Health News

If you have never moved, then you cannot imagine what happens. You literally are spun around. You might want to go to bed, all right, but not for sex. It just becomes a place to hide. At least most times you can find the bed even if everything else is lost or in a box.

WIFE

Almost half of our population changes residence every five years or so. We are a mobile, relocating society. Every psychotherapist knows that moving, changing where you live, is one of the most disruptive of life experiences. I noticed that the inpatient unit at my hospital typically contained patients who had moved relatively recently. The move itself does not cause their emotional problems, but the stress accompanying moving probably exacerbates any propensity to fail to cope.

Early in the super marital sex program, some couples who seemed to be making excellent progress regressed during the five-year follow-up. One factor often mentioned was relocation. They reported an almost complete upheaval across their life experience and their sexual relationship suffered from either neglect or situational disruption.

At a recent professional meeting on marital and sexual therapy t one of my colleagues questioned the possibility that moving could really cause sexual problems. He felt that such problems were caused by what he called “deeper-seated problems within the marriage.”

This question misses the point that most problems causing marital and sexual difficulties are “transitional problems” common to all of us. To assume that moving is not stressful enough to disrupt sexuality is to fail to realize that any system, particularly a marital system, is affected by change. How the couple copes with the change, and the couple’s ability to preserve emotional intimacy even at times of more mechanical, mundane requirements, is a key predictor of the adaptive strength of the marriage.

Moving alters social support systems and parenting responsibilities; it heightens feelings of vulnerability and causes feelings of “temporariness.” It is not just the stress of moving that makes relaxed, intimate sexuality difficult, but memories or unresolved issues associated with places and people left behind. The couple may move closer to or farther from one set of parents and may feel resentment. “I don’t really think it was a factor,” said one husband, “but when we moved from Boston to Chicago, we were that much closer to her parents, who live in Hawaii. It sounds ludicrous when I say it, but I’ll bet it played some part in why she took this new job.” The lack of communication and trust ?n this statement was playing itself out in the sexuality of this couple. The wife reported, “Since we moved, he has been kind of cold, distant. We have sex, but not quite like before.” If this is what the colleague who questioned the impact of moving meant by “deeper” issues being at work when marital problems result, then certainly these are important to intimacy, but this was and still is a strong and loving couple who was disrupted by the move and for whom the issue of moving brought up issues that would otherwise not have been so intrusive.

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Joseph Robinson was a businessman in his forties, whose position in his company was threatened by increasing ill health. He traced the onset of his sickness to a tonsillectomy. Soon after this operation, persistent nasal stuffiness and a postnasal drip developed, which did not respond to any medication.

A busy person, Robinson paid little attention to these symptoms. A few years later, he began to get headaches in the front of his forehead. These usually came on an hour or two after the evening meal and persisted for the evening. They were often accompanied by bouts of fatigue, “laziness,” and mental exhaustion, which kept him pinned to the living-room couch, unable to move.

At first these problems were restricted to the evening hours and were easily attributed to the difficulty and tension of Robinson’s job. Soon, however, the fatigue and mental exhaustion began to creep into his daytime hours as well. He would start to go home early, or rest his head on the desk when he was supposed to be working. His job was in jeopardy when he was first examined for ecologic illness.

A variety of the foods which he ate most commonly, including wheat, milk, eggs, coffee, citrus fruit, legumes, chocolates, various meats, and nuts were eliminated for a week or so. To his amazement, he felt much better, experiencing far less fatigue and no headaches. One by one, these foods were returned to his diet. All of them were tolerated with no return of symptoms except for beef and milk (which are closely related). On the third day of eating beef products, he developed a severe headache which lasted ten hours. He developed a headache half an hour after eating his fourth milk-containing meal. Chocolate also made him feel tired.

With the complete avoidance of beef, milk, and chocolate, all of his symptoms of fatigue, headache, and brain-fag disappeared. As a final test, one month later, he treated himself to a glass of milk. A sharp headache rapidly developed. After about six months, however, he regained tolerance for milk, beef, and their by-products. He was then able to reintroduce them into his diet, provided that he did not have any of them more often than once every four days. He had successfully solved the problem that was ruining his career. In fact, his position in the company improved, and he gained a promotion.

