Wet sock treatment for the common cold

This image is taken from Google Images
If additional credit is required please contact me
To understand the relevance of this image to my cold....read on


I have a cold...or rather I had one
Earlier this week I started with the usual (for me) scratchy throat, followed by progression through the process of a streaming head cold, accompanied by a general sense of grottiness.
Patient appointments were cancelled or postponed, and I settled down to the few days of head-cold misery that seem to come round once a year at most.
E-mails needed catching up with, and one was particularly relevant - as will become clearer, just as my head became clearer.....
Some of the self-help books that I wrote back in the 1980s are long out of print, and rights have reverted to me.
This means I'm free to try to hawk them to another publisher, or to publish them myself, neither option being of particularly interest.
But a few months back I was contacted by my old publisher, and told that they wanted to re-aquire rights to 5 of my old self-help books, to be published by their Asian subsidiary, for the Indian market in particular.
There was no payment offered, and a miserly royalty based on income from sales was suggested, based on very low priced paper back editions. In other words I might just look forward, in a year or two, to receiving a few hundred pounds!
However, since these books were stone dead, even this slight flicker of life was welcome.
The email that is relevant to this posting carried a message from the publishers telling me that 2 of the 7 (yes seven) books they were republishing had already been issued, and the others would be soon.
I had a Poirot moment as my cold-addled brain sensed something was amiss.
.........5 books had become 7. I emailed back asking for the republished book titles, and when this information arrived I compared them with last year's agreement...... and lo and behold the publishers had simply taken 2 titles that were mine and published them without consent. After a quick call to the legal department of my wonderful 'trade union', The Society of Authors, I triumphantly I informed the publishers of their error(s), which led to a small interchange of messages, ending with a slightly better deal for me on the royalty front.
And then I thought.... what about the other titles?

What about the ones that also deserved to be republished, but which had been ignored?
I took one of these down from its place on the shelf and - as my cold progressed, and my head became ever stuffier, looked through it.
Hydrotherapy was first published back in the 1994, and while it is long extinct it certainly (as of today) is still available on Amazon, second-hand at under £2 a time.
It's a jolly good little 'consumer' book, compact, informative, an easy read.... and as I browsed through it, I spotted the wet-sock treatment for the symptoms of the common cold.
Was this roundabout, convoluted teasing, involving the email correspondence with my publishers, all a synchronistic ruse by cosmic forces to eventually get my attention onto something I should have remembered anyway?
Whatever cyber-string-pulling all this entailed, here I was, with a head full of cotton-wool and mush, but with the solution in my hands (or feet)!
I went to my clothes drawers and located the equipment : a pair of cotton socks, and a pair of woolen socks.
After a hot bath, I wrung the cotton pair out in icy-cold water, and put them on, immediately covered by the (dry) woolen pair..... and hopped (or more accurately, collapsed gratefully) into bed.
The socks soon warmed up, my head cleared, and I slept like a baby.
In the morning the socks were dry and my head was 70% better.
Was it the sock treatment - or would I have been better anyway?
I don't care, but the sooner I can get the water therapy book republished, the sooner you can find out. On the other hand, because my cold is better...here's the protocol, taken from the Bastyr University website:

" A natural method of stimulating the immune system and zapping a cold or flu is called the 'wet sock treatment'.
The treatment, which is commonly prescribed by physicians at Bastyr Center for Natural Health, involves putting on ice-cold socks and … are you ready for this? … sleeping in them! It may sound strange, but it works because it rallies the body’s defenses, according to Jamey Wallace, ND, clinic medical director at Bastyr Center for Natural Health, Seattle.
And the best part about it is that it uses the healing power of nature and doesn’t cost anything. The treatment is known as a "heating compress,” meaning that it's up to the body to heat the cold, wet socks, says Dr. Wallace. “The body reacts to the cold socks by increasing blood circulation, which also stimulates the immune system. You have to ‘rev up’ the immune system, so it’s ready for battle against the affliction or condition.” This treatment acts to reflexively increase the circulation and decrease congestion in the upper respiratory passages, head and throat. It also has a sedating action, and many patients report that they sleep much better during the treatment. The treatment is also effective for pain relief and increases the healing response during acute infections. The wet sock treatment is used in conjunction with other modalities to treat inflammation, infection or soreness of the throat, headaches, migraines, nasal congestion, upper respiratory infections, coughs, bronchitis and sinus infections. It’s best to start the wet sock treatment on first day of an illness, ideally repeating it for three nights in a row. People with chronic conditions or a compromised immunity should consult with a naturopathic doctor before starting the wet sock treatment.
Dr. Wallace also points out: “The wet sock treatment is only one component of an integrated treatment plan that includes hydration, proper nutrition and immunity-boosting supplements.”
At Bastyr Center for Natural Health, practitioners can work with you to formulate a comprehensive immunity-boosting plan.

Wet sock treatment Supplies:
1 pair of very thin socks, liner socks or polypropylene socks
1 pair of thick wool socks or thick polypropylene socks 2 sets of sweats or pajamas
1 bowl of ice water
Directions:
1. Soak the pair of thin socks in the bowl of ice water. Then wring the socks out thoroughly so they do not drip.
2. Take a hot bath for 5-10 minutes. This is very important for the effectiveness of the treatment. In fact, it could be harmful if your feet are not warmed first.
3. Dry off feet and body with a dry towel.
4. Place ice-cold wet socks on feet. Then cover with thick wool socks. Put on the first set of pajamas. Go directly to bed. Place the second set of pajamas next to the bed. Avoid getting chilled.
5. Wear the socks overnight.
During the night, you may wake up with your whole body wet from sweat. If so, change into the dry pajamas, but leave on the socks. You will find that the wet cotton socks will be dry in the morning"
This information is for educational purposes only.
Consultation with a licensed health care practitioner is recommended for anyone suffering from a health ailment.

..... enjoy!

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Is the new evidence about antidepressants depressing or liberating?

Hypericum - St.John's Wort

This is a brief posting as time pressures are reducing my opportunities to detox via this superb medium.

I am writing this because this morning's news from the BBC regarding antidepressant use was really upbeat, from my perspective, since it highlights just how unreliable are many of the claims made by the pharmaceutical companies.
The headline was to the point: "Anti-depressants' 'little effect'.
It continued to state that research at the University of Hull has shown that anti-depressant prescription rates have soared, but that 'new generation anti-depressants' offer little clinical benefit for most patients.
The researchers concluded that the drugs actively help only a small group of the most severely depressed.
To no-one's surprise the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, have announced that they disagree with the research findings.
This furore coincides with Alan Johnson, the current Health Secretary, announcing that 3,600 therapists are to be trained during the next three years, in England, to increase patient access to talking therapies, which ministers see as a better alternative to drugs.
Well if not better, probably safer?

