Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog – information on herbal medicine

In a moment we’ll suggest some ways to “inform our lives with spirituality,” as Dr. Kurth puts it. But first, what are the other benefits of integrating spirituality into our daily lives or increasing its presence and effect? People whom Dr. Kurth has studied report:

•     A sense of deeper meaning, purpose, and direction in life.

•     A sense of fulfillment. Maintaining a sense of connectedness and direction is hard work but worth it, says Dr. Kurth, because the process of doing it brings a sense of peace and fulfillment.

•     Renewed energy. “People are so burned out in their work lives and in their lives in general,” says Dr. Kurth. “Somehow when one taps into that sense of connecting with the Divine, there is a renewed sense of energy.”

•     Increased feeling of well-being. Psychologists Anne Colby, Ph.D., director of the Henry A. Murray Research Center at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her husband, William Damon, Ph.D., professor of education and director of the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University, conducted a study of people involved in “spiritual work.”

These were “people who are highly morally committed, people who are devoting their lives to something they really, deeply believe in,” explains Dr. Colby. “Helping the poverty-stricken, fighting for civil rights, things like that.”

Dr. Colby and Dr. Damon found that those who do such work for a long period of time tend to be deeply spiritual and have a very optimistic, resourceful, positive approach to life.

They also found that sometimes people can begin working for others for narrow reasons – perhaps pursuing career or business goals – and end up transforming their outlook. They may end up adopting a broader set of moral goals and a more selfless spiritual perspective simply from the process of doing the work and engaging other people as they do it.

What about the benefits of meditation we mentioned earlier?

We know that many American males associate meditation with short, fat, bearded men who wear orange robes. But it needn’t be that. Meditation can be cool.

As the body and mind relax in meditation, the brain begins pumping calming chemicals and sending soothing signals that cause our bodies to relax even more. These signals also stave off or even repair the ravages of stress, a known life-threatener and life-shortener, says Dr. Larry J. Feldman of the Pain and Stress Rehabilitation Center. Our blood is less likely to get clumpy and sticky and less likely to gum up artery walls. That translates into heart health. More than that, studies have shown that in the long term, people who regularly practice meditation or some other effective relaxation process develop a much greater tolerance to all sorts of stressors, says Dr. Feldman.

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Everywhere you look, the ideal of thinness, especially for women, is promoted as the ultimate goal. We’ve been brainwashed into accepting an artificial, impractical, even unhealthy image of the human form. Those who fail to achieve the ideal are mocked and scorned. People who are especially susceptible to social pressure-those who never developed a healthy sense of self-esteem-will go to extreme lengths to avoid ostracism and rejection. They will sabotage their own bodies for the sake of an artificial, unnatural concept.

But society’s ideals are at war with our bodies’ natural design. The war takes place on a vulnerable battleground: our minds. For some women, these conflicts may be temporary (a bout of crash dieting, perhaps) and will be followed by some kind of acceptable truce (“Okay, I’ll eat normal meals, but no more desserts”). Other people, however, need additional support to resist social pressure. Without such protection, people become victims of a strange syndrome, one whose symptoms are a distorted body image, bizarre eating patterns, illness, and much unnecessary suffering.

How does our culture develop and transmit this deadly message about thinness? Why should thinness be the social currency we value? Let’s look.

Envision the “ideal” female figure. What comes to mind? In this society, many people—men as well as women-probably conjure up an image of Miss America or a Playboy centerfold. Purely in the interest of science, a team of researchers carefully analyzed the body measurements of these icons of feminine beauty over the past few decades. They made a surprising discovery: As a general trend, each year the women chosen as these ideals have been thinner than their predecessors. This is odd when you realize that the average weight of the population has increased over the same time period. Thus there has been a widening gap between the “ideals” of female beauty and most women’s actual weights. These beauty queens’ relative body weights are actually lower than those of 95 percent of the female population!

My heart goes out to today’s woman, whose body may be perfectly normal but who believes that she must compete against this absurdly distorted vision of ideal beauty.

