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NET and Pregnancy

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Pregnancy-chiropracticWe have all heard the stories of couples trying to have babies for years and years without any luck. Often times these couples try with undying focus and commitment. Making sure that ovulation is timed to the hour, that their diets are organic, in bed by 9pm every night and that they swallow so many supplements they almost rattle. And then after several years of fruitless trying, disappointed and sad, they take a break from trying, go on holidays, and then surprisingly realise they are pregnant once they return from their trip.

There’s nothing new about this story, in fact its been told and heard so many times its probably a good idea to look as what is actually going on there. How is it that for many couples that struggle to fall pregnant, all the effort, planning and commitment in the world brings no results, but when they let it all go and focus on something else, a baby is on the way?

Enter the theories of the Quantum world. In recent decades the field of Quantum physics has taught us a lot about how our intentions and thoughts impact the cellular and biological structure of our bodies. We have learnt that the smaller the biological structure, the more easily our thoughts, emotions and intentions influence it. For example, we know that when we feel happy, neurotransmitters are created and up taken in the brain. Said another way, our happiness biologically creates chemicals. Just like when we feel fear, our body creates a reaction whereby adrenalin is produced. So our fear is a creative process also. On some level, all our thoughts, emotions and beliefs are creative within our biology.

So, how does this relate to pregnancy? If our beliefs, thoughts and emotions can create hormones and neurotransmitters and alter cellular structures in our body, is it possible that they can also influence ones ability to fall pregnant or not? N.E.T practitioners answer with a resounding YES!

A woman’s beliefs and emotions, conscious or unconscious, seem to have a powerful relationship to challenges with falling pregnant. The simplest example of this is when a woman becomes stressed, sometimes her reproductive cycle changes, and under high stress, the menstrual cycle can even stop.

Beyond common stress, there are more subtle emotional influences that don’t necessarily stop the menstrual cycle but can inhibit and stop one becoming pregnant. With NET the practitioner uses muscle testing as a diagnostic tool to discover what emotions are blocked within the system, and where they are stored within the body. Once these are cleared the reproductive system can regulate normally once again.

Some common examples of the typical kinds of emotions that have blocked the reproductive system are;

  • Being unconsciously fearful that a newborn will mean the end of their much-revered career.
  • Unconsciously feeling that one will not be a “good enough” mother.
  • Having been raised by parents that were abusive, fearing that the cycle will continue.
  • Fearing not knowing how to attend to a baby due to not having been attended to well when they were a baby also.
  • Fearing that there will not be enough space, time or support (for mother or child) if one was to fall pregnant.
  • Unconsciously buying into the “rules” of the family that the older sister must give birth before I can fall pregnant.
  • A belief that my child will be somehow different if I fall pregnant through IVF.

These memories, beliefs and emotions are stored in the body at a cellular level and bind the body into biological structures that inhibit and stop reproduction. Typically these emotions will also enhance or inhibit hormone levels within the body, which we know to be a key factor in successful pregnancy. Once the emotions and beliefs are discovered and released as a cellular level, their influence on hormones is also released, and their hold over the reproductive system is removed.

 

Improving your chances of conceiving

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natural-pregnancyPreconceptual Care

Preconceptual care involves getting both partners into the best possible physical and mental shape to maximise your chances of creating a pregnancy that lasts to full term, and brings you a healthy baby at the end of it. Research indicates that a three to four month programme of healthy living will get you into excellent shape before trying for a baby, help you become pregnant more quickly and reduce the chance of miscarriage.

Preconceptual care is a common sense approach, and when both couples adopt these principles, it can dramatically increase the chances of a healthy conception.

 

Five Steps to Fertility

For 3-4 months, both partners should:

  1. Eat only health, fresh foods
  2. Eliminate any toxic substances from your system – for example give up smoking and drinking alcohol
  3. Find out which vitamins and minerals you are short of, and top up
  4. Become as fit and well as you can – for example exercise regularly and get checked and treated for any low level genito-urinary infections such as thrush
  5. Reduce the level of stress in your life

Complementary therapy treatments including herbal medicine, reflexology, chiropractic, acupuncture and even counselling can work gently and effectively to eliminate some of the obstacles to conception. Everyone and every couple is unique, and complementary therapies excels at holistically addressing individual health concerns.

 

Phytotherapy (Herbal Medicine).

