CAM - Keeping the Mind and Body Healthy

Edith Maskell looks at the difference in approach between Orthodox and Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Alternative medicine dates back thousands of years.

To this day, in Eastern cultures people seek out and PAY practitioners to ensure consistent good health. During a consultation they will be given advice and treatments to help them remain healthy. The patient is encouraged to take responsibility for their health on an ongoing basis in the belief that their body is "a temple".

If, they subsequently become ill, they may well return to their practitioner and complain or even ask for their money back !!

The opposite applies here in the West. As a society, we are not educated by the medical profession to take care of ourselves and neither are we advised about preventative medicine.

We generally until we're ill before we visit the Doctor and the then there is an expectation that our GP will provide us with a miraculous "cure all" pill. We have been led to believe over the years about the wonders of the NHS that many of us are are still looking for the easy solution

And when, after taking the medication, we don't feel any better, we go back and we are given yet another pill or potion. These pills may create their own symptoms and then we are given a pill or potion to deal with the new symptoms and so it goes on and on round the merry go round.

If the body is not able to metabolise the cocktail of drugs, the body will create more symptoms in an attempt to tell us that something is wrong.

The build of toxins which are not metabolised or eliminated remain in the body and the symptoms we can't escape from are sneezing, hay fever, runny or blocked noses, itchy eyes, digestive problems, headaches, sleeplessness, stress, depression, skin conditions, asthma and many more.

Did you know that there is mercury in vaccinations ? No surprise then that there is concern over the safety when we give vaccinations to such young babies at a time when their systems are "brand" new and squeaky clean of toxins etc.

I was recently informed by one of our pregnant patients that she had done some research which stated that the optimum amount of mercury women have been advised is safe to expose themselves to, during pregnancy, is in the region of 0.134. The same article suggested that the amount of mercury in ONE single vaccination is said to be in the region of 3.4……her concern was that the Government and the medical profession want young parents to believe that multiple vaccines ARE safe ?

A young baby's immune system is VERY vulnerable at 6 – 8 weeks.

Have you ever heard of a child or an adult for that matter having measles, mumps and whooping cough all at once ? Of course not – the immune system develops by concentrating on one illness at a time.

We all need to start somewhere in taking responsibility for our own health. The problem is possibly worse in this country, than any other, because we have been in the "comfort zone" for too long. The comfort zone being the NHS – or the failing NHS which is how it has become known. Some believe that because they have paid into this system over the years that the GP's have a duty to work miracles with us. The sad facts are that they can't.

I first became disillusioned with the NHS when my children were babies. One of them had been ill on and off over a period of a couple of weeks. Temperature rising – flaking out on the floor – throwing up – temperature so high, his face was bright red, then fine for a while and so it went on for days. I eventually took him to the GP. On the way there, he was fine and I was feeling guilty and stupid for wasting the GP's time. When we got there – my son's face began to flush – and he got quieter and quieter. On the way hand I was glad, I wasn't imagining it after all, I thought and the Doctor would be able to see him at his worst!

On the other hand, I was terrified my son would throw up there and then in the waiting room. And sure enough, he performed … almost to order, right in the middle of the waiting room.

He looked so ill, they ushered me in to see the GP who laid him on the bed. He examined my son and then turned to me and said "well, he's quite obviously not well but I have absolutely no idea what's wrong with him" and that was it!

I walked home that day and thought "what a complete waste of time". The GP doesn't seem to have any more idea than I do.

As it happened, that evening, when undressing my son for his bath, there were spots all over his body. Now it was obvious what was wrong – he had Chicken Pox. ….. a simple Child's disease …… but the GP was not able to detect or diagnose it.

In years gone by – witches were in the same league as "Eastern Medicine Men" and, in the West, instead of revering the Witches, we burned them at the stake !!

And that's the biggest problem that we, in the world of alternative medicine are fighting today, on a daily basis. There's a tendency for the uninitiated to view us as "a little bit woo" and "a little bit wey", "new agey" – "the brown rice and sandals brigade" etc etc.

