These painful joint and muscle syndromes were accompanied by other withdrawal-type illnesses such as fatigue, irritability, and depression.

In desperation, Mrs. Jones submitted to an operation on her right knee to relieve the pain and crippling inflammation. This procedure brought some temporary relief, but soon her left knee was in just as bad condition as the other had been. By the time she was admitted to the hospital for comprehensive environmental control, her left knee and wrist were swollen, tender, and inflamed, with sharply limited and painful motion. The knee which had been operated upon was still swollen, but no longer inflamed.

When Mrs. Jones fasted and avoided smoking and other suspected environmental factors, such as air pollution and household chemicals, she developed a severe withdrawal-type headache, but her arthritis improved. By the end of five days of fasting, she was able to walk without crutches for the first time in months.

When single foods, known not to have been significantly contaminated with chemical additives, were returned to her diet, reactions occurred to the following:

Corn: 10 minutes, severe arthritic pain

Cane: 15 minutes, pains in knees and hands plus abdominal cramps Apple: 30 minutes, abdominal distress and arthritic pain Lamb: 35 minutes, severe arthritic pain

Orange: 40 minutes, intermittent waves of apprehension and depression

followed by progressively severe arthritic pain

Crape: 40 minutes, increased dizziness and arthritic pain

Egg: 45 minutes, gradual onset of arthritic pain

Wheat: 1 hour, stiffness of knee; accentuated immediately after second

feeding 1 hour later

Pork: 1 hour, gradual onset of fatigue and depression with residual increased

arthritic pain

Rice: 1 hour, slowly increasing joint stiffness, fatigue, and irritability

Lobster tail: 3 hours, lightheadedness with increased stiffness of joints

Beef: 31/2 hours, gradual onset of arthritic swelling and pain

All other commonly eaten foods were tolerated with no flare-ups of her symptoms, but when tomato juice, which had been tolerated in its uncontaminated form, was given to her from a phenol-lined can, she reacted with stiffness of the joints after fifteen minutes, followed by rapidly increasing fatigue, irritability, and depression.

Upon returning home, Mrs. Jones was instructed to use only nonchlorinated water for drinking and cooking, to avoid all incriminated foods, and to rotate the use of chemically less contaminated foods.

She continued to improve steadily at home on this program but experienced mild recurrences of symptoms from massive exposure to plastics. During the past several years, there have been no troublesome arthritic symptoms. At the present time, she is able to eat pork, beef, lobster tail, wheat, egg, cane, and lamb once a week. Accidental breaks in the avoidance of corn sugar (dextrose) have been followed by bouts of irritability and depression but not arthritis. Corn as a cereal has not been tried. Mrs. Jones still finds that it is necessary to eat chemically less contaminated (organic) food to remain free of arthritis pains.

Several features stand out from this case. One can see that over a period of years, Mrs. Jones’ ecologic problems were progressing from minus-one symptoms (sinus problems, indigestion) to minus-two, especially arthritis and fatigue. At the same time, she was already entering a minus-three phase with the development of depression as a result of food susceptibility.

It is also noteworthy how quickly Mrs. Jones reacted to her test foods. For example, she came down with severe arthritic pains only ten minutes after eating corn and fifteen minutes after eating cane sugar. Generally speaking, the more severe a person’s arthritis, the more rapidly he will react to an incriminated food or chemical exposure.

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Fuel-oil or gas space-heaters are also found more often in small shops, stores, and restaurants than in homes; these can be major causes of chronic reactions in workers and of acute responses in customers. One patient, for instance, tells of going to dinner at a small Italian restaurant. She had to change her seat a number of times because of currents of gas coming from a space heater in the kitchen every time the kitchen door swung open. Even so, she suffered familiar symptoms that evening, a kind of “spaciness” in her brain, followed by headache, which she often experienced after encountering natural gas.

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There are lots of different forms of meditation, or mental relaxation exercises, and all of them work. If you have one that you are particularly fond of, by all means use it. If not, try this one. I have had great success with it.

For maximum results it pays to do the mental relaxation exercises directly after the deep breathing exercises. The breathing exercises are relaxing exercises in their own right and prepare the body for meditation. Try and do the mental relaxation exercises twice per day. If that’s not possible, do them once. I’d rather you have the extra sleep than see you getting up too early to fit them in. Some patients prefer to do the breathing exercises in the morning and the mental relaxation ones at night, before bed, or during the afternoon at work. As you become more proficient at them you’ll be able to do them anywhere—on the train, waiting at the bus stop or in the dentist’s chair (no kidding, I did it once, and had a tooth drilled without an injection—didn’t feel a thing). Most people find it easy to fit the mental relaxation exercises in after the deep breathing on the weekend when they have more time.

