Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Managing change

Change….

Its part of life, but it can be tricky to manage. So often the changes that we come across as adults are not of our making (or choice). Some people I talk to will state absolutely that they hate change and can’t deal with it. So what can we do? What skills can we develop to help us manage?

Like all of you , my personal life has been through some major upheaval – children, divorce (the 2 are not related!), moving house, new jobs, serious illness in my family – the usual! I discovered and printed the serenity prayer which is on my wall at home -

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference

This really helped me when I felt scared, overwhelmed, drained and really sad. Its knowing what we can change and what we cant.

The key to managing change is accepting that its uncertainty that is the major stressor, rather than the event itself. We worry about what that change will bring and how our family will cope with it – see it’s the uncertainty…

Stress is an everyday part of life - it can and does cause physical as well as emotional and mental symptoms. If these continue over a prolonged time, or you feel that you are struggling, please see your GP for a check-up – and then come and see us to see how we can help. The symptoms are there for a reason – to tell you that you something is not right - and you need to listen to that. We will be looking at stress in a forthcoming newsletter.

I like to think I’m quite a sensible, grounded person and so when I started dealing with massive (and stressful) change I did quite a bit of research into managing change. Here’s what I learnt about this process…

1. Accept that not knowing is part of the process of change – accept the uncertainty that you cannot control and know everything that is happening, but keep going as it will unravel in front of you. Stay open and flexible.

2. Think about your life – your reality. Yes it’s a comfort and it’s really hard to let go of something when in the process of change, but change will bring a new reality which will in turn have things which are comfortable and make you happy

3. You will know who your friends are. Surround yourself with these people and let them support you. If you are always “the strong one” this can be hard, but they will catch you if you let them. Its not a sign of weakness to accept help and love

4. Consider your options. Before you plunge ahead (especially if you can be headstrong!), take time to consider the options and weigh them up. Talk to people, get advice, research the possibilities. If you are not certain, wait and consider a bit further if the situation allows it

5. Time is your friend. What seems like hell will get better – think about times when its been really tough – how did you feel a month down the line, or 6 months down the line? When you can get some perspective you can see what it actually was rather than fire fighting the changes. It helps you to learn and reflect on what happened.

6. You will get through this. We all have times when we think we wont, that its just too hard to deal with, we feel we are falling apart. My friend said to me “breathe in and out… a lot” – sometimes you have to remember this!

7. Get professional help if you need it. Its not weak, it’s a sensible, rational choice.

8. Remember to look after yourself. I must admit I’m not great at this one – stress makes me have no appetite and so it’s a struggle to eat well and stay balanced. Friends help. Lots of people exercise their way through it.

Remember keep putting one foot in front of the other!

Sunday, 26 October 2014

Reducing stress levels to help your cholesterol

The usual, simple advice is:

Eat a healthy, balanced diet
Take regular exercise
Stop smoking and take alcohol in moderation

The balanced diet idea is straight forward enough, but the nature of stress is that it tends to make us reach for high fat, high sugar foods for an energy boost. Also, eating 'bad' foods makes us feel better emotionally which helps us manage the stress!

Try boosting your diet with

Vitamin C - boost the immune system which is supressed by stress. Eat more kiwi fruit, citrus fruit, berries, red peppers and green leafy veg
L-theanine - an amino acid found in the tea plant which has a calming effect - hence the great British 'reach for a cup of tea' in a crisis.
Magnesium - low magnesium levels contribute to poor sleep, anxiety and irregular heartbeat. Eat dark green leafy veg, whole grains, nuts, seeds and seafood
B vitamins - help support the nervous system and balance moods and energy levels. Eat whole grains and dark green leafy veg.
Potassium - helps maintain blood pressure. Increase your fruit and veg especially bananas, potatoes, fruit juice and avocados. Potassium is also found in milk, tea, meat, fish, nuts, seeds and coffee.
Omega 3 fats - lower noradrenaline levels (thus reducing stress), may protect against depression and help mood regulation. Found in oil rich fish such as tuna, mackerel, salmon and trout
Tryptophan - Helps control appetite, raising levels of serotonin which make you feel better and calmer and sleep better. Eat more turkey, milk, red meat and soya.
ALA - Is a plant form of Omega-3 and helps reduce anxiety. Found in nuts and seeds but particularly walnuts.

