How to defuse the bomb in your brain?

Migraines will blight nearly all of us at some time, says Michael Davis.
Tension headaches affect more than 90% of women and 70% of men at least once in their lifetime. They come under the umbrella of primary headaches including migraine and cluster headaches.

The cause of this particular type of headache is believed to be due to sustained tension of the scalp and neck muscles.

Tension headaches often spread quickly affecting both sides of the head, and patients often complain of tight and pressing pain. Some people with tension headaches experience fatigue, loss of appetite and tenderness of the scalp, shoulder and neck muscles.

Is your daily run around the block crippling you?

If your trainers do not match the shape of your foot, you could hurt yourself while trying to get fit says Wayne Edwards.

Running shoe technology has come on leaps and bounds since the days when they were only designed for competitive athletes- with this has come a bewildering choice of shoes aimed at specific types of feet or running style.

The biggest, bounciest exercise fad of all time

Working your ‘core’ is important, but you don’t need to sit on a huge rubber ball to do it, says Greg Ryan.

The fitness industry has always been full of fads - remember ‘The Abdominizer’? – And one of the biggest and bounciest of them all is the gym ball, Swiss ball, or core stability ball. Whatever it’s called, if you go to a gym you probably have either used it or thought about using it. So is it any good?

Well, if you sit on it, it makes you work your ‘core’ – that part of your body you are told is important and needs to be strengthened in order to support your back, improve your posture and give you a flat stomach.

Is your daily run around the block crippling you?

If your trainers do not match the shape of your foot, you could hurt yourself while trying to get fit says Wayne Edwards.

Running shoe technology has come on leaps and bounds since the days when they were only designed for competitive athletes- with this has come a bewildering choice of shoes aimed at specific types of feet or running style.

Straight up its good for you

Correct posture has great spin-off benefits, says Leigh Ray

In today’s competitive corporate society, particularly in the City, women have become “superwomen”, with the ability to be successful in all areas of life- corporate employee, mother, lover, friend and independent individual. For many of us, one or more of theses areas suffers due to a lack of energy, time or physical strength due to pain or lack of exercise.

As a woman, one fundamental way to achieve success in all of these roles is by having correct posture. Sitting up properly will influence your core stability, in particular your pelvic floor muscles, enabling you to use a few endurance muscles instead of many power muscles which quickly fatigue.

Do you find it difficult to reach an orgasm, or does it lack intensity? Have you experienced pain during intercourse or due you lack confidence regarding your sexuality? Do you sit slumped at work? Do you visit the loo more than eight times a day? Do you leak when you cough or sneeze? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then your pelvic floor is an area you should be focusing on.

Is your work a pain in the neck?

There are two extreme schools of thought on ergonomics. One says if you are sitting comfortably you probably don’t have a problem. The other says nonsense, you’ll be doing all sorts of damage – and what you need is a custom built ergonomic chair…. here’s one for only £600 just in from America. The good news is that the way in which the £600-a-shot brigade has it right is that it needn’t cost a lot of money every time. “Many people do spend a lot of money on chairs that are labelled ergonomic, but the actual guidelines on what makes an ergonomic chair is just that you can adjust it in terms of more than height,” Says Paul Godfrey, director of ergonomics specialist Health and Fitness Solutions. “You get one or two companies spending a lot thinking the more they spend the better the chair will be, but it’s all about adjustability.”

Essentially, what’s ergonomic for one person isn’t necessarily going to be ergonomic for someone else.

Dont break your back

It’s all too easy for doctors to neglect their own health. Physiotherapist Dan Smith explains how to reduce the likelihood of being dogged by musculoskeletal problems.

A hospital doctor doesn’t work a typical 40 hour week – most work between 50 and 80 hours. Generally speaking, there are no scheduled breaks for coffee or lunch- instead these are taken when work allows. In common with other professionals, long hours mean many doctors have little time for sport and as a result there is a general trend towards them becoming less fit.

Combine these long hours, poor diet due to eating convenience foods and lack of exercise, with time spent sitting on the edge of patients beds, writing up case notes on the lap, being hunched over a computer looking for blood results, being bent over for ten minutes at a time while examining patients (or for even longer while performing surgical procedures) and you have a recipe for disaster.

Walk this way

Sports injuries can often be caused by poor running and walking techniques.

If I had a pound for every time a fitness expert said to me something like “who made your trainers – the council?” I’d be able to afford a really great pair. Trainer-bashing is the fitness instructor equivalent of GP’s “it’s probably a virus” – the thing they blame when they don’t exactly know what’s going on.

So I wasn’t entirely surprised when Wayne Edwards a musculo-skeletal podiatrist, told me that he’d like to throw my footwear on a bonfire. But it was refreshing to hear from him that bad footwear is usually only about 15 per cent of the problem or 15 per cent of the solution. “But the most important things to look at,” he says, “are the faulty movement patterns, anatomy, alignment and neuron-muscular control.”