Tag Archives: pain

Pain & Homeopathy

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Why taking painkillers in not the best long-term strategy for pain

Taking painkillers when nothing else has worked to temporarily reduce it is sometimes necessary. However, this should only be used in last resort and in part of a strategy to try and eliminate the pain in a natural way, in accordance with how the body work.

The various types of medical drugs classified as “painkillers” have serious side-effects and they are just “hiding the pain”, letting the body degenerate while switching off the nerve signals that carry the pain. Painkillers kill about 8,000 people a year in the US, and Paracetamol alone is the foremost cause of acute liver failure in the Western world and liver failure death in the UK.

What causes Pain?

Pain is a complex experience consisting of a physiological (“body”) response to a noxious stimulus followed by an affective (“emotional”) response to that event. Pain is a warning mechanism that helps to protect an organism by influencing it to withdraw from a harmful situation. In acute pain, 2 phases are perceived, an immediate, intense feeling of short duration, sometimes described as a sharp, pricking sensation, followed by a dull, throbbing sensation.

The chronic pain is more often associated with pathological conditions such as cancer or arthritis, it is more difficult to locate and treat. If pain cannot be alleviated, psychological factors such as depression and anxiety can intensify the condition, complicating an already challenging treatment situation.

How can Homeopathy and Nutrition Help

If pain is due to a physical trauma and an accident, then operation and physical treatment may be required (such as seeing a sports massagist or a chiropractor).

As many people know, I have turned to homeopathy when painkillers could not help me for a severe type arthritis that was crippling. me. My homeopath, on the first consultation told me that he had to sort out my digestive system before addressing the joints. Interestingly in about 40% of the cases of arthritis and joints’ pain, people have serious stomach or digestive issues, that need to be addressed first, or the body will not be able to absorb the nutrients to heal.

Then, people need to address their diet, even before taking supplements: supplements will not absorbed if the digestive system is unable to absorb and the right diet is implemented. For more tips, have a look on my website. In parallel, the right homeopathic remedies can be used to start the healing mechanism in the joints, and reduce pain.

For such issue, it is always better to consult instead of self-prescribe, because when the joints start to deteriorate, it is usually harder to reserve.

Painful Periods? Don’t Let Your Hormones Wreck Your Life!

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A lot of women come to a complementary health practitioner because they suffer from pre-menstrual tension or find it very difficult to get on with life when they have their monthly periods (known medically as ‘menses’). However, even more women put up with distressing symptoms, thinking these are a normal and unfortunate part of life.

"menstral cycle", "menses", "menstruation", "period cramps"

As I like to point out, a normal cycle should be symptom-free and especially pain-free. Can you imagine life four or five generations ago when most women had to work in the field or in the house all day long? On average, a woman will menstruate about 550 times in her life. Why would nature be so mean?

The menstrual cycle is normally extremely well regulated, and governed by the pituitary gland, located deep in our brain. After ovulation, sex hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone increase heavily in the bloodstream to prepare the body for possible pregnancy. When fertilisation has not occurred, the pituitary gland asks the body to clear the womb, triggering menses.

This big shift puts pressure on the whole body’s resources. Poor nutritional habits, chronic stress and toxicity all take their toll on the body’s ability to deal with these hormonal changes.

The main conventional approach is to prescribe the birth control pill, in effect synthetic oestrogen and progesterone. While this can bring temporary improvement, women on the pill should be aware that this is not a long-term solution and can be a major hormonal disrupter. The most common listed side-effects are:

Liver & metabolic issues – hepatitis, jaundice, nausea (very common), gallstones, diabetes, osteoporosis

Hormonal –  fibroid, ovarian cancer,  endometriosis, breast cancer (with a doubling of chances)

Digestive system – flatulence & weight gain (very common)

Nervous system – mood change (very common), depression, loss of libido

Cardiovascular system – irregular heartbeat (25% increase), thrombosis, blood clots (triples the risk)

This is primarily because the liver has to deal with processing this huge hormonal load, and this has an impact on both the liver’s functions and the hormonal system. If you are concerned, check your prescription or on the following website for your specific pill: www.netdoctor.co.uk .

Some Helpful Suggestions

If you are on the pill, I would suggest that you follow the nutritional advice on my website for the digestive system, and also take some herbal support for your liver.

If you are not on the pill and you suffer from hormonal issues, then a consultation is probably the best way to discover whether your specific problems are caused by stress, diet, or supplements. Some strategies include:

  • support for the liver support and the nervous system (magnesium/potassium for example).
  • provide some natural herbal support to retune the hormonal system, such as Agnus Castus Ginseng or Black Cohosh.
  • provide homeopathic remedies for the acute pain, such as Mag Phos 30C or Colocynthis 30C.

Enjoy a healthy month!

Image reproduced from lifephysio.co.nz

Exercises to Deal with Back Pain

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The Rossiter System Workouts explained:  fast, safely and effective therapy for back pain

This revolutionary stretching technique was developed by and named after the American, Richard Rossiter, a couple of decades ago and only came to England about 3-4 years ago. It is a fast, safe and effective method to help people with back pain!

Since 2003, I have been very passionate about helping people with complementary therapies: and I feel that this is by far the quickest way I learnt to help people to literally step out of pain.

How do Rossiter System workouts work? All you need is a Rossiter System coach who will put one clean socked foot on a part of your body, depending on where your pain is. You work as a team; you, the person in pain, are in charge. The warmth of the foot,  a bit of weight that  is put on your limb and the movement that you will be instructed to do under the foot, will stretch the connective tissue – a network of ligaments, tendons and fascia that holds everything together – in a way that it has probably never been stretched before. The Rossiter System workout gives the body  the space it has lost over time either through injury, overuse, bad posture or a mixture of those.

What happens in a session?

Let’s imagine that we are dealing with a client who suffers from back pain. The client gets to lie on a yoga mat on the floor, face up. The Rossiter System coach will put one foot on the side of the client’s leg. This may sound strange as we are addressing back pain but it works. If it’s an acute problem in the back, we will do the exercise on the leg of the same side, if it’s a chronic problem, we will do the exercise on the opposite side. The coach will put as much weight on the leg as the client can take at this point. The client needs to move the limb under the foot as well as the opposite leg according to the coach’s instructions. After 3 repetitions, the client may get up and walk around the room for a bit. After a few “laps” the client stands still and checks out the back, i.e. s/he does a few movements that were painful or restricted to do before this exercise. What happened? Is the movement easier? is there more range of movement? how is the pain? Then the client goes back on the yoga mat for the next challenge. We do 3 different exercises on the same leg and then the client decides which of these 3 exercises s/he felt benefited the most in terms of his/her back. That would be the one that we are going to do on the other leg to balance things out.

Let’s face it, people don’t necessarily like these exercises – as they will be somewhat uncomfortable to do – but people love the results! People don’t mind going through that bit of discomfort to finally be out of pain/discomfort in everyday life!

I often see people with rounded shoulders – due to too much work on the computer, too much driving etc – tennis or golfer’s elbow, knee pain, sciatica, frozen shoulders etc. They usually feel the benefits and changes from this workout almost instantly. The improvement is also quite visible for those with rounded shoulders. You can see the shoulders drop down and move back in just one session! We do one arm first, have a look in the mirror and then do the other. It’s usually noticeably improved.

This workout may well save you time, energy and money in the long run!

 This article was written by Elke Hausler, a practitioner at Salus Wellness Clinic in Cambridge