Erdington Osteopaths & Acupuncture Centre

Hello Friends of Erdington Osteopaths and Acupuncture centre. Thanks for continuing with your interest and support. I have been rather distracted recently with a development of and old hobby. I have taken up the bass guitar and attempting to learn to read music. Even though I have a stiff back and fingers from practicing, I find it helps me stay happy and purposeful. I clearly need some Osteopathy or Bowen treatment. However I feel I have confirmed a theory illustrated by Dr... Chris Van Tulleken in a recent documentary. Cortisol levels of participants in a study were measured. They were then given activities which might improve your mental wellness. After a time cortisol was retested. Levels had dropped by up 40% generally but, where subjects reported enjoying their activity the greatest reduction in cholesterol was around 70%. Therefore, my simplified conclusion is to choose an activity which you truly enjoy. This may take some experimentation but I believe it will be worth it. Thanks for reading. Regards Stephen
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Hello friends I have just lost some text half way through. It was characteristically long winded. I do go on a bit sometimes! The gist of it was that I recommend that if you get an injury which makes walking painful, consult an expert as soon as possible to find out if it is safe to keep moving as much as you can. If so, be prepared to go through some pain in order to maintain your mobility in the long term. Just make sure you get advice and support in this. Thanks for following us.

Hello again friends. I thought I had only posted a couple of days ago. Anyway, I want to mention gut flora ie the colony of bacteria which live in your large intestine and which are very important to our health. A recent program on Radio 4 discussed recent research, which suggested that our genome cannot express itself properly if the 'biome' (gut flora) is unhappy. This can lead to a shocking disconnect between the multiple body systems which make up our immune system. Many ...of the chronic 'unwellness' syndromes may be related to this. The most interesting practical thing we can do to help, according to these researchers, is eat a wide variety of vegetables because the friendly bacteria eat vegetable fibre, apparently. They like the onion family best of all yet it is important to eat the biggest variety of fruit and veg that you can. The scientist being interviewed said that a monthly eating cycle is best, trying to get between 20 and 30 different fruit and veg eaten in one month. Count up how many you eat yourselves. You may be surprised !
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Dear Friends, thank you for being so patient. I truly appreciate your continued interest. Today I am talking about rising desks, that is, desks which go up and down so that you can sit or stand at them. Imagine if we could all be active all day and stayed slim naturally as a result. Recently, a BBC documentary attempted to explain why some people are naturally slim. It listed a number of points, like speed of walking and often taking an exercise class once a week. Also having... a takeaway once a week! An important point seemed to be that fidgetty people are slimmer. As I have mentioned before, we are physically adapted to plains hunting and can walk up to 7 hours per day with intermittent bursts of running. The pupose of the rising desk is that it allows you to change working position whenever you want. Researchers have found that this confers a surprising level of natural fitness. Especially if you stand for more time. Tradespeople stand for much of their working day and they usually need less exercise outside work hours in order to stay fit. As an osteopath I am very much in favour of something which keeps people more active during the working day. I have many reports of rising desks helping to rehabilitate peoples back pain. I suggest quite a few of you look into this new piece of office furniture. It might save you a fortune in osteopathy and your employer even more in lost work time! Fond Regards Stephen
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Good evening friends. Thanks for the likes and reviews. I am trying to follow advice about going to bed on time so I will keep this a bit shorter than usual. You may remember I discussed oxidative stress and how it can aggravate inflammation in your joints. Sleep is very important in managing stress, both mental and chemical. The sleep regulating hormone melatonin is also a powerful antioxidant and can be depleted by stress. Taking a green superfood like chlorella or green barley grass in the evening has antioxidant effects and may help to save your melatonin so that it can do its job of regulating your sleep pattern better. I am going to bed now but not before I have some wheatgrass powder in a little water. Goodnight friends.

