A new video animation aims to help those suffering from back pain and reduce the need for hospital treatment. The video was created by Heart of England NHS Trust and encourages sufferers to keep moving, as evidence shows that this can help resolve the problems much more quickly.

Pg 5 of this article gives a nice summary of the physiology of why it is important to manipulate the needle and in what way to manipulate the acupuncture needle. Butts, R., Dunning, J., 2016. Peripheral and Spinal Mechanisms of Pain and Dry Needling Mediated Analgesia: A Clinical Resource Guide for Health Care Professionals. International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 04. doi:10.4172/2329-9096.1000327

How does this compare with the Layering clinical reasoning model proposed by Bradnam? Anandkumar, S., Manivasagam, M., 2017. Effect of fascia dry needling on non-specific thoracic pain–A proposed dry needling grading system. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice 33, 420–428. doi:10.1080/09593985.2017.1318423

An in-depth review recently found that aerobic exercise may help prevent postnatal depression. 13 randomised controlled trials involving over 1500 participants were studied. The results showed that aerobic exercise had a significant effect in reducing depressive symptoms in mothers for up to a year after the birth of their child. The usual treatment for post natal depression is medication in the form of antidepressants, or psychological therapy. But therapy can be difficult t

Informed consent is a really important topic for physiotherapists because UK law has changed, and you need to know how this could affect your practice. A paper written recently by Graham Copnell of the university of East London studies how physiotherapists interact with their patients in order to allow an informed decision to be made by the patient. Check out the full article here.

Look at this paper to learn more about how to needle the thoracic spine safely Fernandez-de-Las-Penas, C., Layton, M., & Dommerholt, J. (2015). Dry needling for the management of thoracic spine pain. The Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy, 23(3), 147–153. https://doi.org/10.1179/2042618615Y.0000000001

Check out this recent paper on acupuncture for Lateral epicondylagia Uygur, E., Aktaş, B., Özkut, A., Erinç, S., Yilmazoglu, E.G., 2017. Dry needling in lateral epicondylitis: a prospective controlled study. International Orthopaedics 41, 2321–2325. doi:10.1007/s00264-017-3604-1 What do you think about there treatment dose?

Earlier this year the ME Association (MEA) responded to the "GETSET" trial with questions about whether it was carried out correctly. The trial results indicated that those suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome should be encouraged to exercise but the Association raised concerns that this could actually do more harm than good. You can read and download he full response of the MEA here. Also relevant is Tom Kindlon's commentary in the special edition of the Journal of Health

Great weekend of teaching acupuncture!

How do you record and collect your CPD? CPD is an extremely important aspect of your development as a practitioner. If you are a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy then you can access their "e-Portfolio" facility to record your progress. Check out the e-Portfolio facility here.