Antidepressants Blog

We have already discussed the mechanisms by which relaxation and regression of themselves work to reduce anxiety. Tension is eased, and so also are all the various symptoms which are the direct or indirect manifestations of anxiety. However, once we have mastered the relaxation of the body, the relaxation of the mind, and regression, we are in a position to use a more direct approach to the relief of symptoms and the promotion of better responses to life situations.

In its simplest form this consists of presenting to our mind very simple ideas for improvement while still in the relaxed and regressed state.

Regression and Sequences of Thought-We have discussed the idea of regression at some length as a process by which we drift back to a simple and more primitive way of mental functioning in which we cease to be alert and critical. In it we leave our mind to wander uncontrolled as in a state of reverie. Now that we have achieved this state of affairs we can go a step further. We can exert some control over our mind, but at the same time maintain our regression. This type of control must be very simple and primitive in itself, or it will bring us to be alert and critical, and our regression will immediately be lost.

The basis for the relief of our symptoms lies in the introduction of very simple trains of thought while we are still in our relaxed and regressed state of mind. It is emphasized that the trains of thought must be simple and direct or we will not be able to maintain our regression. The maintenance of the regression as we consider the train of thought is all-important. Without the regression the therapeutic train of thought has little or no effect at all.

*76\57\2*

Although it is possible to work out a diet as well as other therapeutic measures in accordance with the program outlined in this book and follow them in your own home, I am conscious of the fact that many patients are not sufficiently informed or are otherwise unable to follow this course with required care.

Therefore I would advise you to put yourself under the care of an understanding physician or practitioner, who is well initiated in nutrition and the principles of biological medicine. Show him this book and let him work out a program of treatments adopted for your specific needs, including diet and/or fasting, which you can then undertake under his expert supervision. Complete peace of mind and trust in the method is imperative for a successful outcome of any and all treatments.

When you undertake your therapeutic program under expert supervision, or in a clinic, the knowledge that your treatment is in professional hands will give you much confidence and peace of mind, which will help your body’s healing forces accomplish a fast and permanent recovery.

*33\176\2*

Many patients, family doctors, and even paediatricians and neurologists, are remarkably pessimistic about the likelihood of seizures stopping—a pessimism which is unjustified by the facts. Pessimism stems from hospital experience. In the past, when neurologists were fewer on the ground, they tended to see only those with the worst epilepsy with the worst prognosis. As they taught the future family doctors, these too were infected with the same pessimism.

What are the facts? The first point to define is what we mean by remission or cessation of seizures. Epilepsy was defined as a ‘continuing tendency to epileptic seizures’. A liability to have a seizure, or a lower than average epileptic threshold, probably does continue throughout life as part of one’s genetic inheritance. A man aged 30, who had some seizures in his teens, cannot be said to be entirely free from the risk of a further seizure right until the end of his life—but his risk may have declined so that it has become, at the age of 30, only a little greater than that of the general population. Regardless of this philosophical discussion, what a person with epilepsy wants to know is whether, for all practical purposes, the seizures will stop. A remission, therefore, can be defined as a certain period free from seizures. The good evidence about the chances of achieving a good long time free from seizures, and, for all practical purposes, permanent freedom, comes from the work in Olmstead county, USA, is redrawn from this study. The upright line on the graph indicates the cumulative chance of achieving a remission of at least five years. It can be seen that, at one year after diagnosis, 42 per cent of the patients had entered a seizure-free period that was to extend for at least five years. The probability of being in remission currently (five years or more and continuing), was 61 per cent at 10 years after diagnosis and 70 per cent at 20 years after diagnosis. The difference between the top two curves represents the small numbers of patients who have one long remission of at least five years with subsequent relapse. The bottom curve refers to those patients in remission without drugs. Data from the National General Practice Study on Epilepsy is very similar. At six years after a seizure of any type (excluding acute symptomatic and single seizures) 92 per cent of people had achieved a remission lasting at least one year, 67 per cent lasting at least three years, and 42 per cent a remission lasting at least five years—this last figure being identical to that from Olmstead County. This latter study has followed up people for rather longer than the UK study, and 20 years after the diagnosis of epilepsy, about 30 per cent of patients continued to have seizures, 20 per cent continued to take anticonvulsant medication but had been free from seizures for at least five years, and about 50 per cent had been free from seizures without anti-epileptic medication for at least five years.

