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Archive for April, 2009
When we are discussing anxiety we were careful to bring the relaxing exercises into relationship with our ordinary way of living. We found that we could keep the same relaxed state of mind when we were walking along or doing simple tasks. By this means the calm and ease of the exercises came to pervade all aspects of our life. Now we follow the same principles in relation to pain.
We have learned to do the exercises with pinpricks and the burning string in the calm and relaxed state of mind that we have learned to induce in ourselves. Now we practise the same exercises in our normal everyday state of calm and relaxation, without any of the regression which goes with the mental exercises. We learn to do this gradually. First we do the pinpricks exercise in deep relaxation; then we do it with ourselves still relaxed, but less regressed. We are more alert; our eyes are more widely open, and we are much more aware of our surroundings and what is going on. By doing this gradually we find that these stimuli, which at one time would have been quite painful, now cause us no discomfort. In other words, our threshold of pain has been raised. When we can do this with pinpricks, we proceed to practise in the same way with the burning string.
We are now bringing the effect of the exercises into our everyday life. We find that minor incidents which in the past would have caused us pain or discomfort are now no worry to us at all. When such incidents arise, we are less easily disturbed because of our increased tolerance of pain, and if the stimulus is sufficiently severe that we find we are on the verge of pain, we quickly relax in the way that we have learned, and the threat of pain passes off.
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read comments (0)DISEASE SIGNS IN THE CRANIAL AREAS
Author: admin
The head takes in the whole of the upper half of the iris except for the inclusion of heart and lungs. The important organs here include the mouth with the teeth and tonsils, nose and forehead with their accessory sinuses, the eye, brain and ear.
The areas for teeth and accessory sinuses deserve special attention since they are frequently the seat of disseminating or latent foci, which are seen as small black points. With latent foci, one sees on the sclera small tortuous venules which run to the affected area and have at their ends small bluish shining nodes. With disseminating foci the vessels go up to the iris, and with acute inflammations even on to the iris.
The areas for eyes—right iris 7′, left iris 53′—and the areas for ears, right iris about 52′, left iris 8′—are lighter in colour if there have been previous inflammatory conditions. White wisps or clouds are seen, which for example, in the case of purulent inflammation of the middle ears, extend to the outermost iris rim. These acute states are so easily established clinically that one seldom needs to make an exact iris-diagnosis for otitis media. With such disturbances also pay attention to the vascular state of the sclera. Much more frequently, however, one finds in these areas dark signs in the form of dark streaks, and this suggests an old injury which has not completely healed. If, however, these black streaks go inwards towards the iris-wreath, then there may be an optic nerve or auditory nerve weakness, and the patient complains of visual or auditory disturbances.
The brain area in both irides extends from 58′-7′, encompassing a large space, and assuming a correspondingly great importance. A much lighter colour of the brain areas suggests a congestion of blood in the brain, often accompanied by vertigo. White, or in the case of a brown stomach zone—brownish, radiating lines which run from the stomach zone to the brain area are signs for headache, whose origin lies in an over-activity of the stomach.
Single fine white lines in the brain area, the so-called nerve lines, indicate an over-activity of the head and brain nerves with neuralgic pains. Small ring-formations of whitish points in the fifth minor zone (resembling a string of small wax pearls) are signs for circulatory disturbance of the head, which the patient experiences as a feeling of numbness.
Darkening of the brain area in any case suggests a circulatory disturbance, which in such a case is attended by tiredness, depression, weakness and dizziness consequent upon the defective brain circulation —usually the result of cardiac weakness.
If lacunae are to be seen in the brain area then one may assume weakness of thought power and intelligence.
Dark signs in the area for cerebellum in the right iris indicate an hereditary disposition to epilepsy (according to Frau Madaus). If the signs appear in the left iris, it is supposed to indicate weakness of will through faulty upbringing. If radii Solaris, dark radiating furrows, are seen in the iris running from the pupil to the brain area, then there is a state of cerebral weakness. In the remainder of the iris they signify nerve weakness of the organs to which they run, more especially exhaustion of the C-N-S. When they radiate out from the iris-wreath only, exhaustion of the vegetative nervous system is indicated.
