18 minute read
Health & Wellbeing
Health & Wellbeing How to save your skin from winter
Jemma Sandell is an Advanced Massage & Beauty Therapist and owner of Relax & Remedy, Ferndown. Visit: relaxandremedy.co.uk
The cold weather has arrived and we’ve already had our first frost but are you wrapping up warm? Now the colder days are here, it’s super important we protect our skin. We’re all very much aware of the dangers of UV exposure from the sun and wearing SPF in the height of summer, but how often do you bother to wear SPF in winter? UVA and UVB rays are present all year round and we should be wearing an SPF of at least factor 30 even on the cloudiest of days. UVB is known as the ‘burning rays’ and are the primary cause of sunburn and skin cancer. UVA rays penetrate the deeper layers of the skin and also contribute to burning and skin cancer. Even though the UVB rays aren’t so prevalent in winter, UVA can still be strong. These rays are responsible for skin damage and premature ageing, so if you want to stop the clock, SPF is your best friend when it comes to slowing down signs of ageing. It’s important to remember to apply SPF to all areas exposed, particularly the décolleté and ears as they’re often forgotten about. A crinkly décolleté can really show our age. We’re also guilty of neglecting our hands. When was the last time you applied an SPF to your hands – other than rubbing in the leftover lotion? Hands are another telling sign of age. Look at celebs like Madonna and Dolly Parton – their faces may look fantastic but their hands give away their real age. A good quality hand cream, exfoliation and an SPF can do wonders for our hands, especially working hands. Exfoliation is also something we forget about when it comes to our hands but sloughing away those dead skin cells will reveal brighter and more youthful-looking skin. Did you know that skin cancer is the UK’s most common form of cancer and yet it is the most preventable type of cancer? SPF is not just your best friend for anti-ageing but also in protecting against this life-threatening disease. So, whether you’re out Christmas shopping or heading off to the ski slopes, be sure to apply SPF and protect your skin against the winter sun. There’s many types of SPF and sun protections out there, but the best one is always the one that you actually use! To quote Ernő László, famous dermatologist and skin pathologist: ‘Beautiful skin requires commitment, not a miracle.’
l Here are six top tips for winter hand protection: Use a sulphate-free (SLS/SLES) hand wash Moisturise after washing Exfoliate once or twice a week Apply SPF daily Keep the cold away by wearing gloves outside Wear gloves when doing household chores such as washing-up and cleaning
A walk around...
with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade
HOLT HEATH
This route explores heathland so, if you go there in the tick season, dress appropriately and tuck your trousers in your socks. Ticks make me cross! If you’re a geocacher, you’ll find plenty of easy ones not far from the described route. Muggles stick to the path. Park near the pub, the Old Inn and visit the nearby Church, built of brick as there isn’t much building stone thereabouts. Then walk north east along the road for a quarter of a mile where it swerves round to the left and soon links to a bridleway which takes you northwards for a mile into Holt Forest, a National Trust reserve. Here the path turns sharply to the right and leads first south, then south east for a mile passing through Lower Row and continuing up a road to a junction on the ridge near Higher Row. Turn left and walk north eastwards along a footpath leading through heathland with wide views, eventually getting to a trig point near Bull Barrow (not to be confused with Bulbarrow!) It’s all Access Land, part of the Holt Heath Nature Reserve, hereabouts so you can stray off track and wander freely at will, exploring the natural history and archaeology of the area. Turn right and head south going downhill until you come to a large pond close to a road. After your paddle (not recommended!) join the road and turn right heading westwards for about half a mile when you’ll come to a junction that you’ll recognise. Continue westwards along the road for another mile and you’ll meet the road coming up from the village. Turn left and head south westwards for about three furlongs and you’ll be back at your car, having walked nearly six miles.
