Life Of Lymph

14/03/2025

Protecting Your Brain with MS – Small Changes, Big Impact! 🧠

Did you know that your brain has the power to adapt and rewire itself? This is called neuroplasticity, and it plays a key role in managing MS symptoms.

💡 Here’s how you can support your brain health:
✅ Try new things – learning a new skill, like playing an instrument or trying a new hobby, keeps your brain engaged.
✅ Stay social – conversations challenge memory and help with cognitive function.
✅ Practice mindfulness – stress can worsen MS symptoms, so deep breathing and relaxation exercises can be beneficial.
✅ Move your body – physical activity has been shown to stimulate brain function and improve mood.

At the Samson Centre, our Brainfit and Tai Chi sessions are designed to help boost cognitive function, reduce stress, and keep your brain sharp.

💙 This Brain Awareness Week, prioritise your brain health – your future self will thank you!

📩 Join one of our classes today!

14/03/2025

Did you know? 70% of people experiencing chronic pain are women, yet their pain is often overlooked or dismissed. Conditions like migraines, fibromyalgia, and pelvic pain disproportionately affect women—but that doesn’t mean you have to live with it.

This Women’s History Month, let’s change the conversation. Prioritize your well-being and encourage the women in your life to do the same. MELT can help you move, feel, and live better—because your pain matters, and so does your healing. 💙
Learn more at https://meltmethod.com/

14/03/2025

Keeping going can be a tough one especially without support but remember this is for you.

14/03/2025

Movement in groups can be fun and fulfilling, there are also online movement/exercise communities for those not able to get out, even some gaming consoles have fitness apps where you can log your progress against others.

14/03/2025

Hello Hampshire,
Now you can book sessions with Beata on the coast! Visit a wonderful Stubbington Natural Health Clinic in Fareham soon.

14/03/2025

Recently, our Principal Jan Trewartha wrote a blog about children with scarring and in particular, one little girl that was born with a rare birth defect that required surgery to correct.

In her blog, Jan writes: "Meet ‘Tina’, a toddler I worked with throughout 2024. I have permission from her parents to tell you about her, with a changed name. Here is her story…

Tina was born with oesophageal atresia, a rare birth defect where the upper and lower oesophagus are not connected. Surgery left her with a scar that is obviously causing distension in the navel and to the right of the distorted linear scar where the site of the feeding tube is tethered (stuck down to underlying structures). I was, at first, unable to palpate the abdomen as Tina refused to be touched.

When she first met me, even though it was in her own home, she was highly suspicious of me. Having worked on her parents’ scars in front of her, I encouraged Tina to sit on the couch in her turn, but she was having none of it! Eventually she sat on her Mum’s lap and I managed to work on her second scar, not shown here, on her back, which was part of the same surgery.

Before the next session Tina’s parents, who are very emotionally intelligent and aware, kept dropping in to the chat with Tina how much they liked having a ‘massage’ with Jan, and that Jan was coming back soon, etc. I duly arrived, but Tina again rejected my friendly overtures.

I was finally able to work properly on Tina’s abdominal scar. Afterwards, as I worked on Dad while Mum, Tina and her older sister were upstairs, we could hear quite a racket going on with laughter and the noise of boisterous movement. It turned out that Tina had decided to do ‘roly polys’ for the first time in her life and had been copying her sister’s gymnastic exercises. The changes had started. That evening when I left, Tina waved me off with a big smile.

Learn how you can make a difference in someone like Tina's life by taking part in one of our forthcoming ScarWork courses at the end of March or in July. More details can be found here: https://www.bodyinharmony.org.uk/events

14/03/2025

Day one of our suggestions for including more movement in your daily life is about keeping yourself safe.

14/03/2025

Carol M. Davis speaks on helping our clients find their voice, at The Fascial Voice today, online.
It's been an amazing day, covering all the myriad aspects of the voice. The Chat has been very active with tons of interaction. Every presentation has been different and contribute to a satisfying whole.
Thank you Carol, and Ana Barretxeguren Gil Hedley and Jeremy Ryan Mossman - what a brilliant team!

14/03/2025

14/03/2025

Abdominal CT: Analysis by The Radiologist

“Coming into radiology as someone who was mainly concerned with what was going on above the diaphragm I found the world of abdominal CT fairly daunting. But by getting to grips with the anatomy of the abdomen things became a whole lot clearer

👨🏽‍💻I always check to see there is a clean layer of fat surrounding the superior mesenteric artery – if this is infiltrated consider a malignant pathology such as a pancreatic tumour. Have a look for the SMA on this image and you’ll see a nice rim of low density fat outlining it

👨🏽‍💻Always follow the vessels no matter which CT it is you’re looking at, be it head, neck, chest or abdomen. I always follow the portal veins within the liver formed at the confluence by the splenic vein (which runs posterior to the pancreas) and the superior mesenteric vein which runs vertically. In patients with liver cirrhosis and pancreatitis in particular you are looking for a filling defect or occluded vessel representing thrombosis

👨🏽‍💻There aren’t many retroperitoneal structures that cross the midline but the left renal vein is one of them – characteristically this passes anterior to the aorta from the left kidney to the IVC but in some people this can have a retroaortic course where it passes behind the aorta. I have seen the occasional incidental left renal vein thrombosis so depending on your phase of contrast enhancement it is worth checking for filling defects! This is a must in cases of renal cell carcinoma which likes to spread into the IVC via the renal veins.”

- The Radiologist

Photo Credit: The Radiologist

🔻

http://www.secretlifeoffascia.com

05/11/2024

Join Us as a Trustee and Make a Difference!
The Lymphoedema Support Network (LSN) is looking for passionate individuals with skills in finance, digital communications, fundraising or IT to join our Trustee Board. We are particularly keen to recruit people who will make our board a better reflection of the diversity of those we serve. Help us support the nearly 500,000 people in
the UK affected by lymphoedema.
🕒 Monthly commitment: 1-2 hours in the office or remotely.
🕒 Skills: Finance, IT, communications
🕒 No personal experience with lymphoedema needed although welcomed.
Make an impact and grow with us. Apply by the end of December by sending your CV and a letter telling us why you think this is the right opportunity for you and what you will bring to the LSN, to hw@lsn.org.uk
Please share widely. Thank you.

05/11/2024

Do you fully understand embryonic folding? Are you relatively new to embryology and keen to learn more? Or are you deeply 'into' the topic and keen to know what Dr Karen Kirkness (Spiral Syllabus by Karen Kirkness) will bring to the table this time?

Our November Members' Webinar will be one you won't want to miss. Karen is a superbly experienced teacher with a gift of making the complex simple; she will be leading a light-hearted, active session to help us understand experientially how the embryo 'mushrooms' its way into form.

Be prepared to be inspired by the incredible, multidimensional origami of our earliest moments of life!

If you would like to join us on Thursday 21st November, just register here - https://bit.ly/TFH-MMW-NOV.