Articles from Dr Powderly (Chiropractor) and Dr Leong (Chiropractor)

As a wellness chiropractic clinic, we want to bring you all the information you need to achieve your optimal health and vitality. We hope you enjoy the following articles from Dr Powderly (Chiropractor) and Dr Leong (Chiropractor) and share them with your friends and family. 3rd May 2013 Time for a Postural Fitness Upgrade Let’s Get Back to Our Best this Spinal Health Week (20-26 May) Postural fitness is one of the new buzz words of healthy lifestyle thinking – and for good reason. Over 2 million Australians experience back problems every year and postural fitness is one of the most powerful ways to address preventative health. Postural fitness means optimal spinal alignment. It gives you greater strength and endurance, better coordination and balance. Postural fitness helps you lead an optimal healthy lifestyle; reduce muscle fatigue and improve your postural endurance. May heralds the launch of Let’s Get Back to Our Best, a national initiative of the CAA that aims to encourage Australians to support more investment in Chiropractic care and research. As we all know, back pain has serious consequences for families, lifestyle and employment. People with back problems report 2.5 times more disorders, such as depression. To show your support for the campaign visit the Spinal Health Week Facebook page at www.facebook.com/spinalhealthweek Also as part of Spinal Health Week 2013, both Dr Jon Powderly (chiropractor) and myself will be encouraging patients and the people of Canberra to improve their postural fitness. We suggest you pick an exercise plan to strengthen your core muscles such as pilates (to build strength and improve your breathing); or yoga (to develop good balance and flexibility) or swimming (to improve muscle endurance, strength and resilience). In addition there are small changes you can make to your routine which will improve your postural fitness – at home, at work and in transit. Many of us spend long periods of time sitting. Sitting too long can:

Increase the stress on the discs between your vertebrae;
Cause the natural curve in your back to deteriorate;
Reduce the function and stability of your spine;
Lead to inflammation, pain and possible early degeneration of your spine.

Chiropractors often get asked how to sit right at the computer desk. So the CAA developed a widget you can download (www.SitRight.com.au) to advise on just that. Some general tips for work are:

Try standing when you’re on the phone for extended periods;
During meetings take regular stretch breaks;
While you’re working at your computer take short breaks to stretch and stand;
Check and adjust your position regularly.

An active spine is a healthy spine and a healthy spine leads to a healthier life. Why not use Spinal Health Week to make an appointment with our clinic to assess your postural fitness and discuss how being more active will improve your wellbeing? Please contact our chiropractic assistants, Nelly or Zina on 6257 9400 for an appointment with Dr Jon Powderly (chiropractor) or myself. You can also visit the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia’s Sit Right website for tips on how to improve your posture or download the CAA’s Sit Right desktop widget to remind you when to take a break from sitting www.SitRight.com.au. Dr Stacey Leong Chiropractor B.Sc (Chiro), B.Chiro (Hons)

May 31, 2012

As part of Spinal Health Week, I wrote about some basics to help you ‘sit right’. Today I’d like to go into a little more detail, so you know more about the ‘why’ of sitting correctly. Firstly, all of our tissues – muscles, ligaments, tendons, discs, even bones – are elastic in nature. They will stretch under load, and then bounce back to their original length. Something different happens, however, when loads are sustained for long periods, as occurs with sitting at work. During these activities, the supportive tissues of the spine (ligaments, tendons) undergo a stretch that requires a longer period of recovery. This process, called ‘creep’, means that the supportive ligaments and tendons of the spine that undergo stretching during extended periods of loading that can take up to 24 hours to recover. Now do the maths on that. Do you ever start sitting the next day at work after 24 hour rest? NO! So now you know the ‘why’ behind the Sit Right campaign. Taking the load off your spine regularly, or at least changing the load, dramatically reduces ‘creep’ in the supportive tissues, and prevents the accumulation of stress and damage that causes spinal subluxation. Remember, as a chiropractor, my main job is to remove subluxations to improve nervous system function and help you to be healthy. If you can PREVENT subluxations, you’ll need less adjustments in the long term! Just two more quick tips regarding sitting before we finish off this topic. Many people think of sitting as more restful for their spine than a job requiring physical labour. The fact is, that a variety of activities will almost always be easier on the spine than sustained sitting. If you need to perform a heavy lift after you’ve been sitting for some time, don’t do it straight away – your spine will be weaker. Stand or walk around for a few minutes, then do the lift, and you’re likely to prevent injury. Put it into practice! I’ll write again soon.