At Bromley Health Management, we are very serious about our work and have the success stories among our case studies to bear out our commitment to helping our patients to wellness.

Happily, things are changing "out there on the street" – more people are choosing alternative medicine than ever before and the powers that be are sitting up and taking notice and moving slowly in the right direction. The regulation and integration of complementary and alternative medicine into orthodoxy is fast approaching.

By public demand, the medical profession is being forced to accept us. Legislation and Regulation is here in the UK. The body of evidence needs to be built with more research because at the moment the majority of the evidence is "anecdotal". I believe that "alternative" medicine practitioners will get their recognition at the end of the day for the good work they're doing, especially with chronically ill people because they are slowly gaining the trust of the general public. When it comes, all WILL benefit, including the NHS as scarce resources continue to diminish. Already research is proving that in some instances, complementary and alternative treatments are less of a drain on the NHS more effective and give the GP's back the time they so desperately need to treat the patients who can be helped with surgical procedures and drugs.

Osteopaths and Chiropractors are already Statutory Regulated in the UK. It's a race between Acupuncturists, Herbalists, Homeopaths, Reflexologists etc who will be next.

The Government, in conjunction with the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health – which is headed by the Prince of Wales - instigated many of the therapies within complementary and alternative medicine to set up and develop voluntary regulatory bodies across the profession.

Ultimately, the medical profession will no longer be able to say they can't refer to alternative therapists because they don't understand the training or don't believe we have trained to high enough standards or don't understand the differences in training because we will all be trained or will have re-trained to the same standard. We will be regulated and registered in the same way as Nurses, Doctors, Osteopaths and Chiropractors.

I return to my being serious about the work I do at Bromley Health Management. I am passionate about it in every sense. I know "alternative" medicine works because I see it every day in my practice.

All therapies are powerful in their own right. It's not a question of choosing one over another. Although they are all different in the way they are performed, all the philosophies each come from the same perspective; that if the body is functioning properly, it will heal itself. Complementary and alternative medicine is not about seeking a "cure" for the symptoms expressed by the body. Treatments often help people with terminal illnesses to have a better quality to what life is left to them. At other times, it enables people to take responsibility and manage diagnosed conditions, even keep their medications on lower doses. Some prefer to use treatments as a preventative, for general well being.

The Chinese Philosophy is that we have an electrical energetic system in the body and Meridians are the channels through which that electrical energy flows.

In a treatment, be it Acupuncture, Reflexology or Acupressure Massage our work is designed to stimulate or slow calm that flow of energy. If the energy is too slow, the whole system will be sluggish, will have difficulty in eliminating toxins. It is believed that this could be why disease or degeneration of organs may begin.

If the energy is flowing too fast, this will put the body under pressure and will cause stress or dis-stress to the body.

The body then attempts to do something about it by creating a fever or inflammation. Inflammation and fever is natural. It's the body's way of healing itself.

Orthodox medicine suppresses this natural function with drugs, so every time you take a painkiller, anti-biotic, steroid or anti-inflammatory, technically you are stopping the body from healing itself.

An Acupuncturist will put a needle into a particular point in a Meridian to stimulate the flow of energy OR to calm and support the natural flow. In Acupressure Massage, pressure is applied to those same points for the a similar effect.

In a Reflexology treatment, pressure is applied to points on the feet in an attempt to bring normality back to the body.

During Health Screening and allergy/sensitivity testing at Bromley Health Management, we take measurements from those same acupuncture points which gives us an indication as to how that particular organ or meridian is FUNCTIONING. We can then assess and prioritise how the entire system is coping. It's a bit like taking a snap shot of what is happening within the body at that time.

