Introduction to Tantric Sexuality

Linked below is a flyer for an “Introduction to Tantric Sexuality” workshop I will be hosting at Surfciast Wholefoods on Friday evening of July 11th.
The presenter, Stephanie Phillips is fantastic, and I have found her work incredibly transformative. It has deepened my connection with loved ones and especially with myself. I have experienced far more love, vitality and joy in relationships and general living.
If you live nearby, it’s definitely worth coming along.
If you live in Melbourne, hop onto Stephanie’s website and find out details of her next course there.

The Story of the Human Body – Part II

“The fundamental answer to why so many humans are now getting sick from previously rare illnesses is that many of the body’s features were adaptive in the environments for which we have evolved, but have become maladaptive in the modern environments we have now created. This idea, known as the mismatch hypothesis, is the core of the new, emerging field of evolutionary medicine, which applies evolutionary biology to health and disease.”
Daniel Lieberman, ‘The Sory of the Human Body. Evolution, Health & Disease’.

The man is a genius. The mismatch hypothesis is a theme that is the central influence to, and underlies my clinical work and my blogs. It can be equally applied when considering optimal health and living. Or performance.

The Story of the Human Body.

“Millions of years of evolution favored ancestors who craved energy-rich foods, including simple carbohydrates like sugar that used to be rare, and who efficiently stored excess calories as fat. In addition, few if any of your distant ancestors had the opportunity to become diabetic by being physically inactive and by eating lots of soda and donuts.”

Daniel Lieberman, ‘The Story of the Human Body. Evolution, Health & Disease’

I love quoting from my ‘nutrition bible’. More pearls to follow.

Nutrition Testimonial

Other than what I do being my absolute passion and personal life mission, it’s feedback like this that make you love the job even more.

“Wow! After working so hard for so long with exercise to shed those kilos, finally I have gained control of my health and fitness!

Who would have thought it so simple? No tricks. No gimmicks. No pills. It’s within reach for anyone?

To be able to eat well and lose weight is amazing, but feeling better than ever on the inside is simply fantastic!

I’ve feel I have gained my life back. Thanks to you Tim!”

Steve, Geelong

Mickel Therapy Quote

I borrowed this wonderful quote from the Mickel Thrapy Facebook page.
I am so happy to be fortunate enough to have stumbled upon Mickel Therapy and feel priveleged to be practising it as a practitioner. It has made very profound changes in the general fatigue and pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia and PTSD clients I have worked with using Mickel Therapy thus far.
And for me in my personal life with relationships, energy levels etc.
Far more than I had seen previously with the modalities I have used. Not taking away from these as they are wonderful modalities and extremely important pieces in the puzzle of eliminating CFS and Fibromyalgia. They are signifcant aspect of health and living that must be addressed in treating illness or achieving optimal wellness.
Mickel Therapy simply provides several more, and most probably the most central pieces and offers so much more complete a result or resolution. Very often a totally complete result – meaning a total resolution of symptoms.
It addresses the most central or absolute ‘root cause’ of illness. And wellness.

” We should take care not to make the intellect our God. It has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve”. Einstein

Mickel Therpy Practitioner Listing

I am now officially listed as a practitioner on the Mickel Therapy international website (see link below).

A level one practitoner simply means I need to submit notes for 10 clients to a supervisor (one of the two most experienced Mickel Therapists in the world).

It does not mean my knowledge or skills are less.
It is a part of ongoing training and monitoring of practitioners by the Mickel Therapy administration to ensure outstanding quality of practitioners.
In a way, it means that these 10 clients are actually being guided by 2 Mickel Therapists at once. A bonus.

http://www.mickeltherapy.com/practitioners/therapists-abroad/

What is Mickel Therapy?

Following is an exerpt from the Mickel Therapy international website, www.mickeltherapy.com, explaining Mickel Therapy.

I am very proud to be one of the first two practising Mickel Therapist’s in Australia. I have found this modality to be nothing short of ground breaking for the treatment of many illnesses – especially fatigue and pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia, adrenal fatigue, ME, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), depression and anxiety.

