Click to play or right click here to download.
Part 2: Listen to John talk about the different fields of Alternative Medicine. Maybe this will help you choose the field of healing that best suits you.
Transcript of show
Alternative Medicines Part 2
JOHN PETROZZI: Hi. Welcome to Living is Easy with John and Josh. I’m John Petrozzi.
JOSH HARPER: And I’m Josh Harper. This is the second part to the two-part series that we’re doing. What were we talking about, John?
JOHN PETROZZI: Well, last week, we talked about complementary and alternative medicines. We spoke about [home] medical systems, which are opposed to conventional systems. For instance, we talked about Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy and naturopathy, which were the systems. Then we spoke about mind-body medicines, which included art therapy, hypnotherapy, meditation, music therapy, Qigong, Tai Chi, and Yoga.
JOSH HARPER: And these were complementary and alternative medicines, in case you didn’t catch the show.
JOHN PETROZZI: That’s right. And we’ll also speak about biologically based practices, including aroma therapy and herbal medicines.
JOSH HARPER: So what’s on the show today, John?
JOHN PETROZZI: Well, today, we’ll kick it off with speaking about manipulative and body-based practices, which basically use techniques that move the body to affect the body’s health and well-being because that’s what’s it’s all about. A medicine’s a medicine, regardless of the systems and procedures that they use. It’s all that they try and make the body work better so that you can ward off disease and prevent it and make the body feel better and function better.
The first manipulative and body-based practice that we’re going to talk about is Alexander Technique. That’s really interesting- It’s actually a really common sort of therapy used out there for people who want to improve their posture. It was developed by an actor who actually worked out that his voice didn’t work as well when he was on stage sometimes when he was singing. And he worked out the way he used to hold use his neck was affecting his voice, making his voice become tight and it didn’t project as well and all those sorts of things.
JOSH HARPER: Concerning the muscles?
JOHN PETROZZI: Yeah. Well, really, the body posture – the way he was actually holding his posture. So he found that if he changed his posture, the way his head and neck sort of set on the shoulders, his voice would project better and his voice wouldn’t strain as well.
So he basically developed a system and a technique to improve the body’s posture, make people more aware of the way they hold their body, even from simple things like turning the doorknob or even sitting down in your chair. That’ll sort of break that down into a whole load of stages to make you aware of the way you’re using your body.
There’s another therapy, which we can talk about, which is hydrotherapy. I just saw a really good documentary on this on the weekend. They use hydrotherapy centuries ago to help the body get rid of disease and those sorts of things, by using hot and cold baths, by using saunas, by using steam rooms. They actually worked out that by using cold and hot water, for instance, it would help to increase circulation and the body would start to [fringe 0:02:44] and just get rid of arthritis and those sorts of things.
JOSH HARPER: And they still use that.
JOHN PETROZZI: They still use it today, yeah. I think there is still a fairly big hospital in Italy that use hydrotherapy solely, instead of a Physical Medicine Department to try and help people get back on their feet after injuries and getting over arthritis.
Then there’s massage therapy. That’s another body-based practice that helps to affect health and well-being. I think most people have had a massage. What massage does is basically helps to improve the flow of circulation around the body and the body can really start to heal itself.
There’s osteopathy, which is another method of helping the body heal itself by allowing and helping to improve circulation – those sorts of things.
There’s reflexology, which uses points in the feet to help improve the body’s awareness of itself and improve health and wellbeing.
JOSH HARPER: Do you know how that works?
JOHN PETROZZI: I really couldn’t tell you how it works because I haven’t really studied it enough. But I know that they’ve mapped out the body along the foot. There’s an area there for the stomach, digestion, reproductive system, eyes, ears, nose, throat – a whole lot of things all mapped out on the foot. I’m not so sure how they mapped it, but they found that by stimulating portions of the foot, they help to alter the body’s reaction or the body’s symptoms as well.
JOSH HARPER: Wow.
JOHN PETROZZI: Yeah, all this stuff is really interesting. Again, it works so well. Well, some people say if it works, stick with it.
And there’s my favourite, chiropractic, obviously because I’m a chiropractor. We use techniques that help to move the body to affect health and wellbeing. The major premise of chiropractic is that the body heals itself. There’s another system that coordinates all functions of the body through nerve impulse. Messages start up in the brain, messages are sent right down through the spinal cord and then out through spinal nerves to all parts of the body. Your heart receives an impulse in the brain, your stomach does, your bowels, your muscles, your skin – everything receives a message.
