Xcel Health recognises healthcare needs are complex and require different healthcare services, this is why we have expanded the services we can now offer you. Our experienced team of therapists is confident in helping you get back to being your best. We are passionate about helping others, giving great customer service and providing you with the knowledge and tools needed to make a speedy recovery.
I get to see around 10 patients every single day who come to me with lower back problems either at the Sittingbourne Physiotherapy practice or the GP surgeries.
All you need to know about Pilates 
Asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever – yes this is what a young boy named Joseph was born with in Germany in the 1880s. Due to his poor health condition, he started tryi...
Diet or exercise – which is better?
Should one diet or exercise? A healthy diet provides nourishment to the body and exercise improves metabolism and body strength. What we eat in a day is the foundation fo...
How a Pelvic Physiotherapist Can Help During Menopause
How can a Pelvic health Physiotherapist help me during Menopause?I see a lot of women in the Physiotherapy Clinic in Sittingbourne, and the questions I get are the same.
Express Yourself – Facial Acupuncture
The way intention is conveyed through communication is divided into 3 sections - 55% is through your face and expressions, 38% through inflection and the tone of your voi
Benefits of drinking WATER!Drinking enough water is crucial to maintain good fitness and health. However, the question that all my patients at the Sittingbourne or Maidstone
Pelvic girdle painFinding it difficult to walk, turn in bed, stand, manage your regular daily activities, and get some exercise during your pregnancy? Pelvic Girdle Pain
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) A New Year means new opportunities and new beginnings. It is a time when people may be working on their resolutions and trying
Can you get Tennis Elbow if you don’t play tennis?Have you ever experienced pain in your elbow? Difficulty lifting shopping bags? Finding it painful to drink your cup
Text neck syndrome: Although not a formal diagnosis, it is a common term that refers to a repetitive stress injury to the neck caused by having your head in a forward pos
Physiotherapy after a StrokeMost people are completely unaware of the importance of high intensity Neuro-Rehab after a stroke. It is why I will highlight the ben
What are Whiplash Injuries and What Can I Do To Treat Them?
All you need to know about a Whiplash injury!Every day in the Sittingbourne Clinic I see around 4-5 patients who come to see me following a car accident. And it’s...
Babies spend a considerable amount of time on their backs – in the cot, in the car seat and on your body. Placing them on their tummy gives them a completely different perspective of their world. It promotes their motor, visual and sensory development.
Don’t let anxiety get in your way
Anxiety is a generalised mood disorder that results in feelings of apprehension, fear or worry. Anxiety can be characterised into different types which include
What Do We Do in Our Parkinson’s Sessions?
I know, when I tell you that we will be doing exercises during your Physiotherapy session, you will only think one thing. BORING!! However a session for somebody with Parkinson’s is anything but boring.
In my previous blogs, we have been talking about neck pain. Thanks for sticking with me to know how you can prevent your neck aches and pains. I am hoping that, having read my previous blog, you have been really conscious of your posture and looking out for it, and have become more self-aware about the things you do and the way you do them.
A Battle with Plantar Fascitis
Have you noticed a pain in your heel when you put your foot on the ground first thing in the morning? Do you wince a little, let out a small cry of pain or a large ouch when you get out of bed? If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of these, then you could have plantar fasciitis!
No, it’s not your usual tape! Kinesio taping is a therapeutic tape which has its origins in Japan in the 1970s. Since then it has been used by healthcare professionals not only in sports medicine but also in other medical disciplines such as paediatrics and for those with neurological conditions.
Injection therapy is something that we have recently started doing in our Sittingbourne clinic to help patients whose joints are inflamed, they have tried all other treatments and none have worked.
In our blogs, we’re going to talk about different aspects of health and exercise, and how to lead a more active lifestyle. I’m a runner and I wanted to talk about how it all started for me.
The role of Physiotherapy in Neurological Conditions
Neurological Physiotherapy is a specialist area of physiotherapy which focuses on the treatment of people with neurological conditions. These affect the function of the brain, spinal cord and nerves.
Icing an injury – what do I need to know?
An acute injury is a said to be a ‘one off’. It didn’t come on gradually and it just happened in an instant. It could be an ankle sprain during a run, a tackle in a sports match, a stumble whilst out walking or even a slip or fall in the shower.
If you have ever bought a pair of ASICS shoes, you might know that ASICS stands for ‘Anima Sana In Corpore Sano" (a healthy mind in a healthy body, in Latin). I have always loved this saying. To me, this simple phrase encapsulates what well-being is all about: feeling good in your body, while at the same time feeling at peace with who you are.
Why you should exercise during the Menopausee
Everybody will tell you that regular exercise has huge benefits for both your physical and mental health and this is especially true for women going through the Menopause. As your body goes through a number of changes, this is an important reminder that you need to take care of yourself.
Acupuncture is a traditional technique which has been used for the past 3000 years and is originally from China. It has been gaining popularity in the recent past and is one of the fastest growing alternative medicine therapies.
