a wonderful story

hi surviving,

here's the december newsletter from christine...
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I see it in my studio and hear it in my consultations all too often.

Women not doing the work.

I have said for years, “Change the posture, change the prolapse.” And that is also true for chronic hip pain.

But you have to do the work.

You have to “remember to remember” to pull up into the posture every time you find yourself slouching. Lift your chest so your lumbar curve can reassert itself. Walk with your feet pointing straight ahead, keep your knees straight but not bowed back, and pull up through the back of your head and neck by slightly tucking your chin.

I have found that many women seem to think that the posture isn’t that important and that Whole Woman is really about the exercises.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Whole Woman is about living in your intended shape, while the exercises are there to help you hold the posture for longer and longer periods each day without fatigue.

In so-called “primitive” cultures where women sit on the ground to cook, nurse, weave or whatever other activities they undertake, you will see in pictures that they pull up the chest. The reason is simple. You cannot sit on the floor or ground in a slouch for very long before the pressure on your abdominal and pelvic organs becomes uncomfortable.

Watching African women walk carrying fifty pounds of water on their heads is a picture of grace and beauty. You cannot comfortably carry that kind of load on your spine without being in the natural female, or as we call it, Whole Woman posture.

Occasionally, we get a call from someone who bought my materials a few years before and still is struggling with her prolapse condition and considering surgery. What always becomes clear in the conversation is that the woman has not understood or taken seriously the importance of the posture.

The beauty of my methods is that your body is the feedback mechanism that will tell you when you are doing the right things. Do the right things and your symptoms will improve. If your symptoms are not responding, then you are not doing the right things. This may sound overly simplistic, but I say it with the confidence of ten years’ experience working with women with prolapse, and more recently with chronic hip pain.

I do have to add a caveat here. After hysterectomy or other pelvic surgery, this one-to-one relationship will have been altered. How much is impossible to know, but the posture remains the best bet for the post-surgery woman.

I think the situation boils down to this: It is very difficult to come to terms with the fact that the medical system, as good as it is at many things, has nothing to offer when you have a chronic condition like prolapse or hip pain.

I see this all the time on the forum, the women who just cannot let go of their relationship with the medical system. They are constantly going to their doctor about this or that and they constantly struggle with my methods.

Take a deep breath and repeat after me…

“The western medical system doesn’t understand the root cause of pelvic organ prolapse and chronic hip pain. The system treats only the symptoms with radically invasive and life-altering surgeries because they do not understand the underlying causes from which the symptoms arise.“

Once you really internalize this fact, you will realize that the responsibility for your health cannot be foisted off on anyone else. Look yourself in the mirror and say, “I guess it’s just you and me, kid.”

You will be amazed at how wrapping your brain around how little the medical system has to offer your chronic condition frees your energy and motivation. You come to terms with the fact that there is no fall back position, no safety net. All they can give you is a short-term fix with very serious long-term consequences.

Then, and maybe only then will you find yourself really taking responsibility for your health and destiny. Many women have reported an enormous sense of freedom and empowerment that comes with surrendering their grasp on the medical system and taking charge of their own health.

Let me reiterate, as I have many times. Generally, the people who work in the medical system are intelligent, highly trained, caring, and well-meaning people. But the system in which they work is highly corrupt, dysfunctional and narrow in its thinking and processes. As a result, individual doctors do not have the latitude to explore alternatives to conventional, ineffective protocols.

Many of our clients who have been successfully managing their prolapse have taken my book, Saving the Whole Woman, to their doctors to explain why their 4th degree prolapse is now 2nd degree or their 2nd degree prolapse has disappeared. They are astonished when their doctors turn their backs and walk away saying, “I don’t want to know. I’m not interested.”

This is probably not just callous indifference, although it may be in a few cases. He or she cannot step outside the guidelines of their "standards of care" without risk of a malpractice lawsuit. This is what I mean when I say the system is at fault.

Bear in mind, in the US we talk about our “health care system.” But the system has nothing to do with health. It is a disease care system. Why? It’s simple. Health is cheap. There is no money in health. Do you really think the drug companies want you to be healthy? No, they want you to take their drugs for the rest of your life.

Do drugs have benefit? Some do, sometimes. But no one is suffering from a Lipitor or Prozac deficiency. All drugs are poisons. In some cases, the benefits justify the potential side effects.

Dean Ornish, MD, the first physician to demonstrate conclusively that heart disease is reversible has defined four pillars of health based on his research with cardiac patients: Diet (low on the food chain with no animal products), moderate exercise, consistent stress management, and healthy relationships. With just these pillars he has proven to reverse what would otherwise be terminal heart disease.

These things take some time and energy, but they don’t cost anything. Even your food bill is likely to go down. Is it any wonder that the medical system wants nothing to do with health?

In the US, 17 cents of every dollar that changes hands winds up in the “health care system.” For the largest economy in the world, this is an appalling waste, particularly since so much of what the medical system does is damaging to health (like hysterectomy, vaginal mesh “repairs”, and hip surgery) and the environment (drug residues in the water table and enormous amounts of plastics in the landfills).

There is so much money at stake necessary to support the huge medical infrastructure, drug, and insurance companies that the system has enormous inertia towards the current medical model based on drugs and surgery.

One of the important things I learned in my research on Save Your Hips is that in the 18th and 19th centuries, doctors had accumulated a great deal of knowledge, experience, and success treating chronic hip pain, which they understood well. Only after a bitter war with the surgeons that lasted the entire 19th century did the surgeons take over orthopedics and the gentle, healing knowledge of the traditional methods have been all but lost.

So, I encourage and implore you to constantly remember that the correct, natural postural alignment is essential to the health of your pelvic organ support system and your hips. Only your investment of time and energy to develop the presence of mind to remember to remember to pull up into the Whole Woman posture is what will allow you to successfully manage your condition for your lifetime.

You can do this.

Many of you already have.

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As we enter the holiday season, may the warmth and love of family and friends be foremost for you. I hope you will work to maintain some semblance of balance in your life as you entertain and prepare for the holidays.

All love and remember to remember…

Best wishes,

Christine Kent
Whole Woman Inc.

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enjoy and happy holidays to all

lanny, the WW DH