Herbal Health

Signs and symptoms

The key sign of a hernia is a bulge in one of the typical locations: just above the crease of the groin; in the scrotum of a boy; in the labia majora of a girl; below the crease of the groin; just above or below the navel; or at the navel.

A hernia in any of these locations is called a simple hernia if the contents of the sac can be reduced (pushed gently back into the abdominal cavity). If a hernia cannot be reduced, it is called incarcerated. Simple and incarcerated hernias often produce no discomfort or pain; they may merely cause a sense of heaviness. If the blood supply to the contents of the hernia is cut off, it is said to be strangulated. A strangulated hernia causes intense pain and swelling.

Home care

If there is any sign of a hernia, see your doctor.

A simple hernia can be temporarily reduced by gentle pressure while the child is relaxed – in a tub of warm water if necessary. Trusses and belts to keep a hernia reduced are useless and may be harmful or even dangerous. Strapping an umbilical hernia is considered of no benefit.

Precautions

• A strangulated hernia is a medical emergency that requires immediate (within hours) surgical correction. Signs that a hernia has become strangulated are swelling; severe pain; and sometimes nausea, vomiting, and extreme weakness or collapse. If any signs of a strangulated hernia appear, take your child to a doctor or hospital emergency department immediately.

• Never attempt to reduce a strangulated hernia.

Medical treatment

Surgical repair is required for all except umbilical hernias. An umbilical hernia usually cures itself. Since inguinal hernias often appear on both sides, the surgeon may correct both sides even though only one side is visibly herniated.

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Filed under: General health Tags: Tags: General health by admin Date 28 April, 2009
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Soya is probably the best-known genetically modified food. Up to 60 per cent of processed foods contain soya, including bread, biscuits, pizza and baby food. Lecithin, contained in many foods, is also made from soya. Just what proportion of that 60 per cent is now genetically modified we do not know, but we can probably assume that it is quite considerable. Other genetically modified foods on sale in the UK are maize, tomato paste and cheese containing chymosin (genetically modified rennet used to harden the cheese).

Since September 1998, manufacturers have been obliged to label products containing genetically modified DNA. However, this labeling only applies to genetically modified soya and maize (corn) products and only where protein or DNA can be detected in the final product by laboratory screening. Foods containing soya oil, refined starches, and additives (such as emulsifiers and lecithins) are excluded. Greenpeace estimate this means that 90 per cent of foods containing genetically modified products are unlabelled. Since the latter part of 1999, because of public opposition to GM foods, supermarkets have been claiming that they have less than 1 per cent GM foods on their shelves and they are trying to go lower than that.

Genetic engineering involves manipulating the basic DNA of a plant or animal. This happens naturally in evolution of course, but with nature in charge the process normally takes hundreds if not thousands of years. It is this process which ensures that the fittest of the species survive. But the gene manipulation that humans are now tinkering with bypasses evolution, and we don’t know as yet what the price will be. In order to smuggle these new genes across the species barrier, scientists use infectious agents (viruses and bacteria).Then the antibiotic-resistant genes are used as genetic markers to allow the scientists to track the movements of these new genes. In one instance a nut gene was inserted into a soya bean and people with allergies to nuts became allergic to the soya milk. This would have posed a very serious risk for anyone with a nut allergy who would have had no idea that the soya milk contained a nut gene.

Even the scientists disagree violently as to the value and dangers of genetically modified foods. So the only sensible thing to do is to try to avoid them when you shop for food.

The Vegetarian Society has announced that, from August 1999, all foods bearing the ‘V symbol will have to be free from genetically modified products. Provamel, the market leader for soya products in the UK, have stated that their foods are free from genetically modified material and have implemented a system to trace the soya from seed to final production. Also, at the moment, if a food is labeled organic it is not genetically modified. My advice is to avoid genetically modified foods where possible by buying organic and reading the labels. If we as consumers consciously do not buy these foods then eventually there may not be a market for them.

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Filed under: Women's Health Tags: Tags: Women’s Health by admin Date 23 April, 2009
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When the Levee Breaks

That mean old levee sure does make us weep and moan-especially when it breaks. Flash floods can happen anywhere there are streams and sewers. And in the time it takes to soft-boil an egg, rising flood waters can hit peaks of 30 feet or more. Take flash flood warnings very seriously. You only have minutes or seconds to act.