Take some snacks to work which fit these broad guidelines - otherwise it is all too easy to eat cake and biscuits! I like Graze boxes (www.graze.co.uk) as you can choose the kinds of snacks you like and get them delivered to work. Get a voucher for 2 free boxes as you can try them out then.

However, you can also try

Yoga or meditation to help calm yourself
Take up a sport you enjoy - dance class, zumba, swimming etc. Something that you can fit into your normal week routine
Listen to music
Meet up with friends
Do things you enjoy - go to the cinema, garden, read - whatever floats your boat!
Make the most of your journey to and from work - listen to the radio, download some good podcasts to your ipod, read a book - anything but work!
Make time at the weekend for yourself - start small (so you don't feel guilty for not working) and then flex with your work load.

These are straight forward, easy to implement life changes which in turn will help you sleep better, feel better and in turn help your cholesterol levels.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

What happens in a homeopathic appointment?

The first appointment

An initial homeopathic consultation will last around 1 hour and during that time we will talk about your son/daughters health problems,how they are feeling and how their symptoms affect their everyday life.

We will discuss their health issues – the specific symptoms they are suffering with whether they are physical, emotional or a combination of both. We will also explore their personal and family medical history since these often hold other clues about how they got to their current state of health.

In order to get to know and understand your child, we will spend time chatting to them (depending on their age!) and watching them play. Since homeopathy treats the whole of the person and not just their symptoms it is important for us to gain a sense of who they are.

With your permission, older children (and especially teens) may be offered the opportunity to chat to me on their own. Getting the child’s insight into their health condition and how it affects them is very important, as well as using the important information you as parents bring to the consultation. If you come and see us at the Low-cost clinic in Canterbury, we may well arrange to chat to your school age child by Facetime or Skype at a later time (since the clinic is held during the day).

Follow-up Appointments

After the initial appointment, we will meet again to discuss your child’s progress around a month later. This appointment will last for around 30-45 minutes and we will discuss what changes there have been to their symptoms and to their behaviour and mood.

How long will my child need treatment for?

This depends on how long they have been ill for. Generally speaking, the longer the child has been ill, the longer they need to stay in treatment for; commonly a minimum of 4 appointments is normally recommended, but this varies. The approximate rule of thumb is one month of treatment for each year of illness. However, since Homeopathy treats your child as an individual, it may take time to find the right remedy to help them.

Many parents choose to keep their children in long term treatment to maintain their level of health and lower the risks of developing any other illness. These patients generally have 1 or 2 visits a year as a kind of MOT to keep them as well as possible.

What if my child develops a minor illness during treatment?
If in doubt please get in touch. For example you may have come to see us since your child has sleep problems and recurrent ear infections, but if your child then develops another minor illness such as a cough, or tonsillitis please call us. This is useful information for us to have and we can also offer support for treating this illness too.

Think of different episodes of minor illnesses and facets of your child's personality and behaviour as being jigsaw pieces - they are all part of the same child and all provide useful information for us to understand your child and the remedy they may need.

Medications

If your child is currently taking any prescribed medications, please bring a list of these with you to the consultation. The responsibility for changing how you give these medications lies with you and your doctor; your current regime of medical treatment must not be altered without consultation with your GP.

Confidentiality

Generally the law protects the confidentiality between a client and the homeopath. We are both registered with the Society of Homeopaths and work according to their code of ethics and practice.

However there are exceptions to this strict confidentiality which include suspected child abuse, abuse towards a dependant adult or elder, a threat of serious bodily harm to another person or if a client intends to harm themselves. In any such instance, the appropriate agency will be contacted.

Thursday, 31 July 2014

Helping your dog cope with loud noises

Using behavioural techniques to help your fearful dog

Thunderstorms, fireworks and other loud noises

These fears are all too common in dogs. Sometimes its just in their breeding, sometimes its through an experience, they may be rescue dogs with a chequered or unknown history, or dogs who haven’t had careful, systematic socialisation.

