http://www.derbyfamilychiropractic.co.uk/

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

13/03/2026

Inspired by my lad, who after football training would sooner believe the marketers than me — he still won’t believe that water is a better hydrator than energy drinks…

When I was in my 20s I’d drink tea or squash… or real ale, if we’re being honest.
But now “kids” only seem to drink fizzy pop or the most evil of energy drinks.
So is my scornful wrinkling of my eyebrows at my reception team really substantiated…
…or am I just becoming the sort of man who complains about modern life because he’s reached that age (36)?
Annoyingly for them… I may have a point. 😄
I was reading about energy drinks and the numbers are grim.
Rockstar is listed at about 16 teaspoons of sugar.
Monster at 14.5 teaspoons.
NOS at 13.5 teaspoons.
For comparison, Coke is about 13 teaspoons.
So these drinks are basically Coke with a bigger ego.
And then there’s the caffeine.

These drinks are often loaded with far more caffeine too, which means the “energy boost” may be less about actual fuel and more about a sugar spike, caffeine hit, and then the inevitable crash later.

Now, why does that matter to a chiropractor?
Because a lot of the people I see are already running slightly too close to the red line.
They’re tired. They’re stressed. They’re not sleeping well. They’re tense through the shoulders. Their back feels tight. Their neck feels like concrete.
And then, instead of fixing the basics like sleep, hydration, movement and recovery…
…they throw an energy drink at the problem and hope for the best.
Which is a bit like putting a loud sticker on the dashboard and calling it car maintenance.

These drinks can leave people more jittery, more dehydrated, sleeping worse, and generally winding the system up even more.
And when your nervous system is already stressed, that usually doesn’t help how your body feels.
It doesn’t help recovery. It doesn’t help muscle tension. It doesn’t help sleep. And it definitely doesn’t help that “I feel wired but also exhausted” problem that so many people seem to be living with.

And there’s even a video doing the rounds online of two Monster/Red Bull-sponsored sportsmen pouring water into their branded cans… which does rather make you wonder.
Because if even the people paid to hold the can aren’t always drinking what’s in it…
what does that tell us? 😄

When performance, recovery and feeling well actually matter, the answer is usually not: more neon liquid.
It’s usually the boring grown-up stuff: better sleep, better hydration, better recovery habits, and a nervous system that isn’t being bullied all day.
So yes…
my eyebrow-wrinkling at reception may not just be age.
It may actually be chiropractic concern.
Or at the very least…
clinical judgement disguised as mild grumpiness.

12/03/2026

What a month it’s been in the clinic.

First my own biggest kid turned 20 (which still doesn’t seem possible), then Hannah turned 24… and now, without further ado, let me introduce Mel.
Many of you will already know Mel. She’s been part of Derby Family Chiropractic for seven years, working as a Chiropractic Assistant, and in January she graduated as a McTimoney chiropractor.
Trust me — that is no mean feat. Training to become a chiropractor while working in a busy clinic takes a serious amount of commitment.
A few important facts about Mel:
• Likes holidays… a lot
• Likes wine… also quite a lot
• Hates AI
Which is why, for once, her photo has not been modified, enhanced, filtered, or turned into an action figure. 😄
Please join me in saying congratulations to Mel — we’re very proud of her and excited to see her start adjusting patients.
And yes… I promise this is the last birthday post…
Until the next one. 😄🍷

11/03/2026

On a recent Facebook advert for McTimoney chiropractic, someone commented: “Garbage — nothing is happening.”
McTimoney chiropractors often avoid posting video because they’re worried about comments like that.
Not us. 😄
So… which hand-crafted and AI-assisted reply would you choose?
And can you guess which one I wrote unaided?! 👀

1️⃣ It can look very gentle, that’s true. McTimoney works with the body rather than against it — small adjustments, precise timing. 🙂

2️⃣The strange thing about McTimoney is it rarely looks dramatic. No cracking, no wrestling moves, no flying elbows… rubbish for TikTok. Disappointing for spectators — brilliant for patients. 😄

3️⃣Fair and predictable comment — it does look unusual on video. McTimoney is more “precision engineering” than “DIY with a hammer.” The interesting part is what happens after a few sessions, when patients start to feel normal again.

