The Alexander Technique

From time to time, a momentary madness overtakes me and I forget I'm 72 years old. Such was the occasion when I encountered two stationary escalators and challenged my 18 year old granddaughter in a race from the bottom to the top. She quickly outpaced me which is not surprising but more disturbing was my body's reaction to this short burst of intense activity. It wasn't good and I know realise that I have to cease and desist from such foolhardiness.

I need to be very cautious and not indulge in any sudden, intense or unusual activities. It's important to gently put my muscles through as wide a range of activities as possible, in anticipation of future exigencies. Lately I've started to do some isometric and limited push/pull exercises for my arms. Due to my thymoma, I've deliberately avoided working the upper body and concentrated instead on my lower body. However, this imbalance needed redressing.

The discomfort caused by my thymoma has gradually increased and seems at time to affect the depth of my breathing. Any overexertion quickly magnifies the intensity of the discomfort and leads to a feeling of nausea and a burning sensation. As I've mentioned before, I must strive to spread my exercises over the course of the day and not concentrate them into too small a timeframe. I still do my ten squats and leg band exercises each day.

Hopefully I can use this blog to catalog my activities and display new exercises and techniques. I've known about the so-called Alexander Technique for many decades now but have not made much use of it in my daily life. I have a book in my library titled "The Alexander Technique Workbook" by Richard Brennan.

Interestingly, it's published in Australia in a street parallel to where I grew up in Brisbane.

I'll attempt to make my way through this book and hopefully gain some insights into how to improve my "health, poise and fitness". The author of the book is still alive and well as his website attests:

Biography of Richard Brennan

Richard Brennan is an Alexander Technique teacher, author and Director of Training at the Alexander Technique Centre based in Galway, Ireland. He is a leading figure in helping people to resolve back and neck problems. His belief is that the root cause of most back pain lies in poor postural habits.

First Career, and Back Problems 

In 1976 Richard developed painful back problems and sciatica while working long hours as a driving instructor. After several years of pain, and having tried various orthodox and complementary treatments, he eventually found relief by having Alexander Technique lessons in 1984. He found the Technique so effective that he soon decided to undertake the three year full time teacher training course in Totnes, Devon, UK, approved by STAT, the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. He qualified in 1989 and joined STAT.

His work as an Alexander Technique Teacher 

Richard established his first practice in Totnes, Devon, and began lecturing and teaching around the UK and Europe. He began writing his first book about the Technique in 1991, and since then has written six more books, and his eighth book is due to published very soon.

Richard moved to Galway, Ireland, in 1997. He runs a busy private practice there. He founded the first Alexander Teacher Training College in Ireland in 1998. He is co-founder and President of Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers (ISATT), established in June, 2004. In 2007 the training course became approved by the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. It is also approved by the Irish Society of Alexander Technique Teachers (ISATT).

Richard travels internationally, giving talks and courses on the Technique. He has taught the Technique at many educational centres, including Galway University, Limerick University, Middlesex University, London, and Dartington College of Arts. He was a guest presenter at the AmSAT annual conference in San Francisco 2009 and in Los Angeles in 2014. He was a Director of the 10th International Alexander Technique Congress, held in Limerick, Ireland in August 2015, which over 700 people attended. He established the International Alexander Teacher’s Convention in 2013, held in Dublin, Ireland; the next one will take place in 2017.

Books and Articles 

Richard is the author of eight books on the Alexander Technique which are translated into nine languages, and a book on the topic of stress. His latest book, How to Breathe, is due for publication in 2017. He has written many articles on the Technique and has published two CDs.

Richard has featured in several newspapers and magazines including The Irish Times, The Sunday Tribune, The Irish Examiner, Cosmopolitan, Hello and Home and Country. He has appeared on BBC 1 & RTE 1 and has been featured on BBC Radios 4 & 5 and on local radio around Ireland and the UK.

Approach 

Richard has a practical approach to helping people find their own solutions to problems such as pain, stress, and obstacles to performance. His greatest personal satisfaction comes when he can help others to get out of pain, especially when all other attempts have failed, just as he himself was helped after years of struggle in the 1980s by his Alexander Technique teacher, Daniel Reilly.

Richard aims to make the Alexander Technique accessible to a wide audience. He has been a pioneer in helping to make the technique accessible to many thousands of people.