Various herbal medicines are available to us to balance and enhance reproductive health, fertility and sexual vitality in both men and women. Herbs can have a potent effect on the reproductive system, and you will get the best results if you see a qualified naturopath or herbalist who are trained in the actions and administration of herbal medicine.

 

Some herbal remedies especially for women:

Vitex agnus-castus (Chaste Tree) – can assist to regulate periods and balance out the oestrogen and progesterone levels and rations.

Chamaelirium luteum (False Unicorn Root) – this North American herb has an excellent reputation as a tonic for the uterus and ovaries, and a balancing effect on the sex hormones. It is traditionally used for encouraging fertility in women.

Angelica sinensis (Dong Quai) – a traditional Chinese herbal tonic for women to regulate hormones and ovulation. This herb should not be taken in early pregnancy and avoided if there is a possibility you could be pregnant.

Withania somnifera (Winter Cherry) – is strengthening, rejuvenating and an important herb for stress and fatigue.

Asparagus racemosa (Shatavari) – a hormone balancer from India, which also enhances libido in women.

 

Some herbal remedies for men:

Turnera diffusa (Damiana) – strengthens the male reproductive system and also has a reputation as an aphrodisiac.

Panax ginseng (Korean Ginseng) – a useful herb for impotence, stress, low sperm count and fatigue.

 

Nutrition.

Both prospective parents should consider adequate intake of:

  • Protein
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin B-complex
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin D
  • Essential Fatty Acids
  • Calcium
  • Zinc
  • Magnesium
  • Manganese
  • Iodine
  • Iron
  • Copper
  • Boron
  • Selenium
  • Chromium

Where possible, minerals should be chelated and from an organic, natural source.

Finally, positive thinking is important. Whether this is through visualisation, verbal affirmations, hypnosis, meditation or other relaxation techniques, it can be a wonderful way to create change in your body.

 

Obstacle Racing

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ben clarkeObstacle racing is taking off in Australia not only becoming a popular challenge for people at all levels of fitness but also being a fun and interesting way of raising money for worthy charities such as Legacy, Canteen, Cancer Council, Red Cross, McGrath Foundation, and Soldier On, just to name a few.

Depending on your level of fitness you have many races to choose from. Shorter distance races such as the Warrior Dash, Mud Run, Tough Bloke Challenge and The Stampede are great entry level obstacle races with distances ranging between 5-10km. If you’re up for a bit more of a test you can take part in the Tough Mudder which is a 20km race with a total of 21 obstacles including electric shocks and ice water submersion, don’t let this intimidate you as the ethos behind this obstacle race is camaraderie and teamwork so there is always someone there to lend a hand.

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Stress and your body, part 1.

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stress ballStress is a term commonly used everyday, it is usually considered a negative concept that has some impact on one’s mental or physical wellbeing, but it can be either the cause or the effect.

In nature most processes strive to maintain equilibrium, a steady state of balance, this includes our body on a physical level (our bones and muscles) as well as a physiological level (our organ systems). Environmental factors, internal or external stimuli, continually disrupt this balance, and these factors can be interpreted as stress.

As a chiropractor I am constantly dealing with and correcting the effects of physical stress. These physical stresses include falls and bumps, lifting or carrying heavy loads, prolonged periods of time in poor chairs, unsupportive mattresses or bad shoes, sustained posture, repetitive work or changes in our body for which it must compensate such as pregnancy or a broken bone in the foot, or knee surgery. On a physical level it is often clear to see how these stresses impact us and our wellbeing.

What is not always easy to see is how Emotional stresses impact our body and our wellbeing. I estimate that close to 75% of problems I see in clinic are due either directly or indirectly to emotional stress, but when I say that, people often can’t understand how emotional stress can affect us physically. It can be easier to understand when you consider situations of extreme stress, such as if your life were in danger.

In such a situation you would be feeling alot of emotions such as fear and panic, but your body would also be reacting, in a way that is known as a fight or flight reaction. This means that your body is getting prepared to fight or to flee. There are several things that happen but probably the most obvious sign would be that your heart would begin racing, this would result in you sweating, your body will produce adrenaline,which would make you feel buzzy or nervy. Your pupils will dilate, your blood will be directed to areas of your body that are important for fighting or fleeing (such as your muscles, your lungs and your brain) and away from areas that are not needed for the moment (such as your digestive organs). So you can see that emotions go hand in hand with physical changes.

