Pills for Cheap

The beginning of the resolution of conflict is when we acknowledge that we all think differently. Our values vary depending on when we were born and where, as well as the influences of our parents, teachers, relatives, friends, music, films, TV and books. All these have the power to change our attitudes. We can defuse a difficult situation if we take into account that we are all looking at it from differing viewpoints.

In resolving conflict it is important to allow each person to have their say without interruption. This gives everyone a chance to express their feelings. Nothing is more aggravating than not being heard. Listen and watch heated discussions on television with two hard-headed opponents drowning each other out. Absolutely nothing is ever resolved and it has now been proved that conflict reduces our immune systems significantly.

The world is such that we can no longer have winners and losers. Everyone must feel that their viewpoint has been heard and the resulting decisions made with mutual agreement. The same techniques used to solve family problems can be used in the larger world of business negotiations and national affairs. What works for one will give you an idea of how you can handle the other. We must learn to co-operate.

There will always be some tension and resentment in any group. A successful means of communication is to ask people how they feel about a subject and really listen to the answer. This takes time, and isn’t that what older people have available to give to the young?

The 8 a.m. breakfast-school-time is perhaps the most stressful in households with children. This was the scenario with one of my friends. Daughter was late with homework unfinished, and mother became very angry when daughter missed the bus. Everyone was at flash point, when ‘conflict resolution technique’ (which we had studied together) was instituted. This consists of closing your eyes, thinking of a peaceful place you’d rather be in, taking some slow deep breaths, calming down, sitting down and holding hands. Then one person at a time has three minutes to state what they are feeling and why. No interruptions are allowed.

It didn’t take long before the child had explained that the homework was not needed until the next day, and the mother realised that what had made her tense was an unresolved problem with her husband that had nothing to do with her child. Hugs and apologies all round. Mother then drove daughter to school so she wasn’t late.

It’s amazing how we hold our breath when we are tense and angry. This raises our blood pressure and you notice it when people go red in the face. If they are already hypertensive, it can be a serious situation as a blood vessel may burst.

The solution is obvious but alas not till it is pointed out to you. Slow the breath down just enough to control the episode till reason prevails. This can save your life! Don’t overdo it or you could become dizzy. Business executives are taught this control technique in biofeedback classes. It’s good to feel you are in control.

Acupuncture is my first choice but it takes time to come to the clinic! These are homoeopathics for people who go red in the face when stressed. Excellent Bach Flower remedies are sweet chestnut and vervain.

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Many a knee strain is the unrecognised cause of back problems. There are quite a few tests which indicate to the practitioner the exact trouble spot in the knee. It can be caused by a twist in soccer, or simply by kneeling in the garden.

Muscles can be strained and never realigned until the knee packs it in. Often it needs tender loving care using massage and acupuncture before adjustment. I apply traction with my own body weight (which is considerable) as I adjust the joint.

Ronnie’s story-A t the age of fifty-five, I went to the doctor with a sore knee. I was told it was arthritis and I would have to live with it. My wife told me to go and see her chiropractor. After an examination and some massage, she adjusted my knee. I heard and felt my knee go click. Two days later I was back jogging and playing golf, no further treatment was necessary. This was five years ago.

After this, I lost a lot of faith in doctors for this trouble and for any muscle, cartilage or joint problem, I go directly to the expert . . . my chiropractor.

Another pain which radiates to the inside of the knee is merely a symptom of a groin pain that is really a symptom of pelvic sprain. This condition is a referred pain needing an accurate diagnosis and adjustment by a chiropractor/osteopath.

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Bending to touch your toes, unless done by an athlete, makes a lot of work for practitioners involved in back care! This movement puts pressure on the discs and can start you off on another round of corrective adjustment.

Many new patients arrive at our offices for adjustment because they decided to ‘get fit. Their first exercise leaves them in pain. The happy amateur never warms up and starts immediately into the most difficult exercise routine with great gusto.

It’s much better to swim and walk. First go and check up on all the neighbours’ gardens. Do it at a progressively faster rate. Add some hills. Time yourself. Join a bushwalking or bike riding association. Buy an exercise bike for the wet cold days.

The following exercises are from How to Live with a Bad Back, by Dr Otto C. Reinert (Marion Press, 1982), an eminent American chiropractor, now retired, with forty years’ experience in backache.

Caution: Perform all actions slowly, carefully and with deliberation. Do not force, or exert sudden and abrupt actions. If any movement produces sharp pain, stop immediately and discuss the advisability of exercise with the specialist treating you.

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Palpitations of the heart are, in my experience, most successfully treated by adjusting the upper dorsal spine (between the shoulder blades). Massaging the area is a good start and applying deep heat to relax the area is another. Then an adjustment is required when there is structural stress. It works very well.