We then use the lowest or highest measurement as the priority (usually the lowest) to search for homeopathic and herbal remedies. We also use this point to test for bacterial and/or viral infections, parasites, vaccinations, both environmental and food allergies, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, pesticide and herbicide poisoning and chemical and heavy metal poisoning

In a Reflexology session, we will treat (by adding more pressure, rubbing or holding techniques) any areas where we find sluggishness or stress. Troublesome spots will present to the Reflexologist as a sensation of bubble wrap or gritty areas in the feet, sensitivity to the patient etc

We then combine our knowledge of anatomy and physiology, pathology, medical conditions, symptomology and lifestyle of the patient and link that information to form the basis of specific and individual treatment programmes.

Treatment programmes usually last between 6 – 12 treatments. Always on a weekly basis to start, gradually increasing the time between treatments as symptoms start to wane.

In Acupressure Massage, the patient will either sit, in a specially designed chair or lay on a couch, fully clothed, where pressure will be applied to over 120 specific acupoints, within the Meridians, to firstly stimulate and then to relax the entire system.

Not one single one of us is JUST a body – practitioners, can not assess your physical condition without taking into consideration your emotional and/or mental state.

People don't imagine they're ill. Where and when ever there are symptoms – people are unwell ill and the symptoms are very real.

Having said that, it is true that emotions can and do manifest as physical symptoms.

Someone who is very unhappy, or someone who have no joy in their lives …. no real purpose … eventually become physically ill. They feel they have no reason to live and so their physical bodies gradually become redundant.

If you have difficulties getting your head around emotions manifesting themselves as physical symptoms, think about what happens when you wake up in the morning with butterflies in your stomach – may because you're going to a difficult meeting or dread having to make an important presentation.

Your brain will send messages to the rest of the body to get it's backside into gear. Chemicals / hormones will be released to deal with what the brain sees as a crisis. Digestive juices will be activated ….. If it's a physical task ahead, blood will rush to your muscles to enable you to run faster. As a one off – no problem – all in it's stride for the body but if this was to happen every time you wake up or if you are permanently in stressful situations, if you are not getting good quality sleep, during which time your body re-charges it's batteries, those chemicals can create stomach ulcers and all sorts of other physical conditions. The body works synergistically and so the knock on effect can be devastating.

The body won't release just any old chemicals or hormones, it knows which are the appropriate ones to be released in any given situation. One of these processes is known as "flight and fright". If you're being chased or are under stress – stress hormones will be produced to give you the energy and stamina to run fast, ie adrenaline. How many of you have experienced an adrenaline rush ? Over long periods you can be so stressed that you won't even notice the adrenaline rush but the body is under as much pressure … you have just learned to live with it. Caffeine in tea, coffee, coke cola and other stimulant drinks have exactly the same effect.

On the other hand, if you make eye contact with a person across a room and there's a "spark" between you …. Love at first sight and all that. DIFFERENT hormones will be secreted ……. To give you what's needed for a positive outcome, ie testosterone and all the other appropriate hormones involved in the sex drive and libido, will be secreted !

THAT'S why anyone under permanent stress and tension will lose their libido because let's face it, in a life and death situation why do you think it is that the last thing on your mind is sex !!

Adrenaline is what is needed in a life and death scenario ….the body is a clever piece of kit, it knows that sex hormones will be of no use to you in an emergency !!!!!

Here is a conundrum though ….. when the body is permanently and consistently pumping out adrenaline, sooner or later, it can't do it any more and this is when fatigue sets in. Because we are over stressed, we're on automatic pilot, we can't sleep, we can't switch off. Our metabolism changes, out whole systems become sluggish, we become constipated. Then we have allergic reactions, our body is over flowing with toxins, sinus problems, asthma, hay fever, skin conditions and other allergic reactions to our environment or to foods occur etc etc etc ….. we've come full circle.

If our body were an orchestra, hormones would be the leader of the orchestra …. And if the orchestra leader was tired and dis-stressed …. The movements of his baton would be ad hoc and so too would the musicians. Therefore the outcome of that combination of notes, musicians and orchestra leader would be a tune that no one would recognise. Just a horrible noise which grates on your ears.

The same principles apply in your body. If there is an imbalance in your hormones ….. caused by adrenal overload, your body will be completely out of tune.

