POSTURAL HYGIENE
These postures should be strictly adhered to

Standing
Evenly balanced with your body weight equally distributed between both feet. If this is not the case, your pelvis is not level.

Sitting
With your two sitting bones on the edge of the chair (these are the bones under the but¬tocks that you feel when you’re sitting on a hard bench). Definitely not sitting on your thighs or leaning against the back of the chair for support. Both feet flat on the floor, tipping the pelvis slightly forward (as you would do if you were sticking your stomach out) to keep your lumbar vertebrae in its natural position (the position it would be if you were standing up). Relax your shoulders, and be sure that you are holding this position without any effort or muscle tension. This is the ideal position for working at a desk.

Lying down
On your side or back, NEVER on your stomach. The pillow should be the appropriate size to allow your head to be at a natural angle to the body when you’re lying on your side. The head should not be facing down towards the mattress nor facing upwards. The ideal position is the “recovery position” which all first-aiders will be familiar with.

Your mattress (VERY important)
If you’ve had your mattress for 5 years or more, it will have the permanent imprint of your body because people ALWAYS sleep in the most comfortable position for their body.
Recommendation: When turning a mattress, never turn it sideways. Always turn it over lengthways, from head to foot, so that your partner does not end up in your body’s “imprint” and vice versa. You may be surprised to find that you can feel your “imprint” with your hand, as it will be less firm than the rest of the mattress. Don’t forget that people spend far more time in their bed than in their car, yet do not consider their mattress as a priority.

BABIES
Lifting a baby by the thorax is strictly forbidden
Do not lift a baby by the thorax under the armpit. Be very careful, and don’t let anybody else lift your baby by the armpit as it is the best way to unsettle the thorax. Child minders, nannies, grandparents, etc. need to be advised too. A baby or child must not be lifted by the thorax because in doing so the whole body weight will be concentrated onto the first ribs and the thumbs from those who are taking the child will push the upper ribs in a posterior rotation!

How to lift a baby:
Put your right hand between the legs under the rump and your left hand under the head. Then bring him near you and put your right forearm under the rump, keep your left hand supporting the head. The head is very heavy compared to the rest of the body that’s why it has to be supported.

Do not sleep your baby on the stomach:
Do not lay your baby down on the stomach to sleep and do all that you can to prevent them sleeping on the stomach: You can buy or make a body harness to allow them to sleep on the side or on the back. Or you can attach a ball to the sleeping outfit in the area of the thorax or the sternum therefore making sleeping on the stomach very uncomfortable.

Travelling:
Insure your baby not to sleep with their heads tilted to the side, sometimes drop¬ping down sideways or forwards. This would result in a lot of tension on the first cervical vertebra which is responsible for pharyngeal spasms. Use a towel (rolled up) or a neck collar to maintain the head when you travel by car train or plane).

Dairy products:
Dairy products consumed in large amounts are toxic for the organism. Do not give soya milk.

CHILDREN
At school
Nowadays teenagers are taller than they were in the last decades. A major problem is that school desks and chairs have not evolved to compensate this phenomenon. So teenagers are not able to sit properly because school furniture is not big enough for them.

At home
Teenagers are used to slouch on the sofa or to slump in front of the TV, with their backs totally rounded. This leads to a curvature of the upper back and prevents the lower vertebrae from staying in their natural position.

Schoolbag
Your child’s schoolbag should not be too heavy. In most cases the school is responsible for the schoolbag’s weight, so you cannot do much against this problem. Ideally children should carry as few things as possible.

Shoes
Children should wear really strong shoes with leather sole. Wearing sneakers all the time is a cause of lots of problems because they are too soft. The body needs a hard surface to develop properly. We can compare children who walk bare-foot and have a healthy diet (like in Arabic countries), who have strong and muscular bodies, and the ones from “rich” countries who wear sneakers, eat junk food and become fat and weak. In a few words: a body which develops on a soft surface will be fat and feeble.
A body which develops on a hard surface will be slim and muscular. Your children need proper shoes, not rags which are worn out after two or three months.

Travelling
Insure young children not to sleep with their heads tilted to the side, sometimes drop¬ping down sideways or forwards. This would result in a lot of tension on the first cervical vertebra which is responsible for pharyngeal spasms. Use a towel (rolled up) or a neck collar to maintain the head when you travel by car train or plane).

ADULTS
At work
For people who are hard workers (including nurses who have to handle heavy patients) it is difficult to avoid becoming destructured. They must think before handling charges in order to avoid twisted positions and keep their body in the correct axis. You must also think about a correct posture in an office, in front of a computer, on an assembly line…

Sport
Moving is life, so of course sport has to be done in the appropriate manner.
Joining a gym might be a good thing but if the body is out of balance the musculature will lock the person in their problems and it will be impossible to correct them. Avoid violent sports for children if they cause violent falls, e.g. Judo. Team sports, like rugby for teenagers are allowed.

In a nutshell
Listen to your body and the messages it tells you. Try to be comfortable. When you sit, stand or lie down properly no uncomfortable sensations should be felt (if you have been properly restructured)
Pay attention to your body instead of ignoring it.