May 14, 2012

As Spinal Health Week approaches, I thought it appropriate to interrupt my series on Oils to talk a little about this year’s theme – sitting. As Spinal Health Week approaches, I thought it appropriate to interrupt my series on Oils to talk a little about this year’s theme – sitting. It’s an irony that the one thing most of us do most of the time during the day causes us the most ill-health. What is that one thing? SITTING! As not only our workplaces, but also our home and entertainment increasingly revolve around the computer, we are sitting for longer hours in the day and night. For those of you with an office-based job, it is likely that you spend around 10 hours or more sitting each day. ‘What?’ I hear you say. 10 hours seems like an awful lot, but if you think about the time you spend eating breakfast, lunch and dinner (at least 1.5 hours), plus the time you spend driving or bussing to and from work (at least 30 minutes – we are lucky in Canberra!), plus 8 or so hours sitting at work, and maybe an hour sitting to talk with your partner, read with the kids or watch TV, you can see 10 hours stack up pretty quickly! So why is sitting so bad? Well, we really weren’t designed to sit (or do anything, for that matter!) for prolonged periods. When we do, tissues in the lower back, especially the discs, become loaded to the point where they can begin to fail, leading to an accumulation of stress and damage over long periods of time. In addition, as the spine protects the nervous system, your prime control system, anything affecting the spine will affect your health. For example, recent research shows that people who sit down for more than 10 hours a day have almost double the risk of dying sooner than those with an active lifestyle. What can you do? 1. Go to the website: www.SitRight.com.au to find out how you can ‘sit right’ and more to improve your overall health and wellbeing. 2. Please call Canberra Spine Centre to arrange for Dr Powderly (Chiropractor) to come to your workplace for to perform a workplace assessment or a special health talk. 3. If you or someone you know has a spinal problem and need help, please call us for a consultation and we will perform a thorough examination to try and find the cause, and let you know if chiropractic can help. I’ll post again soon with more on how to ‘sit right’ and improve your health.

18th April, 2012

In my last post we cleared up some of the confusion around low fat products. Today I want to talk about good fats and not so good fats. Hopefully you understand now that fats and oils are necessary for good health. We just need to choose the right type. Most animal fats are ‘saturated’ fats, which we tend to want less of in our diet. Vegetable fats (usually in the form of oils) are generally unsaturated in some form, and tend to be healthier. Avocados and almonds are really high in fat, but both excellent food sources of healthy fat, but also fibre and other nutrients. Oils aren’t all the same, however. The first thing you should look for when buying oils is to see how they were prepared. Look for ‘cold pressed’ oils – those prepared without heating that changes the chemical structure and quality of the oil. If it doesn’t say ‘cold pressed’, then the vegetable/nut/seed has been cooked before pressing. In the case of olive oil the terminology will be different. Wording such as ‘100% pure’, ‘light’, and ‘extra-virgin’ are used. Extra-virgin means the oil comes from the first cold pressing of the olives and is really the oil you want to consume. Storage of oils is important. Oils can become rancid when exposed to air, light and heat. Best to keep oils in your cupboard, away from the stove top. Re-using oils is really not a healthy thing to do, as they undergo changes to their structure with heat that make them less healthy to consume. In my next post, we’ll talk about the different oils and their qualities and uses.

