Susie Cornell MBE

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Susie Cornell MBE
Natural Health Consultant

Because you made it here, I assume that you are looking for information, advice and help.My life-long walk with my own health condition has given me a unique insight into the symptoms your are experiencing and has given me the knowledge and experience of coping with other 'difficult to treat health conditions.' Let me assure you that with this I can offer you positive help and advice for you to manage and take more control of your own health. On this site you will find a great deal of information.

Who is Susie Cornell MBE.,DL ?B.H.M.A,. E.F.M.A., G.C.P.,I.T.E.C. (hons).,

Susie Cornell

'I cannot recommend this book too highly to people with MS as well as to those involved in the care of people with MS - for all of whom it provides a wider and sympathetic understanding of where so much help in improving quality of life is possible but little is currently available' - Dr Paul Sherwood, Harley Street consultant, London

This book contains a wealth of sound, practical advice and information for those unfortunate enough to have MS, ladled out generously with a seasoning of Susie Cornell's uniquely optimistic spirit. I know this is a book that will bring help and support to many' - Richard Thomas, author of the The Natural Way with MS

'Susie's work is essential for the well-being of fellow sufferers, keeping them in the best possible shape for the time when our researchers come up with the cure we all hope and pray for' -Diana McGovern, secretary, The Myelin Project

'Susie Cornell is a shining example of the belief that the most important thing in combating any handicap is to remain positive and fit' - Anthea Turner, GMTV, London

THE COMPLETE MS BODY MANUAL

A handbook of effective treatment for people with Multiple Sclerosis and those who care for them Susie Cornell

Contents

Acknowledgements vi Foreword by Anthea Turner ix Preface by Dr Paul Sherwood and Richard Thomas xi An introduction to the author by Ian Cornell xiii

Introduction xvii

1 So you think you've got MS 1
2 You've been diagnosed with MS 11
3 Problems with the eyes 23
4 Problems with the face, speech and balance 45
5 Problems with the hands and arms 57
6 Problems with the back and spine 78
7 Problems with the bladder and bowels 103
8 Problems with the legs and feet 116
9 Problems with sexual health 133
10 Problems with tiredness and fatigue 141
11 Problems with depression 152
Appendix A
Susie's complete illustrated exercise programme 161
Appendix B
The 'leaky gut' connection 174
Appendix C
Taking food supplements 178
Resources
Courses for therapists and carers 183
The Susie Cornell Foundation 184
Useful addresses 185
Useful further reading 188
Index 189

Acknowledgements

To the many people who have helped me in so many different ways I would like to say thank you. Thank you especially to the people who have believed and trusted in me, particularly all t hose who have come to me for help and guidance with MS and to the patients I have seen over the last five years who have willingly given their time to be a part of my MS therapy and research programme. I would not have been able to achieve anything without them and I hope they have benefited from the programme as much as I have benefited from helping them.

Thanks also to the Peto Institute in Hungary and the Foundation for Conductive Education in Birmingham, especially to Andrew Sutton who made it possible for me to attend the Institute in the first place and conductors Mel Brown and Aggi Mikula

Toch who gave me the inspi - ration and determination to succeed; to Bryyon Lambert who shared his valuable insights into bio -engineering with me; to Dr Paul Sherwood who allowed me to study his unique approach to physical therapy; to the International Therapy Examinations Council (ITEC) for helping me to qualify as a professional therapist and tutor; to the MS campaigner Diana McGovern, secretary of the British Trust f or the Myelin Project, who is always there when I need her; to John Simpkins of the MS Resource Centre, my local MS charity CHARMS and other MS organi - sations who have helped or supported me over the years; and to all the team at Under Pressure for their support and encouragement throughout. For their help with this book thanks to Samantha Christie and Sue Lamming of Lamberts Healthcare (Nature's Best) for their invaluable nutritional input;

to the health writer Richard Thomas for his priceless assistance in organising my material and showing me how to present it in a clear and readable way; to Nick Baxter for the illustrations, David Simpson for the design and production; and to Wilf Preece for the cover and photograph. Thanks are also due to Anthea Turner for her constant support over many years; to my family and friends who have lived with my work and put up with me through the bad times as well as the good;

to my nephew Ben, a sufferer from cerebral palsy, who was with me at the Peto Institute; and last, but by no means of course least, to my husband Ian for being there for me, supporting, cajoling, and encouraging so that I not only kept my eyes clearly on the vision but my feet firmly on the ground. I hope they all think it has been as worth while in the end as I do.
To Ian
by Anthea Turner