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THE MONTHLY MENSTRUAL CYCLE
Author: admin
For a start, it’s often a surprise to many women to realize that their wombs are really quite small. At least they are when they’re not pregnant. A non-pregnant womb is about the size of a woman’s clenched fist or a small orange; just right to be tucked safely away behind your pelvic bone, which you can feel low down in your belly linking the two inside edges of your hip bones. Your womb is virtually all thick muscle, with a small space inside it, between those thick walls, like a balloon before it’s been blown up.
That sticking out of the top of your womb, like two narrow curved horns are the two Fallopian tubes, which are specially designed to carry the newly developed egg from your ovaries into your womb. They curl round alongside the womb, so that their open ends are hovering just above your ovaries, the two glands that hold the millions of microscopic egg-cells Nature provided you with even before you were born. The open ends of the Fallopian tubes are fringed like a sea anemone and the inside of each tube is lined with little hairs, so that the
egg-cell can be wafted gently along inside it.
It seems extraordinary that the womb could carry anything as big as a full term baby, or that it could cause so much pain. But as we know, it can and it does. And one of the reasons is that although it’s quite a small bag of muscle, the muscles themselves are exceptionally strong, so when they contract, as they do when they are pushing a baby into the world, or when they are getting rid of the unwanted lining of the womb, you usually know about it.
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Many people who get furiously angry find that this mood gives them masses of energy. One way of dealing with the anger is to use up the energy. If you can choose some really useful violent activity, like digging the garden, scrubbing floors, washing the paintwork, making bread, or jogging, then you’re making a conscious effort to channel this energy practically and tackling your problem in a most positive way.
It certainly seems better to release your energy than to try to repress it. But even if you dig and scrub and bake like mad, there will still be times when your anger catches you out and you find yourself in the middle of a growing row. The old advice to count to ten before you say anything is precious little help at a time like this, but if you can remember to breathe in second gear you might find that this will give you the pause you need. And if you can then start relaxing those tense muscles in your face and fists you just might be able to stop the whole thing and get it under control. Breathing in second gear is doubly helpful when you’re in a temper, because as well as slowing you down and making you feel less angry it also gives you something else to concentrate on instead of whatever it is that’s making you furious. It won’t always work of course, because the pressure of your emotions at this time is so very strong. But it’s worth a try. If you do succeed, you’ll have every reason to feel very pleased with yourself.
This irrational anger is the symptom of the miseries you are most likely to know about, whether you suffer from it or not, and that’s because it’s been in the news recently. It’s far and away the most dramatic of all the symptoms and that makes it newsworthy. Journalists, like doctors, call it pre-menstrual tension, or pmt for short. Many of their articles, particularly the ones in the women’s magazines, are helpful and sympathetic. But I have also read stories in the popular press about mothers who battered their babies, wives who attacked their husbands, and even a girl who was sent to prison because she set fire to her parents’ home, and the journalists have asked us to believe that the only thing that was wrong with them was that they were suffering from pmt. Although I’m sure they were all suffering from the aching miseries, I’m equally sure there were lots of other problems in their lives too. We are all too complicated, and so are our lives, for such a very simple solution.
We ought to be glad that the subject is at least being aired. But over-simplification can be a nuisance and it’s one we ought all to guard against, because it can affect us all. If we’re not careful, pmt could become a sort of public scapegoat, so that any woman who is angry about anything could safely be ignored, dismissed or patronized. ‘Oh well, of course she can’t help it, poor thing. It’s that time of the month!’ Nudge, nudge; wink, wink! We need to hold on to our knowledge that a lot of anger is both necessary and justified if we and our children are to survive in what is, for so many of us, a cut-throat world. The acid test is to ask ourselves what a man would have said and done in the same circumstances. If a man’s anger is justified, then so is a woman’s.
