Keynsham Bowen Therapy

29/05/2025

16/08/2024

How accurate is this?

08/07/2024

Berries...and why you should eat them.
1. They contain high levels of antioxidants
2. They can improve life expectancy and decrease the risk of heart attack
3. They may help delay cognitive aging
4. They help prevent inflammation
5. They may help reduce the risk of chronic disease
6. They support gut health and immunity
7. They boost microbial diversity, reducing the 'bad' bacteria
8. They slowly release sugar giving you a longer lasting energy boost instead of a sugar spike
9. 80g strawberries gives you your daily requirement of vitamin C
10. Cherries help reduce muscle soreness and accelerate recovery after intense exercise
11. 80g raspberries give you 1/6 of your daily fibre
12. Blueberries have been shown to improve memory and brain function, lower blood pressure and increase reaction times in people age 65- 80
13. They taste better than haribo! (That's my opinion, but I'm a self confessed haribo 'addict')

26/05/2024

Gut Health is a hot topic right now. Studying the Gut microbiome and linking it to health problems is a fairly recent branch of western medicine (in the grand scheme of things).
There are lots of food products out there jumping on the Gut Health band wagon but is it just a marketing strategy?
Not entirely, there is evidence that eating ferments like kombucha and kefir can help your but microbiome, however this needs to be part of a healthy balanced diet avoiding the things that are known to have a detrimental effect on the gut microbiome like highly processed food. You can't eat mcdonalds for breakfast everyday and try to undo that by having a kombucha, it doesn't work like that.
The negative impacts on your microbiome will wipe out any positives you put in - having said that, drinking a Kombucha is better than having a highly processed Cola.
Probiotic drinks are sold as a food, they are not regulated like medication, there is no requirement for testing the number or types of probiotics in them, any food or drink that has a probiotic element, or has lots of fibre can easily claim they help with gut health, they don't need to prove it.
The first thing you need to do to improve your gut health is eat more fiber and then cut out ultra high processed food, reduce the amount of takeaways you eat and cook your own food, from scratch, ensuring a variety of plant based food, around 30 different ones a week, including herbs and spices - you'll save money and your gut microbiome

19/05/2024

I talk a lot about the vagus nerve but how can I tell if someone's vagal time is low?
Sometimes you can see it in people's faces, people with low vagal tone tend not to make eye contact, they can be fairly expressionless. When you talk to people with low vagal tone they may have a monotone voice, they may have fairly shallow breathing, they met rak a deep breath or sigh before they say something.
Another indicator is Heart Rate Variability (unless they have a condition like AFib). The higher the HRV the higher the vagal tone.
Some smart watches claim to measure HRV but they aren't that accurate. Measurements are unique to individuals so just because yours is lower than a friend's it doesn't mean you vagal tone is necessarily lower, but I'd you did notice a drop in yours then it may indicate something going on.
I've just bought a finger sensor that gives an accurate HRV and it's something I'll use as an indicator on clients who I think will benefit from vagus work

18/05/2024

Working full time and having my own business doesn't leave much quality time with my husband so this morning we had a breakfast date at Farringtons cafe and a wander round the farm shop

16/05/2024

I've been providing Bowen treatments for a little while now and yet it still amazes me.
Today I treated 2 of my colleagues (day job) one with a bad back and one wig a bad shoulder, both of them had an instant improvement in mobility and pain

13/05/2024

Inflammation, evil or genius

Inflammation has a bad reputation, it causes pain, swelling, discomfort, but what is it and why does it happen.

Inflammation is an immune response.
Inflammation is necessary as we need inflammation to heal.
Chronic pain is often caused by chronic inflammation.
Inflammation isn't the cause of the pain, it's a symptom, you need to dig a bit deeper to find the cause.
Different people have different types of inflammation and different causes.
Stopping the inflammation within the first 96 hours after an injury or infection can cause issues as the inflammation is unable to do the job it's designed to do.
It's why I try to abstain from taking anti inflammatories like ibuprofen within the first 96 hours, I'd also refrain from icing and injury.
We used to be taught to treat sprains and strains with Rest, Ice, Compression, elevation (RICE). Now sprains ned PEACE & LOVE:
Protection - don't injure it again
Elevation - to reduce swelling, aid the lymphatic drainage
Avoid anti-inflammatories
Compression - to reduce swelling and help lymphatic drainage
Education
& (After 96 hours)
Load
Optimism
Vascularisation
Exercise

12/05/2024

Ultra processed foods
There is a lot of noise about ultra processed foods, but what is the definition of ultra processed food?
If you Google it there are a variety of definitions and some of them make it sound like any food you haven't plucked fresh from the ground is bad for you, some of them give the impression that it's junk food and ready meals that are ultra processed.
I think it's probably somewhere in the middle. The British Heart Foundation say that ultra processed food is food that has more than one ingredient that you wouldn't find in a normal home kitchen like preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers, colourings and flavourings.
Using this definition I had a look at some ingredients of items in my kitchen with a few surprises.
Toastie White Bread - ultra processed
Granola - not sure, it has flavouring but says it's natural
Wholewheat pasta - not ultra processed
French stick - only 1 ingredient I wouldn't find in my kitchen
Passata - only 1 ingredient I wouldn't find in a normal kitchen, although citric acid is a common item that can be easily purchased
Butter beans - ultra processed, maybe I should switch to dried beans
Soy sauce - not ultra processed, although many brands are and contain msg, I actively avoid these brands
Butter - not ultra processed, however butter substitute spreads like clover etc are, I've intentionally moved away from them
Tomato ketchup - not sure, no stabilisers, emulsifiers etc but it does use 'extracts' that you wouldn't find in a kitchen
Tomato puree - not ultra processed, even the non organic, cheaper ones only tend to have 1 additional ingredient.
This is not an exhaustive list, I have plenty of other food items that I know are ultra processed like baked beans, bacon, sausages, crisps, chocolate bars etc but I was expecting more of the items above to be ultra processed.
Have a look in your kitchen, how much ultra processed food do you have?

09/05/2024

More vagus nerve hacks

29/04/2024

Glymphatics
Glymphatics are the lymphatics of the central nervous system, brain, spinal cord etc.
Low glymphatic flow may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases.
Glymphatic flow and clearance rates increase after physical exercise, changes in posture, intake of omega 3 and low alcohol

28/04/2024

Body brushing
Do you do body brushing, if not, then you probably should. It's one of the things you can do to help your lymphatic system.
The lymphatic system doesn't have a pump so unlike blood lymph isn't pumped around the body, it is squeezed round by the movement of blood vessels, by breathing and by movement. You can always give it a helping hand by things like rebounding as I mentioned the other day, and by body brushing