Health News Blog. Lots of resources and information

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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Atheroma is the condition where fatty material is laid down in the wall of an artery.

Coronary artery disease occurs when the coronary arteries which supply the heart muscle with blood are affected by this atheroma. The artery is narrowed and the smooth lining becomes irregular.

The aorta is the main artery carrying all the blood from the heart to the tissues. The coronary arteries come off the aorta just where it arises.

Coronary artery disease impairs the circulation to the heart muscle or myocardium and leads to the condition of angina. When the heart is called on to do extra work, with exertion, it requires more blood.

When the arteries are narrowed, not enough blood can flow to the muscle and it reacts to this lack of blood and therefore lack of oxygen by producing the typical chest pain.

Angina usually comes on with exertion and is relieved by rest. A coronary occlusion is when the artery is completely blocked. This may lead to the death of that portion of the heart muscle supplied by the artery — a myocardial infarct.

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Haemorrhage or bleeding is the greatest risk and if severe, can be fatal or require a blood transfusion.

Infection is another severe complication. The raw surface is easily contaminated and the infant”: ability to fight infection is not well developed. The infection may spread to the blood, causing fatal septicaemia.

I am uncertain of the figures for Australia but it is estimated that in America each year there will be nearly IV2 million routine circumcisions and that these will lead to over 200 deaths.

Now, I have been painting a grim picture of the hazards of circumcision, but parents should understand that this operation is, in most cases, an unnecessary but harmless procedure. It is carried out for social rather than medical reasons.

While we may be prepared to accept these risks for necessary surgical procedures, a lot of thought should be given before undertaking operations for non-medical reasons.

The risk of complications from circumcision is indeed small and most infants survive this procedure with minimum discomfort.

Sexual performance or enjoyment does not seem to be affected by presence or absence of the foreskin.

Cancer of the penis, a rare cancer, is more common in the uncircumcised and this is thought to be due to the action of a chemical called smegma which is produced under the prepuce. However, circumcision to prevent the development of this cancer later in life is carrying preventive medicine a little too far.

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There are a great many different types of cancer. Each of the many different types of normal cells in our bodies can give rise to a cancerous growth under certain circumstances. Cancers start more often in cells which frequently replace themselves than in cells which are very stable. When we study a specimen from a cancer under the microscope we find that the cells look quite different from the normal mature cells of the organ in which the growth began. The cancer cells are bigger, and less differentiated. As you would expect from their appearance, these cells are useless. They are not capable of carrying out the special functions of the cells from which they started.

Some cancer cells are so undifferentiated that it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the pathologist to work out where in the body they originated. It is important to establish the origin of a cancer as this tells us how it is likely to behave and what treatment is likely to work against it. Therefore, the pathologist must study specimens from poorly-differentiated cancers very carefully. To establish where it started, he or she tries to find traces of the more specialised structures which occur in normal mature cells. Sometimes special techniques are used on the specimen to make such traces apparent.

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This has many causes, and is not only experienced by women. The level of sexual interest starts to fall, and then continuous to decline, in men and women in their middle years. While some women undoubtedly find HRT of tremendous benefit to their sexual lives, others find it little or no help at all. It is difficult to distinguish which symptoms in women are caused by lower levels of oestrogen, and which are just the effects of ageing.

Medical causes. It is quite usual for people with various medical problems to find their interest in sex drops. This could be due to a whole range of physical disabilities, or to medical conditions they suffer from, or to medication that they take.

People, particularly men, who have had one heart attack, often have a natural fear that sexual intercourse may trigger another, and this is something your doctor (or the British Heart Foundation) can advise you about.

Gynaecological or urinary problems can make women reluctant to have sexual intercourse, and some operations can cause changes to a woman’s vagina or a man’s penis so that sex becomes difficult or impossible. Many drugs reduce sexual desire, so if you have noticed your interest in sex dropping soon after starting a different course of medicine, ask your doctor about this, and he may feel it is possible to change the prescription.

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The top of the vagina may be narrowed or shortened as a result of the hysterectomy and any scar in that area may take as long as three months to lose its tenderness and become flexible. Occasionally the hysterectomy itself leads to a prolapse of the bladder, rectum or vagina. Further surgery is then needed to reposition and anchor the organs so that they do not collapse downwards.

Various problems can occur with an abdominal scar, especially if a woman has previously had several abdominal operations (for example, Caesarean sections). The scar may be itchy or sore and the woman may think it looks unsightly. Some physiotherapists use ultrasound to soften the scar tissue and ease the soreness. The sound waves that are generated during ultrasound have a mechanical shaking effect which stimulates blood flow and cell activity in the hardened areas. Sometimes it is possible to reposition the scar or combine a number of scars during further surgery. Bruising and swelling at the site of an incision may also pose problems. The area may be drained or left to resolve itself, a process that can take several months.