In light of the current witch-hunt against aspects of complementary health care in general and homeopathy in particular, a comment by the Lead Hull University researcher, Professor Irving Kirsch, is particularly pertinent: "The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking anti-depressants is not very great."
Perhaps the BBC should consider deleting all mention of conventional medicine from their website, just as they have done in relation to complementary health care, until the vast majority of current medical methods - mostly based on modest (or 'selective') evidence at best - come through with verifiable evidence?
The bureaucratic decision to eliminate all mention of complementary health care from their website (apart from the odd current 'news' piece) is blamed by BBC executives on 'economic considerations', which is pretty laughable (in fact is far funnier than much that passes for comedy on the BBC nowadays).

The truth is that this public service organisation, that increasingly appears to follow Stalinist 'top-down' centralised thinking, and which devotes much of its' news programmes to politically correct social issues (think 'nanny state'), has - I strongly believe - no right at all to simply cut material from its website based on a campaign by 'quack-busters', so ignoring over 20% of the British public who support and utilise complementary health care on a regular basis.

A backlash will doubtless emerge, and in due course the BBC will, I believe, back down - willingly or unwillingly.
I base this observation on 50 years of watching quack-busters in action. See an earlier blog posting on just this topic.
In an earlier posting I also discussed aspects of placebo power, and hope that the distinction is as obvious to you as it is to me, between a safe and an unsafe placebo use. If powerful drugs, marketed as antidepressants, are ineffective for most individuals, or are only effective as placebos, then safer inert substances that can do no harm, should be used instead.... or perhaps (dare I say this) safer herbal products such as St.John's Wort (hypericum) should be prescribed?
To be sure hypericum has also been shown in a 2002 study to offer benefit in severe depression that is no more effective than placebo in some respects, but better than placebo in others: "Although sertraline produced no greater effect than placebo on the primary measures, it fared better than placebo on the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale and produced results consistent with its known benefits."(Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group. Effect of Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort) in major depressive disorder: a randomized, controlled trial. JAMA, 2002; 287:1807-14)
.... and, just as in the Hull research, mentioned above, the study methodology and the interpretation of the findings by the researchers of the 2002 (hypericum) study have been criticized as flawed and misleading.
Some things never change....but at least we know a little more about anti-depressants now!

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From Fiddler-on-the-Roof to Westminster University - a nostalgic history

Photographs in this posting show:

Bernarr Macfaddden (aged 65)

Stanley Lief

Boris Chaitow (giving NMT treatment)

My Grandfathers General Store in Pilgrim's Rest (1915) - now a museum town,
where this building remains as a restaurant.
Those shown in the photo are (L to R)
Boris (front) and Max (my father) Chaitow,
their Mother Bertha, Father Charles,
an unidentified gold-miner


Thinking about content and topic for this particular blog posting has resulted in a feeling that might best be described as a cross between nostalgia and a sense of being compelled to offer detail of a history that is in danger of being forgotten.
Or, in regard to the feeling I have, as Golde says to Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, "Maybe it's indigestion"?
Now that random thought is also relevant, since Tevye's story shows him in Eastern Europe just before the pogroms of the early 20th century forced him and his family to flee. This is just what happened to the protagonists of my nostalgic reminiscence - Stanley Lief and Boris Chaitow. Lief's mother Riva, was the elder sister of Boris's father. Both Stanley and Boris having been born in Latvia, reached South Africa as refugees after their parents fled the persecution that followed the abortive 1905 uprising in Russia.
But I'm getting way ahead of myself, and as I write these words I am beginning to recall just why I feel as I do, and why this posting is about what it is.

Yesterday I presented a talk to the current students on the BSc Naturopathy course, at the University of Westminster. I was talking to this lively and intelligent group about the importance of the use of physical modalities in naturopathic practice (manual therapies, hydrotherapy etc.) in order to avoid the chance of naturopathy becoming a sort of 'green allopathy', where there is an excessive focus on the biochemistry of the body, and insufficient awareness of, and/or attention to, the biomechanics (and the psychosocial) components of the whole person.
In doing so I gave an historical overview of how naturopathic medicine evolved in the UK, part of which involved discussion of the pioneering work of Stanley Lief ND DO, without whose inspirational life none of them would have been sitting listening to me, and without whom I would probably be a retired accountant sitting on a veranda, somewhere in the new South Africa - a graying speck in the now slightly tarnished Rainbow Nation.

In my talk I was able to trace yesterday's mutual interaction back to a moment in time, over 100 years ago (circa 1900), when a sickly, overweight youngster, somewhere in the Eastern Transvaal, picked up a magazine 'Physical Culture', which changed his life, and mine, and the lives of the class to whom I was talking.
Stanley Lief was that boy, and his Father's country store was much the same as that of my Grandfather, Charles' (see photograph of the store in Pilgrim's Rest) - a cross between a general store, tobacconist, hairdressing parlour, post-office and newsagent - that dotted the gold-mining boomtowns of that era.
The magazine, published by Bernarr Macfadden, inspired Stanley sufficiently to get him to work his passage to the USA, where he studied with Macfadden (exercise, body-building, natural therapies). Over the next few years Lief also acquired naturopathic, chiropractic and osteopathic qualifications.

Just before the First World War, he found himself in Brighton, Sussex, managing Macfadden's clinic. Lief served as an ambulance driver and fitness instructor during that conflict, and after it ended, returned to Brighton and his work. A few years later a grateful group of patients funded the purchase for him of a magnificent Rothschild manor house near Tring, Buckinghamshire - Champneys - which Lief proceeded over the next few years to turn into the most famous health resort in Europe (still operating, but with a modified therapeutic approach).

By the mid-1930s Lief was attracting patients from all over the world to Champneys, and his work inspired his cousin Boris Chaitow to give up his legal practice in South Africa, and to cross to the USA where he studied chiropractic and naturopathy in Chicago, before joining Lief at Champneys, in 1937.

By this time Stanley had started a naturopathic and osteopathic college, to which a grateful patient donated a building in Hampstead, Fraser House. This remains the entrance to what is now the British College of Osteopathic Medicine (formerly - as when I trained there in the 1950s - The British College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy).
..... and of course, without all this, the naturopathic profession in the UK would probably not exist, at least not in its established form, with the solid traditions it has evolved, and certainly without one of its' finest gifts to the healing arts, Neuromuscular Technique (NMT).
This (NMT) manual assessment and treatment approach, developed by Lief (assisted by uncle Boris) in the 1930s, is now itself a major element of a degree course at the University of Westminster.
My role in all this was to tag along and document, promote and expand on the work that Stanley Lief and Boris Chaitow had started, and to attempt to keep the concepts they presented current and relevant - a sort of keeper-of-the-flame.

I feel better now, so perhaps the urge to document this short history in the blog was a form of (mental) indigestion after all.....

