Health News and Information

When you buy fruit, make sure that it has not been sprayed with pesticides. Traces of lead, arsenic and other chemicals pose health hazards and will make the fruit inedible. Eating sprayed fruit need not necessarily bring on an acute case of poisoning, but chemical pesticides may have a cumulative effect and continuous doses, however small, can, sooner or later, lead to the development of pathological conditions.

In any case, fruit purchased at the market should always be properly cleaned and it is a good idea to peel it if spray spots can be seen. Many orchards are sprayed with chemicals to which has been added a substance with a special adhesive property so that the rain cannot wash the spray off the fruit. It is true, however, that by peeling the fruit you will lose valuable elements that are found in and under the skin, so it would be much better still to be discriminating when buying your fruit and to look for organically grown produce. If you have fruit trees of your own, make sure that no hazardous sprays are used.

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We do not even make the time to sit down and eat our meals in peace anymore. But if you are not willing to take your time when eating, you will one day have to take it being ill. For it is inevitable that we will harm our health if we do not learn to relax in spite of the daily hustle and bustle around us. Instead of listening to an exciting news item on the radio or, worse, reading the newspaper while eating, we should relax and make every meal a special occasion with the family. Instead of gulping down our food in a hurry, we should enjoy it calmly, eat it slowly, insalivating well and chewing everything thoroughly. In fact, every fast eater should be condemned to eating with chopsticks, as it is the custom in the Far East. You see, this technique takes more than just practice and skill, it takes patience, because if you are fidgety and restless you will hardly be able to keep any morsel between the sticks and pass it to your mouth. I am convinced that eating with chopsticks is a wonderful method for learning how to eat in a relaxed and quiet way!

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Intensive diaphragm-breathing eased the pain considerably, but it kept returning and woke me up again and again. At the break of day I tried to obtain some relief by going out into the open air. While there I collected some giant dock leaves which I placed on my abdomen to alleviate the pain. For a short time I did experience some relief, but later that morning the pain returned. My bowel movement was good, but I passed very little water. This surprised me until I began to realise that the body was retaining the liquids so that it might eventually help to expel the toxins. And so it was. A violent bout of diarrhoea set in, recurring several times during the morning, yet in between trips to the bathroom I did try to get on with my work. At the end of five hours, however, I had to give up.

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Depending upon the person’s constitution, physical exertion may cause severe tonic contractions in the rectal region. These cramps can be so violent as to make the afflicted person cry out in pain. He may well believe that he is suffering from some malignant disease. In reality, however, it is nothing but a temporary cramp that can easily be relieved by taking a hot shower, as described above, for one or two minutes.

Menstrual cramps, which cause great discomfort to many women, fall into the area of cramps caused by spasms. Many different kinds of headaches may also be brought on by spasms, particularly migraine and the much-feared headache caused by the fohn, a warm dry wind blowing down into the Alpine valleys. Such a headache is worse when accompanied by a stiff neck, but the stiffness can usually be alleviated by massage.

It is a relief to know that there is no need to take hazardous medication that may even lead to addiction in order to alleviate severe pain and cramps. Instead, Petadolor, a preparation derived from butterbur {Petasites officinalis), is usually all that is necessary. This wonderful herbal remedy has proved very reliable in controlling cramps without causing harmful side effects. In addition, arnica flower tincture, when rubbed on the affected area, has an antispasmodic effect, and Kali phos. 6x builds up the autonomic nervous system.

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If goitre is present and is not caused by a hyperthyroid condition, kelp tablets will help the patient, since they contain ail the minerals found in seaweed. These tablets also help to reduce obesity without any side effects. I have also found that goitre due to hypothyroidism reacts favourably to treatment with potassium iodide.

Goitre not only detracts from one’s appearance and is physically annoying, but it also places a burden on the mental processes because of its detrimental effect on the memory and nervous system. It is therefore advisable not to put off the treatment of goitre but to do something about it quickly. Surgery can be avoided in many cases if the proper treatment with natural remedies and therapies is administered early enough. Natural treatment will restore the normal body functions and physical strength, which is not always the case after surgical removal of a large part of the thyroid.

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In order to raise low blood pressure it does no harm to drink a glass of natural, unadulterated red wine now and again. ‘Buendner meat’ (slightly salted and air-dried beef) is also indicated for this purpose. Vegetarians, however, will no doubt prefer to take bee pollen, which helps to increase low blood pressure due to its stimulating effect on the sex glands. The combination of Auroforce, Kali phos. 6x and bee pollen has been found to be effective. But here is a word of warning: bee pollen is so effective in raising the blood pressure that people who suffer from hypertension should not take any at all since doing so could provoke a stroke. I remember the case of one patient who had taken some pollen and could have had a tragic end if immediate counteracting measures had not been taken in time. You can see from this experience that even natural remedies are not always harmless if improperly employed.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

If you’ve been reaching for the salt shaker more often lately because food doesn’t seem to taste as good as it used to, you need to determine whether the change has been gradual or sudden.

A gradual loss of taste is probably due to the fact that you don’t have as many taste buds as you once did—and those that remain gradually lose their effectiveness. However, a noticeable loss of taste doesn’t usually occur until a person reaches the 70s or 80s, if at all. A vitamin deficiency—of zinc and/or vitamin B^—can also cause a gradual loss of taste. And habitual cigarette smoking is one of the most common causes of taste loss.

