Happy new week everyone. Here's Issue 5 for your delectation. 

Enjoy, Micki x

PRACTICE PEARL: CONTACTS LIST

Do you have a database of people who specialise in certain fields? It can be SO useful. If you're new, start one right now; it will pay dividends in the future.

I used to have some software years ago, but nowadays I put names, email addresses and specialisms into Google Contacts and label them.

For example, today, I was contacted by a distraught lady who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Could I help? Well, yes, probably, but it's always better to refer to someone who specialises in a certain subject. I immediately gave her the Cancer contacts in my list, which were:

https://www.synthesisclinic.co... and https://www.silviagrisendi.com....

I don't know either of them personally - I should but my natural shyness encourages me to bury my head in the cyber-sand - but I do know of them, and have seen them recommended on forums etc. When I see recommendations, I always look them up and, if I like the look of their approach, I add them to my Contacts list.

Our job as healthcare professionals is far more satisfying and patients are better served by collaboration and community. It's a team effort to help people get well often. In my naturopathic health centre near Manchester years ago, I generally had the global overview of a case and managed a team care approach. If they needed counselling, that's what they got, physical therapy, allergy therapy, acupuncture, diet coaching or whatever we felt would help them. It worked beautifully and we got many people well - and less lonely with their illnesses!

In today's online world, we can still achieve that - use your contacts list and refer on, keep the patient coming back to report in to you and manage their case. True community support and case management.

CLINICAL PEARL: COST OF LIVING CRISIS, WOMEN

81% of women feel stressed by the financial situation currently, 61% think it is affecting their health, 40% are skipping meals, 55% are buying cheaper food and 39% have reduced spending on supplements. This is a problem waiting to happen health-wise, isn't it? MEDSCAPE

What can you do?

Can you use social prescribing methods to help them? Things that don't cost anything, but would make a real difference to their long-term health outcomes, both physical and mental. Can you send out a factsheet or free ebook/video on free ways to manage their health eg. walking, community groups (Meet-up etc), breathing techniques, refer them to or create some free meditation/mental health resources? How about art or crafting online, photography, colouring, free forest-bathing sessions, online classes?

Show your patients you care about them and understand the current difficulties. Look after them - like a marriage: in good times and in bad! At the same time, you are helping to prevent an epidemic of worsening health issues later on. This is what we're good at in natural medicine - time for us to show our real skills and credentials, I reckon! For inspiration, see what one GP is doing here. Source INVIVO.

If anyone has something like this already or writes/creates something, do share it - send it to me on email and I will share it with others on here, if you like - we need to look after each other's health just as much!

CASE PEARL: CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY

We all come across people who will react with a headache or some other symptom when they walk into a shop with those awful stinky, toxic candles (Yankee, I'm looking at you!), or when they walk into someone's house with air fresheners, into a pub or cinema and someone's perfume sets them off. I used to be terrible myself, and it ain't fun!

Here's a quick tip that will sometimes bring a reaction down very quickly. Not always, but it's worth a go. Chew 3 Mo-Zyme tablets and see if the reactivity lessens. If it's going to help, the person should feel better within about 30-45 minutes.

If it does help, it gives you a clue that the patient has a body overload of acetaldehyde because Molybdenum is needed to process that efficiently. If they don't have enough Mo, the slightest exposure to smoke, perfumes, car fumes etc will likely tip them over the edge. Think: why is there a build up of acetaldehyde in the first place too - candida, poor detox genes?

There are lots of mechanisms involved in chemical sensitivity and MO is not going to sort it all out, I'm sure, but it can be a god-send for the patient and improve life if it helps them get out and about more, and an excellent patient clue for you. Hope it helps.

EMAIL OVERLOAD - HOW TO GET SORTED

I don't know about you but I must get at least 50-60 emails a day, often more. When you get so many, it's imperative that you find a way of dealing with them efficiently. You may have your favourite strategies, but just in case, here's mine.

I have a Gmail account with several email addresses. So, most business and clinic stuff comes into micki@purehealth and most other stuff goes into enquiries@purehealth or a completely separate Gmail account. I have paid for Gmail for Business and that means I can give Christine (my supplement superwoman researcher assistant) her own purehealth address - and anyone else I draft in to help ad hoc. It looks nice and professional. Christine et al sign off as Christine, Purehealth Team.

I have also overlaid the Sorted for Gmail app on my Gmail account. This revolutionised my Inbox and it makes life SO much easier. If you've not come across it, have a good play with the free trial, and there's a free forever plan if you don't need all the fancy-shmancy stuff. 

Essentially, it takes all Gmail and sticks it into a more readable version, lets me put certain ones into special labels, but most importantly, gives me several columns that I can simply sweep emails into. For example, I have ACTION, HOLD, FOLLOW-UP, RESEARCH and any other specific project ones as needed, such as the name of the next book or factsheet I'm writing. You can then see exactly what you have to do first, find things easily when more info requested comes in, tick stuff off etc. I love it!

Have a gander at the video here and see if it might make your life easier. Trust me, if you're a newbie, putting systems in place like this will really help later on as you get busier! In fact, having just watched that video myself, I realise it's moved on a lot since I started using it about 7 years ago - I need to get myself even more sorted, I think! I do love tech; I can't help it!

PATIENT EXERCISES

There are many times when we want to give specific exercises to a patient, but we are not qualified to do that (well, I am as I trained as a physical therapist to make sure I could, but that's another story...). Anyway, say they are suffering with knee or shoulder pain, you know they need pelvic floor exercises, you reckon their sleep position needs some attention, their back or core needs strengthening. 

What do you do? Well, you could refer on, obviously. I used to be a member of the LCSP, a really well respected association for physiologists. If I need to refer someone, I always start there. You can find a member here. You can trust that they will give great remedial solutions for most muscle and joint issues. 

Tip: As a massage and manipulative therapist (that title still makes me sound like a psycho!), I used to feel just how hard some people's muscles were. No amount of massage or therapy was going to really help. They had calcium dumping into the muscles, mostly. I recognised it with my nutritional therapy hat on. This is usually because they're eating a lot of dairy and are magnesium deficient. So, make sure you address that if their 'tight muscles' are not giving with therapy. 

The other thing I do nowadays if it's more something I want a patient to do at home and get into the habit of, is refer them to videos. 

Have you come across Bob and Brad on You Tube yet? They are hilarious, and very good physical therapists. They upload daily (daily!!) and show you exercises, how to do them, why you need to do them etc etc. Really useful stuff, and they make me smile. Over 4 million subscribers obviously agree. Take a look. 

The other thing I give is my free ebook 10 Minute Mind & Body Exercise and start them with that.