16th April, 2012

When people in my practice tell me about something that’s gone wrong for them, such as ‘my shoulder muscles are really tight today’, I like to ask them questions. Why do I do this? Well, it’s important that people learn how they might be re-creating their own problems. There are three main types of stress that cause break-down in our bodies – physical, chemical and emotional. Today, I want to talk a little about chemical stress, the type that our body experiences from what we put into our body – food, drink, drugs, pollution. There is so much confusion around nutrition and the chemical stresses that it can create. I want to break it down and just talk about the simple topic of fat for now. Over a series of posts, hopefully we’ll blow away a few myths and create some more clarity for you and your family about what you can eat to create great health. Fat has had a bad rap for decades, and with a greater proportion of Australians being classed as obese than at any other time in history, it’s not surprising. But fat is an essential part of our diet, just as carbohydrates and proteins are. Fats (or fats and oils, to be more precise) make up much of our body, such as cell membranes, as well as being a base of most hormones. For example, your body would not function without cholesterol – it is essential for your survival! Often, one of the biggest mistakes you can make with your shopping selection is going for the ‘low fat’ product over the regular one. You see, fats and oils generally enhance the taste or texture of food and make it more attractive to us. So with many products, such as yoghurt, food manufacturers add loads of sugar to make up for the missing fat to make it taste better. Here’s a good one, too – have you seen those labels saying, ‘99% fat free’? Well, that may be true, but check the label for how much sugar there is. It may be in the form of glucose, fructose, or a fruit concentrate, but it’s still sugar! Now what’s wrong with that? When you consume too much sugar (more that you are burning with activity) your body converts it to triglycerides and stores it as fat. YOU ARE GETTING FATTER ON THE LOW FAT PRODUCT!! So next time you are at the supermarket, think twice about the low fat option, it may be doing just the opposite for you. I’ll talk more about fats and oils in my next post.

26th March, 2012

In my last entry for the series on happiness, we continue to look at strategies for you to get more happiness in your life: 8. Find some ways of coping with stress and trauma in your life. Some possibilities are: meditation (there are many types, but all share the same goal of settling your mind for a deeper state of consciousness and/or relaxation), vigorous exercise (naturally reduces stress hormone levels), time spent talking with close friends. Coping strategies will help reduce the accumulation of stress in your life – it’s hard to be content and happy while overly stressed at the same time! 9. Practice forgiveness – Holding onto feelings of anger or resentment really are like a poison for your mind and body. Nobody, especially not YOU, benefit from this. Learning to let go of these feelings will create more peace in your life. The word ‘practice’ is important – you may not be so good at it until you’ve practised a few times! 10. Look for spiritual guidance. It doesn’t seem so easy to come by these days, but learning to live in harmony with the rest of the world is something we all need regular reminders or tuition for. There are many books, organisations and courses in things spiritual – dip your toe in and see how it feels! 11. Care for your body. It’s hard to have a healthy mind without a healthy body. As a chiropractor, I never cease to be amazed at the changes in people’s state of mind as their spine and nervous system improves. Find someone, be it chiropractor or otherwise to support you in improving your overall health and wellbeing. So there you have it. Not the definitive guide to happiness, but I hope you can put some of these pointers to work in your life to help you be your best. And pass this on to anyone you think could benefit. Will write again soon!

14th March, 2012

Hello again, everyone. Apologies for the break since my last entry – seminars and staff changes have proved more distracting than I thought. So back on track now with weekly articles to help you live a better life! Continuing the theme of happiness, and how to get more of it in your life. In my last entry we covered three things you can do consciously to build your levels of happiness. Here are some more: 4. Practice acts of kindness: Doing good things for others, even something as small as letting someone in at a traffic jam, not only helps others, but makes you feel good. You don’t even need to be there – do it anonymously! 5. Care for your relationships: When you think about it, there’s nothing more important in your life. Investing time to strengthen the bonds with those around you will build the relationships that in turn nurture you. 6. Do more of what you really like: Losing yourself in an activity is meditative – it frees your mind from the hurry and worry of everyday life. Try to find something every day that absorbs and challenges you. 7. Commit to some goals: It’s not the attainment of the goal that is important, but the person you become in the pursuit of these goals that is important. Strive to learn something new, be better at something or create something new in your life. That’s it for this week. I’ll finish off on happiness (for now) next week. Lots of interesting topics to come. Until next week, Be Your Best!

