Author: Stelyana Spassova

It is becoming widely accepted that Reflexology has a beneficial effect on couples trying to conceive, both naturally or with assistance such as I.V.F. Fertility and the speed of conception is determined by both physical and psychological factors as well as possible nutritional deficiency.

Lack of ovulation is often caused by an imbalance in the thyroid gland causing a short luteal phase which means that any fertilised egg is not sustained in its early phase for long enough. This may not show up in a blood test but if it is a chronic condition will show up on the feet. Low thyroid and stress can lead to adrenal deficiency which causes further problems. Women failing to get pregnant often are increasingly stressed causing a build up of neurochemicals that affect the regulation of the hormones.

Reflexology creates a profound state of relaxation helping to rebalance the endocrine system (the hormones) so that periods become regular and ovulation can then take place. Reflexology gives increased blood flow to the uterus to assist implantation. Other conditions such as hostile cervical mucous, polycystic ovaries, endometriosis may respond well.

Another powerful modality is Vertical Reflexology Therapy (V.R.T.) -working with the top of the feet while standing. V.R.T. only takes a few minutes but is an incredibly powerful treatment. The body appears to be more receptive to healing energies when its in a standing position. Precision Reflexology is also useful, as well as advice on the importance of nutrition and the adverse effect of environmental influences. For example pesticides in fruit and vegetables are endocrine disruptors. The importance of a properly balanced diet, exercise and positive affirmation cannot be overstated.

More and more therapists and doctors are advising both partners to follow a four month pre-conception plan, to maximise general health and fertility. It is good to have Reflexology weekly for at least eight weeks, and then monthly before ovulation. Men also can have hormonal imbalances affecting their sperm count and will benefit from treatment.

JULIA SHAW, BA, ITEC, MAR, ART reg. I have been practising at the Brackenbury Clinic for many years. I have had special training in Fertility Reflexology and in Pregnancy Reflexology. I have treated many people with fertility problems with success and there is nothing better than treating someone from trying to become pregnant, through pregnancy to birth.

Natural Fertility Treatment – A case history

Sheila and Graham came to see me after trying to conceive for nearly three years with no success. Sheila’s main concern was that her gynaecologist wanted to prescribe her Clomid which carried risks of side effects. Her grandmother and mother had both had ovarian cancer and her sister had symptoms of polycystic ovaries.

The doctor told her that her tests seemed to always show small follicles and problems with her left ovary. He couldn’t offer her any further treatment unless she agreed to take it.

Sheila’s cycles were always different – anywhere between 30 – 60 days. Sometimes she experienced pain on intercourse. She worked full time and became tired easily. She was in search of another opinion and was very interested in any natural methods of treatment.

Graham suffered recurrent tonsillitis and infections and often woke with headaches.

I taught Sheila how to carefully chart her cycle each month for me so we were aware of when she may ovulating and any irregularities. This way I could adjust her medicines as necessary.

Both of them needed to pay a lot more attention to their diet. They were given advice on what foods would be medicines for them and which ones to avoid. Filtered water was recommended for making tea and for cooking. All food had to be organic and they needed to drink plenty of water every day. The important things to avoid were caffeine, alcohol, tobacco and foods containing wheat and dairy.

Sheila was also advised of all the things in her environment and diet that may act as hormone disruptors.

They were provided supplements for their individual needs and herbal medicines. Graham was given a mixture of herbs to help with detoxification and lymphatic and immune support. Sheila was provided a prescription to help modulate hormone function and reduce inflammation. They returned for their second appointment when Sheila had completed her first chart and with additional test results they had been advised to have.

Graham’s semen analysis results revealed 92% abnormal forms, his hair analysis showed high lead levels and both of them had low zinc levels. Sheila’s blood test results showed very low ferritin which would have contributed to her tiredness.

I adjusted some of the supplements, increasing Zinc and providing Graham with antagonists to lead. He was given a mixture of herbs to help with detoxification. Sheila was given additional organic iron supplements.

Improvements were felt by both of them quickly. After four months Sheila called to say could I help her as she had a conference to go to and thought she may have a tummy upset as she was feeling a little sick. Her regular charts showed her cycles were always over 30 days but there had been no very long cycles since treatment. She was disappointed she had not started menstruating and was at day 35. I asked her to give me her temperature readings. They were higher than normal and well over her post ovulation phase cover line. I suggested she have a pregnancy test. Test was positive. Herbal teas were provided for mild morning sickness which only lasted a short time.

Sheila had a healthy pregnancy and gave birth naturally 9 months later to a beautiful and healthy baby girl.

