Tag: FelicityBooty

health

Understanding Osteopathy: The Body’s Self-Healing Power

felicitybooty

Osteopathy’s whole foundation relies on one amazing thing about the body: it’s self healing capacity. The body will always try to heal itself e.g. wounds, tears and strains. There will always be blood and inflammation rushing to the area to heal those tissues. Osteopathy has this phenomenon at its core. The body heals itself and if its not healing, then why not?

Our bodies do an amazing job of maintaining an equilibrium and this is what we call health. Our eating, sleeping, breathing, toileting, moving, laughing, crying and more, are all wonderful expressions of health. To appraise someone osteopathically is to look at all these uniquely individual expressions of health. To understand what is working and what needs support. Osteopaths are great at listening to understand what’s going on for each patient, but they are also amazing at listening with their hands. Osteopaths build up an encyclopaedia of textures and sensations that they feel with their hands, coupled with their knowledge of anatomy and physiology, it is a bit like having hands for x-ray machines.

Osteopathy is never just about looking at a sore part, whether it’s a sore back or neck or knee or a sore tummy in a baby, as that is only a part of the picture. Our body works as a whole, so when a part hurts, osteopaths look at how each person is functioning as a whole. So we ask ‘Why is it happening? and ‘Why is it not resolving itself? But we also ask ‘Who are you?’ ‘ Where is the health?’ ‘What needs to change for you to be able to heal this more effectively?’

Sometimes the change that is needed is just about re-establishing movement and balance within the body. But often it is about re-establishing movement and balance within the body AND within that persons life. To experience health, our lives need joy, movement, variety, purpose, creativity, love, sovereignty and belonging. Without these fundamental elements of human existence, we hamper our body’s ability to flourish. Exercise is helpful in rehabilitation, but joyful movement with something you love, well that is a game changer. That gives you a skill to support your health for life.

Questions to ask yourself

What movement do you enjoy? This can be anything – walking, swimming, yoga, dancing (in the kitchen or out) singing, table tennis etc How do you feel?

Where is the creativity in your day? This is not only creative arts, it might be creating meals for your family, creating spreadsheets? creating schedules etc It’s whatever gives you a creative buzz.

What brings you joy?

health, pain

Understanding Pain

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There are many different types of pain, different reasons for starting, it has different affects as to what we can and can’t do, and there is a myriad of different combinations of what makes it better or worse. So how can we possible understand what pain means? In this blog we are going to delve deeper into what pain means, and therefore what it is that we can do in response.

From my experience of seeing thousands of people in pain, I understand that the first thing we all want to do when we get pain, is for it to stop! It’s uncomfortable, it stops us doing things, we can’t think straight, so of course, the quicker it goes the better. But who ever we are, whatever age we are, young, old, fit, healthy, health challenged etc we will all feel pain. It is a universal human experience. Pain is are bodies way of giving us information about an area(s) that needs our attention. Focusing our attention in on understanding our unique pain, gives us the tools to help ourselves. Ignoring it, only leads to our body needing to ‘shout’ a little louder for you to hear next time. So let’s delve a little deeper into what it is our bodies’ are trying to tell us.

To take the next step, we need to really feel all the sensations going on in body. Allowing ourselves this time, space and safety to ‘let go’, so that whatever is going on, we can say to ourselves ‘I’m ok, this is happening, so I need to feel it, I’m safe to feel it’. Just taking this first step to listen to your body, can open up the possibility for healing and change. When we can feel, then we can start getting some clarity.

Our Inquiry

What kind of sensation is this? (hot, cold, throbbing, fizzy, tight, sharp, dull, achy, weak, heavy, unbalanced, not me) If we have clarity on what character of sensation it is, then we know more about it, and when it changes.

Where is it coming from and going to? Where does it start and finish? Sometimes when we have a sensation for a long time it can feel like our whole body is involved, so its good to map out areas of different types of sensation. As with all these questions, when we take on the role of the observer, we can give ourselves perspective rather than being overwhelmed with sensations. It is from this stance that we are able to help ourselves more affectively.

