Apologies . . . where you read Acetyl-L-Carmine, please read Acetyl-L-Carnitine.

Just a little problem with the wires in my brain, obviously not taking enough acetyl-l-carnitine.

As a reminder acetyl-l-carnitine is an important brain transmitter and found mostly in red meat.  Nice.  I always feel better after a juicy red steak.

Or essential oils.

Called essential because the essential part of the plant is used.

These oils undiluted melt plastic and mark furniture.  What do they do to our bodies?

I am a fully qualified aromatherapist and err on the side of caution with essential oils.

I used to work as a voluntary aromatherapist at a Marie Curie Day Centre.  With vulnerable patients only half the recommended dilution of oils is advised.  But even this dilution – one drop of essential oil to 10 mls of carrier oil was too much for some cancer patients and they would react with coughing, vomiting and feeling unwell.  Their reaction did depend on the individual patient and their illness.

But I do wonder at the liberal way that aromatherapy oils are used today in everything – detergents, soaps, shower gels, shampoos, cosmetics and perfume.

Are they really good for us?

Only two essential oils were safe to use directly on the skin, but now even that is not recommended.  This is because of the changing state of growing conditions that can make an essential oil much stronger that only the distiller of the oil would be aware of.  Sometimes the oil cannot be sold because the growing conditions have altered the complicated chemical structure which may affect their beneficial effects.

Herbs on the other hand, while containing all the same properties as essential oils have a gentler action in the body because the whole leaf or flower is used not just the concentrated oil.

I do use essential oils but mainly lavender, tea tree and eucalyptus in very dilute amounts.

The essential oil of Rosemary widely used in many products can induce menstrual flow.  It is a stimulating oil.

So I would be very wary of using this oil for some if that patient is on medication.

The essential oils in soap products gives me migraine headaches if ylang ylang has been used.  It is highly likely that ylang ylang is used in products because it is one of the most widely used essential oils in the food and manufacturing industry.  I suspect many other people suffering from migraines do not realise that the cause could be an essential oil.

The keeping and storing of the oils are important and they should always be kept in a cool dark place.  They only keep for one year, sometimes two, depending on the oil.

It makes it a very expensive business to keep oils to apply aromatherapy massages. I tend to book the massage with the patient and get them to purchase the oils from me that I suggest in tiny 5 ml bottles.  They get to keep the oils or I keep them for their next treatment.

Now I notice that aromatherapy oils have been prepared for various massages – Sport, therapeutic, relaxing, stimulating.  This should mean that the therapist would need to consult their detailed consultation before using the blend of oils and that the blend will not suit all types.

However it must be noted that while Tea Tree is now labelled as toxic in Australia no-one has died from ingesting undiluted oil.  A child was admitted to hospital after swallowing 10 mls of undiluted Tea Tree oil and although ill, did not die but recovered to full health.

I love my aromatherapy oils and I love being an Aromatherapist but these oils need to be treated with the greatest respect and should not be used in any form by anyone unless the therapist is a fully qualified Aromatherapist.

This morning I became intrigued when I read of a CFS/ME success story due to The Lightning Process.  It is wonderful to hear of someone going from being extremely floppy and hardly able to communicate to bubbly joy, energy and enthusiasm on a long term basis!

Did the Lightning Process do this?  Well . . . Yes.

However, the website I was reading from, was not Phil Parker’s of non-disclosure fame.  This website was more informative.  The Lightning Process uses several aspects to help.  One of those aspects is Osteopathy.

Another Osteopath also professes to be able to significantly help CFS/ME people, Mr Raymond Perrin who conducted expensive clinical trials before launching his product The Perrin Technique onto the public.  He also wrote a book.  The book explains the technique and more importantly what causes CFS/ME.

One of the aspects of the Lightning Process is  ”combining particular body movements and postures . . . ”  In other words, correcting tiny misalignments.

Mr Perrin has discovered that the cerebrospinal fluid in the brain and spinal column becomes congested consequently disturbing the lymphatic flow throughout the body.  Tiny misalignments are corrected and the lymphatic flow is rebalanced with the techniques employed by The Perrin Technique.

There is no brain numbing mnemonics to record, repeat and remember.

What always really frustrated and annoyed me with The Lightning Process is that Phil Parker would not admit to what it was. It seemed like he wanted to keep it a mystery, a magical thing.

