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These are drugs which mimic the effects of naturally produced adrenaline, the messenger of the sympathetic nervous system (see p144) which produces the ‘flight or fight’ reaction. Sympathomimetics have various effects, but one local effect is to make small blood vessels (capillaries) contract. Thus they have an opposing effect to histamine. This is exploited in some nasal sprays for hay-fever and perennial rhinitis. The drugs concerned are phenylephrine (Neophryn), oxymetazoline (Afrazine) and xylometazoline (Otrivine).

These sprays make the capillaries in the nose contract providing immediate relief from congestion, but if used for more than two weeks they can-have adverse effects. The blood vessels become ‘hooked’ on the drug so that when the spray is discontinued they react by expanding, causing congestion again. These sprays are for short-term use only.

Some sprays combine sympathomimetics with antihistamines (eg Hayphryn and Otrivine-Antistin). Others combine sympathomimetics with antihistamines and antibiotics (Vibrocil) or with corticosteroids and antibiotics (Dexa-Rhinaspray). Sprays containing antibiotics are only used where there are signs of infection as well as allergy.

Sympathomimetics such as pseudoephedrine and ephedrine are sometimes combined with antihistamines in medicines taken by mouth, such as Congesteeze (pseudoephedrine and azatamine), Haymine (ephedrine and chlorpheniramine) and Sudafed Plus (psudoephedrine and triprolidine) When taken by mouth, the sympathomimetic helps to overcome the main side-effect of the antihistamine, drowsiness.

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The simplest and most effective method of treating food intolerance is to avoid the culprit foods. Assuming that you have successfully identified your culprit foods, by following an elimination diet, the next step is to establish an adequate menu that excludes those foods. Make a list of the foods you cannot eat, and a list of those that you can. Talk to your doctor about your proposed diet, and ask for advice on its nutritional value.

After about six months, you can retest each of the incriminated foods, to see if you still react to them. If you do react, then try again six months later. If not, then you can begin eating them once in every four days. After a year of this, you can increase the frequency cautiously, but you should never go back to eating the food every day, or in large amounts. If symptoms recur, cut out the culprit foods again for a couple of months.

If you are not fully well, even after the elimination diet, then it is worth considering other possibilities – it could be that you have other problems, in addition to food intolerance. Nutritional deficiencies, candidiasis and chemical sensitivity are possible candidates. A continuing tendency to diarrhoea and wind may indicate gut-flora disturbances. The only treatment for this is to eat plenty of live yoghurt.

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The most drastic form of the elimination diet is to fast for the first five days, taking nothing but bottled spring water. This method has several drawbacks. Fasting requires a great deal of will-power and it is bad for anyone who is underweight and in poor health. Even for those who are not underweight, there are major metabolic changes that occur during fasting, as the body begins to break down its fat reserves. These metabolic changes, and others which occur when food is reintroduced, may themselves produce symptoms. For these reasons, we would not recommend fasting except in certain very difficult cases.

One step up from fasting is the lamb-and-pears diet, probably the best known type of elimination diet. This is something of an oddity because lamb is quite a common food in Britain. The diet originated in the United States in the early days of clinical ecology – America does not have the steep upland pastures that have made sheep-farming so popular in Great Britain, so lamb is not widely eaten there. While sensitivity to lamb is unusual, it does occur in Britain, so a lamb-and-pears exclusion phase is less appropriate here than on the other side of the Atlantic.

A modified version of the lamb-and-pears diet, used by some doctors, is turkey-and-pears or turkey-rice-and-pears – turkey being less commonly eaten in Britain than lamb. While these diets are useful when someone has a great many sensitivities, they are unnecessarily strict for most people. Again, they require a lot of will-power, and they involve eating huge quantities of two or three foods, which is never a good idea.

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Always bear in mind that the diet may not be the answer. If you pin all your hopes on it, you may see improvements where there are none, and in the long run this could be very damaging to your child. Be careful, also, not to give the child the impression that the diet will ‘make everything alright’. He may be so anxious to please you that he tries extra hard to be good. Psychogenic reactions on food testing can occur just as easily in children as in adults, and if knows he is expected to go wild when he tries milk he may well oblige. Throughout the diet, try to keep an open mind about the outcome, and do not put any ideas into the child’s head about what might happen.

On the other hand, you do need the child’s cooperation, especially if he is old enough to go out and buy sweets or other foods for himself. Rather than forcing the diet on him, you should explain that it might help and ask if he would like to try it. You need to impress on him that it will only work if it is done properly – that there must be absolutely no cheating.

Because food additives are so important in hyperkinetic syndrome, you need to be aware of other ways in which they can be consumed. The colourings in toothpaste are identical to certain food colourings, so white toothpaste should be used. Put any coloured toothpaste well out of reach. Medicines also contain colourants, often in very large amounts, which is why you should try to discontinue syrups and tablets during the diet (as long as your doctor agrees) or get colouring-free alternatives. Try to stop your child from chewing things, and from licking sticky paper or stamps. Bear in mind that there can be additives in unlabelled food such as bread from a bakery, fish-and-chips, other take-away food, and restaurant food eg French fries.

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One of the main chemicals to be released is called histamine -hence the use of drugs that counteract its effects, antihistamines, in the treatment of allergies. The packets of chemicals inside the resting mast cell look like small granules under the microscope, so the process of releasing the chemicals is called degranulation.

Histamine and other chemicals released by mast cells are called mediators because they bring about or ‘mediate’ changes in the body. A powerful cocktail of mediators, containing ten or more separate substances, spills out of a degranulating mast cell. Each mediator has its own particular effect on the body – some make the blood vessels open out, others make them more leaky so that blood escapes through the vessel wall. Several mediators make smooth muscles contract – these are not the muscles by which we move around, but those that operate our lungs, stomach, intestine and bladder. When they contract sharply, air may be expelled from the tubes leading to our lungs, or semi-digested food from our bowels.