The author says early on in the book that "when you begin to become more aware of yourself you will be astounded at how much effort it used to take to perform very simple actions". I thought immediately of my guitar playing where I have a tendency to press down very hard on the strings with my left hand. The muscles of my fingers are thus very tense which impedes fluidity of movement and causes the fingers to tire quickly. This is one area that I can work on every time I pick up my guitar. I have lots of bad habits.

Source

What stuck in my head over the years, since first reading about the Alexander technique, was  the door handle exercise in which you observe how much force is applied when simply opening a door. It was quite a discovery to realise how much extra and unnecessary energy I put into this simple task.

Somatic Renaissance

I'm waxing grandiloquent with the title of this post but so what. This year, now more than half over, I've made 70 posts to my Mathematics blog and NONE to this blog. This post is the FIRST of the year. The numbers attest to what I already know. I exist largely in my mind and any awareness of my body is largely unconscious.

Unless my tired old body malfunctions, I simply take it for granted. However, increasing stiffness in my neck has caused me to regularly swivel my head about in an effort to break up what seem to be little spurs that are forming in my vertebrae. This motion is essential in reducing the tendency of the neck vertebrae to fuse together. 

Figure 1: source

I can only surmise that the development of these spurs is the result of degeneration due to old age. Cervical Spondylosis is the term for it. See Figure 1. My vertebrae can't be too compressed because I've managed to maintain my height over the years and have not "shrunk" as some old people do. My posture is reasonably good I think. 

So these neck stretching exercises are a daily routine along with exercises for shoulder mobility. As for walking, one of my favoured activities, it's become less appealing. I don't cover my face with a mask when I'm walking but keep it under my chin. Nobody seems to mind but there's always the possibility of encountering the mask mafia in the form of vigilantes or official enforcers. 

Figure 2: source

So I've taken to just a sort of tip-toeing around a confined area as a substitute. This seems to work well enough. Even here, it's easy to overdo things. This very morning I tip-toed around for a little too long and suddenly started to feel nauseous. Whether this was related to my thymoma I don't know but my ongoing affliction plays up from time to time whenever I push my body a little too far. 

I'm temporarily suspended my ten deep squats a day because I started to develop a sore right hip that was impeding my mobility. I may replace those with more shallow squats. I still use the band for leg exercises although I've suspended that as well while my hip is giving trouble. Suspension for too long though is not a good idea as muscles seem to lose their "memory" very quickly as you age, becoming flaccid in the absence of regular reminders.

Figure 3: source

Surprisingly my weight is 70.9 kilograms, so I've not put on any weight. I just feel more flabby. The key thing is to adopt new exercises and activities cautiously and not to try too much too quickly. My propensity to overload is growing daily and may one day prove fatal. Meanwhile, it lives, it breathes, it survives. By "it" I mean this fragile vehicle that for the moment my consciousness is attached to. For how much longer, I don't know.

Figure 4: source

Health Report

Oh dear, my last weigh in was back in Australia on the 24th October 2019. I weighed 65.9 kg. Today, on the 9th December 2020, I weight 71.4 kg. That's an increase of over 8% or, another way to look at, is that back then I weighed 92% of what I weigh now. I couldn't help but notice that the blubber was accumulating and so I took the plunge and bought a pair of digital scales. 

Over the past week, I've been taking an early morning walk of about 2.5 km and I'll gradually increase this distance or maybe go for an afternoon walk as well. I think a reasonable weight for me would be about 68 kg. I was definitely too thin when I was hovering around the 64 kg mark some years ago. 

I'm also thinking of buying a sphygmomanometer to measure my own blood pressure but also my wife's. Her sister, a couple of years younger than her, died recently of a stroke after suffering from high blood pressure for a number of years. She was overweight however, unlike my wife but it will still be a good idea to monitor it.

I also want to start measuring a resting pulse as that's a good indicator of increasing fitness. I could also measure it at the start and finish of a walk. Right now, sitting here and typing this post, it is 69 beats per minute, which is OK. I can record all these details in the Samsung Health app on my Android phone.

Meanwhile I perform my hip-strengthening and flexibility exercises on a daily basis but of course I could do a lot more. One thing at a time however. For the moment, I'll focus on increasing the distances that I walk and monitoring my weight. I know from experience that walking is the easiest way for me to lose weight.

