It would be good sense to spend time when your life is easier and better balanced checking all the danger points in your house and making them safe.

Are all the electrical fittings correctly wired; no points overloaded?

Are there any frayed wires anywhere?

Have you got into the habit of turning saucepan handles away from you as you cook, so that

you can’t knock into them and your children can’t grab at them?

Is the stair carpet safe, or could you catch your heel in a frayed patch?

Are knives and choppers always stored out of reach?

Is bleach tucked away on the highest shelf, in its own container, not transferred to an old

lemonade bottle?

Once you get into the habit of checking you’ll find it comes as second nature. And when you’re off-balance at least you will know that your house is as safe as you can make it.

You can actually make yourself safer by doing everything more slowly than you usually would. Remember to stay relaxed. Breathe in a lower gear if you start to get flustered. And don’t rush. It’s better to be late than unconscious.

*62\177\2*

Here are several Bach Flower remedies for you to choose from:

Gorse for very great hopelessness when you believe that nothing can be

done

Rock rose

and sweet for when the anguish is so great that it feels unbearable.

chestnut

Mustard for when the despair has no known reason.

Pine for when self-blame is overwhelming.

Star of

Bethlehem when despair is the result of shock.

Cherry plum for when the despair is such that you fear the mind will give way

to terrible thoughts or actions.

These Bach Flower remedies have been proved for over 100 years. They really work. See your naturopath and ask about your personal formula.

*123\19\2*

Tension release is a breeze. It’s gone in minutes. Why have a nervous breakdown? No matter what the cause of the stress, it is a matter of energy dispersal. Why take drugs for tension? There are no side effects from acupuncture. If you are exhausted, we heat certain points in key areas. Why be tired? Read my book Why Am I So Tired? (Pan Macmillan, 1992).

By the time you approach menopause knowing your energies are balanced, your eating habits stabilised, your joints in position (thanks to your chiropractor), your exercised body keeping your circulation pounding and all your organs functioning as they should, what symptoms could you possibly have to worry about?

Menopause doesn’t mean illness, it means your periods stop. If there are symptoms of the disease, you have been ignoring your health, and that is our business. Your body’s innate knowledge of its systems and their inter-relationships is supreme. The alternative therapist works to help your body heal itself.

Jean’s story-Jean was fifty and past menopause and blamed her health problems on that. Her friends noticed that she was speaking in a breathless manner. She had her blood pressure checked and found that her diastolic pressure was up 30 points above normal. Refusing any drugs, she visited her friend’s chiropractor and asked him if there was any reason he could see for her problems?

It was found that her pelvis was out of alignment, and there was also pressure at the top of the neck caused by the spine compensating for the tension at the base of her back. This neck strain affected her nervous system, and needed correcting.

She was a little nervous but had complete faith in his ability. He was highly qualified and his manner was confident and reassuring. He adjusted her neck while she was sitting up. The sound of the adjustment, instead of frightening her as she’d expected, gave her a deep sense of ‘rightness’. After, when the blood pressure was taken, it had returned to normal.

What she didn’t expect was the bonus of sleeping the best sleep of her life afterwards; her nerves settled down so that she wasn’t jumpy with her family anymore.

*109\19\2*

• Place a small pillow or rolled towel under the lower back, at the waist.

• Perform a partial sit-up, elevating the trunk to 45 degrees only. Hold for several seconds, then lie back to rest for a similar period. Repeat several times. The arm position can initially be by the side. Then the arms can be folded behind the head. Similarly, a leg lift can be added. These exercises tone the abdominal muscles and certain muscles at the front of the spine (psoas).

• Raise one extended leg to 45 degrees. Slowly lower the leg as the opposite one is raised to 45 degrees. Repeat alternately. With improved strength, alternate with neither leg touching the floor. But be careful.

• Elevate each leg 10 times, counting slowly at the rate of one count per second. After 5 days increase to 15-20, depending on your age and condition.

With a lower back problem, don’t exercise until you’ve been up walking around for an hour or two.

Two common homoeopathic remedies for back pain are:

Rhus tox is for those who only feel good after they’ve been walking around for a

while.

Bryonia is for those who feel better after a rest.

