Physiotherapists in Manchester treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Simple Neck Exercises . Two

Performing routine simple neck exercises every day fulfils a number of functions. It moves the joints through their normal ranges of movement and to the ends of the movement each time, an area where movement can be easily lost without us being aware of it. Movement also stretches out and maintains the length of the annulus of the cervical discs, pulling on the collagen and cartilage fibres of the disc walls. Muscles normally shorten when they are contracting and moving the joints of our bodies and if they are called upon to contract a lot in a particular position they can become more permanently shortened.

Range of movement exercises fully in the opposite direction can stretch out over tight muscles and allow them and the joints to return to more appropriate postural positions as part of a therapy programme. Since much of the use of the neck muscles is to maintain static posture of the head and shoulder area this exposes the head and neck area to long periods in poor positions with unhelpful patterns of muscle contraction. Neck exercises can be done routinely such as three times a day for a certain period or can be done regularly throughout the day to correct poor posture.

Period Pain could be helped by Acupuncture

A recent study conducted in South Korea has provided some evidence than acupuncture may be useful as a treatment for period pain. Previous studies have found differently, with real and sham acupuncture having very similar effects. Period pain can be a significant problem in some women with a large variety of unpleasant symptoms including pain and nausea, sometimes lasting for many days of each cycle and thereby being disabling to some extent. A review considered 27 studies of acupuncture in period pain, with a variety of techniques used from traditional to western to sham acupuncture.

The studies showed that acupuncture was more effective than drug treatments in relieving severe period pains, despite the fact that many of the studies had flaws and therefore could not be completely relied upon for a scientific conclusion. However they did feel there was promising evidence that acupuncture could be of use in this condition. In the UK the body charged with evaluating evidence for treatments, NICE, has supported acupuncture for low back pain against criticism that acupuncture is not yet a valid treatment for anything. As acupuncture does seem to have important cultural aspects this may indicate that the individual.s belief structure is important for a good outcome.