Mindcraft Therapy in Retford

Further to our article on reflexology as a treatment for constipation in children, we are pleased to report on another study recently published in International Therapist magazine on the use of reflexology to treat constipation in adult women.

Constipation affects around 20% of the population, with a higher than average occurrence in women.  Laxatives are the most common form of treatment, whether self-administered or prescribed by GP’s and around £46M is spent on laxatives in the UK each year. As a conventional medicine, these have a number of side-effects such as bloating, excessive flatulence, stomach pains and headaches.  Many people are forced to choose between the constipation itself or the side-effects of laxatives, neither of which are pleasant to live with.  Treating constipation with reflexology is a holistic approach to the problem and allows a mind and body healing connection to alleviate the symptoms of the disorder itself alongside the associated anxiety, depression and emotional responses that it can create.  The study showed a 94% improvement in the constipation of the women involved and reported an overall increase in vitality and well-being.

The study was carried out on 19 female participants with the objective of reporting the effectiveness of reflexology on women  with idiopathic constipation, according to Rome II criteria.  The study measured the extent and symptoms of constipation, their anxiety and depression (according to the HAD – Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and also their attitudes towards Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM).  Each patient received a course of six treatments (weekly for 6 weeks) and were assessed before the first treatment and after the final treatment.

The results showed that 94% of participants noticed an improvement in their constipation to some extent.  Ten of the participants showed improved colonic transit times and 2 were even improved to a ‘normal’ level following treatment.  15 of the 19 women were regularly taking laxatives prior to the treatment; of these, 80% had stopped using them altogether by the end of the study.  In addition to the physical improvements, 53% of participants saw an improved (i.e. lower) anxiety score and 58% an improved depression score on the HAD scale.  Finally, 63% of participants reported a more positive attitude toward CAM treatments.

Although the study was only carried out on a small scale, the results are encouraging and show that CAM works on a body and mind (holistic) level and does not simply serve to treat a specific area of concern or condition.  Reflexology, along with other complementary therapies such as massage and reiki, is proving itself to be a successful alternative to conventional medicines.

Studies have shown that Jasmine, a wonderfully fragrant essential oil used in many massage therapies, can have the same calming effect as valium but without all the nasty side effects. The sweet smell of jasmine is as good as valium at calming the nerves with none of the unpleasant side effects, according to new research.

Tests show the fragrance and its chemical substitute produce a dramatically calming effect on the brain when breathed in, causing relaxation and a reduction in stress levels. It appears that when the scent molecules are breathed in and travel from the lungs into the blood they are then transmitted to the brain. Brain scans showed the effect on a chemical called GABA on nerve cells is enhanced by the fragrances and helps to relieve anxiety and promote rest.

Professor Hanns Hatt said the results published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry can “be seen as evidence of a scientific basis for aromatherapy”.  His team also hope that by changing the chemical structure of the scent molecules, they can achieve even stronger effects. This could help make the already powerfully soothing and calming effects of aromatherapy even stronger.

Hundreds of fragrances were tested to determine their effect on GABA receptors in humans and found jasmine increased the GABA effect by more than five times and acted as strongly as sedatives, sleeping pills and other chemical relaxants but without the associated side effects of depression, dizziness, hypo-tension, muscle weakness and impaired coordination.

Prof Hatt, of the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, said: “We have discovered a new class of GABA receptor modulator which can be administered parentally and through the respiratory air. “Applications in sedation, anxiety, excitement and aggression relieving treatment and sleep induction therapy are all imaginable.”

Although essential oils have been used for thousands of years to promote relaxation and good health, this is another example of how science can explain the way a complementary therapy works.  Jasmine is a type of essential oil widely used in aromatherapy, which was pioneered by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians and has been used successfully ever since in treatments such as Indian head massage, relaxation massage and reflexology.  It is thought to offer various healing effects because inhaling jasmine oil molecules transmit messages to the region of the brain involved in controlling emotions. Known as the limbic system, this brain region also influences the nervous system.

Aromatherapy proponents suggest that essential oils may affect a number of biological factors, including heart rate, stress levels, blood pressure, breathing, and immune function, all of which can have a negative effect on the health when out of balance. Amongst other things, Jasmine oil is known as a natural remedy for stress, anxiety, depression, fatigue, menstrual cramps and menopausal symptoms. It is also said to act as an aphrodisiac.

The name Jasmine is derived from the Persian Yasmin which means “a gift from God” so named because of the intense fragrance of the blooms, and it seems as though the perfume industry has been well aware of the effects of Jasmine for many years as Jasmine is found in more than 83% of all women’s scents and 33% of men’s.

