http://www.derbyfamilychiropractic.co.uk/, https://g.page/r/CaAqxeIe5X95EBM/review

Derby Family Chiropractic - 1st for McTimoney Chiropractic in Derby, 166 Mansfield Road, Derby (2026)

25/08/2026

While the rest of the team are off enjoying themselves in the Maldives, the USA and various other glamorous locations, I had to settle for fish and chips in Ashbourne last night! 😂

The person looking after me said they normally have a glass of milk after fish and chips because milk is more hydrating than water.

My immediate thought was:

“That sounds completely bonkers…”

But annoyingly, they may have been right!

Researchers compared 13 different drinks by asking 72 men to drink one litre, then measuring how much fluid their bodies retained over the following four hours.

The drinks that performed particularly well were:

🥇 Oral rehydration solution
🥛 Skimmed milk
🥛 Full-fat milk
💧 Water — used as the benchmark

Milk appeared to keep people hydrated for longer because it contains sodium, potassium, carbohydrate and protein. These can slow the movement of fluid through the stomach and help the body retain more of it, rather than quickly passing it out as urine.

Interestingly, tea and coffee still hydrated people and performed similarly to water in this experiment. The caffeine didn’t magically cancel out all the fluid, as we’re sometimes told.

Orange juice, cola and sports drinks also provided hydration—but weren’t significantly better than water over the full four hours.

And there’s another twist…

🍟 The salt in the meal may also have helped the body retain some of the fluid consumed with it.

So perhaps fish, chips and a glass of milk isn’t a nutritional disaster—it’s an advanced hydration strategy!

That’s the excuse I’m using anyway. 😂

However, this doesn’t mean we should replace every glass of water with milk. Milk contains calories, may not suit people with lactose intolerance, and the main study only involved 72 healthy men who were already adequately hydrated. It measured short-term fluid retention—not which drink was healthiest overall.

For everyday hydration, water remains cheap, effective and calorie-free. The NHS also confirms that lower-fat milk, tea, coffee and sugar-free drinks all count towards our daily fluid intake.

References

Maughan RJ et al. A randomized trial to assess the potential of different beverages to affect hydration status: development of a beverage hydration index.* American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2016. [Read the study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26702122/)

Shirreffs SM et al. Milk as an effective post-exercise rehydration drink. British Journal of Nutrition, 2007. [Read the study](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/milk-as-an-effective-postexercise-rehydration-drink/B358D6BE20736AF3DA0373D63E72CC65)

[NHS guidance on water, drinks and hydration](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/water-drinks-nutrition/)

21/08/2026

🎉 By Jove—it’s Derby Family Chiropractic’s holiday next week!

Let’s see what the gang are getting up to…

🍽️ Divyesh is trying a hip new restaurant in London before raving into the early hours.

🚢 Mel is embracing retirement early with a SAGA cruise.

🚌 Megan is following the latest trend and heading off on a mystery bus trip around the USA.

🏰 Natalie is taking a historical tour of English castles.

🎤 Meanwhile, I’m doing something far more fitting for my age…going to see The Streets in Sheffield!

Just to avoid any confusion, our Chellaston clinic is still open tomorrow.

A huge thank you to our wonderful reception and soft-tissue support team, who keep everything running smoothly and look after us and our patients throughout the year. We couldn’t do it without you! ❤️

Our brilliant South African virtual assistants will also be answering the phones if you need anything.

We’ll all be back, refreshed and ready to go, on Tuesday 1st September 2026.

Ciao for now! 👋

20/08/2026

“What’s the difference between chiropractic and physiotherapy?”

I used to get asked this a lot—probably because I gave patients quite a few exercises, which they naturally associated with physiotherapy.

These days, I prescribe far fewer exercises. Partly because my adjusting has improved considerably over the years, but also because I’ve learnt that giving somebody 14 exercises they won’t do is rarely a winning strategy. 😂

So, what is the difference?

There is plenty of overlap, and neither profession owns exercise or hands-on treatment. However, they often place their emphasis in different areas.

A physiotherapist will commonly prioritise:

🏋️ Rehabilitation
💪 Strength and conditioning
🤸 Movement and exercise

A chiropractor will commonly prioritise:

🙌 Hands-on treatment
🦴 Joint movement and function
🧠 How the spine, body and nervous system are working together

A physio may also use manual therapy, and a chiropractor may prescribe exercises. Eventually, both may discuss sleep, activity, work, stress and other lifestyle habits.

Perhaps the biggest difference is simply where they choose to begin.

If you want an exercise-led approach, physiotherapy may suit you brilliantly.

If you prefer to begin with hands-on treatment, chiropractic may be the better fit.

Neither is automatically “better”.

The best option is the approach—and the practitioner—that best suits you, your problem and how you would prefer to recover.