Your happiness is worth investing in
I’m guessing that when your car breaks down or requires a service you whisk it off to the garage and pay to get it seen and repaired. When your friends get in touch and want to arrange a get-together you merrily go and enjoy yourself with a fancy meal and drinks. Maybe you like to look the part, so perhaps you get your hair done regularly, or treat yourself to that new pair of jeans that you saw on the high street. Gym membership, fitness classes, massages, manicures maybe? All very lovely – you’re looking good and keeping fit. Maybe your back goes so you end up spending on osteopaths or chiropractors. Perhaps you spend on home décor or renovations – new bathrooms, the addition of a conservatory, landscaped garden. Oh, and then maybe the dishwasher packs up, which incurs a callout fee before even getting to a diagnosis and repair cost. If you have pets, then I suspect like me, you spend without hesitation if your beloved requires the attention of a vet. Then of course, there’s the holiday where you might like to splash out, treat yourself to a trip away, a holiday wardrobe, luxury hotel, meals out and excursions. Back home, perhaps you enjoy magazine, TV or music subscriptions. Perhaps it’s best not to even contemplate the costs associated with moving home or divorce! So what? The dictionary definition of wellbeing is: ‘the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy.’ As well as encompassing factors that affect us all such as basic physiological needs (food and water), safety and security, wellbeing is about how we feel about ourselves, how satisfied we are with our life, our sense of meaning and purpose. It’s personal and subjective, therefore what it means to you will be different to what it means to me. When did you last invest in your wellbeing? When did you spend money unravelling the deeper part of yourself, your satisfaction, your meaning, your purpose? We’re very good at spending money on looking good, having fun and enjoying the finer things in life, but I’m not sure we’re quite so good at investing on our inner happiness and satisfaction and I believe that we are all worth improving and investing in. If you’re feeling dissatisfied, or you believe you have more capability than you are currently using, or you haven’t quite recognised what your purpose in life is, or you feel unhappy in your job or relationship, then maybe you would benefit from investing a little in yourself on coaching. Coaching can help you to define your life priorities, empower you to achieve your goals and dreams, bringing about increased satisfaction, whilst supporting you in becoming more self-aware, confident and with increased self-belief. And the reality is that coaching does not cost the Earth and is a whole lot cheaper than the majority of things listed above that we don’t even bat an eyelid at!
nVictoria Arnold is a life coach from Wimborne Victoriaarnold.co.uk
Rotarians learn of surfing as therapy
Christchurch Rotary received a presentation from Tom Donaldson-Browne, the local co-ordinator of The Wave Project. This is a local charity devoted to improving the well-being of young people aged from eight to 18 years through surfing and other water-based pursuits. Tom said that The Wave Project was founded in Cornwall in 2010, when a local NHS Trust funded a pilot scheme for 26 young people with diagnosed mental health disorders. After six weeks of tuition in surfing, paddleboarding and other water-sports, the well-being of the students was carefully assessed, and they were found to have great improvement in overall well-being, with significant anxiety reduction and other benefits. The success of this initial project led to the setting up of Wave Project locations in Dorset, Devon, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Bristol. The Dorset project is based in Boscombe, and offers several six-week courses each year. Each course takes up to 12 participants, referred by local agencies or schools, who are taught on a one-to-one basis by qualified volunteers. After completing the course, they can continue to attend for two hours a week of supervised tuition – which the great majority choose to. This year, 85 Dorset students had commenced a course, and 80 had completed it . Tom said he attributed the successful outcomes of this therapeutic approach to the way that students were treated as individuals, not as patients. The focus was always on learning the water-sport skills, not on the students’ problems. The intense concentration needed to master these skills, coupled with the natural environment and the toning effects of cold-water immersion, enabled the students to leave their problems behind, with longlasting benefits. The successes have aroused world-wide interest, and similar approaches are being tried in Somalia to help former child soldiers, Sierra Leone and South Africa. In the UK, the project is looking for ways to enable students with disabilities to take part –“adaptive capability” – and is about to open a branch in Weymouth. Tom is keen to increase the project’s public profile, in order to attract more referrals and expressed gratitude to all the organisations that had provided funding, and to the 81 volunteers and 6 lead volunteers who gave their time to help the young people.
