Herbal Health

5. The Mouth-Hand line. If a line is now drawn midway between the nose and throat lines in the upper medial quadrant, continuing to the outer iris margin between the neck and diaphragm lines in the lower lateral quadrant, we produce a connection between the mouth area in the upper medial quadrant, and the hand area in the lower lateral quadrant. This line is called the

Mouth-Hand line, also Nutrition line. Registrations in this location signify that the patient suffers nutritional defects. These patients will not change their eating habits. If this line shows in the right iris, it suggests that the ancestors suffered from diseases of the stomach. If in the left iris, then the patient has always eaten that which he is unable to digest.

6. The Forehead-Ovary line. If commencing with the forehead boundary in the upper medial quadrant, which lies midway between the Vertex and Nose lines, a line is projected to the margin of the lower lateral quadrant between the Foot and Diaphragm lines, we have the

Forehead-Ovary line. Registration of the line indicates disturbance of sex life with effects upon the brain, in this case the emotional nature. Women with ovary signs and short stubby finger nails have much head pain, and also usually have many children.

7. The Cerebellum-Uterus line Cerebellum-Rectum line. A line drawn in the right iris from the margin between the Vertex and Ear lines, through the upper lateral quadrant, commences with the Cerebellum. In the lower medial quadrant the line runs midway between the Foot and Bladder lines to the area for uterus. If there are registrations of this line in the right iris, then the patients are noisy and incline to hysteria. Vertex headaches are then predominant.

In the left iris we have the Cerebellum-Rectum line, which as the name implies, does not run to the uterus area but to that for the rectum and anus. Registration of this line suggests conditions terminating in hypochondria. Such patients are quiet, and have little to say.

8. The Axilla-Loin line. This line is drawn midway between the Ear and Neck lines through the upper lateral quadrant. Here we have the area for axilla and clavicle. In the lower medial quadrant the line is drawn midway between the Bladder and Throat lines, and so demarcates the area for Loins. This line is the Axilla-Loin line, or Endurance line. Patients showing this line are very sensitive. One must not demand too much of such patients. They can neither bear nor endure much.

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No matter what difficulties you suffer when you’re having your period, there are plenty of steps you can take to make life as pleasant as possible.

Clean is comfortable-It seems much too obvious to mention, but you won’t be comfortable unless you wash regularly and change sanitary towels or tampons whenever necessary. This can be a problem, particularly if you’re at work; how nice it would be if there were a bidet in the women’s lavatory in every work place. As it is, the best we can do is to carry a supply of towels or tampons with us and change them whenever we need to, which could be anything from two to five times during a working day, depending on how much blood we lose and how long our day happens to be.

I’m often asked how much blood women ought to lose and what colour it ought to be. We vary in this. Some women lose very little — just enough to stain two towels a day — especially when they first start their periods. Others lose quite a lot, especially on the first day when they can get through half a packet of towels. Some blood is quite red; some is quite brown. Don’t be alarmed by either colour. They’re both normal; just be sure that you don’t wear the same towel or tampon all day long.

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Once you’ve found a doctor whose medical ability you trust, there are practical steps you can take to maintain a good working relationship between the two of you.

For instance, when you call the doctor’s office because your child is sick, you may not talk to the doctor but to a professional nurse practitioner who acts as the go-between in your communications with the doctor. You can have the same confidence in the nurse that you do in the doctor. The nurse is a qualified medical professional in his or her own right, and is well able to handle many of your questions. This means you don’t have to wait for the doctor to get through with a patient before he or she can talk to you. Of course, if your child’s condition does require the doctor’s attention, the nurse will have the doctor talk to you on the phone, or help you set up an appointment to see the doctor.

Whether you talk directly to the doctor or to the nurse when you call the office, be prepared to give the following information:

• Your name and the child’s name.

• Your child’s approximate weight; this is important because medications are prescribed by body weight, and the dosage that is appropriate for a 55 kilos teenager is very different from that given to a 11-12 kilos toddler.

• Your child’s temperature; whether or not the child is running a fever – and if so, how high a fever – is a clue to the child’s condition. Use a thermometer to take the child’s temperature. A guess based on flushed cheeks or a hot forehead isn’t good enough.

• Information on any illnesses the child has been exposed to recently.

• Details of medications the child is allergic to.

• The name, phone number, and business hours of your pharmacist so that the doctor can phone in a prescription if necessary. (Although the nurse can handle many of your questions and perform some examinations and medical procedures, only a doctor can prescribe medication.)

