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THEORIES ABOUT BDD CAUSE: A ROLE OF PERSONALITY – PERFECTIONISM

admin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:53:37 +0000

One of the personality trait that appears associated with BDD is perfectionism or unusually high standards for oneself. Some people with BDD say that they want to look perfect and that they expect perfectionism in other areas of their life as well. “I have very high standards for myself,” a college student said to me. “I expect much more from myself than from anyone else, in terms of my appearance and everything else. It’s hard to live up to it.” Indeed, one study found that a majority of 50 people with BDD said that they “must have perfection in their appearance.” It isn’t clear, however, whether this applies just to the perceived defect or to appearance more generally. Using the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Dr. Sabine Wilhelm found that people with BDD had significantly higher levels of perfectionism than healthy controls in areas unrelated to appearance. Might perfectionism contribute to the development and maintenance of BDD? As discussed earlier in this chapter, from an evolutionary perspective trying to look perfect and symmetrical may be adaptive. However, in BDD, demands for perfection might lead to excessive and selective attention to minor asymmetries and appearance flaws, as well as un-realistically high appearance standards.
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HOW VITAMIN C PREVENTS AND TREATS HEART AND ARTERY DISEASE

admin — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:47:38 +0000

What role does Vitamin C play in the prevention and treat¬ment of disease of heart and arteries — that greatest killer of the twentieth century?
Ever since the discovery of ascorbic acid hundreds of researches have been conducted in both guinea pigs (which like us cannot make their own ascorbic acid) and man. They all show the vital importance of ascorbic acid in the main¬tenance of the integrity of artery walls.
Ascorbic acid is essential for the formation and strength of the colloid substance that forms the tough tissue of the walls and the delicate lining of arteries, veins and capillaries, whether they be in the heart, the brain or in any other part of the body.
As early as 1941 deficiency of C was found to be a factor in coronary thrombosis due to impaired collagen produc¬tion, causing capillary rupture and haemorrhage into the arterial walls.
As an example, measurements of the ascorbic acid in the blood in 455 consecutive adult patients admitted to the Ottawa Civic Hospital in Canada over a 7 month period — 81 per cent of the coronary cases had extremely low ascor¬bic acid (less than half normal, 0.5%). Another survey in 1947 showed that low ascorbic acid levels were not confined to cardiac patients. Of 556 patients of all classes 123 had heart disease — 42 per cent of all patients had low Vitamin C in their blood, but in 70 per cent of the coronary throm¬bosis cases it was very low (down to 0.35 mg per cent).
Other papers throughout the 1950s and 1960s all show how valuable Vitamin C is in maintaining the integrity of artery walls, in lowering the blood cholesterol, in prevent¬ing the formation of plaques on artery walls and in prevent¬ing coronary thrombosis.
Again and again it was suggested that ascorbic acid be used as an addition to the usual methods of treatment, especially in the long range after-care of coronary infarcts — but the suggestions were never followed by the cardiologists.
Dr Constance Spittle, Consultant pathologist at Britain’s Pinderfields General Hospital, Waterfield, West Yorkshire, has conducted trials among her patients.
In 80 subjects she found that Vitamin C reduced their blood cholesterol levels in 25 per cent of young patients; while it increased blood fat in the older ones, already with atherosclerosis.
Dr Spittle believes that Vitamin C causes excess choles¬terol to remain dissolved in the bloodstream until it reaches the liver where it is normally converted into bile acids.
In Dr Spittle’s opinion and that of other researchers, namely Dr Ginter of Czechoslovakia, this increased serum cholesterol comes from formerly hardened cholesterol de¬posits which the vitamin has mobilised or reamed out from the arterial walls and is still circulating in the blood.
Thus, she believes, the high readings signify decreased not increased cholesterol danger, Vitamin C acting to re¬move cholesterol away from the artery walls.
It has also been found that Vitamin C deficiency greatly increases the actual synthesis of cholesterol in the body, whereas its presence brings down the cholesterol levels in the blood.
Recently, in 1977, a team of Australian scientists at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra have taken a long hard look at all this evidence. As a result, they are calling for larger studies to test the ability of Vitamin C to reduce the risk of heart attacks — and are already finding out that it does. <
Dr Irwin Stone concludes that all this research into the role of Vitamin C in heart and artery disease over the last 40 years indicates that the simple taking of 3 to 5 grams of Vitamin C a day in several spaced doses would be sufficient to prevent the continuing high incidence of heart disease, and strokes that plague civilized countries today. It should also be used as a supportive adjunct to orthodox treatment in the cardiac intensive care units of all hospitals, and as a follow up treatment to improve the competence of the whole blood vessel system throughout the body.
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ROLE OF VITAMIN C IN FRACTURES HEALING AND EYES HEALTH

