April: Rosie recommends...

How lovely is this sunshine? Long may it last. I hope you are out making the most of it. The good weather has inspired me to come up with a new blog item - my current favourite things taken from the worlds of science, art and health. So here is my top 5 list for April.

1. Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern

Yayoi Kusama
The Passing Winter 2005 (detail)
© Tate. Presented by the Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2008. Photo: Tate Photography

The Tate's retrospective of Kusama's incredible career is an inspiration. In 1977 Kusama, now in her 80s, moved voluntarily in a psychiatric institution, taking up a studio nearby to work. In a wide range of media, including paintings and installations, Kusama's creations are deeply personal, revealing her obsessive inclinations and desire to express her psychological trauma through art. This could make for an unsettling and dark experience, however my sense on seeing this amazing woman's life work was to feel a real joy that such brilliant creative minds exist, even if those minds might be difficult to inhabit.

2. Learning something new

I've undertaken a personal endeavour this month, by taking a course of swimming lessons to learn front crawl properly. I couldn't really swim until I was well into secondary school and that was only by some fluke of realising on a family holiday that I could do a strange form of sidestroke. For some reason my swimming lessons at school were overly preoccupied with swimming in pyjamas and picking up rubber bricks. Lessons with an instructor at my local gym, have given me the technique and confidence to make some real progress. Learning as an adult doesn't always seem easy- pride and nerves often get in the way- but if there is something that you have been wanting to learn for a while but keep putting off, then I urge you to take some positive steps today! It's well worth it.

3. Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? by Alex Hutchinson Ph.D

  

If I have one criticism of this excellent book on the science of exercise, it is that the title doesn’t do it justice. Hutchinson is a journalist and physicist, and a new contributor to Runner’s World magazine in the UK. Which Comes First, if I may abbreviate the title, is an analysis of scientific findings, covering such questions as What role does my brain play in fatigue? Should I exercise when sick? Chapters are split into useful categories such as Fitness Gear and Injuries and Recovery and provide a factual and in my opinion unbiased overview. One for the exercise geeks. 

4. The London Marathon

I love watching the London Marathon. When I worked in Events at the ICA on the Mall, we ran the official press centre downstairs and the Great Ormond Street Hospital runner’s reception upstairs. The atmosphere was always incredible and you couldn't help but feel impressed by the magnitude of the event. The sense of achievement around the finishing area is infectious. This year’s race takes place on 22nd April, with coverage on the BBC that will have you humming the theme music all day. Good luck to all the runners, including my friend Debbie who is running it for the first time and has an excellent blog on her training experience. 

5. Brains: The Mind as Matter at The Wellcome Collection

Ok, so this one isn’t actually on yet, however the Wellcome Collection can do no wrong in my eyes and I am eagerly awaiting the opening of this new exhibition.  

"Our major new free exhibition seeks to explore what humans have done to brains in the name of medical intervention, scientific enquiry, cultural meaning and technological change.

Featuring over 150 artefacts including real brains, artworks, manuscripts, artefacts, videos and photography, 'Brains' follows the long quest to manipulate and decipher the most unique and mysterious of human organs, whose secrets continue to confound and inspire." 

Exhibition runs from 29th March – 17th June 2012

Book Review: Human Anatomy, Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today

The crossover between art and science is something that has always interested me. I read Art History at university and then worked for four years at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. In recent years, especially since training as a craniosacral therapist, my direction has turned more towards the sciences. I am currently studying Health Sciences and Psychology with the Open University. However I am still fascinated by the aesthetics of things. Books and places which encompass both worlds are my ideal, which is why the Wellcome Collection is one of my favourite places in town. (More about the Wellcome to come in future blogs.)

I attended an excellent talk at the Wellcome Collection several years ago by the broadcaster and anatomist Sarah Simblet who was discussing the relationship between anatomy and art. This was a trigger to what has become an ongoing fascination with anatomical drawings. Whilst on my craniosacral training I loved the time spent poring over my copy of Clemente Anatomy and I often still enjoy perusing my Netter's Anatomy flash cards on my iPhone.

For this reason, I would like to recommend 'Human Anatomy, Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today'. It is a beautiful, visually exciting book, filled with a wide range of well-reproduced illustrations. Although there is always going to be an element of the macabre with such a high content of skeletons and ever-revealing layers of fascia and organs, the technical detail and historical context transform these images into something more profound.


