Naturalpath

Healthnotes Newswire (May 31, 2007)—Nutritional therapy is as effective at managing postoperative pain from endometriosis as hormone therapy, new research reports. A combination of vitamins, minerals, probiotic bacteria, and fatty acids from fish oil, combined with customized dietary changes, was found to be effective at relieving pain in women who had recently had surgery to treat endometriosis, a painful condition in which tissue that normally lines the uterus occurs in abnormal locations such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and abdominal cavity.

Imagery, the flow of thoughts that one can see, hear, or otherwise experience in the imagination, can be valuable for healing. Research in biofeedback, hypnosis, and meditative states has shown that people have a powerful range of self-regulatory capacities.

Likewise, studies in the United States and England suggest that many health problems presented to primary care clinics are emotional, social, or familial in origin, though these problems are manifested in pain or illness.

Most meditation techniques are grouped into two major categories: concentrative meditation and mindfulness meditation. Concentrative meditation focuses on the breath, an image, or a sound in order to still the mind and allow a greater awareness to emerge.

In mindfulness meditation, the meditator simply witnesses whatever goes through the mind without reacting or becoming involved with thoughts, memories, or worries.

In both forms of meditation, one becomes keenly aware of reactions to stress, providing the individual with an increased internal sense of control. One form of meditation, transcendental meditation (TM), practiced in the West for the past thirty years, can bring about a healthy state of relaxation in which the heart rate, pulse rate, stress hormones, and respiration rate decrease while EEG alpha brain waves, associated with relaxation, increase.

“When you work with people who are economically disadvantaged, as well as socially disadvantaged, the stress level is immense.

“And now my practice is with very privileged, highly educated people that have great means. Their stress level is also immense.

“I think that stress is the key and most important lifestyle factor there is in the major health problems that we face in America.

“Even the privileged are stressed beyond belief with different kinds of stress. Food is a way that we learn to modulate it, and unfortunately the food that we learn to modulate it or reduce that stress with, taken in over long periods of time in excess, creates many of the illnesses that we’re struggling with medically – diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and all of the sequela of those kinds of things.”

“The environmental factors that I think are relevant to people being very healthy in their bodies and maintaining a good level of body awareness are really experientially based.

“The environmental factors that come to my mind are the things that stress people’s bodies. And those stressors can be anything from chemicals to physical activity, and also psycho-emotional stressors. So the things that cause somebody’s physical body to break down, that being my area of expertise, at the level of being less functional, is the accumulation of stress at any level.

Healthnotes - Stressed out is a common phrase these days. While some stress is healthy, unwanted stress can be harmful. According to research or other evidence, the following self-care steps may help reduce destructive stress:

What you need to know:

1. Get some extra C: Help normalize stress-hormone levels by taking 1 to 3 grams of vitamin C every day

2. Relax with rhodiola: Taking 170 mg a day of a standardized herbal extract during stressful phases may improve your feelings of well-being and support mental function

3. Work in a workout: Improve your resistance to stress by enjoying routine aerobic exercise

4. Participate in a program: Find a stress-reduction program that includes group counseling, instruction in coping skills, relaxation training, and other helpful techniques

5. Say no to smoking: Kick the habit to keep stress in check and to avoid other health hazards

6. Check out tyrosine: Occasionally taking this amino acid before a stressful activity can help maintain your mental capacity; calculate 150 mg for every 2.2 lbs of body weight and split into two doses (take the second dose 40 to 90 minutes after the first)

That frozen dinner may be vegetarian and lowfat, but is it truly healthy in the long run?

Our Body's Acid vs. Alkaline Balance: Why Do We Care?

What is pH anyway? Most of us know what an acid is, but many of us are confused by what a base is, and what the acids and bases have to do with each other, or what they mean to our health is even more of a mystery. It turns out that many diseases rampant in today's society may have a common cause.

Biofeedback training uses simple electronic devices to measure and report information about a person’s biological system. Biofeedback training can improve health by teaching a person to consciously regulate bodily functions that are normally unconscious, such as heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. Biofeedback training is particularly useful in treating health conditions where psychological factors are present. This form of healthcare is used for pain relief, stress reduction, insomnia, headache treatment, and muscle injuries.