4️⃣If chiropractic only worked when it looked dramatic, we’d all be doing WWE moves. McTimoney is a bit more subtle than that — and patients usually prefer results over showmanship. 🙂

5️⃣Roughly a third of the UK’s ~4,000 chiropractors are McTimoney trained. My best guess is that’s about 40,000 McTimoney appointments every week.
So that’s quite a lot of “garbage” still getting away with it since the 1970s. 😄

I need to respond to the comment so which one gets your vote? 👇

Bonus question: which one do you think I wrote without Ai sanitizing it!? 😄

Remember this is just for entertainment!

10/03/2026

I seemed to have a waiting room full of children yesterday…
No babies this time though. 😄
And one patient asked me:
“Why would kids come to a chiropractor?”
Which, to be fair, is something I get asked a lot.
I think a lot of people still imagine chiropractors only deal with grown adults who’ve spent 25 years sitting badly, lifting badly, sleeping badly, and then blaming “old age” for the results.
But kids get problems too.
And not just the obvious big dramatic things.
Yes, sometimes it’s falls, knocks, sports injuries, trampoline incidents and general childhood chaos…
And yes, I have genuinely seen a child after a trampoline accident because a parent had put the trampoline over a tree stump.
Which really does raise several questions. Mostly: why?
In fact, it was a childhood injury of my own — yes, unsurprisingly involving something with wheels — that actually got me into chiropractic in the first place.
So I probably can’t be too judgmental about childhood chaos. Only selectively judgmental.
But it’s not always the dramatic stuff.
Sometimes it’s the modern-life stuff.
Kids now spend hours folded over phones, tablets, laptops and gaming devices in positions that would make most adults need a lie down and a heat pack.
And the number of kids who tell me the science stools at school hurt them is amazing.
I mean honestly, who designed those?
It feels like someone was asked to create a chair for teenagers and responded with:
“What if we made it technically a seat… but removed comfort, support and any joy in living?”
And then there’s the phrase we’ve all heard:
“Growing pains.”
Which sounds lovely and normal and harmless.
Except they’re not actually linked to growing.
So really, “growing pains” is one of those phrases adults say when a child has sore legs at night and everyone sort of shrugs and hopes for the best.
Now, to be fair, sometimes it is nothing major.
But sometimes it isn’t.
That’s the bit worth remembering.
Because how many adults do we see with problems that very obviously started years ago?
The bad neck that’s “always been there.” The back that’s “never been right.” The hip that’s “always felt tight.” The headaches they’ve had since school.
Very often, the story didn’t start at 42.
It started at 12 Or 9 or after some fall, awkward posture, sports injury or stress that was never really dealt with properly.
By the time they’re adults, they’ve forgotten where it began. They just think that’s how their body is.
So when people ask why children come to a chiropractor, the answer is actually quite simple:
Because children have spines. Children have nervous systems. Children have falls, bumps, bad posture, school chairs, sports injuries and screen habits.
They are, inconveniently, just smaller humans.
Stickier, louder, and occasionally covered in biscuit crumbs…
…but still humans. 😄
So if a child is regularly complaining of headaches, neck pain, back pain, sore legs, or just seems uncomfortable more often than they should, it’s worth paying attention.
Not because every child has some huge problem.
But because not everything should be brushed off with:
“They’ll grow out of it.”
Sometimes they do.
And sometimes they grow into it.

09/03/2026

We’re coming to the end of the sleep posts for a bit, but this one always fascinates me.
Lots of people say they’re not getting enough sleep… and then they start stressing about not getting enough sleep… which of course keeps them awake.
Which raises the obvious question:
What actually counts as “enough sleep”?
The famous “8 hours” rule is one of those health myths that refuses to go to bed.
In reality, the amount of sleep you need depends on your age. Typical ranges are roughly:
toddlers 11–14 hours, preschool 10–13 hours, school age 9–12 hours, teens 8–10 hours, and adults 7–9 hours.

So if you’re an adult sleeping 7 hours, you’re probably not broken… you’re probably just normal.
And that’s the bit people often miss.
Not everyone needs exactly the same amount, and stressing because you didn’t hit some magical 8-hour target probably isn’t helping.
So when a 40-year-old man tells me he isn’t getting enough sleep… but he’s sleeping a solid 8 hours… clinically, I’m less interested in the number of hours and more interested in:
the quality of that sleep
whether it’s fragmented
whether pain is waking him
whether stress is keeping the nervous system too alert
or whether there’s another issue affecting recovery
Because time in bed and restorative sleep are not always the same thing.
Practical tip
Instead of chasing “perfect”, aim for:
✅ a consistent wake-up time
✅ enough sleep that you’re not craving a nap and a personality transplant by 2pm
Because sleep isn’t a luxury…
…it’s the foundation the rest of your health stands on.