'Human Anatomy' takes the reader on a historical and geographical journey, combining the influence of several centuries of scientific development with the artistic inspirations of a number of European anatomical illustrators. It is interesting to note how much anatomical art from the 15th - 19th centuries utilises the concept of the cadaver or skeleton 'in vivo'. Partially dissected bodies strike poses whilst taking walks through the countryside. Skeletons kneel dramatically in prayer. Later work shows the influence of of the dissection rooms and the themes become more detailed and structural. The final chapter covers 'Anatomy in the Digital Age' and the influence of CT scans and MRIs.

In my opinion, 'Human Anatomy, Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today' is a fascinating book, which works as a visual treat as much as an authoritative instruction on the history and significance of anatomical art to science.

Human Anatomy, Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today by Benjamin A. Rifkin, Michael J Ackerman and Judith Folkenberg is published by Thames & Hudson.

Comment: The effects of injury on mind and body

It has been almost two months since my last blog post and the reason for this is that, to be honest, I haven’t felt like writing. At the end of November I hurt my ankle badly, tripping over a manhole cover. After a visit to A&E for an X-ray, I was diagnosed with just a bad sprain and given crutches. Now, I am too aware of greater health issues around me to make any claim about my bad ankle being the end of the world. I am too touched by such cases as that of Melanie Reid, who is bravely documenting her rehabilitation after major spinal injury, in the Saturday Times. However, I am interested in how much I have learnt both about myself and about being injured from this fall, which I think will make me a better practitioner.

One of the things I noticed first about being physically impeded, is how low I felt when my support mechanism, the cheering effects of exercise, was removed from me. Until last year, I used to not do much exercise at all. I was only spurred into action after an osteopath, having stretched out my super tight hamstrings, commented that I obviously lead a very sedentary life. I was so outraged that he could say such a thing and even more annoyingly be correct, that I promptly joined my local gym. Over the course of 2011 I moved on to regular weight training, cycling, bouldering on a climbing wall, boxing, and most recently running.

Endorphins are mighty things and I loved the buzz of exercise. I found running or cycling around the park and the canal, intensely liberating and satisfying. I have learnt that I really enjoy the release from boxing, though not to the extent that I would want to hit anything other than a pad. So, when I tripped and damaged my ankle ligaments and became slow, dependent and sore, I felt physically and emotionally trapped. I didn’t want to write this blog; meeting up with friends became a tricky transport issue. Christmas on crutches became something of a chore. So many things went on hold until I could move properly again. 

The mind and the body are inextricably linked. It is essential that we learn to be aware of what our resources are, in order to keep both body and mind supported and nurtured. Resources are those things that keep our spirits up. They can be places, real or imagined: sunny beaches, mountain tops, quiet gardens. Or activities: cooking, reading, gardening, exercising. Meeting friends, being around animals, whatever that element may be, I encourage you to spend some time yourself, thinking about your resources and how you can use them to keep you energised inside and out. 

This morning I went out on my bike for the first time since my fall. The canal was iced over in zigzag patterns and the January sunshine lit my route around a glorious Victoria Park. It felt so good, so uplifting to be out again. And physically, the ankle feels ok too, despite the fact that my fitness has plummeted. Most importantly I have come straight back home and started writing, because being back in the saddle, engaging in my resources, has opened my mind up to thinking creatively again.

I have learnt that I am not very good at being injured. I can’t say I rose to the challenge, because despite only having a sprained ankle, I didn’t feel emotionally capable. However I have also learnt how important it is to keep engaged with the things that make us feel vital, however difficult or far away that challenge may be. I urge you to do the same.

Comment: Can there be a middle ground between complementary therapy and science?

I practise craniosacral therapy- a form of complementary therapy- and I strongly believe that the work that I do is highly effective and makes a difference. However, I also like science, I’m a pragamatist, I like logic, facts and common sense. I’ve spent seven years training and practising in a career which modern medicine does not recognise and the last two years as a student of the Social Sciences department of the Open University. Can my two worlds be mutually beneficial and work in tandem for the benefit of my practice?

Complementary therapy, alternative or holistic health, however it is described, has been under much scrutiny recently with Advertising Standards cracking down on marketing claims on websites and promotional material. In particular the chiropractors and homeopaths have been top of the target list. Whilst I see every reason that there should be professional regulation and standards kept for the welfare of those seeking help, the focus on scientific evidence as the be-all and end-all leaves me personally in a quandary.

