A discovery!

As usual, during the festive season around Christmas and New Year my direct work with clients gets gradually reduced until they fully disappear. Then they turn up again in the mid of January, quite tired of their “break”, during which many have been over-indulging in rich food and alcoholic drinks. With the winter still in full blow, the demand for my detoxing and relaxing treatments, which helps them make the bridge back to work and keep them going shoots up again!

So, I use my “vacation” during the festive season to recharge my own batteries with some Qi Gong and meditation while at the same time I catch up with some reading and writing.

This  time it is the video called “The connection: Mind your body” I would like to draw your attention to. It was made a bit over a year ago by the Australian journalist Shannon Harvey, who filmed prominent medical doctors, professors from USA and Australia speaking about the Connection of the Mind and the Body!

Great!

Finally, the modern doctors are getting reminded by some colleagues of theirs, that since the beginning of medicine, Mind and Body were inseparable, the ancient healers treated people according to this principle. Somehow, along the way of development of the modern medicine, which nowadays is reinforced by very advanced technology, this unity was lost. Then arrived a new breed of therapist, the so called alternative therapists, who kept upholding the principle of mind and body unity. Nowadays called complementary therapists, we have been doing this for ages, and finally, here are some medical doctors, who are asserting that the stressed mind can contribute to developing an illness and that when this mind is de-stressed, it can initiate the self-healing! And, they have the scientific proof for that!

Hurray! Finally some doctors are on our side!

Actually, I am somebody who does not need the reinforcement of an authority for something I firmly believe in. I have seen it working so many times!  And, for the past eighteen years working in the field of the complementary medicine, I have noticed that slowly but surely we are getting there, we are getting closer to the so called integrated medicine. Just a few facts: When I started as aromatherapist, we were called “alternative” therapists, now we are part of the complementary medicine. Recently, on my acupuncture course I met quite a few GP-s, which is also telling.

I am not afraid for my existing clients, neither, because those who followed me in my belief that “prevention is better than cure” are the ones who grew and kept brilliant careers despite the stressful life-style that comes with that.

My thoughts now are how helpful this film is for the undecided members of the public, who keep suffering the stress, for those who find it hard to decide going for the complementary therapy without the scientific proof (or celebrities endorsements). By getting the specialists talking about their work and some patients (who also happened to be medical specialists) telling their success healing stories, Shannon has done a brilliant job for those undecided people!!! Thank you Shannon!

I am not paid to advertise it, but as I think that everyone should see the film, here is where you can find it: https://www.theconnection.tv

Not only is it full of interesting scientific information but viewing this video gives you peace of mind. Apparently, a small price needs to be paid for downloading it, and for those of you to whom this is an obstacle, keep reading my digest and comments. (You can visit the website and press the button About in order to get more acquainted with the people who participated (for free).

So, here it goes:

Herbert Benson, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book “Relaxation response” reminds us that in the older days (especially in the East) there was no separation of the body and mind. But the modern scientific approaches were so awesome that they over- powered any mind-body approaches.

Esther Sternberg MD, Professor of Medicine University of Arizona College of Medicine, Research Director Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine adds that modern medical science requires measurable proof before believing in anything and now that this proof is available we can use it in the integrated medicine. In her presentation on the website and  out of the movie, Esther Sternberg mentioned that after starting her working life as a GP, she noticed that half of her patients were with some rheumatic condition and she went on to qualify as a rheumatologist. She has also noticed that depression is high in people with rheumatic arthritis, and she started asking herself if the brain’s response to stress could be causing an autoimmune, inflammatory disease and her research in the 80s confirmed that. Bless you, Esther, for telling me this now, I have been guessing for some time already that there is a strong connection between stress, worry, anxiety and arthritis, an autoimmune rheumatic disease!!! During my long time working with extremely stressed people I have noticed that the majority of them had some form of arthritis or some rheumatic symptoms, if not formally diagnosed. Initially, I was putting it down to the high acidity created in the body due to their proven bad diet. Later I was guessing about some connection between the stress hormone cortisol and the arthritis, and now I know for sure there is an important role the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol play in the autoimmune diseases! It feels so good knowing that my intelligent “guessing” is actually supported by the findings of scientific research!

