SNORING

Snoring during sleep is commonly heard in children as well as in adults. It may be more marked if the child has a cold or a blocked nose, because the airways are narrowed at this time. A child who has large tonsils may also be prone to snoring. In general, snoring is more of a nuisance than a danger, and concerned parents should be reassured that many other normal children snore in their sleep. Encouraging your child to sleep on his side rather than his back may lead to some improvement of the problem.

SORE THROAT (PHARYNGITIS)

This is one of the commonest complaints of childhood and can be due to a number of causes, including viral infection, such as the common cold, influenza or glandular fever. Bacterial causes are less frequent but include streptococcal infection which can cause severe complications if left untreated. Most sore throats are accompanied by swelling and redness of the tonsils, called tonsillitis. If your child has a sore throat it is always wise to check with your doctor.

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Mastectomy: Our society’s limited view of erotic zones has resulted in the oversymbolization of the female breast. Research indicates that the woman’s reaction to mastectomy, removal of the breast, relates not only to her own personal associations to her body, but to her perceptions of her partner’s views as well. While over half of women who have mastectomy report wanting information on the sexual impact of this operation, only four of sixty women mastectomy patients in a recent study received such information. One third of another group of mastectomy patients failed to resume sexual activity more than six months after being released from the hospital. This is the case in spite of the fact that yet another research project has indicated that more than half of the men and women in marriages in which the wife received a mastectomy reported an increased need for intimacy. Here are some guidelines to help with this problem.

1. The wife should not see the scar from surgery. She should be helped to see her whole body, including the surgical site, while still in the hospital and with the husband present. I have the husband and wife look directly at each other’s armpits. It tell them to stare at them and talk about what they feel. “It’s weird. I mean, it seems weird to look at just one part,” said one wife. That is just the point. If you look “at” the scar, that is all you will see. So look at each other, the entire body. Do it in private, but bask for more information from a nurse/oncology specialist after doing this or if you are unable to continue. I find the nurse/oncology specialists to be very helpful in these cases, good teachers and listeners and strong on empathy.

2. Change sides of the bed if necessary, so that the intact breast is first encountered when sexual contact is made. This change seems to help at first. After a time, it really won’t matter.

3. Either you will grow from this problem or the relationship will suffer. It’s up to you. Changing how you have sex does not mean diminishing it. Learning to include other areas of the body for sexual stimulation may enhance, not just’ ‘adjust,” the sexual relationship.

4. Depression is a natural part of living, too. Talking it out together or with someone else can help. And remember, depression is like everything else in life. It does not last forever. One wife reported, “The depression is not so bad if I don’t get too depressed about the depression.”

5. There is no need to “test” things by trying to get “right back to sex.” Being sick and in the hospital takes a lot out of a person besides money. Give yourselves time.

6. All sex does not have to be mutual sex. If one or the other partner wants sex, it is helpful to have some “special” experiences for one partner only. Try the “spa” experience I mentioned in Chapter Eight. Many of the mastectomy patients in my couples group found this helpful in learning to “re-accept” their body. Doctors don’t usually talk about such things because they were trained in the third perspective that all sex is mutual and culminates in intercourse. You know better now. Reopen your own sex clinic.

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1.    Men are turned on erotically by a wider range of stimuli than

women.

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: People are erotically responsive to wide and changing ranges of sexual stimuli, and love maps, not gender, determine such responsiveness.

2.    Men cannot control their ejaculation for long periods of time.

They must ejaculate to be “complete.”

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: Ejaculation is a reflex, but it can be influenced through practice, awareness of body response, communication, and separation of ejaculation from the idea of release, completeness, or outlet.

3.    Intimate body contact is necessary for sex.

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: Sexual communication can take place on many different levels, including levels that are not always measurable by our present instruments.

4.    Variety in sex partners is one of the strongest of sexual aphrodisiacs.

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: Sameness, familiarity, predictability, knowing, and comfort are more important to sexual intensity and fulfillment than newness and variety.

5.    Erection of the clitoris and penis is necessary for sex.

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: There is no need for erection of the clitoris or penis in order to achieve sexual fulfillment. Such erections are reflexive and not necessarily indicators of arousal.

6.    Sexual response is a cycle, one phase following and building

upon the other, followed by a complete reversal of this cycle.