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Synchronicity again + Steiner and Healthy Skin

Rudolph Steiner

In a previous posting the topic of synchronicity was mentioned, and yesterday one of these cosmic wrinkles demonstrated itself again in a subtle linking of thoughts and activities.
I have previously urged visitors to this peripatetic blog to have a look at the blog produced by my remarkable daughter Sasha which - when she is not ranting at current demons in her life (such as bureaucracy) - explores aspects of her academic studies (MA at Exeter University) in Western esotericism. By osmosis (and by reading Sasha's blog postings) I have acquired a modest understanding of this topic, so yesterday, when meeting with colleagues in the New Medicine Group (Note: this is a temporary website, new one is in development) for a regular Monday late-afternoon continuing professional development session, my antennae tingled (a sure sign of a synchronistic event for me), when a particular topic was discussed.
One of the group Amanda Berlyn (Holistic practitioner, Dr Hauschka skincare expert)
was explaining the principled way in which the Hauschka products she uses in her work are created. Grown on the Biodynamic agricultural principles laid down by Rudolph Steiner (photograph) plants are harvested by hand and are then processed using extraordinarily complex, yet elegantly simple methods, which immediately made me think of some of the alchemical ideas that are being evaluated as part of Sasha's course material.

What fascinated me, in particular, were the processes involved in the Hauschka production process, when plant essences are extracted and preserved, without alcohol or any other chemicals, using a sequence of rhythmic exposure over a period of a week or more (as I recall) to various external features such as light and dark, heat and cold etc. The resulting tincture remains stable, and is then used in the various medicinal and beauty products.

Later in the evening I called Sasha (I'm in London, she's in Athens) and we discussed variously the snow that is disrupting normal activities in that city, and the damage it has done to the mini-garden on her balcony in the suburb of Neo Faliro.
I then launched into my description of the flower extract methods, Steiner's influence etc etc, all the time aware that modest chuckles were emerging as she too relaised that I had identified a link to her current studies - and then synchronicity revealed its part in all this.
Because of the snow Sasha's teaching had been suspended (as had all other teaching in Athens for the day), and so she'd been reading up on her present module material, and the topics included - Steiner's work and all that flowed from it, and his links with esoteric concepts and thinking.

As I say, when these irregular but not uncommon synchronistic moments occur, it is very very hard indeed to maintain a rational perspective.
There is no reason on earth that I should be exposed to Steiner's work (reminding me of topics I had come across many (40+) years back, but have not thought of since) on the same day that Sasha was reading about his work in depth for the first time.
Of course it is coincidence..... but that's part of the definition of synchronicity isn't it.
What fun!

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New edition of Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques - and a cunning Valentine's day plan goes wrong!

It may not be obvious to you, when buying a new edition of a book, just how much effort goes into the process. New material that has emerged via research and clinical work needs to be refined and melded with existing text, which itself needs to be trimmed of superfluous material, while each citation has to be evaluated to see if subsequent research has updated or invalidated it - calling for its' replacement or deletion.
All illustrations also need to be closely looked at to see if they need changing, ditching, replacing..... all within the tight constraints of the number of extra words allowed, and the number of illustrations budgeted for.
It's therefore far easier to write a book from scratch than to effectively prepare an existing one for a new edition.
Well, a new (2nd) edition has just been published of Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques (Volume 1, Upper Body), which I coauthored with Judith Delany...... and we (Judith and I) believe its a gem, a really beautiful and clinically useful book.
It is of course for others to say what they make of the expanded text, the new material, the revised totality of the book, that took eighteen months of close interaction between Judi in Florida, myself in Corfu, and the publishers in Scotland (before it was printed in China and distributed from who knows where)
Whenever a new book, or a new edition emerges Elsevier (the publishers) arrange for flowers and champaign to be sent to the exhausted and grateful authors.
This time the fact that publication coincided with Valentines day, as well as with my absence from Greece, helped me formulate what Baldrick (Blackadder series on BBC) would call a 'cunning plan' to get flowers delivered in Corfu without too much effort on my part.
I would ask for the wine and flowers to be delivered to Alkmini on the 14th, relieving me of the difficulty of arranging delivery from London via a local Corfu florist......but, I had reckoned without my key contact at Elsevier being away from the office just when I needed her!
So, on the 13th, plan B was initiated.
I called a sleepy Sasha in Athens (it was after all before noon and she'd been up most of the night studying and writing).
I explained my predicament, and we went through various possibilities as to how to get the red roses (of course) to her Mother, the next day...... and in the end I left it to her to arrange. In due course I was reassured that a relative, Maria, in Corfu would organise the flower delivery. Disconcertingly, later that day, when speaking to Alkmini, she mentioned that she had just received a large bunch of flowers from the self same Maria. ......
What was I to do?
Had the plan gone wrong?
Had Maria misunderstood and simply sent Alkmini flowers - not roses - on the wrong day, with no card saying they were from her absent husband?
'What sort of flowers' did she send you?', I clumsily asked ......'Why do you want to know?'...etc.
It was futile, I had to explain the whole story.....so the surprise was gone...... and we would not know until the 14th whether the roses would turn up.
But of course, they did!
Meanwhile what passes for normal life in Neo Faliro went on for Sasha.
Her computer played up (yet again); there were electricity problems (again); she had to bring her beloved plant population indoors from the balcony, in anticipation of the big-freeze forecast for Athens; emergency supplies (canned food, bottled water) had to be bought in, in case pipes froze, or the anticipated earthquake eventuated resulting in the dire consequences tabloids and tv were predicting (there had been 2 major ones in the previous 24 hours, fortunately under the sea and with no damage in the city) ..... and all the while the problems and pressures of her studies, work and assorted projects needed to be managed.

So, Valentines' day came and went, the flowers were delivered, and somewhere down the line, when I'm back in Corfu, wine (I don't like champaign) and flowers will be sent, and the birth of the 2nd edition of this mammoth text will be celebrated.
It really is a lovely book..... if I say so myself, without undue modesty

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Travel travails, and a tale of two icons

