You hear a lot about "gut health" in adults: fibre, fermented foods, stress, and sleep. While all of those are true, your gut story actually starts much earlier than your first mouthful of food. It starts at birth. 1. Before birth, the gut is nearly "microbe-free" In the womb, a baby has little to no exposure to the outside world of microbes. The environment is sterile and protected. Then, birth

Running shoes matter. More than most runners realise. If you are training for a 10 to 21 km fun run, your shoes influence comfort, efficiency, fatigue, and injury risk. This guide gives you clear, practical guidance so you choose shoes that support your body rather than fight it. High-Stack versus Low-Stack Shoes Stack height refers to the amount of material between your foot and the ground. High-stack shoes place your foot higher off the ground, while low-stack shoes keep y

Why posture matters even for fit people You train regularly. You lift, run, jump, and compete. You feel strong. Yet performance stalls. Niggles appear. Recovery slows. Often the missing link is spinal movement. Your spine is not a stack of bones to hold you upright. It is a dynamic system built for motion. It links your arms and legs. It houses the nervous system. It shapes how you breathe, balance, and generate force. Strong muscles cannot express power through a stiff sp

Why joints can matter more than stretching Many active adults stretch regularly. Few assess joint mobility. Flexibility and mobility are not the same. Flexibility describes muscle length. Mobility describes joint motion under control. You can stretch daily and still move poorly. Why mobility matters more than stretching Muscles generate force. Joints guide force. If a joint does not move well, muscles around it tighten for protection. Stretching those muscles treats the

Why “a few little issues” often show up together We hear it every week in the practice. “I’m tired all the time.” "My gut feels off.” “My skin keeps flaring.” “My joints feel stiff.” “My sleep is patchy.” “My mood is flat.” “I feel inflamed.” People often say it like these are separate problems. Different parts of the body. Different causes. The podcast we listened to this week, from ZOE, put a simple idea back on the table. Chronic, low-grade inflammation often links these

Why your chair might be causing “dead butt syndrome” If you work at a desk, you sit more than you think. You might train hard and still feel stiff, sore, and tired. Long blocks of sitting do their own damage. Separate from exercise. What sitting does to your body 1.      Your hips tighten Your hip flexors stay shortened. You lose hip extension. You stand up and your back takes extra load. 2.      Your upper back rounds Y our rib cage drops. Your head drifts for

A practical guide for our practice members. If your body feels heavy after December, you are not imagining it. Food choices shift fast during the holidays. The good news. Small changes often change energy, hunger, and mood within days, sometimes within hours. ZOE’s Professor Tim Spector and Dr Sarah Berry shared eight simple principles for 2026 . I have translated them into a user-friendly plan you can use this right away. 1.      Mindful eating. Pause before you eat. Min

As we begin a new year, I want to thank you for trusting us with your health and your families’ health. A new year always feels like a fresh chance to reset, refocus and support our kids as they grow especially with school around the corner. Over the past months I have been working on a project that matters deeply to me. Children’s posture and development. WHY CHILDREN’S POSTURE MATTERS Posture is much more than “standing up straight.” For children, posture reflects

Life feels busy. Many people eat in front of a screen or on the go. Meals blur into the day and you barely notice what you ate. Mindful eating offers a different approach. It is not a diet. It is a way of paying attention before, during, and after you eat. You bring your focus to: what you choose to buy how you prepare food how it smells, tastes, and feels how your body feels before and after a meal The goal is awareness, not perfection. What is mindful eating? Mindful eatin

The vagus nerve is getting a lot of attention right now because it sits at the crossroads of stress, inflammation, pain, mood, digestion, and heart health. People are trying to “hack” it. Some of that is good science. Some is hype. What the vagus nerve is It is the longest parasympathetic nerve in your body. It runs from your brainstem through your neck to your heart, lungs, gut, and other organs. It carries signals both ways, brain to body and body to brain. It helps slow h