Andrea Edwards Bowen Technique & Spinal Touch Therapy Taunton

02/11/2025

I offer a variety of Facial Massages, great for boosting blood flow and nutrients to the skin and leaving the skin with a lovely glow. Facial Reflexology has the added benefits of balancing the whole body at the same time and is excellent for releasing stress and tension from the face and body

19/10/2025

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We used to think sore joints were just “wear and tear.”

Now we know the truth — movement is one of the best ways to protect our joints and keep them healthy.

Gentle, supportive movement helps nourish cartilage, strengthen muscles, and keep the whole joint system working in harmony.

If your body feels a little stiff or out of sync, Bowen Therapy can complement your holistic approach to movement and self-care.

Because your body isn’t wearing out — it’s designed to repair. 💙

Source:
https://theconversation.com/joint-pain-or-osteoarthritis-why-exercise-should-be-your-first-line-of-treatment-260638

28/09/2025

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Aren't our bodies incredible?

💪 Muscles make up as much as 40% of adult body weight
⚡️ Nerve impulses can transmit signals at speeds up to 400 km/h
🦴 Your leg bones are stronger, gram for gram, than concrete (in terms of compression strength, relative to weight)

And yet, even the strongest systems can experience tension, imbalance, or fatigue.

That’s why gentle, whole-body approaches like Bowen Therapy come in. It works with the body’s natural design to restore ease and balance, as best it's able.

08/09/2025

06/09/2025

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😰 How Stress Impacts Your Lymphatic System

The hidden connection between cortisol, inflammation, and lymphatic stagnation

We all know stress can mess with your mind and mood — but did you know it can also clog your body’s drainage system? 🌀

That’s right. Chronic stress doesn’t just affect your emotions — it can seriously impact your lymphatic system, making it harder for your body to detox, heal, and feel balanced.

Let’s break it down.

🧬 What Is the Lymphatic System?

Your lymphatic system is your body's waste management network. It clears out:

Toxins 🧪
Dead cells
Inflammatory proteins
Excess fluids 💧
And even viruses and bacteria 🦠
It works closely with your immune system, acting like a filter and highway for your body’s defense cells. But here’s the catch: it doesn’t have a pump like your heart. It relies on movement, breath, hydration, and nervous system balance to keep flowing.

⚠️ What Happens When You’re Stressed?

Stress activates your sympathetic nervous system — the fight-or-flight mode — and tells your body to produce cortisol, the main stress hormone.

📉 Over time, high cortisol levels can:

Weaken your immune system
Promote inflammation
Disrupt sleep and digestion
Increase water retention
Slow lymphatic movement
Think of your lymphatic system like a stream. Under calm conditions, it flows freely. But add a storm of stress, and it becomes murky, stagnant, and overloaded. 🌫

🔗 The Cortisol-Lymph-Inflammation Loop

Let’s connect the dots 🔍:

Chronic stress = elevated cortisol
Cortisol suppresses immune function
Weak immunity = higher load of toxins and waste
Cortisol also increases inflammatory cytokines
Inflammation causes lymph nodes to swell and fluid to accumulate
Sluggish lymph = even more toxins staying in the body
And around we go… 🌀

😖 Common Signs of Lymphatic Stagnation Due to Stress

Puffy face and eyes
Swollen glands or sinuses
Bloating and water retention
Brain fog and fatigue
Cellulite or skin breakouts
Stiffness, especially in the morning
Feeling “heavy” or unmotivated
Sound familiar? You're not alone — many of these symptoms are written off as “just stress,” but the lymphatic system may be silently screaming for help.

💆‍♀️ How to Support Your Lymphatic System Under Stress

1. Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD)
Gentle lymphatic massage helps stimulate drainage, reduce swelling, and calm the nervous system. It’s especially helpful during burnout or adrenal fatigue.

2. Deep Breathing 🫁
Slow belly breathing activates the vagus nerve and boosts thoracic duct flow (the main lymph channel). Try 5 minutes of deep, diaphragmatic breaths daily.

3. Gentle Movement 🚶‍♀️
Walking, yoga, rebounding, or stretching helps “pump” the lymph through muscle contraction — even 10–20 minutes a day can help.

4. Dry Brushing & Hydration 💧
Dry brushing supports superficial lymph flow, while hydration ensures the lymph fluid remains thin and flowing.

5. Anti-Inflammatory Diet 🥬
Reduce processed food, sugar, and alcohol. Add turmeric, ginger, lemon water, and leafy greens to help flush the system.

6. Rest and Reset 😴
Prioritize sleep and boundaries. Lymph drainage works best when the body is in a parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) state.

