Royal Mail - Grrrrrrr........

I have mentioned this in my web site but will put it here as well. I write of the draconian increase in price of parcels here in the UK since the middle of April. As you may know I sell my A1 size posters in a cardboard tube - measuring 24 " by 2" in old money. Before the price hike it cost £2.70 to post inland by Royal Mail - it has now risen to £5.65 - thus more than doubling the price in an instant. The actual cardboard tube costs me a minimum of 65p, so I should charge £7.30 to post one poster - who on earth is going to pay that on top of the cost of the poster. I may have to stop selling posters by post and just try for sales at seminars. Does anyone want a few hundred posters?????? We are out to dinner with some old friends tonight - what a nice change. Be good - John

Hello Again - Catching Up

Although it is late April, it seems that here in the UK winter is still with us. I have just been out with the dog and it seems just like a cold January out there with cruel biting winds and sleet. It can only get better!! I was at the cricket at Lords last week to see my beloved Derbyshire play Middlesex (just prior to travelling to North Wales to the ACPEM conference) and play was interrupted through snow, thunder and lightning.

I'm still ploughing on with the latest book - the Holistic Spine and Skull - it should be in manuscript form in October when I'll try and procure a publisher - I am not going down the very expensive self publishing route - once bitten .........I have also given a few local lectures as well as the ACPEM lecture and workshop on Therapeutic Dowsing.

The 3 day seminar on Light Touch Reflextherapy is still ON on 14-16 June in London although it could be called off if there are no more takers. I shall be in London in any case on 13th for an ACPEM Education meeting. Sadly, the 6 day seminar on 'Clinical Reflextherapy in Pain Relief and Stress' had to be cancelled - mostly due to the fact that folks these days only seem to attend CPD courses. I am attempting to procure this through a few sources.

I shall try and keep up a twice weekly blog concentrating on complementary bodywork - as well as my fascinating life - thanks for reading.

Time for a break

I have decided to take a wee break from writing this blog for a few months until the Spring. Two main reasons - Firstly I am coming up to a very busy time of book and article writing which will take a great deal of time. Secondly, and more importantly, I am unsure as to where this blog is leading. I started it off with every good intention and have written over 100 of them in almost 3 years. The hit count of over 7000 isn't exactly overwhelming and I sometimes feel as if I am writing into a black hole - there is little or no feedback. I would be more than happy to write a blog on subjects that people want - so during the break please indicate what you want me to write about!!!

Please look at the Notices page of my web site www.johncrossclinics.com for any startling developments or on www.chakrapuncture.org if you want a question answering about that system. If there are any queries whatsoever I am always very willing to answer them. I receive an average of 20 emails a day from practitioners and patients all over the world. Until 2013 then - au revoir.  - JRC

Surgery - Part Four

For this final part on surgery I'll discuss a great massage treatment both to soften superficial scar tissue and also to re-energise the pathways through the lesion. This must be done with oil, otherwise the client will be hovering a few centimetres off the couch. It is not subtle but does the trick, it falls into the 'no pain, no gain' category of therapy. I am talking about Connective Tissue Massage (CTM). This was pioneered by an Austrian physiotherapist named Maria Ebner in the late 1960's. I was fortunate to do one of her courses in the early '70's. I would strongly recommend that you purchase her book on the subject as it covers oodles of  other things as well- it really was the holistic massage of its day. CTM is performed with the radial border of the middle finger superimposed on the ring finger, and consists of three phases:-

1. Contact with the client to the required depth of their of their tissues and at the correct starting point
2. Take up the 'slack' of the tissues by putting them on the stretch
3. Carry out a short or long stroke along a prescribed line.

Clients will feel that you are dragging a sharp pair of scissors across the skin and, without using oil to buffer it, it can be extremely painful. Start by doing some short strokes of app. two inches (5 cms) long at right angles to the scar tissue until the whole length has been covered. You may then do some long strokes travelling with the meridian energy flow through the scarring. By the time you have finished the whole area will feel warmer and more energised. Let me know how you get on.

Surgery - Part Three

So what can we do about the negative affects of scar tissue? There are two main ways of effecting a better energetic flow through the scar tissue, with bodywork, to enable the commencement of self healing to take place. One is acupressure and the other is deep massage. Today I'll mention acupressure.