What makes it better and worse? This really gives us tools to help ourselves, and can empower us to make decisions that put our welfare first. E.g. standing or sitting for too long aggravates, so in my day I need to change my position regularly. Or: lifting really hurts, so I’m going to ask for help with lifting, or making sure I have allowed myself more time to do something/ change how I cuddle my child-sitting rather than lifting them up on my hip ( our children have more understanding than we give them credit for). Or – sitting on the sofa is bad, so I’m going to put an upright chair in the lounge while I heal etc. Or cold really helps, so I keep some frozen peas ready for when I need them.

The last question is – What thoughts and emotions do I have about this? Are your thoughts going into overdrive – because I have this pain I will no longer be able to do…. because I have this pain, it will never go. Because I have this pain it means I’m useless/ I’ve fail, not a good enough parent/spouse/employee. All these thoughts, and there are a plethora of examples, add another layer for your body to cope with. A pressure or a deadline, or an ultimatum – ‘there is not much point in looking after myself because I’m useless’ or maybe you are convinced that you are doing all the ‘right things’ to help yourself, yet your body still hurts because actually they aren’t the right things for you, at this time, with this type of pain. Which brings us nicely back to where we started, and checking in with what is actually going on, what you feel, where is it, what makes it better and worse and what thoughts have I attached to this sensation?

I’m hoping by now you are beginning to understand that what we experience in our body is unique to us. There is no one size fits all, and by being open to understanding your own unique pain, it opens us up to understanding what our body is asking us to do and not do, without our heads getting in the way. We have the tools, we can make sure we have the motivation – to get better, and now you have the framework to start trying it out.

Our experience of pain or discomfort, could then be the opportunity to connect with yourself better, not a reason to disconnect. Let me know how you get on and what insights you gain from allowing yourself to feel and understand your pain.

health, menopause

Menopause

felicitybooty

By Seema Bhandri

Following on from Felicity’s post on the perimenopause she asked me to share my own experience of the perimenopause and how it affected me, what I discovered when I researched it and what helped and worked for me, as well as resources I used or have found along the way. 

My Story

I went into an early menopause in my early 40’s and only realised when I stopped a hormonal contraceptive pill. I’d had no periods on the pill, which was a normal occurrence on that type of pill, and they never returned, and it was all a bit of a shock when a blood test (FSH) showed I was post menopausal. On reflection my periods had been dwindling in my late 30’s with occasional gaps of 2months here and there. As Felicity eloquently put it you have either stress hormones or oestrogen hormones, and at that time in my life I was busy starting a new career as a GP, and working and adapting was a stressful time. In hindsight I do feel stress played a role in my perimenopause journey. 

On writing this I notice a couple of things, firstly, I talk of ‘my’ periods. I see how we relate to our menstrual cycle is very personal. How bothered we are by them, how much we take notice of them, how much we like them or dislike them. The same is true in my clinical experience of the menopause. Everyone is different in how they are with the changes and that can change over time too. 

Secondly the shock I felt. I hadn’t anticipated the arrival of the menopause so swiftly. Looking into it I found that 5% of women in the UK experience an early menopause (see below). An early menopause is defined as it occurring between the ages of 40 and 45. Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a menopause that occurs before 40 years old. This is much less common. The shock is and was for me like a grief. At that time and even now I don’t feel we really are that open about that aspect of it. 

All that said the symptoms that really triggered me to find out what was going on was not the lack of periods (I had thought the lack was just related to the pill working it’s way out of my system) but forgetting names of people, word finding difficulties and quite overwhelming anxiety. I was also seeing an acupuncturist for sleeplessness. But I hadn’t pieced all together! This is not an unusual feature…. the symptoms being a bewildering array that often we don’t connect together! Thankfully there is much more information out there in the public domain following celebrity publicity (eg Davina McCall) and good sources of information exist now like https://www.balance-menopause.com. 

After the penny dropped I found acupuncture helpful for the hot flushes that were keeping me awake! And within 3 sessions things were improving. And that was partly because acupuncture brought back my periods briefly. And worked well to control my symptoms for several months. 

I remember a friend telling me about a book called Natural solutions to menopause by Marilyn Grenville because at that time there wasn’t as much information available online. I used the book to direct me to herbs especially sage tincture initially then I did seek help with a medical herbalist. I tried yoga breathes that were like a dog panting (sitali pranayama) for the hot flashes! I used magnesium for the night cramps and reduce the anxiety/help sleep. I did try over the counter herbal mixtures and they didn’t work as well as a concoction that was directed at my symptoms. 

