Within all of the change that has been happening in the world I have also changed clinic location. You can now find me at Active spine centre in Shepparton, and I’m looking forward to being able to do more in clinic.
I take the health and wellbeing of you and your family seriously, in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic so you can still continue with your appointments (both online or via phone), if you choose to come into clinic I will be taking additional steps to minimise risk of virus transmission or infection.
This includes removing items from our waiting rooms such as shared books and children's toys to avoid cross contamination; spreading out of seating and allowing you to wait outside for appointments to avoid having to be in close proximity to others; increasing cleaning and frequency of hand-washing required by staff and patients; and preference for contactless payment where possible.
With many of us focused on other areas of life now is the time, more than ever to continue to look after your health. Now is the time to support the services and small business that you want to have available when life gets back to ‘normal’.
There are some more far reaching impacts of social isolation that we are all going through, some of which are more noticeable than others (I’ll attach a list at the bottom of the article). It just goes to show that although many of us will not be infected, however all of us will be affected on some level.
The positive take home out of this crisis is that we learn what is really important to us and what are the true things of value in life. Being able to connect face to face with family and friends, having a robust level of health.
I encourage you to maintain your appointments to maintain your own health and wellbeing. If you do have any questions that you please reach out. Even if it is to say hello or you want to have a more focused discussion around your health. I look forward to talking to you soon.
For those of you that are interested Social isolation is associated with an increased risk of;
- Depression [1]
- Anxiety [2]
- HPA Axis Dysfunction [2]
- Alcohol use disoders [3] Note* Social isolation has a negative health effect equivalent to the consumption of 6 alcoholic drinks per day [17,18]
- Cardiovascular disease [4]
-Suicidal behaviour [5]
-Obesity [6] Note* Social isolation is twice as harmful to health than obesity [23]
-Metabolic Syndrome [7]
-Type 2 Diabetes [8]
-Shortened Life Span [9]
-Cancer [10]
- Premature Death [24] Note* Social isolation is associated with a 60-70% increased risk of all cause mortality [11,12]
- Smoking [13] Note* Social isolation can be as damaging to your health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day [14,17,18])
- Musculoskeletal disorders [15]
- Physical inactivity [15]
- Use of psychotropic medications [15]
- Poor dietary habbits and malnutrition [15,31]
- Domesic violence [19,20]
- Alzheimer's disease [21] Note* The risk of Alzheimer's disease doubles due to lonliness and social isolation [22]
- Insomnia / Sleep disturbance [24]
- Hypertension / High blood pressure [25]
- Impaired immune activity [26]
- Hypervigilence [27]
- Aggression [28]
- Inflammation and inflammatory diseases [29]
- Auto-immune disease [30]
References:
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