Thankfully, it is not that common for us to be in a situation that is life threatening, but our modern lifestyles do entail alot of stress, and our bodies are constantly reacting to this stress in many ways, at a low level. These reactions will impact on our bodies in a physical way. Stress and your Body Part 2 will detail signs and symptoms your body may show in response to common low level daily stresses.

 

Chiropractic and running.

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RunningIt’s that time of year again. The days are getting longer (slowly), we are beginning to look forward to summer and we are becoming more motivated to get out and exercise. For some of us that means signing up for one of the many fun runs, half marathons or maybe even marathons that are held in Sydney over the next 6 months. Running is great for your fitness and for weight loss, but it can be hard on your body, especially if you haven’t done much of it in the past few months.

Chiropractic can help in several ways for you to reach your running goals, whether that’s to be able to run 5km without stopping or to get a PB in next months half marathon. It’s often of great benefit to have a chiropractic treatment before you get into training. A treatment will balance your structure, not only your spine and hips, but also your knees and very importantly your feet, joints that get used heavily when running. Being structurally balanced allows your body to function at its optimum, which means in its most efficient and strongest state. If your body is in an efficient state it can work that bit easier than if it were unbalanced and less efficient, therefore making running that bit easier. Having your body in a strong state means it is resilient. It can cope with the training and the challenges you will put your body through, with less chance of injury. It will also have the ability to adapt faster and hence reach your goals faster.

If you’ve started training and you begin to feel some strains or pains, don’t get disheartened. It doesn’t mean you need to give up running. It just means that the exercise you’re doing is challenging your body to a level where small imbalances are now showing up. These are small imbalances that would not cause any symptoms if your level of training was just a little lower. Visiting your Chiropractor can help rebalance these issues and allow you to get back to training.

Neuro Emotional Technique can be effective with early life upsets and traumas?

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baby

As much as there has been a prolific amount of neuroscientific research into how the brain influences and controls memory, there has been a growing amount of research that supports the likelihood that memory is actually stored at a cellular level within the body. This finding has some exciting implications for how we think about changing, growing and healing as people, especially with respect to early or childhood trauma or abuse.

Memory Making

Research shows that, on average, a child can start to make real and accessible memories from around the age of 2 years old. This is because at this time the infant can start to think and communicate with the world, and think with themselves using basic language and thinking, a sense of meaning or story can start to be encoded within their experiences and therefore their memories.

It was previously believed that prior to this time in an infant’s life, memories were not actually formed due to the infant not yet possessing these basic cognitive assets. Research now shows that prior to 2, infants still hold memories but they are encoded differently. Rather than having images, or sounds or stories attached to their memories, they seem to be simply stored at a cellular level of the body as emotions. Simply put, the first 2 years of an infant’s memories are not memories in the sense that we understand typical memories to be, they are more like emotional memories.

Memory recall

We all know that certain stimuli can trigger specific memories. The smell of freshly baked bread can remind us of an earlier time where Mum used to make bread, or the smell of petrol can remind us of Dad’s work shed. Typically these memories are encoded in the form of pictures, sounds and often feelings. But our pre-cognitive memories are also triggered by events in our every day life too. The challenge here is that when these memories are accessed and recalled they do not come back as memories from the past, they can be experienced as emotions that seem to be from the present moment. In other words, because there is no story, picture or cognitive concept of the memory that links to their triggered feelings, often a person will not realise they are in fact recalling a memory, and will in fact think that the feeling Is emerging from something that’s happening right now In their environment. This point becomes increasingly important if there was early trauma in a person’s life, as these memories can come back as very powerful and unwanted experiences.

An example could be when a baby girl was given out for adoption at 6 weeks old. The baby intuitively stores their sense of grief and abandonment at a cellular level but with no cognitive story or meaning attached to the feelings of abandonment, it then becomes difficult for her to understand where these feelings come from when they are triggered later in adult life.
As an adult, if she’s faced with a situation where she has to say goodbye to a work colleague who is moving on to another company, she can suddenly become overcome with a disproportionately large amount of grief and sense of abandonment. In this moment she thinks that the current circumstance is the cause of their grief and abandonment, yet in reality the current circumstance is just a trigger for the very young and powerful cellular memory of being abandoned by her biological mother. For this person, there is no link in their mind between the emotion of abandonment and the original event of being abandoned.

Understanding, resolving and releasing these very early emotions can be difficult due to the fact that there is no cognitive memory involved. The person cannot think back and link their emotions to very early events and understand how and why they are overcome with powerful feelings.

