trends
Healing naturally Students who shun modern medicine search for cures in herbal teas and massage, and Lawrence stores are jumping to answer their calls
Reflexology involves the stimulation of body organs by massaging certain points on the feet. There are several theories on how reflexology works. Some reflexologists believe that each of the 72,000 nerve ending on each foot connects to a different body area. Massaging those endings stimulates the corresponding body area. Other reflexologists believe the body is divided into zones, and when a zone on the foot is stimulated,the corresponding zone on the body is stimulated. The stimulation of the foot is done with pressure from the thumb. The reflexologist applies medium pressure and slowly moves the thumb across the desired area.
By Ezra Wolfe
Kansan staff writer
Sean Tevis/ KANSAN
instead of looking under fluorescent bulbs for chemically synthesized modern drugs, some people look for cures in the woods or on the plains. Others find cures at stores that sell dried herbs. Still others find their remedy in a massage clinic.
From herbal teas to massages, natu-
natural teas to massages, natural healing methods are becoming singly popular.
In Lawrence, an abundance of outlets for natural healing gives KU students opportunities to discover an alternative to the drugstore.
Joy de Maranville, a massage therapist at the Southwind Health Collective, 941 Kentucky St., said massage therapy has grown more popular during the past few years.
De Maranville, who learned massage therapy at Healing Spheres, 110 E. 43rd St., Kansas City, Mo., attributed the growth in popularity to people accepting massage as health-oriented rather than illicit.
Bruce Blanc, a massage therapist at the Lawrence Center for Natural Healing,708 W. 9th St., said Western massage techniques have their roots in Rome, Greece, Persia and Egypt.
"Massage is the oldest form of healing," he said. "Up until the eighteenth century, most doctors were skilled in body work. That changed with the advent of pharmaceuticals."
De Maranville said massage therapy can help relieve stress. Stress can trigger the "fight or flight syndrome," which causes the heart to speed up, digestion to slow down, blood to flow away from the extremities and increases the flow of adrenaline, he said.
"Because stress isn't a physical threat, it doesn't go away," she said. "If the person isn't tied into ways to relax, stress builds up and tightens muscles, opening up the road for injuries.
"Massage therapy releases the tightness." Despite the healing effects of massage, most practitioners say massage is an excellent preventative measure.
"Bodywork works best as a preventative program," said Blanc. "Preventative medicine has proven to be cheaper."
Most full-body massages in Lawrence cost from $25 to $40 for an hour. Half hour and partial body massages are about half as much.
Reflexology is based on the principle that there are reflexes in the feet which correspond to parts of the body. Simulating
--reflex points benefits the functioning of their corresponding organs, connective tissue and body systems, de Maranville said.
"Reflexology helps put the body in a better state of balance, or homeostasis," she said. "When that happens, the body is better able to heal itself."
Monica Miller, co-owner of Earth Sense. 16 E. Eighth St., said reflexologists use their thumbs to apply pressure to the foot.
Miller said acupuncture is more intrusive than reflexology, but both techniques
Lew Conner and Linda McKim, authors of "Reflexology," say that human bodies produce by-products from incomplete metabolism of uric acid and excess calcium. These by-products crystallize near nerve endings in the feet. The crystals cause a blockage around the nerves and cut down on normal stimulation of glands and organs. Reflexology can remove crystals.
Earth Sense specializes in herbal and other natural healing methods. The store is lined with rows of dried herbs, teas and distilled aroma oils.
The store has been open for two months. Miller, its owner, said alternative medicine was growing increasingly popular.
--health
"A lot of people are interested in learning new ways of taking care of themselves that aren't as dangerous or as invasive as regular medicine," she said.
Miller said the most popular items were the teas, especially the relaxing tea and the blood purifying tea.
The relaxing tea contains valerian, the plant from which valium was originally produced, said Miller.
Danielle Holmes, Chicago, senior, said she used the blood purifying tea and has had good results.
John Schwark, Kansas City, Kan., senior, learned about herbal medicine from his grandmother. He said he picks his own plants and herbs from a relative's farm north of Lawrence.
"I use it for acne," she said. Holmes said her doctor was unable to tell her why she had acne, but the tea helped clear it up.