Susie Cornell is a friend I have known for many years and who I admire greatly. Like many people, Susie discovered she had MS in the prime of her life with everything to live for and a lot of li ving still to do. That fighting spirit and zest never left her and in discovering ways to help her own condition, she set out to help others. This book is a result of that journey.

One of her main achievements is the unique and revolutionary health and fitness centre she has created in Essex with her husband Ian. Catering for all those many people who might otherwise be intimidated by the 'muscle -bound' environment usually found at such clubs, Under Pressure in Chelmsford is a model of friendliness and accessibility — where no one is put under any pressure if they don't want it!

Susie has not found a cure for MS — no one has — but she has discovered significant ways of improving the quality of life. She is a shining example of the belief that the most import ant thing in combating any handicap is to remain positive and fit. After reading this book I hope you will be positive and fit too! Foreword
GMTV London
June 1996
Note
This book gives information and guidance based on the experience of a trained therapist and has been shown to be effective in practice bat it is not intended to replace professional medical advice. Readers are advised to consult a qualified practitioner for an opinion before committing themselves to the treatments described in this book.

Preface
Dr Paul Sherwood MB, BCh
Best-selling author of The Back and Beyond, The Heart Revolution and Asthma and Beyond I have been privileged to know Susie Cornell for several years now and have occasionally worked with her. She is an inspiration not only to all people with multiple sclerosis but also to doctors and other professional healthcarers she comes into contact with over the treat - ment of this distressing and disabling illness.

With so many intractable diseases like MS one finds views generally polarised between those who take the negative line — that the disease is incurable and sufferers cannot really be helped — and others with a more positive approach. This is the one which says that even though there may yet be no cure there is much that can be done to improve the quality of life of the people involved so let's do it.

The positive approach in MS is the one that says patients' quality of life can be greatly improved by helping them to cope better with the disease by understanding it, by using their bo dies to the very best potential possible, by providing them with facilities that allow them to overcome many of their problems, and — from my own experience of treating people with MS — by giving them the physical therapy and exercises employed by Susie Cornell.

These exercises, developed by Susie very carefully and skilfully over many years of practical experience with her own disability and that of others, are not only of great value in helping people manage the effects of MS but also delay the progress o f the disease and improve the patient's actual physical condition.

I cannot therefore recommend this book too highly to people with MS as well as to those involved in the care of people with MS, to relatives and friends of people who suffer and to the publ ic at large — for all of whom it provides a wider and sympathetic understanding of where so much help in improving quality of life is possible but little is currently available.
Harley Street,
London, England.

Richard Thomas
Author of The Natural Way with MS
People, especially doctors, often ask me what qualifications non - doctors have for writing the sort of book Susie Cornell has here. By what right do 'amateurs' claim to offer the advice they do, say the 'professionals'? The hidden question, the one they really mean, of course, is what are non-doctors doing horning in on 'our' patch? It is certainly true that Susie Cornell is not a doctor and has no formal medical qualifications. But the reply I give in specific examples such as this book is the reply Susie herself gives — and it is the best anyone can give in my opinion: she's been there, done it, and come through. In other words, her qualifications are those of experience. She's not only lived with MS for more than 20 years but worked out exactly how to help herself in the most practical and positive way possible. Not many doctors can say that!

What is also important, though, is that Susie has not confined her discoveries to herself, as many might, but reached out to others to share her benefits with them — and give to them some of the positive spirit she radiates. For this she is only to be thanked and applauded as far as I'm concerned. Heaven knows the medical profession at large does little enough for people with MS.

