Posted by admin on April 20, 2009 under Allergies | 
An emollient is a substance that soothes the skin and restores water to it, thus damping down the symptoms of eczema. White soft paraffin, glycerin and lanolin are commonly used. Most emollients and similar preparations contain several different ingredients. Urea is sometimes added to the cream or ointment because it helps the skin to bind water, but it may sting slightly and has a urine-like smell. Emollients may be applied directly to the skin or added to the bath, and some can be used instead of soap.
Crepe bandages soaked in calamine lotion, or bandages soaked in saline, are also used in eczema, to relieve the itching and prevent scratching.
Drugs which reduce itching (antipruritics) such as crotamiton (Eurax) or antazoline (R.B.C.) may also be used. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (see Section 7) such as bufexamac (Parfenac) are sometimes helpful.
Soothing treatments of this type are generally tried as a first step, where the eczema is not severe. They are free of side-effects, although a small minority of patients may become sensitized to lanolin, so that lanolin-containing creams cannot be used thereafter.
Trade names of emollients and other soothing treatments used for eczema
Alcoderm
Alpha Ken
Aquadrate
Aveeno
Balneum
Calmurid
Diprobase
Eczederm
Emulsiderm
Epogam
Eurax
Humiderm
Hydromol
Keri
Lacticare Lipobase Locobase Miol
Nutraplus
Oilatum Emollient
Parfenac
R.B.C.
Siopel
Sprilon
Sudocrem
Thovaline
Uitrabase
Unguentum
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Posted by admin on under Allergies |
Foods that may release sulphur dioxide
Sulphur (or sulfur) dioxide is a gas that can irritate the airways of asthmatics and provoke an asthma attack. Some preservatives give off this gas in small amounts, and it is inhaled during eating. There is no need to avoid these preservatives unless you are sure tfiey trigger off attacks.
Most dried fruits are treated with sulphur dioxide and give off the gas when chewed. This treatment does not have to be declared on the label. Dried fruit that has not been treated will usually be labelled ‘unsulphured’.
The following preservatives give off sulphur dioxide:
Sodium sulphite;
sodium hydrogen sulphite;
sodium metabisulphite;
potassium metabisulphite;
calcium sulphite.
These preservatives are widely used in wine, beer and cider, and, like other additives used in alcoholic drinks, do not have to be declared on the label. Homemade wine is no exception: Campden tablets, sold to wine-makers, contain potassium metabisulphite.
Fresh sausages may also contain these additives. Cod can be treated with sodium hydrogen sulphite to bleach and preserve it. Although sulphites are not allowed on meat, unscrupulous butchers occasionally add them to old meat to give it a ‘fresh’ red colour. In all these cases, the greater part of the sulphur dioxide will be driven off by the high temperatures used in cooking.
A fourth ‘hidden source’ of sulphur dioxide is restaurant, take-away and cafeteria food. French fries used in the catering trade have usually been dipped in a metabisulphite solution and give off significant amounts of sulphur dioxide. Prepared salads, avocado dip, shrimps, prawns and lobster are also likely to have been treated with these preservatives, and sometimes cause problems.
Fruit salad, glace cherries, fruit juices, fruit pie fillings, dried vegetables and soup, fruit squash, pickled onions, jam, fruit jellies and custard are other possible sources of sulphur dioxide in the catering trade. It is not worthwhile avoiding these foods unless you know they trigger off your asthma attacks.
Packaged foods often contain sulphites and metabisulphites, but these are easier to avoid as they are declared on the label. Look for the names given above, or for the appropriate ‘E numbers’. These are E220-E227.
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Posted by admin on under Allergies |
The first, and most essential step, is to see your doctor, describe your symptoms fully, and ask for a medical check-up. As explained in Chapter Seven, many of the symptoms of food intolerance can be due to other causes, and some of these may be serious – your doctor can examine you for such problems. Should there be nothing obviously wrong, then the next logical step is to try an elimination diet. Explain to the doctor you want to do, and ask for advice. He or she may well have reservations about elimination diets, and you will be better prepared if you have read all or most of the book, and understand what is involved. If the doctor feels that you should not alter your diet for medical reasons, you must take this advice.