"There are lots of things — spiritual and physical — that you can do with common plants." he said.
"String bush leaves have a blue fuzz on them," he said. "If you take off the fuzz and eat it, it is good as a general remedy. I'm taking it now — I'm sick—and it does about the same thing as Sudafed."
Special to the Kansar
The lights dim.
By Brian James
The magician on stage is swinging a pendulum, putting the volunteer from the audience in a trance. The magician tells him to do a variety of things he would be too embarrassed to do if he were fully conscious.
The image of the traditional Hollywood stage hypnotist is often the biggest misconception people have about hypnotherapy, said Pam Botts, clinical psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services in Watkins Memorial Health Center.
Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic application of hypnosis used to heal the mind and body. Hypnotherapista
"It's not a tradition treatment," Bottis said. "But it's become more accepted now with the move toward more holistic health approaches. Society has become a little open to new types of experiences."
say it is useful in helping treat anything from smoking habits and eating disorders to stress and depression. Hypnotherapy often incorporates relaxation and self-exploration in its healing process.
She said the common fear most people had of hypnotherapy was that they did not have control of the situation. Others might be worried about doing something embarrassing. Some might feel that hypnotherapy is not consistent with their religious beliefs. There are many others.
These are all associated with the
fear of giving up control, which is not the case," she said.
Sue Westwind, a Lawrence hypnotherapist, said that she treated people with disorders or unwanted habits but that she often helped other people who wanted to retrieve some particular memory of their past, often from their childhood.
She starts the process of hypotherm-apy with induction, the step involving relaxation of the body using various forms of imagery, such as having people picture themselves laying on a warm sandy beach.
"At this point they actually feel their minds and muscles relaxing," she
She begins working with what is known as the person's inner child to
retrieve those lost memories.
"This is the concept that everybody has a child within them, and that a lot of that childhood stuff got frozen or forgotten as they became adults," Westwind said.
She said she tried to get her clients to talk about those feelings or memories to help them deal with how they might affect the person now.
Debra Solleks, a 1900 KU graduate,
went to see Westwind about a year
"It is very therapeutic when people incorporate into their life those feelings, such as their youthful innocence," she said. "They recapture a lot about they were like when they were children."
Continued on Page 10.
Issues and trends at the University of Kansas.
Lead story
■ In January, Israel's national telephone company initiated a fax service that transmits messages to God via the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. And in May, the Roman Catholic Church will unveil a high-tech confessional at a trade show in Vincenza, Italy, that will accept confessions by fax. And in December, a sect of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, N.Y., began selling its members special beepers so they would know instantly when the Messiah arrives on Earth.
Courtroom Antics
Circuit Judge Michael Hocking came under fire in Detroit in January after he gave a rapist the minimum 18-month term, citing "mitigating" factors. Among them: The man helped his victim off the floor, and he did not so much as use force to wear down the victim by persistence.
A New York administrative law judge ruled in January that former state government accountant Julio Cruz was entitled to unemployment compensation benefits even when he left work voluntarily. Cruz gave up a $52,000 work salary to move to Florida, giving as his reason that he had become disgusted with street crime in New York City. He had been mugged three times recently. His wife was mugged once.
A California appeals court decided in December to transfer a divorce case away from Orange County judge Ragnar Engebretsen, because of a comment the judge had made when interpreting a prenuptial contract. Engebretsen, certain that the husband would not have married his wife without the contract and noting that the couple had been living together before the marriage, asked rhetorically, "Why, in heaven's name, do you buy the cow (i.e. get married) when you get the milk free (i.e., by living together?)
A California appeals court in November upheld a $100,000 award to the estate of Wesley Wilkins from Wilkin's former lover, Lillie Siplin. Siplin had invited Wilkins to her mountain cabin in 1985 to have sex but, failed to warn Wilkins that her husband was a violent man. Siplin's husband broke in and stabbed Wilkins 17 times. As she was taking Wilkins to the hospital, she happened to mention that her husband had acted this way several times before.
In December, the Indiana Supreme Court found court reporter Judith Hatfield in contempt, sentencing her to seven days in jail and a $500 fine, for taking so long to transcribe a case it wanted to decide.
Continued on Page 10.