8th February, 2012

Last week I talked about happiness as being a major but often forgotten part of our health and wellbeing. Another way to describe a lack of happiness would be ‘depression’. Much has been made of the prevalence of depression in our society and the havoc it can wreak on our lives. Countless studies and therapies have been developed to combat depression, including psychotherapy, drug therapy and lifestyle strategies. In recent times, however, researches interested in happiness and its cousin depression have started to ask the right questions. What makes happy people happy? There are many factors that determine our happiness, some within our control and others we are born with. Here are some interesting facts to start with. Studies show that 50% of our happiness is determined by our genes, 10% by our circumstances, and 40% by actions we take intentionally in our lives. That’s good news – even if you are genetically a total sad sap, you can influence between 40 – 50% of your happiness with your own actions! It gets better. Contrary to the popular belief in the ‘golden days’ being behind us, studies show that generally our happiness peaks at the age of 65, and does not decline substantially until after 75 years of age. For most of us, that means the best is yet to come! So what are the things you can consciously do to make yourself happier, and thus lead a happier life?

Practice Gratitude. People who express their gratitude regularly are happier people. You can do this in a number of ways: keep a daily journal to write down what you are grateful in your life; say these things to yourself in the mirror in the morning; tell others what you are grateful for; or thank people that you haven’t really acknowledged properly.
Be optimistic. Sounds simpler than it is. Put simply, look at the positive in everything. Does this mean EVERYTHING is great in your life or the world? No, but as the saying goes, ‘It’s an ill wind that blows no good’. Ask yourself the question for every ‘bad’ situation, ‘what’s good about this?’ This is a great habit to cultivate, and like everything, you’ll be better with practice.
Avoid social comparison. Deriving your sense of self worth, happiness or satisfaction from having more, being better or looking better is always going to go wrong for you. With time everything passes, and if your happiness is rooted in these things, it too will pass. On the other hand, being ‘inner-directed’ will lead to greater and longer-lasting happiness. This is where you focus on your internal goals and achievements – those that are personally rewarding and meaningful, as opposed to being necessarily meaningful to those around you. This is another tough one, as we are all driven in the direction of social comparison from the barrage of advertising (can you see yourself in this car?) in our lives. Avoiding or minimizing TV would be a good help.

That’s a start to get you going. I’ll continue with more tips for improving your happiness next week.

3rd February, 2012

When we talk about health, we’re often referring to how well our body is working – all its bits and pieces, such as the heart, liver, kidneys and muscles and joints. Sometimes we forget the very reason FOR being healthy, and in doing so, focus on only certain aspects of health. Surely we aim to be healthy so that we can express our true potential in life. That is, be the best mother, father, partner; be our best at work and at home and in the community. A huge part of being healthy is our mental health – put simply, being HAPPY. People under regular chiropractic care are regularly shown to have less depression and greater levels of happiness, and I’ll go into the details of why this happens later. For now, I’d like to share some thoughts and action steps with you taken from articles and programs discussing happiness that have come my way over the past few years. In an article on happiness in The Australian newspaper last year, the author eloquently pointed out one (there are many!) path to happiness. I will summarise his observations. Many times we seek a feeling of happiness through acquiring something – whether it be something as little as a new pair of shoes, or as much as a new car or house. There’s no question that a new purchase brings happiness – ‘retail therapy’ – but it passes quickly. We soon become accustomed to that new thing in our life, and it is no longer perceived as something special, so we look toward the next ‘thing’. Not only is the happiness ‘purchased’ In this way transient, but it often creates unhappiness in the form of financial stress. Experiences, on the other hand, have lasting value. Good experiences, such as a fantastic holiday, are enjoyed many times over – in the planning, while you’re there, and in reminiscing as the years pass. Even a bad holiday experience, such as awful service at restaurant, lost luggage, or getting hopelessly lost, after time, become less painful and often become an entertaining anecdote. Much of our happiness is derived from social interaction, and the grist of many an entertaining conversation is life experience. So when you want to create more happiness in your life or someone you care for, try an experience instead of a ‘thing’. A movie, a massage, coffee with a friend, kicking a footy, walking to the top of Mt Ainslee/Red Hill/Black Mountain for the sunset, or a weekend away. Your happiness will stay with you for much longer, without the financial side-effects.

