Now we have outlined the source, storage depots and measurements of energy, the next step is to examine the production of the energy rich molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of the body. This is made up of adenosine with three phosphate groups attached. ATP is found in every cell. It is the common pathway for energy production for driving bodily functions. At the microscopic muscle filament level, the reduction of ATP to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) is the energy source used for contraction. That is, energy liberated from the reduction of ATP to ADP allows the basic protein filaments of muscle, actin and myosin, to slide across each other to cause muscular contraction.
Energy is derived through the cleaving-off of high energy phosphate bonds from the ATP molecule to form ADP+P.
The energy for the re-synthesis of ATP from ADP+P comes from nutrients as they get broken down in their catabolic pathways or from the small energy reserves in muscle called the creatine phosphate system The direct breakdown of nutrients only occurs by itself at very high temperatures. However, in the human body it must occur at normal body temperature (36.5 to 37.5°C), and this is done through a series of stepped chemical reactions, which are catalysed by many different enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that have the ability to promote specific chemical reactions without the need for high temperatures and without being changed or degraded themselves in the process. They can therefore be used over and over again.
Myth-information. Corset-like ‘sweat pants’ sold to reduce fat around the buttocks have only the superficial effect of tightening’ bulges. They cannot and do not reduce body fat.
*38\186\4*
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Weight Loss
An anal fissure is one of those diabolical things that cause an awful lot of pain for a child and a lot of worry for mum. Junior simply hates having a normal bowel action and instead refuses to budge— often, but not always. So the child becomes constipated. Bowel actions become less frequent, and when they do occur the motions are often hard and like pellets. The harder the faecal matter, the more difficult it is to pass. So, this tends to dilate/the anal passage more and in turn produces even greater amounts of pain.
A fissure is a tear, often very small and hardly detectable. Its size has no direct bearing on the intensity of pain produced. Parents often look in disbelief when they see how tiny it is. It is usually located right at the anal orifice; and as the hole distends, it is also stretched, hence the pain. In fact, the child will often yell its head off. Sometimes there is bright red blood in the motions. Generally it happens in the under 2 age group.
Treatment
Treatment is fairly simple and straightforward. Most cases are not self-diagnosed but usually the doctor will discover it first.
Relieving constipation is the first essential step. (Read the section on constipation, earlier in this chapter, for the general principles). Plenty of fluids is the best starting point.
Applying an ointment containing a local anaesthetic is the next step. The doctor will prescribe this, probably one containing xylocaine which is popular and effective. This ointment should be applied half an hour before you expect the infant to have the next bowel action—often it is after a normal feed.
Long term, following the general principles to avoid constipation will help check recurrences after the fissure has healed. Using very soft toilet tissue or napkins, and applying lanoline after bowel actions, keeps the area soft.
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Finally, the child is a baby no longer. Toddling days are over, and infancy passes. It is finally the stage when the youngster is ready to head off to school. This is the start of an exciting new era, for both child and parents, especially when it is baby number one.
But the variety and nature of the food eaten during school days is extremely important. Sad to say, many parents give little thought to this vital aspect of living, and growing, and developing.
The food children eat at school is vitally important to their health. In fact, bad habits that commence in childhood often persist throughout life. Problems in adulthood almost always start during the younger years. In this respect, food and eating habits probably top the list.
High cholesterol levels and heart disease account for the majority of deaths of Australians. In fact, it now stands around 50000 a year—about 1000 a week. Frequently, many of these sudden unplanned disasters can be traced back to faulty eating routines that started during school days. Overweight, the problem confronting about five million (or more) Australians, generally has its origins in school days, or even earlier. It is now well established that overweight children invariably develop into overweight, obese adults. The number of diseases that strikes this group is legendary.
So, as a parent it is largely up to you to guide your child’s eating routines from the first day of commencing school. Leaving the youngster’s food requirements to chance, and to the chance that the school tuck-shop will fulfil the youngster’s dietetic needs, is tantamount to disaster.