These are words that you will never hear yourself say out loud. In fact, you will probably never hear anybody say them out loud. There seems to be a stigma attached to this. But nearly 50% of women over the age of 50 have this problem
How can prehab improve my athletic performance?
Prehabilitation is not a term that many people are familiar with. In fact, it is often confused with rehabilitation which is what helps your recovery from an injury or preconditioning which prepares you for a more specific sport at a higher intensity or at a higher level.
“No pain, no gain!” “Pain is weakness leaving your body.”How many times have you heard this? You don’t need to be a professional sports person to have been told either of these.Whilst it’s difficult to reach our sporting goals without a little bit of effort (and sometimes a little pain as well), we need to think about what the type of pain is.
Before the pandemic of COVID-19 that started in March 2020, home working was becoming more and more popular. However, since the first lockdown the number of people now working from home has grown dramatically and for many office workers, this is now their preferred method of working.
The basic conversation between you, the runner and me, the Physiotherapist always starts the same way. You tell me that you are doing everything that you should be doing, yet your knee still hurts. You stretch before and after running, yet it hurts, You perform a warm-up, yet it hurts.
Are you worried about overstretching your muscles?
Almost every day in the clinic, and on many occasions each day, I get asked the question “How much should I be stretching my muscles?”, “How do I know if I am overstretching or under stretching my muscles?”/p>
Has working from home left you with a bad back?
At some time during the COVID-19 pandemic over the last 2 years, almost all office workers have had a stint of working from home (WFH). In the same time period, as a treating Physiotherapist in our Physiotherapy Clinics in Sittingbourne and Maidstone
Ankle Injuries : What you should and shouldn’t do.
If you hear about an ankle injury, you normally just assume that it is a sporting injury. It must have twisted when running or doing a tackle. That’s a common myth. It really can happen to ANYBODY.
How to set up your workstation
So many of us have been working from home in the comfort of our own living rooms, sat on the sofa, at the dinner table or on our beds. But now, we are steadily going back to the workplaces we left in March 2020.
When is a Headache not just a headache?
Yes, you read that right. There is more to a headache than it simply being just a headache. In this blog, I’ll talk to you about the different headaches that you can get and explain the differences between them. It will help you to self-diagnose when you can feel that throbbing starting.
Sports Injuries – they’re such a pain!
Spring has arrived, the sun is out and the trees and plants are blossoming.My running shoes are out of their long hibernation and I’m training for a Spring race.It’s that time of year when people up and down the country are getting ready for exercise again, we’ve survived the cold, dark winter months and our good moods and motivation are back.
I’ve got this pain in my knee…
‘My knee is hurting. I just woke up one morning and it hurts. What have I done and can you fix it?’ This is a question that our Xcel Health Physiotherapists hear all of the time in our Sittingbourne and Maidstone clinics.
What Is Pulmonary Rehabilitation?
Just over 2 years ago, COVID-19 wasn’t a thing that anybody could even have imagined. Now, we’re all experts in virology. What we do know is that some of the strains of COVID-19 are extremely infectious and very dangerous. We speak about long COVID, but without a real understanding of what that really is and the long term effects that this can have on our bodies.
Have you always been physically active, yet you still get injured every now and then? If yes, you really need to work on your core! Having a strong core is not only important for people who do sport, but it also has lots of health benefits for office workers, older adults, young children and pregnant women.
From my experience there are only a select few that do. Either they are Podiatrists or foot care professionals and they will talk to you about your feet until they are blue in the face. Or there is another type of person, but this blog is not aimed at them!
In the course of my role as a Physiotherapist in the Xcel Health Maidstone and Sittingbourne Clinics, I often get asked about neck pain. Specifically, what it is, how it starts and the symptoms that it can cause. My aim is to ensure that your neck pain does not become a ‘pain in the neck!
Our lungs and breathing are 2 things that we always take for granted. The lungs just seem to work and we continue breathing without even thinking about it. We only ever think about this when something is not right.
I can hear you asking yourself, what on earth is text neck? Well, if you experience soreness and a nagging pain your neck, then this will be especially interesting for you. The culprit could be your mobile phone!
An astonishing fact : 1 in every 500 people in the UK has Parkinson’s Disease (PD). In our Physiotherapy Clinics in Sittingbourne and Maidstone, we are seeing more people who have this condition and are looking at Physiotherapy to help them maintain their mobility.
You might have heard somebody close to you, such as family or friends complaining about a Frozen Shoulder and how difficult it is to sleep. But have you ever wondered what a Frozen Shoulder actually is? It’s a really common problem that we see in our Physiotherapy Clinics in Maidstone and Sittingbourne.
Recently, we had a visit from 7 year old Abigail who liked the idea of our blogs and decided to write one of her own. We were very impressed with the spelling and ideas that she put forward! So, this is what Abigail wrote and we decided to publish it for everybody to read, exactly as she wrote it :
Osteoartritis and Quad weakness
The Quadriceps Femoris or Quads is located at the front of your thigh and consists of 4 muscles, hence the name. Quadriceps is the Latin word for “four-headed”.
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Saturday: 08:00 - 14:00
Sunday: Closed