all, that’s what fat stores [...]

Cluster headache is a one-sided pain centred on one eye. As well as pain there is redness of the affected eye with weeping, a running or stuffed-up nose, sweating of the face and forehead, and sometimes a drooping eyelid with-a constricted pupil on the affected side. The headache lasts for between fifteen minutes and three [...]