Herbal Health

Table sugar or refined sugar (sucrose) has a G.I. factor of only 60-65. This is because it is a disaccharide (double sugar) composed of one glucose molecule coupled to one fructose molecule. Fructose is absorbed and taken directly to the liver where much of it is slowly converted to glucose. So, the blood sugar response to pure fructose is very small (G.I. factor of 20). Thus when we consume sucrose, in effect we have consumed only half as much glucose. This explains why the blood sugar response to 50 grams of sucrose is approximately half that of 50 grams of pure maltose (where the molecules are all glucose).

Many foods containing large amounts of refined sugar have G.I. factors close to 60. This is the average of glucose (G.I. = 100) and fructose ( G.I. = 20). This is lower than that of ordinary soft bread with a G.I. factor averaging around 70. Kellogg’s Cocopops™ which contains 39 per cent sugar has a G.I. factor of 77, lower than that of Rice Bubbles™ (83) which contains little sugar.

So, contrary to popular opinion, most foods containing simple sugars do not raise blood sugar values any more than that of most complex starchy foods like bread. The same is true of honey (G.I. factor of 58). Some types of honey have a much higher G.I. factor (87) than refined sugar (65), possibly because they are a mixture of honey and glucose syrup.

Sugars that naturally occur in food include lactose, sucrose, glucose and fructose in variable proportions, depending on the food. The overall blood sugar response to a food is very hard to predict on theoretical grounds because gastric emptying is slowed by increasing concentration of the sugars, whatever their structure.

Some fruits for example have a low G.L factor (cherries have a G.I. factor of only 22) while others are relatively high (watermelon has a factor of 72). It seems the higher the acidity and osmotic strength (number of molecules per ml) of the fruit, the lower the G.I. factor. Thus it is not possible to lump all fruits together and say that they will have a low G.I. factor because they are high in fibre. They are not all equal. See the tables in Part HI to compare fruits.

Many foods containing sugars are a mixture of refined and naturally occurring sugars. The overall effect on the blood sugar response is too hard to predict. This is why we need to test the G.I. value of sugary foods in real people before we make generalisations about their G.I. factor.

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One of the problems in designing physical activity for the overfat is the negative connotations of the term ‘exercise’. This is probably to do with the association of exercise with high intensity activity. A greater emphasis on low-moderate level activity, and a shift from the notion of exercise as ‘extra-curricular’ to lifestyle changes in activity patterns suggests that a term such as physical activity might be more appropriate. There are two forms of this that are relevant:

• ‘Planned’ physical activity, such as walking, swimming or some other form of aerobic activity carried out regularly, often as a part of recreation.

• ‘Incidental’ physical activity, such as walking up stairs instead of using an elevator, walking instead of driving, or even not using effort-saving devices such as cordless telephones or remote controls for television sets.

Planned physical activity is necessary to compensate for the decrease in daily energy use resulting from changes in work and daily living conditions in most modem societies. Weight-bearing activities such as walking are likely to be the most effective because of the greater energy use. However, in the first instance non-weight-bearing activities such as swimming, which are thought to be generally less effective in fat loss, may be more able to be carried out and therefore less de-motivational.

Incidental activity is designed to counter reductions in spontaneous physical activity that occur in technically advanced societies. It is this which may be of most importance, and may initially even be the only exercise prescription for obese, in contrast to overfat individuals, because of the discomforting and de-motivational aspects of more vigorous forms of activity. As body mass decreases and planned physical activity becomes more comfortable, different forms of planned activities can be introduced.

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Exact reasons for the increases in fatness in the community are not as clear as they might seem to the layperson. Research has Hailed to provide conclusive evidence on any single factor and the evidence on a range of different factors , is often equivocal. For example, there is little to suggest that total energy consumption is the main culprit. Although obese people generally do consume more calories than lean people, there is still a wide variation between people. Also, active people are known to be big eaters but aren’t necessarily fat. Athletes are the extreme example of this, but of course they are also highly active. As far as we can tell, people in most industrialised countries now consume around the same or less total energy intake as their grandparents, yet their grandparents didn’t seem to have the same battle with the bulge. While there are significant problems assessing total energy intake, all indications are that this has not increased sufficiently to account for the increases in obesity now being seen.

