BodyTalk and Science

 Recorded by Felix Schembri in Wiggensbach/Germany in the IBA office in Europe

Breast Health

I came across this article the other day and thought it would be rather fitting to post on my blog since in BodyTalk we have always supported the idea that the bra is harmful to breast health.

Do Women Need Bras? French Study Says Bras are a 'False Necessity'

The Huffington Post by Sara Gates. Click here for the article and video.

Women who go braless may actually have the right idea, new research suggests.

According to the results of a 15-year study in France published Wednesday, bras provide no benefits to women and may actually be harmful to breasts over time.

"Medically, physiologically, anatomically, the breast does not benefit from being deprived of gravity," Jean-Denis Rouillon, a professor at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, told France Info.

Conducting the study at the university's hospital, Rouillon measured and examined the breasts of more than 300 women, aged 18 and 35, taking note of how the additional support provided by bras affects the body over time. (It should be noted the study does not mention breast size.)

Overall, he found that women who did not use bras benefited in the long term, developing more muscle tissue to provide natural support. As France's The Local notes, Rouillon also noticed that nipples gained a higher lift, in relation to the shoulders, on women who went braless. When bras are worn, the restrictive material prevents such tissue from growing, which may actually accelerate sagging, the study concluded.

Capucine Vercellotti, a 28-year-old woman who participated in the research, found that she breathes easier without the constraints of a bra.

"At first, I was a little reluctant to the idea of running without a bra, but I got started and after five minutes, I had no trouble at all," Vercellotti said, according to the Agence France-Presse.

But don't throw away your bras just yet, ladies.

Despite the findings, Rouillon said it would be dangerous to advise all women to take off their bras based on the study's sample, which may not be representative of the population.

Speaking to France Info, Rouillon cautioned women who have worn bras for a long time -- several decades -- from following the recommendation since they would not benefit from taking off their bras now.

The Future of Health Care: Military and Special Forces' Use of Integrative Medicine

By Robert Piper

The future of health care in America and the world at large is integrative medicine. Things like mind-body practices, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, nutrition, and other complementary practices are here to stay. The Samueli Institute is one of several organizations looking to make integrative medicine available to society as a whole; they are tirelessly working to bring it to the men and women who serve in the U.S. military.

I spoke with Dr. Kevin Berry, the vice president for military medical research at Samueli Institute, on how the military is using integrative medicine. He severed in the military for 30 years.

Thanks for the service to our country.

It's been tremendous to be associated with the people I've been associated with. It's been about growth and seeing things that I would never have a chance to see. I think that's why after retiring I didn't want to get too far away from the military. I've been very fortunate to find the Samueli Institute.

I read on your site that over 50 percent of the military uses integrative medicine.

We've done surveys on that, and there are more than what we see in the general population. I think that may be under-reported -- probably on the civilian side also. I don't think that people think of [it], particularly these young kids that are into muscle-building. They're in GNC and they're buying this and that; that's also a part of this story.

We did a leadership needs assessment -- I'm not at liberty to say which base or which service. So I'll use it in more general terms. We're suspicious to say that it wouldn't matter if it was Army or Navy, or this base or that base. But after 10 years of war, we are seeing that these leaders, the colonels, and the lieutenants are maintaining their physical health, their ability to run and all that jazz, but we are seeing deterioration of emotional strength. We're seeing the concerns they have with the tolls on their family, and with it we are seeing this dichotomy on one side there going to it in big numbers, but there's another component that thinks if you go to mind-body or medical massage you are skipping out on being hard.

If you go over to Special Forces, in their contract world they put together a human performance and resilience contract. They haven't awarded it yet, but they are looking to put hard cash on the barrel head. To bring in a whole group of people that would be working with Special Forces and their family members to build resiliency, to include mind-body, nutrition, to help people work on the work/life balance.

You mentioned Special Forces. Are the Navy Seals using integrative medicine, as well?

Yeah, all the services. Special Forces have been doing that for probably a lot longer; I don't think they think of it as unusual any more. I think they've just included as just [a] thing that they do. Martial arts and tai chi are not that much different; it's a physical discipline that gets you back into the moment. There's pretty good evidence that sharp shooters will lower their heart rate and control their heart rate variability as they're contemplating a shot. I think that's probably true of Olympic shooters.

