Medical Weblog

VITAMIN A

Functions: the single most important vitamin with respect to the immune system • necessary for night vision and protein synthesis • promotes fertility • stimulates bone growth • assists in growth and repair of body cells • essential for healthy skin and respiratory tract, as well as the linings of esophagus, stomach, intestine, colon, rectum, gall bladder, kidneys and urinary tract • prompts secretion of digestive “juices” • necessary for growth in the young.

Deficiency signs and symptoms: increased susceptibility to infection • night blindness and other eye problems • dryness, thickness and eruptions of the skin • dry, brittle nails • softness of bones and teeth.

Vitamin A’s enemies: mineral oil • alcohol • light • high temperature • air.

VITAMIN B1 (thiamine)

Functions: vital for a healthy immune system • necessary for the conversion of carbohydrates into energy in the nervous system and in muscles.

Deficiency signs and symptoms: mental problems such as loss of mental alertness, irritability, memory loss, confusion and depression • fatigue • loss of appetite • heart irregularities • numbness, tingling and weakness in the extremities and other parts of body (polyneuritis) • constipation • tenderness in the calves • burning sensations in the feet • the classic Bj deficiency disease is beriberi • extreme deficiency leads to heart failure, degeneration of nerve endings, and death. Vitamin B{s enemies: heat • air • excessive cooking of food • caffeine • alcohol • excessive dietary sugar.

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Fill your lungs with as much air as you can. Holding the air in your lungs, bear down as if you were going to have a bowel movement. While holding the air and bearing down, place your fists up by your chin. Squeeze your arms tightly against your chest. Feel the tension in your chest muscles as you slowly count: one thousand . .. two thousand .. . three thousand … four thousand … five thousand … six thousand … seven thousand . . . eight thousand . . . nine thousand . . . ten thousand.

Slowly relax, letting the air out of your lungs.

Now, take in a deep breath through your nose. Hold it for a moment. Let it slowly out through your mouth, very slowly, taking at least five seconds to let it all out.

Take another breath … hold it … let it out slowly.

Fill your lungs once again, bear down, hold your fists by your chin and squeeze your arms against your chest. Hold that position, chest muscles clenched tightly, as you count slowly: one thousand … two thousand … three thousand … four thousand … five thousand … six thousand … seven thousand . . . eight thousand . . . nine thousand . . . ten thousand.

Slowly relax and exhale.

Take in a deep breath through your nose … a nice, deep breath.

Hold the breath for a moment. Now let it out slowly, very slowly, through your mouth, taking at least five seconds to empty your lungs. ^

Take another big breath, filling up your lungs.

Hold it for a moment. Now let it out very slowly.

Your trunk now feels relaxed.

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FLIPPER’S CHOICE

1 lb. low-fat fish fillets pepper garlic powder basil oregano onion powder

1 sweet red pepper

1 can tomato sauce (no salt added)

Wash and dry fish fillets, cut into 2-inch strips. Place in baking dish; sprinkle on all the spices. Wash and slice red pepper, and place slices on top of fish. Pour tomato sauce over fish. Bake 10 minutes at 375° without turning.

Serves 2.

MILK FISH

4 6-oz. snapper or perch fillets 1/2 cup nonfat milk tarragon dillweed onion powder paprika

Preheat broiler. Dip fillets in milk, place in shallow baking dish and sprinkle with tarragon, dillweed, onion powder and paprika to taste. Broil about 3 inches from the heat source for 3 to 4 minutes, basting once with drippings. Turn, baste and sprinkle with additional herbs if desired. Broil 3 to 4 minutes longer.

Serves 4.

PASSYUNK FISH

2 onions

2 lemons

3 garlic cloves, minced 1 cup celery

1 small eggplant 1 large tomato 1 small can tomato paste, with water to make 11/2 cups 1/2 tsp. cumin 1 1/2 lbs. low-fat fish

Preheat oven to 350°. Wash vegetables. Thinly slice onion and lemon, chop garlic buds and celery, dice eggplant and slice tomato. Use a heavy pan to saute onions and garlic in water. Add celery and eggplant, tomato paste, water and spices. Cook about 10 minutes. Spread half the resulting sauce in a baking dish, put in fish; top off with remaining sauce, lemon and tomato slices. Cover dish and bake about 20 minutes. Uncover; cook 5 minutes more. Serve with brown rice.

Serves 2 to 3.

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Cholesterol: Leave It to Nature

Cholesterol is a “good/bad” item: good because it’s essential for life, bad because it’s associated with clogged arteries and heart disease.

Here’s the general rule I explain to my patients: Your body is very good at making all the cholesterol it needs. You don’t have to help it out by eating a lot more. In fact, you really don’t have to eat any cholesterol at all.

But eat it we do, in large amounts. Working hand in hand with fat, cholesterol plugs up arteries, especially the tiny arteries that supply the heart muscle and brain. When those arteries close up, some or all of your heart or brain will die.

The Pick-Me-Up That Lets You Down

Caffeine is another food item you can do without. Many studies have linked caffeine to irregular heart rhythms, increased blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, the heartburn of gastritis and esophogitis, peptic ulcers, digestive problems and cancer. Ironically, the caffeine we drink to give us a lift eventually does the opposite. Caffeine gets your heart beating faster and increases your blood sugar. That’s what gives you the lift. Your body then reacts to the sudden energy surge by gathering up all the blood sugar it can and stuffing it into your cells. Too much sugar, however, is often gathered up. Now your blood sugar is low; you feel fatigued and want another cup of coffee. For many of my patients, every day is a cruel cycle of fatigue, coffee, brief lift, fatigue, coffee, brief lift, fatigue.