Acupuncture is then employed to put chi energy into the pericardial meridian and reduce stress if this is the problem. It may be necessary to reduce excessive energy in the fire meridian.

Support the diet with whatever herbals or homoeopathics are specific to that person, and correct their vitamin/mineral balance. Reducing such stimulants as caffeine (tea, coffee and cola drinks) and nicotine are imperative.

Certain prescribed drugs can also cause palpitations. Check all medication with your doctor; he knows what’s what in drugs. Herbal hawthorn is recommended but see your herbalist.

Ella’s story-My first visit to Leonie was the turning point of my life. After twenty-eight years of poor health suffering palpitations, a misdiagnosis of a diseased gall bladder and an operation that nearly took my life with complications, it was said to be ‘nerves’. Then followed eight years of trying to get myself well again. All I wanted to do was sit in every chair I passed, the weariness was so great. I was told I was lucky to be as well as I was, considering all that had gone wrong. I kept complaining to the doctors that I felt ‘out of balance’.

Her first words to me were just that: ‘You are badly out of balance.’ Instantly I felt a great surge of relief that at last someone understood. After that first acupuncture treatment I instantly had the energy to go home and push a lawnmower around! I thought my husband had at last fixed the wheels! To realise that the improvement was in me and not the machine was miraculous. Now aged sixty, I have spent these past years of good health with plenty of energy, and little need for medical attention. I feel that orthodox medicine and natural healing work side by side quite comfortably.

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The fastest developing causes of structural strain today are whiplash injuries. Car accidents are happening more frequently and, while seat belts do save lives, they can also be the cause of many spinal torsion injuries.

Most particularly minor car accidents, when people get up and walk away, can often be the start of these ignored neck injuries. Just because there is no fracture to record, soft tissue injury can make its mark a few weeks, months or even years later. Like a decaying tooth, the condition is asymptomatic initially.

Often people suffer several of these apparently minor mishaps. The strains accumulate and uncorrected neck injuries start to cause pain in the neck and arms, headaches, tiredness and frequent head colds.

A small intervertebral artery runs down through each side of the neck bones. Any stretching or pinching of these delicate tissues can cause interruption of the blood flow to or from the head causing dizzy spells and light-headedness.

This is why chiropractors are specially trained to test for this occurrence before any adjustment is carried out. Several tests are performed as it is just as important for the practitioner to know of any contra-indication as it is for the patient.

Sometimes the adjustment is performed with the patient sitting up as the headache can pound when lying down. Some whiplash injuries do much damage by tearing ligaments around the spinal joints in the neck and between the shoulder blades. In these cases the ligaments must be healed before the adjustments can be given. They also cause soft tissue damage in the supporting muscles. Untreated, these tissues become fibrotic because the muscle fibres form adhesions as they try to heal. But the twisted and knotted fibres cause pain when the head is turned.

If this type of injury is left unadjusted it heals out of alignment, and this is the beginning of so much pain in the short term, and neck arthritis in the long term.

Because these injuries involve the small bones in the neck, the nerve supply to the head, face, shoulders and arms can be impaired. Conditions such as sinusitis, facial neuralgia, earache, weakened eyesight and more can develop over time.

In addition, the sprained joints of the neck do not allow the lymphatic system to drain freely. Soon glandular troubles can be added to the feeling that you always have a head cold. Your head sinuses block up and you start a desperate round of antibiotics for infection.

The practitioner has the task of reversing this situation. All that is needed is a neck adjustment. Done with expertise, as soon as possible, adjustments (which don’t hurt in the right hands) will correct these problems. Leave it till later, as many do, and you will have to undergo a series of corrective treatments.

No-one wants this, but the therapist cannot go faster than the time your own body allows itself to heal. We wish we could correct in one treatment, but it is not always possible. If the injury has happened fairly recently to a strong, healthy and young body, chances of a rapid readjustment are much better.

I had experienced a whiplash injury in a car accident in Ireland. We were driving around a curve when a passing car with a boat trailer side-swiped us. I had been looking out of the window and hit my head on the side of the car window. The reaction was immediate . . . it was as if I was getting a cold. My head became stuffed up and my neck was sore. A headache began and I became miserable.

We called in to a local osteopath. The neck adjustment stopped all symptoms immediately as I knew it would. I wasn’t going to suffer the next day or have a cold for my holiday. The practitioner was a charming man with a fascinating brogue.

It mustn’t be forgotten that muscle damage from whiplash also extends down into the rib area, between the shoulder blades. This part of the injury can’t be ignored or chest pain and breathing difficulties will certainly chase you for years.

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