I have been both extremely surprised and thrilled with the results I have witnessed thus far. And the techniques are not limited to illness. They are outstanding for breaking behavioural and emotional patterns that limit our health, personal development, performance and effectiveness of relationships.

Mickel Therpay focuses on an aspect of functioning that I consider the most central of all aspects of living, and therefore most likely to influence our health. That is, our primal emotional messages. These messages send information (pre thought) to our systems about the relationship of our body/mind with our environment. They are designed to keep us safe and happy.

I believe it is the major piece in the puzzle of modalities to use when treating illness or optimisinng health, performance or living.

“Mickel Therapy is a talking based treatment for conditions including Anxiety, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Depression, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, M.E / Post Viral Fatigue, Stress & other chronic illnesses.

Mickel Therapy is a treatment developed in 1999 by a medical doctor (Dr David Mickel) which seeks to address problems with the Hypothalamus gland in the brain. This gland which normally regulates everything in the body becomes overactive creating a wide range of symptoms.

A convenient way to put this it is that Mickel Therapy seeks to draw a distinction between the thinking brain and the core emotional mid-brain or body which generates emotions independently of thought. The therapy teaches clients to translate their symptoms back into emotions and take corrective action so the symptoms no longer need to occur.

Think of it like this…

If you were to sit on a pin, your body would send you clear messages of pain. You could try thinking positively, tell someone you were in pain and you might even cry out, but until you listen and act and remove the pin, only then can your body get the message and stop sending the symptom. Mickel Therapy teaches clients to understand these useful messages from the body and translate them into action”.

Email or call me for a free 15 minute consultation to attain whether Mickel Therapy would be applicable to you.

How Meditation Changes Your Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains

Yet another study showing the overwhelming benefits of a regular meditation practice.
This study is a great one.
And more reason to sign up for my 10 week Breathing Dynamics course for Health, Relaxation and Mindfulness – also linked.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12793/how-meditation-changes-your-brain-a-neuroscientist-explains.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/228930463/Breathing-Dynamics-Course-for-Health-Relaxation-and-Mindfulness

Meditate Before You Have to Medicate

A great article (linked) from the Art of Healing Magazine.
I heard it said from possibly the wisest person I’ve experienced that ‘meditation is medicine’.
I couldn’t agree more.
I am now offering meditation courses using diaphragmatic breathing as the basis or lead in to mindfulness by settling the nervous system before you begin mindfulness practice (see previous blog or two).

http://www.theartofhealing.com.au/news_meditate_before.html?utm_source=3+June+2014+Weekly+e-Alert&utm_campaign=3+June+2014&utm_medium=email

Breathing Dynamics Courses

Breathing Dynamics Training

Have you ever wanted to learn how to meditate, but find it  difficult. Your mind is just too busy?
Do you ever feel stressed or overwhelmed and would like to relax more?
Or do you have difficulty breathing (including asthma), sleeping or suffer from anxiety or depression?
Would you like to be able to hold your breath under water for longer?
Or perform at another level in sport?
Maybe you’d just like to feel more centred or more joy and love?

How you breathe can make a huge difference to these and many other aspects of your life.
Yet most of us are not aware of our breathing. We just breathe. And we don’t die, so no problem. Right?

In reality very, very few people can actually breathe at a level considered even normal (based on medical diagnostic norms). Like the world we have created has dramatically altered our posture and nutritional habits and health, our breathing has also suffered.
For example, diagnostic norms indicate we should breathe 8-10 times per minute, or 12-14,000 times per days. Yet virtually all of us of us breathe up to double that rate, at 25-30,000 times per day.
And a most of us breathe using our mouth, using chest and shoulders, for much or all of the day and night. Yet, we are designed to optimally breathe using our nose only and via the diaphragm predominantly.
These suboptimal habits, when carried on over time, go a long way to diminishing our health, vitality, hapiness and performance.

However, learning how to optimise the mechanics and biocheistry of our breathing is easy with a little practice. It’s just a matter of knowing how.