That is why I am more than happy to support this book. It does not contain any mysterious secret or offer overnight 'miracle' cures from a cola bottle that build up hopes unrealistically one day only to see them dashed to the ground the next. It holds something much more precious for all tho se unfortunate enough to have MS: a wealth of sound, positive advice and information ladled out generously with that special seasoning that is Susie's uniquely optimistic style.

I know this is a book that will bring help and support to many and one of the most important ways it will do so is by lifting the spirits of all who read it with its message of hope. There are few more important things anyone in the field of healing can do — doctor or non-doctor. I wish Susie and all those with MS the best of luck in the world.

Shaftesbury,
Dorset, England.

An Introduction to the author
The most infectious thing is a smile'
The saying above has been Susie's watchword for years now and nothing sums up her life and work better. A smile is a most infectious thing, indeed. Most people know it but few of them have had to overcome the problems Susie has and still believe in it. Smiling, though, is her trademark. No matter what life has thrown at her — and to date Susie's journey through life has been nothing if not difficult — she has always managed not only to keep smiling herself but to keep those around her smiling too.

I did not know Susie in her early years in Birmingham but those who did, her family most of all, tell me she was just the same then. Of course, she was not to know at that time that she would be struck down by MS by the time she was barely out of her teens but the remarkable thing about Susie is that even if she had known I doubt she would have been very different. Her positive attitude to life and her determination to succeed at all costs is an inspiration to all who know her. It is what attracted me to her in the first place and it is that same attitude that is now attracting those unfortunate enough, like her, to suffer from MS.

Who is this remarkable woman? Let me tell you just a little about her. The early years

After grammar school, Susie's zest for life and her looks soon took her away from her first job as a secretary into fashion modelling. This was a career that demanded long hours and hard work as well as making punishing demands on the body from the constant dieting to retain that all-important figure. But at least there was the travelling and it was travel that took her next to Majorca.

A chance meeting with the American owner of the English - language commercial radio station in Palma led her to becoming a radio presenter and DJ. She took to her new career like a duck to water and her infectious personality on air soon earned her the nick - name 'Birmingham Sue' from her many admiring listeners.

But that was only the start. As full of pioneering ideas as ever, she initiated one of the first phone -in request programmes on radio in Europe — and we are talking about the very early 1970s here — and was soon interviewing the long line of film stars and show business personalities that were then arriving in Majorca in large numbers. All that came to an abrupt end in 1974 when she was diagnosed as having MS. She was just 23.

Puzzling symptoms in her legs took her through a series of medical tests and, eventually, to the diagnosis of MS. To say she was shattered by the diagnosis is an understatement. Like many a person before her and since, she thought her world had come come to an end - and for a while indeed it did. But it is not in Susie's nature to admit defeat and once she had got over the intial shock she decided it was time to fight back.

The start of the search
Now started her long search to discover the hidden secrets of her debilitating illness so that she could start to do something about it. Her first disappointment was to discover that the medical profession, by and large, were of little help — except to offer advice on how to get hold of a wheelchair and incontinence pads! A doctor in Harley Street, Dr Douglas Latto, put Susie on a near -Vegan diet — something she had never dreamed of doing before — and, one by one, she tried all the known alternative therapies going, noting the benefits of each as she went.

When hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) became known as a possible treatment for MS, Susie was one of the first to become involved. She became a founding member of a local group raising money for an HBO chamber and trying the therapy enthusiastically herself. But, again, she found the benefits were short-lived.

By now her legs were badly affected so her se arch continued. Finally, in 1988, she became the first adult from Britain with MS to attend the now world -famous Peto Institute for Conductive Education in Budapest, Hungary. It was a turning point. Susie spent two months in Budapest undergoing treatment and digesting the unconventional philosophy behind the work of the Peto Institute.

According to the institute the body is there to be used and prob - lems only start if it is not. So the staff at the institute — they call themselves 'conductors' — told Susie that in their opinion only 10 per cent of her legs problem was due to MS, the rest — 90 per cent — was from lack of use. They proceeded to put her through a strict programme of physical work (some of which experience she describes in this book) before acute homesickness brought her home.