Which type are you? Of course there are many more to help you, but you should consult an expert.

Psychologically, a backache indicates lack of support. Most back pain has other stress components.

I suffered an injury to my back at the age of forty-one. Since my injury related to work, my GP put me on compo and a professional quick-fix process began, only to worsen my condition and cause my health to deteriorate. In addition to my lumbago, I now have sciatica, more and more fatigue, headaches, pain to all muscles and joints etc. Reading your (first) book was a real eye opener as to how one thing can lead to another.

All my life I was fit, healthy and industrious and was rarely sick at all. Until the day when I injured my lower back due to strain at work. I considered this a minor discomfort and I did not pay much attention to it. I kept working normally for another twelve days until pain incapacitated me and I required medical help.

I received physiotherapy, sedatives, painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs,

X-rays, orthopaedic surgeon’s opinions, psychiatric treatment, exercises and manipulations from the doctors. I was made to believe that my problem would improve. It didn’t happen. Two attempts were made to return to work, then my boss sacked me, as my condition did not improve.

I was put on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory which caused a duodenal ulcer to flare up. I was given two kinds of ulcer medication, then benzodiazepine, and ulcer medication again. My back didn’t get better and I was given a variety of strong prescription painkillers to control the pain. I also suffered from severe headaches that I had never experienced before my back injury.

My headaches became more severe and affected the right side of my face from the eye to the ear. Painkillers became less effective, my doctor ordered X-rays and a CAT scan. All tests were negative. My head pain was intolerable and I overdosed with painkillers to find some relief. I was given antihistamines and corticosteroids but they did nothing and for the first time in my life I was screaming and crying with pain. I wanted to die.

At last I was given a very strong painkiller that did control my pain but it took two to three hours to be effective. I realised that it was only masking my problem.

My overall condition was bad both physiologically and psychologically. Another doctor diagnosed my head pains as trigeminal neuralgia. He prescribed anti-convulsive medication; and I was also taking a strong painkiller, along with medication for my ulcer.

After five months my head pain started to settle down. I was totally exhausted all the time like a zombie. Add insomnia, irritability and apathy. Then my heart started doing unusual things. Fast beats, slow beats, and missed beats at regular intervals. Tests and diagnosis were negative. They gave me heart medication. It helped me at first, then not at all. Then I tried going off all medication, trying to break out of the vicious circle, and only taking a moderately strong painkiller when really necessary. I noticed I was becoming more and more constipated. I started to experience pain in the abdomen, painful and itchy rectum, and regular passing of blood, with bloating. My doctor could not find a reason for all this.

As my back still didn’t improve, my doctor gave me a non-steroidal

anti-inflammatory suppository to add to my horrors. My heart condition did improve but not my back or my fatigue.

Since no evidence was found for my continual exhaustion my doctor labelled me as having a depressive neurosis. I made conscious efforts to keep up my exercises but ended up with agonising muscle and joint pains that took a long time to recover from. During the exercises I felt as if I was running short of air as if my chest were tightly bandaged. The harder I tried, the worse I became.

I was forced to apply for an invalid pension of $60 a week. My pulse began to run high for no apparent reason. At times painful ulcers appeared in my mouth and gums. I had a swollen anus and hives. The most bizarre symptoms you can only dream of. I did not know whether I would die or go insane first.

Then I developed a high fever and my right testicle swelled up to an enormous size and I felt like I had been kicked there. The doctor gave me codeine but it didn’t work. Nothing helped. Only the strongest painkiller eased the pain. I started on antibiotics, the first one didn’t work, but the second was more effective.

Suddenly I developed pain in the lower abdomen and my urinary tract was inflamed. I felt the urge to urinate but couldn’t. It was very painful. Passing large clots of blood caused frequent blockages. This lasted three days. More antibiotics, then non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. SHU my temperature soared.

Three months later these symptoms cleared but I was running a chronic low fever. Even a year later, I have occasional fevers, my urine is murky and visible pieces of mucus float in it. I am always fatigued and spend days in bed unable to think, with hot flushes and cold sweats.

