Health related information and news from around the world.

A very common sight in the parks of China and Hong Kong is people practising the graceful routines of T’ai chi. It is becoming increasingly popular in western countries as well, as a wholistic means of engendering body awareness and reducing stress and anxiety. The slow, continous movements of T’ai chi have their roots in the martial arts but the aggressive, tactical aspects of karate or kung fu were removed by Taoist monks and replaced by a greater contemplation of the flow of energy though the body and self expression. Many of the movements, of which there are more than 100, are derived from the behaviour of animals and birds and are identified by names such as ‘the birds beak’ and ‘the stalk cools its wings’. It is always recommended that T’ai chi be practised in the open air and that the movements be properly taught by an experienced instructor.

Its meditative, relaxing aspects are well understood, but T’ai chi is also beneficial for posture, breathing control and circulation. As a preventive therapy it works on the principle of balancing the yin and the yang forces in the body, calming the mind and promoting good health.

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Gabrielle, aged 62, has had many roles during her life: wife to a foreign diplomat, mother of five, indefatigable fund-raiser for her favourite charities, and formerly a public relations consultant for the fashion industry. But none of these roles prepared her for the role that many of us dread and for which none of us is truly prepared: the role of cancer patient.

In retrospect, warning signs had extended back for many months but, as is often the case, they were missed both by Gabrielle and her doctors. She had previously suffered from colitis, so the typical bowel symptoms of cancer were easily explained away. But after her symptoms had continued for five months, she underwent a colonoscopy and a large tumour of the colon was diagnosed. This was removed at surgery but unfortunately the cancer had already spread to the liver by that time.

Gabrielle had never previously been depressed even though depression runs in her family. Her mother had been affected by the condition, as had three of her four sisters, two of whom spent lengthy stays in psychiatric hospitals and one of whom committed suicide. After the surgery Gabrielle could understand how this third sister had been driven to such a desperate act as she herself was overcome by a ‘tremendous’ depression. She felt sad and tearful much of the time. Riddled with guilt, she blamed herself for not having attended to the symptoms of her tumour more promptly. She couldn’t eat and felt like being sick almost all the time. Normally a very sociable person, she didn’t want to talk to anyone or answer the phone. Gabrielle spent much of the day lying in bed, looking at the ceiling. Her legs were heavy and she was unable to walk, which was perhaps just as well because she had thoughts of running into the street and putting an end to it all.

Her doctor prescribed Lustral, which she took for three days but stopped because it suppressed her appetite, made her feel nauseated and interfered with her sleep. Another anti-depressant was prescribed but she was reluctant to take it as it came with warnings against going into the sun and she and her family were on the verge of taking a trip to Puerto Rico to see one of her children. In Puerto Rico Gabrielle’s husband told her about St John’s Wort and she felt there seemed to be little harm in trying the herbal remedy. Even though the setting was lovely and she was with family, she still felt very down and ‘like a drag on everybody’.

Gabrielle bought some St John’s Wort in a health food shop in Puerto Rico and began by taking one capsule twice a day. It worked ‘like magic’ and after a week she felt wonderful. She has been on it now for two months and all symptoms of depression have left even though she needs to go for chemotherapy once a week. ‘I go out, I talk to people again and I don’t think of my physical illness.’ Gabrielle attributes some of her recovery to the loving support of her family and holidays they have taken together, but she is sure that none of this would have been possible without the power of St John’s Wort which, to her relief, has been without any side-effects whatsoever. So excited is she about the herb that she suggested that her daughter, who was also depressed, start St John’s Wort at the same time as she did. According to Gabrielle, ‘my daughter is very happy with its effects.’ Gabrielle has been told that the prognosis for her cancer is good and she is determined to live her life as fully as possible. Now that her depression is better she is able to make good on this resolution.

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Meryl Avery suffered from depression, with occasional seizures of panic, for six years. Before that she had had a long history of physical and mental-like problems, although she was still in her twenties.

As a baby she had thrown up easily, and she had wet her bed until she was fourteen. As a child, she would sometimes hold her breath until she turned blue in the face and passed out. She had many mysterious “infections.” By the time she entered college, however, she seemed to be doing fairly well.

The long drive home from college during her freshman year triggered her ill health once again, however. She became acutely ill during the trip, and when she reached home, she could not walk but had to crawl up the stairs to her bedroom, crying all the way. She had a severe headache, was sick all night, and had residual symptoms on the following day.

The other passengers in the car also got headaches, but only Meryl became so desperately sick. In retrospect, her friends figured that there was a leak in the exhaust system of the car and that some of the fumes and carbon monoxide had gotten into the passenger compartment. None of the passengers could recall smelling any exhaust odors, however, or noticing anything unusual about the trip. The car was checked out and was not found to be defective.

