In contrast to the matter science discipline the mind and body are intimately spliced…what happens in the body happens in the mind and what happens in the mind happens in the body  There is really no difference between mind and body  In the matter science(molecules) mind is located in the brain but the mind has escaped according to the energy science  Mind is located in every cell of the mindbody

For many these days the emotional traumas or hurts are thrown into a big black bag that we carry around with us so we don’t have to look at them  In the energy science that big black bag where we throw our undigested, unprocessed, thoughts, feelings, and emotions is the subconscious and the physical space anatomically where our subconscious is located is the fascia, a vast supporting connective tissue network of the body  As we accumulate more and more emotional “garbage” our fascia becomes tight, dense, inflexible, and rigid  It is no wonder that as we age we get more and more inflexible and stiff because we don’t process all of this undigested, unprocessed emotional “stuff”

Dealing with Emotional Hurts

This has enormous implications in healing emotional and/or psychological trauma because counseling can only go so far with the deep seated emotional problems that we are hiding from  And then there is the mind’s ability to deny that anything is wrong anyway  The mind and more specifically the ego actually averts our attention away from trauma we have experienced in the past

Simple day to day emotional hurts can be related to longstanding issues that we have never looked at before  And the first step in the process is complete and total acceptance of what is

Doing physical work deals with mind problems

The energy science model allows us to treat this in a number of different ways….marmani, meditation, pranayama, mantra, and herbs

As we have talked about in the past the marma system of the Ayurvedic discipline is analagous to the acupuncture system in the Oriental medicine discipline  Marmani are localized concentrations of mind topographically located on the skin in specific locations of the mindbody  Since they are mind localized to specific points we can use them to treat the mind using herbs

Meditation is important to quiet the mind so we can get to acceptance and be able to look at the emotional hurts in a more objective way without fear, criticism, judgement, anger, or passivity  The use of mantra(an instrument of the mind) can also help settle the mind

Pranayama is the use of the breath for healing and can be meditative but also can be used to support improving the heart’s agni or ability to digest unprocessed, undigested thoughts, feelings and emotions

All of this takes time and discipline but real healing always requires this of us

What does this have to do with the IC baldder pain syndrome?  Amazingly those imbalances that are causing the syndrome are the same imbalances that are causing the emotional hurts…deal with one and you’ll deal with the other

In the energy science of Ayurveda there are basically two ways to deal with clinical problems such as the IC bladder pain syndrome(interstital cystitis, fibromyalgia, chronic prostatitis, vulvodynia, and irritable bowel syndrome)  The first is palliative treatment

The second level of treatment to deal with clinical problems involves balancing procedures which correct the imbalances that produce the tissue disturbance leading to the symptoms in the first place  I’ve covered these methods in detail in previous blogs and will touch briefly on them again  But I think it’s useful for you to understand why and what methods are available in order to get an overview of the energy science methods of treatment

Palliative Methods for IC

These methods can be lumped into a broad category of doing lifestyle behavioral changes such as the use of  nutritional formats according to energy constitution  Many people who I have seen over the years who have mild IC flares on occasion can be helped by this change alone as many IC bladder pain syndrome patients have experienced  Having said that no matter how far along one chooses or needs to go with respect to treatment methods nutritional change is necessary as it becomes foundational to all other therapies  If one is not willing to change one’s nutritional choices it is best to not go farther or one will be wasting time and money

Herbs as I’ve talked about in other blogs are supportive and adjunctive to other therapies and at any point can be beneficial in supporting the process of healing at any level  The common antiinflammatory herbs that I’ve talked about in the past like aloe vera gel, tea(cumen, coriander, fennel or CCF). turmeric used in formula or in cooking are common herbs to reduce the heat  in the system causing IC flares

Marma therapies can be both diagnostic and therapeutic in terms of helping with symptoms during a flare used with essential oils such as sandalwood with castor oil  Acupuncture is most often palliative and is akin to the marma therapy that I’ve discussed in the past

When you pay attention to proper rest and sleep, reducing stress, eating habits(such as no snacking, eating at appropriate times of the day, avoiding ice, stimulating digestion), and exercise, it can be amazing how such simple things can make a big difference in the flare rate, length of flare, and severity of the flare

Relieving Imbalances in the Tissues

As I’ve discussed in the past therapies that deal with the imbalances of qualities in the pelvic nerves that are often associated with most of the symptoms that revolve around the interstitial cystitis syndrome such as IC, vulvodynia, chronic prostatitis

