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The Wheel of Health in Multiple Sclerosis

April 24, 2019 By Eva Clark Leave a Comment

If you are like most, getting diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) was like being thrown under a bus. It was scary, and you were given few if any, resources, information, or guidelines on how to help your body recover.

There’s nothing you can do about it. You’ll have to learn to live with it. – most common phrase heard the day of diagnoses

Let’s change that.

In the following presentation on the Wheel of Health in Multiple Sclerosis, Eva M Clark, facilitator of the MS Self-Help Group of Santa Cruz, California, will walk us through what you can do to regain control of your health.

The Wheel of Health in Multiple Sclerosis

Biological Factors

1. Nutrition In

The first area most people diagnosed with MS will work on is their diet. The standard American diet (SAD) does not contribute to health and, when your health is already compromised, continuing to eat food low in nutrients is like rubbing sand on a cut – it will not help your body heal.

2. Toxins Out

When the body is already compromised, lowering the levels of toxicity accumulated in the body helps relieve the body’s burden. Toxins include chemicals in our foods, heavy metals, parasites, and low-grade infection. They can be found in your food, cleaning products, and your environment.

“There is no doubt that autoimmune diseases are on the rise and our increasing environmental exposure to toxins and chemicals is fueling the risk. The research is sound. The conclusions, unassailable. — Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D. Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

3. Gut Health

Eighty percent of your immune system resides in the gut. Therefore, working on establishing a healthy gut can contribute to a healthy immune system. The goal for an optimum gut is to increase the healthy microbiome and remove unhealthy bugs and parasites. Decreasing inflammation by eliminating foods that might create an allergic react or are naturally inflammatory will also help your gut.

“Stopping the progression and reversing symptoms of autoimmune diseases depends on addressing and healing leaky gut.” — Jacqui Pariset, M.D. Ancestral Nutrition, Functional Medicine

4. Sleep Quality and Rest

The body repairs, restores and replaces old and damaged cells when you are resting. This state is called parasympathetic. On the contrary, when you are continuously on the go, ticking off to do lists, and going nonstop, your bodies are in chronic sympathetic mode, and can’t heal. Rest does not only mean vegetate or sleep, though at first, that might be the only thing you can do. It also includes doing small things that you enjoy – such as reading, listening to music or a guided imagery tape, going outside and being in nature or taking a restorative yoga class.

“Patients with non-apnea sleep disorders are associated with a higher risk for developing autoimmune diseases.” — Sleep Disorders and Increased Risk of Autoimmune Diseases in Individuals without Sleep Apnea, Sleep, Vol. 38, April 2015

These are the physical things that will help your body recover, but there’s more! Watch the second part of this episode and learn about the psychosocial factors.

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Pilates for Multiple Sclerosis

April 17, 2019 By Eva Clark Leave a Comment

Pilates for MS

How can a soup spoon, rolling pin, and tennis ball lead you to immense muscle pain relief? Find out in this month’s episode of our Creating Health Series with Leah Johnson as she shows us how we can incorporate these simple household items into our home workout routines.

Pilates is a safe therapy for people with MS and can be beneficial on any number of symptoms. Many of the exercises, stretches and massage techniques can be done directly at home with just a few aids – some of them might already be in your kitchen!

Tips on Using Pilates for MS

If you are looking for tips to relieve aches, pains, and tightness, then check out some of Leah’s quick pain-relieving tips for MS here:

Using only a lacrosse or tennis ball get relief in your Pec Muscles, Upper Trapezius Muscles, and your Forearms.

Need relief in your leg muscles? Try baking some Thighs Pies.

Leah taught us how to transform two tennis balls and some duct tape into a DIY peanut massager which is fantastic at alleviating lower back pain. Need a reminder on how to make your own? Click here.

The only physical therapy aid that most likely won’t be in your kitchen is the Thera Cane Massager. After using this cane shaped massager for about 30 seconds, you’ll be able to feel it start work on easing aches and pains. This is a simple tool used in Pilates that can help with many of the discomforts of multiple sclerosis.

Leah showed us just a few examples of what is possible. As with most therapies, individual work on the particular issues and discomforts you are working through is most beneficial. We hope you enjoyed the episode and got some ideas on ways to work on releasing discomfort.

For more information about Leah and all the incredible work she is doing, visit her at https://www.goodformpilates.com.