Hello again friends. I have left it even longer this time. I seem to have been out on my bike with the cycling group quite a lot. I cycled 75 miles last Saturday which was a record for me. I found I was a lot less tired than I expected. After some thought and consultation with experienced endurance cyclists, I realised that I have finally learned to relax enough to save energy. This relates to my last post where I talked about resting and how it keeps our blood vessels from t...ensing up and starving our organs of oxygen. The fight or flight response is only suited to short bursts of activity and so we must learn to relax enough not to induce it except in special circumstances. Many of you will know that there is a balance between anaerobic and aerobic respiration. If our effort level goes too high we eat into energy which we have stored up for emergencies, which can lead to exhaustion quite quickly. I also attend a Tai Chi class where we are constantly told that we have more energy if we relax. I hope this is interesting. Thanks to you all for reading my posts.
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Hello again Friends. I have left it 16 days apparently. I want to extoll the virtues of rest today. If you are busy, your body adapts to your activities and becomes fit for them. However, remaining in a state of alert for too long can weaken the circulation in your joints for 2 reasons. 1) Tense muscles compressing the joints and squeezing them dry of fluids. 2) Blood vessels remaining tense as a result of an overstimulated sympathatic nervous system. Therefore, try to lie do...wn for 5-10 minutes sometime between lunch and teatime. Relax and be aware of your breath pushing your tummy up and down, very slightly. If you only have 1 minute, do this anyway. 1 minute is much better than nothing. The aim is to relax both your muscles and your blood vessels. Good luck and fond regards. Stephen
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Dear Friends, thank you always for your support and encouragement. I am extremely fortunate to have this job. The 36 years I have been an osteopath have gone very quickly. I have often said that a life of 200 years would be more appropriate for most of us as the first 60 is just about growing up. If we were to live that long we would need to reduce the rate of tissue degradation in our bodies. How often have I heard from you good people that your mechanical pain came on after... a period of stress? Recently there was a documentary introduced by Micheal Moseley which used the stress hormone cortisol as a measure of wellbeing (in this case, depression ). High cortisol levels can be associated with muscle weakness which may lead to strained spinal or other joint complexes. In the programme people were encouraged to take up hobbies, like yoga, gardening or painting. The cortisol levels of all the subjects were reduced, but the effect was much greater when the activity was one which they enjoyed. Therefore, I conclude that if you like the gym more than yoga then it will be better for you. Do what makes your heart sing! Fondest Regards Stephen
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Hello Friends of Erdington Osteopaths and Acupuncture. Thanks to everyone for supporting our page. I am grateful partly because I have not made a post for a couple of weeks. Remember we are here to help you manage your pain where appropriate. I see myself as part of your team and always endeavour to work with GPs, the hospital and other complementary practitioners to this end.

I'm cycling from Whitehaven to Newcastle for Centrepoint because I want to help homeless youngsters. You can sponsor me below 👇

This is an attempt at self promotion. I doubt I could sell a used car to my own Grannie. It's too late for that anyway!

Dear friends, once again thank you for your patience. I have been training for a coast to coast cycle challenge and did not realise how close I was to over training. I took a day to go mountain biking with my 17 year old son. We had a lovely day but I pushed myself to the limit. I was then too exhausted to train for the road cycling. Fortunately I recognised this, as I have treated many people over the years who suffer from chronic fatigue. They describe the warning signs. If... you are too tired to exercise then rest, by which I mean potter about at home. Do light housework and gardening and take frequent breaks. Your fluids will circulate gently around your body and you will gradually recover. If you watch a box set at home, get up and potter for half an hour between each episode. Circulation is so important, and where exercise is concerned less is often more, as the saying goes. Be kind to yourselves. Regards Stephen
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Dear friends, I am rather frustrated. I had nearly finished a post and the facepage crashed. I type at a snail's pace. I was talking about how joint pain is often a symptom of inflammation. I described how a recurring knee problem I suffered was diagnosed with the help of MRI as a split cartilage. I was offered knee surgery but the problem resolved apparently as a result of taking the enzyme serrapeptase and has not returned. In theory the enzyme broke down debris from the sp...lit cartilage and allowed it to be removed thereby eradicating the irritation which had led to repeated inflammation in the knee. That is a mechanical cause of tissue irritation leading to inflammation. Other causes are thought to include chemical irritation from, for example allergies or acidifying dietary habits (mainly lack of veg and fruit). This will be less specific to one area and may show up as a rheumatoid-like arthritis sometimes known as polyarthritis which can cause pain in several areas. We have an acid balance check sheet which gives a rough indication of the acidifying or alkalising effect of some common foods. Try and eat your greens over Easter to supplement the chocolate eggs which grow in the garden. Really they do!
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Good evening friends. It's a wet night out, but just remember that means the trees will stay green for longer in the summer. By the same token, your intervertebral discs need irrigating as well. Some of my regulars might recognise this preoccupation of mine. Even without going out you can help your circulation reach the discs by first being a little active. Vacuum for 5 minutes to warm up a bit. Then lie down for 5 minutes to take the weight off the discs and allow them to i...mbibe (drink) some fluid. This comes through the endplates of the spinal bones. You could do some yoga style floor exercises to speed up the process if you know how. Then you have to stand up and potter about for 10 minutes or so, to squeeze the fluid from the gel nucleus to the outer ring, or annulus, of the disc. Then, if you are watching TV or streaming you must have 2 different seats and move from one to the other every 20 minutes or so. This stops you squeezing the disc too unevenly and slows down dehydration. Give it a try for 5 days and see if you feel any different. In the long run this might save you a fortune at the osteopath or similar practitioner! Regards Stephen
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Good evening friends. Thanks for your patience and interest. I was in a friend's garage the other day. He attached our bikes to turbo-trainers and proceeded to put us through a suffer-fest spinning workout. He is quite a dominant character and pushes me harder than I am really willing to go. I coped alright but it confirmed to me that I am not a natural endurance athlete and a steady pace with occasional rests is my style. The American chiropractor John Bandy who treats trac...k and field athletes famously takes the view that even the elite performers should do 95 percent low intensity exercise, only spending 5 percent of the time training at maximum effort. He is quite conservative about heart rate as well, suggesting keeping inside 80% of your maximum heart rate minus your age. Very few people have a maximum heart rate of more than 180 beats per minute. Therefore, for a 40 year old that is 80% of 140 or 106bpm. The point of my rant is, take it easy on yourself. A steady, cruising, walk is all you need. I got a stiff neck riding the bike though! But that's another story.
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Dear friends' is a short song by Queen on the album 'Sheer heart attack'. Its very pretty. Anyway friends, I have been reading reports of a long term study of exercise habits in men which started in 1978 and followed up in 2010-12 when the participants were aged 71 to 92. They found that the accumulated quantity of exercise of any kind was associated with a reduced risk of death from any cause. Therefore if you like moving around, be kind to yourself and get up and make a c...offee, gently bouncing at the knees and swinging your arms back and forth while the kettle boils. I know I talk about exercise a lot. It is because a big part of my job is to help you recover from pain and injury so that you can keep moving. The lymphatic system only pumps when muscles contract, thereby draining the wastes from all parts of your body including your organs and brain. Movement is, in moderation, a healthy addiction!
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Hello again friends. I have just noticed that it is nearly a fortnight since I last posted. Osteopathy is specifically a system which uses manual treatment to improve the function of the body framework. However, there are many things you can do to help yourself to benefit a little more. I have been banging on about walking quite a bit but there is something more fundamental to life, and that is air. It is our most immediate need. without which we would expire very quickly. Br...eathing is often overlooked and can be quite shallow in many conditions. These include high stress environments, depression and following physical trauma. Osteopaths often find tension in the upper back and neck affect breathing. Nerve supply to the diaphragm is partly from the neck spine. We encourage breathing techniques like the Buteyko method and, during your visit we teach you some basic approaches to start you off. When you have read this post, go to the back door and take three deep breaths. You will feel better straight away!
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This is a photo of St Barnabus church, Erdington, in the snow. Soft snow is much kinder to your feet than hard city streets. We are less skilled at walking on soft surfaces these days, however.