While the other people recovered, Meryl’s health started a precipitous decline. She was plagued by weakness, fatigue, and dizziness at school. She started getting headaches again, a problem she had had frequently as a teenager. She took stimulatory drugs—”White Crosses,” or “uppers”—and alcohol to relieve feelings of weakness and mental exhaustion.

Because of these problems she was unable to attend most of her classes and lost credit for the term. The trip home was again traumatic, and she arrived in tears. To be closer to home, Meryl transferred to another college, but her problems became worse. She cried almost continually, threw temper tantrums, and was soon depressed most of the time. Her eating habits deteriorated: she practically lived on “instant breakfasts.”

Her reading comprehension declined. Her memory was poor; she was unable to handle taxing situations and “froze up” on examinations. During the next summer she visited relatives in the rural South and, simultaneously, contacted a nutritionist who was familiar with clinical ecology. The combination of relatively pure air and a partial diagnosis of her food problem worked wonders. “I discovered what it was like to feel good,” she later said in reference to this time. For the next six months she remained on a Rotary Diversified Diet and avoided some incriminated foods. But on Christmas day, at a family party, she began cheating on this diet and continued to slip downhill all week. The binge ended in a marathon cookie-eating session, in a room with a gas fireplace.

The next morning Meryl was, as she says, “totally freaked out.” Although she kept taking alkali salts, which can often ameliorate allergic symptoms, and ate what she thought were her compatible foods, she could not regain her previous feelings of health. She screamed and hit the walls, the furniture took on odd shapes, and she became severely depressed. Her sister had to come and calm her down.

Finally, she sought help at the Ecology Unit. After an initial period of headaches and itchy eyes, she felt well again. She reacted to several of the waters tested, but one was found with which she was compatible.

The worst reactions were as follows: Eating corn was followed by blotchy face and itchiness; cod brought hot feelings, tingling in the neck and shoulders, panic which came on quickly, and headache. Red snapper brought severe depression, crying, panic, and a “spacey” feeling. Eggs were followed by aches and pains all over and panic after two hours. After eating rabbit she fell asleep and then awoke in panic, crying and depressed. Avocado brought sleepiness, after which she awoke depressed and angry. Cauliflower was accompanied by an immediate depression. Between such tests, or when given compatible foods, she was pleasant and cheerful.

We next took some of Meryl’s safe foods and fed them to her in their chemically contaminated form, just as they came from the supermarket, presumably contaminated with residues of pesticides and preservatives. Within ninety minutes of her first meal, she developed a severe depression which lasted for several hours.

Food reactions are not always traceable to commonly eaten foods. Often a person will react, or rather cross-react, to less frequently eaten foods, if those foods “remind” the body of other, allergy-causing substances. In Meryl’s case, however, there was a clear link between her reactions and her eating habits.

She had previously reported a craving for sweets and a severe reaction to cookies. These usually contained corn syrup, and thus it is not surprising that she had a strong reaction to corn and corn sugar in her hospital diagnostic test. People with such allergies, as explained in Chapter 10, also frequently are allergic to alcoholic beverages, which often contain corn in some form. Meryl had reported severe reactions to alcoholic beverages of all sorts and was on the verge of becoming an alcoholic. She had a serious reaction in the hospital to yeast, which is an ingredient in all alcoholic beverages. After the nutritionist had diagnosed some of Meryl’s food allergies, she had switched to fish as a supposedly safe food, but she had eaten it in an addictive way, having it for breakfast every day. Thus it is not surprising that she should have had very severe reactions to cod and red snapper.

Many of Meryl’s problems seemed in retrospect to have been related to her chemical-susceptibility problem (which was demonstrated by her reaction to contaminated food). Her initial experience returning from college was probably related to car exhaust fumes. These could have been relatively “normal” amounts of exhausts which often seep into cars traveling at highway speeds. The other people in the car were apparently less susceptible to this influence, and suffered either transient headaches or no symptoms at all. By adhering to a new diet, and minimizing her exposure to chemical pollution, Meryl was able to finish college and begin a successful career.

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Not wishing to be dependent on pills, many people who have difficulty sleeping take a drink of liquor, beer, or wine before going to bed, a remedy that, Geriatrics (41#6:81) reports, can be counterproductive.

While alcohol is definitely a sedative and can be counted upon to make one quickly fall asleep, this effect can wear off after just a few hours and be replaced by a phase of stimulation and irritability that keeps one awake. It is also true that while small to moderate amounts of alcohol are sedative in effect and make one feel drowsy, larger amounts taken over a prolonged period can, in some cases, actually interfere with sleep.