Can you talk about some the research that's been going on with PTSD?

Yeah, we talk about the right of boom and the left of boom. The boom can be any type of traumatic event; we think we need to be working on both sides. So the pre-exposure work that we've done, that looks to teach soldiers some mindfulness. One of them is called War-Ops Warrior Optimization. It's a proprietary for-profit firm that one of the army generals wanted for his units that were going out to Afghanistan and Iraq back in 2009. They asked us to evaluate if it makes any difference, and it was just four hours of mind-body activities. The trends are pretty strong that this makes a difference.

We were just talking here in the last day or two that the Marine Special Forces MARSOC is looking like they are going to purchase this training. They are going to take it a step further and try to reinforce it through leadership and leaders to remind people of it while they're deployed. It looks like we are proposing an evaluation of that. Another example of that would be looking at the Benson-Henry approach for a group of people who have been identified with PTSD.

Another approach is acupuncture for headaches. We have a study going on at Walter Reed and at Fort Belvoir in the Wounded Warrior community with those that are diagnosed with PTSD and chronic headaches. We're still collecting data on that one. That's just to give you an idea of what we're doing.

That brings up the question that all Special Forces, Olympic athletes, mixed martial artists in the UFC [...] use the breathing component to curb the stress response. Can you talk about breathing and the stress response?

That's one of the common things we see in many of these type of programs. Whether it's yoga nidra when you're working with a causality who's physically impaired and maybe recent from surgery. Becoming mindful, using breathing, and getting the mind to focus on breathing. Getting the chest expansion to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system, which can balance the overactive sympathetic system. That's just one example, simple, straightforward meditation, starts with breathing. Special Forces units might use tai chi for an example.

Well, thank you very much, it was great interviewing you.

Access and Africa

Some news from South Africa from Morag Bromfield!

The two projects which we have running at the moment involve a remedial school in Durban where a group of three CBPs, Sue Parnell (who has a son at the school) Jenny Davies and Zelda Bronzin are going into the school daily at the beginning of class, and are teaching the students how to tap out cortices. Once they are happy with how the children are doing the technique, the teachers will encourage them to do this a few times a day and will give us their feedback. 

The second project involves the University where the students involved in Nutritional studies and Homeopathy have asked to be taught Access to enable them to support their clients who have a headache or joint pains, etc and are unable to do this with nutrition and homeopathy alone. There are also a small group of nurses who have been encouraged to attend as well. The University would collect the data and track changes from the clients and give feedback to us. The clients are from a low-cost housing estate and have agreed to have BT daily. I will have more to report once this gets off the ground!

BodyTalk and Sports

Recorded by Felix Schembri in Wiggensbach/Germany in the IBA office in Europe

The Large Intestine

Here is another sneak-peak at my Eastern Medicine Course. 

This study of the 12 main meridians in Chinese acupuncture is a fascinating study. The Chinese medical orientation that is used is to first study the functions of the human body by describing the energy systems behind those functions. These insights are typically more important from a diagnostic and treatment perspective than the study of the actual physical organs. This was probably because trial and error over thousands of years showed that if you treated the energy system well, then the physical body repaired accordingly. This ties in to the general physics principle that “energy goes first, matter follows.” 

For example, in Western physiology, a study of the large intestine is fairly uneventful from the perspective of its functions and any ramifications it may have on the rest of the body. Yet dynamic systems theory tells us that anything that happens with the large intestine will have ramifications throughout the body. Once we look at the concepts behind the meridians, which move throughout the body, we see how many of those ramifications can be implemented. This becomes even clearer when we learn that the normal pathways we see drawn on acupuncture charts for each meridian are only a part of the picture. For example, the large intestine meridian appears to flow from the hand, up along the arm and finishes in a place next to the nose. A casual observer would wonder why the meridian that controls the large intestine would have a pathway like that when the large intestine is in the lower half of the body. The reality is that there are many long, and dynamic, internal links and secondary meridians that, when you take into account of all the main meridians, would amount to literally hundreds of internal meridian pathways. It should also be noted that the meridians are not channels of energy that look like the lines on the charts that we see. There are no spaces between the meridians flowing up the body because each meridian occupies a broad area so it looks like a broad band of energy instead of a line. Collectively this means that the meridians, if drawn properly, would appear to cover the entire surface area of the body. It also means that even internally, meridians are in some way contacting every cell in the body. It now becomes obvious that each meridian controls far more than the organ associated with it. Therefore a study of the meridians of acupuncture can give us a more detailed understanding of all the physiological and psychological interactions that take place within the whole body mind system. This knowledge is invaluable to anyone who wants to see the total picture and take a holistic, dynamic systems theory approach to healthcare. It should be noted that all the basic courses in the BodyTalk System are based upon integrative dynamic systems theory. 