The majority of school tuck-shops are run as commercial undertakings; therefore, most tend to sell the products that are most saleable and asked for in greatest frequency. Almost invariably these are the cheaper, high-starch products. They include sweets in all forms, pastries, cakes, biscuits, bread products and similar high-calorie foods. Aerated beverages come high on the list also.
The food value of these products is very low. Certainly they provide calories, which are often equated with energy. But excessive amounts are merely laid down as rolls of fat. The vitamin levels are small. The protein content is usually very small also. These two items are essential for body growth and the normal wear-and-tear repair of the system. These are the products that should be emphasized in any juvenile diet, together with coarse grain products called complex carbohydrates.
It is far better to prepare your child’s food each day before school. This is superior planning, and will be of greater value to the child than relying on the products sold at tuck-shops. Unless your school has a health-orientated canteen, tuck-shops are best let alone.
It is pleasing to note that some schools, usually those run by parent organizations, are at long last realizing the value of good-quality food in the tuck-shop. Some have completely thrown out all sweet lines and products that are dietetically useless. These have been replaced by high-protein, high-vitamin and complex carbohydrate (grains, etc.) lines of definite value to the growing child. Such action is to be condoned. It is hoped other schools will follow this trend. But, unfortunately, the over-whelming majority are still slumming along with the sort of food they’ve been selling since mum was in pigtails.
Quite apart from the high-calorie, high-cholesterol level of most of the average tuck-shop fare, the high-sugar levels are proving a disaster as far as teeth are concerned. Not long ago a survey was conducted to check schoolchildren’s teeth. It was equated with the nature of food sold at tuck-shops. There was a distinct relationship: children regularly consuming large quantities of high-sugar products suffered far more adversely with dental caries (tooth decay) than children who ate a sensible, lower-sugar diet.
As researchers pointed out, the saving in cost in dental bills far exceeded any increased cost incurred by the better-quality (and marginally more expensive) foods. In short, pay a bit more for good-quality food and you more than recoup this in fewer dental accounts.
Generally speaking, the foods that should be soft-pedalled include products that contain three basic ingredients: Sugar, refined flour and potato.
This may not seem serious, hut it actually involves many commonly used foods. ‘Sugar’ means sugar in all its forms; this includes sweets, lollies, chocolates, fizzy drinks (usually laden with sugar), cordials and icy-blocks; syrupy, stewed (and tinned) fruits, icings in cakes, pastry, etc. Sugar is contained in many desserts. Honey is merely another form of sugar.
Refined flour is widely used in our modern society. Its uses include bread, cakes, scones, pastry, biscuits, many sweet dishes, pancakes, doughnuts, porridge and many cereals.
Potato comes in many forms. The most popular with children are potato chips, crisps and ‘straws’. But mashed, boiled or baked potato are just as high in calories and low in protein. They are best used in moderate helpings only.
Many mothers will probably claim they could not possibly do without these items. Nobody is recommending “complete cessation in their use. However, moderation in their use is strongly recommended. This is even more important if your child shows a tendency to be overweight. These products will only aggravate the condition, and may produce long-term problems. There are many simple substitutes, or more healthy variations to the items already listed.
*12\87\2*
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Car, plane and sea sickness result from the overstimulation of the canals of the inner ear which regulate the body’s system of balance. Waves of nausea are the principal symptom, usually resulting in vomiting. These are sometimes accompanied by cold sweats and giddiness. People vary in their susceptibility and, with regular travel, can learn to overcome the problem in most cases. Children, for example, are more prone to car sickness than adults. Motion sickness is much more likely to occur in an enclosed space with insufficient ventilation, such as in a cabin of a ship. At sea, get up on deck when possible; in a car or bus, open the windows; and when travelling by plane, keep the ventilator on full.
Avoid alcohol, rich, aromatic food and excessive tobacco and do not attempt to read until your body has adapted to the motion. Do not try to focus your eyes on objects moving around you.
