Dancing through injury!

I started dancing over 4 years ago now, partly because my mates had better moves in the clubs, partly because of Strictly having gained fast popularity and also because it was recommended as a way to improve a foot injury. In December 2003 I was at rugby training and my right foot gave way whilst running on it. The pain was pretty intense, and I had to pull out of the exercise for a while. However I was enjoying myself a little too much, and when the pain went, I joined in training again. After about 5 minutes running, my foot went again, but this time I could barely walk on it. I sat out for the rest of training then went to hospital later for an x-ray fearing that I had broken something. The nurse told me it was likely to be ligament damage, gave me treatment and sent me on my way. After a while, I went to my GP because it wasn't improving, who advised me that it might benefit from physio but there was a 6 month waiting list, not saying that without this it wasn't likely to improve at all.

Moving forward to around Easter of 2005 and I took up a ballroom and latin american dance class, and low and behold, some of the pain started to ease as my foot gained some strength back. All was going well until the cold and damp weather set in, when my foot started playing up again, and swelling. This was a recurring problem anytime there was dampness in the air, be it cold or warm (England doesn't get hot!) but I stuck with it, taking some supplements and aspirin. I started taking glucosamine sulphate at first, which had a slight effect on my foot, with it's natural anti-inflammatory properties. This still didn't help on dancing exam days though where my foot was pretty much guaranteed to swell!

The next supplement I added was Devil's Claw, a natural pain killer and anti-inflammtory and once again there was further improvement. I had been taking solely these two until earlier this year, when I was introduced to alkaline water. At first I was very sceptical that changing the water I drank would make a difference to my foot (as you would be), but Paul invited me to try some, and to my amazement you could really taste the difference between the alkaline water and tap water. As time has gone by I have moved from 8.5pH to 9.5pH water as gradually my foot has improved, and weeks where I have drank purely tap water, that pain has come back! Many scientists have tried to play down then benefit of alkaline water, and as a non-scientist I can only speak for the experience I have had of it, which when I have taken it in conjunction with my supplements, there has been a vast improvement in my foot.

If you research alkaline water online, you will no doubt read scientific reports suggesting that it is a placebo effect, and that there is no evidence to show that alkaline water has benefits. However before I drank alkaline water my foot used to physically swell and become painful to the point some dances I had to stop, however I have not had any swelling since drinking alkaline water and the pain has been cut down to a minimum! Physical swelling I'm sure, cannot be affected by a placebo! I would suggest to anyone else who has an injury to ligaments etc that they try alkaline water. The water ionizers aren't cheap, but may well be worth the investment.