Treatment strategies

Our Practitioner team offers a wealth of clinical experience and expertise in the
following disciplines:

> Osteopathy
> Psychotherapy
> Hypnotherapy
> Counselling
> Nutrition
> Breathing Re-Education

Osteopathy

A system focused on the structural and mechanical problems of the body, osteopathic treatment is mostly manual, using gentle techniques and a diagnostic procedure similar to a conventional medical exam, but with more emphasis on the musculo-skeletal system. Lifestyle factors such as nutrition and stress contribute to many health problems the osteopath encounters – facts reflected in your evaluation and subsequent health management strategies.

Psychotherapy

It really is good to talk. Psychotherapy is a drug-free dialogue which helps patients uncover, understand and resolve psychological problems. Since the mind/body complex acts as a single unit, this journey of discovery can have an enormous beneficial impact on a patient’s physical, mental and emotional well-being.

Hypnotherapy

The word hypnosis is derived from the Greek word Hypnos – the God of Sleep, in the misbelief that sleep and the hypnotic state are similar. In fact the state of mind achieved in hypnotherapy – the trance state – is vastly different from sleep and unfortunately many who fear being “put to sleep” avoid hypnosis when it may be very beneficial.

In order to understand hypnotherapy we need to be aware of the interrelation between our mind and our body. The mind controls the workings of the body – heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing, bowel function, nervous system, etc, so that improving the function of the mind will help bodily functions and reduce disease whether psychological or physical in nature. The body on the other hand helps us understand our state of balance or imbalance by producing symptoms – messages that all is not well in the mind/body system. The aim of hypnotherapy is to improve the harmony, balance in this system and reduce illness by making use of the trance state. The trance state is a natural state of mind similar to daydreaming, which has been shown to have amazing and powerful benefits to our mind/body system.

Counselling

The art of listening is much underestimated. There’s truth in the maxim, “the sharing of hurt is the beginning of healing”; attentive and supportive counselling has been shown to motivate patients into moving toward a resolution of their problems.

Nutrition

There is increasing evidence that lifestyle factors play an important part in the physiology of both the body and the mind. For example chronic ongoing stress can have an impact on the adrenal glands and cause increased utilisation of important micro-nutrients such as B Vitamins and Magnesium. The usual culprits such as alcohol, caffeine and nicotine (not to mention recreational drugs) again will have quite and impact on micro-nutrient levels. Adopting a balanced, varied diet will usually have a positive impact on many of the health care problems that we see.

Breathing Re-Education

Breath and life are obviously intertwined, as are breath and thought. It is by means of the breath that we remain physically alive. As babies we are born with the inherent knowledge to breath correctly through our diaphragm but as we grow into toddlers, children and onto adulthood our life experiences and emotions influence and change our unique pattern of breathing.

Gerry Gajadharsingh estimates that 70% of patients that consult him do NOT breathe properly. This may at first seem strange, as breathing is a subconscious activity; as such unless we have an obvious breathing problem (asthma, lung disease etc) we do not usually notice our breathing.

Our emotions influence our breathing patterns and just as importantly,
Our breathing affects our emotions.

You may notice, in other people (or indeed yourselves), that we may sigh a lot, find it difficult to catch our breath or talk very fast – all signs of not breathing properly. We often hear expressions, such as “take a deep breath and count to 10”, before reacting to something that has upset us.

It is no co-incidence that Chi Kung, Tai Chi, Pilates, Yoga and meditation all play significant attention to breathing as their main way of helping people relax. Many of these approaches have validated scientific evidence of their effectiveness in helping many medical conditions from pain to cardiovascular disease.

When seeing a new patient, their history will often alert me to a suspicion of a breathing pattern disorder (BPD). Many patients with medically unexplained symptoms (a majority of those attending GP practices) will have breathing pattern disorder as part if not, sometimes, the main part of their problem. We need to understand that in diagnosis the normal medical model tries to find pathology – an obvious disease process. Luckily for us, the majority of time, no defined pathology exists. However, there is usually a cause of peoples problems, the answer can often be found in what we call functional disturbance. This can occur on a biomechanical, biochemical/nutritional, psycho/social/emotional level or indeed a combination of all of these levels.

