What can you use Bowtech for?

Bowtech can be beneficial in a wide range of situations. It can assist recovery from many conditions, from traumatic injury to chronic illness, depending upon each individual’s capacity to heal. Many clients report that Bowtech is THE most relaxing modality they have ever experienced.

Some of the conditions that often respond favorably to Bowenwork are:

• Back pain and sciatica
• Digestive and bowel problems
• Earache and TMJ problems
• Migraines and other types of headaches
• Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
• Hip, knee, ankle and foot problems
• Menstrual and hormonal Irregularities
• Neck and shoulder problems (including ‘frozen shoulder’)
• Groin pain, pelvic tilt and uneven leg length
• Respiratory problems and hay fever
• RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow
• Sports and other traumatic injuries

There are many theories about the physiological mechanisms by which the Bowen Technique brings about the results for which it is famous. In addition to the rebalancing of the ANS, described earlier, Bowtech moves and procedures may reset the body to heal itself by activating, through the nervous and endocrine systems among others, the following mechanisms:

• Stretch reflex: Most moves are done either at the origin, insertion or belly of muscles where receptors are located, informing the nervous system on the state of tension, length or stretch in the musculotendinous tissue. These receptors are stimulated during the ‘challenge’ and the ‘rolling’ part of the Bowen move which changes the stimulus received by the nervous system. This can change a pain/muscle spasm loop.
• Joint proprioceptors: All moves done around a joint directly affect the joint capsule and lig­aments that are richly innervated with proprioceptors. Here again, stimulus will be received by the nervous system, inviting normalization of the joint function without the need for forceful manipulation. Research (Carter, Bernie, 2002, ‘Clients experiences of frozen shoulder and its treatment with Bowen technique’, Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery, v. 8, pp. 204-210) has confirmed increases in the range of motion in restricted joints.
• Fascia: Each Bowen move is done at the level of the superficial fascia and affects the rela­tionship between the fascia and the nerve, muscle or tendon being mobilized. Fascia plays a major role in muscle co-ordination, postural alignment and overall structural and functional integrity. All of these are negatively affected when the fascia stiffens, contracts, torques or dehydrates. Following a Bowtech session it is not uncommon to see adhesions loosen up, scar tissue soften and posture and mobility improve without harsh mobilization or stretching.
• Segmental viscerosomatic spinal reflexes: Several Bowtech moves engage these reflexes. They produce referred reactions to the internal organs through stimulation of the skin, muscles and nerves.
• Harmonic vibration or resonance model: Bowenwork moves set up vibrational patterns which bring the body back into balance and harmony.
• Lymphatics: Some Bowtech procedures activate draining of the lymphatic system stimulat­ing the immune system.
• Detoxification is often initiated during a Bowen session, thereby improving the body’s ability to function at a cellular level.

The Bowen Technique (also known as Bowtech – the Original Bowen Technique and Bowenwork) is a dynamic system of muscle and connective tissue therapy that was developed by the late Tom Bowen in Geelong, Australia. Sometimes called the “homeopathy of bodywork,” it utilizes subtle inputs to the body (known as “moves”), stimulating the body to heal itself, often profoundly.

The Bowen Technique offers tremendous benefit to clients with very little effort on the part of the practitioner. It can provide relief for many types of injuries and other health problems, both acute and chronic, and it does so holistically, via the body’s innate healing mechanisms. The practitioner’s moves deliver signals to the nervous system at specific locations (on muscles, tendons, ligaments, or nerves), and the body responds in its own time, within its vital capacity. While there are a few, very specific situations in which a particular ‘procedure’ is contraindicated, Bowen Technique is appropriate for people of all ages, in all degrees of health.

When faced with an acute injury, a Bowtech practitioner may effectively apply the work to address only the traumatized areas, since the client has had little time to compensate for, and accommodate to, the injury. However, most practitioners find themselves working with clients whose conditions have developed gradually over many years, and patterns of dysfunctional muscle recruitment and posture have become entrenched over time. In these cases, Bowtech practitioners often need to take a more “whole-body” approach to facilitate optimal alignment and recovery.

Rather than focusing on a single complaint, Bowen Technique addresses the entire body, by restoring balance via the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls over 80% of bodily functions and is very susceptible to external stressors. Most people today live in a constant state of high stress and sympathetic ANS over-stimulation (“fight, flight or freeze mode”). Healing can occur only after the ANS shifts from sympathetic to parasympathetic dominance (“rest, relax and repair mode”). Bowen Technique enables that shift. During a session, the client often drops into deep relaxation or falls asleep, and loud peristalsis may be heard. Both of these changes are indications of a profound release from stress and a shift towards parasympathetic influence. This shift could explain, in part, the common observation that a Bowen Technique session seems to reactivate the recovery process in situations where healing from trauma, sickness or surgery has stalled or reached a plateau.

