deep healing chi kung

Thank you for sharring. The lack of bull kaka in your posts is always wonderful. I love a good story with a lesson.

“Did you try to get help with the problem? A TCM person might be able to help with the energetic issue underlying the intestines. Michael also does work with his students (at a distance too, I believe). A Shamanic healer might be helpful. Someone who does visceral manipulation or chi nei tsange could help too, as your intestines have probably become knotted.”

I tried *some* of the things you mentioned, although not all.
The problem is that the benefits were only temporary, as nothing
had been done to deal with the root problem. What I mean is that
the energetic techniques that I tried were actually successful in removing
the toxic energy that was generating the physical symptoms. However
since the root problem wasn’t addressed on a personal level, after a
period of time it just came back.

“And, I agree with Jason that you should be careful about discussing very personal/sensitive issues on the board. One careless remark (like me saying something that makes it sound like you need help — sorry about that!) could derail your personal work.”

It’s not a problem. I’ve gone through so many different avenues, that
ultimately I have had no choice but to see the issue for what it truly is.
My personal work won’t be derailed 🙂

What I’ve come to learn (the hard way) is that various energetic
techniques are really only modalities that can act as a support
to dealing with symptoms and to help make the process easier.
However, really the *only* way anyone can heal themselves with
any condition or situation is deal with it personally yourself.

In reality, *no one* can heal you. Only *you* can heal you.
This is not the answer we want, because it’s human nature
to look for an external solution. However, what
we want is not what is, and that fact that only *you*
can heal you is unfortunately the truth.

I now feel inspired to write the following short “poem”:

The actual solution is the simplest solution.
The simplest solution is the hardest solution.
The hardest solution is the actual solution.
This is the way of things.

All the best,
Steven

Well I can’t say too much from the personal point of view but there’s an epidemic of these cramps in my family for example and people often get stomach problems or sex system problems from them. The issues seem to relate to authority and social status, the old who I actually am vs. who I appear to be thing, self-sabotage from fear of society.

I could say more but I don’t want to prejudice your own investigation. I have five friends who do energy work who have some evidence of similar issues and I believe they have become rampant in society, I also think there is a correlation with attention given to the media by the person but this is just a theory.

Once you spot these things they do become dealable with and in the process you do get revolutionized. I view these issues as being to do with breaking free of authority structures enforced in our society, but that’s only a personal take and I don’t know what anyone else would say about it.

j

“the old who I actually am vs. who I appear to be thing”

Without going into any details, this is it exactly.

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

I’ve never seen House, although people talk about it all the time!
I’ve heard that the character is a pretty comical guy.

That’s funny about the ulcerative colitis though . . .
and ironic considering the recent discussion!

Regarding my own personal experience relating to my
intestinal pain, here is my empirical evaluation:

1 cigarette/day: pain dramatically reduced
2-3 cigarettes/day: pain almost zero
4-5 cigarettes/day: no intestinal symptoms
6-7 cigarettes/day: negative health symptoms start to show
8 or more/day: purely unhealthy side-effects

I don’t want to sound like I’m advocating smoking. I’m not.
But in my case it was a matter of either being in constant
pain and wasting away, or doing something about it that
actually worked.

What I’m going to try to do is do some internal work
and see if at some point I can remove the root cause of
the condition. If I can do that, I’ll quit again.
Although to be honest, I probably won’t bother if I
can’t. I know what lies ahead if I do, and I know
that I’ve tried everything I could for a long time–including
some energetic techniques and healers–so what’s the point.

I have included a few articles below that I found recently
that you might find interesting. Moreover, since some of
my relatives (that have since died) had Parkinson’s, it does
make me pause a little . . . At the very least, nothing
is as black and white as it appears to be.

———

Cigarette Smoking May Lower Parkinson’s Risk
Tobacco products conferred some protection, although not for those over 75, study says
— Madeline Vann

TUESDAY, July 10 2007 (HealthDay News) — Long-term and current smokers have a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease than the general population, researchers say in a report that confirms previous observations that people with Parkinson’s disease were less likely to be smokers.

