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How ‘At Risk’ are you of non-contact injury?

Injury Mechanisms How do we move optimally, with no relevant risk (RR) of injury? The fundamental component of athletic activity is efficiency of movement. Efficiency of movement is compromised when there are changes in biomechanical function, often termed ‘movement disorder’, ‘impairment’ or ‘dysfunction’, causing an individual to adapt and adjust to the loads placed upon it. Anatomical and physiological dysfunction of joints and tissues either present themselves as a primary or secondary pathology to the individual. The alteration of either can influence the stresses placed on each system, and therefore cannot be sustained for a lifetime without it metamorphosing in to a clinical condition (Noyes, Schipplein, Andriacchi, Saddemi & Weise, 1992). Intrinsic risk factors are those factors that affect the load tolerance of the tissues within the athlete (Bartlett & Bussey, 2012). Many intrinsic risk factors are considered non-modifiable (Bartlett & Bussey, 2012). However, poor alignment, biomechanics, and motor control …

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How to identify the most common cause of Movement Dysfunction

The most common and major cause of movement dysfunction The most common and major cause of movement dysfunction is joint immobilisation accompanied by length-associated changes in tissues (Grossman et al., 1982; Janda, 1993).  When a joint becomes immobilized, initially there are two categories of muscle state; hypertonia: an excited, overactive and dominant muscle; and hypotonia: weak, inhibited, under-active with reduced feed-forwards capacity. Note the ‘initial’ emphasis in the previous sentence – the ‘effect’ of an injury commonly has phases i.e. phase 1, acute, generally days 1 to 3, phase 2, acute, days 4 through to 3 weeks and so on. Over the past four decades length-associated change observed in muscle tissue, seen when a joint is immobilised, has been categorized in to two symptomatic states; ‘stretch-weakened’ and ‘adaptive shortened’ (Kendall, McCreary, Provance, Rodgers & Romani, 2005). These two conditions of length-associated change, have an immediate negative influence on the physiological, …

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Is MSK Rehab and Research Missing the Point?

Musculoskeletal properties related to movement effectiveness Movement effectiveness can be any task i.e. stand-to-sit, lunge, walk etc.  For this blog we shall be looking at ‘vertical jumps’. Jump movements are commonly used as part of the sports-biomechanical research to measure overall power of the lower extremities (Bosco and Komi, 1979; Hunter and Marshall, 2002; Marques and Gonzalez-Badillo, 2011) and as a training task for improving performance and power (Bobbert, 1990; Krol andd Mynarski, 2012). During the jump, there is a complex interaction between three joints; hip, knee and ankle. Anatomically the most important factors to achieve maximal jump coordination, ineffective movements are minimised and effective movements maximised, will depend upon the number of joints a muscle spans, physiological cross section of a muscle (van Soest and Bobbert, 1993), muscle tendon length ratio (Voigt, Simonsen, Dyhre-Poulson and Klausen, 1995; Finni, 2000), length and velocity of muscle contraction (Hill, 1938; Voigt et …

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How to Manually Assess Movement… be your best!

The Study of Biomechanics 1. Capacity: Static (Quiet standing) A state of constant motion at rest or at a constant velocity. Forces controlled by contraction of proteins (actin and myosin). Creates the Force-Velocity relationship (muscles). TESTING: Muscle imbalance distorts alignment and sets the stage for undue stress and strain on joints, ligaments and muscles. Manual testing is the tool of choice when it comes to determine the extent of imbalance. 2.  Capacity – Dynamic (Gait) A state where acceleration and deceleration are both present. Elongation of the connective tissue. Is a significant factor in affecting movement at the joint end ROM. TESTING: Today’s literature identifies many common themes regarding ‘why’ we should screen clients: to conserve energy by proper use of the body and it’s parts; to expend energy intelligently and efficiently to accomplish a given purpose; to sustain attention; allow the body the ability to move, engage and proprioceptively respond through …

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Make your MSK Rehabilitation Plan the best

