Herbal Health

Raisin toast (Burgen™ bread);

Low-fat milkshake or smoothie;

An apple;

Low-fat fruit yoghurt;

Dried apricots;

Peaches and plums;

Baked beans;

An orange;

Popcorn;

A glass of low-fat milk;

Leanne was seven and a half months pregnant when she developed gestational diabetes. Her doctor advised her to keep her blood sugar level after meals less than 7 millimoles/litre. To check this, Leanne performed finger-prick blood tests on herself every day. The only time she found her blood sugar tended to be higher than 7 was after her main meal in the evening. By looking back over the results of her home blood sugar monitoring, she found that her blood sugar was high if she ate potato but fine when she had pasta. The secret to good blood sugars for Leanne? Pasta more often, and inclusion of low G.I. carbohydrate whenever she had potato.

Many people with diabetes have to resort to tablets to control blood sugar levels. The following story shows you how an increased intake of low G.I. carbohydrate foods can sometimes make tablets unnecessary.

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The advantage of weight is that it is a simple, accurate and reliable measurement. The accuracy of any measure of body fatness, as with other physical and psychological tests, can be gauged in at least three ways; by its validity, reliability and sensitivity. Each of these are scored on a scale from 0 to 1.0, where 0 implies a low degree of accuracy and 1.0 a perfect measure.

Validity refers to the degree to which a measurement actually measures what it purports to. Without validity, any technique is useless.

Reliability refers to the degree to which the measurement used measures the same on different occasions.

Sensitivity refers to the degree to which the measurement instrument can detect subtle changes, and derive different scores as small changes occur.

Given these three factors, measures of fatness can then be rated for their usefulness in the practical situation. We have divided these into (a) manual measures, (b) machine measures of fatness, and 1 measures of body fat distribution.

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The kidneys and bladder and its intricate system of tubes (many of them microscopic) form a very valuable filtering system for the body.

During its journey around the body, all blood regularly pays a visit to the kidneys. There it is filtered in a rapid and wondrous manner through the renal network. Impurities the body wishes to eliminate are rapidly shed. If the blood is overloaded with certain products it has no use for, these are also tossed out by the kidneys. The balance of chemicals, hormones and minerals needed by the body is kept normal by the balancing-out capacity of the kidneys.

Chemicals are filtered out in a fluid form, and collected in the central part of the kidneys. From there they are channelled by tubes, called ureters, which lead to the bladder. There the fluid is stored until a convenient time, when it is voided by another single tube called the urethra.

There is an important outlet valve at the lower end of the bladder. It takes babies many months before they have complete control over this valve. But eventually each one succeeds and is then capable of passing urine at a suitable time and place.

Some children do not gain this control for some years, and continue to pass their urine at night. Bed-wetting is an embarrassing problem, but in most cases it overcomes itself and it is uncommon after the age of 12 years. But it sometimes persists into the late teens or twenties, when it may become a social embarrassment. Treatment today is usually successful.

The kidney is probably the most common organ of the body to suffer from congenital malformations, though these are fortunately not frequent. Sometimes cysts, occasionally many in number, may damage the kidney structure. In other cases structural abnormalities may occur. Some of these are apparent from an early age and will be automatically cared for by doctors soon after birth.

Infections of the bladder and lower tracts of the urinary system are common. These usually respond well to prompt treatment.

More seriously, the kidneys may be affected by an infection that takes place in some other part of the body. This is believed to be an allergic type of reaction and it may produce serious symptoms.

*81\87\2*

Considering the complexities of the life of a child, it is often amazing they do not lose their tempers more often! They are not born with self-control. They have to learn it. Temper is due to anger, plus a sense of insecurity, plus helplessness. Many children can cope extremely well, but others seem involved in ongoing outbursts most of their lives.

Often the child’s tantrums are a direct reflection of upbringing. In families with a high level of emotional disturbance, where fighting and personality clashes are the rule, the child is more likely to reflect this by being involved in rages far more often. A child who normally lives in a calm, relatively serene atmosphere will lend to reflect this and be much less likely to be involved in temper tantrums, breath-holding bouts, sulky periods and similar emotional states.

