Tag: healthy living advice

Feel Less Stress And Feel Better

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Stress is the bodies way of helping us avoid a potentially life threatening situation. In order to cope the body goes through some major changes which include:

  • stress hormones being released
  • an increased heart rate
  • rapid and shallow breathing
  • glucose flooding the body
  • brain activity changes
  • tensing of muscles
  • reprioritisation of bodily functions

These changes are appropriate to help get us out of danger, however, being continually in this state is not good for our health.

If you experience stress on a frequent basis here are 6 techniques you can use to reduce it:

  • ensure you get good quality sleep
  • eat a healthy diet
  • participate in relaxation techniques such as yoga
  • practice mindfulness
  • spend time with people you love
  • take regular exercise

Take the above on-board and feel less stressed and feel better.

Get Your Body Winter Ready

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healthy living advice cliffs chiropractor southendIt’s Time! The clocks have gone back and as winter approaches, daylight reduces and delightful children bring various ‘bugs’ home, yes, it’s certainly time to get your body winter ready.

Here are our Southend chiropractors top tips for getting your body winter ready:

  1. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables: Of course this is good advice throughout the year but if your fruit and veg intake has waned over recent months now is a good time to get your fruit bowl full and dig out some great winter warming recipes that use lots of veggies. Root vegetables that are in good supply over the winter months are great for soups and adding to casseroles. Keep dried fruits and nuts to hand and eat them instead of reaching for the sweets, chocolates and other unhealthy snacks!
  2. Start your day as you mean to go on: Eat a big bowl of porridge to set you up for the day and stop those mid morning cravings. Add fruit and nuts as toppings to get in your early doses of fruit for the day. Use water or non dairy milk such as almond or oat to make your porridge and avoid adding any sugar.
  3. Take regular exercise and get outdoors: Exercise is important for maintaining a healthy body and has so many other benefits such as boosting our mood and immune system. Getting outdoors can have similar effects so wrap up warm and step outside.
  4. Boost your immune system: Your gut is the epicentre of your immune system so take Vitamin D3 and Zinc daily to boost it. Keep Echinacea on the shelf for a quick anti viral response should a cold start to tickle.
  5. Visit a chiropractor: A good chiropractor will be able to help you with any pains or discomfort you may experiencing. They can also provide nutrition and lifestyle advice to support your good health.

Our experienced chiropractors at Cliffs Chiropractic Clinic in Southend are here to help you keep well throughout the year.

 

 

 

Get Walking This Autumn

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Summer is slipping away and autumn is nearly upon us, however, it can be such a great time of year to get outdoors and take some exercise. Our chiropractors at Cliffs Chiropractic Clinic in Southend can’t stress enough how important taking regular exercise is both for our physical and mental health.

Walking is a great form of exercise. It is accessible, free and can be done by most people whatever their age or level of fitness.

We are fortunate that Southend and the surrounding areas offer many wonderful places to get outdoors and walk.

Our chiropractors advise that if you haven’t exercised for some time then start slowly. Make sure you wear a good pair of comfortable shoes that provide good support. Build up your walking pace over time. To gain the health benefits from your walking you will need to walk briskly. A good test to check whether you are walking sufficiently fast is to try singing a song – if you find that difficult but can speak it then you’re probably walking at the right pace.

If you have any health concerns then it is advisable to talk to your GP, chiropractor or other health care practitioner for advice before starting any new form of exercise.

Breath Happy Hay Fever Sufferers

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hay fever advice from our southend chiropractorHay fever season is in full swing for the many sufferers with itchy eyes, runny noses, fatigue to name the main symptoms. These symptoms are the result of an allergic inflammatory response, a zealous defence mechanism.

QUERCETIN is a popular supplement found in many fruits and vegetables with apples and onions the best examples for a UK diet.

It appears that quercetin exerts part of its anti-inflammatory effect through inhibiting the production of inflammatory producing enzymes, which are involved in the regulation of inflammatory mediators- leukotrienes and prostoglandis.

The good news for hay fever sufferers is that we stock and recommend Quercetin from a plant source at Cliffs Chiropractic Clinic. The product we stock provides 500mg of pure Quercetin!

A 60 day supply of this all natural product with the added benefit of not causing any drowsiness either costs £19.50.

