Author: srayner

If you come into clinic with musculoskeletal pain then I will often carry out a postural assessment as part of our initial appointment. I do this by asking you to stand straight so that I can check your alignment. Are your feet facing straight ahead or are they turned inwards or outwards? Do you lean forward or back? Is one shoulder higher than the other?

Doing this can provide me with additional clues about where your pain may stem from. We can often feel pain in an area of the body away from the root cause, for example hip pain can result from an ankle injury. Locating the path of any misalignment can help me to provide you with a better targeted treatment.

Learning from Western Medicine practitioners

Yesterday I sat in with an orthopaedic surgeon whilst he conducted an examination of a patient. He started by asking some of the same questions that I ask about pain. For example, what (if anything) makes it feel better and what is it worse for. He then went on to palpate (gently press) around the patient’s painful knee. Finally he asked her to stand and to walk around a little. This let him check for anywhere that was bending in or out where it shouldn’t (misalignment). He discovered that a knee sprain was not able to mend because the patient’s ankle was twisting with each step they took. This pulled on the muscles attaching to the knee. He advised her to wear shoes with good arch support to correct this. This should allow the knee to mend in its own time.

So if you come to clinic with musculoskeletal pain don’t be surprised if I ask you to stand up so that I can take look at you. And if you’ve twisted an ankle recently please don’t think it’s unimportant to tell me about it because you’ve come with a bad back. The two could be connected.

I love my work and I love when I can use my skills to help my family as well as clients. This week my hubby is receiving treatment from me to speed up his recovery from a rotten cold.

I’ve only just recently got over a cold myself and then my hubby started with one at the end of last week. I know that most people know someone at the moment who is suffering with this particular strain of a cold and for many of us it brings with it, a feeling of light to moderate depression – not something you need when your resistance is on the low side anyway.

I gave my hubby an acupuncture treatment yesterday afternoon to try and alleviate some of the symptoms and less than an hour later he reported that his muzzy head was clearing and that his mood had lifted considerably. He started breathing more clearly, though he did still feel tired.

Overnight some of the muzziness returned, though the dripping tap of a nose didn’t return. This afternoon I treated him again and he’s definitely sounding brighter and reports a much clearer head. In fact he returned to work today and comments that he wouldn’t have been able to do that if his head was still as foggy as yesterday.

If you or someone you know is suffering with a heavy cold then consider acupuncture to treat your symptoms and speed up your recovery.