Hi
It has been a while since I wrote anything about my journey with ME and The Perrin Technique. I have started and stopped several posts because basically I was saying all the same old stuff. Suffice to say at this juncture is that I feel 70-80% + better and I am endeavouring to increase my business and so far so good!
Then, this is tongue-in-cheek, I received an email about the Amazing?, Wonderful?, Incredible? discovery that the cause of ME is a Retrovirus!??
Quite frankly I was confused. You see if ME is CAUSED by a Retrovirus, why was the Perrin Technique making me feel better? Why does Reverse Therapy or The Lightning Process help people with ME feel better, if they have a virus?
To explain The Perrin Technique in simple terms I have in previous articles likened the Lymphatic System in ME people to a stagnant muddy non-flowing river or pond. One can imagine that all sorts of virus’ and bacteria would be infesting a situation such as this.
So it occurred to me that this Amazing?, Wonderful?, Incredible? discovery is completely useless and that a drug may be designed to kill this particular virus but the patient would still have the symptoms of ME. Or the drug could make ME people worse because their lymphatic system wouldn’t be able to process it.
I have said this before and it is worth saying it again. I do believe that Dr Raymond Perrin has hit the nail on the head as far as the cause of ME is concerned and he has the technique to solve it.
ME people will be full of bad bacteria and virus’ because their immune system is messed up by the sluggish congested lymphatic system which is why antibiotics appear to help but the bacteria and virus in the sluggish lymphatics keep producing more infective material that isn’t dispersed.
The lymphatic system is congested through misalignments of ligaments, tendons, muscles and joints.
The brain is ‘foggy’ because the fluid around the brain and the spinal cord called the cerebrospinal fluid is not flowing adequately from the brain and spinal cord because of the congestion and back flow of lymph.
The interesting thing about muscles is what causes them to become tight and unbalanced which may be the cause of a congested lymphatic system.
The causes of tight muscles are: misalignments of the arches of the feet, exercise, repetitive movements, movements which take the limb out of its normal range of movement, lack of stretching and emotional stress.
The very area that Dr Perrin looks at releasing is in the Upper Back. The Upper Back is mainly covered by a large diamond shaped muscle with other muscles lying underneath. This diamond shaped muscle – The Trapezius – attaches up into the cranium, out to the shoulders and down to the centre of the back. The trapezius is the first muscle to tighten when we are emotionally stressed.
So either we can do stretches and have massage treatments that Perrin has put together in one package to help or we can get our thoughts sorted out that may be the cause of the tight trapezius.
However whereas a counsellor can help with thoughts and the relaxation of the trapezius, the counsellor cannot help with loosening all the muscles and misalignments by listening, these will need the pracitical intervention of a physical therapist.
Dr Perrin has been very intelligent and harnessed the techniques he has learnt in Osteopathy and Cranial Osteopathy to concentrate his treatment on the areas that are congested. He has conducted many clincal trials and it is his discovery of the cause of ME that is pivotal to his treatment and its cure.
I can’t help but be completely biased in favour of Dr Perrin and his technique because without it I would still be bed or settee bound.
As it is this year I have:
Flown a long haul flight, come home on my own and got myself and my suitcases from London to Devon on the trains. Suffered very little if any jet lag. This wasn’t the case before Perrin when I did a long haul flight, I was terribly ill after that.
Helped with the organisation (albeit a small contribution) and attended for the duration our village’s medieval fayre.
Flown short haul to Spain for a 30th birthday party and maintained the help and attendance and sociability.
Had my son and his girlfriend to stay, and my other son several times which involves more cleaning and cooking.
Attended and enjoyed many family functions.
Organised and socialised at my husband’s 60th birthday party and put many people up.
And in between all this my business has been slowly increasing.
None of this would have been possible before the Perrin Technique, not only would I have said No to it all, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain any of it.
So Retrovirus be blowed, we know we’ve got virus and bacteria that Non-ME people can shrug off easily.
I feature many articles from the Natural News website because I do believe he tries hard to tell it as it is. I don’t agree with all he says.
Here is his view of CFS and the Retrovirus: Retrovirus? Reader be aware!
My 18 year old daughter has had ME for about 7 years. She is taking a gap year and we went to Vietnam this summer as her work experience however she could not cope and came home in a far worse state. She also thinks the jet lag affected her badly and she has still not got back into proper sleeping. WE have an appointment with Dr Perrin next month and I hope so much he will be able to help her. It’s terrible for a young girl to be in so much pain, to feel isolated as her friends don’t understand and to have to move around like an old woman.
Hi Joanna, I hope a Perrin Practitioner can help your daughter too. I can’t imagine what is must be like to see your own child go through CFS/ME. Checking on Food Intolerances may also play a part to wellness and taking Fish Oils: I use xtend life from New Zealand. For me Calcium, Magnesium and ZInc is enormously helpful. There is a stretch programme on this website that I originally designed for CFS/ME people, taken carefully and relaxed this will also help. Actually I will see if I can find the original one with my sister’s sketches as this emphasises the importance of doing only what you can manage: http://www.mariannegutierrez.com/2009/03/a-stretch-routine-for-those-suffering-with-me-cfs-or-fatigue-of-any-kind/ I would love to hear how your daughter gets on. All the best, Marianne x
Hi
I have had ME now for 12 years,was very fit etc before hand i am now 44 and really struggle with easy day to day things,i do not work any more,i cant,my partner was explaining my condition to an osteopath when he mentioned the Perrin Technique,i looked this up on the internet and could not believe what i was reading,i had suffered a neck injury about a year before i became ill and maybe this is the cause of my ME,i had never given this a thought before,i had constantly told people that i had this Horrible ill feeling in my head every single day and have very little energy,i must look into this Perrin Technique right away,i hope i have found the answer from this terrible illness.