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In June, 1972, the Johnson family lay sleeping in their rustic house, built alongside a brook in a Western state. At around 6:30 a.m., without prior warning, a helicopter came in low over their rooftop and began discharging a heavy white fog along the power company’s right-of-way, which adjoined the house. Four times it swooped down to release a toxic plume of herbicide, in order to kill all vegetation growing beneath the high steel towers of the company.

Although the wind was only three miles per hour that morning, the powerful downdraft of the helicopter’s blades propelled the chemicals in the direction of the sleeping household.

Awakened by the sound of the chopper, Mr. Johnson aroused the family, whose members gulped down a hasty breakfast and left the house. As soon as they emerged from the door, however, they were enveloped in a cloud of Tordon 100, a herbicide which contains Pictoran and 2,4-D.

The worst affected was Johnson’s teenage daughter, Lydia. She felt nauseated and dizzy and had persistent headaches for weeks following this incident. Her eyes were dry, with a burning sensation, and she suffered from shortness of breath and coughing, even when the family moved to Johnson’s mother’s house, miles away. Many bizarre symptoms followed this exposure. All that summer the children were tired almost all the time and slept for long hours at a stretch, although they were normally active and energetic. In September, they returned to their home for the first time since the spraying.

The helicopter had left a wide swath of destruction in its path. From the powerlines, over and past their house, and up the hill behind them, the vegetation and plants were either dead, dying, or deformed. A beautiful fig tree which had stood in their yard was leafless and barren.

Not long after this, Johnson was hospitalized with a mysterious “lung problem.” By June of the next year, Lydia’s eyes no longer focussed properly, and she could not take final exams. Her lips were swollen, and her eyelids were sometimes so enlarged that she could not see out of them. Doctors at a local hospital refused to treat her, however, claiming that her problems were all “psychosomatic” and “hysterical.”

By December, 1973, Lydia had trouble walking. She could not maintain her balance and moved in a wobbly fashion, like a drunkard. She had to support herself by hanging onto furniture or clinging to the balustrade when she walked downstairs. Her local general practitioner referred her to a neurologist, who suggested that she was “trying to get attention” by feigning symptoms. He prescribed tranquilizers. Although not particularly susceptible to chemicals before being “abated,” Lydia now became susceptible to many substances, including tobacco smoke, perfumes, deodorants, motor exhausts, gasoline, and so forth. Although her worst symptoms decreased with time, she contracted severe headaches and difficulty in breathing whenever exposed to various chemicals. When she was tested in my hospital Ecology Unit, she was found to have allergies to wheat, corn, and a number of other foods. More dramatic, however, were her reactions to chemicals commonly encountered in daily life. After having avoided chemical exposure for many days, she was given a feeding of commercial apples, a food which she tolerated in their unsprayed form. The first feeding was followed by repeated clearing of the throat, coughing, and dizziness on sudden change of position. The second feeding of commercial tomato and tomato juice was followed by a sensation of burning in her mouth. A third meal of commercially canned chicken was followed by a headache at ten minutes, which rapidly increased in intensity and was soon accompanied by canker sores in the mouth, aching joints, aching leg muscles, and insomnia that night.

A feeding of commercially canned cherries brought on aching legs, while commercial lettuce caused a stomachache and shaking, quivering, and depression. These symptoms became severe about an hour and a half later, and she also cried and sobbed.

Finally, commercial frozen cauliflower brought on severe depression and crying after fifteen minutes, as well as residual shaking and numbness of the lower limbs on the following morning. It is noteworthy that this numbness was identical in feeling to that which followed the original spraying incident, although it was less severe than that experienced in 1972.

Despite the undemonstrable theories of her neurologists, Lydia Johnson was suffering from the chemical-susceptibility problem, brought on in her case by a massive exposure to herbicide months before. This initial exposure was maintained, albeit at a lower level, by daily exposure to common environmental chemicals, such as residues found in commercial food.