I left a career in publishing to train as a craniosacral therapist. In my time in event management I worked on high profile events, big PR promotions and record company launches. I wouldn’t have given up this livelihood if I didn’t think craniosacral therapy was the best thing ever- if I didn’t think this therapy could make a huge difference to people’s health and well-being.

But I must admit that there is part of me that wishes craniosacral therapy was recognised by the medical profession. I hear terms like pseudo-science bandied around the social media, and my science head, that is full of facts and supporting evidence, wishes that there was research to back up what I do.

However scientific research is precise and expensive. Craniosacral therapy would be difficult to test and I have no idea how craniosacral motion itself could even be measured. Although we have the same principles, I’m sure craniosacral therapists all work slightly differently, so a small group would not be representative of the work in general.

One of the most important lessons I learnt during my training was being comfortable with the not knowing. I do not diagnose or locate disease, I look for and promote the presence of health. I do not need to identify the absolutes, because what my client’s body knows is more important. So for this reason I will keep the openness of a complementary therapist but combine it with a scientist’s curiosity and perhaps cynicism. This can’t be a bad combination.

Book Review: Threads of Hope, Learning to Live with Depression

I have personal experience of depression through caring for a family member and it is horrid for all involved. It is distressing, baffling, exhausting, and all-consuming. And I can only speak as someone indirectly affected. I can only try to put myself in the shoes of someone living with its effects and as a craniosacral therapist I can offer an empathetic space and a chance to nurture one’s body.

I came across Threads of Hope, Learning to Live with Depression, edited by Flora McDonnell some years ago, at a time when I was searching to understand the condition better. Rather than being purely information-based, Threads of Hope is a collection of writing – thoughts, poetry and personal observations- by a group of people from many varied backgrounds, from novelists and politicians to the primary school teacher and the nurse. What they all have in common is that depression has played, or is still playing a significant part in their lives.

It’s a very emotive book. You can’t help but feel the pain of those involved. It is a rich and vivid mix of history, literature and some very personal insights:

“Depression removes me from every kind of joy and every kind of disaster. It involves, for me, a shutting off from life. It is the cruellest and loneliest of illnesses.” Virginia Ironside, quoted in Threads of Hope

I found Threads of Hope a fascinating read, subtly educational and sensitively edited. In my opinion, as someone wanting to understand others better, it is a frank but thoughtfully positive collection of writing. I would recommend it as a gentle read, to those who are both directly and indirectly affected by this illness.

I leave you with a final quotation, which struck a particular chord with me:

“The opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality”. Andrew Solomon, quoted in Threads of Hope.

Threads of Hope, Learning to Live with Depression, edited by Flora McDonnell is published by Short Books, 2003.

DVD Review: The Origins of Us

Alongside The Frozen Planet, the BBC's Origins of Us series with Dr Alice Roberts was yet another compelling reason for continuing to pay the licence fee. And the good news for those who missed it, is that it's now out on DVD. As someone who loved going to the Natural History Museum as a child and who once learnt a book on Neanderthals completely off by heart just because I was interested, I was fascinated by the programme’s insights into our evolution.

With glorious amber sunlight washing across the African savannah, episode one saw us jump down from the trees and become upright beings. In proving how our skeletons changed to accommodate man’s need to run, Dr Alice provoked Twitter into something of a frenzy, by sticking electrodes to her bottom and taking enthusiastically to a treadmill. Feedback appeared to be swinging, like the chimps in the programme, between those impressed by Dr A’s academic credentials and the rest enjoying watching her sweat in lycra whilst gazing into the middle distance.

But the programme really was enlightening. Crossing continents willy-nilly and spanning millions of years, the series covered why and how humans became long distance runners, how eating meat wasn’t the sole reason we developed bigger brains (cooking carrots had a lot to do with it) and how grandmothers inspired the population boom.

The Origins of Us is well worth watching. It is beautifully shot, factual enough to be educational but with enough narrative and aesthetic impact even for those who might not choose to watch science on a quiet night in. A genuinely thoughtful piece of television presented by someone who clearly loves the subject.

The Origins of Us BBC DVD and Evolution The Human Story both by Dr Alice Roberts are out now.