Hey there, Damien from Melbourne Osteopathic Clinic here.

In what could be a challenging time for society us here at Melbourne Osteopathy Clinic are here to help and give you an insight into what you can do for yourself and how we can help you.

Our priority here is to give you the best advice on what you can do;
1. Sleep – Make this a priority! Proper sleep is important in restoring balance in our body, helping us repair but also controlling our nervous system. It will also ensure we remain productive with our work and help us make better decisions.
2. Exercise – Keep moving as much as possible, try to break up prolonged sitting periods. Follow the regular guidelines and aim for 30+ minutes a day. Remember what we promote at Melbourne Osteopathy Clinic – ‘Movement is medicine’.
3. Diet – Eat healthy, prioritise vegetables and fruits. This is important to boost our immune systems, we can still purchase plenty of fresh produce.
4. Breathe – These moments can be quiet stressful, so it’s important to take a deep breath, calm down, get the body working more efficiently then get back into our tasks.
5. Laugh – Find some time to enjoy life, it’s important that we do have an outlet to boost our immune system and decrease our overall stress. This may be as basic as watching a comedy series on Netflix.

What we do for you as Osteopaths?
One of the key osteopathy principles is the interaction between structure and function of the human body.

a. Stress is a key player in reducing the body’s immune responses and overall functional capacity. From an osteopathic perspective we look to treat around the ribs and thoracic region as this is where our control system for our stress response is located. Improving the ability of the breathing mechanics and movement allows for the body to focus on its rest and repair.

b. Other techniques may also assist in lymphatic drainage (the bodies key defence against viruses and infection); the reason of this is due to the location of our lymphatic pathways throughout the body, in particularly the low back. Getting the low back moving and using other movements throughout the body may help free up these areas and promote lymph removal from the body.

 

If you’re interested in some of the research around the topic, please click the links below 🙂

https://jaoa.org/article.aspx?articleid=2094967

https://www.journalofosteopathicmedicine.com/article/S1443-8461(02)80030-2/abstract

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3437985/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4173698/