Mind/Body

One thing I have learned, especially with pain, but also other symptoms, is to not fight the symptom. If you are experiencing pain, tensing up against it, does not help, it only makes it worse. If you can completely allow the pain, accept it with your whole being, not only will you feel better, but you may have a breakthrough in your healing.

There are several things you can try, to allow the symptom in.

• Close your eyes and bring your awareness to the area that has pain or another symptom. As you breathe in imagine the breath going to that area. As you breathe out allow that area to soften. On the inhale you can also try breathing in light or warmth.

• Imagine that your resistance is a fist held tightly around the symptom. Feel the fist and slowly let go. This can be combined with the previous point.

• Just explore the sensations. When you get curious about pain, it’s quality changes dramatically.

• Practice surrender. I am not sure how else to put it, but sometimes, when in intense pain, I just keep surrendering to it.

I have a food allergy, and one of my reactions is that my esophagus goes into spasm. It is incredibly painful and I can’t swallow for about half an hour. I have never felt pain as bad as that. One time when that happened I practice surrender and exploring the sensations, together. It was an almost ecstatic experience. The pain went away very quickly, but I almost wished it didn’t because I was enjoying it so much. I have never had that pain, so intensely, since that experience.

This is a very interesting story, I heard about ten years ago.

A woman in Vancouver, BC had Melanoma. It had spread to the bones, and she was given 3 months to live. I’m not sure why, but she went to Nepal to die. A Buddhist monk there taught her to save lives. She went back home to Vancouver, and started saving the lives of animals
She went to the docks and bought shrimp and saved them. She saved animals at the pound. She saved 100 lives a day. After some time her cancer went away.

After getting well, she got busy again, started eating meat again. A few years later developed cancer again. So she started saving lives again and the cancer disappeared again. That is all I know of the story, but it sure is interesting.

My guess is that for it to work, you can’t go out saving lives in the hope that your life will be spared. It has to be a true act of compassion. There is a similar story from a few hundred years ago in Tibet. A monk was doing a practice of taking on others’ suffering and offering his wellbeing back to them. He taught the practice to lepers and many were healed. The practice was not meant to heal their bodies, but their minds, and to give some meaning to their lives.

So go out and have a compassionate day. There might be some positive side effects, especially if you aren’t looking for them.

Prostate problems are much more commonly talked about, these days, than they were 10 years ago. There are basically four problems you can have with your prostate. Younger men are more likely to get acute or chronic prostatitis, and older men, benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH or enlarged prostate) and prostate cancer. If you have any urinary symptoms, such as difficulty starting or stopping or weak flow of urine, it is important to get your prostate checked by your doctor. Once you know what you have, it may be better to go with alternative medicine than western.

For acute prostatitis, if you are not a frequent user of antibiotics, and your immune system and digestive system are in good shape, antibiotics are probably the fastest and best way to treat your condition. Be sure to take a probiotic, such as acidophilus, after the antibiotics, to rebalance the intestinal flora. For other men with acute and for all men with chronic prostatitis, I recommend Chinese Herbal Medicine. For the chronic condition, antibiotics have a very poor success rate, and you will have to be on them far too long for the health of your gut and immune system. Chniese herbs are very effective at killing the bacteria in the prostate, with a much lower impact on the good bacteria in the intestines. However, you will still want to take probiotics to keep the intestines healthy. Chronic prostatitis will take many months to resolve, and your herbalist may recommend various lifestyle changes to help the process.

For BPH there are several excellent herbal formulas available now. Ask your health food store to recommend one, if you do not have a herbalist. At the very least, take saw palmetto for the symptoms. It is not a bad idea for any man over 50 to take saw palmetto to keep the prostate healthy.

Cancer is a scary subject for most people, and often a difficult condition to treat. Luckily most prostate cancer is very slow growing. In fact, more men die with it than of it. However, there are some faster growing ones, which seem to be on the rise. Also, with men living longer than before, even the slower growing ones are life threatening. Older men would do well to get their PSA levels checked regularly. Personally, I would choose Chinese herbs at the first signs of potential cancer, but I would certainly not rule out Western Medicine. If you have a slow growing cancer and Chinese herbs work, you will be a lot better off than if you treat it with Western Medicine.

Finally, unresolved emotional issues can be a contributing factor in prostate problems, especially chronic prostatitis and BPH. For younger men, I would ask myself if there were any childhood messages about sex being bad or dirty, or if you are aware of any guilt or shame around sex. For older men it is more likely to be feelings of losing manliness along with virility. Working through those issues can be very helpful in reducing symptoms and overcoming the disease.

Chinese Medicine has an excellent success rate in treating PMS and other disorders related to the menstrual cycle, including menopausal symptoms. PMS, however, can usually be treated with lifestyle changes. It is related, to a large degree, to stress. So, many of the recommendations I give here are generally applicable to most people in our society today.

In Chinese Medicine the various energy systems are named after one of the internal organs they are related to. So when I am talking about the Liver throughout this post, don’t think I am necessarily talking about the actual Liver organ.

The Liver, according to Chinese Medicine, is responsible for the free flow of energy throughout the body, and it is responsible for cyclical events in the body, including the menstrual cycle. Stress, frustration, and emotional suppression are the main disruptors of the Liver. Deep relaxation is probably the most important antidote. Ideally you should spend 20 minutes twice a day in deep relaxation, especially if you are having symptoms. Once a day is fine for maintenance. To the meditators who are reading this: although meditation is a great way to de-stress, it is not usually a great way to attain a deep state of relaxation. Try different forms of guided relaxation. Some people respond best to visualizations, and some best to conscious relaxation of each muscle. If you are interested, I have made a CD with three different, 20 minute guided relaxation sessions on it. Most likely, one of the three would work for you. Contact me at edward@prhealthworks.ca.

The second most important thing you can do for yourself is exercise. 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, 3 days a week, will improve the Liver’s ability to maintain a free flow of energy.

The third thing is make a few dietary changes. Avoid difficult to digest foods, as well as foods that affect the Liver, such as caffeine, alcohol, greasy foods, and processed foods with preservatives, and other artificial ingredients. Also most drugs, including over the counter medicines and recreational drugs, have a heavy impact on the Liver.

Following these guidelines, most women will be symptom free, within 2 months. If you are not symptom free within 3 months, I suggest you find a competent acupuncturist or practitioner of Chinese herbology.