08/03/2026

I had a weird dream last night about a platypus… and that got me thinking….

So, it’s Sunday morning, and you’ve all got important garden centre things to be doing, so let’s keep this light.
Today’s topic: REM sleep.
REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement — the stage of sleep where:
• your eyes dart around under your eyelids
• your brain becomes surprisingly active
• and most of your dreaming happens
It’s basically the phase where your brain is busy… while your body is switched off.

Humans sleep about 7 hours a night, and roughly 2 of those hours are REM sleep.

But here’s the weird bit.

The platypus sleeps about 14 hours a day and gets around 8 hours of REM sleep.
Eight hours.

Which raises an obvious question…
What exactly is a platypus dreaming about for that long?
Because they’re not writing books,
and they’re definitely not debating online whether the plural is platypuses or platypi.
That seems to be our job.

Now, REM sleep is often linked with memory, learning and emotional processing.
But there’s also a fascinating theory that REM sleep might partly act like a brain thermostat.
In simple terms, your brain cools down during sleep, and REM may help periodically warm it back up so it stays responsive and ready if you suddenly need to wake up.
Which explains why, when someone wakes you suddenly, you sometimes feel like an old computer trying to reboot.
“Please wait… brain loading…”
Either way, it reinforces a point I keep banging on about in clinic:
Sleep isn’t wasted time.
It’s when your body does the maintenance work:
• nervous system reset
• tissue recovery
• memory sorting
• and a bit of brain temperature management
So you don't really need:
❌ another supplement
❌ a fancy gadget
❌ a £1,000 ice bath

It’s simply:
✔ a bit more sleep
✔ a calmer nervous system
✔ and ideally fewer late-night scrolling sessions
And now I’m left wondering…
somewhere out there, is a platypus dreaming about a chiropractor?

07/03/2026

Is anyone else like me… I wake up, bounce out of bed like a gazelle, and my first thought is:
“Brew.” ☕️
But apparently… there’s a small upgrade that can make mornings feel less like you’ve been left out overnight like a forgotten pot plant.
Hydrate before you caffeinate 💧☕
Sleep experts point out two useful things:
Sleep dehydrates you (you lose water overnight just by breathing — who’d have thought?!)
Sleep Doctor_ If You Wake Up At…
Cortisol/adrenaline are naturally higher when you wake up, so delaying caffeine ~60–90 minutes can make it work better (and feel less jittery).
Sleep Doctor_ If You Wake Up At…
Practical morning upgrade (dead simple)
✅ Water first — aim roughly 450–600ml in the first 90 minutes if you can
Sleep Doctor_ If You Wake Up At…
✅ Delay the brew 60–90 minutes
Sleep Doctor_ If You Wake Up At…
✅ Enjoy feeling mysteriously more human
Chiropractic relevance
Dehydration + stress hormones + sitting in cars/offices = a nervous system that’s already a bit grumpy… and that often shows up as stiffness, headaches, and tight shoulders.
Be honest… are you a water first person… or straight to the kettle like it’s CPR? 😅

07/03/2026

🎉 Happy Birthday Hannah! 🎉
Today we’re wishing Hannah, one of our brilliant Chiropractic Assistants, a very happy 24th birthday… even though she’s away on holiday for the big day.
If you’ve been into the clinic recently, you’ve probably seen Hannah either:
📞 On reception — answering phones, checking people in, organising the diary, and generally preventing the clinic from descending into chaos…
or
💪 Helping patients with soft tissue work — working on the tight muscles that have been arguing with your spine for far too long.
Now here’s the slightly shocking discovery we’ve made about Hannah…
She’s so young that:
• she’s never heard of The A-Team
• she’s never heard of Bagpuss
• and she genuinely believes Facebook is something only old people use 😅
So when Hannah gets back from her holiday next week, please wish her a very happy 24th birthday 🎂
And if you’re of a certain vintage, feel free to help with her cultural education, including:
• life before streaming
• cassette tapes
• and when the TV only had four channels.
Have a brilliant holiday Hannah — we’ll celebrate when you’re back! 🎈
— Stuart & the Derby Family Chiropractic team
😅

