SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS: STRESS
On top of each kidney is a gland called the adrenal. The adrenal glands have a number of roles to play in the body, one of them is to enable us to cope with the many different stresses we encounter in life. When we are under stress the adrenal glands release the stress hormones adrenalin, cortisone and testosterone.
Adrenalin is released to speed up the metabolism of all cells of the brain and body giving us the energy we need to meet the stress. It achieves this by stimulating the liver to release all its stores of glucose. It also shuts down the digestive processes by sending the blood from the digestive tract to the brain, eyes and muscles. Because of this we don’t digest and absorb our food properly when we’re under stress and run the risk of malnutrition if the stress is prolonged. Unfortunately, we need extra nutrients during times of stress to sustain the high revving metabolism. Imbalances in the metabolism develop when these nutrients are not forthcoming. Putting food in the stomach at this time causes the abdomen to distend giving us that same uncomfortable, bloated feeling we get from eating a food we’re allergic to or feeding a gut-borne Candida infection with sugar- and white-flour-containing foods.
Cortisone is released to dissolve the proteins collagen and elastin into amino acids. These amino acids are converted to glucose by the liver in an effort to prevent a glucose shortage. (More glucose is needed when we are under stress.) A glucose shortage would produce such severe metabolic imbalances as to cause serious shock, fainting and even coma. Sluggish, unhealthy livers have trouble converting amino acids quickly enough and shock and fainting spells are common in highly stressed people with unhealthy livers. (Lack of oxygen and vitamins and minerals as well as excess of alcohol, drugs and nicotine are the major cause of an unhealthy liver.)
Unfortunately for us, collagen and elastin are the major structural proteins of the skin, muscle and blood vessels. If they are dissolved faster than we can replace them the skin, muscles and blood vessels lose their tone and elasticity. In this way stress ages us prematurely (wrinkles, stretch marks, blue spider veins and purple patches in the skin). Weakened blood vessel walls are prone to leaking water and plasma proteins into the tissues, causing fluid retention. Vitamins C, A and B6 and minerals zinc, manganese and silica are the principal nutrients needed for collagen and elastin manufacture and should always be taken in supplementary form during times of stress. To be fully effective they must be taken with all the other vitamins and minerals, that is, in a complete multi-vitamin tablet.
As well as dissolving proteins to provide glucose, cortisone acts as nature’s own built-in anti-inflammatory. Adrenally produced cortisone has served man well since the dawn of time, reducing the inflammations encountered from the stresses of hunting wild animals and fighting invaders. These stresses for the main part were significant but short lived. When the danger was over the adrenal glands would relax and the levels of stress hormones would return to normal. The more subtle but prolonged stresses modern man is subjected to keeps high levels of cortisone in the white blood cells. This suppresses their normal function and predisposes the body to allergies and infections. Resting levels of cortisone do not have this effect.
Testosterone accelerates the processes of growth and repair of damaged tissue that results from stress. Broken bones, hair line fractures, bruises and sprains encountered as a result of over-exercise (running marathons) and heavy contact sports are examples of this. It also stimulates the sebaceous glands to produce extra sebum which pours out into the skin giving it an oily appearance. This oil acts as an insulator which retains body heat.
Increased body temperature speeds up tissue repair and protects us from the cold which, in itself, is a major stress. Unfortunately, the sebaceous glands often become so stimulated during times of stress they produce sebum faster than they can release it onto the skin. The glands swell and burst, releasing the sebum into the dermis of the skin where, being a foreign body, it causes allergic reactions that give rise to acne.
The adrenal stress hormones served ancient humans well. Adrenalin to give them the energy to cope, cortisone to reduce inflammation and provide the glucose (sugar) energy, testosterone to speed the repair of damaged tissues and beta endorphins to kill the pain encountered during fighting or running barefoot over rough terrain.
So often do modern humans misuse their adrenal glands that this misuse becomes part of everyday life and hard to recognise. Hard-chargers are the main culprits here. Being highly motivated people they force themselves on, even when the body has had enough and wants a rest. This pushing of themselves whips the adrenal glands, forcing them to produce more and more of the stress hormones.
