Steve August
Steve has run his own physiotherapy practices in Dunedin for 30 years, mostly treating backs and necks. He has also lectured very part-time on them in the Otago School of Medicine. Getting a handle on what actually worked on patients meant mining the whole eclectic mix of treatment approaches and attendance at most relevant conferences and courses in NZ and Australia. Most presenting spinal problems are multi-factorial, and need a simple collection of approaches to achieve a lasting result. After 40,000 personal treatment sessions, Steve’s hands finally gave out and he retired from treating patients in 2010. This has allowed time to produce some inventions from the clinical years. Steve is the inventor of the Backpod™, a device and programme providing practical home treatment and ongoing neck care for the commonest upper spinal problem in the world - a hunched upper back driving neck pain and headache. He is currently working out what to do with international approaches for the product involving ridiculous numbers."
Musculoskeletal Medicine (Part 1) Pre-conference Workshop   Thursday, 12 June 2014 Start 8:30am Duration: 120mins Room 2 Introduction to Neuromuscular medicine. Key history points. The Role of Diet. Neutraceuticals. Myofascial Pain.  Hands on demonstrations   Musculoskeletal Medicine (Part 2) Pre-conference Workshop  Thursday, 12 June 2014 Start 11:00am Duration: 120mins Room 2 Continuation on Basic Hands On Techniques   Musculoskeletal Masterclass 1 Pre-conference Workshop  Thursday, 12 June 2014 Start 2:00pm Duration: 120mins Room 2 Cervical and Thoracic Spine Advanced techniques Experienced practitioners only Thoracic spines are easy. Torn discs are rarely a factor, so the presenting problems are generally to do with joint (including costovertebral joint) movement and muscle support. They happen logically and respond in the same way. NSAIDs are fine for the acute inflammatory component; the underlying mechanical drivers need addressing also. There are a variety of simple, practical mobilising techniques that can be used to free up the joints. An excessively kyphotic thoracic spine underlies and drives most neck problems. This thoracic hunching is becoming hugely common, as people bend even more over the small IT devices like laptops, iPads, tablets and smartphones. The iHunch requires the patient to overuse the posterior neck muscles just to look ahead. This in turn compresses the facet joints, setting up acute joint locking, cervicogenic headache, closing down of the IV foramina, etc. There are various simple, effective techniques to free up the thoracic joints which can be performed by the GP, and others which the patient can follow on with at home. The second common presentation is unilateral chest pain with pain on full inspiration - generally left-sided as patients present thinking they might be having a heart attack. Once serious pathologies have been checked out and excluded, what remains is acute locking of one or more CV joints, with referral around the costal nerve(s) to the front. These respond to straightforward unlocking techniques, and patient gratitude on discovering it’s only a simple mechanical problem is large.   Musculoskeletal Masterclass 2 Pre-conference Workshop  Thursday, 12 June 2014 Start 4:30pm Duration: 120mins Room 2 Lumbar and Sacroiliac Spine Advanced techniques Experienced practitioners only