Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog – information on herbal medicine

The way that most people start an exclusion diet is by leaving a single food out of their diet totally. If you have an obvious suspect in mind -one that you think makes you ill, or one with which you have an addictive relationship, or which you particularly crave – start with that one.

The benefits of the single-food approach are that you are not excluding many foods at once, so that if there is absolutely no change, or if you feel substantially better straightaway, you know that you have a clear result from this food. If you go the single-food-exclusion route, choose your food and leave it out of your diet totally for a minimum of four days, and preferably for a week. This gives your system time to clear the food. If you are sensitive to that particular food, you may feel worse at first and get withdrawal symptoms, including cravings for that food. As your system clears the food, you should start to feel better and, by the fourth day, you should feel significantly improved if that food is the source of your problems.

If you feel a lot better, you may decide to leave the food out permanently, provided you can find ready substitutes in your diet. If the first food you exclude and test gets no result, then proceed on to another candidate and test that systematically, using the same total exclusion and reintroduction procedures.

There are drawbacks to the single-food approach, however. The first is that it is very difficult totally to exclude the common allergens, such as cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, yeast and corn, from your diet, unless you leave out virtually all processed foods. Cow’s milk products, for instance, are found not just in milk, yogurt, cheese and butter, but also in all sorts of processed foods like biscuits, pies, white sauces, even in pills, home medicines and margarine. You have to leave the food out totally to get results. If you get inconclusive results after testing one of the most common foods, look at the relevant box and check that you have excluded it totally. Retest a food, if necessary, before turning to another food. If you are in fact sensitive to more than one food, you may get only partial improvement in your symptoms on single-food exclusion and it can take a long time for you then to work through other suspects individually. If you suspect multiple sensitivity, you may be better starting off on a more stringent diet.

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Allergy can be caused by any kind of substance, but inhaled particles, such as dust mites, pollens and moulds, are the most common. Foods and chemicals can also cause allergy. The symptoms are caused by the release of chemical messengers in the body which bring about (either immediately, or after some delay):

• dilating of small blood vessels

• spasm or contraction of smooth muscle

• an increase in secretions, such as mucus

The classic allergic diseases are:

• angio-oedema • hay fever

• asthma • rhinitis

• eczema • urticaria

• dermatitis

Other allergic symptoms are headache or migraine; itchy eyes or conjunctivitis; gut spasm, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Infant colic can sometimes be caused by allergy. Joint pains sometimes accompany other allergic symptoms. Allergy is also among the possible causes of persistent coughs, sinusitis, and of glue ear and chronic infections of the middle ear – resulting from inflammation and swelling of tissues and the collection of mucus.

Anaphylaxsis, sometimes called anaphylactic shock, is the most severe type of allergic reaction, and extremely rare. It is most unlikely ever to happen to you. It is a violent, massive reaction to an allergen -often immediate, and usually in response to something swallowed or injected – a food, a drug or an insect sting. Its symptoms can include urticaria; swelling of the tongue, mouth, throat and breathing passages; nausea, vomiting, gut pain and diarrhoea; a sudden drop in blood pressure. Unconsciousness and even death can follow. Urgent medical attention is required.

The symptoms of allergy overlap to some degree with those of food intolerance and chemical sensitivity. Skin and blood tests can go some way to identifying allergy, but understanding the pattern of your symptoms, and knowing where allergens and other substances causing reactions are found, can often help you better to identify the cause of trouble. The conditions are not mutually exclusive; you can have an allergy as well as having intolerance or sensitivity.

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The active ingredients in fly and wasp killers are often powerful toxic agents such as dichlorvos, fenitrothion or lindane. Some use pyrethroids, which are natural toxic agents derived from plants. All of these can cause unpleasant reactions and should be avoided.

If you have a troublesome wasp nest which has to be removed, get professional help from your local authority and see if they can use means such as smoke or water to remove the nest before using chemicals. If you have to kill ants, you can do so by pouring boiling water on the nest.

To repel and deter insects, keep all dustbins and wastebins sealed. Empty and clean regularly. Wipe up food spills. Keep food covered and cupboards closed. To remove insects, use a fly-swat or a fish-slice. Open the windows and chase them out.

Lavender and citronella are natural insect repellents, as are many herbs. If you tolerate plant oils, hang dried lavender and herbs around. You can also dab lavender oil or citronella (available from pharmacies) on cloths and hang them in the kitchen.

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Some babies and toddlers develop sudden passions or aversions to particular foods and they can also develop temporary intolerances -due to viruses, gastric upsets or sometimes coinciding with teething. Allow for these temporary preferences and intolerances – foods and preferences will come and go in and out of a child’s diet. Stay flexible and ready to try new things.

Appetite also can go up and down day by day. Temporary loss or surge of appetite is a normal feature in toddlers.

If you can keep up breastfeeding for 12 months or longer, then stick to it. If you have to wean from the breast from nine months onwards, you may be better to wean the baby on to a soya milk formula milk rather than a cow’s milk formula.

