When you are planning your Healing Vacation in Sarasota, Florida with Dr. Caroline Peterson, or prepare for your healing series locally, there are several things you can do at home to help optimize your treatment. You could be coming to Florida for a Healing Vacation, or beginning your local healing series, for many different conditions including:

• Chronic Pelvic Pain and Pelvic Congestion
• Postpartum Renewal
• Varicosities
• Digestion Problems
• Infertility
• Period Problems or a Difficult Menopause
• Chronic Back or Neck Pain and Headaches
• Prolapse or Incontinence
• Preparation Before Surgery or Manual Therapy After Surgery

These conditions each require about 20 hours of manual hands-on therapy to treat. You will also need about one hour of health history, and about two hours for discussing exercise, posture, movement patterns, diet, and lifestyle factors.

If you have time and interest, you can begin some essential self-care components at home one month before your Healing Vacation. If you are able to address kidney/lymph detox, inflammation, adhesions, and breath (at a minimum) prior to coming, your treatment sessions should move forward with few side effects. Here is the full list of things to address prior to coming, if possible.

Because my approach is strongly based in the fluid body, it is important that the detox systems of the fluid body are prepared to receive the extra flow. I recommend Kidney Care by Quicksilver Scientific. Available through Fullscript at a 10% discount. (Link at the bottom of the page https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/)

Inflammation

People who are highly inflamed have difficulty tolerating manual therapy. That is because all manual therapy, no matter how gentle, destroys cells. Cellular debris is always inflammatory and requires more of the detox systems of the body. The most common cause of inflammation is consumption of refined carbohydrates (like bread, cookies, and crackers. Even gluten free) including sugar.

• Eliminate or reduce refined carbohydrates and sugar
• Eliminate or reduce alcohol, tobacco, pot/vaping, other drugs
• Consider a natural anti-inflammatory supplement like D-Flam by Protocol for Life Balance. Available through Fullscript at a 10% discount. (Link at the bottom of the page https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/

Adhesions

Adhesions are another way of saying scar tissue. Adhesions nail organs and tissue in place and create pain and dysfunction. Adhesions are commonly caused by inflammation, surgery, and congestion among other things. Castor oil packs are a terrific way to dissolve adhesions and release tissue so manual therapy is easier. You can buy pre-made castor oil packs online, or make your own. I recommend using castor oil packs for two hours at a time in one location, two days in a row, then take a day off. You will need an electric heating pad to drive the castor oil into the tissue. https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/2018/04/13/castor-oil-pack/

Where to use the castor oil packs in preparation:

• Upper back across shoulders where the neck meets the back. This area is very important because the whole body drains here.
• Bra line and lower ribcage of back. This area is very important because it is a lymphatic watershed, the home of the liver and kidneys, and the location of the respiratory diaphragm.
• Belly button up to chest (covering lower ribcage). This area is very important because the liver, part of GI tract, and respiratory diaphragm are here and everything from the belly, pelvis, and legs drains up through this region.
• Belly button to the pubic bone in the front of the pelvis. This are is very important because the large intestines, uterus, bladder, and rectum are here and everything drains out of the pelvis and legs through this area.

Venous Support

If you have varicose veins, pelvic congestion syndrome, or other evidence of venous issues (like pain worsens with standing or walking) it would be beneficial to support the veins with herbs before coming for your healing vacation.

• Consider Vessel Forte by Designs for Health. Available through Fullscript at a 10% discount. (Link at the bottom of the page https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/)
• If you have hemorrhoids, or wonder if you do, consider HemCalm Suppositories by Boiron Homeopathy. Available through Fullscript at a 10% discount. (Link at the bottom of the page https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/

Liver Detox Support

Because your body’s elimination systems will be required to work harder with manual therapy, it’s not a bad idea to support the liver.

• Consider Detoxication Factors by Integrative Health. Available through Fullscript at a 10% discount. (Link at the bottom of the page https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/)

Digestion

If you have any kind of digestive issue, consider doing the Whole 30 before you come. The Whole 30 is a good way to temporarily restrict all the top food allergins and sensitivities as well as sugar. The Whole 30 decreases inflammation, potentially kills yeast and bacterial gut overgrowth, and gives you an idea of which foods you are sensitive to when you add each food in one at a time looking for reactions.

Lymphatic Drainage

It is important to start getting the lymph moving through the upper chest and upper back since the whole body drains here. One simple way of supporting this process is to end each shower with cold water. After your shower, turn off the hot water and let the cold water run over your head, over your upper back, turn and let it run into your armpit, turn and let it run over your chest, turn and let it run over your other armpit, turn and let it run over your head and repeat it all again. You are finished when you feel your head clear and your feel light and happy. This is the short-cut version of a deep lymph hydrotherapy that you can find here. It is a lot more dramatic, and you need to follow these deep lymph hydrotherapy instructions carefully and expect a dramatic response.