Get high. A flood watch means that a flood is possible. A warning means that it’s coming very soon. When you hear a watch, move your furniture and valuables to higher floors in your home and fill your gas tank. If you hear a warning, be ready to evacuate the area and find higher ground on a moment’s notice, according to the American Red Cross.

Abandon ship. “If you’re in your car, do not drive into the water. I don’t care how shallow it looks,” implores Johnson. Cars are easily swept away in just two feet of water. If the water’s rising quickly around your car, get out and climb to higher ground.

Don’t go in the water. If you’re in your house and the basement has flooded, don’t go downstairs to investigate. You don’t know what has happened to the electrical system. The water can be charged and you can get a good shock. Once all the water has cleared, don’t try restoring the power or heat yourself; you could start a fire. Call professionals.

The Eye of the Storm

When it comes to tropical storms, be thankful that you don’t live in Bangladesh. A cyclone on this island south of India wiped out 139,000 people in 1991. Another killed 300,000 in 1970. In other parts of the world, where we give these cyclonic storms pet names and call them hurricanes, the death tolls aren’t so dramatic, but the devastation is still enormous.

Shop for the season. If you live in a hurricane-prone area, you should keep your food and medical necessities stocked up during late summer and early fall-prime hurricane season. After a severe hurricane, you can go as long as seven days without power or transportation.

Listen to the radio. A watch means that a hurricane may hit your area. A warning means that it will. During a watch, make sure that your car has gas; that you have any important papers, IDs, and daily medications that you need; and that you have a well-planned escape route. When there’s a warning, bring garbage cans and other large objects inside the garage or house. Shut off water, electricity, and gas. Close your shutters or put up plywood over your windows.

Wait the storm out-completely. If you’re there when the storm hits, and you’re told not to evacuate, the safest place to be is underground, such as in a basement. Be sure to stay away from windows. Stay tuned to the weather on a battery-powered radio until authorities issue an “all clear”. Often when the storm seems to subside, it’s really only the calm “eye” of the hurricane and the worst is yet to come. Plus, just to make you feel better, tornadoes can follow hurricanes.

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Filed under: General health Tags: Tags: General health by admin Date 23 April, 2009
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Do the results last? This answer must be qualified by explaining the varying sets of circumstances which occur. What is regarded as a long time? What sort of results is being referred to? The easiest way to answer this whole question will be to outline the general reactions and characteristics involved when people use this product.

The majority of people begin to experience relief after about two to three weeks of taking the mussel extract capsules. The relief is usually in the form of a gradual but progressive daily reduction in pain and an increase in mobility. The subjects generally find that three to seven weeks of regular dosage produces a satisfactory condition which may last from a month or two to several years without any recurrence of symptoms. On the other hand, there are people who need up to fourteen or fifteen weeks of regular dosage before experiencing any benefit. Most of those who do benefit from this treatment have results which last for at least several months without any need to take more capsules. If a recurrence does occur, then a repeat dosage usually relieves the symptoms again within a week or two.

It is well known that people react in different ways to medication and the treatment under discussion is no exception to this fact. There are some who, having obtained a satisfactory relief of symptoms, begin to regress within a week of giving up the capsules. However, if these subjects take a small daily maintenance dose of one or two capsules they can remain trouble-free indefinitely. It is important to stress that the extract, taken in this way, is harmless, which is not the case with many medications.

We can therefore expect long-term relief from our treatment from the ocean. If, as in some cases, a repeat or daily maintenance course is needed. It is safe and does not involve hazards from side-effects. What sort of relief of symptoms are we to expect? Relief and benefit are relative in terms: a person who has just lost everything at the races and then finds enough money somewhere for a meal and the fare home might experience ‘relief’, but of a rather low degree!

Generally speaking, an excellent degree of relief can be expected. Once again, of course, people differ, but most cases should experience freedom from pain and the restoration of mobility. Let us look at the two ends of the scale of improvement.

At the minimum end of the scale there are cases where the patient has been on intensive drug therapy for many years and, as a result, is quite ill in many ways other than arthritis. By using the mussel extract under the guidance and care of a doctor some of these paints recovered to the extent that they were completely weaned off all drug therapy and maintained a reasonably stable condition. It must be pointed out that the patients are still crippled and deformed from the original effects of the arthritis and they still require regular medical attention.

