Feeling Sad?

Have you been experiencing any of the following symptoms:

• Feeling down or depressed
• Less interested in doing things or procrastinating
• Loss of libido
• Over eating
• Waking up in the night
• Waking up too early
• More tired than usual, heavy limbs, aching muscles or headaches
• Stomach problems, sweating, cramps, having to urinate frequently, dry mouth, sighing, heart palpitations, hyperventilating
• Feeling tense, irritable, worrying too much about little things
• Slow thoughts or speech
• Fidgety, restless, difficulty concentrating
• Paranoid and suspicious

If you have, you’re not alone. About 25% of the population is affected each year, particularly during the months of December, January and February. For 7% of people the symptoms can actually become debilitating. It’s like a form of winter depression called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). A reduction in daylight hours and a lack of sunlight disrupt our body clocks and may lead to an imbalance in the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin.

Winter is characterised by a relative scarcity of food and some animals take the opportunity to hibernate. Their metabolism decreases in order to conserve energy. Although we’ve never hibernated, before the advent of electricity and in particular the light bulb in the 1800s, our activity and sleep was dictated by sunlight. As the number of sunlight hours decreased during the winter months, so did our activity. Our body clocks followed a marked seasonal rhythm.

The artificial light produced by electricity has allowed us to become more productive by helping us keep the same working hours throughout the year. Even though artificial lighting is strong enough to allow us to work and live, it’s much weaker than natural sunlight. As a result, it lacks the strength to regulate our body clocks in the same way that natural sunlight does. We’re now forcing our bodies to awaken when they would naturally be asleep. This burden hasn’t been tolerated well.

Read my next post for some useful tips to help you beat the winter blues.

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

Siddhartha Guatama Buddha

I Wouldn’t Sit For That (Part 2)

Here are my tips to help prevent back pain, obesity, heart disease, cancer and death from over sitting:

• Stand whilst on public transport…there’ll be more than enough time to sit when you get to work
• Get up from your desk at least 1-2 times an hour (less than 5 minutes standing and walking around is sufficient)
• Drink more often, you’ll have to get up more frequently…to get a drink…and to go to the toilet
• Rather than send an email, why not walk over and speak to someone? (research has shown that walking at a leisurely pace is enough to reverse the metabolic changes caused by prolonged sitting)
• Don’t have lunch at your desk…go for a short walk…get some fresh air
• Organise your work tasks so that they involve frequent movement
• Here’s a little exercise you can do when you stand (breath in whilst you reach upwards and hold the position for about 5 seconds)…it will help your back

• Don’t use your car when your feet will do just as well

The clear message is that health can be maintained by including frequent short periods of standing and walking in our normal daily activity…little and often is the way forward!

I Wouldn’t Sit For That

Most of us spend the overwhelming majority of our waking hours seated. We sit down to have breakfast. Then we sit in our cars or on the train or bus on the way to work. When we arrive at work, we sit at our desks until lunch and then sit a little more to enjoy lunch. After work, we once again sit in our cars or on the train or bus. As soon as we get home we rush in to “take the load off” and collapse into our sofas, from where we surreptitiously pretend to read the paper…until dinner is ready! We then sit down to savour our meal, after which we promptly return to our sofas to digest…whilst watching a little TV…sound familiar?

Unfortunately for us, sitting is a major risk factor in the development of low back pain and it has even been associated with disc herniation. I naïvely assumed that was the worst of it until I stumbled upon a thought-provoking article…

Can sitting too much kill you? Wow, talk about getting your attention! Research has shown that spending excessive periods of time sitting can lead to obesity, heart disease and cancer. This can happen even if we take part in regular exercise. As Dr Marc Hamilton says, “sitting too much is not the same as exercising too little”. One of the culprits may be an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase. It allows muscles to uptake fat thereby decreasing the levels of fat circulating in the blood stream…and preventing arteries from becoming clogged up. Sitting markedly decreases the secretion of lipoprotein lipase. A large study conducted by Dr Peter Katzmarzyk found those who sit more are at higher risk of death than those who sit less.

Shocking isn’t it? I bet you won’t complain the next time you don’t get a seat on the train or underground! Before you sell your sofa and chairs or hand in your notice in search of that coveted job as a parking attendant or postman…things may not be as bleak as they seem…check out my next post for some life saving tips!

