Ed Berger, Herbalism at Albany Clinic

We are very happy to announce that Ed Berger, experienced teacher of Herbalism and Naturopathy, is now taking appointments at Albany Clinic. Ed is trained in Naturopathy, Iridology, and has a BSc in Western Herbal Medicine. His approach combines a thorough grounding in orthodox medical diagnosis and modern Western herbal medicine, with traditional Ayurveda and Naturopathy, a philosophy of healing that seeks to encourage the bodies own ‘self-healing’ powers.

Herbal medicine is the oldest of all healing systems and offers powerful solutions to health problems using safe and effective plant remedies. Rebalance your bodies natural equilibrium, improve the functioning of all body systems, increase vitality and enable the body to free itself of disease.

Visit his website at www.edberger.co.uk

Introducing Rose Paul, Nutritionalist, to the Albany Team

We are now able to offer sessions with Rose Paul, an experienced and most capable nutritionalist. Rose celebrates good healthy food as a method of building health. She employs a patient specific approach and will use stool, urine and blood testing where appropriate to understand the imbalances and deficiencies relevant to the case at hand. It is fantastic to work alongside her and to have this approach running parallel to the other services at Albany Villa Clinic. She has particular experience in understanding how diet can effect metabolic, immune and hormonal health.

Please follow this link for more info: Rose Paul Nutrition

HUMAN GIVENS at Albany Villa Clinic

Albany Villa Clinic is happy to announce the introduction of two new therapists to the team.

Sue Gray and Steve Peck are both fully qualified Human Givens Practitioners. They explore the 'givens' of human genetic heritage and what humans need in order to be happy and healthy. Human Givens therapy seeks to use a "client's strengths to enable them to get emotional needs met". It is advertised as "drawing from the best of person-centred counselling, motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoeducational approaches, interpersonal therapy, imaginal exposure and hypnotherapy".

Steve described it to me as a tool-box of techniques that can be used in many ways to improve mental and physical health and I’m very excited to be working alongside such talented practitioners.

Ned Wombwell

Osteopathy for babies and children by Ned Wombwell

People are often surprised to hear that osteopathy can treat babies and children, and of course infants are different from adults. They not just smaller, but have different anatomical proportions, nutritional requirements and functional and pathological problems. They are like new buds bursting into the world, but can experience significant problems in the process. Despite the differences between adults and children, musculoskeletal and mechanical issues are very important in determining health.

Osteopathy works by understanding the interdependence of structure and function in the body. This means that if the relationships between the parts are good, the structure will perform well, and if it performs well the structural parts will be in good order. It’s a very simple idea, and very important for our health. Manipulative treatment can resolve the stresses and strains of coming into the world to allow a normal growth process. As the twig is bent, so the branch will grow.
Osteopaths often use Cranial Osteopathy to treat infants, a gentler type of osteopathic treatment that encourages the release of tensions throughout the body, including the head and is particularly effective for children. Gentle pressure is used to align the bones and relax the muscles and ligaments. Osteopaths assess the involuntary motion of the body, and use it to create a therapeutic change. The involuntary motion is a subtle wave of movement, orientated through the midline of the body. 

Birth can be a very stressful event. The baby is subjected to compressive forces as the uterus pushes the baby against the birth canal, twisting and turning as it squeezes through the bony pelvis. To an extent, the baby's head can absorb these stresses; the soft bones overlap and the chin is normally tucked down towards the chest to reduce the presenting diameter of the head. This process causes the molding of the head, which naturally reduces as the baby grows, cries and sucks. In situations of difficult births, or where ventouse or forceps are used, the unmolding process can be incomplete. The resulting tension in the head may be well tolerated by the baby, or it may cause significant discomfort. 

Osteopathy can go a long way to help symptoms of a difficult birth such as a sensitive head, difficulty latching-on or digestive problems. A careful treatment of the musculoskeletal system and reduces irritation on the nerve pathways, thereby affecting the complete function of the baby’s body. Osteopathy treats patients, not conditions, and no two babies are exactly alike. The assessment and treatment are gentle and can make a huge difference for the health and happiness of your child.

The Roots of Osteopathic Thinking by Ned Wombwell

(first published in the Southwold Organ, August 2014)

When I was an adolescent, my GCSE history teacher always used to say to me, “if you want to understanding something, look at where it came from”. I went on to do a degree in Archaeology in an attempt to understand who, what and more importantly, how we came to be. After studying the past, I was left with a sense of urgency to effect people in the present, to do something that really improved quality of life.  As I got deeper into Osteopathy, I became inevitably fascinated in the roots of my profession.

Osteopathy was founded in 1874 in Kirksville, Missouri, USA. If you can take yourself back to those beloved Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer stories and you have the right time and place. In fact the author, Mark Twain, was a strong advocate of Osteopathy in those early years. The consideration of why and how Osteopathy began, informs us as to how we can best use it today, and how you can benefit from the ideas behind the treatments.

The author of Osteopathy was a physician and surgeon called Andrew Taylor Still. He became disheartened with the practice of frontier medicine with its emphasis on cure-alls and bleeding. After he lost his 3 children and wife to a meningitis epidemic he became determined to find a better way to treat illness. Influenced by the cultural milieu of his time and hours studying anatomy via dissection, he discovered something quite original and important. He discovered that the health of the body and its ability to resist disease was intimately related to its structural integrity. Conversely, how we use our body will determine its structure. So the structure and function of the body are intertwined.

This is a difficult concept to grasp, because it seems so alien to the general way in which we think about the causes of illness. In this way, Osteopathy is principally concerned with improving the health of the body, rather than directly fighting disease, and has a very important role to play in people’s quality and quantity of life. The body has the ability to heal itself, the role of the doctor in this sense, is to remove the obstruction to that mechanism.

Many of us in Suffolk enjoy gardening, and we can liken the process of bringing on healthy plants to help us understand Osteopathic thinking. A young fruit tree will become diseased and ill if it lacks the proper nutrition, hydration and climate, much like a person requires good food and a healthy lifestyle. Often, the plant requires structural support, like us humans. Osteopathy aims to do this by manipulating the person into a better shape, allowing normal movements to occur, and supporting this change with strengthening and stretching exercises. The growth of the young tree is assisted by a post to maintain its posture. So as the twig is bent so the branch will grow. The human body is similar. We pick up various strains and injuries, which are often unresolved. The body compensates for them, and our overall posture becomes distorted. Just as the diseased plant will recover when it is properly fed, supported, and looked after, we do the same.

So we can appeal to the overall structure and function. The body can be realigned by using gentle corrective manipulations to retrace these steps, and if it is done well, we stand, sit and move better. Think of a chair with one of its legs placed in the middle rather than at a corner. The structure cannot function as well when strain is put upon it, and similarly when we too have body parts which are in less optimal positions, our function suffers. That includes our movements, our respiration, our oxygenation, our circulation and beyond.

Lastly, its important to say that Osteopathic thinking does not necessarily always involve manipulation of some kind. It might also include improving your diet, recolonising the gut with good bacteria, buying some more comfortable shoes, or ergonomically improving your work desk. If we improve how we function then we will improve our structure. In this way, osteopath and patient work together to promote natural processes and encourage health. There’s so much we can do to make life healthier and more enjoyable and in a sense, more osteopathic.

Ned Wombwell