This subject has been a passion of mine for many years.

I am offering two Breathing Dynamics courses; one indoors, and one in a pool, to help you optimise your breathing and experience greater energy, relaxation, health and performance.

The indoor session for health, relaxation and midfulness will be held in the Peter Troy Room at the Grant Pavillion, 1 Merrijig Dve, Torquay (behind the council offices). It is a 10 week course, run every Tuesday evening from 7.30-8.45pm starting Tuesday 24th June.

The pool session for surfers and sportspeople will be held at the Torquay Swim School, 35 Baines Cres. Torquay. It is also a 10 week course, run every Thurdsay evening from 7.30-8.45pm starting Thursday 26th June.

Details are linked as follows:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/228930463/Breathing-Dynamics-Course-for-Health-Relaxation-and-Mindfulness

http://www.scribd.com/doc/228930708/Breathing-Dynamics-Course-for-Surfers-and-Sporting-Performance

Mickel Therapy in Australia

I am very excited to announce that I am the first Australian practitioner to offer Mickel Therapy.
Developed by Scottish GP and psychiatrist, Dr David Mickel, this modality and technique takes the search for the root cause of symptoms and illness to it deepest origins – our reaction to instinctive or primary emotonal responses.
According to Mickel Therapy, when these responses are not in balance it sends the hypothalamus in to overdrive. This ‘master gland’ in the brain regulates the responses of our autonomic nervous system, endocrine system and immune systems as well as our sleep cycles. So, when out of balance, it can lead to significant disruption in our body.
As such, Mickel Therapy has been found to have outstanding success with generalised fatigue and pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), adrenal exhaustion, Fibromyalgia, IBS, depression, anxiety and is fantastic for overall emotional awareness and optimisation of health and well-being.
Given my work with breathing dynamics, nutrition, sauna therapy etc. has always been targeted at detecting and correcting the ‘root cause’ of illness via our most central aspects of living, this modality has required a simple, yet extremely profound transition in my approach.
At this stage, more information on Mickel Therpay can be found via Dr Mickel’s website www.mickeltherapy.com.

To make enquiries or book in for Mickel Therapy in Australia email me at tim@timaltman.com.au or call 0425 739 918.
Consultations can be conducted equally effectively either in person or vis Skype, phone etc.
I offer a free 15 minute information consultation for clients.

The effects of stress on bosy composition

I have noticed a very interesting pattern over the years whilst using Bioimpedance analysis for monitoring body composition and cellular health.

Clients on weight managment or fat loss programs are often concerned when going away on holidays that they will go backwards and undo all of the good work they have done.

When asked for my advice as to what they should do, if it is an international trip, I often suggest they apply what they have learned about nutrition and regulating their blood sugar levels as much as possible, but not to the extent they get axious or ti the detriment of their holiday. I tell them to surrender and just enjoy themselves.

The reason is because I have found that it is extremely common that, when returning, clients have often lost more fat or stayed very similar, despite relaxing their discipline with food choices quite considerably.

Why?

One explanation is that they may exercise more on holiday. Yes, but I’ve seen this regularly with people on cruises also, and they are often not that active.

I believe it is because they really relax when they go away and forget about their day to day stressors.

Stress really plays a huge part in weight gain as stress activates adrenal hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) which stimulate the liver to release more sugar into the bloodstream.

Very often, clients who are extremely busy and/or stressed really struggle to lose fat mass.

In the case of those on holidays, their stress levels are likely to return to the basal levels that our ancestors experienced – that our body is strictured ‘or built’ to function at premdominantly (unless an emergency appears).

The difference between clients who are on holidays and when they are at home, even if they are not overly stressed, can be quite profound.
It makes one realise that the world we live in is a long way removed from that in which our paleolithic ancestors lived in, and that which our bodies are adapted for.

It’s a great selling point for daily practice in some sort of stress management (or parasympathetic nervous system dominant) activity such as diaphragmatic beathing exercises, meditation, yoga, gentle exercise, tai chi etc. etc.