If scar tissue occludes the flow of energy either through one of the classical meridian lines OR in non meridian locations that may give trouble elsewhere in the body, it is obvious that we need to recreate a natural flow of chi once again to the region that has been affected. Scar tissue isn't always apparent on the skin - just take the example I gave in the last blog, so initially you have to gently feel around locally to find any tender or acute points. With some oil on the fingers start with some finger tip acupressure to all the tender points around the affected region. Do not initially put any undue pressure to the area as you client is very likely to hover above the couch - try and get your fingers to get progressively deeper in that you can tell, after a couple of minutes, that the area is more energized and hyperaemic. The second stage of the treatment with acupressure is stimulate energy flow through the lesion (scarring). For this you must know which meridian has bee affected. Place one middle finger tip on a proximal point of that meridian and the other middle finger tip on a distal point. In the case of the last blog, I placed the left middle finger on KI 23 (by the clavicle) and the right middle finger on KI 3 (by the medial malleolus). Initiate the flow by doing some gentle massage on the points and then just hold the two points for anything up to 3 minutes. You (and your client) usually feel a nice warm flow. In all cases of energy balancing you have to achieve a 'oneness' between the two fingers and a similar sensation under them. If the scarring is really deep it may take a couple of sessions or you will have to do some massage as well - next blog. Stay well and hope you are enjoying a late Summer - JRC

Surgery - Part two

As a physiotherapist, I have often had to deal with the effects of what scar tissue can do to the patient. Most surgeons don't know of the existence of energy lines, meridians and reflexes and often poo-poo the idea of anything that is 'more' that the physical body on which they have operated. Surgery has come on in leaps and bounds, though, from the butchery of 100 years ago. Key hole surgery has been a revelation and I personally can attest to a very successful key hole hiatus hernia operation. The scar tissue that is always residual from any surgery varies enormously in size and tissue consistency and quite often does not cause any problems. The therapist must be aware though during the initial consultation that if the patient/client utters those immortal words -'I've never been well since my operation', then you must start to think that deep or superficial scar tissue has effected the person's energy flow. Patients often describe being extremely tired and having 'brand new' symptoms to what they had pre surgery. Let me give you an example of a patient I saw recently.

Male in his mid 30's who had been suffering from depression, lethargy and anxiety. He had been diagnosed (apart from depression) with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Iris and tongue diagnosis told me that his kidney, bladder and spleen energies were low for someone of his age. I then asked him about any surgery he had had- he told me that as a child he had surgery on his scrotum (hydrocele), he had also had the 'snip'. That would explain how his kidney and spleen energies were depleted as both meridians would have been affected. I gave him a couple of treatments (explained in next blog) and he is feeling  much better.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to re-establish meridian harmony following surgery and also how deep and superficial scar tissue affects meridian flow. It is very real!!!! Next blogs will show how to resolve this through acupressure/reflexology and massage.

Surgery - Part One

I saw my consultant neuro-surgeon last month in Edinburgh. It was a 14 hour round trip with and overnight stay for a 10 minute chat! Apart from him showing me the latest MRI findings of my cervical spine post decompression and fusion and suggesting that no further surgery was required, the amusing topic of the day was that he was  a doctor who called himself 'Mr' and I was a 'Mr' who called himself Doctor (I don't do that very often as it is extremely confusing for all concerned to have a doctorate in medicine and yet not be a medical doctor). The surgery seemed to have gone OK and there was no reason why it should not have been successful - but there never had been any guarantees that there would be any pain reduction following surgery.

It set me thinking that I must have encountered hundreds and hundreds of patients over the years who had not benefited from surgery - even when they had embraced it with eyes wide open (as I had) as a last resort once all conservative treatment had failed to produce results. I am NOT anti surgery as I feel that it is an essential part of medicine that has altered improved the lives of countless people with organic, musculo-skeletal and neurological conditions. However, nothing can be guaranteed and it should always (except in emergency cases) be carried out as a last resort when conservative treatment has failed. It can never usually be reversed if its not been successful - there's no going back - it is a one way route! There's the rub.  How many patients really and truly appreciate that. Most of still think that 'doctor is always right' and that the surgeon 'must' be right. If conservative therapy didn't do the trick pre surgery - it sure won't post surgery. When I was practising, the hardest thing that was asked of me was to treat something that had been surgically treated beforehand. One of the hardest things to cope with is the effect of scar tissue formation (next blog), but when treating chronic lumbar pain (for example) I knew the lumbar anatomy backwards - but after surgery it was such a difficult job as the anatomy had changed.

It remains a huge bone of contention with me that, sadly, these days surgery (especially with musculo-skeletal conditions) is often carried as a first resort before therapy (of any kind) has had the opportunity to exhaust all the channels. Wearing my 'really big head' hat, I know that I've saved scores of patients from having the knife. Patients with acute spinal or knee cartilage conditions were all 'cured' (the word is ALWAYS used advisedly) before the dreaded knife. On a few occasions that physical therapy took several sessions, I wasn't always successful in achieving the surgical stay of execution - but you can't win em all. Next blog - the effects of scar tissue.