Names have been changed for confidentiality purposes.

Julia Schultz DBTh, NFM, MMHA, MNHAA . Julia practises at the Brackenbury as a Medical Herbalist and Natural Fertility Management Consultant.

Fear is an intrinsic part of the human condition. But in today’s world it has become the modus vivendi of so many people’s lives. It comes in many forms:

 

• Fear of loss/abandonment/separation
• Fear of judgement/disapproval/criticism/punishment
• Fear of failure/humiliation/not measuring up/impotence
• Fear of success/potency or castration/attack
• Fear of intimacy/closeness/vulnerability/hurt
• Fear of change/death/annihilation/ordeal
• Fear of the future/bag lady fears/fear of the unknown/fear of feelings
• Fear of fear itself….

The list goes on.

Most pernicious of all is unconscious fear – as it rules from below, keeping a part of the psyche in paralysis and the true self hidden, not only from the world but from the person themselves. And when entrenched it can be terribly isolating, disempowering and debilitating.

Many fears are memories, originating in childhood – what did happen translates into a fear of what will happen. Old, unprocessed experiences build into an expectation, a sense of inevitability, to the extent that sometimes the psyche sets up a kind of recreation of the original – in order to understand it.

Sometimes fear is kept at bay through manic activity, running, hiding, distractions, avoidance, trying to stay in control, fighting. Some fears are buried in the body and emerge as tensions, twinges and symptoms. Some fears turn into obsessive, ruminating thoughts.

There may also be a layering of feelings, with anger masking fear or fear masking desire, grief or tenderness, for example. Generally there is excitement tucked somewhere inside fear, and sometimes an invitation, a challenge, a task. While the collective may keep some fears in place, there may also be a collective aspect to some fears, for example, fears about the planet can evolve into an empowered response to take positive action.

But fears ask to be understood. The key thing is to become conscious of the fears, to share them, to speak about them and explore them in a safe place (as in therapy) to get the measure of them. Some will then naturally release, some will transform, some will open up unforeseen areas of the self and life. It takes courage, but fear transformed becomes wholehearted engagement in life.

ROSANNE HOOPER BA(Hons) UKCP reg Dip AIP. Rosanne is an experienced integrative and humanistic psychotherapist, working with clients on a long and short term basis. She has been practising for over 15 years.

Imagine that your subconscious mind is like the software on your computer. It controls how you feel and how you react to situations, your views about yourself, what and when you eat, even down to the colours of the clothes you chose to wear. In short, it is the operating system of your life.

It works the way it does because it has been ‘programmed’ by our life experiences and memories. It does not have its own agenda, it simply processes the information the way it goes in – good or bad. Unfortunately, if the latter is the case, this will influence our experience of daily life – rubbish in means rubbish out.

However, we are not helpless and are able to change our subconscious reactions, if we really want to.

A part of the process of our subconscious mind is to look after all the automotive body responses, like walking to the bathroom or the way you stand in the shower. You don’t have to think about it – it happens automatically – but it also determines how you feel as you stand there, happy, sad or anxious, for example.

A lot of the learnt programming which influences our subconscious comes from our childhood, but it continues to develop as we grow up. We tend to absorb negative conditioning – you’re no good; you’re fat; your brother is cleverer than you; you are stupid; you don’t deserve anything nice.

Negative conditioning produces negative attitudes and impacts on the way we live our lives. We find ourselves believing that ‘the only important thing in life is money’; ‘my relationships always fail’; ‘I feel better when I eat’; ‘smoking relaxes me’; ‘drink makes me feel more confident’. They become habits – a way of living – they become who we are, and influence how we think, feel and perceive ourselves.

Over time, this grows to be more than a habit, and becomes our ‘writing on the wall’, which effectively defines us and what we believe about ourselves.

The good news is that we can change by using the power of our own subconscious minds. Hypnosis works with your subconscious mind to rewrite the software programme to achieve a new positive outcome. By going back to the initial programming from childhood onwards, a qualified hypnotherapist can negate the influence of the past on the way you live your life. The effects can be life changing. Hypnosis has been proven to help with a huge range of complaints including stress, anxiety, depression, phobias such as fear of flying, stopping smoking, weight control, drug/alcohol abuse and insomnia.

Hypnosis will help you to change your old habitual responses as long as this is what you really want. Unlike what stage hypnotists would like you to believe, hypnosis cannot make you do anything you do not want to do. It is safe and drugfree. When our subconscious mind is not acting in our best interests, we can turn this around by using its own power with the help of hypnosis and rewrite the negative programming in a more positive way.

