Health Blog

The stone may lead to attacks of colic, severe pain usually felt under the ribs on the right and radiating around to the back and across to the left.

Colic usually develops when one of the smaller stones attempts to move from the gallbladder down the duct which leads to the bowel. Smaller ones may enter the duct and then become jammed.

When this happens, there is a back pressure along the ducts and bile builds up in the liver and overflows into the blood and tissues, producing the yellow color known as jaundice. The larger stones are unable to enter the duct.

The diagnosis of stones may be suspected but an X-ray is necessary to confirm their presence. This is a cholecystogram.The patient usually has a preliminary plain X-ray. Only stones containing a lot of calcium will be visible on this film.

The person is given some tablets to take in the evening and an appointment is made for the next day. The tablets contain a radio-opaque dye which, excreted by the liver, passes in the bile into the gallbladder where, like the bile, it is concentrated and outlines this organ.

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These drugs are often taken by athletes to build up muscle tissue and improve performance in weightlifting and related sports. Women who take these may find that they have a virilising effect which interferes with their periods and leads to an increase of body hair.

Some forms of the contraceptive Pill contain one hormone which, when broken down in the body, forms androgen and women on the Pill can develop both acne and excess facial hair. Other forms of the Pill are more oestrogenic and can reduce both acne and facial hair.

The drug phenytoin, widely used in epilepsy to control convulsions, may lead to an increase in body hair in some women. The exact cause is unknown, although an increase in the activity of androgen or an over-sensitivity of the hairs to hormone is believed to be the reason.

Most women with hair problems do not consult their doctors, relying on self-treatment or the care of beauty salons or those who specialise in the removal of hairs. Those who do seek medical advice are usually concerned there might be a serious underlying reason for the hirsutism or because of a severe emotional reaction.

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Now we come to the question which hangs on every patient’s lips, although some never dare to actually ask it: ‘How long will I live?’

Many patients avoid asking this question because they fear the answer so much. In my experience, most patients actually imagine that things are worse than they really are. Thus the answer may come as a pleasant surprise. Whether or not this is so for you, I believe it is always easier to deal with facts than with the products of your imagination. In any case, you cannot possibly make the best decisions for yourself if you don’t know what difference various treatments are likely to make to the length of your life.

This question is also hard to answer, partly because no one can look into the future and tell you exactly what will happen to you as an individual. Many doctors use this as an excuse to avoid giving any answer at all. However, they can tell you what is average or likely, what is possible but unlikely and what is so unlikely as to be a miracle if it happens. I believe that the following is the least you need to find out from your doctor in order to make the best possible decision about treatment. Firstly, it is possible that any treatment could completely cure you, that is, that you could live as long as if you hadn’t ever had the cancer? Secondly, what is the median length of life for each possible anticancer treatment, and also if you have no anti-cancer treatment at all? The median (or average) length of life is the time between diagnosis or starting treatment and when half of the patients have died. Thirdly, what is the chance that you could live for five years? (This is called the five year survival time.)

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‘It must be in my genes.’ Before we talk more about food, let’s look at the role genetics plays in weight control. There are many overweight people who tell us resignedly, that:

• ‘well my mother’s/father’s the same’,

• ‘I’ve always been overweight’,

• ‘it must be in my genes’.

Research shows us that this comment has much truth behind it A child born to overweight parents is much more likely to be overweight than one whose parents were not overweight. It may sound like an excuse, but there is a lot of evidence to back the idea that our body weight and shape is at least partially determined by our genes.

Much of our knowledge in this area comes from studies in twins. Identical twins tend to be similar in body weight even if they are raised apart. Even twins adopted out as infants show the body-fat profile of their true parents rather than that of their adoptive parents. These findings suggest that our genes are a stronger determinant of weight than our environment (which includes the food we eat).

It seems that information stored in our genes governs our tendency to store kilojoules as either fat or as lean muscle tissue. Overfeeding a large group of identical twins confirmed that within each pair, weight gain was similar, however the amount of weight gained between sets of identical twins varied greatly. From this, researchers concluded that our genes control the way our bodies respond to overeating. Some sets of twins gained a lot of weight while others gained only a little, even though all were overconsuming an equivalent amount of kilojoules.

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In a comprehensive review of the issue in 1991, Dr Andrew Prentice and his associates at the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre in Cambridge, identified the physiological outcomes of slimming. These included: energy sparing adaptations, alterations in fat and lean body mass, altered energy substrate handling, changes in appetite, health related outcomes such as fitness and glucose tolerance, altered hormonal status, and altered fertility. These changes with slimming may also be moderated by a number of influences including genotype, degree of obesity at the onset of slimming, rate and duration of weight loss, composition of the slimming diet, use or non-use of exercise in the slimming regime and the influence of drugs if these are used.

