The average woman has a 1 in 9 chance of developing breast cancer and although the large majority of these women will be over the age of 50, breast cancer can and does occur in younger women.

Early detection saves lives and regular monitoring for women in at risk groups can provide the comfort of peace of mind.

At The Windsor Clinic, we provide a Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging (DITI) service which offers the opportunity of breast disease detection earlier than has been possible through breast self-examination, doctor examination or mammography alone.

Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging is a painless, non-invasive, state of the art clinical test without any exposure to radiation. All women can benefit from DITI breast screening. However, it is especially appropriate for younger women (30 – 50) whose denser breast tissue makes it more difficult for mammography to be effective.

Learn more about thermal imaging here.

How can DITI help you?

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If you have never been to a chiropractor before, you may be wondering what it is all about and if it is appropriate for you.

Chiropractic is a proven primary health care that works on the nervous system.

Chiropractors use their hands to adjust specific joints of your spine and limbs where signs of restriction in movement are found. This treatment is known as an adjustment. Adjustments relieve pain, improve mobility and, by freeing up the nervous system, enable your body’s own healing process to get on with the task of looking after your health.

Chiropractic is appropriate for all ages of people: from babies to elderly people, and for all types of people: from pregnant women to new mums, from sports people to office workers, people recovering from injuries and surgery, etc.

It even works for people who are sceptical because chiropractic has more clinical evidence to support its efficacy than any other complementary discipline.

Learn more about our chiropractic services here

Is Chiropractic for you?

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Many people think that chiropractic care is for people with back problems. And that is certainly true but it is by no means the whole story. I will let you into a little secret: chiropractors’ main focus of attention is not your bones…we are obsessed with your nervous system. Why? Because your nervous system controls everything in your body: your breathing, digestion, bowel movements, immune system as well as your ability to move, think and feel.

Your nervous system is simply wondrous: your brain sends and receives its life-giving information signals through this network of nerves travelling down from your brain stem, through your spinal cord and out through the openings in your protective spinal bones…right down to the tips of your fingers and toes.

Bones come into it, when they are slightly out of alignment or have worn down or grown extra bits that press on and irritate your nerves. When such impingement occurs, your nerves’ ability to send and receive messages is hampered and usually, but not always, you will feel pain. The longer the impingement lasts without alleviation, the greater the risk of permanent damage.

Now, when the nerve being impinged is, for example, your sciatic nerve you feel this impingement as shooting pains in your legs and buttocks. But imagine if the nerve being impinged fed your lungs or your heart or your kidneys. The vital messages between your organs and your brain can also be hampered by impinged nerves and this is how, by freeing up that impingement, chiropractic care can have significant improvements in many organic problems such as asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, heavy periods and even attention deficit disorders. Click here for more information on the types of problems we can help you with.

Need some more convincing? Click here for our page of clinical studies on the efficacy of chiropractic in treating a variety of conditions. In fact, new evidence to the safety and value of chiropractic is being published all the time. Chiropractic has more clinical evidence to support its efficacy than any other complementary discipline.

Most of my patients tell me that after a course of chiropractic care, in addition to gaining relief from their presenting problem, they feel generally better and more alive. Until now that has been hard to explain but a recent study may shed some scientific light on it.

A study (published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research) in collaboration with the University of Lund, found that chiropractic care could influence basic physiological processes affecting oxidative stress and DNA repair.

How chiropractic can help you...

What does that mean? Well, as we go through life chemical, emotional and physical stressors negatively impact the nervous system. These disturbances in nerve function are thought to affect oxidative stress and DNA repair on a cellular level. You will probably have heard of the widely-accepted theory of ageing and disease development based on free radicals damaging and prevent the repair of our DNA. This study wanted to find out if improving the functioning of the nervous system could help reduce this free radical damage.

By measuring antioxidants (which are an indicator that DNA is repairing itself) in people before and after chiropractic treatments (and comparing this with a control group of people not receiving treatment), the researchers found higher than normal levels of antioxidants in the chiropractic patients. This suggests that chiropractic, by enabling the nervous system to function better, appears to improve the body’s ability to adapt to life’s stressors.

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If you, like so many others in the UK, are trapped in the Western Pattern Diet (or meat-sweet diet) than you are heading for trouble.

When you choose food for yourself and your family, in addition to picking something tasty to fill the gap, you are choosing the raw materials that your bodies’ cells use to build new cells, repair damage, fight infection and disease, combat cancer, reduce your risk of diabetes, dementia, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis and early death.

So given the choice of eating food which can help us feel better, look great and live longer, why do so many of us stick to the Western Pattern Diet which is high in red meat, sugary desserts and drinks, high fat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products? It is probably due to a mixture of convenience, habit, advertising pressure and lack of awareness of the direct impact that food has on your health…not just in the years to come but right now.

Research shows that just one unhealthy high-fat, high-sugar meal is enough to do damage to your body. As your body starts to break down such a meal, the large amount of sugar causes a dramatic spike in your blood-sugar levels – termed post-prandial hyperglycemia. In the long term this can lead to an increased risk of heart disease but in the short term side effects are also concerning:

• Your tissue becomes inflamed
• Your blood vessels constrict
• Damaging free radicals are generated
• Your blood pressure may rise higher than normal
• You feel tired, groggy, irritable and down.
• A surge and drop in insulin leaves you feeling hungry soon after your meal encouraging you to over-eat

Would you like to learn how to avoid this trap? Would you like to learn how to ensure you have the right balance of disease-fighting, health-promoting nutrients and bio-active ingredients so that your body functions at its best and you look and feel great?