There's been a slight hiatus in blog postings as I transferred from Corfu to London.
The process was less than pleasant due to many hours of delay at Athens airport while the backlog of fog-delayed flights into London gradually cleared.
The delay induced the strong possibility that the Olympic flight might not take off at all, as the crew needed to be sure that there would be enough time to turn the plane around at Heathrow, so that they could be back in Athens before midnight in order to go on strike.......
Olympic staff are demoralised beyond words of course, and who can blame them?
The firm is bankrupt and has been for many years, limping along on government subsidies that are ruled as being illegal by the superstate bureaucrats in Brussels. The crunch seems inevitable, and the Greek flagship airline with its distinctive logo is likely to be consigned to history. So it's not too surprising that the staff are surly and uncommunicative as they face unemployment in a pretty desperate economic climate.
There's also a nostalgic echo about the possible closure, as many years ago Alkmini worked for the airline as a ground-hostess, both in London and Corfu, and she'll be sad to see the firm close down.
So the wait in Athens was horrible, but since I reached London things have gone more smoothly, largely due to a gloriously uplifting visit to Apple's cathedral-like megastore in Regent Street.
My session at the Genius Bar was almost spiritual, as I communed with a geek who really understood, and was able to iron out the quirks and idiosyncracies of my Macbook Pro, nudging the silver beauty towards even greater efficiency.
My backup Mac went into rehab for the weekend, as its' memory was on the blink. Once corrected it will return with me to Greece to start a new life as Alkmini's surfing companion, as her antique Macbook (all of 5 years old) retires, with its keyboard letters virtually smudged to nothing.
Incidentally I find it fascinating that I can type on its' blank keyboard with 90% of the keys being located correctly!
But what is it about Apple, and the hoards of like-minded devotees who scrummage outside the store every single morning for its' 10am opening? There are the shoppers of course, but most people just move serenely from area to area, playing with the hundreds of computers, iPhones and iPods of all colours and sizes; or who commute to higher level where the Genius bar, and the iPod bars are located, for one-on-one guidance into the mysteries of these technological marvels.....or they just sit in quite reflection in the mini-theater as incomprehensibly complicated usages are explained by what appear to be overgrown schoolkids.

You might have gathered that I like Macs!
And you won't be surprised to know that this is accompanied by an almost visceral dislike of clunky steam-driven PCs and the hideous operating systems they mainly carry (although Word is passable). It's all very hard to explain, and difficult to rationalise, but quite common with anyone whose been around Macs for any length of time.
Next week, back at the cathedral, when collecting my revitalised reserve Mac, I will investigate the new paper-thin version, and who knows, my Macs and I might have company when we travel back to Corfu in March!

I'll try to return to wider topics next time, but I can't promise......

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Synchronicity, Intuition and Sisyphus

Sisyphus (Σίσυφος) was clearly the theme of the dream that woke me this morning.

This mythological Greek King was - for complex reasons you can discover yourself by plunging into Greek mythology - condemned by the Gods to perpetually roll a huge rock up-hill, only to have it roll down again just before he reached the top. A never-ending task.....something we have all experienced, in reality or in our dreams..... or in my case, both.
The dream itself had little to do with rocks, but everything to do with a task that could never be completed - something I identify with in relation to the endless revisions of books, in order to keep them current and of value to those who invest in them for reliable up-to-date information. This background to my life clearly influences my dreamworld, as the theme of dream after dream seems to be an inability to complete some task or other, and to never quite arrive on time for a 'very important meeting'.
Last nights' beauty (memo to my unconscious: 'thanks! - I get the message!') managed to combine both elements - for I was late for a meeting of some sort, and was trying to climb a ladder that led to wherever this meeting was to occur, however the ladder (rope) was constantly descending as I scrambled upwards, rung after rung, to the bemusement of people who were heading down at the same time, to my increasing dismay and frustration.
I have a feeling that I woke just as I actually reached the top...... but heck, who cares, by that time I was exhausted!
And of course, I had over-slept, it was already 6am, by which time I have usually completed at least an hours work trying to get that rock up the hill. And since it's just 24 hours before I am leaving Corfu for London, I decided to abandon the rock-rolling tasks for today, and to settle down to the relaxation that writing this blog offers - since it allows me to freely express whatever surfaces that might be of possible interest to others, or to myself.

Today's blog posting was destined to focus on Krishnamurti (see last posting), however that will wait, as I really don't want to go there today and I feel that after my climbing of the rope ladder, I've earned the right to do what I want today - apart from packing that is.
Reading my morning emails (and my dream) may have triggered this posting, as one of them, from a Portuguese osteopathic colleague sent me on one of those synchronistic surfing journeys that can yield up wonderful links and discoveries.
As Wikipedia (sorry, but I have been seduced by its' easy access to what increasingly seem sound pages of information) says: 'Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related.'
Well, in this instance the two events are:

1. an interest I have in the topic of intution for one of my Sisyphean book revisions, and
   
2. the mention in the email from Portugal of Professor Antonio Damásio and his work on intuition.

One of the sites I stumbled on when surfing in search of Dr Damasio's ideas, quoted him as saying:"Intuition is the process of getting to a destination without knowing the route.”..... and .... “Sometimes you did not even know you wanted to get there.”
I like these encapsulated thoughts on what is a particularly fluffy concept, in much need of being explained - at least in my mind.

Synchronicity of course is another concept that defies easy dissection.
Jung discussed this in his slim volume Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. (1973 2nd ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press), and over his lifetime defined synchronicity in various ways: "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events", as well as "meaningful coincidence" and "acausal parallelism".
And it seems that intuition, at least in Dr.Damasio's analysis, involves the synchronous occurance within the individual of ;

• Something we see or hear, that can be described as an 'emotionally competent stimulus' that has not yet reached consciousness
• This subliminal stimulus apparently provokes an array of structures in the brain (mostly the limbic system) that trigger a complex somatic response to these sensory inputs.
• Catherine Wallace describes what happens next (according to Damasio):"These somatic responses are emotions, properly so called: the body's response to external stimuli that are significant in some way for pain or for pleasure, for joy or for sorrow. Emotions range from spikes in blood pressure to grimaces or gasps to the stunningly complex motor responses necessary to swerve in an instant at highway speeds and in the snow. Sweaty hands, pounding hearts, the cold churning gut: these too are emotions. Feelings, properly so called, are distinct from emotions as strictly defined. Feelings well up within consciousness .... as yet other structures in the brain catch up with what's going on both in the world and in the bodily response to it.
• "What we call critical thinking comes in even later than feelings. In fact, critical intelligence and problem-solving are stunningly dependent for their accuracy upon these primary neurological systems of somatic emotion and mental feelings. Life's ongoing flow of visceral responses and many-threaded feelings builds and later provides access to an otherwise minimally accessible archive of observations, experiences, and prior judgments."
  

Damasio explains, feelings kick in to "help us solve nonstandard problems involving creativity, judgment, and decision-making that require the display and manipulation of vast amounts of knowledge. . . . the state of feeling prompts the brain to process emotional-related objects and situations saliently"
.... which suggests (if we accept this brain-centered/data-bank of memories model), that what we ordinarily call "intuition" is a complex, somatic, subliminal repository of prior experience ... a sixth sense.

Or is it something else altogether?
More surfing is required, more reading and, intuitively speaking, more synchronicity.