Air pollution from herbicides is becoming more common. Because of the use of similar defoliants during the Vietnam War, some of these effects are becoming better known. One of the chemicals to which Lydia Johnson was exposed, 2,4-D, is also an ingredient in the now infamous Agent Orange. Reports of Vietnam veterans sound remarkably like the symptoms reported by Lydia Johnson. According to one report on such veterans, published in the New York Times:

They say it is a poison that fell from the sky, a herbicide that was supposed to kill only unwanted plants. Instead, they insist, it has made them sick and changed their lives, and even though many years have passed since their exposure to it, they fear it still. They fear it has started processes within them that will make them sick again and perhaps kill them. No more eloquent—and frightening—condemnation could be made of the virtually unrestrained chemical contamination of our environment.

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Pollen

Mostly causes seasonal rhinitis (hay-fever). The timing of the symptoms will depend on the type of pollen at fault: February-May, with the peak in April, for tree pollen, June-July for grass pollen and July-August for weeds such as nettles, golden rod and mugwort. Pollen can also cause asthma. Where there is sensitivity to perennial allergens as well, the rhinitis may persist all year but get worse in spring or summer. ‘Hay-fever’ that begins in late July or August and continues into the autumn is more likely to be mould allergy.

In some people, certain foods can heighten sensitivity to pollen. Foods eaten only in summer (or in greater quantities then) can produce symptoms that may resemble hay-fever – suspect summer fruits, orange squash and ice-cream.

House dust

Human skin scales or other components of dust may be the problem, but more often it is the house-dust mite, Dermatophagoides (‘the skin-eater’). This minute animal lives on flakes of human skin shed by all of us in great quantities. It is not an insect, as is often stated, but a mite – a

distant relative of the spiders. Because it is not an insect, it is not killed by most insecticides. Some people react to the mites themselves but most are allergic to the faecal pellets (droppings). These are covered with a thin layer of protein produced by the mite, and it is the protein that acts as an allergen. House-dust mites thrive in dusty houses, old sofas and interior-sprung mattresses – foam mattresses are less of a problem. Sunshine and dry air are the mite’s greatest enemies, so it prefers fitted carpets cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, to loose rugs or carpets that are taken outside, beaten and left to hang in the sun for a while. Damp weather favours the mite so there may be a seasonal variation in the severity of attacks (note that damp also favours moulds). Shampooing a carpet can stir mites up and provoke an attack – especially in children playing on a carpet. Sensitivity varies: some people can obtain relief simply by discarding an old mattress or sofa, others require the house to be scrupulously clean, and free of all fitted carpets and upholstery.

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Medicine is a service industry. You, as a consumer, have the right to get the service you request and pay for. This should be your attitude when you approach your doctor. On your first visit tell your doctor:

• that you want to try a new approach in the treatment of your allergies and that you are on the Metabolism-Balancing Program;

• that you will be starting the Anti-Candida Program shortly and you want Nystatin powder;

• if you are on cortisone and antihistamine drugs, that you want him/her to supervise your gradual withdrawal from them so that you can take the skin sensitivity test, cytotoxic food test and RAST test;

• that you want to be referred to a competent, allergist who does accurate work and who will, if required, mix up a desensitising vaccine to be taken orally.

If he/she does not agree to help, go to another doctor who is open-minded and willing to help you try a new approach. Shopping for a good doctor is no different to shopping around for a good plumber or painter. Unfortunately, some people seem to think they have no consumer rights in matters pertaining to doctors and must accept everything that is meted out to them. This is not so. Just as the plumber and painter are expected to provide the service requested, so is the doctor. Don’t be intimidated. It is your health and it is your responsibility to take care of it Experience has taught, me that this assertive approach invariably ensures you find the type of doctor and the help you arc looking for.

It is preferable that you consult a doctor who is familiar with the practice of clinical ecology. Many doctors are unfamiliar with this new science and will tell you that, allergies have nothing to do with your symptoms. Don’t fall for this one, but if your doctor wants to run additional tests, by all means go along with him/her. If you have not sought treatment for your symptoms, it is wise to let your doctor treat, you conventionally at first. Remember, although allergy is the greatest mimicker of disease, there could well be some other reason for your condition.