06/03/2026

Are you sleeping better yet?
I hope so… but probably not. Luckily there are a few posts to go 😅
Ever woken up at 3am and instantly reached for your phone to check the time… or (worse) check emails?
Go on. Tell the truth… 👀
Here’s the thing: if you wake up between 1–3am, you’re not broken.
Sleep experts explain that your body tends to warm up around that time. Most people roll over and drift back off… but some of us get properly wakey-wakey.
The three things that make it worse:
❌ checking the time (instant panic maths)
❌ checking your phone (hello bright light + brain activation)
❌ doing “helpful thinking” like: “How am I going to function tomorrow?” 😅
Try this instead:
✅ stay still if you can (keeps heart rate down)
✅ slow breathing / long exhale breathing reset
✅ if you’re calm, try non-sleep deep rest (yoga nidra / relaxed lying) — not the same as sleep, but still restorative
✅ if you’re getting stressed/angry: get out of bed, do something quiet in low light, then return when sleepy

Chiropractic relevance:
This is nervous system stuff. The more “switched on” you are, the more your body stays tense — and tension loves to show up in necks, shoulders, backs… and jaws.

Question: are you a 3am phone-checker… or a roll over and pretend it never happened person?

05/03/2026

Today is World Book Day 📚 — so here’s what we’re “reading” at Derby Family Chiropractic… and why.
Because yes, we adjust spines… …but we also like to adjust what we think we know.
And if you’ve ever wondered what goes on in our heads between patients… read on!
😴 Megan: Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker Megan’s basically on a mission to make sleep the most underrated health habit in Derby.
This book is the ultimate reminder that sleep isn’t “time off”… it’s when your body does the maintenance: ✅ your brain does the “file saving + clearing rubbish” bit ✅ your nervous system turns the stress dial down ✅ your tissues recover
Clinic translation: Sleep is not a luxury. It’s the foundation.

🧠 Divyesh: The Reality Check — Dr Heidi Haavik Divyesh has chosen the book that basically says:
“Your spine isn’t just bones stacked neatly like a Jenga tower — it’s part of the system that helps your brain understand your body.”

Clinic translation: Chiropractic isn’t only about pain relief — it’s about improving how you function.

🦴 Natalie: Written in the Bone — Sue Black Natalie has gone full CSI: Skeleton Edition.
This book is a jaw-dropping reminder that your body keeps receipts. Bones don’t just “hold you up” — they tell stories about:
✅ stress ✅ work ✅ injuries ✅ health over time
Which is perfect for the amount of times we hear: “It’s probably nothing… I’ve only had it 5 years.” 😬
Clinic translation: Your body adapts, compensates, and leaves clues. We just help you interpret them.

🍞 Mel: Ultra-Processed People — Chris van Tulleken Mel has picked the book that makes you look at half the supermarket like it’s a crime scene.
It’s not a “never eat anything fun again” book — it’s more like: “Why does this ‘food’ have 37 ingredients and none of them are food?”
It digs into how ultra-processed foods can mess with: ✅ appetite signals (why you’re hungry again 20 minutes later) ✅ energy and mood ✅ inflammation and recovery
Clinic translation: Healing isn’t just what happens on the table — it’s what happens the other 23 hours of the day.

🎨 Stuart (me): The Anatomy Colouring Book Some people meditate. Some people cold plunge. I… colour in muscles and try not to go over the lines.
Clinic translation: learning doesn’t have to be serious to be effective.

🔧 Lucy: 1990s DIY Car Repair Magazines Lucy is basically running an underground Haynes Manual lifestyle.
And weirdly… it’s very chiropractic.
Those magazines are all about: ✅ listening for the real problem (not just “it makes a noise”) ✅ checking the basics first ✅ understanding systems (engine, suspension, alignment — sound familiar?) ✅ fixing the cause, not endlessly patching the symptom
Also, 1990s DIY mags have a special energy: “Step 1: Remove engine.” As if that’s something you do on a tea break.
Clinic translation: good diagnostics beats random guesswork. Every time.