The most dramatic thing about this type of case, however, is the change in the person’s appearance and health generally. Once a patient has been weaned off the drug therapy, the syndromes and side-effects created by this treatment begin to disappear and the result is a much healthier, though still crippled, person.

At the other end of the scale, patients who have been bedridden, confined to a wheelchair, or who have needed crutches to get about, have regained their natural freedom of movement. There is no need to claim that these are ‘miracle cures. Most people are ‘average’ arthritics, displaying characteristic symptoms and showing a reasonable degree of improvement. It is, however, perfectly true to say that some people have been able to resume a normal life pattern after being severely handicapped. Quite obviously, these people could have achieved these dramatic results on any therapy which happened to suit their particular condition. It has happened that the extract has been just the treatment they needed. What has been of great significance is the fact that these dramatic cases have not been a temporary change. The results are still as good several years after they first occurred.

Between these extremes fall the majority of cases. Examples here would include people who can write or knit again after being unable to hold a pen or needles. Other cases showed a renewed ability to unscrew bottle tops, zip up the back of a dress and bend to fasten shoes, or hold a cup of tea without spilling half of it. One lady described her benefit by pointing out that she was able to get her children off to school and to cut sandwiches for their lunches. This may not sound very exciting to those who have never experienced the frustration and despair created when simple, everyday functions like these become impossible. To the person involved it is very exciting indeed and the degree of independence also restored is invaluable.

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Filed under: Arthritis Tags: Tags: Arthritis by admin Date 23 April, 2009
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Eating disorders can arise from biological imbalances, emotional turmoil, and cognitive distortions. The best treatment is one that takes all of these components into account. Let me illustrate. Imagine a car with bad brakes careening out of control down a steep hill during the middle of a rainstorm. Behind the wheel is someone who never learned how to drive a car. A formula for disaster! Given unrestricted powers, how might someone intervene to restore control of the car?

Well, if we could somehow level out the hill so it was no longer as steep, the car would eventually roll to a stop. Perhaps, too, a mechanic could leap aboard and fix the brakes. At the same time we could broadcast a quick course in driver education over the car radio, teaching the driver how to relax and ease up on the gas. And by setting up a giant canopy, we could keep off the rain and reduce the slipperiness of the road surface.

As a biopsychiatrist, I see parallels between this scenario and the treatment of eating disorders.

The slope of the hill represents the physical, or biological, component. If I can “level off” the peaks and valleys (reducing the chemical imbalances, or decreasing the starvation or the bingeing and purging), I can return the patient to a more even course of eating. Medical therapy-the use of everything from controlled nutrition to certain medications-comes into play here.

Behavioral and cognitive therapies work to fix the way a patient behaves and thinks by showing her how to apply the brakes and bring her disordered habits under control.

By teaching her about the dangers of starvation or self-induced vomiting, educational therapy equips her with the strategies she needs to make sensible eating choices.

Individual and group therapies that address her feelings help her to ease up on the gas and stop supplying the emotional fuel that propels her erratic behavior.

Last, by improving her relationships with significant people in her life, for example, through family therapy, we might provide her with a dry surface, a road through life on which she can maneuver with greater confidence and stability.

Lisa’s story shows this principle in action. Medications helped her deal with the biological issues, including her depression. Behavioral therapy showed her how to change bad habits. Cognitive therapy helped her learn new ways to handle stress. Through individual and group therapy she explored her feelings and improved her relationships, and the “twelve-step” approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous reduced her dependencies on alcohol and food. Though family therapy wasn’t an option in her case, many patients do benefit from this approach.

Treatment that focuses on one element and ignores others may be ineffective. For example, “talking” therapy in which disordered eating behavior is not addressed may lack a crucial ingredient for success. The twelve-step approach of Overeaters Anonymous may be doomed to fail if the patient has a biologically caused depression. For an anorexic, restoring weight without altering distorted attitudes may merely be a “quick fix” whose results won’t last over time. Similarly, fad diets or the megavitamin and food-allergy approaches may seem to work, at least temporarily, but their results are only a placebo effect that provides the passing illusion of a successful cure.

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Filed under: Weight Loss Tags: Tags: Weight Loss by admin Date 23 April, 2009
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During college, Robert Kilroy was so tall and thin—6 feet tall and 160 pounds—that his friends called him Stick. But within a few years of graduation, he literally outgrew his nickname. Stick was stuck at 200 pounds.