Be sure to have a pencil and paper at hand so that you can write down any information or instructions the doctor or nurse gives you.

When you call the doctor’s office you probably have an idea as to whether you just want some advice on the telephone, or whether you want to bring the child in to see the doctor. So tell the doctor or nurse what you have in mind – don’t expect them to guess. If the doctor or nurse feels it’s not necessary to bring the child in, you’ll be told the reason for that advice. However, the decision is yours, and if you still want a personal consultation you’re entitled to insist.

Another way to stay on good terms with your child’s doctor is to plan ahead so that both you and the doctor know what an office visit is intended to achieve. A common cause of communication breakdown between parent and physician is the parent’s complaint that the doctor was too busy, didn’t answer questions, or cut the visit short.

To avoid this, at the time you make the appointment also tell the receptionist what the visit is for. If you feel you’re going to need extra time with the doctor, make a point of saying this so that your request can be included in the doctor’s schedule. And, when you see the doctor, do not confuse the issue by trying to get a complete update on other family members’ problems in the course of one appointment. Let the doctor examine your child and deal with the reason you brought the child into the office. If you have other concerns not directly related to the present one, make an appointment to come back another time.

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If you are bottle-feeding, you must have clean water and refrigeration available. Be sure to clean the top of the can before you open it, and follow the directions carefully when you’re preparing the formula. Some formulas are concentrated, so you must add water. Others are “ready to feed,” and if you dilute this type the baby will not get enough to eat

Bottles and nipples must be cleaned and sterilized through the baby’s fourth month. After that, only the nipples must be sterile. To sterilize, clean the nipples with soap and water, making sure the hole in the top is not clogged with dried formula. Then boil them in water for 15 minutes. Bottles should be cleaned first and then sterilized. After four months, the bottles can be washed in hot water or in a dishwasher.

Hold and rock the baby when you’re bottle-feeding. Do not prop the bottle up and leave the baby alone to eat. Human contact is important to the baby’s development, so don’t rush the feeding time. However, try not to spend more than a half-hour to 45 minutes on each feeding.

Whether you are breast-feeding or bottle-feeding, remember that your baby’s appetite is generally a reliable measure of how much he or she needs to eat. A characteristic, demanding cry will let you know when the baby is hungry. After a few weeks or months you’ll probably be able to identify that hunger cry.

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In 1921 Charles Best and Frederick Banting, both Canadians, came together in Toronto to work on an idea of Banting’s to try to isolate a substance from the pancreas of dogs that might be successful in treating diabetes. They worked in experimental laboratories in the University of Toronto, Department of Physiology.

Up to this time the problem was that the digestive juices also made by the pancreas tended to destroy the chemical substance that they were trying to extract. Their first stage was therefore to inactivate the part of the pancreas making digestive juices. They did this by tying the tube or duct leading from the pancreas to the intestines and this led to the degeneration of all the pancreas except the important islet cell tissues.

This pancreatic tissue they then ground up and extracted with fluids. This extract they then injected into dogs with diabetes.

The extract led to control of the diabetes in these dogs and the substance they had extracted they called ‘Isleton’ because it had been made from the islet cells. Later they changed the name to ‘Insulin’.

This happened in 1921, and during that eventful year they conducted many experiments to find out the best way to produce a potent and effective preparation of insulin which would be suitable for using on human patients with diabetes.

The first patient to receive insulin treatment was a boy called Leonard Thompson, who had developed diabetes two years earlier when he was 11 years old. He was now at the last stages of diabetes and was dying. He was given insulin that had been extracted from beef pancreas by Banting and Best’s method. As a result of this insulin, his condition dramatically improved and his diabetes was controlled. His life was saved, and a tremendous medical achievement was made. This demonstration of the success of the insulin in treating persons with diabetes led to the urgent work of finding a way to make insulin in large quantities commercially for the many diabetics requiring treatment. This was done, under Charles Best’s direction, in the Connaught Laboratories with the assistance and support of The Lilly Company of Indianapolis USA. So successful was this work that commercial quantities of insulin were being produced in 1922, the year after its first discovery.