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There are many causes of insomnia. The following are some of the more common causes:

1. Pseudo-insomnia. This is probably the most common cause in the normal population. These people believe they cannot sleep because of one or more of the above mentioned reasons. Their confidence to sleep is gone, and they become worried as the evening approaches since they predict they will not sleep. Because they experience insomnia in bed, some develop a phobia about their beds, as they can sleep anywhere and at any time except in bed. They may be quite happy sleeping on a sofa or in front of the television, but when they are in their beds at night they are wide awake and feel distressed.

2. Biological clock related insomnia. We all have a biological clock within us. Sometimes we have to reset out biological clock abruptly; for instance, because of jet lag or a change in shift duties, and the clock is thrown out of phase. The biological clock governs a number of biological functions in the body; the most important is the sleep pattern. The other functions are body temperature, hormonal balance, metabolic rate, urine output, stomach and bowel activity, and so on. Each biological function follows the biological clock differently, and any sudden changes to the clock throw them out of phase with each other. Besides not being able to sleep, we feel below par and are unable to function normally.

3. Situational insomnia. This is normally transient and is precipitated by some situation that a person is experiencing. Anxiety, stress, and worry of what is going to happen are typical causes of insomnia. Stress is a common cause of insomnia.

4. Physical illness. It is a fairly common practice for the sister in charge of a hospital ward to ask the resident doctor to prescribe sleeping pills for the patients just in case they cannot sleep. This is a much more common practice in nursing homes. There are two reasons why sleeping pills are prescribed in hospital. The first is that it is reasonable not to be able to sleep in hospital. You are sick and in a totally new bed in a new environment with a new routine. On top of all this there is the additional stress of your own physical illness and not knowing its outcome. The second reason is that if some patients are not sleeping they may interfere with the other patients and, in the end, no one gets any sleep.

5. Pain. We all experience pain at some stage in our lives, whether it is toothache, headache, stomach-ache, or whatever. The pain we feel drags us down, we feel awful, our whole routine is ruined. Chronic pain is even worse, as there is no escape; the pain is with the sufferer all the time. People who suffer from chronic pain may find sleep the only escape, but if they have insomnia there is no escape at all.

6. Drug-withdrawal insomnia. It is now recognized that the modern sleeping pill is effective for

about two weeks only. These pills supress REM sleep. When the pills are stopped, the sleeper experiences a rebound of excessive REM sleep. This means the sleeper will have an excessive number of dreams and sometimes nightmares. This will be experienced as disruptive sleep and insomnia. The person who experiences drug-withdrawal insomnia believes that his innate ability to sleep is lost, for once he stops taking the pills he cannot sleep anymore. In fact, of course, he has not lost his ability to sleep. It is just that the symptom of drug withdrawal is insomnia. It is a common experience for a patient to see his doctor and say, ‘I ran out of sleeping pills two nights ago and I cannot sleep at all. I guess I do not know how to sleep anymore. Please prescribe me another 50 tablets’. This should of course be rephrased as, ‘I ran out of sleeping pills, and I cannot sleep because I am addicted to them, but once the withdrawal effect passes I will be sleeping again’. Ideally sleeping pills should not be stopped suddenly, but rather the dosage reduced gradually and finally stopped.

7. Excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS. This includes narcolepsy and sleep apnoea. Narcolepsy is abnormal sleep attacks and sleep apnoea is frequent waking at night because of an inability to breathe. Sufferers fall asleep easily in the daytime and most of them do not have the distress of not sleeping at night; hence their chief complaint is normally not insomnia.

8. Mental illness. Insomnia is a common symptom of mental illness, but frequently there are many other symptoms at the same time. This book is not written for sufferers of mental illnesses, as they always need the care of professionals. People with these conditions should not stop their medications, as very often the medications provide the only effective treatment.

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This principle is a basic part of the relaxing mental exercises. When tension predominates we can use a train of thought like this:

Relaxed.

Whole body relaxed.

Relaxation in my arm.

Feel it in my mind.

Feel my mind relaxed.

There are both physical and mental aspects to the feeling of tension. With physical relaxation the tension of our body subsides and we experience the relaxation of our muscles. Then we feel in our mind the feeling of the relaxed muscles.

Start with your arm. Feel the relaxation in it; then feel this relaxation of your arm in your mind. Be sure that you are doing it properly. Feel in your mind the relaxation that is in your arm.

Relaxation of the Face Brings Relaxation of the Mind. We use to our advantage the very close relationship between the state of the muscles of our face and the state of our mind:

Relaxed.

Legs, arms, whole body relaxed.

It is in my face.

Jaw muscles loose.

Muscles around the eyes are relaxed.

Whole face smoothes out.

Forehead relaxed—deeply.

I feel it in my mind.

In all our exercises we make sure that we maintain relaxation of the face muscles because of their effect on our mental relaxation.

