De-Stressing and Cleansing Complementary Therapies

How to Get the Best from Complementary Therapies

Where a patient has a persistent or chronic problem where medicines alone are failing to relieve symptoms, orthodox doctors are recommending complementary therapies to aid in a patient’s recovery or simply to soothe and ease discomfort and pain.

De-Stressing and Cleansing Therapies

Aromatherapy

Good for:

An excellent stress-buster, which helps counteract anxiety, insomnia, PMS and depression. Oils can be blended to control and rebalance skin problems, ease muscle strain, circulation and respiratory problems, and strengthen the immune system. They also make excellent natural first-aiders.

The lowdown:

Clinical studies confirm constantly that specific essential plant oils have a potent physiological and psychological effect. They soothe and sedate, stimulate and dispel depression. They also regulate body functions and some have potent antibiotic, antibacterial, anti-fungal and antiseptic actions.

Aromatherapists use around 300 oils blended according to the condition being treated. They can be massaged into the skin, after which they are carried by the bloodstream to the organs. Oils can also be inhaled, reaching the brain, and therefore affecting mood, via the olfactory nerves in the nose. After six hours or so, oils leave the body through the usual elimination channels. An aromatherapy massage may include the face and feet.

Flower Essence Remedies

Good for:

Treating the emotions underlying physical conditions. Flower essences are widely used for stress, anger, grief, lack of confidence and low self-esteem.

The lowdown:

Flower remedies were first devised in the 1930s by pathologist and bacteriologist Dr Edward Bach. Intuition told him that specific flower essences could balance mood and personality traits, allaying the negative, encouraging the positive and stimulating resistance to stress and disease. Dr Bach initially captured the essence of 38 flowers by bottling the dew on their leaves and petals. Later he used spring water in which petals floated for three hours in full sunlight. The energized water was then strained and preserved.

Essences are either dropped on to the tongue, rubbed on to the forehead, lips, wrists, soles and palms or added to bath water, moisturiser or body lotion. Bach’s most famous tincture, Rescue Remedy has become something of a cult cureall. A blend of rock rose, busy lizzy, clematis, star of bethlehem and cherry plum soothe you after shock, calm panic or ease grief and depression.

Hydrotherapy

Good for:

Muscular tension, joint pain, rheumatism, arthritis and bronchitis; chronic fatigue syndrome (ME). Avoid it you have heart disease, high blood pressure or are allergic to iodine in seaweed.

The lowdown:

Steam rooms and Turkish baths ease muscle strain and sinus pain as well as deep cleansing the skin. Alternate hot and cold bathing, showering and foot bathing all pump up the circulation by constricting and dilating arteries and veins. Sitz bathing (sitting in cold water with your feet in hot, then changing round) tones the lower body stimulates spinal chord reflex and increases pelvic circulation. It is used to treat menstrual and menopausal problems and chronic fatigue syndrome. Wet towel packs and warm blanket wraps encourage detoxification. Bracing treatments like these are also thought to strengthen the immune system.

More relaxing balneotherapy involves total body immersion for 20 minutes in water at 32 degrees C (90 degrees F). Adding pine oil aids respiratory problems; adding oatmeal soothes skin irritation. psoriasis and eczema; adding a type of peat called Austrian Moor deeply relaxes muscles; and adding seaweed strengthens skin and boosts the metabolism.

Colonic Hydrotherapy

Good for:

Acid and inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis; digestive and elimination problems; skin disorders such as acne, eczema and psoriasis. Colonic exponents also claim this therapy enhances energy levels and maintains good health.

The lowdown:

Colonic hydrotherapy, is also known as colonic irrigation, and practitioners of this therapy believe that years of smoking, drinking alcohol and eating an acidic Western diet of sticky processed food and mucus-forming dairy products chronically impairs the digestive and elimination processes. The bowel and large intestine become impacted with rubbery waste matter and unhealthy micro-organisms. Because the walls of these organs are so permeable, the body re-absorbs toxins in a self-poisoning process known as auto-intoxication.

The treatment is literally to flush away the toxic debris. You lie on a couch, while a tube is inserted into your rectum. Under gentle, gravitational pressure, alternate warm and cold water floods the large intestine, softening and dislodging the debris, which is carried away in a separate evacuation tube. Therapists also counsel a change of diet – less glutenous and acidic with more raw fresh fruit and vegetables – and recommend herbs that aid regular elimination. Treatment should result in increased energy glowing skin and sparkling eyes.