Tired bodies come to rely on adrenalin for energy instead of normal cellular respiration. They rely on cortisone to suppress the inflammation of allergies that can develop in tired bodies, instead of letting normal body resistance prevent sub-clinical allergies from flaring up. They rely on beta endorphins to kill the pain that wouldn’t exist if allergies hadn’t flared up and to buoy the spirits that would be naturally high in a body that isn’t stressed. Hard-chargers become more and more reliant on bodily produced chemical highs lo maintain feelings of well-being. In time the adrenal glands become so tired they are unable to produce enough stress hormones to satisfy demand and the symptoms of stress, particularly chronic fatigue, set in. By this time beta endorphin production has also dropped significantly.
The adrenal glands are tough and can take a lot of stress before they become seriously fatigued. It takes time to wear them down. During this period of wearing down, the major symptom that the glands are tiring is tiredness on the cessation of activity. In those who have allergies, a worsening of allergy symptoms usually accompanies the onset, of tiredness after activity.
Because it can take years to completely wear the glands down hard-chargers get into the habit of whipping their adrenals every time they want energy. So responsive are the tired glands that hard-chargers become lulled into a false sense of security, believing energy will always be there if they just use their willpower to push on.
Some people get so into the habit of this practice over the years they believe it’s natural and can’t understand it when chronic fatigue sets in and significant allergies develop. However, not all people experience the onset of their allergies at the point of adrenal exhaustion.
Some experience their onset during the wearing down period and get locked into the vicious cycle of pushing themselves to produce more cortisone to reduce the inflammatory symptoms of their allergy, not realising that the same cortisone is lowering their resistance and thus aggravating the allergy in the classic Catch 22 manner.
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SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS: DIABETES
Late onset diabetes is one of the most common symptoms of a significant imbalance in the body’s metabolism and is caused by a deficiency in the mineral chromium. Late onset diabetes develops slowly over the years and is recognised as a glucose resistance to the hormone insulin. Insulin’s job is to latch onto glucose in the bloodstream, take it to the cell and push it through the cell wall into the cell where it’s burned to produce energy. Chromium’s job is to bring glucose and insulin together and ensure a secure bond between them. If there is a deficiency in chromium, glucose and insulin float through the blood ignoring each other. Because the cells are now missing out on their major energy source they have to fall back on their second choice energy source, fat.
The blood fat and cholesterol levels rise as these reserves are mobilised for energy production. High fat and cholesterol levels born of this metabolic imbalance don’t respond well to strict anti-cholesterol diets that are designed to treat cholesterol born of overindulgence in saturated fat foods (all processed meats, fried foods, hamburgers, chips, TV dinners, packaged foods, butter). This is because such foods as beef and liver that are considered too high in cholesterol to eat are rich in chromium. Whole wheat also contains chromium. White flour has all its chromium removed in the milling process.
The only other significant source of chromium is brewer’s yeast and there was a time when beer provided plenty of it. Unfortunately these days very few brands of beer are brewed from yeast (they’re now chemically brewed) and a good source of chromium has been lost. Very few people will take brewer’s yeast in its natural form. Is it any wonder that late onset diabetes and high cholesterol are on the rise? Chromium deficiency is on the increase as more and more manufactured foods are replacing natural foods at the dinner table. Imbalances in glucose metabolism are on the increase and account for under-functioning, sluggish livers, lack of mental acuity and intractable over-weight problems as well as late onset diabetes and high cholesterol levels.
Not only dietary deficiencies are involved in overall chromium deficiency. Each pregnancy can cause white blood cell chromium to drop by 50 per cent. The glucose drips that accompany surgical operations cause chromium levels to drop to one-third of normal and if the patient has a postoperative viral infection the end results can be disastrous if chromium supplements are not taken.
Diabetes, like heart attacks, offers very few early warning signs. Most people don’t know they’ve got it till they’ve got it. Intractably high cholesterol levels are seldom recognised as an early diagnostic sign. The gradual loss of tolerance to alcohol from mid-life on is a classic sign of chromium deficiency and impending diabetes.
