Behavioural Medicine (Mind-Body Medicine)

Practising physician David Beales specialises in whole person medicine. He successfully treats a wide range of stress related conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia and unexplained medical symptoms with the aim of restoring the body’s self-regulatory ability.

He recently co-authored ‘Emotional Healing for Dummies’, the latest in the well known Dummies Guide series. He has published extensively in this area and has a particular interest in breathing re-training. Breath regulation is disturbed by too much pressure from old or recent emotional trauma. He is able to measure breath chemistry using the direct estimation of carbon dioxide in the out breath. Breathing retraining is evidence based and recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the treatment of asthma.

David has a training in mindfulness based cognitive behavioural therapy and in solution focused psychotherapy.

What is Mind-Body Medicine?

This medically researched system of diagnosis and treatment uses the connection between the mind and body to treat a wide range of conditions. These include everyday problems such as stress, through to conditions with previously unexplained symptoms, which account for over 50% of presenting cases in GP surgeries and hospital outpatients.

Dr David Beales is well known in the medical world for his specialism in mind-body medicine. His clinical research on the subject has been presented to the Royal Society of Medicine and the College of General Practitioners.

Clinical Research

His research has explained the correlation between unresolved /unexpressed negative emotions and the physical effects on the body, with the subsequent range of results:

• Breathing dysfunction – ‘overbreathing’
• Over-arousal of the nervous system – heightened ‘fight or flight’ response
• Hormonal disturbances
• Immune system imbalance leading to inflammatory conditions
• Increase in accompanying serious disease such as cancer and coronary artery disease

Dr Beales uses a combination of techniques to restore balance, including in-depth discussion of the problem and measurement of breathing and heart rate variability using specialist equipment, and re-educates his patients using techniques such as breath control, capnography and heart rate variability to create their mind body tool kit.

Conditions Treated Include

• Headache syndromes - Fatigue
• Insomnia - Hypertension
• Phobias - Irritable Bowel Syndrome/Irritable bladder
• Trauma - Unexplained symptoms
• Depression/anxiety - Asthma
• Fibromyalgia - Chronic pain

Contact The Complete Health Centre to book an appointment or to find out more visit David's website at www.mindfulphysiology.co.uk.