26th January, 2012

Following on from last week, I wanted to build on the chiropractic approach to helping people get over chronic injury. Just to re-cap, first of all we want to not just exercise, but restore proper function. Chiropractors do this by removing interference to the nervous system through spinal adjusting. Secondly, we want the WHOLE body to be healthy, don’t we? Of course, so we also look to find other areas in the spine and nervous system that are not working and also restore order there. Now here is the piece of the puzzle that is sometimes missed, but often vital with chronic injury. Remember I mentioned that ‘corrupted motor patterns’ develop in the body as a way of protecting you in the short term but that these same patterns cause further problems in the long term? Well, chiropractic adjustments to the spine will often be enough to help stimulate the right nerve pathways and thus provide the re-education the brain needs to regain normal patterns of nerve activity and movement. However, sometimes we need to undo the patterns that have developed locally in the muscle and joint tissue. The approach I use is a combination of extremity (that is, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, hip, knee, ankle or foot) adjusting to restore proper joint motion and proprioception (helps your brain locate/place each body part in relation to itself and the external environment), plus specialized muscle re-education techniques called Trigenics. As I explain to my patients with a chronic injury of an extremity, you can work on the spine, or work on the local area, but if you can help restore proper nerve function at both levels, the results will be quicker and longer lasting. And of course, let’s not forget all the additional health benefits of having a fully functioning nervous system. So, to finish, the best approach to getting back to great function and health is always to work holistically (each and every part of the body affects and contributes to the function of every other part), and to think, evaluate and treat in terms of function, not just pain. Symptoms come and go while you are still heading downhill, but evaluation and treatment based on a thorough functional assessment will always get a better long term result. Happy Australia Day!

19th January, 2012

Last week I talked about the injury that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. I described the process of a ‘fuse blowing’ in the body in response to an over-whelming stress. This led to a ‘corrupted motor pattern’, in other words, muscles and joints no longer working in their proper order, timing and pattern. When this occurs over long periods, it leads to chronic and recurring injury. Today I want to go over some of the other repercussions, as well as what we can do about it. Firstly, when things go wrong with the muscles and joints of your spine or other areas of your body, it is important to understand that you don’t just have a neck or back problem, you have a health problem. Let me explain. If we choose the nerves coming from your lower back, for instance, these same nerves go to not only the lower back and leg muscles, skin and joints, but also the organs of the abdomen and pelvis. So, if nerves are disturbed in these areas, you can expect some of the organs not to be working at their best. A classic example is an irritable bowel or bladder, or even disturbed menstrual function. Now, what to do about that chronic injury? Lots of people try just rehabilitation exercises, but this approach will often just exercise and reinforce the same pattern without correcting the underlying problem. Two approaches are useful. Back to our example of the shoulder problem. First of all it’s really important to get the nerve supply right. Adjusting areas of the spine that have lost their normal motion is essential to remove nerve interference that could be preventing proper function – chiropractors call these areas ‘subluxations’. Are we only concerned with nerves going to the shoulder? Of course not! What about nerves down below affecting pelvic motion, which in turn affects motion and other muscles of the shoulder? Let’s not forget also that for you to be healthy, ALL the nerves of the body should be working free of interference. So that’s one part of the puzzle – nerve interference coming from the spine. In my next entry, I’ll touch on two other pieces that are often missed, and are sometimes essential for complete recovery from chronic injuries