Our culture’s perception that the ideal female form should be abnormally slender is a fairly recent phenomenon. One of my bulimic patients, an eighteen-year-old college student, told me she had watched a Marilyn Monroe film on television. “Marilyn Monroe was such a pig!” she exclaimed. “She was so fat!” Strange to think that what was seen as sexy and attractive thirty years ago is now condemned as “fat.”

Although there are some historical precedents for similar distortions of the feminine ideal, such as the Victorian eighteen-inch waist, never before have they had such an impact on the vast majority of women. Media, such as women’s magazines, very often add to the confusion about body image. For example: The number of articles about dieting appearing in these publications has doubled every decade since World War II. Yet these same magazines present page after page of recipes for “luscious desserts” and “family-pleasing treats” illustrated with glistening, mouth-watering photographs. Mixed signals? You bet.

Since World War II, our food-buying and eating habits have also undergone a radical change. Food is plentiful, and its variety is enormous. Many of today’s foods are very palatable but rich in calories due to their high fat and sugar content. Fast food-from chain restaurants to microwave meals in our own homes-has revolutionized how and what we eat. And in our sedentary society, the only exercise some people get is pressing buttons on their television’s remote control. Given these facts, it actually does make some sense for people to be on their dietary guard.

For some people, however, an irresistible force (social pressure to be thin) meets an everyday temptation (tasty, abundant food) and produces an extreme reaction (an eating disorder). People at special risk include those who:

• have low self-esteem

• are overly sensitive to the opinions of others

• carry the concept of self-control to extremes

• have difficulty separating from their families

• Work in occupations that require a high level of body-awareness, such as modeling, dancing, or acting

When people with these characteristics suffer stress—for example, the death of a relative, a move to a new school or city, or a personal loss such as the breakup of a romance—an eating disorder is sometimes the result.

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It took him 10 years to figure out how, but George Trott found a way to get rid of those stubborn last 5 pounds.

George, a computer consultant from Manalapan, New Jersey, was just about to turn 50 when he found out that he had diabetes and heart disease. “I wasn’t really surprised, since both conditions ran on both sides of my family and I had been overweight for years,” he says. But it was enough to motivate him to trim 40 pounds off his 6-foot-2-inch frame by eating more healthfully and exercising regularly. “I didn’t want a life of excess medications and insulin shots,” he explains.

For years, he was happy about his new 185-pound physique, but he knew he could stand to lose a little more. At age 58, he was still stuck with what he calls “4 or 5 pounds too much George.”

On the suggestion of one of his grown kids, he visited Ann M. Chicchi, a registered dietitian in East Brunswick, New Jersey. She looked at George’s overall diet and exercise plan—which was good— and did some fine-tuning. She gave him a lower-calorie, low-fat eating plan that incorporated all of the nutrients that George needed. The plan also kept his carbohydrate intake at a level that was more appropriate for someone with diabetes and high triglycerides.

George took the food plan and molded it to fit his eating style. Instead of three large meals a day, he created a fourth small meal of whole-grain foods. “The complex-carbohydrate portion that Ann allotted for my breakfast I found more satisfying as a snack of whole-wheat crackers or bread around 9 o’clock at night,” he says. He still had a good-size breakfast each morning, but he also had something low-fat and nutritious to nosh on before bedtime.

The result was that he finally shed those last few nagging o pounds, and his next blood work came back much improved as well.

So now “4 or 5 pounds too much George” can call himself I cr3″ “just-right George.”

WINNING ACTION

When you hit the wall, call in a pro. If you’re having trouble taking off those last few pounds, consider enlisting the help of a registered dietitian. To find one near you, contact your doctor or your local hospital for a referral. If group support is more your style, look in the Yellow Pages under “Weight Control Services” for organizations such as Weight Watchers and TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly).

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A properly constructed exercise programme including stretching exercises would seem to be a useful adjunct to the field of music education.

This may well lead to the prevention of some of the overusage syndromes seen in musicians. Painful musculo-ligamentous overusage appears to be the most common form of occupational malady seen in musicians.