Craig Hassed, MD, senior lecturer Monash University Faculty of Medicine, Inaugural president of the Australian Teachers of Meditation association is a follower of Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician and father of modern medicine, who based his work on the principle that the mind and the body are connected. Greg Hassed says: “The body is always responding to what the mind tells it to do. If the mind is tense, the body is tense.”

In my long practice with extremely stressed people, sometimes I had to massage muscles as hard as tight ropes! On many occasions, clients thought and requested “deep” massage, hoping this would be the solution. But actually it was the rhythmical, repeated many times massage strokes, which would in fact induce the so needed relaxation of the mind and then the muscles would respond very well to the treatment.

Some interesting studies have found out that there are millions of neurons (cells which are found in the brain) in the gut. So we have a second brain in our gut. No wonder sometimes our gut has mind of its own, remember the expression “gut feeling”? It has been long time I have been emphasising to my clients the importance of the digestive system for the overall wellbeing. I recall a high flying professional once telling me that focusing on her diet would take too much time of her life. I told her that yes, it takes some time diet planning and shopping and food preparation for a month or two, afterwards it becomes a habit, as long as you embrace it. Now I know I was right to insist! Taking good care of our digestive system will help our “second brain” functioning appropriately!

Creig Hassed also talks about the “fight or flight” reaction, which is the human response to a perceived danger. It was designed (by the Nature) as an adaptation mechanism and for life saving: fight for your life or run for your life! I have been educating my clients about the long-term effects of fight or flight reaction. It is preparing the body for moving fast, so, the stored in the muscles and in the liver sugar is released in the blood circulation, this way made available to be used for energy. The high dosage of adrenalin is released, it makes the heart pump faster and the lungs breath faster so the oxygen can reach the limbs fast. The blood gets thicker and gets to clot easily, so the bleeding from a possible injury could be minimised. The digestive system is shattered, so no energy is wasted there at the crucial momrnt (some people feel urgent need to go to the loo when stressed, this is the way body gets rid of excess fluid and any weight). When designing it Nature had in mind for this reaction to happen very occasionally. It is the so called stress response. But nowadays this reaction can get triggered way too often, as people perceive many things as serious threats in their life (fears of losing job, health, etc). And, after the stress response has been triggered too often for too long, constant anxiety follows and the aforementioned physiological changes become the norm, not an exception as they were meant to be. Then we hear about perfectly healthy and quite young people getting diabetes, high blood pressure or even a heart attack, as it was in the case of Creig Duncan, who shares his experiences in the film. Creig made changes in his life style sticking to healthy eating, regular exercise and different types of meditation because, as he said, he is not ready “not to be around”

Greig Hassed cuts in to emphasise on the importance of managing stress.

I have been teaching the public of the importance of interrupting the vicious circle of stress, so the energy could be replenished and the person can still carry on with their stressful life. Basically, I have been asking them to STOP and rest for a while, then carry on. My observations during the many years working with extremely stressed clients has proved my guess that with the build-up of stress, something gives in, the weakest link gets broken and the person gets an illness. Many of my highly stressed clients had not one, quite a few illnesses listed in their medical records. But none of them was able to comprehend the importance of changing their own attitude and their own reaction to stress. Teaching them to use their mind for managing their stress was a task too large for the short time I had for treating them. So, I used my programme minimum, which included introducing them to treatments (hands-on, different types of massages), ear acupuncture,( which also works on subconscious level), teaching them to do simple breathing techniques and affirmations. I can report only what I was able to observe with my eyes: immediately after my treatments, the “crazy” sparkle in the eyes disappeared, the clients looked mellow, relaxed, they shared they felt sleepy (And believe you me, getting to sleep is a big deal for an anxious person !). During the sessions of ear acupuncture, many clients sleep. During the one session of acupuncture with guided meditation for clearing the chakras with male only group – all slept, despite their definite declared prior to the session disbelief in things like meditation and chakras.

