so my doctor told me about heart math. it’s a way of doing biofeedback. so… if i can control my paresympathetic system i should better be able to reduce flares? the biofeedback should help me use my sympathetic
i’ve already dived into yoga, meditation, essential oils and thc. i don’t know how i could possibly be more ‘chill’ lol
has anyone else tried biofeedback or does my doc probably just have shares in this company ?!?lol
Steven Novella, an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine, says Heartmath is pseudoscience.
Novella wrote about Heartmath here:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/energy-medicine-noise-based-pseudoscience/
I took a cursory look at Heartmath myself and thought it sounded like horse hockey. So I googled “Heartmath” and “pseudoscience” together and Novella’s article was one of the top search results.
I’m don’t feel heart math is the answers EM but neither do I feel Dr Steven Novella is an authority on EM, as is the case for all doctors in my humble opinion. He even told me he has taken these cases by chance, as there are no doctors that really have a handle on this disease.
Dr Novella counseled a mother not to use acupuncture - but acupuncture and diet is what cured her daughter after dealing with EM for three years. Her daughter was even using a wheelchair and she was told she’d be in a wheel chair for the rest of her life. She was trying all the drugs that everyone was using on this forum. But they were losing their effect over time.
Dr Novella is a good man and is genuinely trying to help his patients. But he can only offer band aids - not get to the root of the problem.
My daughter has had severe EM in the ears, face, hands and feet for two years now. She has tried a few drugs but did not like the side effects. She has been working with a naturopathic Dr., a therapist and a nutritionist (not your typical one - more progressive). She exercises (swims and walks) and exposes herself to heat (she loves to cook and bake and and she likes hot showers). I feel it is the threraputic and calming work that has had the greatest effects on her symptoms. She still has far to go but she is dealing with it with a much better outlook and trying to engage in life the best way she can. One thing in her diet that seemed to make a big difference also was adding a really well made chicken broth to her diet. It has helped with her mood, her skin, and her digestion. She has four cups everyday.
I would not look to heart math as the answer to curing EM - but I love the heart math program and feel it is a good one in general for anyone. I admire the doctor who suggested it. We could all deal with a lot of heart when dealing with EM.
How do you know it’s the broth and not simply the extra fluids that are beneficial? Whenever I have EM symptoms, I reach for a bottle of water. The water always helps. Diuretics such as caffeine and alcohol are known to exacerbate EM, so it’s only common sense that water would be beneficial.
Because she always drank a lot of water daily before trying it. She’s been very methodical about trying things one at a time to narrow down what is and isn’t working.
Maybe the salts help? People need electrolytes. Chicken broth is entirely water, salts, and some chicken stock. There’s no magic ingredient in it you can’t get elsewhere in a diet.
I’m just reporting the facts. It’s something that’s working for her. As has been said before, all cases are different. It’s not just the salts. She has always used salt on and in her food. I’m not going to try and figure out why it’s working. It just is.
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And that’s fantastic! It’s always good, though, to think outside of the box to consider other possibilities, like CarterDK queried.
When it comes to symptoms though, sometimes, you just have to believe. The placebo effect – something that makes you feel better, although it doesn’t cure anything – is very real, so real that medical researchers have to factor it into their studies. It’s probably also the reason that snake oil sales people manage to extract so much money from people, but that’s another discussion thread!
That said, a well-made chicken broth is a beautiful thing, just because it IS. It’s full of micronutrients and minerals and vitamins and FLAVOUR. Making good stock and broth is an almost-lost art, and I’m always glad to hear about people making it, and others benefiting from it.
All the best to you and your daughter
Seenie from ModSupport
(I don’t usually chime in on threads, but when someone mentions chicken broth, hey … I’m in like a dirty shirt. LOL)