Gavin Routledge is an osteopath from Edinburgh who seeks to raise awareness of health issues in the general population. He treats all kinds of musculo-skeletal problems but particularly low back pain. Most of us will have this at some point in our lives and for many it makes their life miserable for long periods of time.
Gavin recognises that a lot of illness is lifestyle related and that includes low back pain. If you can tackle these aspects you are less likely to get a multitude of illnesses. We understand the importance of lifestyle in the development of obesity and many cases of type two diabetes but as a GP I agree with him that back pain isn’t thought of in those terms to any degree.
By the time most people are calling on a doctor or osteopath with acute back pain, they have been sweeping a lot of issues under the carpet for a long while. Usually there is some last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Often bending down and rotating at once, often first thing in the morning is the trigger for severe pain that can take weeks to settle.
The book, Active X backs describes how your back works, how tissues respond to injury and how pain works. He describes many factors that you may need to address in your life and helps to tailor an action plan to deal with acute pain and more importantly sort out the problems that make you more likely to experience pain in the first place.
Although physical factors such as trauma, burden overload, and poor levels of physical fitness make perfect sense, many of us are oblivious about the effects of low mood, work related stress and smoking on our backs. He gives structured advice and exercises to deal with all of these and more.
The book is spiral bound so you can access the relevant exercises which are photographed and the book ends with advice on best postures to adopt for sitting, standing, sleeping and bending.
The book is £20 and the online course £39.
Diabetes Diet 