Last weekend, I participated in the Sports Show 2003 at Earl's Court, London (www.liquidexhibitions.co.uk), a new event encouraging children to take up different sports.

What a lovely idea to get some of Britain's top athletes and world champions to mingle with the kids and give them inspiration.

A variety of sports were represented by UK governing bodies including the English Federation of Disability sports (www.disabilitysport.org.uk), British Gymnastics (www.british-gymnastics.org), the English Cricket Board Roadshow (www.ecb.co.uk), the Football Foundation (www.footballfoundation.org .uk), uk:athletics (www.ukathletics.net), the Rugby Football Union (www.rfu.com) Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby (www.gbwra.org.uk) and many others.

The Football Foundation is a unique partnership funded by the Premier League, the FA and the Government and is the largest sports charity in the UK, playing a key role in revitalising the sport to promote social inclusion.

The foundation can help with grants for developing sporting facilities in the community. For more information, call 0800 027 7766 or visit the web site.

At the show, children got a chance to try out some of the sports with guidance from top British experts and to meet the celebrities in an informal environment.

Britain's sprinter Darren Campbell delighted children and young adults at the UK athletics zone by giving tips on running.

There was also the chance to meet other UK athletic stars such as Jamie Baulch and Iwan Thomas.

British Gymnastics was definitely the centre of attraction, with children as young as five displaying fascinating gymnastic skills with their teams from different parts of UK.

Gymnastics could be a good way to treat anxiety and depression instead of prescribing antidepressants.

From a medical point of view, I noted that all sportsmen and women are under enormous stress to meet the challenging demands of sports and are prone to muscle injuries, back and neck strain, knee injuries and mental and emotional stress.

Even when training or doing exercise, one needs to relieve the muscle spasms regularly.

Asmita and I were demonstrating an holistic approach to maintaining a balanced state of mind, body and spirit in sports with the ayurvedic techniques of marma-point massage, yogic breathing technique and ayurvedic herbal nutrition for overall body nutrition and health.

Special guest John Fashanu received a stress-relieving, marma-point head massage from Asmita and I demonstrated our ayurvedic sports massage technique for calf muscle strain and ankle and knee injuries, using our anti-inflammatory herbal sports oil (Rheuma Ease), which he felt was quite unique.

So get sporting for a healthy body, mind and spirit.

Dr Milind Jani works as a conventional and holistic GP and Dr Asmita Jani as Ayurvedic Consultant from 3 Eaton Gardens, Hove. Call them on: 01273 777448 or e-mail: milind.jani@ntlworld.com