This is bad news for parasites, which may be directly affected by the mediators themselves, and then assaulted by the body’s reaction to the mediators. In the case of parasites in the gut, for example, the direct effect of the mediators may make the parasites loosen their grip, and the diarrhoea that follows flushes them out of the body. For parasites in the blood, the expansion and leakiness of blood vessels produces the redness and swelling that we describe as inflammation. One feature of inflammation is that all-purpose defensive cells called phagocytes (which simply means ‘eating cells’) are attracted to die site of the invasion.

One group of phagocytes, the macrophages (‘big eaters’) have the role of perpetuating the inflammation reaction. They produce an enzyme called phospholipase or PLA. What PLA then does is to cut up certain fat molecules – the phospholipids – found in the membranes of all our body cells. The fragments released from the phospholipids by PLA are then worked on by other enzymes, which turn them into potent chemical mediators, known as prostaglandins.

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Best of all, however, is the effect that bear’s garlic has on hardening of the arteries. In this respect it can considerably lengthen the lives of older people. Bear’s garlic juice or bear’s garlic tonic can help prevent a stroke, and if a person has already suffered a stroke, this simple plant can restore him to health better than some of the most expensive proprietary medicines. Elderly people who have high blood pressure and are in danger of a stroke can ward it off with four plant remedies: bear’s garlic (Allium ursinum), mistletoe (Viscum album), hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha) and Arnica (Arnica montana). So why risk falling victim to paralysis when simple natural remedies exist that will prevent a stroke and at the same time strengthen the heart and the vascular system, giving new life to the body?

To benefit fully from bear’s garlic it may be eaten fresh and uncooked as a salad or mixed with other vegetables. Steamed with a little oil, it is similar to spinach and, although not as beneficial as when eaten raw, it is still better than ordinary vegetables.

Taken as a wine or tonic, or an extract in the form of drops, it has also proved invaluable. If you do not wish to go to the bother of gathering the leaves yourself to use as a vegetable, you can take advantage of the fresh plant extract, in which all the goodness of the plant is preserved.

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The bones of the feet are of a very simple design, but the structure and arrangement of the muscles is a technical masterpiece. The muscles are designed for walking on uneven ground, that is, natural ground. If they are not exercised they degenerate and the shape of the foot will change. The foot will lose its efficiency and especially the long muscles, the long flexors of the toes, will become slack. Changes in the natural structure of the feet will lead to deformities such as flat feet, splay feet, club feet, and whatever other names they are known by.

It was for a good reason that Priessnitz, Sebastian Kneipp, Rickli and other nature cure teachers recommended again and again that we walk barefoot as much as possible, particularly in the summer. It is good to walk on dew-wet grass early in the morning. This is refreshing and strengthens the foot muscles, while walking on uneven natural ground provides the feet with an invigorating massage. However, there are many other ways in which we can care for our feet. These are the subject of the following sections.

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A few rules for care of the teeth might be useful to everyone. First of all, the teeth should be cleaned every day with a good and simple cleansing agent. It can be a toothpaste that does not contain any strong chemicals, for example Rosemary Toothpaste, or it can be ashes or some other natural material. Every small sign of decay should be given immediate attention so that you will be spared the problem of dead teeth. Small defects when neglected may result in having to kill the nerve, and years ago that was often the practice.

A tooth without a nerve is a dead tooth and, in a manner of speaking, becomes a foreign body in the mouth. Such a tooth must be watched carefully, for it may precipitate the formation of granulomas, ideal nesting grounds for germs. A little thing like that can endanger a person’s general health because the bacteria and metabolic toxins discharged into the bloodstream can cause various ailments, although the teeth themselves may not be painful at all. Nothing seems to be wrong with the teeth, yet the person may suffer from rheumatic fever and does not know why.

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The tobacco industry has all the power and money to prepare and mount an effective campaign to play down the warning sounded worldwide against smoking, especially the smoking of cigarettes. It sets out to silence all knowledge concerning the fact that smoking causes cancer. What is more, it is just possible that the tobacco industry may be successful in finding some scientists, well-known chemists and medical professors who will endeavour to prove the contrary. However, even though the American Medical Association might accept another ten million dollars from the tobacco industry – as it has happened before, to our disbelief – the damage to health is there for all to see. Much can be bought with money, but not necessarily good health.

Of course, there are other causes of cancer of the lips, tongue, larynx, bronchials and lungs, but this fact does not mean that smoking is less of a cause of cancer, or, more accurately, an irritation and causative factor. It is not the nicotine, which affects the coronary vessels, that is to blame for smokers’ cancer, but the tar, or phenol to be more specific. This chemical irritant is able to make the cells degenerate, leading to cancer. It is true that not every smoker becomes a victim of cancer. The chemical cell irritation caused by the tar is not enough, as a sole cause, to trigger cancer. As stated earlier, a predisposition to the disease is necessary. Not every smoker can be sure whether he has this predisposition or not. But he can be quite certain of it if his parents suffered from cancer or arthritis.

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Of course this has nothing to do with tomatoes! In fact, there are hundreds of cancer patients who have never eaten tomatoes in their life. If tomatoes were responsible for the disease, we should find the greatest incidence of cancer in the area around Naples, in Southern Italy, for instance, where people consume immense quantities of them. Yet I have come across few cases of cancer in this district and, indeed, mortality from this disease is extremely low there because great emphasis is put on fruit, vegetables and pasta, with very little protein other than fish being eaten. No doubt, the diet is a contributory factor to the low incidence of cancer in this area, despite their appetite for tomatoes.

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