However they get there, these dogs tend to use avoidance to try to hide from the loud noise – they will either run off (if they are outside and off lead), or may hide, pace, become restless, pant and dig. It is very distressing for us to watch.

Is there any hope?

Yes!

Desensitisation and counterconditioning

Improving their behaviour requires getting at the underlying uncomfortable, scared emotional state of the dog. This requires a particular methodology of training to systematically ‘reprogramme’ their emotional state. This is known as Desensitisation and Counterconditioning (D&C).

Desensitization refers to the careful manipulation of the fear-evoking thing – be that a dog, a person, a loud noise etc – so that it doesn’t generate a fear response. Think of it as breaking the association between the scary thing and the emotional response of your dog. No matter what the dog is afraid of, there is a version of it – smaller, quieter, much further away and very carefully controlled that wont trigger the fear.

The basic steps are that after this much less intense version of the scary thing is presented, a pleasant thing is presented (the counterconditioning) to build a new and more pleasant association. This could be a game or some really fantastic treat (like tuna).

Handler role

You have a role to play too – if you think about what your dog is reactive to, the chances are when you see it you feel a rise in emotion – such as fear or anxiety. This then inadvertently is communicated to the dog in the way we move and speak. All too often we try to comfort the dog – speaking in a soothing voice, stroking them and cuddling them. This all actually makes their fear worse! Your job is to use a false silly, jolly voice when you speak to the dog in these moments – you can also try humming or singing (as these help to keep your adrenaline down).

Establishing threshold

Look on the internet for a sound clip of a storm (or firework or gun shot etc). You are going to play it very, very quietly in the same room as your dog.

You are going to watch your dog REALLY carefully to judge how loudly you have to play the sound to see that the dog has registered the sound (looking at the source of the sound, ears initially pricked), but not loud enough to provoke a fear reaction (panting, ears swung back and pined to their head, cringing, pacing, hiding etc). The sound level at which the dog hears the sound, but without a reaction is known as a sub threshold stimulus.

You are basically going to use counterconditioning to teach your dog that the arrival of the stimulus heralds a tuna feast – therefore the appearance of the sub threshold stimulus can only be a good thing. This is what is then known as a Conditioned Emotional Response (CER). Once CER is evident, you can start very gradually increasing the intensity of the stimulus and continue your counterconditioning.

If at any time in the process, your dog starts to react (pacing, panting etc) – you have gone ‘super threshold’ and the dog is feeling afraid. You must then immediately reduce the intensity of the sound until your dog copes. If you go super threshold, you will slow progress sown and may cause regressions in your dogs behaviour.

Now I know this all sounds terribly technical, but it is essentially teaching a new association to your emotional dog. Your dog does this all the time – its how they know words like ‘shall we go for a walk’ and display happy and excited behaviour. Its how they know when you put your dog walking shoes on that this means they are going out. Its how my cat thinks that opening a can must mean its tuna for him. Its making an association between an event/word and the outcome.

The amazing thing about this type of work is that it is almost magical in how it works when done correctly. Your previously fearful dog is now happy when they hear a storm or other loud noise. This method is known as Classical Conditioning.

Classical conditioning

Unlike our more usual method of teaching where the dog learns the connection between their own behaviour and its consequences, classical conditioning teaches dogs about the relationships between events and how to predict them. It is vitally important to remember that this method is about teaching a new association to a scared dog not teaching your dog that if they come back to you, then they get a treat (good recall = reward).

There are some rules to consider and keep in mind in order to make this successful:

Where the dog is when they hear the noise (in different rooms, or in the garden, or on a dog walk etc etc)
Where you are when they hear the noise
How loud the noise is

It is important to realise that changing one of these parameters means that the others must remain the same or become relaxed. You can only then go on to the next step when the CER is evident and reliable.

Remember to use an amazing never used treat for this, as well as your happy, silly voice! A longer duration session is better than a few minutes.