This presentation is part of the Creating Health series. If you would like to receive these presentations in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. To watch them live, follow our Facebook page.

Article on Multiple Sclerosis – Supercharge Your Copaxone

February 28, 2019 By Eva Clark Leave a Comment

People diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are usually taking some form of medication, supplements, diets… something they hope will help keep the MS at bay.

What if there is a way to have more control over how your body responds to the treatments you choose?

In this article on multiple sclerosis, we are going to talk about how to do just that. Supercharge whatever you are taking for your health – be it Copaxone, CBD, vegan diets, etc. – to improve its effectiveness.

Are you hoping it will help or are you expecting it to work?

Most people take their medication and supplements in the hopes it will help. They don’t realize that that attitude mingled with doubt can keep their bodies from responding optimally. Additionally, not being very convinced also leads to less compliance and continuity with your treatment regime. So how to change that?

The New Science of Psychoneuroimmunology

Change your mindset. The science of psychoneuroimmunology (PNL) studies the interrelationship between the states of the mind, the immune system, and the nervous system. This science has shown how the mind – what we think, believe, expect, etc. – can influence the body.

In one early study of PNL, Ader gave mice an immune suppressant mixed into sugar water. When the mice had taken the suppressant for a short period, he stopped providing them with it but continued to provide them with the sugar water. Their bodies continued to react to the sugar water as if it had the suppressant and many of the mice died.

In a recent case study, a pediatrist had a young girl who was deathly ill. He had to give her a very powerful immune booster to help her body heal. The drug, however, had very detrimental side effects that he knew could cause organ failure to his patient as she was already so weak. So he gave her the drug mixed in with a very peculiar tasting water for only a short time and then continued to have her drink the peculiar tasting water alone. The body responded to the water as if it was still receiving the immune booster without overloading her body with side effects.

Placebos

The expectation the mice and the girl had to the water has been coined conditioned response. It might just be that conditioning that has made placebos more and more powerful. We are so conditioned to take medication when we are sick, that that expectation is half of the reason they work.

The strength of this conditioning and expectation also influence the success of surgery, even when the surgery is a placebo.

Belief That it Will Work and You are Halfway There

PNL has shown that the mind’s influence can be just as powerful if the patient is aware it’s fake. Ellen Langer proved that in her Counterclockwise Study. In this study, 70-year-olds pretended they were 50. They stayed at a retreat center for one week. They talked, shared old memories as they had just happened, watched old shows, and read magazines that existed at the time they were 50. The mere acting as if they were 50 created physical changes in their bodies after only a week. Their hearing, memory, and grip strength improved. They even looked noticeably younger.

In another study, also by Ellen Langer, hotel chambermaids where shown that the work they did all day was equivalent to going to the gym 8-hours a day. After 30-days of thinking about their work as exercise, the chambermaids had lost weight, had improved waist to hip ratio and body mass index, and a decrease in blood pressure.

How You Think About What You Take Can Effect Its Effectiveness

In essence, this article on multiple sclerosis wants you to understand that how you think about what you do for your body and your health can influence the outcome. So how do you supercharge your Copaxone?

1. Make a list of your remedies

Take a moment to write down what you are taking for your multiple sclerosis. Make sure to include everything from medication, supplements, naps, physical therapy, diets, and prayer.

2. Review Your Mindset

Are you taking these items to heal or taking it to avoid getting worse? Are you hoping they will work or are you expecting them to?

3. Create an Intentional Healing Mindset

Decide what you are going to take that will help you get healthy. Hold that intention every time you take it. Make sure that your attitude, while you are taking it, is positive and moving towards health.

One way to do this that Eva M Clark explains in the video is to understand how your mind knows something will work and then applying that same attitude to what you are taking for your MS. For example, if you know that Tylenol works for your headaches or fennel tea for indigestion, use those as examples of remedies you take that you know work. Think about those remedies one at a time and notice how you think about them. Do you envision how good you will feel afterward? Is it like a movie of you getting better and better? Or a snapshot of you jumping out of bed? Or, when you think about how you know that they will work, are you remembering all those previous times they worked like pictures in an album or like videos in a rear view mirror?

Now apply that same way you think about remedies that you know will work to the items you are taking to help your body heal from multiple sclerosis.

The act of changing your mindset and how you think about what you are taking will improve their effectiveness and create greater health.