Since many of the physiological adjustments are dependent on changes in body composition, we will first examine that before considering the adaptations themselves.

Counteracting body composition changes. Exercise is usually promoted as a means of reducing FFM losses to a minimum. Prentice and his colleagues cite eleven studies which were carried out to 1991, nine of which show exercise to be effective in reducing muscle loss. There have been many more since. However, it is likely that the more restrictive the dietary regimen, the less likely FFM losses will be reduced by exercise.

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Fat cells exist in all parts of the body with four exceptions: the eyelids, parts of the oesophagus, the brain and the penis. The main location of concern to the weight watcher is subcutaneous fat, which is stored below the lower surface (dermis) of the skin. This gives skin its ’rounded’ or cushioned feeling when pinched.

On some parts of the body subcutaneous fat is thicker, and fat cells more numerous, than on others. The abdomen, as we’ve seen, is a site of greater adipocyte size and numbers in men; the buttocks and gluteal region more so in women. Women also tend to store more fat around the triceps than men, and this area is harder to pinch using traditional skin fold measures, in some women. The female breasts are almost entirely composed of fat and connective tissue, the former serving as an extra energy reserve during pregnancy and lactation. The extra energy requirements of breast-feeding have been estimated at between 300—400 kcal per day.

Harvard University’s Dr Rose Frisch, who is an expert in female body composition and fat stores, claims that subcutaneous fat stores in the hips and buttocks, as well as the breasts, also help to augment food supplies during pregnancy. Says Frisch: The main function of the 16kg of stored female fat, which is equivalent to 600MJ [about 140 000 kcal], may be to provide energy for pregnancy and for about 3 months lactation’. Intra-abdominal fat stores on the other hand may be less functional and may interfere with liver function leading to different disease risks.

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Use only small, fresh, hard cucumbers. Place them in cold water overnight, then dry them well.

Place cucumbers in a wooden barrel, or a large earthenware or glass jar. Place a few leaves of black currants, cherries, mustard seed and dill branches in with the cucumbers.

Boil up a sufficient amount of salt water, using about four ounces of sea salt for five quarts of water. Let water cool down, then pour it over cucumbers. Cover with linen canvas, place a wooden board over it, and on the top a clean heavy stone. There should be enough salt water to cover the board. Keep container in a warm place for about one week, then move to a cooler place. Pickles are ready for eating in about three to four weeks. Every second week or so remove the stone and die covers and wash them well first in warm then in cold water, then replace them. Keep the top of the water clean from foam and mildew. When pickles are ready for eating the] can be placed in glass jars and kept in the refrigerator.

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Here is a do-it-yourself program to stimulate your hair growth and prevent hair loss and baldness—and possibly even grow new hair on already bald heads!

1. H-Pantoten tablets are made in Sweden and are sold in every drug store, health food store and barber shop in Sweden and also in many other countries on the European continent. Perhaps they will soon be available in the United States. If you can obtain them, take one to three tablets each day, preferably before breakfast. If you are not able to obtain H-Pantoten, use a natural, multiple high-potency B-complex vitamin formula. Health food stores have several to choose from. Select one which has all the B-vitamins present with especially large doses of those B-vitamins named in this chapter as being of particular importance for the hair and for improving blood circulation: inositol, choline, biotin, pantothenic acid, nicotinic acid, folic acid, riboflavin, and pyridoxine. Take B-complex formulas before breakfast and before dinner.

2. Supplement your diet with a varied choice of the following B-vitamin-packed foods:

Brewer’s yeast—one to two tablespoons a day.

Desiccated liver (important for Bi2) —five to ten tablets a day.

Lecithin—one to two tablespoons a day.

Wheat germ—two to three tablespoons a day.

Sunflower seeds, whole grains, raw nuts, beans. Sunflower seeds are extremely rich in the minerals and vitamins essential for hair growth: choline, inositol, vitamin E and D, and minerals phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium.

3. Take the following additional food supplements:

•Wheat germ oil—two to three teaspoons a day.

Vitamin E—300-600 International Units a day. Start with 100 I.U. and add 100 I.U. each week. (In case of high blood pressure, consult your doctor.)

Vitamin C—up to 1,000 mg. a day.

Bioflavonoids—20—100 mg. a day.

•Cold-pressed vegetable oils—use them liberally with your salads or in cooking.