I did some training in functional medicine in 2017 and in the process of doing a gut reset diet I went sugar free and found all my peri menopausal joint pain went and my sleep improved considerably allowing for more tolerance of the remaining hot flushing/night sweats symptoms. 

Over time I recognised the more active and stress free I was the symptoms were hardly noticeable. An example was a sabbatical I took where I walked  4-8hours each day. And spent a lot of time outdoors, away from work in the NHS the symptoms were unsurprisingly absent! 

I met patients in the NHS managing the symptoms so differently, as I realised what was affecting me I got more interested how patients were managing the thing that I too was trying to get my head around. I met patients who knew, for example, if they did 3 classes of aerobics a week they coped well. Some changed their diet too to great benefit.

Fortunately more and more has been written/spoken about the perimenopause and menopause, and GPs are better equipped (https://thebms.org.uk/education/rcog-bms-menopause-advanced-training-skills-module/  ) to answer questions, sometimes, and maybe more workplaces/society are aware of the profound changes that can occur.

I noticed a big change when the pandemic came along, my symptoms significantly deteriorated and all the usual places I would have gone weren’t available so I briefly for a time went on to HRT from the doctor. Somehow it helped but never really felt like it was what my body wanted….I used to forget to take it and find myself not using it regularly. 

As time passed the symptoms have come and gone. I’ve found the strategies that worked for me: changing my diet, managing stress, and most importantly being active, have been the most helpful and loops back to Felicity’s blogpost. I feel it was an opportunity to know my body better, and it was a real reckoning of the toll stress takes. And was part of the unfolding impetus to change careers. 

One other book I read was Passage to Power by Leslie Kenton. It was about the menopause being a time for women  to come into their own sense of themselves. And around the same time I listened to a radio 4 programme about the whale menopause (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mxv62) which was curious and consolidating somehow. 

As much as learning strategies to cope, the menopause changed my perspective of what it was to live with a sense of wellness and integrity of purpose. 

Reference

Early and premature menopause
https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/womens-health/later-years-around-50-years-and-over/menopause-and-post-menopause-health/early-and-premature-menopause/#:~:text=Menopause%20before%20the%20age%20of,before%20the%20age%20of%2045.

Other Resources 

Home

https://www.daisynetwork.org for women affected by Premature ovarian Insufficiency 

Home
Menopause Wellness Hub

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk

https://www.womens-health-concern.org/help-and-advice/menopause-wellness-hub/

children, health, pain, parents, Pregnancy

Our Bodies and Trauma, Shock & Accidents

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Trauma is commonly associated with catastrophic events or long term abuse. These events will surely leave someone vulnerable to trauma, but everyday occurrence like a fall, a medical procedure or a bump in a car might also cause a trauma response that leads to long term symptoms and loss of resilience. This is because trauma is not the event. It’s the way the body’s nervous system perceives, processes and assimilates the event.

If the body perceives an event as threating, a fear, flight, fight response is initiated. This mobilises the body to get away from a threat by pumping large quantities of adrenaline throughout the body. We are all familiar with this sensation of a racing heart and shaking, and in our children they cry, scream, shake, flush red or go pale etc. This burst of energy is not something that can be rationalised in the moment, but if ignored or controlled rather than released, then the process won’t complete, and that energy will stay ‘stuck’.

Then there is the ‘freezing’ response to trauma or fear. This again is when the body is overwhelmed with fear, but instead of mobilising to run, the body stops, collapses, the mind dissociates, because it can’t process what is going on. We can see this in the wild when animals ‘play dead’, to try to evade being eaten. In humans we see it when we have been exposed to a traumatic event but they act like nothing is wrong. Or when someone is very quiet after an accident and they just aren’t quite here.

I describe these two states, because 1) There is a lot you can do to help the people around you, so they can complete the cycle of trauma, rather than it staying in the body, especially children 2) As an osteo, health often means helping patients resolve their body responses to trauma. For example, Mothers, fathers and babies that have been through a shocking birth or their entrance into the world did not go to plan, meaning that the start of being a family is very different than they expected. I see children that are exhibiting hyperactive type symptoms, but actually allowing their bodies the release a fight, flight response means they can regulate better. And children who can not tolerate sound and changes in their lives because they have an overwhelmed nervous systems that has ‘frozen’.