To prevent and treat motion sickness, administer strong ginger tea before travelling and carry a supply for the journey. This simple anti-nausea medicine is highly effective and can safely be given to young children.
Some motion sickness has emotional causes such as fear of flying. In this case, counselling may help.
*11\69\2*
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In a phobia anxiety is manifested in a different way. The patient remains reasonably at ease until confronted with the phobic situation. He then experiences discomfort which may vary from mild apprehension to uncontrollable panic. The patient develops a fear of the particular situation which causes him his distress, and for this reason the condition is known as a phobia. Common phobias are heights, being away from home, being in crowds, or being in enclosed spaces such as lifts, toilets, or railway coaches. Knives, swords, and firearms often become the objects of phobias. In a similar way people may develop an irrational fear of certain animals such as mice, cats, moths, or snakes. The sufferer is always aware that his phobia is irrational. He knows quite well that there is nothing to be afraid of in going across the street, but this does nothing at all to relieve his sense of panic as he goes out the door. More and more he tends to stay indoors so that he soon becomes housebound, not venturing forth from one month to the next.
*14\57\2*
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Anti Depressants
To tense your feet, you can either turn your toes downwards, as though you are trying to point them into the bed, or stretch them upwards and backwards as though you are trying to point them at your head. I prefer the second method, pointing upwards, because the first tends to give people cramp in the calves of their legs. But once again, find which suits you best. When your toes are pointed, you will feel a stretching sensation along the soles of your feet and you will ache round your heels and up the back of your legs, along your calves almost to your knees. Deep breath, blow out your three candles and let your feet drop back into an easy position.
Now tense your knees by pushing the back of your kneecap down towards the bed, or the bolster. Breathe in, blow and release the tension. If you are doing well your feet will already be feeling heavy and you will not want to move them. And by now your hands and arms will be so heavy they’ll hardly seem to belong to you.
Inner thighs next. It helps to imagine that somebody has placed a penny between your legs, above your knees, and has told you to keep it in position by pressing your thighs together. You’ll feel tightness and tension at the tops of your legs and in the lower part of your abdomen as you do this. Once again breathe in, blow out your breath and let the penny fall. Don’t be a bit surprised if your legs fall open of their own accord as you relax, so that your toes point east and west. If your legs and thighs are really relaxed that’s exactly what should happen, which is why it’s sensible to wear jeans or trousers if you’re learning relaxation in a group. You need privacy and time if you’re to get this bit right, because whether you’re aware of it or not, you’ve probably been taught from a very early age not to lie or sit in that particular position, which in many cultures, including our own, is taboo.
*9\177\2*
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Pain Relief
Nora Barnes came to me as a patient in 1947. Mrs. Barnes had been repeatedly diagnosed as a hypochondriac. No physician had been able to find the cause of her multiple symptoms and complaints.
In childhood she had been the victim of widespread allergies and had frequent problems with runny nose, cold sores, and outbreaks of hives. These went away as she grew to adulthood but were soon replaced by fierce headaches— blinding pain which sent her running to her bed. She suffered from persistent fatigue, irritability, nervousness, and tension. She also had a cough, which eventually turned into bronchial asthma.
At one time she had been employed as a cosmetics saleswoman. She noticed after a while that when she applied nail polish, her eyes would itch furiously. She soon had bags under her eyes, and the skin around them became red and inflamed. She applied make-up to hide this problem.
By the time she came to see me, she was in a wretched condition. She had had to drive through the industrial belt of northern Indiana to reach my office, and as she approached the city limits of Chicago, she felt sicker than ever. In the city, she practically caused an accident when she swung out of traffic to escape from the exhaust fumes of a bus.
Arriving at a hotel in Chicago’s downtown Loop district, she was practically incoherent when she called me on the telephone. By chance, the desk clerk gave her a room on the twenty-third floor. Soon she felt somewhat better and attempted to go downstairs and do some shopping. But she found that when she went into the lobby or onto any floor below the twentieth, her nausea, dizziness, and feelings of suffocation returned.
