Living in the moment — being one with what’s happening to you right at this minute – is very difficult. It is important to appreciate where we are at and what blessings we have.

An example of this could be when we are at the hairdresser’s and our minds are racing ahead to what we will do when we leave. We should stay right in the present and enjoy the sensation of being pampered.

While we can all complain about our lives in some way, we should step back a little and realise how lucky we are to be living at peace. In our part of the world, beautiful gardens and parks surround us. The sun shines most of the time and we have freedom to discuss the political events of the day without getting thrown into jail. We have access to the church of our choice.

There is so much that we have to be thankful for, let’s not talk constantly about what is wrong. The media doesn’t help by highlighting gloom and doom. We do have choices: we can decide not to watch or read what distresses us.

We also have the education to voice our opinions in a letter to those whom we feel should know. Whether we decide to use it or not, we have that power. Many people get depressed and dismayed at the state of the world and feel helpless to change anything. There will never be a perfect world, for if there was, we would lose our opportunity to do good.

On a more personal level we can easily become discontented with our lot,’We don’t have enough money.” Our teenage children are behaving badly towards us.’ ‘Our partner takes us for granted.. The gripes go on and on. It is up to us to do our best and recognise our opportunities to make a difference in our world – a smile, a letter, a telephone call, a loving communication.

Clinically the answer is to find the cause of the discontent. This problem is approached by collecting a total history to search for clues. I would check the chi energy as fire deficiency also indicates unhappiness. Vitamin B complex supplement would help as people who do not have sufficient vital energy show discontent. See your therapist for a check up.

A patient complained to me about her husband’s snoring. Apparently it was very loud and disturbed her sleep. She would toss and turn, getting more and more annoyed while he slept on blissfully. I told her to turn the irritating situation into a positive one. ‘Think how lucky you are to have him safely alongside you,’ I said. ‘His snoring is part of him, along with his loving and his caring for you.’ So she bought herself a pair of earplugs for really noisy nights, but most times she just ’switches herself off’ and goes to sleep first.

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This is a controversial topic and taking it must be an individual’s choice. The rule we follow is ‘nature knows best’. Any interference with the natural law can have adverse consequences which some women experience.

The use of hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women’s symptoms should be questioned. All the alternative therapies have answers which can be used to dispel menopausal problems. Hormone level imbalances are effectively treated using acupuncture and homoeopathy to relieve hot flushes and calm emotional distress. It is natural to cease having menses when child bearing time has passed, yet one of my patients, a sixty-five-year-old woman taking HRT, was still experiencing monthly periods!

Medical practitioners, who are prescribing HRT for prevention of osteoporosis and heart disease, say that if a woman, genetically predisposed to cancer, discovers it within months of starting this therapy, she would have developed cancer eventually anyway, and that it’s just as well they identified it now while they are observing the patient!

We are all genetically individual and so should investigate our family background first to discover whether or not we have a family weakness that requires HRT. Are soft bones and fractures in your family? Read Germaine Greer’s book The Change. Make choices but let them be informed ones! Be responsible for making your choice.

Moira’s story-It is now three years since I discovered the lump. The lump that every woman dreads – the lump that turned out to be breast cancer requiring a full mastectomy of my left breast.

Born with sloping shoulders, I have had a constant battle with bra

straps that slip. It was one of those times when I unobtrusively slid my hand inside my shirt to pull up the wretched thing that I felt a slight thickening about the size of a ten cent coin.

I prodded and poked a bit more. And again in the shower the next morning and the next. If it hasn’t gone in a week I’ll go to the doctor. It hadn’t and I went.

My local GP wasn’t too worried at the time and neither was I. It had only been about six weeks since I had visited my gynaecologist for my regular breast examination and found nothing unusual at all. ‘Menopausal thickening’, said my GP. ‘Of course’, said I. ‘Better have a mammogram and make sure though.’ Yes, indeed.

The result shocked us both. These things happen to other people, don’t they? Not to me. No, no, no. There had been a mistake. No mistake. The diagnosis was confirmed. I cried. My husband cried with me.

