Health News and Information

The morning following his birth, Charlie was flown by elicopter to a specialized hospital where he underwent a full-day operation. A staff of doctors cut his pelvic bones, re-inserted his bladder and stitched up his abdominal wall. Charlie and his mom and dad lived at this distant hospital for forty days.This was to be just the beginning of eight nightmarish years of continual surgery to repair the extensive problems to his uro-genital track. Not to mention, the many side-effects from all the surgeries and drugs, including a life changing, life threatening toxic allergy to anything made of latex.His mom has lost count of the number of surgeries he has had. She thinks it’s between twenty and thirty. It is not uncommon for kids with this problem to have this many surgeries or more during their lifetime. And there will be many more.These procedures and treatments have totaled close to a million dollars, probably more. While Liz and her husband have some insurance, it certainly hasn’t covered all costs. It was also necessary for Liz to quit her lucrative job as a paralegal to take care of Charlie full time. “He would be in and out of the hospital every five weeks because so many things kept going wrong. His hip came out of its socket. He had epispadias repair. He had a double strangulated hernia. He, also, suffered for several years with such painful bladder spasms that he had to take heavy narcotics to keep the pain at bay. He is has been on ongoing antibiotics to deal with recurrence of bladder infections and will have to stay on them for the rest of his life.”*37/165/1*

This pattern although the opposite of emotional constipation, is equally toxic. The afflicted person behaves as if he couldn’t hold anything back. He has little tolerance for frustration and must discharge any kind of tension as quickly as possible. In men, this may take the form of premature ejaculation. Verbal diarrhea is seen in people who must talk incessantly to reduce their inner tensions. Silence, even for a minute or two, generates an unbearable pressure.In effect, these people short-circuit a great deal of potential nourishment. Deeply gratifying experiences often require a healthy build-up of tension to a full peak followed by an intense discharge and more complete gratification.T people are characteristically phobic about pain and have little tolerance for the tension of unfulfilled needs. Because they expect that their needs will not be gratified, it is difficult for them to consider any feeling of tension as a pleasurable experience. They are unable to enjoy the delights of anticipating forth-corning gratification and usually have a compulsive need to discharge any tension as soon as they become aware of it.*61\350\8*

Exercise can bring on headaches in some people, but the reverse also obtains in that physical training can be of benefit in preventing headaches, possibly by ‘toning up’ the body and thereby the blood vessels. The effect of training on performance is well recognized: the heart and lungs work more efficiently so that we do not get out of breath so easily, the blood flow to muscles increases, and the muscles themselves become larger so that we do not get tired as readily. In the trained person, the heart beats more slowly at rest, and, during exercise, it does not beat as fast as before training nor does the blood pressure rise as high. A greater efficiency is achieved due to increased parasympathetic activity. The amount of noradrenalin and adrenalin released for a given amount of exertion decreases; in addition, supplies of energy become more readily available, which also helps to avoid fatigue.When an untrained subject first starts exercising, the level of blood glucose drops, releasing hormones which break down stored supplies of sugar to raise the blood level. (In trained subjects, the blood sugar level shows an immediate rise on commencement of exercise.) Because training makes the body more efficient, it is more able to resist the effects of stress and the subject becomes able to do more during the day without getting tired.Studies of the effects of exercise training on the frequency of headaches in migraine sufferers are producing encouraging results, possibly because the blood vessels alter their tone. Jogging, an activity becoming increasingly popular in both sexes is the best sort of exercise for this purpose because it moves the greatest bulk of muscle and speeds up the heart rate. The distance and speed should be measured each time, the minimum number of runs being three times weekly. It is important to run fast enough to raise the pulse rate above 150 per minute and for long enough to make one slightly tired.
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