Pete Williams_FMA

Pete Williams_FMA I am a Functional Medicine Practitioner and Medical Scientist. With a focus on healthy ageing and cognitive health.

28/05/2026

48 hours after jaw surgery, the goal is not to “switch off” inflammation — early inflammation is essential for healing, immune defence, and tissue repair. The aim is to support healthy resolution of inflammation rather than allowing it to become excessive or prolonged.
Light-to-moderate walking — such as a relaxed dog walk where you can comfortably hold a conversation — may help by improving circulation, lymphatic flow, autonomic balance, and recovery signalling without placing excessive stress on the body. Muscle contraction also releases signalling molecules (myokines) that can help regulate inflammatory pathways and support innate immune surveillance.
In simple terms: gentle movement may help the body manage swelling and recovery more efficiently, whereas hard training too early after surgery may increase vascular pressure, swelling, and stress signalling.
The key is movement that leaves you feeling better afterwards — not more swollen or fatigued.
A 2025 paper in the Journal of Translational Medicine highlighted the importance of “inflammation resolution” and innate immune regulation in successful post-surgical recovery, reinforcing the idea that recovery is not about eliminating inflammation, but coordinating it effectively.

27/05/2026

I’m a good 30 hours out of my recent jaw surgery and able to speak with just some mild discomfort. I haven’t been in too much pain at all and I’m just trying to take it easy as advised by the team. I’m on antibiotics but as all good dental practices should be doing, they have also provided me with specific probiotics to be taken alongside the antibiotics. Thumbs up to them for this.
Part of the reason why I am in this predicament is due in part to my poor vitamin D genetics which I only discovered I had about 10 years ago. Combined with a predisposition to gum disease, this scenario has likely accelerated bone loss in my jaw.
And actually I’m only 56, not 57.

26/05/2026

So here I am 5 hours out of dental surgery being cooled by this great machine given to me by the dental surgeon. I’ll update you tomorrow about what I’ve had done but I’m currently enjoying a nice bit of pain medication. It’s certainly making me feel a bit woozy and nice.
So I just wanted to say that no matter how fit and healthy you are, there may be times when you need a little extra help. For me, being predisposed to gum disease, I have spent many years focusing on optimising my gum and oral health. But at this point in time I’ve had to accept that there is only so much I can do and now is the right time for surgical intervention. And I’m ok with that. Perhaps you can relate to this, is there some part of your body that has aged quicker than others no matter how hard you’ve tried? Science tells us that not all parts of your body age at the same rate. Let me know if you have experience of this. I’d love to hear from you.

23/05/2026

So remember, don’t sit for long periods of time. Always get up for a couple of minutes after every 30 minutes of sitting.
So this is two exercises. Obviously, put your chair in a safe position where it’s not going to move across a floor or you’ve got it against something solid. And then what you’re going to do is you’re going to set your hands forward, almost as if you’re in a sort of push-up position, put your hands further forward and you start to feel your tummy in that position. Do not hinge into your lower back. And then what you do, of course, is you drive your weight forward, you’re lifting your knee up so we get that hip flexion work and we get those abdominals working and you’re going to alternate that and there’s no real repetition range here. You go until you feel as though you’ve had enough and then you take a little bit of a breather and then straight into the drill where we bring the leg upwards and round. So we get those internal and external obliques on the side of our trunk, working hard to be the prime movers in that exercise. Do as many as you want. same thing again. I’m not looking here from a point of view of sets and repetitions. I’m just looking at time frame because I’m obviously busy working. So again, I like to sometimes just get up and work this sequence for about three or four minutes and then go back to my work and then continue with it later on in the day. But it’s a great exercise for isometric work on the shoulders, isometric work on the tummy, with some dynamic work with regards to the external obliques. Really nice workout for the trunk and obviously brings the heart rate up so that you can come back to your desk, concentrate a bit more and it really helps on that side.

15/05/2026

These are duck walks. Now, really quite an advanced position, if you’re down at 90 degrees, you’re going to need to be pretty strong to be able to do four repeat of 10 repetitions, as I’ve shown you on essentially one set. So, again, just be careful on position and just be careful on depth. You really want you to get your legs to burn, but it needs to be in a slow and controlled manner where you’re not bouncing into your knees. So big disclaimer there. If you’re not fit enough, just don’t drop down as much, but the control and the slight waggle forward with a step maybe just a couple of inches forward is the key to this. If you can, I like to repeat this through the day as a good exercise snack. And anywhere from four sets to 10 sets, certainly 10 sets will give you quite a robust sequence through the day for both your quads, for your hips, and it really is quite a good workout from that perspective. So look, give it a go. Let me know what you can and can’t do and if there are any questions, just let me know. But this is the duck walk sequence.

13/05/2026

Moving on from my last Instagram post, which was about a hand grip and how performing the exercise two times a week, can really be helpful for reducing blood pressure. This is another one, the wall sit. So the hand grip and the wall sit are sort of the two main isometric positions researched in the scientific literature as exercises that help reduce blood pressure. So this one’s really simple. You’ve just got to get yourself in a position and sit there. And if you can do that for two minutes, it’s quite a workout. So again, if you can’t maybe just start and build up over time, that’s the whole point, try and relax and breathe through as we did with the hand grip. But if you are doing this two to three times a week for about four or five sets and you’re trying to get through two minutes on each set, you’re going to do a really good job at reducing blood pressure. So there you go.