Thoughts for Rehabilitation In the 11 previous Blogs, we have identified and supported the following statements: Poor movement can be referred to as inefficient movement: where local mechanical stress on muscles, ligaments and joints are increased; and where muscles are required to expend more energy causing earlier fatigue. These poor movement patterns expose biological tissue to increased relative risk of contact (poor loading of tissue causing pre-weakened structures) and non-contact injuries (poor loading of tissue causing premature failure of structures). Acknowledging the underlying principles that are involved in manual testing is an art and a precision necessary to identify these relative risks. The interpretation of the manual testing process enables the observer to create a relevant and safe detailed corrective exercise programme and treatment plan ensuring movement is optimised with regards to reducing pain, fatigue, discomfort, inadequate range. Functional Movement Screens (FMS) must be part of a composite screening protocol which …

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Multiple Sclerosis & Gut Health

Disease Modifying Drugs (DMD) Disease modifying drugs (DMDs) are a group of treatments for people with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). They reduce the number of relapses a Patient might experience as well as reducing the severity of any relapses.  There are 12 drugs approved for use against MS by the NHS in the UK.  Each drug offers a different combination of benefits and risks.  Although relapses are rarely stopped completely, their number and impact can be decreased by taking a disease modifying drug (DMD). Why use DMD? To stop progression.  Stopping progression is important as increasing disability can have an impact on an MS Patients quality of life. This has proved a difficult area to research and, so far, the MS support groups report there isn’t anything which will stop progression completely. Some of the disease modifying drugs can slow down progression through their effect on decreasing relapses. To repair the …

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Multiple Sclerosis Building a New Brain

Disease Modifying Nutriment (DMN) First thought To build a new brain, we have to take advantage of the inherit regeneration and renewal (RnR) process we all have within our bodies.  Every cell in the human body regenerates and renewals every 5-7 years.  The central nervous system (CNS) goes through the RnR process every six weeks.  So, every six weeks every cell in the central nervous system is new.  But, are we guaranteed that the new cell has been generated in to a healthier cell than the one before?  Unfortunately not.  With diseased tissue, unless we are making improvements to the factors that support the RnR process, like nutriment to feed the cell structure and to help build a better cell than the one before, each time a cell regenerates if the framework has not been modified then the new cell will remain diseased. Building the Brain: Phase 2 So for …

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MRI Evidence of MS Improvement

Summary of improvements Often, most MS Consultants will request their patients to have per annum high contrast MRI’s to check the behaviour of their patients disease.  My wife has had three MRI’s to date 2017; November 2015 (NHS): diagnosis of MS May 2016 (NHS): to check behaviour of MS – MS had progressed and become more aggressive, more pressure to begin Lemtrada or Tysabri treatment. July 2017 (Private): For us to both be able to identify if the nutriment protocol was working Things to note: Between diagnosis, November 2015, and April 2017 no changes to lifestyle were made.  All symptoms remained the same. Nutritional programme, Healing the Gut, started April 4th 2017. An independent Radiologist was given the high contrast MRI’s from 2015, 2016, and 2017 and asked to interpret the data and report his findings.  This was his findings; Brain Spinal Cord Important Message A ‘snap-shot’ into a very complicated …

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MS Case Study: How to rebuild a better system

Therefore, if we wanted to build a new nervous system her gut needed to be able to break down and absorb specific cell building ingredients for us to do this - hence the reason why gut health needed to come first.  And as you'll see, if you were to keep reading, the gut and the nervous system are very much inter-active.

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Jo Abbott’s Sunshine Milk

Jo Abbott’s Sunshine Milk Sunshine Milk drink developed whilst on my travels with my body needing very specific nourishment during certain challenges life throws at us all.  The first time I made it, it came out my mouth as quickly as it went in! Over the past three years I have found the right formula for my taste – please feel free to modify to your tastes, keep the ingredients as raw and organic as you can and you too will feel the rewards of this sweet winter warmer. Ingredients 2 pints organic unsweetened almond milk 2 tsp organic raw local honey (local honey will help desensitise you to allergens within the environment you live in) 2 tbsp liquid organic raw turmeric root (I juice the root and then add to the milk on the day of making) 1 tsp organic black peppercorns 1 tbsp organic cinnamon 1 cup local organic …

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