🏋️‍♀️ Hannah: Barbell & Dumbbell Training — James Atkinson Hannah has chosen the book that says: “Strength training isn’t a trend — it’s a lifetime skill.”
It’s not about getting “hench” (although fair play if that’s your goal). It’s about building a body that keeps doing life well: ✅ stronger muscles = more resilient joints ✅ better strength = better posture endurance (less desk-goblin energy) ✅ resistance training = one of the best “anti-ageing” tools we’ve got
And crucially: training that actually lasts — progressive, sensible, consistent… not “destroy yourself Monday then disappear for 3 weeks.”
Clinic translation: strength isn’t vanity — it’s insurance.

🕵️‍♂️ Sham: Body Language — How To Read Any Body — Derek Borthwick Sham has gone for the book that makes you realise communication is mostly… not words.
Which is ridiculously relevant in a clinic, because patients will often say: “I’m fine.” …while their shoulders are up by their ears, they’re holding their breath, and their face says “send help.” 😅
It’s all about noticing: ✅ posture and tension patterns (hello nervous system) ✅ micro-signals of stress or confidence ✅ how to communicate clearly when someone’s anxious, in pain, or overwhelmed
Clinic translation: we don’t just treat bodies — we talk to humans.
So yes… we read. We learn. We occasionally get annoyed at “protein bars” that are basically chocolate with admin.
And we bring it back to the same goal:
✅ help you feel better ✅ move better ✅ and function like a human… not a creaky wardrobe

Happy World Book Day 📚 Now… what’s on your bedside table — and are you actually reading it? 😄

04/03/2026

Following on from yesterday’s post…
Did you get to bed on time last night? 👀
The big takeaway is this:
Sleep isn’t a luxury. It’s your brain’s dishwasher. Sleep is basically your brain running the overnight cleaning cycle.
There’s research suggesting that during deep sleep, fluid around the brain and spinal cord increases and helps clear away some of the day’s by-products.
Which is why after a rubbish night:
your memory’s worse
your mood’s shorter
and your body feels about 87 years old (even if you’re 32) 😅

Practical (simple) for tonight
✅ cooler room ✅ consistent wake time ✅ 20-minute runway before bed (no emails, no doom-scroll)
Chiropractic relevance
Most people don’t walk into clinic saying “I sleep badly”…
They come in with:
tight shoulders / neck
headaches
jaw tension
back that keeps flaring up
…and poor sleep often makes all of that feel worse because your nervous system is more reactive and your tissues recover less well.
Be honest — what’s your biggest sleep killer right now: stress, screens, pain, or ‘just one more episode’?

03/03/2026

OK it’s Tuesday morning…
On Sunday I had a long day of driving, then yesterday I did 12 hours in clinic… and I didn’t even get my luxurious Sunday lie-in.
(And by “lie-in” I mean 7am… I’m basically rock ’n’ roll 😅)
So today I’m a bit sleepy, and I started wondering:
Can you actually catch up on sleep… like paying off your sleep debt like it’s a credit card?
Mon–Fri: “I’ll survive on 6 hours.”
Sat–Sun: “It’s fine… I’ll sleep until lunchtime and fix everything.” 😴
So… can you catch up?
The honest answer: a bit… but it’s complicated.
✅ You can feel better with some extra sleep. Research presented at the European Society of Cardiology suggested that, in people who don’t sleep enough in the week, weekend catch-up sleep was linked with a lower risk of heart disease (observational — interesting, but not proof).
⚠️ But weekend lie-ins don’t magically undo everything. A controlled lab study found that “weekend recovery sleep” didn’t prevent some of the metabolic disruption from repeated short sleep during the week. In other words… your body doesn’t always accept a weekend top-up as full repayment.
🤷 And other studies find no clear protective effect at all. A large study using device-measured sleep reported no association between weekend catch-up sleep and mortality or cardiovascular disease incidence.
Practical takeaway - If you’re going to catch up, aim for a small lie-in:
Keep your weekend wake-up within about 60–90 minutes of normal.
Use the weekend to “top up”… but don’t rely on it as the plan.
The real win is improving weekday sleep by even 30–45 minutes, consistently.

Be honest: are you a weekend catch-up sleeper… or a same-time-every-day person?

Derby Family Chiropractic - 1st for McTimoney Chiropractic in Derby

13/03/2026

12/03/2026

11/03/2026

10/03/2026

09/03/2026

08/03/2026

07/03/2026

07/03/2026

06/03/2026

05/03/2026

04/03/2026

03/03/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Practice

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category

Christmas 2018 Shutdown