Sitting on the Job

The seated workplace is the number one workplace in the world these days which caters for some pretty high profile jobs which demand long hours, bring a lot of stress and high salaries.

However is all that money worth the back/and or neck pain that comes with it?

In this article I am going to talk to you about how the seated workplace contributes to headaches, neck pain, back pain, eye fatigue and how you can overcome them with some simple solutions.

The poor workstation and its effect on pain

This is not rocket science, we all know that the work station is really important to be correct for your ergonomics such as the screen height and position, keyboard height, seat height etc… However is it always correct? No!

Many companies fail to even acknowledge the basics when it comes to correct ergonomics. I have seen it with clients that come to me with the issues I am about to discuss.

If your computer screen is too low and off centre this will require constant neck flexion and rotation leading to a lot of discomfort and overload to those muscles and structures. When muscles are under constant strain, as seen in Forward Head Posture (where the head migrates forward from its anatomical position), the muscles in the cervical spine (neck) will lose blood flow and trigger points will develop. Travell and Simons who are experts in Trigger Points define them as:

“A focus of hyperirritability in tissue that, when compressed, is locally tender and, if significantly hypersensitive, gives rise to referred pain”.

Trigger Points can be mistaken for headaches, back pain, neck tension and even migraine!!

 

 How do you eliminate Trigger Points?

As well as designing corrective exercise programs for back pain sufferers, I use soft tissue techniques like Neuromuscular Therapy and Sports Massage Therapy to locate and deactivate trigger points with my hands.

Vision and the Workplace

Our eyes are not designed to stare which is another habit we develop when sitting on the job or even watching TV!! Most people look at a screen all day, go home and then watch TV for the rest of the evening!

Our eyes are designed to look around; I use software on my computer which allows the screen to move, avoiding long periods of staring when using the computer and even writing this article.

William Bates, a Medical Doctor who practiced ophthalmology and developed what became known as the Bates Method for better eyesight, an educational method intended to improve vision by undoing a supposed habitual strain to see.

He taught exercises to correct vision as the muscles around the eye can become weak as a result of staring. This means when we wear glasses or contact lenses we are just correcting the symptoms and not the cause of why we have bad eyes in the first place!!

Remember that when you are forking out a load of cash on multiple sets of glasses from the Opticians, who do you think is benefitting there??

After talking with Owen Leigh, a Behavioral Optometrist based in Hampshire who practices these techniques, told me that the exercises can not restore 20/20 vision (if you have eye sight as bad as mine) but can greatly improve your visual system. I think this should be assessed and addressed first by someone like Owen prior to having any form of corrective laser surgery.

If you sit at a desk all day, try these simple solutions first

• Set an alarm by your workstation to go off every 15 minutes to remind you to sit up straight.
• Pay attention to your breathing, taking some deep long breath’s automatically brings the head back and up.
  So when the alarm goes off, you can take four long deep breaths. Your posture is then re-adjusted for the next few minutes.
• Blink!!
• And if you are an expert try to blink three times while breathing in and out….. etc
• Take regular breaks from your screen.

Sitting up straight for long periods may be tiresome however just think of the exercise your postural muscles will be receiving. You do not need a Personal Trainer for that!

If you would like relief from back pain or neck pain call for an appointment today on 0208 954 8311 or visit my web page at www.tomsmithhealth.com  

In Health

Tom

The Benefits of Coconut Oil

I just wanted to follow up on my last blog called “Eat Fat, Loose Weight” in that post I explained why fats are actually good for us and not bad. Ever since the 1950’s when there was a lot of publicty on fat and its link to heart disease, since then we have been hell bent on fats being bad. For more info on this you can research the work by Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon.

I just want to talk to you about the benefits of coconut oil.

