Despite how common they are, many people are still in the dark about the best way to go about treating a wound.
Dr Ginni Mansberg busts some of the biggest medical myths to help you heal faster…
Myth 1. Use alcohol to disinfect
Many people incorrectly believe that a disinfectant has to sting in order to kill bacteria – which simply isn’t the case! Alcohol and some disinfectants not only sting, but actually dry out the wound which prevents healing.
Something like medical grade Manuka honey is a great healing agent for wounds as it not only has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, but when it comes in to contact with ooze from a wound, it manages to generate bactericidal hydrogen peroxide without doing any tissue damage, which is quite extraordinary!
Myth 2. Let the wound dry out
For many years, the thinking behind wound care was to keep them dry in order to heal, but this certainly isn’t the case anymore. We have known for a while now that wounds heal better when they are moist, and when they are covered. Look for moisturising agents with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.
Myth 3. Covering wounds breed bacteria
Our skin is one of our best physical immune barriers – so when there is an opening in the skin, such as with an open wound, one of the primary objectives is to prevent invasion from bacteria.
Thoroughly cleaning the wound is the first and most obvious step, but the second and commonly overlooked step is to cover the wound to protect it from bacteria as it heals. An open wound is like an open invite for bacteria, so keeping it covered and moist is the best way to help it heal.
Myth 4. A scab means the wound is healing
A scab is a mixture of dried blood, serum, dead skin cells, and dead bacteria. Scabs actually hinder the healing process by creating a barrier for new skin cells looking to heal the wound. A scab can be a sign that the wound is too dry to heal as fast as possible. Keeping the wound moist and covered helps allow skin cells to heal more rapidly than if left open to dry out.
Myth 5. All wounds heal eventually
While our bodies are generally pretty good at healing itself, different wound types require different treatment methods, and some may need a trip to your local doctor or emergency room.
A chronic wound is a serious medical condition, describing a wound that does not follow the healing stages resulting in a lengthened recovery. On average, a chronic wound is classified as one that fails to heal within four weeks and shows no sign of improvement within eight weeks. The most common form of chronic wounds are ulcers of the lower extremities.
Chronic wounds require immediate medical attention, so be on the look-out for changes in colour, worsening pain, discharge or odour and significant swelling or redness. If the wound shows no significant signs of improvement after about four weeks, consult a medical professional.
For more information on medical grade manuka honey and its assistance in wound healing, visit www.comvita.com.au
ABOUT DR GINNI MANSBERG
Dr Ginni is a GP, medical & parenting expert with a special interest in women’s and family health, and six children of her own in a blended family. She is an authority on everything from sleep to beating stress, wellness, life balance and a range of general health and medical related topics; always packaged with a dose of reality, practical and helpful tips and delivered with her customary sense of humour. Aside from her practice in Sans Souci, Ginni is also an accomplished writer, having written 3 books and having worked extensively as a medical journalist and columnist. She is an experienced TV presenter working with Channel 7 as their resident GP for many years and as one of the hosts of Embarrassing Bodies Down Under.
All I know is that I can’t get a-ha’s “Take on Me” out of my head. It’s been there ever since the trailer dropped for the nerdy nostalgia-bomb that is Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” a blockbuster movie out now, based on the best-selling book of the same name:
As a child of the Oregon Trail generation[1], I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop culture and nerd references throughout the novel and could certainly relate to the main character Wade Watts, an overweight awkward teenager who loves 80’s pop culture and escapes a crappy existence by spending most of his time in virtual worlds.
It had me thinking deeply about how technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives, in both good ways and bad.
We can’t not check our email every 3 seconds. We can’t stop watching Netflix. We can’t stop scrolling through photos on Instagram. We can’t sit through a conversation with a person in front of us without habitually checking our phone every time it buzzes.
And then we all wonder why we are too busy, distracted, unhealthy, unhappy, and can’t get our shit together.
These days, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to use technology for convenience and quick bouts of entertainment and happiness to shield us from the reality that there are parts of our lives or our health we’re unhappy with.
In Ready Player One, we get a very plausible look into a dystopian future where those societal trends have continued: technology gets better and more convenient, and people spend more and more time escaping into more exciting virtual lives online.
And society has nearly collapsed as a result.
Although this book is partly a cautionary tale about where we’re heading if we don’t change our behavior, it’s also a charming Hero’s Journey, deep fried in neon-tinted nostalgia, that I couldn’t put down.
As a gamer who thinks about life like a game (and even wrote a book about this very idea), every page of this book had me grinning from ear to ear.