Thymoma or Thymic Cyst

 I was reading a medical journal article this evening and here is its introduction:

The normal thymus evolves over the course of a lifetime, with involution and gradual fatty replacement beginning around puberty. The thymus originates from 3 embryonic germ-cell layers and thus has the potential to transform along a number of neoplastic cell lines. On computed tomography (CT), the normal thymus appears as a triangular-shaped structure in the anterior mediastinum (see Figure 1). Variations in the morphology of the normal thymus gland, along with its association with a diverse range of pathologic processes, can make the thymus an imaging enigma and diagnostic challenge for clinicians.

Figure 1: source 

An abnormal appearance of the thymus can be attributable to either diffuse enlargement of the gland or a discrete mass. Benign thymic hyperplasia and lymphoma can both cause diffuse enlargement of the thymus. Many lesions—including thymoma, thymic carcinoma, and thymic carcinoids—as well as benign lesions—such as thymolipomas and cysts—can present with a focal thymic mass. This is often an incidental finding in an asymptomatic patient undergoing imaging for unrelated reasons. Clinical presentation can play a role in the evaluation of patients with thymic masses. One study found that more than 75% of asymptomatic patients with mediastinal masses had benign lesions, whereas almost two-thirds of symptomatic patients with mediastinal masses had malignant lesions. It has been suggested that expectant management can be considered for observation of asymptomatic patients with diffuse thymic enlargement. For symptomatic patients, biopsy or, at times, resection may be appropriate.

At present, CT remains the imaging modality of choice for the evaluation of mediastinal masses. Magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography (PET) are useful adjuncts. While there is overlap in the features of many thymic lesions on imaging, some lesions have a characteristic appearance on CT. Thymolipoma, an uncommon benign thymic neoplasm, typically manifests on CT as a large anterior mediastinal mass containing fat intermingled with areas of soft-tissue attenuation, which may conform to the shape of other mediastinal structures. On CT, idiopathic multilocular thymic cyst, an acquired benign thymic lesion, cannot be reliably distinguished from the cystic components of malignant thymic lesions, including thymomas, Hodgkin lymphoma, and mediastinal germ-cell tumors. The appearances of thymomas on imaging can vary according to their staging and histologic subtype; lobulated contours, calcifications, and heterogeneous attenuation are associated with more-advanced, rather than early stage, thymoma.

Figure 2: source

The increasing use of CT has led to more-frequent identification of incidental lesions in the anterior mediastinum, and with recent advances in minimally invasive surgical techniques, an increasing number of thymic lesions are referred for surgical evaluation. Consequently, some patients may undergo invasive procedures for ultimately benign disease. If the benignity of a thymic lesion could be determined on imaging with a reasonable level of confidence, then the need for invasive procedures may potentially be obviated for a number of cases. The purpose of this study is to identify imaging features that help distinguish benign thymic lesions from early stage malignant thymic neoplasms.

From this study, we learn that "14% of patients with thymic cysts also had hepatic cysts" and:

A thymic cyst is a benign mediastinal disease which has been reported to be the second most common type of primary mediastinal cyst. Thymic cysts are rare, and the majority are believed to be congenital in origin. Approximately 60% of patients with a thymic cyst were asymptomatic, and the most common symptoms were cough, dyspnea, and chest pain, according to the literature (1,4). However, there were no specific symptoms for thymic cysts. 

Given that an ultrasound revealed that I had one or more cysts on my liver back in 2009, then the possibility increases that I might have a thymic cyst rather than a thymoma. It might be self limiting and not cause any severe problems. Up to this point, I've just assumed that what I had was a thymoma but that may not be the case. As the study says, it's often not possible, using CT, to determine the exact nature of an abnormality in the anterior mediastinum. Surgery may be carried out when it is not necessary. 

What struck me, when looking at the diagram in Figure 1 and similar depictions, is that there's not a lot of room in there and this means trouble when neoplasms or cysts develop. Lately I've been feeling quite tired during the day and fatigue is one of the symptoms of thymoma. For the moment, let's wait and see if my condition worsens or not.