A typical Bowen Technique session generally lasts from 15 to 45 minutes. Clients usually lie on a massage/bodywork table or bed, or may be seated in a chair if required, for comfort. A ‘session’ involves one or more ‘procedures’, each of which consists of several sets of ‘moves’. The moves are gentle, but purposeful, and can be done through light clothing. Between each set of moves, the practitioner pauses for as many minutes as are needed for the client’s body to begin responding. As the nervous system begins to adjust the tension level in the muscles, the practitioner senses when the client is ready for the next set of moves. A common approach in a session is to balance the entire body by addressing the lower back, then the upper back, and then the neck. To minimize the need for disturbing the client’s rest, all procedures that address the back of the client are completed before turning over for procedures that are done with the client lying on his/her back.  Practitioner working through light clothing

In contrast to other hands-on modalities, where the practitioner imposes correction on the client through manipulation, Bowen Technique facilitates the body in healing itself, with minimal intervention. Because of the subtle nature of Bowen Technique, and the body’s continuing response to it over several days thereafter, other forms of manipulative therapy are discouraged for up to five days after a session, as they may interfere with the efficacy of the work.

Benefits of Bowen: * Bowen can get immediate relief for common aches and pains * Bowen generally works faster and lasts longer because it works directly with your nervous system to reset muscular tension. * The work is gentle. It is so gentle that anyone can safely receive Bowen even if they can not receive other body therapies. From Bowenwork U.S.A.  courtesy of Fair Oaks Bowen Therapy

Bowen & MS: A Success Story from a fellow practitioner back east: ” I have been going for Bowenwork to relieve my MS symptoms. I am just thrilled with the results. Much of my numbness has gone away, and my fatigue is gone. I was doing everything my doctor’s instructed – medications, supplements and diets, but I still had nagging symptoms. Kate helped me get my health back.” Thank you Kate Vickers Deriso for sharing your stories with us out west!

A journal published by the American Medical Association is taking a hard look at the perils of extra tests and treatments. Too many tests can often lead to unnecessary treatments or even hurt the patient.

“Less Is More” will become a feature in the Archives of Internal Medicine. It will examine treatments that expanded to the point where the risks of the treatment outweigh benefits.

According to ABC News:

“Studies in the current issue look at potential risks of proton-pump inhibitors, which were originally designed for gastric reflux but now are used for conditions as mild as heartburn.”

Sources:

ABC News May 12, 2010

I’m truly shocked that this JAMA journal has been able to take this leap, shackled to the conventional disease paradigm as they are.  My guess is that they have finally realized that they’re simply unable to continue to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes forever, and that if they start to come clean now they will preserve some level of dignity and respect.

If you’ve been following this newsletter for any length of time, you will probably already be aware of many of the topics they’ll cover, because the concepts that “Less is More,” and “How Less Health Care Can Result in Better Health” are exactly what I’ve been teaching for many years on this site.

The sad reality is that most drugs and conventional treatment methods that are massively overused, don’t address the cause of the problem, and do more harm than simply doing nothing ever would.

As reported by ABC News:

“Treatments may come about to help a certain population, but when a medical treatment is overused in an otherwise healthy person, “There can only be harm,” Grady said. “We’d really like to bring attention to this.”

… when treatments are used for milder conditions, “There is no effectiveness, there is no benefit, there are only side effects.””

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Your Body is a Self-Healing Machine

The world is rife with evidence that the non-pharmacological approach can accomplish as much, and in many cases more than pills. This concept also makes perfect logical sense, if you remove the thrill of scientific discovery long enough to think that far.

Your body is exquisitely equipped for self-healing, as long as its systems are in good working order.

So how do you ensure that?

With man-made chemicals in doses your body has never encountered or dealt with before?

Were you to ponder this logically, you’d quickly realize the inherent fallacy of the promise of health from using many prescription drugs.

You simply cannot achieve optimal health through drugs. It’s impossible.

You can use drugs as band-aids, temporarily suspending a symptom or two, but then there are side effects… Your body tries to compensate and heal, but the more chemicals you throw down your gullet, the more off-kilter your body gets and the more ill you become. Conventional medical doctors typically respond to this by prescribing you yet another drug, and another, and another…

This is why the average American senior now gets 30 drug prescriptions!

Meanwhile, adverse drug reactions from “properly prescribed drugs” are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. And overdoses from prescription drugs rank second only to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of accidental death.

Additionally, many medications create life-long dependency upon the drug, despite the damage and suffering they’re inflicting, since drug withdrawal exacerbates your symptoms until the drug is completely out of your system.