💡 Remember

You can’t always avoid stress — but you can support your body while navigating it. Your lymphatic system is your silent partner in health, and caring for it is one of the kindest things you can do for your mind, body, and immune system.

When in doubt, breathe. Move. Drain. Detox. Repeat. 🌿

⚠️ Disclaimer
This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before starting any new health regimen or therapy.

21/08/2025

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“OUT OF MY WHEELCHAIR AND BACK ON MY BIKE”: HOW DR TERRY WAHLS BEAT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

In 2000, Dr Terry Wahls, a University of Iowa professor of internal medicine, was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, a stage where symptoms steadily worsen and disability is expected to increase. By 2003, she was confined to a wheelchair, unable to sit upright for more than minutes at a time, and struggling to feed herself.

“Once lost, functions are gone forever,” she says. “By 2007, I was constantly exhausted and had increasingly severe bouts of trigeminal neuralgia - intense jolts of electrical face pain that were harder and harder to stop.

Conventional treatments failed to halt her decline but determined to change her trajectory, she immersed herself in medical research, focusing on mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegeneration.

“I decided to self-experiment, hoping, if I was lucky, to slow the progression of my MS. As a doctor, I certainly did not expect to walk around the hospital again making my rounds. Or go hiking or biking again.

“By identifying the key nutrients important to brain health, I maximised my intake of the nutrients I’d been taking in supplement form - getting them instead directly from the food I ate.

“Each day I consumed three platefuls of green leafy vegetables, sulphur-rich and deeply pigmented vegetables, and ate meat in moderation while eliminating gluten-containing grains, eggs, dairy and legumes. I also added fermented foods, full of good bacteria for digestive health, mineral-rich seaweed and more nutrient-dense organ meats.

“Three months after starting the diet, my fatigue was gone. The electrical face pains were gone too. I began doing my hospital rounds using a cane. After six months, I began walking without a cane. At nine months I got on my bike again for the first time in six years and rode around the block. After 12 months of this new way of feeding my cells, I biked 18 miles with my family. If I went off the diet, the electrical face pains came back within 24 hours.”

Dr Wahls has now been gifted $2.5 million from the Carter Chapman Shreve Family Foundation to investigate her diet and its effects on improving quality of life and reducing fatigue, in those with relapsing-remitting MS.

The gift will allow Wahls and her team to conduct one of the largest dietary intervention studies ever completed in people with MS.

16/08/2025

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VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN DIETS ‘CUT CANCER RISK BY UP TO A QUARTER’

People who avoid meat are less likely to develop a range of cancers, according to one of the most detailed studies of vegetarian diets to date.

The research followed nearly 80,000 members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in North America - many of whom follow plant-based diets - for an average of almost eight years each. None had cancer at the outset. Their diet was recorded in detail and their health tracked.

Overall the results showed that vegetarians had a 12 percent lower risk of developing cancer than meat eaters in the same community.

The biggest reductions were for colorectal cancer (21 percent lower risk) stomach cancer (45 percent lower), and cancers such as lymphoma (25 percent lower).

Analysing the data by diet type showed further patterns. Vegans, who eat no animal products, had the largest overall reduction in cancer risk: 24 percent lower than meat eaters. This included lower rates of breast cancer and, in younger men, prostate cancer.

The researchers say that, while vegetarian diets are not a magic bullet, they appear to offer protection against several cancers with minimal risk of harm, making them a potentially valuable part of prevention strategies.

(The findings are published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.)

06/08/2025

National Wellness month

31/07/2025

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One year after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a short note appeared in a U.S. newspaper. It was simple. Quiet. Powerful.

Read it carefully. And if you're someone who often gets frustrated by the little things in life — maybe read it twice.

🔸

“You may have heard about the CEO of a major company who survived the attacks simply because it was his turn to take his child to preschool.
Another man lived because it was his day to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off.
Someone got stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Another missed the bus.
One spilled coffee on her blouse and had to change.
One person's car wouldn't start.
Someone returned to answer a phone call.
Another’s child took too long getting ready.
One simply couldn’t catch a cab.

But what struck me most — was a man who survived because that morning, he wore new shoes.
They gave him a blister, so he stopped at a pharmacy to buy a bandage.
That’s why he lived.”

And now, when I find myself stuck in traffic, missing an elevator, going back home for keys, or answering a phone call at the last second…
I pause and think:

🙏 Maybe I’m exactly where I’m meant to be. Maybe this delay is protection I’ll never understand.

So next time your morning doesn’t go as planned —
The kids are slow to get ready.
You can’t find your keys.
You hit every red light…

Don’t get angry. Don’t panic.
💫 God might be at work. Protecting you in ways you’ll never see.

26/07/2025

More on ultra processed foods, in general. Well worth a watch
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