If Castor Application Doesn’t Work

There is a great energy around the use of castor with some people finding relief from its application to the lower abdomen for the painful bladder of IC syndrome(fibromyalgia, vulvodynia, HAS/GERD, IBS)

But if that doesn’t work try a mixture of castor, mustard and flax oils as a combination(a third of each)

The same application technique applies  You can use a covering cloth over the oils directly applied to the suprapubic region Once applied you can apply a towel and then the heating pad over the top of the towel

The value of castor is that it cools the lower abdomen  Mustard and flax both burn up toxic accumulation in the pelvis when applied even topically  As I’ve discussed before toxic accumulation is invariably associated with the IC condition

There is no pain without this toxic accumulation so it behooves all people with IC to promote a good strong digestive fire or agni to burn off this toxic residue  This waste is oily, sticky, stinky, cold, and heavy(see picture)  So who would want that?

All the best on your journey  DB

5 Ways to Improve Digestion and Heal IC

It’s of no surprise to anyone who has the IC bladder pain syndrome or is involved with an IC support group that bowel symptoms are as common as the flares  As a matter of fact if I were a betting person I would say that there are often more common than the flares that occur

But the bowel symptoms are often overlooked because our tendency is to focus on the organ causing us the most problem, namely the bladder and pelvic symptoms

Step Back

As you have read in some blog posts all disease begins in the GI tract according to the Ayurvedic or energy science model

When you focus too much…..I know that’s hard since the bladder is screaming for attention…. you may lose sight of the fact that the bowel symptoms are there but the bladder is claiming the attention  At least 50% of people with IC have acid indigestion(heartburn) and/or reflux of acid into the lower esophagus and they resort to all kinds of different OTC(over the counter) remedies

It’s estimated that at least 50% of people with IC have IBS and I would say in working with patients that if you counted all their symptoms that it’s more like 100%  The reason I can go that far is that most people walking on this planet have unhealthy digestion

How the Bowel Gets Sick and Symptoms

The reasons for this unhealthy digestion are 2 fold  First the food choices made bring about imbalance of qualities in the GI tract and hence symptoms

But the second reason is probably more important  Poor digestion of food leads to unprocessed undigested food that clog the lymphatics of the gut and cover the surface of the internal lining of the gut interfering with proper digestion, absorption, and assimilation of foods ingested

Due to this “poor digestion” symptoms occur  Gas, bloating, feeling of heaviness lethargy or fatigue after eating, fever, irritability, alternating diarrhea/constipation, loud noises coming from the stomach, poor appetite, congestion in the sinuses, mucoid vomiting or mucous in the stools, having an underactive thyroid, and overall depression….who wouldn’t be with these kinds of symptoms?

Getting Your Digestive Strength Back

Getting your health…..particularly bowel health back….is a challenge but it’s at the heart of dealing with IC  Puzzling isn’t it?  Here you have this bladder problem but you’re being told that you need to really focus on the bowel  Well, it’s actually both BUT you must put some attention on the your bowel function if you’re ever to deal with this problem labeled as IC

Since poor digestion is at the heart of the matter here are four things that you can do  Remember don’t use dry ginger….only fresh

1 Use ginger appetizer to help clear the undigested debris hanging around in your gut  Thirty minutes before eating your biggest meal of the day at noon take a slice of ginger with rock salt, lime juice, and a little honey   (To peel the ginger use a spoon for taking the skin off..and slice an inch long piece of fresh ginger and place into a small container  It’s helpful if the container is small enough to carry in your pocket or purse so that you can take it out to eat with you or to work  Small jars can be purchased at health food stores or you can reuse glass supplement jars  To save time make enough for 2-3 days

2 Use agni tea  Quart of water with 2 handfuls minced ginger root pinch of cayenne (for Pitta disorders, a speck or omit entirely), 2 Tablespoons Sucanat or Maple syrup, and 1-2 teaspoons Rock salt   Bring all of the above ingredients to a boil  Boil for 20 minutes  Take the pot off the burner and cool for a few minutes  Add the juice of ½ lime   Do not boil the lime juice  Pour into a thermos and enjoy throughout the day!

