I’m going to write a full post about the last seven months since my last post – I’ve learnt a huge amount, and there are definite reasons for my new-found health; I’m feeling so much better than i was – but I’m going to focus in this post about just one aspect of my healing journey, as it’s so very unusual to our culture, that I think it might be interesting to a lot of readers; I’ve certainly found it really fascinating!
Treatments
Ayurveda for Crohn’s Disease, IBD’s and stress
I was recently very fortunate to have a consultancy session with Dr Marouf Athique and his wife, from the College of Ayurveda. I’ve yet to transcribe the recording of the meeting, so I’m going to describe my personal consultation in a separate post; naturally the advice that follows there will be for my Vata type, and of course for the healing of the Crohn’s symptoms, but I will say now that it was a fascinating, enlightening and incredibly helpful meeting, and I’m very glad we went.
In the meantime I wanted to write about Auurveda in general, with the disclaimer that this is all still very new to me.
My Chinese herbs have arrived!
I’m very excited, as I’ve just received my personalised mixture of Chinese medicinal herbs from Simon Jones.
I’m to take 10g per day, split into two 5g doses, mixed with warm water. Simon has asked me to look out for any adverse reaction, as I have such a sensitive system; if my stomach doesn’t like it at all, I’m to split the dose into four 2.5g servings instead, to let my body get used to the herbs.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT, or Tapping) – Part one
I went for my first EFT session yesterday, and it was profoundly powerful.
EFT was developed by Gary Craig, and is now practiced in many forms all over the world; the basic principles are very easy to learn for yourself, by advanced techniques can go very deep.
Autoimmune disease – treating the cause, not the symptoms
Dr Mark Hyman practices Functional Medicine, which is as he puts it, ‘the future of conventional medicine – now’:
It seeks to identify and address the root causes of disease, and views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties. It treats the whole system, not just the symptoms.
From the moment I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, it was obvious that this is the way to treat any disease, which is always – it appears to me right now anyway – caused by an imbalance in the system which needs correction. As I’ve seen over and over again in the countless case studies and testimonials I’ve read since coming home from hospital, contemporary western medicine seeks to simply cover up the symptoms, often with drugs that have incredibly damaging side effects.
Chinese medicine for Crohn’s and other IBD’s – Part one
We had a surprisingly-useful first session with a Chinese Medical Practitioner a couple of days ago. I was recommended Simon Jones, based at the Ludlow Clinic by an old colleague whom Simon had helped very much in the past. I’d actually been looking for someone that might be able to give me some acupuncture treatments, as it’s a recommended treatment for IBD by Jini Patel Thompson in her fantastic book ‘Listen to your Gut‘. Yes, I’m going to go on about this book constantly, but it’s been both an inspiration and a lifeline for me over these last couple of weeks.
Simon gave us a simple-but-useful overview of what’s happening in the body with inflammatory bowel disease. Of course, it’s all about stress, and how we manage it. I’ll try to describe my take on it, although his was a lot more accurate and comprehensive!