*70\188\2*

We keep hearing repeatedly about carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) affecting three types of people more than any others: computer operators, typists, and mail sorters. The types of repetitive motions involved end up causing lesions or inflammations that press on the median nerves of the wrists. It can be painful and incapacitating. Wrist injuries are another cause.

Conventional CTS therapies involve elevating and/or immobilizing the wrist, steroid medications, pain medications, hot or cold compresses, manipulation, and physical therapy. Billions of dollars are paid out annually in workman’s compensation insurance payments. Billions more are spent by health insurance companies treating the ailment. CMO could resolve most of those cases for a tiny fraction of the cost. This is a chronic inflammatory or arthritic disorder that is most often easily remedied by CMO. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Our first case involves a man who makes his living operating computers. After years at the keyboards he developed pains in his wrists, and the fingers of both hands began locking up. Osteoarthritis was part of the problem contributing to the CTS. Within a week on CMO the pains had almost completely disappeared and the mobility in his left hand was 90% better. But mobility in his right hand improved by only 25%. Continuing CMO for another week not only got him back to normal but back on the job.

Another typical case involves a mailman who developed CTS in both hands. It’s an occupational hazard that comes with the constant handling of mail. Conventional treatments didn’t work and he began wrapping his wrists with elastic bandages before going to work. He wouldn’t have been able to work without them.

His wrist pains disappeared shortly after starting his CMO and he was able to continue working without further discomfort.

Several months have now passed and both of these patients have continued their work free of any further symptoms.

*86\142\2*

Signs and symptoms

Of those children who develop polio, 93 to 95 percent of them have no symptoms, but develop immunity. Four to 5 percent of those infected develop a minor illness, with fever, general bodily discomfort, sore throat, and nausea for three to four days. One to 2 percent develops clinically recognizable polio, with symptoms of a minor illness plus sore, stiff muscles and a stiff neck and spine. Within this 1 or 2 percent are the children who become paralyzed or die.

Minor cases may never be recognized as polio unless they occur as part of an epidemic. Diagnosis is based on examination of viral cultures and studies of antibodies (substances that the body produces to fight disease) in the blood. If the central nervous system (the spine and the brain) is involved, the child has a stiff neck and back and may not be able to sit up without supporting the trunk with both hands braced behind in a tripod fashion. The diagnosis is confirmed by the results of a spinal tap (in which spinal fluid is withdrawn from the spinal column), cultures, or antibody studies.

Home care

The most important home treatment is prevention through immunization. The live virus vaccine (Sabin), which is given by mouth, is effective against all three types of polio, and it confers long-lasting immunity. The risk of paralysis from present-day vaccines is less than one in ten million – a far cry from the one in a thousand risk of exposure to naturally-occurring viruses.

*172/84/5*

This method allows a mixture of two insulins to be drawn into a syringe and given as a single injection. Always draw up the quick-acting insulin first (e.g. Actrapid insulin or Velosulin) but after you have put air into the cloudy insulin bottle.

First inject air into cloudy slow-acting insulin bottle

To make it easier to withdraw the insulin later, you first put an amount of air into the cloudy insulin bottle that is equal to the dose you will give.

Pull the plunger of the syringe down to the mark that gives the correct dose of cloudy insulin so that air is drawn into the syringe.

Plunge the needle into the cloudy insulin bottle and push the plunger up so that all the air is expelled into the insulin bottle.

Now remove the needle from the bottle without withdrawing any insulin. You will draw this insulin up later.

Draw up the quick insulin first

Draw air into the syringe by pulling the plunger of the syringe down to the mark that gives you the dose of the quick-acting insulin.

Inject air into the clear insulin bottle

Insert the needle into the clear insulin bottle and push the plunger up injecting all the air into the bottle. Be sure that the point of the needle is below the surface of the insulin with the bottle inverted.

Draw down the plunger to the correct mark on the insulin syringe. Some air will probably enter the syringe and appear as a bubble at the top or the side of the barrel. Hold the syringe with the needle and bottle still in place in a vertical position with the needle pointing upwards and tap the barrel gently so that the air bubble is at the top of the insulin in the syringe.

Now push the plunger back a little way to force the air back into the bottle. Draw down again to the correct mark, if air is still in the syringe, repeat this process until it is completely gone. Now finally check that the plunger is down to the correct mark giving the correct dose.