But another ‘thing’ bothered me with the technique is that I have heard of people becoming well through the process but feeling like they were going mad at the same time.  Someone said:  ”My brain was telling me I was well and my body was giving out pain signals and telling me that I was not.”

Then of-course is the cost of Therapy for Wellness.

I paid £30 for each Perrin Treatment.  I paid when I had the treatment.  I didn’t pay if I had to cancel.  I had about 16 treatments, so the total cost was approximately: £480 paid in easy affordable steps.

The cost of the Lightning Process is about £700 paid up front.

I can go and see my Perrin practitioner any time I want, at a time to suit myself and I could do this throughout my treatment.  It was flexible and affordable and it transferred me from a floppy blob to a working bubbly person.

Interesting that these two therapies are both designed by Osteopaths.

Let me tell you something else about Osteopathy.  The Original Discoverer - Andrew Taylor Still in 1874.

Since the age of 12, although he didn’t realise it then, he discovered that tiny misalignments of the body caused ill-health.  He cured his own headache by stretching the neck and increasing blood flow.

And of-course that ancient of all ancients Hippocrates, always advocated massage to loosen or tighten a joint that may be misaligned due to tight or loose tendons or muscles.

And that brings me back to me and what I do.  I find that Remedial massage along with stretches helps so many, many people.

When I was first ill with CFS/ME, my son bought me a book about Yoga.  It was a few years after that that I shouted Eureka!  Because I remembered my work with Aerobics and how I preferred the Stretching component.

The cure for CFS/ME appears to be ancient knowledge re-packaged.  I suppose it matters not who you see or how you obtain your cure.  I just want something I can understand, perceive and fully evaluate to make my decision on who or what I spend my money.

Finally, an Osteopath and a Cranial therapist to boot, said to me: “The trouble is there are many of us Osteopaths who feel annoyed with Raymond Perrin, we have always known how to help those with CFS/ME using Osteopathy and Cranial Therapy.  We feel he has simply taken what Osteopaths naturally do and made a brand out of it.”

Maybe so, but Raymond Perrin has brought to the eyes and ears of the CFS/ME community that Osteopathy and Cranial Osteopathy can not only help and in some cases cure their CFS/ME but also target the exact areas that need treating. Perhaps, more importantly, Raymond Perrin can answer the question of what CFS/ME is.

References

Andrew Taylor Still

Lightning Therapist

Raymond Perrin

Remedial Massage

You know that there are loads of Supplement Companies.  And if you have ever bought supplements you know that the amount of the actual ingredient in the tablet or capsule is tiny.  Miniscule.  But for some reason it makes you feel better.  One a day of a 1 gram tablet seems to give you your get up and go back again.

Incredible.

Now on the BBC Breakfast News this morning very clever scientists studying for years can now reveal that eating Fruit may help to ward off Dementia.  Fabulous!

Yes of-course it is good news.

But it isn’t rocket science.

Man keeps trying to make foods that they say are healthier for you than natural produce. For example Margarine.  A totally man-made food that actually causes disease and illnesses and well . . . it could be argued Dementia.

So to protect us from the effects of man-made foods, we turn to supplements.

Now Science tells us to eat more fruit.

Well as I have just written, the Birds could have told you that!  Birds know better than humans

An apple a day keeps the Doctor away.  No truer saying it appears.  You don’t need bucket loads of fresh food and home-grown produce to aid health.  Or tiny amounts of a supplement, an apple, a few berries, organic tomato puree every day will do the trick.  Just a normal diet of good home grown produce minus the man-made stuff like low-fat spreads, margarines and additives.

Alfred Hitchcock music is playing, terror is in the air.

A lone woman bravely ventures outside, terrified, looking around her, left, right, up in the air, behind her and approaches the Morello Cherry Tree loaded and groaning with its burden of ripe, rich, red fruit.

She begins harvesting her cherries when clattering, clucking and shouting a Black Bird flies right into her, knocking her side-ways and fluttering through the Tree to the fence where it continues its cluttering, clucking and shouting.

That woman is me, the Tree is MINE!  I had been waiting for the cherries to get a little more ripe before picking them.  Unbeknown to me so had families of Blackbirds and Thrushes.