WAVES: Tom with Rotary president Marianne Abley
Health & Wellbeing Free yourself from negative memories
By Susie Carver, consulting hypnotist with Sea Change Hypnotherapy in Wimborne seachangehypno.com We all carry the memory of traumatic events from the past that we would prefer to forget. I’m sure you can think of one of your own – a memory that triggers a negative feeling in you like fear, shame, guilt or even anger. Sometimes the memory of these events can begin to affect us adversely in our day-to-day lives, causing distress and anxiety. This is because the way we remember something is never the exact way it happened – each time we revisit a memory we change it slightly, distorting or even deleting some of the information over time. Our memories become our own personal interpretations, and this explains why two people who experienced the same event may remember it very differently. They may react very differently too, as we also attach an emotional interpretation. Our brains retain only the information important to us –the rest is forgotten over time. A question I get asked often by clients who are desperate to feel differently about past events is: ‘Can’t you just make me forget it/him/her?’ Sadly, I can’t. And nor would I want to – because every experience we’ve had, good or bad, has important lessons. We tend to remember bad experiences much more effectively for this very reason – they serve to protect us from something similar happening. But this is not helpful when the memory begins to cause problems now, and interferes with us living a happy life. We need a way to modify that memory, so the lessons remain but no longer affect us to such a crippling extent. Fortunately, this is where I AM able to help! NLP and hypnotherapy allows me to work with another person to reprogram how they see and respond to a memory. By taking the emotional charge away it becomes possible to react to it as you would any other normal, nonthreatening memory; it fundamentally changes the memory. You’ll still remember what happened, but you’ll remember it differently, and with different emotions attached to it. Typically, we do this by dissociating the person from the memory – allowing them to see it through someone else’s eyes rather than through their own and being immersed in the experience. Then we make changes to the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic elements of the memory. So, I might begin by asking the person to see a movie of their upsetting memory running on a TV screen. We make the screen go fuzzy and out of focus, obscuring the picture. We change it from colour to black and white. Then we push the TV away into the distance so the picture becomes small and indistinct. Then we imagine there is some interference on the channel, and there is some crazy, silly music playing out of the speakers. Eventually we make that TV disappear completely... taking with it all the negatively-charged emotions. Memory is an incredible and malleable thing... and thank goodness it is, because that means that hypnotherapists like me can help people let go of traumatic and troubling memories once and for all.
How to keep your festive cheer clear of fear
by Lorraine Gibson
newsdesk@stourandavon.net Stories of an increase in ‘spiking’, the act of adding drugs to someone’s drink without their knowledge, usually in pubs or clubs, have been making headlines. It tends to be more prevalent within young adult groups, but Dorset Police warn that it can happen to anyone and people should be alert to the possibility during the festive season. Occasionally spiking is done as a prank, but the fact remains that it can leave victims vulnerable to theft, attack or worse. Drink spiking is illegal, whether or not an assault occurs, and can result in up to 10 years in prison. If an attack, rape or robbery has also taken place, the sentence will be higher. So, with covid restrictions easing and the Christmas party season under way, how do you ensure that your festive night out is fun but safe? Some of steps may seem obvious, but are still worth noting: First, before leaving home, tell someone where you’re going and what time you expect to be back, especially if you’re going on a date with someone you don’t know. Help prevent spiking: Never leave your drink unattended or accept a drink from a stranger. Tell staff if you see someone acting suspiciously around people’s drinks. If someone seems unusually intoxicated, don’t leave them alone or with a stranger, keep them safe and get help. How do I know my drink has been spiked? It’s unlikely you’ll see, smell or taste anything odd in your drink, however, you may feel drowsy, confused or have difficulty speaking or moving. You could feel drunker than you should and be unable to recall events clearly. What should I do if I think my drink has been spiked? Dorset Police stress that you should report it straight away as they’ll need blood and urine samples as soon as possible for evidence. Tell someone you trust, a friend or staff and if you’re alone, ask the landlord or manager to call a friend who can take you to A&E and tell the medical staff you may have been spiked. Some substances can affect your memory, so if you’re in doubt but think you may have been spiked – even the night before – be on the safe side and report it.