WE CAN THINK WHAT WE WANT TO THINK

WE CAN FEEL WHAT WE WANT TO FEEL

WE CAN BE WHO WE WANT TO BE

 

Our emotional lives are made up of patterns – habitual ways of relating to the world, learnt through life experience. So, we tend to expect the present and the future to be the same as the past.

All this can be very unconscious – “that’s just the way life is”, “it’s bound to happen”, “people always….me” becomes the silent litany. It can also be very subtle, with layer upon layer of hidden assumptions about self, other and life.

At first the patterns tend to be enacted – so that, for example, a marriage or a boss starts replicating the earliest relationship with a parent or a new baby starts to feel like a sibling or a younger self. And, because it is familiar it feels attractive and so repeats. In the same way an addictive pattern may set up – a pull towards drink, drugs, compulsive sex and so on – in an attempt to keep the feelings down.

Paradoxically, however, it is the very problems, discomfort and pain it generates that can begin the awakening process. This is where crisis becomes opportunity. When a dawning recognition of “groundhog day” emerges, and the old forms of self-medication no longer really work, it is a positive sign and a good time to begin a conscious journey of self discovery, for example, in therapy.

Awareness is key. Once the pattern is seen, it is no longer unconsciously pulling the strings. Then more life-enhancing patterns can start to form – and the deeper designs of personal potential and true destiny emerge.

ROSANNE HOOPER, BA(Hons), UKCP reg., Dip AIP. Rosanne is an experienced integrative and humanistic psychotherapist who works with clients on a long or short term basis. She has been in practice for over fifteen years.

Spring has arrived, and the gorgeous weather makes you want to shake off the winter blues and have a good old clear out. In Chinese medicine, spring is paired with the Wood element as plants and trees start showing signs of new life and regeneration.

At this time of year, Wood exemplifies the energy of growth, change, and pushing through obstacles and we may have more energy to get moving on projects and enhance the classic “spring cleaning”. It is also the energy of frustration, anger and stress. Spring is a really good time to work with these blockages, and get things moving.

As people start getting more active, this is a busy time of year for osteopaths. Osteopathy is a holistic system of healthcare, which means it considers the effect of emotional, environmental and physical factors on people’s health status and ability to heal.

Surveys show osteopathy’s huge popularity in the UK with over 3,000 osteopaths providing six million patient consultations a year.

Osteopathy is usually perceived as a method of treating musculo-skeletal problems (especially low back pain) using physical techniques such as manipulation and muscle work but it is originally a complete system of health care. The therapy employs a wide range of techniques such as manipulative techniques, muscle energy techniques, stretching exercises, myofascial release and cranial osteopathy. This diversity of methods allows the practitioner to have access to all structures of the body and therefore treat a large variety of conditions, both acute and chronic. Osteopaths often deal with complaints such as sinusitis, asthma, neck and shoulder stiffness, headache, back pain, digestive disorders and many others.

Alexia Lescure BSc Ost (Hons) practises at the Brackenbury Clinic on Thursdays. She has a special interest in pregnancy and baby care, as well as sports performance and injuries.

Below is a letter written by a woman who used to suffer from post-natal depression. The client, whose name will not be revealed for reasons of confidentiality, was eager for us to publish the account of her experiences in the hope that it would encourage other women in that situation to find the right help. She was treated by hypnotherapist Lionel Sinclair DABCH, MCA Hyp, who has been practising at the Brackenbury Clinic since 2005.

‘I’m sure no one expects to get PND, but it hit me so unexpectedly because I’d had such a happy pregnancy and was so looking forward to my son being born. But, after a very scary birth and 4 weeks of sleep deprivation, I started on a downward spiral. I felt like I was in the film ‘Groundhog Day’, where every day is the same, and that the nightmare would never end. I felt totally trapped by the new life that motherhood brings. I wept for my lost life, missing all the freedoms that I had taken for granted. Every day felt as if I was walking in slow motion, every morning I cried and threw up, and barely ate. I lost the will to live.

I adored my son, but felt completely out of my depth looking after him, and wanted a way out. I walked out once, but my husband persuaded me back. I fantasised about getting into an accident that would put me in hospital, so I could get away. I thought about how to kill myself constantly. And, all the while, I drove myself even crazier as I saw how, seemingly, everyone else took motherhood in their stride and I was a total wreck.

