Medsarticles. Medical Weblog

At age 42, LaVonnia “Bonnie” Johnson weighed 225 pounds and wore a size-22 dress. Then she started getting up earlier in the morning—and she lost 65 pounds.

Heavy all her life, Bonnie, of Washington, D.C., put on even more weight after going through a painful divorce. But her life changed in 1993 when she read an inspiring story of a woman who had left a troubled marriage and thrived. That was just what Bonnie needed to hear. “If she could do it, I can, too,” Bonnie thought.

In the beginning, she tried simple workouts—swimming, bicycling, and treadmill walking—at different times of the day, fitting it in whenever possible. And she made some progress, losing 15 pounds within 18 months.

|Then Bonnie changed jobs. Her new work schedule was so erratic that she could exercise only in the early morning. For Bonnie, that turned out to be the turning point.

At 6:00 a.m., Bonnie would arrive at her neighborhood gym and head straight for the treadmill, stairclimber, or stationary bicycle. Before long, she was experimenting with strength training. She was hooked. She couldn’t begin her day without hitting the gym. Within 2 years, she lost 65 pounds and four dress sizes.

Today, at age 49, Bonnie still starts her day with exercise. “Morning exercise has become a way of life for me,” she says. “It’s like drinking water or breathing. I need it to survive.”

WINNING ACTION

When it comes to exercise, be an early bird. Like Bonnie, make exercise the first item on your daily agenda. Starting my day on the treadmill is the only way that I know it fit in my workout. You’ll rev up your metabolism so you burn more calories over the course of the day. As a bonus, you’ll feel more centered, energized, and better able to handle stressful situations.

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Laura began to suffer from depression when she suspected that her husband was being unfaithful to her. He said she was imagining things and should see a doctor. Her GP agreed she was depressed and sent her to a psychiatrist who, after talking to (and believing) her husband, told her that her problems were due to an unhappy childhood, and that she needed psychotherapy. Laura accepted this, although her doubts about her husband persisted.

Two years later, her sister-in-law told the psychiatrist that Laura’s suspicions about her husband were correct. But by then Laura had been prescribed a range of antidepressants and tranquillizers, had had electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and had become convinced that she was a mentally sick person. Her psychiatrist’s diagnosis was to haunt her for many years. A painful divorce followed and due to the periods which Laura had spent as an inpatient, care and custody of her children was given to her ex-husband.

The next ten years Laura describes as ‘living in a void’. Although she tried to build a new life for herself, and discharged herself from the psychiatrists’ care, she was prescribed the same drugs by her GP. Because of her efforts to give them up, and not understanding her physical dependence on them, she went in and out of withdrawal as her medication was changed or suspended.

Although before her marriage she had never suffered from anxiety, she now complained of phobias, insomnia, stomach discomforts, eye problems and skin rashes. She had little contact with her children and often wondered if her psychiatrist had been right about her. Her medical record read like a disaster, describing her as ‘neurotic’, unable to cope with life, and ‘possibly schizophrenic’. Eventually her prescriptions for Valium and Mogadon were handed to her by her doctor’s receptionist with no review or consultation.

Two years ago, her sister-in-law intervened again and persuaded her that her pills could be the main cause of her present condition and took her to a tranquillizer withdrawal group. She checked with her GP and he said there was no reason why she should continue with the drugs if she did not want to.

Laura was impatient to finish her drugs, and came off them more rapidly than she was advised. Her withdrawal was ‘a nightmare’, but she was also very excited by it because she was experiencing emotions that she had not felt for years. Symptoms that she had experienced over the years worsened, and new ones appeared, but with group support she continued. She became aggressive and hostile. Her restlessness and alternating agoraphobia and claustrophobia increased until she was staying first with one friend and then another, packing her bags every few days to move on again.

Fear of riding in cars (her lack of co-ordination and judgement had relegated her to the passenger seat), nightmares, hallucinations, constant throbbing headaches, heightened perception, and all the time the nagging fear that she was either mad, or the victim of a serious physical illness, made life hell.