19/08/2026

Last week was one of those weeks…

And firstly, I’m sorry for doing a sicky last Wednesday. My new watch told me I was ill. 😂

But there was a definite running theme in clinic last week:

“I’ve got hip pain, but my X-ray says my hips are fine.”

Me:

“Show me where your hip pain is.”

And then the patient points to…

Pretty much everywhere except their actual hip joint. 😂

So where actually is your hip?

Your hip joint sits much deeper than most people realise, where the top of your thigh bone fits into the socket of your pelvis. It’s actually much closer to your groin than the bony bit you can feel on the outside of your leg.

And here’s where it gets interesting…

When the hip joint itself is irritated, pain can sometimes be felt in:

👉 The groin
👉 The front of the thigh
👉 The outer thigh
👉 The buttock
👉 And even down at the knee

Yes — occasionally someone comes in complaining about knee pain and the problem is actually coming from the hip.

But it works the other way too.

Pain around what people call “the hip” can actually be coming from:

👉 The lower back
👉 The sacroiliac area
👉 The gluteal muscles and tendons
👉 The muscles around the pelvis
👉 Irritated nerves

And if the hips aren’t moving or functioning particularly well, other areas may start doing more work to compensate.

That can sometimes mean symptoms appearing around the:

🦵 Knees
🦶 Legs
🍑 Buttocks
🧍 Lower back

So an X-ray saying “your hip joint looks fine” doesn’t necessarily mean the pain isn’t real.

It might simply mean…

we need to look somewhere else.

And equally, where you feel the pain isn’t always where the problem started.

The human body does like to make things complicated. 😂

18/08/2026

Yesterday, I wrote about the largest study to investigate whether being prayed for could improve recovery following heart surgery.

The result?

It didn’t.

But perhaps the researchers were measuring the wrong person.

Instead of studying the person being prayed for...

What happens inside the brain of the person doing the praying?

Researchers have actually scanned people’s brains during prayer.

Dr Andrew Newberg used SPECT imaging—which measures changes in blood flow—to study Franciscan nuns while they engaged in meditative prayer.

He observed increased activity toward the front of the brain, in areas involved with:

🧠 Focus and attention.

🧠 Language.

🧠 Decision-making.

🧠 Emotional regulation.

At the same time, activity decreased in an area of the parietal lobe involved in our awareness of where our body ends and the outside world begins.

That might help explain why people immersed in prayer sometimes describe:

✅ A sense of peace.

✅ Losing track of time.

✅ Feeling less focused on themselves.

✅ Feeling connected to something greater.

Does that prove the existence of God?

No.

But it certainly doesn’t disprove it either.

A brain scan can show us what the brain is doing during an experience...
..but it cannot tell us the meaning or ultimate source of that experience.

The original study was tiny—it involved only three Franciscan nuns—so we shouldn’t get too carried away.

But it does suggest that focused prayer is far from mentally passive.

It combines attention, language, emotion, memory and repetition—and may also help calm the body’s stress response.

Perhaps this is why some of the people I’ve met over the years genuinely felt that prayer helped them cope with pain.

It may not have removed the physical cause...
..but pain is never simply a signal coming from damaged tissue.

Stress, fear, attention, meaning and our sense of safety can all influence how pain is experienced.

So perhaps prayer isn’t simply something the mind says...

Perhaps it’s also something that trains—and calms—the mind.

I’d be genuinely interested to hear your thoughts on this—whatever your beliefs, or lack of them.

Do you think prayer can affect our health?

Reference: Newberg A et al. Cerebral blood flow during meditative prayer: preliminary findings and methodological issues. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 2003.

17/08/2026

Happy Monday!

Last week a gentleman told me that he had helped his knee pain with prayer and that reminded me that over the last 20 years, I’ve met several people who told me that prayer helped their pain. 🙏

Obviously, I said:

“Carry on praying, then—but let’s do some chiropractic too and see if we can get an even better result!” 😂

But it has often made me wonder...

Can the effects of prayer actually be measured?

And then I found this study.

Researchers attempted to discover whether prayer could help people recover from heart surgery.

The study involved 1,802 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery at six American hospitals.

Christian prayer groups were given the patients’ first names and asked to pray for them.

The patients were divided into three groups:

🙏 Prayed for—but unsure whether they would receive prayer.

❓ Not prayed for—and also unsure.

✅ Prayed for—and specifically told they would receive prayer.

So, what happened?

Among the patients who didn’t know whether they were being prayed for, complications occurred in:

52% of those who received prayer.
51% of those who didn’t.

In other words...

Being prayed for by strangers did not produce a measurable improvement in recovery.

But then came the really strange part.

Of the patients who knew they were definitely being prayed for, 59% experienced complications.

That was significantly higher than among those who were uncertain.

Why?