admin — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:43:11 +0000

Animal studies have demonstrated that calcium and Vitamin C given together produce earlier and quicker healing of fractures. The strength of the bone is increased and healing time reduced by 30 per cent.

Orthopaedic doctors and general practitioners very often administer these supplements to their fracture cases with excellent results.

Dr Phillip Thorek, President of Thorek Hospital and Medical Centre in Chicago says that Vitamin C is the surgeon’s vitamin because wounds heal much faster and more completely when Vitamin C supplements are given to the patient before and after any surgery.

It is indeed, the most important link in the healing chain of events in the formation of collagen, the glue-like substance which holds cells together and makes healing possible.

Vitamin A and the mineral zinc are both important in the production of the collagen that holds wounds together, but without Vitamin C collagen formation will be inadequate and wounds will not heal — either healing is very slow or the wound ‘breaks down’ — and many more days must be spent in hospital.

A British study in the Lancet (7/9/74) found that 500 mg C twice a day (1000 mg a day) hastened healing twice as fast in that final breakdown of tissue — the bed sore.

If Vitamin E is taken by mouth and applied locally, bed sores will heal even faster. Indeed, bed sores can be prevented altogether from occurring if these two vitamins are amply supplied in the diet, coupled, of course, with good hygiene and nutrition.

Gangrene is another breakdown of tissue that can be healed by large doses of Vitamin C, and Vitamin E.

Five cases of long standing gangrene of the legs and feet due to atherosclerosis and scheduled for amputation at the Jewish Memorial Hospital, New York, were so greatly improved with 5 grams of sodium ascorbate daily — plus other treatment, that they were completely healed in a few weeks and amputation was avoided.

The tissue of animals which synthesize their own ascorbic acid is very rich in the vitamin. The pituitary or master gland of the body is richest, the adrenal glands next and the eyes are richer than any other organ, particularly the clear transparent tissues of the cornea and the lens; while the retina or actual seeing membrane lining the eyeball is also saturated with ascorbic acid.

Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness. It is due to chemical changes in the lens that gradually make it opaque. The normal lens is very rich in ascorbic acid but those that are forming cataracts have been found to be much lower in Vitamin C content.

It has been considered impossible to affect the growth of cataracts when once they start to form, but there have been many promising researches from the 1930s onwards, showing that senile cataracts can be prevented and incipient cataracts slowed down or prevented from developing further over the years by daily doses of ascorbic acid one to three grams a day.

Corneal injuries, burns and ulcers have been found to heal quickly with less opacity than expected when large daily doses of ascorbic acid are taken in addition to the usual course of treatment.

Glaucoma, an increase of the pressure within the eyeball which eventually destroys the nerves supplying the retina, is very common in middle life. It is estimated to be present in 2 percent of all people over 40, and in 8 to 10 per cent over 65 — although many do not realize they have it.

It is one of the most insidious thieves of sight.

From 1964 onwards Italian researchers in the University of Rome’s Ocular Clinic and Finnish and Swedish doctors published many papers on the effects of ascorbic acid on glaucoma. They reported prompt reduction of pressure within the eyes by large doses of Vitamin C and no side effects.

At first, doses of 1000 mg to 2000 mg a day were used, but more complete and spectacular results were obtained with large doses of sodium ascorbate given intravenously — up to 70 grams per treatment.