And by the way, stress is not necessarily something you get from working too many hours, or from working too hard. Stress is more likely to be what your body is experiencing because you don't get enough sleep, your immune, digestive, respiratory or eliminatory system is not functioning properly and therefore the whole body, including emotions are compromised.

There is not one single organ, system or function in your body which acts independently, and so if hormones are doing their own thing because they are out of synch through stress, it will have an immediate negative effect on the whole body.

We too, learn to hold stress in our body. It becomes habit. It's what we do. It becomes all we know. Hence, people could have a massage every day of their lives (or any other treatment) and they will never make a long term recovery. Because once they are off the couch they go off and re-create the problems all over again. Hence, physical treatments on their own are sometimes not enough. Hence why complementary nor orthodox medicine is helpful in these situations. We need to get to the core of the problems and educate people where the problem is being re-created and what to do about it.

Add to this, the negative effect of the cocktail of drugs which may have been prescribed or we have bought over the counter, to deal with their myriad of "symptoms" on a daily basis and it's easy to see how the body is even further compromised.

Again, add job dis-satisfaction, difficult relationships, the stresses of sitting in traffic jams – poor diet and nutrition - put it all together and it's not a surprise so many of us have so many health problems. And the saddest thing is that our patients are getting younger and younger, year on year. This is the negative spiral which we, in alternative medicine, are having to deal with on a daily basis by the time people come to see us. We are nearly always the last resort. The medical profession have their worst results with patients who have had their condition for longer than 12 months. Often, people don't go to the doctor until they have had their problems for much longer. Then they try everything in the orthodox pharmacy before finally coming to us and expecting us to put them right with ONE treatment and if we dare to suggest that they will need MORE than one treatment, basically because the rot has set in, told me we are confronted with comments like …. "I can't afford it … I'm not made of money"!

Miracles we can not perform, no matter how passionate we are about the work we do! We generally say – allow one treatment for every year of being aware of the problem. MOST people have had their problems for 3 years and probably longer by the time they come to see us.

Every cell in your body is replaced on a regular basis. Hair grows because that is the act of old cells dying and being replaced by new. The body you have now will not be the same body that you will have in 4 months time.

It therefore takes 4 months (at least) to change the biological terrain that is your body. That's why we inform our patients that it may take that long before they will start to feel better. As old "compromised" cells which are causing the symptoms, die off – the treatment we provide will encourage the re-growth of more healthy cells and that process MAY take at least 4 months. The analogy of cell re-growth and the healing process is a bit like taking a photocopy of a photocopy – if the original is poor - eventually you will not be able to read the print.

In the healing profession that is alternative and preventative medicine, our job is to ensure the "original" is in as pristine a condition as possible. This process may or may not extend your life but will most definitely improve the quality of your life.

This is why we continually emphasise that things don't HAVE to be as they are. You DON'T have to live with it. WHATEVER your particular problem or medical condition is.

Change IS possible. However, IF you believe otherwise, and continue to do what you've always done, you will always have what you've always got.

And finally, and this is where the Bach Flower Remedies come into play. Bach Flower Remedies can treat physical symptoms through the emotions.

Sometimes if we're too close to the trees, we can't see the wood. If our minds are closed, our attitudes to life and our health may be inflexible.

Having a rigid state of mind may result in rigid physical conditions like paralysis and arthritic joints. Stressed patients usually suffer from back and neck problems because they are with holding tension in the body.

Grief stricken patients or those who have are or may have experienced relationship break ups may be physically and sub-consciously holding themselves upright from fear that if they let go physically they will collapse emotionally and from their perspective, that may be inappropriate behaviour. So they keep themselves together for the sake of everyone else. That's why people have their "nervous breakdowns" after the stressful situation is over.

Sometimes patients with digestive problems are naturally anxious. They often describe themselves as "born worriers". That is typical of an emotion manifesting as a physical symptom. The act of worrying is not physical, it is mental – yet look at the devastating effect it can have on the bowel or on that person's life ? How many people have been told by their GP that their diagnosed condition is caused or exacerbated by stress?