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Krishnamurti, the Troubadour, and the Fabulous Fifties

Jiddu Krishnamurti

The 50s were every bit as exciting - at least to me - as the 60s. OK, the scene was drabber than during the somewhat frenetic Beatles decade, and London Inside and outside the Troubador now....much gentrified, but still there!
was still smog-bound and somewhat grey, but a heck of a lot was happening in what was, and, despite a great deal of social degradation, still is, the greatest city on earth.
And a lot of it was happening in Earl's Court, that amazing (then) melting pot of young Commonwealth, Old Empire, youth. Youngsters from down-under, Canada and South Africa (like me) crowded into the gently decaying mansions of SW3 and SW5.
My own perch in this exuberant zoo of a place varied over the years between 1957 and 1959, from a single cell-like space high in the Overseas Visitors Club at a cost of £3 per week (where - when I was not attending class - I stoked the boilers and worked at the bar for half-a crown an evening, 12.5 pence today) ..... to sharing a 'flat' in Cromwell Road (the building is still there despite the widening and mass demolition of much of that area) with two Australians (the smell of unwashed socks and stale beer remains an abiding memory, either of which instantly evokes whatever the opposite is of nostalgia).
And then, later, there were similar flat-sharing episodes. I can't recall the nationalities of the co-inhabitants, but we all shared a space in which to have a bath the kitchen had to be evacuated, and a large wooden cover removed that otherwise served as the working surface for meal preparation..... I think that particular memory, and other (un)hygienic elements, can be rapidly glossed over.
But, there was one benefit of that particular living space, for just around the corner, in Old Brompton Road, was the most exciting place in London - for me and for a multitude of ex-colonial youth, experiencing life in London for the first time......The Troubadour......and it's still there, with an added art gallery and delicatessan .
It's website describes it now as : "a proper café. The last 50s coffee house in Earls Court with a proud history as a low temperature centre of courtesy, peace and artistic energy." Nights in that heaving, crowded place, slowly sipping coffee, talking, and above all listening to music and poetry (in the basement mini-theater space - which is also still there), well fed and well watered (well you know what I mean) by the jovial owner, who ladled vast plates of spaghetti napolitan for the regulars, for a shilling (5p) or two.
And who played there?
Everyone, including a very young Bob Dylan....and of course there were, a short tube ride away - uptown, in Soho - coffee bars aplenty - such as the 2 ii's, where youngsters like Tommy Steel, Adam Faith and Cliff Richard exercised their budding talents to bopping, beehive-hairdo-laden, taffeta skirted and drainpipe trousered teens.
In these cramped spaces the energy and the music that was to become the 60s was beginning to bubble.
And - back at the Troubadour - what did we talk about when not listening to music, eating our pasta and drinking coffee? Philosophy, politics (I recall evenings being lectured on dialectical materialism and the evils of capitalism, by an intense Trinidadian student who went on to become a barrister, and very very wealthy) .....and of course art....which was inevitable, since many of these eager and talented immigrants were bound for stage, screen and other artistic destinations.
But, I suppose, the most passionate discussions of all were about higher things - rugby and cricket. As I recall through the mists of half a century that other ball-game, soccer, was hardly every mentioned as, for Australians, New Zealanders and, particularly, South Africans this was seen to be a somewhat effeminate hybrid of real football - rugby.
Despite evidence of skill by some of its participants, I still - when obliged to reluctantly watch a soccer game on tv - find myself muttering, 'why don't you pick the ball up you idiot, and run like a normal human being!'
The non-sporting philosophical conversations, arguments and debates at the Troubadour were as wide ranging as it's possible to imagine, and for a youngster with no previous exposure to any of this heady stuff.... really mind-expanding in a literal sense (try to imagine if you can just how philosophical you would be after growing up in the Northern Transvaal in the late 40's and early 50's!).
The aspects I latched onto seemed to revolve around the thoughts of that fascinating man, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and he and his extraordinary story will form the focus of the next posting, unless something diverts me from it. If it does, I'll certainly get round to it sooner rather than later, as he remains an abiding influence.....
......and a synchronistic thought, reading again Aldous Huxley's words from the Foreword of Krishamurti's classic The First and Last Freedom, takes me straight to my daughter, Sasha's blog posting of yesterday (Vitriol).......read it to see why.
Huxley said about the book that it offered a " clear contemporary statement of the fundamental human problem, together with an invitation to solve it in the only way in which it can be solved - by and for oneself."
.... just so.

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The Pelvic Floor Paradox & the Tennis Ball Trick

