Mind Body Diabetes

A Nottingham author’s positive solution to halt diabetes.

Dr Emma Mardlin - psychotherapist and practitioner of mind body medicine at the Pinnacle Practice in West Bridgford - is the writer of Mind Body Diabetes, a practical resource book that will provide a valuable support for people with all types of diabetes and other illnesses. 

Writing from experience, having lived with T1 diabetes for over twenty years, Emma offers her own personal story, which includes achieving 5.8% HbA1C on minimal insulin. This history, combined with her expertise in mind body medicine, helps to make this book a wonderful companion for those wishing to emotionally and physically break free from diabetes.

The information is based on science and many facts are offered in addition to the personal anecdotes and inspiring case studies. Whilst it’s written in an accessible, friendly manner, much of the advice requires the reader to adopt a new mental approach, sourcing the root of negative emotions and releasing or replacing them. Underpinning this work is that every thought and emotion affects every cell in the body. As the mind and body are constantly communicating in a cause and effect cycle the book focuses on our physical and mental states.   

Our body undertakes vital work, done unconsciously (the majority of our breathing for example), and yet we undervalue, or at least under-acknowledge, our greatest resource, the unconscious and subconscious workings of the mind. The idea that our constantly replacing cells have intelligence and memory, and that these memories are not just held in the brain but our entire neural network, is an engrossing theory that's backed up.

Diabetes, blood sugar levels and hormones are inextricably linked, so it is necessary to carefully balance hormones in as natural a way as possible. There are many strategies suggested by Emma that can help - she likens her managing of diabetes to managing a company - such as meditation and visualisation (there’s one cool technique involving peripheral vision) and diet (Emma’s The Acceleration Plan is a valuable addition). There’s a real effort to put over the damaging impact of negativity. Avoiding negative thought and, when possible, negative people is only part of the battle though, the real goal is in citing the origin of trauma and safely releasing it, replacing it with positive thoughts and benefiting from the subsequent physiological reactions. In understanding a reason for something it seems easier to accept and treat it.

A positive approach is taken through all the levels of support on offer, with the only scorn falling on the social and medical perceptions of diabetes which are regularly challenged here, with the label ‘diabetic’ coming under particular fire. It does seem that the medical profession have been found wanting in regards to attitudes to diabetes, certainly if some of Emma’s experiences are anything to go on.

The idea that our emotions can lead to illness is not a radical one and there’s no need for a leap of faith, only a willingness to think outside the doctor’s door, being prepared to tackle diabetes on many levels. 

Can diabetes be temporary, even reversed? Maybe. One thing’s for sure, you won’t think about dis-ease the same way again.

Emma Mardlin’s website http://www.dr-em.co.uk/