IBS, asthma and panic attacks can and very often are brought on through stress and anxiety. The condition is exacerbated because sufferers often become frightened of having an attack. The fear/concern is learned from their past experience and so in these cases, the fear is the cause of that particular attack…. not as the result of a medical problem in the lungs, brain or large bowel. So if the emotion can be treated … it surely follows that it may be possible to eliminate the physical condition?

In my experience, almost everyone who has been through a trauma, whether it be bereavement, relationship break up, redundancy, car accident or any trauma may be physically and emotionally "holding on" in some way.

Most of us have to get on and live life, whatever the trauma. We may feel depressed for a while but eventually we have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and start all over again.

Unaddressed or repressed emotions have a tendency of coming back and hitting us straight between the eyes when we're least expecting it.

We seem to be able to deal with major problems logically and rationally but it's the smaller ones which often tip us over the edge. It's like a jug gradually filling with water – it wasn't the last drop which made it over flow.

This is when we start screaming and shouting and behaving inappropriately. You only have to consider road rage as an example to understand my point. Have you ever looked at someone in a rage and been confused … left wondering ….. where IS all that anger coming from? Surely not from the situation in the moment ? What do we say? "I don't know where you're coming from". And that's the truth…. Because they're actually coming from a situation which may have been suppressed for a very long time. We have a bad day at work and we go home and kick the cat!

Like the champagne bottle, when we hold onto anger, someone will come along and shake the bottle when we're least expecting and "bob's yer uncle".

Hence, at a later stage any emotion that we've not expressed or addressed, even from childhood, can manifest in constipation, neck and shoulder problems, asthma and many other allergic reactions.

The body can not physically function whilst so much "holding on" is taking place. Holding on, whether physical or emotional is like forcing the cork down into the champagne bottle. Eventually, quite literally, it will explode and anger (in the form of toxins) can burst out of body through every orifice. Emotional toxicity is far more toxic than any form of toxic waste in the body and will cause more harm in the long term.

Angry people are said to have sluggish and suppressed livers and that is a concern, for the liver is the major detoxifying organ in the body.

In some instances abused children and/or adults present with skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, asthma or throat problems. The fears and traumas these people have experienced have been suppressed so deep into their psyche - it's often the only way they can survive. It's the body's way of protecting them to eliminate those toxins through the skin; to keep them from poisoning themselves.

Teenagers suffering from anorexia or bulimia MAY have experience of "suffocating", overprotective parents and so refusing to eat can become a way of defying those parents. It's a way of protecting themselves. The child's only means of "speaking up" for themselves. The only way they can live their life. Even though it is very destructive.

THIS is why when people come to see us for any treatment, we can not ignore what is going on emotionally. Patient attitude, state of mind, behaviour and mannerisms are extremely important in our overall assessment during every consultation.

I am not suggesting that everyone has emotional problems but we do consider our patients from every perspective.

Giving thought to the Bach Flower Remedies in our Treatment Programmes allows us and the patient to step back and "see the wood for the trees".

The remedies are a valid and extremely valuable tool of our trade. We can not change the facts of anyone's life but taking a deep breath, opening out and seeing the bigger picture, is sometimes enough to allow the patient to see the situation in a different light and from a different perspective. Just asking appropriate questions can trigger awareness of something which may have been denied which is part of the problem.

When that happens, instead of feeling locked in a situation which they have, until now, believed they couldn't change, they can see things from another angle which may very well be enough to enable them to understand that they CAN take responsibility and regain control of their health and ultimately their lives.

This is where NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and Hypnotherapy can be very useful in terms of helping our patients to re-evaluate their lives and move on from the past.

We can not change the past but we can learn from the experiences.

Edith Maskell
Bromley Health Management
January 2007 ©

Saturday, 20 January 2007

© 2007 Bromley Health Management