Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog

Exposing your child to books from an early age is one of the most positive early learning experiences you can give him. You can start off with picture books, pointing our items in pictures and encouraging the child to mimic your sounds or repeat tne vvords. This can begin in the first year of life.

Reading your child a regular story as part of the routine of going to bed at night stimulates his curiosity and his understanding that books give pleasure. As a toddler he can sit on your knee and look at pictures as you read simple story books. If his interest in books has been stimulated, it will only be a matter of time before he will request favourite books or stories.

You can begin taking your child to the local library from an early age. Many libraries offer special programs for young children, such as regular daytime storytelling sessions in the children’s section of the library.

As your child gets older and begins to read, he can choose his own library books, can help choose a book to buy from the local bookshop. Being exposed to suitable books and listening to stories read to him can help him get off to a good start at school. Reading to a young child also creates some very special time for a parent- Is there anything more special than a child sitting on a parent’s knee, eyes wide with anticipation, as the pages are slowly turned and the story unfolds? Having i regular daily reading time also helps the child modulate his activity levels, so that in addition to energetic, vigorous, pursuits he also learns to sit quietly and concentrate.

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The Hero: Heroes use their disease as a flag of battle. They become so involved in their war against illness that they forget or neglect the tenderness of intimacy. “No way I’ll give into this,” reported the wife with lupus. “I’ll read every minute about it, I’ll exercise, I ’11 see every expert in this world or any other.” Her husband could not understand this total involvement in the battle against the disease. “I know we have to fight this thing, but what about the rest of life? Can’t we love and laugh too, love and laugh as much as we fight and struggle?”

“Maybe you can, but I’m the one who will prove them wrong. I can handle this alone if I have to,” was the wife’s response. “I haven’t got time to play around. Every minute I waste is a minute I give to the disease. I ’11 feel like making love after I feel like I take care of this first.” She failed to understand that “taking care” of this disease depended in part on taking care of her marriage and sexuality at the same time. Heroes find themselves eventually alone, even in victory over the disease. They become victorious warriors with no one to share the victory.

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Super sex requires super love, a love that is possible only in a relationship that lasts; a nurtured love that is “raised,” much as a child is raised. We focus so much on independence that we have fogotten the value of interdependence. We have searched for the joy of sex, forgetting that there is no joy in just “doing.” The joy of marital sex is discovered through a super love, the total, voluntary merging with someone else over time. This love contains no secrets, protects the individuality of each partner while resulting in a combination that exceeds the individual capacities of both partners. It changes and grows in response to both partners. It includes a sexual interaction based on an entirely new view of orgasm and intercourse. It provides an opportunity for growth and feedback about each partner’s own behavior. It is as challenging as it is supportive. It is a love system, and we are at the same time able to experience it and be it.

Shapiro and Shapiro examine the “super healthy” relationship in their article “Weil-Being and Relationship.” They point out that is is sometimes easier to love humanity in the collective, abstract sense than in a committed, interpersonal sense. They describe the super love I am suggesting as a relationship that “one cannot take credit for, but to which one must contribute to the utmost of one’s ability, which one marvels at and is privileged to be part of.” I hope Part One of this book has helped you get ready to take part in what the Shapiros have called “a type of miracle.”

This miracle is possible not through spontaneous, romanticized, intense, “hot” love, but through considered, realistic, steady, “warm” loving, a process of being one with someone else while still being “one” for yourself. By paying attention to what can happen to desexualize a marital relationship, understanding the rules of how systems grow and flourish, bonding and rebonding with your spouse, you are able to move beyond the eight love lies at the beginning of this chapter to a true loving allowing the merger of two love maps for a new and exciting journey to super marital sex.

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When smears are taken no gonococci are found. In about half the cases, organisms such as Chlamydia or Mycoplasma may be grown on culture but in the rest, no causative organisms can be demonstrated.

This particular infection seems to generate more anxiety than does gonorrhoea.

This may be because the symptoms are slow to develop and slow to clear and may recur despite treatment.

Sometimes this infection develops during a constant sexual relationship where there has been no outside sexual contact by either partner for several months or even years.

There are usually no symptoms in women but the sexual contacts of infected men may have evidence of vaginal or cervical infection and sometimes the Chlamydia or Mycoplasma organisms can be demonstrated.

Penicillin is ineffective but the tetracycline drugs will clear it. Recurrences are common, even without further exposure.

One complication of NGU seen more in men than women is Reiter’s disease.

This involves urethritis associated with conjunctivitis or iritis, which is inflammation of the deeper tissues of the eye, and arthritis or tendon inflammation. Reiter’s disease requires the use of the anti-inflammatory drugs used for the rheumatic disorders and may take months or years to clear.

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Euthanasia, or mercy killing, is widely discussed and debated, but more with emotion than reason.

And doctors more than anyone are prone to think emotionally rather than rationally about it — because they are so intimately involved and it does make the doctor think of his own role in dealing with sickness and death.

When euthanasia is discussed it is assumed that the person carrying out the act will be the attending doctor. But is that fair?

If society decides that euthanasia is what it wants, who will be the executioner?