An article in the paper about a mysterious disease called M.E. raised my curiosity as many of my symptoms were described there, including a puffed face, loss of libido etc. My doctor says he does not believe in this disease, but I contacted the M.E. Society and they found me a doctor who tested me and found that my immune system was in trouble and I needed extra help.

I started taking a regimen of micro nutrients and in two weeks I am feeling more alert and confident.

I am trying to put together my experiences of the last four years. It is like a chain reaction the way one thing has led to another. I do believe but can’t prove that my post viral infection and my other symptoms were all triggered by my back injury.

My thanks to the gentleman concerned for permission to print his story. It could have had such a different ending with a few adjustments earlier in the piece.

*95\19\2*

These are the lungs (which clear smoke, dust and mucus for us); the kidneys (which move excess fluid via the bladder); and the intestines (which rhythmically chase faecal matter down the tubes).

If the skin is showing signs of trouble, you can bet your bottom dollar that one, two or three of the other organs are overloaded and asking for help.

Chiropractic/osteopathic adjustments stimulate the nerve supply to the elimination organs. First we palpate to feel if the dorsal spine needs adjusting, as this is where the nerve supply to the stomach, liver and kidneys originates. If tension or limited range of motion is at all obvious, this section of the spine is adjusted to stimulate the function of these organs. There has also been much success using cranial adjustments for skin problems.

Constipation will quickly aggravate the skin. There is a great deal you can do here to help yourself:

Drink enough fluids, especially on getting up in the morning.

This stimulates the bowel to function.

2. Eat daily an adequate amount of essential foods-grains, meat, fish, eggs,

cottage cheese, oils, fruit, salads and vegetables in correct proportion.

Add bran and linseed if needed and if you can tolerate them.

Reduce animal and dairy fats in the diet as they clog the skin and congest

the bowel. The liver needs help too, so eliminate caffeinated drinks.

The onset of puberty is when skin problems arise.

Acupuncture balances hormone function and is worthwhile investigating for your skin problem. I use laser or straight acupuncture (depending on the age of the patient.)

Jennifer’s story-Jennifer was twelve when her skin problem started to be noticeable. She developed red patches which were slightly raised when she became hot. Then the areas behind her knees and at her elbows became very red, typical of eczema. The application of cortisone cream did very little to help.

Two years later, she developed nasty patches on her knees which developed into impetigo. They were very unsightly, open, weeping and impossible to ease except by bathing in a saline solution. The knees needed bandaging for her to go to school and this caused her great distress.

At this time, all the doctors could say was that she would grow out of it at some stage; that there was nothing else that could be done, except to use the cortisone cream. This continued for most of the year. School was difficult, and the girl would hide away from her fellow students who treated her badly.

Her mother, deciding to take matters into her own hands, brought her daughter for natural therapy. Mother had once before been treated for a bad back, and on another occasion for sinusitis, and she had great hopes that her daughter could be helped.

Her condition was so much better after just one treatment of acupuncture. She said she didn’t know why she didn’t bring her before. Her daughter had about five weekly treatments with the needles. Now three years later there is hardly a sign that she had ever had eczema, much less impetigo.

Vitamins necessary to keep the skin glowing are vitamin A for dry skin, vitamin B for stress or cracked skin, vitamin C for lowered immune resistance and the healing of infections, and vitamin E for elasticity of the skin. Add to this formula the mineral zinc.

If there are pustules, you need a cell salt called calcium sulphate. If the trouble is blind pimples, then the cell salt needed is silicea, found under the skin of vegetables.

Eczema requires the herbal sarsaparilla with oil of primrose capsules. Red clover tea, aloe vera, witch hazel ointment and potato juice compress are all effective. Use calendula in Herbon moisturising cream, which you can buy at your health food store.

*80\19\2*

My story-Having been born with asthma, I understood the feeling of gasping for air, the fear that you just won’t get that next breath. As a child, every cold went to my chest. I loved walking in the rain and getting my feet wet, but wasn’t allowed to do it!

Certain foods can provoke an asthma attack. My foods were eliminated one by one, and always they were the ones I liked best: milk, wheat bread, chocolate, ice cream, eggs, tomatoes, peanuts. Since I have been treated by natural healing techniques, I haven’t had an attack of asthma.