It is suggested that glaucoma can be prevented and early cases inhibited in the over 40s by taking 3 to 5 grams (3000 mg to 5000 mg) of ascorbic acid a day continuously.

Much research needs to be done on the value of ascorbic acid in the health of the eyes, especially in counteracting l he ageing processes that so often impair the sight of elderly people. It has already been shown, however, that regular taking of even 1000 mg a day will maintain clearer vision than in those who do not supplement their diet in this way.
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DRUGS: MINERALS, CHEMISTRY

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:24:04 +0000

Some minerals have been used as medicines for centuries past; examples are antimony, arsenic, iron, mercury, and sulphur. Nevertheless, until fairly recent times botany has been considered the mainstay of medical treatment. Practically every growing plant has furnished a drug to be used as powder, elixir, infusion, decoction, or what have you. In the beginning they have all been used in a hit-or-miss manner as some savage associated his recovery with whatever plant he had used just before; or some country housewife tried out various herbs. It has been the difficult task of the botanically trained physician to determine which have virtues outweighing the adverse effects.

The early history of many if not most of these plants is vague. We are told that belladonna, or atropine from deadly nightshade, got its name because the beautiful ladies of Rome used it to give themselves large pupils which enhanced their looks. It is still used to dilate the pupils but not for cosmetic reasons. Quinine, cinchona or Jesuits’ bark, grew in the jungles of South America. The story is that the Indians told the Jesuits of its virtue in killing off malaria.

Until very recent times bodily ills were treated by such things as

. . . Pinkroot, death on worms,

Valerian, calmer of hysteric squirms,

Jalap, that works not wisely but too well,

Ten pounds of Bark and six of Calomel.

Or even worse, such animal matter was used as powdered toads, for the viler the medicine, the more efficacious it was often considered.

Musk, assafoetida, the resinous gum

Named for its odor – well, it does smell some.

Then came the era of organic chemistry, that is, of compounds with carbon in them. All living organisms contain carbon. Since coal was formed from what were living plants, coal tar is a cheap source from which I suppose millions of carbon compounds are made. A German bacteriologist named Ehrlich finally produced such a compound, named salvarsan, which was valuable in treating syphilis. This started the science of chemotherapy, which is the chemical production of drugs for treating bodily ills. Modern chemists, with more skill than jugglers and slight-of-hand men, now start to make a drug with definite qualifications. They can form most complicated compounds and rearrange the different elements in them with considerable foreknowledge of what the results will be. When they finally get something with the wished-for virtues and which apparently lacks other qualities of a dangerous nature, then a modern wonder drug has made its debut. Unfortunately the will to believe and human impatience cause many false entrances.

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GENERAL HEALTH

IF YOU HAVE AN EATING DISORDER

admin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:23:07 +0000

In February 1996, a benevolent throng of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other health specialists trekked to 600 college campuses to help young people suffering from a potentially fatal condition.

In those few days, they reached 20,000 students (mostly women) with severe eating disorders. Using educational materials and their own skills, the experts helped the students assess the extent of their disorders. They also learned how to identify the health-threatening warning signs as well as how to prevent illness. Screening results were kept strictly confidential.

Videos dramatized the problem. A questionnaire (presented later in this section) helped individuals learn whether they are at risk. The colleges had mental health specialists on site.

Eating disorders can and do kill. Some have death rates of up to 5 percent – higher than most of the other diseases that affect those aged 12 to 24 (with the exception of cancer). The eating disorders come in three varieties:

• Anorexia. The individual scarcely eats anything; body weight falls to as low as 85 percent of his or her ideal weight.

• Bulimia. Weight can approach normal, though the individual binges on large amounts of food and is obsessed with preventing the calories from turning into body fat. So the bulimic purges with laxatives, vomiting, and water pills and exercises heavily and constantly.

• Binge only. With this disorder, large amounts of food are eaten in short periods, with no purging. Overweight often results, without other major symptoms. The binge-only person takes control, for a while, slowly diets to “normal” weight, then binges and gains again.