3 Use CCF tea  see prior blog post

4 Chose one day a week to fast  This gives the GI tract a well deserved day off…..you get days off from work – why not do that for your ailing gut?  This fast can be with juice(don’t mix fruit with veggies) or for overweight people, water but some kind of restriction from having to digest  Why?  Because just like a campfire it gets stronger when you don’t put so many logs on the fire  Remember though that predominantly Vata people should only do light eating once every four weeks or they will weaken themselves even more

5  Explore digestive aids such as Betaine HCl or pancreatic enzymes but recognize this as a bandaid and not a fix for the gut  As you can see, relying on something externally forever to help with your digestion is not a long term solution

Best of luck in your journey  DB

Nuts and Seeds for IC

Interstitial cystitis(IC) bladder pain with flares can be amplified by the routine use of nuts and seeds of any kind and this includes their butters!!  Peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter

Why?

Unlike the matter science(MS) nutritional information that fatty acids are good and bad, the energy science(ES) of Ayurveda states that all nuts are inflammatory due to these molecular fatty acids regardless of the “good or bad nature of them”   The reason for this is that the post digestive(small bowel) effect is heating therefore inflammation provoking

Seeds also can be problematic  Safe to say that all seeds should be used in moderatioin  So popcorn, flax, halva, and pumpkin can be used once every 2-3 days

The sweet taste of many foods covers the acidic nature of the foods itself and this is true of the nut category  This is why the ES nutritional information trumps the MS guesswork around nutrition and is why the anecdotal information of the MS nutritional realm is at times confusing hence flares and then no flares   What gives?   This also explains why various other inflammatory conditions are interrelated with IC such as fibromyalgia, IBS, chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS), GERD, prostatitis(did you know that PSA is a marker for inflammation?), and CPPS(chronic pelvic pain syndrome)

As an aside this sweet taste of nuts in general make them a great choice for building tissue since the sweet taste is anabolic

OK Then What Can I Use for Nuts or Seeds? 

Sorry to blow your day if you crave the mixed nuts but there is certainly a favorite guideline of mine and that is “There are no hard guidelines in the ES realms”  Know that if you use the foods that are provoking that you increase the likelihood of a flare   That use of inflammatory foods will keep you up at the ceiling of the curve below rather than allowing your mindbody to do the rebalancing as the curve progresses to the right(BTW the ascent from the left shows how we gradually get sick over decades by our own choices(Oh shoot, you didn’t have to say that did you?)

Soaked and peeled almonds(this is very important! or you can use slivered almonds from the bulk section of the grocery store if they have one ) are very helpful for their nutritive benefit but also for their cooling effect  Turns out that the skin of the almond holds enzymes that in and of themselves are inflammatory   Almonds are not actually nuts but in the end who cares

Charole(actually seeds like sunflower) is another nut choice  It’s a very small nut found in very few stores in the US(I know because Ive looked; let me know if you have a source that you would share with the community) and is heating but due to the size and its energetics is acceptable and does not provoke Pitta(more about this energy pattern in future blog posts)

And of course coconut because it’s COOLING!  The general energy science principle is this:  Plants that grow in hot climates are there for a very specific reason  Their job is to make the environment cold(well cooler) and so Momma Nature is always taking care of balancing herself

What about nut milks?  Almond Breeze is made from blanched and peeled almonds so a great drink  Coconut milk also is a very nutritious drink and both these “nut” milks make great date shakes  More about that in the future

Note that popcorn is full of air therefore aggravating Vata so should be used in moderation

3 Nut Alternatives

Here are three options for substitution without provoking inflammation or the Pitta energy pattern in the physiology

Use the above three recommendations and make your own nut butters from the slivered almonds

Sunflower seeds can be used by anyone anywhere anytime  Sooo..  sunflower butter sold at Trader Joe’s is an excellent proprietary product and the best tasting sunflower butter on the planet    Have tasted many and this by far is the closest to peanut butter with a nice sweet taste  Mmm good!

Give yourself “permission” to have a few nuts every once and a while if the craving is too great   The ES reminds us that food cravings are a result of imbalanced digestion so the faster we can improve our digestion the better it will be

Interested in a free ES consultation with me?  Just tap on this link

Or sign up to join our growing ES IC community!

