Acupuncture and pain relief study I’m loving!
The following article link explains beautifully a recent study by RMIT University in Melbourne. It was conducted in 4 emergency wards on acute lower back pain, ankle injuries and migraines. The study has finally proven that acupuncture is an effective pain reliever. Many of you will have had needling by me so this won’t be a huge surprise to you, but for those that haven’t it’s a great therapy to keep in mind for pain relief.
Hot baths and heat shock proteins!
There has been a large body of research into saunas and their impact on health over the last 20 years. The main reason for this is several population studies that have shown that regular sauna users (3-5x week) have a lower mortality from all causes. The mechanism for this is believed to be the release of heat shock proteins. These proteins are released in response to mild environmental stress and have been shown to increase cardiovascular health, increase metabolism, increase glucose tolerance and the benefit I’ve been talking the most about in clinic – they’re anti-inflammatory!
Unfortunately, in Australia, there are not more saunas than reindeer – like in Finland! But there is a simple hack to get the same result and as it’s the coldest time of the year it’s a pretty pleasant one – a hot bath!
For your body to release these proteins the bath needs to be 40C at least and you need to be in it for one hour. I’d suggest using a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. In my bath at home, the temperature only seems to drop a few degrees every half hour so it’s fairly easy to keep it at 40C.
So feel free to enjoy this rather pleasant pastime with many health benefits.
Anti-ageing Vitamin D
The video below is by the fantastic Dr Rhonda Patrick – if you like to nerd out on biochem and nutrition click on the link to check out her website out www.foundmyfitness.com. It’s a treasure trove of awesome information.
Many of you would be aware that as a population we are often vitamin D deficient. The following video provides a great description of what vitamin D is and what it does. The main crux of the video is how it is anti-ageing and how it achieves that. Dr Patrick gives the American blood levels in the video. In Australia, we use mm/ml for Vitamin D, and the equivalent is between 100 and 140 mm/ml. I’d personally not go above 120 mm/ml as too much Vit D can be harmful too.
I’m away this Friday and Saturday, but Stefan is back from Holidays. Lior and Yuki are working this Saturday and Kevin is working this Sunday.
Next week I’ll be posting some tips for all you City to Surf runners.
As always, you can book online 24/7 or on our Facebook page.
Have a great rest of the week and weekend.
Cheers
Anthony