I knew it was working! Only, I am not a scientist, not a doctor! But now, I have them backing me up! And their findings even raise my own appreciation of the treatments and practices I have been doing for my clients so far!

Greig Hassed said something very interesting:” We know that in high stress periods, for example studies on university students show that they get more DNA damage or DNA mutations during high stress periods; and the students who are coping poorly with it lose the capacity to repair the DNA as effectively. So more DNA damage but less DNA repair.”

Well, if I help reversing (to an extent) the detrimental effects of stress on my clients, I feel proud! With my hands-on treatments I do it in the opposite direction: first relaxing the body which then leads to relaxing the mind. Meditation and all similar techniques (including my ear acupuncture) work directly on the mind. So, I could be helping their DNA health! Brilliant!

Herbert Benson tells us about his experiment. Meditation brought about dramatic physiological changes: decreased metabolism, heart rate, rate of breathing, brain waves. This proves the human ability for relaxation response, the opposite of the stress response. Finally, some scientific proof, something measurable.

When talking about some measurable results, Dr. Sara Lazar PhD, Assistant Professor Harward Medical School is at the cutting edge of research into the affects of meditation and yoga on brain activity and changes in brain structure. She tells us that the MRI scans of the brain have shown that  amygdala, the part of the brain, which goes larger when we are stressed, goes smaller with meditation. I wish somebody would bother measuring the size of amygdala in people after regular acupuncture, or massages, or reflexology, perhaps I could persuade Dr Sara Lazar?!

Herbert Benson’s short explanation how to evoke the relaxation response :

1.   Repetition

2.   Disregard of the other thoughts that came to mind

Basically, by focusing on one thing and not allowing any distraction. This approach is not new, it is thousands years old, traditional approach, we can see it in religion, in meditation.

On the screen we see groups of people from different religions praying together and this reminds me I was right when instructing my clients to learn meditation. Here again, I was using the gradual approach, by first giving them a very simple, short affirmation to do very night before sleep. Then I would tell them they could incorporate it in their prayer (most of my clients belonged to different religious denominations, but have admitted to not praying regularly). Last, I would suggest they could start again going to pray together with others. Then I would talk to them taking some exercise, and I would recommend Tai Qi, Qi Gong and Yoga as good both for the muscles and for relaxation. I would emphasise that when practicing, they would pay attention to the breathing techniques and that this is very beneficial for their minds and overall well-being. I have fallen in love with the Qi Gong my tutor, the well -known acupuncturist John Tindall teaches because being a Reiki master myself, the first time I have done it, it felt like Reiki in motion. Later I found out it is self-healing based on the Meridian system in Chinese medicine and it can be used on regular basis for improving arthritis, asthma, diabetes.

Yoga and his perseverance helped Jason Wachob’s back pain, which was so bad he could barely walk. He was a high flyer, with very tight business schedule, he travelled a lot, he was spending long hours in uncomfortable sitting position. All this mental and physical stress caused him damaged disks and the crippling back pain. Doctors recommended surgery, but luckily one of them suggested yoga. His then girlfriend, now a wife, supported him on that and here he is: talking in front of the camera, no operation has ever happened to his back.

He started simply. Every day, twice a day for fifteen minutes, he would do the same five poses. After just one week he started to feel better. After a month he was walking for two blocks without pain. It started to work. Jason calls Yoga Meditation in motion, very well said.

Lucky Jason for having this girl-friend next to him!

My own example is a young wife, to whom I was giving fertility Reflexology. Basically, she was over-worked and over-stressed. My treatments were putting this beautiful young woman to sleep in the early evening! One day she asked me if I would give her husband massage. He was a city trader and he was on the mend from his pre-marriage life-style, which was consisting of long hours work, lots of alcohol and very little food and sleep. Apparently his wife knew that both members of the couple need to de-stress in order to conceive a healthy baby. The miracle happened only just a few months later and I saw her again once or twice after the baby was born. She was self-employed and although she was at home with the baby, she still had some contracts to work on!