That’s why I call caffeine the pick-me-up that really lets us down, overstimulating our heart and muscles at the same time. It just makes trouble for our “doctor within.”

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An elimination diet is not an easy method of diagnosis, and unless the patient fully understands the procedure it may not work at all. Doctors have been searching for a simpler method of diagnosing food intolerance for many years, but so far without success.

As alternative practitioners have moved into this field, they have found the elimination diet too difficult and time-consuming, and have sought easier diagnostic tests. Some, such as the pulse test and the cytotoxic test, are based on methods that were originally devised by conventional doctors but found to be too inaccurate. Others are frankly unscientific. All have helped their practitioners to earn a very comfortable living, without necessarily doing the patients a great deal of good. We will only consider the most common tests.

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Nothing exciting happened to disturb the peace and pleasure hours of leisure. No noise and no radio programmes subjected the body to further tension and no television shows demanded the undivided attention of the viewer. In the place of these canned programmes there was often heard rising from the valley a beautiful song that refreshed the singer and the listeners alike. These aspects of life led to wholesome relaxation which we search for today but seldom find in spite of all the money spent. Often, sound sleep escapes those who did not retire early enough, not wanting to miss out on some nocturnal pleasure. For them the hours of the night become more arduous than even their work during the day, but sleep is an indispensable and natural requirement.

While some people are never able to relax, there are others who cannot do enough to make money. Some workers, for example in the catering industry, do not enjoy their days off as a time of rest and relaxation, but to make more money they accept casual work as well. Such demands on the body may be possible for a little while but they will sap the person’s energy reserves in the long run. We must recognise that the rhythm of life consists of periods of tension and relaxation, the latter being necessary to recharge life’s batteries. Another modern tendency is to seek the necessary relaxation in sport, but unfortunately this often degenerates into competition and the body is overtaxed once again.

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Sure enough, what she remembered confirmed my suspicions because she told me that her husband had been spraying the trees round about that time; in fact, the girl had walked straight into the poison cloud. From that moment onward, her mother said, the trouble started. I was in no doubt at all that the circumstances and symptoms proved what the cause really was.

Now all I wanted to know was whether the doctors had been told of the incident, and she said that they had. Yet only one doctor at the hospital considered pesticide poisoning to be the cause of the girl’s condition, whereas his colleagues flatly rejected this opinion. It was perfectly clear to me, however, why penicillin could not even relieve the symptoms, because it would have given at least temporary improvement if bacteria, instead of chemical poisons, had been the cause of the illness. Having made the correct diagnosis, I had no problem in choosing the appropriate treatment and remedies, and I suspect, no, I am convinced, that the natural treatment and necessary natural remedies helped the little girl to recover.

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Oils and fats have not escaped being tampered with either. By being refined and solidified, and by having emulsifiers added, they have received a bad name, and rightly so. Not only polyunsaturated fatty acids, but the whole structure of natural products with all their known and still undiscovered qualities, has been thrown off balance. Every oil or fat, left as nature made it, would provide us with what we need to meet our nutritional requirements. It is only when we interfere by introducing chemical and technical methods in the manufacturing process that damage is done and loss of value ensues. More often than not these interferences cause health problems. Of course, oils have been refined, and their taste improved, for many years, but simpler methods were used in the past. Oil was refined by means of wood ashes, because their alkaline substances removed some of the excess acid in the oil, thereby improving its taste. A further advantage of the old methods was that large quantities of oil were not stored, but a fresh supply was pressed from time to time. Oil-bearing fruits keep longer than the oil once extracted.

It is especially harmful when fats are hardened by electrolysis, as metal salts are used in the process. Although this method destroys much of the goodness in the natural product, this is not the only bad result. The traces of metal salts remaining in the oil can cause further damage to health by acting like poisons in homoeopathic potencies. Scientific research, as well as information disseminated by groups promoting a more natural way of life, have accomplished a great deal of good by encouraging greater awareness of these problems in recent years.

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Some people assume that it is permissible to combine fruit and vegetable juices, such as orange with carrot juice. This, of course, is no better than eating fruit and vegetables at the same time, which, as already discussed, is apt to cause fermentation and flatulence, especially in sensitive people. Generally speaking, one juice can be mixed with another of the same kind, so that the best way is to take, for example, carrot and beetroot juices at one time, and orange and another fruit juice some other time. This way your digestion will not suffer. As a rule, it is better to drink only one juice, not a mixture. What is more, sipping is much better than gulping it down, because little sips, properly insalivated, will avoid flatulence or any other digestive disturbance. The curative effect will be greater too. Insalivating well helps to warm ice-cold juice in the mouth and so avoid chilling the stomach. A bite of crispbread or rusk with each sip of fruit juice will help to neutralise the acidity somewhat and protect the stomach lining.

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If you want healthy vegetables they must be grown organically. They depend upon the soil in which they are grown and for the soil to be healthy it must be worked and looked after properly. If you live in the country, take advantage of the various edible plants growing wild in the woods and fields. You will find wild spinach and many other wild vegetables, all tasty and nutritious. Do not neglect to gather and eat them. Bear’s garlic (ramsons), for example, is a prized vegetable, one of the best blood-purifying plants there is, and it should be gathered and eaten in the spring. It regenerates the blood vessels, and lowers and normalises blood pressure. The blood pressure problems that often accompany old age, brought on by the loss of elasticity of the arteries, can be effectively counteracted with brown rice, bear’s garlic and mistletoe tea, if taken on a regular basis. Young nettles, finely chopped and mixed in with salads or steamed like spinach, are also very good for the blood.

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