Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

By now most of your body should be far more relaxed. But if you’ve been concentrating hard, your face is probably very tense and, apart from being a waste of energy, that’s also the quickest way to get wrinkles. So relax it quickly. I should warn you that relaxing all the muscles in your face is going to make you look really gormless. So here goes! Imagine that you’ve got a slice of lemon in your mouth and it’s extremely sour. Squeeze the whole of your face against it, mouth, nose, eyes and cheeks. Blow out one small candle and let your face sag, so that your mouth falls open, the flesh sags off your cheekbones, and your eyelids feel heavy and close of their own accord.

Check for the last time that you are relaxed everywhere. Then lie peacefully where you are for a little while. Most people feel rather sleepy when they’re as relaxed as you are now. Some actually fall asleep. Relaxation is a good cure for insomnia.

Enjoy your rest. But be warned. Take your time about getting up again after relaxation like this. On no account jump up suddenly or you will feel giddy. Your body is now functioning at a much lower level; your breathing is more shallow; your heartbeat is slower. You’ve calmed everything down and made the whole of your body work at a slower speed. So you need to take time to get back to normal. Don’t rush anything.

When you want to get up, start by clenching and unclenching your fists several times so that your blood will circulate a little more quickly. You might find that your fingertips begin to tingle when you do this. Now sit up slowly and swing your legs over the edge of the bed, or sit with your knees raised if you are on the floor. Get used to the new position and then finally you will be ready to stand up and walk around again.

Back to normal. How was that?

Practise regularly until you can relax at will. Certainly try to find twenty minutes to half an hour each day if you can. Early in the morning or late at night—choose the time that suits you best. Gradually you will begin to feel better all over. Regular relaxation is the key to coping with both the cramps and the aching miseries. As you grow more proficient, you will learn which part of your body is most tense and so requires the most attention to relax. It’s different with everybody.

Outside help-Some people find it hard to learn to relax with or without a friend to help and wish there was someone around to teach them. The National Childbirth Trust has been running relaxation classes for expectant mothers for over twenty-one years now and some of their groups can provide teachers for women who suffer from period pain. If you live in the Leeds area you’re in luck, for the Leeds branch is particularly well organized in this respect. In any case, look up the Trust in your local telephone directory; there may be a branch near you. Or contact their headquarters, at 9 Queensborough Terrace, London W2 3TB (Telephone: 01-229 9319).

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Tags: Pain Relief

In order to further study the question of spray residues and their effect on health, I asked three of my patients to take part in an experiment. Each of them was known to be susceptible to a wide range of chemicals. I invited them to my office for a peach-eating session, using fruit from the local market. After eating these commercial peaches, one patient developed a rash, with itching, burning and stinging, and the formation of red wheals (urticaria). The second had a frightening attack of asthma. The third developed a headache. To make the test complete, similar-looking peaches were obtained from an abandoned orchard where the fruit grew wild, unblessed by the exterminator’s spraygun.

After an interval, the three were given some of these peaches, without their being identified as unsprayed fruit. To these items they had no reaction at all: they tolerated them perfectly well. In the following season, I tested 15 more patients in a more elaborate experiment which was mentioned briefly in the previous chapter. I obtained four lots of peaches, all of the same type, but each treated quite differently. The first were picked from trees in an abandoned orchard, having received no sprays, fungicidal treatment, or fertilization for the previous three years. The second lot were the same as the first, except that they had been manually dusted with sulfur as an antifungus measure. The third were from one of the University of Illinois plots which had received the recommended spray schedules using DDT and dieldrin. The fourth were peaches from the same source sprayed with the pesticides parathione and dieldrin.

For several days before the test, all of the patients avoided both peaches and chemicals to which they knew they were susceptible. The patients were assembled in my office and were given the various peaches, without any knowledge of which batch they were receiving. Three of the fifteen became ill when they ate plain, uncontaminated peaches. They were evidently allergic to peaches per se. A larger number of the others reacted to both the sulfured and the sprayed peaches. Some of them became so ill, in fact, that they refused to go on with the testing. This was good common sense on their part, but it detracted from the completeness of the experiment. Nevertheless, several of those who had no reaction to the organic peaches were made ill by the sprayed peaches, regardless of the type of spray used. Clearly there were people who were made sick by eating infinitesimally small amounts of insect spray, similar to the amounts millions of people eat every day.

One good effect of this discovery was that patients who had long stopped eating fruit, from the belief that they were made sick by it, were able to start again, provided they ate only organically grown, uncontaminated fruits.

“Multiple fruit sensitivity” turned out to be not such a very rare condition. An investigation of spraying practices exposed some of the underlying reasons for this problem. Peaches, apples, and cherries were the most commonly contaminated, as well as the most heavily contaminated, fruits. Although the total number of spraying applications varied with rainfall and other conditions, peaches, apples, and cherries were often sprayed between ten and fifteen times each season. Recommended spraying started with blossoming and ended only a few weeks prior to harvesting. Needless to say, these fruit were fairly well saturated with spray.