She had had three experiences in which she had collapsed in a “drunken” stupor while driving her car. Only the fact that someone was in the passenger seat beside her prevented a serious accident. She often became ill while riding in the back seats of cars, but rarely in the front. Some cars, especially those with noisy mufflers, seemed worse than others.
All of this was confusing, but the single most intriguing fact in her case was that her symptoms became progressively worse after July Fourth and did not get any better until after Christmas. Between New Year’s and Independence Day, she remained tolerably well, only to get miserably sick and “neurotic” again after the Fourth of July.
One possible explanation of this could be hay fever, but there were no pollens in her state which were troublesome during that particular period. In the course of our conversation, however, Nora mentioned that she always went to a cabin in the woods for the summer—on July Fourth. Something in that cabin, I felt, might be responsible for these various symptoms. By testing samples from her home, it turned out the main culprit was the pine paneling of the cabin. Pine was also burned in the fireplace, and various pine scented materials were used in the house, including disinfectants. When all pine products were removed from the cabin her symptoms improved.
Some time later, however, she and her husband went to a hunting lodge which had been heated by a fuel-oil stove. She began to cough and wheeze within a few minutes after entering the building, and became unconscious.
She reported that the odor of her gas kitchen range made her feel sick, as did those of her gas-burning home utilities, sponge rubber padding, plastic upholstered furniture, rubber mattress and pillow, and beds whose mattresses were encased in plastic coverings. She was able to effect real improvement by simply removing all these items from her home and replacing them with less offensive substitutes. Her Christmas-time malaise was traced to the pine Christmas tree.
The overall picture of Nora Barnes’ illness did not strike home until one blustery day, when a fierce storm threatened the Chicago area. All other patients had cancelled their appointments, but Mrs. Barnes came in, and together we reviewed over fifty typewritten pages of her record. Finally, a pattern emerged. Almost all her problems could be traced back to petrochemicals, combustion products, or man-made chemicals manufactured from petroleum. Nora Barnes was allergic or susceptible to a wide range of supposedly safe environmental agents. Her susceptibility to pine and pine products fit into this picture, too, since our current supply of hydrocarbon fuels is believed to be derived, ultimately, from a huge prehistoric pine forest, crushed beneath the earth.
This theory led to new revelations in Mrs. Barnes’ case. By eliminating all plastics and chemicals from her life, she discovered that she could dramatically improve her health. Food stored in glass, for instance, could be eaten, but the same food stored in plastic containers made her sick.
A drink of creme de menthe invariably made her sick—in fact, she passed out on several occasions when trying to drink it. She now found out why: she was incredibly sensitive to all artificial food colorings and so she avoided not only this green liqueur, but also maraschino cherries, mint sauce, frankfurters, and similar products (see list, Chapter 4).
She noticed that canned tomatoes made her sick, but that she was able to eat tomatoes from her own garden. The problem was traced to the lining of the tin cans in which the commercial food was packed. Also, foods sprayed with insecticide would bring on headaches, whereas unsprayed food would not. She found that she could eat beef raised on a neighbor’s farm but not commercially raised beef, which had been fed pesticide-treated feeds and sprayed for fly control.
The case of Nora Barnes provided a new perspective on medical practice. It soon became apparent that she was not alone, that many of the patients seen by physicians with similarly peculiar and multiple symptoms were actually suffering from allergies to synthetic chemicals. These people were not born this way. They acquired a high susceptibility because of constant, day-in and day-out exposure to chemicals, especially in the period since World War Two.
Almost inevitably, their susceptibility to chemicals intermingled with food allergies, to form an overall picture of environmental illness. These patients were reacting to foreign substances which are known to be toxic (poisonous). But it had always been assumed that reactions of toxicity occurred at much higher levels of exposure. These “chemical patients” reacted to minute amounts of contamination, which doctors until then had not considered problematic.