This presentation and blog is part of our series, Creating Health. If you would like to receive these videos in your inbox each month as we create them, please sign up for our Newsletter.

If you are following the series, please share your experience with others. Doing this in community makes the journey so much better!

This series for multiple sclerosis health is being recorded at the National MS Society Self-Help MS Group in Santa Cruz, CA. The National MS Society respects the rights of people with MS to obtain any and all information they want related to MS, including information on wellness, medical treatments or complementary therapies, and products or services. The information presented at these meeting does not necessarily reflect the views or official position of the Society, nor carry the endorsement or support of the NMSS.

Healing Multiple Sclerosis Privacy Policy

June 7, 2018 By Eva Clark Leave a Comment

Privacy Policy

Healingmultiplesclerosis.com is serious about protecting your online privacy. This Privacy Statement explains our views and practices concerning privacy, and how they may pertain to you as a user of our website.

You or Your means you as a participant in or as a user of the healingmultiplesclerosis.com. We or Our or Us means healingmultiplesclerosis.com. Our site means healingmultiplesclerosis.com.

Section 1 – What Do We Do with Your Information?

When you browse our site, we automatically receive your computer’s internet protocol (IP) address in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating system so we can better improve the experience for all our users.

Email marketing: With your permission, we may send you emails with the Creating Health Series content, other series we might host, informational content (i.e. blog posts, other series, YouTube videos, reports/whitepapers, etc.), and special events.

Section 2 – Consent

If we ask for your personal information (i.e. newsletter subscription and marketing messages), we will ask you for your expressed consent and provide you with an opportunity to withdraw your consent. If you have worked with Eva M Clark prior to 2018, come to the Santa Cruz self-help group events, Shakti Bell’s yoga classes, before May of 2018, we might have been included in our newsletter subscription automatically. We apologize for not having your expressed consent for receiving our newsletter and invite you to withdraw your consent at any time if you wish to do so.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by clicking on an “unsubscribe” link which is offered at the bottom of every email we send.

You may also withdraw your consent anytime, by contacting us at eva@evamclark.com or mailing us at Eva M Clark 577 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062.

Section 3 – Disclosure

We may disclose your personal information if we are required by law to do so.

IMPORTANT: We do not sell, rent or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third parties, including but not limited to advertisers, strategic partners or vendors. Again, we take your privacy very seriously.

Section 4 – Data Storage

When you sign up for the one-on-one sessions of any of our programs, you become a private client of Eva M Clark and, as such, all information you share with her is confidential. If you are a remote client, that is not living in Santa Cruz area of California, you will be invoiced for your sessions through Paypal. They provide us with email invoicing that allows us to sell our services to you. Additionally, you may choose to pay through direct bank transfer or check.

Your general data (name and email) is stored in Paypal data storage, databases, and the general Paypal application. They store your data on a secure server behind a firewall.

Payment:

If you choose Paypal invoicing to pay for your sessions, a direct payment gateway, then Paypal stores your credit card data. It is encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. After that is complete, your purchase transaction information is deleted.

All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by me and its service providers.

NOTE: At no point during the transaction does Eva M Clark nor healingmultiplesclerosis.com take custody or store your credit card information. This is process is monitored and managed by Paypal, and you can read their terms of service, privacy policy, and PCI Compliance information by visiting their site at https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/legalhub-full

Section 5 – Third-Party Services

In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies with respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions.

For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you can understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers.

In particular, remember that certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located in a different jurisdiction than either you or us. So if you elect to proceed with a transaction that involves the services of a third-party service provider, then your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

As an example, if you are located in Canada and your transaction is processed by a payment gateway located in the United States, then your personal information used in completing that transaction may be subject to disclosure under United States legislation, including the Patriot Act.

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or our website’s Terms of Service.

Links: When you click on our site, they may direct you away from our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites and encourage you to read their privacy statements.

Section 6 – Security

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

Section 7 – Cookies

Healingmultiplesclerosis.com does not utilize cookies on this site. We do track pixels (i.e. Google Analytics) to aid in measuring and tracking where our website traffic is coming from and to track the performance of our site.

Section 8 – Age of Consent

By using this site, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence and you have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.

Section 9 – Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

Questions and Contact Information

If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, register a complaint, or simply want more information contact us at eva@evamclark.com or by mail at Eva M Clark, 577 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062.