Well enough for now  Until next time                                           To Health as a Skill  Love DrBill

The Disruptive Nature of the Holidays and IC: 3 Secrets to Help

Most of us know, like it or not, that the healing of chronic interstitial cystitis(IC) bladder or pelvic  pain requires changes occur in lifestyle behavior patterns(LBP)  Those favorites that we hold dearly just don’t serve us very well and are the instigators of what got us in trouble in the first place   As I talked about in the past, nutrition heads that list of LBP’s that get us headed in the wrong direction, but how we combine foods,  how we rest(when to go to bed and when to get up), how we exercise, how much fluids we drink during the day, all play a role, believe it or not, in our progress toward dealing with our IC

So we take on these LBP’s and we’ve started our journey  And we’re doing pretty well  But then something happens to derail our firm intentions

The Holidays

The festivities with family and friends during the two weeks around Christmas, although a great break from work, can be disruptive to those firm intentions that we have set around these new LBP   If you think you’re all alone in this one, just ask some of your friends in your IC support group about this

Any disruption in regular schedule whether it be from traveling or festivities sets us back on our LBP intentions  This is why traveling is becoming so strenuous and Vata aggravating  It causes our loss of normal schedules that is stressful and eventually hard on the physiology  I know of many avoid travel like the plague and have severely tapered their schedules just for this very reason(change in routine to make it to the airport, eating out with airport food, change in time zones and biological clock times to name just a few)

But the disuption doesn’t end with travel  Change in sleep schedule, eating times, types of foods(difficult to place your order for different food combinations or the limitation of certain foods that you’re trying to avoid) are hard to control and hence the LBP resolutions that you’ve been working on are now on the back burner

3 Secrets for Holiday Disruption

One can only do what what one can do  Accept that and it will calm your Pitta frustration fi you have some

1 When you’re traveling practice try  just doing 5min of pranayama…or just do a minute(whatever you can do)….to keep yourself from feeling like you’re a failure because you haven’t done anything for a week or two  And when you arrive at your destination try to get into your sleeping and exercise routines as much as possible

2 Take a list of foods along with you that you want to avoid and then when surveying the various foods on the table you know you’re going to avoid those particular foods or combinations

3 Restoring your LBP  rhythm when you get back from the travels or festivities as soon as possible is another step to keep you from getting siderailed and beginning those old LBP that you know don’t support your healing

Best of luck having fun       Love DB

IC and Pelvic Nerve Involvement: 3 Energy Science Techniques

IC produces not only bladder pain that can be intermittent(as in flares) but also often involves the vaginal canal(vulvodynia),  pelvic floor muscles, and often the rectum   And as is common with all people with IC there is some form of bowel involvement with symptoms since from an energy science point of view the disease arises from the GI tract

Why the Pelvic Nerves?

IC is a systemic disease  Many matter science medical authorities who write about IC agree that in some way it is a systemic disease but the current matter science medical model limits their thinking in how IC can be systemic

From the energy model perspective the energy patterns of primarily Vata and Pitta leave the GI (GERD and IBS)after being provoked usually by the foods consumed that are unbalancing, by using incompatible food combinations, and having particular lifestyle behavioral patterns that provoke

These energy patterns find weak and vulnerable areas in the physiology   In the case of IC they settle in the pelvic area and bring about the symptoms of IC in the bladder but often times they can involve the vaginal and rectal organs as well  As you can see in the accompanying anatomical diagram the vagina, bladder, rectum, and uterus  are all intimately associated with one another as well as the pelvic plexus that innervates all these contiguous structures  You can also see how close everything is to the pelvic floor and why the pelvic muscles would be thought to be involved

When the pelvic nerves are involved, the muscles supplied by these nerves may go into spasm  Hence physical therapy has been prescribed for IC pain that seems localized to the pelvic floor or for what appears to be pelvic floor dysfunction

As the pelvic nerves are  part of the pelvic structures they can become involved   When this happens, even if the bladder and vagina are targeted with herbal therapy, either by instillation or taking herbs by mouth, it may not be enough as the nerves are not in the path of the instillations but peripheral to them