As the symptoms eased and the depression lifted, Laura saw that her problems started with her first misdiagnosis. She learned to ‘let go’ of the sadness of the past and have hope about the future. It is a great joy to her that she sees more of her children who now see her as a ‘real’ person, and are impressed that she has a full-time job.

Her image of herself as a sick person has gone.

During the years that Laura was dependent on the benzodiazepines she had investigations for suspected ulcer, heart disease, skin rashes, dry eye problems, and arthritis. None of the tests proved positive and since she has come through withdrawal all the symptoms have gone.

She now looks forward to being a grandmother, has found that her old interest in photography is still there, and has joined her local historical society.

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If you lower your gaze your head will assume a better position. Sit with the spine straight but not rigid. Imagine you have heavy weights in your hands, and let them droop towards the floor. This will bring your shoulders down. Now place your hands, palms upwards, on your lap.

Shake each leg in turn then place feet (without shoes) on the floor. Imagine you are wearing heavy boots.

It is a good plan to start all group meetings in this position, even if you are in easy chairs. It may take some persuasion. People often feel vulnerable in this position and ‘protect’ themselves by tightening the shoulders, crossing the arms over the chest and crossing the legs, the moment they say anything involving feelings, e.g. ‘My wife does not understand panic attacks’, or ‘I saw my psychiatrist yesterday’.

Try to be aware of how you are holding yourself whatever you are doing. It is possible to iron without fiercely gripping the iron, to drive without grappling with the steering wheel. Dishes still get washed if you don’t press your knees back and tense your neck.

Even confrontation is possible without tightening up. You will feel much more in control facing an angry boss if you are aware of your muscles and breathing. An afternoon spent entertaining a tiresome relative will affect you much less if you make a conscious effort to relax.

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If you are cutting down slowly, these should not trouble you. Some people prefer a more rapid withdrawal and are prepared to tolerate these symptoms when they understand why they are happening, and that they are not an indication that they are going mad. The looming faces so often seen are really an exaggeration of what normally happens just as we are about to drop off to sleep, although we are rarely aware of it, just as in alcohol withdrawal, spiders, reptiles, devils, etc. have been ’seen’. One woman ’saw’ her father (who was three hundred miles away) so clearly that she made him a cup of coffee. She slowed down her withdrawal and had no further hallucinations. Hearing music, telephone ringing, and voices is often reported, but these too disappear as withdrawal is slowed down.

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The following article shows that severe symptoms including panic attacks can arise from simply not breathing correctly.

‘Hyperventilation [shallow breathing] as a Cause of Panic Attacks’, Dr Hibbert, British Medical Journal, Vol. 288, 28.1.84.

The syndrome [collection of symptoms] characterized by repeated panic attacks has been known by several names, including muscular exhaustion of the heart, neurasthenia (nervous exhaustion), irritable heart, anxiety neurosis, effort syndrome, and cardiac neurosis. The manual’s definition of panic disorder states that attacks are manifested by the sudden onset of intense apprehension, fear, or terror, often associated with feelings of impending doom. The most common symptoms experienced during an attack are dyspnoea (difficult breathing), palpitations, chest pain or discomfort, choking or smothering sensations, dizziness, vertigo, or unsteady feelings, feelings of unreality, paraesthesias (disordered sensation such as tingling and pins and needles) hot and cold flushes, sweating, faintness, trembling or shaking and fear of dying, going crazy or doing something uncontrolled during the attack. Attacks usually last minutes; more rarely hours.

Remember it is essential to breathe slowly if you feel a panic attack coming on.

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False food allergy, as used in this book, means unusual reactions to food that are caused by the foods triggering mast cells directly. In other words, these reactions involve mast cells but they do not depend on IgE antibodies being formed to the food in question. Because the reaction is produced by mast cells releasing mediators, the symptoms are indistinguishable from true IgE-mediated food allergy.