Treatment

Children are usually the product of their environment and upbringing. A serene home life will invariably produce a child with a calm mental outlook and a tendency to fly into rages far less often than one who lives in a family ridden with mental stress and turmoil.

Children live by example. If parents only realized this, it would greatly ease the burden of treatment. Yelling, screaming and shouting, hurling abuse and chastizing verbally or physically will seldom do much good for frayed tempers. Indeed, it will tend to worsen the situation. Bribery will be equally disastrous, for the child may soon learn the pecuniary value of temper tantrums, and lack of self-control will be inevitable.

Self-control by parents is the best example. Adults are able to do this, and in so doing they will inevitably benefit their children and their children’s attitudes. Being neither overindulgent nor over-strict is also good admonition.

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The pleura are two delicate membranes which surround the lungs. The condition in which they become inflamed, as the result of either a bacterial or a viral infection, is known as pleurisy. It is characterised by sharp or stabbing pains in the chest or shoulder when a breath is taken.

Normally the pleura move smoothly against one another as the lungs expand and contract during breathing. A thin film of fluid lubricates the membranes. When an infection is present, the pleural fluid becomes sticky and the pleura rub against one another. This ‘pleural rub’ can be heard clearly through a stethoscope. Sometimes an excess of pleural fluid is produced, protecting the inflamed membranes from friction. This pleural effusion can be detected when a dull note is produced by tapping the chest wall. A raised temperature and general feeling of unwellness is a further symptom.

Pleurisy is generally a minor illness. However in some cases it may be a sign of a more serious disease such as pneumonia, a blood clot in the lung, lung cancer or tuberculosis. It is therefore imperative that a doctor be consulted before undertaking any form of complementary treatment.

Homeopathic remedies can be used to treat pleurisy. Chest and back compresses can help reduce internal inflammation. Large doses of Vitamin C and Vitamin A may be recommended by a naturopath.

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Mercedes is a social worker in her early fifties who makes a distinction between the two different kinds of emotional suffering that she has experienced in the course of her life. The first type, ‘the remains of a difficult childhood’, took her some time to sort out. But even after being satisfied that she had taken care of the residue of her childhood, she found herself left with ‘a light film of dysthymia, which lasted for years and was probably inherited from my parents, both of whom suffered from depression’. Dysthymia is a condition of chronic, persistent low-grade depression.

As a result of her low mood, Mercedes would procrastinate, putting off unpleasant tasks such as housekeeping or paperwork in favour of activities she greatly preferred, such as knitting, crocheting or playing with her birds and her dogs. Naturally introverted, she would withdraw in social situations, where she always felt as though she was holding back.

Mercedes decided to try St John’s Wort because it was natural and she understood it to cause few side-effects, starting with 300 mg three times a day. It took at least five weeks to notice an effect, and even then it was subtle though palpable. She stopped procrastinating as much and was more outgoing in social situations. Her husband noted the change, remarking that her dark moodiness had lifted and that she now seemed ‘lighter’. She experienced no side-effects whatsoever, plans to continue to take the herbal anti-depressant and is interested in recommending it to several of her clients.

The stories of Matthew and Mercedes illustrate how versatile an anti-depressant St John’s Wort is, capable of bringing someone out of the dark depths of despair, as in Matthew’s case, or of alleviating the milder and more subtle dysthymia which affected Mercedes. The dosages needed by these two individuals were quite different, with Matthew responding to 300 mg per day while Mercedes used the more conventional 900 mg per day dosing schedule. Optimal dosages of other types of anti-depressant medications vary widely and there is no reason to suppose that this will prove to be different for St John’s Wort. The size of the patient is not always a good guide to the best dosage, as these two cases illustrate: Matthew is 6-foot tall and weighs 13 stone, yet required only one-third the dosage used by Mercedes, who is a small woman. Another difference between Matthew and Mercedes is the time scale of the effects of the herbal anti-depressant, from the almost immediate beneficial effects experienced by Matthew to the five-week lag before the treatment kicked in for Mercedes. Such observations indicate why it can be useful to experiment with different dosages for different people and why it is important to persevere for several weeks before declaring a trial of St John’s Wort to be a failure.