Try and do the exercises every day if you can but don’t upset yourself if you can’t. Getting stressed out over missing a session or two defeats the purpose of doing them. Because life is unpredictable, circumstances that interfere with your routine will always arise. Don’t worry about it. Some weeks you will be able to do the exercise every day, other weeks you will only fit them in three or so times. That’s fine, so long as you keep patiently plugging away, the cumulative effects of your persistence will, in time, manifest. You won’t slip back by missing a few sessions. The important thing is not to become fanatical. Fanaticism begets stress. Take your time, the inevitability of gradualness will reward you with the level of well-being you are seeking.

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The high that long distance runners and other competitive athletes experience when they break through the pain barrier and receive their second wind is the result of endorphins. Many women have their first endorphin experience while giving birth.

Athletes and child-bearing women aside, the hard-charging, over-achiever type is the one most likely to experience a beta endorphin high and is therefore in danger of getting hooked on a stressful lifestyle. The painkilling and euphoria-producing effects of beta endorphins can so successfully mask the symptoms of stress that one is not aware one’s adrenal glands are getting tired until one ceases the given activity and the levels of beta endorphin drop. It’s at this point that the typical symptoms of adrenal fatigue manifest. Tiredness, irritability, drowsiness, loss of confidence and eventually depression are typical symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

As a group, hard-chargers don’t recognise these symptoms as a need to rest. Instead they reason that if working, exercising and socialising makes them feel good and slowing down makes them feel tired then the former is what their body needs. Non-hard-chargers reason that their bodies need rest until symptoms such as tiredness and depression go. Hard-chargers force themselves on until their adrenal glands fatigue to the point of incompetence and their bodies become racked with the symptoms of disease. Non-hard-chargers have learnt to pace themselves and enjoy good health. While hard-chargers are relying more and more on a chemical (beta endorphin) high for feelings of well-being, non-hard-chargers enjoy the natural high of normal good health.

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Collectively these chemical reactions make up what’s known as our metabolism. To interfere with the body’s water levels is to interfere with the chemical reactions and thus unbalance the metabolism.

Falling water levels (dehydration) unbalances the metabolism in three ways:

1. A lack of hydrostatic (water) pressure in the blood vessels means less nutrients (oxygen, vitamins, minerals, protein) are forced out of the blood and into the cells.

2. The cells rely on the water that carried the nutrients in to also flush their waste products out. If waste products lie around in the cell they interfere with normally occurring chemical reactions and so unbalance the metabolism.

3. The osmotic pulling power of the blood is reduced and less waste products are drawn from the cells to the blood for elimination through the kidneys.

Optimum fluid intake ensures the process of cell feeding and cell cleaning operate at full capacity. Bathing the cells with water also reduces the concentration of any allergens that may be present in them. Allergens are notorious for gate crashing resident chemical reactions and, interfering with their outcome. Diluting allergens also dilute the intensity of the allergic reactions they cause. The chemicals found in polluted water readily invite themselves into chemical reactions that neither want nor need them. Alcohol does too, so effectively in fact that some people slur their words after only one or two drinks.

Drinking chemical free water is imperative for balancing the metabolism. Avoid tap water wherever possible, unless its thoroughly filtered. Country people, who live in areas of top dressing and pesticide spraying zones, should avoid tank water. Fresh spring water (home and office delivered), mineral water from a recognised spa (not the commercially made ones, or soda water) and freshly squeezed juices are ideal.

The programs and dietary supplements in this book cannot balance the metabolism if the water levels are below optimum. Next to oxygen water is the most important nutrient. It is frequently the missing link in an unbalanced metabolism.

A deficiency in water can cause the same vagueness, disorientation and confusion that allergies and Candida yeast infections produce. This vagueness, disorientation and confusion is frequently evident in middle and long distance runners who on crossing the finish line can’t answer questions coherently, stare blankly at the TV camera and say nothing; or walk off in the wrong direction after the race. These athletes illustrate just how precarious the body’s fluid levels are and just how quickly they can fall. One hour of strenuous physical activity can see 1 L of water evaporate from the body.

Fluid must be taken into the body at regular intervals through the day. Busy people tend not to observe this important rule and have patches of vagueness, mistake making, irritability and confusion in the middle of a working day as a result. This can be most disconcerting for people who’re on the Metabolism-Balancing Program and are expecting not to experience such things. Those on the ‘Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program tend to blame what they ate for breakfast when this happens and as time goes by take themselves off so many foods they become malnourished. Malnutrition of course can give the same symptoms as fluid deficiency.