Symptoms of health or disease. The modern medical paradox.

I had a 53 year old client come back to me this week saying thank you for my help and reluctantly wanting to discontinue her nutrition program on the advice of her doctor.

Why? Because she had a period last week for the first time in 5 years. She did bleed heavily during this period and it was very unexpected. He comment was “I know you are all about turning back my biological clock but this is ridiculous as I have not had a period for 5 years!!”

She had been losing weight on this nutrition plan, but no more than 1kg of fat per week.

Her doctor suggested she have a rest from such a strict diet and see how things progress.

The question that I raise, is that ‘were these syptoms she is experiencing signs of health or disturbance?’

The eating plan, whilst an adjustment from the modern western diet in that it eliminates sugar and grains and aims at regulating blood sugar levels is not extreme. FIn fact, fruit and vegetable intake is far more than any eating plan I’ve used – and a truck load more than the western diet (and you only need to look at the wealth of research on this and the positive effects on human health and the immune system to know that this is a good thing).
Moreover, as best we can best tell from genetic, anthropological and scientfic research it far more closely resembles the standard nutrition of our paleolithic ancestors than the modern western diet. In fact, it is aimed to be a plan that has us eat as we’re built or structured to – as our ancestors did given it takes 40,000 years minimum for a change in the environment to be fully assimilated by our bodies (genetically).

My first thought was that this was a revelation. Maybe she had not gone through menopause at all? That her body is re-finding it’s own homeostatic balance. Rediscovering health once more. If this is the case, is resting from this diet just an excuse to settle back into sub-optimal health?

By letting the symptoms settle or go away, is she walking away from a futire of health and vitality?

Perhaps the symptoms would have settled anyway had she continued to eat optimally?

Her cycle may have continued for some time, but the transition into the change of life is generally far smoother and less eventfuk when one is healthy than not.

My suggestion is that she may have had the opportunity to free her self from a reliance on reactive medical care and pharmaceutical medicines. Is that not worth persevering through? What an opportunity for freedom.

It would save her a fortune in later life. That is guaranteed.
Sone interesting questions.

Free Talk at Surfcoast Wholefoods March 17th 2014

On Monday 17th March at 7.30pm I will be giving a free talk at Surfcoast Wholefoods on “What is the optimal nutrition plan for the modern world?” See link.

I would love to see you there.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/211809955/Free-Talk-at-Surfcoast-Wholefoods-Monday-March-17th-7-30pm

Evolutionary Biology and Mismatch Diseases

Evolutionary Biology and Mismatch Diseases

Evolutionary biologist, Daniel Lieberman in his book ‘The Story of the Human Body’ suggested that medicine could benefit from a dose of evolution. Whilst evolution may appear irrelevant to medicine at first glance, our body is not engineered like a car; rather it evolved over time with modification. It therefore follows that knowing your body’s evolutionary history helps us understand why your body looks and works as it does, hence why you get sick. Although scientific fields such as physiology and biochemistry can help us understand the proximate mechanisms that underlie a disease, evolutionary medicine helps us make sense of why the disease occurs in the first place.

Over time, natural selection adapts (matches) organisms to particular environmental conditions and this process occurs over tens of thousands of years. Research suggested that it takes 40,000 to 100,000 years for an environmental change to assimilated (genetically) by the body.

However, as innovation as accelerated, especially since farming began (approximately 2,000 to 10,000 years ago), we have devised or adopted a growing list of novel cultural practices that have conflicting effects on our bodies. Many of these cultural changes have altered interactions between our genes and our environments in ways that contribute to a wide range of health problems known as mismatch diseases – which are defined as diseases that result from our Paleolithic bodies being poorly or inadequately adapted to certain modern behavious and conditions.

Most mismatch diseases occur when a common stimulus either increases or decreases beyond levels for which the body is adapted, or when the body is not adapted for it at all. Moreover a common characteristic of these diseases, is that they occur from interactions whose cause and effect are not immediate or otherwise obvious. And most of these mismatch diseases are ailments that, as far as we can tell, were rare in our Paleolithic ancestors.