House dust mite and moulds severely aggravate asthma in the genetically weak child. Lowered immune response and allergens are also high on the list. So, every sniffle becomes a fear, with bronchitis nearly always developing into asthma.

As a child, emotional excitement (giggling) set me off gasping. Now my strongest asthmatic reaction comes if I drink cask wine at a barbecue. It is safer to check labels on a good bottle of wine for the preservative that can affect the asthmatic.

Chiropractic was the first therapy that helped me. I had my middle spine adjusted, along with the ribs which affect the diaphragm. Massage along and around here freed a lot of the spasm that stimulated an attack.

Excellent results are also being gained from gently adjusting the cranium of an asthma patient thus affecting the fluid mechanism in the brain. This in turn stimulates the cranial nerve supply affecting the breathing response. This is heady stuff but many cases of asthma cure have been reported. This technique is chiropractic and osteopathic one where evidence of success is accumulating.

Bill’s story-I have suffered from bronchial asthma since I was eighteen and have been under medical treatment since then. The consequences have been debilitating. I could not play strenuous sport; a smoke-filled room brought on attacks of asthma and in the home we were unable to have carpets or curtains.

Since having chiropractic treatment my condition has improved dramatically. I can now enter a smoke-filled bar without ill effect, and our house has carpets and curtains!

A warm bath is good for muscle tension, while an infra-red lamp, twenty minutes a day either side, will relax the chest and dry out the mucus in the area. Infra-red also raises the temperature which is the naturopathic way to eliminate an infection or virus. (Be very careful with an infra-red lamp around children, as it gets very hot and will burn if touched.)

Moxibustion breaks the phlegm very quickly. A second moxibustion treatment can solve the case. Acupuncturists highly recommend this marvellous preventative treatment which does not require needles. Everyone who gets bronchial asthma should have moxibustion once each season for a year. In my experience that is all that is needed.

The other important factor in curing my asthma was the taking of vitamin C to eliminate the infection that started the attacks. Latest research has shown only good results from the constant taking of a little extra vitamin C. As an adult, I gradually increased the dosage to about 3 gms daily, 5 gms if I was under stress or if someone with flu had coughed all over me. This stimulates the immune system. I slowly reduced the dosage becoming healthier and more confident. As my resistance to colds and flu developed and I stopped getting tonsillitis, I noticed that my allergies were fewer and I could eat normally again.

In one of the articles that I wrote for Mode magazine, I attracted a lot of attention from the medical profession when I quoted research that showed that vitamin B12 injections could break a difficult asthmatic attack. Asthmatics often have difficulty in digestion, so injections work better and more quickly. Try them. Ask your doctor. So many more medical people are turning to natural methods and are willing to accommodate people who react adversely to drugs.

Garlic is a natural antibiotic. Take it in combination with horseradish. I know patients who have not had an asthma attack since they have taken this capsule. Combine it with vitamins A and C with bioflavinoids (these are found in the pith of the citrus skin and aid in healing.) They are obviously easier to take as a tablet.

So too, a ‘new’ method of breathing (called Buteyko) is currently very popular with asthmatics. Judging by the response of patients, it is well worth learning.

The idea is to increase the interval between breaths so that the available carbon dioxide necessary for most asthmatics is slowly raised. This has the effect of relaxing the bronchials, and opening up the capillaries in the rest of the body.

This is simplistic but offers you something different to investigate. It goes without saying that an instructor is necessary and the technique must be mastered, before medication can be reduced. The results are impressive.

Asthmatics respond very well to homoeopathics, but see the practitioner for an individual assessment. Homoeopathics support not supplant the regular pharmaceutical medication prescribed by the doctor. However, if the drugs are a derivative of cortisone, they are much less effective as a rule. Have these homoeopathics on hand: in urgent cases they will help until the doctor arrives.

ACONITE for the first sign of a cold or sniffle. Or for fear during an attack.

It calms.

ANT TART Wheezing. Rattling of mucus in the chest.

ARSEN ALB for the midnight to 2 a.m. attack.

CARBO VEG for an attack after spasmodic coughing.

Ipecac for nausea and the loud noisy cough.

Kali carb for the 3-5 a.m. spasm.