The removal from the diet of such cholesterol-containing foods as beef and liver doesn’t help reduce cholesterol in those with late onset diabetes or the beginnings of it. In fact it aggravates the condition. These foods are rich in chromium and actually help to lower the cholesterol levels in those whose high cholesterol is linked to chromium deficiency diabetes. I’ve found that those patients of mine whose cholesterol levels are still above normal despite sticking to the standard cholesterol-lowering diet are invariably chromium deficient. It’s amazing how many high cholesterol sufferers fall into this category and how quickly they respond to chromium (plus all the other vitamins and minerals) supplementation. High cholesterol, for most people, is the result of imbalances in the metabolism. Balancing the metabolism with the Metabolism-Balancing Program is the best way to treat it.
Evidence to support the importance of balancing the metabolism with adequate vitamin and mineral intake can be found in the dietary habits of different groups. Eskimos eat a diet high in saturated fats yet rarely have atherosclerosis. Liver is prized among these people, and with good reason, as it contains just about every vitamin and mineral known. It is rich in chromium and all the support vitamins and minerals needed for chromium to be effective. Vegetarians who eat a diet low in saturated fats often develop atherosclerosis. This is not surprising as most vegetarians do not supplement their diet with brewer’s yeast or sugar beet molasses. Both these foods are rich in chromium and the principal support nutrients of iron, selenium, manganese, vitamin B12 and folic acid needed by chromium to complete its metabolic chores. Guinness stout (made in Ireland) is a good source of sugar beet molasses and brewer’s yeast. Australian stout is made from cane molasses which isn’t as nutritious. Don’t overdo it though. If too much stout (alcohol) is consumed the liver will be damaged and the metabolism unbalanced once more.
It’s no coincidence that Grandma took molasses during and after pregnancy and that she mulled stout and gave it to those with infections and those recovering from surgery. The mulling process involves the plunging of a hot poker into the stout to burn off its alcohol content. Her winter/spring remedy of molasses and sulfur powder was a great tonic as well as a cleanser.
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THE ANTI- CANDIDA PROGRAM: THE KILL-OFF
Don’t be dismayed if at first you feel worse. Your symptoms may well Hare up at this time. This is the result of the Nystatin or garlic and Caprinex killing off the yeast, not the result of an allergy to Nystatin. As a result of the yeast drying, extra acetaldehyde and bits of dead yeast are released into the blood. The waste products arc carried right through the body to the kidneys for elimination.
As these waste products pass through the system they can make you feel ill. The symptoms vary from mild to severe depending on the size of the yeast colony and can last for two to seven days. All you can do is drink lots of fluid between meals to dilute the toxins, stay on the regime and rest. Painkillers won’t work, just bear with it. Sometimes extra Nystatin or garlic helps to shorten the kill-off period. Use cortisone creams if eczema flares up and keep asthma medication handy. Some people find that going back to antihistamines helps mitigate the kill-off symptoms. Use cortisone puffers if asthma is bad.
Don’t be alarmed if your urine is dark and odorous and your bowel motions greeny yellow in colour. This is the result of your bowel, blood and liver cleansing themselves. It indicates a significant Candida infection and a toxic liver and that your body is responding positively to the program. This is a good sign.
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THE METABOLISM- BALANCING PROGRAM: LUNCH
Not to be eaten any later than 1.30 p.m.
A little fruit juice or water (glucose if necessary) must be sipped before and during lunch.
If you’ve missed your morning deep breathing exercises then twenty minutes’ yogic walking in the park before lunch is a good substitute—it will relax and energise you for the rest of the day.
The lunch options can be mixed and matched in the same way as the breakfast options.
OPTION 1
Good for those with high cholesterol, although suitable for anyone. A garden salad using any variety of garden vegetables, lean meat (all the fat trimmed off), fish or poultry (peel the skin off). Have 120-240 g (4-8 oz) of meat fish or poultry.