Cod liver oil—one tsp. daily.

Kelp—one tablet with each meal.

•Bone meal tablets, for minerals—five to ten daily. Where not suggested otherwise, food supplements should be

taken with meals.

4. Eat a balanced diet of vital, natural, unrefined foods, with

emphasis on raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds,

and milk products.

5. Don’t overeat. Hardening of the arteries, which often ac-

companies obesity, may be a contributing cause of impaired

blood circulation and diminished blood supply to your

scalp.

6. Avoid salt, white sugar, white flour, and all foods made with them. Use sea salt moderately.

7. Avoid alcohol and tobacco.

8. Avoid excessive shampooing of your hair. Unless your hair

is excessively oily, do not wash it oftener than once a week.

Vigorous brushing twice a day for a few minutes will normally keep your scalp clean from dirt, dandruff, stale oils,

etc. The normal discharge of sebum, the oil from the sebaceous glands, is beneficial for your hair. Vigorous brushing is

extremely important for the healthy state of your hair and

for the prevention of baldness. It stimulates the sebaceous

glands and hair roots and increases the blood supply to the

hair follicles.

9. Use finger or vibrator massage to improve blood circulation

in your scalp. Here’s how you do it: place both hands, all

finger tips, firmly on your head and, without moving the

fingers, push the whole scalp in circular movements for a

few seconds; then place the fingers in a new position and repeat. Cover the whole scalp, including the forehead, temples, and neck. For effortless massage use an electric vibrator, available at department stores for less than ten dollars.

10. Use a slant board or headstand stool, both available at better health food stores. Lie on the slant board, with your head down at the lower level, at least twice a day for 15 minutes each time. If possible, do a headstand twice a day, one to three minutes each time. Both are extremely effective in bringing more blood to the blood-starving scalp. Many men have reported better hair growth and even new hair in completely bald areas after practicing headstands for a few months.

Warning: If you suffer from high blood pressure, or if your blood capillaries are in poor shape and brittle, build up your condition and strengthen your capillaries with the vitamins C, P and the macrobiotic diet.

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The kidneys show their signs at right iris 28′-30′ and left iris 30′-32′, commencing directly against the iris-wreath and extending outwards to the fourth and fifth minor zones. The kidney is all the more healthy the less its area is indicated (Schulte).

If both kidneys register, then in many cases it is a question of overstrain, suggesting that the system is overladen with poisonous substances and that one or several other organs (intestines, skin and lungs) show conditions of functional insufficiency. In such cases one also finds an early or closed weakness-sign, or darkening of the kidney area.

True kidney disease usually takes place in one kidney only, and the following signs may be seen:

1. Nephritis: inflammation of the kidney. In acute conditions, small white points, wisps or clouds, or also small white streaks are found in the kidney area, which take on a yellowish colouring as the conditions become chronic. With older damage, the iris-wreath in the kidney area is contracted inwards.

If the condition is one of cysto-pyelitis then sharp white lines or wisp signs are also found in the bladder area.

2. Renal hypo-function: functional weakness of the kidney. The kidney area shows a dark weakness-sign, which is markedly widened in the muscle zone. Patients with these signs pass scanty urine and have high-domed finger nails.

3. Contracted kidney: one finds in the kidney area dark to black points or streaks as signs of tissue disintegration. The condition is one of irreparable damage leading to progressive disturbance and renal insufficiency, with consequent uraemia. When these sharp black signs are seen, they are a reminder to be cautious (not dark wisps—these are signs of unresolved catarrh), and in addition to the customary urine analysis, to measure the blood pressure frequently, and also if possible to observe the fundus of the eye. Other signs of contracted kidney are a weakness-sign in the heart area, and in addition to the small black kidney signs a large suprarenal sign.

4. Renal stone, nephrolithiasis: occurs more frequently than is generally accepted—it is not for certain established diagnostically in every case. For so long as concretions are retained in the renal pelvis no signs for stone can be found in the iris unless its presence results in inflammation of the mucous membrane—and this possibility is always there. When stimulation of the mucous membrane of the renal pelvis arises from concretions, one finds in the kidney area a small white streak (as distinct from the sign of inflammation arising otherwise: white clouds) close to the iris-wreath. These small white streaks disappear, however, when the inflammation recedes, and leave behind no sign of special significance. Such cases are only seldom seen by the irisdiagnostician, usually accidentally, when a patient comes on account of some other complaint. Generally, the condition is one of ureteral colic, without inflammation signs in the kidney or ureteral areas. Only a loosening of the iris fibres is to be seen in the organ area of the ureter: right iris 30′-35′, left iris 25′-30′.