They are hardly unique in this respect, however. It turned out that most of the commercially produced fruits in the United States are copiously sprayed. Some of them are sprayed with many different agents, and it became almost an impossible task to decide which spray caused which symptom in a patient. This problem has increased year by year.

Once a fruit has been sprayed with a combination of pesticide and kerosene, or some other chemical solvent, there is no known way of removing the spray residue. Air passes quite readily through the skin of a piece of fruit and with it comes the spray ingredients, to be incorporated into the pulp itself. Washing, rubbing, peeling, cooking, and any other attempt to clean the spray off do not eliminate spray residues. The experimental proof of this assertion is the chemically sensitive patient, who gets sick from commercial, sprayed fruit no matter how he rubs or washes it.

Some individuals, however, who are not violently susceptible to chemicals, may be able to eat stewed fruit, but not raw, fresh specimens of the same lot. The reason appears to be that when the fruit is stewed, some of the pesticides are boiled off. Some of my patients have, in fact, gotten sick simply by standing over a pot of stewing commercial fruit, inhaling the vapors which contain part of the pesticides escaping into the atmosphere. Stewing organically grown fruit does not have that effect on these patients, however.

It must be emphasized that a highly susceptible person, eating an ordinary diet, rarely suspects the fact that a daily piece of fruit causes any problem at all. The reason for this is that the small, daily dose of pesticide may merely serve to reinforce and perpetuate his symptoms of illness. All he knows is that he felt badly yesterday and feels just as badly today. He naturally does not associate his headache or his asthma or his fatigue with something so innocent, and apparently unconnected, as the supposedly beneficial fruits and vegetables. It is only when he overindulges and takes in an extraordinary amount of these products (and pesticide) that he breaks out of the level of chronic disease and precipitates an obvious reaction.

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Tags: Allergies

Convulsions are uncontrolled contractions or spasms of the muscles. If a child who has a fever goes into convulsions, there are two possible causes. The convulsions may be caused by the fever itself or by certain diseases involving the brain that also cause fever.

Febrile convulsions are convulsions that are caused by the fever itself. Five to 10 percent of all children have febrile convulsions. How quickly the temperature rises is more important than how high the temperature is. A sudden rise of only one or two degrees Centigrade may cause convulsions, but a gradual rise of two or three degrees may not.

Febrile convulsions may be thought of as shaking chills that become extreme. They are most common between the ages of three months and three years. Febrile convulsions occur less and less often from age three to age eight. After the age of eight, febrile convulsions are rare. One episode of febrile convulsions usually means the child is more likely to have them in the future. However, the tendency to have febrile convulsions does not mean the child will later have epilepsy.

Diseases involving the brain that cause convulsions include meningitis, encephalitis, and abscess of the brain. When convulsions occur with these diseases, the child will usually have a fever. But the disease (not the fever) causes the convulsions.

Signs and symptoms

During convulsions with fever, a child will fall unconscious, become rigid, and may stop breathing briefly. The child may turn blue, lose control of the bladder and bowels, and vomit. The limbs, torso, jaws, and/or eyelids will jerk uncontrollably. The child will quickly begin normal breathing again. The seizure activity may last two minutes to 30 minutes or longer. After regaining consciousness, the child will not remember that the convulsions occurred. Several traits of febrile convulsions can help you distinguish them from convulsions caused by diseases like encephalitis, meningitis, or brain abscess. A major sign of febrile convulsions is that the child recovers quickly (within minutes). Immediately after a febrile convulsion, the child is alert, can respond, and is not prostrated (not collapsed or exhausted). After a febrile convulsion, the child can bend the neck forward. There is often a family history of febrile convulsions.

After convulsions caused by diseases involving the brain, the child often cannot bend the neck forward and may be in a stage of collapse or exhaustion.

Home care

Do not panic! Your child is in no pain and is in more danger from improper treatment than from the convulsion. Protect the child from injury while the convulsion is occurring. Call your doctor immediately.

Precautions

• Do not give aspirin or any other medication by mouth to an unconscious child. An unconscious person cannot swallow and may choke on the medicine.

• Do not give artificial respiration. Breathing muscles are temporarily in spasm, and forceful artificial respiration may be harmful.

• Do not place a convulsing child in a tub of water to reduce the child’s temperature. Accidents such as scalding and injuries against the sides of the tub have occurred; this practice is not recommended.

• If the child cannot bend the neck forward after the convulsions have ended, or if the child is collapsed or exhausted, report this to your doctor. These may be signs of serious illness.

Medical treatment

Your doctor may give an injection of medication that controls convulsions—usually Phenobarbital or Diazepam. The doctor will perform a complete physical examination, taking blood tests and a spinal tap. If the febrile convulsion is unusual, or if convulsions occur often, your doctor may order additional tests such as an electroencephalogram and CAT (computerized axial tomography) scan. Daily medications to control convulsions are prescribed for several years under some circumstances.

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Tags: General health