· Gradually increase the volume of the noise – always looking for a level that the dog is coping at – lower the volume if your dog begins to get anxious

· Then go back to low volume and try a different room, and gradually increase the volume again

· Try the same thing outside – again start with the sound played low and gradually increase

· Try being in a different room to the dog – again start with low volume and gradually increase

This is the process of generalising and it is important that it is not rushed! You must not increase the volume until the dog relaxes. You can often tell as the dog will shake, sniff the ground, lick their mouth, look away or begin to blink. This is then frequently followed by a learnt behaviour like getting eye contact from you or offering something like sit.

Super-threshold

Sometimes, when you cannot control the environment and a bird scarer goes off, or your neighbours are letting off fireworks, your dog will have a freak-out fit. Whilst not ideal, its life – you need to continue with your jolly, silly voice and continue to rain tuna down. This techniques looks incredible since we then think we are rewarding the dog for poor behaviour! However, this is all about preserving predictability in your classical conditioning. Your dog must know that the tuna reliably appears when the stimulus appears. You must disregard your dogs behaviour. That is muddying the water with the other method of teaching which is dealing with learnt behaviour.

Monday, 28 July 2014

Book list for treating animals with homeopathy

Dogs and thunderstorms

Fireworks and thunderstorms

Dogs seem to have a variety of reaction to fireworks and storms.

·         Some will actively watch out the window, or ask to go out in the garden and watch
·         Some bark and run around madly
·         Some hide and shake or come to you and seek reassurance

Basic rules

·         Give the dog a good run during the day so that he is more likely to sleep through the episode
·         Avoid taking the dog out as it begins to get dark
·         Keep the curtains closed to lower the stimulus of the flashes of light
·         Put the TV or radio on low to drown out some of the background noise
·         If anxious dogs want to hide – let them. Try covering their crate (if you have one) with a blanket (keeping the door open so the dog doesn’t feel claustrophobic, or put a blanket over a table that the dog can get under
·         Make sure doors and windows are securely closed to make sure your dog cannot accidently escape
·         Try using a DAP collar/infuser or spray during these times of high stress (available from some vets or online)
·         Investigate herbal remedies which can be used for anxiety – Dorwest Herbs sell Scullcap & Valerian which can be given in the run up to the firework period and there are a variety of homeopathic remedies which may help. If your dog is on medication, check with your vet first as some herbal treatments can interact with drug therapy.
·         If your dog is extremely anxious – think about driving them to a quiet location and waiting the evening out. Obviously this is difficult is a storm blows up from nowhere, but can be appropriate for the fireworks period.
·         Dogs that run around madly (and seem to be stimulated) – are best distracted with something to occupy them. Get out your ‘settle’ mat (if you have one) and give them a stuffed Kong, chew or food dispensing toy.
·         Ignore any signs of fear – just carry on as normal

The above measures are for active management of the dog behaviour. Part of the solution needs to be teaching your dog to manage his fear – this is crucial from the earliest days of owning your puppy.

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Treating wounds

Wound infections can be monitored without dressing removal

Obviously you need to use common sense measures with wounds – if it is a deep wound, or contains a foreign body then seek medical help.

You can use the diluted lotions or creams to clean the wound, wash out any small debris, slow bleeding, act as a natural antiseptic and promote healing. If you are using a dressing to cover a wound, then you can use the diluted lotion or cream to dampen the dressing before applying.

There are a number of creams and lotions which can be used to promote healing:

Calendula - see the blog written by Elaine on this
Hypericum – can be a lotion (tincture) which must be diluted. It can be used to heal wounds where nerves have also been injured.
Hypercal (a combination of Hypercium and Calendula). This can be found as a cream or lotion (which must be diluted).
Ledum – usually found as a lotion (tincture) which must be diliuted. It can be used to treat puncture wounds.
Graphites – usually found as a cream and can be used to treat thickened skin

However, please never use Arnica cream on broken skin – even if it is bruised. Use Arnica 30/200c tablets to address the bruising. Choose a different cream for healing the wound.

You can also use homeopathic remedies to support healing. Remember to use Arnica if there is shock and Hypericum if the wound has nerve involvement and Ledum for puncture wounds. If the wound becomes red, swollen and painful then take Hepar Sulph.