This new battle against eating disorders is being waged by the National Eating Disorders Screening Program. It is an outgrowth of the National Mental Illness Screening Project, which began an annual program in 1991 to screen men and women for depression. The screenings, held each October and announced in Parade, may have saved thousands from suicide by identifying those with severe depression and helping them get treatment.

Dr. Douglas G. Jacobs, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is a director of the screening programs both for depression and eating disorders. He has calculated that, as a result of the 1995 screening, 37,400 individuals with depression were referred for examination. And more than 1,000 persons were found to be so deeply depressed that they were hospitalized on the very day they were screened. “Most will feel better in 6 to 12 weeks,” Dr. Jacobs said, “thanks to good medical treatments. We hope to do as well with the eating disorders.”

Starting with the idea that some symptoms of eating disorders resemble some symptoms of depression, researchers theorized that drugs known to reverse depression might help treat eating disorders as well. Tests indicate that the medications do decrease the urge to binge. Physicians also prescribe group and individual counseling to control eating and to cope with the pressures to be thin.

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GENERAL HEALTH

CHILD’S HEALTH/SKIN DISORDERS: CELLULITIS

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:23:57 +0000

Cellulitis is a skin infection, caused by germs, which spreads between the skin and the deeper layers of soft tissue. It can start from a tiny cut, scratch or splinter, and develop into a nasty infection, which in the worst of cases can cause blood poisoning (septicaemia).

Clinical features

At first, your child may only complain of mild soreness in one area. Look carefully to see if there are any cuts or scratches nearby. The lymph nodes in the area may become enlarged and tender as they attempt to fight local infection. The infected area soon becomes red and swollen, and the skin is hot and hurts if touched. Sometimes pus can be seen in the site of the wound. Your child may also develop a fever, lose his appetite and feel generally unwell.

Treatment

If you suspect that your child has cellulitis, see your doctor immediately. The appropriate antibiotic will be prescribed and should be commenced immediately. If much of the pain. If your child has cellulitis of the leg or arm, it is advisable to immobilise the limb as much as possible, using a sling or a splint. Admittedly, it is not easy to make children comply with the use of slings and splints, but it is worth a try!

Cellulitis usually improves rapidly with antibiotics and immobilisation, but your doctor may want initially to review your child daily until it is clear that the treatment is working. It is helpful to draw a line around the margins of the cellulitis with a felt pen, so that a comparison can be made from day to day to determine whether the infection is spreading or resolving. Do not wash this mark off, so that both you and your doctor can make an objective assessment of the situation.

When to see your doctor

See your doctor if your child has any of the symptoms described above or if you are worried.

Prevention

The only way to reduce the likelihood of cellulitis occurring is by promptly attending to all cuts and abrasions.

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ACCIDENT PREVENTION: PRESCHOOLERS

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:07:31 +0000

Preschoolers continue to be very active and, although they are increasingly able to understand danger and safety precautions, still need constant reminding and careful supervision. All of the types of injuries described for toddlers are relevant for preschoolers as well; often even more so because the preschooler is stronger, more coordinated and therefore more willing to take greater risks. Review the section on toddler injuries, and make sure that the risks of injury for your preschooler are minimised.

Bicycle safety

Children must be supervised when learning to ride a tricycle or bicycle. Make sure your child wears an approved bicycle helmet at all times, and does not ride on roads. The bicycle must be the correct size, and in good condition.

Playgrounds

Playground injuries are even more common in children of preschool and school age than in the toddler age group. Again make sure that the equipment is safe, and that the surface below it is soft.

Children of school age and adolescents are more able to understand safety concepts, although they cannot always be relied upon to act responsibly, especially under the influence of peers.

Whether the child walks or rides a bicycle to school, pedestrian safety and the rules for crossing roads should be understood. Teach him to cross at lights or at a school crossing, wherever possible. If a crossing is not available, help select a crossing point with maximum visibility for pedestrians and motorists. Crossing skills are not mastered until at least 9 years of age, and often later.