1. Coconut oil is fantastic to cook with. Personally, I need a lot of fats and proteins in my diet due to my rapid food oxidation rates, ask my mum! I use coconut oil for the healthy fats, but also because it can withstand very high temperatures when cooking with it, it can heat up to about 300 degrees! When you cook with Vegetable oils, Olive oils, Sunflower oils etc the fats go rancid and it can create inflammation in the gut.
2. It contains high levels of lauric acid, what the body uses to make monolaurin, a disease-fighting fatty acid derivative. Lauric acid has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties that protect the body against various infections and boost the immune system.
3. It also helps speed up the metabolism if you are trying to lose weight!

Ok, I have given you a few reasons on why we should consume coconut oil. You can but it from my good friend Karen Maidment an Advanced Metabolic Typing Adviser and CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach from Cheltenham. Visit her shop at http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/pure-body-balance-shop__W0QQ_armrsZ1 to buy some. It is certified organic and not been denatured by processing.  

For more info on diet, weight loss and exercise conditioning. Contact me and set up a free consultation.

In Health,

Tom

Eat fat, Lose Weight!!

Every year, millions of people go on a diet, the amount of weight they lose isn’t even an issue as most will put it back on shortly after.

It is the assumption that we must do aerobic exercise three times a week, cut down the amount of food we eat and cut out the fat. This means saturated fat from animal sources and oils. Fats from animal sources also contain cholesterol, presented as a twin villain to the civilized diet.

It has been said that eating fat makes you fat, saturated fats (such as those found in butter, eggs, and red meat) are unhealthy. And yet-despite our efforts to eliminate saturated fats from our diet for fear of high cholesterol levels and hardened arteries – obesity, heart disease, and cancer rates have continued to climb.

In place of a low fat diet it is typically advised to consume more carbohydrates like breads, pastas and whole grains which have been highly refined and processed and can lead to many problems. This imbalance of eating a high carbohydrate and low fat diet can produce high and low blood sugar levels. When blood sugar levels go too high, insulin (a fat storing hormone) kicks in to lower your blood sugar levels. Remember this when you feel tired after eating a meal. Insulin makes you put on fat not eating fat itself!!

Now, everyone is different and one mans food is another mans poison. Everyone’s requirements of the macronutrients, Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are different. That is why I test my clients before they even consult with me in order to create balance from the inside out.

In the 1950’s a researcher named Ancel Keys proposed a theory called lipid hypothesis which concluded that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet had a direct relationship with coronary heart disease. Numerous research has pointed out flaws in this data and companies that benefited from this (such as vegetable oil and food processing companies) worked very hard to produce research that supported this theory.

There was some research recently published on the BBC News about how organic food was no different nutritionally to conventional grown food – you have to ask who did the research?

Fats are in fact good for us, if you want to lose weight they help slow down digestion and necessary for the assimilation for the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

Eating a diet low in fat can lead to energy level fluctuations, mineral deficiencies weight gain and poor recovery from exercise.

Fats to Consume

1. Organic, free-range animal meats and fats such as lard, coconut oil etc. Good for cooking at high heat.
2. Fish (Or due to the high levels of heavy metals and other toxins in fish today, high quality fish-oil supplements may be a good option. These should come from wild fish that have been filtered for heavy metal toxicity and other metal toxicity.)
3. Organic, free-range eggs – the whole complete egg including the yolk, which should be kept intact during cooking to prevent oxidizing the cholesterol in the yolk. Best methods are boiling or low-temperature poaching and frying.
4. Raw nuts, soaked before eating to break down the phyto-nutrients and makes all the nutrients more bio-available.
5. Avocados – a good source of monounsaturated oleic acid.
6. Cold-pressed, unfiltered organic olive oil – a good source of monounsaturated oleic acid and may be used for cooking at moderate temps.
7. Butter, raw if possible – Butter has many benefits including fat-soluble vitamins, short and medium chain FA, small, but equal amounts of ?-3 and ?-6 FA, conjugated linoleic acid (if the butter is from pasture-fed cows only – this has strong anti-cancer properties), lecithin, cholesterol, trace minerals and more.
8. Ghee (clarified butter)
9. Coconut oil or butter – high in medium-chain FA that is good for using at high heat.
10. Pumpkin seed oil
11. Flax seed oil –Always keep refrigerated and never heat.
12. Castor oil
13. Cod liver oil
14. Palm oil – Good for cooking at high heat.

