Hypertension, the silent killer

Hi,

Today I just wanted to tackle the subject hypertension or High Blood Pressure, a condition described as "The Silent Killer".

Now I don't want to go into the in's and out's of Hypertension on this blog. Anyone facing this serious health risk has probably heard it all from their doctor and probably been advised to change their diet, excercise more and most probably been prescribed some form of medication.

What you doctor probably won't tell you is that medications used to lower blood pressure are known to cause a huge variety of side effects and over time can produce other problems which mean you need another medication to counteract the effects of the first one and this cycle continues without ever addressing the real causes of high blood pressure! So you could have High Blod pressure to start with and then end up with a coronary bypass operation further down the line due entirely to the side effects of the medication!

It's quite a horror story I know, but there is an alternative.... A few years ago I woke up one morning and sat on the edge of the bed feeling dizzy, I did not feel well at all. I checked my blood pressure at home using my own digital Sphygmanometer and got a reading of 140/100. Needless to say I was shocked and felt pretty bad as I contemplated the prospect of having to take medication for the rest of my life!

That same morning I spoke to a friend of mine and out of the blue he asked me how my blood pressure was; I told him the reading I had got this morning and he immediately suggested that I begin supplementing my diet with Co-Enzyme Q10. I had heard of this substance but not used it before so I thought I may as well give it a go, and I bought some the same day.

I only took 30mg a day but by the end of the week I was getting readings of 125/70. Needless to say I was overjoyed! There is a lot of scientific evidence out there which shows that Co-Enzyme Q10 is an enzyme that is essential for maintaining Cardiovascular wellbeing, for some reason however mainstream medicine does not seem to have picked up on its value as a supplement! Co-Enzyme Q10 is especially important if you are taking any of the cholesterol lowering drugs known as Statins. These drugs in themselves are another horror story but we won't go into that here!

Now up until recently Q10 was only available in the form of Ubiquinone, and most available formulations still only offer this version. Ubiquinone is still a very valuable supplement and converts in the body to Q10 although it is not converted easily. Recently though the story has gotten better....Enter Ubiquinol!

When scientists at the Department of Ageing Biology, Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, studied the anti ageing effects of new ubiquinol CoQ10, using a special breed of mice that age quickly, little did they expect what was going to happen next…

They divided the mice into three groups giving the first group no CoQ10, the second group ubiquinone CoQ10 and the third group the special new version known as ubiquinol CoQ10.

At nine months, both CoQ10 groups were ageing markedly slower than the group who took no CoQ10.

Then at ten months – a point that equates to late middle age in humans – the three rates of ageing diverged significantly.

The ubiquinol mice were ageing 40% slower than the old-style ubiquinone mice… and 51% slower than the group taking none.

Then by 12 months of age the difference was truly remarkable!

The poor old mice which got no CoQ10, were at death’s door. They were suffering all the classic signs of human ageing: They couldn’t move, or respond to any stimulation... they had eye damage... bent backs, and patchy, discoloured skins.

The group who received old style ubiquinone had begun to experience signs of ageing, but were in much better shape.

Whereas... the ubiquinol mice looked perfectly normal and healthy. In spite of being old, they showed no signs of ageing.

They had glossy coats and no physical deformities. Plus, they were running around as alert, responsive and energetic as spring lambs!

However, one word of caution if you’re considering tapping into CoQ10’s ‘miraculous’ benefits like many other health– savvy folk are doing...

Not all CoQ10 is equal


There are many brands of CoQ10 supplements on the market that only use this cheaper ubiquinone – which is more difficult for your body to absorb.

So my advice is to make sure that the CoQ10 that’s sitting in your medicine cabinet is ubiquinOL, rather than ubiquinoNE. Those two little letters make a huge difference...

This new formulation is limited and unavailable elswhere, to pick up your supply at special rates go copy the following link into your web browser and click Go!

http://www.alsearsmd.com/shop.php?af=1231750

When you arrive at the site, type in the word "Accel" into the site search box!

To your very good health,

Blessings

Marwan

Collegial Therapy!

I asked a colleague of mine to take a look at my blog page today and to give me her opinion on its presentation and its contents.

The results of this request were not entirely what I expected.....

After reading my last entry about PTSD, she asked me about the type of therapy I offered and I explained that I was more interested in generating a balance between our intellect and our emotions and I briefly told her what the therapy involved. No sooner had I done this than she told me that she had an issue which had seriously impacted upon her life for some time. This issue caused her to feel anxious when out in public and very vulnerable. My colleague believed that she was unattractive & had low self esteem.