A sudden loss of taste is usually caused by a specific medical condition; it may be a sign of stroke, infection, or a tumor in the lung.

Treatment

There’s not much you can do if you find you’re gradually losing your sense of taste. Quitting smoking or taking zinc and/or vitamin B12 can help you to determine if these are responsible for your loss of taste. Taking a multivitamin with 100% of the RDA of all recommended vitamins and minerals each day will provide you with sufficient dosages of both zinc and vitamin B12.

However, if you suddenly lose your sense of taste, you should check for recent changes in your lifestyle or health. For instance, antihistamines are frequently responsible for reduced taste sensation, which is frequently accompanied by a dry mouth. And because taste is so closely related to smell, if you have a cold or an upper respiratory infection, you’ll probably lose some if not all of your sense of taste. Psychotropic medications that alter your consciousness—such as marijuana and cocaine—are another cause.

However, if none of these is the cause, you should check with your physician as soon as possible to determine what the cause is. Your doctor may give you a taste test to determine the kinds of tastes you can detect—sweet, salty, sour, and bitter—that is akin to a scratch-and-sniff test. He will place sugar, lemon, bitters, and salt on your tongue in order to determine what specific tastes you can detect.

After a thorough examination, if your physician determines that your taste loss is temporary, you should concentrate on selecting foods that give you at least some sensation of taste. Tangy, sweet, or spicy foods, along with foods that are crunchy or have some texture, will help alleviate the annoyance of not being able to taste your food. If, however, your doctor suspects that your loss of taste is due to an underlying illness, such as a stroke, he will probably order more tests to make a positive diagnosis and then begin treatment for the illness itself.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

The majority of Americans believe that to have anything less than clean, minty breath 24 hours a day is something akin to sacrilege.

Of course, sweet-smelling breath is a real asset in life, but frequently, eliminating bad breath isn’t just a matter of brushing your teeth and gargling with mouthwash. After all, mints, toothpaste, and mouthwash will only partially mask bad breath that doesn’t respond to improved oral hygiene. Sometimes gingivitis, or gum disease, or a serious health problem such as lung, kidney, or liver disease or any mouth or throat infection is responsible for persistent halitosis. Most of the time, however, the problem can be solved easily with a simple change in diet.

Treatment

The first thing to check—and the easiest symptom to treat—is your oral hygiene habits. If you’re not brushing and flossing properly—or cleaning your dentures thoroughly each day—you should immediately start to pay closer attention to your dental routine. Advanced cases of gingivitis or gum disease can also cause persistent bad breath.

If you improve your dental hygiene program but you still have bad breath, you should give yourself a nutritional checkup, since, as you age, your digestive system can slow down considerably. And if you eat a lot of processed and refined foods—which take longer to digest than unte-fined foods do—the food can stay in your stomach longet and ferment, producing a noxious gas. Low-calorie diets ate notorious for causing bad breath, as ketones, a by-product of digestion, are produced by the digestion of excess protein and expelled through your mouth as a foul-smelling gas. If improving your diet doesn’t work, you may have a problem in your gastrointestinal tract, which is often responsible for releasing foul-smelling gas through the mouth.

Lung disease and its primary cause—cigarette smoking—can also cause bad breath that doesn’t go away with brushing and flossing. Other serious diseases, such as kidney or liver failure or diabetes, can also cause the breath to smell foul, as can any infection that occurs in your mouth or throat. If your bad breath has appeared suddenly and doesn’t respond to your own treatment, see your doctor to rule out these diseases as the cause. Over-the-counter cold remedies and antihistamines such as Benadryl and prescription medications, especially antidepressants such as Elavil and others that cause your mouth to become dry, can bring on bad breath since adequate saliva production helps to keep your breath fresh. Ask your doctor about switching to another medication.

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If you develop a painful rash along your ear—commonly known as shingles—then it’s safe to say that you had chicken pox as a kid.

Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a form of shingles that commonly appears along your ear, is a form of the herpes zoster virus, the same virus that causes chicken pox in children.

What causes the chicken pox virus suddenly to appear after years of latency? It’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint the culprit, but too much emotional and/or physical stress can often trigger the immune system to become depressed, which may “wake up” a latent virus. And people who have weakened immune systems are prone to repeated bouts with the virus—and attacks of shingles.

To find out if the rash on your ear means you are having your second bout with chicken pox, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do I have a painful rash or pimples on my outer ear?

2. Did I have chicken pox as a child?

3. Have I lost my sense of taste?

4. Am I sometimes unable to move one side of my face for short periods of time?

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For people who have presbyopia, bifocals—glasses with two different strengths of lenses in them—are the most common solution. The top half of the lens will help you see more clearly at a distance, while the bottom half will improve your reading as well as your ability to focus on objects you need to see up close. Nowadays, new types of bifocals are available in which there is no “line” between the upper and lower halves, so that no one can tell that you’re wearing bifocals.

However, as baby boomers can be as vain as I am when it comes to wearing glasses, there is hope in the form of contact lenses. Bausch & Lomb makes a special bifocal contact lens called Multifocal that is designed to be worn when you don’t want to wear glasses.

Unfortunately, ophthalmologists recommend that you increase the strength of your prescription every three to four years after the age of 40, since the lens of your eye will continue to become stiffer, which will ultimately alter your vision. Fortunately, eyesight stops deteriorating at about the age of 65, making further prescription upgrades unnecessary.

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