As a flight officer in the U.S. Navy, Robert bounced from one military base to another, spending between 3 and 6 months in places as far-flung as Alaska and Japan. “We’d fly for 12 hours a day, and by the time we’d get back to base, the restaurants would be closed,” he recalls. “I’d eat whatever I had stashed in my room. And it was usually junk.” His hectic schedule made a regular exercise routine difficult, too.

In 1996, Robert left the Navy to attend law school. Every day, on his drive between home and campus, he’d pass the YMCA. Eventually, he decided to join. “I didn’t like the way I felt or looked,” he says. “I had to get back to a weight that I was comfortable with.” He made a promise to himself to work out 5 days a week, whether on his way to school or on his way home. Since he didn’t have to drive out of his way, he had no excuse for not exercising.

This strategy worked so well that Robert, now age 35, was able to take off 23 pounds. And when he relocated to Reno in 1998 to enjoy the mild climate, he made sure to join a gym that was located along his commuting route. “I go almost every day on my way home from work,” he says. “Sometimes I play basketball, sometimes I ride a stationary bike. Best of all, I’ve maintained my weight.”

WINNING ACTION

Find a gym that’s on your way. With a gym, as with any piece of real estate, the important thing is location, location, location. If you have to drive 30 minutes across | town to work out, chances are, you won’t do it. Follow

Robert’s lead and look for a gym somewhere along your commute to and-from work. If you pass by the place every day, you’ll be more likely to go.

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Filed under: Weight Loss Tags: Tags: Weight Loss by admin Date 23 April, 2009
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Another affirmation success story involved a beautiful woman who came to my office complaining of fatigue, dizziness, weakness and nausea. There was no physical cause for her problems, but it was obvious that she was very unhappy.

When I asked her about her personal life, she held her face in her hands and told me she had been through two disastrous marriages and various unhappy love affairs. “No one ever looks past my face and body,” she said. “My beauty is a curse.”

Explaining that I felt her symptoms were caused by negative thoughts, I asked her to say this affirmation several times a day: “This is the beginning of a wonderful new day for me. What I do today is important. When tomorrow comes this day will be gone, leaving behind whatever I have traded for it. I pledge to myself that this day shall be for good, for gain, for happiness and success.”

“Okay,” she said, listlessly. “I’ll try it.”

Three weeks later she bounced jubilantly into my office and said, “It worked! I said it every day, ten times a day. I got everyone in my office to say it with me, too. We stand in a circle every morning and hold hands when we say it. We’re all feeling better. It’s like we all share a secret medicine. It’s changed my whole attitude. I want every day to be a good day. I won’t let anything stand in the way of my good day.”

I see this woman once a year now, for her regular checkup. Her personal life is running smoothly now. She’s in good shape, not only physically but emotionally and spiritually as well.

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Filed under: General health Tags: Tags: General health by admin Date 21 April, 2009
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Shoulder Press: This exercise is for the muscles of your upper arms and shoulders. Grasp a weight in each hand; lift and rest them on your shoulders. This is the starting position. Now, lift your hands straight up in the air, toward the ceiling. When your arms are extended fully above your shoulders, slowly bring them back to the starting position. Do this five to ten times, and gradually increase the repetitions as your muscles tone up. You should eventually be able to do 30 shoulder presses, twice a day.

Triceps Drop: This exercise is good for the tricep, which is the muscle on the back of the upper arm. I do one arm at a time. Holding a weight in my right hand, I lift my right arm straight into the air until it’s locked in position above my shoulder. This is the starting position. Then, slowly bending my right elbow, I gently lower the weight behind my head, being careful not to hit myself in the head. When I feel the weight touching the base of my neck, I lift it back in the air until the arm is straight again. Start with five triceps drops, working up to 30 triceps drops with each arm, twice a day.

This is an important exercise, especially for women who complain of loose skin hanging from the back of their upper arms. If you keep the tricep muscles firm and filled out, there will be less likelihood of hanging skin.

You don’t have to do these upper-body exercises exactly the way I do. If five-pound weights are too heavy for you, try three-pound, or one-pound weights. Or use books; they come in all sizes and weights. Cans are also useful weights. There are many good exercises for your arms and shoulders. Select the ones you like best, and make them part of your Immune For Life exercise program.