Hello. Once again thanks for following Erdington Osteopaths and Acupuncture Centre. I recently went to an orthopaedic seminar. The specialist in foot surgery, Mr Mehta described the arches of the foot as upside-down leaf springs (like the ones you see on horse-drawn carts). They are designed to flex as you walk. He emphasised that, if the achilles tendon is tight or shortened, the amount the foot is forced to flex is to great. This can cause plantar fasciitis (policeman's hee...l) and eventually lead to damage to the arches of the foot. My advice is to buy shoes with agood quality squishy polyurethane sole unit and roll propely from heel to toe when walking. Some gentle achilles stretches are a good idea as you start to walk. Osteopaths will assess your foot problem in relation to your back and pelvis, knees and hips. If the problem is outside our area of expertise, we will consider referring you to another modality, like medicine or podiatry. Enjoy your walks. Regards Stephen
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Stephen is very unassuming and is one of the great unsung heroes. Have benn seeing Stephen as when needed over the last 30 years.

Reasonable price and doesn't fleece you.

Stephen has treated all three of my children and he’s amazing at what he does. My babies have all benefited from cranio osteopathy after difficult births. Stephen himself is so professional and good at what he does but also fascinating to talk to. Would highly recommend.

My little baby used to cry for hours and hours every day until she had crainal osteopathy! She’s now doing great and I can finally enjoy her. I don’t know what I would have done without this place. Highly recommend. Great service. Stephan really does care! Couldn’t recommend anymore. Can’t wait till my little one is teething so I can bring her back again!!!���

I've been going here for 28 years .I have Acupuncture and have had 3 different Acupunturists in this time. Ai Ling is the best one I've had, I always feel so much better after my treatment. All the Reception ladies are so helpful and friendly, I look forward to seeing them too. They are more like friends to me now.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Stephen Ling. He is a very professional and caring man. He is so extremely knowledgable and easy to converse with. I have recommended him to many friends and they all share my view.

I was desparate with my back thinking it was my new hip, wrong Stephen confidently told me it was my back I instantly relaxed with was diffucult for me. Now when my disc swells I go back and Stephen helps me through the pain, thanks Stephen xx