All you need to do is ask at reception for the product and one of our team will be able to help you.

Breath happy hay fever sufferers!

Not Keen On Taking Exercise – Try One of These

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The sedentary lifestyle that many people are living is seriously damaging their health and this includes the health of their spine.  Our chiropractors are keen to persuade everyone where appropriate to be more active and to take regular exercise. Whatever your age, level of ability or health condition there’s a form of exercise that will suit you.

Our chiropractors are committed to helping people take better care of themselves and have developed programmes that help support people in doing this. Two such programmes are The Back Story and Back to Business.

Having seen the effects that modern day living is having on all generations, Arif Soomro, one of our experienced chiropractors developed The Back Story.  Arif says, “We all understand the importance of taking care of ourselves; it’s better for our quality of life, especially as we get older. But at Cliffs we’re treating the effects of modern day living and are now seeing more and more 20 and 30-year-olds with the kind of neck, shoulder and back problems usually associated with much older people.”.

The Back Story enables you to click on your age-group and offers you suggestions for the best forms of exercises you can take to help you increase your energy levels, strength and flexibility. Check it out here.

If you spend hours working at your desk all day, you may very well be complaining of a stiff neck, aching shoulders or a bad back. If any of this sounds familiar, then our Back to Business programme is for you. There are six simple exercises that are really easy to do, especially in the confines of an office. Why not take a look here.

Our chiropractors at Cliffs Chiropractic in Southend are committed to help you gain the best possible health.

Ditch the car and walk to school

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back care advice fom our southend chiropractorIt’s Walk to School week (May 21 -25) and if you are taking up the challenge to ditch the car and walk your kids to school this week then congratulations. Last year 400,000 children and families participated in the Living Streets challenge. Every year Living Streets come up with a new fun, themed challenge designed to encourage children and their families to walk to school and get a taste of the many benefits walking can bring.

With back pain in children and young people on the rise our chiropractors cannot stress enough the importance that exercise plays in the health of children’s backs. Back pain is on the increase across all ages and a major contributory factor to this increase is down to lifestyles that are heavily sedentary and it’s sad to say that children are not immune to being increasingly inactive.

It’s important that children and teenagers take adequate exercise during the day – one hour is recommended. Taking exercise not only has health benefits but it is good for the brain too and can improve memory and thinking skills.

One of our experienced chiropractors at Cliffs Chiropractic, Arif Soomro, is so concerned with the state of children’s and people’s spines that he developed the Back Story. The Back Story was developed by Arif to be a proactive guide to enable anyone to help themselves take better care of themselves depending on their age.

By choosing an age group you can learn what’s happening to your body and how you can increase your energy levels, strength and flexibility. Making a few lifestyle changes today, and sustaining them, can give you benefits that last a lifetime. The information starts with toddlers and goes through to the 80+ age group. If you have children then you will definitely want to read the appropriate sections for their age.

Now back to ditching your car and walking  your kids to school. You may have missed out on being a part of the Walk to School challenge this May but why not create your own challenge. Try walking to school 5 days and see the benefits. If you have a long drive to school why not park the car 10 minutes away and walk from there.

We know it can be tough to fit in the school walk and ditch the car with everything else that needs to get done but in the long term we think it’s worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

How not to injury yourself during the Winter Olympics

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back care advice from our southend chiropractorWith the Winter Olympics soon set to hit our screens, many of us will be spending a good few hours in front of the TV. But did you know that sitting down for prolonged periods can be seriously harmful to your spine and other aspects of your health? According to our Southend chiropractor, more than half of us spend over six hours sitting down each and every day, which can have short- and long-term effects on our health and bodies. So if you’re planning on slumping in front of the TV this February, take a look at the damage it could do to your health:

1.  It can cause weak legs and glutes

If you don’t use them, you lose them as they say. Sitting for long periods of time means you don’t have to depend on your powerful lower body muscles to support your weight. This can lead to weakening of the muscles. Without strong leg and glute muscles to stabilise you, your body is at risk of injury.

2.  It can lead to weight gain

Regular movement causes your muscles to release important molecules which help to process the fats and sugars you eat. If you spend most of your day sitting, less of these molecules are released and you become at risk of gaining more weight.