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Filed under: General health Tags: Tags: General health by admin Date 21 April, 2009
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GARLIC CARROTS

1/2 cup parsley 2 lbs. carrots

2 large garlic cloves, pressed 1/2 cup water

2-3 tbls. vinegar 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper 1/2 tsp. paprika 1/2 tsp. cumin powder parsley

Wash carrots and parsley. Chop parsley; peel and slice carrots. Put carrots, water and garlic in shallow pan of water, and simmer until just tender. Save cooking liquid for stock. Put carrots on plate; cover with vinegar, cayenne, paprika, and cumin. Garnish with parsley. Serve cold.

Serves 6 to 8.

SUNSET BOULEVARD CARROTS

2 cups brown rice, cooked 2 cups barley, cooked 1 lb. carrots

2 cups Mama Fox’s Spaghetti Sauce (see page 80)

several sprigs parsley

While Mama Fox’s Spaghetti Sauce, brown rice and barley are cooking, lightly steam and dice carrots. When everything is ready, mix brown rice and barley, spread over bottom of dish. Put carrots over the grains, pour spaghetti sauce over carrots. Season to taste, garnish with parsley.

Serves 4.

SOUTH PHILLY VEGGIE DIP

1/2 bunch parsley, minced 1 onion, chopped

3 cups garbanzo beans, cooked 2/3 cup sesame seeds

1/2 tsp. oregano 1 tsp. basil

dash of cumin

dash of garlic powder

Wash and mince parsley. Saute onion in water. Blend or mash garbanzo beans with all other ingredients. Use as a dip for raw vegetables or a sandwich spread.

Makes approximately 5 cups.

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Filed under: General health Tags: Tags: General health by admin Date 21 April, 2009
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Thanks to all these medical fallacies, the average American spends the last years of life dancing the horrible “disease dance.” What is the disease dance? It’s the frantic stumbling from doctor to doctor, disease to disease, pill to pill and surgery to surgery. The disease dance is a frenzied search for names and solutions to our problems. For most of us, it’s a horrid dance that goes on and on, ending only when we die.

There is a word, ^iatrogenic,” to describe diseases caused by doctors. The drugs we prescribe can cause iatrogenic diseases; so can the different regimens we recommend, as well as the procedures and surgeries we perform. Medical journal articles suggest that unnecessary surgery causes thousands of deaths a year, plus an unknown number of cases of injury and misery. I remember going to the hospitals some years ago and looking at the surgical schedules. Whole families of kids were having T&As (tonsillectomy and adenoidectomies). More than 90 percent of the T&As were unnecessary; in fact, they were downright dangerous, because they removed parts of the children’s immune systems (tonsils and adenoids). How many of these kids later suffered from compromised immune function? How many suffered from unnecessary disease? Doctors also used to radiate enlarged thymus glands in children, in order to shrink them. Today we know that the thymus gland is where the T-cells of the immune system receive their programming. How many people are walking around with a shrunken thymus, and reduced immune ability?

There’s another fancy word physicians use to disguise doctor-caused diseases: nosocomial infections. Nosocomial infections are hospital acquired infections, which are very serious because our hospitals can be the breeding grounds for virulent germs that have evolved to resist the latest superantibiotics we use.

It might even be fair to say that some doctors are at their worst when it comes to prescribing drugs. Our pharmacies are filled with drugs, from simple aspirin to immunosuppressants for transplant patients. Drugs are ubiquitous; medicine chests are full of them. Doctors are busy prescribing common and exotic medications for everything from acne and insomnia to high blood pressure and depression. We doctors act as if we believe that disease is caused by a shortage of prescription drugs in the body.

We tend to look upon drugs as our saviors. But every drug, even the common aspirin tablet, has side effects. No medicine is absolutely safe—not one. I don’t know how many patients I’ve seen who were suffering more from the side effects of their medicines than they were from the original problem. The benefits and risks of each and every drug must be weighed by both doctor and patient before medications are prescribed and taken.

Pain medications may result in dizziness, nausea, constipation or diarrhea, gastrointestinal bleeding, headaches and depression, among other problems. The narcotic painkillers are addicting. Antidepressants can cause high blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms, stroke, confusion, anxiety, numbness, nausea, dizziness, anorexia and many other problems. Arthritis drugs may lead to nausea, bloody bowel movements, ulcers, depression, chest pain, high blood pressure and other problems.

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Filed under: General health Tags: Tags: General health by admin Date 21 April, 2009
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