To Ice or Not To Ice

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That is the question.

Often people ask for advice as to whether they should use ice after injury of not. At schools, pupils are educated on the RICE principle – Rest Ice Compression Elevation – but what should you really be doing.

When to use ice?

Apply ice for 15-20 minutes every 2-3 hours within the first 48-72 hours following the [soft-tissue] injury

– NICE Guidelines 2016

Why use it?

  • Ice can alleviate pain
  • It also reduces swelling

When to be cautious?

If you suffer from a peripheral vascular disease or Raynauds it would be best to seek advice as to whether you should use ice as a treatment for your injury.

You should also take precautions to avoid frostbite, such as wrapping the ice-pack in a tea towel. Also avoid applying ice to an open wound.

Never Too Late

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Many adults aged 65 and over spend, on average, 10 hours or more each day sitting or lying down, making them the most sedentary age group (NHS).

As we get older, it becomes much more important to remain active with studies suggesting from 30 years of age, we begin losing 3-5 percent of muscle per year. When our muscles are weak, we are more susceptible to falls and ill-health so to avoid frailty we need to do something.

Guidelines recommend strengthening your bones and muscles at least twice a week but this needn’t be as hard as it seems. Activity can be found in everything that we do, from carrying the shopping to putting out the washing, each movement can help you build strength.

Think about how these activities integrate into your daily life, and when they become easy challenge yourself. Our bodies are terrific instruments and they adapt quickly to what we want them to do. If you begin to find going shopping easier, why not use a basket rather than pushing a trolley for smaller shops : when gardening, once you’re used to kneeling with your bottom on your heels try kneeling on your knees for a while. Every small change you make will help your muscles retain some of their strength and help you avoid injury and illness.

Aside from making daily activities harder, there are many other ways you can keep yourself moving.

Other activities with the most benefit to you and your strength:

– Ball Games

Ever heard of walking football? It’s a great alternative to the ordinary game

As we get older, many of us struggle with our balance, strength, stamina, weight and worst of all confidence and self-esteem levels but walking football has the potential to make a significant impact in all these areas, building body strength, improving muscles, core stability and hopefully losing some of the weight usually gained during the ageing process.

– The Walking Football Association.  

– Racket Sports

Many parks in Leeds have open tennis courts that you can reserve for free such as Chapel Allerton, Meanwood and Roundhay. Take a friend or family member and have a gentle game.

– Nordic Walking

Nordic walking is a total body version of walking which uses walking poles similar to ski poles to decrease the load and strain on the lower body. It helps tone upper arms, shoulders and back muscles whilst helping you to develop core strength and stability. You can book a taster session here.

– Resistance Training

If this is more your type of exercise why not start with some body weight exercise that you can do in your home or garden.

    • Squats
    • Lunges
    • Push-ups (against the wall, on your knees, or on your toes)
    • Dips
    • Shoulder presses (reaching your hands in the air or with water bottles)
    • Step-ups
    • Bicycle crunches (two to three sets of ten to 15 reps three times a week)

 

Going Green

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On January 6th 2020, Leeds City Council will be introducing the Clean Air Zone which, although directly related to commercial vehicles coming in and out of the city, has led us to think about how clean we are as a small business.

It is hard to avoid the desperate need to live ethically in a world threatened by climate change and so we thought we should share with you how we try to do our bit.

If you have visited our clinic, you may have noticed the couch roll we use for each patient. Each of these couch rolls, and in fact each of our hand towels, are made from recycled paper. Once used they are recycled to be given yet another lease of life. We are very particular about where our waste goes and by everything separate we can ensure that nothing ends up in landfill that could otherwise be repurposed or recycled.

Electricity is something that we need in the modern world to be able to run a business smoothly and effectively but electricity is also a major contributor to the increase in greenhouse gases which in turn are leading to global warming. But, without electricity, we wouldn’t be able to get much done in the clinic, especially being a basement building where we don’t get much natural light. We know that our demand for electricity can’t be avoided and so we have found an energy provider that sources 100% of its energy from renewable sources (such as solar power, wind power, biomass & landfill gas and hydropower). By providing natural soaps which are effective at low temperatures we can further reduce our energy consummation as we can achieve the same level of cleanliness without having to heat our water to high temperatures. All our uniforms are washed at low temperatures with eco-friendly soaps. This means that we can lower our carbon footprint.

With being in the centre of Leeds, it gives us many options of travel into work, with some of us opting to cycle into the city centre, park and ride using the local buses and take the train into Leeds station.

Some of these products and changes we have made are more expensive than the standard but we believe that they are a better option for us. They help us to do better for our climate without drastically changing the way in which we go about our daily tasks. As we become more aware of swaps that we can make, we reduce our landfill pile more and more.

Can you suggest any more ways we can lower our carbon footprint?