Breath

Proper physiologic breathing is necessary for correct muscle and diaphragm (transverse plane) activation, along with correct drainage patterns. I have found one of the best ways to teach correct physiologic breathing is by using the resistance breathing pipe to retrain your body. https://naturalwomenshealthinstitute.com/2023/06/02/how-to-do-resistance-breathing-and-why/

• Consider getting a resistance breathing pipe and practicing physiologic breathing 5 minutes a day before you come for your Healing Vacation

Muscle Activation

Many chronic issues (especially pelvic issues) are exacerbated by improper firing of postural muscles and the diaphragms (transverse planes) of the body. Begin practicing these principles at home before your Healing Vacation

• When you talk, laugh, cough, sneeze or lift the respiratory diaphragm and pelvic floor diaphragm should lift, and the core muscles should engage and move toward the spine.
• Notice if your tummy pooches out with any of those activities, or if your pelvic floor releases and lowers.
• If your muscles and pelvic floor is not engaging properly use your mind to activate the core and the pelvic floor right before you push out air through talking, laughing, sneezing, coughing, or exerting. Feel the tummy come toward your spine and your pelvic floor lift. If you can’t actually feel them move at first, keep trying. Everything starts with the mind.

Only 30 breaths a day can change your life!

Although the benefits of resistance breathing are not new knowledge, COVID lung has brought the practice to the fore. Resistance breath training improves lung function, cardiovascular function, and autonomic function. Resistance breathing also correctly activates the transverse planes (diaphragms) of the body and the core muscles so you are able to drain your fluid body more optimally and optimize musculoskeletal and organ function.

Only 5 minutes a day of resistance breathing can improve

• blood pressure
• blood vessel tone
• oxygen saturation
• pulse rate
• respiration rate
• lung capacity
• obstructive sleep apnea
• exercise duration
• inflammation

What is resistance breath training?

Resistance breath training involves breathing into and out of a little pipe that costs about $50. You can turn a knob and set the degree of resistance for in and out breaths. The resistance of the pipe forces the chest respiratory muscles to activate properly, and also properly activates the core musculature that is involved in creating a canister required for optimal breathing.

Resistance breathing forces you to breathe correctly. When you breathe correctly the muscles move properly, endothelial nitric oxide is released, the lungs fill and empty properly, and circulation improves.

The research shows that only five minutes of resistance breathing a day is as good as going to the gym for lowering your blood pressure.

TIP: Do both

Here is an example of the pipe. Not all pipes have in and out resistance. This one has both.

https://www.amazon.com/Breather-Inspiratory-Expiratory-Respiratory-Trainer/dp/B00FE8N7Y4

The app and instructions for this pipe do not cohere with physiologic breathing practices. Please follow the instructions in this protocol so you can implement physiologic breathing.

How to do resistance breath training

• Brush your teeth or at least rinse out your mouth
• Set your resistance breathing device at the highest number for inhale and for exhale resistance
• Position the device in your mouth and breathe in and out only through your mouth
• Use the highest setting for a couple breaths so you can feel the muscles fire automatically
• Decrease the resistance to a level you can continue for 30 breaths
• Breathe in for three seconds
• Breathe out for seven seconds
• Repeat these slow breaths for five minutes.
• Practice resistance breathing most days
• Practice resistance breathing if you feel anxious and it will quickly put you into parasympathetic dominance so you feel more at ease

If you get tired, dizzy, can’t catch your breath or have a racing heart STOP

Wait until the next day and try again with less resistance or faster breaths or shorter duration of treatment.

Slow resistance breathing is physiologic breathing

Our bodies are designed to breathe six times every minute. For optimal autonomic tone we should breathe in for three seconds (stimulating the sympathetic nervous system) and out for seven seconds (stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system).

We are designed to be strong. When our core muscles are strong, with the ribcage they act as a canister for breathing, and our body itself offers resistance to the breath. Because most of us do not have strong enough core muscles or intercostal muscles (between the ribs) we are not able to practice resistance breathing without the aid of a device.

Normal physiologic breathing fills the lungs from bottom to top. As the lungs fill, the ribcage expands two inches circumferentially. There is no elevation of the ribcage becasue the transversus abdominus is holding the ribcage down toward the pelvis. After the ribcage has maximally expanded, the lungs push the respiratory diaphragm down and the belly resists the displacement of the organs as the pelvic diaphragm also lowers.

When we breathe out the respiratory diaphragm and pelvic diaphragm elevate and the abdomen and chest shrink circumferentially two inches.

Using the device for resistance breathing helps us to strengthen and optimize our own canister so that long term we will not need the device, but will be strong enough in ourselves to provide proper resistance for breathing.