Hi Sean
I have been very complimentary about the Perrin Technique on the article you have read but realised some time afterwards that it wasn’t the Perrin Technique alone that had increased wellness. In writing everything that has helped in a book, I mention several other things concerning my CFS/ME journey to wellness.
I remain in favour of the process, but it needs to be said that at the time of getting well I was also employing other aspects: calcium and magnesium supplements, omega 3 DHA fish oils, avoiding antibiotics including so called natural ones, additives and allergens and my own Tone and Stretch class that I had started teaching.
I was beginning to understand why Dr Perrin’s theories were adding more answers to why my protocols were helping me.
I cannot dismiss the Perrin Technique because it did help me tremendously, but there are other aspects to the illness of CFS/ME that also need to be addressed.
However please go for the treatments because they will help.
I left a comment in November 2010 just before we saw Dr Perrin. We liked him very much and Isobel started the perrin technique with a practitioner near us. After a year, she wasn’t much better. We decided to try the lightning method as nothing else worked. We found a practitioner called Jan Oakley in Devon and attended two months ago. Amazingly, Isobel is almost completely cured. It’s incredible and I’m so grateful to Jan.
CFS/ME is a multi-symptom illness and not everyone has all the symptoms.
So basically every CFS/ME person is different.
I feel there are 3 distinctive layers to the disease and then layers within those 3, and no CFS/ME practitioner can look at a CFS/ME person and say ‘I need to concentrate on layers 2 and 3 with you, you don’t need layer 1 therapy.’ It is impossible to say so all 3 layers need to be addressed. I am writing a book about this which is taking a little while as it involves a lot of reading and research.
Interestingly enough many of the lightening practitioners are doing their own thing now as far as the lightning process is concerned and have moved slightly away from that which Phil Parker may do when he uses his lightning technique.
Lightning practitoners are osteopaths too, and use osteopathy in the lightning process, and as one osteopath said to me who I met at a combined Therapy Meeting: ‘I don’t understand Dr Perrin, he seems to have taken an aspect of Osteopathy we have always used with CFS/ME patients and given it a brand name.’
This is not to be contrary to Dr Perrin and his technique. What sold his therapy to me, was the study behind his technique which another osteopath explained to me, and I also then attended Dr Perrin’s own presentation of the science behind his technique. It is his reasoning’s of what may have caused CFS/ME that made me think that his technique would help me.
My beef with the lightning process is the huge cost that has to be paid up front, the stipulation that you have to sign yourself up and commit to the course, and the original cloak and dagger of what it actually was.
The irony with the lightning process and Dr Perrin’s technique is they are possibly doing some of the same things.
While Dr Perrin’s Perrin Technique kicked started a slow drip-drip flow of energy, it wasn’t the whole reason I got well and it is this I am writing about with Part I to be published soon.
I am thrilled your daughter is getting well. It must be such a relief for you as a mother, and so exciting for your daughter.
Thank you so much for letting this website know.
with kind regards
Marianne
Hi Marianne
I will be very interested to read your book – over the years I have read so much about ME trying to find a cure for my daughter who has been ill since she was 12 (now 19). We tried acupuncture from two different practitioners, supplements and the Perrin technique. Isobel tried numerous drugs and painkillers including Tramadol. She saw paediatricians at King’s College London and a psychiatrist at the Maudsley. About 4 years ago I investigated the Lightning process but decided it was a scam. I had contacted them and someone rang Isobel. They asked, ‘on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely is the Lightning process to work?’
Not knowing anything about it, Issy said, ‘7’. They then said she could only do the course if she said 10. I thought it was ridiculous nonsense. I read Dr Perrin’s book twice and decided it made medical sense. He was great and we started seeing an osteopath in Kent. We saw Dr Perrin three times and Issy had treatment for a year although she was in such pain she found it very difficult. I worked out we spent around £2,500 on the Perrin technique in all. I don’t know why I went back to looking at the Lightning technique but I found Jan Oakley’s website just after Christmas and phoned her. I told her about my previous experience and she said they were ridiculous. Anyway, Isobel didn’t want to go and was very sceptical. I said she had nothing to lose and I just had £550 to lose. Long story short, she is 80% better, like a different girl. There were 6 people on the course and it worked for all but one. Amazingly, the girl it didn’t work for lives near us and she was certain it would work because it had for friends of hers. The whole thing is very odd and I don’t understand it.
It is expensive but Jan doesn’t demand upfront payment and will take staggered payment for those who can’t afford it all at once. For a 3 day residential course working from 9am to 6pm, I don’t really think it is that expensive. I’ve been on unrelated courses that cost more.
I now think there is no divide between mental and physical illness – the mind and body are one and medicine has made a false discrepancy.
Of course, I can only talk from our personal experience and this may not necessarily apply to others.
Let me know when your book is out.
best wishes
Joanna
The mind can influence the body and the body the mind. Leonardo da Vinci said: Mens sana in copore sano. Meaning a healthy mind in a healthy body. A lovely quote that and I use it a lot.
I agree with you, when one understands the body and the brain.
However which do you start with? Dealing with the thoughts that affect the body? Dealing with the nutrients which affect both the body and the brain? Dealing with the muscles and joints which affect the whole body and then the brain? An endless dichotomy.
I wish you both continued health and peace of mind and thank you very much for your interest and I will add you to the list of those interested in the book.
kind regards
Maranne