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If after four weeks on the Anti-Candida Program you’re not seeing a steady improvement, keep off the amines and salicylates and check yourself out for allergies, both food and inhalant. There are two ways of doing this.

1. The preferred way is to ask your doctor or naturopath to refer you to an allergy specialist for the skin sensitivity test, cytotoxic food test and the RAST test. You can then ask for a suitable anti-allergy program, or you can go on the Anti-Candida Program in this book, minus the foods you’re allergic to, if they’re known. Having these tests will necessitate breaking the program by going off all the vitamins, antihistamines and cortisone. Stay on the Ventolin inhaler and any other non-cortisone/non-antihistamine drug your doctor has prescribed for you. Eat as wide a variety of foods as possible before the tests but not those you suspect are detrimental to your health. List them instead and delete them from the program along with those foods that you show up allergic to. Use cortisone pullers again after the tests. The cytotoxic food lest is a very important one. Because it is a relatively new test not all allergists use if. If your allergist doesn’t perform this test you’ll have to go with the next option. The skin and RAST tests are not accurate for foods but must, still be taken to determine the inhalant allergies (grasses, dust, pollens, moulds, animal dander, dust mites). During this time the elimination food allergy testing technique may be used in lieu of the cytotoxic food test. Get your doctor’s or naturopath’s advice on this and have them supervise the testing procedure.

2. To do the food elimination test, stay on the Anti-Candida Program and eliminate one food every four to five days. Eliminate first any food you suspect may be causing your symptoms. If removing them does not help then work your way through the foods listed below. Keep eliminating the foods one at a time every four to five days until your symptoms disappear (or, in the case of skin complaints, significantly improve). When you are satisfied that your symptoms have sufficiently abated, work your way back t h rough I he list, adding one each of the eliminated foods every four to five days to see if any symptoms return. This back check is very important. You may eliminate the foods in whatever order you feel is appropriate for you, though you must keep a record of those you have eliminated.

The Anti-Candida Program by its very nature includes a restrictive diet. Any diet that restricts the spectrum of foods eaten naturally restricts the number of nutrients available for absorption. For this reason a sound tissue reserve of vitamins and minerals is to be built up on the Metabolism-Balancing Program before commencing the Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program. Without this reserve you could become run down.

The popular misconception is that the Anti-Candida Program and Nystatin kills the yeasts. They don’t—they only weaken the Candida so that the white blood cells can easily kill them.

If you’re tired and run down on the Anti-Candida Program it is because: (a) you didn’t build up on the Metabolism-Balancing Program; or (b) you have overdone it workwise, exercisewise, socially or you have an infection, cold, or sore throat. Your white cells will be too tired to kill the weakened Candida. It gets worse. If you’re on the Anti-Candida Program while tired and overdoing it you’ll become even more run down (the Anti-Candida is not a high energy program) and your white cells even less efficient at killing the yeast. You will end up feeling worse than when you started the diet and often with a larger yeast colony as well, especially if in your run-down state you caught an infection and took antibiotics. This can also happen if you stay on the Anti-Candida Program for more than three months. Detractors of the Anti-Candida Program are invariably those who have fallen into one or all of the above traps.

Some of those who break the build-up and rest rule manage to remain symptom-free for a while on this regime only to see their symptoms return soon after going off it. This is not supposed to happen and shouldn’t if you’re properly built up before, and sufficiently rested during, the ninety days of the Candida-killing regime.

Do not confuse this with the elimination diet/challenge test regime used in some hospitals. This diagnostic procedure is potentially dangerous, for it places the patient on a very restrictive diet for four to six weeks. This lowers the immune vitality. Naturally, when the body, in this run down state, is challenged with concentrated food substances it reacts to practically all of them. The resultant diet is so restrictive that the body and immune system don’t pick up and although patients will be symptom-free for a while, eventually they become so run clown they begin reacting to the foods they are allowed to have. More foods are eliminated from the diet, malnutrition sets in, infections follow, as do the inevitable allergic reactions to the drug medications used to treat them. I’ve treated many refugees from this process. They’re not a pretty sight and so allergic by the time they seek my help it’s very hard to build/feed them back up to good health. Malnutrition is far more serious than allergy and is to be avoided all all costs.