Cellular memory transmission

Over the last 30 years, many researchers have shown that our early memories go back even further than birth!!!
As far back as the 1970’s, there has been research into the fact that a fetus can pick up on, and respond to, the emotions and the intentions of the mother carrying the baby, and those close to her, such as the father and extended family. Research suggests that both babies and fetuses are porous to other people’s emotions and actually take these on as their own. For example, if a mother, while pregnant, is angry and resentful at the fact that she feels too young to be a mother, the fetus actually stores the memory of feeling unwanted at a cellular level. Later in life the person has no possible way of connecting up the reason why they continue feel so unwanted and disconnected from others. Once again, the person thinks that what they experience as an adult now is a feeling caused from something occurring now, without seeing what they experience is actually an early stuck cellular memory being recalled.

In such instances, NET (Neuro Emotional Technique) gets powerful results in not only accessing these emotions, but in allowing the body to process them and let them go. NET works with the body’s natural intelligence and energy flows to pin point the times when the emotional memory was stored in the body’s cells, as well as where in the body the emotion primarily resides, and then quickly and painlessly helps the client to process and let it go with through the use of acupuncture and meridian points. The process is often so powerful that unwanted and life long patterns of behavior suddenly stop without the client having to try to change. The cycle in the mind body connection is broken and the person just moves on.

What types of early trauma can NET assist with?

  • Alcoholic or addicted parents when a child was young
  • Early violence or parental neglect
  • Dysfunctional or destructive parental relationships
  • Divorce while the child was young
  • Early childhood sexual abuse
  • Early adoption
  • Death of a parent or sibling while very young

 

The Importance of Stretching

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Health In The Bay StretchingStretching is a very effective and important activity that has a number of known key benefits for all. These benefits include improved flexibility, a decrease in the likelihood of injury and muscle soreness, and an enhancement in physical performance.

Through stretching, the affected muscles will be lengthened, which helps to improve the body’s normal level of flexibility as well as to reduce general muscle tension. This increase in muscle length will also enable the muscles to contract over a greater distance and hence create a greater level of power. The body is then able to move more freely with increased comfort.

After physical exercise, the muscles can often feel tight, sore or stiff. Such soreness occurs due to minute tears that form within the muscle fibres, as well as an accumulation of blood and waste products, such as lactic acid. Stretching after exercise, therefore, helps to diminish any muscle soreness through improved blood circulation and the removal of waste products.

Exercise also creates fatigue, and results in a decrease in both mental and physical performance. Stretching muscles can help to prevent fatigue by reducing the pressure on the working muscles. For every muscle, there is an opposing muscle, and if these are made more flexible through stretching then the working muscles have to exert less force against them. The movements of the working muscles will, therefore, require less effort, which will result in the enhancement of an individual’s physical performance.

Additional benefits of regular stretching include improvements in posture, body awareness, energy levels, coordination, and stress relief.

Stretching should be carried out before and after any physical activity, and as part of an individual’s daily routine. A typical stretching routine should last for around 5-10 minutes, with each muscle group being stretched 2 or 3 times. Each stretch should be performed gently and slowly, and held for around 20 seconds only to the point where tension is felt in the muscle. Only stretch muscles that are 100% healthy and avoid areas that are recovering from injury. Stretches should never be performed when the muscles are cold. Prior to any stretching, light, physical activity that results in a light sweat should be performed for about 10 minutes.

Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy

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Health In The Bay Massage

Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy is a technique used by Massage Therapists which was developed over 50 years ago. Direct pressure is applied to a specific muscle that has become contracted or over-lengthened for extended periods of time preventing it from returning to its rest position.

Trigger Points, also commonly referred to as “knots”, are felt as painful areas in the muscles that cause pain to refer into other parts of the body. The individual may also experience symptoms such as tingling, numbness, burning, as well as weakness and restricted range of motion in the affected muscle. These points can occur in any part of the body, but are often most likely to be found in the upper back or neck. Trigger points will usually occur on both sides of the body, with one side being more symptomatic than the other.

Upon compression by the therapist, the trigger point will often reproduce the individual’s pain pattern. As the muscle relaxes, the pain and discomfort should then diminish. Massage therapists will apply pressure to trigger points using their thumbs, knuckles and elbows, as well as with specialised treatment tools. T-bars made of wood, plastic or metal, often rubber capped, may be used.

The most common causes of trigger points are poor posture, structural imbalances, repetitive activity and overuse, emotional factors, and direct trauma or injury.