Archive for December, 2009
CAN ST JOHN’S WORT WORK AT FIRST AND THEN STOP WORKING? WHAT SHOULD I DO IF THAT HAPPENS?
Posted on December 9, 2009, under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid.
It is not uncommon for an anti-depressant that works initially to stop working after a period, which may range from weeks to years. St John’s Wort is no exception in this regard and depressive symptoms may recur after an initial response. A relapse of this kind may be due to a worsening of the depression, which is sometimes the result of a definable cause such as a personal loss, a new stress or the onset of winter. Wherever possible, the first-line response to such a setback is to deal with the underlying cause, for example to obtain extra support from friends and family, adopt strategies to help deal with the stress or increase the amount of environmental light.
If the trigger for relapse cannot be identified or if the steps to correct it by making environmental changes are unsuccessful, medication adjustments can be made, including increasing the dosage of St John’s Wort or adding another anti-depressant. Sometimes a person develops what is known as tolerance to an antidepressant, which means that certain chemical changes in the brain override the beneficial effects of the medication. In this case it can pay to switch to another medication or to add a medication specifically designed to potentiate the effects of the anti-depressant. Drugs such as lithium carbonate and synthetic thyroid hormone have been reported to be effective potentiators of conventional anti-depressants and may be of value when added to St John’s Wort as well. If the medication situation is complicated enough to warrant potentiation of an anti-depressant, it is certainly necessary for a highly skilled doctor to be involved in treatment decisions. The purpose of providing you with this information is so that you can understand some of the steps your doctor is likely to consider in dealing with the delayed development of unresponsiveness to an anti-depressant.
One possible reason why St John’s Wort may stop working is that the composition of active ingredients may vary from one batch of St John’s Wort to another. You might suspect this to be the case if you purchased a new batch of St John’s Wort just before noticing the change in anti-depressant effect. Reliability of quality control is one reason why I recommend the brand of St John’s Wort with the best documented and most reliable track record, namely Kira™, so as to minimize the likelihood of relapses due to inconsistencies between batches.
*95/75/2*
ALLERGIES: COPING WITH THE MODERN ENVIRONMENT
In previous sections, we have looked at the basic concept of clinical ecology and at the different stages and symptoms which environmentally caused disease can engender. In this section, I shall explain in more detail some of the techniques which advocates of this new approach have devised to cope with the ecologic disaster of the twentieth century.
The first problem is one of diagnosis. Conventional medicine recognizes the fact that millions of people are chronically ill and that it can offer little for their arthritis, or migraine, or fatigue, or depression but chemically derived pills. Patients with a welter of confusing symptoms are often treated contemptuously, because the underlying cause of their many illnesses goes unnoticed. By its very nature, the etiology of environmentally caused chronic disease is hidden: this is “nature’s medical coverup.” The first job of the clinical ecologist is to cut through the confusion and demonstrate the underlying causes with convincing tests.
Over a period of about fifty years, clinical ecologists have worked out procedures which differ from those used by conventional doctors. Even the history-taking interview is different. I practice “poker-faced medicine,” in that I do not pass judgment on a patient’s symptoms upon first hearing them, no matter how bizarre they may seem. Many such symptoms later turn out to have significance in the patient’s medical history. A chemical questionnaire, which is included in Chapter 19, evolved through many editions and helps reveal a patient’s susceptibility. The reader can take this test himself and get a preliminary idea of his own degree of sensitivity to chemicals.
Treatment by the methods of clinical ecology is safe, inexpensive, and effective. It is based, primarily, on avoidance of those environmental agents which cause trouble. The Rotary Diversified Diet (described in Chap. 18) works well for all types of food allergies and can help those who wish to diagnose their food allergies, as well as those who wish to avoid their development.
The treatment of chemical susceptibility is also largely based on avoidance. A number of simple and inexpensive procedures are described which can help protect the many people who suffer unknowingly from chemical-related problems.
Taken together, the chapters in this section can help any reader to become more aware of his own highly personalized reaction to common foods and chemicals and to begin to take simple steps to deal with a growing problem.
*90/110/2*
CASE STUDY: DEPRESSION AND OBESITY
A similar, but much more serious case was presented by Eleanor Wyckham, an overweight middle-aged woman. Two years before entering the Ecology Unit, Mrs. Wyckham had been hospitalized for depression. She had attempted suicide twice and had been given electroshock therapy. In her case, the treatment was ineffective and caused some memory loss.
