Subrideo Blog

The BBC reported today on a study which took place at the University of Aberdeen where researchers looked at the sperm of over 2000 men in couples having problems conceiving. What they found was that the heaviest men had a higher proportion of abnormal sperm, as well as other problems. It is thought that this may be due to haivng too much fat around their testicles which causes them to heat up. Being obese is already known to affect women's chances of getting pregnant, so if both parties are obese, this could have a significant impact.

Dr Ghiyath Shayeb, who led the research, said: "Our findings were quite independent of any other factors and seem to suggest that men who are trying for a baby with their partners, should first try to achieve an ideal body weight..."

On the basis that other studies have also linked obesity to DNA damage in the sperm, plus how obesity can create problems in pregnancy, it is so important for couples to achieve and maintain a healthy weight at this key time in their lives. It is also an opportunity for a new baby to grow up with parents who live a healthy lifestyle and this will break the obesity cycle which often is passed on from generation to generation.

To read the BBS article go to this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7494777.stm

Here we are again writing another blog post about someone going under the knife and using self hypnosis to relax them to a state whereby they feel no pain.

In this case, the lady was Bernadine Coady, 67 who used the skills she learned from a hypnotherapy course 15 years ago to bring herself into a deep state of relaxation. This isnt the first time she has used self hypnosis in this way, ten years ago she underwent an operation which involved a surgeon sawing into the bone of her foot, using only hypnosis. At the time she said: 'I said to myself that if I had any pain I was going to liken it to waves lashing against a sea wall. Every time it happened, I thought it was the pain going away, like the tide. '

In a BBC News report yesterday, she stated that she could feel "tugging", and there was some discomfort, but no pain

A spokesman for the National Council for Hypnotherapy was quoted in the Telegraph Newspaper, saying that the technique has been used for centuries for pain relief. He added: "It is used often other countries, for example Belgium, as an alternative to anesthetics and patients report that it is very successful, that they feel no pain during their operations."

In addition to the impact during an operation, people using hypnosis in this way are often reported to have quicker recovery times.

Hypnosis can be used for controlling pain in many circumstances, it is now more commonly being used by dentists, for childbirth and and where a person experiences pain which is otherwise untreatable. The key thing about controlling pain is as Bernadine rightly points out is to be totally relaxed, this way, the bodies own natural pain killers (endorphins) can be utilised. Then, by using visualisations you can stay in this state and manage any levels of discomfort as they may come and go.

If you would like to learn more about hypnosis, we will be covering how to handle pain plus many other interesting topics in our workshop in Brighton, UK on 29th and 30th November 2008. To find out more, proceed to our training site form this link:

http://training.subrideo.com/index.php?page=course_hypnosis_intro

To read the telegraph article go to this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2263867/Pensioner-has-knee-surgery-under-hypnosis.html

Tomorrow (14th June 2008) is World Blood Donor Day. See this from the World Blood Donor Day website:

Millions of people owe their lives to people they will never meet – people who donate their blood freely and without any reward. However, the overwhelming majority of the world’s population do not have access to safe blood. Over 80 million units of blood are donated every year, but only 38% are collected in developing countries where 82% of the global population live.

This is something that we at Subrideo fully support and as a result give blood on a regular basis. When Juliet and myself created Subrideo one of our main drivers was the ripple effect. We really like the idea that helping a person not only helps them directly but ripples out to the interactions that that person may have with their family, friends and people they work with. The difference you can make to the world by helping just one person is huge and you never really know where those ripples will stop. Who know, maybe they never do.

The same thing can be said when giving blood. You take half an hour out of your day to give blood and within a matter of hours that blood broken down and each part is ready to help someone who you may never meet. When giving blood it is great to think about the ripple effect and all of those lives that you will be saving by donating a little of your blood and time.

However, the thought of giving blood can send shivers down some people's spines for a large number of reasons whether this is because they have a fear of needles or a phobia of blood. These issues are more common than people think and and a good number of these people would love to give blood if given the chance. It is for this reason and to support World Blood Donor Day that Subrideo is offering FREE treatments for your phobia so long as this leads to you giving blood.

Come along and get your phobia dealt with once and for all, give blood and save some lives.... it is as simple as that.

Contact us now to see how we can help you save the lives of people you will probably never meet.

So BB9 has begun, hurrah! Now obviously I'm only watching it for professional research purposes, so on your behalf I shall be reporting on the impact of stripping away people's human givens and how this is affecting them, together with reviewing how people are dealing with issues which will no doubt crop up.

At first glance, the house looks very similar to the normal way of BB, some sumptuous places and other stripped bare, a great swimming pool, a smoking area, plus some interesting cell type rooms just to decrease the inmates level of control even further. Add to that the lack of privacy in the bathroom (and therefore anywhere), the show will no doubt bring out some interesting patterns of behaviour as everyone scrambles to meet their basic needs.

Here are some of the more interesting characters and (only based on what the show has told us at this stage) what behaviours we might start to see … why not join me in seeing if the Subrideo predictions pan out?

The couple - Mario and Lisa
To bring you up to speed - they have joined as the first couple, but as a task from BB, they have to pretend they have only just met. Mario has to pretend he is the boyfriend of pretty young Stephanie. What they don't know is that BB is going to get Mario and Stephanie married at the weekend (it will be a pretend one, but they wont know). So how will this pan out. Will Lisa handle the lack of control and attention from her partner? My guess is that Mario will go with it, but Lisa will not handle it quite as well and if her body language and constant glances don't give her away, she could well feel the need to fill the gap with someone else in the house, or will feel the need to confide in someone.

Kathreya
She went in last, but she is certainly no means least and is already my favourite (not that I have one - just doing this for professional reasons only). Kathreya seems to have quite a lot of resources to handle events in BB house and will probably be someone who people confide in. I think the only thing which she may find an issue is when she runs out of cookies.

Michael
Michael is blind and is obviously incredibly self sufficient and wont need much help, however other people's need to give attention may well land at his door. In particular, I think Rachel and Rebecca (aka Vicky Pollard) could well try to forge a relationship here, but I have a feeling Michael may push back as he does not display the same level of need to receive attention. More likely he will try to forge out the position as comic in the house.

Darnell
Darnell has obviously been through quite a lot and depending on how he has learned to handle these situations will result in how he handles it in the house.

In addition, it was mentioned that quite a few of the people have religious beliefs, so perhaps this will help them as BB strips away everything else which is familiar to them and puts them under the spotlight, although the beliefs do seem to differ, so maybe the need to be understood might be more difficult?...

So watch this space and feel free to make your own comments about what you think!

Juliet

If you're like me you like to know what's going on as soon as it happens or sooner if possible. With all the news and information flying at us these days we need a simple way of staying up to date with the people we are interested in with minimal effort.

By the time you finish reading this post you will have found out how to stay updated with everything that Subrideo is doing.

Have you noticed the little box on the right hand side of all of our websites? This little box is our latest news section and it displays 3 or 4 items of our most recent news.

Where does this news come from I hear you ask?

Subrideo is now using a service called Twitter to publish all of its news, what we are reading, interesting articles, information on our courses and whenever we post anything to this blog or our FREE on-line metaphor database.

You can see all our news on our dedicated twitter page - http://twitter.com/subrideo

But there is more....

You can create your own twitter account and follow us. What this means is that you can be notified whenever we update our twitter account. Once you have created your twitter account, go to the Subrideo page - http://twitter.com/subrideo and click on the follow button. Thats all you need to do.

I highly recommend that you have a search around on twitter as there are a lot of great people or companies to follow and keep up to date with.

Enjoy
Lee