If you wean from the breast after 12 months, you may still find that a soya milk formula suits your baby better. You do not have to give it in a bottle – you can give it in a cup or as an ordinary drink.

If your baby has been on a cow’s milk formula without problems, continue giving this for as long as you wish – many young children tolerate an infant formula much better than they tolerate ordinary cow’s milk.

When you first try cow’s milk on a breastfed child who has never eaten it before, try heat-treated milks as follows. Either use a cow’s milk infant formula, or bring cow’s milk to the boil, simmer for five minutes, and then cool, or you can use diluted evaporated milk. Heat treatment modifies the proteins and can make cow’s milk less likely to cause allergic reactions.

If your child is lactose intolerant. If your child is very severely sensitive to any form of cow’s milk, goat’s milk or soya, one other option is nut milks. Sheep’s milk is less prone to cause reactions than cow’s or goat’s milk (>FOOD AND DRINK for more advice). Always get a doctor’s and dietitian’s advice if your child has a very restricted diet.

If your baby has multiple food sensitivities, he or she may be advised to go on a rotation diet.

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Keeping a constant warmth helps to prevent sudden surges of mould growth. A steady average, but lower temperature, is probably better than having cold and hot spots around the home, or than having a few hours a day only when the place is well heated. If you are exceptionally sensitive to moulds, and obliged to take extreme care, there are many things you can do to eliminate moulds from your environment. Even if this applies to you, no-one would expect you to do all of the things suggested below all of the time. They are things you might try that can be helpful. Pick and choose what seems relevant to you and do what you feel you can. These more intensive measures cover:

• Damp control

• Kitchens, bathrooms, laundry and clothes

• Plants and gardens

• Paper and books

• Foods and diet

• Antibiotics

Damp control

Keep your home as warm and dry as you can afford. The threshold for most mould growth on the organic materials on which they feed is a relative humidity (RH) of 65 per cent. As a guide, keeping the temperature indoors a steady 5°C (10°F) above the outdoor temperature should achieve this.

If you are seriously affected by moulds, your target should be to keep your environment, or at least one or two rooms where you spend most of your time at home, at between 50 per cent and 65 per cent RH. In most summers in the UK, the heat of the sun should be sufficient; heating will be required in the winter. If your house has penetrating damp, however, or is in a damp location, you will need to keep a temperature difference of more than 5°C (10°F) between indoors and outdoors, to achieve the maximum 65 per cent RH level, and may need to heat more. Use a humidity meter (from garden centres, DIY shops or jewellers) and a thermometer to guide you.

Use insulation, such as roof lining, double glazing and lined curtains, as far as you can to conserve energy and warmth. Do not cut out draughts altogether; keeping your home ventilated and aired also helps to keep down damp.

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Once you’re comfortable with sexual pleasure that doesn’t involve intercourse, and with the experience of losing and regaining an erection, the therapist may suggest that you’re ready for intercourse. Often sex therapists recommend that the woman be on top, because this makes it easier for her to be the more active partner, Such an arrangement may help the man because he has less pressure to perform and can more easily relax and enjoy himself.

An important part of a sex therapy program is for each partner to be responsible for his or her own pleasure—and to communicate his or her feelings. Marvin and Caroline welcomed this change. Focusing on different ways to have sensual pleasure was a wonderful development. “This helped us take the emphasis away from intercourse,” she says. Initially, the ban on intercourse was difficult, but the process of going through the exercises provided an unexpected bonus for Caroline. She found herself learning to be more comfortable with enjoying sensual and sexual pleasures which did not involve intercourse. Like many of us, although she “knew” such behavior was okay, she had not quite accepted it emotionally. But having Marvin caress her for a period of time without any expectation of intercourse helped her overcome her inhibitions about “that kind” of touching.

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As you have seen throughout this book, a fulfilling sex life requires a lot more than a pill. There are any number of variables and conditions which can affect the attraction, as well as the performance, of two people, with one factor overriding all the rest. Without libido, the desire to bond physically with another person can be greatly diminished—or even lost. A constant presence throughout our lives, libido ebbs and flows as much as the tides. Springing from an intricate network of physiological and psychological components, libido varies from man to man. And, of course, from woman to woman.

Years of living with ED can have a profound and far-reaching effect on the libidos of both men and women. When sex is absent, often the desire to have it again is sacrificed as well. Yet, when sexual function is restored—as it can be with the new oral medications—libido doesn’t automatically jump-start in both partners equally, much less simultaneously. For many men, the desire to have sex is a logical extension of being functional again. For women, however, the reality can be very different.

Many women have told me so. Their husbands or companions, ecstatic with the return of their potency, exhibit an intense longing for sex. But often the women don’t. It’s not, they explained to me, because they don’t feel attractive or because they no longer have feelings for their partners. Rather, it’s because they have adapted to their situation, integrating the loss of sex into their daily lives. And, they confess, the idea of accessing those dormant feelings can be daunting.

