Herbal Health

Most people are surprised to find out that medications prescribed for sleep problems may not be very effective in the long term.

The old ‘classical’ sleeping pills, such as the barbiturates, have been proven to help only briefly. In regular use they actually impair sleep to the extent that after only 2 weeks of use sleep will be worse than it was before taking the medication.

Research done on the newer benzodiazepine group of sleeping pills such as Euhypnos, Normison, Mogadon, Dalmane and Ro-hypnol, and their close relatives Serepax, Valium and Xanax, indicates that they are useful for a longer period of time than the older drugs. However it is not known how much longer they will stay effective.

A major problem with all sleeping medication is that of ‘rebound’ insomnia. This means that when you stop taking the medication your sleep does not revert to the way it was. There is a rebound effect in which sleep may be very impaired due to the drug being stopped.

Most sedatives also suppress dreaming. Normally we dream about every 90 minutes of the night. This occurs whether you remember the dreams or not. When dreaming which occurs during so-called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is suppressed by medications there is often a prolonged period of rebound dreaming in which the dreams often take the form of nightmares.

Because of these factors, drugs are not usually the best solution to the problem of insomnia. There are, however, a number of things which you can do to improve your sleep.

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Pain may be controlled by suggesting an area of numbness produced by imagining a local anaesthetic has been administered. Another method previously mentioned is ‘glove anaesthesia’ which can be transferred to the pain area. For example, in dentistry, an anaesthetic gel can be used on a child’s finger. The child is then told that he or she has a ‘magic’ finger which can remove all the discomfort experienced during the procedure. The anaesthetic thus reinforces the therapist’s suggestions. This dissociation, or producing a feeling of separation from oneself, can be used to separate the pain from the person.

Dissociation can be achieved by imagining a pleasant scene. Perhaps a sunlit beach with warm, inviting sand or a cool green shady jungle scene where you can imagine shrinking small enough to fly away on the back of a butterfly! As you shrink, so does the pain.

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Neurosurgery has a definite but limited place in the treatment of non-malignant pain. The cutting of nerve pathways or the insertion of spinal cord stimulators are the province of this most specialised of surgical specialities.

The surgical interruption of nerve pathways in the body surgically should be the last treatment offered chronic pain patients.

The following are typical procedures performed by neurosurgeons attempting to obtain control of chronic or intractable pain.

• Sympathectomy involves the surgical excision of part of the sympathetic nervous system on either side of the vertebral column. A rhizotomy is the surgical division of a nerve root, usually the posterior (back) root of a spinal nerve.

• A percutaneous cordotomy is the severing of nerve tracts in the spinal cord through a small incision in the overlying skin of the spine.

• A thalamotomy is the surgical destruction of part of the thalamus, a collection of grey matter at the base of the cerebrum, the brain itself. (The thalamus is important in the pain story because sensory impulses from the entire body pass through it on the way to the cerebral cortex — the largest and uppermost part of the brain.) cerebral cortex-the largest and uppermost part of the brain.)

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‘Major’ tranquillisers are drugs more commonly used in the treatment of severe mental illness.

The best known are Largactil, Melleril and Stelazine. The major tranquillisers may be of value, particularly aiding the process of withdrawal from narcotic drugs and also for those where agitation is severe when associated with severe pain.

Such medications suffer from the fact that they occasionally cause a particularly unpleasant side-effect where the body develops uncontrollable muscular twitching — a condition known as tardive dyskinesia. This condition can be extremely troublesome and can prove very difficult to control. It sometimes develops after relatively short courses of the medication and in relatively small doses.

This therefore limits the use of such medications in the treatment of all but the severest forms of chronic pain.

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Tom was in his late thirties when he first started to get migraines. With a demanding job as a social worker in a hostel for alcoholics, and three young children to bring up, he put his symptoms down to stress. Over the next ten years the problem gradually got worse, until he rarely had a day without some sort of head pain. He was also very tired and lacked the energy to join in with family activities or help look after the children at weekends. This inevitably led to friction, and his marriage was in danger of breaking up.

In the hope of improving his health and keeping the family together, Tom and his wife decided to move to the country and he gave up social work for a job in a garden centre which did not pay as well but was much less taxing. Moving house involved registering with a different doctor, who asked all his new patients to come in for an initial check-up. The doctor spent some time with Tom, and asked him what he thought the cause of his headaches and tiredness might be. ‘Stress,’ Tom replied, without hesitation, ‘That’s why we’ve moved out here.’ The doctor suggested that he come back and see him after a year, when he had had time to settle in and judge the effects of a slower pace of life.

Tom did so, and had to report that, while there was some improvement, it was not nearly as much as he had hoped, and he was still very tired, with migraines several times a week. The doctor then suggested that he try changing his diet, for an experimental period, and told him to eat nothing but meat and vegetables, and drink only spring water for ten days. Tom felt very ill on this diet at first, with stomach pains and a severe migraine. But after a week he noticed a remarkable improvement, his energy restored and his head without any pain. The doctor then explained to Tom that he should test foods individually, which he did. To test wheat, he ate some spaghetti. Within

an hour of eating the pasta he was his ‘old self again, and with a vengeance -exhausted, depressed, nauseated, and with a throbbing pain on one side of his head. Cow’s milk, oranges and rye had similar effects. After avoiding these foods for a year, he finds he can now eat them occasionally without ill-effects. His children are amazed and delighted with the transformation in their father, who now plays football with them, takes them swimming and is a lot more fun to be with. The family have decided they like country life, but Tom is planning to go back into social work as soon as he can get a job locally.