3 Techniques for Improving Pelvic Nerve Health

The vaginal canal can serve as an excellent delivery pathway to the pelvic nerves as they lay as a vast network overlying the bladder, vaginal and rectal sidewalls  The use of medicated oils freely applied or medicated herbal suppositories can be applied to the vaginal canal  By moving across the vaginal lining the herbs can directly be applied to this pelvic plexus of nerves where these energy patterns are lingering, unable to be released

Another energy science technique called pranayama(breathing exercies) can strengthen the pelvic muscles but at the same time can bring about clearance of abnormal accumulatons of energy that prevent the free flow of energy through the pelvic cavity  The specific breath technique is called kapalabhati which can be seen at this link  The individual demonstrating the technique is advanced but you can only start where you are  Pay attention to those who should not practice this technique

The last type of breath technique that can be helpful is bhramari or bumble bee’s breath…. here is a link for this technique

These last two breath techniques are best done at first with some guidance  They can both be done in a firm chair so that the hips are higher than the knees

When done daily over months with attention placed on the pelvic cavity during the practice, by and by, it will help with the energy disturbance present in the pelvic cavity

If you’d like to receive guidance, leave your email at drbilldean@gmail.com

To health as a skill       Dr Bill

IC and Carbonated Drinks

Interstitial cystitis(IC) is a chronic disease with an unknown cause from the currently practiced matter or molecular science medical discipline  And the treatments are random due to this reason

From an energy science medical view IC is a painful pelvic syndrome not necessarily localized to the bladder due to the failure of the body to eliminate the hot and mobile qualities from the pelvis usually due to toxic load also localized in the pelvis  This disease as in all diseases according to the energy science tradition originates in the gut and hence the foundational approach for treatment must include a shift in nutrition

Shift in Nutrition

So it makes sense that you would remove the hot and mobile qualities from the foods ingested if you want to make any headway in the management of IC  The mobile quality is found in many foods in different forms but one of the obvious foods is carbonated drinks  Air is mobile and gas containing foods have air in them; in carbonated drinks the air is carbon dioxide

The mobile quality is directly responsible for the urinary frequency and urgency associated with the abnormal voiding pattern of IC and the overactive bladder syndrome(OAB)  But it doesn’t stop at IC because these same qualities are involved in chronic prostatitis, fibromyalgia, vulvodynia, IBS and GERD

But there is also the burning sensation associated with IC and the hot quality is responsible for this physical sensation in the pelvis  The OAB does not have much of this quality so urinary frequency and urgency with or without incontinence predominate as symptoms

Carbonated Drinks as the Source of the Hot Quality

It’s not quite intuitive how carbonated drinks produce the hot quality  Usually the drink is taken over ice anyway(ice is not a good idea anyway from a digestive point of view) so where’s the hot quality come from?

Anything that’s acidic in the body contains the hot quality  There is heat associated with digestion and when you digest food with the stomach acid and the enzymes to break down food you are using the hot quality

It turns out that all the favorite carbonated drinks carry orthophosphoric acid  This is now a much publicized ingredient to Coca Cola    The drink is so acidic that it is used as a pesticide, a commercial grade cleaner for car batteries, engines, and removing rust from surfaces   If you leave a penny in a glass of coke over a week, the penny will dissolve into solution!

Cut the Fizzy

The upshot of our discussion today is that carbonated drinks for anyone is problematic but for you with IC it will provoke your symptoms and can instigate a painful pelvic or bladder flare  And then you can add chronic prostatitis, fibromyalgia, vulvodynia, IBS and GERD because all of these seemingly unrelated diseases are associated with the hot and mobile qualities  If you want you can add as a waste basket term CPPS or chronic pelvic pain syndrome

This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to energy science  food recommendations for IC  The matter science nutrition makes their recommendations based on anecdotal experience so in essence guess work is involved when it comes to recommendations

The energy science nutritional approach is different  It asks for no consumer feedback, does not equivocate, and produces the list grounded in a deep science of an understanding of the workings of Nature herself  The body obeys the laws of Nature and physics  I make no claims that energy science cures everything including IC   Energy work is not a quick fix but with diligence discipline and assuming a different lifestyle, you can bring harmony to the body and resolve  IC

Have an awesome week       Love Dr Bill