Laser treatment heals nerve damage

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Personal story: Following a routine hand operation Mandy Sutcliffe-Spencer of Stevenage, was left with pain and deformity in her left hand, and the medication for the pain “scrambled” her brain.

Most unusually the 45 year old mother of two had a ganglion growing inside her left wrist and needed to have an operation. ‘It grew to four inches and was very uncomfortable so surgery was recommended,’ Mandy explains. ‘Before the operation in December 2012 the ganglion burst which relieved the pressure, but it was then completely removed in surgery.

‘Something must have gone wrong during the operation because my hand wasn’t straight, and I couldn’t make a fist. My ring, index and little fingers curled under when I tried to make a fist and my hand was uncomfortable. The doctors diagnosed the problem as ‘fluid complex regional pain syndrome’ which was odd as I wasn’t in pain as such, although my shoulder hurt when I lifted up my arm. They prescribed Gabapentin for me, medication for epilepsy, but it caused a lot of side-effects and my brain was completely scrambled.

‘I couldn’t do my job properly and once I went to work wearing odd earrings – this kind of thing was not like me at all. My brain didn’t seem to be connected to my left hand at all and I kept missing and dropping things. It just didn’t feel like my own hand. I had always had a speech impediment and it got worse. I am an administrator in a school and I couldn’t see my mistakes so I was in danger of losing my job. Life seemed very black.

‘My parents had been to Stephen Makinde at his Perfect Balance Clinic in Hatfield, Herts, and persuaded me to go and see him. He thought I was suffering from nerve damage from the operation and told me that I was using the wrong muscles in my upper arm when lifting things. He gave me laser treatment with K Laser, and some exercises to retrain my muscles and I was soon pain free. I became able to make a proper fist and with his help I was able to wean myself off the medication so at last I felt more normal.

‘I can make a fist without having to concentrate, but I still have some problems with lack of sensation – I burnt my finger the other day because I didn’t notice immediately that it was burning. Because of my love of singing and dancing my whole life revolved around having two hands. If this hadn’t worked, I don’t know where I’d have been now.’

K Laser is being trialled at the hand therapy department at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, particularly for carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, Quervains’ and diabetic wounds. However, it is available privately at various clinics and is being used for sports injuries, osteoarthritis, and other deep tissue injuries.  It is also widely used in vets for animals with arthritis and injuries.

Contact: Stephen Makinde, Perfect Balance Clinic, www.perfectbalanceclinic.com

 

Early menopause on the increase

‘A leading women’s health expert, Dr Marilyn Glenville, claims that more and more women are having an early menopause – before 40 and sometimes in their 20s.  The normal age for ceasing periods is between 45 and 55 with an average of 50 years old.

‘The numbers are increasing and now around one in 20 women is having an early menopause,’ Dr Glenville says. ‘The good news is that doctors are recognising what is happening better, but the bad news is that this is more than likely to be due to the “ladette” lifestyle that more women are indulging in.’

There are of course women who have an early menopause due to reasons beyond their control, such as severe stress or because there is a family history of an early menopause.  However some of the main causes of this syndrome known as POF (premature ovarian failure) are poor diet, smoking, alcohol and stress.

Dr Glenville suggests that chemicals in our environment can also have a huge effect on the hormonal system in the body.  She believes that the increased use of non-stick pans may be another cause because the chemicals released by the non-stick coating are known to be hormone disruptors.  Other factors are radiotherapy treatment, surgery or problems with the autoimmune system when the woman’s own tissues knock out ovarian function.

Sterilisation may also induce premature ovarian function, as can too much stress. ‘When the body perceives that there is dramatic stress it shuts down ovarian function. This stress can even be the result of going on a crash diet which is perceived by the body as a famine situation. This is why crash diets can be seriously damaging to your long-term health.

One of the key questions to ask a woman in consultation is when their mother had her menopause because it usually follows the same pattern.  It ‘s possible that her mother had an early menopause because she smoked, so if the woman doesn’t smoke herself it may be that she will have the menopause later than her mother.

Dr Glenville believes that GPs have traditionally misdiagnosed POF and often the woman has gone away and come back in a year’s time with the same problem. ‘Recognition is improving now, but the problem is growing.’

Apart  from the obvious distress of becoming infertile when ovaries are no longer functioning, women run a greater risk of getting osteoporosis, brittle bone disease. See the article What is Osteoporosis? Marilyn explains, ‘If they have POF at (say) 30 they are going to have an extra 20 years without the body producing oestrogen.  This means they are far more likely to develop osteoporosis which is more prevalent in women who are post-menopausal.