The researchers couldn’t say for certain.

One possibility was something called performance anxiety.

Perhaps being told that people were praying for them made some patients think:

“Blimey...am I so ill that I need a team of strangers praying for me?”

But—and this is important—the trial only examined whether strangers praying at a distance could change another person’s surgical outcome.

It did not investigate whether praying yourself might:

✅ Reduce stress.

✅ Help you cope with pain.

✅ Create hope and reassurance.

✅ Provide a sense of connection.

✅ Change how you experience your symptoms.

Nor could it test faith, meaning or the existence of God.

The researchers could measure surgical complications...
..but some things are rather more difficult to fit into a spreadsheet.

So, did this study prove that prayer doesn’t work?

No.

It showed something much narrower:

Being prayed for by strangers did not improve recovery after heart surgery.

Perhaps the most interesting effects of prayer happen not only to the person being prayed for...
..but inside the person doing the praying.

And that’s where the research becomes even more fascinating.

Reference: Benson H et al. Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients. American Heart Journal. 2006.

15/08/2026

🐴 OK, I've been made to eat my words...

I might have been a tiny bit biased on my recent "motorcycles are good for stress" post. 🏍️😂

Apparently, suggesting motorcycles might be healthier than horses upset a few of my horsey patients.

So, in the interests of scientific integrity—and my own personal safety—here's the balanced view from the horsey perspective. 🐴

And annoyingly...

You've got some pretty good evidence too.

Research into horse riding and equine-assisted activities has found associations with:

🐴 Reduced stress and anxiety — some studies have reported reductions in salivary cortisol following equine-assisted activities.

❤️ Changes in heart-rate variability — suggesting an effect on the autonomic nervous system and the body's response to stress.

🧠 Improved mood and psychological wellbeing — particularly in studies involving therapeutic riding and equine-assisted interventions.

💪 Physical activity — riding requires balance, coordination, postural control and lots of constant little muscular adjustments.

🌳 Time outdoors — fresh air, daylight, countryside and getting away from screens probably aren't doing any harm either.

And there's another interesting ingredient...

You have to pay attention.

When you're sitting on half a tonne of animal with its own brain, opinions and an occasional irrational fear of a plastic bag, thinking about your emails suddenly becomes considerably less important. 😂

That's actually where horse riding and motorcycling may have something in common.

Both demand attention, coordination and being completely in the moment.

So perhaps I've been unfair.

🏍️ Motorcycles appear to have some interesting effects on attention and stress physiology.

🐴 Horse riding has evidence around stress, wellbeing, physical activity and therapeutic benefits.

THE VERDICT

I'm prepared to admit that horse riding may actually be good for you.

There.

I've said it.

Please stop sending me messages. 😂

Although I still maintain one rather important advantage of the motorcycle...

After an off-road event, I can put my bike in the garage, lock the door and completely ignore it for a few days.

Can you do that with a horse? 🏍️🐴😂

Horse people vs motorcycle people — I'm sure you'll all discuss this calmly and rationally below... 👇

14/08/2026

If you’re proud of Derby, read on…

If you love sport, read on…

And if you simply enjoy reading—well, read on! 😂

🏆 Derby has another world champion! 🚴‍♀️

Put your hand in front of your face.

Now use your fingers to count how many world champions have come from Derby…

Actually, you may need both hands!

Our city has produced world champions in boxing, darts, cycling, breaking (breakdancing), billiards, weightlifting and plenty more.

And now Daisy Craig has done it again!

In 2025, Daisy made history by becoming the first British girl to win a UCI Bike Trials world title.

Now, aged just 14, she has been crowned the 2026 Female World BikeTrial Champion! 🌍🥇

Even more impressively, Daisy achieved this while riding with an injured hand—which her dad and I are now expertly attempting to repair between us!

What could possibly go wrong? 😂

That deserves a huge…

💪 GIRL POWER! 💪

Her younger brother Harry, aged just 11, has also enjoyed an incredible year—becoming the 2026 European BikeTrial Under-12 Champion!

Between them, Daisy and Harry already hold world, European and numerous British titles—and they are only 14 and 11.

Two exceptionally talented young riders.

One very proud family.

And another brilliant reason for Derby to feel proud. 👏

We’re especially proud to sponsor Daisy through Derby Family Chiropractic and to play a small part in supporting such an inspirational young local athlete.

Congratulations, Daisy and Harry. We cannot wait to see what comes next! 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🇬🇧

P.S. Before Daisy’s dad asks—no, we’re not sponsoring Harry as well… yet! 😂
🚴‍♀️🏆🇬🇧

13/08/2026

Imagine being so annoyed by published research that you helped examine more than 20,000 scientific papers…

🔎 Meet the woman checking whether published science is actually true…

Yesterday, I shared examples of mainstream research that was widely accepted as fact…
Imagine being so annoyed by problems in published research that you helped examine more than 20,000 scientific papers…
…but later turned out not to be quite right.