Have also 120-240 g (4-8 oz) of a carbohydrate food, such as cooked potato, cooked brown rice, wholemeal pasta or whole-meal bread (not rice cakes), to keep the blood glucose levels normal.
You may have a dressing of cold pressed olive oil (only) with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar added. Any other herbs or spices that take your fancy may be added to the dressing. If you want to sweeten the salad dressing add crushed egg shells (crushed to a fine powder) to the vinegar. Egg shells are an excellent source of calcium in a calcium deficient world. Don’t sweeten the dressing with sugar or honey.
OPTION 2
For those with normal cholesterol levels only.
The same salad as Option 1 with the addition of 30-60 g (1-2 oz) of cheese and occasionally some processed meats such as devon, luncheon sausage, ham, corned beef or salami.
No rice cakes. No more than 60-90 g (2-3 oz) of processed meat, no more than two or three times per week. I lave only plain cheddar cheeses. The fancy ones (for example, blue vein and camembert) contain cancer-causing substances.
Three or four whole fresh fruits with 60-180 g (2-6 oz) of nuts and / or seeds and/or puffed brown rice (from the health store).
Or, a fresh fruit salad with the same amount of nuts, seeds or brown puffed rice (rice bubbles) on top. Or, stewed fruit with nuts, seeds, brown rice, milk and honey.
OPTION 4
Good for those with high cholesterol, although suitable for anyone. A vegetable soup using any variety of garden vegetables thickened with pearl barley, lentils and soya beans and one or two slices of wholemeal bread (no rice cakes) with a spread of olive oil. Make sure that soybeans are the main ingredient, they are excellent for normalising the cholesterol levels. Rice bran may be added as an additional thickener. It has an excellent cholesterol-normalising action as well. Any herbs and spices may be used.
OPTION 5
For those with normal cholesterol only.
The same soup as Option 4. with less soya beans and lentils and the addition of lean meat, fish or poultry (any variety) to it instead.
Any herb or spice that takes your fancy may be added. A thin spread of butter may be added to the wholemeal, bread if your cholesterol levels are normal. (No rice cakes.)
OPTION 6
Wholemeal bread (no rice cakes) sandwiches (one to three depending on your size, hunger and activity levels) with a lean meat, fish or poultry filling, 30-90 g (1-3 oz) of each.
Other fillings such as tahini, peanut butter, almond, cashew or hazelnut paste may be used. You can have canned or smoked fish occasionally. Unprocessed, natural cheese may be included as a filling if the cholesterol levels are normal.
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E-TYPES: THE FUN-LOVERS
Fun-lovers would not know what stress was if they tripped over it, and look in amazement when it’s explained to them that they are doing too much. Fun-lovers embrace life with a great enthusiasm and are often impetuous. Being optimists they frequently bite off more than they can chew, long before they realise it. They burn out doing all those things they enjoy. Their personalities lack the intensity of the achievers and the urgency of the doers, though some doers exhibit some of the fun-lover traits.
Fun-lovers are into everything and often have lots of friends and a busy social life. They are not irresponsible. Most of them pursue interesting careers or at least hold down steady jobs. (In this context motherhood and domesticity are considered to be careers.) An over-abundance of enthusiasm is what drives them and they burn out trying to pursue all their interests and keep in touch with all their friends. Workaholic fun-lovers do exist. They differ from achiever and doer workaholics in that work to them is fun and they are just not aware of the hours they are putting in. Because of their lack of intensity they usually last longer than others before the effects of over-work set in.
Fun-lovers, like all hard-chargers, have to learn to pace themselves. They have to learn to get the balance right. Fun-lovers are like kids in a candy shop. Life to them is sweet, colourful and has so many different flavours they just can’t wait to taste.
Most hard-chargers find it difficult to accept that their attitude and lifestyle is the root cause of their symptoms, as they invariably know someone with a similar lifestyle who is perfectly well. This may well be true and for a number of reasons:
• The other person doesn’t have allergies or a Candida yeast infection. The hard-chargers that seek me out have low-grade allergies which, prior to them becoming stressed, have never given them any symptoms. Since their cumulative stresses have built up over a period of time, their resistance has waned and the allergy symptoms have manifested.
