Sleep – where are you?

sleep problemsStress is the enemy of a good night’s sleep and there is plenty of it around at present. It’s such a vicious circle – you feel stressed, you can’t sleep, so you feel more stressed until you feel unwell.

According to Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, co-founder of The London Sleep Centre and neuropsychiatrist, ‘When our internal neuro-chemical systems are working normally, they regulate biological processes like sleep, appetite, mood and energy levels. If we are stressed, the Adreno-Cortical System is dysregulated and our energy sources are diverted, resulting in sleep disruption and mood changes.

‘Before we sleep it’s important to de-stress, reducing levels of cortisol, and replacing them with increased levels of melatonin, the hormone released in the brain that signals to the body it’s time to sleep.’

Tips for improving sleep

• Make sure your days as active as they can be – exercise every day, and try to get outside for some fresh air.
• Relax before going to bed – yoga and meditation really help and have become much more popular during lockdown. Alternatively, lie down for at least 10 minutes, listen to relaxing music and breathe deeply.
• Avoid watching stimulating or frightening films or television programmes just before bedtime, particularly in the bedroom.
• According to Performance and Purpose Coach Mark Whittle, ‘Turn off all ‘blue light’ (from laptops, tablets and phones) 90 minutes before bed. Blue light supresses the release of melatonin in our body, impacting our natural circadian rhythm and impacting quality of sleep.
• Coffee, tea or colas can disrupt your sleep due to the caffeine which stimulates the mind. Alcohol can lead to disturbed nights too.
• Herbal remedies might help  – any of these ingredients are helpful: Valerian, hops, Passiflora, lavender and Ashwaganda. Look for Rescue Peaceful Night Capsules (with Ashwagandha, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Magnesium, Vitamin B6 and Rescue(R) Night Flower Essences, Rescue Dream Balm , A. Vogel’s Dormeasan, Kalms or Pukka’s Night Time. If you are on medication, check with a doctor, pharmacist or the manufacturer (of herbal medicines) before taking herbal remedies.
• Magnesium tablets taken in the evening help to relax the body and encourage us to sleep.
• Try using ear plugs if your partner snores.
• If light outside is a problem, you could change to darker curtains or blinds that block out the dawn or street lights.

Sleep well!

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsongreatbritain/30april2020

Keyboard hands

Attention all keyboard users. One day you might get stiff fingers because of osteoarthritis, and it’s pretty likely that it’s not helped by  overuse of keyboards. I am an example – I have been using typewriter/computer keyboards since I was 17 and still am, and that  was way before we had phones we took everywhere.

So have a look at these videos on YouTube:  Effective exercise for osteoarthritis in the hands; Arthritis hands; Boosting flexibility for hands; Keyboard hands

Osteoarthritis (usually called arthritis) creeps up on you as you get older and often finds its way into joints we have overused. So if you have run a home, cooked meals, done any gardening, in fact almost anything you are likely to overuse your hands. And think about the number of times you have to push buttons with your thumb to open them so the thumb often suffers more than others. 

How do you know you’re getting OA in the hands (the most common place to get it)? 

  1. Finger and thumb joints become bigger and you can’t get your rings on or off easily. 
  2. They can become knobbly and painful.
  3. It’s not so easy to use them, as they may hurt when you try to. 

You might benefit with some hand exercises to keep your fingers fit – at the least this could help delay the problems. As with many things when you’re young you feel invincible and don’t believe it will happen to you. But the excessive amount of use thumbs and fingers get nowadays sending messages and watching everything on phones, this problem is likely to get bigger and bigger. 

And there isn’t a simple fix pill. In fact, the first line of advice from GPs now is to exercise, so I rest my case.  Post by the author of One Step Ahead of Osteoarthritis, available from book stores, online and at Amazon. 

Holistic approach to osteoarthritis

The reason I wrote the book One Step Ahead of Osteoarthritis was because I had OA myself and had taken an overall approach to managing it, which has worked well for me.  While supplements are incredibly valid, it’s about more than taking turmeric or glucosamine and encompasses a range of measures that we can all do.

These include:

  • Exercise in general and exercises specifically to help the knees, the hips, the hands.
  • Making dietary changes.
  • Managing weight and at least getting down to your BMI (body mass index).

Those are the three pillars of managing osteoarthritis, but there is so much more you can do too.

A website devoted to osteoarthritis in the knee ran a blog written by me: entitled How I stay active with osteoarthritis.

Honey/vinegar kill bacterial infections

Courtesy of: pexels-roman-odintsov

Researchers have found that the combination of honey and vinegar is more effective as in killing bacteria than either of these on their own. 

Combining honey and vinegar could be an old, yet new, way of treating persistent infections.
The mixture, also known as oxymel, has been used as a medical treatment throughout history and now scientists have established that this combination could have modern applications in the treatment of wounds.

New research, published in Microbiology, is the first comprehensive exploration of how the mixture could be applied to modern medicine and improve treatments for infections. Previous research has shown how effective some natural remedies can be at treating infections. Manuka honey has been proven to possess antimicrobial properties and aid wound healing and vinegar is also proven to be a useful antiseptic.