New Stour & Avon, November 19, 2021 25 Health & Wellbeing The pillow of good health
There’s nothing worse than lying in bed trying to get to sleep with my head full of random thoughts (Is it recycling this week? Do penguins have knees? How can I check when my car tax is due when I don’t have a disc?). Suddenly it feels like I have a troop of Morris dancers inside my head! Lots of us have disrupted sleep at some point and not just due to intrusive thoughts: hot flushes, illness, night time bathroom visits or external noises can all keep us awake a friend was complaining last week she’d been kept awake by some noisy, amorous foxes in her garden! We all know sleep is a fundamental pillar of good health, but me just saying, “Hey, remember, sleep is really important and you should prioritise it!” is not helpful. However, I can remind you of a few proven sleep strategies that might help. Naturally, I’ll start with exercise; gentle exercise won’t promise you extra hours of rest, but it does help improve the quality of your sleep. Exercise, particularly outdoors, also helps combat low mood and mild depression, which we are more susceptible to when tired. Tiredness can become a vicious circle. Not only does exposure to natural daylight help, the optimum time to have this is within two hours of waking. That early morning walk is a great idea for so many reasons, even preparing you for sleep at the end of the day. The reason it helps is that it works with our natural body clock; our circadian rhythms revolve around a twenty-four hour cycle and respond to day and night. This is one of the reasons I take new mums, (some of the most sleep deprived individuals I know), to the park with their babies for an exercise class in the morning. Routine is particularly important for sleep. Although I have an alarm set on weekday mornings, I routinely wake up a few minutes before it goes off. This also happens on weekends when the alarm isn’t set and I don’t have to get out of bed – I’m awake anyway. As I know getting up and going to bed at consistent times is supposed to help sleep, I also have an evening bedtime alarm set before I want to sleep. This is a reminder that it’s time for me to finish whatever I’m doing and start getting ready for bed. We don’t always want to go to bed early, but sometimes, especially if we’re prone to erratic nights or early morning starts, getting to bed a bit earlier might be the one thing we can control. Relaxing the mind is helpful and I use a short meditation to help me. For many years, I was put off meditating as it sounded too ‘hippy’. Just ‘twenty minutes a day’, I was told - there was no way I was going to manage that! I started with five minutes a few times a week and found I enjoy it. My mind does wander, but that is the point. You can’t really go wrong. I also write a to-do list for the next day as I realised the worry of forgetting to do something was keeping me awake. Once I’ve made my list, my mind is clear and I can get to sleep. I find this simple act immensely reassuring. When I’m in bed I try to read something, even if it is only a couple of pages. I don’t like the light of electronic devices in the bedroom, but others don’t mind. Do what suits you, but if you start to find sleeping difficult and this has been a habit you’ve been fine with before, it would make sense to change it. All habits affect us in some way; they might be in good ways or they might be in bad ways. Sometimes habits change from a positive benefit to a negative one over time. Don’t be wedded to something if it no longer benefits you. Routine, daylight, gentle exercise and a habits audit are all worth thinking about. We’ve a chance to practise every day, so try different things if you think your sleep could be improved. We can’t always fix our sleep, but like with everything with our health, being proactive can help us feel a little more empowered and gives us more chances of coping with what life throws at us. I hope this helps. Sweet dreams. As with all health issues, any concerns or changes, you should seek advice from your doctor.
n Katrina Keeling is a Wimborne based Personal Trainer. kkeelingfitness@gmail.com, kkfitness.co.uk Have your say on neuro provisioning Dorset people living with neurological conditions are being asked to take part in the UK’s largest neurological survey to help improve vital services and support. The Neurological Alliance – a coalition of charities working to transform quality of life for people with neurological conditions – runs My Neuro Survey every two years to gain invaluable insights into care, treatment and support. This year, for the first time, people under 18 can also share their experiences. The survey – which had more than 10,000 responses in 2019, including more than 600 from the south west – asks questions about daily life, mental wellbeing, diagnosis, treatment and support, and how the covid pandemic has impacted care. My Neuro Survey closes on January 14. It takes around 20 minutes to complete. Visit qhweb.co.uk/myneuroNAM/? GEN or call The Alliance’s survey partners Quality Health on Freephone 0800 7831775.
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