Back in Britain again, Susie promptly put her new -found knowledge to good use. She started a series of exercise classes for people with MS at the local MS charity where she was involved and at a local hospital. Results wer e extraordinary, and as word spread demand for the exercises grew.

At about the same time she met an Australian 'bio -engineer' who introduced her to yet another new concept. This was the technique of using specialized weight resistance machinery.

The 'Under Pressure' clinic opens

The Hungarian Peto work combined with the Australian pressure technique was, needless to say, soon adapted to include exercises Susie had by now devised herself specifically for people with MS. The new combined programme was called 'MS Under Pressure' and it was at once introduced into the brand new health and therapy centre 1 had by now built close to Chelmsford canal specially for Susie called, naturally, 'Under Pressure'.

That was in 1993 and the work has raced ahead ever since. Tireless and as full of ideas as ever, Susie has produced a video of her exercises so that anyone can benefit from her work no matter where in the world they live. She has trained in a range of natural therapies, including physical therapy, massage, sports injury therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology and nutrition and started her own school of natural therapies. And now there is this wonderful book! Susie often said to me over the years how strange it was that when - ever anyone bought a new car they got a manua l with it to explain how it worked but that no manual ever came with an illness, and especially one such as MS. Well, now there is such a manual and this is it.

Typically, Susie has made sure it is one that explains to anyone any - where exactly what can be done to make sure that MS is not the feared and frightening disease that many people think it is. Also, that there is a very great deal indeed that can be done to alleviate many of its more unpleasant symptoms and side-effects.

I may say I am pleased to be a part of her work and, above all, to be her husband. It's hard work — but rewarding. And she still makes me smile!
Ian Cornell
Chelmsford, UK.

Introduction
Being diagnosed ith MS changed my life forever. Suddenly the body I had taken for granted had broken down and I didn't know why. I had total faith then in medical science and believed that it was only a matter of time before the experts would come up with a cure. But one day something happened that made me start to question those 'experts'.

It was late spring and I was watching my neighbour lovingly bend her faded daffodils over and tie them up with string. When I asked her why she was doing it she said that she had been told by experts that it would add goodness to the bulbs. I thought about this but could not see the logic of it at all. If nature had intended daffodils to be tied over in this way for their own good, I said to myself, surely nature would have given them string to do it with and arms to tie it up with as well! Some years later experts announced that instead of tying daffodils they should be left, as I had in fact done to mine instinctively. Thus it was that I started to listen to and believe in my own intuition.

I began to read everything I could about MS and study as much as possible about the human body. I tried anything and everything that seemed as if it might help, from hyberbaric oxygen and special diets to homeopathy and exercises. All this experience led me to look 'holisti - cally' at the treatment of MS. That is, to see MS not as a disease out there on its own, somehow independent of the person who has it, but as the symptom of a state of dis -ease within each individual in relation to the world as a whole.

The result is that I now see the human body as like a finely - tuned clock, each intricate working part in delicate balance with every other part so that it takes only the smallest movement or change or interference to upset the movement and slow the clock down or even stop it altogether. Seen another way I think we are like the ea rth we live on and on which we depend. The earth is 70 per cent water. So is the air that surrounds us — and so are we. Upset this crucial natural balance and a state of unbalance or 'dis-ease' results.

We usually get a manual when we buy a car — but not when we are born. The result is that I think most people go through their lives unconsciously looking for a manual that doesn't exist! Certainly I have spent half of my life trying to find a way of helping my body return to that state of balance (or 'homeo stasis') that is health. This book, then, is the result of that search. This is my 'manual' for people with that state of dis-ease known as MS.

I hope that all those with MS reading this manual will be helped to discover for themselves ways of 'fine-tuning' this precious piece of machinery we call the human body so that they will be able, like me, to return to that all-important state of homeostasis and full health. Susie Cornell
Chelmsford, UK
June 1996

Special note for those in wheelchairs
Although many o f the physical exercises in this book appear not to he suitable for people in wheelchairs, in fact, with assistance, all are suitable for anyone with MS, whether or not they are wheelchair-bound.