As the unnatural hand positions of some strings players and the unnatural head/neck positions of flautists and violinists are ‘natural’ to those instruments perhaps one saving intervention may be to teach students a proper awareness of their posture and the force with which they play their instrument.

G. Alexander in Denmark (not to be confused with the originator of the Alexander Method — the Australian F. Matthias Alexander) developed a special method for improving muscle tone, called eutony, meaning good or most advantageous tonus. This approach is now used throughout Denmark both in the primary school system and in the preparation of practical artists and musicians.

It is described by Dr. Beata Jencks in her book Your Body: Biofeedback as an optimal balance of body muscle tone with least energy expenditure within the dynamic equilibrium necessary for unhampered blood circulation, respiration, and muscle tone during movement and rest Jencks goes on to give details of numerous methods of enhancing this process.

Feeling the centre of gravity

Imagine all your weight concentrated in the abdomen, just above the pelvis Fed it at first during relaxing exhalations, but then allow the abdomen to remain expanded during diaphragmatic breathing and let the centre of gravity remain at its low level during inhalations. Raft

Imagine the buttocks supported by a broad, anchored raft or plat¬form carried by the ocean waves. Feel the broadness and resilience of the base. Fee’ trie flexibility and ease of the upper body. Awake breathing

If you are not alert enough to be adequate to an occasion or the job at hand your breathing may be too shallow.

Allow the breathing to become as awake and aware as the task or situation demands, but at intervals revert to your natural breathing rhythm allowing sighing or yawning to occur naturally. Again and again enliven vour breathing with refreshing inhalations.

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Treatments available for tension headaches include the simple analgesics such as aspirin and paracetamol. These sometimes provide a degree of pain relief above that expected in other chronic pain conditions.

Probably the best forms of therapy for such headaches are the psychological methods of treatment. These include hypnosis, biofeedback and relaxation therapy.

But there are a number of headache sufferers with such a high degree of tension that the use of relaxation therapy is inappropriate. For them, it may be appropriate to use the minor tranquillisers — much maligned as they are — for short period prior to the non-drug treatments. (The minor tranquillisers, such as Valium, Serepax, Tranxene and Xanax are in fact valuable tools for doctors who are prepared to talk with their patients and also offer other therapies.)

In some cases the headaches are the only sign of chronic depressed mood and the appropriate therapy includes the use of antidepressant drugs. Initially these will be the more commonly used group of tricyclic antidepressants.

These include such drugs as Tryptanol, Surmontil, Sinequan, Prothiaden, Pertofran and Anafranil. Tolvon is another anti-depressant from another class of drugs and causes fewer side effects such as gastric irritation and cardio-vascular complications.

Those not responding to these drugs may respond better to the more potent Mono Amine Oxidase Inhibitors or MAOI’s such as Nardil or Parnate. While these must be taken with dietary precautions they do not cause the sedation, constipation or weight gain that the other groups are shown to cause.

Physical treatments including massage, acupuncture and TENS therapy may also have some value.

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The ‘pain cycle’ plays a vital role. When trauma strikes,that is, physical or psychological injury, a painful response is frequently felt. This pain precipitates responses by the body to protect itself by guarding — usually noted as physical spasms. This guarding promotes subsequent dysfunction, that is, abnormal functioning, of the soft tissue and the joints.

The pain cycle is accompanied by certain internal changes which tend to compound the element of pain. The guarding process in turn produces a state of muscle tension which reduces the blood supply within the area. The condition is called ischaemia — deficient blood supply. There is an increased production of metabolites as a by-product of the muscle contractions. Metabolites are the breakdown products of the chemicals necessary for proper muscle function. Metabolism is the series of changes in a living body by which life is maintained. About 20 per cent of the energy produces mechanical movement or stabilisation, while most of the energy produces heat with the by-products of increased metabolites. Thus there tends to be an increased accumulation of these metabolites. Trauma may also include the production and concentration of internally made pain-producing substances such as peptides, amines, substance P, and prostaglandin.