CHECKLIST

• Avoid sneakers except for the gym (nothing should be soft under your feet)
• If you wear a heelpiece keep it at all times
• Stand up: weight equally balanced on your two legs
• Sit down: arch your lumbar vertebra to avoid hunching the shoulders
• Sleeping: never on the stomach
• Avoid carrying a bag on only one shoulder, distribute the weight evenly, i.e. a rucksack
• Do not lie down on the sofa with your head on the arm-rest
• Never lift a child under the armpits
• Book a new session in cases of shock or after participating in contact sports

Jacques Gesret

This post had been written by Jacques Gesret himself to answer to questions that many of you frequently ask. I would like to thank two of my patients, Laura Sorbets and Simon Neville, who have translated this post into English. If you would be interested in helping us to translate others posts written by Jacques Gesret in the French forum into English, please let me know by e-mail (karl.richard@free.fr). This will be a great opportunity to expand the knowledge of Jacques Gesret to as many people as possible.

Karl-Frédéric RICHARD

THE METHOD HAS A SUCCESS RATE OF 90%. SO THERE IS A 10% RATE OF FAILURE THAT CAN BE EXPLAINED IN DIFFERENT WAYS:

1- An elderly person, a patient who suffers from bone demineralisation or other bone diseases
Cannot be manipulated without the risk of accident.
2- Hard workers
For instance people who handle charges on a routine basis. The osteopath will balance the patient properly and he will breathe perfectly after the session. However, if the day afterwards he makes disproportionate physical efforts… the same applies to people who do weights in the gym.
3- Bad habits
Standing up with all the weight on only one leg, sitting down cross legged, sleeping on the stomach, wearing sneakers all the time, reading lying down on the side with the head resting on a hand…someone who does not respect his/her axis and does not want to change.
4- Psychological disorders
Someone who subconsciously fakes asthma. This case comes under psychiatry.

WE CAN DO NOTHING AGAINST THE FOLLOWING CAUSES:

1- Infection by bacteria, Candida Albicans fungi , mycoplasma or other intruder which can settle in the airways, in the skin, blood, ...
If all the mechanical causes of “false messages” leading the system to trust the presence of a foreign body in the airways, or causing skin problems, are suppressed but some infections persist, the pathologic reactions will remain.
2- Foreign body
Most of the time it is a peanut fragment which makes a cyst in a bronchial tube or in the windpipe. This will not be visible by radiography, only a direct fibroscopic exam will detect it.
3- Emphysema
This pathology is more frequent than we think in children. This is probably irreversible.
4- Regular use of medicines such as corticoids, bronchodilator
Lungs are naturally a sterile place, if corticoids are taken the natural defenses are weakened allowing fungi to settle.
5- Side effects of long term medication.
They are responsible for the thickening of the inter-alveolar walls which leads to a loss in gas exchanges; the actual emphysema ending with a loss of oxygen at all times.

Jacques Gesret
Translation: Laura Sorbets and Simon Neville

A loose cough
A loose cough is normal, it allows the lungs to clear themselves. Do not stop a productive loose cough. You can help it with IPECA 4CH and Antimonium tartaricum 4CH, 2 pills 3 or 4 times daily.
A persistant loose cough is not a catastrophe if it is not due to a mycoplasma.
It would be necessary to check the presence of mycoplasma, fungi with your GP.
Instead of using drugs it is easier to evacuate the mucus from bronchial tubes with IPECA 4CH (antispasmodic and flux) and Antimonium tartaricum 4CH (breaks the structure of the mucus). You can also take turnip syrup which, as an expectorant, is very efficient

Aspergillosis, mycoplasma and asthma
If symptoms persist after restructuration, it would be a good idea to do a blood test for aspergillosis and mycoplasma.
If there is no infection, asthma can be diagnosed by congestion and breathing difficulties. If there are no infections, no fungi or mycoplasma in the lungs, and no flu, the healing is quick.

Jacques Gesret
Translation: Laura Sorbets and Simon Neville

About dry skin
You can ask your chemist to prepare:
50cc of almond oil with
- 1cc of borage oil,
- 0,5cc of cod liver oil and
- 1cc of arnica oil.
Use just a little on your skin and rub in the ointment well. It is very efficient.

Advice to calm down itching
Calendula mother tincture
You can buy Calendula mother tincture. Boil some water and allow it to cool until it is warm. Add one spoon of Calendula mother tincture with 4 spoons of water. Apply the solution with a compress on the itching areas.

Once the skin is moist, use a Calendula unguent (choose an ordinary one with no perfume).

Due to the 60° alcohol the Calendula mother tincture acts as a disinfectant and due to the other compounds calms the itching, burns and insect bites.
In homeopathy: Hydrocotile 4CH, 2 pills diluted in a teaspoon of water (3 or 4 times daily).

For the bath: use your elbow to evaluate the temperature. A 37°C bath is too hot.

Testing for Candida on the skin
Nowadays this search is done in a lab thanks to a little smear test. A direct microscopic test permits the detection of the fungi.
It is useless to do our treatment sessions if there are bacteria or fungi in the lesions.
The analysis has to be done on the skin. The candidosis (or other) can be treated with anti-fungi drugs.

Jacques Gesret
Translation: Laura Sorbets and Simon Neville