I ranted and raved at that gynaecologist. Not for missing the lump with his fingers — but for not sending me for a mammogram earlier. I had been visiting him and prior to that two of his colleagues since I was twenty five. Every six months without fail.

I had had regular pap smears, but no mammogram. This despite the fact that I was what is generally considered a high risk. I had taken the contraceptive pill almost from the day it hit the marketplace and continued to do so for something like twelve years. My mother had died of cancer. I had never been pregnant and I had been on oestrogen replacement therapy for five years.

Admittedly, these fatherly, charming, rather patronising gentlemen had chopped and changed brands and dosage to find the one that best suited me, but not once had any of them even discussed the relationship of my history to breast cancer.

Why didn’t I know and why didn’t I ask?

I really believed it would never happen to me. Like thousands of women I trusted the doctors to look after me. That they didn’t is unforgivable. But I now know we are all responsible for our own lives. And it is quite unrealistic to expect anyone else to take on that responsibility. So I will never quite forgive myself either.

As of today I have had no recurrence of the cancer, although the worry is always there. Post mastectomy trauma is very real and frightening. Like a lot of women I suffer from lymphoedema (swelling) of the arm on the affected side. My medical advisors have suggested ‘putting up with it’, sleeping with my arm tied up to a standard lamp, or the permanent wearing of an elastic sleeve from shoulder to fingers to reduce the swelling. My natural therapist reduces it when necessary by acupuncture and massage. I bless the day I found her.

Scars resulting from mastectomy operations are acupunctured to release the energy interference then the swelling in the arm drains. General vitality is also restored.

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Constipation is one of the western world’s greatest worries. Uncorrected back sprains can be a major cause. Too much sitting, not enough exercise for our stomach muscles, insufficient fibre and fluid in the foods we eat, coupled with too much dairy and animal fats in our diet, do all contribute to the problem.

Don’t be embarrassed, it’s better to learn the rules of a healthy bowel than to suffer bowel cancer. Also realise that waste that is not cleared at least once daily will affect your kidneys, liver, skin, lungs (bad breath?) and swell your abdomen. You’ve heard of toxic headaches, haven’t you?

Too much sitting can inhibit the peristaltic action of the intestines. Years ago your mother painstakingly worked to start a lifelong habit of good bowel function for you, so don’t ignore nature’s signals and introduce a problem that she solved all those years ago!

You must become conscious once again of nature’s nudge that NOW is the time for an evacuation. Sitting on it won’t help get you started. If the call constantly comes when you’re on the bus or train, then you have to bounce out of bed half-an-hour earlier to do your exercises.

It can be a problem at school where children are given limited time and few toilets to accommodate their needs and they are punished for being late back into class. Then if there’s an ‘accident’, a lifelong embarrassment with emotional overtones is underway.

Don’t weaken the bowel with laxatives. It’s much harder to handle once the problem becomes chronic. Best to find the cause. Many an upset toilet routine is simply corrected by adjusting the lower back. This injury can happen after a fall. The nerve supply to the bowel must always be free to stimulate or inhibit the

function of the organ is controls.

A good start to the day is to drink a glass of water (add a squeeze of lemon if you don’t like plain water).This stimulates the peristaltic action of the bowel so that, half-an-hour later when you’ve prepared your breakfast, you will be prompted to pass a motion. After the water, perhaps you could go for that quick walk round the block. By then the breakfast cereal with oatbran has soaked long enough.

Aloe vera helps clear sticky faeces. Cheese constipates some people, as do other dairy products. Fruit is wonderful to clear constipation, as it is full of fluid and fibre. Soak prunes overnight and enjoy this pleasant tasting medicine. The real trouble occurs when you have tried every laxative in the shop and the internal muscles have lost their tone. Even exercise sometimes won’t get you functioning normally.

If you ignore constipation the consequences can be anything from piles (haemorrhoids) to diverticulitis, varicose veins, appendicitis, and possibly cancer if it is in the family. So it is worth chewing more figs, apricots and prunes and increasing your water intake.

When it comes to acupuncture the earth meridian can be deficient in chi energy, and needs stimulating. This is a simple process and along with a correct diet and exercise regime, it won’t take long before all is as it should be. The needles will also relax you and warm your arms and legs with energy.

