Natural Cures from Shared Care

Research has shown that 68 out of 88 people (77%) who used self-hypnosis - positive thinking skills techniques had clinically significant improvement.

Now YOU can download the same techniques for  Acne   and also  A Slimmer You,    Agoraphobia,    Back Pain,    Carers,    Irritable Bowel Syndrome,    Migraine,    Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,    Panic Attacks/Anxiety,    Premenstrual Tension,    Relaxation/Sleep - FREE DOWNLOAD   as an MP3 file.

The Important Starting Point!:- Keep a diary covering at least four distinct IBS attacks and closely look at the 48 hours before each attack to identify any common factors. Eliminate those factors, starting with the easiest first.

Stress reduction is big business these days and there are a great many stress counsellors and companies providing plans to help people address the stress of modern living. The basic ideas of stress reduction are simple and in the spirit of this advice they will be presented to you simply. The main objective in stress reduction is to reduce the amount of the hormonal soup that circulates in the blood as a result of the long-term arousal of the fight or flight process and which in turn cause the long-term problems associated with stress. It is the prolonged high levels of this hormonal soup that are not dispersed by physical activity that contribute to the stress and thus the IBS. The ways that this can be achieved are to prevent the hormonal soup being made in the first place (Routines, identification and elimination of stressors, talking therapies) and doing something to make it go away once it is there (touching therapies, and physical exercise), These things may not always be practical in every day life so there are various self managed therapies including brief contact therapy, electrotherapy and biofeedback or any other reputable talking therapy on cd or mp3)

Prevention of stress is achieved by taking control of your life in areas where you feel that it is out of control and that involves living with a routine that is comfortable for you. Some people find that they manage better with a rigidly timed routine and others like the day split into three or four compartments where the boundaries are moveable. For instance, the person who always leaves for work at 8am; arrives there at 9 am; opens the post until 10am; answers the letters until 10.30 and then has precisely 15 minutes for a coffee would find the kind of regime that I followed quite happily as a GP to be too loose. By contrast I would have found the rigidly timetabled life too restrictive.

I used to arrive at the surgery at 9am and see my morning patients until they were all seen, then have a coffee whilst dealing with the correspondence and repeat prescriptions. After that would come the house calls and if time permitted a swim at lunchtime. At 3 pm I returned to the surgery and completed any paperwork before seeing the afternoon patients. There were few fixed timings in that routine and an important point - it also factored in some time for myself that involved exercise.

Point 2:- Have a comfortable routine that works for you (preferably written down) and stick to it.

There are many things that produce stress in our lives whether at home, at work or generally in the world. They will continue to cause havoc and produce and maintain the harmful hormonal soup if they are not addressed or avoided. At the end of every day it is worthwhile spending ten minutes replaying the events of the day that has just ended and identifying one cause of stress for action. The most important part of that process is making sure that the identification is accurate enough to be able to deal with the problem sensibly. For instance it is no good saying that the problem is "I hate my boss and everything she does" because that is not a specific enough problem to be able to be solved. It would need to be a much more specific issue such as "My boss criticised that last report that I wrote". Having identified the problem then you will need to form a plan to solve it.

A potential plan for the example given would be to see your boss and find out exactly and specifically what was wrong with that report. This would also require the goodwill of your boss and your boss's willingness to sort things out, because she will need to calmly define what she thought was wrong in order to tell you in a way that enables you to act sensibly and solve the problem. This might turn out to be impossible for your boss who will have her own stresses. You will always need to be prepared to mark some problems as insoluble. In that circumstance you will need to decide whether you can put up with the problem being insoluble as it is or whether you need to get out of the situation that you are in. That can be a very difficult decision but it needs to be faced. Either way forward is an improvement on a simmering resentment.

