Whatever your own personal views on the issue, the statin debate seems to rage on, with – on one side those who believe that we should all be given them as a preventative measure against heart attacks and strokes and on the other side those who feel that they are a drug which should only be prescribed when absolutely necessary, as their side effects are unpleasant to say the least.

Medical research continues to persuade us that these side effects occur only very rarely, but I’m not so sure as I know quite a few people who have suffered with the most appalling muscle cramps, depression and skin conditions, to name a few. My poor mum was put on statins (despite having no history of heart disease or stroke) and developed polymyalgia, a disease which affects the muscles. She had to be treated with steroids for this for a number of years. I believe that the statins triggered this condition.

On the other hand my dad takes statins since having a heart bypass some years ago, and he now tolerates the drug very well – it is quite possibly keeping him alive as without it, his cholesterol level was very high indeed and good not be brought down by diet alone. However, when first prescribed it he did suffer from side effects too, notably a really distressing skin rash.

So, whilst it is true that – prescribed well, and to those who really need it – it can be a life-saving drug, what I tend to object to is the way that very little attention is given to lifestyle by our medical profession. It’s almost as if it doesn’t matter if we have an unhealthy lifestyle, drinking, eating too much and smoking, as there is a drug to counteract all of that.

A dear friend had to go into hospital for an operation recently, and she told me that the doctor was absolutely amazed when she told him about her healthy lifestyle, not drinking or smoking, eating a good diet and taking regular exercise, as well as being a healthy weight. It’s almost as if the ‘norm’ is somebody who is overweight, very sedentary with a bad diet, and perhaps smokes and drinks heavily.

Conversely, I spoke to an acquaintance last week who was a heavy smoker, but believed himself to be quite healthy as statins had brought down his cholesterol level to 3.

This is quite clearly nonsense, but seems to be a commonly held belief. Live an unhealthy life, but whatever you do, don’t let your cholesterol go to more than 4.

Until the medical experts start to really push home the importance of a healthy lifestyle, and this does not just mean having some orange juice and a couple of bananas every day, then sooner rather than later we are going to be faced with an almighty health crisis, which no amount of statins or gastric bands will fix.

As well as practicing hypnotherapy I have a particular interest in nutrition, so if you think that your lifestyle could do with an overhaul, do please get in touch on 01449780352 or 07817158429, or email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk, and we could work out an individual programme for you which you will find easy to stick to.

Modern drugs are amazing in what they are able to do, but the importance of a healthy lifestyle should not be ignored.

Best wishes,
Wendy x

One of the areas where I have witnessed hypnotherapy working very powerfully is helping people to overcome performance anxiety. This can be related to exams, both written and spoken, as well as job interviews, work presentations, sporting competitions and also musical/stage performances.

It was interesting to speak to my son about this recently when he was back from university for a short trip. As a jazz musician and student at Birmingham Conservatoire, he is immersed in a highly-charged musical world where everyone around him has already achieved a certain level of excellence.   So the pressure, as you can imagine, is immense. I have learnt that jazz musicians can be particularly hard on themselves, as they have to be at one and the same time master of their craft, but also somehow get into that ‘zone’ where their creativity can flow freely. It’s that unique combination of discipline and ‘letting go’ which is such a challenge. If they get the balance right, then it can be sublime.  As my son explained to me, someone who plays music simply for fun CAN relax and let themselves go. However, for him, it’s so important, its his life and means absolutely everything, so one can understand how this balance can be hard to achieve. He has told me that sometimes he just says to himself ‘it’s only music’, and then he allows himself to relax.

Hypnotherapy is an excellent way of calming the mind before a performance of any kind and in addition visualising how you would like things to go – as vividly as you can – in order to, in effect, give a preview of how the performance is actually going to be, can be extremely powerful. Sports people are particularly good at this, the golfer visualising where exactly he wants the ball to go, the footballer about to take a penalty and actually seeing the ball in the corner of the net, the runner seeing himself crossing the line first. These simple techniques do work – and when used in conjunction with hypnosis – can have the most amazing consequences.