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: Sexual response is a system, and does not have to follow a step-by-step, orderly process. Changing back and forth to various phases of response and experience is possible.

7.    Sex energy builds up and then it must be released, followed by

rest.

FOURTH PERSPECTIVE: The energy of sexual intimacy is as much mental and spiritual as it is physical. It does not have to build, but can be maintained at a chosen level. Rest is not necessary after sexual intimacy. In fact, sexual interaction may be invigorating.

The erect penis in a receptive vagina for a long time, but not too long, continues to be the sexual standard. Erection, lubrication, reception, insertion, contraction is the cycle. As I looked at these factors, I learned that absolutely none of them were based on anything but assumption and that if we change our assumptions, a new model of sexual response results. Chapters Six and Seven will detail the sexual response of men and women. I present here the’ ‘Fourth-perspective sexual response model” that results when we change our assumptions about sex to include a systems, intimacy view.

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People who control the chemical industry – the largest business on this planet – are in a very special business position: on one hand they invent, manufacture and recommend food additives, artificial sweeteners, food extracts, food processing, plastics, cleaning agents, solvents, pollute our environment etc., and on the other hand, they benefit greatly from our bad health by selling us drugs. This state of affairs offers a unique opportunity for corruption. Such corruption could be very difficult to detect, especially if there is a long delay between consumption of food additives or living in polluted environment and related health effects (20 years for example) and if there are many possible diseases (due to the varying proportion of additives and pollutants taken by each person).Medical Business educates the population, that the only one way to cure diseases is to use drugs (and surgery in extreme cases). We are told, that drugs are supposed to do the healing, and if one drug does not help, we should try another. We are made to believe, that for each disease there should be a different “cure” in the form of a drug. The single most important document in any modern medical practice becomes a prescription. Have you ever left a doctor’s surgery without one ? We are told that we are not in any way responsible for our diseases. They “just come with age” or “they are result of an infection”, or “there are aggressive bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms trying to kill us” and everybody around is getting sick anyway, so we are not alone in our suffering. Therefore, we should accept our sickness together with the drug treatment and pay for it too. Doctors are paid in accordance with the number of patients they attended without regard to the results they produce (the cure rate). This encourages doctors to work in a hurry to attend as many patients as possible. Doctors who successfully cure patients using their own observation, talent and reasoning and who do not strictly follow the prevailing medical doctrine, not only risk to be criticised by orthodox practitioners, but also risk losing their “license” to practice, even if ALL their patients are grateful for helping them.The above facts suggest the conclusion, that progress in the medical sciences is limited to the areas of study of diseases and to the development of drugs, extracts, hormones, etc. to “cure” these diseases and/or provide some relief. It was therefore convenient for medicine to adopt the so-called “bacteria theory of disease”. Briefly speaking, this theory, introduced by Pasteur, states that each disease is “caused” by the corresponding “bug” – a bacterium. This theory has gained universal public and scientific acceptance. According to the theory, killing bacteria by newly found chemicals, antibiotics, enzymes etc. should be the ultimate function of medicine.

*2\96\8*

None of us likes pain. Few are prepared to put up with it if it can be avoided or relieved.

One of the most severe pains is produced by a stone from the kidney.

Renal stones or calculi are common in Australia and other warm climates because, it is thought, of the concentrated urine which is a feature of those who live where a lot of fluid is lost by perspiration.

Before the 20th century, bladder stones were common and gave rise to a lot of controversy as to whether they should be removed by operation. The original oath of Hippocrates forbad physicians to “cut even for the stone.”

Now bladder stones are rarely seen. This may be due to better nutrition or other factors.

Apart from the increase in the amounts of soluble substances which may precipitate out of urine there are several other factors which may cause stones to form in the kidneys.

Vitamin A is concerned with the nourishment of skin and other epithelial surfaces.

It is thought that a deficiency of this vitamin may lead to degeneration of the epithelium lining the kidney and debris from this could form the nidus on which various salts are laid down and stones form.

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Backache is one of those common symptoms from which nearly all of us suffer at some time.

For the majority, it proves to be a minor problem like an occasional headache. For others, it may lead to severe and prolonged pain and disability and result in permanent invalidity.

It may be associated with secondary emotional illness with depression, lack of self-esteem, chronic anxiety and domestic and marital problems. The old idea of many chronic back sufferers being malingerers has, one hopes, almost disappeared.