Similar examples may occur in your home life. The day needs to be examined at its end and a defined stressor identified. For example "I hate the way he moans about my cooking" is not a soluble problem, whereas "We must find out what we would both like and cook it together" turns the issue into an action that could be performed constructively. As you can see the first statement concentrates on the hate you have towards the moaning which is your response to the problem rather than the issue itself, which is the cooking. The second alternative concentrates on finding out the detail of the problem so that it may be addressed. These are probably different approaches to those that you have tried before and the best way of breaking the vicious cycle of anger and blame is always to do something unexpected. Whilst the example given is unlikely to be serious enough to cause a break-up of the relationship in an extreme case the problem may not be soluble at all. Then you have to focus away from it or have to accept and tolerate it or remove yourself from the situation; the last is a most difficult and serious decision.

Point 3:- Sort out a stressor a day.

There are a great many talking therapies that are effective in dealing with stress. They come in many guises but some of the best known are: - cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnotherapy, autogenic training, relaxation and visualisation, meditation and counselling. The scientific evidence of their effectiveness is slowly being produced. Migraine is a well researched problem in this area and there are many published papers dating back to the 1970s. These suggest that hypnotherapy is a treatment of choice for people with migraine, and by extension IBS. However it would be helpful to investigate and choose a suitable one for yourself, if only to provide relaxation on a regular basis.

Brief Contact Therapy

This is one technique with scientific evidence. The editor of the European Society of Hypnosis Journal (Hypnos) coined this name when that journal published one of my research papers. Hypnos is a peer-reviewed journal of high standing in the hypnosis world. This means that the research was reviewed by at least three independent experts who are not known to the researcher. There is always suspicion that any work produced by a lone researcher is biased and almost anything he says or writes invites the response "he would say that, wouldn't he". The use of peer reviewing ensures that the research is reputable and unbiased as the reputation of the publication rests on the rigour of its science, protected by the independent peer review. The research in question into migraine used a relaxation visualisation technique recorded on to audiotapes and showed that three months after they started listening to the tapes 83% of the participants had an improvement in either the frequency or the severity of their migraines or indeed both. Round about 70% had a markedly noticeable improvement.

I believe that migraine, irritable bowel syndrome and eczema share a common causation and may be looked at as different facets of the same problem, and that they potentially share a common remedy. There are Cd and MP3 based self hypnosis techniques. Select one that suits you. Any further selection of treatment or therapist is beyond the scope of this advice.

Point 4:-See your therapist regularly and/or listen to cd or mp3 daily according to its instructions.

Touching and massaging therapies release "happy hormones" into the body that are different from the fight and flight complex. These produce relaxation of mind and body and cut the production of the stress inducing hormonal soup. Touching and massage can usefully be combined with the talking therapies that work on the stressful thoughts, rather than their effects. Touching and Massaging therapies include Indian Head Massage, Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Shiatsu, and Acupuncture. It is important to mention that any massage of the neck and shoulders that loosens spasm of the neck muscles will generally increase the blood flow to those neck muscles. Although that would seem to be harmful during the over widened phase of migraine the diversion of the blood from the head to the neck will reduce the flow through the widened blood vessels, and thus reduce their size and all its bad effects. Massage and osteopathy directed at the neck, would seem to be more likely to be beneficial because of their focus on the neck. There are many institutions that provide part time tuition for basic touch therapies such as head massage and aromatherapy so it may be worthwhile investigating these to practice with your partner.

Point 5:- Choose a touching therapy and have it regularly

Exercise therapies can be expensive and so is the gym or swimming pool. Exercise, especially something like brisk walking for half an hour three times a week, will help to reduce the harmful hormonal soup; will release quantities of helpful "happy hormones" and is potentially free. What you are doing in effect is initiating the flight response in a controlled way. It does not matter too much if this flight is some hours after the hormonal soup has been produced because the object is to reduce the longterm background quantities of these hormones and this is what regular exercise does. The cheapest form of exercise is brisk walking. Jogging is probably less helpful from a general viewpoint as there is a tendency to injure leg and back joints from the constant jarring on hard surfaces. If you are at all overweight then swimming is probably the best exercise as this removes this risk of joint jarring and subsequent injury.

• Keep a Diary of 4 distinct attacks of Migraine
• Have routine and stick to it
• Sort out a stressor a day
• See your therapist regularly and/or listen to cd/mp3
• Have a touching therapy
• Exercise for half an hour three times a week