Doctors have utilised this information in medicine today. While they use manuka honey to treat antibiotic resistant infections they only use acetic acid, the active component of vinegar and do not currently combine the two.

Dr Erin Connelly, Dr Freya Harrison and their team from the University of Warwick began by investigating the effects of combinations of two medical-grade honey ointments with natural vinegar or acetic acid (vinegar is about 4-6% acetic acid in water). They wanted to find out how effective the treatment is at killing microbes, and which combination worked best.

They were also curious to know if whole vinegar is more antibacterial than just acetic acid. Dr Erin Connelly, a researcher on the study, said, “In our survey of premodern recipes we noticed a pattern of combining honey and vinegar to wash or dress wounds and swellings, and this inspired us to focus on that combination in our analysis.”

By comparing the use of vinegar and acetic acid alone, then in combination with medical-grade honey, the researchers found that it was specifically the combination of the two substances which was best. “We applied a low dose of honey, that alone didn’t kill the bacteria, and a low dose of acetic acid that also could not kill the bacteria alone,” according to Dr Harrison. “These doses are lower than those that wound care nurses currently use on patients. But when we put these low doses together, we saw a large number of bacteria dying which is really exciting. We really need to investigate whether combining these substances could help patients who are not responding to either substance used alone.”

The researchers also found that some natural vinegars had a greater ability to kill bacteria than an equivalent dose of pure acetic acid. In particular, pomegranate vinegars are interesting candidates for further study; these had strong antibacterial activity and, like acetic acid, had activity when combined with honey.

Whilst more research needs to take place to understand the mechanism and best dose combinations of the combined honey and vinegar, these promising results have proved exciting enough that the researchers now propose to take a modern version of oxymel into the clinical trial stage. Professor Joseph Hardwicke, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire explains “This is an exciting area of research to use traditional remedies in the modern NHS. The burden of wound care and infections is increasing year by year, with causative conditions such as diabetes on the rise. Maybe the knowledge of our ancestors can be used to enhance the current care we can provide to our patients, at a lower cost.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The paper “Sweet and sour synergy: exploring the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of acetic acid and vinegar combined with medical-grade honeys” by Freya Harrison, Anisa Blower, Christopher de Wolf and Erin Connelly is published in Microbiology at the following DOI 10.1099/mic.0.001351.

To obtain an advance copy of the manuscript ahead of the lifting of the embargo please contact press@microbiologysociety.org.

Funding information:

The study was funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship awarded to E.C. MR/T020652/1. A.B. contributed to this research during her final-year research project for the MBio degree fin Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, which provided additional funding for laboratory consumables. The authors acknowledge use of the Agilent 1260 infinity II Preparative HPLC system and training support provided by the WISB Research Technology Facility within the School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick.
About the Microbiology Society.

The Microbiology Society is a membership charity for scientists interested in microbes, their effects and their practical uses. It has a worldwide membership based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes, schools, and other organisations.

‘Everything is possible’ at the model GP practice

Beautiful flooring at the Bromley-by-Bow garden


Based on the principle that only 20 per cent of what GPs do is effective for their patients, (Professor Sir) Sam Everington has built up a health centre in London’s East End which ‘takes the patient on a journey of managing their own health’. ‘Instead of asking patients, “What’s the matter with you?”, we like to ask, “What matters to you?”
Just imagine going to the GP’s practice to talk about your ailments, and the doctor decides that you need so much more than healthcare. What’s more, what you need is quite likely to be available at the health centre. Sounds like some idyllic dream, but tucked into a side street just back from the high-rise buildings and fast highways is Bromley-by-Bow Health Centre, a haven of peace and friendliness, with a warm, buzzing and inviting atmosphere.
Around 4,000 people go through the centre every week and while they are dealt with medically, they also have the opportunity to take part in any of the 100 or so projects facilitated by the local community and run in and around the health centre. A social enterprise zone has seen the emergence of start-ups with 60/ 80 of them still viable businesses, including a stained glass window workshop still on the premises.
At the heart of the centre is the café which provides food and drink all day but, above all, is a place for people to mingle and participate in the projects. These include computer classes, yoga, an elderly art group known as Young at Art, English language lessons, and pottery. The practice is located right by a public park, which used to be called ‘dog shit green’ but now boasts beautiful sculptures and is well maintained, like the beautiful area off the park, where local gardeners can grow plants, flowers and vegetables.
Everyone can involve themselves including people suffering from drug addiction, and counselling is also available on site. There is help at hand to help people struggling with their finances, organising mobile phone contracts, dealing with energy supplies, and much more. Sorting out the finances to ease their minds and improve their health and wellbeing.
This is social prescribing in action, and it is now widespread in the NHS. Bromley-by-Bow health practice is a perfect example of how it can work ‘It’s all about bringing communities together,’ Sam explains. We offer compassion, friendship and it’s about having fun, assuming that everything is possible.’