If that message is being interfered with by a spinal misalignment, it’s going to put pressure onto the nerve. Impulses don’t get out from the brain through the spinal cord to the body like they should. And then the body’s going to function at below par – below what it’s meant to. That will basically set up a body that’s going to become more susceptible to injury, pains and symptoms, but also diseases as well.
JOSH HARPER: So your job as a chiropractor is to get rid of those disruptions.
JOHN PETROZZI: Spot on, yeah. And I do that through adjusting the spine with hand, and the adjustments don’t hurt. Sometimes, you hear a popping noise. All the popping noise is just gas inside the joints. On little kids and babies, we use our hands very, very gently; otherwise, we might use a little tool called an “activator.” By adjusting the spine, you’re basically trying to realign the spine, get pressure off the nervous system so the body can start to recognize what’s going on in the body and heal itself, because the body is a system.
JOSH HARPER: And through your chiropractic, are there any other things that people don’t usually know about that you do?
JOHN PETROZZI: Well, that’s a good one. I think most of what we do, people actually probably wouldn’t be aware of because we don’t really advertise what we do.
JOSH HARPER: The main focus is the back and the spine.
JOHN PETROZZI: Exactly – back pain, neck pain and if you’re lucky, probably headaches. But research has shown, [or searches], the number of people that get seen by chiropractors. It’s actually the third largest health care discipline in the world.
JOSH HARPER: Wow.
JOHN PETROZZI: Third largest, that’s huge – behind conventional medicine. The sorts of things that people can benefit from going to see a chiropractor would be the that energy levels would start to improve, their focus and concentration would improve, the way their body digests and metabolises foods, strength of a person, getting down to the sorts of symptomatology and syndromes and things. It can also help affect anxiety and nervousness; a whole load of things, Josh – too many to sort of talk about.
But with all the complementary medicines and alternative medicines, they look at the body as a self-healing and self-repairing machine. It does it through sort of information getting buzzed through the body, and you just basically need to provide the right information for it through nutrition. Some of the therapies use herbs. Some of the therapies use manual therapy. Some of the other therapies use meditation and mind control. But basically, you’re using three elements: either the mind is going to fix, the body’s going to fix, or chemistry – so, mind-body chemistry. Also, in Ayurvedic medicine, using the spirit, as well as meditation and yoga. It’s interesting stuff, isn’t it?
JOSH HARPER: It is.
JOHN PETROZZI: All the stuff basically makes sense, and if it works with you then stick with it.
[break]
JOSH HARPER: Welcome back to Living is Easy with John and Josh.
JOHN PETROZZI: So we’re talking about alternative and complementary medicines. The last one in the whole group of these is energy medicine.
Energy medicine is basically based upon the understanding that the body is surrounded and is penetrated by energy fields. Energy medicine works with the fields to affect health and wellbeing.
JOSH HARPER: And what do you mean “energy medicines”?
JOHN PETROZZI: Now we got this one called “polarity therapy,” [:07:27] and Reiki. There’s therapeutic touch as well.
So for instance, with polarity therapy, it’s based on the belief that the body is surrounded by human energy fields and this energy is basically constantly flowing and moving between the head and the feet of the body. So it’s always there. It’s ever-present.
This sort of therapy also talks about Yin and Yang, which is also spoken about in traditional Chinese medicine, which we spoke about last episode last week.
JOSH HARPER: Is it also to do with the shockers?
JOHN PETROZZI: I don’t think these guys touch up on shockers but I could be wrong. Human energy fields are affected by diet. They’re affected by touch, exercise, relationships, life experiences. So basically, anything that you’re doing in life is transferred and stored in your body as some sort of energy.
The sorts of therapies that a person who uses polarity therapy would use, they basically use body work like massage, yoga exercises, counselling as well, and they’ll also use nutritional advice to try and affect the body’s vibrational capacity and polar and energy levels. This one’s a really interesting one. It’s phenomenal.
I’ve been reading a book by Redfield, “The Celestine Prophecy”. Have you read it?
JOSH HARPER: It sounds familiar.
JOHN PETROZZI: Celestine Prophecy. I read this years ago and it’s a really good book. It’s really an adventure book. I think it was Chapter 2 and it was called “A Matter of Energy” or something.
Basically, this guy was traveling around and coincidentally met people along his journey. He found himself in a garden where other people were basically meditating and doing those sorts of things in the garden. And these guys in the garden were meditating on living matter, like the young trees and things. He was being taught at that time how to actually look at energy and see energy around people and projecting energy, sucking up energy and all those sorts of things.
I remember reading that book and thinking, “Wow, there is energy everywhere. We do store it in our body. It would be great for our health to be able to actually know if we’re absorbing energy, emitting it, or storing it in our body pathologically.”
