The chap concerned came to see me via my herbalist friend some months ago. 50ish, reasonably healthy otherwise, not with any dreadful lifestyle habits to make one think that he was setting himself up for problems. Just trying to make a living/get on with life in general, much like the rest of us.
As already indicated, the problem was repetitive, debilitating and painful episodes of gout. This is a most unpleasant form of arthritis. All arthritis is unpleasant of course. But picture this. Imagine suddenly waking up with an all-consuming pain in your big toe which has in the space of a few hours become red, tense and swollen around the joint nearest the foot. It cannot bear weight. It cannot let you forget about it for ONE MOMENT… it happened to me [once, thankfully] and it wasn’t funny. Episodes typically take days to resolve. Then some random time later it happens all over again.
Gout is a problem of crystals forming in the joint fluid. It typically occurs at the big toe, sometimes the thumb, less often other larger joints. The further away from the heart, the more sluggish the metabolism, the more likely. There is an association with “purines” in the diet, which also occur naturally in the body. Rich diets contain more of these, hence an association between this disease and high living that goes back centuries. Propensities within the individual, in particular kidney function, are crucial.
Having suffered for a number of years, my patient had had some success with herbal medicine. However after six months relief the attacks had resumed their previously obdurate frequency and severity. Many joints were affected, sometimes concurrently. Any indulgence such as any alcohol at all would predictably bring days of pain the next week. Hence a pretty fed up individual found his way onto my treatment couch. Helpfully though he was dogged in his determination to get it all sorted.
Now I know I have much to explain re the cranial approach. Here’s the most preliminary of snapshots. Palpation of what we in the biz call “the mechanism” gives us pictures of stresses and strains within tissues. Vectors of violent forces involved in a car crash for example. These can then sometimes be released to beneficial effect. Rather more hard to explain is the qualitative information one can read. For example to my hands the liver of a heavy drinker often feels nastily white and shiny. A bit like the plastic surround of a crappy late 70’s telly or some such. I recently told one patient who had anger management problems that their brain felt like a potato that had been in the microwave too long.
This may sound fanciful but by engaging the information coming through in this way, changes are initiated in the body that can be life-changingly useful. More on this later. Back to Mr.Gout.
When I put my hands on and got to work, a clear picture emerged pretty quickly from his connective tissue. More on this wonderful stuff later. Suffice to say it is the white silvery substance non-veggies will have observed between slabs of meat at the butchers. In life it is hugely responsive to the emotional/environmental history and circumstances of the individual.
This chap’s felt like it had been injected with some horrid rubbery glue.
I couldn’t see a bloody thing in his body for this overriding stuckness. This was a metabolism that will have been struggling with many of its processes. I was not suprised that nasty little urate crystals were not being flushed out in solution when he peed.
Thus began a number of biweekly treatments to get things working. Gradually, the mood lightened inside him. Layers peeled away. His stiff back got more comfortable when kayaking. His face lost the grayish hue it had had. The gout attacks diminished, and he has now been free of them for some months, despite a few beers each weekend. From my view, the glue hung on most persistently around the hilum of the right kidney. I have no idea why this area was compromised, but it makes sense that it was connected with the symptoms. I see him every 6-12 weeks now to nudge this last recalcitrant bit towards health.
He’s happy. I’m happy. And I think the curmudgeonly kidney is more at peace too.