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Although we may be surprised by the use of such treatments of yesteryear, today’s therapeutic interventions are hardly less extraordinary. For example, the age old treatment of acupuncture, sophisticated electronics linked to mind-body relaxation in the form of biofeedback, ultrasound and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) are frequently used today in the quest to control pain.

Modern pain theories

The modern theory of pain sensation began in the first half of the nineteenth century. During the mid-nineteenth century, five specific sensory nerves were described. It was said they carried information about the five senses with specific nerves identified as carrying sensation. Several theories of pain were developed in the nineteenth century.

The Specificity Theory, also called the Sensory Theory, held that pain was a specific sensation; pain had its own sensory apparatus independent of touch and other senses. Since its introduction there has been mounting evidence against this theory.

The Pattern Theory held that stimulation of receptor nerves causes a certain pattern of reactions which reflect the quality, intensity, and length of time in which the stimulus acts. These complicated patterns are then fed into the brain and spinal cord where specialised collections of nerve cells decipher them and then initiate an appropriate response.

The Intensive Theory was formulated in the late nineteenth century; it declared that every sensory stimulus, such as touch and pressure, caused pain if severe enough.

Later in the nineteenth century, the American Psychological Association suggested pain was a combination of the original sensation and ‘the psychic reaction, or displeasure, caused by that sensation. ,

Even throughout the first six decades of the twentieth century, research was simply aimed at supporting either theory. The Gate Theory which was only announced in 1965 suggested there is a ‘gate’ within the rear horn-like portion of the spinal cord which either closes to prevent pain signals from reaching the brain or opens to allow the pain to be experienced.

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Allergies are well recognized conditions, and those suffering from true food allergy are far more likely to receive adequate medical treatment than those with food intolerance. Even so, well-informed patients can make a significant contribution to their own treatment. This is particularly true if, as so often happens, there is no allergy specialist (allergist) overseeing the treatment. There are still very few allergists, and most allergic symptoms are treated by other specialists. A patient with multiple symptoms may see an ear-nose-and-throat specialist for rhinitis, a chest specialist for asthma, a dermatologist for eczema and a gastroenterologist for bowel disorders due to food. The net result is that there is no one doctor considering the whole allergic picture in that patient.

The patient who understands something about allergies is at less of a disadvantage in such circumstances, and may be able to help the doctor in unravelling the complexities of cause and effect. But it is important to stress that self-help should only be an adjunct to proper medical treatment, never a substitute. Some allergic conditions can be life-threatening, others can deteriorate to the point where they produce irreversible damage to health. No-one should attempt to treat them without medical supervision.

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The freshly pulped leaves of lady’s mantle help wounds to heal quickly when applied externally. If you sustain a scratch or a cut while walking or hiking in the mountains, there are plenty of effective remedies all around. A few flowers of St John’s wort rubbed between the fingers and placed on the cut (or crushed arnica root), with pulped lady’s mantle bound on top, will make an inexpensive curative dressing. A word of caution is needed here: pick the plants only where they are clean and never from the wayside or near an alpine dairy.

Formerly, good ointments used to be made from the fresh leaves of lady’s mantle and also its root. These ointments and creams were used to dress wounds and treat mild ruptures. A tea made with lady’s mantle will also stop children’s diarrhoea without any side effects.

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Lactic fermentation has been used for centuries in China, Korea and Japan. In those countries it is employed to prepare medicinal herbs and to change vegetables into hearty condiments and what are known as kimchi, spicy pickled dishes similar to sauerkraut. Although the lactic fermentation of various vegetables has the great advantage of activating a plant’s beneficial properties, this method of preparing food has not yet found the popularity it deserves. The remedial effects of plants used in the treatment and prevention of diabetes, arthritis, rheumatism and cancer could be even more beneficial if they were prepared in this way. That is why Molkosan and vegetable juices should not be regarded merely as food, but also as remedies. It appears that the importance of preparations containing lactic acid will increase as radiation levels increase in our modern environment.

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