Health related information and news from around the world.

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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1. Hold your head up—you are brave. What has happened is not your fault.

2. Do your ‘homework’—breathing exercises, diet, exercise, relaxation, cultivating optimistic thoughts.

3. Remember it has taken you a long time to get into this state. Recovery won’t come overnight.

4. You are the only person who knows what it feels like to be in your body. Ignore the person who says you should be well after two weeks.

5. Smile—the real you is still there!

Holistic Healing

Often great emphasis is placed on the physical, emotional, and mental health of the individual. Spiritual well-being is ignored. ‘How can that possibly affect the way I am feeling?’ Some believe that this is the most important area to explore.

Many have discovered or renewed their faith in God by the experience of nervous illness.

In the search for inner peace and relief from ‘disease’, some people have found spiritual healing the answer. Following the discipline of yoga or meditation has been the way for others.

Suffering Is Not All Bad

It can be a time for learning, and because of new insight, a time for reaching out to those in distress around you.

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Aching muscles, cramps, and joint pains are very common. The drugs have artificially relaxed them for so long that they have forgotten how to work efficiently. The stiff, sore heavy limbs will recover. Some people say they feel as though someone is pulling them back when they are walking. Massage, yoga, swimming and warm baths are all helpful. Accept that your muscles need to be reeducated and work hard by slowly building up movement.

The muscles of the neck and shoulders are particularly troublesome. You may find yourself walking around with your shoulders almost touching your ears. Ask your family to gently press your shoulders down when they see you doing this, or pretend that you have a heavy weight in each hand. Sitting on a hard chair, pushing down on your hands and slightly raising your buttocks may help to exercise neck muscles. Sitting up in a chair with a covered hot water bottle between the shoulders can be helpful.

Some doctors prescribe quinine for the muscle spasm. Perhaps the joint pains can be explained by the strain resulting from abnormal muscle action.

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If you feel that the lack of sleep is seriously holding you back, your doctor may prescribe a sedative (just to give you a rest) for a short time. Check to make sure that it is not in the benzodiazepine group—i.e. Valium, Librium, Ativan, etc. (See tables on pages 100-104).

The dreams and nightmares that you are flooded with during withdrawal are just your mind doing work that it should have done months or years before.

The dreams are often described as evil. They include: violence; disaster; disturbed sexual behaviour. People who are distressed by incestuous or homosexual dreams feel greatly comforted when they learn it is a common experience in withdrawal, and will soon pass.

Recounting your dreams or writing them down when you wake sometimes helps to make you less anxious about them. Trust your mind to do the work. Your normal dreaming and sleeping pattern will return.

Those who suffer withdrawal insomnia say it is the most difficult symptom to cope with. So often it is said ‘If only I could get a good night’s sleep, I could cope with the days’. Sleeping only a couple of hours a night in early withdrawal is not uncommon. Although it is very hard to bear, try not to become too anxious about it. Withdrawal insomnia is a particularly severe form of insomnia—time is the only cure.

Lying in warm water or in a warm bed can give your muscles the rest they need. Listen to relaxation tapes, and practise abdominal breathing. Try to quieten your racing thoughts by concentrating on feeling the breath entering and leaving one nostril. Every time your concentration wanders away to your jumbled thoughts, just gently bring it back again to concentrating on your breath. Do not get angry with yourself for not even being able to do this simple task, just keep going for five minutes, then try later. This simple meditation is helpful if you can discipline yourself to do it regularly. Some people have found a radio with headphones very helpful; it cuts out external sound and helps to slow down racing thoughts.

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If you consider what the drugs do, i.e. control anxiety, relax nerves and muscles, help you sleep, and slow down heartbeats and breathing, it is understandable that your body will complain loudly when they are cut down or stopped.

The opposite of the desired effect can be expected (in some people) for a time. This is called the rebound reaction.

Do not be alarmed by this list of symptoms. You may only experience a couple of them, particularly if you reduce carefully:

increased anxiety, increased depression: insomnia: panic attacks: suicidal feelings: agoraphobia: outbursts of rage flu-like symptoms: hyperactivity: craving for tablets hallucinations (seeing and hearing things): confusion headaches: dizziness: sweating: palpitations: slow pulse tight chest: abdominal pain: nausea: nightmares: restlessness: increased sensitivity to light, noise, touch and smell: sore eyes: blurred vision: creeping sensation in the skin, loss of interest in sex: impotence: pain in jaw or face: sore tongue: metallic taste: pain in the shoulders and neck: sore heavy limbs: pins and needles: jelly legs: shaking. Fits have been reported but only where drugs have been stopped abruptly.