• The other person hasn’t been stressed for as long. The human body has remarkable powers of adaptation and can put up with stress for a long time before it’s adaptive mechanisms break down. In a way this is not a good thing as it lulls us into a false sense of security. Because we are able to lead a stressful lifestyle for so long without any ill effects we naturally look for another cause when the symptoms of disease begin to manifest. If we are lucky enough to be born well nourished, with a genetically strong constitution, have no low-grade allergies or Candida yeast infections and have had no pregnancies, terminations, or surgery, we can cope with high levels of stress and remain symptom free for a long time. However, symptoms in time do come and their cause is frequently misdiagnosed. Because we are so much in the habit of living a stressful lifestyle, we are actually comfortable with it and feel uncomfortable at the thought of making changes to it. Such is the power of habit. Because it takes time to change habits we are patient and accept that it will take time for us to change. The best program to be on while reorganising our lifestyle is the Metabolism-Balancing Program. The deep breathing and mental relaxation exercises given in this chapter also help this process of change significantly.
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TAKING CARE OF YOUR BACK: AIR TRAVEL-CARRYING LUGGAGE
Airline seats vary in comfort according to the price. Economy-class seats are designed to be particularly mean with elbow and leg room, but on long journeys, even the more expensive seats can leave you feeling stiff. Get up and walk about at least every hour if you possibly can.
Sleeping in your seat has to be done in one position – leaning back – and that is usually a sure way to a stiff neck. The inadequate little cushions handed out by the airlines on
long-distance flights are not much help: placed behind the neck, they are unyielding and slide out. Most airport shops and luggage shops sell U-shaped inflatable cushions which support the neck quite efficiently, and the airline’s cushion can go in the small of your back or be used as and additional arm support.
A shoulder bag, such as an airline carry-on bag, is better than a hand-held bag, provided this does not lead to uneven posture on one side – try putting the strap diagonally across the body rather than over one shoulder. Or carry two evenly loaded bags, one in each hand.
Suitcases and holdalls can be troublesome to someone liable to back pain. The logical solution to carrying luggage is to divide the load into three: in a rucksack over your shoulders, and one small case in each hand. The rucksack certainly distributes the weight more evenly and allows the back muscles to contract more evenly on both sides.
A suitcase with its own wheels can take much of the lifting out of moving luggage. Make sure that the handle is at a comfortable height, that the suitcase comes with a strap to pull it along, otherwise trying to wheel a small suitcase with castors underneath would mean walking with an awkwardly twisted spine.
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UNDERSTANDING BACK TROUBLE: PREVENTING A RECURRENCE-BACK SCHOOLS AND ADVICE ON POSTURE
For people who have already experienced one episode of back trouble, the probability of being struck by an acute attack of back pain is higher than for people who have never yet been troubled. This is because an attack, regardless of what caused it, tends to leave the victim with a degree of damage to the tissues, or with less elastic back and abdominal muscles than before.
Back schools-There are a growing number of back schools, usually attached to physiotherapy departments in hospitals. Instructionshould consist of advice on how to use the body, actively and posturally. Anatomy of the spine and descriptions of the causes of back pain are included. Advice on the layout, planning and design of work – ergonomics – is also given. The lesson is simple: the better you understand your back, the more readily you can cope when it is painful.
Advice on posture-Many of us acquire minor postural deformities which lead to avoidable backache and which can be treated: for example, the tendency to a rounded back, head poked forward and shoulders tensed up. If this is due to muscular imbalance and stiffness, exercises should help. But often it is just a matter of habit. Old habits should therefore be shed and new ones learned, and postural advice on a new way of using your body can help.
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CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT: INJECTION THERAPY
Injection therapy-In some cases, pain can be relieved by injecting pain-relieving drugs directly into the area of the spine where the pain appears to be localised. It can be effective for treating ‘trigger points’ (fibrositis), small, very painful nodules of muscle and/or fibrous tissue often in the buttocks, neck and shoulders, tension or pressure on which often spreads the pain over a wider area.