Do get in touch if you feel that hypnosis could help you to overcome performance anxiety – I can be contacted on 01449 780352 or 07817158429. Alternatively, you can email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.

Best wishes,
Wendy x

If you saw the recent Horizon programme ‘The power of the placebo’ you may have been as amazed and fascinated as me to discover how some minds can be ‘tricked’ into actually believing that they are being given powerful drugs which will have a definite physiological effect, when all the time they are just being given a placebo or ‘dummy’ pill.

The most incredible example of how powerful placebo can be was the case of the man from Vancouver who had Parkinson’s disease. He had been deprived of his medication for some time and was suffering from the crippling effects of the disease and then when he was treated with drugs he immediately felt better, could straighten up and be fully mobile. All this happened even though he had actually been given no medication at all, merely placebo.

Even people given placebo pills knowingly seemed to experience a relief of their symptoms, as in the case of the woman with IBS who actually tried to buy placebo pills from a health food store after the three week clinical trial was over. Whilst on the trial her IBS symptoms were completely eradicated, only to return again once she stopped taking the placebo pills.

Whilst watching the programme I had a strange feeling that in some sense I am a placebo operative, as, whilst I do not hand out medication, I do allow people to entertain an expectation that they will feel better. And, sure enough, the programme actually explored the use of hypnosis as a type of placebo, showing a dentist using a hypnotic trance as anaesthesia for surgical removal of a tooth. The man in question was asked about the level of pain he felt while the tooth was being pulled, and it was minimal – on a scale of 0-10, no more than a 4, whereas it would normally be about 9.

It was stressed during the course of the programme that part of the placebo effect comes from the patient’s belief and trust in the medical practitioner. Treatments seemed to work much better if the patient was offered the right amount of care, attention and kindness.

I have a strong belief that we all have within us natural painkillers, mood chemicals, powerful in-built drugs which – given the right help and techniques – we can harness for our ultimate wellbeing.

I am ever hopeful that the mainstream are beginning to recognise this too.

Best wishes,
Wendy x

I was really interested to watch Horizon this week which showed an experiment on twins, both doctors, Chris and Xand van Tulleken.

For a period of about one month one twin had to consume just fatty, high protein foods and the other carb-rich sugary food. During and at the end of this research they took lots of tests which measured their level of fitness, weight, cholesterol and blood sugar.  What was really surprising was the twin who had enjoyed the sugary diet remained roughly the same in terms if body composition, weight and fitness, but the other twin – although he more weight – ended up losing a significant amount of muscle mass and also was dangerously close to becoming diet. For the doctors and I would imagine for most of the general public this was contrary to what they had expected, as it would generally be thought that a diet high in sugar would tend to lead to diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses.

The conclusion that was eventually drawn was that the major reason for our current obesity crisis is down to both sugar and fat in equal measure. A large proportion of processed food contains almost half and half sugar and fat and apparently it is this combination which is highly addictive. These types of food are difficult to resist and can lead to an addiction which can be as strong drugs or alcohol.

As we all probably realise deep down there is no magic solution to the obesity crisis. In a society which tends to favour extremes and quick fixes, we have to ultimately realise that what is needed is balance and a return to wholesome natural unprocessed food.

I remember my mum telling me what she used to eat as a child and a lot of it sounded really unhealthy, bread and dripping, heavy puddings, dumplings, butter and the list goes on. However there wasn’t a huge problem ith obesity at that time. Of course, people tended to do more physical activity  and this is something which needs to be addressed too.

At a basic level it is really quite simple: exercise more and eat good quality, unprocessed food in reasonable quantities. Unfortunately, this seems to be something that many of us find so difficult to do.

My very best wishes for a healthy February,
Wendy x

How are those New Year’s resolutions going? With a certain amount of smugness I can say that Mr Chalk and I are managing to stick to our dry January, although I do keep wondering how it is that January seems to be passing so very slowly and the thought of that nice glass of red that I will have on 1st February seems to be calling me.

