london osteopath w1 n2 n10 suggests paracetemol may not help back pain Are you taking paracetamols to try and manage your back pain? If you are then you this may not be the best course of action according to the findings of a group of Australian researchers.

The group reviewed 13 clinical trials to investigate the efficacy and safety of paracetamol (acetaminophen) in the management of spinal pain and osteoarthritis of the hip or knee and their results were published in the British Medical Journal.

Their findings said that Paracetamol did not reduce disability or improve quality of life. Disturbingly they warned that Paracetamol increased the odds of liver problems.

Drug free treatment for back pain

Medications such as paracetamol are designed to target pain by using blood flow to deliver the drug to the problem site. However, often the true cause of the pain may not be at the site of pain and in these instances drugs such as paracetamol will not be effective.

Pain should be considered as a warning that should be investigated. Osteopathy offers a safe and drug free approach to treating back pain.

As an experienced osteopath in London I aim to work with patients to address their presenting symptoms and understand causative factors to promote on-going health. I will always seek to establish the cause of your pain, whether it is localised or due to some problem elsewhere. My overriding aim as an osteopath is to heal your body as a whole.

With over 20 years’ experience as a London osteopath offering allied therapies I offer safe, gentle effective treatment for a wide range of patients and conditions. I have worked with patients suffering many different types of symptoms including:

  • Joint, neck, muscle and back pain, both chronic and acute
  • Whiplash injuries
  • Spinal curvature

What some of my patients and referrers say

Robin Kiashek is my ‘go-to’ osteopath for my complex patients with neck and back problems.” Dr Paul Jarman Consultant Neurologist, London

Robin takes time to understand the cause of the condition and is totally focussed on sorting out the problem. “ 2015 Patient Survey

I have been a patient of Robin Kiashek and also referred many of my patients. The consensus of all of us is that he has been a committed, thoughtful and wise osteopath. Dr Michael Gormley, General Practitioner, London

“After lots of doctors diagnosis, Robin was the first person to properly help reduce the pain. “ 2015 Patient Survey

I feel so much better and I no longer have pain or discomfort. “ Sara

Visit an experienced London Osteopath in W1 and N2 N10

If you are suffering pain or discomfort and you would like further information on how I may help you or to book an Osteopathy appointment at either of my osteopathy clinics in London W1 and London N2 N10 please feel free to send me a message or call me on 020 8815 0979.

As with other medical professionals, osteopaths are regulated. This gives you the peace of mind that the osteopath that you are seeing is well qualified and will conform to a rigorous set of clinical standards to ensure your safety and to ensure that you receive the most appropriate treatment for your condition.

To become an osteopath, requires completing a specialised degree programme, usually taking 4 to 5 years. This includes over 1000 hours of supervised clinical practice. Only then can a practitioner apply to be registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) and call themselves an osteopath.

The GOsC maintains strict standards including the requirement for osteopaths to undertake a minimum of 30 hours of professional development each year. The GOsC will remove osteopaths from the register if they fail to meet a strict code of professional practice.

You can check that an osteopath is registered on the GOsC website.

Visit an experienced London Osteopath in W1 and N2 N10

If you are suffering pain or discomfort and you would like further information on how I may help you or to book an Osteopathy appointment at either of my osteopathy clinics in London W1 and London N2 N10 please feel free to send me a message or call me on 020 8815 0979.

neuroplasticityThe Brains Way Of HealingWe have been taught that the brain cannot be healed. Brain “damage” is permanent. Neurological problems such as Parkinsons are incurable. But what if we are wrong?

Norman Doidge is a distinguished scientist, a medical doctor and a psychiatrist. He is also an author. He wrote The Brain That Changes Itself about seven years ago and has now written The Brain’s Way of Healing.

In his latest book, he includes some remarkable stories. Such as a man in severe pain from a bad neck injury. He used visualisation techniques to teach his brain to block out the pain, forcing the “brain areas” that felt pain to “process anything but pain, to weaken his chronic brain circuits”. Over time, this process became second nature and, ultimately, curative.

Or there is John Pepper, a man diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in his 50s. John, aged 77, used trial and error and knowledge of how Parkinsons works to re-educate his body and his mind through consciously re-learning his movements and actions, starting with how to walk. He taught his mind how to think differently. In doing so, he has managed to reverse all the symptoms of Parkinsons that he was experiencing.