Nux vox for attack after food upset with burping. Patient irritable.

*64\19\2*

However, it is very uncommon for a headache to be the first indication of a brain tumour; paralysis, stroke-like attacks or fits, yes. Headache, no. On the other hand, headaches are common symptoms of brain tumours, but only as a late event, long after the diagnosis has been made.

Tumours form when cells don’t know how to stop dividing; essentially, a tumour is an overgrowth of cells. There are two main types of tumours – benign and malignant. In benign tumours the cells overgrow, but don’t invade the tissue surrounding them, and there is often a layer of squashed normal tissue around the tumour. Often a benign tumour can be shelled out of the tissue it’s buried in, almost as one would shell the kernel out of a mil.

Benign tumours cause problems because they press on other tissues and organs in the body; and because benign tumours are very similar to the tissues they are derived from, they can produce the same chemicals – so it is quite possible for a benign tumour at a hormone-producing site (like the thyroid gland) lo produce an uncontrolled excess of hormone.

Basically, these are the only two ways that benign tumours can exert any unpleasant effects; simply by their physical presence, and sometimes by secreting excess hormones. Benign tumours never spread to distant parts of the body, and they seldom change into malignant ones.

What sort of tumours are commonly benign? Often breast lumps are found to be harmless; those little skin tags that often come round the neck are small benign tumours; and, as mentioned above, deeper in the body the thyroid can have benign tumours that may secrete extra thyroid hormone. The gut may have small benign growths in it.

Malignant tumours are a different kettle of fish altogether. These are cells which have really got out of control. As well as not knowing when to stop dividing, they also infiltrate the tissues surrounding them. Whereas a benign tumour frequently has a cyst-like shell around it, a malignant tumour doesn’t – which is why it is frequently difficult to remove, because there is no clear borderline between normal and abnormal tissue.

As well as spreading locally malignant tumours also spread to distant sites. A primary tumour (i.e., the tumour at the original site) throws off cells into either the bloodstream or, more commonly, the lymphatic system (a drainage system in the body, rather like the veins, that runs parallel to the circulatory system). Cells seeding off from the main cancerous tumour become deposited in areas of the body remote from the primary site. Once they have lodged in distant tissue they start to grow, forming a secondary tumour. Each type of cancer has a tendency to form secondary tumours in certain types of tissue. For example, cancer in the bowel tends to cause secondary growths in the liver; cancer of the breast often moves to the bones; cancer of the lung tends to form secondary tumours in the brain. However, these are not hard and fast rules, and a particular type of cancer can spread to a number of different sites.

Malignant tumours are fatal in a number of ways. Firstly, and most importantly, they seem to have an ability to suck the nutrients out of the system so that they grow at the body’s expense – the cancer gets bigger as the patient gets thinner. Secondly, they can erode into important organs, preventing them working properly; and, finally, they can exert the same pressure and hormonal effects that benign tumours also exert, often made more complex because, being more primitive tissue, they can produce hormones that are wildly different from those normally produced by the tissue they come from.

Malignant tumours also cause problems because they invade and destroy the tissues that they have formed in. Frequently they cause more pain in the secondary site than they do in the original site – bone pain from secondaries can be particularly severe.

What sorts of cancers give rise to headaches? The answer is actually quite complex. Any tumour inside the skull can cause pressure on the brain, both locally and by obstructing the outflow of cerebro-spinal fluid – and in raising the pressure within the skull, benign tumours can be just as bad as malignant ones. A rise in pressure causes dull persistent headaches, but by the time headaches happen, other symptoms have usually occurred – such as weakness in an arm or leg, or changes in vision or speech. In addition, with a malignant abnormality there may be loss of weight, together with a general feeling of exhaustion and malaise.

Tumours inside the skull can be primary; in other words, they arise from the tissues inside the skull, such as the brain or its surrounding coverings; but more often brain tumours are secondary. Cancers which commonly manifest themselves in the brain include cancers of the breast and the lungs.