Their reaction is totally understandable. The longer they have lived with men who have ED, the harder it can be for them to tap into their own sexuality. As you read in Chapter 6, there are many ways to heighten intimacy between partners. But where libido is involved, the approach is somewhat different. The best place to start is inside your head.

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Sexual well-being has always been an integral part of the overall health profile of my patients. It makes a lot of sense: if the body is sound, it is likely that sexual performance will be, too. And the reverse is true as well: if a man’s sexual health is compromised, then his body may be in jeopardy. Your first line of penile health defense is determined by three things: supplements, diet, and exercise. All three go a long way toward helping you avoid ED.

The lifestyle recommendations in my virility-enhancement program have more than one application. Not only will they help prevent and, in some cases, treat, ED, they will actually make you feel and look better. And they will not only improve your sexual function, they may also save your life.

Research has shown that optimal sexual health depends on certain lifestyle choices. All affect the body, the flow of blood, and delivery of a pivotal element: oxygen. Although there are several major physical causes of ED, each one has an impact on oxygen flow. They are hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, stress, smoking, alcohol consumption, and lack of exercise. Without sufficient oxygen supply to the penis, an erection won’t happen. That’s because decreased oxygenation of penile tissue can cause progressive fibrosis—a permanent thickening and stiffening of tissue—of the gland. With more fibrous tissue than muscle tissue in the penis, this can cause the penis to actually shrink in size. The crucial oxygen pipeline can be severely limited or blocked by all of the conditions listed above—and all of them can be controlled, improved, or even eliminated through lifestyle changes.

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There are men who don’t want to ever lose what they presently have. To that end, they are willing to do everything possible—including taking the pill. Their thinking goes like this: why shouldn’t a healthy man use it to make sure he won’t lose his own hard erection? This and other philosophical dilemmas raised by the pill are perplexing because they verge on areas where there are no clearly defined medical answers at this time. The oral erection drugs are so new that no one as yet has had enough experience to be able to say yes or no to their “off-label” use.

Should doctors give patients who are not suffering from ED—but who nonetheless want to maximize their peak performance in every way—access to these new medications? They have already demanded them. One of my patients, a forty-two-year-old man with no erection problems, was insistent. He stated categorically that he wanted to see if he could turn back the clock and regain the rocklike hardness he had when he was twenty. His rationale was direct. “If it’s available,” he said, “why shouldn’t I use it, as long as it won’t hurt me?”

In another significant turn of events, one of my female patients, a very attractive forty-one-year-old divorcee who had heard of the pills, wanted to know if she could get a prescription for them. “If they are all that I’ve heard they are, I want to keep them in the night table, next to the condoms.”

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Another patient who sought to enroll in the study was John, a fifty-eight-year-old maintenance crew supervisor who had recently undergone triple bypass surgery. For the five years prior to the operation, his heart disease had put a brake on his sexual relationship with Harriet, his wife. What was frustrating to both of them was that now that his heart was repaired, he still had ED. Harriet, who accompanied John to my office, put it this way: “We thought that the surgery would put the bad times behind us, that the pressures and stress of his illness would be gone. When we finally felt the time was right, John couldn’t respond, no matter what I tried. We both were disappointed. And, I’ll tell you the truth, I was a little angry, too. I want to be supportive and reassuring, but I’m having a really hard time. We fight a lot. I feel like no matter what medicine has to offer, nothing will help us.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear Harriet’s view. Being the partner of a man with ED is no easy matter. Many couples maintain a truce; either they won’t talk about the problem or they ignore it in the false belief that it doesn’t exist. Sadly, their self-induced silence not only distances them physically, but emotionally as well. Often, the relationship, already on shaky ground, disintegrates completely. And ED can foster doubt in the partner, as well.

As Harriet said, “I thought I knew what the trouble was after the operation. John just didn’t find me attractive anymore. Alter all, we’ve been married for twenty-five years and I’ve had three children. I don’t look like I did when we first got married. I thought that now that he had recovered his health, he wanted a younger, more vibrant woman at his side. On one level I was devastated but ironically, on another, I was kind of relieved. Now I wouldn’t have to feel rejected because we didn’t have to try to have sex. I looked elsewhere for comfort, and buried myself—like so many unhappy people do—in my work.”

John looked stunned as Harriet told her side of the ED story. “I never felt that way,” he said to her. “I thought you’d leave me because I was failing you.”

After consulting John’s cardiologist, I was able to reduce the dosage of some of his heart medications, which I felt were contributing to his erection problems. I also enrolled the couple in the Vasomax study.

While the 40 mg of Vasomax did them both a world of good, it was the foundation on which they could start to rebuild their torn relationship. John, who was so beaten down by years of erectile failure, needed to face the profound psychological damage that both he and Harriet had experienced. Harriet, in turn, could benefit by facing her anger and doubts. I suggested to them that they seek professional help. Happily, they took my advice and began seeing a therapist who specialized in marital issues.

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