“A non-surgical, non-invasive alternative for pain relief and musculoskeletal repair.”
Shockwave therapy is a modern and highly effective treatment option in orthopaedic and rehabilitation medicine. The term shockwave refers to mechanical pressure pulses that expand as a wave in the body.
Radial shockwave was extensively used in mainland Europe for many years before being introduced to the UK. Due to this, radial shockwave is still not commonly available here, but its acceptance is growing, in part helped by gaining NICE approval for some conditions. Our clinic was at the forefront of radial shockwave introduction, following training for Nicky & Alan by an Orthopaedic Consultant who runs a major shockwave clinic in Luxembourg.
Extensive research around the world is continuing to push the boundaries at a rapid pace and many new applications are constantly being developed, so expect more updates in the future.
How does it work?
The shockwave is created by firing a high energy projectile into the back of a transmitter, the front of which is in contact with the patient’s body. The projectile is fired repeatedly at a frequency to suit the particular condition being treated.
The transmitter sends a high energy acoustic wave into the body. The energy promotes regeneration and reparative processes of the bones, tendons and other soft tissues. Shockwaves are characterised by large changes in pressure.
Shockwave is particularly effective in the treatment of:
- Plantar fasciitis | Policeman’s foot
- Tendon calcification
- Adhesive Capsulitis | Frozen shoulder
- Achilles tendonitis
- Lumbar spasm
- Shin splints
- Piriformis syndrome
- Tennis / Golfer’s elbow
- Iliotibial Band Syndrome
- Osteoarthritic joint mobility
Many patients have come to us with osteoarthritic joints and have felt an immediate improvement in joint flexibility. For those who choose not to undergo joint replacement surgery, shockwave offers a maintenance alternative.
There is no extra charge for using radial shockwave.
If you feel we could help you with our radial shockwave technology, then gives us a call.
One autumn morning last year, a quiet, middle-aged clinical professor came to see me because he found his gym workout was badly irritating his elbow and ankle.
I went over my 4 Keys (see my book) healthy living questions to which he scored green in food/ water/ supplements and fitness. He scored amber in lifestyle – he was working a little too much. Family life had been fraught with problems until recently, and on the whole, he loved his work. He just couldn’t quite get his life/ work balance right. His mind was amber and at times red, as he found teaching at university stressful, and he also found it difficult to switch off. I intuitively sensed some deeper issues, and it made sense that keeping fit calmed his mind.
“I haven’t injured myself or upped my workouts or done anything to cause these pains; they’ve just crept up on me. My pain is deep and aching, not sharp, and I haven’t done anything to cause it,” he stated, at a loss as to why this was happening to him.
This made me decide to explore his physical body for chronic [neuropathic] pain and to explore the deeper spinal muscles and relevant joints and ligaments. It seemed wise to leave the alternative discipline of shamanic reiki till later. This aspect of healing needs a deeper level of understanding and trust between practitioner and patient.
I could feel that his lower back was tighter on one side This could have been disc irritation, or it could have been his biomechanics; the way he sits and walks, and either a fixed or habitual posture. Telltale signs of collagen lines at the base of his neck and back suggested a thinning of the underlying discs. His buttock was acutely tender. His hamstring was slightly more tense, with sensitivity being increased again over the division of the sciatic nerve at the back of the knee, tight bands in his calf muscles, and a moving tenderness where his ankle flexors wove around his ankle.
This was all pointing to neuropathic changes to his L5 nerve root at the base of his spine. That means the sensitivity of the nerve root due to poor posture or ageing disc, as well as mild peripheral nerve changes, causing small contractures down the limb and his ache.
This type of problem is insidious, and is often a normal part of ageing-related to postural issues, causing disc narrowing, called spondylosis, and subtle changes to nerves, from very mild to severe neuropathy.
The symptoms can be anything from mild stiffness to pins and needles, numbness and various degrees of sharp burning and aching pains, often made worse on exercising.
Edwin needed a combination of treatments and skills to help resolve his problems. Over two treatments I gave him GunnIMS to relieve the deep-seated muscle problems at the base of his neck and back, plus acupuncture, laser, joint mobilisations and deep oscillation. I also used NLP and subtle mind mapping to get his head in the right place.