“It’s like you’ve been erased. I felt as if I had died, and was grieving for my lost life. I had panic attacks, constant nausea, insomnia, crying fits and frequent suicidal thoughts. It was as if someone had put me in solitary confinement and thrown away the key – I felt totally abandoned, alone and desperate. It was the opposite from what I had expected to feel as a new mother.”

The insomnia was unbearable, and the panic attacks made me feel terrified. I was completely without hope, unable to see that this constant panic would ever end, though everyone tried to tell me it would. I felt hopeless and desperate. I didn’t think I’d make it.

My husband saw Lionel’s ad in the paper when my son was 6 months old, and insisted I go. I must admit, I was totally sceptical. I’m not a fan of any so called ‘alternative’ therapies, and a firm believer in science and traditional medicine as the cure for life’s ills. But I didn’t want to take anti depressants as I was breast feeding. So I went along the first time, in my usual state of heightened panic, on the verge of nausea and in tears, thinking it wouldn’t help. I couldn’t believe that anything could make me better. I was so desperately unhappy it didn’t seem possible.

I liked Lionel instantly, and he gave me a realistic idea of how much we’d be able to do, and how long it would take. For the first time in months, I could at least see someone thought I could get out of this, and that he believed in me being able to get better. That in itself was a big step.

Don’t get me wrong, there is no instant cure, you can’t expect magic, but Lionel took me from a suicidal, desperate wreck, who felt totally detached from the world, to someone who could feel hope, could sleep, and who could believe in a ‘cure’ in a matter of 8 weeks. I wasn’t better, but, for the first time ever, I felt hope that I could recover. Bit by bit, Lionel and I put the jigsaw back together – I’d been shattered and needed all the pieces put back together. I’d been a confident, clever, funny, sassy career woman, and he helped me see that I could incorporate my son into that life too. He helped me see a future where I would be happy. I began to totally believe that I would get better, that my life was not over, that I had everything to live for. I would never have believed it possible just a couple of months earlier.

All in all, it took about 5 months to make me ‘normal’ again. And now, I like to think, I’m a much better version of me. I know how to control the demons, and am a far happier, more confident, and nicer person than before. It is no exaggeration to say that Lionel saved my life or, as he would say, taught me how to save myself. I would not be here without him.

Please don’t suffer alone. Please don’t cry alone. Please don’t think you’re the only one – it’s so, so common. Now, when I mention I had PND, so many women tell me similar tales. Above all, please take a step to make yourself better. Good luck… you can find hope again, I promise.’

(Source: Society of Homeopaths, www.homeopathy-soh.org)

Randomised controlled trials By the end of 2009, 142 RCTs comparing homeopathy with placebo or conventional treatment had been published in peer-reviewed journals. In terms of statistically significant results, 74 of these trials were able to draw firm conclusions: 63 were positive for homeopathy and eleven were negative.¹

Detractors of homeopathy continue to suggest that any beneficial effects of homeopathy are due to placebo alone. Over a period of 18 years Dr Reilly’s team at Glasgow University conducted four double blind placebo controlled trials, specifically designed to examine the evidence for this placebo hypothesis. All four trials, involving a total of 252 patients, produced similar positive results, demonstrating that homeopathy has an effect greater than placebo and that these results are reproducible.² As the trial design used is the same as that used to test conventional treatments, Reilly states that there are only two possible conclusions from these results – “either homeopathy works or the trial generates false positive results and is therefore not a useful tool for assessing any treatment – whether orthodox or homeopathic.”³

Evidence for specific conditions

Systematic reviews analysing results from several RCTs that investigated the homeopathic treatment of a given medical condition have reported positive conclusions in the following areas1: allergies and upper respiratory tract infections,⁴ childhood diarrhoea,⁵ influenza,⁶ postoperative ileus,⁷ rheumatic diseases,⁸ seasonal allergic rhinitis^{9, 2, 10} and vertigo.¹¹

One of the above reviews included three double-blind clinical trials of diarrhoea in a total of 242 children aged 6 months to 5 years; the data from the three trials were analysed together.6 The results of this meta-analysis showed that the duration of acute childhood diarrhoea was reduced by individualised homeopathic treatment more than by placebo treatment, and that the results were highly significant (P=0.008).

Homeopathy in practice

A service evaluation at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital recorded the outcome of homeopathic treatment in over 6,500 consecutive patients. In this study, carried out over a six-year period, 70% of patients reported an improvement in their health.¹² The best clinical results were seen in the treatment of children with eczema and asthma, and adults with inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal problems and migraine. Other conditions which improved after homeopathic treatment included arthritis, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.