The spinal column consists of a number of bones, the vertebrae. When looked at from the front, it is straight, but when viewed from the side, it has a number of curves. Because they are arranged like two Ss, one on top of the other, the end result is a functional straight line.

Each vertebra consists of a thick portion of bone, the body, from which two projections come off and meet at the back forming a canal through which the spinal cord passes.

A further projection, the spine, comes off where these join and this is the knob we feel in the centre of our backs. Further projections both upwards and downwards form joints with the vertebra above and below.

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Wendy’s Story: Wendy, a thirty-one-year-old manager of a Florida boutique, has been married for three years. She has been trying to get pregnant but has encountered many difficulties. Wendy described her crisis: ‘After doing a laparoscopy on me, my doctor told me 1 didn’t have endometriosis. He said I was okay, yet I’m in pain two weeks of every month. I want a baby, but its hard to fed sexy when you feel so bad. Even so, I’ve been pregnant three times in the last two and a half years, but I have miscarried each one. What could be wrong with me?”

Wendy’s plight is one many women with undiagnosed endometriosis understand all too well: pain, infertility, and no adequate explanation tor their symptoms. In the past, it was felt that endometriosis in a more advanced stage prevented pregnancy because cysts and massive adhesions set up a hostile environment for conception. Most recent research into the subject, however, has revealed that a one-to-one correlation between infertility and endometriosis exists at earlier stages, too. (A chapter devoted to this will explicate further.) This research on earlier-stage endometriosis is particularly relevant to Wendy’s case.

A team of doctors at the University of Kentucky Medical Center’s Reproductive Endocrinology Department in Lexington concluded, in their 1985 study, that women with mild endometriosis suffered twice the number of spontaneous abortions, or miscarriage, that women with the disease at a more serious stage suffered. In examining this phenomenon, Michael Vernon, Ph.D., and his colleagues speculated that early or milder endometriotic lesions might be more “metabolically active” and produce prostaglandins, the hormones that have been implicated in the activity of endometriotic tissue. Prostaglandins might be partially responsible for infertility and miscarriage, since they cause uterine and tubal cramping, thus making conception and full-term pregnancy more difficult.

In further testing, they examined various types of implants, from very mild to serious. These implants have, in fact, been classified on a rating system to standardize their description for doctors. Devised by the American Fertility Society this system charts and describes implants by color and degree of growth, and rates them on a scale of severity from I to IV. (See the illustration on page 66.) Implants may be red, reddish brown, dark brown, or black (also known as powder bum). The Kentucky team also discovered that the “mildest” implants produced and synthesized twice the amount of prostaglandin F that implants at an intermediary stage produced, which in turn produced more of the hormone than the powder-bum variety, (In some expertments, powder-burn implants produced no such hormone.) This explains why women with minimal endometriosis sometimes experience more pain than women with massive growths. (Massive growths arc simply easier to identify.)

Wendy’s doctor clearly suspected endometriosis—no doubt this reason for performing a laparoscopy. That he was unable to find any obvious trace of the disease led to his conclusion that she was free of it. My advice to Wendy is to return to her doctor to begin a program of Danocrine to halt endometriotic growth, and to start on a diet high in complex carbohydrates and rich in B vitamins—the vitamins that are important in combating stress and favoring conception.

*38\43\4*

Psoriasis, one of the commonest skin diseases, is also one of the most cosmetically disabling. Although it is very rarely fatal, it produces an immeasurable amount of misery. It affects people mainly at the peak of their working and reproductive lives, and has considerable adverse socio-economic effects on them and their families. The disease has been known for hundreds of years. Many of the diseases referred to in the Bible as leprosy are in fact thought to have been psoriasis.

Psoriasis is a skin condition in which red scaly patches develop on the skin. The areas most commonly affected are the elbows and knees, but the scalp and other areas of the body may also be affected. The main problem with the condition is that it is cosmetically unacceptable, both visually and on account of the scales which are shed from the spots. Fortunately the condition very rarely affects the face, and usually is mainly on areas covered by clothing.

If one parent is affected, it is estimated that there is a 25 per cent chance of immediate members of this family also developing the condition. If two parents are affected, then the likelihood increases to 65 per cent. Fortunately many generations in a family may escape developing the condition.

