The 3 Stages of Treatment - Philosophy into Practice
Having put together some of the basis of my working philosophy for you, I would like now to give you an outline of how it is translated into practice.
The 3 Stages of Treatment - Philosophy into Practice
Having put together some of the basis of my working philosophy for you, I would like now to give you an outline of how it is translated into practice.
 | Stage 1 |
The first thing I do is to listen to what patients are saying to me about their life-style and what they are eating. I then offer back to them a diet, and my understanding of what has gone wrong. I link all their symptoms, going back to childhood (including birth) and explain the connection between each symptom and the next, showing how their illness has slowly built up for decades. They see that they can begin to understand their own history. This empowers them to take charge of their own healing process.
The most important questions I ask patients are about their motivation, creativity, vitality and energy. These are the real "I", the core indications of health status. Yet questions about energy levels do not get included in most medical interviews! The 'my' symptoms: 'my leg', 'my back', are actually much less significant. If the 'my' symptoms improve but the 'I' symptoms do not, or get worse, you have Hering's Law of Cure working in reverse and something is very wrong with the treatment, or with how it is being followed.
This is a basic rule of great importance. Hering, a homoeopath, states his law simply. "Our journey is like going down a corridor and as we go we collect toxicity." When we start to approach things wholistically it is like turning around and going back down that corridor. "Healing starts from the top, the head, to the bottom; from the inside to the outside; from the major organs to the minor organs; and in the reverse order in which they presented."
Clients often say to me that it is 'that little bit of me inside that really knows, that bit is feeling better'. Patients get in touch with that inner part of themselves when things are working in the right direction. Remember that, when body fluids are lacking, kidneys and bladder will be under stress and there will be a lot of fear being expressed and felt, so expect that to be evident and to require support.
They start with using the diet and the water. The aim is that the water is made available to the body via the colon, not just passed straight out. Thus the water in the food you eat is also important. The diet will be 'swollen' (with lots of short grain organic brown rice) and will thus assist in the retention of moisture in the colon/ large intestine. This stage includes the use of naturopathic techniques such as juicing, hot/cold tubbing, skin brushing, oil implants, water implants and enemas, coffee enemas (to eliminate toxicity, especially at the equinoxes and solstices), etc. Stages 1 and 2 are often combined.
| Stage 2. |
At Stage 2 (often simultaneously with Stage 1) we support colon and also liver, concentrating on the conditions and function of the colon. The condition labeled 'IBS' could always be taken as the starting point for therapeutic treatment, whatever the patient is presenting. Any disease condition must originally have manifested in the colon. By the time that you see IBS, a great deal has happened in the tissues. Most people are very out of touch with their colon/ bowel functions and would prefer to ignore them. But it is significant because the colon is the area where the reservoir of water is held within the body. That is why IBS is the first stage in so many chronic conditions.
Depending upon the mucus levels in the body, there will most likely be a build-up of mucus on the colon wall. This will reduce the messages getting through from the colon to the mind. This problem will indicate, in another way, the extent to which the mind and body are cut off. This "message of cut-offness" will be the same as the degree to which there is a cut-offness with the cells (again refer to Diagram 2).
If there is inflammation anywhere in the body, it has to mean that there is inflammation in the colon. There will always be low energy where you find inflammation in the colon (the amazing wisdom of Chinese medicine is evident). The energy will have dropped before symptoms come to light. Clients are able to grasp that the inflammation had to begin in the colon, at the point where they see, in response to questions about this matter, that there were always colon problems in their past, which have been underlying their ill health. There is often soreness, which is noticed just a few inches above the appendix, particularly in CFS/ME.
The colon becomes hugely mis-shapen, ballooning in parts, tightening and contracting in others. It is in the colon that we do a lot of absorption of minerals and, since each has its own site for absorption, which may well be impaired (ballooned and weakened or tightened and restricted), mineral status will suffer and become unbalanced.
This is also where we start to use the Essential Fatty Acids, in the form of linseeds. The EFAs are going to be working on the liver, and it is the quality of the bile, secreted by the liver, that controls the vital peristalsis in the colon. We could say that the bulk is about 25% of the answer to the desirable colon conditions, and the quality of the bile is about 75%. When you have a swollen stool, you have plenty for the friendly bacteria to work on, and the best conditions for the exchange across the colon wall.
In IBS, we know that we will have to work very hard on their liver and related fat handling. The saturated fats will have been taken out of the diet in stage 1. Linseeds are going to begin to provide the EFAs, which are going to work on the liver, and the liver controls the colon. I can only say that two tablespoons of linseeds is the most I would use, but there will be individual variations so I am not being precise as a generalization.