One drawback of the early insulin was that it had to be given several times a day as it only acted for a few hours. Further research on insulin has been directed to perfect its production and to produce forms of insulin which have a prolonged action so that they need to be given only once or twice a day. Dr Hagedorn of Copenhagen in Denmark found that when insulin was combined with a protein chemical called protamine its action was prolonged. Further lengthening of insulin action has been achieved by combining this protein and insulin with the element zinc. Since then other research work has led to several newer and different forms of insulin with different ranges of activity. These different insulins make it possible for the doctor to choose a suitable insulin or combination of insulins to meet the varying needs of different patients.

Currently, research is going even further into the precise ways that insulin works to control the body’s use of glucose and fats and also to discover the basic cause of diabetes. When we know these things it may be possible to achieve one of our ultimate goals, which is to prevent people developing diabetes. We hope it will also lead to even better and easier ways of treating it.

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Dr. Thomas Glynn of the American Cancer Society has a lot to say about lung cancer, and it doesn’t take long for him to say it. Here’s a transcript of a lecture he sometimes gives: “This is going to be easy. Don’t smoke. Thank you for listening.”

Smokers sometimes give themselves little talks, too: statements meant to make them and their loved ones think that they’ll somehow be able to smoke and not hurt themselves. Here are some of the most common – and error-ridden.

“I’ll stop when I’m older.” True, quitting smoking reduces your risk whenever you do it, but sooner is much better than later. In the words of the American Lung Association, “The more you smoke and the longer you smoke, the greater your risk of lung cancer.”

“I’ll get lots of antioxidants.” It was once thought that antioxidants like beta-carotene reduced lung cancer risk. But it’s a false friend, as several studies have shown. “Beta-carotene was actually found to be a culprit in the progression of lung cancer,” says Dr. Warren Heston of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. And, he adds, so may single supplements, such as lycopene. So much for that one.

“I’ll mat lots of vegetables.” They help, but there’s no salad bar big enough to offset the smoking risk. As a team of Harvard-affiliated researchers put it in a 1996 report on cancer prevention, “A smoker consuming the largest tolerable amounts of vegetables is still at much higher risk of lung cancer than a nonsmoker.”

“The smog is going to got me anyway.” Says who? “It’s really difficult to pin lung cancer on air pollution,” says Bill McDonnell, M.D., Ph.D., a medical officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “There’s just not very strong evidence for that.” And even if there were, Dr. McDonnell points out, “cigarette smoking is in a class by itself, both in regard to the variety and amount of inhaled substances and with regard to its ability to cause cancer.”

“I’ll avoid other carcinogens” Indeed, there are some to avoid, most notably radon, which the EPA estimates is found at higher-than-acceptable levels in 1 out of 15 homes in the United States. On-the-job exposure to things such as asbestos, uranium, arsenic, and certain petroleum products is also something to look out for. But all of them are more dangerous when combined with smoking. And remember, another environmental hazard that causes the death of some 3,000 nonsmokers a year from lung cancer, according to the EPA, is none other than tobacco smoke-from other people’s cigarettes.

“I’ll catch it early.” That’s a good strategy for most cancers but usually hopeless for lung cancer. “By the time it’s detectable, it’s generally too late to do anything,” Dr. Glynn says. “If you go in for a chest x-ray and they find a tumor, the outlook’s not good.”

“Lots of people beat it” But most don’t. Lung cancer’s five-year survival rate is 13 percent, one of the lowest of all cancers. “It’s a virtually certain killer,” Dr. Glynn says. “You’re looking at a one in eight chance that you’re going to be alive in five years. And most people from the time of diagnosis are dead in two years.”

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It is no coincidence that snoring only occurs during sleep. The very process of lying down introduces new forces on the contents of the chest wall and abdomen which, for the overweight patient, may interfere with the normal functioning of the diaphragm. Furthermore, and more significantly, there is a deterioration of the finely tuned muscular control of the upper airway during sleep. This loss of control, however, is not peculiar to snorers. Loss of tone, or hypotonia, is a feature of the human upper airway common to both snorers and non-snorers and in general, the effect is more pronounced in deeper sleep. For the purpose of studying sleep disorders, a system of sleep staging has been developed to avoid vague terms such as “light” and “deep” sleep. Each sleep stage is commonly defined by measuring the electrical activity of the brain (an electro-encephalogram or EEG), muscle tone, usually of the jaw (an electro-myogram or EMG) and eye movement (an electro-oculogram or EOG). There are two broadly defined sleep states: Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM) and Non Rapid Eye Movement sleep (NREM), the latter being subdivided into stages 1, 2, 3 and 4. The progression from “light” to “deep” sleep corresponds with the progression from NREM 1 to NREM 4 and then to REM.