Today I want to quickly discuss the pitfalls of technology and then share my 10 favorite ways to use technology to get ourselves to actually do the stuff that matters every day.
This is Nerd Fitness, after all.
So…ready, player one?
Why Ready Player ONe Matters
Don’t get me wrong, I love technology.
Technology has allowed me to create Nerd Fitness and deliver this article to you. It’s changed my life decidedly for the better and made literally everything easier.
The problem comes when technology gets TOO damn good. Video games are getting TOO well designed and addicting. TV shows and the delivery of those shows is so well done that you can lose an entire Saturday to 10 episodes in a row of Stranger Things before you realize it. Social media can be TOO pervasive, causing us to cast aside real life friendships and deep conversation in instead spend our time virtually – and superficially – connecting with people.
We trade likes and thumbs up in this unwritten but very real economy of fluffing each other’s egos.
If you’ve read any of the recent studies on this stuff, you know that social media is actually making us unhappier and more anxious[2], and yet we can’t get ourselves to stop seeking “just another hit.”
It’s getting easier and easier to say “one more level” or “I’ll just check Instagram quickly” and 10-15 minutes of your life is lost in a black hole of junk-food style entertainment.
And this causes us to forgo what is ACTUALLY important in our lives: Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. Practicing self-care. Getting enough sleep. Connecting with people in real life. [3]
Which brings me back to Ready Player One.
If you haven’t read the book or don’t plan on seeing the movie, how did you end up on Nerd Fitness allow me to quickly explain the premise:
The year is 2045, and technology has advanced dramatically while the rest of society has devolved. Our main character Wade Watts is an overweight, awkward high school senior with little money to his name.
Every day, Wade puts on a virtual reality headset to plug into The OASIS, a MMOSG (massively multiplayer online simulation game) – think Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids. OASIS has become so successful that its something pretty much everybody on the planet now uses.
In the OASIS, Wade attends school, hangs out with friends, and gets to create this alternate life for himself. Depending on how much in-game currency you have, you can visit various worlds, level up your character by completing quests, and make a life for yourself.
For most people, life in the OASIS kicks the crap out of their miserable real life, which means they use this second life as an escape from the harsh reality. And the more time they spend in game, the more they neglect their real-life health happiness, which further perpetuates a negative downward spiral.
So how does one stop letting the Matrix run their lives and instead take control back?
Let’s see what Wade did.
Wade Gets in Shape to Level Up His Life
Wade’s in a not-so-great place.
He lives in isolation, is very unhappy with his physical appearance, struggles socially, and chooses to withdraw more and more into an anonymous character online that’s much more exciting than his real world counterpart.
This is already happening today, with people losing their jobs, relationships, families, and even their lives due to online gaming or technology addictions.
Fortunately, Wade did something that was so freaking smart and clever that gets the 100% Nerd FItness Stamp of Approval.
[Note to self: buy stamp of approval.]
At a turning point in the story, Wade makes a decision that probably seemed small at the time but forever altered his life’s path. He turned on the voluntary Fitness Lockout protocol of the OASIS. This meant that every day, Wade had his biometrics tracked, and rigged his system so that he was locked out of using the OASIS until he got enough physical activity every day.
What this means: Wade used technology to make his life decidedly better instead of making it worse. He was so addicted to using the OASIS that he needed to be in there. Which meant if he wanted to play, he had only ONE path to connection:
Doing the damn exercise!
Unsurprisingly, this changed Wade’s negative downward spiral into a positive virtuous cycle. Getting all that exercise started to make him feel better about himself and gave him more energy. He got hooked on how he felt after exercise and how much more pride he felt looking in the mirror. In other words, it felt like he had regained control, and this caused him to want to continue to chase that feeling.
Wade was smart enough to build a system that forced himself to do what was best for him, and stuck with it long enough until that activity because his new default behavior.
Depending on where you’re at in your fitness journey, this might sound like a pipe dream. However, I can tell you that there’s one common thread in every one of our success stories – whether it’s single moms or opera-singing IT professionals, they all say the same thing:
“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow…I now actually look forward to exercising.”
Here’s how you can be like Wade.
10 Ways to Make Technology Work For You
I don’t believe technology is inherently good or bad.
It’s a tool that can be used to improve or harm our lives. Oftentimes, a little bit is good, a lot is detrimental.
Inspired by Ready Player One, I wanted to go through some ways I’ve implemented technological hurdles in my life to actually make my life LESS convenient. I’m using it to keep me from devolving too far down rabbit holes of gaming, Netflix, and instead just do the damn things I need to do every day to make my life better.