‘Although I write books on alternatives to HRT for menopausal women, it is essential that women have hormone replacement therapy in these circumstances at an age when the body should be producing oestrogen.  Once they reach normal menopausal age I don’t believe they need hormone replacement therapy because nature has designed women not to produce oestrogen after menopause.’ 

See What is Osteoporosis?

Read Marilyn Glenville’s books, Natural Solutions to the Menopause, and Osteoporosis, The Silent Epidemic – both available from Amazon by clicking on the carousel on our home page.

Dr Marilyn Glenville practises in London and Tunbridge Wells: 08705 329244, www.marilynglenville.com

Unlock your own power – Seka Nikolic

I’d only heard good things about the bio-energy healer Seka Nikolic, and had interviewed her in the past. I went with an open mind for a healing session with her. The first thing that I noticed when I arrived was a notice saying you know more than you think.  I think this is probably very true, and reading Seka’s book later I am convinced that we all have the power to be ‘tuned in’ like she is.

For anyone who’s wary of healing there is no need to be. It was incredibly relaxing as I lay on the couch and Seka put her hands on me.  I am very sensitive to this kind of thing and immediately started feeling movement within my legs and a kind of tingling all over.  I had a few ailments, some of which I’d mentioned, some of which I hadn’t but I hadn’t said anything about my state of mind.

Seka picked up on the things I’d mentioned, and brought up one or two more which she was accurate about – old problems that I hadn’t mentioned. She also said exactly what I needed to hear about a number of issues that were bothering me, again about which I hadn’t told her. She seemed to assess the situation well, but when I started reading her book You Know More Than You Think I realised that it was part of her thinking – to try to be a neutral observer not analysing and not attached to an outcome – great idea but not always easy to achieve.

Seka was born in Sarajevo, lived a fairly normal life, apart from losing her mother at 18. One day at work she felt compelled to lay her hands on the shoulders of a colleague. He was in a wheelchair and as she stood touching him she felt considerable pain in her own body until she lifted her hands away. He was completely shocked, got out of his wheelchair and walked out of the room for the first time in years.

If this sounds incredible, maybe it is but it happens. There are plenty of sceptics about this kind of work – but imagine being the woman who tried for years to have a baby, trying every possible fertility treatment and ending up with one, two, three or even four children.  Seka has done plenty of work with women who are having problems conceiving. Some come to her as a last resort after multiple rounds of IVF, some have heard of her reputation and come to her before trying fertility treatments.

‘I try to find the reason why they’re not getting pregnant and whether the block is emotional or physical.  Women become very stressed when they go through IVF and stress makes the body less receptive. They often become obsessive about having a baby and stress builds up between partners,’ Seka explains.

‘Some people have tried everything and often couples have been told they will never have a baby. Sometimes we have success in one or two months.’

One couple went through IVF 10 times before going to see Seka. After 15 years of trying they are about to have a baby soon.  ‘ She came for five sessions in a week and it took one month for her to conceive. She didn’t believe it would be possible but she let go of her tension and gave me space to heal her.’  Another woman who wasn’t even ovulating now has four children.

The treatment initially consists of a session each day for five days for maximum impact. Most people have some sort of release in the first couple of days – crying, laughing, and other powerful emotions.  They need to take it easy at first and eat lightly and healthily but she finds that most people have settled down after a few days.

Seka’s book You Know More Than You Think demonstrates her conviction that we overlook the power of the mind. How many times have you thought of someone and they ring you the next day?  Why is it we believe in the technology for mobile phones but cannot grasp the concept of distance healing?  Seka believes we all have the power to be intuitive but we don’t acknowledge it.

Seka Nikolic practises near Finchley Road, London NW3,  www.sekanikolic.com

0207 443 5544.   Sessions cost £143 for half an hour.   

Books: You Know More Than You Think and You Can Heal Yourself by Seka Nikolic, are both available at Amazon. Click on the Amazon carousel on the home page.

How not to get fat – Ian Marber

Eat every 2½ hours during the day, combine carbohydrates with protein and make it a way of life.

Oh if only it were so easy, but actually it probably is. Ian Marber is a well know nutrition therapist, broadcaster and author of several health/nutrition books. His message in his new book, How Not to Get Fat – Your Daily Diet, is deliberately simple –

• Never get so hungry that you’ll eat everything in the fridge.
• Combine carbohydrates and protein to slow down the conversion of glucose to energy in the body.

With the prevalence of sweets, chocolates, cakes, biscuits, sugary drinks and much more in our shops and supermarkets it’s easy to fulfil every hunger pang with a sugary snack. This boosts energy and makes you feel better, but not for long as it’s quickly followed by a slump in energy. Insulin is produced in the pancreas to convert glucose to energy, and with so much sugar in the diet, it is working overtime – resulting in more and more cases of diabetes when insulin becomes depleted. Excess glucose in the bloodstream is stored in fat cells, and contributes to people becoming overweight and obese.