The sleep of a normal adult consists of variable sleep cycles with a gradual drifting from one sleep stage to another, but occasionally punctuated by abrupt changes from one level to another, such as stage 1 to REM and vice versa. The cycle is repeated several times a night with REM sleep occurring at approximately 90 minute intervals. During sleep, particularly during REM sleep, breathing patterns are different to that of the awake state. REM sleep is characterized by irregular breathing; at times fast and at other times slow. The combined effects of irregular breathing and minimal upper airway tone make this a critical period of sleep for snorers and for many with underlying lung disease.

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Women visiting their GPs complaining of pain in the breast or having detected a breast lump may be referred to a specialist for further investigations, although some women, particularly young ones, may need to push their GPs for a referral. Sometimes, specialists have a particular interest in and experience of breast diseases, but often referral will be to a general surgeon at a hospital. A specialist in breast cancer will be more experienced in treating women with this disease than will a surgeon who also deals with a variety of other conditions, and it is wise for all women to ask to see such a specialist.

If, having seen a consultant, you would like a second opinion, or feel you would prefer to be treated by a surgeon who specializes in breast diseases rather than by a general surgeon, do discuss this with your GP, the practice nurse, or the breast care nurse if your hospital has one. They will be able to find out which hospitals have designated breast surgeons. You should be able to choose to be treated elsewhere if you have any concerns about the treatment you are being offered, but in practice you may have to be prepared to push hard to get what you want.

Your GP will have written a referral letter to a specialist asking for an appointment to be made for you. If what is said in this letter leads the specialist to suspect you have cancer of the breast, you may be seen within a few days. If cancer is diagnosed, or suspected, the course of events will vary depending on the normal procedure at a particular hospital.

Clinic visits

Any necessary investigations may be carried out at your first clinic visit, and you may be asked to return to discuss the results within a week. At some clinics, all investigations ñàë be done and their results received during the first visit. If treatment is necessary, it may begin within a few days. However, at some hospitals, women have to wait 6 to 8 weeks after a diagnosis is made before their treatment can start. Although this delay is not likely to have any harmful effect on the outcome of treatment for most cancers, it can mean a very difficult and anxious few weeks for the women concerned and their families.

About 90 per cent of cancers are obvious to the specialist on clinical examination. If cancer is suspected, any of the investigations explained above can be carried out to confirm or refute the diagnosis. Some hospital specialists, having received a referral letter from a GP, will arrange for a mammogram to be done before the woman attends her first clinic so that the X-ray results are available when she sees the specialist for the first time. Diagnosis is often made following a clinical examination, mammography and cytology, i.e. a fine needle aspiration biopsy.

Some specialists prefer to discuss at the first clinic visit the possible courses of action should their suspicion of cancer be confirmed. They feel that this allows the woman time to consider her options and to talk things over with her family, and they find that many women return for their investigation results with a firm resolve to fight the disease. Many other specialists prefer to leave any detailed discussions until a second clinic visit when the results of the tests are known. You may wish to consider for yourself which you would prefer, and be ready to ask the specialist to discuss things with you at the outset if you feel this would be helpful. Always remember, you are free to do nothing: having no treatment is an option open to you if you choose it.

For the majority of women, the clinical examination will indicate a benign condition such as a non-malignant tumour, a cyst, or a normal change in the breast. Further investigations may be required, and arrangements will be made for these to be carried out if necessary.

It is a good idea to take someone with you when you go for your clinic visits – perhaps your husband, partner or a friend. People often find it difficult to absorb what they are told when they are anxious – particularly if the news is not good. It may also be helpful to have made notes of any questions you wish to ask the specialist or breast care nurse.

The breast care nurse

Once you have discussed the diagnosis and possible treatment with the surgeon, you may be able to talk to a breast care nurse, perhaps to clarify any points you have not understood. At some hospitals a breast care nurse always attends the clinics; at others you may be given a card with her name and a contact number. You and your relatives may find it easier to discuss things with a specialist nurse, and she will probably be very aware of the worries you are likely to have. If your hospital does not have a breast care nurse, there may be someone else you can talk to if you would like to do so.

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As we have seen, the vast majority of preventive medicine in the nineteenth century was done by way of public health measures, but preventive medicine is really a link between environmental health on the one hand and personal medical care on the other.