9th January, 2012

A common complaint I hear from my patients is: ‘I’ve had this injury (or problem or pain) for such a long time now, shouldn’t it have healed by now?’ It’s a great question, and to answer it, we really need to get to the basis of why the body goes wrong. Imagine your body as a house, and its wiring system being the communication system of your body – your nervous system. What happens when you overload a circuit with too many appliances running at the same time? Yes, a fuse blows, or nowadays, a switch flips to the ‘off’ position. The purpose of a fuse flipping off is to prevent damage to the system that will cost a lot of money to fix and to possibly save your life. It just so happens that our bodies operate in a similar manner. When we overload the body with ANY particular type of stress (physical, chemical, or emotional), our body will do one of two things: adapt to the new stress, or a fuse will flip off. It’s a very intelligent response, as it saves further damage such as a muscle tear, torn cartilage, or organ damage. For simplicity’s sake, let’s talk about a shoulder injury. You strain your shoulder lifting something overhead one day. It feels a little sore, but seems to get better. Then you notice strange things happening – it doesn’t quite feel as strong as it should; you can’t push as hard in the gym any more; it’s clicking on certain movements; now it even hurts when you lay on it in certain sleeping positions. What happened? Well, somewhere along the pathways between your brain to your muscles and joints, communication (ie our wiring system, or nervous system) has broken down. This has either occurred at the spine, or at the joint, or even in the muscles. In my experience, it is usually a combination of two or three of the above. Now every movement and activity involving the shoulder will be slightly ‘off’, what we can call a ‘corrupted motor pattern’. At the time of the injury, this prevented a more serious injury, but when this continues for weeks and months without correction, further injury results. Now it is easy to see why some injuries or problems just don’t seem to go away. In my next entry, I’ll talk about the sort of things that need to be done to ‘reset’ the body’s function and get you back on track after any injury.

22nd December, 2011

A question I’m often asked by my patients is, ‘should I take pain-killers?’ My answer is generally, ‘if you feel you can get by without them, do so. If you are in so much pain that life is a misery, or you can’t sleep, then take them.’ It’s a simple guideline, but I’d like to explain some basic reasons behind my stance. Firstly, inflammation is part of your HEALING response – cells and fluid sent to an area of injury to help fix the damage. Anything that interferes with our inflammatory response interferes with our healing. The use of NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, eg. aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, nurofen,) for more than 72 hours interferes with the 2nd phase of injury healing – the repair phase. This results in incomplete or delayed healing. Long term use of NSAIDS also is well-known to cause gastro-intestinal bleeding – a serious and sometimes life-threatening consequence. Long term pain medications can cause a reduction in bone marrow activity. Guess where most of our immune cells are made? That’s right, in the bone marrow – hence a reduction in immunity. So that’s a number of good reasons to minimise or avoid ‘pain killing’ medication if you are able to. Lastly, one more simple reason to avoid them if possible is that you may be doing things that you shouldn’t. Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something needs to change (eg. moving too much of a certain way, eating too much of a certain food). When you block those messages so as to get on with your ‘normal’ life, you are ignoring your body’s innate wisdom, rather than listening to it. Ultimately, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer to ‘should I take pain killers?’, but armed with some accurate information, you will make your decision aware of the consequences.

