Herbal Health

Stress phobics are the opposite of stress seekers. A phobia is an irrational fear, and stress phobics have a tremendous fear of confrontations—indeed, of life itself.

Stress phobics suffer in silence rather than assert themselves. They turn their anger and frustration inward. This is manifested clinically as depression. Stress phobics see the world as an unfriendly, unhappy and frightening place. These depressed stress phobics have strong feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Nothing seems worthwhile.

The negative thoughts in their heads are turned into hormones that actually attack and suppress their immune system, making them more susceptible to disease. Stress phobics seem to have more arthritis and cancer than do stress seekers or stress handlers.

Are You a Stress Phobic?

Are you a stress phobic? Check off the items that apply to you. Do you . . .

( ) Have difficulty expressing your feelings?

( ) Feel helpless to change your personal or work situation?

( ) Accept things even if you know you could improve them?

( ) Wish that once, just once, they would listen to you?

( ) Have vague feelings of dissatisfaction?

( ) Put up with things because you’re afraid they’ll get worse

if you try to change them?

( ) Often wonder if suicide might not be a good way to end

your problems?

( ) Figure you’re never going to amount to much?

( ) Have trouble picturing yourself as a successful person?

( ) Wonder if anyone would notice if you died?

( ) Wonder why you were ever born?

If you checked more than two items, you may be a stress phobic. Your mind is stuffed with “impossible” and “I can’t” and “why bother” and “no one cares.” These thoughts are turned into chemicals that handcuff your “doctor within” by suppressing your immune system. Your negative thoughts actually make you more vulnerable to disease. And diseased you will be unless you learn how to keep your mind clear of immune-suppressive thoughts.

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Then one day, while running in a 10K race at UCLA, I saw a paraplegic man, lying face down on a small, lightweight gurney, pulling himself along the course with two canes. He’d put one cane down and pull the gurney forward a few inches. Then he’d put the other cane down, pulling his gurney foward a few more inches. I wondered how he was going to make it up the hill, so I slowed down and trotted right behind him. He went right up that big hill, slowly, a few inches at a time. Drenched with sweat, huffing and puffing, he proudly finished the race, smiling at the applause he received as he struggled across the finish line.

If he can find the time, energy and discipline to exercise, I vowed, so can I. Since then, the dog has never looked too tired to go walking with me.

Do you set aside time for exercise? Have you the energy and discipline?

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I tell my patients to fill their kitchens with these Super Foods and other healthy foods (Super Foods are starred):

VEGETABLES

Artichokes
Chard
*Parlsey
Asparagus
Cucumbers
Parsnips
*Beet Greens
Eggplant
Potatoes
Beets
*Garlic
Radishes
* Black
*Ginger
Rutabagas
Chinese
Green
<, *Scallions
Mushrooms
Peppers
*Spinach
* Broccoli
Jicama
Squash
*Brussels
Kohlrabi
* Sweet
Sprouts
Leeks
Potatoes
*Cabbage
Lettuce
*Sweet Red
* Carrots
Mushrooms
Peppers
*Cauliflower
Okra
Watercress
Celery
*Onions
Zucchini
• Vegetables are low in fat, sugar and sodium, and contain no cholesterol. Vegetables provide you with complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals and enzymes.

• Eat more raw than cooked vegetables. Cooking destroys many nutrients.

• Instead of boiling or baking vegetables, steam them—just until they’re tender, yet crisp. Steamed vegetables are tasty and nutritious.

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If you think you have nothing to worry about because your doctor has told you’re in average health, think again:

• The average American in average health has the average heart attack.

• The average American in average health gets the average cancer, diabetes, stroke.

• The average American is tired and unhappy

• The average American has no idea what it’s like to feel really great.

• The average American stumbles from doctor to doctor, pill to pill, disease to disease—until he dies.

• The average American dies too young, feeling old and worn out.

• The average American is scared—and should be!

As a physician who has worked on the front lines of crisis medicine, treating patient after patient in the intensive care units and coronary care units, and seeing thousands more in my office, I can tell you that the average American is a medical disaster waiting to happen.

One of my patients complained: “It started about a year ago, Dr. Fox. I had a cold, and then a flu, then another cold, then another flu, and my nose was always running and one thing after another. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get well. A whole year of being sick! What’s wrong with me?”

What was wrong? For any number of reasons, his body’s defenses were down. As you will learn, colds, flus and other problems are clues, telling us to take a look at the patients’ entire defense system. The colds and flus aren’t diseases in themselves; they are symptoms of the underlying problem, which is a breakdown of the “doctor within.”

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Sorting out false food allergy from the real thing is far from easy. A skin-prick test will not distinguish someone with false food allergy from someone who has true IgE-mediated food allergy – both can produce a positive result. The radioallergosorbent test or RAST is usually positive as well, because the lectins or other offending food components bind IgE – in a true case of allergy, the IgE will bind the food antigen, but the results of the test look just the same. A simple modification of the RAST reveals the truth however: if extra food extract is added to the mixture, false food allergy will still give a positive test, but true food allergy will not.

