Category: Rehabilitation

4 rehab tools every home should have

10/4/2017

Over the years I have been in practice, I have seen that a little bit of effort at home can make the world of difference when it comes to overcoming an injury or getting rid of aches and pains. As part of the way I practice, I give people exercises, stretches and soft tissue work to do at home. I would say in almost 100% of cases, people that put the effort in to do their ‘homework’, will get much better results than those people that don’t do it. Even if you don’t have a ‘problem’, a little bit of self-maintenance can make dramatic changes in the way you feel and function. There are heaps of tools and devices you can use to do these exercises. In this post I wanted to discuss 4 key rehab tools I think every home should have.

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New Research: Paracetamol is no better than placebo for acute low back pain!

11/9/2014

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If you are unfortunate enough to develop acute back pain, what do you do first to help ease the discomfort? Do you grab some pain relief? Do you ice it? Do you do some stretches? Or do you go to your chiropractor for an assessment? There are lots of options!

If you are a person who regularly takes paracetamol for back pain, you may not be getting the results you want according to some new research that was published recently in The Lancet. This research was the first large randomised trial to compare the effectiveness of paracetamol with placebo for low back pain, they found that paracetamol is no better than placebo at speeding recovery from acute episodes of lower back pain or improving pain levels, function, sleep or quality of life. The findings question the universal endorsement of paracetamol as the first choice painkiller for low-back pain, say the authors. Continue reading to find out more about the research and a different, natural approach to back pain.

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What is Sciatica?

21/8/2014

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People often think that any pain in the leg, whether it is in the front, back or side, is called 'sciatica'. However, this is not the case. Sciatica is defined as pain or discomfort associated with the sciatic nerve which runs from the lower back, down the back of the legs to the feet. It is estimated that up to 40% of the New Zealand population will experience sciatica at some point in their lives.

To fully understand Sciatica, you first need to know what the sciatic nerve is. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body and is actually composed of two nerves, the common fibular (or peroneal) nerve and the Tibial nerve. These nerves are originally formed from 5 different nerve roots in the lower lumbar spine and pelvis. These nerves join together then run down the back of the thigh to knee level where they split and one travels down the front of the lower leg and one travels down the back of the lower leg.

Lets look a bit deeper and see how sciatica occurs, how you diagnose it and most importantly, how to fix it.

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What could be making your back pain worse? And a possible solution!

10/8/2014

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Repeated cycles of lumbar hinging (flexing of the lower back) has been shown to be the quickest way to herniate a disc in the lower back. The research shows that the injury to the disc occurs from the inside out. So how does this occur? In order to understand this you first need to know how the intervertebral discs are structured.

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