Doidge refers to this technique as Neuroplasticity. In simple terms, it starts with the belief that the brain CAN change and heal. Therefore, through training and “interventions” the brain can become “plastic” and produce different, better, results.

We already know that London taxi drivers’ brains are changed by studying routes through London. So why not harness this power to help cure or alleviate problems such as MS or autism. Over a number of years, much to the surprise of his doctors, David Webber used meditation and hand-eye exercises to cure himself of blindness caused by an autoimmune disease called uveitis.

This is a fascinating topics and most people who hear about it are hit with a mixture of awe and disbelief. Doidge himself simply says “You don’t have to believe it but you have to suspend your disbelief and just do it”.

You can read more about neuroplasticity including an interview with Normal Doidge here: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/08/norman-doidge-brain-healing-neuroplasticity-interview.

The Joy Of BeingThe Power of NowRecently I attended a retreat in Norway run and taught by Eckhart Tolle and his partner Kim Eng’s.

Widely regarded as a spiritual teacher, Eckhart’s books The Power of Now, Practicing The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks and A New Earth have inspired people around the world. While not aligned to any one particular religion or tradition, at the core of Eckhart’s teachings lies the transformation of the individual and collective human consciousness.

The retreat was attended by people from all over the world and provided an opportunity to experience the present moment and the spacious stillness within and the natural Joy of Being.  The retreat provided a great environment for experiencing the transformative powers of Eckhart’s and Kim’s teachings.

The retreat offered opportunities to attended daily teachings, Q&A sessions, guided meditations, movement practices and periods of silence.

I found the retreat to be a unique and uplifting experience.

In 1874, in Kirksville Missouri, Andrew Taylor Still, himself a surgeon and also the son of a surgeon, became disillusioned by the medical profession. He recognised that, at that time, medical treatments were largely ineffective and he sought a better solution. His goal was to “restore the body to optimum health with minimal surgery and medicine” and he discovered that, in order to achieve this, all parts of the body needed to work together harmoniously. Stall named his new practice “osteopathy” based on his principle that the bone (osteon) was the starting point for optimum health.

Still established a reputation as an effective practitioner and people travelled from all over America to be treated by him. In 1892, Still established the American School of Osteopathy with his first group of 22 students.

An early student of Still’s was J Martin Littlejohn. Littlejohn established the Chicago College of Osteopathy in 1900 and then came to Britain and helped found the British School of Osteopathy in 1917. Before that, all osteopaths in Britain had been trained in America.

Osteopathy grew in popularity in the UK from around 200 practitioners in the 1940s to around 5000 practitioners today.

In 1993, the Osteopaths Bill was passed by parliament, giving statutory recognition to the title of osteopath and also implementing a rigorous qualification process. All osteopaths are now listed on the Register of the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC).

Visit an experienced London Osteopath in W1 and N2 N10

If you are suffering pain or discomfort and you would like further information on how I may help you or to book an Osteopathy appointment at either of my osteopathy clinics in London W1 and London N2 N10 please feel free to send me a message or call me on 020 8815 0979.

london osteopath w1 n2 n10Four out of five people suffer from back pain at some time in their lives and as many as one in two will experience back pain in any one year. It is one of the most common problems that people experience. The Backcare charity estimates that 5.6 million working days are lost each year due to back pain. It’s a big problem.

Back pain is a general term that encompasses a number of different conditions. As a London osteopath I frequently see patients with the following problems:

Acute back pain

Acute back pain is pain that affects the back and has lasted for less than six weeks. It can be caused by a strain or sprain of the structures that make up the back (muscles, ligaments, joints, etc) or it can be caused by damage to the discs.

Chronic back pain

Chronic back pain simply lasts for longer than acute back pain. Typically, for over 12 weeks. Wear and tear to the back (eg as osteoarthritis) can cause chronic back pain.

Disc problems

Common disc-related problems that cause back pain include degenerative disc disease, ruptured (or ‘slipped’) disc and sciatica (a nerve pain).

Mechanical back pain

Mechanical back pain is where the source of the problem is in the spine or its supporting structure (spinal joints, discs, vertebrae or related tissues).

Sciatica

Sciatica is pain caused by compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve, the longest nerve in your body, it runs from the back of your pelvis to your feet.