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction tells us about his experiment with patients with skin condition. Those who meditated, healed at the rate four times higher than the rate of the others. Another measureable effect!

On yoga, Jon Kabat-Zinn is clear, it is the integration of mind and body, which makes it so good! It has been around for thousands of years and it is working, that’s why it has survived.

Herbert Benson is adamant that as long as stress can be causing any disease, by reversing the stress activities, we have the capacity to treat these diseases and that this treatment should be given the same rate of respectability as treating with drugs or surgery, “because that was scientifically proven.”

Alice Domar, Executive Director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health

Director of Mind/Body Services at Boston IVF tells us that infertile women have higher rate of depression, in comparison to fertile women. It can reinforce the infertility problem. Her Fertility Mind Body program doubles the fertility rate, perhaps this is why Alice is called “Fertility Goddes”.
David Spiegel Willson Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, Medical Director, Center for Integrative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. David Spiegel never meant to stir up a storm when he published a study in The Lancet. He had found that women with breast cancer who attended a support group lived twice as long as women who didn’t. In the film he mentions his article in the journal Clinical oncology, where he writes that depression in women during breast cancer determines how long they are going to live. The study has excluded other risk factors, so its conclusion is precise. He adds that at least we can do something about depression, if not so much about the cancer itself. But the faster the depression is dealt with , the longer years on Earth the patient has is my conclusion from his words.

Dean Ornish says studies show that people who are lonely and depressed and isolated are three to ten times more likely to get sick and to die prematurely. Well, more or less this is known by the lay public, but still – here is a measurable confirmation.

Scott had melanoma and he was referred by his doctor as a terminal patient. Chemotherapy with expected rate of success of 5-10 % was offered as a palliative treatment.

And there the conversation goes in the direction of how doctors need to communicate with patients, so they can promote healing and not vice versa.

David Spiegel mentions the old GPs who understood the need for emotional support and comforting their patients. I recall the saying my father often repeated that if you feel half cured after your visit to the doctor, it was a good doctor.

Damien Finnis, MD Associate Professor University of Sydney Pain Management Research Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Griffith University informs us about  trials in Italy, which proved that morphine was only half efficient if patients didn’t know they were administered it.

So the conversation goes around the placebo effect, and Esther Sternberg says it can contribute 30% to 50% of any biological cure.

Placebo effect, or the belief in healing is what triggers the healing response.

Ian Gawler tells his story of having an aggressive bone cancer in 1975, which spread so fast that his leg had to be amputated. Ian decided to take his own healing in his own hands, so to say. He made changes in his diet, got some healing (to me it looks he is receiving Reiki on some old film), he got into group healing etc. But he still had some doubts about his complete healing. After he met the Indian holly man who told him ”You are already healed, don’t worry” Ian felt he was OK.

So, perhaps Scott’s doctor wasn’t a good one, as he told him he was a terminal patient. Perhaps, this was exactly what Scott needed, so he decided to stay alive against all odds. We will never know. Facts are that Scott made the changes in his life, which he considered good for him, he completely embraced his new life-style of good nutrition, regular meditative exercise and all this together with the chemo therapy lead to his complete healing. Scott is not sure if these practices alone could have cured him without the drugs, but he acknowledges the fact that the drugs were not working on their own. The “miracle” that happened to him, Scott puts down to the hard work he’s been doing.

In my practice, the willingness to do the hard work has been always the indicator, which showed me how my highly stressed clients were going to do in the future. Every time I have heard a client to say to me; “I have tried it and it doesn’t work for me!” or “It is too much to do!” I knew this person hasn’t put their health, their life first yet. They would try my hands-on treatments where they are passive receivers of energy, but they would not use this to propel themselves to the next level, where they are the active generators of their own energy. Of course we know, stress can reduce the cognitive capacity of a person. Also, these clients were not with me for a period long enough for getting to lower the stress level first and then to start being more proactive in their own healing.

David Spiegel, who is a medical doctor,  cannot ascertain that cancer patients could get healed completely without taking any drugs, but he says that the central nervous system effects could modulate the body’s response to the insult the illness does on the body.