Hypothesised mismatch diseases account for a vast majority of deaths in the modern Western World. These are the chronic, insidious onset ailments that include heart disease, cancers (some), stroke, diabetes (Type II), obesity, chronic  respiratory conditions, cavities, apnoea, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ADHD, depression, anxiety, insomnia, IBS/Crohn’s disease, OCD, hypertension Alzheimer’s disease to name a few.

Following this understanding, it makes sense that in preventing and treating these mismatch diseases, we apply what is understood of how we lived and therefore, how our bodies are structured to function ideally. The aspects of living that most impact our health include our nutrition (how we eat and drink), breathing, how we move and stabilize (and therefore posture) and how we think or emote.

This is the primary influence or core philosophy in my approach to treatment and prevention of disease, performance and optimal living. Using what understanding we have of how we performed these aspects of living as we were evolving and applying this in an approach to treatment or living can yield outstanding and life changing results. And, over time, it reduces or eliminates the need or reliance on synthetic or artificial medicines.

Further, the use of accurate and reliable biofeedback to provide information on the efficiency that one is achieving in performing these aspects of living, makes learning much easier and more rapid.

Finally, the use of pure extracts as medicines and supplements, where necessary, provide the perfect balance. As opposed to manufactures and synthetic, or new to nature, pharmaceuticals and supplements, pure extract herbs and nutritional medicines exist in the form that our bodies were exposed to them over millions of years and are therefore far more easily assimilated, or are more bio-available than artificial chemicals and lead to no side effects as a result.

The more we begin to understand how nature has adapted us to live and living our lives in accord with this, and using foods and medicines provided to us by nature throughout our evolutionary history, the more we will shift the focus of medicine from treatment to prevention and optimal living.

CO2 and Breathing Assist in Recovery Post Cardiac Arrest.

A recent world first study which reviewed 16,000 patients across a decade found that higher than normal levels of CO₂ in the early post resuscitation period following a heart attack could boost survival rates. And reduce brain damage.

This study was motivation enough for the Austin Hospital in Melbourne to give patients recovering from cardiac arrest more CO₂ to boost long-term recovery.

It has always been understood that CO₂ plays a vital role in breathing – being the limiting factor that influences oxygen delivery to the cells via haemoglobin in the blood stream (see notes on “The Bohr Effect” in www.timaltman.com.au).

Dr Glenn Eastwood from the Austin Hospital’s ICU research department said that slightly higher levels of CO₂ have an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-convulsive properties and these are important for protecting the brain after a heart attack. And slightly higher levels of CO₂ could increase blood flow to the brain, which may help it get enough oxygen to maintain its own metabolism, preserving its function.

What no one has said is that CO₂ in human blood should normally be at higher levels than they are in most people. Research has found that the average person breathes twice as often as medical diagnostic norms suggest we should – that is, we breathe 25,000-30,000 times per day as opposed to the 12,000-14,000 times per day according to these diagnostic norms.

And many people also breathe far more volume of air in and out than is necessary – particularly when breathing using the mouth.

An increase in breathing rate and volume contribute to ‘over-breathing’. Over breathing results in lower levels of arterial CO₂ as the body exhales excessive amounts.

Therefore if the average person over breathes, and over breathing reduces CO₂ levels in the system, it follows that the average person is exposing their system to lower levels of CO₂ than they should according to diagnostic norms (according to the Bohr Effect, arterial CO₂ levels should ideally be 40mmHg or above – a level I have found clinically via use of capnometry to measure CO₂ levels to rarely ever be the case). In other words, the average person does not allow their breathing to adequately play it’s role in the body of energy production and maintenance of homeostasis and health. In essence, the average person underperforms in terms of breathing by up to 50%. And, except for our heart beating, breathing is the one bodily function that we perform more than any other.