Mrs. Wyckham was one of those patients who was aware that her problems stemmed in part from food. “I’ve reached the point where I am afraid to eat any longer,” she said, before entering the Ecology Unit. “Once I start eating, I feel as if I simply cannot stop.” She alternated between binges of eating and fasts or all-fruit diets. Her favorite food in the world, she said, was peanut butter—this was the one item she could not do without. She also loved bread, baked goods, and in fact anything with wheat in it. She had eaten wheat addictively since childhood, when her mother, who was interested in nutrition, became convinced of the virtues of whole wheat bread. She therefore plied her daughter with large amounts of this staple. Mrs. Wyckham, who had a family history of alcoholism, likened herself to an alcoholic, too—in her craving for bread and peanut butter.
She entered the hospital in a very depressed state. After five days of fasting, she was much less depressed. Not surprisingly, in her food test she had a severe reaction to peanuts (as well as to lamb). More unexpected was the fact that she passed the wheat test with no trouble—which shows that food allergies cannot always be pinpointed on the basis of histories or “hunches.” She did have moderate reactions to yeast and milk, however, which are often components of bread.
Mrs. Wyckham was then retested on some of the foods to which she had had no adverse reaction, but this time to foods which had been purchased in a commercial market. There was a definite increase in her depression, after a few such meals. Through the avoidance of incriminated foods, Mrs. Wyckham was able to control both her depression and her weight problem. This points to the fact that the Rotary Diversified Diet (Chap. 18), although not specifically designed as a weight-loss diet, can be helpful in that regard for the overweight patient.
The patients described in the preceding cases appear to have become sicker gradually, after a long period of cumulative exposure to chemicals and foods. Sometimes, however, a preexisting condition is suddenly made much worse by a massive exposure to an allergy-causing substance.
*88/110/2*
ANXIETY DISORDERS/WORKING THROUGH THE RECOVERY: OUR THRESHOLD TO STRESS
Posted on December 9, 2009, under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid.
The working-through process may at first seem difficult and confusing, but it isn’t. Some people can feel daunted and overwhelmed by the amount of effort needed. It is worth it. Everything which is required from us during the working-through process will be given back to us in the sheer joy and total freedom of recovery.
The working-through process is the same for everyone. The only difference is our personal threshold to stress. Some people may have reached the point where they cannot tolerate even the smallest stress. Other people may have a higher threshold to stress, but it is still low enough to trigger fearful thoughts.
The time it takes people to recover will vary. The individual threshold to stress comes into account, but the amount of effort and discipline we put into our recovery is most important.
The first attack was the result of either a build-up of stress or a major life stress. In other words, the anxiety and/or attack happened when we reached the limit of our individual threshold to stress. This doesn’t mean we are weak. It simply means we have reached our limit to stress, just as most people will reach their limit to stress at one point or other in their life. Continual worry about the symptoms of anxiety and attacks only increases our stress and lowers our threshold to it.
If our threshold to stress is now extremely low we may not be able to tolerate even the smallest daily stress. Our threshold to stress would be zero, while our anxiety level would be ten. At level five we would be able to tolerate the daily stress/es, but would find our anxiety level rising if there is a break in our normal daily routine. At level ten we would be able to deal with almost any stress without becoming anxious.
The working-through process means working to increase our threshold to stress back to normal levels, while decreasing our anxiety level.
It’s no use just hearing or reading about panic anxiety management skills. We have to practise them. There have been occasions when we say we’re not getting any better, and nothing has changed. If we are not getting results it usually means we are not practising enough, or even not practising at all!
*85/94/8*
CASE STUDY: PHYSICAL FATIGUE
Rudolph Garvin was a college student, the son of a physician, who wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. His prospects were dim because of his failing grades. For many years he had suffered from minus-one symptoms, such as rhinitis. He had repeatedly been examined for sinus infections, but none could be found. He also suffered from repeated “colds.”
When he entered college, his localized minus-one symptoms gave way to systemic minus-two symptoms: headaches and bouts of extreme tiredness. These would generally come on around 3 p.m. Tiredness and head pain interfered with his ability to study, concentrate, or perform his tasks. He had to try to sneak in some studying before the head-pain problems became too distracting.
Inexplicably, his fatigue fluctuated and was much worse on certain days. In general, his tiredness was associated with bouts of nervousness, tension, and feelings of frustration. He also experienced brain-fag, characterized by impaired reading comprehension and unretentive memory. For instance, he would read his assignment the night before a class but would be unable to remember what he had read the next day. When he first came for ecologic management, his afternoon fatigue had spread to the morning as well. Even after sleeping for eight or nine hours, he awakened tired. Like many such patients, his sleep was restless.