Fats to avoid or limit

1. Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils – These contain trans-fatty acids that look more like plastic that fats under a microscope. Your body is not designed to eat plastics!
2. Canola oil – Has a high sulphur content, goes rancid easily, contains trans-fatty acids (created during deodorizing of oil), can cause deficiency of Vitamin E and may cause fibrotic heart lesions.
3. Soy oil – highly processed
4. Corn, safflower, cottonseed and sunflower oils
5. Peanut and sesame oils – OK for cooking at moderate temps

In Health

Tom

Addicted to Caffeine?

Caffeine is a popular stimulant found in beans, leaves and fruits of some plants. It is also used as a natural pesticide to kill off certain insects feeding from plants as well as the nations favorite drink to kick start their morning.

The most popular form of caffeine is coffee. An eight ounce cup of strong coffee contains about 300mg of caffeine. Depending on how well your body metabolises caffeine it has a half life of about 6 hours! This means that if you have a drink of coffee worth 300mg of caffeine at 6pm you will have 150mg of caffeine floating around your blood stream at 12pm!!! This is not good for your body’s natural sleep / wake cycle as it disrupts it and causes you to wake up in the middle of the night. This can also cause night sweats and leaves you feeling un-refreshed in the morning. Note, drinking caffeine too late at night is one of MANY sources of poor sleep / wake cycles.

What does this mean to your body?

As Caffeine is a stimulant, it wakes up your body the same way as if you were watching a scary movie, riding a roller coaster or being chased by a tiger.

This is also known as the “Fight or Flight” response.

The fight or flight response is not a bad thing and it is essential in order to alert the body and prepare it for action. However, too much fight or flight or sympathetic nervous system activity can cause many problems to the body such as fatigue, poor blood sugar level handling, constipation and poor memory function.

How does this cause weight gain?

By having too much caffeine on a daily basis, it limits our body’s natural ability to heal, control blood sugar levels (even if you feel you are eating healthy) and prevents us getting to sleep at night.

The body summates stress, if you already have a stressful job, have too many bills to pay, do not eat to your metabolic type and wash it down with 10 cups of coffee a day, it overrides our body’s natural ability to tolerate exercise by increasing your fight or flight system and decreases the function of your rest and digest system.

Exercise enthusiasts with this type of lifestyle perform their exercise routine for months and wonder why they do not loose weight. What they didn’t realise is that their body is already working too hard to create balance on the inside. Therefore as a result, they put ON weight when they exercise!  

Some people are not yet ready for exercise due to excess sympathetic nervous system overload (fight or fight response) and often need to address their diet and poor lifestyle habits first in order to allow them to perform the RIGHT exercise in order to loose weight.

“I love my Coffee, so how can I loose weight but still drink it?”

When I need my clients to get off caffeine I ask them to:

• Avoid tea or coffee after 12 noon. As caffeine has a half life of 6 hours it means by 6pm your body can start to wind down for the day and allow you to sleep better at night. This is also in conjunction with other methods improving your sleep.

 

• Wean off caffeine with Espresso’s. They are surprisingly a better alternative to a regular coffee due to its size. The Espresso is only a shot sized drink and even if it is a lot stronger than a traditional sized coffee; it still has LESS caffeine in volume.

 

• Avoiding decaffeinated tea or coffee is also advised due to the chemical process it goes through to strip away caffeine.

 

• Drink HALF your body weight in litres of water a day! Bottled water is the best option.

To find out how much water you should be drinking a day do this simple sum:

Weight in kg x 0.033 = your daily amount of water in litres a day.

Eg. 60kg x 0.033 = 1.98 litres

I hope that helps and if you need help with weight loss or need a cutting edge in performance. Feel free to contact me at info@tomsmithhealth.com or visit my website at www.tomsmithhealth.com.

In Health,

Tom

Fivefingers: I Love my Shoes!