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No, not if you are sensible and go onto the Metabolism-Balancing Program and supplements for the rest of your life once the Anti-Candida Program has been completed. So long as you limit your in-take of junk food to 5 per cent of total food intake, you will be quite QK.

Yes, if you go back to your old ways of eating too many refined, processed foods containing sugar and white Hour. If you overindulge in alcohol, cigarettes and take drugs. If you over-extend yourself at work, play and exercise, you will so lower your immune vitality as to predispose yourself to Candida infection again.

Some lifestyles include, by necessity, certain travel commitments, work commitments or social commitments connected to travel and work. The disruptions to everyday routine these commitments cause can mean periodic consumption of more junk food and alcohol than is desirable for keeping Candida at bay. The cumulative effects of these breaks in routine can mount up over time and cause the Candida symptoms to slowly return. If you are involved in this life mode make a point of going on the full Anti-Candida Program, with Nystatin, for one month every year. The best time to do it is at the beginning of each year, starting the week you return to work after the summer holidays. This will get you in good mental and physical shape for the year ahead and will give you the energy to take on all challenges. It will clean your system of any Candida plants that have grown over the previous year and especially as a result of the Christmas celebrations. It will get rid of that taste for alcohol and sweets that is so often the legacy of Christmas. It will set you up for another year on the Metabolism-Balancing Program and minimal junk food.

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Stress causes the release of the hormones adrenalin and cortisone from the adrenal glands. Adrenalin speeds up the metabolism of the body causing the cells to burn more glucose than normal. Cortisone, as mentioned, suppresses the power of the white blood cells to kill fungi, bacteria and viruses.

Over-work, over-commitment, over-exercising and over-socialising (with attendant late nights) are stresses sometimes encountered by Candida sufferers. These people think that because they are regularly taking Nystatin and sticking to the program, they can continue life at its normal frenetic pace and that everything will be fine. Not so.

Paradoxically, one of the greatest stresses can be the very program that is designed to starve the Candida. The big problem with the anti-allergy and anti-candida programs is that, by their very nature, they are food restrictive. By restricting the number of food types on a given program you restrict the quantity and the spectrum of nutrients in the diet.

Because white blood cells require an on-going and large supply of many different nutrients, their vitality can be lowered if restrictive programs are adhered to for too long. This is why a high potency broad spectrum vitamin and mineral formula (with the six essential minerals—calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron and manganese, plus hydrochloric acid to facilitate absorption) must be taken in tablet form by those on an anti-candida program. However, a vitamin and mineral supplement is not fully absorbed by those who are stressed through over-work, over-exercise, over-socialising or negative attitudes.

The initial Anti-Candida Program with its absence of natural sugars (fruit, honey, milk, yoghurt, etc.) is very food restrictive. Because a body under stress burns more glucose than normal, the foods eaten must provide that body with a ready source of glucose.

A shortage of glucose means the body becomes even more stressed and fatigue, light-headedness, depression and even fainting spells can develop. Depression and fainting spells usually lead to a craving for something sweet which invariably leads to a breaking of the program. This sometimes causes a flaring up of the condition being treated.

In any case, highly stressed people often show no improvement in their condition, despite the Nystatin and the program. When this happens they understandably become more stressed.

Highly stressed people have reduced digestive capacity. This means that the fresh, unrefined foods in the Anti-Candida Program, which are generally digested and converted to glucose more slowly than refined foods, take them even longer to digest and absorb. Yet rapid digestion and absorption of food, especially glucose, is what highly stressed people need the most.

The glucose depletion problem is aggravated in stressed people if some form of carbohydrate food (bread, brown rice or potato) is not eaten in the middle of the day. My experience with the overworked, over-exercised, over-socialised types is that they are frequently too busy to organise a substantial meal in the middle of the day and usually grab a salad on the run. Most of these salads turn out to be only rabbit food, without a substantial protein (meat, fish, poultry, egg) or carbohydrate food. Consequently, by mid-afternoon, they are feeling weak, faint, depressed and crave something sweet.

