Complementary Health News: Summer

 

June - Natural Healing for Stress and Trauma


by Josephine Clegg, Traditional Acupuncturist, Sleaford Natural Health Centre

A human being is designed to live on earth. This involves the ability to process and resolve stress and trauma of every kind.

When a human being suffers a trauma, which for some reason or other the body can not or does not deal with, the trauma gets retained, suppressed and isolated somewhere in the body or mind. This will compromise the healthy functioning of the body and / or mind.

Exam Time

One example of this would be the effect of stress on the memory (brain) and body (nerves).

Exams can stress one out, and this makes studying a difficult and unpleasant experience. If the stress is treated and defused, then studying can be easy, with the body and mind relaxed and open to enjoy the reality it is experiencing. This state of being allows the brain to absorb information with ease and be able to process and relay it as appropriate under pressure.

Traditional Acupuncture, Massage, Osteopathy and Reflexology are just a few of the natural methods available to defuse your stress and enhance your experience of life.

Diet and Lifestyle play an important part in how we are able to process stressful situations. Flower remedies, such as Rescue Remedy are widely known to help in times of panic or stressful experiences. Breathing and stretching exercises are often suggested to help patients copy when faced with a stressful situation.





Birth Trauma and Learning Difficulties
Another example of trauma often not dealt with, is the simple compression of the cranium (skull) during birth.

Very often, certain bones of the head do not re-settle correctly after birth, creating abnormal pressure on certain areas of the brain. These children grow up being incorrectly labelled as hyperactive or colic babies or crying babies or learning difficulty children. Often some children labelled as autistic are simply suffering under the pain of extreme pressure of the brain due to compressed cranial bones.

A caesarean baby may avoid the compression of the skull, but then risks other traumas; for instance, the reflexes necessary for changing from life in the womb to life outside the womb are not triggered. The squeezing of the baby through the birth canal provides us with our first treatment and massage all in one. What's more, with a caesarean the membranes surrounding the brain can suffer undue strain due to the sudden change of pressure, unlike a slower vaginal birth.

Birth trauma can affect the way we see the world and react to our experiences in it. Depleting our energy throughout life because this energetic imbalance has not been corrected.

As we go on through life, confronting whatever is along our path, we resolve what we can. The rest becomes baggage for us to drag along, wasting our true potential.

Do not let stress become a learning difficulty, or allow a learning disability to become a stress.

Complementary Medicine can work in a natural way to allow traumatic experiences– held in the body, mind or spirit – to be resolved, so a person can reach their true potential.

Find a natural way to help you resolve your issues, and add life to you days, and not just days to your life, …or… are you adding …daze… to your life?

 

 

 

July - You Are What You Eat! Foods For Health / Foods That Heal


by Josephine Clegg, Traditional Acupuncturist, Sleaford Natural Health Centre

Food is about more than taste and weight control. Foods have medicinal qualities also. Complementary health practitioners will consider your Diet and make recommendations as both a means of diagnosing your condition and treating it. Oriental traditions and modern nutrition work hand in hand.

Most of us know the need for a balanced diet with five portions of good quality, fresh fruit and vegetables daily for a healthy lifestyle. But there is more to it than that. Foods have energetic and healing properties and by eating foods in their natural season, they can be used to support our systems, build healthy bodies and minds.

No one diet is right for everybody. Different foods suit different people according to their individual constitution. The flavour, colour, shape, and thermal nature of individual foods determine the manner in which they will affect body energy.

For instance, the five elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, in Chinese Medicine, relate to the respective seasons of Spring, Summer, Late Summer (August/September), Autumn and Winter. Each element has different flavours or tastes and cooking methods associated with them and have specific effects on our bodies' energy. A balanced variety of foods from each of these groups can provide maximum health benefits. Too much of any one group can cause excess conditions and be damaging. Generally, we should eat foods that are locally produced and in season – as we are part of the same environment, they will benefit us the most.

Although it may not feel much like it, July is in the height of Summer.

For Summer and the Fire element (the element associated with Summer), the bitter taste found in foods like rye, coffee, dandelion, rhubarb, aloe vera juice and chicory makes energy descend and cool to benefit digestion, but in excess can be drying causing constipation. Fire energy relates to maximum growth, the heart and small intestine, relationships, parties, laughter, love and fun. If our Fire energy is low, we might feel lonely, lack confidence or joy. To lift Fire energy, use ginger, cinnamon, cloves, rosemary, oats, chicken, beef or lamb, outward growing vegetables, like spinach, kale or broccoli or fruit growing around a central pit, like plums.


Similarly, with the other seasons, the associated flavours are:

·  Sweet, e.g. honey, carrots or wheat, for Late Summer / Harvest to lift lethargy and heavy aches caused by humidity. But too much, especially refined or concentrated sweeteners, causes digestion and weight problems.

·  Pungent, e.g. onions or cabbage, for Autumn to promote sweating and eliminate colds, flu and toxins or clear bowels.

·  Salty for Winter, e.g. shellfish, seaweed, soya sauce, remove toxins and soften tissues, but too much can cause high blood pressure or oedema.

·  Sour for Spring, e.g. citrus fruits, yoghurts, berries, consolidate and astringe, help diarrhea and loosen muscles for work, but too much tightens tendons.

 

Therefore, an appropriate balance of the five flavours with a variety of fresh foods is an ideal diet. The thermal nature of foods describes whether they cool or warm the body or are neutral.

As each of the elements are within us (as they are in all of nature), in different amounts, foods from each group can be used as appropriately advised by a qualified practitioner to balance our energy, so promoting good health, and treat and prevent a wide range of illnesses. Traditional Acupuncture looks at your Diet and Lifestyle to allow you to help yourself in this way and so hand control of your health back to you.