Recovery from Multiple Sclerosis

April 20, 2018 By Eva Clark Leave a Comment

Are You Trying to Manage Your MS? Then best to stop now if you ever want to recover from multiple sclerosis.

In the book, “The Healing Code”, Dermott O’Connor tells the story of his client that was going to his clinic for treatment after an MS attack. O’Connor asked his client which side of his body was his “bad side”. His client confidently pointed out that he didn’t have a ‘bad side,’ he had “good side” and a “recovering side”. Why is that change in wording so essential to recovery from multiple sclerosis? Because of the action or inaction, it creates. Let me give you a few more examples:

Living with MS

Telling yourself and others that you are “Living with MS” can be detrimental. Why? Say those words to yourself right now and answer the following: Is there a sense of empowerment? A sense of hope of improvement? Drive for change? Direction? Motivation? Probably not. There is acceptance but no direction for recovery.

Managing Your MS Symptoms

What about when you are managing your MS symptoms? What are you telling yourself “neuro-linguistically” (to your mind with your words)? And how does that influence outcome and expectation?

To give you an example that might be easier to understand, imagine if we were trying to lose weight. Does practicing “weight management” let us know we will be successful and never have to look back at those old ways of being with and relating to food? How about managing overeating or living with weight issues? Dreadful aren’t they?

Broken Immune System

What if we were to justify to ourselves and others that we have weight issues because “we have a bad metabolism”. Brilliant solution to our weight problem. Or is it? Blaming something you have no control over is not empowering nor does it give you the motivation to make the necessary changes. Would you agree that isn’t helpful? Would you also agree that saying you have a “weak side”, a “broken immune system”, are “unlucky or its Karma”, or that this just r”uns in your family”, does nothing to help us find the means necessary to improve health and kick MS to the curb?

So now what?

Changing How We See MS

The frist step to become empowered and recover from MS will be to stop the blame game.

Returning to our example: Would we blame our weight issues on food? The food did it! Some people will but it’s not accurate. Andrew Austin, who does neurolinguistic programming (NLP) trainings for weight loss, would have the front desk in is classes covered in sweet pies, cakes, and donuts on the first day of his weight loss training. Everyone would come into the class and be appalled! Why do you think he did that? He did that because the food is not to blame. The problem is the relationship to it, the behaviors around it, and the emotional issues that food masks. Work on those issues, put the responsibility back us, and not the food, metabolism, genes, etc and we have a chance of creating the necessary changes to keep ourselves slim and healthy no matter how many donuts are in the room.

So what if we did the same with MS? What if we stopped blaming the immune system and its reaction to our nervous system? What if we took full responsibility for finding solutions to everything that is causing our bodies to express disease? That is what the Creating Health series wants – to give us as many effective solutions to reversing multiple sclerosis from the inside out. Recovery from multiple sclerosis is about being proactive. By addressing all aspects that could be causing our bodies to MS, we have the greatest chance, no matter how wonky our immune system is, of becoming healthy and resilient.

Can You Recover from MS?

Your job is to use all the information on the different techniques and modalities out there that have helped others heal their MS, and find your ideal combination. My job, Eva M Clark, in this post and this month’s Creating Health Series, is to help you change your mindset concerning MS so that you feel motivated and believe that recovery from multiple sclerosis is possible.

“If you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you are probably right.” – Henry Ford

Currently, even though you might be interested in healing and have tried a few modalities, you probably don’t believe you can recover. That is why so many give up so easily. So the first step in recovering from multiple sclerosis is believing it can be possible.

The Recovery from Multiple Sclerosis Mindset

NLP is the study of successful mindset structures. An NLP practitioner helps the client discover HOW they are doing the problem and then helps them discover HOW to to succeed instead. Sounds strange doesn’t it? At the moment our problem is we’ve bought into the belief mindset that MS is an “incurable disease that will only get worse”. And that mindset helps to keep the disease in place! We want to change that mindset to one of recovery. This new mindset will open up possibilities and give us the motivation to go beyond managing and into actively creating health.

This is one of the processes used in the Healing Multiple Sclerosis Program. This process was adapted from Connierae Andreas “Engage Your Bodies Natural Ability to Heal”. You can find the entire process in detail and demonstrations of its use in “Heart of Mind.”