Ankylosing spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis is a long-term condition. It can develop slowly over time and presents as the spine (and other areas of the body) becoming inflamed.

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a condition that affects your joints. It is the most common form of arthritis and it can be disabling and painful and is a common cause of back pain.

Visit an experienced London Osteopath in W1 and N2 N10

If you are suffering pain or discomfort and you would like further information on how I may help you or to book an Osteopathy appointment at either of my osteopathy clinics in London W1 and London N2 N10 please feel free to send me a message or call me on 020 8815 0979.

walking alongside the river thames in londonA recent study by Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University into the physical effects of the brain when interacting with nature has concluded that, a walk in the park or within a tranquil environment can improve your mental health and give walkers a more positive mindset. This is great news for Londoners, who live in an urban environment, but have access to the Thames River walk and nice open green spaces such as the Royal Parks or areas such as Battersea Park or Greenwich.

The study has proven that walkers in greener nature areas reduced stress and had a more positive mental state after the walk, compared to the sample walkers who walked for the same amount of time on streets and in busy, build-up areas.

As an Osteopath in Central London and with an Osteopathy clinic in North London, I think that there’s a real connection between exercise, environment and health and have experienced more positive, less brooding thoughts myself, after a nice walk in one of the Royal parks centrally or Muswell Hill playing fields, close to my North London Osteopathy clinic.

If you’re a Londoner, why not try it out for yourself? Make an honest appraisal of how you feel mentally on a scale of one to ten and then go for a 90 minute walk in the park or along the Thames Path and then honestly apprise yourself afterwards, using the same scale and whatever criteria you feel you can identify and compare.

There are lots of green areas in most parts of London that you can walk around to access this kind of mental health benefit. As already mentioned, the Thames River Walk along the River Path is a good place to start, as it’s the most walked path in the County.

It extends from the Thames’ source at Thames Head in the Cotswolds, which is obviously a long way from London, through beautiful countryside in the Thames valley Oxford, Henley, Windsor and Greenwich to end at the Thames Barrier near Woolwich. If that sounds a bit advanced for you, even though you can just walk parts of it at any time, then head to one of the parks and open spaces in and around the Capital, such as Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park or the parks in central London, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park or St James’s Park.

Another great and relaxing walk is to combine one of the open spaces with a canal walk, such as Regents Park and Regents Canal, Thames Path and Battersea Park, or Regents Canal and the Thames Path. All of these London walks offer greenery, scenery and tranquillity.

You can get a free leaflet on the Thames Path walks from Transport for London or at any Tourist information centre in the Capital. Information of the parks is also available, including routes and walking trails that will allow you to grab some stress-free walking and enable you to charge your mind, body and spirit with some positivity.

There is also a lot of really good information online, especially at http://www.innerlondonramblers.org.uk, which is a website dedicated to walking in and around London. It contains lots of healthy walking ideas, many of which are based in greener settings, rather than the urban sprawl.

Even if you don’t feel any tangible and immediate mental benefits from a 90 minute walk in a park or along the Thames or a canal, you’ll gain physical benefits and easily achieve the recommended levels of daily exercise, as advised by the World Health Organisation.

As an osteopath with clinics in Central London and North London, I’m always interested in people’s perceptions and attitudes towards, diet, exercise, environment, medicines, remedies and treatments, as these are fundamental elements of an individual’s take on health and fitness.

As I’ve said on many occasions, a good level of education and knowledge about these sorts of topics is generally not very common, with a lack of easy to understand information available to all. The AsapScience YouTube video below makes some very valid points about aspects of this general lack of understanding.

A couple of minutes into the presentation, it talks about perceptions of Natural versus Synthetic and explains why the difference between the two is not all that cut and dried. Natural chemicals aren’t always good for you and man made chemicals aren’t always inherently dangerous. This is especially prevalent when looking at the whole area of food and GM crops. Are fears about GM foods justified? After all, for as long as humans have been on the planet, we have selectively chosen and bred plants or animals with desirable traits, such as sweeter fruits or better disease resistance. Isn’t that genetically modifying foods?

Information and misinformation about GM and the entire natural versus chemical comparison does, in my opinion, need to be put into perspective. Not all natural foods are good for you and not all chemically enhanced foods are bad for you. This isn’t just a case of one man’s meat is another man’s poison; this is all about balance and perspective. Watch the video and see what you think.