3. It can result in tight hips and back pain

Your hips and back will almost certainly suffer from sitting for too long. When you are sitting down, your hip flexors shorten which causes them to become tight and stiff. On top of this, if you have bad posture or you don’t use an ergonomic chair, the health of your spine will suffer! Poor posture while sitting can cause compression on the discs in your spine which can lead to premature degeneration and chronic pain.

Similarly to your lower back,  your shoulders and neck are also likely to suffer from prolonged periods of sitting. This is especially true if you tend to sit in a hunched or slouched position.

Relaxing in front of the TV may seem like quite a benign thing to do, but the health implications of sitting down for too long can be enormous!

A Back Is For Life – So Look After It

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Echo, Back Story, 80s, 9.1Iris Goldfinch may be 95 years old but she is intrepid as they come. Iris first came to Cliffs when she was 81 years old and had fallen off a ladder!

As part of our Back Story Campaign, the Echo published an article with Arif focusing on how octogenarians can help themselves keep fit and healthy and features Iris and her treatment at Cliffs over the years.

Iris says “I wouldn’t be moving about today if it weren’t for Arif. I’ve been having regular chiropractic treatment for years, which was vital when I was caring for Kev (her husband).”

In the article, Arif, provides advice to people in their 80s and 90s on ways they can help themselves keep fit and healthy.

Arif says, “When we enter our 80s and 90s the senses that guide balance: vision, touch and spatial awareness, may all start to deteriorate, and this can make us unsteady on our feet which can lead to falls. The NHS estimates that around one in three adults over 65, who live at home, will have at least one fall a year, and about half of these will have more frequent falls. There’s always a risk that a fall could lead to broken bones, which can sometimes lead to a loss of confidence, so making the time to do regular exercises like yoga and tai chi, can really help to keep our sense of balance strong, and restore what’s already been lost.”

Arif and his team recommend that people in their 80s and 90s should never stop exercising and that there’s nothing better than 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (like a brisk walk where you’re not breathing so hard that you can’t carry on a conversation) five days a week. But you mustn’t neglect your upper body, lower body and core as you need to keep your whole body strong to avoid too much loss of muscle mass.

This is just some of the advice Arif offers in the article so be sure to read it here.

Arif developed ‘The Back Story’ campaign to help all of us, whatever our age, lead a healthier, happier life. The Back Story page on our website provides invaluable advice on how you can take better care of yourself whatever age you are.

Stick To Your New Year Healthy Eating Resolution

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The New Year is quickly coming and you may be making a new year resolution to eat more healthily.

This is a great resolution and we think it’s a worthwhile resolution, however, you do need to set yourself up for success. Our chiropractors at Cliffs Chiropractic Southend have some advice to help you stick to your resolution in 2018.

One of the first steps to take is to make sure that you remove all temptations that may be lurking in your cupboards. Left over treats from Christmas can often cry out for us to eat them!

Next we recommend you find a way of eating more healthily that suits you and your lifestyle and as importantly that you enjoy. Fad diets don’t work, in the main because they are unsustainable and not that enjoyable! Making healthy choices can be confusing so you may need to educate yourself – there are plenty of good books available to help you.

Nothing will take you off track quicker than being too busy to prepare your healthy meals! To avoid calling for that unhealthy take away or grabbing the ready meal at the supermarket – plan your meals out for the week and make a shopping list of the ingredients you’ll need. Make sure you stick to your shopping list and meal plan don’t get side tracked! Make enough food so you have leftovers for the next day or even cook batches so you have healthy meals to hand.

We hope these tips will help you achieve your healthy eating goal in 2018.

 

Staying Fit & Healthy In Your Forties

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Echo 40s“HOW can I be 40; I’m still 23 in my head!” Does that ring a bell? So, what does turning 40 mean to you?

The truth is there’s never going to be one easy answer, because – and this has never been truer – you’re as young as you feel. However, there’s no escaping the fact that for many people approaching their forties is a time of reckoning.

In a recent article published in the Echo, Arif offers some great advice for ways that you can look and feel great in your forties. His advice includes the best forms of exercise to take in your forties along with golden rules for your diet.

Arif stresses, “While we can’t slow the aging process, if we develop the right attitude we can feel younger and more energetic and that will show in the way we walk, talk and look.”

“Forty, is, as they say, only a number”.

Click here to read the full article.

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