Dr. Beate Ritz of the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health and colleagues analyzed data from 11,809 people involved in 11 studies conducted between 1960 and 2004. Of those, 2,816 individuals had Parkinson’s disease.

The data showed that current smokers and those who had continued to smoke within five years of Parkinson’s disease diagnosis had the lowest risk. People who quit smoking up to 25 years before diagnosis also had a reduced risk. Other tobacco products such as cigars, pipe tobacco and chewing tobacco showed reduced risk as well.

The association between tobacco use and Parkinson’s disease disappeared for people older than 75, however. And while the association was strong for people of Caucasian or Asian ancestry, it did not hold for Hispanics or blacks.

The researchers wrote that the biochemical basis for the effect is not well understood, but that either nicotine or carbon monoxide may, in fact, protect brain cells that produce dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical produced in the brain that enables the body to coordinate movement. Once 80 percent of the neurons that produce dopamine begin to fail, the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear. Symptoms include tremors in hands and feet and a lack of flexibility or balance.

Writing in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology, the researchers called or further research to understand what chemicals in cigarettes and tobacco might be protective against Parkinson’s disease.

—–

Smoking tonic for health fanatic
PETER HALL
21aug05
A SUNSHINE Coast former ironman with a severe intestinal condition has found an unlikely remedy – cigarettes and ginger beer.

Andrew Champion, a former state volleyballer, record-breaking swimmer and surf lifesaver, says he turned to smoking in desperation to combat ulcerative colitis – and his symptoms disappeared.

The condition, which affects up to 30,000 Australians and a million people in the United States, leads to severe inflammation of the large intestine. The cause is unknown and symptoms include diarrhoea, bleeding and abdominal pain.

Mr Champion, 45, a Caloundra City veteran councillor representing Kawana, started “nicotine therapy” six years ago. He began smoking 20 cigarettes a day despite hating the taste, smell and stigma of the habit.

The married father of two was being treated with conventional drugs, but faced alarming side-effects such as a swollen “moon face”, diabetes and stiff joints.

“Doctors told me I would have to have my large intestine removed, but I thought, ‘There has to be another way’,” Mr Champion said.

“I searched the internet and discovered a site that recommended taking up smoking. It sounds crazy, but it has worked.

“Chemicals in cigarettes stimulate the body’s production of prednisone, a hormone that alleviates the symptoms.”

A sportsman who has always tried to stay in shape, Mr Champion made the New South Wales under-20 volleyball squad in 1977, was a top swimmer and won an ironman final at Noosa in 1981.

When in the army, he also survived the gruelling physical challenges of the Royal Military College at Duntroon.

“I have copped some flak for smoking and people think I’m promoting it, but I’m not,” he said. “I know I’m running the risk of lung cancer, but for me, it has been the lesser of two evils.

“Doctors are aware of it (nicotine therapy) but obviously are reluctant to talk about it.”

Mr Champion said he had just started using another supplement, an aloe vera-based natural medicine called Molo-cure, which he hoped would provide a healthier solution.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Steve Hambleton said it would go against all medical beliefs to prescribe smoking to treat any illness.

Dr Hambleton said he would approach with caution any one-off, or multiple testimonials, from patients testing drugs outside a controlled trial environment.

—————————————–

By Harvard Health Publications

Nicotine: It may have a good side
By Harvard Health Publications
May 1, 2005

It gets people hooked on cigarettes, but researchers hope that nicotine and related compounds will have therapeutic uses.

Nicotine is rightly reviled because of its associations with smoking and addiction. But the rogue substance has a wide range of effects on the brain, which may include some healing properties. Researchers are testing nicotine and related compounds as treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other conditions.

Self-medicating with cigarettes

Epidemiological studies have hinted at nicotine’s therapeutic potential. During the 1980s, several found that smokers had lower rates of Parkinson’s disease than nonsmokers. Epidemiologists also validated what many mental health practitioners have long noticed: The smoking rate among people with schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorders is far higher than average. It’s widely believed that people with certain mental health problems are self-medicating with cigarettes because the nicotine helps their minds function better.