The Large intestine controls the transformation of digestive wastes from liquid to solid state and transports the solids through the rectum.  It plays a major role in the balance and purity of bodily fluids and, via the meridian system, assists the lungs in controlling the skin's pores and perspiration. Coupled with the lungs by way of the Metal element, the large intestine depends on the lungs for movement via the expansion and contraction of the diaphragm, which works like a pump to give impetus to peristalsis by regulating abdominal pressure. Hence, good breathing habits help to keep the bowel function regular. Conversely, congested lungs can be the result of sluggishness or blockages in the bowel. 

The emotion attributed to the large intestine and lungs is grief. Grieving is a way of processing life by allowing us to let go of the issues and memories associated with the cause of the grieving we are undertaking. For example, the grieving of the death of a loved one facilitates the release of the factors that involve strong entanglement with that person. The large intestine takes this to the next level. Its form of grieving is quite specifically the process of “letting go.” The concept of “letting go” does not really have to involve grief in an active way. Instead, it is more about the concept of letting go, or going with the flow, of life processes. If we have control issues, this can help produce and “anal-retentive” personality. This then leads to a tenancy to want to control, and hold on to aspects of our life. The end result can be alternating constipation and diarrhea, hemorrhoids, and bowel deterioration later in life. 

The large intestine and lungs are strongly associated with the skin. They control the functioning of the skin and can account for many skin disorders such as eczema or chronic sores, keratin buildup, blemishes, etc. There is a strong relationship between asthma and eczema. When a patient has this combination you will see that during winter the asthma dominates and the skin improves. Conversely, in summer the eczema gets much worse, and the asthma improves. A great example of the organ/Meridian relationship can be seen in the case of a patient of mine who presented with an extremely painful “tennis elbow.” It had been present for over a year and he had extensive treatment, including acupuncture, physical therapy, and everything else he was recommended. The pain had grown to be so severe that he could no longer let anyone even touch his skin in that part of the arm. During my initial consultation I asked about the functioning of his large intestine. He was surprised by the question, but did admit that he had major problems with constipation. He had to take laxatives when he hadn’t passed a bowel movement for 5 or 6 days a time. I explained that his particular tennis elbow problem was due to the chronic blockages in his large intestine. I pointed out that his tenderness on the elbow was specifically over the area of influence of the large intestine meridian. There was no need to treat, or go near the tennis elbow. Instead, I referred him to a nurse practitioner who specialized in colonic irrigation. I heard from him 6 months later, when he wanted treatment for a whiplash. He then told me that his “tennis elbow” completely cleared up within three days of the colonic irrigation. Psychologically, the yang large intestine and its yin metal element partner, the lungs, are the body’s main means of eliminating impurities at all levels. So besides eliminating the obvious in the form of toxins and wastes from our food, they are also very involved in the release of emotions, and negative thinking processes. Problems with the large intestine meridian develop into anal retentive, controlling, and obsessive personalities. Once both the meridian and the organ have been addressed with techniques such as BodyTalk, we will usually see changes in both the physiology and psychology of the patient.

Poem by Esther Veltheim

I Am neither here nor there,
Neither this nor that.

Make Me your goal
and find only yourself,
Aiming.

Make Me your prayer
and hear only yourself,
Praying.

Be as you Are
and there I Am,
Being.

Stop thinking in terms
of you and Me
Between seeker and Sought,
Is Seeing

E.V