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Signs and symptoms
Vaginal discharge that occurs during puberty and is not irritating or foul-smelling is normal. Vaginal discharge that is puslike, irritating, foul-smelling, or bloody is not normal. The cause of the problem usually must be determined by your doctor.
Home care
Some of the simple causes of abnormal vaginal discharge can be prevented. Have your daughter avoid using vaginal sprays or chemicals in bath water, wear cotton rather than synthetic underpants, and wipe herself from front to back after going to the bathroom. Look for signs of threadworms or urinary tract infections. Taking sitz baths in a tub of water to which a cup of vinegar has been added may be helpful.
Girls whose mothers received the drug diethylstilbesterol (DES) while pregnant may have a deformity of the vagina (adenosis) that causes vaginal discharge. Such girls should be examined by a gynecologist at the beginning of puberty whether or not they have vaginal discharge. Although the medical profession originally overestimated the chances of a girl whose mother took DES getting cancer, the possibility does exist. Any girl with adenosis of the vagina should be carefully monitored.
Medical treatment
Your doctor will take a detailed health history and conduct a physical (including rectal) examination. The doctor may require a culture of the discharge, and sometimes an X ray of the pelvis. Your doctor may also order urine tests.
Treatment depends upon the cause of the problem, but it may involve the use of antibiotics, worm medicine, fungicides, medicated suppositories, or hormone ointments.
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How could you tell if a toddler is having an insulin reaction? Sometimes his bad temper when he is overtired or hungry or wakes up from a sleep looks very like a hypo to me.
It is often very difficult to distinguish between an ordinary 2-year-old tantrum or a normal expression of developing independence and an insulin hypo. You will learn with experience and observation but you should do a blood test if in doubt, but if this is inconvenient you can be guided a little by a number of factors. Firstly, what time of the day is it?
If it is just before a meal or at a time when your child’s particular insulin is having its maximum effect, then it is more likely to be a hypo. If your child is sweaty and pale then once again it is more likely to be an insulin reaction. On the other hand, if something has happened which might reasonably lead to a tantrum or expression of bad temper, then you might find it a better course to ignore it rather than to play into his own hands by making a fuss over him. Certainly there will be times when you are not sure, and on such occasions it is probably better to treat it as a hypo and see the effect of giving an exchange of sugar. If he starts to improve soon after giving sugar, then it was very possibly an insulin reaction. It may be wise not to use too attractive a form of sugar in these situations (for instance, a compressed glucose tablet might be better than a barley sugar or lemonade) for fear that your child might ‘put on a turn’ in order to be rewarded with sugar.
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DIABETES: PREPARATION AND PLANNING BEFORE TRIPS
Author: admin
Check list of things to take
1. Plenty of syringes – allow for unscheduled delays.
2. Swabs – the individual packs are convenient.
3. Plenty of insulin – extra bottles for breakage or loss and a bottle of quick acting insulin even if your child is not using it regularly.
4. Plenty of blood testing strips for your meter.
5. Supply of blood testing strips which can be used without the meter, such as Glucostix or BM Test Glycemie 20-800. These are useful if the meter breaks down or if it is inconvenient to use it.
6. Blood glucose meter.
7. Tests for ketones in urine (Ketodiastix or Ketodiabur).
8. Glucagon kit.
9. Glucose in some form – for example, barley sugar.
10. A letter from your doctor about your child as an introduction to a doctor or hospital if you need help while away.
11. A letter for Customs officials if you are travelling overseas. The doctor will certify that you need to carry insulin and syringes.
12. Identification of your child clearly indicating that he or she has diabetes and is on insulin treatment.
13. Some snacks while travelling in case meals are delayed.
Insulin adjustment
Short journeys or travelling within the same general time zone (for example between Australia and Hong Kong) pose no problems. Give insulin and meals close to the usual time. If you cross a time zone, keep one watch on the home time and give snacks at the usual time to prevent hypoglycemia.
For long journeys to a different time zone (for example Australia to England or America) some advanced planning is required. Ask the travel agent to get a flight schedule for the journey for you expressed in both local time and in the time of the city from where you set out for the journey. You can then discuss this with your doctor or clinic.