13th December, 2011

We had the first of our ‘Lifestyle Series’ of classes at Canberra Spine Centre yesterday, and those who came really got to learn so much. Mainly what we covered was the ‘why’ of exercise (some great research showed us that exercise really is an essential ingredient for health); as well as the ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘when’. Today I’d like to share with you some of the ‘what’. Briefly, before going into that, it’s important to focus on why you are exercising. Exercise, in our modern-day life, is often looked upon as a ‘treatment’ for any number of ailments, from depression to obesity. Instead of looking at exercise as a means of reducing the severity of a disease state, a better way to look at it is to ask, ‘what does my body need to be REALLY healthy?’ When you start by asking this question, you are more likely to arrive at an answer that will enhance your life. If you exercise to reach or strive toward optimum health, chances are you WILL lose weight, put on muscle, lower your blood pressure, etc. But with your focus on optimal health, you won’t be chasing a thousand ailments, more moving toward a goal that will improve EVERY facet of your life. So, what should every exercise regime have? Four components: 1. Aerobic exercise – start with something simple such as walking, and progress to jogging (if you can, and only gradually), or if you prefer, riding a bike or swimming. 2. Strength training – building muscle has SO many benefits. Simple exercises with free weights or body weights, especially those movements that mimic activities of daily living, are best. Two great examples are lunges, and ‘clean and press’ (can be done easily with just some tins of beans!). 3. Flexibility – especially of the spine. When your spine moves properly, it generates BILLIONS of messages each minute that travel up to your brain to stimulate it and keep it healthy. For starters, just think of moving your neck and the rest of your spine in all six degrees of motion (that is forward, back, side-to-side, and around to left and right). 4. Balance – simply start by balancing on one leg at a time for a minute – eyes open or closed (whichever you can do without falling straight away!). Our modern environment, with all its perfectly flat surfaces, robs us on many ‘training’ opportunities for our proprioceptive (movement and position sensing) system. Use it or lose it. I go into loads of detail in our ‘Move Well’ class, and will also be giving all attendees a special handout with specifics on exactly how to craft a quick and effective exercise program for optimum health. So call us and book yourself a spot at our next class. In the meantime, I’ll keep you posted on more you can do to help reach optimal heatlh.

7th December, 2011

I’ve recently been reviewing information related to the new ‘Move Well’ class we’re putting on at Canberra Spine Centre and there’s some great information I’d like to share with you. I’ve always promoted the idea that walking is the best form of exercise, for 30 minutes a day. It’s certainly a good start, but if you look at the research related to our genetic requirements for health, this level of exercise is way off the mark! What do I mean by our ‘genetic requirement’? Well let me go back a bit…. Back to the pre-industrial and pre-agricultural times of between 40 000 to 10 000 years ago. These were the days when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. The environment of that era is what shaped the genes we have today. In other words, the humans that thrived in those days were the ones who got to pass on their genes to the next generation. Those who were not suited to the environment died and did not get to pass on their genes. Even though culturally, mankind has undergone massive change over the past 40 000 years, genetically, we have the SAME make-up. You want to know one of the huge areas of our lives that’s making us sick? We are genetically suited to an environment in which we had to expend a LOT of energy to just feed, clothe and defend ourselves. The modern-day environment, however, is one in which we have a far greater caloric intake, and only a fraction of the energy expenditure of that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Research shows that proper exercise can help: – prevent 91% of type 2 diabetes. – Prevent up to 50% of heart disease. – Prevent up to 50% of stroke deaths. – Reduce breast cancer by up to 60%. – Reduce lung cancer in smokers(!) by up to 72%. – Reduce melanomas by up to 72%. – Prevent 50% of colon cancer. – Prevent osteoporosis. – Increase immune function. – Normalise bowel function and elimination. – Increase digestive function. Actually, the list is a lot longer than this. But is this isn’t enough to get you to have a closer look at how you could improve your exercise regime, I don’t know what would convince you! I’ve lot more to share on this site, and I’ll be starting the first of our ‘Lifestyle Series’ of health improvement classes – ‘Move Well’ – soon. Call us if you’d like to book a seat at the next class – it will be jam-packed with information to help you create great change in your life.