Objectively this lady was a very attractive young blonde, whom was on the verge of representing her country in the sport of Kick Boxing at the next Olympics!!

From the outside looking in, the evidence did not support this lady's beliefs. These distorted beliefs and emotions were a result of past experiences which were now manifesting as social anxiety and trauma.

I agreed to help, I asked her to focus upon her feelings and imagine herself going out in public, to a supermarket or a bar and the prospect of meeting others. Just the thought of this was enough to cause her heart rate to increase, her palms to start sweating and for her to feel generally panicked! I then applied the therapeutic intervention and within a few minutes, the thought of going out in public and meeting people no longer triggered any negative, anxious responses.

An hour later and after my colleague had been to lunch and did a spot of shopping, I asked her how she had felt whilst she was out? She stopped for a moment and then said; Oh! I didn't notice anything actually but I probably will feel anxious later.... Needless to say she didn't, however her reaction is not uncommon. Many people that I treat don't notice that the problem has simply gone away and when you bring it to their attention they are suddenly confused and have a hard time attributing the dissapearance of the problem to the techniques that you have used. Personally this does not bother me, it is enough for me to know that I have made a difference, wehter people recognise this or not is not the issue.

Limiting beliefs or perceptions

Recently I was asked if my techniques could help a person overcome limiting self beliefs and my reply to this is a resounding yes, but only if the person was willing to engage with the process! You see the most wonderfully crafted tools are useless if you leave them in the toolbox or don't know how to use them, or worse, you are unwilling to learn how to use them.

In my work within the mental health sector I daily come into contact with people complaining of poor self esteem, low self worth and other limiting beliefs like, I'm not good enough, I'll never acheive my goals etc... The worse of whom are the ones whom say thats just how I am, I've always been this way and things will never change.

Just recently I was working with a lady whom had gone through her life feeling that she was always second best and we were able to trace this belief back to some negative childhood circumstances and we were able to erase these beliefs and replace them with more positive ones, the process was quick and simple!

Actually just today after I had done some work with another client on some other issue, she told me that she had pulled out of a kick Boxing competition because she felt she was not good enough. I asked her what her trainer thought, and she said he was dissapointed as he felt that she was more than ready. Unfortunately it seems that he did not have the skills to make her believe that herself!

Using a very simple and gentle technique we can eradicate such limiting beliefs and reprogramme ourselves with more positive ones. We are uninstalling the old software that has been running through your subconscious and installing more useful software. Even when behaviours or beliefs are ingrained they can be changed with simple, gentle persistance. For instance, if you had taken the same route home from work everyday for the last 20 years, and this route took 45 minutes then one day someone showed you a different route that cut down your travelling time to only 20 minutes wouldn't you take it?! I am sure it would not take you very long to adopt this new route.

I am putting together a simple digital product that anyone can use to address their limiting self beliefs and reinstall a new set of positive more empowering software. Please come back soon or subscribe to this blog so i can let you know when it is about to be launched.

Till then... Be Well.... Be Magnificent!

Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD

It would be reasonably safe to say that most if not all adults are aware of PTSD and of course in each culture it maybe referred to under a different name. Regardless of what PTSD is known as in different countries, the debilitating effects of this condition are all too easily recognisable by anyone whom has had even a modicum of Mental Health training.

Classicaly the clinical symptoms described in the Diagnostic & statistical Manual of mental Disorders IV or DSMIV are the following:
Diagnostic Features

The essential feature of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one's physical integrity; or witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of another person; or learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate (Criterion A1). The person's response to the event must involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror (or in children, the response must involve disorganized or agitated behavior) (Criterion A2). The characteristic symptoms resulting from the exposure to the extreme trauma include persistent reexperiencing of the traumatic event (Criterion B), persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (Criterion C), and persistent symptoms of increased arousal (Criterion D). The full symptom picture must be present for more than 1 month (Criterion E), and the disturbance must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (Criterion F).

I would venture and from both personal and professional experience that many people remain undiagnosed due to this very narrow definition and are treated for other conditions for many years (without success)until a psychiatrist realises that PTSD is driving all the other symptoms.

