Osteopathy was founded in the late 1800s by physician and surgeon Andrew Taylor Still in Kirksville, Missouri. The son of a surgeon, Still soon discovered that in order to achieve the highest possible form of health, all parts of the body should work together. His goal was to restore the body to optimum health with minimal surgery and medicine. He believed that medical treatments of that time were largely ineffective and in some cases, harmful.

Modern day Osteopathy is a hands on therapy that treats the muscles, tendons, bones, ligaments and joints – the musculoskeletal system. It may even help with nerve conditions, arthritis, associated pain with auto-immune conditions and headaches.

Osteopaths believe, as A.T Still did, that all of the body’s systems and structures are connected and we should consider the whole body and all possible causes when assessing the body for your condition. This is why we might ask you questions that relate to other parts of your body, not just the parts that hurt when you come in for your appointment.

During our consultations we take an extensive history about your condition and your general medical history. We not only want to obtain a deep understand of your problem, we also want to have a good picture of your overall health. We like to make sure that we aren’t missing anything that could be contributing to your pain, as well as making sure you are healthy in all aspects of your life.

We help our clients by performing manual techniques such as:

• Soft tissue massage
• Joint mobilization
• Stretching
• Articulation
• Manipulation or “cracking” as it is commonly known.

We are also trained to provide the following:

• Rehabilitation exercises (see our library of exercises on our Youtube Channel)
• Dry needling (click here for more information on dry needling)
• Shockwave therapy (click here for more information on Shockwave Therapy)
• High-powered LASER therapy (this is a very new, cutting edge technology)
• Generalised health education.

If we believe your condition is not suitable for Osteopathic treatment, we may liaise with many other health professionals and specialist doctors. By referring you to them you are matched with the most appropriate health care provider. Ultimately, our aim is to get you moving and feeling better regardless of the avenue you take.

Our Osteopaths believe that one of our main roles is in educating you so you better understand what is happening to your body, and why.  After all, knowledge is power! Towards the end of a consultation with a new client, we will provide you with a well-rounded treatment plan that details the following:

• Your diagnosis so you know exactly what’s going on
• A timeframe so you know how long you can expect your recovery to take
• How many consultations you will need for recovery and
• Any exercises or recommendations to assist you getting better, faster.

We always aim to give you strategies outside of the treatment room that will assist in speeding up your recovery.

Clients often tell us that they enjoy coming to see our Osteopaths because we provide the best of both worlds – effective hands on manual therapy in the room, while also giving you the tools to take home from the treatment to help manage their injury or condition and/or general health. And our appointments are 50% longer than most other allied health professionals – time we use to really get to know you and your injury/condition.

To learn more about Osteopathy, check out our website here.

If you have any questions about Osteopathy or would like to book an appointment, give us a call at Pakenham Osteopathy at 5941 4157 or book online.

School holidays are fast approaching and with overseas travel on hold for a while, many of us are choosing to jump in the car to escape.  Driving holidays can be a whole lot of fun, but if you don’t manage them well, your body may suffer.  If you’ve ever got out of the car at your destination and had to limp a little or felt really stiff and sore, then this article is for you!

“Sitting in a slouched position can increase the pressure on your lower back by 90%! “

Photo by averie woodard on Unsplash

We’ve put together some of our top tips to help you avoid aches and pains if you’re setting off on a driving holiday. But if you don’t want to make sure you’re in the best condition possible (so that pain doesn’t ruin your plans) make an appointment with us before you go.

Plan your stops

Planned stops are a great way to reduce the aches and pains that come from driving for hours on end. Sitting for prolonged periods has been shown to result in back pain and stiffness. To help reduce this, add in a stop every 1-2 hours to get out, stretch your legs and even see the local area. By planning a stop, you can not only reduce your stiffness, you can also see more of our great townships and contribute to the local communities who really need the support. 

Swap drivers

A great deal of concentration is required when driving and when concentrating for hours on end your body can become tired and fatigued. To make the trip more enjoyable and safer for you and your family, swap drivers (if possible) to allow your mind and body to rest. While in the passenger seat you can be the resident DJ, tour guide and conversationalist. You will not only get to see more of the sites and possibly wildlife, it will also give your body a break and allow you to move into different positions, unlike when you’re driving.

Stretches

Completing regular stretches allows for fluid drainage and an increase in tissue length.  Both of these result in decreased joint stiffness and less muscles aches. Although there is a range of stretches you can complete, the aim is to target 4 main areas: the hips, back, neck and shoulders. Stretching at your rest stops is a perfect opportunity to move your lower back and hips completing things such as leg swings front to back or side to side against the car. While you’re a passenger you have the freedom to stretch your neck and shoulders while keeping the driver company (watch this video below for our 2 best neck stretches).

If you’re the only designated driver, then one hack is to place your rear vision mirror slightly higher than normal so you are forced to maintain an upright posture.  When we tire, we tend to slouch so the mirror height will be a constant reminder to sit tall in your seat.

Nutrition and water

When driving, we sometimes forget to drink and eat in our regular routines as we are going from a starting point to our destination. It’s important to schedule in breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks ensuring we are able to fuel our body and mind. If travelling for 1-2 days you can always prepare a meal for the trip such as a sandwich or salad with canned fish for the bigger meals.

