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OK, so we're ready to
go, our next talk
is about your health as hackers,
we live our lives
mostly in front of the computer, and that
causes all sorts of problems for our
body.
And here with us is Sophie
Hytner.
She's a physical therapist by
training and as such has treated
many hackers for back
pain and all kinds of
other problems.
And she's going to tell us how we can
listen more closely to our bodies.
Please welcome on stage Sophie Hood
now with coding your body.
Thank you very
much.
It's a great honor and pleasure to be
here with such a non
computer related talk.
But there is some things you can do
to your body which you are
currently doing right now,
which I will try to reveal
through my talk by, first of
all, and explain
to you some things about the hardware you
have in your body, like all the different
tissues and how they can be programed,
how they are influenced by the daily
things we're doing, by biology
and awareness by the software
a.k.a. your brain central processing
unit, also known like
major influence on how your body
feels at the end of every day and
at the end of the life, especially
posture. I just mentioned something
very important how you're sitting
and how often you're sitting, and
I going to give you some examples from my
long practice of treating patients
mostly sitting all day long.
Not all related to computers, but they
show similar problems.
And I want to mention that this talk is
just giving you a hint into
the direction of what
you can improve in your life.
And if you have the same symptoms, it
doesn't mean you have the same disease in
the background. So every person is
an individual and you have to
focus on your individuality and see
a specialist if you have questions
about your body in particular.
So I'm just giving you hints and what
could be a problem?
I'm not telling you this is always
how it goes because we are individuals.
Every example is a different individual.
And at the end, we come to the actual
coding process, the prevention
of how and what you can do
before she started the fence
or my words. But in some cases,
you probably
it can turn out pretty bad and that for
the rest of your life, which most of you
are pretty young, so you need to take
care of your body, that's the one thing
that sticks to you all your life.
So the hardware we come to bones,
connective tissues, muscles,
tendons and the central processing unit,
which is as itself, of course, a part of
your hardware.
Bones are made of two major components.
You have the ultracompact
bone, which is a really strong
tissue, and you have
also the cartilage on top of the
bones, which are for
the joints to be able to move.
If you take away the compact bone
as well as the cartilage, the
actual inside of your bone is really,
really soft. That's where the bone marrow
is set and where the trabecular
are going to go to to that end of it
or designing the actual
structure of your your bones.
And you can press into it with
a finger. I've been into an operating
room a couple of times and I have seen
how soft the inside of your bones
actually is, which also means bones
are a flexible material,
meaning you can change how
your bones are
at least slightly because
they're adapting to how you use them when
you break a bone. It takes six to 12
weeks to be fully reconstructed,
meaning that when you start changing
your behavior, your posture you
can't expect after a week or two
to feel immediately better if the main
problem is inside your bones.
So it does take a couple of weeks
because they're a passive structure,
they're influenced by
pressure and tension from muscles
and gravity.
So the trabecular I've mentioned earlier,
you see here an X-ray
of the hip bone, the femur,
bone of the leg and
you see all these fine lines, their
trajectory lines of how this
person in particular used
this bone because they do change
the fine architecture and structure.
They do change over time.
If you start using them differently,
meaning also when you start doing sports,
your bones get more dense.
When you sit all
the time,
the bone actually, which is constantly
constructed and distracted,
I think we need to open this door.
Some people want to OK, thanks,
but they are constantly sells just
basic bottom line.
Constantly cells are constructing and
reconstructing the bone
tissue inside and
these parts I'm talking about.
They can change in this trajectory.
Trajectory lines are the power
structures of your
bone
coming to the bone of the backs because
that's the structure in your
body, which is mostly stressed when
you're sitting and.
Do you have different designs inside
the spinal column
for different tasks, so this upper
parts of the
cervical spine
are have they have a lot of room
inside here where the spinal cord,
the connection of nerve tissue from
brain to body, it's going through
the parts at the theoretical
spinal cord have
more corpus.
They are more designed as lumbar
parts to carry weight
because that's where most of the weight
goes to.
But this area for the spinal cord
is getting narrower,
which means if something happens there,
you have little room, for example,
in intervertebral disc to escape
to, which means they will cause
serious trouble.