Alcohol at bedtime may also increase the effect of other medications, such as those that lower blood pressure, antihistamines, heart medicines that relax the arteries, sedatives and tranquilizers The combined effect may produce dizziness and falls, with the risk of a fractured hip or other broken bones, when the person gets out of bed during the night. Alcohol as a sleep aid, therefore, is not a very good idea.

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AND TREATMENT

Signs and symptoms

Characteristic symptoms of rubella are swollen, tender lymph nodes in front of and behind the ears, at the base of the skull, and on the sides of the neck. In a day or two, a fine or splotchy dark-pink rash appears on the face; the rash spreads over the rest of the body within 24 hours. The rash usually lasts about three days and may or may not be accompanied by a low-grade fever (37.8°C-38.3°C), slight reddening of the throat and the whites of the eyes, and slight loss of appetite.

The patient is contagious for the period from seven days before the onset of the illness until four or five days after the appearance of the rash. Infants born with rubella may be contagious for as long as a year after birth.

No other disease causes both a rash and tenderness and enlargement of the particular lymph nodes involved in rubella. The diagnosis of rubella can be confirmed by culturing throat secretions, blood, or urine to identify the virus, or by blood test results that show an increased level of the antibodies, protective substances that the body has produced to fight the infection.

Home care

Give aspirin or paracetamol to reduce fever or discomfort. Do not let your child come in contact with pregnant women.

Precautions

• Before becoming pregnant, a woman should either be immunized against rubella or should receive a blood test to find out if she is immune to the disease. If she is not immune, she should be immunized at least three months before trying to become pregnant.

• All children should be immunized against rubella.

• A pregnant woman who has been exposed to rubella should consult her doctor immediately.

• Be aware that a pregnant woman who is immune to rubella (having had the disease earlier or having been immunized) will not pass rubella to her unborn child by being exposed to the disease.

Medical treatment

Because it is so mild, doctors do not need to treat rubella in children. However, the doctor will establish the diagnosis by means of a physical examination and laboratory tests.

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So far there have not been any studies to show that statin drags reduce death rates from heart disease in women. The University of British Columbia Therapeutics Initiative has stated that statins offer no benefit to women for the prevention of heart disease. Yet more and more women are being put on these drags, and women are more likely than men to experience their negative side effects. In the vast majority of controlled, randomized clinical trials done on statins, there has been no improvement in survival rates in women.

According to Dr James M. Wright, PhD, of the University of British Columbia, “combined results of all trials do not support the use of statins by women without heart disease”. High blood cholesterol has never proven to be a risk factor for heart disease in women. At every age, women usually have higher blood cholesterol levels than men of the same age, yet women are around 15 years older than men when they have their first heart attack. The General Accounting Office of the US Government has recognized the lack of thorough clinical trials by stating “the trials generally have not evaluated the efficacy of cholesterol-lowering treatment for several important population groups, such as women, elderly men and women, and minority men and women. Thus, they provide little or no evidence of benefits or possible risks for these groups “.

As well as not reducing the risk of heart disease, statins can increase the risk of cancer. Three clinical trials have shown women who take statin drags to have higher rates of breast cancer. In one trial, people with heart disease took 40mg of Pravachol (pravastatin) or a placebo daily. The study found that 12 out of 286 women taking Pravachol developed breast cancer, and only one out of 290 taking the placebo did. This result is claimed to be “not statistically significant”, so you don’t hear about it. Only the positive results are published because much of the research is funded by the company that makes the drug. Medical research is extremely expensive to carry out, therefore the drug companies have to make sure they recoup their money.

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Ionising Radiation

This type of radiation – which gives off charged particles called ions – is produced from X-rays. It has the power to change cells and can cause infertility and miscarriages.

The male testis is one of the most radio-sensitive tissues and must be carefully protected during routine X-rays. Studies have shown that even low doses of X-ray delivered directly to the testes can reduce the sperm count temporarily to zero. If the same dose is split up over time, instead of being given in one recovery of the sperm can take up to ten years. Clearly, men exposed to X-rays through their work are likely to have reduced sperm counts.

Non-ionising Radiation

This does not create ions and is produced naturally by the sun. We are exposed to it every day through microwaves, radar, mobile phones, radio waves, televisions, computers, electric blankets, etc.

Mobile Phones

There have been lots of scary stories in the media about the dangers of mobile phones. It has been claimed that they can cause a harmful rise in blood pressure. Other research has found that regular users have more headaches. And there are concerns that mobile phones can cause ‘hot spots’ in the brain, with a possible link to brain tumours. But investigators have stressed that more research needs to be done.