Some people who cannot handle fats, such as those with AIDS or CFS/ME, need to be given EFAs only in the form of whole linseeds because their body temperature is very low; the body will have the choice to extract the amount of oil that it can cope with, from the seeds. At the least, the linseeds will begin to give the reassuring EFA message to the body.
I find that linseeds soaked overnight are best to use if there is inflammation with great sensitivity in the colon, with loose bowels. Then soak some more and repeat in the evening; any excess water in which the seeds are soaked should also be drunk. With stubborn bowels, swallowing linseeds whole (but unsoaked) is the most effective method, about two tablespoons a day, and that will help as long as they are drinking enough water.
Aloe vera is useful when oils cannot be tolerated and is, in any case, going to complement the bulk of fluid with low surface tension when combined with psyllium. The usual pattern will be to try the seeds first, then move on to introduce the psyllium. I give psyllium husks as a bulker alongside the linseeds.
Psyllium with aloe vera, followed by a glass of water, is the ideal thing to take last thing at night so that it is the last thing to be moving through the colon. Take the same things in the morning, so that it will also be the first. The most important time for the cleansing taking place is during sleep. We need to be holding the fluid in the colon during the night. Sleep patterns have been shown to be connected with colon activity. Once again, the Chinese mind/colon connection is reinforced!
Once the body temperature has come up, they will be able to utilize some of the EFA oils. My sources of EFAs will be EPA (fish oils), linseed (flaxseed) oil and evening primrose oil. All of these measures will be helping the liver and I may use things such as lecithin, choline bitartrate or choline and inositol, as further aids to liver function. Lecithin has 60% omega 3 and omega 6, so belongs with the EFA's. Lecithin is also an emulsifier, so it is going to get to work on the breaking down of damaged fats, those which are coating the cell membranes, so is to be added when you are ready for that function to begin. Lecithin can also be helpful with people who have difficulty losing weight, because their lymphatics and liver have become very congested: the important thing is to drink enough water and to take the right fats while dealing with the breakdown of the damaged fats surrounding the cells.
If I feel that Zinc is a really important factor, as with behavioral problems, I may use B6 or actually the broken form which is P5P (Pyridoxal 5 Phosphate) during this stage. Similarly, there might be an indication to use kelp, if there is very low body temperature and under-functioning thyroid.
Vitamin C as a de-toxifier is appropriate, but I wait for a clearer picture after the initial cleansing before I use bowel flora preparations such as acidophilus. Otherwise, I feel you are creating unnecessary expense by letting a patient use a bowel flora preparation to do something which is much better done by water, rice and psyllium.
| Stage 3 |
This stage usually comes some time after stages 1 and 2 and involves introducing vitamins and minerals to the body, now that it has been prepared to receive and use them adequately. The needs for these may well be seen in a different light by the time this stage is reached, as opposed to what would have been assessed as being deficient before commencing with Stage 1. The story starts as soon as the body becomes de-hydrated, with the misplacement of the electrolytes. Potassium and magnesium are not available in the right place, and so there is an overall contracting effect (remember that sodium and calcium have a contracting function, whilst potassium and magnesium have an extending function).
Everyone with chronic problems has dehydration, has misplacement of fluids, and therefore misplacement of minerals. This misplacement is very often misinterpreted as a deficiency of one or more minerals. The blood may have been tested, but that is not a true indication of what is going on inside the cells. Therapists tend to intellectualize about 'shortages' since their whole training has been through the intellect. So I ask you to pause, and consider the need to cleanse the cells before addressing the apparent 'shortages'. Calcium 'deficiency' may well have appeared in the blood test because the calcium has been pushed into the cells. The test will only see what is going on outside the cells, while the disruption is actually going on inside the cells.
Therefore no treatment is achieving the step of helping the conditions inside those cells. Until you do something like Stage 2, which is re-creating access to all cells so that people feel less cut off as well, with large parts of their personalities coming back into play, you cannot really change the health picture. Yet what is needed to bring about the changes is very simple. And then you will see how the 3 Stages of Treatment that I use are so relevant.
There will be much variation in prescriptions for individual cases, but I can give you some of the main guidelines that I follow. Potassium is the first electrolyte to be affected. Levels drop very low in cases of CFS/ME, for example, which illustrate many of the imbalances I am addressing. There is the imbalance due to the handling of B6, and the magnesium levels drop as well as the potassium. The calcium and sodium levels are too high. The 'sodium ring' in Iridology indicates the high sodium, calcium and damaged fats. There is a predominance of these three in the normal diet in any case, and there is a marked lack of potassium and magnesium. You will almost always have to address the magnesium deficiency. When there is high sodium inside the cells, the thyroid tends to be suppressed and the body temperature tends to be low and I use kelp to support thyroid function.
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