I get asked by a lot by members in the gym, people on the street and even my friends and family what are those shoes I am wearing. I thought I would type up a blog and explain what they are and the benefits of wearing fivefingers.

Fivefingers were originally designed for sailing as they wanted the grip plus the feeling of doing it bare foot. Later people were using fivefingers for running and exercising in so Vibram ® expanded their range. The sprints which are better for running and sports, the flows which are designed for water or water based sports due to the waterproof material and the KSO’s which are a more complete shoe which are great for trekking and keeping dirt out of your feet.

Vibram ® originally designed the soles for a lot of footwear such as timberlands and you may recognize the yellow tag on them. So they were already leading the market for those types of shoes.

When I first tried on the shoes I fell in love straight away as they were so comfortable. I was just so indecisive on what style I wanted!! The shoes glove your feet and separates your toes to mimic the bare foot feeling. Quite a unique feeling!

There has been a lot of research to show that when you immediately walk or run bare foot, your nervous system kicks in to change your gait (walking/running style). What you find is that you will transfer a lot of your weight onto the forefront and mid aspect of your foot. This is how we were naturally designed to run. When you wear a more traditional running shoe, they will tend to be bulky, have a heal and offer you lots of support. A heal can shift your center of gravity forward and distort your posture which also leads to injury. When you break your arm and wear a cast, the muscles waste and become weak – just like your feet wearing “supported” shoes! No wonder lots of runners develop injuries!

*Just to note – poor posture, poor core function and overtraining can be a cause too!

Your feet are quite sensitive like your hands and are innervated by key nerves from the spinal cord. When you strike the floor in bare feet or fivefingers those very nerves also innervate key muscles in your hips which actually CONTROL pronation!! Pronation is where the feet collapse on stance phase of gait. Your feet need to pronate a little, the problem arises when you over-pronate which can lead to other injuries up the kinetic chain i.e. ankle, knee, pelvis even the spine!

So in summery the fivefingers are a great way to improve your chance of not getting injured. Offers you safety against glass and stones which you are exposed to going bare foot. They improve your biomechanics, and strengthen the muscles in your feet and legs which traditional shoes do not!

I have added a video review which was made by “Wired” for those of you who prefer a visual.

Lastly for those who want to buy a pair of shoes, contact me as I can get you a discount! I hope in the near future to have my own stock so keep a look out!

In health,

 

Tom

Weight Loss Plateau

There is so much conflicting information out there on the best way to loose weight. We are bombared with junk email on weight loss pills, supplements etc – even huge sports nutrition companies are pumping out the energy drinks with a “burner” in it!!

Since when did Mother Nature provide us with such garbage? If we were designed to consume that stuff we would have weight loss pills growing on trees!! What we were provided with was whole “real” food that either grew from the earth, on trees and by animals we hunted. We didn’t spray our crops and trees with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides to produce bigger and more aesthetically pleasing food for us to buy on the market. It grew naturally. Eating fast foods, microwave meals and highly refined carbohydrates will not allow you to loose weight.

When people lose weight, they metabolise fat for energy if they are losing weight properly. Fat is where the body stores toxins that are potentially harmful to the nervous system, liver and body in general. These toxins produce chemicals which clog up our detoxification pathways. These detoxification pathways need quality nutrition which is best acquired from organic or a whole food diet.

A very common response in such people – the ones that loose weight with exercise specifically - is to over train in an attempt to sustain weight loss. This is a very dangerous idea because it then plays havoc on our hormones, energy levels, sleep patterns and then cravings for sugar and caffeine kick in as we get more tired. This sugar/caffeine cycle can open the door to a suppressed immune system. The result is a body that looks better in the mirror, yet is now more susceptible to disease and internal damage.

My advice for people looking to loose weight is to:

• Eat organic whenever possible. Remember, the structure and integrity of your body (including tendons, ligaments and bones) is depicted by what is put in your mouth. You are what you eat!!
• Move daily, exercise at a gym, at home or take the dog for a walk.
• Drink more water! Even if you think you are drinking enough.
• Get to bed on time, I wrote a post on sleep called “Bright Light, Bright Light!” on my blog.