The conventional treatments offered consist of medications which serve only to reduce the severity of the symptoms or mask them entirely but without resolving the real issues. I have worked with many patients whom have received conventional treatment via a psychiatrist and have ended up with other even worse problems due to the side effects of the medications that they were prescribed. in cases where patients have been prescribed benzodiazepines such as Valium or Lorazepam, these patients have developed an addiction to these major tranquilizers and find themselves unable to do without them. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK (NICE) has over the years published guidelines dealing with treatments of Mental Disorders such as Anxiety, Depresssion and PTSD and currently advocates the use of Cognitive Behavioural therapies or CBT. These interventions have indeed demonstrated a very positive effect in many cases although the process is sometimes very long and the results may not be permanent. indeed the improvements in the condition in most cases are only partial.

In theory it should take only the same amount of time to undo something as it did to do it in the first place.

When I am speaking of trauma, my feelings are that there are two kinds of Post Traumatic stress effects.

The first is the type of PTSD caused by a single traumatic event, such as being involved in a car crash or any such single occurrence events.

The second type is PTSD that is caused by sustained or repetitive exposure to unpleasant events such as being subjected to physical or sexual abuse over a period of time or perhaps having to deal with the aftermath of unpleasant events on a regular basis such as is the case with Ambulance/Fire or Police crews that routinely attend events which most people would never be exposed to.

I postulate that in the case of the first type of PTSD, it is possible to resolve any symptoms in one single session if the subject/patient is clear about the event that caused their PTSD.

In respect to the second kind of PTSD it is perhaps necessary to conduct more than one session to completely extinguish the unpleasant symptoms as there will inevitably be more than one aspect to the presentation and it maybe necessary to address several events before the whole deck of cards eventually fall.

In the first case the root cause of the problem is clear and the therapist can address this directly and metaphorically speaking, can pull out the weeds complete with the roots. In the second instance where no one event can be identified then the therapist will have to hack away at the overgrown bushes before a root can be identified.

I have during my professional career successfuly treated a great many individuals for the effect of PTSD, many of whom had suffered for many years. These same individuals had been treated by psychiatrists and other therapists but with only limited relief if any.

Using a simple therapy which concentrates on extinguishing the emotional (irrational)responses that are triggered by memories, events or other stressful situations, and permanently resolving the issues. I have so far been 100% successful in this and I can offer my clients a real solution to problems that have plagued them for years without the use of drugs or the need for any major intellectual efforts on their part as is demanded by treatments like CBT.

if you feel you would like to know more about this then please drop me a line and i will do my best to help!

Emotional Health

Today I wanted to talk about the subject of emotional wellbeing and how this affects our physical wellbeing. Some of you may know that I have a background in psychiatry as a Mental Health Nurse. I have worked in this field for more years than I care to remember. I started out in the area of Forensic Psychiatry working in a regional secure unit in the south of England. Most if not all our patients were subject to Home Office restrictions and were under section 37/41 of the Mental Health Act, meaning that their detention in hospital was indefinate. No doubt in some cases this was warranted as most of the patients were guilty of serious crimes including murder. At first and during my early years I followed the routine of dispensing medication to patients and engaging in individual therapy including supervising patients in the gym.

As I progressed in my career and became a community Mental health Nurse and in fact as i developed as a human being I became more and more cynical of established western psychiatry that seemed to treat mental disorder only in chemical terms, citing the long established mantra of 'chemical imbalance'. Of course till this day there is no established test that can demonstrate that a chemical imbalance in the brain actually exists.

During my time as a community mental health nurse I came into contact with an amazing individual whom began to teach me how to be a 'real' human being. Under his guidance I began to understand more about myself and people in general. How we think, feel and act. Our responses to various situations and the levels on which we function. It is during this time also that I began to formulate my ideas on what in fact causes mental illness and up to 85% of physical disorders. I came to the conclusion that most psychological and physical illness has an emotional basis and if this emotional issue were to be addressed then the other manifestations wether physical or psychological in nature would dissappear!

It was during this time and when I was studying at the London School of Clinical Hypnosis, that I was introduced to a simple technique known as Emotional Freedom Therapy. By applying this simple technique almost 99% of emotional issues can be resolved. I use the term resolved to mean irradicated as opposed to just managed or reduced. Over the years I have treated a great deal of people using this technique with a 100% success rate! People diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Phobias, Anxiety all have responded favourably to this intervention. Now i know that at the moment interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural therapy are in the ascendancy however my issue with CBT type therapies are that they demand too much intellectual effort from the individual, monitoring ones thoughts constantly is exhausting and what is not made clear by the established CBT community is that the relapse rate is high. Methods such as Emotional Freedom therapy or EFT, require little intellectual effort and work by extinguishing the high/negative emotions associated with a bad or unpleasant experience.