True preventive measures probably started with diseases of children. In 1892 Pierre Budin, a Parisian obstetrician, asked women to come back when their babies were 6 months old for a post-natal check-up. He was amazed at the number of children who had already died by this age and started to think about what could be done to prevent this awful toll. Preventive and health-maintenance services for children started in Britain in 1908 and the Boston Lying-in Hospital started an ante-natal programme in 1912.

Once the idea of prevention caught on it spread rapidly, and industrial and occupational medicine quickly became a valued part of the system too. But popular though they were, there was (and still is in the US) a reluctance on the part of preventive services to do anything creative, for fear of treading on the toes of the curative doctors. In the US, for example, community health centres sprang up before World War I but confined themselves to education and prevention and many were in slum areas. They were almost always separate from hospitals. In fact many such clinics had a motto:

No prescriptions given; no sickness treated.

Preventive medicine then became associated with the business of keeping people healthy while ‘real’ doctors got on with treating the sick. As the years went by it became apparent that public health and preventive medicine had chalked up some remarkable successes and reluctantly the medical profession accepted that prevention had a place. Much of this is still lip-service though, as can be seen from the curriculum of any teaching hospital on either side of the Atlantic. Preventive medicine and its concepts rank so low as to be almost invisible. Over the last twenty years or so doctors have realized that whilst they can do little for many of their patients, detecting disease early can produce truly dramatic results in conditions such as: glaucoma (a person’s sight can be saved if the condition is caught early); obesity; depression (suicide deaths can be greatly reduced by treating the depression); hypertension (treatment reduces the incidence of strokes); and so on. The examples are numerous.

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Fresh or dried herbs, petals, leaves, barks or seeds can be used to make aromatic bathing. Be creative to achieve different aroma’s and to maintain health and beauty through aromatic bathing.

Basic Recipe: Pure water 600 ml, dried herbs 3 tbsp. (fresh herbs 6 tbsp.) or dried petals 6 tbsp. (fresh petals 12 tbsp). Place all ingredients into a pot. heat below boiling point. Simmer for 10 minutes. Strain and add to bath water. Herbal Bath Bags: fill a muslin bag with dried herbs, place into saucepan of water bring to the boil then add to bath water. Herb sachet: can be used instead of soap for sensitive or problem skin. Fine oatmeal 1/8 cup, Epsom salt 1/8 cup, sea salts 1 tsp., powder milk 1 tsp. and a combination of essential oils 0.2ml Add ingredients together and place into a cheese cloth bag and secure with a string. Place the

sachet into the bath and use as soap or tie the sachet to the tap while filling the bath.

Guava Bath: Guava leaves are used for aromatic baths, boil up the leaves then strain decotion into a bath. Guava leaves ground to a paste mixed with water, then apply all over the body and take a bath, this will eliminate a foul smell from the body.

Guava Aromatic Bath: Guava vinegar Vi cup, guava oil 5 ml, essential oils- lavender 5 drops, bergamot 3 drops, cypress 2 drops. Optional add 1/2 cup of fine oatmeal for itchy skin conditions.

Papaya Bath: Papaya leaves and the skins are used for a bath treat. For a refreshing bath use – papaya vinegar Vi cup, Epsom salts 50g, lavender essential oil 3 drops, orange essential oil 2 drops.

Kombucha Bath: (full) Add to the bath water 2 cups of kombucha vinegar or 1 litre of kombucha tea.

Bath Salts

Mineral Salts are deep-cleansing, refreshing and stimulating. Salt water helps to release toxins that accumulate in the tissue. The combination of water, mineral salts, sea salts and essential oils can assist in detoxifying the skin, and revitalising and calming the nervous system. Basic Recipe: Make up bath salts by adding 20 drops of any or a combination of essential oils to 200 g of mineral salts, rock salts, sea salts. Use: Half fill a bath then add 50 g of bath salts. For Compresses dissolve 15 g of mineral salts into a bowl of hot or cold water

Bath Vinegar

Herbal bath vinegar’s are refreshing and soften the skin. A basic recipe can be made up with 500 ml of apple cider vinegar or kombucha and with 275 g of a selection of dried herbs for the required effect you want to achieve. Place ingredients into a pot slowly bring to the boil. Allow herbs to steep for one week in direct sunlight. Strain and bottle. Add one cup to the bath water while tap is running.

Bath Oil

Basic Recipe: sunflower 40 ml, almond oil 30 ml, soya bean oil 20 ml, sesame seed oil 10 ml and a combination of essential oils 1 ml. Blend ingredients together and add 5 ml into the bath water.

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