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Dr. Essen makes some important exceptions to some of the fundamental principles adopted by other major clinics in Sweden, as follows:

1. Dr. Essen has a general impression, based on practical experience and existing case histories, that prolonged fasting is undesirable in the case of rheumatoid arthritis. The same is true concerning the raw, uncooked diet Although it is general observation, including his own personal experience, that fasting and raw food diets result in an immediate and striking improvement in the condition of the patient, it is all too common that prolonged, continuous treatment of this kind will very often result in a change for the worse. The reason for this is that raw vegetable juices and raw vegetables, as well as fasting, dissolve the accumulated toxins too fast and thus activate biochemical changes in the joints to such an extent that the pathologically affected joints cannot tolerate it nor can eliminative organs handle the heavy load of wastes thus thrown into the bloodstream. This invariably leads to deterioration and worsening of the condition. Raw food therapy and fast therapy, as healing measures, are very powerful curative therapies and should be employed with great caution.

Consequently, Dr. Essen recommends repeated short fasts from three to five days followed by the cleansing diet for the same length of time. The intermediate diet should consist of a mixed raw and cooked vegetable diet, well balanced and individually planned in every case to prevent detoxification from occurring too rapidly.

2. The administration of certain biological preparations (organic medicines) is of very great importance in Dr. Essen’s treatments. The biologically oriented physician in Europe has access to a growing line of new biological medicines made from organic and inorganic substances found in nature and prepared in accordance with biological principles. They are never synthetic and never toxic. Several companies in Europe specialize in the production of such remedies. The preparations most used by Dr. Essen are the well-known remedies from Weleda and Wala in Switzerland. These preparations are administered both orally and as subcutaneous injections.

Dr. Essen says, “The therapeutic effect of these kinds of medications lies in the fact that they direct the life-force in the desired direction, stimulate the glands and other vital organs of the body, and accelerate the healing process. They do not alter nor interfere with normal metabolic processes, only support and activate them.”

Aside from these two exceptions, Dr. Essen’s program is in general similar to what we have described in the previous chapter: lactovegetarian diet, preferably of organically (without sprays and chemical fertilizers) grown products, fasting, enemas, therapeutic baths, physiotherapy, relaxation massage, etc.

In his practice all synthetic and chemical drugs are taboo. He warns, however, that cortisone should not be cut off abruptly. The doses should be reduced gradually until the body has time to adjust to the new situation. He replaces cortisone with biological medicines that stimulate the adrenals, hypophysis, and other endocrine glands.

In addition, he uses large doses of vitamins, particularly vitamin B-121 and large doses of vitamin E (300 milligrams a day), because of its anticollagenotic effect.2 Furthermore, he uses vitamin C (up to 1,000 milligrams orally or intravenously), also B-complex and C combination. The other remedies to note are pollen preparations, organic mineral supplements, medicinal herbs, biologically prepared elixirs, and Luvos Heilerde, a clay preparation which is very effective in absorption and elimination of toxins from the intestinal tract. To the same end he uses various preparations of lactoacid bacteria: L. acidophilus, L. thermophilus, L. bulgaris.

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What should a bystander do during a grand mal attack? The onset is often so sudden that it is difficult to do much at all in the early stage, though it may be possible to break the person’s fall. Parents or other relatives may recognize the warning signs that may occur if the generalized seizure follows a focal discharge, and so may have time to help the person to a chair or to a bed before the grand mal begins.

Don’t try to open the person’s clenched mouth. The tongue, if bitten, is bitten at the onset of the attack, so there is no point in trying to save it. If the bystander uses his own fingers to try to force the mouth open, they may well be bitten in the clonic phase. If he tries to force a spoon or pencil between the teeth, the person’s teeth may be damaged. These manoeuvres are still sometimes attempted by tradition, and sometimes, presumably, because it is assumed that the person’s blue colour and arrest of breathing are due to obstruction to the passage of air into the lungs. Attempts to ‘loosen the collar’ presumably result from the same thoughts. However, all of us have enough gaps between our teeth to allow passage of air around them as readers can readily show for themselves by clenching their teeth, pinching the nose, and breathing in. Obstruction to the airway may occur during a seizure, if the person is lying on his back. The tongue may then fall backwards into the pharynx, and, for this reason, it is worth turning someone suffering a grand mal seizure into a position halfway between lying on his or her side and face, and thumping the back so that the tongue and any dentures fall forwards. This position also has the advantage that if the person vomits, as occasionally happens, the contents of the stomach pass easily out of the mouth, and there is no danger of vomit entering the trachea and lungs.

If a grand mal seizure occurs in a public place, it usually happens that someone calls an ambulance—very often to the annoyance of the person with epilepsy, who is well on the way to recovery by the time the ambulance driver delivers him to the local hospital. There is no need to call an ambulance unless it is clear that repeated seizures are occurring.

There is usually little to be done during a partial seizure, except to stand by in a reassuring manner until seizure activity ceases. Occasionally gentle restraint may be necessary in the case of complex automatic behaviour.

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