A most rewarding experience

Although the number of smokers is decreasing, smoking still accounts for roughly 1 in 7 deaths in the United States (1 in 3 between the ages of 35 and 70). And tobacco — particularly when smoked — is highly addictive. The cigarette sends the nicotine straight to the lungs, where it’s absorbed by the blood, carried to the heart, and pumped up to the brain. One aspect of addiction is withdrawal, and the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal usually begin within hours and consist of craving, irritability, anxiety, restlessness, and increased appetite. The craving may last for months — even years.

The psychological effects of nicotine at first seem contradictory: increasing alertness while providing a sense of relaxation and calm. One possible explanation is that the effect varies with the user’s initial state. For someone who’s agitated, nicotine has a calming effect. For someone who isn’t, it heightens alertness. This difference may also help explain why nicotine, unlike many other addictive drugs, doesn’t behave in a simple additive manner as the dose increases.

Nicotine is addictive because it triggers a reaction in the brain’s reward system, the structures responsible for giving us pleasurable sensations. More specifically, the drug intensifies the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. Cocaine and amphetamines do much the same thing; nicotine is tame in comparison. But experts theorize that it may have an added effect because the drug amplifies the brain’s response to the behaviors associated with smoking. In other words, it’s not just nicotine, but the pleasurable sensations it confers on behaviors associated with smoking that make nicotine so addictive.

Express delivery

Cigarettes are addictive because they are so efficient at delivering nicotine to the brain.

Nicotine can be addictive without cigarette smoke. For example, people become addicted to the nicotine in chewing tobacco and “dip” that is tucked next to the gums. As a rule, though, most drugs of abuse are not as addictive if they are delivered more gradually. In South America, coca leaves are chewed or used to make tea as a mild stimulant. Whatever the harmful effects, they’re a far cry from snorting cocaine. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) is chemically more or less the same drug as the injectable amphetamines made in illicit laboratories. But in pill form for treatment of ADHD the effects on the brain are so much milder that it changes the character of the drug, despite the chemical similarities.

Effects outside the brain

Nicotine does have some negative cardiovascular effects, raising blood pressure and causing arteries to constrict, but it’s debatable how significant they are. Doctors were initially quite concerned about prescribing the nicotine patch and other so-called nicotine replacement therapies for smokers with heart disease. But several studies in the mid-1990s showed that the nicotine replacements didn’t increase the number of heart attacks and strokes in these high-risk patients, so those worries have ebbed. Still, those were short-term studies, so cardiovascular harm from long-term use might be a problem.

Most experts say nicotine itself does not cause cancer. It’s addictive, which gets people hooked on cigarettes, but the prevailing view has been that it is other substances in tobacco smoke (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, tobacco-specific nitrosamine) that cause DNA damage and therefore cancer. But researchers at Stanford and elsewhere have conducted experiments that show nicotine may stimulate angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels. Tumors release angiogenic chemicals that create blood vessels so they have more blood to fuel their growth. A number of cancer treatment drugs are angiogenesis inhibitors, designed to block those chemicals. Moreover, angiogenesis may play a role in the formation of the plaques inside arteries that lead to heart attacks. If nicotine is angiogenic, then it may play a more direct role in causing, or perhaps accelerating, cancer and heart disease than previously thought.

Nicotine’s imitators

Nicotine binds to the nerve cell receptors known as nicotinic or nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Depending on the receptor and other factors, that binding may speed up the signaling between nerve cells or slow it down. There are at least a dozen nicotinic receptors; their functions are varied and overlap but often involve the processing of thoughts.

The molecules that snuggle into these receptors needn’t come from tobacco or nicotine. Dr. Paul A. Newhouse, director of the University of Vermont’s Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit and for two decades a leading researcher in this field, says that one set of compounds under investigation comes from a toxin in nemertine worms.

Drug companies are investing in nicotine-related compounds. Abbott Laboratories’ ABT-418 has shown promise in treating ADHD. Taiho Pharmaceuticals has licensed a drug, code-named DMXB-A (also known as GTS-21), that is in early trials for the treatment of schizophrenia. Pfizer’s novel antismoking pill, Varenicline, is supposed to turn on nicotinic receptors just enough so smokers don’t go through withdrawal, but not enough to cause addiction.

