We have had a great couple of weeks here at the practice, from one of our superstar patients telling us she has her ‘old self’ back again to one little boy sleeping through the night finally. We met the mayor in town on Saturday at our new posture screen stall at Peach place and were happy to check him over and let him know what his posture said about his health!
Despite what society may require and what social media may portray, our bodies only have a finite amount of energy to distribute to all our organs, muscles, ligaments and blood vessels.
Then we add in work, exams, family, friends, financial pressure, young (or older!) children, diet and exercise, it’s a wonder that we make it through our day at all!
Not all people notice the burden that the factors mentioned above may bear on others. Why are there times (maybe all the time) where that feeling of exhaustion, demotivation and despair at how low our energy is can feel like a ball and chain around our leg preventing you from fulfilling your life in the way you would want to?
Now certain health conditions can affect energy severely and certainly lack of sleep will be a primary culprit but what if you check the box for sleep and are generally healthy? Below are some of the things you can do to improve your energy and get back to the person you were Before!
● Reduce the amount of processed sugar you’re eating:
We aren’t just talking about the obvious large bag of Maltesers that is demolished in 30 secs, lots of food items bought in-store have high levels of sugar that you may not notice, check labels and if in doubt eat foods with one ingredient.
● Sitting is the new smoking
One research study found that for every hour that healthy, active people sat it was the equivalent of 5 minutes off someone’s life! Move every hour without fail it actually extends your life!
● You will get square eyes watching that
We all know that excessive screen time can be detrimental to our health but did you know that exposure to blue light (the type on tv, phone and tablet screens, also bathroom lights) actually disturbs your sleep-wake cycle. So although you may get 8 hours the quality of sleep will be greatly reduced.
● Concrete jungle
It has been shown through scientific research that living in cities is correlated negatively with health outcomes.
● Avoid playing musical statues
You know we have talked alot about posture on this column. I am not going to go over the ‘best posture to sit in’ as there isn’t one. A great mentor of mine said ‘there is no bad posture, only the one you spend most time in!’. Add in movement snacks every couple of hours (like normal snacks but less fattening), this could be 2 mins of circles with all your joints or a set of 10 lunges, over the course of a day this all adds up.
● Get your spine and nervous system checked
If you have issues with how your spine and nervous system communicates with your brain it will cause changes in energy distribution. Think of playing the game Jenga (the tower with all the blocks), as you get further and further into the game it takes more and more effort to move a block without toppling the tower right? This is similar to the effort our brain has to put into standing up against gravity every day. The less the spine moves the more energy has to go to stabilising it and stopping it from collapsing and no amount of coffee is going to move your spinal joints again.
Here at Adapt we have various avenues for you to check out what we do and whether we would be a good fit for your healthcare needs. Either:
- You can come see us at Wokingham market on a Friday and Saturday to get your posture checked (free check, takes 4 minutes)
- Come along with a practice member of ours to our bi-weekly health talk (free class, we provide food and let you know more about what we do)
- Or book in to see us for an Assessment (50% off if you mention you heard about us from the paper)
Until the next column, get moving, get healthy by being an Adaptable human.
Dr Gareth Ward DC MChiro