And all these different
parts have different flexibilities.
The neck you can rotate,
you can bend forward inside
words and you can
flex and stretch it.
The same thing you can do with the
theoretical part with
the longer you have
this more developed
side ways which block
most of the rotation process.
So rotating is mostly in
the upper part and only when you flex
to the front and then turn
off, you can actually have a rotation in
the lumbar part
just for
now. OK.
Exactly. But most common problems are
here in the neck because there's a stress
pretty high, as well as the lumbar
region, the connective
tissue, your intervertebral discs.
These, as well as all
the ligaments and tendons in your body,
are made of different kinds of connective
tissue.
Connective tissue has a turnover rate,
which means the way if
it gets hurt until it's
back on track again, it takes three
to five days.
So if you are having
an intervertebral disc that isn't working
or that has been overstressed and
you had maybe a slipped disc or an
herniated disc or you broke a
tendon, it does take some serious
time and
rehabilitation to
get back to where it was before the
accident or incident.
So there's something you really want to
preserve and sorry
to say, but this is the structure that
you get stressed the most when we don't
use our active structures
because these are passive structures as
well.
Basics of the intervertebral
disc is you have an outer ring, which is
made out of really strong fibers
and an inner core, which is really soft
and rather gelatinous.
And when you drink a lot, these are
really fine and happy because then they
can take up some of the water.
And I'm talking about water.
Sugary drinks and sugary drinks,
as well as milk are not
as good for making
the
intervertebral discs
swell up, basically to
give you more cushion
and buffer to to all
your movement.
Like I said before, this is the spinal
cord inside into
the spinal canal and there's not
much room because the nerves are lying
right inside this
bone canal.
We're coming to your active structures.
This is the actual coating.
The only one and only structure you can
actually actively code,
and they are divided
in several
divisions. You have long muscles
on the outside of your body,
like these ones, like all the muscles
on your arm and
on your legs. Most of them
the most muscles. You can actually see
yourself on your body or on someone
else's body are
for movement, so they are there
to move around and have a good
leverage for the joints till
you can lift things and do stuff.
And they are the short muscles, and most
of us have lost the
ability to move those that lost the
ability. But we have lost the awareness
that they are there and we
haven't used them for a very long time.
There've been some interesting studies
that most of these really fine muscles.
This is
the spinal column
and all these fine muscles are going
cross wiring over
different levels,
the spinal column
together. And there are some interesting
and some interesting studies that these
muscles which are.
Most important to stabilizing
your spinal column
and therefore saving your intervertebral
discs for any incidents
that they are rather fatty because
we have not used them.
And whatever the body doesn't use, it
just starts to collect different
tissue and even skinny people.
They all have lost most
of them.
Most of us have actually lost to really
use these muscles because when we are
sitting, we don't need them.
And all the weight is set on the passive
structures, on the bones, on the
connective tissue.
So we
are in kind of a trouble being
sitting all along.
And if I would have more time, I would
just make you stand up now and move a
little around. But that has to wait
till the actual exercise
workshop we have in
about an hour or two.
Know it exactly one hour hole
14. There's a little exercise and
I going to show you like what kind of
things you can actually do.
So the muscles, the muscles are
organized and slings.
So you have. I just marked the ones that
are extending and you can imagine
to all these little errors, I made
another error in going in the exact
opposite direction because whenever
you flex one
part of your body and you flex one
muscle, another one has to stretch.
So they are all going
together in pairs.
One has to release while the other one is
flexing. So they are called
agonists and antagonists, and
they're always working together in the
spinal reflex.
So whenever you take
something up and you use this muscle
via your spinal reflex immediately,
this one has to release.
So it's kind of David versus
Goliath. The one that gets short usually
wins.
What happens if you use
a certain kind of
muscle all of the time,
all of the they get shorter
because the body is all
about efficiency.
It wants to make you
as comfortable as you are and
the things you like doing most.
So when you're sitting like this
all day long, the body thing
is great.
These just have to work a little more.
And these just I forget
about these meaning the ones in the
back just
doesn't work quite that way
because the ones in the back
are working as well.