The Problem ?
Let’s start with a clinical trend I have become aware of, but have been unable to explain until recently. Over the past five to ten years, more and more of my younger, mainly but not exclusively, female patients have reported symptoms ranging from variable to acute pelvic pain, to stress incontinence, and interstitial (i.e., nonbacterial) cystitis.
Many of these patients had seen appropriate experts in genitourinary medicine and/or physical medicine, and most had been prescribed what can best be described as “toning” (Kegel-type) exercises for presumed laxity in their pelvic floor muscles, along with various forms of medication.
Now, clearly, the patients I was seeing were the ones in whom such treatment had failed. However, because the practitioners prescribing these methods continued to do so, I must assume they worked for many (and research suggests this is so). But they had not worked for those distressed (mainly) young ladies consulting me, whose lives were in turmoil because of considerable and sometimes constant pain in a very intimate part of their anatomy. All too often, these women were socially incapacitated due to their incontinence; with many unable to have normal relationships. And most of these women were no older than their early 20s.
Structural evaluation often revealed very well-toned musculature. Many had a history involving athletics, gymnastics or dance, and it also was common to have a report of emphasis on Pilates toning exercises, not uncommonly with insufficient emphasis on flexibility. Frequently, there was extreme shortness of some of the muscles attaching to the pelvis, particularly the adductors, hip flexors and the (“core stability”) abdominal muscles.
The evidence is that the problems in many of these unfortunate patients was not reduced tone, but increased and excessive tone.
In recent years medical and manual therapy practitioners have also rediscovered something demonstrated many years ago (Slocumb 1984) – that trigger points can cause all of these symptoms, and that the trigger points and the symptoms frequently can be removed manually - as reported later in this post.
Diversion to Australia
Before going more deeply into the high-tone/trigger-point connection, I want to take you to Melbourne, Australia, where a part of the complex picture began to fall into place.
The 5th World Congress on Low Back and Pelvic Pain (November 2004) was held in beautiful (magnificent might be a better word) Melbourne, where I was presenting a paper on the influence of breathing pattern disorders and motor control associated with back pain. On the same panel was Diane Lee, PT, from Vancouver, B.C. In front of some 1500 delegates, she was discussing and showing video clips of paradoxical behaviour of the pelvic floor in women with stress incontinence. (Lee 2004). Ultrasound images of the pelvic floor and bladder were shown in which, when asked to “retract” or “draw the pelvic floor upward,” quite the opposite happened and the pelvic floor, along with the bladder, dropped toward the floor - and the consequence was incontinence.
In real life, such women would try to prevent from wetting themselves by the natural response of tightening and drawing up and in. But what if the muscles trying to tighten and draw up were already as tight as they could possibly be? Perhaps the better response would have been to learn to relax these clenched muscles (or to have them manually relaxed), and to be able to influence the pelvic floor via a relearned awareness of muscle control?
This was Diane’s objective.
To me, the “wow factor” was the recognition that these women were almost certainly also going to demonstrate paradoxical diaphragm behaviour and possibly unbalanced breathing (and most do), which is one of my main areas of interest. (Chaitow et al 2002).
See the earlier posting in this blog "Breathing Patterns, Connective Tissue and Soft-Shelled eggs"
It would be fair to say that, after that presentation, my area of interest moved south, to incorporate that other diaphragm, the pelvic floor.
My belief is that if normal diaphragm (breathing) function can be restored and the pelvic floor muscles relaxed, re-education can take place efficiently and relatively easily. A part of that process requires that active trigger points – in the lower abdomen, inner thigh and sometimes internally – be deactivated as the muscles are restored to their normal length and tone.
But is there evidence for any of this?
Thiele Massage
Sometime before World War II, a physician named Thiele developed a technique in which coccygeal and prostate problems were treated by means of manual stretching of specific muscles, mainly levator ani. (Thiele 1937) This approach (see description in the third bulleted item below) currently is used in major centers in the U.S. to treat prostate pain and the sort of pelvic floor problems discussed above. (Oyama et al 2004)
Examples include:
• Chronic prostatitis involving nonbacterial urinary difficulties in men, accompanied by chronic pelvic pain (involving the perineum and genital organs), was shown in a 2005 study at Stanford University Medical School to be capable of being treated effectively using trigger-point deactivation together with relaxation therapy. (Anderson et al 2005) The researchers pointed out that 95 percent of chronic cases of prostatitis are unrelated to bacterial infection, and that myofascial trigger points, associated with abnormal muscular tension in key muscles, commonly are responsible for the symptoms. The one-month study involved 138 men. Marked improvement was seen in 72 percent of the cases, with 69 percent showing significant pain reduction and 80 percent improvement in urinary symptoms. The study noted that “Myofascial TrPs were identified and pressure was held for about 60 seconds to release [described as myofascial trigger point release technique - MFRT]. Specific physiotherapy techniques used in conjunction with MFRT were voluntary contraction and release/hold-relax/contract-relax/reciprocal inhibition and deep tissue mobilization, including stripping, strumming, skin rolling and effleurage.”
• Using similar trigger-point deactivation methods, Weiss (2001) has reported the successful amelioration of symptoms in (mainly female) patients with interstitial cystitis using myofascial release.
• The effectiveness of the Theile manual methods has been effective in treating (Holzberg et al 2001) high-tone pelvic floor musculature in 90 percent of patients with interstitial (i.e., unexplained) cystitis.
• A link between the sort of symptoms treated in the previous examples with sacroiliac dysfunction (SI), was noted in a study conducted in Philadelphia. (Lukban et al 2001) Sixteen patients with interstitial cystitis were evaluated first for increased pelvic tone and trigger-point presence, and second for sacroiliac dysfunction. The study reported that in all 16 cases, SI joint dysfunction was identified. Treatment comprised direct myofascial release, joint mobilization, muscle energy techniques, strengthening, stretching, neuromuscular re-education and instruction in an extensive home exercise program. The outcome was a 94 percent improvement in problems associated with urination; nine of the 16 patients were able to return to pain-free intercourse. The greatest improvement related to frequency symptoms and suprapubic pain. There was a lesser improvement in urinary urgency and nocturia.
• A French osteopathic study (Riot et al 2005) investigated a new approach to the treatment of irritable bowel problems (IBS) in which there was a combination of massage of the coccygeus muscle together with physical treatment of frequently associated pelvic joint disorders. One hundred and one patients (76 female, 25 male; mean age: 54 years) with a diagnosis of levator ani syndrome (LVAS) were studied prospectively over one year following treatment. Massage was given with the patient side lying on the left. Physical treatment of the pelvic joints was given at the end of each session. Results: Forty-seven patients (46.5 percent) of the 101 patients suffered both from LVAS and IBS. On average, fewer than two sessions of treatment were necessary to alleviate symptoms. The conclusion was that the LVAS symptoms may be cured or alleviated in 72 percent of the cases at 12 months with one to two sessions, and that since most of IBS patients benefited from such treatment, it is logical to suspect a mutual etiology and to screen for LVAS in all such patients.
So, this story is not just about pelvic pain and incontinence, but possible irritable bowel disease and, in some instances, sacroiliac dysfunction. Is this not a remarkable conjunction of influences, often linked to hypertonicity and dysfunctional patterns such as breathing?

The Tennis Ball Trick
A self-help option was offered to me by a therapist (ex-dancer) at a recent workshop. She reported she had suffered many of the symptoms outlined above, and had been instructed in Kegel exercises for her incontinence. She noted that these exercises had aggravated rather than helped her. A yoga therapist had then advised her to purchase a tennis ball and sit on it with the ball (placed on a firm surface such as a carpeted floor) strategically placed under the perineum; and to allow the pressure onto the ball to deeply relax the pelvic floor muscles for five to 10 minutes daily. She reported that this procedure was somewhat uncomfortable at first, but that the effects were dramatic in terms of her symptoms. I have since recommended this to several patients for home use and all have reported benefit.

Don’t Forget the Psychological Aspect
This is a complex story, and I don’t want to leave you with the impression that it can all be solved by a tennis ball, although this might offer symptomatic relief for many.
It’s essential to note that in many such cases of clenched pelvic floor muscles, there is a background of assault or abuse (although a great many seem to be caused by nothing more than mechanically-produced, excessive tone with a background of dance, athletics and bad Pilates). Where there is a psychosocial or psychosexual element to the condition, appropriate professional support usually is needed along with bodywork.
The information offered above should at least provide a sense of what might be happening in some patient’s bodies. Those trained in neuromuscular therapy know that aspects of this work usually are a part of that training. Information on Neuromuscular approaches is provided in Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques, Volume 2 (pp. 384-387). Working on relaxation of the region (adductors, etc., as a first focus!), possibly deactivating trigger points if they are readily accessible, along with breathing rehabilitation, offer practical ways forward.
And the tennis ball trick might just be an answer for some.

