July 12th: Guest speaker, Ana Porier, CHHC (link to Ana's web site) Great discussion on the role of food on symptoms of IC, IBS, endometriosis and vulvadynia. Ana shared with us tips on the antinflammatory diet, alkaline diet and supplements. A great message and focus was getting back to basics. Avoiding processed foods that are likely to have additives that may flare your symptoms. Ana teaches cooking classes and well as nutritional counseling. We are going to research and put together a cooking class focusing on the ideas discussed today. Our timeline is for the end of September.
Books discussed: You Don't Look Sick by Joy Selak and Steven Overman. It's an "easy read" paperback and really relates to what everyone in going through in our group. I will order several copies that you can buy from me or go on Amazon and check it out. We will have a group discussion on it in September.
Once again I have to say that I think you women are amazing. I learn something from you every month and continued to be awed by your spirit and strength!
April 5th: Guest speaker, Seth Paris CFP,CEES, Feldenkrais Practitioner. www.parishealingarts.com. The Feldenkrais Method is "awareness through movement". It helps us develop healthier movement patterns that take stress off of the areas of our body that are overworking in unconscious holding patterns. These holding patterns are created to protect us against pain but evolve into making the pain worse. The exercises incorporate breathing and calm the nervous system. Check out his web site for more information. Open discussion: books: The Pulse Test- published in 1950, written by Dr Arthur Coca. Discusses the relationship of food alergie and pulse rate. The Yeast Connection-A Medical Breakthrough by Dr William G. Crook.
March 1st: We continued to discuss dietary changes women have made and how that helps control symtoms. Everyone has found that certain foods have triggers for them. In listening to everyones individual stories it is evident that there is no one diet for everyone. Everyone needs to take the time to explore their own bodies reaction to foods.
Stress play a large part in exaccerbating pain. Several group memebers have had difficult flairs over the past month. Controlling stress, like diet, is an individual journey. There are common things that will help us manage the way our body responds to stress. Breathing, rest, yoga, distraction... Next month Seth Paris will come to talk to us about the Feldenkrais method of unlearning bad "body habits" and learning to relax. Often we hold our tension without realizing it, allowing this tension to build and result in a flair. Integrating "tools" to maintain a calm nervous system will definitly help in our journey to manage chronic pelvic pain.
February 2nd: Diet We continued our discussion about tools to manage symptoms of pelvic pain. Diet was a hot topic. Dietary restrictions for people living with IC, endometriosis, IBS and other chronic inflamatory, painful conditions can be very frustrating. Sharing each others discoveries and recipes was very insightful. There is great information available on the IC-network, endometriosis and IBS web sites.
Both IC and Endo patients discussed the need to avoid processed grain products and introducing sprouted grains into their diets. Also, dairy intake was limited in most of the group. Dairy was replaced with rice and almond milk. Soy was a hot topic. Soy is promoted as being a great addition to a healthy diet. but for IC and endo patients soy seems to be a no-no. Soy is an additive in so many foods, reading labels is an important part of shopping!
Two products were discussed that I hadn't heard of: "Kombucha tea" was discussed as soothing to the digestive systems and an immune systeym booster. Super Seed by Garden of Life was introduced as a supplement to add protien and nutrients into our diets. Mixing in with smoothies or sprinkling on food.
Our homework is to write out our diets, restrictions and good products and foods. We are also going to share more specific recipe ideas.
As we continue with our "tools to manage" theme I plan to bring in speakers on natural hormone replacement, pharmacology, yoga and relaxation. But I have to say again that the group is a wealth of valuable information in itself. I continue to be impressed with your resourcefulness, knowledge and perseverance.
January 5th: Today we discussed the role that the central nervous system plays in perpetuating chronic pain. In the literature it is referred to as "upregulation" .
An example would be when the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain) keeps getting the same message from the bladder that there is pain and distress in that area. The receptors in the spinal cord get so over used that they send a distress signal to the segmants above and below. Now these new segmant send out new distress signals to their service areas. Common areas that get excited by this upregulation are the muscles of the pelvic floor, abdominal and inner thighs and other organs (uterus and bowel).
This upregulation also alerts the sympathetic nervous system. That is our fight and flight nervous system which causes us to feel anxious, short of breath and increases our heart rate. When the sympathetic nervous system gets involved in shuts down non vital systems to that fight or flight, such as bowel and bladder. This "upregulated" state is not a healing state. We need to learn how to calm the sympathetic nervous systems so we can heal and decrease the amount of information being sent to the central nervous system
Next we discussed tools that we can use to calm and heal. Moving us from the sympathetic state and calming irritated tissues. We listed the tools we commonly use. They included medication, breathing exercises, walking and diet restriction.
Tool lists will be different for each person. As we look to a new year it's a great time to start your list. What helps? What hurts? Keeping a journal and tracking your activiies and pain level will help you develope your list. Once you've developed your list, post it where you can see it. When you are in flair up it's hard to focus on what helps.
Check out the breathing page on this web site for more information on using breathing as one of your tools.
Happy New Year to everyone!
email me to get more information on our support group