At this time of year I tend to see a lot of people who want to start the year with a health kick, whether this is losing a bit of weight, giving up smoking or alcohol, or just getting a bit fitter. With each client it is important that they aim for something which is going to be sustainable in the longer term and which they can stick with. As our subconscious mind does not like the thought of giving something up, it is essential that the client is able to recognise the significant gain they will receive. In addition to this, we can identify certain healthy comforts or treats which can be added which help to reinforce this feeling that we are gaining, not losing during this process.

Each person is different in terms of what they want to achieve and how they can get there, so the whole process is very much tailored to the individual, with a specially recorded CD being made for each client. You could think of it in terms of an individual coaching and hypnotherapy treatment combined.

It is certainly not a case of one size fits all.

If you would like to find out more do please contact me on 01449780352 or 07817158429, or you can email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.

Best wishes,
Wendy x

Last night Mr Chalk and I went to see ‘The long walk to freedom’, a wonderful film which chronicles Nelson Mandela’s life from a young man up until the time, after his many years in prison, he became President of a democratic South Africa.

I felt that Idris Elba did a wonderful job of portraying ‘Mandiba’ and really captured the essence of him, although I know that some would have preferred a more well-known actor to have taken the role.

Mr Chalk and I – being roughly the same age – compared our memories of apartheid, and realised that  it was something we remained largely unaware of at the time, in fact it almost seemed that it was something happening way way back centuries ago, and not in a time when we were children and teenagers. It was something that was covered in school, but then somehow glossed over, and to think of this now it is unbelievable that such a thing was allowed to happen so recently in time.

Many people often complain that the world is a more sinister place with the advent of the Internet, but we both agreed that in today’s society people are able to communicate more freely, and so unjust regimes are flagged up (not necessarily dealt with however) but at least there is much more of a sense of knowledge and transparency.

The injustice that was happening in South Africa filtered through to the rest of the world, but took an incredibly long time to do so. With today’s technology, news can travel so fast and that’s a good thing.

Mr Chalk and I both remembered the concert that was held for Nelson Mandela’s birthday – a really joyful, happy affair – not long after which he was released. One official said to him the day before he turned 70 – it’s your birthday tomorrow, will you be doing anything to mark it, and he replied ‘Nothing of any consequence’ at which point we saw the thousands of people in London singing and dancing.

A truly wonderful man who was able to forgive those who had wronged him, we do miss him.

My very best wishes,
Wendy x

I do hope that you have all enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break, and that you can begin 2014 with a renewed sense of energy and optimism. Whether you have made resolutions for this year, or quite simply want to focus on a more healthy lifestyle, you may be interested in trying hypnotherapy in order to increase your motivation, and help you stay on that healthy path (and not just for January either!)

If you have not tried hypnotherapy before, it can sometimes seem like a bit of a ‘dark art’, with the common misconceptions being that you lose all control, the hypnotherapist will get you to do things that you don’t want to do, you will fall asleep and not wake up, or maybe that you ‘cannot be hypnotised’. I have therefore constructed a list of what hypnosis isn’t when practiced by an experienced, competent hypnotherapist:

It is not sleep
It is not loss of consciousness
It does not make you lose control
It is not mind control

What hypnotherapy is, however, can be described thus:

It is extremely relaxing, a little bit like meditation
It is a focused state of mind, allowing you to look at things from a different perspective
It is a way of guiding you to a more positive, happy mindset
It is an excellent way to reduce anxiety
It is a technique which you can learn to do for yourself
It is a natural, proven and effective way to deal with emotional trauma
It is an extremely powerful, life-changing therapy

So, if you feel you would like to try hypnotherapy for yourself, do call me on 01449 780352 or 07817158429, or perhaps you would prefer to email me at wendy@wendychalk.co.uk. I very much look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes for 2014,
Wendy x

The period after Christmas and before New Year can sometimes be quite difficult. It is a kind of no man’s land, when we feel that sense of anti-climax after the build-up to Christmas and inevitably, after all the over-indulgence, a sense of malaise and heaviness. Some may still have guests and so are feeling quite frazzled with having had to cater for their needs and with the weather being quite miserable there seems to be little opportunity to get out for some air.