Here are my favorite examples:
1) I WANT TO EXERCISE MORE AND WATCH LESS NETFLIX:
Although we can’t do EXACTLY what Wade did in Ready Player One, we can emulate it pretty closely. For example, give your spouse/friend/roommate/coworker your login credentials to Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Have them change the password and not tell you.
Only after you do the thing you’ve agreed to do that day (send them a photo of you at the gym) will they give you the password.
2) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO GO TO THE GYM ENOUGH:
Do temptation bundling. Download your favorite audiobook or your favorite shows on Netflix. ONLY allow yourself to watch/listen to these while you’re walking on a treadmill at the gym or exercising.
How to do this? Download the shows to your iPad. Next time you to go to gym, ask the general manager to set the password on your iPad so that he’s the only one that can unlock it. If you want to watch the show, they’ll have to let you in!
3) I WANT TO SPEND LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
I know there’s a big movement to #deleteFacebook right now, but we use Facebook to connect with members of the community and our products and services. But I know everytime I go to Facebook for work reasons, I end up scrolling through my newsfeed for 10-15 min and I get VERY little out of it.
So I use tech to my advantage. In addition to deleting social media off my phone, I turned off my newsfeed. If you use Google Chrome, install newsfeed eradicator. Now my time spent on Facebook is minimal, the distraction is gone, and I can still connect with people when it fits my life. This is what I see when I sign into Facebook:
BORING. I might as well get back to work!
My friend Sol has given his facebook password to his girlfriend and makes sure he isn’t logged in on any of his computers. So he only uses it when it fits into his schedule. There’s no compulsive checking during the day.
4) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO PLAY FEWER VIDEO GAMES:
Be your own parent! I have installed parental controls on my Nintendo Switch and PS4. It locks the system during certain hours, or I can limit myself to playing only during a certain number of hours. When you’re in the right mindset, install these controls and have somebody else set your passwords so you can’t just turn it off.
Stop relying on willpower – these games are too damn good. I’m currently hooked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the struggle is real. I imagine if I even took one hit of Fortnite I’d be mainlining battle royales all the way to rehab by next Tuesday.
5) I WANT TO WAKE UP EARLIER:
Hat tip to my friend Thomas Frank on this one. Schedule a really embarrassing tweet/photo to publish 5 min after you need to wake up, and put your phone across the room. You have to wake up, walk across the room, and stop the scheduled tweet from sending. WAYYYY more effective than an alarm clock you can just snooze!
6) I WANT TO STOP EATING FAST FOOD:
Leave your ATM debit card at home, and only bring a credit card with you to work, preferably one that you share with your spouse. Have them receive an email notification for every time the card is used. And if it is used at a fast food restaurant, they’ll donate $50 you gave them to a cause you hate.
7) I CAN’T GET MY KIDS TO DO THEIR CHORES:
Be like this awesome mom:
8) I WANT TO MOVE MORE EVERY DAY:
Get yourself a cheap fitbit (I have a Flex 2 and LOVE it for sleep tracking purposes, but also interesting to see my step count). Take somebody you trust, and friend them on Fitbit’s platform. Then, agree to an amount of steps you need to take every day before you can watch TV, play video games, etc. If you don’t reach said steps before you slack off for the day, they will post a super embarrassing photo that you’ve sent them on social media.
9) I WANT TO COOK HEALTHIER MEALS:
Throw all of the junk food out of your house. Instead of using Amazon Prime to just deliver you useless crap you don’t need, have it set to auto-deliver you fresh groceries or meal kits regularly. Use technology and convenience to your advantage and make the most convenient option the healthiest one. Once you eliminate fast food, junk food, and crap you don’t need to buy, you can increase your food budget to compensate for the increased of convenience here.
You can also set up a mission with friends where you have to batch cook your meals on Sunday (how to batch cook here). If you don’t cook your meals on Sunday, no Netflix that week (your friend would have the password), and vice versa. Diabolical. Effective.
10) I LOOK AT MY DAMN PHONE TOO MUCH:
Change your phone to greyscale. Suddenly everything is way less vibrant and fun and the phone starts to lose its appeal. Turn on parental controls on your phone, have somebody else set your parental lock password, and delete all unnecessary apps from your phone – email, social media, YouTube, etc. Tough to get distracted by a device that doesn’t have anything fun to do on it, right?
Or if you’re looking for some free literature to help change your life, you can join The NF Rebellion and download a plethora (I don’t get to use that word enough) of free ebooks as our way of welcoming you to our community!
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.
Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.
Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
Use Technology to Change Your Default Behavior
We’re creatures of habit, and products of our environment. If we’re not intentional with our time, our default behavior becomes:
Netflix and ice cream after work instead of hitting the gym.