*7\75\2*

David Hart was eight years old when he was brought to me. His problems were obvious: his face was never at peace, but was wracked by spasms; he was continually sniffing, blinking, and squinting. His eyes were red and rimmed by dark circles. Although his grades were average, he had frequent temper tantrums at school and at home.

In addition, David had a hearing problem, which seemed to increase as he grew older. He complained of a ringing in his ears, a condition called tinnitus. This had been unsuccessfully treated with decongestants and antihistamines. Sometimes he complained of having a “bug in his ear.” The slightest noise in class distracted him, since then he could no longer hear the teacher distinctly.

The routine five-day water fast in the Ecology Unit worked wonders: the mouth tic, eye-blinking, and hyperactivity disappeared. So, too, did the bags under the eyes, which are called “allergic shiners,” a frequent sign of food or chemical susceptibility.

When single foods, known not to have been significantly contaminated with chemicals, were returned to David’s diet, some of them brought on attacks of spasms and facial contortions. The worst offenders in his case were wheat, beef, corn, and blueberries, followed by haddock, cherries, peanuts, and potatoes.

Many foods, however, could be eaten without causing any symptoms, such as crab, chicken, pork, lamb, and onion. When some of these acceptable foods were given to David in their commercial, supermarket form, however, they caused grimaces, hyperactivity, eye circles, and gassiness. The boy became progressively more grouchy and twitchy after the second feeding of “normal” food, and this increased with each subsequent feeding. The avoidance of such foods paved the way for David’s recovery, and the last time I spoke to his family, he was greatly improved and doing well in school.

Like Paul Rossi, David was one of those hyperactive children whose problem was actually caused by a highly individualized reaction to the food and chemical environment, and greatly helped by avoiding those items to which he was allergic.

*60\110\2*

It may have occurred to the reader that air pollution plays a role in the problem of chemical susceptibility. This is true, but not in the way most people suspect. For while it is true that outdoor, or ambient, air pollution is a significant source of exposure, a far greater threat is posed by the presence of indoor, or domiciliary, air pollution.

Indoor air pollution? The term itself is unfamiliar and strange to most people, who tend to think of air pollution solely in terms of smog. Yet the home itself generates combustion products or is directly exposed to them, and many household products give off noxious fumes.

Indoor air pollution is particularly dangerous because exposure to it is so constant. Outdoor air pollution comes and goes; indoor pollution is ever-present, and thus its effects generally remain well hidden. In this it obviously resembles food allergy: as has been explained, allergy to uncommonly eaten foods is readily detected; the real danger comes from allergy to the ordinary foods which we take for granted.

My involvement with the problem of indoor air pollution dates from my earliest chemical-susceptibility cases. In the case of Nora Barnes, for instance, pine paneling and other pine products were implicated as a source of chronic illness. In Ellen Sanders’ case, natural gas and pesticide spray resulted in asthma, arthritis, and a host of other complaints. Removal of these pollutants has resulted in her enjoying reasonably good health over a twenty-five-year period.

I first discussed the topic of indoor air pollution in a series of articles published in 1961 and then in my book, Human Ecology and Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment (1962). Shortly afterward, the topic became a matter of public debate. In 1962, the government called a conference on air pollution, the first of its kind, in Washington, D.C. As often happens with such conferences, the program and speakers’ list were announced first, and then the public was invited to attend. Out of a three-day program, only one-and-a-half hours were allocated for open discussion. During the discussion, I rose to say how astounded I was that no reference had been made, in three days of speeches, to indoor air pollution as a separate topic. In my clinical experience, I added, indoor air pollution was eight to ten times more important as a source of chronic illness in susceptible people than ambient air pollution. Outdoor air pollution, I told the gathering, tended to be intermittent and variable, while indoor air pollution was constant. This very constancy made it a source of chronic disease. And of the various materials found in the home, the gas kitchen range, I said, was easily the worst offender. This left some of the experts without words, but on the far side of the room a gentleman rose and confirmed what I had said, adding some telling details of his own. He introduced himself as Francis Silver. He was an engineer from West Virginia, and later became a member of the Society for Clinical Ecology. We had never met before, but he and I had come to almost identical conclusions about the danger of indoor air pollution, as the result of very different experience—he as an engineer of buildings and I as a clinician studying the effects of such buildings on individual health.