Clients who come to Mindcraft Therapy for relaxation and stress busting massages such as Swedish Massage, Indian head massage and hot stone massage can gain even greater benefit from the use of Aromatherapy oils such Jasmine and other essential oils when used during the massage.

We all know that stress can have a profoundly negative effect on our mental health. A recent study by Roehampton University and the children’s charity Elizabeth Finn Care has revealed a sharp increase in the number of people suffering from mental health problems related to stress due to redundancies, job insecurity and pay cuts etc. These include symptoms such as anxiety and depression.

Stress has also been shown to have an negative effect on our physical health and recent research suggests that in particular, long-term or chronic stress can lower the immune system, restrict healing and effect the functioning of the brain.

It’s well known that reducing stress and increasing relaxation allows the immune system to work more effectively,  damaged tissue is repaired faster and recovery from injury and illness is quicker.

Full post here

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has stressed that only a very low concentration of ash particles is likely to reach ground level in the UK and this should not cause serious harm.

What are the possible health effects?

Volcanic ash from most eruptions generally causes few health problems and it is not considered to be a significant health risk. Ash can affect breathing and cause irritation of the eyes and skin. The severity of these problems is affected by the concentration of ash, the duration of exposure to ash, how fine the ash particles are and what the ash is made of.

The amount of ash that may reach the ground in the UK is likely to be small and not enough to cause serious harm.

Is anybody at special risk from the ash?

People with existing respiratory conditions, such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma, may feel the effects more than others. In affected areas, they are recommended to carry inhalers or other medication as a precaution.

People who wear contact lenses may want to avoid wearing their lenses in areas with ash fall.

How do I know if there is ash in the air?

The HPA says that if people who are outside notice symptoms such as “itchy or irritated eyes, runny nose, sore throat or dry cough, or if they notice a dusty haze in the air or can smell sulphur, rotten eggs, or a strong acidic smell, they may wish to limit their activities outdoors or return indoors”.

The British Lung Foundation Helpline can provide advice to anyone concerned about the ash cloud. Call them on 08458 50 50 20 (10am to 6pm, Monday to Friday).

I’m stranded abroad – how can I get more medication?

If you are running out of medication, see if it is available at a local pharmacy or go to a local hospital or doctor. If you need help finding one, contact your hotel reception, local tourist information or nearest British Embassy. If you are admitted to hospital, contact the British Embassy. Doctors or pharmacists may charge for consultations and prescriptions, so check if there are any costs involved.

If you have a prescription written by a UK doctor or dentist (whether it be NHS or private) it will be valid in the EEA or Switzerland. However, even with a prescription UK citizens can expect to be charged by the dispenser or pharmacist for the medicines and the dispensing service. On return to the UK, you should be able to apply to your local health authority for a refund.

You can also access reduced cost, or sometimes free, necessary state-funded healthcare in the European Economic Area and Switzerland by presenting your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This could include dispensing a prescription issued by a local state healthcare professional. You will still need to pay any costs that a resident of that country would pay.

In all other countries, your UK prescription will not be recognised. Your travel agent or insurance company will be able to advise you on whether you can reclaim any costs involved.

If you don’t know the name of the medication you are taking, or what the dosage should be, then it might be helpful to have someone fax or email this over. That way the local doctor or pharmacist will have all the relevant information to make decisions on what drugs to prescribe you.

The Foreign Office website has up-to-date information for travellers about flight disruption. For more information on foreign healthcare systems go to nhs.uk/healthcareabroad.

I’m stranded in the UK – how can I get more medication?

If you are visiting the country and running out of medication you should register as a temporary resident with a general practitioner (GP) if possible. You can find your nearest GP using our service search. Your hotel should also be able to help you find a GP.

Once you are temporarily registered with a GP you can be given a prescription for your medication. You may be charged for this. If you are unable to register with a GP you can see a pharmacist and request additional medications, although you may be refused and asked to register as a temporary resident.

The pharmacist may also charge you for any medications dispensed. It is likely that you will be able to claim back any charges through your travel insurance company, so keep hold of any receipts or bills you are given.

Source: www.nhs.uk/news

A survey carried out by Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota (Children’s) showed that 90% of parents would like more information about alternative healthcare for their children.

The survey also found that 90 percent of parents have a strong desire to eliminate their children’s pain and improve their quality of life, while 85 percent would like to minimize their dependence on drugs. Parents felt especially strongly about reducing drug treatment for mood or behavioural problems such as anxiety or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sixty-eight percent of parents believed that integrative treatment could be effective, and more than 75 percent said that hospitals should offer experts on both conventional and alternative treatments.