The current medical paradigm, with its focus on a drug for every symptom creates a mind-boggling amount of needless suffering and premature death.

Optimal health requires optimal FOOD, not more drugs.

It really is that simple.

Once you feed your body the nutrients it needs instead of chemicals, “health” becomes the norm rather than the exception.

Ills that Don’t Need Pills

Sadly, some of the health problems that are most easily and/or effectively treated with diet, exercise and other non-pharmacological remedies are also some of the most over-medicated, using some of the most dangerous drugs on the market!

This includes:

• Depression
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Arthritis

The U.S. spends more than twice as much on each person for health care as most other industrialized countries, yet it has fallen to last place among those countries in preventing avoidable deaths through use of timely and effective medical care.

How can that be?

Americans are Dangerously Over-Tested and Over-Treated

In addition to overmedication and prescription drug abuse – which, by the way, cost the US health care system tens of billions of dollars to treat, over and above the cost of the actual drugs — unnecessary or dangerous tests, and unwarranted medical treatments are also part of the problem.

Three years ago Consumer Reports published a list of the 10 most overused medical tests and treatments, and not much has changed since then.

Their list includes:

• Back surgery
• Heartburn surgery
• Prostate treatments
• Implanted defibrillators
• Coronary stents
• C-sections
• Whole body screens
• High-tech angiography
• Mammography
• Virtual colonoscopy

It may take awhile to change this trend of equating good health care with getting every test under the sun, and vigorously treating every ailment with everything in the conventional arsenal. But I believe we can and will change this perverse and fatally flawed model.

It all starts with you, though. It will require a public shift in mindset, which will influence the type of care expected from doctors, and it will spread upward and outward from there.

The Staggering Health Care Costs of Diet-Related Disease

It’s important to realize that diet-related diseases are mind-bogglingly expensive to treat with conventional medicine, and yet they are completely preventable.

The annual health care cost of obesity in the US has reached $147 billion, for example, and the medical bills for diabetes are at an estimated $217.5 billion a year.

Obesity is closely linked to heart disease, which costs the US an additional $503 billion a year in direct and indirect expenses.

These health problems are directly attributable to your diet and lifestyle, so just imagine the savings that could be achieved were we to focus on food rather than drugs as a primary means of achieving good health!

On an individual basis, it’s important to realize that every dollar you think you’re saving today by opting for processed fast food rather than cooking with fresh whole foods can turn into several dollars paid for eventual medical bills down the road.

You Can Use Your Kitchen as Your Pharmacy

For many people, convenience foods, either in restaurants or ready-to-cook frozen meals picked up from the grocery store, have become a way of life. In the United States, 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed food, and fast food is available just about everywhere, including in hospitals and schools.

For a clear, real-life demonstration of just HOW BAD this way of life actually is, go ahead and watch Morgan Spurlock’s documentary “SuperSize Me”. It may forever change your life – for the better.

Another great resource is the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It does an outstanding job of identifying the problems of fast-food diets. Fast food:

• Exponentially increases your risk of obesity and diabetes
• Is loaded with dangerous additives like trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup and MSG
• Contains genetically modified ingredients
• Is devoid of nutrients

Spread the Word

Remember, you CAN help to turn this madness around if you spread the word as far and wide as you can — that relying on drugs will never give you the healthy body and mind you desire.

What WILL give you optimal health does require a bit of work on your part, to eat healthy, to exercise, to relieve your stress — all of the things I detail, for free, on the tens of thousands of pages available my site.

But the rewards can be priceless.

The voting is over and we came in at #4!  Pretty amazing, we think, from out of nowhere.  We want to thank everyone who voted for us!  The Bowen Technique is so awesome, we want to shout it from the mountains.  Below is what one person has to say:
PIf you haven’t heard of Bowen Therapy I challenge you to do a google search on the word , then run right over to see Kathy & Mike at Fair Oaks Bowen Therapy.”  Sharon W, Sacramento, CA

[return to article list]

Web version of “First for women on the go” magazine article

The voting is over and we came in at #4!  Pretty amazing, we think, from out of nowhere.  We want to thank everyone who voted for us!  The Bowen Technique is so awesome, we want to shout it from the mountains.  Below is what one person has to say:
“Incredible results”  John S, Sacramento, CA

The voting is over and we came in at #4!  Pretty amazing, we think, from out of nowhere.  We want to thank everyone who voted for us!  The Bowen Technique is so awesome, we want to shout it from the mountains.  Below is what one person has to say:
“A very professional application of an amazingly effective physical pain therapy with relief almost instantaneously!”
George B, Granite Bay, CA