Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Insomnia in the height of Marbella's season and beyond!

It’s always difficult to sleep in Marbella or anywhere along the coast at this time of the year. The heat is turned up to boiling point, the holiday makers’ volume button is turned up to pretty much the same level in audio terms and the sun sets later in the evening, all contributing to difficulty dropping off.

I’ve been treating a gentleman from Estepona who has been presenting with insomnia for the last couple of weeks. After a course of 6 treatments and a few changes to his normal routine, to help reset his natural body clock, he’s increased his hours of sleep from 2 to 6 which is a huge improvement and he’s finally started sleeping without interruption. He’s reported huge benefits to his health in the process, which is no surprise.

Lack of sleep is a terrible thing. We all know that they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture, but not all of us are aware that it’s only when we’re asleep that our body’s can truly get on with the repair work so essential to our everyday health and wellbeing.

When we’re asleep we release a hormone called HGH (Human Growth Hormone). This plays a major role in the regeneration and restoration of our cells and tissues (slowing down the ageing process) and if we are sleep deprived, then this helpful hormone is unable to do its job. SO it really is detrimental to our health to go without adequate sleep.

Reflexology helps to regulate the hormones which promote sleep whilst reducing the ones which inhibit sleep, in addition to creating the perfect environment for HGH to be released.

Sleep well and remember that Granny was right about the hours before midnight being important. I’ll save that story for another day!

Weight Loss in Marbella

I get many calls from the Marbella area asking for advice on weight loss. We get them on different levels through the magazine (InsideOut Health Magazine www.iohmagazine.com), either from a weight loss ‘fitness’ angle, or a ‘dieting’ angle (May I just say that I don’t advocate ‘dieting’ in that sense. The more one deprives oneself of food groups, the more damage we do or the more we crave the things we’ve eliminated) we have an incredible and highly qualified network of practitioners and experts to help with almost every health or fitness challenge, so can always help.

I also get many enquiries from Marbella to Sotogrande and even London, asking if Reflexology can help with weight loss as they’ve read about it in some publication or other.

The answer is ‘Yes’ it can. As with everything there are caveats and this issue is no different. It can help in situations where diet, stress or medication have created imbalances to hormonal production, which in turn can interfere with normal metabolism or insulin efficacy, thus leading to distressing weight gain and low energy levels.

I was contacted by a client in Sotogrande with a similar issue and after identifying that her diet and stress levels were a huge contributing factor to her recent weight gain, we prescribed a course of treatments and included some simple changes in her nutritional programme, (you see!...I don’t do diets!) increasing nutrient dense foods and reducing foods high in calories but low in nourishment. The results were amazing.

Once she started to see the weight loss and her energy levels increased, I introduced her to one of our trusted personal trainers in Marbella and we began a manageable activity programme. She loved it and hasn’t stopped since!

Everything done in good time will last a life time!

Reflexology and Fertility in Marbella continued...

Reflexology & Fertility in Marbella continued.

‘Unexplained fertility’ is a term generally used when a couple has failed to conceive naturally, has had every available test and results show no structural reason for the problem and all other results fall within the given medical parameters i.e. hormone levels are acceptable, amount of sperm production seems acceptable etc

During the scans etc the medics are looking for tangible things to identify, such as polycystic ovaries, unhealthy or damaged tissues and organs etc, but the things that scans cannot identify and which can be a huge contributing factor to infertility, is nervous dysfunction.

Nervous dysfunction in simple terms is when the signals and instructions from the brain, may not be reaching their destination with the full power they normally would as there is some form of impediment or interference. This could arise for many reasons, from something simple such as uneven or excessive muscle tension compressing a nerve, chemicals altering the normal nerve passage through the tissues (such as medication), or something more serious i.e. degeneration of tissue etc

Thankfully most of the cases of unexplained fertility I have treated in Marbella and in London, have all been attributed to the 3 stresses, Physical, Chemical & Emotional and after commencing with a course of passive treatment for both partners, followed by a more proactive role on the clients’ part, clients have rebalanced, de-stressed and go on to have happy healthy families.

Fertility Treatments on the Costa del Sol

After living and working here on the Costa del Sol for over four years now, I’ve treated many couples from Benalmadena to Estepona who have been struggling to conceive.

Reflexology is renowned for its success rates in helping overcome ‘unexplained fertility’. I’ll come back to explain this in more depth at a later date.

Couples usually contact me after unsuccessful attempts at IVF in Marbella and/or are looking for any alternative before they begin invasive treatments. Medical forms of fertility treatments can cause huge stress levels on both a physiological and emotional level for obvious reasons.

Many fertility issues are brought about due to physical, chemical or emotional stress. Over a prolonged period these stresses can alter, or at least interfere with the natural balance of our hormones (our body’s chemical messaging service produced throughout the body in glands).

Hormones are an essential part of becoming pregnant and maintaining a pregnancy, and imbalances in this system can disrupt the entire process.

In brief, Reflexology can help to lower stress levels, restore equilibrium in the body (known as ‘Homeostasis’) and therefore rebalance our hormone levels, whilst promoting the body’s self healing mechanisms.

It’s a very powerful ancient therapy that works at a very profound level both physiologically and psychologically.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Sciatica

Just paid a visit to treat a lady who is suffering from Sciatica living in Nagueles in Marbella.

If you've ever suffered from this it's extremely painful and can be debilitating (especially for a young mum who needs to be active and keep her wits about her with a toddler in tow!) Sciatica can be brought on for many different reason ie pressure of baby and altering of posture during pregnancy, shortening of Piriformis muscle in pelvis girdle etc

The Sciatic nerves exit the lumbar vertebrae (bones in the lower spine) and run down each leg.
They are the longest and largest nerves in the body and if irritated for any reason, can be excruciatingly painful making it difficult for people to sit or even stand comfortably. They can also mean that we lose 'power' to leg making it impossible to walk properly.

After a combined treatment of STR techniques (specialist style massage direct to the area) and working Reflex points on the feet, my client was able to at least walk properly again.

She'll need follow up treaments for several weeks to totally eleviate the current issue, then we will work on some rehablitation exercises to ensure we reduce the risk of it's return.

To help avoid this client's form of Sciatica, make sure you stretch out your hamstrings (muscles in the back of the thighs) and also your Gluteal muscles (buttox) as when these become too short they can begin to put pressure on the Sciatic nerves leading to irritation.