Sporting injuries are common in the school age and adolescent group. Many school sports have modified rules to lessen the risks of injury, and school playgrounds are usually supervised by teachers. If your child engages in contact sports, consider the fitting of a mouthguard. If your child rides a bicycle, make sure the bicycle is properly maintained and in good condition and that he has an approved helmet. Helmets must be worn at all times. Skateboards, rollerblades and trailbikes should only be used with proper protective equipment — helmet, knee and elbow pads. Make sure that you buy this protective equipment at the same time as the bike, skateboard or rollerblades and that your child always wears it.

Make sure that your child can swim, and that he understands the risks associated with water and water sports, such as the danger of diving into water if the depth is unknown, or the danger of swimming at unsupervised surf beaches or isolated waterholes.

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YOUR MARITAL HEALTH/OWNING AND OPERATING YOUR OWN SEX CLINIC: FINDING OUT WHO’S THE MATTER WITH US – FOURTH-PERSPECTIVE SEXUAL PROBLEM TERMS

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:33:55 +0000

When asked about their feelings rather than their bodies, the couples taught me a diagnostic system based on the systems nature of sexual response. They taught that everyone in every marriage has sexual problems sometimes, and realizing this dynamic nature of human sexual response helped me to learn with the couples to view problems in a wellness rather than a pathology mode. There could be no “good” sex if there was no “bad” sex, just as health has no meaning without illness.

The couples also taught me that sexuality was related to all of life not just their sexual interaction or coitus. You will note that everyone of the early-perspective sex terms was based on a coital model, penetration of vagina and energy release without pain in an appropriate time frame. The following chart is based on the lessons of the spouses in the super marital sex program. Look for the area that you might like to focus on in your own therapy program.

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THE DESEXUALIZATION OF THE AMERICAN MARRIAGE THE MARITAL-ABUSE FACTOR: THE KIDS! THE KIDS! THE KIDS!

admin — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:10:36 +0000

“If God wanted sex to be fun, He wouldn’t have included children as punishment.”

ED BLUESTONE

Super Marital Sex Rule: The kids do not come first!

I don’t remember how it was before we had kids. I’m sure we must have done something then, but I can’t remember what it could have been. They seem to be everything now.

HUSBAND

Kids are a unique pressure and joy for marriages, so I have separated the “kid factor” from the ten items above. They deserve their own category, for they are the worst and the best thing that happens to a marriage. I maintain that kid priority has overburdened American marriage, resulting in doing for instead of with our children, applauding only them instead of each other. We fall victim to “P-M-S,” parent manipulation syndrome by our children.

This child focus has an additional twist. Once the child focus dominates a marriage at the expense of the marital relationship, even the parents themselves can become infantalized, childlike in their own behavior and orientation to life. Husbands begin to buy their own toys, to expect to be mothered by their wives, cheered at Softball games, tolerated in their own immaturity. Wives become princesslike, protected, cared for, and idealized. Soon everyone in the family is behaving more like a set of siblings than parents and children.

As many marriages fail because of children as children fail because of faulty marriages. Until we learn that children are not special, but equal in importance to all of us, until we learn that we must not lead our lives and our marriages for children, but with them, we sacrifice our marriages, our own development. After all, wasn’t one of your greatest wishes that your own parents would be happy? Think of giving that gift to your children.

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PNEUMONIA – TYPES OF PNEUMONIA

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:51:52 +0000

Pneumonia due to other germs may not respond as readily to treatment. The staphylococcus is notorious for becoming immune to antibiotics almost as fast as new ones become available.

Staphylococcal pneumonia, especially as a complication of influenza may be rapidly fatal.

Mycoplasma is a germ midway between a bacterium and a virus and can cause many respiratory infections.

Mycoplasma are not affected by penicillin but are sensitive to other antibiotics.

Bronchopneumonia usually follows infection in the bronchial tubes, and inflammation is widespread and patchy throughout both lungs. It occurs most frequently in children and in the elderly and is usually secondary to some other condition, such as measles or whooping cough in children.

In the elderly, it may develop in those weakened and bed-ridden and is often the final cause of death in the frail elderly confined to bed. Therefore, bronchopneumonia has been called the old man’s friend.

It was often called “double pneumonia” because, unlike lobar pneumonia, it involved both lungs.

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