They're working constantly against
gravity and against
the muscles,
which are getting shorter
and shorter and shorter because muscles
do memorize.
How do you use them?
So the friend who actually
asked me to hand in a
talk here told me, Well, I
see all these hackers on conventions and
they they like, give each other massages
and they're like pressing where it hurts
most.
And I don't know if that's right.
Well, I tell you if it hurts.
Pain is always a warning signal.
So if you're not in
professional hands, well, I
would be careful to just have anyone
walkable over my back.
And oh yeah, it's
great. Oh, thanks.
So please
be advised that yes, there are little
nods in the in the muscles, and
if you feel them,
it is there for a reason.
And the reason is your body is overusing
this part.
This muscle has been overused and
it has been used so much that
most of the blood is constantly being
squeezed out of that muscle.
So all the little kind of,
how do you say, end products of the
metabolism of the singular
muscle cell?
They can get transported
away.
And when you cut open the muscle, which
has a knot, you can see physiologically
there has been a change.
So it's been
it's called my agile doses.
And when you now this already like
suffocating muscle, you press even
more on land, like suffocating
someone who's suffocating already.
Not it does have
advantages. And yes, there is and
afterwards more blood
flow from flowing through
there. But I
would rather like gifts of massage.
Perfect touch is a great relief
to almost like to a
lot of things like just touching each
other, hugging each other and slightly
pressing. Those muscles will always do
good, but please don't.
To squeeze the pain out,
as we've worked in my experience, if you
have different experiences, please let me
know. My Twitter is so free health care,
so I'm always open for
learning something new.
So we're coming to your brain
and your posture, like I said,
is very
important to how you use it.
This is just some examples of
how posture can be, and
posture is a mixture of your biology
the hard way you have been given by
your genetics of the parents,
mostly, and you will at one point your
parents like, Oh, wait a minute,
how do I look like you?
Most likely?
I need you. I need to work out.
OK, I got go. I got to go work out.
So it's biology of plus habits, plus
your awareness.
And I've seen, like when I started
stretching, I've seen What are you like?
Oh yeah, wait a minute, I can.
I could sit up straighter.
So it's already working me, talking about
it, raising your awareness.
You suddenly get like, Ooh, hmm,
yeah, OK. Now I was doing it
last for like 30 seconds, if even
so, you need to change
more of your awareness to
just do that because
the network in your brain.
There's a simple saying it's called the
fire. Together they wire together.
The more they fire, the more they wire,
meaning the more you do
one thing like
eight hours a day.
Your brain remembers as well and getting
rid of this habit.
It does take time, so be patient
if you want to change something.
It does take time.
OK, just basically back pain is bad and
cost a lot of money, especially in
Germany.
It's one of the most common illnesses in
Germany. I just have to rush through so I
can come to the interesting examples
and is responsible for the most
sick days due to back pain and almost
the most sick days I do to back pain.
And a serious incident never,
rarely rarely
happened without announcement.
So if you're feeling a little
rap here, a little itch there.
I'm just so uncomfortable.
My eyes, they usually last
two to five days
and then they go away five years later.
They asked five to 10 days and they
go away two years later.
Maybe you haven't herniated disk.
Oops. I never had an idea.
Anyway, that was this.
Yeah, like five years ago.
Oh yeah, like ten years ago.
Pain is a warning sign
and the one and only red
blinking flickering light,
which is constantly reminding you there
is something wrong.
So if you are in pain
as someone who knows more about the
body than Typekit PDA.
So whenever a patient came to me.
Yes, I'm provoking pain.
It's my way to find the correct
diagnosis. I make you move
in the way it hurts.
Otherwise, I cannot identify the
structure, which is hurting and can be
your muscles. It can be the bones, it can
be the the disc I need to provoke
to see what it is.
I'm going to do some stretching and
toning of the sorts of muscles I going to
raise your awareness to optimize your
posture are going to activate those
stabilizing muscles.
The short ones we talked about,
all the examples are former patients of
mine and their desktop workers,
and they're all sitting along times and
these are all individuals.
So I give you two quick examples.