Most doctors would rebel about accepting that role, even if they approve of mercy killing in principle.

The doctor is trained and spends his whole life in trying to save lives and ease pain.

Doctors are not happy with death.

Unless the doctor develops a mature personality and a clear concept of his own fallibility and mortality, he may deny and reject death, both for himself and his patients.

Death becomes the enemy to be avoided at all costs. But it is the ultimate fate of us all.

It needs considerable maturity for any of us to accept death.

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There is a pre-cancer stage for lung cancer too but it is probably shorter and the cells are not often seen in cytology specimens. The next thing is that effective treatment is more possible if pre-cancer or cancer cells are found: part of or all of the cervix can be removed. We can remove part of the lungs but we can’t remove them all, for obvious reasons. Thus with cervix cancer it is fairly easy to get comprehensive samples for cytology tests, it has a longer and more readily identified precancer stage and it can be effectively dealt with once diagnosed (by complete surgical removal). These are the factors which result in screening picking up a higher proportion of curable cases than happens if we wait until patients get symptoms. While mentioning Pap smears, I’ll just take the opportunity to tell you that a clear Pap smear (when properly taken) only really rules out cancer of the cervix. Cancers of the uterus (womb) and ovaries are rarely diagnosed on Pap smears — it is a screening test only for cancer of the cervix.

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These X-rays and scans show up cancer lumps but do not help much when looking for meningeal involvement. To check for this a lumbar puncture is necessary. Under local anaesthetic, a fine needle is inserted into the fluid which surrounds and cushions the spinal cord and brain (the cerebro-spinal fluid or CSF). The pressure in the CSF can be measured through the needle and is an indication of the pressure throughout the central nervous system. A sample of fluid can be withdrawn for testing, including examination under the microscope for cancer cells. When done correctly, a lumbar puncture is not much more painful than a blood test. Headache can occur after a lumbar puncture. These headaches are thought to be due to CSF continuing to leak out through the tiny hole in the meningeal covering. To reduce the chance of this happening, you may be advised to lie flat for some hours after the lumbar puncture.

Central nervous system symptoms can also result from cancer deposits pressing on a part of the central nervous system from the outside.

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This is a bacterial illness and is now rare, but the germ is still active in the community and small outbreaks occur from time to time, especially in the unimmunised.

The incubation period is around two weeks and it is common in the spring and autumn. The infection starts as a heavy cold with a marked cough, and this runs its course over a week or so by which times the temperature usually subsides. The characteristic cough associated with a whoop then develops. A paroxysm of coughing occurs and the lungs are almost emptied by short, sharp coughing.

The tongue may protrude and the child may go blue. Then the spasm in the larynx, or voice box, relaxes and the air is drawn into the lungs with a crowing sound which produces the typical “whoop”. Vomiting frequently follows this paroxysm.

The correct diagnosis is often not made until the whooping stage is reached.

In most children who have been immunised, a modified form of the disease may produce a persistent cough, even if not a severe illness.

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There is little doubt that obesity has many health consequences Many overweight people, however, suffer few serious consequences that are a direct result of obesity. Obesity and its treatment are not simply issues of physical health; psychological and social issues must also be taken into account.

Many people who are unhappy with the shape of their bodies and want to lose fat have no obvious health problems associated with obesity. They may not even be significantly overweight. There are strong suggestions, particularly relevant to women, in advertising, entertainment, fashion and publishing that thinness is desirable and an indication of a successful life. Is it ethical for professionals to contribute to this pressure? Should we not instead be helping people to feel good about themselves irrespective of how they look, if the health risks seem minimal?

Pressure from others to lose fat raises ethical questions about individual freedom. Is it a right or a duty to be healthy? Should you be free to eat how and what you choose or do you have an obligation to society to eat healthily and meet normal criteria? Why should it be wrong for an obese person to enjoy a pleasure-giving chocolate bar, but right to follow someone’s advice of going without, which would give a degree of displeasure?

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You might consider yourself a small eater if you:

• are a small-framed female,

• have a small appetite,

• do very little physical activity,

• are trying to lose weight.

Even the smallest eater needs these carbohydrate foods every day:

• around 4 slices of bread or the equivalent (crackers, rolls, English style muffins)

PLUS

• at least 2 pieces of fruit or the equivalent (juice, dried fruit) PLUS

• about 1 cup of high carbohydrate cooked vegetables (corn, legumes, potato, sweet potato)

PLUS

• about 1 cup of cereal or grain food (breakfast cereal, cooked rice or pasta, or other grains)

PLUS

• at least 1 Vi cups of low-fat milk or the equivalent (yoghurt, ice cream). This includes milk in your tea and coffee and with your cereal.

If this amount of food sounds right for you, try it as a minimum amount of carbohydrate. This supplies 175 grams of carbohydrate, suitable for a 5000 kilojoule (1200 Calorie) diet.

Listen to your appetite if it demands more.

How could you change your diet? Some of the most common changes that people tell us they have made to their diet using the G.I. factor are:

• Eating grainy breads.

• Eating more fruit and yoghurt.

• Eating lots of pasta, beans and vegetables.

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