A German study involving 493 patients seen in general practice found that treatment by a homeopath gave better outcomes than conventional treatment for similar costs.¹³ This study was commissioned by a German health insurance company to see whether they should continue to cover homeopathic treatment. The outcomes and costs of homeopathic and conventional treatment were compared in patients being treated for chronic conditions including headache, low back pain, depression, insomnia and sinusitis in adults, and atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis and asthma in children.

In the laboratory

75% of in vitro experiments have found that substances as dilute as homeopathic medicines have specific effects.¹⁴ For example, homeopathically-prepared thyroxine can slow down metamorphosis of tadpoles into frogs.¹⁵ These results were replicated by five separate laboratories in Austria and confirmed by the results of similar experiments carried out by an independent team in Brazil.¹⁶ The homeopathic thyroxine used was so highly diluted that you would not expect any molecules to be present.

Further information

It is frequently said that there is ‘no scientific evidence’ for homeopathy. Such a statement is incorrect for it ignores the positive research findings as outlined above. The homeopathic community welcomes more high quality research, however, to build on the existing evidence base.

For more information about homeopathy research please visit the Society of Homeopaths website at www.homeopathy-soh.org

References:

1. British Homeopathic Association. The Research Evidence Base for Homeopathy. www.britishhomeopathic.org/export/sites/bha_site/research/evidencesummary.pdf [accessed, Dec 2010]

2. Taylor MA, Reilly D, Llewellyn-Jones RH, et al. Randomised controlled trials of homoeopathy versus placebo in perennial allergic rhinitis with overview of four trial series. Br Med J 2000; 321: 471–6

3. Reilly D. Reilly D. The Evidence For Homoeopathy, published by Adhom, Glasgow. http://www.adhom.com/adh_download/EVIDENCE_9.0_Sept_06.pdf

4. Bornhöft G, Wolf U, Ammon K, et al. Effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of homeopathy in general practice – summarized health technology assessment. Forsch Komplementärmed 2006; 13 Suppl 2: 19–29

5. Jacobs J, Jonas WB, Jimenez-Perez M, Crothers D. Homeopathy for childhood diarrhea: combined results and metaanalysis from three randomized, controlled clinical trials. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2003; 22: 229–34

6. Vickers A, Smith C. Homoeopathic Oscillococcinum for preventing and treating influenza and influenza like syndromes (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2006; CD001957

7. Barnes J, Resch K-L, Ernst E. Homeopathy for postoperative ileus? A meta-analysis. J Clin Gastroenterol 1997; 25: 628–33

8. Jonas WB, Linde K, Ramirez G. Homeopathy and rheumatic disease – Complementary and alternative therapies for rheumatic diseases II. Rheum Dis Clin North Am 2000; 26: 117–23

9. Wiesenauer M, Lüdtke R. A meta-analysis of the homeopathic treatment of pollinosis with Galphimia glauca. Forsch Komplementärmed Klass Naturheilkd 1996; 3: 230–6

10. Bellavite P, Ortolani R, Pontarollo F, et al. Immunology and homeopathy. 4. Clinical studies – Part 2. eCAM 2006;3: 397–409

11. Schneider B, Klein P, Weiser M. Treatment of vertigo with a homeopathic complex remedy compared with usual treatments: a meta-analysis of clinical trials. Arzneimittelforschung 2005; 55: 23–9

12. Jacobs J, Jonas WB, Jimenez-Perez M, et al. Homeopathy for childhood diarrhea: combined results and metaanalysis from three randomized, controlled clinical trials. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2003; 22: 229–34

13. Spence D, Thompson E, Barron S. Homeopathic treatment for chronic disease: A 6-Year, university-hospital outpatient observational study. J Altern Complement Med 2005; 5:793-8.

14. Witt C, Keil T, Selim D, et al. Outcome and costs of homeopathic and conventional treatment strategies: a comparative cohort study in patients with chronic disorders. Complement Ther Med, 2005; 13: 79-86

15. Witt CM, Bluth M, Albrecht H, et al. The in vitro evidence for an effect of high homeopathic potencies – a systematic review of the literature. Complement Ther Med, 2007; 15: 128–138

16. Endler PC, Heckmann C, Lauppert E, et al. The metamorphosis of amphibians and information of thyroxine. In: Schulte J, Endler PC (eds). Fundamental Research in Ultra High Dilution and Homoeopathy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998

17. Guedes JR, Ferreira CM, Guimaraes HM et al. Homeopathically prepared dilution of Rana catesbeiana thyroid glands modifies its rate of metamorphosis. Homeopathy, 2004; 93:132–7