Ideally, I would have gone on to add shamanic reiki to heal issues in his auric body, balance his chakras, and use key acupuncture points in his fascial plane. However, after two treatments he was physically pain-free and elected to get on with his life.
Deep Oscillation Integrated Use
I have introduced to this again recently whilst presenting at the AACP conferences in 2016 and 17.
Just after this event, in part due to too much talking, bronchitis hit me big time and I was amazed at the effect of this technology on my lungs; I could breathe afterwards and slept much better.
It is so easy to use especially for those skilled in massage, the results include pain relief, anti-inflammatory effects, the reduction of swelling [oedema], the acceleration of wound healing and can be used straight after an injury.
I love the ability to wear the technology as gloves thus giving a deep connection between therapist and patient. With some sensitive [neuropathic] painful conditions strong hands-on massage can just make the pain worse, however, this soothing treatment helps. It’s a lovely way to also combine with stress relieving shamanic reiki to kick-start the immune system. Furthermore, it’s great to be able to ease fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, swollen painful muscles to name a few, whilst manipulating the joints and acupuncture needles at the same time.
I came across three good pieces of research on this, though there are a lot more out there: Jahr et al., 2008, Aliyev, 2009, and Aliyev, 2012.Much more on our website www.painreliefclinic.co.uk
Wellness
It’s best to explain this with the help of an analogy. When you buy a brand new car, it comes with a warranty. There’s a 
reason for this. The manufacturer is basically guaranteeing, that provided you look after your car as specified, you are going to be very unlucky if anything goes wrong under the warranty period. Once past this honeymoon period, you know that you must carry out regular preventative maintenance at set intervals, in order to continue with many more miles of trouble-free motoring.
Eventually, you will get to that time when things start to wear out and go wrong. Some parts will corrode, weaken and eventually fail. How fast your car gets to the junkyard depends very much on how well you looked after it and the difference can be many years.
Just as with a car, how many problems you will have and how long your body will last depends very much on how well it is maintained and that’s where we can help you.
Nicky has devoted her life to finding better knowledge on how to help people get better results from their treatment and to live a longer, healthier life. In her books she developed the concept of a Human Garage and also the importance of overall health, or Wellness, which she defined in her 4 Keys model.
She has built a powerful team of highly experienced therapists and together they offer you the expertise of looking not only at the problems caused by a recent injury or of a longer term chronic condition, but also look at your health keys to get even better long-term results.
Wellness encompasses all of you, your fuel (diet & nutrition), your servicing ( exercise & fitness), how hard you press your right foot (stress) and your environment (lifestyle). The intent of Wellness is to achieve better long-term health.
If you feel you have Wellness factors that are impacting your ability to heal or want to find out more about living a longer healthier life, then we can help.
Wellness
Musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is any pain caused from the bones, joints, tendons, ligaments or muscles. This may include things such as a sprained knee/ankle, arthritis in a joint, tennis/golfers elbow, pulled muscles and many other conditions.
When you come into our clinic you can be assessed by a Physiotherapist or a Sports Therapist. Depending on the area of the pain, the assessment can look at your posture, range of movement, strength and special tests that can assess stability, proprioception and joint integrity. These findings will help your therapist to develop a working hypothesis, which they will use in consultation with yourself to direct them to the most appropriate treatment for your condition.
There are many treatments on offer at the clinic for those with MSK problems. Some of the treatments offered in-house include:
Soft tissue work/massage- Massage can be used to increase the mobility in stiff arthritic joints or break down scar tissue after muscle strains or operations. It is commonly used to reduce muscle tone, tightness or spasms and decrease the stress placed on bones/joints whilst promoting relaxation.
Acupuncture- This traditional Chinese technique is used in clinic to treat lots of conditions such as headaches/migraines, 
neck, back, shoulder and other joint pains. Acupuncture will be discussed in more detail in another newsletter.
Electrotherapy - We are lucky here to have access to a wide variety of electrotherapy modalities including Robotic Spinal Manipulation, Shockwave, Ultrasound, Deep Oscillation, Shortwave, and Laser.
