This might seem like a strange title to those of you who know your body well. Perhaps you have sought out treatment on various occasions over the years, each time leading to a greater understanding of your body than the time before.
However, for those who have never previously sought out treatment, either because you don't feel it's serious enough and therefore not an 'Injury', or because perhaps you are simply unaware of what an Osteopath can perhaps do for you. Possibly you think that the best option is to just "soldier on" and hope the pain might settle on it's own, or that the holiday break coming up will give you some respite and stop that 'niggle' from getting worse. We've all had that stubborn friend (or partner!) who moans about their aches and pains but never gets them seen to
I thought I would share with you a simple case history, an example of something I see on a regular basis in many different people.
People might have completely different working lives from each other, but we share the fact that we are all human beings right? (Well, let's hope so, if not - I hope you come in peace). Here's a simple example of how sometimes a little bit of professional input can go such a long way.
Example:
Bob's job involves him being on his feet for a high percentage of his working day, leaning over into small spaces doing manual work. Over the last 4/5 months he's felt an ache in his back between the shoulder blades when at work, but when he takes a break for a coffee or lunch, it goes away. Soon, this ache becomes a little bit worse, to the point where he feels he has to take a break because of the pain. When he does take a day or two off he gets better fairly quickly– all good and back to work.
He's not 'injured' as such and doesn't think much of it, after all he's a manual worker and expects his body to ache at times, so he soldiers on. More recently, his upper back has felt really achey not long after he's started his working day and even when he breaks for lunch or a cuppa, it continues to ache. The pain nags at him through the afternoon to the point where he feels like he wants to knock off for the day. Sometimes it's still aching when he sits on the couch in the evening, before eventually relaxing before he goes to bed. But he's certainly not looking forward to a whole day of work the next day.... and so the cycle continues. Slowly he gets a little worse and now finds when he does a job above his head, its harder to reach/look up and he has some neck pain occasionally.
No matter what we do for work our jobs tend to be fairly repetitive otherwise they wouldn't be our job.
They will involve a certain amount of being in the same positions on a daily basis, whether we are doing manual work or sitting in the office or driving. As humans, we are naturally curved forwards in the middle part of our spines. When we flex further forwards and hold ourselves in this position to complete the manual task at hand or simply because we've become absorbed in our work online and have deadlines to meet, the muscles down our spine get worked hard.
Over time, certain muscles will switch off and others will become fatigued. Certain segments of the spine will stiffen up which may cause an achey sensation into the back and we may feel stiffer in the long term. As this becomes a habit, the chronically fatigued area plays up quicker and quicker. In turn this can have other effects on our emotions, as we start dreading going to work and causing us to feel generally low. There is also the potential to be prone to injury in activities outside of the workplace which involve our bodies to suddenly move move move!
In some of these cases lasting change can occur from some simple treatment to relax the chronically fatigued tight muscles, gentle manipulation to help improve spinal mobility and some movements designed to wake up other areas of your body.
So back to my original question – do you need to be 'acutely' injured to see an Osteopath?
The simple answer is no - so many of us relate needing treatment to an acute injury but this can leave us incapacitated for a number of days and also to ignore our body when it is telling us something isn't quite right! Don't just soldier on - act sooner rather than later. Listen to your body and don't suffer for such long periods when you don't have to.
Cheers
Ian Bisson, Osteopath