Principal Osteopath, Adam Balderstone recently spent two days at the COPA Series, held annually at the London ExCeL. It’s a huge expo aimed at everything and anything to do with physical therapy and it’s a great place to see the new techniques, theories, products and services available.
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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is probably best known for it’s use in curing ‘The Bends’ in divers who have ascended to sea level too quickly following deep, sustained dives. These days, the therapy is used to treat a range of conditions. It works on the principle that, by using high pressure, additional amounts of oxygen are forced into the blood stream. High pressure means more oxygen is taken up and therefore disseminates further into the tissues the blood vessels serve.

The results have been impressive enough that many health insurance policies now cover HBOT for the treatment of a variety of conditions including:

• Diabetic neuropathy
• Gangrene
• Air embolism
• Crush injury
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Wound healing
• Osteomyelitis
• Compromised skin grafts

It has also been reported to provide tangible benefits in the treatment of symptoms of:

• Dementia & Alzheimer’s
• Chronic fatigue
• Lyme
• Austism
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Post surgical healing

​.....and many other conditions too. It’s also becoming increasingly widely used by elite athletes to improve healing and recovery times, and help with endurance and performance.

A number of workshops were on offer too and Adam completed a number of these where he both was able to try out the techniques as well as experience them for himself. One such workshop was run by Ruth Duncan, Sports Therapist and Advanced Myofascial Release Practitioner at Myofascial Release UK (MFR UK). ​

It’s always helpful to revisit techniques and this workshop proved particularly beneficial. Adam tried it on someone with restricted movement in the shoulder and by the evening, movement was restored, described as uncomfortable, but completely doable and manageable!
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​Another seminar that proved interesting was The Barefoot Elephant - Barefoot Running versus Orthoticstalks. Adam has recently completed a popular Couch to 5k programme in barefoot running shoes. The talk, delivered by Paul Holbrough, Physiotherapist, DJO UK, was thought-provoking, however the one take-away that stood out was basically.....with the exception of Zola Budd, you don’t see elite athletes running barefoot.
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So, over too soon (there are always tough choices to make between which seminar to attend as there are so many valuable and interesting ones on offer). It will be great to see what next year brings.

Gus is a retired racer coming up for his 6th birthday. He raced for just over a year (most greyhounds race for between two and five) before being retired at the age of three and a half. He’s been enjoying retirement with a retired couple ever since and apart from an underactive thyroid he’s been in pretty good health.
 
Recently, Gus had been running with the retired couple’s daughter who was completing the Couch to 5k programme. He’d been enjoying himself with a few runs of twenty minutes or so over the course of a couple of weeks before he started having some trouble lifting himself off his bed, letting out little yelps each time. 

Built for short sprints, greyhound’s back and leg muscles are usually highly developed and quite tight which is why you don’t often see a greyhound in the ‘sit’ position. Generally, they are large and quite heavy dogs (the bitches tend to be smaller and daintier) and Gus was no exception tipping the scales at 38 kilos – about average weight for a retiree. Still, lifting this weight from the ground requires some effort, so the yelping – or rather its root cause - was a worry for the owners. ​

​There were a number of possible causes of Gus’s discomfort: quite simply, he could have been experiencing cramp as a result of the unusual exercise. It could have been a disc bulge pressing on a nerve and causing pain during certain motions. And it could be a result of osteoarthritis. Greyhounds can be susceptible to arthritis in the lower spine – a result of the strain of the flexion and extension that occurs when they race. This repetitive strain can cause degeneration of the spinal discs leaving gaps between the individual vertebrae. The physiological response to this is to create new bone (osteophytes also known as bone spurs) as the body’s defence system attempts to stabilise the gaps. These osteophytes cause the spine to become stiff and sore. Gus’s thyroid medication carries a warning that a side effect could be the hastening of the symptoms of osteoarthritis. 
 
A visit to the vet had not delivered any explanation for the yelping and the vet had recommended a joint care supplement designed to support the metabolism of joints for dogs suffering from osteoarthritis. Wanting to have him checked over further, Gus arrived at my clinic for an osteopathic assessment.

​Gus was the perfect patient, as is usual with this breed. Greyhounds are used to being handled (and sometimes, man-handled!) from a relatively early age, they’re no strangers to being massaged, prodded and poked. In fact, this can make issues with greyhounds difficult to diagnose as they tend to be stoic about pain – all athletes are used to carrying aches and pains and various niggles! Gus stood patiently as I examined his spine, his legs and his joints, checking for unusual knobby bits along his vertebrae, around his carpus (wrists), tarsal bones (hock joint) stifles (knees) and elbows which might suggest osteophytic growth. Several vertebrae in his lumbar region were more prominent than the rest, but did not appear to be causing any discomfort.

Usually, in spite of their stoic appearance, if there is any discomfort, palpation of the area will cause a flickering or twitching of the surrounding muscles, and this is the only way to tell whether there is an underlying problem. However, even after careful and prolonged examination, no signs of distress presented. 
 
In the absence of a ‘tell’ sign, taking the history presented to me along with the medication and its potential side effects, I concluded the most likely cause of the yelping had been an arthritics flare up which has settled down. I stretched out his muscles to alleviate tension and mobilised the joints to get blood, oxygen and healing fluids moving. 
 
Subsequent conversations reveals Gus has been doing well and has not had any further incidences of discomfort. I have suggested, however, that he’s probably better off leaving the 5k behind him in favour of the couch!