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Of course, you know that their times were quieter times, even though the people in their day had to work hard to be successful. But there you have it, an easier life is not always a successful one. You cannot help pondering over all this. You may have come to know just the tail end of their days, before humanity was plunged into wars and many disastrous cravings, putting an end to peace and quiet.

You eye the radio in the corner as if it were an enemy. Why, is it not a source of noise? Does it not force foreign thoughts on to you, robbing you of your peace? And what about television? From the moment you let it in through the front door, it is in the home like an intruder, like some evil thing intent on stealing your time and tranquillity, while parading before your eyes all the disastrous happenings in the world. How fortunate are those of us who never let it in and have never become used to it! However, it is up to you to keep your room quiet and peaceful if you want to!

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Thousands of years ago the Chinese princes would order their builders to test the ground of a new building site before work commenced to see that it corresponded to the requirements for healthy living. We do not know exactly how they went about it, but we can see from old records that the order was carried out each time. In order to provide the healthiest possible conditions, it is important to consider whether a house is to be built on rock or gravel, on clay or marshy ground, whether the foundation is laid in wet earth with a high groundwater level or whether the ground is dry. One might have no other choice but to accept the plot of land that does not have the best conditions, in which case it is up to the builders to minimise the existing deficiencies and disadvantages by means of technical devices, perhaps by drainage and insulation or lagging.

You may have never given any thought to the importance of checking a building site from the standpoint of whether it provides a basis for healthy living.

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Scientists have calculated the daily iodine requirement of the entire Swiss nation to be only 25 g (less than 1 oz). Perhaps this small estimate is correct. At any rate, only minute amounts of this mineral are necessary to meet our needs. On the other hand, if it were lacking, an abundance of the best nutrients and vitamins could not prevent the stupefaction and death of the Swiss people. It is a fact that a deficiency of iodine especially affects the thyroid gland and triggers strange symptoms. For example, a goitre can form, or myxoedema can result, leading to mental stupefaction. Conversely, an iodine disorder can cause exophthalmic goitre. This problem is recognised by the symptoms of hypersensitivity accompanied by frequent heart palpitations and nervous internal fluttering, which uses up nervous energy through overstimulation of the sympathetic nerves. The intestinal glands, the liver and pancreas, indeed most organs, will thereby be overstimulated. Even the perspiratory glands will be affected, and excessive perspiration can break out and weaken the body. Depression, characterised by mental imbalance and emotional ups and downs, is often the unpleasant consequence. This condition only deteriorates and becomes insupportable if massive doses of iodine are given.

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Wheat germ – those tiny yellow flakes – is far too little valued and used. If people only realised how wonderfully nourishing and curative these flakes are they would serve them every day in one way or the other, including in their breakfast muesli. Girls and young women in particular would eat more wheat germ if they appreciated what marvellous properties it has to offer.

Wheat germ contains a first-class protein and much oil. More important, however, are the phosphates in it, and we should all know the vital role phosphates and their combinations play in keeping our nervous system healthy. Still more important than phosphates is the high content of vitamin E in wheat germ. Let me briefly remind you of what vitamin E means to us.

It is not for nothing that vitamin E is also called the fertility vitamin, since it plays a considerable part in the development and function of the reproductive organs. But the ovaries and testicles are more than just reproductive organs, they actually discharge their secretions into the bloodstream and therefore belong to the category of organs known as the endocrine glands. Vitamin E is of great importance for the correct functioning of these glands and thus for the entire metabolism.

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A doctor friend of mine told me once that he was of the opinion that a certain patient’s anaemic condition had its basic cause in his vegetarian diet. This patient, who was otherwise quite healthy, was unable to overcome his condition, and the doctor was adamant that the man should add meat to his diet because it is rich in the haematinic vitamin B12. But when the doctor found out that I have been a vegetarian since I was seventeen, and have a constant haemoglobin count of 100—105 and otherwise excellent blood, he was extremely astonished and had to change his opinion. Mind you, a healthy vegetarian diet must include plenty of green vegetables and all the green culinary herbs, such as all kinds of cress and parsley, because these contain sufficient levels of vitamin Bu. All these green herbs, in particular parsley, stimulate the kidneys and urination and should therefore be used regularly, and not just as an occasional garnish on prepared dishes. In fact, your health will benefit greatly if you chop up some kitchen herbs daily, mixing them in your salads and cottage cheese and sprinkling them over vegetable and potato dishes. You can ensure a regular intake of these green herbs by always using the herbal seasoning salt Herba-mare, which is made from fresh green herbs. If you use natural products regularly in your kitchen you will reduce the risk of succumbing to vitamin deficiency.

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