If you are on two injections a day, this is easy. You may need to vary the morning and evening dose so that when you reach your destination, the insulin fits naturally into your new time scale.
If you are on one injection a day, you should discuss this with your doctor. Usually it is better to give half doses at about twelve hourly intervals during travel and then the usual dose before breakfast when you arrive.
Meals
In general it is usually easier if you:
1. Keep one watch on the home time (the time in the city where you started the journey), judging meal times by this.
2. Try to use airline meals. There is usually plenty of carbohydrate, but you may ask in advance for fruit or extra bread to make up carbohydrate allowance. Some airlines provide’ suitable meals for persons with diabetes on request. Check with your travel agent.
3. Keep an eye on your home time watch. It will tell you when it is time for a snack. Take some snacks with you. Airlines are usually very helpful in providing extra food or serving you first if you ask in advance.
Blood tests
Do blood tests from time to time. It is reassuring to know you can prevent hypoglycemia this way. Don’t worry if the tests are a bit high: they probably will be, because of the inactivity of sitting for long distances. You can use blood strips that don’t require a meter.
Exercise
Take the chance to walk around at transit airport stops. It breaks boredom, provides useful exercise, and helps prevent swollen ankles.
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In many ways dropping-out is the youngster’s equivalent of his father’s early retirement.
For some people unemployment may be an overriding problem. There is the loss of income and the social stigma. This may cause significant stress. For others, dropping-out and consequent unemployment may be an inferior way of coping with the stress of work. The student of marginal ability is always hard put to it in his studies, and exams become a problem which produces all the unpleasant symptoms of stress. Dropping-out removes the problems and stress is reduced.
As with his father, who does the same thing in early retirement, the youngster is able to support his decision to drop out with a whole series of rationalizations: ‘What is a degree? A piece of paper! Let’s get our values right.’ ‘I am going to drop out. See a bit of the world. Then come back to it, maybe.’ ‘Life is for living. I am going to camp with the others up in the northern beaches. There is plenty of pot. They are all so unconcerned. That’s what life should be.’ ‘Sweat all night for a piece of paper! Tell me, where does it get you?’ So he drops out. His level of stress is reduced, so he likes to stay that way.
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Rash decisions
«I was silly, stupid, foolish. I simply did not think it through. So unlike me. Usually give these things a lot of thought. Get advice. Talk it over quietly with someone I trust. Leave it a day or two before giving an answer. Just didn’t do those things. Rushed off and committed myself. Didn’t think it through. Now I’m in one hell of a mess.
‘I have not been myself since this other trouble began. All on edge. But I did not think it would affect me like this. »
In stress the over-alertness of our brain cells may manifest itself in irritability, so that we react too quickly to minor stimuli. The same principle may apply to a major stimulus of decision-making. The over-alert nerve cells respond too quickly. We come to a hasty decision, and make a rash judgment on some important matter without fully thinking it through.
This is a common cause of errors in judgment in business. It means that if we are under stress from some other cause, we should be particularly careful about making quick decisions.
There is another area in which this reaction may produce quite disastrous results. It applies to young people. Man and girl going together. Everything has been fine between them. One of them comes under stress from some outside major problems, maybe the job, maybe the exams. Some incident crops up between them. The one under stress reacts too quickly. ‘If that’s how you feel, we’ll break up.’ And a good relationship is lost, perhaps forever.
Insomnia
«You only know the value of things when you have lost them. Something as simple and natural as sleep. Had never thought about it. Now I’ve lost it. That’s all I think about. Will I sleep tonight?
‘Toss about for hours. Have moved to another room. No need for the two of us to go sleepless. Sit up and read. Get up and make myself some tea. Take some pills, and hate myself for it. Thoughts run round and round. Will they never stop? »
The over-alert brain cells produce the restless movement of our body, and the persistent activity of our mind, and prevent our natural sleep.
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• Hot drinks and food are linked to cancers of the gullet. The preventive answer in this case is obvious.