Don’t forget that there’s more to the head than just the brain. Malignancies can also affect the bones of the skull – usually secondary cancers, though primary tumours can arise in the sinuses. Secondary cancers can affect the bones of the spine, and primary tumours, both benign and malignant, can also affect the pituitary gland, which is a gland underneath the main part of the brain. The pituitary’s job is to secrete hormones which control growth, reproduction, and water balance, among other things. Headaches are common with pituitary tumours, both benign and malignant.

*69\20\2*

The brain is soft and delicate, and needs protecting from direct blows by the solid walls of the skull, which completely enclose it. liven though these bones are quite thin, they protect the brain very effectively from all but the heaviest blows. The part of the skull which surrounds the brain is shaped like the shell of an egg -thin, but amazingly strong. Like the egg, the skull derives its strength from its smooth, ovoid shape, which distributes the force of incoming blows in such a way as to disperse their energy evenly. There are very few discontinuities, which act as weak points where stress might build up, so it usually takes a very hard blow to crack the skull and an even harder blow to stove it in.

Although the brain is well protected against direct injury, no amount of external protection can ever prevent the disruption that occurs from a twisting, rotating force suddenly applied to the head – such as a sideways punch to the jaw. When this occurs, the skull spins round rapidly, but the brain doesn’t follow quite so fast, being semi-solid (rather like blancmange). In just the same way that you can split a plate of blancmange by suddenly twisting it, so the shearing forces from a blow pull and stretch the nerve fibres as they travel across the brain. In minor cases, this stretching merely causes a temporary disruption of brain activity (being ‘knocked out’, or made unconscious). In more severe cases there is permanent brain damage, as the fibres are stretched until they snap, or small blood vessels rupture and bleed.

It doesn’t need a single, severe injury to cause brain damage. Repeated blows can have the same effect, even if they’re not strong enough to knock you out. The ‘punch-drunk’ fighter is a classic example – a boxer who over the years has sustained many blows to his head. As a result of these frequent minor injuries his brain functions slowly deteriorate, his IQ drops, his speech is slurred and his movements are uncoordinated.

*54\20\2*

What else could it he?

A stroke is typified by one-sided paralysis with or without loss of speech. A true stroke implies permanent damage to the brain, but there are two processes that can cause temporary interruption to the normal workings of the brain in a similar sort of way. The first is a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA), which is discussed later in this chapter. However, TIAs and strokes can only be distinguished because one goes away and the other doesn’t; at first they are indistinguishable.

The second process that can cause temporary paralysis is bemiplcgic migraintA This is a moderately uncommon, but particularly alarming type of migraine, especially the first time you experience it. Not only do you get the normal symptoms of migraine – but also weakness or even paralysis of one or more limbs on one side of the body. Fortunately, hemiplegic migraine resolves spontaneously, and although dramatic and frightening, seldom causes permanent damage.

However, there is a sort of halfway house between a stroke and hemiplegic migraine, and this is the type of migraine that sometimes comes on as a side-effect of the contraceptive pill. In this it is possible to have a hemiplegic migraine that actually progresses to a stroke. If you have your first ever attack of migraine on the contraceptive pill, you should stop taking it immediately. Migraines caused by the Pill (rather than just exacerbated by it) may well go on to cause a stroke.

*44\20\2*

In bacterial meningitis, it is usual to give special antibiotics such as Rifampicin to those people who are close contacts of the patient; in practice, this usually means just those who are living in the same house. These antibiotics hopefully will kill off any of the organisms in these exposed people. It is not usually thought necessary to treat the more occasional contacts, as meningitis is not that infectious, and in practice only close contacts are likely to be vulnerable.

Self-help

The only self-help of relevance is to be on the look-out for a stiff neck (on bending forward) whenever you get a fever or a headache. This applies especially if you live in a community which seems to have a large number of meningitis cases. Watch for that stiff neck, without getting paranoid about it. Always check for a stiff neck whenever you or someone in your family gets a headache or a temperature then if it is meningitis you’ll spot it early.

Testing a young child for a stiff neck isn’t easy; they don’t like having their neck forcibly bent. Instead, make a game of it. Ask the child if she can touch her knee with her nose, if she can, she’s very unlikely to have a stiff neck. And don’t forget that children under eighteen months don’t always get a stiff neck. Instead, where it’s still present, the fontanelle bulges.

*29\20\2*