The air seemed filled with bird noise as I now rushed to get the cherries off the tree before being attacked again.  I left the bird pecked ones for the insistent birds.

Now I know why.  The anti-oxidants rich in fruit are an essential aspect for the Bird Diet: Superfoods for Birds

If only human beings would be as insistent about eating their fruit.

Water of Life.

I read an article some time ago about a prisoner in Korea.  He was a Doctor and begged his captors to be allowed to treat his fellow prisoners despite no medicines.  Eventually his request was granted.  He treated his patients with water.  Either to drink or to cleanse or both.  And they benefitted and got well.

While in Spain recently and it being so very hot I advised my elderly father to drink plenty of water and add more salt to his food.  He did.  That night he slept the best sleep he had slept in a very long while totally uninterrupted by cramp which usually plagued him despite his quinine tablets.

Interesting isn’t it?

Whole, natural, nature intended water, fruit, veg, meat and salt actually makes us feel well!  Amazing!

UK Government stance on Salt is that now they suggest we should be consuming 6 Grams of Salt every single day.  Unadulterated Sea Salt is best.  There are no conclusive articles showing that salt causes blood pressure.  I think blood pressure is caused by too many additives and preservatives in sauces, soups, pies, cakes, bread, pasta, tinned foods, processed meats, packaged meats like ham and bacon, sausages . . . the list goes on and on.

Just read this on Twitter, author unknown:

“Always give people a piece of your heart, not a piece of your mind.”

I like this.

In my Advancing Nutrition magazine for Health Professionals from Higher Nature there is an article explaining The Labelling Maze.

You may remember some time ago I complained to Higher Nature about their labelling and using the terminology No Added which meant that something may have been added by the companies they bought the ingredients from which was the case with one supplement I bought and went into shock after consuming.

I love Higher Nature, I have used them for ages but this reaction naturally put me off.  Now this darling British company have gone to the huge expense of changing their procedures.

Not only brownie points do they receive from me, but huge accolades.  This is such good news for allergy and food intolerant people.

This is what they state:

Higher Nature will continue to identify whether its products ‘do not contain gluten, wheat, etc.’  For Higher Nature, ‘gluten-free’ will continue to mean ‘absence of gluten’ because we identify the source of all ingredients, we know if wheat or other grains have been part of the manufacturing process of other ingredients.  Where a gluten-containg grain, such as wheat, is a starter material for maltodextrin, for example, we take the view that it is better to identify this and allow practitioners and consumers to make the individual decisions on the suitability of the product.  If you are not sure where the gluten may be present in any of our products, our helpful team of nutritionists are at hand to advise.

The article in the Professionals Magazine was generated because of New Legislation from Brussels for the labelling of gluten-free foods that is currently in effect.

It is called The Codex Standard and it means that Foods containing less than 20 ppm gluten will be labelled ‘Gluten Free’.   Foods containing between 20 and 100 ppm gluten will be labelled as ‘very low gluten’.  This is apparently a better standard than it was before as it was set at 200 ppm before gluten had to be declared.  The standard was changed in July 2008.  It is impossible to have a zero gluten level, even rice may contain 20 ppm.

As a matter of rationale, Colloidal Silver is a product that many people use for its antimicrobial effect.  I have used it and it has cleared up many conditions for me from styes, sore throats, mouth ulcers, athletes foot, actually it clears up all conditions for me. The product I use has 10 ppm.

What I am demonstrating here is that a product of 10 ppm has an effect therefore those who are intolerant to gluten, consuming 20 ppm is going to have an effect on them and they will not know because it will not state contains gluten.

How did Brussels get this passed?

This next link takes you to the article when I went into shock over consuming a supplement with wheat in:  Allergies, supplements, medication and No Added labelling

Just a little complaint, it really would be helpful if the full ingredient’s listing that appears on the Higher Nature products could be reproduced on their website too.

I personally feel that problems begin and end with synthetically altered foods and that gluten naturally present in grains isn’t so detrimental but gluten added to foods for example canadian wheat does cause a problem.

This is a good explanation from The Net Doctor, of the differences between Allergy and Intolerance: (scroll down to end for information about private testing)

The Question was about further testing for Intolerances because of IBS symptoms, what follows is the Answer from The Net Doctor.

“I can understand your wish to find out exactly what has been causing your distressing irritable bowel symptoms, but I can also understand your GP’s advice with regard to food intolerance testing.