Change in the type of food that’s being eaten would seem to be the next obvious factor—fatty foods and fast foods in particular. Indeed, a correlation between fat consumption and obesity in some countries, like France, where the records have been available for years, would tend to support this. Since the turn of the century the percentage of fat in the diet has undoubtedly increased, but most of the increase has been in the last few decades. In countries like Australia, the UK and the US, the overall consumption of fat may have stabilised or even decreased. Sugar consumption doesn’t seem to be related, as countries with high sugar consumption (e.g. Cuba) have low average body fat levels. Those with a high sugar consumption within countries are also amongst the leanest in a community, possibly because sugar and fat are generally inversely correlated. Large increases in soft drink and fruit juice consumption have occurred in recent years, however the connection between this and the increase in obesity is speculative only. Increases in alcohol are a further possibility, but consumption of this has generally been going down in those countries where obesity is increasing and consumption levels in populations often correlates inversely with obesity levels. In fact there’s now little evidence to support the notion that alcohol per se is fattening.

Smoking rates are declining in most advanced countries, and it is known that the average smoker gains around 3kg over a 12-month period after quitting. Might this be a reason for increases in fatness at a community level? Several studies have shown that it may be a small contributor, but the increases in weight have been amongst smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers, suggesting that it’s not just quitters who have been the gainers.

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There is another miracle food from the bees that has stirred the imagination of nutritionists and doctors alike—the royal jelly.

Royal jelly is the food produced by the worker bees to feed the queen bee. As you probably know, bees have a highly organized community life, with their own systems of mathematics, geography and communications. This community is so well organized and so effectively governed that it is able to collect incredible amounts of food—pollen and honey—during one short summer season. The queen bee is the mother and the sole ruler of the entire hive.

All bees are hatched from eggs, including the queen bee. For the first two or three days after hatching all eggs are fed royal jelly. Then one egg is selected to become queen and she continues to receive royal jelly throughout the rest of her life. The other bees feed themselves on honey.

Now, listen to this: although hatched from similar eggs, the bees fed on honey mature in 21 to 24 days, but the queen bee fed royal jelly is fullgrown in 16 days. The worker bees live an average of two to six months, while the queen bee may live as long as eight years! During this time she works hard at producing eggs. The queen bee lays as many as a quarter of a million eggs in a season, often more than 2,000 eggs in a single day—which is greater than her own weight! Since the queen bee and the worker bees are hatched from identical eggs, it is obvious that the only reason for the great difference in longevity and the marvelous fertility is the difference in the food they eat. Royal jelly must contain a powerful substance or substances able to give the queen bee this enormous energy, fertility and longevity!

Scientists have been trying to find and identify these substances for hundreds of years. So far their efforts have been unsuccessful. Royal jelly does contain all the usual vital factors, which can be isolated: proteins, vitamins, enzymes, etc. It has, however, less of some vitamins than pollen has; and some vitamins, like A for example, are totally missing. Also, little or no vitamin E was found in royal jelly; and the same was true of vitamin C.

However, royal jelly contains more pantothenic acid, one of the B vitamins, than any other known natural substance—up to six times more than brewer’s yeast and liver.” In experiments reported in the Journal of Gerontology, fruit flies were fed royal jelly and their life span was markedly increased. Researchers felt that it was because of the pantothenic acid in royal jelly.

Everyone agrees that royal jelly has marvelous healing and rejuvenating powers, but no one knows why. Feeding control animals all the known factors of royal jelly did not bring at all the effects of royal jelly. So, royal jelly obviously contains some other factors which science has not yet been able to detect. Researchers report that all attempts to analyze royal jelly have failed. About 97 to 98 percent of the total has been analyzed and isolated, but the real source of power may be in the remaining elusive two or three percent.

Prophylactic and therapeutic value of royal jelly

An extensive research on royal jelly was made in Czechoslovakia by Dr. Josef Vittek, biologist, and Dr. Jaroslav Kresanek, pharmacologist, at the Medical School in Bratislava. They conducted a five-year investigation and their results are quite remarkable.