 There are many more fantastic tools I use to facilitate weight loss that needs a thorough assessment. Feel free to contact me for more information about weight loss or go to my website at www.tomsmithhealth.com

In Health,

 

Tom

 

 

Assessing shoulder pain – a holistic approach.

Assessing the cause of one’s pain can be tricky to find as pain can come from many sources.  

Unfortunately, here in the UK, current methods of assessment and rehabilitation (along with the medical industry) have become over specialized. You can consult with Medical Doctors who solely specialize in a given part of the body i.e. knee, foot, shoulder, ankle and the back.

For example, when dealing with someone with a shoulder injury most “specialists” focus all their rehabilitative methods on the shoulder. This is analogous to looking at the body through a straw and sometimes there can be other factors contributing to the pain symptoms.

This person could have either of the following issues:

• They could have a disc bulge in the neck causing loss of nerve innervation to the shoulder.
• They could have had direct trauma to the shoulder, i.e. slipping off a curb and landing on the shoulder.
• They could be eating a poor diet and putting a lot of stress on the liver and in Traditional Chinese Medicine the liver has a strong connection to the right shoulder.
• Faulty Breathing patterns can overuse the respiratory muscles in the neck which can lead to forward head posture, trigger point development in the back of the neck (some people call them “knots”). This can create rounded shoulders and create a faulty rest position of the shoulder joint.

The number one goal is to get that person back to a pre injury state. However, most people’s pre injury state was never good enough to prevent injury in the first place! In most cases this means reducing their stressors, cleaning up their diet and correcting muscle imbalances and faulty movement patterns.

This may seem “out there” with how these possiblities can link to shoulder pain, however with a thorough holistic assessment a cause may be found. “Treat the cause, not the symptoms!”

If you would like to find the root cause to your pain or injury please feel free to contact me via email on info@tomsmithhealth.com to set up a consultation.

In Health,

 

Tom

Primal Lifestyle Bootcamp

I have just been on a camping weekend with my friend and mentor Matt Wallden who originally trained as an Osteopath and later trained as a CHEK practitioner. He is now a faculty member for the CHEK institute. You can go to his website at www.primallifestyle.com to learn more about Matt and also buy fivefingers footwear which you may have seen me wear from time to time. As an agent for fivefingers footwear I will be adding a review of them later on my blog.

The boot camp took place in the fields of Take Shape Health www.takeshapehealth.co.uk owned by Ollie Martin, a CHEK practitioner and Sports Scientist. I just want to thank him for providing us with such a fantastic venue and dishing up some great food!! 

Over the weekend we learnt how we have retracted from our primitive state and natural behaviors. This is a fundamental flaw to why as a society we have developed chronic diseases, cancers, diabetes, digestive issues and ultimately – ill health. We simply can not beat Mother Nature!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In one of Matt’s presentations he goes on to explain that “in today’s modern world, the level of complexity of research and information exposure can create confusion, saturation – even suffocation! So applying a primal lifestyle understanding allows simplicity to arise from the complexity”.

We need to get back to the basics which are the fundamentals of my teachings as a Health and Performance Coach.

It was amazing to experience how we naturally followed the sun. I talk about circadian rhythms (sleep patterns) in my previous posts. Naturally you will feel tired as soon as the sun goes down and wake up naturally as soon as the sun was out the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Considering I nearly lost my eye in the primitive hunt when I was being chased by Ollie, I had a great weekend. The hunt was a game to show and prove how we would hunt for our food prior to eating breakfast, this could have lasted for hours, if not days! We were great scavengers and worked as a team to feed our tribe. In our day, this would be a great time to exercise, to move and allow our bodies to be in rhythm with the earth. Remember we only invented time 30,000-40,000 years ago, back then we had our own inner body clock!

Later in the afternoon we spent some time with Jonny Cope, a Sound Therapist who taught us many techniques to allow us to be present in the NOW and open our creative right brain hemispheres. This is something we do not do enough in our logical left brain dominated lives. The didgeridoo was my favorite!