First Aid for Accidents and Fall

This is taken from a book call Trauma-proofing your kids by Peter Levine and is a great read for any parent. Making yourself familiar with how shock and trauma is processed will enable you to help when the time is needed. This ensures a completion of the physiological cycle, rather than it getting stuck.

  • Attend to your responses first. Take time to notice your own level of fear or concern. Take some good full breaths, and as you exhale slowly, sense the feelings in your own body until you are settled enough to respond calmly. An overly emotional or dismissive adult may either frighten the child or shut down their fear response so it cant be released.
  • Keep your child still and quiet. Because your child’s body is surging with adrenaline this maybe difficult. Use a firm confident voice with a ring of authority that conveys a loving manner, that you are in charge of protecting them. Keep your child warm with a jumper or blanket and dont let them move on their own.
  • Encourage plenty of time for safety and rest. This is particularly true if your child shows signs of shock (glazed eyes, pale skin, rapid or shallow breathing, disorientation, overly emotional or overly flat expression or acting like nothing has happened) Do not allow them to jump up and return to play. Help your child know what to do by modelling a relaxed, quiet, and still demeanour. You might say something like “After a fall, its important to sit (lie) still and wait for the shock to wear off”
  • Hold your child. Avoid clutching tightly, as well as excessive patting or rocking, as it may interfere with natural bodily responses. In older children its suggested that you place a hand on their back or upper arm near the shoulder. A warm ‘healing hand’ can help your child feel grounded as your calmness is directly communicated through touch.
  • As the shock wears off, guide your child’s attention to his sensations. The language of recovery is the language of the instinctual brain-which is the language of sensation, of time and of patience. Just as touch is important so is your tone. Softly ask you child how they feel ‘in their body’. Repeat his answer as a question – “You feel okay in your body?” and wait for a response or nod. Be more specific with the next question ” how do you feel in your tummy (head, arm, leg etc)?” If he mentions a distinct sensation, gently ask about its location, size, shape “colour” or “weight”. Don’t worry about what these sensations mean; the important thing is that your child is able to notice and share them. keep guiding your child stay in the present moment with questions such as “how does the rock (sharpness, stingy, ‘owie’ feel now?”
  • Allow one or two minutes silence between questions. This may be the hardest bit for parents, but its the most important part for your child. This allows any physiological cycle that maybe moving through your child’s system to release the excess energy and move towards completion. Ques that the cycle has finished include a deep. relaxed spontaneous breath, the cessation of crying or trembling, a stretch a yawn, colour coming back into the face, a smile, an orientation to surroundings or making eye contact. Wait to see if another cycle begins or whether it’s time to stop. keep in mind there is a lot happening in your childs nervous system that maybe invisible to you.
  • Do not stir up a discussion about the accident or fall during initial first aid. It’s best not to ask questions to alleviate your own anxiety or curiosity. The reason for this is that the ‘story’ can disrupt the rest period needed for the discharge of excess energy that was aroused. Telling about it can wind kids up. After the release happens, your child may wish to tell as tory about it or draw a picture. Refrain from shaming statements such as “I told you that you would get hurt playing on those stairs”
  • Continue to validate your child’s physical responses. Resist the temptation to stop your childs tears or trembling. But keep contact with them, reminding them that what ever has happened its over and they will soon be okay. In order to return to equilibrium your child’s discharge needs to continue until it stops on its own. Your job is to use a calm voice and reassuring hand to let your child know “It’s good to let the scary stuff shake right out of you”. The key is to avoid interrupting or distracting your child, or holding her too tight or moving too far away.

Uncategorized

COVID update January 2022

felicitybooty

10th January 2022

High infection rates mean caution is required to keep the practice open. I have reviewed my infection control policy and feel that the level of PPE, cleaning and ventilation of the room should still remain the same.

If you have any symptoms please call to rearrange your appointment. If you have had close contact with someone with COVID, please either cancel your appointment for 10 days or I will need a negative PCR followed by negative lateral flows on the subsequent days since the PCR.