Advice I received and your experience with these things

[jojochristine]

The other day I listened to a Phoenix Helix podcast, in which Eileen Laird interviews an integrative doctor about doctor/patient relationships. It turns out that the doctor being interviewed has struggled with dysautonomia for over 10 years! When I heard this, I reached out to her to ask for her advice. She took the time to reply, which was so kind of her. I wanted to ask if anyone has had experience with the advice she gave me (see below). Would love to hear about it!

What I have found most helpful for my dysautonomia--and what I recommend to my patients:

• Mind-body practices like qigong  the most important thing for any kind of nerve damage, whether a motor nerve from a stroke or the autonomic nervous system from dysautonomia, is to exercise the nerves so they rewire and remember how to function.  These need to be done, ideally, on a daily basis, even if 5 min 3 times a day.  Careful not to overdo, so it worsens the symptoms, but pushing yourself so that some mild symptoms are triggered.  Find that incremental training zone for yourself.  Qigong helped my chronic vertigo and lightheadedness tremendously.
• Cranial osteopathy-- this is different than standard osteopathy and also different than craniosacral work.  If you have an osteopath trained in cranial osteopathy in your area, it may be a great therapy to try.  Painless, requires nothing of you except $ and showing up for appts.  They are able to manipulate the central nervous system through mobilizing cerebrospinal fluid.  If you don't have such an osteopath, a craniosacral therapist may be a great second option (they are typically physical therapists or massage therapists who get additional training).  
• Get screened for chronic infections like stealth Lyme or other tick borne infections, which can wreak havoc on the autonomic nervous system.  For years, I was a skeptic about such infections.  I was also reluctant to go down that rabbit hole, so long as I was healing.  But recently, I've had some health challenges that knocked me down, and I relented.  My integrative doc screened me for a lot of infections and many were positive.  Again, it doesn't always mean that everyone with positive tests needs treatment.  It depends on how resilient that person's immune and nervous and hormone systems are keeping things in balance (or, in my case, not keeping things in balance).  So I'm currently getting treated for those, and beginning to feel a deeper healing than I've had before-- and you might recall from my podcast that insomnia was still a big issue for me...my sleep has gotten significantly better!