Christmas: A Pain in the Neck. Official

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If you thought that Christmas is a pain in the neck – then you’re right.

 

Recent research has shown that when we come under stress we experience pain much more acutely. Stress has the effect of reducing the brain’s efficiency at controlling and dampening pain. Our common sense understanding that when we are feeling run down and anxious we are extra susceptible to aches and pains is in fact explained by science.

 

Given that Christmas registers an unhealthy stress factor somewhere between divorce  and moving house, then it’s not surprising that the run up to the 25th is a time when few of us feel at our best.

 

Gavin Routledge of Active x Osteopaths is familiar with the impact of Christmas crises on individual health,

 

‘At this time of the year I get lots of patients who are suffering from a variety of back and neck complaints. They are the sort of aches and pains that we normally shrug off. But because people are rushing around trying to meet high expectations at work and at home in these desperate few weeks in December, their complaints seem much more serious.

 

‘We all need to recognise how Christmas stress can make us vulnerable. The extra demands to get the right present, prepare the perfect festive meal and reconcile all the family and relationship issues which bubble up at this time mean we are under pressure. And pressure means the body can’t cope as well with pain.

 

‘It’s our body’s way of telling us to take it easy, to put the whole thing in perspective and realise that the midwinter holiday should be about relaxing and enjoying the company of family and friends, not seeing who can last out the endurance course best.’

 

Gavin’s top tips for keeping stress at bay this festive period are –

 

1. Don’t take on the whole responsibility for festive entertainment alone – what else are families for but extra pairs of hands.

 

2. Make some time for yourself - even if it’s only one afternoon of pampering.

 

3. Try to get a balance between work and home demands – you can’t do everything  - explain at home that work is stressful at this time of year too.

 

4. Watch your back with the physical aspects of Xmas - presents can be heavy, turkeys weigh 10lbs on average and  have to be lifted off low oven shelves, and wrestling with  Christmas trees can be very tricky.

 

5. Remember we are all in this together. There is no such thing as the perfect Christmas. If you don’t have chipolata sausages and its 9pm on Christmas Eve then don’t worry. Who’s going to notice anyway.

 

6. Alternatively  have a massage. Your body will say thank you.

 

ENDS

 

Contact

 

Ali O’Neale  Cloudline PR

 

07889 016 094

 

 

 

 

Contact: Ali O'Neale
Phone: 0131 220 7114
Email: ali@clooudline.co.uk
Website: http://www.cloudline.co.uk

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