Why so slow?

Researchers have been talking about nicotine-related drugs for decades, but none are on the market yet. Part of the problem is reputation. One researcher has suggested that nicotinic drugs be termed “cholinergic-channel modulators” to avoid the stigma. And it isn’t just image. Nicotine researchers have accepted money from tobacco companies. Targacept, a biopharmaceutical firm that focuses exclusively on this area of research, was part of R. J. Reynolds until 2000.

Even without these problems, designing nicotine-related drugs is tricky. Researchers must find compounds that are selective. “Nicotine is a pretty promiscuous drug,” Dr. Newhouse explains. “It hits a lot of things at once. But for effective medications, we want to target specific receptor subtypes.” Another obstacle is that nicotine-related compounds often have a fairly narrow therapeutic index: There isn’t much difference between a dose that’s helpful and one that’s toxic. That isn’t insurmountable, but it slows down clinical development.

Finally, the possibility that nicotine has angiogenic properties may put a damper on the research. In a review article on nicotine and angiogenesis published in 2004 in the Annals of Medicine, researchers John P. Cooke and Haim Bitterman said there was little reason to be worried about short-term use. In their opinion, nicotine gums and patches are safe and effective when “used as directed.” But they called on scientists investigating the therapeutic potential of nicotine-like drugs to take the “potent angiogenic effects of nicotine” into account. Dr. Newhouse says the angiogenesis evidence comes largely from animal studies, so it doesn’t necessarily apply to humans. He also points to the good safety record of the patch and other nicotine replacements, while noting that there has been some legitimate concern about the development of insulin resistance.

Successful patchwork

Investigators are seeing if the nicotine patch might have other uses besides helping smokers quit. In 2004, one trial found that the patch improved cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia. A 2003 study investigated the effectiveness of nicotine patch therapy in nonsmoking patients diagnosed with depression. And a 2001 study reported promising results for treatment of Tourette’s disorder with a combination of the nicotine patch and the antipsychotic drug haloperidol (Haldol).

In a 2004 Psychopharmacology article, Dr. Newhouse and Alexandra Potter, Ph.D., reported that the high smoking rate among adolescents and adults with ADHD could be explained by their discovery that nicotine improves aspects of their mental functioning. Potter is recruiting people for two ADHD trials — one involving nicotine and the other a drug called mecamylamine, which blocks certain nicotinic receptors.

An especially promising area of research involves cognitive impairments that are a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. In 2004, Duke University researchers published a small study on the effect of the nicotine patch in people with such impairments. They reported significant improvement in decision-making ability and attention (but not motor function or memory) in 11 subjects. Those results led to a larger study funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Dr. Newhouse believes people are already using nicotine patches on their own for memory problems. “We get e-mails and letters inquiring about this almost every day,” he says. “We still don’t have the data to recommend it. But we’re excited at the prospects and think the strategy looks pretty promising.”

I stumbled upon this bit of Taoist philosophy:

To follow the dao (path) of life is to go with the
natural flow of life and to avoid going against it.
Controlled quantities of the bad can be good.
Excessive amounts of the good can be bad.
Poison kills. But when handled properly, it can cure diseases.
Without poison, there can be no medicine.
To employ poison to attack poison is a Taoist principle,
which is validated in modern medicine: the practice of vaccination,
the use of antibiotics and chemotherapy treatments.

By the way, I decided to go grab some quick food at McDonald’s today,
and in front of me is this woman in her 60’s shaking
uncontrollably with tremors, and once again I am caused
to think about this stuff.

The universe is trying to get my attention, and
I think it has really has broader implications that
just this “smoking issue”. I tend to be an intense,
all-or-nothing type of person, and I think that the
universe is just using this particular issue to draw
my attention to it. I’m going to try to look at
my life and ask some internal questions as to
what areas I am too extreme in and try to bring
them in to harmony.

Steve