We all know that excess screen time is bad for us. But does it matter which screen we are looking at? Do they all affect us in the same way?

Apparently some are worse than others, according to a recent study.

This data was published just a week ago so it’s red hot.

The obvious finding was that more screen time = worse health decisions. People who exhibited the heaviest use of screened devices “tended to eat fewer fruit and vegetables and more sweets and fast foods.”

“They also tended to have the least physical activity, get the least sleep, have the worst sleep quality, and experience the greatest perceived stress (compared with those with light or moderate screen use).”

The interesting thing though, was the difference between different devices.

People with heavy TV and smartphone use said that they had worse dietary patterns and health characteristics than people who spent a lot of time in front of computers, tablets, or devices connected to a TV.

Another interesting finding was the effect of “Bingeing” eg watching an entire series straight through, like I have done maaaaaany times in my life.

The team also found that watching many episodes of a show or many different shows in quick succession was associated with poor dietary patterns and increases in self-perceived stress.

To read the full article, click here.

Stuck at home and can’t get to your regular practitioner? Or if you’re simply experiencing pain and prefer natural alternatives to medications, our illustrious neighbour Naturopath Tania Flack from Bondi Health and Wellness put this guide together.

Of those Australians reporting back pain, nearly half experience difficulty with mobility, daily activities and self-care, which significantly impacts quality of life. And the financial impact of back pain on the Australian economy is staggering. It’s reported to cost approximately 1.2 billion dollars per year, split between hospital care, out-of-hospital appointments and prescription medications.

This article summarises:

Common causes of back injuries,

The best nutrients for natural pain relief and

The best dietary modifications for reducing inflammation.

Natural remedies for back pain

With a global pandemic running around, there’s never been a better time to work on your immune system. You want it functioning at its absolute peak right now.

As we age, our immune system ages too. This means it doesn’t quite function as well as it used to. Luckily there is something we can do about it.

I just read an article talking about this and thought I would share the link as well as give you a few of the key points. This stuff is important because we actually need our immune system to function BETTER as we get older, not worse.

Here are a few key quotes from the article:

“exercising and adopting the right diet may help a person maintain healthy immunity into older age “

“Chronic, low-grade inflammation is associated with almost all conditions linked to older age, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. It also plays a leading role in certain autoimmune conditions that are more common in older adults, such as rheumatoid arthritis. “

“One study found that aerobic fitness among 102 healthy males, aged 18–61 years, was inversely proportional to the number of senescent T cells in their blood after adjusting for age. In other words, increased physical fitness was associated with less immunosenescence. “

“Another study compared the immune responses of 61 healthy males, aged 65–85 years, to a flu vaccination. After adjusting for their age, the researchers found that the intensively and moderately active males produced more antibodies in response to vaccination than the least active males.”

“A growing body of evidence also suggests that people who eat a Mediterranean diet are less likely to become “frail” in older age, such as by losing muscle strength, walking slowly, and tiring easily. “

To see the full article and get all the tips, click here.

HPH Physiotherapist Kenny Merlevede knows a thing or two about rehabilitation and returning to exercise after a break. Literally! He was cycling in Centennial Park recently and while trying to avoid hitting a wayward child on a bike he came off and broke his collarbone. The surgery involved 5 pins being inserted into the collarbone. With the right treatment and rehab approach he was back at work in a little over a fortnight and back to exercise the next week. Here are his thoughts on safely returning to exercise.

We are expecting to be seeing a lot of people with injuries related to the sudden desire to quickly get in shape. Their exercise regime drifted a little over the last few months but with Summer approaching they need to get their bikini body back. Bravo I say! But, we need to temper that enthusiasm/desperation with a little common sense. If you’re trying to fit 6 months worth of training into the next 6 weeks read on.

I think the most common times people get injured is when they start a new activity, or when they make a big change to the amount of exercise they are doing, even if it is something they have done before. To give you an example, if you’ve never included running in your fitness program but start doing so, that’s a time when your body is adjusting to the new stimulus and as such you’re prone to injury. Or if you usually run 5km three times a week but change to 10km five times a week, that’s also a time when you’re prone to injury.

It’s a fine line; you want to push yourself to get fitter, but if you push too hard you can hurt yourself. When you’re exercising, there inevitably comes a time when you will feel a bit of discomfort. When you reach that point you might wonder whether you can keep going and push through it, or if doing so could cause an injury. There is such a thing as ‘good pain’, which is the pain you feel during exercise but in the absence of an injury. Then there’s ‘bad pain’, which is the pain you feel when you have suffered an injury.

How do you tell the difference between good pain and bad pain? In other words, what are the signs that you may have injured yourself and you should stop your workout? Bad pain has the following characteristics:

• The pain you’re feeling is ‘sharp’

• The pain you’re feeling is ‘shooting’, or accompanied by numbness, tingling or pins and needles

• There was a sudden onset of pain

• The pain developed in association with something ‘popping’, ‘clicking’, ‘snapping’ or ‘giving way’ underneath you

What does good pain feel like? Think about when you climb a really tall set of stairs or a steep hill. As you start to breathe harder, you get less oxygen to your muscles. When that happens you start to develop lactic acid. At the beginning you feel almost nothing, then it becomes slightly uncomfortable, then if you’re able to keep going, it becomes really uncomfortable. So we would say that one point of differentiation from bad pain is that good pain has more of a gradual build-up.

The location of the pain is also a clue. Good pain will be generalised to a region, whereas bad pain is quite specific. For example, if you’re ‘feeling the burn’ in your quads from climbing stairs (good pain), then most likely the entire front of your leg will feel it, all the way from your knees to your hips. On the other hand, if you tear or strain your quadriceps (bad pain), the location of the pain will be a lot more specific – you’ll feel sharp pain right at the point of the tear and in a small area surrounding it.

I’m sure you’ve all watched something like the Olympic Games, where you can see prime examples of the two types of pain. For instance, in the 100m when someone tears their hamstring, they grab their leg as if they’ve been shot. They feel sharp, shooting pain that has a sudden onset, the leg gives way underneath them and they’re unable to continue.

Then you see someone in a longer-distance event with a grimace on their face as they push on and on. They’re definitely in pain, but the pain has built up gradually and doesn’t affect their ability to keep running (well, for a while at least). While this is not a nice feeling, this is the ‘good pain’ we’re talking about.

There’s a fine line between pushing yourself and hurting yourself. It just comes down to using a bit of common sense. Build up your training gradually. Warm up a little before going too hard. If something doesn’t feel right, you’re better off missing part of a session and being okay for your next session than trying to get a little bit more done and having to miss the rest of the week.

Stay safe and if you have any questions let me know!