I think I run out of time.
So Stefan
came to me with an acute herniated disk,
and he said, especially in the morning,
it's really painful.
During the day, it gets better.
All I could do when the disk
is already herniated, meaning
the outer fiber ring broke the soft
core leaks out and
the spinal cord is
pressed. Nerves don't like cuddling.
They want their own space.
If you squeeze them, they react with
numbness, pain and
maybe losing the function
of that body part of that muscle.
Like, if you feel numbness or you can
move your legs the way
you did before serious trouble
ahead. So please watched your discs
activate your muscles, stabilize and so
on.
Because all I can do there is relaxation,
heat treatment and small movements and
the pain free range, which isn't a lot
in that moment.
This is just for your interest in x ray.
He has a herniated disc, squeezes
the nerves and you just
can't push it back in.
And I would always get a second
opinion, or maybe even a third.
If someone wants to cut your back open,
please do so.
I have treated so many patients
which have been operated in the spinal
cord and in the spinal column.
No fun, no fun
at all. Seriously,
if you feel I'm rushing
through two more minutes, if you feel
tingling in your fingers, it's
coming from your neck spine.
You can always.
There's not only slipped discs, but also
the bones can
start building extra tissue and
start narrowing down on the nerves.
It's called a spinal stenosis,
and it can lead to numbness, tingling
sensation or losing function
of the muscles.
And
what might be interesting for some of you
is the most arms syndrome.
It's gertrud she came with to me
with shoulder pain for over one year,
and she had the muscles and tendons in
front of the shoulder really short, like
she could barely move.
So here and then the pain started and she
could move slightly higher.
And it was incredible
and I had to work with force.
I had to make all the
connective tissue.
I had to force it back into the way
that she could lift her arm
like she used to, because she has
been working miniature
movements all the time with a mouse.
It just at one point I can't do anything
but cause more pain so you can
get the function back.
It's terrible.
You don't want to get there.
So whatever you do like, stretch
sometimes in between to
make your body.
Yeah, OK.
Bottom line.
It's your choice.
That's the good news.
You will feel a difference, and one
minute of prevention equals one
hour of rehabilitation.
So whatever you do now
is saving a lot of time down the road.
But you need a good teacher.
You need a physical therapist or a doctor
who takes you serious, who
is investigating your individual problem
specifically and
you need patients.
It does take time.
And if you want to learn how to use
those little tiny muscles and can
save your back,
you will feel
it very hard.
And if it's easy, you are most likely
doing it wrong. And the ultimate key is
repetition, repetition, repetition.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Now we have some time for questions
if you'd like to leave.
Please do it to the front door at the
front door is open now.
I just checked.
Oh yeah, please don't.
Please do so quietly.
Really, really quiet.
OK?
Do we have a question from the signal
angel?
Well, not from the internet, but what?
I would have a question myself.
OK. And that is,
how much impact does a good
chair make compared to just
the cheap office chair?
Your question is how
expensive chair in comparison
to a cheap chair can help you do
can improve your problem more.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. OK,
there I go with the founder of IKEA,
he says.
Ever like the very basic chair
is his most favorite because it's so
uncomfortable it makes him stand up
every 30 minutes.
There's a question at the microphone
number one, please.
I heard some in the news
that some problems with the pain can
be related with infections
and in some cases, antibiotics
works.
Do you think that's that's common
or it's something that
in my career, it's more inflammation
than infection, and inflammation
is also a cause of overusing a certain
part of your body, which reacts with
stress.
So it is a possibility and keep
it in mind. Maybe that's valuable in for
one or two in the audience
that we'll go to see a doctor and he
doesn't know what it is, how it is.
So it seems very
difficult to to have an infection.
No, it's not that difficult.
Well, it's possible.
It's not difficult. But it's it's not
that often. It's not that calling up.
Thank you.
So the gentleman at the microphone
number two, please.
And yeah, if you start to
get information about this topic, you
ultimately stumble upon different schools
of functional movement systems, which
try to layer movements in a meaningful
way and take your true,
easy movements to more complex movement
in a way that
that is good for your body.