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Posted by admin on under Allergies |
Baron von Munchausen was an eighteenth-century Hanoverian soldier who greatly exaggerated his prowess in war – and his battle-scars. ‘Munchausen’s syndrome’ is the name given to attention-seeking patients who feign illness or deliberately fabricate symptoms. There are instances, fortunately very rare, of mothers simulating illness in their children in order to get medical attention -this is known as ‘Munchausen-by-proxy’ or ‘Meadow’s syndrome’ after Professor Roy Meadows, who first described two cases in 1977. Doctors are far more aware of this possibility in children than they once were, and any parent attempting to fabricate symptoms is likely to be found out very quickly.
The question of Meadow’s syndrome in relation to food sensitivity is a difficult issue. Various doctors have described cases of children whose parents believe them to have food sensitivity, but where no consistent reaction to a food can be shown. If those parents seem over-anxious or over-protective, and have obvious emotional problems of their own, then they have often been labelled as ‘Meadow’s syndrome’.
Eleven such cases were reported in 1984, in an influential article that has coloured the outlook of many doctors, and led to the belief that Meadow’s syndrome is quite common in relation to food sensitivity. However, there were several important differences between the cases described in this article and Meadow’s syndrome proper. For one thing, the children involved all had genuine symptoms, and there was no suggestion that the parents had attempted to fabricate any symptoms. Unlike Meadow’s syndrome mothers, these women did not seem to relish their child’s hospital stay, nor were they willing to subject them to any investigation, however painful and unpleasant. Such differences are important and must raise serious doubts about the conclusions reached – was the label ‘Meadow’s syndrome’ really justified? These parents may have been disturbed or overwrought, but this does not necessarily mean that they were mistaken about their child’s illness. The elusive nature of the reactions seen in food intolerance makes it difficult to rule out this diagnosis without very thorough testing, and there seems to have been undue reliance on skin-prick tests in this study, despite the fact that these are unreliable indicators in most cases of food sensitivity. Despite the doubts over this study, the idea of ‘Meadow’s syndrome’ has become a popular one, especially among those doctors who are sceptical of food intolerance generally. This is unfortunate for parents, especially when such a diagnosis is made without proper testing for food sensitivity, and without any firm evidence of fabrication. There undoubtedly are cases of parents who exaggerate their child’s ills, and who are determined to blame them on some physical cause, when family tensions and emotional problems are actually the true source of the symptoms. But unless there is gross exaggeration or fabrication of symptoms, these should not be described as Meadow’s syndrome.
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Posted by admin on under Allergies |
An allergen is essentially the same thing as an antigen, except that it happens to cause an allergic reaction in a particular person. The proteins in cow’s milk, for example, are antigens to most of us, but for the child with cow’s-milk allergy they are allergens. The main difference between an antigen and an allergen is not in the molecule itself but in the way the individual’s immune system reacts to it.
Having said that, it does seem that some foods are more ‘allergenic’ – more likely to cause allergies – than others. Certain foods turn up again and again as the culprits in food allergy, while other commonly eaten foods are rarely en-
countered. Why this is so, no-one can say at present, but there are several possible explanations.
Perhaps these apparently more allergenic foods contain compounds with very unusual and distinctive chemical features that are ‘easily recognized’. Such compounds might induce IgE antibodies more readily than others, although it is far from certain that the structure of antigens can exert such an influence over the immune system. The whole question of how the body scrutinizes incoming antigens and regulates its response to them is still very poorly understood. As yet no-one can say what role the chemical make-up of antigens plays.
An alternative explanation is that such foods contain substances which stimulate an immune response, known collectively as adjuvants. Adjuvants are used in the laboratory as a way of inducing immune responses for research purposes. These adjuvants are mostly derived from bacteria, but there are also adjuvants found in some plants. The extent to which these occur in foods, and their potential for stimulating IgE rather than other types of antibody, is unknown.