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Montpellier in France have found that chick embryos can be damaged by electromagnetic signals sent out by VDUs and televisions. When chick embryos were exposed to mobile phone radiation during the 21-day, incubation period there was a five-fold increase in chick deaths, which suggests that there might be an increased risk of miscarriage in humans. The possible increased risk of miscarriage and the effects on human male and female fertility have not yet been investigated.

Microwave Cooking

The first microwaves went on sale in the UK in 1974 and now almost three-quarters of British households own a microwave oven. A microwave oven heats food by using high-frequency electromagnetic waves, similar to television. The molecules of the food agitate at over 2,000 times per second so that the food heats itself. The idea is that the metal oven is a sealed unit: microwaves cannot penetrate metal so they cannot escape. However, most of the health concerns have centered on the possibility that radiation could be leaking out during cooking and affecting fertility. There are also worries that food cooked in a microwave may be inherently changed in ways we are not yet aware of.

Because microwaving does not use water, vitamins which are water-soluble (like vitamin C) are conserved in the food. For example, potatoes keep 82 per cent of their vitamin Ñ when they are microwaved, as compared to 40 per cent when they are boiled.

But microwaving tends to destroy the fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamins A, D and E. Pumpkin seeds, which have valuable amounts of essential fatty acids, lose 46 per cent of these oils after 10 minutes of irradiation. These essential fatty acids are vital for both male and female fertility.

Microwave cooking also seems to destroy the cell walls of plant foods like vegetables. Studies on microwaved carrots and broccoli show that the molecular structure is deformed, whereas in conventional cooking the cell structure stays intact.

What this means is that the microwave process seems to encourage the production of free radicals (highly reactive chemical fragments which have been linked to cancer, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and premature ageing).

At a time when you are aiming to increase your fertility by optimizing your health, anything that may compromise your health should be looked at carefully.

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Don’t wait for a stroke before you swing into action. In addition to quitting smoking (another huge risk factor), there are several ways you can fight back against brain attack.

Get a neck check. If any of those stroke symptoms sound vaguely familiar, visit your doctor and have him warm up his stethoscope. But after he checks your chest – heart disease, you know-ask him to listen for a bruit (BREW-ee) in your neck. When the carotid arteries on either side of your neck are narrowed by plaque, they make a rushing sound doctors call a bruit.

“It’s not foolproof, but when a general practitioner suspects stroke, he’ll perform one of these. If he doesn’t like what he hears, he’ll send you to a neurologist for a closer look,” says Dr. Penix.

Bring down your blood pressure.

Since guys who have high blood pressure before age 45 are 10 times more likely to suffer a stroke later in life, it’s vital that you bring yours down. “Regular aerobic exercise and weight loss are two of the best ways to begin to lower your blood pressure,” says Dr. Sacco. Try to get 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise at least three times a week. Here are the numbers to shoot for: A reading of 120/80 millimeters of mercury (pronounced 120 over 80) is considered normal. Experts say a reading above 140/90 should be of concern. And when your blood pressure is higher than 160/100, it’s definitely too high.

Play anyway. You don’t need to be diagnosed with high blood pressure to get active, but you can still cut your stroke risk. The Northern Manhattan Stroke Study at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City found that the risk of stroke is 2 1/2 times greater among people who do not exercise. “What impressed us was discovering just how little exercise it took to get these spectacular benefits,” Dr. Sacco says. People who walked 20 minutes three times a week were 57 percent less likely to suffer a stroke. Exercise such as bicycling, swimming, hiking, and tennis reduced stroke risk by nearly two-thirds.

Take a sip-occasionally. Alcohol can increase or decrease your stroke risk, depending on how much you drink. In this same study, occasional-to-moderate drinkers who consumed from one alcoholic drink a month to two drinks a day had a 50 percent lower risk than nondrinkers, according to Dr. Sacco. Alcohol-even grape juice, if you abstain from drinking-is thought to make blood less sticky, reducing the risk of clotting and increasing the “good” cholesterol. But don’t take this as a license to binge. Drinking more than two drinks per day raises your stroke risk and leads to other health problems.

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More than 60 percent of adolescent girls in our society believe they are “too fat.” The difference for the anorexic, however, is the degree of distress this feeling causes, compounded by her inability to perceive her body accurately.

Ironically, her “realization” that she is fat, though distorted and incorrect, produces a tremendous sense of relief. At last she feels she has identified the problem. Now she can begin to manage it: She will diet.

The snowball has begun to roll. Any success at dieting -”Hey, I’ve lost two pounds in five days!”- provides a sense of accomplishment. Feelings of insecurity fade, replaced by a sense of mastery, competence, and self-control. Such emotions reinforce themselves. The greater the feeling of competence, the more she wants to feel competent. Success (weight loss) breeds the desire for more success (more weight loss).