Genetics! Our genes contain the information, which rules our lives. It has been long known that we inherit them from our parents and many people still believe that if you were born with “bad” genes, this is it, there is nothing you can do. But Dean Ornish, who for the past 36 years has been conducting a series of research studies, knows different. He says that on the changes in diet and life-style have the power not only to prevent, but also to reverse disease. Yes, there is something you can do – changing your life-style! According to his researches, the genes responsible for promoting prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer can be changed.

It turns out, genes can be switched on and off!

Furthermore, epigenetics studies showed that the gene expression can be passed to the next generations, e.g. the way your grand-grand mother lived could be affecting your life.

Recent research on the Relaxation Response has taken us to a new level of knowledge: Genetic expression of genes of people who meditate can be changed. (So, I think, we don’t need to worry about our grandma’s life-style).

Herbert Benson tells us that these changes happen after the first time we meditate. But, he adds, the more times during the day we do it, the more intense the relaxation response and the change in genes expression.

So, obviously, his recommendation is daily meditation. I recall trying to get my clients into doing daily affirmation on their own. Using the gradual approach, I was also advising them to start going to a meditation group once weakly, to learn how to do it and to carry on during the week on their own. Well, I know it is extremely hard to turn your own healing power on when you are at the deep of a crisis. But as it is the most important ingredient of the healing process, we need to use every boost to trigger it. What better than practising healing techniques in a group?!

A very good example of how the changes in his life-style led to his full recovery is the story of George Jelinek, MD, the first appointed Professor of Emergency Medicine in Australasia. He had inherited the MS genes from his mother  and at the age of 45, when he was at the high of his career and under very intense stress, the disease stroke. He analysed “Why now?” and after he realised he was way out of balance, he changed to very healthy life-style: good diet, meditation, swimming, counselling when things get tough, time for good friends and family to keep him emotionally healthy. George Jelineck thinks he has recovered from MS and although in medical circles the term recovery from MS does not exist as MS is considered incurable, he suggests that it is time we start considering recovery.

The genetic theory of ageing states that DNA ages due to shortened telomeres (repeated segments of DNA, occurring at the end of chromosomes, and chromosomes are the thread-like parts of DNA chains that carry the genetic information). So, with the ageing, the telomeres get shortened and this can increase the risk of getting cancer, heart disease, dementia. (Note, all these previously considered only old age diseases!)

But as research of University of California headed by Dr Elizabeth H. Blackburn showed that stress affects the rate of DNA ageing, we now have a reasonable explanation to the question why so many younger people get cancer and heart disease. (I have no much observation on dementia and Alzheimer, but I would not be surprised if there is statistics showing lowered age of appearance of the first signs)

Dean Ornish reports about his pilot study, which showed that even the ageing effect of stress is reversible when people embark on a healthy living programme which incorporates dietary changes, stress management, meditation, exercise.

Sharon, the author of this film adds it has been ten years since she was first diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and she is not on medication, she is not in a wheel-chair. She also says that in a way, she is grateful for the illness, which pushed her to make the journey, to meet so many new people and most importantly – to understand that she needed to get better.

Dean Ornish adds that many of his patients shared with him that their illness was the best thing that could happen to them because it made them make changes in their life, which lead to them experiencing things so meaningful and so beautiful, which they were going to miss otherwise.

So, basically, it is all about the quality of life we can give to ourselves, when diagnosed with a scary illness, rather than worrying about dying or other stuff.

Herbert Benson emphasises that now, when we have the evidence that mind can heal, it should be added appropriately to the healing process together with drugs and surgery.

Esther Sternberg adds that with an experienced practitioner, who can guide you through the process, you should be able to find the best formula for yourself to help you heal.

I have an example of a man in a similar position, only it was his Achiles, who did not chose reducing his stress and dong the remedial exercise, so he ended up with an operation. But this is an English man, who was raised up to keep stiff upper lip and who felt guilty for receiving a back massage occasionally together with taking the painful treatment on his calf and Achiles.

My example of Refl and Needles