1 So you think you've got... ms

You think you've got multip le sclerosis (MS) because your vision is a bit blurred or you have some tingling in your hands or feet and you've read somewhere that those are symptoms of MS.

It's true, those are symptoms of MS — but having them does not mean you have MS. There are a whole range of conditions that can produce all those symptoms and more, and all of which are treatable. In fact the probability is that you are much more likely to have something else entirely such an acute case of stress, tense neck muscles or a trapped nerve.
v I have seen many, many people in my more than 20 years of having MS myself and dealing with people who have MS and I can tell you that a significant proportion of those who come to me thinking they might have MS don't have it at all. Their symptoms are the result of something else that can be treated and overcome very easily and effectively.

Lynn is just one example, although a particularly dramatic one. A fit and active 58-year-old still heavily involved in helping to run a family business, she came to me one sunny summer's day in 1994 in a totally distraught state. She had pains in her head, blurred vision and tingling in her left arm. Her specialist had just told her she had MS. The first thing she did was burst into tears in front of me. Her daughter, who had brought her, told me privately her mother was so

desperate she was concerned for her safety and sanity. I spoke to Lynn quietly for a while and asked her a lot of questions. From what she was telling me I soon be gan to doubt that she had MS. With all the experience I have had in dealing with people with MS the right bells just weren't ringing for me and I was not fully convinced. For one thing I knew it is unusual for anyone to contract MS at her age. The next thing I did was to feel around the back of her neck, espe - cially what are known as the upper trapezius muscles supporting the neck. I was surprised to find how restricted her neck movement was. Something told me that here might be the real cause of her problem. Sure enough, after only a couple of treatments at my centre in Chelmsford, just outside London, her symptoms all improved dramati - cally. The tingling in her am went, her vision improved and so did the pains in her head.
v Two treatments later she went to see a new specialist, another neu - rologist. Immediately after seeing him she rang me in a state of near ecstasy: the neurologist had told her she didn't have MS after all! By one of life's extraordinary coincidences I ran into Lynn two years later in the middle of a busy London store. She saw me first and I remember hearing this voice calling out my name across a sea of heads. I looked around and there was Lynn rushing towards me, arms out and a huge smile on her face, ready to give me a big hug. When we disentangled she told me she had never had a chance to thank me properly for giving her back her life, as she put it.

Other examples are only a little less dramatic and illustrate my belief that many people who think they have MS may not at all. For example Connie, a 61-year-old grandmother and the wife of a retired local company secretary, came to see me after six years of suffering from what she had been told by her doctors was MS.

Her symptoms were pains in her legs and eyesight so bad she had been officially registered blind. Moorfields Hospital in London, one of the world's top eye hospitals, had told her there was nothing more they could do for her. She must face a life with severely limited vision, able to see only the blurred shapes of people and objects, they told her. Connie described it to me as like trying to see through a dirty window with a big smudge in the middle!

We began working on her neck, the muscles of her back and manipulating her spine. After a few month s of us doing this twice a week Connie began to notice a very definite improvement in her eye - sight. The first thing she realized was that she could read all the car number plates in the park outside the centre. Then she found she could see the time on the clock in the exercise area.

Today she regards her eyesight as 'at least 25 per cent improved on what it was.' Not bad for someone top eye specialists had said nothing could be done! (Her story is told in more detail in chapter 3.) Although it has not been established beyond doubt I think it may still turn out that Connie's problem is not MS at all. I think the problem with her eyes is more the result of fibrositis in her neck and her leg pains are the result of a virtual lifetime of digestive disorders and a 'weak bladder'. This was almost confirmed for me later, shortly before this book went to press, when Connie had to get urgent medical attention for a blocked bowel.

Another case is Barbara, a 34 -year-old hairdresser. As well as blurred and double vision with pain behind her eyes, she was in so much agony each time she bent over she could no longer carry on working. Pins and needles and numbness in her working hand were further problems. She had been diagnosed with MS in 1992, five years after her first symptoms and two years before coming to see me. Just two treatment sessions on her neck — each session an intensive half hour — were enough to give her what she described to me at the time as 'immediate relief.' All the pains in her head went — and so far have never come back. This was with a woman who had been told by doctors she had major damage to her brain stem and, again, there was nothing they could do to improve the pains. The pains, they said, would probably never be any better.