Snacks are another great way to refuel while on the road as they’re quick and easy to eat. Some examples of great snacks to take is fruit, mixed nuts, raw vegetables or even a homemade trail mix with some dark chocolate buds in there. Yum!

If meal preparation is not your thing then planning your stop at the local town’s will allow you to take a break in a nice café or pub where the selection of food is endless. 

Although the destination is the reason for the trip it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the journey in a safe and pain free way! For more information on strategies for your trip, come in and see us. Or if you’re about to embark upon a driving holiday, make an appointment before you go so your body is in tip top shape for the journey.  The last thing you want is to have your holiday ruined because of pain!

Have a happy, safe and pain-free holiday!

Gluteal tendinopathy

Have you recently started to experience pain at the side of your hip? With the turn of the new year now behind us, maybe you’re embracing your new healthy lifestyle and have been going for a solid run several times a week to shift some of those festive kilos… Or it might just be that you’re getting a bit older, hitting the middle decades of life, and you’ve had a nagging hip for a while. There are a few structures in and around the hip that can lead to pain felt at the very outer aspect of it. Problems in the low back, the hip joint itself, and soft tissues that surround the joint can all be viable culprits.

Common culprits in the running and middle-aged populations are the tendons of the gluteal muscles. These muscles are responsible for movement at the hip (outwards, backwards and forwards) and stability of the pelvis and hip during movement. There are three gluteal muscles or ‘glutes’. The deepest muscle is the gluteus minimus, followed by gluteus medius, and finally gluteus maximus (which is the largest and most superficial of all three). Where the gluteus medius and minimus tendons wrap around the bony outer part of the hip and insert into the bone, are the areas most commonly associated with disease leading to pain in the outer hip.

Tendon disease

There are a few terms that can describe a diseased tendon. An acutely inflamed tendon is known as ‘tendinitis’, where ‘itis‘ means inflammation occurring at the tissue. A tendon which is chronically diseased (i.e. long-standing pain that may have been present for several weeks, months or years without the presence of inflammation), is known as ‘tendinopathy’. Historically the term ‘tendinosis’ was used to describe a chronic tendon problem, but tendinopathy is now the favoured term. The important thing is to think of a tendon problem sitting somewhere on a continuum between acutely inflamed and chronically degenerated and/or torn.

Let’s take our aforementioned population, a middle-aged female (females are more affected by this issue than males), who runs. What typically happens is they will start to run with the full intent of bettering themselves. Due to poor running technique, the tendon becomes overloaded and after a few weeks or months… Bang! Inflammation, pain, can barely walk! Once the initial pain settles and movement resumes, they start to run again. If they haven’t corrected the problem that underlies the initial acute episode (Tut tut… They didn’t go to see their osteo!), the problem compounds itself. The body will compensate, and further excessive load and compression are placed on the tendons and other surrounding structures. This might go on for a while with the hip grumbling from time to time. Eventually, the changes that have occurred to the tendon tissue result in widespread degeneration and derangement of the tendon fibres and you are left with a tendon incapable of dealing with the high loads required to do something like running. If left untreated, the tendon eventually tears and leaves you with a very unhappy and less mobile hip.

Signs and symptoms

The signs and symptoms of a gluteus medius and/or gluteus minimus tendinopathy include any or all of the following:

• Pain felt on the outside of your hip
• Pain that radiates down the thigh to the knee
• Pain that is worse before and after exercise
• Pain that improves initially with exercise (depending where on the disease process you are)
• Pain when lying on the affected side
• Difficulty walking up stairs or hills
• Difficulty standing on one leg (on the affected side)

Treatment

Your first port of call is to temporarily cease the activity that is aggravating your hip, and ring your osteo (ahem… 5941-4157). This will help to de-load the injured tendon, and give you relief knowing soon you will be in the hands of an expert who is going to guide you through your recovery journey. We will assess your movement from top to bottom and work out where the root cause of your problem is. This is what osteopaths are great at doing. We look beyond the pain, take a picture of your whole life (occupation, hobbies, family life, etc…) and work out all of the contributing factors, so we can put a comprehensive plan in place to rid you of your problem forever.

For a gluteal tendon problem to occur in the first place, there will likely be mechanical issues to correct in the spine and/or lower limb (from the foot up). We do this with a combination of:

• Hands-on therapy to soothe your pain and improve muscle and joint health
• Re-training of poor movements into more efficient movements
• Strengthening exercises for the muscles / tendons
• Alterations to your daily life which may be contributing to your issue (i.e. increasing particular activities, decreasing aggravating activities, changing a work posture.

Over time, treatment will aim to progressively strengthen the gluteal tendons, so they are capable of withstanding greater loads again. Combined with correction of poor, inefficient movements, this will also decrease the compressive forces acting on the tissues in and around the hip, leaving you with greater strength and more flexibility.

We will be with you every step of the way. A gluteal tendinopathy doesn’t mean you have to give up running. We might need to change focus for a short period during rehab, but our goal will be to get you back to your pre-injury state… with a little extra in the tank so you’re not back with us for the same issue within two months.

Hip pain, was it? No problem. We got this!