In the following years, there were two conferences devoted solely to the topic of indoor air pollution. In general, these were productive, and I spoke at both.

Since the early 1950s, the extent of the problem of indoor air pollution has continued to grow larger. At the present time, it represents a major source of chronic illness among susceptible individuals in the United States. This can be best understood by considering the kinds of exposures which most frequently result in such chronic health problems.

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A draining ear occurs when any abnormal discharge or fluid comes out of the ear canal. The only material that normally comes from the ear canal is wax (cerumen). Earwax is ordinarily brown, though it may be beige or even yellowish if mixed with water when bathing, showering, or swimming. Normally, earwax has only a mild odor, contains no blood, and never flows out in large amounts.

Any other material discharging from the ear canal signals a potentially serious condition. It may be a symptom of a middle ear infection; a boil in the ear canal; swimmer’s ear (infection of the ear canal); rupture (break or tear) of the eardrum by injury or infection; a foreign object in the ear canal; tumour of the middle ear (cholesteatoma); or fracture of the base of the skull.

Signs and symptoms

Abnormal discharge from the ear may be thin and watery, bloody, odorous, cheesy, green, yellow, or white.

Home care

Any drainage from the ear canal (except typical earwax) should be considered abnormal. Do not try to treat a draining ear at home. It should be promptly seen by a physician.

While waiting to see the doctor, pain accompanying a draining ear may be temporarily treated with aspirin or paracetamol pain relievers.

Precautions

• A draining ear should be examined by a doctor within 12 to 24 hours.

• Do not pack cotton into a draining ear. Packing the canal may force the discharge back into the middle ear.

• Do not use a cotton swab or any other instrument to remove material still in the canal.

• Do not attempt to wash out a draining ear since the eardrum may be broken or torn.

Medical treatment

Your doctor will gently clean your child’s ear, inspect it, and diagnose the cause. Depending on what is found in the ear canal, treatment may require oral antibiotics, medicated ear drops, removing a foreign body, an X ray of the child’s skull or mastoid bone, or surgery for cholesteatoma (tumour of the middle ear). In the case of a ruptured eardrum, antibiotics may be required for a long time, until the eardrum is healed and hearing returns to normal.

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Your Forties

Age 40 is when it’s time to step up your tests, generally getting them every other year instead of every three. It’s also time to start tending to your lower half. Your risk for colon cancer rises sharply when you hit your mid-forties, and your risk for prostate cancer increases as well. In addition to the other aforementioned tests, get this test now, suggests Dr. Goldberg. He also notes that race and personal or family history of illness can change the timing and frequency of medical tests.

Rectal exam: Nobody wants one. Every 40-plus man needs one every year, says

Dr. Goldberg. A digital rectal exam (DRE) – in which your doctor inserts a gloved, lubricated finger into your rectum to feel your prostate-is your best line of defense against prostate cancer.

Your Fifties and beyond

Not much changes between 40 and 50, so long as you’re continuing your regular tests about every two years. At age 50, start getting physicals annually and continue getting the DREs you started getting in your forties. Just add a couple more tests, and you’re set for life, says Dr. Goldberg.

Stool sample: During a DRE, the doctor will also take a tiny sample of stool to test for any traces of blood-a sign of cancer growth or development. Like DREs, this should be done every year, says Dr. Coulehan.

Sigmoidoscopy: Your 50th birthday is a good time to start having this test and then get it done every five years thereafter, says Dr. Goldberg. A sigmoidoscope is a thin, flexible, lighted instrument that actually lets the doctor look into your rectum and large intestine for polyps, or growths that might signal cancer. The test takes just a few minutes. And don’t worry. The sigmoidoscope is so thin and flexible, doctors say that although the test is uncomfortable, it is not painful. If you are at higher risk because of family or personal history, your doctor may recommend more inclusive tests such as colonoscopy or a barium enema at an earlier age.

PSA screening: PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screening is a blood test that checks for a compound that is produced exclusively by the prostate gland. Significant increases in this compound can indicate a problem, such as prostate cancer. You should have this test done every year starting at age 50, says Dr. Goldberg, unless you are at high risk because of your family history or if you are an African-American.

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