Magnetic Healing

It was interesting to read that a thymoma is considered a relatively indolent neoplasia. In my case, it does seem to have an indolent quality and is certainly slow moving or perhaps it's stopped growing. Maybe it's self-limiting. In saner times, I might have sought an ultrasound to probe its extent but any contact with hospitals nowadays is best avoided. 

I asked my inner physician today what could be done to treat it and the answer that came back was magnetism. That was interesting. I decided to do a little research. I was surprised to learn that magnetism is used as a therapy in mainstream medicine. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: source

Figure 1 shows that magnetic fields (pulsed and static) and ultrasound (high intensity focused ultrasound and low intensity focused ultrasound) can be used to treat cancers. Hyperthermia, DNA damage and apoptosis (the death of cells which occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism's growth or development) are some of the effects of the magnetic fields. 

However, given that I don't think my thymoma is carcinogenic and that I'm actively avoiding hospitals, any therapy that is carried out will be with my own magnets at home. So what's the news on magnetic healing at home? This site has the following to say:

Magnetic field therapy uses different kinds of magnets on the body to help boost your overall health. It may also help treat certain conditions.

There are several types, including:

Static magnetic field therapy: In this, you touch a magnet to your skin somehow. You might wear a magnetic bracelet or other magnetized jewelry. It could be a bandage with a magnet in it, or you may wear a magnet as a shoe insole. You could also sleep on a special mattress pad with a magnet in it.

Electrically charged magnetic therapy (electromagnetic therapy): The magnets you use here have an electric charge. Treatment with electromagnetic therapy usually comes through an electric pulse.

Magnetic therapy with acupuncture: Magnets go on the same sections of your skin that an acupuncturist would probably focus on in an acupuncture session. You may hear these areas called your energy pathways or channels.

How It Works

Your body naturally has magnetic and electric fields. All your molecules have a small amount of magnetic energy in them. The thought behind magnetic field therapy is that certain problems happen because your magnetic fields are out of balance. If you put a magnetic field near your body, it's believed things will go back to normal.

Does It Work? 

There haven’t been many studies on magnetic field therapy. The ones that have been done don’t have enough data to draw solid conclusions. Though some clinical trials have shown potential for magnetic field therapy as a treatment for back pain, for the most part, there's no clear proof that it can treat any condition.

The site is very much mainstream medicine so there's not likely to be much support for this type of therapy. Here is an abstract from an article on another site discussing the uses of neodymium magnets:

The strong magnetic field properties of magnets have led to their use in many modern technologies, as well as in the fields of medicine and dentistry. Neodymium magnets are a powerful type of magnet that has been the subject of recent research. This review provides a brief explanation of the definition, history, and characteristics of rare earth magnets. In addition, a broad overview of results obtained in studies performed to date on the effects of magnets, and neodymium magnets in particular, on body systems, tissues, organs, diseases, and treatment is provided. Though they are used in the health sector in various diagnostic devices and as therapeutic tools, there is some potential for harmful effects, as well as the risk of accident. The research is still insufficient; however, neodymium magnets appear to hold great promise for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

These magnets can be bought easily online (see Figure 2):

Figure 2: source

There's no reason not to purchase one and try it out. The 40mm x 20mm size costs Rp218,400 which is about A$20. I should check first with my psychic healer in Medan who is overseeing the handling of my physical condition. If he approves, then I'll go ahead with it.

I don't know what's happened to my quoted text in this post. 

It's ended up italicised and enlarged for no reason that I can discern.

Manganese

In my previous post, I asked the question "what's wrong with my thymus?" and got the answer "you have a hollow heart and the I'm trying to fill up the gap that has been created". Last night, I thought I'd try again with another question, namely "what happened to my gall bladder?" I was lying in bed preparing for sleep and the question was only asked half-heartedly but an answer came back as quick as a flash: "manganese".

This came as something of a shock because this single word clearly didn't emerge from my unconscious because I've never really thought about manganese or even read anything much about it. It occurred to me that there might have been some sort of interaction between the manganese compounds in my body and the fluoridated water that I was drinking in Brisbane at the time my gall bladder problem arose (late July of 2016). I resolved to investigate the matter further in the morning.