• Early first childbirth and having many children reduces the incidence of breast cancer. Whether breastfeeding does so is still open to debate, even after numerous worldwide studies. Cancer of the ovary is more common in women who have had few children. This could be a cause that continues to become more common worldwide as family size shrinks almost everywhere.
In contrast to cancers of the breasts and ovary, the figures for cancer of the cervix are higher amongst women who have had more children. This effect is almost certainly due to early, promiscuous sexual activity. No one knows what the connection is but smegma and/or sperms might be capable of being carcinogenic, as might herpes virus type 2. Genital cleanliness and barrier methods of contraception (especially the sheath) will help reduce this cancer, as will a smaller number of sexual partners. There is now a rather virulent ‘epidemic’ of cervical cancer in younger women-and this is occurring against a background of general improvement in the cervical cancer picture overall. Even a woman who has never had intercourse before can ‘catch’ cervical cancer from her promiscuous partner. Japanese women, traditionally virgins until marriage, have a high incidence of cervical cancer, perhaps as a result of their males having had premarital sexual experience with prostitutes. If a man’s first wife dies of cervical cancer his second wife stands a greater chance of dying from it. These facts tend to suggest an infective cause. Prevention involves minimal penis-in-vagina sexual activity before the age of 20 and the use of barrier methods of contraception. Clearly neither of these is very realistic for most people so we can expect to see a rise in the number of women suffering from this particular cancer.
• Air pollution is probably not a major contributor to cancers but the prevention of cancer obviously must include the provision of clean air. Drinking water too can have carcinogens in it, according to recent studies.
• Hormones and certain other medications can cause cancer. The contraceptive Pill has now been positively incriminated in cervical cancer (women who have been on the Pill for five years or more have double the risk of getting the disease, according to a massive World Health Organization study), and there are debates over its role in breast cancer. Oestrogens given ante-natally can produce cancers of the vagina and the uterus in the female children of such women. Oestrogens given to relieve menopausal symptoms increase the risk of endometrial cancer about four to eight times. Undoubtedly other drugs will be found to be carcinogenic as our knowledge increases. The answer must be to take only drugs that are absolutely necessary and to keep dosages to the minimum levels.
• Certain viruses seem to cause cancer and the avoidance of those with the viruses could be a sensible preventive measure. Herpes simplex type 2 virus is now thought to play a part in the production of cervical cancer-we saw above how to reduce the chances of contracting this virus. A herpes-type virus, the Epstein-Barr virus, is suspected of being the cause of a tumour called Burkitt’s lymphoma, a cancer which occurs among children in certain areas of Africa. There are suggestions that the same virus is the cause of nasopharyngeal cancer and Hodgkin’s disease.
• Too little dietary fibre has been proposed as a cause of cancer of the large bowel and rectum. The hypothesis is that carcinogens, whether produced by the body or occurring in food itself, are diluted by the bulky stools that a high-fibre diet produces, so reducing their effect. Because such a diet also makes food residues pass quicker through the bowel the hypothesis is that any carcinogens that are present are rushed through the bowel so quickly they do not have time to exert their carcinogenic effect. There is a considerable debate as to how feasible such a hypothesis is and many other theories exist as to how large-bowel cancers come about. None of this detracts from the provable value of a high-fibre diet for other conditions.
• Zinc deficiencies have been found in prostatic cancer patients, and recent work at the Sloane Kettering Cancer Center in New York concluded that ‘zinc is intimately involved in immune function’. Selenium, a trace metal, has been found in many studies to reduce the likelihood of cancers. Studies in one part of the US compared cancer death rates in high- and low-selenium soil areas and found high selenium levels to be protective. To get plenty of selenium you need to eat whole-grain cereals, organ meats and seafood. One study of seventeen countries found that cancer death rates were very clearly linked to selenium lack.
The most reliable way of taking selenium is to take a daily dose of high-selenium yeast. This is probably best because so many dietary sources are unreliable in their selenium content and any way may have been grown in a selenium-poor soil.
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