Water Works

Drink 1.6 litres (women) to 2 litres (men) of water a day

Our bodies are 50-60% water. Water is the most essential of all nutrients. It plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure and body temperature. It is crucial for digestion and it cushions and lubricates the brain and joints.

Two to three litres of water are lost every day through breathing, urinating, defecating and perspiring. Naturally, the quantity of water loss will depend on temperature, humidity, clothing, exercise, etc. A water loss of more than 1% of our body weight is accompanied by a decrease in physical and mental performance. The signs of mild dehydration are: thirst, headache, weakness, dizziness and fatigue. Moderate dehydration leads to a dry mouth, decreased urination, sluggishness, a rapid heartbeat and a lack of skin elasticity.

Although our sensation of thirst usually keeps us normally hydrated, the declining ability to detect thirst with age makes dehydration more common in the elderly. I remember telling my grandfather that he needed to drink more and his response was that he didn’t like it because it made him have to get up…and walk to the toilet! The colour of our urine is one of the best indicators of hydration. Straw coloured urine is ideal. The darker the urine, the more we need to drink.

It is recommended that we take in 2 litres (women) to 2.5 litres (men) of water a day (80% of the replacement water comes from what we drink and the remaining 20% comes from our food). Obviously our intake should be increased if we exercise vigorously.

Most of the information used in this article came from the European Hydration Institute. They are truly a one stop shop on hydration…and they even have a tool that allows you to compare the colour of your urine! Just in case you were wondering…

Yoga and Stretching Ease Back Pain

Something I read with interest in the news this week. A large randomised controlled trial in the US has shown that both yoga and stretching can lead to better function and decreased symptoms from chronic low back pain. Although this was no surprise to me, it’s always good to have evidence to back up our practice…I believe they call it evidence based practice…

If you would like to read the entire article, please follow the link below:

Largest US Yoga Study to Date Finds Yoga Eases Back Pain

Injury Blues

Last week I injured my shoulder whilst training in martial arts. Yeah, I know…if I’m going to play silly games I should expect things like that to happen! My first emotion was anger. Anger about the way it happened, who was to blame, “I should have known better”, etc. This got me thinking about the mental aspects of injury.

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross released a groundbreaking  book called “On Death and Dying”. It included a model which described the process by which people coped and dealt with grief and tragedy. Tragedies such as being diagnosed with a terminal illness. She defined 5 stages:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

Interestingly, she later discovered that this process also applied to other forms of loss such as; the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, injury, etc. Although there are 5 stages, not everyone goes through all of them. Also, the order is not necessarily as shown above and people can dip in and out of a particular stage.

Athina Markou and Karen Wager-Smith have recently postulated that severe stress and adverse life events can lead to neurobiological processes that physically alter the brain. They believe this is an adaptive response and that it is accompanied by wound healing mechanisms such as inflammation. Certain neurons die, others sprout, change shape and make new connections as the brain rewires itself.

With injuries, the sooner we reach acceptance, the sooner we can start to work on the road to physical recovery. Fortunately for me, my injury isn”t serious and so, it didn’t take long to “get my head around it” and reach acceptance. I’d like to share with you something that really helped me. It’s a video documentary of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Braulio Estima.

Braulio Estima Road to ADCC Episode 4 – YouTube

It’s a wonderful illustration of how adversity can be faced with courage…and the miracles that can be achieved with belief, determination and perseverance.

“The first wealth is health”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Welcome to Healing in Motion

I guess I should start from the beginning. Why ‘Healing in Motion’? ‘Healing’ obviously relates to health, something that a lot of us take for granted…until it goes awry. Our health must be continuously cultivated through our actions and our behaviour. Good health is something to be cherished surely?

The word ‘Motion’ has a dual significance. It expresses physical movement. Our bodies are built for movement and thrive on it. When combined with ‘Healing’, it represents a process. I love the word process! It can be defined as a series of changes taking place in a definite manner…and that is exactly what ‘Healing in Motion’ is about…a series of physical, mental and/or emotional changes taking place in a definite manner and steadily moving you towards better health.

What will I write about in this blog? Well, I will include research, news, exercises, tips, quotes, musings and anything else that I think may be of interest and benefit in helping you achieve great health. Welcome!