They fed royal jelly in various amounts to test animals and found that it speeded up their growth and increased their resistance to disease.1

Royal jelly had an anti-bacterial and anti-virus action, particularly against streptococcus, B. Coli and staphylococcus.

Hens, fed royal jelly, increased their egg-laying capacity 20 to 100 percent!

Royal jelly accelerated the formation of bone tissue.

Topical application of royal jelly helped to heal wounds in half the time.8

Other researchers have reported on royal jelly’s preventive effect on cancer. A group of mice were inoculated with four different types of cancerous cells. Half of them were given royal jelly; the other half was used as the control group. While all the mice in the control group died of cancer, the animals fed royal jelly did not show any disorder at all!0

In the experiments on human beings, Drs. Vittek and Kresanek showed that royal jelly has a favorable influence on body functioning and healing processes in many conditions. Serum cholesterol levels were lowered by the administration of royal jelly for ten days. Royal jelly has shown good results in the treatment of diseases of aging, such as hardening of the arteries, vascular disorders and Buerger’s Disease. German doctors reported that royal jelly preparations showed “satisfactory results” in post-operative conditions. Researchers agreed that royal jelly has a stimulative action upon the functioning of various organs and improves “their associative and coordinative faculties.”

However, in spite of some enthusiastic researchers, mostly in Europe, medical science at large has remained skeptical of royal jelly, and virtually no research is being done now to determine its prophylactic and therapeutic possibilities. In the meantime, there are thousands of people, both here and in Europe, who use royal jelly regularly and are satisfied that they benefit from it.

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Fasting is considered by most biological medical doctors as the fastest and the most effective therapeutic method of remedying high blood pressure. At the Buchinger Clinic in Bad Pyrmont, Dr. Otto Buchinger stated that high blood pressure is the one ailment for which fasting practically never fails to bring about a complete cure.

He stressed, however, that tobacco is highly injurious to the patient with high blood pressure and advised a total abstinence from smoking.

In Swedish biological clinics practitioners have had the same experience. Ebba Waerland has supervised hundreds of fast cures and reports that high blood pressure is “cured automatically” through fasting and Waerland dietetic therapy.

A case history of lowered blood pressure

Here is one case from Sweden. Mrs. E. P., 44, suffered from high blood pressure for 15 years. In spite of various medical treatments, her pressure continued to climb, and in 1966 it was up to 240. She started her biological treatments in July, 1966, with a ten-day fast on the alkaline juices of fruits and vegetables and vegetable broth.* While fasting she was given an enema morning and evening, plus colonic irrigation twice a week. After ten days of fasting, she was given a salt-free diet of fresh fruits for breakfast, and raw vegetable salad with homemade soured milk and boiled potatoes for lunch and dinner. Bread, butter and cheese were not allowed, except small amounts of fresh homemade cottage cheese. After two weeks on this diet she was again put on juice fasting for ten more days. I met Mrs. E. P. on the ninth day of the second fast. Her blood pressure had been checked the day before and was down to 137. It had been at that level a whole week. She told me that she felt great, and planned to leave the clinic and go home the following week. She enjoyed her new lacto-vegetarian diet and planned to continue with it at home.

Also in the United States many clinics and nature-cure practitioners have employed fasting very successfully in the treatment of high blood pressure. At Pawling Health Manor, in New York, Dr. R. Cross reported 54 high blood pressure cases treated by fasts between 1957 and 1963. Of these, 38 cases recovered completely and 16 improved. Dr. James McEachen, of Escondido, California, has supervised 141 fasts on patients with high blood pressure at his sanatorium, and reported that all 141 cases were remedied or improved— also a 100 percent result. Similar results are reported from Herbert M. Shelton’s Clinic in Texas and Dr. W. L. Esser’s Clinic in Florida. Dr. Shelton reported one case in which three weeks of fasting dropped the systolic pressure from 295 to 115.

The general opinion of all practitioners who employ fasting in the treatment of high blood pressure, is that patients who do not respond to the customary treatments, do respond to fasting. Moreover, the cures accomplished by fasting tend to be lasting—provided that good nutritional habits are maintained after the fast.

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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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