And I did. It turns out that:

• gallstones are often found in people with “lower levels of Vitamin E, manganese, and the amino acid methionine.” 
  
  
  https://motherearthworks.com/healthy-living-learning-center/healthy-living-center-articles/relief-for-gallstone-sufferers/
  
  
• manganese “reacts with fluorine to give manganese(II) fluoride (MnF2) and manganese(III) fluoride (MnF3)”
  
  https://www.britannica.com/science/manganese
  
  
• “Manganese levels were determined in liver, kidney and bone (femur) of mice subjected for 16 weeks to 0 ppm (control), 10 ppm, 25 ppm, 50 ppm, 100 ppm and 200 ppm of fluoride in drinking water. Following fluoride ingestion, manganese levels were significantly reduced in liver (in 50, 100 and 200 ppm groups) and kidney (in 100 and 200 ppm groups). On the other hand, bone manganese levels were significantly elevated following ingestion of 25 ppm or more fluoride. The results suggest that excessive fluoride ingestion disturbs manganese metabolism.”
  
  
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0048969782900717

Manganese does react with fluoride very readily and this information confirms what I'd already suspected: after twenty years in Asia, my body was not used to fluoridated water and reacted badly after a year of exposure to it. The lowered levels of manganese probably encouraged the growth of gallstones and eventually one obstructed the blood flow to my gall bladder, leading to the demise of that organ.

It's too late for my gall bladder but this ability to ask a question about a physical ailment and get an answer is intriguing. I've really only tried it two times now and I wondered if I can ask questions for other people and receive answers. I asked a question for a friend of mine who has small fibre neuropathy but who is also on antidepressants. I asked what would help his peripheral neuropathy and the answer came back "iodine" with an image of mixing bowl filled with a yellow powder. I did a little research as came back with:

• Peripheral Neuropathy: Iodine Deficiency can also damage the body's peripheral nerves. In this condition, one can face several issues, such as tingling in the hands or feet, sharp, stabbing pains, numbness in the hands or feet, thinning of the skin, drop in blood pressure and others. Source: https://www.news18.com/news/lifestyle/world-iodine-deficiency-day-some-common-consequences-of-hypothyroidism-2355177.html
  
  
• Some widely used psychoactive drugs, such as tricyclic antidepressants and antipsychotic phenothiazines exhibit iatrogenic effects on the thyroid. These side effects may arise from interactions at different steps of thyroid hormone biosynthesis. These drugs can induce a change in iodine capture by thyroid cells or can complex iodine, making it unavailable for thyroid hormone synthesis and thus decreasing thyroid hormone blood levels; they can also inhibit thyroid peroxidase activity and thus T3 and T4 synthesis or enhance deiodination of T4 to T3 or to Rt3 by stimulation of deiodinase activity. Moreover, tricyclic antidepressants interfere with the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis via the noradrenergic or serotonergic systems and might therefore decrease T4 or T3 blood levels, respectively. Phenothiazines can induce autoimmune hypothyroidism, as shown by an increase in the expression of the major histocompatibility complex antigen and by a production of antithyroglobulin or antithyroperoxidase antibodies. However, all these mechanisms are only speculative in humans, as they have only been demonstrated in vitro or in animal experiments. Clinically, thyroid function and affective disorders are closely linked. On one hand, the therapeutic response to antidepressants could be influenced by the thyroid status; on the other hand, the larger the thyroxin decrease induced by antidepressants, the better the therapeutic effect might be. Moreover, cotreatment with thyroid hormones and antidepressant drugs could allow either a decrease in the rate of treatment failure or a faster recovery from depression. As antipsychotic or antidepressant treatments are administered over long periods in humans, their thyroid toxic effects must be taken seriously. Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9571980/

It does seem that iodine may help him. I've sent him the second bullet point but did not mention how I came upon it. He is going to check with his neurologist about it so it will be interesting to hear if anything comes of it. As to what the mixing bowl filled with a yellow powder was all about I don't know. I did find such an iodine-related image (see Figure 1). However, it related to iodine trichloride that only has industrial uses.

Figure 1

I'll continue experimenting with this (perhaps) new found ability and see what comes of it.

Solfeggio Frequencies and Other Matters

This is a continuation of my former blog on WordPress at: 

https://wordpress.com/post/seanreeves.wordpress.com

I've abandoned that site due to uploading difficulties and other frustrations. Here are some links to former posts:

• Self Healthy
• Earthing Update
• Earthing
• Thymoma
• Costochronditis