Remove the syringe and needle from the bottle.

Draw up the cloudy insulin second

Now plunge the needle of the syringe (which has got the quick-acting insulin already drawn up, and all air bubbles have been removed) into the bottle of cloudy insulin holding it inverted. You have already put air into this bottle so it will be easy to withdraw the correct dose.

Draw down the plunger of the syringe until it comes exactly to the mark that you calculated gives the total dose, i.e. the addition of the quick-acting which is already in the syringe and the slow-acting dose. No air bubbles can enter the syringe as you filled the syringe and needle with insulin and expelled the air on drawing up the first insulin. Be careful not to go beyond the correct dose.

Remove the syringe and needle from the bottle. You are now ready to give the injection.

*16/54/5*

Dental work is a major source of mercury pollution. So you need to find a dentist who specializes in mercury-free dentistry.

He or she can test whether any mercury vapour is leaking from your fillings. Any excess mercury will also show up in the hair analysis. If there are no signs that mercury is leaking from fillings then it is better to leave well alone. Digging up old fillings can release mercury that was in fact dormant. If fillings have to be removed there are ways to minimize the release and absorption of this old mercury. If new fillings are needed, then ask for alternatives to amalgam. You don’t want a new filling releasing mercury while you are trying to conceive.

You will probably have to pay for the alternative fillings, as they are not likely to be covered on the NHS.

My advice is that you should have any necessary dental work done at the beginning of the Four-Month Preconception Plan and avoid any dental X-rays, fillings and anesthetic, once you are trying to conceive. You will be two weeks pregnant before you know you are and it is best to avoid any dental work once you are pregnant, unless it is an emergency.

*69/73/5*

What is it?

A feeling of being alone in the world, together with all the negative emotions that accompany this feeling. It is different from solitude which is self-imposed and as a result can have much more serious effects. About one in five of all US households are single occupants (though not all of these will be lonely of course) and many other individuals are lonely even if they are surrounded by people. In this context loneliness could be said to be a combination of an individual’s environment and personal expectations. Young people living at home are often lonely, especially if they have no boyfriend or girlfriend at a time when most of their friends have one. Older people are much better at being alone than are younger ones and it appears that loneliness is something we learn to cope with as we get older.

What causes it?

The most obvious cause of loneliness is literally being alone, but it doesn’t have to be physical-it can be emotional or psychological aloneness. We can all be lonely from time to time, even within a family. Many married couples who appear happy to the outside world live lonely lives side by side under the same roof. Their bodies are physically close to one another but their hearts and minds are miles apart.

There are at least two main types of loneliness. In the first, the individual feels alone and passive, and sleeps, eats and cries most of the time. People suffering from this often see themselves as unlovable and unable to alter their lives. The second category contains the large group of adults who feel lonely for some reason and then read, listen to music, disappear to the greenhouse, study or whatever to fill their lonely hours. This then becomes a vicious circle because those around them imagine they don’t want company, and their feeling of isolation and loneliness increases. Of course, not all pursuits such as these are signs of loneliness-they can be an oasis in a busy life-but if someone spends most of his or her time alone this should alert friends and family that all may not be well.

But it is not just adults who get lonely. Babies and young children are often very lonely-right from the day they are born. Many a baby is left in its cot awake for hours staring at the ceiling, but however many toys there are to play with the average baby craves human company and input. By and large it is probably fair to say that we leave our children too much in our culture, when they really want to be around their parents and particularly their mother when they are very young. I believe that babies should be with their mothers (or whoever is their primary care-giver) most of the time in the first year of life so as to prevent the learning of loneliness. Babies can be carried around in a sling or put in a carrycot in the kitchen or living room so that they can observe family life and be part of it.

Loneliness also paves the way for fear and other negative emotions. A busy mind wards off worries, especially unnecessary ones.

Grieving, for example after the death of a spouse or a parent, often involves a feeling of loneliness among the other emotions-all perfectly normal-and it can take up to two years to fully recover. Similarly, after a divorce many people feel desperately alone, possibly for the first time in their lives. This is especially true of the person who is left without the children (usually the man). This is a time when loneliness can lead to true depression and even to suicide as the world seems hardly worth living in.