Barbara is now back a t work as a hairdresser and has no further problems — though she still comes in every three or four weeks for therapy to her neck (which I'll write more about a little later). All these women thought they had MS — and so, it must be said, did their doctors. But what I think is far more likely is that their symptoms were the result of some basic, and probably long-standing, neck problem. Stiffness and congestion in the neck area is just one of the simple

problems that can cause symptoms similar to MS and can be just as easily put right with massage and manipulation. Another is faulty eating habits and a poor diet.
For example, many of the symptoms of MS, I am convinced after years of research and experience, relate to a lack o f the right balance of nutrients in your body — that is, to a deficiency of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

A lack of manganese in the diet of children, for instance, can commonly cause growing pains. That's what happened to me. From the age of about eight to the age of 10 I suffered considerable growing pains — so much so I would wake up in the night crying with the agony of it and my mother would sit up massaging my legs for me to get me to go back to sleep.

Because the doctor said it was due to lack of exercise my mother took me to dancing lessons. But in fact I now know the pains were all due to a simple manganese deficiency.

The same deficiency in an adult can cause insomnia, restlessness, aches and pains in the back and joints, lack of energy, lack of sex drive, dizziness, muscle twitches, muscles spasms, balance problems and pains in the knees.

Chemical pollution is yet another suspect in the mystery of MS. Ben, a West Country sheep farmer in his mid 40s, came to see me in 1994 after being officially diagnosed with MS in 1991, two years into suffering constant numbness in his fingertips.

The diagnosis was made by a neurologist, a nerve specialist, follow ing a scan by a Magnetic Resonance Imager (MRI), the latest technology for diagnosing MS. On the basis of the scan the neurolo gist said he felt Ben 'almost certainly had MS' in spite of the fact that he noted that Ben also had some curvature of his lower spine and disc protrusions in his neck.

By the time I saw him, Ben had blurred vision in both ey es, numbness in both hands and an 'inconsistent' bladder — but he still said his biggest problem was his back. A further complication was that for years he had been working with sheep -dip, a liquid for 'de-lousing' sheep. Sheepdip contains organophosphates, poisonous chemicals now known to cause serious damage to the nerves in humans and some So times leading to death.

Ben's symptoms are very similar to those experienced by other farmers known to be affected by organophosates but, surprisingly, Ben told me his specialist had made no mention of the fact that he is far more likely to be suffering from pesticide poisoning from the sheep-dip than MS. It is still unclear whether Ben actually has MS, ev en though that is what he and his doctors now think. Even more surprising to me, though, is the way his spinal problems have apparently been dismissed. I think it is far more likely that Ben's symptoms are more to do with pesticide poisoning and spinal pro blems than MS and that he does not have MS at all. Time will tell.

What these stories show is not only just how difficult and uncertain diagnosis is with MS but also how powerful a factor the mind is in the treatment of disease. The mind is a very potent t rigger of so many - things and its part in MS — especially the part played by stress and mental and emotional traumas of all sorts — is, I believe, beyond doubt. Other causes of MS — or rather the symptoms given the name MS — are, in my experience, physical injuries (such as whiplash), viral infections and persistent throat infections. All the people mentioned so far have suffered from at least one or more of these problems before they were diagnosed with MS.

I'll tell you more about these findings later, but what they have done is to lead me to question much of what doctors know and say about MS — and I include the very name 'MS' in this.

Contents

• • General health conditions.
  • Consultations and Remote consultations
  • How Bioresonance technology can work for you.
  • Specialist help and advice on Multiple Sclerosis
  • How to buy/download books on MS
  • Multiple Sclerosis Exercise DVD
  • How to find the Cornell Centre
  • Costings
  • Clients stories
  • Downloads and other useful reference material.
  • Mission Ability Exercise DVD- for those who don't like or cant exercise.
  • Newsletters
  • Read Susie's interview with Cam Mag
  • Listen to Susie's interview with the BBC