The full clinical implications of the chemical susceptibility problem developed over a number of years. As this environmentally oriented medical problem emerged, each new patient revealed some aspect or feature of this condition not previously appreciated. Full realization of the two most important sources of chemical pollution of the environment, namely, the contribution of gas utilities to indoor air pollution and the crucial roles of pesticide exposures in both indoor and outdoor (ambient) air pollution, did not become clear until Ellen Sanders came to me as a patient in early 1953.
*10\110\2*
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Allergies
A cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract that is caused by a virus. The infection causes discomfort of the throat, nose, and sinuses. A cold sometimes also affects the eyes (connected to the nose by the tear ducts); the ears (connected to the nose by the Eustachian tubes); and the lymph nodes of the neck (connected to the nose by lymph channels). A cold is transmitted from person to person through the air or by droplets on the hands or on objects (toys, drinking glasses, handkerchiefs). Symptoms may develop within two to seven days after being exposed to a cold virus. People of all ages are subject to catching colds, but younger children and infants are particularly at risk from colds.
Many fruitless years were spent trying to develop a vaccine against the cold germ. Then it was discovered that there is not just one cold germ. Colds are actually caused by many different viruses, and all respiratory viruses can cause common colds. An attack by any of the more than 185 viruses makes a person immune to only that virus and none of the others. Often this immunity lasts only for a short time.
Many cold viruses can cause complications such as croup, laryngitis, bronchitis, viral pneumonia, and encephalitis. All cold viruses can make a child more susceptible to additional bacterial infections – ear infections, sinus infections, lymph infections, or bacterial pneumonia. No child’s cold should be taken lightly.
Signs and symptoms
The symptoms of a cold are nasal congestion, sneezing, clear nasal discharge, scratchy sore throat, and fever up to 39.4°C. In general, the younger the child, the higher the fever. Symptoms may also include reddened, watery eyes; dry cough; mild swelling and tenderness of the lymph nodes in the neck; and mild pain in the ears.
It is often difficult to tell a cold from other illnesses that have similar symptoms. Usually it is assumed to be a cold if the familiar cold symptoms occur but symptoms of other illnesses do not. Another clue is that a cold lasts only three to ten days.
Home care
Increase room humidity with a vaporizer or humidifier. Have your child drink a lot of liquids. Isolate the child from others, particularly from infants and the elderly. Bed rest is not required, but the child should avoid strenuous physical activities while fever is present. Give aspirin or paracetamol for fever or pain. Use nose drops or oral decongestants and a nasal aspirator to relieve nasal stuffiness and discharge. Use cough medicines for easing a severe cough. Remember, however, that overuse of any of these medications can cause more harm than good. Chest rubs and vitamin Ñ treatments have not proven to be helpful. Your child should eat only what he or she is able to eat.
Precautions
• The following symptoms do not usually occur with a common cold and may be signs of another illness: fever lasting more than two to three days; pus-like discharge from the eyes, nose, or ears; large, red, tender neck glands; breathing difficulties; chest pain; severe headache; stiff neck; vomiting; shaking chills; prostration (collapse). If any of these symptoms occur, call your doctor.
• Some viruses that cause common colds stay in the body for one to two weeks, so the child remains contagious for the entire time of the cold.
• Infants should not be exposed to anyone with a cold, even a mild cold. Infants are not protected against the common cold by the mother’s antibodies; young infants can become seriously ill from these viruses.
Medical treatment
Your doctor will perform a physical examination to check for signs of other illnesses and for signs of complications. The doctor sometimes will order a blood count and throat culture. Otherwise, the doctor’s treatment is the same as home care.
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• Magnesium deficiency has been studied in France in this connection-as long ago as 1930 a French specialist found that it was a valuable food supplement in men with prostatic problems. In one study twelve men with prostatic problems were given magnesium tablets. Ten of them were cured. Another French doctor found that magnesium reduced the swelling of benign enlarged prostates. Often, the reduction in size was small but the improvement in the man great. The specialist concluded that magnesium contributed to the battle against senility. Food sources of magnesium are Dolomite tablets, wheat-germ, honey, nuts, brown rice, seeds of various kinds and kohlrabi.