Perhaps it also follows that higher levels of CO₂ in general could help prevent cardiac arrests as much as they assist in recovery post a cardiac arrest. After all, as stated by Dr Eastwood, high CO₂ levels have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-convulsive properties. Plus CO₂ in the blood stream is a natural vasodilator, thus helping it increase blood flow to the brain (and all other parts of the body) and helps relieve pressure on constricted blood vessels.

Therefore training a person to breathe as they should according to diagnostic norms; i.e. having higher levels of CO2, or reversing their over breathing, would act as a wonderful preventative to heart disease and many other inflammatory ailments. And would be fantastic for exploring higher or optimal levels of health and performance.

I have found clinically, this can be achieved via 4-5 one hour bio-feedback driven sessions of breathing retraining and regular practice of 10-20 minutes daily from the person themselves. Once learned, they have obtained a life or ‘living’ skill that is free. And prevention has always been the best first aid.

Given considerable amounts are invested into research of how to treat or improve recovery post chronic ailments such as heart disease ($183,000 to Dr Eastwood and the Austin hospital in this case – which is great), it would also be great if some attention (even money) was paid to optimising living skills such as breathing (or nutrition, stabilization etc.).

The Story of the Human Body

“We didn’t evolve to be healthy, but instead we were selected to have as many offspring as possible under diverse, challenging conditions. As a consequence. we never evolved to make rational choices about what to eat or how to exercise in conditions of abundance and comfort. What’s more, interactions between the bodies we inherited, the environments we create, and the decisions we sometimes make have set in motion an insidious feedback loop. We get sick from chronic diseases by doing what we evolved to do but under conditions for which our bodies are poorly adapted, and we then pass on those same conditions to our children, who also then get sick. If we wish to halt this vicious circle then we need to figure out how to respectfully and sensibly nudge, push, and sometimes oblige ourselves to eat foods that promote health and to be more physically active. That, too, is what we evolved to do.”

Daniel Lieberman, ‘The Story of the Human Body’.

The Ketone To Permanent Weight Loss

Courtesy ofthe talks I do most Monday nights (6.30pm) at Surfcoast Wholefoods, I had a call from the Geelong Advertiser wanting to do an article on the talk I had held the previous Monday – ‘Permanent Fat Loss’.

Naturally I obliged, and the two linked pages were published in the GT Magazine in last Saturday’s (October 12th) Geelong Addy.
It came out well and has kept me busy this week. Which is great as I love working with weight management – it is fun and you get great results when it is explained well and made simple, with lots of feedback.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/176175963/The-Ketone-To-Permanent-Weight-Loss-Page-1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/176175964/The-Ketone-To-Permanent-Wight-Loss-Pg2

Natural Flow Retreats – Group Retreats

If you are part of a sporting group or any group, company, organisation etc. and a planning a seminar, training course/camp, meeting or getaway for them, why not consider giving it s super healthy edge.
You will come away feeling incredible as well as achieving your group objective!!!
Natural Flow Retreats has been a vision that I have held since my late teens and a project I have been working on developing for 2 years. It is now ready and we have already run retreats for groups that were highly successful and enthusiastically received.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/175654594/Natural-Flow-Retreats-Group-Retreats

Testimonial

A lovely testimonial from a new client recently.
I always take extra time on life skills such as nutrition and efficient breathing. We have spent a lifetime making these inefficient, and creating what, in many cases, becomes the root cause to most chronic illnesses.
Thereforre, it makes sense to take time to explain how and why it has become inefficient. And the consequences of having these apsects of living so disparate from how we are designed to perform these – from an optimal living perspective.
If clients, deeply understand the how and why, then the reasons for them to make changes and restore ideal functioning become far greater. As does compliance.

Whilst it flies in the face of the business models we are presented with as naturopaths (in terms of $$), I would far prefer to practice with integrity, teaching life skills, rather than being predominantly a peddler of natural pills, and offering a small amount of advice on life skills (usually in the form of supplemental notes handed out).

“Thanks Tim,

It was great meeting you today too, I really understand what you were saying and found your professional manner and scientific level explanations not only made perfect sense but also was great discussing health on that level.