Read more at: www.marksheppard.co.uk/parents-alternative-medicine

Constipation and encopresis (soiling) can be embarrassing and uncomfortable for anyone, but particularly amongst children especially those in their teens, who are reluctant or unable to seek advice or treatment. Imagine how your child would feel being given an enema (the traditional method of treating children with constipation or encopresis); the distress that this invasive treatment will cause both you and your child. It is easy to see that for GP’s this is a simple and effective short-term solution, but it does nothing to address the underlying problems that led to these conditions in the first place, and could actually be a contributing factor to the ailment. Complementary therapies such as massage, reflexology and hypnosis are wonderful, natural alternatives which treat the body as a whole rather than just targeting a specific symptom.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) seeks not only to address the presenting problem, but will also help with overall relaxation, stress relief and self-confidence. This in itself can help to relieve the underlying causes of the illness or ailment and therefore gives a truly holistic approach to the problem.

A recent study looked into the effectiveness of reflexology as a treatment for constipation and encopresis in children. An observational study was carried out on 50 children ranging from 3 to 14 years of age who had been diagnosed with constipation or encopresis. The children each received 6 sessions of 30 minutes of reflexology. Questionnaires were completed by the children and their parents before, during and after the study to determine the effects of the natural reflexology treatments and the parent’s attitudes towards reflexology.

The results were extremely positive and showed an increase in bowel movements and a decrease in soiling and both the parents and children were pleased with the results. It was therefore concluded that the reflexology had been an effective method of treatment for constipation and encopresis.

Reflexology, as a natural, non-invasive therapy, is widely used as an alternative treatment for a wide range of illnesses and ailments. It works on the principle that the anatomy of the body is mirrored in miniature on the feet (or hands) and by stimulating these reflex areas the body’s systems can be cleared and stimulated and restore balance and energy to the whole body. It is suitable for any age range, from babies to the elderly and is a relaxing, comforting treatment that will make you feel truly wonderful.

Stomach Reduction Surgery

According to a report on Radio 4 some 4,300 people received stomach reduction surgery last year and around 20,000 clinically obese patients currently are currently on a waiting list for an operation. There was even a talk or up to one million people “requiring” surgery for obesity in the UK.

Read the full post at www.marksheppard.co.uk/surgery-for-obesity/

Breast cancer patients need less anaesthetic during operations if they have been relaxed by hypnosis beforehand, US research suggests.

Patients in the study of 200 women by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine also reported less pain afterwards.

Breast cancer surgery patients often suffer severe side-effects such as pain, nausea and fatigue during and after their operations.

UK experts said more research was needed to prove hypnosis worked.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/6969298.stm

Published: 2007/08/29 23:45:28 GMT

© BBC MMX

It’s recently been announced that Alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline, yet another “miracle weight loss pill” will be made available over the counter in this country in the near future. A magic pill that makes you thin – wow that’s wonderful, isn’t it?

Well it’s very amazingly wonderful if you happen to make miracle weight loss pills that’s for sure as the industry is worth over £1 billion a year in the UK. In fact it’s estimated that last year dieters spent £47 million just on pills and diet aids and only last week we were told that we’re now using eight times more slimming tablets than we were seven years ago.

So that’s it then, we’ve cracked it. We have our little magic pills and everyone’s getting thinner. Unfortunately the exact opposite’s happening and by 2010 there’ll be a staggering 13 million obese people in the UK and if you’ll pardon the pun, it really is an expanding market, with many companies fighting to jump on this lucrative bandwagon.

Why then, if we are taking more and more slimming pills are we getting more and more obese? The obvious answer is that the pills do NOT work!! If they did we would be a nation of skinnies but of course we’re not.

The headline for the latest new miracle drug reads “I achieved the impossible” after a woman claimed to have lost 4st in just 18 months. Let’s just examine that for a moment – 4st in 18 months? That’s roughly 3 pound per month, or 11 ounces a week. In modern money that’s 25kg in one and a half years or 1.3kg per month or 311 grams per week. Now, anyone who has spent years dieting knows that it’s possible to lose 3 pound in one week, let alone a month. Impossible would be bringing about world peace and eliminating poverty and disease, NOT losing 3lb a month but the headline makes it sound so amazing.

We all remember John Sergeant competing on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. During his time on the show he managed to lose two stone in weight but he didn’t go around claiming divine intervention. He didn’t need drugs, the Atkins diet, Weight Watchers or any other slimming club, he lost the weight because of the exercise he was doing. In fact doctors warn that any weight loss achieved when using these drugs is likely to be small and will occur only if people also make big changes to their lifestyle. Personally I would go further and suggest that any weight loss that occurred whilst taking diet pills was achieved ONLY through lifestyle changes and had nothing to do with the pills.

It’s bad enough that companies are making millions selling useless drugs to vulnerable people but there is an even darker side to these pills. Many of these drugs are addictive; only last week Kelly Osbourne went into rehab for what is believed to be addiction to weight loss pills. And there are other side effects such as diarrhoea.