True food allergies usually cause life-threatening shock reactions such as severe breathlessness and tongue swelling.

Food intolerances, on the other hand, are notoriously difficult to test for.

A person’s tolerance to certain foods can vary from day to day, and it’s not clearly understood how some foods can cause such a variety of symptoms, but not a full-blown allergic reaction.

This means it is difficult to design a reliable test for the consistent detection of problem food.

There are a number of commercial ‘allergy testing’ kits available, but the effectiveness of many of them is questionable – results can differ even within the same person.

Doctors specialising in allergic reactions use blood tests to look for the level of immune reaction within the body, but these too often fail to pick up an intolerance.

The blood tests are designed to look at the body’s response to a foreign substance, rather than one that isn’t completely foreign, as is thought to be the case with a food causing intolerance symptoms.

As you have found, the most successful way of dealing with any intolerance is an exclusion diet.

This involves eliminating suspect foods from the diet and then gradually re-introducing them.

Problem foods soon make themselves known. I think the approach you have taken is therefore the most sensible. It would be a good idea to keep the suspect foods out of your diet for a bit longer. Then, try eating small amounts at a time and waiting a few days to observe any adverse effects before eating more.

Your GP may feel a referral to a dietician would be appropriate so you can ensure that your diet remains balanced.

I am delighted to hear that dietary manipulation has helped your IBS. It won’t work for everybody, but as long as it is done carefully and after taking suitable medical advice, it can be worth a go.”

Yours sincerely

The Medical Team, The Net Doctor

Basically an Allergy is a severe reaction to a food.  An Intolerance is a reaction to a food that is not severe or life-threatening that may not always have the propensity to cause reactions perhaps depending on the strength or weakness of the Immune System at the time.

Just for the record there are two private tests which can be used to isolate Intolerances.

York Blood test.   This will discern food intolerances if you are still eating the foods you are intolerant to.  It can only test for what is ‘seen’ in your blood that day or a few days/weeks previously.  So foods not consumed for several months, ie sea foods may not show in the blood.

Hair Analysis:  This looks at your DNA and will only show the situation of your body from about 3 months in the past depending on how long it takes your hair to grow.

Going by the advice above I think it is well worth getting the blood test in the first instance before giving up any foods as I feel this is the most definitive.

Then if some symptoms are still evident and causing difficulties, try the elimination route as described above.

If there are still some uncertainties, you could then use the hair analysis test.

So lets assume you have taken the York Blood test and the result is that you have high intolerance to Wheat but low to milk.  This may mean that you had not consumed much milk in the days leading up to the test.  So eliminate ALL the foods that appear in the High, Medium or Low risk and see how you feel, eating only the foods in OK to Eat column.  You can then experiment with eating foods in the low risk and see how you feel afterwards.

If after doing all you can, you still have symptoms, you could then try the Hair Analysis test, using this to mop up any information the Blood test may have missed.

York Blood test is considered the best and costs between £200 – £300.

I have not been recommended any particular Hair Analysis company but the costs are about £45.

I have said this for Y E A R S.

Just as the plants need the sun so do we.

Sunshine is as essential to our ‘diet’ as water.

I believe that the commercial products on our skin in the sun causes skin cancer and I have said before that I feel certain that the rise in skin cancer victims correlates with the use of skin care products from soap, shower gels, moisturisers and UV protection lotions.

That is one aspect and the other is nutritional deficiencies.

Now Natural News is quite rightly shouting about it:  Sun + Skin = NO Cancer

Since soap was first invented, most of our health issues have been caused by commercial products using additives, preservatives and by-products of chemical interactions.  Before the invention of soap, poor health was caused by poor hygiene.

Anomaly there don’t you think?  We all relate good hygiene practice with the use of soap.

Good hygiene practice is very simple:

Poo and Wee away from the community and bury it.

Never poo or wee in Rivers.

Boil water used from rivers

Do not touch your face with your hands

Wash hands in a mixture of Seed oils, Herbs and water

Keep raw meat cool, cook and eat within a few days.

In some countries in the 1st century and before, it was not understood that poo and wee carried disease and they would empty their bowels and bladders anywhere.

We also need to protect ourselves and our skin with good food that contains antioxidants and good fats and oils.

Further reading: Can soap ever be natural?