Joint mobilisations/manipulations can be used to increase a range of movement in joints and decrease pain.
Individual exercise programmes- We are able to tailor personalised exercise programmes for your injury /condition that may include strengthening, stretching and mobilising work.
There are also Functional Rehab classes on offer with our Sports Therapist Anton.
Next month we will look at Wellness
What type of practitioner is best suited to help your problem?
For sudden onset soft tissue trauma, arthritic joints and sports injuries
- For serious unresolved chronic spine and joint pain
- For chronic unresolved MSK conditions such as Rheumatoid, Osteoarthritis, Osteoporosis or Disc Degeneration
- For specific sports rehab advice
- For recent onset nerve pain, i.e. carpal tunnel/sciatica
- For a wholistic approach embracing 4 Keys To Health
- For a neurological problems such as Parkinson’s, Motor Neuron, Multiple Sclerosis, Stroke, Head and Spinal Injury
Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy and Sports Therapy
Musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is any pain caused by the bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles or nerves. This may include things such as a sprained knee/ankle, arthritis in a joint, tennis/golfers elbow, pulled muscles and many other conditions. Some physiotherapists specialise in MSK, whereas others might specialise in respiratory medicine, pediatrics, neurology or other areas.
At Nicky Snazell’s we have MSK Physiotherapists and Sports Therapists, the latter only being MSK. In simple terms, the skills of these therapists overlap quite a lot, but whereas Physiotherapist training covers a broad range of medical training, a Sports Therapist focuses instead on injury rehab.
Treatment of Neurological Problems
When you come into our clinic you can be assessed by a Sports Therapist or a Physiotherapist. Depending on the area of the pain, the assessment can look at your posture, range of movement, and strength with special tests assess stability, proprioception [balance] and joint integrity. These findings will help your therapist to develop a working hypothesis, which your therapist will use in consultation with you to direct the most appropriate treatment for your condition.
Treatments offered in-house include soft tissue work, massage, acupuncture and joint mobilisations/manipulations, plus classes for both functional rehab and yoga pilates, supported by a wide range of technology, including robotic spinal manipulation, shockwave, ultrasound, deep oscillation, shortwave, laser and magnetic resonance treatment.
Chronic Pain
While MSK physiotherapy does a fantastic job of treating acute injury and inflammation, it falls short in dealing with long-term (or chronic) pain. This type of pain is often puzzling and can lay hidden within a diagnosis of tennis elbow, back pain, repetitive strain, frozen shoulder, whiplash, and fibromyalgia. The root cause of these types of problems is a condition called neuropathy. You cannot kill this pain by cutting it out with surgery and it cannot be hidden by drugs. The only way to deal with this type of problem is to desensitise it, by relieving the irritation at its source. Invariably this is at a nerve root in the spine.
If nerves are supersensitive, desensitising treatment is required. Perhaps an analogy helps. If an intruder alarm goes off when it shouldn’t, it’s probably over-sensitive and needs adjusting.
Sensitive nerves cause muscle contractures, which deep in the spine cause disc compression and can lead to conditions like sciatica, and shortened tendons such as Achilles tendonitis or tennis elbow. It can also reduce both nutrient and blood flow to joints, aggravating osteoarthritis.
Treatment requires a GP or physiotherapist who is qualified in GunnIMS with a wholistic approach.
Wellness and Physiotherapy
It’s best to explain this with the help of an analogy. When you buy a brand new car, it comes with a warranty. There’s a reason for this. The manufacturer is basically guaranteeing, that provided you look after your car as specified, you are going to be very unlucky if anything goes wrong under the warranty period. Once past this honeymoon period, you know that you must carry out regular preventative maintenance at set intervals, to continue with many more miles of trouble-free motoring.
Eventually, you will get to that time, no matter what maintenance you do, things will start to wear out and go wrong. Some parts will corrode, weaken and eventually fail. How fast your car gets to the junkyard depends very much on how well you looked after it.
You may have a problem with the headlights, the bulbs keep blowing. No matter how many times you replace them, they keep blowing. Eventually, you get it properly checked and the cause of the problem was a corroded wire in the fuse box. The headlights were just the symptom and you could have kept changing them forever if you didn’t fix the cause.
