Andrea Edwards Bowen Technique & Spinal Touch Therapy Taunton

21/08/2025

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“OUT OF MY WHEELCHAIR AND BACK ON MY BIKE”: HOW DR TERRY WAHLS BEAT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

In 2000, Dr Terry Wahls, a University of Iowa professor of internal medicine, was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, a stage where symptoms steadily worsen and disability is expected to increase. By 2003, she was confined to a wheelchair, unable to sit upright for more than minutes at a time, and struggling to feed herself.

“Once lost, functions are gone forever,” she says. “By 2007, I was constantly exhausted and had increasingly severe bouts of trigeminal neuralgia - intense jolts of electrical face pain that were harder and harder to stop.

Conventional treatments failed to halt her decline but determined to change her trajectory, she immersed herself in medical research, focusing on mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegeneration.

“I decided to self-experiment, hoping, if I was lucky, to slow the progression of my MS. As a doctor, I certainly did not expect to walk around the hospital again making my rounds. Or go hiking or biking again.

“By identifying the key nutrients important to brain health, I maximised my intake of the nutrients I’d been taking in supplement form - getting them instead directly from the food I ate.

“Each day I consumed three platefuls of green leafy vegetables, sulphur-rich and deeply pigmented vegetables, and ate meat in moderation while eliminating gluten-containing grains, eggs, dairy and legumes. I also added fermented foods, full of good bacteria for digestive health, mineral-rich seaweed and more nutrient-dense organ meats.

“Three months after starting the diet, my fatigue was gone. The electrical face pains were gone too. I began doing my hospital rounds using a cane. After six months, I began walking without a cane. At nine months I got on my bike again for the first time in six years and rode around the block. After 12 months of this new way of feeding my cells, I biked 18 miles with my family. If I went off the diet, the electrical face pains came back within 24 hours.”

Dr Wahls has now been gifted $2.5 million from the Carter Chapman Shreve Family Foundation to investigate her diet and its effects on improving quality of life and reducing fatigue, in those with relapsing-remitting MS.

The gift will allow Wahls and her team to conduct one of the largest dietary intervention studies ever completed in people with MS.

16/08/2025

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VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN DIETS ‘CUT CANCER RISK BY UP TO A QUARTER’

People who avoid meat are less likely to develop a range of cancers, according to one of the most detailed studies of vegetarian diets to date.

The research followed nearly 80,000 members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in North America - many of whom follow plant-based diets - for an average of almost eight years each. None had cancer at the outset. Their diet was recorded in detail and their health tracked.

Overall the results showed that vegetarians had a 12 percent lower risk of developing cancer than meat eaters in the same community.

The biggest reductions were for colorectal cancer (21 percent lower risk) stomach cancer (45 percent lower), and cancers such as lymphoma (25 percent lower).

Analysing the data by diet type showed further patterns. Vegans, who eat no animal products, had the largest overall reduction in cancer risk: 24 percent lower than meat eaters. This included lower rates of breast cancer and, in younger men, prostate cancer.

The researchers say that, while vegetarian diets are not a magic bullet, they appear to offer protection against several cancers with minimal risk of harm, making them a potentially valuable part of prevention strategies.

(The findings are published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.)

06/08/2025

National Wellness month

31/07/2025

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One year after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a short note appeared in a U.S. newspaper. It was simple. Quiet. Powerful.

Read it carefully. And if you're someone who often gets frustrated by the little things in life — maybe read it twice.

🔸

“You may have heard about the CEO of a major company who survived the attacks simply because it was his turn to take his child to preschool.
Another man lived because it was his day to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off.
Someone got stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Another missed the bus.
One spilled coffee on her blouse and had to change.
One person's car wouldn't start.
Someone returned to answer a phone call.
Another’s child took too long getting ready.
One simply couldn’t catch a cab.

But what struck me most — was a man who survived because that morning, he wore new shoes.
They gave him a blister, so he stopped at a pharmacy to buy a bandage.
That’s why he lived.”

And now, when I find myself stuck in traffic, missing an elevator, going back home for keys, or answering a phone call at the last second…
I pause and think:

🙏 Maybe I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. Maybe this delay is protection I’ll never understand.

So next time your morning doesn’t go as planned —
The kids are slow to get ready.
You can’t find your keys.
You hit every red light…

Don’t get angry. Don’t panic.
💫 God might be at work. Protecting you in ways you’ll never see.

26/07/2025

More on ultra processed foods, in general. Well worth a watch
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12/07/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C3npZdWE4/

Ultra-processed foods have been linked with negative health outcomes but some can have a place in a healthy diet

19/06/2025

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A device that massages the face and neck boosts the brain’s waste disposal system, suggesting it could reduce the severity of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) bathes our brain, pumped into it before leaving through a network of thin tubes called glymphatic vessels. Studies in mice have shown that this fluid flushes out waste products made by brain cells, including beta-amyloid, a protein linked to conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2483083-massaging-the-neck-and-face-may-help-flush-waste-out-of-the-brain/

Image: Phanie/Sipa Press/Alamy

15/06/2025

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🌿 Move Your Body, Power Your Brain! 🧠

Just 40 minutes of walking three times a week can physically change your brain.
Studies show it increases the size of the hippocampus — the part of the brain tied to memory — and boosts mental sharpness.
Still sitting? Your brain wants you to walk! 🚶‍♀️🧠✨

04/06/2025

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21/05/2025

Different parts of the body mirror each other and this article examines the relationship between the jaw and the pelvis.

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Did you know that your jaw and pelvis are connected?

Research shows that when people with certain pain conditions (like complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS) had their jaw muscles relaxed, their hip flexibility improved. But when they clenched their jaw tightly, their hip flexibility decreased.

This study highlights something Bowen Therapists have long understood: tension or imbalance in one area of the body can affect distant parts.

In this case, the jaw and pelvis are linked through muscular and fascial connections, meaning tension in one area can restrict movement in the other.

Bowen Therapy’s gentle techniques aim to release tension and restore balance across the body.

By gently working with both local and interconnected areas, Bowen Therapy aims to encourage flexibility, ease discomfort, and support the body’s natural alignment.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19539119/

09/05/2025

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Would you pay attention if your body came with a low battery warning?

HINT: It does.

Tight shoulders, aching back, poor sleep, irritability — these can be signs your nervous system is running on empty.

Bowen Therapy works with your body’s natural repair mechanisms, gently reminding your system to rest, rebalance, and recharge, to the best of its ability.

Sometimes, the body doesn’t need more pressure — it needs permission to reset.

Time to top up your inner battery?

31/03/2025

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As well as the muscles, Bowen Therapists work on your fascia.

Fascia is an important, highly mobile, connective tissue, which runs throughout your body. It is via the fascia that we often address levels of tension and discomfort.

–Via Bowen Association (UK)
https://www.bowen-technique.co.uk/why-is-bowen-therapy-helpful/)