Aromatherapy must be one of the most delicious ways of treating insomnia. It consists of massage using essential plant oils in a vegetable oil base, and is a wonderful way to experience deep relaxation, excellent for tension and stress-related conditions.
It is more than a pleasant experience, however. The essential oils are distilled from the flowers, [...]

The Alexander Technique can help you sleep better by creating greater physical and mental harmony, enabling you to go through life with less strain. It is a way of learning how to use your body as it was meant to be used — easily, effortlessly, and without tension.
The Technique was developed over eighty years ago [...]

Nightmares occur during changes in the sleep cycle, and are included in the group of conditions known as the ‘arousal disorders’. They are the same as the bad dreams and nightmares that adults have. The child may wake suddenly during the night, frightened and distressed, and will often cry out for the parents. The child [...]

This technique also applies to people who dissociate first and become frightened by the altered state. ‘What’s happening to me. Here it comes again. I’m going insane’. We can stop the escalation into anxiety and panic simply by being aware. ‘I’m dissociating.’ I’ve just gone into a trance state’. When we acknowledge what is happening [...]

This “Readiness Factor” has more to do with the success of all of the methods than any other factor. This cannot be emphasized enough and should certainly not be scoffed at.

Too often parents will succumb to feelings of guilt or to pressure from other people. They try something—usually whatever has been “suggested” [...]

If the pelvic muscles (rather than the muscle of the bladder itself) are weakened, you can get what we call stress incontinence. Here small amounts of urine come away when you sneeze, cough or laugh. This is much more common in women, whose pelvic muscles can be weakened by difficult childbirths or pelvic surgery. Oestrogen [...]

A technique known as Lord’s procedure is increasingly used.

It is postulated that there is a tight band of tissue, just inside the anal margin, forming part of the sphincter muscle which keeps the bowel opening closed.

Under a deep but short-acting general anaesthetic, the surgeon distends the sphincter, disrupting this tight band. At the same time [...]

The periods may cease suddenly but this is unusual. More often, there is a reduction in the amount of bleeding and occasional periods are missed. The total change may take several months or even a year or two.

Sometimes the reverse happens and the periods become heavier and more frequent, due to some associated disorder.

Most women [...]

Very active people need to eat much larger amounts of carbohydrate than usual.

You may feel that you already know a lot about diet. But athletes, like everyone else, can have their facts wrong. Many foods that you believe are good sources of carbohydrate are even better sources of fat. For example, chocolate is 55 per [...]

Summary of main points.

• The psychological understanding of obesity has moved through several phases in recent times.

• Behaviour modification techniques were initially used widely to change habits.

• Cognitive approaches have been used to change thought patterns.

• Rational Emotive Therapy (RED is an example of a ‘pop’ psychology approach to changing thought patterns.

• Other approaches have [...]