The Chalk family have had a relatively quiet Christmas – just six of us including my two boys Olly and Joe along with my lovely mum and dad. This is how I like it, and we all had a wonderful time just enjoying each other’s company and feasting on goose from our local butcher. After lunch we all watched the Queen’s speech and then I tried to help mum with the kindle that my brother had given her. Hopefully this will mean that mum will be able to enjoy her reading again – why do the library service think that the partially sighted are only into Mills & Boon, its their eyesight not their appreciation of literature they have lost!

Since Christmas Day Mr Chalk and I have been enjoying each other’s company. We both have a couple of weeks off work, so we are alternating days out with house sorting days. Yesterday we took a trip up to the Norfolk coast and had a bracing walk, and today has been a massive sorting and de-cluttering session.  Our boys do their own thing, so we are lucky to be left to our own devices.

This time of year can also involve a certain amount of mental de-cluttering and I think this is a healthy thing to do. By reviewing what has happened in the past year, what has worked well and what has been less successful, you can start to make plans for what you are hoping to achieve in 2014. If you are making any resolutions for the New Year my advice is to keep things as simple as possible, maybe just concentrating on one particular thing and sticking to that. Also, it doesn’t have to be something that you are giving up, it can be much more positive if you think of it in terms of a gain. For example, with losing weight I would encourage you to really focus on the extra energy and fitness you will gain as well as looking really good.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2014,

Wendy x

Night-time can sometimes be the worst time for some, whether you are one of those who ruminates about certain concerns and worries, or you are lonely, or maybe you find it difficult to sleep – or maybe all three!

One thing that I urge my clients to do at the end of each day is to write down three good things about the day – and these can be quite simple, ordinary things such as a smile from a neighbour, to something a little bit more exciting such as booking a holiday. It’s not a difficult thing to do, and done regularly it can have a powerful effect on your happiness and wellbeing. Sometimes people say to me that they can’t stop negative thoughts, but by actively thinking about and writing down the positive stuff on a regular basis quite literally turns that negative radar round to the positive. The important thing here is not to battle against negative thoughts, but to gradually replace them with positive ones.

Once you get into the habit of this, it then becomes automatic, and you also feel more in control, having that knowledge that you CAN control your thoughts is incredibly liberating.

So remember, three good things ….

Night, night
Wendy x

I am fascinated and it has to be said, saddened by Channel 4’s series about ‘Bedlam’, the mental hospital in London, an institution with a renowned history for being the most famous lunatic asylum where patients used to be put on display for the amusement of the general public. Does the fact that we are now privy once again to watching the inmates through a television set, but not in person, make  this form of ‘entertainment’ more acceptable. I’m not really sure, but I am as guilty as the next person as I am an avid viewer.

This week’s episode showed two very different people – Rupert, a huge bear of a man, who came across as quite aggressive and troubled, and may possibly have fitted with society’s idea of what a mental patient is like, loud, difficult, quite threatening. We saw him at the end of the programme, almost a different person, perhaps even too subdued, evidently well-medicated.

The contrast to Rupert was Dominic, a charming, polite family man who didn’t really seem the ‘type’ to be sectioned. However, we learned that in between periods of seemingly functioning quite normally, he had very dark suicidal thoughts. His lovely wife and four beautiful children were left having to cope with the fallout of his, thus far, failed suicide attempts. His illness seemed quite baffling as he seemed to have a very happy and successful career and family life, until that is, we learned that he had had a very difficult childhood during which he was abandoned by his birth parents.

It can sometimes be the case that a difficult start in life can lead to mental illness in adulthood and symptoms can appear quite suddenly, after years of appearing to be quite well. It is very important that medical help is sought in cases like this, as the right balance of medication and therapy can restore wellbeing, and even sometimes lead to feeling much stronger than ever before. Hypnotherapy can help in this respect, by enabling us to look at past issues with a new perspective, and helping us to realise our own particular strengths and resources, so that we can be much more positive about the future.

Do contact me if you feel hypnotherapy may be of help to you.

My very best wishes,
Wendy x