References
1. Slocumb J. Neurological factors in chronic pelvic pain: Trigger points and the abdominal pelvic pain syndrome. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1984;149:536.
2. Lee D. “Altered Motor Control and the Pelvis: Stress Urinary Incontinence.” Fifth World Congress on Low Back Pain and Pelvic Pain, pp. 138-154. Nov. 10-13, 2004, Melbourne Australia.
3. Chaitow L. Bradley D. Gilbert C. Multidisciplinary Approaches to Breathing Patters Disorders. 2002 Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh.
4. Thiele G. Coccygodynia and pain in the superior gluteal region. JAMA 1937;109:271-1275.
5. Oyama I, Rejba A, Luknan, A, et al. Modified Thiele massage as therapeutic intervention for female patients with interstitial cystitis and high tone pelvic floor dysfunction. Urology 2004;64(5):862-865.
6. Anderson R, Wise D, Sawyer T, et al. Integration of myofascial trigger point release and paradoxical relaxation training treatment of chronic pelvic pain in men. J Urol 2005;174(1):155-160.
7. Weiss JM. 2001 Pelvic floor myofascial trigger points: Manual therapy for interstitial cystitis and the urgency-frequency syndrome. J Urol;166:2226.
8. Holzberg A, Kellog-Spadt S, Lukban J, et al. Evaluation of transvaginal Theile massage as a therapeutic intervention for women with interstitial cystitis. Urology 2001;57(6 – Supp. 1):120.
9. Lukban J, Whitmore K, Kellog-Spadt S, et al. The effect of manual physical therapy in patients diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, high tone pelvic floor dysfunction and sacroiliac dysfunction. Urology 2001;57(6 – Supp. 1):121-122.
10. Riot F-M. Goudet P. Moreaux, J-P. Levator ani syndrome, functional intestinal disorders and articular abnormalities of the pelvis, the place of osteopathic treatment. Presse Medicale 2005;33(13):852-857.
11. Chaitow L, DeLany J. Clinical Applications of Neuromuscular Techniques, Volume 2 – The Lower Body. 2002 Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp.384-387.

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The MMR/Autism debate continues

Gillray's satirical cartoon dates from before immunisation methods were 'safe'..... but are they ever really 'safe'?
Today's BBC news leads with the 'clear statement that research 'proves' that MMR 'does not trigger reaction', i.e that there is no link between the triple vaccine and autism

But does the recent research prove this ?

I certainly do not know whether there is a link, but strongly suspect there may be.
The glaringly obvious flaw in the findings, put forward by the researchers from London's St.Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, is that the study does not establish that a normal response to this triple assault, on an undeveloped immune system by MMR vaccine (containing live viruses), may not lead to changes ending in autism, in infants who are predisposed/vulnerable.
The assumption that all babies will respond identically, and will produce the desired antibodies and go on to thrive, is clearly nonsensical.
Most do, at least in the short term (who knows what long-term effects may result?), however some react in subtle ways that leave only marginal effects, while some (hopefully a very few) have major reactions and die (although if you only want reassurance, a very upbeat website offers 'proof' that no harm ever appears to result from vaccination, under any circumstances - however be warned that there is no postal address given for the Tooth fairy, who I suspect lives on the same site).
Somewhere in the spectrum of variable responses it seems obvious that latent autistic tendencies might emerge. (Halsey et al 2001)
It's also worth noting that a Cochrane Library Review (2005) concluded that "The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate. The evidence of adverse events following immunisation with MMR cannot be separated from its role in preventing the target diseases."

Today's reassurances, as reported on the BBC, tell us:

MMR 'does not trigger reaction'
Children with autism do not react differently to other youngsters to the MMR jab, a study shows.
London's Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital found no difference in the immune response to the jab in a study of 240 children aged between 10 and 12.
Fears about a link between the two were first raised in 1998, prompting a drop in uptake of the vaccine, but that research has now been discredited.
Studies since have shown there is no link and that has been confirmed again.
The research, partly funded by the Department of Health and published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, is the largest of its kind.
Previous studies have mainly looked for a possible link by examining autism trends in large groups of populations.
But the Guy's and St Thomas's team analysed blood samples of 240 children aged 10 to 12 to see if the MMR jab had caused an abnormal immune response that could have triggered autism.
This would have been indicated by increased antibody levels, but the researchers found no difference in the three groups they studied - children with autism, those without and those with special educational needs.
While all the children had had the first MMR jab, not all of them went on to have the second needed for maximum immunity.
The children who developed autism or special educational needs were the most likely not to have had the follow up jab - an indication of the public suspicion surrounding the safety of MMR.
Researcher Dr David Brown said: "The study found no evidence linking MMR to autistic spectrum disorder and the paper adds to the overwhelming body of evidence from around the world supporting the use of MMR."
The Lancet medical journal published research by Dr Andrew Wakefield suggesting a link between the jab and the condition in 1998.
Claims
The journal subsequently distanced itself from the study of 12 children after it emerged Dr Wakefield had received funding to support legal action by a group of parents who claimed their children were damaged by the vaccine.
Dr Andrew Wakefield is currently appearing before the General Medical Council on charges relating to the claims.
But all this was after the publication had had an impact. The up-take of the triple-jab slumped in the immediate aftermath and is still under the 95% needed for herd immunity in some places, particularly London.
The number of confirmed measles cases has risen from 56 in 1998 in England and Wales to just under 1,000 in 2007, according to provisional data.
However, the impact of MMR on these figures is not clear.
Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said: "It's natural for parents to worry about the health and well-being of their children and I hope that this study will reassure them that there is no evidence linking the MMR vaccine to autism."
But Jackie Fletcher, from Jabs campaign group, said the conclusions were misleading. "It is making a leap from having the actual data on the antibodies and saying MMR does not cause autism."

Thank's Jackie, our views coincide.
Visit the Jabs website for a mass of information relating to vaccine-damaged children
Conclusion: It's a huge leap to go from the antibody data presented in today's report, to the 'no-link' between vaccine and autism statement, and hopefully people will not be fooled by this.

References:
Demicheli V, Jefferson T, Rivetti A, Price D 2005 Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children". Cochrane Database Syst Rev 19 (4). doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004407.pub2. PMID 16235361. Lay summary – Abstract and plain language summary (2005-10-19).
Halsey NA, Hyman S 2001 Measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autistic spectrum disorder: report from the New Challenges in Childhood Immunizations Pediatrics 107 (5): e84

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Placebo Power

If someone believes a form of treatment will relieve pain, it will do so far more effectively than if the belief is that the treatment cannot help.
Today's posting is a brief skip through the potency and power of placebo - in a future posting I'll discuss it's opposite - the nocebo effect.
In truth all healing methods involve a degree of placebo (or nocebo) and in many instances it offers more benefit than active treatments. It is the hidden, powerful, ally of good therapeutic measures.
For example, in trials involving over 1000 people suffering from chronic pain, dummy medication reduced the levels of the pain by at least 50% of that achieved by any form of pain-killing drug, including aspirin and morphine.
The researchers, Melzack & Wall (1989) explain, ‘This shows clearly that the psychological context – particularly the physician’s and patient’s expectations – contains powerful therapeutic value in its own right in addition to the effect of the drug itself’.