Cartilage can it repair?
Read Nicky’s latest publication on cartilage and will it repair. Find out in this article.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab 
Sports Therapist
Anton has worked in the service industry all his life and from a very young age has had a keen interest in sport. He started boxing at age 11 and for several years boxed at local club and county level. Later he spent 10 years learning Jujutsu and this came to an end when he tore the ACL, a ligament inside the knee.
Anton has also had a lengthy interest in motorbikes and ran his own business in Stafford for 6 years as a motorcycle instructor. He still rides a motorbike today for fun and relaxation.
After working in the hair industry and motorbike instruction business for many years, he decided to take the bold decision to go to college and get a degree in his first love, sport. This journey started at Stafford College where over a period of 5 years he built up the necessary points required to get into university. His Personal Trainer qualifications at the time opened the door to working with the England boxing squad as a coach.
Anton qualified with a first-class honours degree in Sports Therapy from Stafford University in 2017 and immediately joined Nicky Snazell’s team as a Sports Therapist. He has also developed a new interest in rugby and works with the Leicester Tigers at weekends.
Using Food as Medicine to Stay Out of Pain
We all overindulge at times, and eat unhealthily especially when busy and stressed up, I know I do. Especially with the run up to intense work deadlines. A recent feeling of exhaustion combined with an expanding waist line sent me hurtling into the greenhouse this May Bank weekend, to gather up some fresh greens to recommence a more rigid juicing schedule.
These low ebbs are the times when we all suffer from allergies and catch colds. Actually, in the months of February, March and April, we have more colds and achy joints than ever in the UK, as our immune system is suffering from our rich diet, as well as our lack of raw fresh fruit, vegetables, and sunshine.
The problem here lies in the fact that for the majority of us, the health risks associated with a very rich and acid diet are not known and are therefore no more ‘common sense’ than fire is to polar bears. However, at least a bear can learn very quickly that fire is dangerous and would be very wary the next time he came across it. The implications of poor diet – and more importantly, a far too acidic diet – are not immediately apparent. Even worse, the fact that ‘everybody else’in an individual’s social group is doing the same thing, means that it doesn’t’t even register that a diet may be poor in the first place.
No better example of this can be given than a highly publicised TV
Programme shown a few years ago, which monitored the health implications
Of junk food by getting a volunteer to live on nothing other than junk.
He actually had to be taken off the diet because his health plummeted so
Rapidly. What impact has this had? Very little, if you look at the explosion of junk food outlets. So, this Spring don’t waste money on fad diets, just do a little reading about healthy food, drink more water, and use natural pain killing foods with natural anti-inflammatories.
The Wrong Food Feeds Pain
Most of us eat too much of the food that enhances pain, and too little of the food that reduces pain. Soil nutrients are not what they used to be, as they have more additives, more are being processed, and more have a longer
shelf life. Our cells depend on food and water for creating healing, energy
and cleansing, but because of the poor food we eat (which has additives
and is heavily processed), we have persistent inflammation contributing
to musculoskeletal pain, arthritis, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, cancer…you name it. Refined grains, omega 6 fats, too much sugar, and too much dairy – especially milk – all stress the system out, and pain due to too much inflammation damages nerves beyond any injury, and also causes tissue pain in the tendons, ligaments, and joints.
Our ancestors were hunters and gatherers who lived on a planet with a
relatively low population, where the soil was rich in nutrients with hardly
any toxic chemicals. They ate a little fresh meat, fish, and lots of berries, roots (therefore, a lot of healthy omega 3 oils), and fruit and vegetables high in antioxidants. They had no processed foods, no wheat, no trans fats, no excess sugar or omega 6 and no processed dairy. Even if you eat some of these foods yourself, pulling some fresh vegetables out of your garden – from well fertilised soil – is a small start. For our ancestors, their healthy diet helped to control chronic inflammation, something which pervades the modern day Western lifestyle.
We are becoming increasingly obese, including our children. We are a
fat nation, and because of this, we find ourselves in a major health crisis.
