Brace”

To wear or not to wear a “posture brace”?

Alex Beeston, registered osteopath at Shoreham Osteopathy Centre, explains…

As an osteopath, this is a question that I receive often in clinic. It is very tempting after developing lower or upper back pain, to consider purchasing an expensive back/ posture brace to help ease the symptoms.

This may provide temporary relief, but it is likely that individuals may become dependent on them, and after time become lured into a false reality, believing that without the brace they may do further harm to their back, which is very often not the case. Additionally, if we rely on a brace to provide postural support, we run the risk of exacerbating any muscular imbalances that may be present through lack of normal unrestricted movement. Especially with acute episodes of pain, our smaller, supportive postural muscles “switch off” and the larger muscles which usually are responsible for movement tighten up. It’s then important to recondition those postural muscles to support you again. If you rely on a posture brace, this process may take longer, as there is no need for them to work so hard.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ posture, and everyone is built differently - your posture is unique to you. A posture brace may pull you into a unnatural, possibly uncomfortable, position, and as a result cause you to move less which is a stronger predictor of pain than posture alone.

As osteopaths, our two fundamental goals are to deliver effective pain relief through hands-on treatments, and also to encourage better quantity and quality movement in the long term. There is an overwhelming amount of research backing up the prescription of movement and physical activity for relieving lower back pain, and experience has taught us that braces can often hinder the body’s own recovery process, if excessively used in the long term.

Whether you have recently developed a back-pain issue, or have struggled with pain for years, don’t hesitate to contact our team for an in depth assessment and to gain a short and long term plan for management of all musculoskeletal pains, on 01273 567654, info@shorehamosteo. co.uk

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Summer Films at Ropetackle

In late July, Ropetackle Cinema is excited to present a special summer festival of films with a common theme: to demonstrate different aspects of diversity and inclusivity.

There are four festival films in all, two to be shown as matinees, and the other two presented as evening films. They range from a 1958 action classic to a more recent sensitive coming-of-age drama.

SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL HIDDEN FIGURES For the first festival film Ropetackle Cinema has chosen a hitherto little-known true-life story. You may have seen films about the Space Race before but this is the first one about space racism. NASA is determined to send an astronaut on a trip around the earth and three big, brilliant brains are drafted in to help the all-white, male-only flight research team.The problem? It’s 1962. They’re women and they’re black. The incredible true-life story of three African-American mathematicians, the brains behind the momentous launch and safe return of astronaut John Glenn - crossed all gender, race and professional lines. Yet these same women were subject to all manner of demeaning rules including being unable to drink coffee from the communal coffee pot, attend briefing meetings and having to jog twenty minutes to the nearest toilet. They suffered these indignities stoically but the release, when it came, was glorious. Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae in career-defining roles. Cert PG, duration 127 mins. Tuesday 19th July, 2.00 pm. Tickets available from Box Office or on-line, £5.

SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL THE DEFIANT ONES Equally intensely dynamic, Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis turn in brilliant performances in a film that repudiates racial prejudice. One night in the American South, a truck loaded with convicts in the back swerves to avoid another truck and crashes through a barrier. The rescuers clearing up the debris discover that two convicts have escaped, a black man shackled by the wrist to a white man because ‘the warden had a sense of humour.’ The two men, Noah Cullen (Poitier) and ‘Joker’ Jackson (Curtis), hate each other but they are forced to cooperate if they are to succeed in their plan to go North and jump a train and so reach freedom. At first their cooperation is motivated by self-preservation but gradually, as they flee through difficult terrain, weather and life-threatening situations, all the while pursued by Sheriff Muller and his posse, they begin to respect and like each other. This film won two Oscars and was nominated for seven others including Best Picture and Best Actor for both Curtis and Poitier. Directed by Stanley Kramer Cert U, duration 96 mins. Wednesday 20th July, 7.30 pm. Tickets available from Box Office or on-line, £7.

SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL:WONDER The aptly named Wonder is a warm, persuasive argument for tolerance. This perfect family film deals with diversity, inclusivity, worry and fear. It tells the inspiring and heart-warming story of August Pullman, a sci-fi obsessed boy who always wears a space helmet. Auggie’s severe facial disfigurements prevented him from going to a mainstream school and he had been homeschooled. When he negotiates the pitfalls of an elementary school for the first time as an outcast 10-year-old, Auggie outdoes his classmates and becomes the most unlikely of heroes winning an award in recognition of his many small acts of kindness that made the school a better place. If at first his new classmates and the larger community struggle to discover acceptance, Auggie’s extraordinary journey unites them and proves you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out. Julia Roberts plays Isabel, mum to Auggie and