News Archive 09

Science of Exercise

It is crudely analogous to getting a 4-wheeled car up onto its 2 back wheels! Getting the vehicle up, but briefly, onto the rear wheels is not too technically challenging. However, full-time 2 wheeled driving would require some considerable re-organisation of existing components.

Bio mechanically, the spine needed to be able to transform a side-bending pattern of movement, inherited from the fish, to a helical drive of the pelvis. Imagine standing and side-bending left/right as fast as you could. After some time you would not have moved forwards or backwards, rather a hole in the ground below your feet is produced. Walking requires a complex twisting of the left and right pelvis so that the lower limb can take that pattern and covert it into economical strides.

Your spine is not uniform from neck to coccyx. Gradually vertebrae increase in size with the sacrum (the sacred bone) being a fusion of 5 vertebrae, and then tailing off into the tiny coccyx. Movement between the different regions of the spine is controlled by a series of interlocking bony projections called articular facets. Each vertebrae has 2 facets above and 2 facets below so that the spine is joined together by muscles and tendons and the intervertebral discs and, importantly, by facet direction and shape. Facets in the neck, thorax, lumbar spine and coccyx face in different directions. The facet direction determines what movement is possible in each part of the spine.

Four legged animals can still use a side-bending pattern of movement. Standing up and walking required a conversion of this pattern to a helical drive of the pelvis the facets had to change directions and the whole musculature of the body was wrapped in a more circular manner. More next week.

Phillip Beach D.O. D.Ac

Homeopathic Remedies

What is Homeopathy?

The crucial point to understand about homeopathic medicine is that remedies are given to aid the body's efforts to heal itself. Homeopathy treats the patient - not the disease. In contrast, conventional drugs are generally prescribed to control or suppress symptoms. As a result of this suppression, the body's immune system cannot fully perform its function, and the disease may be driven deeper.

The fundamental principles of homeopathy to remember are:

• The body is a self-regulated system with the innate capacity to heal itself.
• The natural healing processes of the body can be enhanced by giving an ill person extremely dilute doses of substances that in large doses would cause similar symptoms of illness when given to a healthy person.
• A person who is ill must be treated according to the specific and unique symptoms he displays. It is the person who is treated, not a specific illness.
• Treatment must take into account the mental and emotional states of the ill person as well as the physical symptoms.
• The substances used for remedies, when prepared by a strictly controlled procedure, become more and more potent as they undergo a specific process of progressive dilution.

How does homeopathy work?

Karen has a headache every day at about 4pm. Her GP gives her a quick physical exam and prescribes Aspirin for the pain. He says he can't find anything wrong and that she should call him if her headaches get worse.

Debbie has a headache every day at about 4pm. She goes to a homeopath that asks her many questions about the stresses in her life, what she has been eating, and other questions about her general environment and her specific disposition in different circumstances. He asks her to describe the kind of headache she has and when it started, what makes it feel better or worse, and so on. He takes extensive notes about her replies and finds that not only does she have headaches, but also she isn't sleeping well at night and feels very anxious. He consults various homeopathic reference books and gradually narrows down to one or two remedies which best matches what she has told him he gives her one dose of a remedy at he pharmacy to use for the next few days.

In Karen's case, the doctor's goal was to stop the pain of the headaches. In Debbie's case, the doctor goal was to give her an overall picture of her condition, and pick one of a number of possible remedies to restore her system to well being. When you are exposed to stress or infection there are usually several or many bodily responses. For instance, there may be an inflammation, a fever, a cough or a rash. These signs indicate that there is a fight going on inside the body and that the body has activated its defence system in order to maintain balance. A fever, for example, is a form of resistance to a bacterial or viral infection. Recent research has shown that a fever increases white blood cell mobility and activity and aids in the natural production of interferon, an antiviral substance. The homeopathic approach does not try to suppress the fever. Instead, the homeopathic method uses a medicine, which in a healthy person would cause the unique symptom of fever that the sick person is experiencing. To find the correct remedy the homeopathic physician asks such questions as: "What time of day did the fever begin? Is there thirst with the fever? Does the fever make the patient feel chilly?" Essentially, the homeopathic approach uses all outward indications as well as reactions to conditions to determine how the patient is sick. Homeopaths believe that to suppress a fever with Aspirin or other powerful drugs actually reduces the body's capacity for healing. Another example is the mucus produced with a cold. The body uses mucus to carry away the waste products of the infection. Since the body is ridding itself of waste, the homeopathic point of view is that it's not logical to suppress the expectorating process with cough medicine. Suppression of the cough does nothing to help the true healing process, and, in fact, inhibits the natural defence actions. Many allopathic, or conventional physicians agree and don't prescribe expectorants.

Detox - The real facts

I is for Increased Flexibility

When you stretch you must stretch everything. The following stretch is very simple yet effective. It is very important for you to pay particular attention to your breathing. When you move into a stretch position you must do it on an out breath (exhale). When you come out of a stretch you must do so on an in breath (inhale). Hold each stretch as long as you can (a minute and a half at the most). In the beginning this will not be long, only a few seconds perhaps, but as your flexibility increases so will the time that you can hold the position.