When a sharp-edged stone lodges in the renal pelvis a local circumscribed inflammation first arises. This leads to the above-mentioned small white signs in the iris. If the condition in the renal pelvis results in damage to the mucous membrane and degeneration of tissue, then a small dark to black point-like sign develops in the white sign. These small injuries and inflammations heal quickly when the stone shifts to another position in the renal pelvis, so that from these repeated local injuries several small black points develop in the area for renal pelvis.

It would be untrue to infer that all such signs as have been discussed refer to renal gravel. My view is that a single stone can also give rise to such signs. Much depends upon the kind of stone, as to whether these signs will develop. These small point-like signs are not the only signs in the iris for stones. Sometimes we find several points surrounded by a thin white line, suggesting that frequent inflammatory response to stone damage of the renal pelvis has already occurred, and also that such has healed again.

One sometimes finds a black streak with a point on top. It looks like an upside down comma. Such a sign suggests that there is a large stone in the renal pelvis, which from its size and weight has resulted in an indentation of the renal tissues, destroying mucous membrane and connection tissues.

The signs described so far can exist without the patient complaining of, or having complained of painful symptoms in the kidney region. Where there are painful conditions one always finds a white sign (inflammation sign) by the black sign. According to the degree of inflammation, small white streaks or larger white clouds show, which may extend to the neighbourhood of the kidney areas. With extension of the inflammatory process, and destruction of the renal tissues, there will appear against the large white clouds several large, longish or zigzag black signs.

((Black signs = tissue destruction = loss of substance.)

5. Hydronephrosis, renal stasis: arises as the result of pressure from inside or outside (stones, tumours, etc.), whereby the ureter is constricted and the urine collects in the renal pelvis, resulting in a considerable dilatation of the renal pelvis. In the iris the condition is recognised by a wide separation of the iris fibres in the kidney area, with many long black signs which appear between the fibres. In well marked cases, the iris fibres are observed to be running in large arcs which extend over the extremity area (30′) and extend through the region for inguinal, uterine and rectal areas: right iris 25′, left iris 35′.

6. Floating kidney: is recognised by a displacement of the kidney areas in the direction of the abdominal area. One sees a distinct white arc which extends out from the iris-wreath into the lower temporal quadrant of the iris. In addition, one often finds a contraction of the wreath at right iris 45′, or left iris 15-20′, which arises through pressure of the displaced kidney upon the intestine.

Floating kidney and hydronephrosis have quite similar signs. They are easily distinguished by the long black signs (loss of substance) which are found with hydronephrosis but not with floating kidney.

7. It is important to draw attention to the close connection between lungs and kidneys. Thus, for example, there is no lung T.B. without kidney signs in the left iris. (Right iris: hereditary, left iris: acquired.)

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If we are to learn to master our anxiety in an enlightened fashion, we must first know something of its nature. What is anxiety? Unfortunately there is no complete agreement among psychiatrists on this subject, but it is possible to make a number of general statements that help to define anxiety. The ideas which I offer you now are a summary of a theme which I have developed elsewhere.

The Physical Basis of Anxiety-Our brain is continually receiving a great number of nervous impulses. Some of these are conscious, but the great majority are unconscious. These impulses arise from three different areas—from our external environment, from our body itself, and from our mind.

Information concerning external environment comes to our brain through our sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. We are aware of some of these sensations, but a great deal of information of which we are not consciously aware also comes to our brain from all parts of the body. Thus the position of our limbs is being continually reported so that we can maintain our balance. The fullness of our stomach, the mobility of our bowels, and the functioning of all our other organs are likewise continually reported.

There is an even more complex stream of impulses which arise within the brain itself. At this level are our conscious thoughts, doubts and misgivings, loves and hates. Impulses come also from the unconscious activity of the mind. This includes all those problems and conflicts, worries and desires, which we can readily call to consciousness if we so desire. But beyond this mass of material which we can recall at will, there lies the unconscious itself with its memories of past experiences and all the hopes and fears which were associated with them. Although these unconscious memories are quite beyond our recall except under certain special circumstances, they have a continual effect on our mental functioning by virtue of impulses arising from them.

All these impulses—from the environment, from the body, and from the mind—have to be dealt with and integrated to allow the smooth working of the brain. If the number of impulses becomes too great the brain is unable to cope with the situation. There is in fact a level for all of us at which integration of the impulses becomes incomplete, and we experience this incomplete integration of the impulses as anxiety. The feeling of nervous tension or anxiety thus serves to warn us that all is not well in our mind.

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