Run from the bear! Run from the bear!
Have I mentioned how much I like working with my holistic nutritionist? Because I do. I really do. Let’s call her Dr. NuRT since one of the major techniques she uses in treating folks is Nutritional Response Testing. I have to tell you about this because it kind of boggled my mind.
Nutritional Response Testing uses acupressure points to find out where in your body things are going awry. So I would be either standing or lying down with my right arm extended at about a 30 degree angle. As Dr. NuRt exerted a pressure on a certain acupressure point, she also exerted a pressure on my extended arm that I was supposed to match with a counter pressure. If I had a strong reflex, I would be able to match her pressure on my arm. If there was a weakened reflex, my arm also became noticeably weaker and would wobble under her pressure. It was totally bizarre. Being a bit on the cynical side, I would try to focus everything on my arm and hold it perfectly straight and strong….but it would still wobble!
Dr. NuRT also had bottles of various environmental chemicals and substances that she used to test for sensitivity reflexes. She would place the bottles over my abdomen or heart and test the reflexes. I came out clear on most environmental substances, but my two big reflexes were wheat and sugar. (This isn’t very surprising since my Eating Disorder absolutely goes crazy for grains and desserts.)
Another aspect of the initial consultation was heart monitoring, and measuring tension in my system. When she and I sat down to go over the results, she explained to me that right now my parasympathic nervous system is working on overdrive ALL THE TIME. My resting heart rate lying down is 93 beats/minute, and standing it is 117 beats/minute. (!!!) She said she was worried because my body and brain is constantly in fight/flight mode, saying “Run from the bear! Run from the bear!” and one of our priorities has to be bringing that tension down. This makes sense, too, because the bear just changes form throughout the day:
Run from the eating disorder!
Run from the demanding tenants!
Run from the bills!
Run from US Immigration Paperwork!
Naturally, it freaked me out even more to hear that I was on the verge of a heart attack, which probably did my heart rate no favors at all. *sigh* Run from the heart attack!!
Our conversation about food went very well, and all the anxiety I had felt thinking I would have to make a bazillion changes to my eating overnight (AND do it perfectly, because what the hell else is an eating disordered girl going to do with her time?), kind of went the way of the dodo. We talked about overarching goals (minimizing processed wheat and sugar intake), and little baby steps to take now (more veggies and protein at each meal). I’ve been feeling pretty good about things, and the Canadian has been awesome throughout the process. He says he sees it as a two-for-one deal since we pay for one person’s treatment and he can just eat what I’m eating and we’ll both benefit.
I’m really starting to feel the benefits of acupuncture and nutrition. And what’s more, the better I’m taking care of my body, the more likely I am to treat it respectfully than go at it with my usual dose of hatefulness and venom.
Filed under BEDhead |8 Responses to “Run from the bear! Run from the bear!”
Leave a Reply
Yup, I’m going to a guy who does something very similar with muscle testing. Curioser and curioser, he uses an assistant who places a hand on my body and uses her arm for the muscle test (as opposed to using my arm). Wrap your head around that one! A good energy worker is worth a whole lot.
My dude also did some stuff around sugar. It involved a correction to sugar imbalance and a simple eating plan for two weeks. I have to say that my stamina and overall feeling of wellbeing has improved quite a lot.
Good on you for taking a chance on Dr. NuRT!
That acupressure stuff is crazy, isn’t it? I’m an incredible skeptic myself, so when the Holistic doctor/chiropractor my mother was making me go to tried it, I was leery. I even made sure that my father (who is well-versed with the body’s reflexes) was in the room to make sure that the doctor wasn’t producing a false result with his pressing in certain places, but nope, according to my father, it was legit.
I’m glad your nutritionist is helping you, though, and that the Canadian is so supportive. :)
wow. intense. best of luck to you.
You are brave and you made me laugh — I tend to have the same reaction to finding out how “stressed” I actually am — “Aaaack! I’m Stressed! Run from the Stress!”
But “Run from the Bear” — is a great way of putting it.
This is a really interesting entry. One of the running books I have (”Slow Burn” by Stu Mittleman) makes reference to muscle testing, but I just assumed I wouldn’t be able to find a practitioner (and it seemed like a hassle) so I sort of forgot about it. I also have a high resting heart rate even though I am a runner and have been taking specific steps over the past 8 months or so to try and bring it down.
I think the stress piece is huge. I wore my heart rate monitor overnight the other night and made myself realize that although my HR is higher than I think it should be after working so hard to get it down (my friend who does no cardio at all has a resting HR in the low 60s… @#$! so frustrating), it’s basically normal in the sense of not being anything to worry about, from what I find online at least. For the few days following that, I couldn’t feel my heart thumping and racing like I often think I can. When I take my pulse when awake, no matter how “relaxed” I am, it starts to race and I feel like I can’t breathe because I just know it’s going to be so fast and what am I going to do and I’m probably going to die tomorrow ACK! I agree with you, it sucks.
Eating too much, and eating certain foods, also seem to make my heart beat harder and faster. But I am not ready to examine that too closely right now because I’m sure the foods to avoid would include everything I love.
I don’t know if Ellie has mentioned my Pain and Agony Special Massages, but if you can find a nicer therapist than me, massage therapy is awesome for calming down the parasympathetic nervous system and that whole stress response. It actually can change your brain wave pattern.
Okay, I’m done plugging my job now! But I am glad to hear that the acupuncture is helping. Hang in there…you’re doing awesome!
Yes, I believe the word Ellie used was “Owwwwww!” to describe your deep tissue massage. =^_^= I think I am a.l.m.o.s.t to the point where I can get past my body image issues just enough to try massage. Is there a name for that kind of a relax-a-thon massage? Something I should look for specfically?
Well, you would want to ask specifically for a Swedish massage - that’s the basic massage all practitioners are taught, and it can get to deeper muscle tissue without being all hurty. The best massage I ever had that was strictly for relaxation and not a ‘treatment’ massage was a hot stone massage and it was AWESOME. I totally need to take a class on that.