A number of factors are known to precipitate the onset or appearance of psoriasis. For instance certain infections, such as a streptococcal tonsillitis, are known to be implicated particularly with children. Trauma, due to such things as injuries or sun-burn, may also cause the appearance of psoriasis. It has been suggested that certain hormonal changes such as those occurring with puberty and menopause, may aggravate the condition yet certain other hormonal changes, such as those during pregnancy, may improve the disease. As with many otherconditions. psychological stress can certainly aggravate the disease.

There are various form of psoriasis. There is the acute or Curtate form of the condition, which is usually seen in children and which may be precipitated by tonsillitis.

Then there is the chronic or Plaque form which is the commonest manifestation, and which classically affects the elbows, the knees, the buttocks, and the scalp. In this latter area, it may easily be confused with severe dandruff.

Occasionally psoriasis is confined to the creases or flexures, and sometimes in infancy it occurs as a napkin psoriasis. Here it may be confused with a simple napkin dermatitis or eczema. Nail psoriasis can be most disfiguring. It may affect the nails only or be associated with other forms of psoriasis- Usually it causes lifting of the nail, with or without pitting, and eventually, disintegration. This condition may be misdiagnosed as a fungal infection, from which it must always be separated, as the treatment is very different. Most infrequently, psoriasis takes on a Pustular form, and then is mainly distributed on either the palms or soles, where it has the appearance of an infective process. It is not, however, infective or infectious.

Rarer still, is the exfoliative form of psoriasis, where the entire body skin is shed, and the patient becomes extremely ill. Another of the rare complications of psoriasis is an arthritis, which mainly affects the finger or toe joints, and occasionally the cervical spine, or lower back joints. Psoriasis, however, is not contagious, nor does it affect the blood, or cause cancer.

The basic pathology of psoriasis is related to increased rep rod activity of the cells in the skin and increased production of DNA in the epidermis and dermis. How this comes about is as yet uncertain, although much research work is being done in order to try and elucidate the basic fault, so that hopefully one day it may be corrected. As a result of these abnormalities in the skin there is a marked increase in the rate of cell ‘turnover’. The abnormal cells reproduce approximately ten times more quickly than the normal cells, which results in a build-up of cells which appears as thick scale.

The treatment of such a disfiguring condition is obviously of considerable importance—a society which extols the virtues of physical beauty as much as ours makes people with psoriasis feel very self-conscious. The question is always asked, ‘Can psoriasis be cured?’ Unfortunately it can no more be ‘cured’ than can high blood pressure, schizophrenia, or diabetes. However, and this must be stressed, in most cases it can be completely controlled so that there may be no evidence of the condition at all for long periods of time. Even though the condition may recur, it can once again be brought under complete control.

*66\44\4*

These have been developed on the premise that sweetness without calories would assist fat loss, but the link appears to be tenuous, at best. Because carbohydrate, including sugar, naturally suppresses appetite, the rationale for artificial sweeteners for fat loss is limited for most people. The biggest users of artificial sweeteners are obese people and research suggests that people who use artificial sweeteners do so to express their fat-loss concerns rather than decrease energy intake (i.e. They may make up for the loss of calories somewhere else). There is some concern that artificial sweeteners increase appetite, but a comprehensive look at all the research on sweeteners by Professor Drewnowski shows there is no evidence that sweetener use per se causes increases in food intake by increasing the appetite. The use of artificial sweeteners in conjunction with other dietary strategies may be useful in limiting energy intake and there is no substantive evidence to suggest any ill-health effects from use of sweeteners, in moderation.

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Most endometriosis sufferers have felt depressed at some stage for one reason or another. Suddenly you have to come to terms with having a chronic illness. There is the constant tiredness and the frustration of feeling lethargic. Sexual relations are put under enormous stress if you suffer pain during intercourse. Pain may also interrupt your lifestyle.

Treatment may not be effective and you worry about what alternatives you may be faced with. So many of your questions seem to go unanswered and at times you really feel as though you are unable to get on with your life.

For those who have fertility problems there is the concern that perhaps you may never have a child. And if you are lucky enough to get pregnant will you miscarry? Will the disease hinder a normal delivery?

Many of us become depressed thinking about the future management of the disease. Will you be faced with more hormone treatment? Will you require more surgery?

*108\83\2*