What links all 3 levels is breathing.

You will probably know that when we breathe in, we breathe in oxygen (O2) and when we breathe out, we breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2). However, it is not as simple as that! Whilst the main aim of respiration is to get O2 into cells to help with energy production and the many cellular reactions that our bodies need to survive, this action is dependent on an adequate level of CO2 being present in our bodies.

Almost always, when people are not breathing properly, the issue is one of overbreathing.

The effect of this is to breath out too much CO2 and so the levels of CO2 in our body drop (hypocapnia) and so reduce the ability of O2 to be delivered to the cells of the body (hypoxia).

Ironically trying to breathe more O2 in DOES NOT necessarily help this situation.

Somebody, who is classically hyperventilating (deep and fast breathing), often with symptoms of breathlessness and panic, is breathing in lots of O2 but is actually expelling more CO2, then they should. So the treatment for acute hyperventilation is to hold a brown paper bag over their mouth and nose, so that they re-breath their own breath (mostly CO2) and they return to normal because cellular O2 increases.

How is a breathing pattern disorder (BPD) diagnosed?

Apart from the history and habits described above, the right clinical examination can be very revealing.

  • The Breath Pause – Patients with a breath pause of less than 30 seconds may be suggestive of BPD
  • Observation – Upper ribcage breathing and poor diaphragmatic use may be suggestive of BPD
  • Breathing Rate – Optimum breathing is about 6 cycles per minute, an average patient breathes about 12 cycles per minute. A BR of more than 15 per minute may be suggestive of BPD
  • Nijmegen Questionnaire – This validated questionnaire can be suggestive of BPD if the patient scores highly
  • Capnography – This specialised piece of equipment measures CO2 levels and breathing rate and is the most scientific method of diagnosing BPD.

Once diagnosed BPD can be subdivided into two categories;

  1. intermittent over-breathing (mostly situational)
  2. chronic over-breathing

Treatment for intermittent over-breathing

At The Health Equation we take an integrated approach to many health problems and experience has shown us that allowing the patient to understand the problem can sometimes be enough to make a major change. The following treatments may be used in conjunction with each other, or in isolation, depending on the complexity of the problem;

  • Osteopathic hands on work – to improve neck function (nerve supple to diaphragm), direct work to the thoracic spine, rib cage and associated soft tissues, muscle and fascia to improve local mechanics and decrease sympathetic arousal.
  • Cranio-sacral and functional osteopathic techniques to stimulate parasympathetic response and reduce sympathetic arousal.
  • Techniques to improve thoraco/lumbar function to help adrenal support and release tension in the Iliopsoas muscles (directly connected to the diaphragm)
  • Breathing re-education
  • Nutritional support to the adrenals, including dietary change, nutritional supplements and stress adaptogens
  • Supportive exercise to improve ribcage mechanics, posture, core stability and muscle/fascial flexibility
  • Hypnotherapy/psychotherapy to look at sub-conscious patterns and situational emotional triggers

Treatment for chronic over-breathing

Potentially all of the above plus Capnotraining.
Capnotraining involves 6, 1 on 1, weekly, 45 minute sessions, which includes use of the CapnoTrainer, instruction
with Gerry Gajadharsingh and hands on osteopathic work.
This ideally needs to be complemented with personal capnotraining work. This can be done by;

  • Purchasing a CapnoTrainer,
  • Leasing a CapnoTrainer for 1 month
  • 10, 30 minute breathing biofeedback CapnoTrainer sessions at The Health Equation

Capnotrainer package prices
Capnotraining with Mr. Gerry Gajadharsingh

  • Capnotraining with Mr. Gerry Gajadharsingh
  • Initial Breathing Behaviour Evaluation 60 mins £150.00
  • 6 sessions 45 minutes paid for in advance £600.00
  • Personal Capnotraining
  • 10 Breathing Biofeedback sessions (self use) £350.00*
  • Purchasing a CapnoTrainer POA
  • Leasing a CapnoTrainer POA

* to be paid in advance