Pyramid Health

Three weeks until Mike runs 26.2 miles in Dublin 🏃

The training has gone… mostly to plan. The shoulder has behaved. The long runs have not always been dignified.

He’s running the Dublin Marathon for The Gavin Glynn Foundation in memory of four-year-old Kitto Jones — a charity that helps cover travel costs for families whose children need specialist treatment abroad.

And thanks to everyone who’s donated so far, Mike has now smashed his €1,500 target, with €1,757 raised! 🎉

But there’s no reason to stop there…

If you’d like to help Mike push that total even higher, every donation is hugely appreciated

Back to school, back to the desk, back to the back ache.

If your lower back has started feeling tight, stiff or achy since getting back into the routine, you’re definitely not alone.

Long days sitting at a desk can leave the muscles around your lower back feeling tense and uncomfortable — and sometimes stretching alone just doesn’t seem to shift it.

That’s where dry needling can come in. We use fine needles to target tight, irritable areas of muscle, helping them relax so we can then get more from the hands-on treatment and exercises that follow.

Mike, Yasmin and Hannah all offer dry needling, and it can simply be included as part of your normal chiropractic or sports therapy session.

Struggling with a tight or achy back after getting back into your routine? Get in touch to book an appointment.

"You only get one pair of ears, just like you're going to get one set of eyes. Take care of them."

That was Shannon's parting advice, and it's a fair point. Hearing is one of those things we tend to only think about once it's going.

Worth getting looked at if you've noticed:

🔇 Hearing that's become muffled or dull
🫧 A blocked or full feeling that won't clear
🔔 Ringing
🌀 Dizziness alongside any of the above
🎧 Hearing aids that keep whistling or blocking up

Shannon runs Auricle Ear Health & Microsuction here in Exmouth. In her words: "Even if you just want to chat about your ears, book in." → auriclecare.co.uk

We asked Shannon the question everyone wants answered: cotton buds or ear candles?

Neither, is the short version — but for different reasons.

Cotton buds are the genuinely dangerous one. They push wax further in, and they can perforate an eardrum.

Ear candles won't do that. They just don't do anything else either, whatever the packaging claims.

Your ears are largely self-cleaning. When they aren't managing on their own, that's a job for someone who can actually see what they're doing.

More from our chat with Shannon
pyramidhealth.co.uk/blog/we-need-to-talk-about-your-ears-a-chat-with-shannon

"You can change someone's whole life in the space of 30 minutes." 👂

That's Shannon Nelkowski on the best part of her job. Shannon is a CQC-registered nurse who runs Auricle Ear Health & Microsuction here in Exmouth, and we sat down with her for this month's interview.

She came to ear care from haematology nursing and has now spent nearly five years doing nothing but ears. She's had patients arrive convinced they were going deaf, when the culprit turned out to be a plug of wax.

Blocked ears are one of those things people put up with for far too long. Muffled hearing, a feeling of fullness, ringing, the odd bit of dizziness.

Have a read:
pyramidhealth.co.uk/blog/we-need-to-talk-about-your-ears-a-chat-with-shannon

If you fancy making Mike's October a bit more bearable… 🙏

He's running the Dublin Marathon for The Gavin Glynn Foundation, in memory of four-year-old Kitto Jones. The charity covers travel costs for children needing specialist treatment abroad.

Target: EUR 1,500. In Mike's words, your donations will make "the chub rub and ni**le chafing that little bit more bearable."

Thanks to your incredible generosity, we've already reached our original fundraising target — but we're not stopping there.

Every bit helps, and it'll give him something to think about somewhere around mile 20.

👉 eventmaster.ie/fundraising/pages/MR60774357

Why Mike is running 26.2 miles in October 💙

He's running in memory of Kitto Jones. Kitto was diagnosed with ATRT — an aggressive brain tumour — in early 2025, and had surgery and pioneering chemotherapy in Germany with his family beside him. He passed away in June this year, aged four.

Getting Kitto to Germany was possible because of The Gavin Glynn Foundation, a charity that covers travel costs for children who need specialist treatment abroad. It means families can concentrate on their child instead of on flights, hotels and paperwork at the worst moment of their lives.

Mike's fundraiser is called Team Kitman. The target is EUR 1,500 and he'd very much like to beat it.

eventmaster.ie/fundraising/pages/MR60774357

Our chiro-in-chief has had a very daft idea. 🏃

Mike has signed up for the Dublin Marathon in October. He has 6 more weeks to train, no marathon experience whatsoever, and a shoulder still recovering from that dislocation in the spring.

His words, not ours: "a very daft idea."

The reason behind it isn't daft at all, though — and it's worth two minutes of your time. → pyramidhealth.co.uk/blog/marathon-man-mike

Here's the bit that surprises people most.

Because needling happens inside your chiropractic or sports therapy session, it's covered by the same policy. If your insurance covers chiro or sports therapy with us, it covers the needling we do during those appointments too.

No separate acupuncture cover to arrange. No different authorisation code. No extra charge from us on top of the session you're already having.

And you don't need to work out who to book with — Mike Richards (chiropractor), Yasmin McIsted (chiropractor) and Hannah Bolwell (sports therapist) are all trained in it.

Curious? Mention it at your next visit and we'll give you an honest answer on whether it'd help you.

So what actually is dry needling?

A trigger point is a tight, irritable knot inside a muscle that's stopped releasing on its own. It's the thing that keeps pulling a joint out of position however diligently you stretch.

Dry needling uses a very fine, single-use needle to reach it. "Dry" just means nothing is injected — the needle itself is the treatment. It's the same idea as pressing a knot with a thumb, except a needle reaches tissue a thumb can't, and it's far more specific about where it goes.

When it finds the right spot, the muscle often gives a small involuntary twitch. That twitch is the point. It's the muscle letting go.

Call 01395 911493 to book, or read more: pyramidhealth.co.uk/blog/we-do-that-acupuncture-amp-dry-needling