A corticosteroid drug may be injected, together with a local anaesthetic to limit the inflammatory process. The relief may not be immediate, or long-lasting, and a number of injections may be required for the treatment to be effective.
Epidural injections have been are used for pain which has not yielded to any other methods. These injections are given into the epidural space between the dural tube and the spinal canal, at the lower end of the sacrum. They consist of a corticosteroid drug mixed with a local anaesthetic. This numbs the tube, and reduces inflammation, such as that set up by a prolapsed disc. The injection cannot put right the prolapse itself, but in most cases time is the best healer for this, and epidural injections, like other pain-relieving measures, make the period of waiting seem less interminable.
Much backache arises from the facet joints. Pain originating in facet joints can radiate down the leg and mimic sciatica. In some cases, injecting steroids and a local anaesthetic into the joint can modify the pain. If relief is only temporary, the nerve to the facet can be destroyed, producing permanent relief. The technique is one which is reserved for experts.
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UNDERSTANDING BACK TROUBLE OTHER BACK PROBLEMS-OSTEOPOROSIS
This is a bone condition associated with growing old, and may affect any bone, not just those of the back. It takes the form of loss of bone material (calcium and minerals), making the bones fracture more easily. The spine tends to shrink in overall length, so that the person becomes shorter. In advanced cases, the affected vertebrae may collapse in a series of crush fractures, so that the sufferer develops a curvature of the spine, becoming round-shouldered. The ‘dowager’s hump’ seen in elderly women may be caused in this way.
There is some association with the sex hormones, because osteoporosis is common in
post-menopausal women and women whose ovaries have been removed. In them, it responds dramatically to treatment with oestrogen-hormone replacement therapy.
Physically active people are less likely to develop osteoporosis. Exercise is thought to have some protective function. Bone loss can be the result of prolonged immobility, and is one reason why doctors discourage patients from staying in bed longer than absolutely necessary. Astronauts spending weeks and months in space beyond the reach of earth’s gravitational pull also suffer bone loss – but this is not yet a common hazard!
The loss of bone is not in itself painful, but there may be pain anywhere in the spine and in the joints between the spine and the ribs, as the spine adapts to its new conformation. Loss of spinal bone leading to crush fractures may lead to trapping of pain-sensitive structures, such as nerve roots.
A related but much less common complaint is osteomalacia, a softening of the bones caused by vitamin D deficiency in adults (in children the result is rickets). It is thought that osteoporosis and osteomalacia may respond to increased calcium and vitamin D in the diet. But this is in no way proven, and people should certainly not dose themselves with calcium supplements – these may even make you ill.
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THE ABDOMINAL MUSCLES
These share the task of keeping the spine upright by exerting a pull down the front of the trunk that counterbalances that exerted by the back muscles. They also help the spine to bend, by pulling the front of the rib cage closer to the pelvis.
Abdominal muscles also control twisting actions between the shoulders and the pelvis – no golfer could do without them – and they are used when pushing, and for holding the posture when leaning backwards. When the body is bent sideways, they share the work with the back muscles on that side.
A muscle called psoas (from the Greek for loin) passes from the lumbar vertebral bodies, round the pelvis, and over each hip joint to the upper end of each thigh-bone. It contracts when you sit up from lying down. When it is active, it pulls on the lumbar vertebrae, compressing the discs.
There is also an indirect mechanism by which the abdominal muscles support the spine. When a weight is being lifted, these muscles, in conjunction with the back muscles and the other muscles forming the abdominal cavity, tighten automatically. This increases the pressure inside the cavity, making it load bearing (in the same way that inflating a balloon makes it able to support a weight), and as the compressed abdomen presses against the spine, it absorbs some of the load on the spine, and helps the back to straighten up.
Weight-lifters deliberately increase their intra-abdominal pressure by wearing a special belt. For ordinary people, it is enough to keep the abdominal muscles in good condition: this is very important for preventing backache.
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