In office tests, two glasses of milk brought on a headache and a feeling of extreme fatigue. He had to lie down until he was able to return home. This was accompanied by stomach upset.
After eating eggs, on another occasion, he suffered a headache after forty minutes. Milk and eggs were daily foods in his diet. He was therefore taken off these items, as well as beef and peanuts, which were both suspected on the basis of his history. After two weeks on the diet, he reported feeling much less tired. He was then instructed to return beef to his diet for three days, followed by peanuts. His headache and fatigue did not reappear. The return of dairy products and eggs, however, was accompanied by a return of his physical fatigue and pain. By eliminating these foods from his diet in all their forms, he recovered his health. After a while, he was able to reintroduce these foods into his diet according to the principles of the Rotary Diversified Diet. His grades improved, and he was admitted to medical school. Today he is a successful physician.
*79/110/2*
VISUALISATION THERAPY
Posted on December 9, 2009, under General health.
The use of visualisation techniques has played a part in treating disease from early times and in therapies from all over the world. The technique has been ‘rediscovered’ in recent times and is often used in conjunction with a number of other therapies to aid the natural healing process as well as to create a positive self-image.
During the 1920s Edmund Jacobson observed that a subject visualising himself running experienced involuntary twitches in the muscles of his legs. The link between mind and body was used by a Texan oncologist, Carl Simonton, and his wife Stephanie, to develop a treatment for cancer patients based on visualisation. Dr Simonton first tried out his treatment on a 61-year-old man with extensive throat cancer who could not eat and had lost an enormous amount of weight. The man agreed to co-operate in his own treatment by relaxing three times a day, mentally picturing his disease and an army of white blood cells attacking and overcoming the cancer cells. He also visualised his radiation therapy and the interaction of his body with the treatment. Within two weeks the man was rapidly gaining weight and his cancer had diminished noticeably. He continued his radiation therapy and was able to go fishing every day while undergoing it. Visualising himself as well, with a bright future, the patient was able to overcome the morbid depression which often characterises advanced cancer patients. He went on to get over arthritis, from which he had suffered for many years, and to become sexually active, after 20 years of impotence. His cancer remained completely in remission.
Visualisation therapy is now a popular alternative treatment which is used alongside more orthodox treatments for cancer. It is also used to treat a variety of other conditions. Resistance to illness in old age is believed to be enhanced by visualisations of a future in which you are healthy, happy, loving and hopeful. Asthma, heart disorders and phobias are also believed to be responsive to visualisation techniques, and some people have found it an effective technique for pain relief. Breathing and relaxation exercises are often enhanced by the use of visualisation.
This technique is taught and used by a range of different practitioners, including psychotherapists, hypnotherapists and sometimes by doctors, but you will have to rely on a personal referral to find a therapist.
*75/69/2*
LIVING WITH EPILEPSY: WHAT TO DO DURING A SEIZURE
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.
*74/188/2*
MEDITATION FOR ANXIETY DISORDERS: STAGES OF MEDITATION
Posted on December 9, 2009, under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid.
There are various phases of the meditative process. Most people experience them in varying degrees. Some people become very worried about these experiences. Therefore it is important to discuss them.
The one experience people worry about is the sensation of their body relaxing. Sometimes people have been so tense for so many years they have forgotten what it is like to feel even slightly relaxed. As their bodies begin to let go of the tension, people become anxious and interpret the sensations as a sign that their worst fears are about to come true. They don’t.
The first stage of meditation can be difficult for beginners. Our thoughts are not used to being ignored and they continually break through and demand attention. As long as we can accept this as normal and let go of them without becoming frustrated, we can move into the second stage of meditation.
As we enter the second stage of meditation we feel the quiet settle over us. Our breathing begins to slow down. Our thoughts are still rising and falling, but our attention is now much more focused on our technique. Everything moves into the background as our quietness grows.
We enter the third stage. Our breathing slows down even further and our body becomes deeply relaxed. We may feel as if we are as light as a feather, or we may feel a comfortable heaviness. We become aware that the continuous stream of thoughts has broken. They now rise slowly and separate from each other. Individually, they quietly rise and fall without us becoming distracted by them. We find our word or mantra becomes distorted. This is what is supposed to happen. Some of us may see brilliant white, black or other swirls of colour. We can use them to take ourselves deeper. Our thoughts drift in and out, slowly and quietly.