The ‘normal’, healthy person can be alone without being lonely and can balance a need for and enjoyment of others with a need for and enjoyment of solitude, if only from time to time. Such people don’t feel the world is a bad place, or inferior or vulnerable, when they are ‘alone’-simply that they can’t and don’t want to be with others all of the time. Many people need to reach their forties or even older before they can claim that they have achieved this delicate balance.

*192/72/5*

Analgesics are drugs which are used to relieve or control pain by interrupting the transmission of the pain message at some point along its pathway.

Analgesics are extremely useful for the relief of short-term pain, such as dysmenorrhoea and ovulation pain but, in general, they should not be used for the control of chronic ongoing pain.

It must be remembered that analgesics only treat the symptoms of endometriosis — they have no effect on the disease itself.

There are several types of analgesics, including simple analgesics, compound analgesics, narcotic analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Simple analgesics

The simple analgesics are aspirin and paracetamol. Both are highly effective in relieving mild to moderate pain. They relieve pain by blocking the production of prostaglandins, which are chemicals produced by the body which cause inflammation and pain.

Aspirin is more effective than paracetamol in reducing inflammation and therefore it may be more suitable for women with dysmenorrhoea due to endometriosis. However, some believe that aspirin should not be used for the treatment of dysmenorrhoea as it may promote heavy bleeding.

Aspirin and paracetamol can usually be purchased without a prescription from chemists and supermarkets. Some of the more commonly available brand names of aspirin are Disprin, Aspro Clear, Winsprin and Solprin, while the most common brand names of paracetamol are Panadol, Panamax and Dynamon.

The main side effects of aspirin are irritation and bleeding of the stomach but these can usually be avoided by taking the drug with food or a glass of milk. Paracetamol does not cause irritation or bleeding of the stomach.

Compound analgesics

The compound analgesics are a group of analgesics which usually contain a combination of a mild narcotic such as codeine or dextropropoxyphene hydrochloride and either aspirin or paracetamol.

The milder compound analgesics usually contain a small amount of codeine and either aspirin or paracetamol. They are available without a prescription from chemists and the more common brand names include Codis, Codiphen, Codral, Aspalgin, Veganin, Panadeine, Panamax Co, Dymadon Co, Codalgin and Perpain.

The stronger compound analgesics usually contain a larger amount of codeine or dextropropoxyphene hydrochloride and either aspirin or paracetamol. They are only available on a doctor’s prescription. The more common brand names include Codral Forte, Panadeine Forte, Capadex, Doloxene and Digesic.

Codeine can cause constipation even at relatively small doses so it should be used with care or avoided if you have bowel symptoms which are exacerbated by constipation. Codeine is also addictive, especially if taken in large amounts or for prolonged periods. The stronger compound analgesics containing codeine should only be used for several days at a time.

*61/41/5*

Exotic Fried Wild Rice

1 small onion

1/2 carrot

1/2 lemon (squeeze out juice)

1 stick celery

1/2 green capsicum

75 ml vegetable stock

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon tamari or shoyu

150 grams wild rice

Sea salt to taste

1 spring onion, chopped

2 eggs

Finely dice the onion, carrot, celery and capsicum. In a wok or frying pan, add 2 tablespoons of the vegetable stock and heat through until the stock boils (alternatively olive oil can be used). Add the garlic and onion and stir fry. Add the other vegetables progressively, adding a little tamari and lemon juice when necessary. Add the cooked wild rice and mix well. While in the wok, push the rice mix towards the edge of the wok and make a small circle in the centre. Break open the two eggs into this space, let this cook. When cooked, dice with a spatula. Blend in with the rice mix. Season to taste with sea salt. Fold the spring onion through the mixture and serve.

Ginger Snapper Fillets

25 grams asparagus

1 carrot

1/2 teaspoon ginger root, finely grated

1/2 teaspoon sherry

1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon corn flour

150 grams snapper fillets

50 grams mushrooms

1 teaspoon parsley

Trim the asparagus and cut the carrot into strips. Combine ginger with sherry, soy sauce and corn flour. Set aside. Place fish in a baking dish with the mushrooms and steam or bake in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until done. Meanwhile, steam the prepared vegetables. Drain the juices from the cooked fish and add to the ginger mixture. Bring to the boil (add a little vegetable stock or water if too thick) and spoon a little over the fish – this keeps the heat in the fish when you serve. Arrange the steamed vegetables on the plate with the fish. Spoon the remaining sauce over the fish and serve.

*233/34/5*