Meet Dr Elisabeth Bik—a Dutch microbiologist who became one of the world’s best-known scientific detectives.

She examines photographs, scans, microscopy images and laboratory results within published biomedical research.

She looks for images that have been:

❌ Duplicated and presented as different experiments.

❌ Cropped, rotated or flipped to disguise reuse.

❌ Digitally altered.

❌ Copied between supposedly unrelated studies.

In one enormous project, Bik and her colleagues visually examined 20,621 papers from 40 biomedical journals.

They found problematic images in approximately 3.8% of them.

That’s almost one in every 25 published papers.

At least half contained features suggestive of deliberate manipulation rather than an innocent mistake.

And much of this detective work was performed using something remarkably advanced…

Her eyes. 👀

Her discoveries have contributed to papers being questioned, corrected, investigated or retracted—even research from prestigious universities and journals.

However, Bik doesn’t automatically accuse researchers of fraud. A duplicated image might result from an honest error.

She identifies the problem, presents the evidence and asks the journal or institution to investigate.

Peer review may have missed it.

The journal may have published it.

But someone can still examine the evidence and say:

“Hang on… those two images are exactly the same.”

Elisabeth Bik doesn’t demonstrate that science cannot be trusted.

She demonstrates why science must always remain open to scrutiny.

Because “published” should never mean:

“Never question this again.”

Research: (https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.00809-16)

12/08/2026

🔬 What happens when new research contradicts the old research?

A long, long time ago, I started reading scientific research.

And, like a good little lemming, I believed it. 😂

If a paper appeared in a respected journal and was written by somebody with seventeen letters after their name, I assumed it must be true.

Then another study would contradict it.

And another would challenge that one.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the original research was bad—it’s often simply the journey science takes.

A small study raises a possibility. Larger studies test it, find its weaknesses and gradually move us closer to the truth.

My favourite example was the research suggesting that drinking wine every day was good for your heart.

I may have personally translated “a small glass” into “a bottle,” but that was my own interpretation… 🍷😂

Many apparent benefits came from observational studies. Moderate drinkers often differed from non-drinkers in other important ways, while some “non-drinkers” were former drinkers who had stopped because of poor health.

A major trial was later planned to investigate whether moderate drinking prevented cardiovascular disease—with much of its funding due to come from alcohol companies.

The US National Institutes of Health eventually stopped it following concerns about its funding process and design.

That doesn’t mean every industry-funded study is false, but it demonstrates why we should ask:

“Who funded this research?”

It also reminded me how many things I was taught as fact that were later challenged:

🧠 MMR causes autism
Andrew Wakefield’s 12-child paper was retracted after serious ethical, financial and data concerns emerged. The BMJ described it as fraudulent.

👨‍⚕️ The Stanford Prison Experiment proved ordinary people naturally become cruel
Later examination revealed that some guards had been coached and the behaviour wasn’t as spontaneous as we were taught.

🍬 The marshmallow test predicted a child’s future
Larger studies found that family background, socioeconomic circumstances and trust explained much of the apparent effect.

📚 Children have individual learning styles
The idea became embedded in education, yet matching teaching to a supposed learning style hasn’t reliably been shown to improve learning.

⚡ Power posing changes your hormones
Standing like Superman was claimed to increase testosterone and reduce cortisol, but larger studies struggled to reproduce those headline effects.

🪫 Willpower is a battery that runs out
The theory of “ego depletion” influenced psychology, dieting and productivity advice, but large replication projects struggled to reproduce it consistently.

🧬 Scientists had created cloned human embryonic stem cells
Hwang Woo-suk became an international celebrity before key results were found to have been fabricated and the papers retracted.

🦠 An enormous hospital database proved certain COVID treatments were dangerous
When researchers questioned whether Surgisphere’s database existed as described, the underlying data couldn’t be independently examined and major papers were retracted.

The lesson isn’t that science cannot be trusted.

It’s almost the opposite.

Science exposes its own mistakes because people inspect the data, question conclusions and attempt to reproduce results.

But remember:

✅ Famous journals can publish flawed papers.
✅ Peer review isn’t a guarantee of truth.
✅ Confident experts can be confidently wrong.
✅ One exciting study is never the final word.

Good scientists remain willing to change their minds when better evidence arrives.

Remain curious.

Ask awkward questions.

And never confuse a dramatic headline with unquestionable truth.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some extremely important wine-based research to continue…

Strictly observational, obviously. 🍷😂

Further reading: NIH statement on the alcohol trial | The BMJ investigation into Wakefield’s paper

Derby Family Chiropractic - 1st for McTimoney Chiropractic in Derby

25/08/2026

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