This extra fat not only strains our joints, but these engorged fat cells fire off inflammation. Organ fat is crawling with immune cells, prolonging
inflammation and damaging the surrounding tissue. Living longer means
that these days, a lot more of us are over 35, and around this age, our
natural pain blocking anti-inflammatories (proteolytic enzymes) dry up.
We are, essentially, rotting, as these are the guys that usually help to shut the pain gate in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Our next generation is not going to live longer than us, and this is the first time in history that this has happened – it says a lot, doesn’t’t it? Due to needing more help in order to control our body and not getting it, we make too much fibrin, causing too much scar tissue in our tendons, skin, and joints. This then causes arthritis, fibromyalgia, artery narrowing, and poor healing all round.
I will be sharing healthy eating with you in future blogs; #www.painreliefclinic.co.uk.
Nicky Snazell as ‘The pain killer’
My name is Nicky Snazell and I am known to some as ‘The pain killer’. After all, that’s what I do: I like to hunt down and seek out and kill pain, and I expect you want me to kill yours too. Would you like to hire me out as an assassin? I realise how important it is to you to free yourself of unnecessary pain so that you can enjoy life to the full.
What qualifies me to have a go? Well I’ve got nearly years of experience and successful outcomes in treating pain.
How? By hunting down the origins of pain, some of which we are frequently so unaware of. So often I feel like I’m working in the illness industry and not the wellness industry, and I believe that we should focus more on the latter – by preventing health problems before we have to cure them. I am keen to get you to your optimal health for your age, but only if you play the game and invest in the health bank of your future self.
How do I know I can help? For one thing, I have studied health and pain for thirty years, researching how we as humans function at our best. Furthermore, this is backed up by the knowledge and skills I have gained by creating and working within my integrated medical practice, which has given me over twenty-five years of hands-on experience and from which I’ve collected a long list of testimonials from satisfied customers who have managed to conquer their pain. Yes they’ve done it, and now so can you.
I assume that if you’re reading this blog, you would like to know for certain that you can avoid a lot of unnecessary pain for yourself or your patient. Am I right? Then you have come to the right place. I want these blogs to be a practical resource that you can use and apply to your own health and your own life. After all, you are the author of your own life, so what chapter are you writing right now? You may have had no say in how your story started, but you have all the control in the world on what happens in the middle, to end, as well as how many pages your novel contains. You have the power to control your own future health – you just need the knowledge and the skills to know how to do it. This is the information I’m going to give you in these blogs, and despite what you may have been led to believe, your pain is actually in your own hands.
I have spent my life searching for ways to treat pain, and I have travelled all over the world, meeting and learning from countless specialists and professionals during this quest of mine. Now, I want to pour all of that knowledge and all of my experience into you, so that my methods can become your methods, and so that you can conquer your pain, allowing you to have a long, happy life. It sounds relatively simple, doesn’t it? No? Well, it may be simpler than you think.
This series of blogs will discuss healing through an understanding of how neuroscience works, and I believe that this holds the keys to wellness, mental excellence, physical fitness, prosperity, relationship skills, society contribution and having a purpose to live – not to mention, of course, keeping out of pain. I like to imagine all of these things as breaking down into four main sections:
My four keys of health, featuring mind-set, nutrition and hydration, fitness, and lifestyle. You will be able to read about each of these four keys in due course.
Drawing wisdom from both modern medical technology and ancient healing, over the next year I will guide you through your health journey, giving you the knowledge and the tools you need to create the best lifestyle for you. Say goodbye to unnecessary pain and say hello to a fitter, healthier, happier you.
A newspaper headline in November 2014 in the Daily Express announced:
‘How You Can Add Years To Your Life’. The article presented recent research from the Lancet (a medical journal) to back up previously anecdotal evidence, and basically said that having a sense of purpose as you get older helps you live a longer, healthier life. This was also echoed in Viktor E.
Frankl’s book, Man’s Search For Meaning (Rider & Co, 2008), about how man’s sense of dignity and purpose was cruelly stripped from him until death, and how hanging on to a purposeful mission actually extends lives. Write a key purpose on several bits of paper, left in many places, and make sure you keep reminding yourself everyday.