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Posted by admin on April 8, 2009 under Herbal |
Of all the available plant remedies for asthma the various butterbur preparations stand out as being the most effective. These are Peta-stites officinalis extract, Petadolor tablets and, for exceptionally stubborn conditions, Petaforce capsules. All these preparations are made from 100 per cent plant extract and are reliable antispasmodics. A senior consultant at a Kneipp sanatorium once related the case of an asthma attack that would have killed the patient if it had not been for the doctor’s help. The strongest chemical medicine, which the doctor had reluctantly administered before, was
not as effective as the Petasites preparations he then gave the patient. Moreover, it is gratifying to know that Petasites not only provides effective short-term relief but in time will bring about a cure.
The effect is not always the same with every patient, since there are various kinds of asthma. To back up the treatment, it is often necessary to prescribe a biological calcium preparation, for example Urticalcin. One asthmatic told us that such a treatment with Asthmasan had practically rid him of his problem, even though he used to suffer from almost unsupportable attacks every time there was an atmospheric depression, or fohn, in the air.
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Posted by admin on under Herbal |
I am often surprised to see young girls strutting along in high-heeled shoes, or else in slipper-like shoes with thin soles and no heels at all. Both extremes are harmful and inappropriate; both force the body into an unnatural position, causing it to tire more quickly and suffer damage. The blood can become congested, leading to varicose veins.
There is a natural reason why walking barefoot does not cause any problems. You simply would not walk for long along a hard and even road surface, but over meadows, fields and forest ground, all of which are uneven surfaces that support the arch of the foot, for movement acts like a massage. Judging from the standpoint of zone therapy, you will happily realise that the whole body benefits as a result. It is for this reason that walking barefoot in warm weather when you are on holiday or when working in the garden is an effective and invigorating natural treatment.
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Posted by admin on under Herbal |
A healthy hair is strong, being able to support a weight of about 80 g (just under 3 oz) without snapping. A diseased hair, however, will tear when a weight of 30—40 g (about IV2 oz) is suspended from it. The healthy pigtail of a Chinese or Indian woman is able to support about 2Ó2-Ç tons before it s.iaps. Of course, the resistance of a single hair depends also upon its relative thickness. People who live close to nature have thicker and stronger hair than those who do not. Generally speaking, the more refined our food and life-style, the finer will be our hair.
When a hair is pulled out, the root, held fast in the dermis, is able to manufacture another hair shaft. However, eczema and other diseases affecting the scalp can make this part degenerate and die, so that the affected areas become bald. Typhoid fever is usually responsible for the loss of all hair, but the hair bulb does not actually die and the hair has been known to grow back even more luxuriantly after recovery, when the capillary vessels and lymphatics have returned to their normal function.
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Posted by admin on under Herbal |
We must not poison our body fluids and cells with chemicals. For this reason it will be clear why it is essential to avoid all medicines used in chemotherapy that are capable of disturbing the normal cell metabolism. Watch out especially for medicines based on tar. The compulsive consumption of tablets and narcotics is also responsible for upsetting the biological balance, physically as well as mentally. Smokers may delude themselves into thinking that nicotine is not really harmful and has no influence on cancer, but it is an established fact that the phenols – tar – contained in tobacco are carcinogenic. Why be foolishly deceived and suffer the tragic consequences?
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Posted by admin on under Herbal |
Since the pituitary holds a key position in the body’s hormone production (it manufactures a considerable number of different hormones), the hormone balance is disrupted and the resulting damage may be even more difficult to rectify than the arthritis itself. As far as hormone preparations are concerned, however spectacular their effects may be, one must always remember that only one side of the coin is seen at a time, and the other side may look quite different.
I once had the opportunity to discuss these points with a doctor who had lectured on this subject and he frankly admitted that he would not use these remedies for himself. Should the need arise, he would look for another, more conservative way of treating the disease. Of course, I do not deny that in some cases the use of the new medications may be justified, but let the doctor and patient alike consider very carefully what side effects they might produce and what the ultimate, rather than the immediate, effect might be. Careful analysis and observations have led me to conclude that all hormone and organ preparations should be viewed with the utmost caution before prescribing or taking them.
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