The other sort of energy therapy we’ve got is Reiki. Have you had a Reiki session before?
JOSH HARPER: I haven’t.
JOHN PETROZZI: I think it’s sort of like a hands-on therapy, or sometimes they actually don’t use touch at all. Basically, they’re using Reiki to bring into your body some sort of universal, some sort of universal life energy to try and make your body work better and become itself again and express its emotions, express its thoughts, express itself as much as it possibly can.
JOSH HARPER: So is it other people sending their energy to you?
JOHN PETROZZI: No, I think – again, I could be wrong – I don’t want to offend anybody. But I think, because I’ve had a couple of Reiki sessions. I loved them. I felt alright. The person was basically doing what I had to do. I was lying down on my back, I think I was. They must have had their hands along certain parts of my body. But I think most of the time, I wasn’t being touched at all. I think they sort of explained it to me that that was sort of aligning themselves to accept light through the top of the head that’ll go through me or some sort of vibrational energy. They kind of explained that but gee, it felt good.
JOSH HARPER: Right.
JOHN PETROZZI: Yeah, I was spaced out for hours after that. It was great.
The other one we’ve got is therapeutic touch. I think we’ll talk about that after the break.
[break]
JOHN PETROZZI: Welcome back. The last energy medicine we’re going to touch is therapeutic touch. Therapeutic touch is a fairly recent approach to an ancient technique. It’s based on the practice of basically laying your hands on someone. It’s historically a religious way of communicating to a spiritual energy. But therapeutic touch doesn’t stand from a religion or faith. Basically, it’s placing your hands on a part of the body. I think they find certain energy blockages in the body. They lay their hands away from the body, two to three inches or something. I’m not too sure what they do but they seem to feel energy, modulate energy, and try and bounce energies in the body as well.
JOSH HARPER: Is it similar to Reiki?
JOHN PETROZZI: It does sound fairly similar to Reiki, doesn’t it?
JOSH HARPER: Yeah.
JOHN PETROZZI: But they must have their differences though.
I think when it comes down to it, we’ve got our conventional medicine, which is developed in the West – western part of the world. It’s a system that we use and is adopted by the majority of people. We’ve got Medicare that basically distributes that throughout Australia and most parts of the Western world. It’s a reliable form of medicine. It’s organized. We’ve got hospitals for it.
The way it looks at the body is that they look at the symptoms (symptomatology). They look at diseases and disease types. They try and classify a person; if you’ve got a certain symptom or disease, they try and give you a label to find out what that symptom or disease is. They use a certain therapy and treatment. They tend to use research to try and validate what they do. Then they try and help the body cure itself and cure the body.
Then you’ve got on the flip side, you’ve got alternative medicines. Things like Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathic medicine, naturopathy, which have got their own systems as well. It’s all out there; it’s spread out there as much as conventional medicine. But again, it works for so many people. They’ve got their own formulas that they use, sorts of signs and symptoms that they look at to try and help the body heal by itself.
Then you’ve got complementary medicines, which are other therapies that are used alongside conventional medicines to try and help the body heal itself as well.
But at the end of the day, if there’s a certain therapy that’s working for you, stick with it, because your body is a self-healing machine that knows how to heal itself. I can speak personally from chiropractic. The brain sends messages down the spine to all parts of the body. Every single cell in the body is supplied by a nerve.
The better the messages get out – From my perspective, it’s nerve supply. From a massage therapist, it’s blood supply. From a Reiki practitioner, it’s energy levels or energy supply. From a traditional Chinese medicine person, it’s Yin and Yang. Whatever it is, the body’s going to heal itself.
We know that you need to exercise your body right. You need to think right. You need to feed your body the right things. You need to rest your body. Get sleep and nerve supply.
So today’s show and last show, we covered topics in relation to alternative and complementary medicine, and they are different to conventional medicine. But please keep your medical practitioner involved in the decisions that you make with regard your health. And please look after yourself because you’ve only got one body and one mind, so look after it because it’s too hard to repair once it’s damaged.
JOSH HARPER: And if you want any more information on the subjects that we’ve covered both this week and last week, go to John’s website for complimentary information. The website is petrozzihealth.com.au. I’ll see you next week.
JOHN PETROZZI: We’ve been Living is Easy with John and Josh. Until next time, stay well and stay happy.
For more information about health topics and inspiration check out these other websites:
www.bodymindcentral.com.au www.suzipetrozzi.com Empowered Women Retreat information
Facebook John and Suzi Petrozzi Facebook: BodyMindCentral Facebook: SuziPetrozzi