And they also say that repetition,
repetition, repetition and
my question is from all those
movements systems that are on the
internet, other some you can recommend
that's that are good and easy
to understand.
Well, the problem is,
if you want to learn a new language
like those little muscles in your back,
you can try to get
the basic vocabulary from
someone or just from a source on
the internet. But movement
is a very specific
and feeling it and then getting the idea
of this is how I do it.
I always knew when the patients knew
they got it because this is exactly what
it is like. Oh,
like, once it drops, then you can
do it on your own, but you need someone
to. It's yeah, it's difficult.
I can't advise you on that.
Sorry.
OK, thank you for welcome.
So go ahead.
Yes. This ties into the first question
about the chairs.
If you have a chair that you know you're
going to sit in for eight or 10 hours a
day and it has these 4000 settings
for various things, do you have any
suggestions for how you should set it up
or the usual mistakes that
people make and sit wrong?
It depends on on, on, on
your individuality, on how
tall you are, how tall your desk is like
you have to feel comfortable.
But one of the key
things is put up little reminders
that you stand up like
have a pot of coffee sitting
over there and just a tiny cup
on your desk and then you have to get up
every day. I don't know how much coffee
or tea or water you drink,
but that is something it's just
staying the same way.
Your body will get so used to
it, it will give it to you all the time.
Even when you sleep, you're going to
start doing this, although you used to
sleep on your back.
So I can
recommend because everybody is so
individual.
Some some people like having the
the monitor
really down, so you don't have to stretch
your neck. Some people like it on either
side, and it's good for both of them.
So but we can we
can. I can try to give you like a two
minute advice personally
in the in the workshop.
All right. Thank you. You're welcome.
OK.
One of my problems in the past have
been incompetent or
apathetic doctors.
And so my question is, how
do I recognize quickly if
a specialist that I've gone to,
you know, like if we talk to normal
people, they don't understand computers
and we can bamboozle them all that all
day long.
So how do I not get bamboozled
by bad therapists?
Well,
make it make your point stand out.
Tell him, explain
it to me.
Details like you have those people that
just won't get
bamboozled the way they will be like, OK,
I'm in your face now.
Let me know what's what's what's the
problem? What do you think is the
problem?
Many doctors, I don't know if your
doctors from Germany or somewhere else,
but many doctors are used to like having
five minutes. If even with a patient, you
just look at them, tell them something.
And I am as a physical therapist
receiving something like shoulder
syndrome.
Wait, there's a shoulder this syndrome.
What of the shoulder?
And I'm sorry to say it's hard.
It's connect yourself with people
and ask, Ask like,
who knows a good doctor of orthopedics?
Who knows a good physical therapist?
Just hand them on because those cards
are valuable.
Because good therapists, good doctors
are rare and they
do any kind of like websites that
track this exist.
Maybe, you know, like there's
YouTube has ratings for every video.
So, oh, are there ratings for doctors,
at least in Germany, for example?
I think there are some, but I
I never use them.
I have I have my like box
of cards and I'm
collecting still.
Sorry. Thank you.
Yeah.
Hey, I wanted to ask you, what's
your opinion about?
Well, when you are in acute
pain, back pain and
some doctors recommend
giving shots,
so I knew that's a big discussion
about whether to do it or not.
And I was just interested.
What your opinion about it
is depends on the case.
In some cases, I say yes,
the pain is too big.
I can do anything.
In other cases, I'd say, well,
try to keep the shot
away for two days because they're also
using a lot of cortisone to bring the
inflammation down.
And cortisone does something to your
tendons. It weakens them and makes them
more easy to break, which is a huge
problem for me because if you then have,
for example, actually the pain in
your back results from the shortness of
the muscles in your shoulder, and I have
to go with force on your shoulder,
I can't do that because you'd had
cortisone.
So I would always say
pain against the pain.
Yes.
And again, like cortisone
for the for the inflammation.
Really careful.
Really, really careful.
Cortisone is a strong medication
and has serious side effects.
Thanks, Typekit.
I'm so, so sorry about all the time.
We have to stop now and let the next
speaker in. Thank you very much.
Thank.