‘Carbohydrates are converted to glucose rapidly,’ Ian explains. ‘Complex carbohydrates (wholegrain bread, brown rice and pasta) take longer to break down. Add protein to these and you slow down the process even more. Protein lowers the impact of what you eat on your blood glucose levels.’
He doesn’t compromise – in large letters he writes in the book, ‘It is imperative that we eat protein with complex carbohydrates. Always without fail. Every single time.’

Ian told Healthy Soul, ‘This is not a diet – it’s a way of eating for life. If you stick to this way of eating forever, there’s no need to count calories, or GI (glycaemic index) points.’

Eat regularly

‘If you eat every 2½ hours you don’t get overly hungry which usually means that you eat all the wrong things, forget that you’re supposed to be on a diet and continue until you feel better.’ Three main meals a day is a given, but interspersed with a (healthy) mid-morning snack and a mid-afternoon snack. Healthy snacks include:

  • fruit salad topped with mixed seeds
  • two slices of ham, wrapped in lettuce on two oatcakes
  • two rye crackers with cottage cheese and cucumber
  • low fat houmous with sliced carrots

No faddy diet

According to a news report on January 13th this year, this is the date when people give up their new year diets. The aim of Ian’s ‘how not to get fat’ message is to create a consistent way of eating that becomes a way of life. It is not a faddy diet that you give up after a few weeks.
‘The fewer rules there are,’ Ian explains, ‘The easier it is to follow. If you give someone lots of rules they only follow the diet at the beginning. The aim of this way of eating is that you do it forever.’

Recipes to suit everyone

How Not To Get Fat combines a host of great recipes with nutritional advice about how to shed pounds in a sustainable way. It suits vegetarians and carnivores equally with plenty of lentils, beansprouts, soya and Quorn recipes plus interesting ways of eating oily and white fish, pork, veal, poultry, duck lamb, goat and venison. The recipe pages contain detailed information about how the foods, how to choose them, how to cook them. For example, Ian explains which is the best salmon and trout to buy and why, how farmed salmon doesn’t contain as many nutrients as wild or organic salmon and why.

With Ian’s advice and recipes there’s no need to feel that you’re giving up something to lose weight. You can have a varied, interesting diet with a broad spread of foods, which enables you not only to lose pounds but to keep them off long term.

Buy How Not to Get Fat from the Amazon carousel on the home page.

Cancer proof your diet

Advice from Dr Julian Kenyon, integrated medical expert, on how to prevent cancer through diet, and nutritional advice for cancer patients
The explosion in cancer in the last 15 years can largely be attributed to the growth in toxins in our diet, according to Dr Julian Kenyon.
It is thought that dietary factors account for some 30 per cent of all cancers in the west.

Julian Kenyon’s points on cancer:

Cancer grows in an acidic body but most of what we eat (meat, cheese, eggs, grains, sugar, soft drinks) are acidic
An alkaline body is ideal for optimal health as tumour cells dies off – eat raisins, bananas, avocados, carrots, beetroot, potatoes and rhubarb
Organic fruit and vegetables are higher in vitamins and minerals
They also contain more isoflavones, which are cancer protective
Spinach (preferably organic) has been proven to reduces the chances of breast cancer, so eat two or three times a week
Cooking meat at high temperatures – like BBQing – produces chemicals that damage cells

He claims that nutritional toxicity is affected by increased sodium – from the excessive salt in most foods – and too little magnesium and potassium. When someone has been treated with chemotherapy or surgery they need nutrients to prevent the body feeding off stored fat and protein, which can impair the functioning of the immune system.

What to avoid

Coffee, tea, alcohol and caffeinated drinks like cola
Processed foods
Saturated fat
Red meat
Smoked and cured meats

Eat plenty of:

Whole grains such as brown rice, oats, wheat and barley, because it minimises the production of oestrogen which is instrumental in causing breast cancer.
Seeds – sesame, sunflower, pumpkin
Fruit and veg – preferably organic

Eat in moderation:

Eggs
Fish – preferably fresh oily fish
White meat and poultry – preferably organic
Sugar – tumours feed off glucose

Dr Kenyon says that maintaining optimum nutrition and using the correct supplements for each individual can provide many benefits for anyone living with cancer, including:

Strengthening the immune system
Rebuilding body tissue
Decreasing risk of infection
Improving strength and increasing energy
Improved tolerance to cancer treatments
Faster recuperation after treatment
Improved quality of life

Dr Julian Kenyon is a director of the Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine, London and Winchester, 01962 718000, www.doveclinic.com