Western Pattern Diet

Notice that I have not even touched on the topic of obesity yet. That is because, although obesity is very damaging to your health, I want you to understand that nutrition is not about dieting or losing weight. It is about the benefits that your body gains from the food you eat. Even if your aim is to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, then you still need to take in a balance of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

At The Windsor Clinic, as part of our holistic approach to your healthcare, we will review your diet and nutritional needs and teach you how to put the best into your body so you can get the best out of it in terms of energy, radiance and a strong immune system. The rest of your life starts right now so call us today for your consultation.

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Over half a century ago, the World Health Organisation defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”  But Western cultures have largely ignored this broader, encompassing view of health and instead focus on the ‘not being sick’ bit.

Indeed, in a large study in the UK, Cox and colleagues (1987) investigated lay people’s views of health and ill health (1). They found that 30 per cent of respondents defined health as ‘not ill’ or ‘disease-free’.

What is the main difference between healthcare (or wellness care) and ‘sickcare’?  Simply put, sickcare is the focus on using surgery or drugs to treat a symptom:  true healthcare seeks to remove or relieve anything that is causing interference on the body’s own ability to heal itself.

Most conventional healthcare in the UK focuses on treating problems once they have arisen or, in the worst cases, only masking the symptoms and never tackling the underlying cause. For example, the conventional sickcare approach to chronic headaches will be to prescribe painkillers but these drugs only block the pain signals in your brain – signals that are telling you that something needs addressing.  In fact, excessive and persistent use of painkillers can actually cause headaches (2). Over-the-counter painkillers have side effects which can include stomach pain, internal bleeding and ulcers (3).

A true healthcare approach to headaches would include looking for the cause of the headaches, be that stress, dietary or hydration factors or interference on the nerves supplying the head, and then to address the cause of the problem. As a consequence of this action the pain and frequency of the headaches would be naturally relieved rather than temporarily masked with drugs.

Chiropractic is part of this true healthcare approach. Whilst chiropractors work along side conventional care and will liaise with other members of your healthcare team, they do not use drugs or surgery as part of their treatment methods. Instead chiropractors aim to help the body use its natural resources, via the nervous system, to heal itself. The ultimate goal is more than simply relieving pain and restoring motion; it is to put you on the path to better life-long health and vitality, the optimal expression of your health.

Health, or wellness, is so much more than just not being sick. Achieving your peak wellness levels is about going past ‘neutral’ or feeling okay to feeling full of energy, operating at your peak and enjoying harmony between your mind and body.

Healthcare vs Sickcare

And of course, your spine is the communications highway between your body (your whole body including your organs, immune system, limbs, muscles, skin, etc) and the seat of your mind: your brain.

This connection has been researched since Hippocrates wrote in the fourth century BC, “look well to the spine for the cause of disease.” Our bodies have evolved to be self-regulating and self-healing.  Messages instructing various cells to get on with the job of monitoring and healing, or alerting the brain to problems, flow through our nervous system which in turn flows up through the spine and directly into the brain. By working with the nervous system and spine and allowing these messages to flow unimpeded, chiropractic can help your body be its own healer.

With a nervous system free from interference from misaligned joints within the spine and limbs, with the provision of optimal nutrition for fuel and the right environment, imagine your potential health and wellbeing. Imagine the impact this would have on your quality of life…for the rest of your life.

Achieving health and remaining healthy is an active process. As part of your care at The Windsor Clinic, you will learn how to make adjustments to your lifestyle choices (diet, levels of effective exercise, daily habits, sleeping patterns and nutritional profile) so that you can be an active partner in the process of creating a vibrant, healthier you, from day one!

References:

1. Cox, B. D. et al. (1987) The Health and Lifestyle Survey. London: The Health Promotion Trust.
2. (2005).Headache. Prodigy Guidance. www.prodigy.nhs.uk/headache
3. (2005) American Gastroenterological Association. Study Shows Long-Term Use of NSAIDs Causes Severe Intestinal Damage. Click Here

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Do you know the signs?

Do you get a stiff neck and back or soreness between the shoulder blades?

Pain and reduction in motion are signs that the bones in your spines and joints are out of alignment, placing pressure on and irritating the nerves that exit your spine. This reduces your nervous system’s ability to send and receive vital, life-giving messages.

Chiropractic care works to adjust the bones in your spine and joints back to a more normal position, relieving the painful irritation on the nerves.

Does your jaw click?

If the jaw is misaligned, it does not work properly and, rather like a poorly-hung door, it becomes stiff to use, locking and grating until damage occurs or, preferably, you do something about it. Chiropractors are trained to diagnose and treat ‘clicking jaw’ and other TMJ (temporo-mandibular joint) problems.

Do you have tender spots, tension or shooting pains in muscles and joints?

These are all signs of structural abnormalities and your chiropractor will work with you to diagnose the cause, relieve the soreness and tackle the origin of the pain.

Can you move your head smoothly, without pain or clicking, from looking over one shoulder to the other?

A stiff or reduced range of motion indicates that chiropractic adjustments could help.

Do you suffer from pins and needles or numbness in your hands and feet?

These are both signs that a structural misalignment is causing problems for the nerves feeding your hands or feet. Chiropractors are trained to detect and help correct such problems.

Do you have breathing problems or feel that you do not breathe deeply enough?

Chiropractic has been shown to help with breathing problems such as asthma and improving your posture will greatly aid the efficiency of your breathing.

If you notice any of the above signs or feel that your body is trying to tell you that a problem needs addressing, do not ignore it, give us a call today and we can check it out in our fully equipped clinic.

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