Distinguishing between these two distinct types of food reaction is important to researchers, seeking to understand food allergy and establish its prevalence. As far as the patient is concerned, the distinction is less important, because the consequences and treatment are much the same. In most cases avoidance will be necessary. If drugs are used they will be ones that prevent mast cells from degranulating or counteract the effect of the mediators – in either case, it does not matter how the mast cells are being triggered.

It is possible, however, that those with false food allergy have some underlying deficiency that may make them more susceptible. It has been found that 50 per cent of patients with false food allergy are deficient in the element magnesium. A shortage of magnesium is known to affect histamine release and increase sensitivity to histamine. A nutritional assessment might be advisable for anyone known to have false food allergy.

Surprisingly enough, it is possible to ‘grow out of false food allergy. Children who have such a reaction to a particular food sometimes lose it, usually by the time they are eight years old. Exactly why this should happen is far from clear. There could be a change in the structure of the tissues that surround the mast cells in the gut, making them less accessible to food molecules.

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The doctor, who had formerly been a country practitioner for many years and had often obtained valuable information from his patients, did not ignore such words but asked, ‘Well, what would you say was good for stopping bleeding?’

‘Chicken would help, Doc, but it must be put on absolutely fresh and warm,’ replied the peasant, and the conversation ended there.

However, the doctor did obtain a chicken before the operation, although perhaps more out of curiosity as to what would happen if he actually used it. After collodion treatment and everything else had failed to stop the bleeding, as a last resort, he cut a piece from the chicken and laid it while still warm on the patient’s small incision, which was still bleeding. As if by magic, before the unbelieving eyes of the other doctors, the bleeding stopped.

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Papayasan contains papain in combination with the ingredients of the whole plant. It can therefore act in the same way as the whole plant provided by nature and taking it is the equivalent of eating the unripe fruit with its rich papain content.

Every doctor, nature practitioner and pharmacist, as well as every caring mother, will no doubt be glad to know that there is at last a worm medicine that is absolutely safe. According to the third edition of Professor Eichholz’s Pharmakologie (Pharmacology), even experts regard the usual worm medicines as risky and far from harmless, for he writes: ‘The toxicity of all anthelmintic medicines should prompt the prescriber to consider whether it is preferable to tolerate the presence of parasites, rather than to take the risk of poisoning the patient.’ If this is of concern to pharmacologists and pharmacists, how much more should it make the patient think. However, with a papaya preparation no one need fear, for it is beneficial to the digestion, assisting in the assimilation of proteins, and is absolutely harmless – even for pregnant women and people with weak constitutions.

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And there is one other rule you must observe: go to bed early during your stay by the sea. That means that you must cut out any kind of night life and remember instead that the early morning hours are the best. In fact, after an early and restful night it is easier to wake up, then go for a walk along the beach, feeling fully refreshed and fit. Remember, early to bed and early to rise, makes a man (and woman) healthy and gloriously hungry for breakfast! What better ingredients could you have for this meal than a delicious fruit muesli, wholegrain or wholewheat (wholemeal) bread with honey, and fruit-cereal coffee (Bambu Coffee Substitute)]

If you are able to organise your days by the sea properly, you can expect to benefit as much from them as you would from a holiday in the mountains. If we provide the body with all its needs, we will reap the desired health benefits irrespective of where we spend our holidays. However, just lazing around in the sun and heat is of no benefit anywhere. Instead, move around and exercise in the unpolluted air, breathe deeply and get plenty of rest during the night. If you eat healthy natural food at the same time, you will return to your duties after the holiday feeling rested, refreshed and optimistic.

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Lemon balm is often grown in kitchen gardens, its pleasant aroma not only attracting humans but also bees which feed on its nectar. It makes a fine tea, and if your nerves are frayed and need calming, a cup at bedtime, sweetened with honey for an even better effect, will help you sleep since it is mildly soporific. Many women like to drink the tea because it is good for menstrual problems and cramps. In days gone by, balm tea was recommended for tobacco poisoning. And in the seventeenth century the Carmelite monks in Paris prepared an excellent ‘balm spirit’ that soon became famous. The ingredients were lemon balm, betony leaves, lemon peel, a little coriander, cloves and cinnamon.

Although you may know lemon balm mainly for its use as a tea, it can also be added to food for flavouring. It may also be true that few people know of another application of balm; the fresh leaves can be crushed and gently rubbed on bee or wasp stings. This has a soothing and healing effect, similar to that obtained by applying crushed ivy leaves.

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Be careful how you use them, however; too much may irritate the kidneys, and this is easily done if you take the juice or extract. If someone suffers from nephritis or similar kidney conditions, he should take juniper only in homoeopathic doses, Juniperus communis Ix or 2x.

For cases of asthma, and particularly the excessive mucous catarrh that may result from the disease, juniper extract is most beneficial and its use should be alternated with that of barberries and rowan berries.

Oedematous conditions (excessive accumulation of fluid in the body) and acute inflammation of the bladder (cystitis) will respond to juniper in the form of an infusion, essence or extract.

Eat juniper berries every morning before breakfast, one berry the first day, two the second day, and so forth until you reach twenty and then go back, reducing the amount day by day to just one. This is very good for stimulating the appetite and strengthening the stomach and will benefit the glands.

Moreover, if you tie some juniper needles in a muslin bag, and place this under the hot tap when you run a bath, you will have a good remedy for rheumatism and gout.

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