When we don’t take control, we give that control subconsciously to what’s most convenient. And technology will gladly take that control from you, because every company’s stock price and profit margin depend on it.
These are companies with tens of thousands of employees, scientists, psychologists, and billions of dollars of research at their disposal and their only goal is to get more of your attention/time/focus/money.
Sure, you can lament the fact that you don’t have enough willpower or motivation or whatever to avoid all of these temptations to do the boring, challenging activity that will dramatically improve your life in the long term.
You can EITHER:
Beat yourself up for what you THINK you should be doing but can’t.
Accept that this is reality, and that you need to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying on systems.
I mean this in a good way, but I gave up on myself a long time ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. Because games and social media and TV are too enjoyable! So I don’t even give myself the option to get tempted by this stuff by using technology to my benefit.
People who grew up without social media, who had their first interaction with computers be in computer labs at school playing Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail Generation
When you see a picture of sisters Sally Obermeder and Maha Koraiem you’ll immediately think, ‘I want what she’s having’… And now you can!
Today we’ve got a sneaky recipe to share from their new book SUPER GREEN SIMPLE AND LEAN (more details below). Prepare the night before or first thing in the morning (or hey, for dinner, we don’t judge) and enjoy with a big cup of herbal tea (we love Little Wildling Co’s ‘I Am A Goddess’).
2 tablespoons moist coconut flakes, plus extra for serving (optional)
1 x 125 g (4½ oz) punnet blueberries
1 x 250 g (9 oz) punnet strawberries
Process:
Rinse the quinoa under cold water until the water runs clear (make sure the holes in your sieve aren’t bigger than the quinoa—Maha learnt this the
hard way!).
Put the quinoa into a saucepan with 375 ml (13 fl oz/1½ cups) of water, the coconut milk and the chopped dates. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure that the quinoa doesn’t stick to the bottom of the saucepan.
Once the quinoa has begun to soften, add the spices, sunflower seeds and coconut flakes. Continue to
cook for another 5–10 minutes, until the quinoa has cooked.
Serve immediately. We topped ours with fresh berries, extra coconut flakes, goji berries, pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and Greek-style yoghurt.
Extracted from SUPER GREEN SIMPLE AND LEAN by Sally Obermeder and Maha Koraiem. Published by Allen & Unwin. Out now. $24.99 get your copy right this second online via Booktopia http://bit.ly/2fd4T6J – you’re welcome!
A recent study published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, has found that BOOBS are preventing women from hitting the gym for a range of reasons!
Women with breasts big and small have found that their breasts have stopped them from training because they didn’t like the way they looked while they were working out, were embarrassed by breast movement, or were just in pain from the strain of their bosom.
All women know that high-impact activity can be a real pain in the breast, but is there a way to prevent this?
Kate Allott, Head of Fitness at Anytime Fitness has shared her expertise on the issue, so all of womankind can hit the gym in confidence.
“First of all, if it’s down to the perception of your boobs and not liking the way they look – training is the quickest way to boost your endorphins, and in turn – your confidence!” says Kate Allott. “But, if you are in legitimate pain while exercising, there are plenty of low impact exercises you can do to ease the bounce that high impact training might have on your breasts”
Support and Padding:
Big Boobs
A good bra is more important than you think, not only for comfort reasons, but for safety as well, so allow yourself to splash out on a few good ones. Bras with separate cups decrease both side to side and up and down movement, reducing bounce discomfort and damage to breast tissue. It’s also recommended you layer two sports bras before running if you have a larger breast size.
Small Boobs
If you’re not particularly well endowed, never fear! There are plenty of bras around these days to give you a little extra cushion for that pushin’ at really reasonable prices. Being comfortable in your own skin is the most important thing, but confidence is key and if a little extra padding makes you feel better and gets you moving – why not!
All Gain No Pain:
If running and plyometric movements are too uncomfortable, change it up. Removing a jump while keeping speed and reps high will still keep both the heart rate and calorie burn up.
Back pain is common for many of our ladies gifted in the chest department. Building up core strength is vital for remaining pain free and reducing injury long term. Make sure you are including ab, lower and upper back, and glute exercises into your routine every week.
Posture is key, inside and outside of the gym. Regular massage along with consistent core conditioning will help alleviate pain. Treating yourself to a regular massage subscription like Massage Envy is a great way to make sure you are releasing your body of tension and keeping your body fighting fit.
Try this circuit, and bounce into a new, confident you!
ABOUT DR GINNI MANSBERG