Homoeopathically nux vomica helps the office worker who can’t relax and is full of business lunches. Perhaps alcohol intake is dehydrating you? Reduced fat yoghurt is the dairy food that will help this problem.

The B complex vitamins are important for those suffering the effects of stress. Lactobacillis acidophilus tablets are also needed after antibiotics have been taken. Chewing fibrous vegetables like carrots and celery is recommended.

Professional treatments like colonic irrigation are the saviour of many adults with a chronic bowel problem. Impacted bowels respond immediately to this gentle and simple technique. It is nothing like the irritating, soapy hospital enema. I have recommended the use of this treatment for more than thirty years. The machine, attached to you by a slender disposable tube, feeds warm water into the lower rectum to wash the inside of our lower bowel safely.

Nothing could be simpler. Overuse of any therapy is not to be recommended, but several colonic irrigations when needed and professionally advised, will not upset the electrolyte balance which is the main fear. This is the therapy I advise for immediate relief of skin rashes, gall bladder congestion, toxic headaches and sinusitis. Experiencing the inner cleanliness after a washout is as good for the body as confession is for the soul.

Colonic irrigations are also recommended at the start of a fast, and to help you give up cigarettes or coffee without suffering reactions. The headaches and nausea that hit when you go off your addictions can be cleared in an hour after a colonic. Why suffer?

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Naturopaths will look for the answer in the iris as an indication of where to start first.

An acupuncturist will feel the pulses. If the blood is ‘hot’ then we acupuncture the large intestine point in the elbow crease to cool the blood. If the nervous system is stressed, we calm it down.

A special diet is devised that is without caffeinated products or any of the common foods that can cause hives if the bowel is seen to be toxic. An immediate colonic irrigation is recommended for this condition especially if you haven’t been able to sleep because of the itch. Unless you have bowel adhesions where it would be contra-indicated, the only thing you suffer with a colonic irrigation is boredom. It’s a slow, gentle process that takes an hour. Contrary to what many believe, it is not at all messy and is extremely effective for stopping the re-absorption of toxic material via the bowel.

Find out your food intolerances and eliminate them from your diet.

When I was younger I was allergic to eggs, milk, wheat and tomatoes. As an adult, coffee is my allergen. My skin would come up in great itchy welts which run up one leg and then one side of my body, then across the stomach and down the other side. The hives take exactly forty-eight hours to traverse my generous shape, and when they arrive at the foot of the opposite leg, I know that the caffeine in my system is definitely on its way out. I can’t stand the itch, it drives me crazy. An enema is the quickest solution and it only takes fifteen minutes. 1 never deliberately drink coffee, but sometimes I’m caught when it is used as a flavouring agent.

Homoeopathically, we recommend:

Sulphur for skin hot and burning. Dry scalp.

Calc carb for unhealthy skin. Slow healing.

Calc phos for the chronic skin case.

Rhus tox for intense itching. Better moving.

Urtica urens for itch of chicken pox. Hives.

You don’t have to remember it all, the homoeopath will know how to work out your specific needs. (Homoeopathics even cure your dog’s summer itch!)

Urtica and nettle ointments are good to rub on hives. Apple cider vinegar applied to the skin can be quite soothing. Remember alfalfa, nettle and golden seal herbal teas are beneficial.

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Pain from engorged breasts is best treated homoeopathically with Phytolacca. Warmed compresses of cabbage leaves are very soothing and gentle stroking massage movements to drain the milk off are most effective.

Prevention is better, and less painful than cure. Allow the baby to suckle as soon as possible after the birth. Put the babe to the breast frequently in the next few days till the feeding pattern is set. All right, next time!

Heating the muscles between the shoulder blades, while breastfeeding, helps the milk to flow better. You can do that with a hot water bottle but professionally it is achieved by using moxibustion. Chiropractors don’t hesitate to adjust this area if there is trouble with breastfeeding, as it helps so much.

Not enough milk? Try taking homoeopathic calc. phos. For too much milk or when you want to stop breastfeeding, take Pulsatilla. Any other problems, please contact your homoeopath immediately before the problem escalates.

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