We then enter the full meditative state in which there is perfect quietness, an absence of thought, feeling or emotions. Unlike the stages of deep sleep, this state of consciousness is very dynamic. There is full awareness of ‘nothing’, but in that ‘nothing’ is an awareness of ‘every-thing’. In this state there is no technique and no thoughts or feelings-just an all-pervasive quiet. Yet we are aware of everything and in full control. When we think ‘this is wonderful’ the quiet is broken by that thought, but we can return to the quiet simply by returning to our technique.
This is meditation.
*74/94/8*
TREATMENT OF YOUR DEPRESSION: A DOCTOR AS A COMPANION
Posted on December 9, 2009, under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid.
In a recent article, the eminent doctor and author Sherwin Nuland writes about the deficiencies of modern medicine in which the doctor treats the disease but not the patient who is suffering from the illness. Being ill is a lonely and scary condition and, of all illnesses, depression must surely be one of the loneliest and scariest. A good doctor should be a source of comfort to you in your illness and in the recovery process. You would do well to invest the time and energy in finding a doctor who is not only technically competent but is also able to play this critical role.
Choosing a Doctor
I can’t emphasize enough how important is the choice of a doctor. I am often astonished by how some highly discriminating people, who are careful in the selection of their barber or hairdresser and will go to great lengths to buy the right car at the right price, will take pot luck with whatever doctor is in their neighbourhood. I always like to go to doctors recommended to me by other doctors, figuring that if you’re in the trade yourself, you know the wheat from the chaff.
Credentials are of some value in choosing a good doctor, but sometimes doctors trained at the best places can also be conceited and closed to new ideas. In seeking a doctor, find someone who is clever, up-to-date, sympathetic, open-minded and not too impressed with his or her own opinions. Find someone who will take the time to listen to you and really hear what you are saying. Finally, keep an eye on your doctor. Even the best doctors are only human, can make mistakes and don’t always think of all the possibilities. Even if you are in treatment with a good doctor, you still have some responsibility to use your wits to be sure that you get the best possible care.
Extricating Yourself from an Unsuitable Doctor
A good doctor should not only keep up with the literature but also be open to learning new things. Ignorance is human and often forgivable; it is, after all, a treatable condition. Closed-mindedness, however, is hard to treat and if your doctor is not open to new information, that is a real problem since medicine is constantly changing and new diagnostic and treatment approaches are regularly being developed. It can also be very distressing to end up with a doctor who, rightly or wrongly, reflexively dismisses your point of view, as illustrated by the following cautionary tale.
*64/75/2*
ALCOHOLISM
We are so imbued with psychological explanations of alcoholism that it seems strange to consider this problem as related to food or chemical susceptibility. Frequently, however, an alcoholic is not a mentally sick person, in the conventional sense, but a very advanced food addict. In fact, alcoholism could well be called the acme, or pinnacle, of the food-addiction pyramid.
It is usually assumed that the alcoholic craves the ethyl alcohol in his drink. In most discussions of the problem, however, a significant fact is overlooked: few people would choose to drink pure ethyl alcohol, even if given the chance. Alcohol is almost invariably found mixed with other ingredients or fractions, many of them related to common foods. Starting in the mid-1940s, I began to accumulate evidence that it was principally these foods, rather than the alcohol itself, to which many alcoholics were addicted.
This insight was related to developments in food allergy. It was Herbert J. Rinkel, the same man who discovered “masking” and “unmasking” of food allergy, who first diagnosed allergies to corn, in the 1940s. I confirmed Rinkel’s observations in my patients, and together we published a series of lists of foods containing corn or corn products.
Allergy to corn turned out to be the most common food allergy in North America. Why, then, had its discovery waited until the 1940s, years after the other common allergies were described? The answer lay in the very fact of corn’s popularity. Because it was present in practically every meal in one form or another, obvious or disguised, it was extremely difficult to unmask. It was only when we had compiled a fairly complete list and ferreted out the corn in numerous products, in the form of corn syrup, corn starch, corn oil, and so forth, that we could perform adequate tests.
Soon after this, I began to notice that many of my alcoholic patients had corn allergies. Some patients, for example, told me that they became drunk on only one or two glasses of beer or a couple of shots of bourbon. Such patients were invariably highly susceptible to corn or to other ingredients in these beverages, such as wheat or yeast. It dawned on me that it might be these substances, rather than the alcohol per se, which perpetuated the craving for alcoholic beverages and which caused the bizarre behavioral changes associated with alcohol consumption. Since alcohol is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, it was likely that these food fractions were rapidly absorbed along with it, creating problems for the susceptible.
*62/110/2*