Within eight weeks these people are complaining that they are still retaining fluid, their acne is only slightly better, as is their eczema, their headaches and their asthma. And as far as they are concerned Candida albicans is definitely not the root of their problem.

Once they realise that they have to cut clown on their workload, social life and sporting activities they invariably get good results–their skin clears, fluid (weight) falls, and headaches and asthma attacks disappear. To find out if stress is a problem for you. This is important if you’re one of those highly motivated, enthusiastic, hard-charger types who enjoy their work, work long hours and are always on the go. Often these types are under stress without realising it.

Anti-candida treatment gives across the board results. Meaning that when the Candida infection is contained, all the symptoms disappear. If they don’t then stress is frequently involved. For instance, if your sinusitis, skin complaint and asthma go but your abdomen remains distended and/or you’re still tired or you catch a cold or ‘flu while on the program, you’re stressed and in need of rest.

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Cortisone suppresses the power of the white blood cells to kill viruses, fungi and bacteria. The white blood cells are the mainstays of the body’s defence against infection. They swim through the bloodstream and into the tissue spaces like tiny amoeba, killing foreign bodies on contact. They also produce protein antibodies to neutralise foreign substances.

White blood cells work against the attempts of progesterone to change the chemistry of the mucous membranes to favour Candida growth, by producing and sending protein antibodies to the membranes. The increased number of protein antibodies in the membranes changes their chemistry, yet again, rendering them infertile for Candida growth.

Because Candida yeast infections can produce inflammatory conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, asthma, arthritis and systemic lupus, cortisone creams and pills are often prescribed to Candida sufferers. Like antibiotics, they only treat the symptoms. As a potent anti-inflammatory agent cortisone does this very efficiently, but it also suppresses the white blood cells’ ability to produce antibodies to line the wall of the intestine. Ultimately cortisone, like antibiotics, increases the size of the Candida colony.

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If single-food dieting has been inconclusive or confusing, or if you appear to have multiple food sensitivity, the next step recommended by doctors is often a special exclusion diet. It is a halfway stage between single food testing and a total exclusion diet.

There are two basic kinds of special diet. The first type is a so-called low-allergen diet in which all the major foods that commonly cause allergy or intolerance are omitted. The second type is a much more specific type of diet, in which a specific range of foods is suspected of causing allergy or intolerance. These only are omitted, often leaving some common allergens in the diet. Specific diets of this kind include gluten-free, anti-candida, mould-free and low-salicylate diets.

Before a doctor chooses which diet to put you on, you will usually be asked to keep a Foods Diary, noting down absolutely everything you eat, swallow or ingest, and monitoring the timing and nature of symptoms. The doctor will then choose the specific range of foods according to your particular pattern of symptoms and food habits.

The principles of low-allergen diets are to leave out all foods commonly causing allergy and intolerance, to leave out processed and manufactured foods, and to eat foods which are as free of additives and chemicals as possible. The best known of the so-called low-allergen diets is the Stone-Age Diet pioneered by Dr Richard Mackarness.

It is usually recommended that you follow this type of diet for five days to a week, giving time for your symptoms to clear. You may, as with the single-food diet above, find you feel worse at first and have withdrawal symptoms. However, if you have excluded the foods that upset you, you should begin to feel much better after five days.

The benefits of a special exclusion diet of this kind are primarily for people who have had confused results from leaving out single foods, or who can identify no obvious candidates for single-food exclusion, or who have other multiple allergies or sensitivity with competing symptoms. It is a less rigorous approach than a total exclusion diet, and more balanced nutritionally, but more rapid and effective than single-food dieting.

Two major drawbacks of a special exclusion diet are that it is expensive and inconvenient. You have to rely on being able to eat mainly at home, or carry packed foods with you. It is also eccentric and makes you conspicuous. You often feel ravenous and empty, although these can be withdrawal symptoms. A final drawback is that, if you really have very severe problems with multiple sensitivity, it will not be adequate to sort them out straightaway. Only a total exclusion diet on a rotation basis will do that.

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