These therapies deal with imbalances in the peripheral tissues(nerves primarily) that have disseminated from the GI tract and are lodged in these tissues  As I hope you can appreciate palliative methods address not aggravating the condition and further

But procedures directed at the causative agency leading to the symptoms are unique and not for the average health consumer to undertake but they do offer patients the opportunity to eliminate the IC bladder pain syndrome completely  These techniques and methods are not for everyone but represent a clear divergence from what is presently available for IC

The inflammation that occurs with your IC pain as we’ve talked about in the past is from the hot and mobile qualities from an energy science viewpoint

As you know this pain can be excruciating and unrelenting causing undue stress on relationships and plans

And there are things that we have discussed that can help with temporary relief of symptoms  But what would it be like it you lived a life without any bladder symptoms at all  This is the cure of the apparent curable condition of IC

The Hot Quality

As we’ve mentioned before the human energy anatomy Ayurveda says that there are three energy patterns that give us function  The Vata, Pitta, and Kapha physiologic energies gives the body movement, transformation, and stability respectively

Pitta the energy of transformation is the only one of the three energy patterns that has the hot vibrational frequency  This energy of transformation is responsible for your flares  Makes sense doesn’t it?  Hot transforms right?   But too much of this energy produces IC   Burning wood, burning thoughts, burning stomach burning bladder, burning pelvis, burning vagina  Holy smoke!  Burned up relationships!

This is the energy that slso makes us competitive but if more hot enters into the equation it leads to aggressive behaviors that turn people off

Choosing Hot

So when it’s hot in the environment the same hot is aggravated in our own mindbody energy field   And when you eat trigger foods the same thing happens whether we can appreciate it or not  That’s why the food guidelines are so important because sometimes you can’t appreciate what’s happening

The hot from the sun is never as long term provoking as the hot that we ingest   As I’ve discussed in other blogs consumption of the hot quality has a much longer staying power of influence  This is a very important point since the physiology is affected literally for 35 days after a trigger food is chosen to be ingested

What happens when too much hot is in the energy physiology? You guessed it! INFLAMMATION

What To Do  What To Do

Sooo…. here’s a recipe for a delicious cooling herbal cocktail that you may find valuable particularly during flare seasons

2T of aloe vera gel(NOT the juice)

2oz of pomegranite juice

2oz of water

Chug a lug! Hmmmm delissios

Here’s to cooling off

Probably one of the most challenging clinical conditions in medicine are those where physical pain plays a role in the chronic disesase  Although there is always a psychological or emotional component to this pain, it is the physical pain that becomes so daunting  This is the case in the IC bladder pain syndrome(interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, chronic prostatitis, IBS, GERD, and fibromyalgia) and what makes it so challenging for people afflicted  But what makes it so challenging?  Is it really the pain?  Or is it something else?

Anybody confronted with chronic pain will attest to the fact that it’s the continuous physical discomfort that doesn’t go away that leads to the challenge  But what if the person is given things to do to help with the pain but won’t do them because they make the assumption that it won’t work  This becomes a problem

Case Study

Let’s talk about a middle aged woman with high Vata energy who has a 4 year history of sharp burning electrical pelvic symptoms that move up toward her head  But over the last 6 months these pelvic symptoms progressed to severe bladder symptoms with burning pain during and after urination to the point of incapacitation so she cannot work or do normal daily activities  She’s given specific therapies that will indeed help her with the pain but is unable to do even a small part of them because she believes that they are making her symptoms worse  In the end her mind is so strung out that she becomes confused with loss of ability to maintain direction in helping herself with healing

I know there will be some who would argue that this is just part of the problem and that is indeed true  But what we have here is a mind that is interfering with the person getting better by preventing her from even using the therapies to begin with  Physical pain freaks the mind out  It produces enormous unsettling so that there is confusion, disarray, loss of ability to maintain direction, and lack of faith in any process

Role of Meditation

Obviously meditation does not eliminate pain but it has one very important attribute  It settles the mind so that there is a potential for faith to peek its head in the door and nuture some calmness to the freaked out mind

We see a lot of people in the clinic with chronic disease who have perhaps underlying psychological or emotional pain but not obvious physical pain and so these people can also benefit from meditation

But it’s one thing to deal with helping people with chronic disease but quite another to try to help those with chronic disease who have chronic physical pain

Meditation does not eliminate the pain  It helps settle the mind so that it is not so anxious and is able to accept suggested therapies without freaking out  There are times when pain is so commanding of our attention that a trial of a particular approach freaks us out Everything is uncertain and we just want the pain to go away  This is specifically a very bad place for people with chronic disease