Remember that some people don’t get any of the above symptoms and also that there is now much more help than in previous years for those who do have discomfort.

Why some people become physically dependent on tranquillizers (or any other substance), and others don’t is unknown. It is possible that people who become addicted to benzodiazepines are those who are also allergic to them. Dr Richard Mackarness, in his book A Little of What You Fancy, describes masked allergies in alcohol and cigarette dependence. When even small doses of the substance are taken the masked allergy is under control. There are certainly many allergic-type symptoms in withdrawal, and they appear after complete withdrawal.

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Animal skin (danders) and feathers Don’t keep furry or feathered pets. If you already have pets which you cannot bear to get rid of, consider housing them outside or in part of the house that the affected person can easily avoid. Do not allow pets into the bedroom of the person affected. If they sleep on furniture or carpets, clean up after them with a vacuum cleaner.

For very sensitive individuals it may be necessary to avoid people and clothing that have been in contact with animals.

For those sensitive to feathers, eliminate all bedding stuffed with

feathers, also cushions, armchairs and sofas. If you are also sensitive to synthetics, then duvets filled with wool or silk are available (p335).

For those sensitive to horses, check that you do not have any old items of furniture stuffed with horsehair.

Pollen

This is the most difficult allergen to avoid. Keeping windows closed on warm, sunny days can be helpful. When driving or travelling by train, avoid opening the window.

Keep away from meadows, parks and other grassy areas when it is warm and dry. Alternatively, move to an area with less traffic and other sources of air pollution. It seems that air pollution – from factories, lorries and cars – sensitizes the membranes in the nose, making them more reactive to pollen. Diesel fumes have been shown to have this effect. So moving to a less polluted atmosphere and keeping away from traffic may be of more benefit – and a lot easier – than trying to avoid pollen.

For very sensitive individuals, a stay at the seaside during the height of the pollen season is recommended – the sea breeze brings in pollen-free air. Alternatively, air filters can be used (p335) and are usually effective -as long as the patient stays indoors.

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Not everyone knows that a worker bee’s busy life is over after twenty-eight working days. Or did you know that the egg cells that normally produce worker bees can, when fed with a special substance develop into queens? There is something mysterious about this wonder of nature. For one thing, the queens are considerably bigger than the other bees, and, what is more, they live sixty times longer. A very special nutritive fluid is collected by the workers for those cells which ultimately produce queens. Although this phenomenon has been the subject of extensive scientific investigation, the understanding of its exact nature still eludes the researchers and only some of the jelly’s constituents have been isolated. The ancients perhaps knew more about it than we do, as we frequently find references to ‘ambrosia’, ‘nectar’ and other wonder foods in their writings and it is not unreasonable to assume that they were referring to what is now called ‘royal jelly’.

Unfortunately, no reference as to how this ambrosia was obtained is to be found, so our assumption must remain speculative. There is no doubt, however, that royal jelly possesses biological qualities of the highest order, for it enables the queen to lay as many as 2,000 eggs daily, and this with a single fertilisation. This is, indeed, a marvellous biological achievement, which stands unrivalled in nature.

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The curative properties of cabbage leaves are becoming more widely known now, even though the use of crushed medicinal plants on diseased parts of the body is by no means a new idea. Dr Blanc has written a booklet on the subject and many people have benefited from this inexpensive treatment. Many years ago I started to apply crushed St John’s wort leaves and flowers in the case of inflammations of the nerves, with wonderful results. Whenever I used to get blisters from walking barefoot in the mountains in search of herbs, I always found some goldenrod, bruised it and put it, raw and fresh, on the sore spot, covered it with a leaf of lady’s mantle and bandaged everything with a handkerchief. This enabled me to carry on walking and go about my business. The blisters did not bother me anymore and soon began to heal. In the case of kidney trouble it is a good thing to crush or mince fresh birch leaves and goldenrod and apply the raw pulp over the kidney area. Wrap them round with warm towels and place a hot water bottle on top for added warmth.

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