Placebo facts
• Placebos are far more effective against severe pain than mild pain.
• Placebos are more effective in people who are severely anxious and stressed than in people who are not, suggesting that the ‘anti-anxiety’ effect of placebos accounts for at least part of the reason for their usefulness.
• Placebos work best against headache-type pain (over 50% effectiveness).
• In about a third of all people, most pains are relieved by placebo.
• A placebo works more effectively if injected, rather than if taken by mouth.
• Placebos work more powerfully if accompanied by the suggestion that they are indeed powerful, and that they will rapidly produce results.
• Placebos which are in capsule or tablet form work better if two are taken rather than one.
• Large capsules work as placebos more effectively than do small ones.
• Red placebos are most effective of all in helping pain problems.
• Green placebos help anxiety best.
• Blue placebos are the most sedative and calming.
• Yellow placebos are best for depression and pink are the most stimulating.
• Placebos have been shown to be effective in a wide variety of conditions including anorexia, depression, skin diseases, diarrhea and palpitation.
• Placebo effects do not only occur when taking something by mouth or injection; for example, any form of treatment from manipulation to acupuncture to surgery carries with it a degree of placebo effect.

Recognition of the placebo effect allows us to realize the importance of the power of suggestion on all of us, with some people being more influenced than others.
It is important that we should not think that because a placebo ‘works’ in an individual that the person is not genuinely suffering pain or that the reported relief is false (Millenson 1995).
A person’s attitudes and emotions can be seen to be powerful aids (or hindrances) to recovery. The feelings of hope and expectation of improvement, coupled with a relationship with caring helpers, professional or otherwise, assist in recovery and coping.

An example of placebo potency is exemplified by a study by Price et al (2007) associated with brain activity and irritable bowel syndrome. They note that:
"Previous experiments found that placebos produced small decreases in neural activity of pain-related areas of the brain, yet decreases were only statistically significant after termination of stimuli and in proximity to when subjects rated them.
These changes could reflect report bias rather than analgesia. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined whether placebo analgesia is accompanied by reductions in neural activity in pain-related areas of the brain, during the time of stimulation. Brain activity of irritable bowel syndrome patients was measured in response to rectal distension by a balloon barostat. Large reductions in pain and in brain activation within pain-related regions (thalamus, somatosensory cortices, insula, and anterior cingulate cortex) occurred during the placebo condition. Results indicate that decreases in activity were related to placebo suggestion and a second factor (habituation/ attention/conditioning). Although many factors influence placebo analgesia, it is accompanied by reduction in pain processing within the brain in clinically relevant conditions."

Appropriate education, patient focus, and a strong suggestion - say that self-regulation (homeostasis) will assist recovery, if appropriate lifestyle modifications are undertaken - for example if diet, sleep, breathing, posture and exercise are attended to - may assist not only in practical ways, but via the placebo effect as well.

For a deeper look at this topic see David Peters' 'Understanding the Placebo Effect in Complementary Medicine' (Elsevier 2001)

Melzack R, Wall P 1989 Textbook of pain, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, London
Millenson J 1995 Mind matters – psychological medicine in holistic practice. Eastland Press, Seattle
Price D et al 2007 Placebo analgesia is accompanied by large reductions in pain-related brain activity in irritable bowel syndrome patients Pain 127:63–72

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The Panamanian Golden frog is extinct

Look at the image of the glorious creature, now departed (lifted from the BBC News website with thanks).
I have to ask myself why news of the extinction of yet another natural marvel (whether of creation or evolution is irrelevent in this context) fills me with such incredible sadness?
Is it the Disney-like gesture or colouring of this harmless work of art?
Or is it due to some sort of anthropomorphic ascribing of human characteristics to the animal? ..... which would be daft - for it clearly is not waving goodbye, but is signaling to another of its' species, either as a territorial warning, or a mating ritual.
I think it's more to do with a sense of the inevitable descent towards a sterile planet, where much of the beauty of what was here before we crawled out of the slime is being destroyed, and the sheer injustice of it all.
With what right, with what arrogance, do we continue to slash, burn, rape and violate the earth?
And is it too late to reverse the process?
It's clearly too late for the golden frog, for soon after this picture was taken the last wild specimens were taken into captivity, as their environment was no longer safe, as numbers had declined beyond a point of the possibility of return.
I could go on in this vein but to what end..... and in any case, if you want more on this theme, my daughter Sasha has posted her thoughts on anger and forgiveness issues, stimulated by the Golden frog's demise.

Meanwhile.......yesterday, the ever so worthy face of a British politician on TV was telling me (not personally you understand) that to save the planet I will need (when in the UK) to be happy to have garbage collected once a fortnight instead of weekly, as this will reduce landfill use, and that the fine of £100 that will be imposed each time garbage bins are not correctly used (lid not properly closed for example), is somehow going to prevent climate change!!!!!
...... with China opening one (or is it two) coal fired power stations weekly, I am not sure that the correct closure of my waste-bin is really going to make a difference.
I am still trying to work out the logic of there being less waste to dump in landfill sites when collection is staggered from weekly to fortnightly...perhaps someone can tell me?
Or is it just possible that this might save the local authority money?
.....and that the fines for improper use of garbage containers might help replenish their coffers?
.....and that all this will somehow restore the golden frog to Panama?

It's all to late, too little, too ridiculously pointless.
Maybe that's why news of the loss of the frog this morning made me so angry, frustrated, sad and feeling impotently helpless.
For it seems clear that there is absolutely nothing that can now be done to reverse processes underway - whether or not global warming is in fact what we are facing (for it's not an absolute fact, just a lot of opinions saying so, joining Al Gore's bandwagon).
But whether due to us or to a natural process, something awful is happening.
Experts agree to a large extent that this is in fact what's under way.....but they also agree that it's too late to change the process, and that limiting greenhouse gases won't help now.
So little gestures such as altering the type of light-bulb we use (great for manufacturers) to those odd-looking twisty bulbs wont help.
In any case they apparently contain lethal amounts of mercury, so take care when one breaks...... and heaven only knows about safe disposal!
"The problem with the bulbs is that they'll break before they get to the landfill. They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens," says John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the trade group for the people who handle trash and recycling.... as reported on National Public Radio in the USA.
But, heck, there's no choice, because politicians tell us that to save the planet we have to change our light bulbs!
We are being compelled to make this useless change because old-fashioned light bulbs will vanish in a few years, due to legislation....so stockpile now if you want to avoid filling the soil with broken glass AND mercury..... and killing off what wildlife remains in that part of the world.
So I feel frustration on all fronts.
The planet is in free-fall to oblivion.
Politicians are greasing and squirming their self-righteous way through the crisis as usual, with profoundly meaningless actions and statements.
I am angry and helpless, reduced to incoherent rants on blogs - and the Golden frog has gone.

I will spend some time under the olive trees, in my garden in Corfu today, eating home grown clementines and tangerines, and all this will fade away..... temporarily at least.... until another politician appears on screen, or the BBC shows me yet another piece of evidence, or I think of the gentle wave of the frog.

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