Relief! No longer is she a passive, helpless victim of her inadequacy. Now she’s regaining control over her life.

What’s more, she feels relieved because weight loss reverses maturity. Menstruation stops. She becomes like a child again – physically, at least. Now she can “legitimately” avoid entering into more adult relationships. She reduces the risk of rejection and thus prevents damage to her fragile psyche. Preoccupied with her body, she focuses inwardly, avoiding the need to grow outwardly through interaction with other people.

The devastating effects of starvation are usually obvious. Sometimes, though, parents may be too close to the problem to see what is happening to their daughter until an outsider brings it to their attention.

Even if they fail to notice her weight loss, parents may find their daughter’s eating behavior becoming increasingly strange. She dawdles over her meal for an hour, poking at her food, creating meticulous piles of peas or mashed-potato sculptures. She cuts her food into tiny pieces, nibbles one bite, and then claims she is full. She puts herself in charge of all food shopping and preparation. She bakes cakes and cookies and insists that the family eat every bite, yet eats nothing herself. Eventually her preoccupation with food absorbs every waking moment. She may exercise compulsively for three, four, even five hours a day.

Starvation, though, is an unstable state. Besieged by hunger signals from her body, the girl must constantly resist the desire to eat. The longer she goes without food, the greater her hunger and the greater her preoccupation with eating.

In a weird way, this need for vigilance perpetuates the illness. Each victory over her appetite reinforces her sense that she is at last in control of her destiny. The thinner she gets, the higher her self-esteem; the higher her self-esteem, the greater her desire to be thin.

Sometimes, though, hunger becomes overpowering. The result: an eating binge. Horrified that she has failed, burdened by guilt over her weakness and loss of control, she resorts to drastic measures to purge herself of food.

Briefly, I want to mention that at some point the body, robbed of a supply of nutrients, begins to steal from itself. That is, it “confiscates” essential chemicals stored in certain tissues, such as the protein required keeping muscles strong. Metabolism slows down to conserve dwindling fuel. Usually the anorexic begins to feel very cold; she may experience fainting spells.

Despite these warnings, the girl persists in her behavior, ignoring the pleas of family and friends and resisting the need for treatment. She sees as her enemy anyone who wants her to eat. I can’t count the number of times I have confronted a patient with anorexia-a skeletal figure, pale, trembling with cold – who gazes at me through empty eyes and says, in effect: “Why do they want to take away the one thing that makes me special-my ability to be thin?”

How hard it is to convince these people of the one fact that everyone around them knows: Without treatment, they may die.

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As the head certified athletic trainer at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Stephen R. Nemes Jr. has made a career out of getting student athletes into top shape for their respective sports. Sometimes, that means helping them lose a few pounds, an assignment with which Steve has had plenty of personal experience.

In 1975, Steve, then a college sophomore, reached his top weight of 247 pounds. “I had been heavy even as a child, but I really let myself go once I got to high school,” he says. “I ate a lot of junk, and I didn’t exercise nearly enough.”

At 5 foot 5, he couldn’t conceal his girth. Yet he remained un-fazed by his portliness until one of his professors confronted him about it. “He told me that I might have a hard time finding a job as an athletic trainer because I was so overweight,” Steve says. “Employers wouldn’t view me as a credible candidate.” The professor’s comments left Steve shaken. His dream was to train athletes. He wasn’t about to let his weight get in the way.

Of course, slimming down in a college environment, where junk food is plentiful and watching TV is a popular pastime, presented its own challenges. “My problem was that whenever I had some downtime, I’d sit in front of the tube stuffing myself with whatever I could | 3 get my hands on,” Steve says. “I was overeating and underexercising.”

He made an effort to fill his free time with other activities, like working out, shopping for healthy foods, and studying. “As my weight went down, my grades went up,” Steve says. By the time he j § graduated in 1977, he was 82 pounds lighter.

In the years since, Steve’s weight has fluctuated between 165 and 175 pounds. He tries to stay fit to set a good example not only for the student athletes he trains but also for his family. “I have a little girl whom I want to see grow up,” he says. “She has become my biggest motivator.”

WINNING ACTION

Fill up your downtime. All of us have moments when we just want to lie back and watch the world go back. That’s fine… once in a while. There are plenty of ways to relax without even thinking about food. Get a facial. Play fetch with your dog. Take a class in wreath making or bird-watching. Buy a telescope and watch the stars. You get the idea. Eating is often a response to boredom. If you aren’t bored, you won’t eat.

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