Ollie has built a fantastic assault course in the fields behind his studio! In our fivefingers on Sunday morning we had the chance to go through it and of course my team won!!

You can view the video here:

Huw Davis, a Triathlon Coach for Great Britain and bare foot running specialist put us through our paces giving us a great insight as to how running is a natural reflex and not something that can be taught. The fivefingers footwear really did prove a great invention and Huw was very passionate about his teachings! Running barefoot or “fivefingered” improves our biomechanics, function and helps us conserve energy. Something you want if you are an athlete looking for a cutting edge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to share with you my mandala I created after the weekend. I love art and I find it very therapeutic.

What a great weekend! I would definitely encourage anyone to go who wants to improve their health and up for a great camping trip! I will keep you posted about future dates.

In Health,

 

Tom

Q&A on sleep and weight loss

Question:

Hi Tom,

I do loads of physical stuff because of my job; I play rugby, eat reasonably well but can’t shift weight. I am not exactly fat but could do with losing a few pounds. I read your blog about times you should be sleeping, could this be the main reason as I get maybe 3-4hrs sleep a night?

Answer:

Absolutely! Due to sleep deprivation your body will be under a lot of stress. This affects everything from your moods, your energy levels, to your appetite and your hormones will be on a rollercoaster ride!

If you have been living like this for some time your adrenal glands (a pair of walnut shaped glands which sit on top of the kidneys) will start to fatigue and stop producing sufficient levels of a hormone called Cortisol, this triggers adrenaline too. Cortisol is an awakening and stress activating hormone. If this is the case your growth and repair hormones like Testosterone, Pregnenolone and DHEA will go down too. So, when you exercise it is like whipping a tired donkey and this will only add more stress to the body. You will not loose weight with hormone imbalances like that.  

Another example I see all the time is when I meet people who go to the gym. They tell me they have been doing the same cardio based exercise machine for years on end and can’t understand why they don’t loose weight! Even though they get a “buzz” from it they don’t realise along with their highly stressed jobs, poor diets and sleep patterns, they are gaining weight exercising or just not getting the results, give up and leave!! Madness isn’t it?? Why do you think so many people give up the gym so early after New Year?

So yes, having little sleep could be a contributing factor to your problem.

Again, re read my last post titled “Bright Lights, Bright Lights” and you should see some great results within a few days by just getting to bed on time.

Hope that helps,

Tom

BRIGHT LIGHT! BRIGHT LIGHT!

In the news recently we have heard that the sale and manufacturing of the 100 watt light bulb is over as of Tuesday 1st September. I saw the story on the BBC news and thought I would write about the importance of good sleep and how bright light can disturb our natural hormonal rhythms.

Going back to our primal state, living in caves, hunting deer and swinging on grapevines we naturally followed the sun. We woke up early and went to bed early as there was no light at a flick of a switch in a cave and a wide screen HD ready tv, linked up to a X BOX 360!!

From 10pm-2am is our physical repair stage of sleep and from 2am-6am is our mental repair stage of sleep. If at night, we watch TV, play video games or light up the house with bright lights, our body will naturally think the sun is shining. This will disrupt the production of a sleep hormone called melatonin. This also activates a “fight or flight” response in body the same way if you were being chased by a tiger or under a stressful situation.

So, my advice to all the people resistant to the money saving, energy efficent light bulbs is to reduce the bright lights 2 hours prior to bed, get to bed early, no later than 10.30pm and rise by 6.30am. Those of you who want to lose weight, reduce stress or want to increase sports performance want to follow these guidlines too as you this can disrupt your energy levels, your craving for breakfast in the morning (very important meal of the day as it stimulates your metabolism) and it will  have a knock on effect for the rest of your day.

However, there can be other reasons why we can not sleep like adrenal stress, parasite infections, mental/emotional issues, dehydration, poor nutrition the list goes on and on and on….

If you find it hard to sleep or want to know more please feel free to contact me on info@tomsmithhealth.com or visit my website at www.tomsmithhealth.com.

All the best,

Tom