• Zinc is now the most researched of all the trace elements, with more than a thousand learned papers a year appearing on the subject in the western world alone. Zinc is especially plentiful in the prostate gland for reasons that are as yet unknown. There is a well-established link between a lack of zinc and prostate problems. A prostate gland that is abnormal due to infection contains less zinc than a healthy one. In benign enlargement zinc levels are the same as normal but in cancer of the gland zinc levels are low. Semen too is very rich in zinc but it is still not known why all this zinc is necessary in the male reproductive tract. Zinc appears to be related to spermatic physiology so perhaps prostatic fluid (which contributes substantially to the amount of fluid a man ejaculates) is rich in zinc to sustain sperms and to help them mature.
In a Canadian study, a 35 per cent fall in prostatic zinc levels resulted in mild enlargement of the gland. When the drop in zinc approached 40 per cent the men suffered from chronic infection of the gland. When it dropped by 66 per cent the men developed cancer. Foods rich in zinc are seafood, brewer’s yeast, onions, bran, eggs, nuts, rabbit, peas, beans, lentils, wheat-germ, gelatin and beef liver.
• Coffee and sugar have provable effects on the prostate gland. Every year thousands of men in the UK and US die from prostatic cancer or from the more severe effects of benign enlargement. In Japan cancer of the prostate is almost unknown and even benign enlargement is uncommon. Japanese researchers examined the differences between the diet of men with prostatic troubles in Japan and in the West. There were, of course, many differences but the most compelling was that the Japanese male drinks almost no coffee. The Japanese researchers then went to World Health Organization statistics and found that in Sweden, where the death rate for prostatic cancer is the highest in the world, coffee consumption is also the highest in the world (8 kg per person per year). They then went through a list of twenty countries and found that for nearly all of them the correlation applied.
They next checked for research into cancer-causing agents in coffee. A US study had indeed found that benzo-pyrene and other cancer-producing hydrocarbons are present in lightly roasted coffees such as are drunk in the US and Europe. Very long roasting does not produce a coffee rich in these substances-such coffee is drunk in Italy where cancer of the prostate is half that of Sweden. So could it be that over thirty years of coffee drinking these tiny amounts of carcinogens can produce prostatic cancer? Sugar consumption is also statistically linked to prostatic cancer and whilst no correlation can be found between coffee consumption and other types of cancer in the body, this is not so with sugar. There is a higher incidence of cancer of the breast, ovary, intestine and rectum the more sugar a person consumes. This raises the question as to whether it could be the sugar in the coffee that could be causing the prostatic cancer and not the coffee itself. More research is needed.
*8/72/5*
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Men’s Health
We take about 20,000 breaths each day. For a healthy man that should translate into 12 to 14 breaths per minute, says breath researcher and psychologist Dr. Gay Hendricks. Catch yourself breathing normally and calculate your per-minute rate. If it is higher than that, your health is in jeopardy and you should make deep, comfortable, slower breathing a priority, Dr. Hendricks says.
Much of the “breathwork” taught by experts today is drawn from ancient Oriental spiritual teachings. Many of the health claims for ancient Taoist, Hindu, and Yogic breathing exercises have been substantiated in the laboratory. One such exercise, alternate nostril breathing, is a proven tension-tamer and mental energizer, Dr. Hendricks says. Here’s how he teaches it.
Close off one nostril with the index finger of your dominant hand and breathe out and then in through the open nostril, slowly, gently, fully. Then close off the other nostril, still using your dominant index finger, and breathe out and then in through the open nostril. Keep your belly muscles relaxed and breathe comfortably, slowly in and out of your abdomen. Put your attention on the sensations of the breath leaving your nose and the breath returning. Alternate like this for two minutes, and then switch to the index finger of your non-dominant hand and continue for two minutes. Switch back to your dominant hand for one more minute, and then rest for a minute with your hands in your lap. Just don’t try it while you have a runny nose.
*42/36/5*
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