According to most experts the idea that there’s a pill to make people lose weight is no more than a scam. In an article for the British Medical Journal, Professor Gareth Williams of Bristol University raises his concerns over the claims about drugs such as Alli and suggests that they produce unrealistic expectations leading people to believe that the pill will do all the work.

“All these preparations are peddled as miracle answers to what is an intractable lifelong problem,” he says. “People see them as clever solutions that scientists have come up with, and when they’re available over the counter in chemists, they’re perceived as even more miraculous, more innocuous, sitting alongside the paracetamol.”

The reason that manufacturers are able to get away with what is in effect a multi million pound con is because diet pills are not licensed as medicines and so they do not have to undergo the strict scientific testing that real medicines do. When independently tested most of these pills are shown to have no dietary benefit.

One such “clinically proven” weight loss product made by Goldshield is Lipobind which claims to be a fat binder, helps to decrease food cravings, suppress the appetite and lower blood cholesterol. Yet according to The Times, a panel of experts, which included a dietician, a pharmacist and a doctor, concluded that evidence supporting the claims was thin and that the pills were, in effect, an expensive bulking agent and that Which? who set up the panel advised against taking any of the pills, saying that they could be expensive and could have side-effects such as diarrhoea, reduction of vitamin absorption and increased blood pressure.

These multi million pound companies, whether they sell pills, diets, clubs or whatever, have no interest in helping anyone lose weight permanently. Why would they? Their best interests are served by propagating the belief that you can’t do it without their help. To me that’s the biggest con of all.

In an article for the Mail Online, Lorraine Fisher revealed how she’d been suffering from insomnia for nearly two years and how after only two hours of hypnotherapy, she is “sleeping well”, “coping with the stresses of every day life” and is “calmer and happier”.

Lorraine’s insomnia began very simply after a row with a friend. She’d gone to bed angry, replaying the conversation over and over in her head and by 4am she was watching TV until finally drifting off to sleep.  That was it, for the next 18 months or so.

“My shopping basket had enough sleeping aids to tranquillise a hippopotamus” explains Lorraine ” Kalms and Nytol tablets, alongside pillow mist – infused with soothing essential oils of geranium, rose and thyme – and candles labelled ‘Relax’ and ‘Peace’ to burn before bedtime”

Things got so bad that she’d given up her job and was begging her GP for sleeping tablets.  Eventually, willing to try anything, she went to see hypnotherapist, Philip Batchelor in Greenwich, London.

“The night after the second session I woke up – but at 7am with sunlight pouring through the curtains. I felt elated” said Lorraine “It’s a fluke, I thought, until the same thing happened the next night, and every night after that”.

Four months later and Lorraine says she is still sleeping well.

“Oh, and I’ve thrown out all those herbal remedies”.

For the full article please click here.

Hypnotherapy and Colitis

The results of a study carried out by Dr David S. Rampton of Barts and the London, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry showed that Hypnotherapy can help ease some of the bowel inflammation seen in Ulcerative Colitis.

As with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis (UC) can be both painful and debilitating for those who suffer with it. Ulcerative Colitis causes chronic inflammation in the lining of the colon and rectum, causing severe abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Although there are a number of medications available for the treatment of UC, this research suggests that hypnotherapy can be used as a very effective complementary therapy.

Previous studies have already shown that hypnotherapy can be used successfully in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome and stomach ulcers which, like colitis, involve inflammation and can be worsened by psychological stress.

The UK based study looked at the effect of one 50 minute “gut-focused” hypnotherapy session on 17 patients with active Ulcerative Colitis.  Another eight patients acted as a control group and listened to their choice of music for 50 minutes.

Results showed that blood levels of a specific marker of inflammation in the body fell by 53 percent in the hypnosis group, whereas the music listeners showed no significant change.  It was also shown that other similar chemical markers of inflammation declined in the hypnosis group, but not in the control group.

Senior researcher Dr. David S. Rampton told Reuters Health that “This work shows that a single short session of hypnotherapy can return some of the chemical changes in the bowel associated with inflammation back towards normal in patients with ulcerative colitis”.

Although it’s still not understood exactly why hypnosis can lower inflammation, Rampton’s team suggest that hypnosis might have direct effects on colon activity or it might affect people’s pain tolerance or perceptions of their symptoms.

Dr Rampton said that the current findings provide a scientific basis for a properly designed clinical trial to see whether hypnotherapy, given over weeks or months, might benefit people with ulcerative colitis and he went on to suggest that it could also be worthwhile to study the effects of hypnosis on Crohn’s disease, another form of inflammatory bowel disease.