When food bites back

Food is not necessarily the nice, passive, innocuous stuff that we have traditionally believed it to be: neither plants nor animals want to be eaten, and they have ways of fighting back. In plants, particularly, there are many chemical weapons to deter would-be diners, and some of these chemicals persist, even in modern crop plants. That we are not made ill by them more often is a tribute to our own abilities in breaking down such chemicals – abilities that have been acquired in the course of evolution.

One particularly cunning type of chemical weapon turns the body’s most potent defence force on itself: it fools the mast cells into degranulating. There are dozens of different substances found in food that can perform this trick. Some bind to IgE molecules, effectively bridging two adjacent molecules, in much the same way as an antigen might bridge them. Others bind to the receptors on the mast cell that normally attach themselves to IgE, thus bridging the receptors. Because bridging of the IgEs (and thus bridging the receptors) is the signal for the mast cell to degranulate, both types of substance cause the release of damaging mediators such as histamine. Other substances may produce the same effect simply by binding to the mast cell membrane and

changing its structure so that it becomes more permeable.

One group of compounds that can have this effect on mast cells are the lectins. They are produced in particularly high concentrations by peanuts, beans, peas and lentils, all of which are members of the legume family of plants. Lectins are also found in edible snails, and in wheat, where they may be responsible for producing coeliac disease.

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Those who do taxing mental work find bee pollen to be an extremely simple and natural energy food. With its help they are able to stand up to the intensity of their work for longer and feel less tired. In today’s hustle and bustle of everyday life pollen is a welcome food supplement, providing the help needed when great demands are made on one’s mental capacity.

Not all the active substances of pollen have yet been discovered, but those that have been isolated, as experience has shown, are cause enough to recommend this natural product to everyone who lives a modern life.

Bee pollen, being very rich in vitamins and containing almost all known minerals and trace elements, has become a popular energy booster. Since nature provides us with this wonderful tonic food, we should prefer it to artificial or chemical products every time.

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In the lush woodlands of Florida there are found not only thousands of cabbage palms and many other tropical plants, but also a great number of wild papayas. The Indians living there have always enjoyed the juicy fruit because it is delicious and healthy. They also made use of the plant in cooking. Since time immemorial those primitive tribes have known that papaya leaves, stems and fruit contain a substance that breaks down protein. So, whenever the hunters happened to kill an old animal the cook would wrap the tough meat in papaya leaves and leave it overnight. On the following day it would be tender enough to be roasted over a fire. The substance which tenderises meat, called papain, causes a kind of predigestion process, one might say.

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You have to be even more careful with drinking water. There are some wonderful mineral waters available, but some water also contains poisonous minerals, some of which I came across in North, Central and South America. It can happen that a stream may come from a mineral spring in which is dissolved arsenic, copper or other heavy minerals that make the water poisonous and dangerous to drink. For this reason it is not possible to drink water from just any spring or source as one is able to do, for example, in Switzerland. It is often possible to recognise such dangerous springs by the discoloration of the rocks and stones, which turn yellow, greenish or other colours. Sometimes crystals can be found in the riverbed which taste sharp and burn the tongue.

The same rule applies to water for internal or external use as applies to plants: many plants are curative whereas others are harmful or can only be taken in a diluted form. It is true that nature has much to offer that is beneficial, but we must also keep our eyes open and make sure that we use only the things that are truly good for our health. There is no point in being careless and ignorant and so causing ourselves harm. Remember, always make sure to use only the things that are helpful and safe.

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People who always feel cold and shivery, even when they are active, might try taking silica. After several weeks it will improve the basal metabolism, and their vitality and joy of living will gradually return.

Hard lumps in the breast, perhaps even malignant ones, will benefit from the continued use of silica. Wounds that refuse to heal will improve if it is sprinkled over their surfaces. This external method of treatment has proved its value for leg ulcers {Silicea for external use, Hypericum perforatum and Aesculaforce to be taken internally). Apart from its medicinal value, if silica is taken over a long period of time, it will improve the condition of the hair and promote a clear complexion.

Silicea is sometimes prescribed in the 6x potency, but usually it is 12x. Some physicians use 30x with good results. Take two tablets two or three times daily.

If you wish to use Silicea as a powder, simply crush the tablets.

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