11/05/2026

Why do isometric holds, as we’re demonstrating with this hand squeeze, work so well with regard to reducing blood pressure? Well, because when we compress the muscle like that, it compresses the blood vessels and we create this sort of local ischemic effect on the muscle. Because of that, we get these metabolites that accumulate and that actually really helps create a sort of strong vascular reflex response as part of everything else that’s going on. And then, of course, when we release on this, we get almost like a reactive hypermia, a surge of blood flow. And that seems to create this sort of increase in vascular tone. It seems to have an effect on our autonomic reflexes and it seems to stimulate nitric oxide release on the endothelium. So it’s really helpful.

So just a couple of tips when you’re doing this exercise really is that just two minutes seems to be fine, make sure it’s just a static cold, not repeated squeezing. And really sort of three times a week seems to be enough. So, when you’re doing the exercise, make sure that you’re not breath holding. You want to make sure that you are actually sort of just breathing lightly. Don’t go too light. We want about 30%. Obviously, we don’t want too heavy. Do not turn it into a dynamic, squeeze more of a steady hold and making sure that you consistently do this for training in order to get results.

So again, four times, two minutes, 30 to 40%, three times a week, and we run that for eight weeks, we should expect to see some reduction in blood pressure.

Here is the link to the study if you are interested:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13045435/pdf/JCH-28-e70246.pdf


07/05/2026

This is a plank slide, and it’s quite an advanced abdominal exercise, so I’m getting a disclaimer in early. This is not for beginners, okay? You can have a go, but it’s not really for beginners, because obviously you need quite a lot of trunk strength to be able to do it. A couple of things to think about. Obviously, adopt a plank position, get your feet Probably,slightly wider than a classic sort of yoga mat. And then what you’re going to do is really tighten up your thighs, a little bit of rotation underneath your pelvis and then slide your arm out. Now, for beginners or sort of intermediate, slide your arm out and you can rotate a little bit if you want, makes it slightly easier but do note key aspects, do not get to a position where you’ve slid your arm out and you start to feel your lower back. You need to be slightly below that situation. And then you just keep going and go for 8 to 10 repetitions, slow and smooth, making sure you’re doing your checks and balances, squeezing the thighs, making sure that you’re not feeling your lower back when you’re reaching out. And then take a break. 20, 30 seconds recovery and then we go again. I like two or three sets with this. I think it’s a great exercise. So that’s something that you can try and go and have a go of and that’s exercise of the day.

02/05/2026

So this is just a really nice sequence for shoulders and it actually gets your heart rate up, but it really gets this lovely stretch through the back as well and develops a bit of mobility and flexibility through the shoulders. And it really is swimming sequences. Start with front crawl first and again, the key thing is, as you’re coming over and rotating, big extension through the back, really reach for the ceiling on that one. Keep it going, get into a rhythm, and you’ll feel it through your tummy. And then you do on the backstroke. Same thing. Bring it up close to your ear. I like to scratch the ear on the way past with my bicep, but I’m fully extending my ribcages up on that one again, 30 seconds. And then this lovely sort of dolphin sequence with regards to butterfly, really just punching the leg so you’re squeezing the thighs, and then your arms just sort of come over with it. Again, quite a nice movement to do, 30 seconds, take a breather, Repeat two or three times, and that gives you this really nice mobility sequence for your shoulders

30/04/2026

Here is a triple exercise put into a circuit.Use your phone so that you can give yourself the 30 second guides. You’re going to start with easy renegade rows that you are going to slow down as much as possible. The slower the better. And again, you’re going to feel the real strong stability full body. If you start to rotate across to one side, you want to stop that. So really strong for your tummy, really strong through your thighs. Take your time on that. The second one is going to be a plank position, pretty much, and then you are going to, well, more of a pushup position and then you’re going to drive your legs in and out. Again, on that 30 seconds you’re looking at and do not feel your lower back. Okay, strong for your quads, strong through your back, making sure that you don’t feel your lower back. And then the last one is almost like alternating squat thrusts or if you like alternating mountain climbers, again, bring your weight forward to get your shoulders past your hands and then drive hard on that one. Watching the clock for 30 seconds. Once you’ve done one circuit, a little bit of breather, maybe 10 to 20 seconds, depending on how out of breath you are, and then go again and then go again after that. And if you do three sets, it’ll be about five minutes worth of work, a really good exercise snack.

23/04/2026

So we’re always trying to get up from the desk. Here’s a great exercise that is about stability. It’s about mobility. It’s about real proprioception and your brain communicating, particularly with the outside of your calf to try and control the ankle. We are simply getting up and we are untying a shoe and whether that is laces or not doesn’t matter, take the shoe off, put it back on, and then move to the other side. Now, obviously, disclaimer, of course, because you may have to hop to try and control it, and of course, it can’t be my fault if you fall over. So of course, obviously everyone needs to make sure that when they do exercises, they are accounting for their safety, when they do it. But it is a surprisingly challenging exercise to do. And again, it’s given you an indication that actually one of your sides sometimes can be much better than the other, which is definitely the case with me. So absolutely worth a try. It’s brilliant stability, mobility, hip strength, lateral core strength as well. It’s brilliant for that. And of course, it reduces your risk of falls. Give it a try. I like to do two to three sets through the day sometimes if I’m sat at the desk, it’s well worth a go.

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