There is no excuse for going without fluid through the day. We can all find time to drink fluid, no matter how busy we are. Busy people try to get around this by fluid loading in the morning and fluid loading in the evening. This doesn’t work. The harder we work, the more heat we produce; the more heat we produce, the more fluid we evaporate. Fluid levels can drop below optimum within an hour, which is why the aforementioned symptoms can come on so quickly and why we have to keep topping our fluid levels up, all day long. Sip from a bottle at your desk.

*120\18\9*

The brain is 80 per cent water. All the chemical reactions required to facilitate brain function take place in water. A drop in brain water levels below 80 per cent interferes with the chemical reactions, disrupting our thinking and feeling processes. I’ve found in my involvement with problem kids that the majority of them don’t drink enough or don’t spread their fluid intake evenly over the day. Most of them go to school without having consumed any liquid other than the milk on their cereal. A few quick drinks at the bubblers through the day sees them tired, dull and thirsty when they get in from school. At this point they fluid load by drinking three to four glasses of whatever fluid they can get their hands on. The problem here is that they take in more fluid than their body can make use of at one time and although it picks them up its usually after the evening meal before they feel the good effects of it.

Jessica (13—allergic to soya beans, wheat, moulds, tomatoes, malt, honey, peanuts and grasses) and Paul (14—allergic to moulds and all fermented foods, grasses, dust, dust mites, eggs, milk, wheat, beef and almonds) are good examples of just how quickly the removal of allergenic substances from the diet and environment can alter behaviour and improve brain function.

Jessica, although very bright, couldn’t concentrate, was the class clown, could be rude to the teachers and wasn’t interested in applying herself. Paul was easily distracted and although keen enough complained of not being able to concentrate for more than a few minutes. He had limited assessment skills and had trouble coping with mathematical problems. Both of them suffered from hayfever, sinusitis, itchy red eyes and stuffy noses. Paul was almost a permanent mouth breather.

Within a week on the program Jessica’s teachers and parents were reporting a dramatic change in her behaviour and altitude to work. She was interested and studious. Within a month or so she changed her friends and moved into a group who were work orientated. She became happier and started smiling more.

Paul’s mother phoned me to say that within four days of being on the program Paul was for the first time able to understand what the teacher was saying. He was feeling more confident and positive about his future.

Both Jessica and Paul are currently on the combined Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program and will be for a month or so yet. After that time their previously allergic foods will be reintroduced one by one. Their respiratory tract problems have improved significantly. Jessica no longer has the sniffs and Paul can breathe through his nose.

So impressed were Jessica’s teachers they asked her to give a talk on her program to the fifth and sixth form students. By year’s end her schoolwork had improved so dramatically she had moved into the top ten of her class and was doing brilliantly at science, a subject she just hadn’t been able to cope with before.

As is often the case in these situations Jessica’s family took longer than Jessica to adjust to the changes in her attitude and behaviour. It took some weeks for them to get out of the habit of ‘walking on eggs’ to use her mother’s expression. For a while they were still bracing themselves for vitriolic retorts that were never delivered. Situations, things said, times of the month and questions that would normally cause Jessica to flare up, no longer did and it took some time for the family to get used to this. Most pleasing of all was the dramatic improvement in Jessica’s relationship with her father—they stopped fighting.

Jessica is so impressed with the program and the changes she’s experienced that she’s afraid to go off it. The chances of her reverting back to her old self are highly unlikely as ninety days on the program will allow enough desensitisation to her former allergens to allow a moderate imbibing of them without a return of symptoms.

*112\18\9*

These are the kids who fall behind in class because they can’t hear properly. Because their glue ear has never been diagnosed they are often labelled ‘a bit dumb’ by the other kids and ‘uncooperative, rebellious, lazy and given to dumb insolence’ by the teachers. Kids with this level of glue ear who are lucky enough to sit at the front of the class tend to get by. It’s the ones sitting further back who miss out. The introverts tend to cope by withdrawing further into themselves while the extroverts respond by venting their frustrations in the form of overt attention seeking, disruption of others in class and fighting in the playground. Because this low grade glue ear doesn’t lead to headaches or noticeable ear infections the way full-blown glue ear does, these kids muddle their way through school in the belief they are not as intelligent as the others.

They seldom mention to their parents the fact they’re having trouble hearing in class because they don’t realise they are. Because they know no different they think their level of hearing is perfectly normal. Unlike their counterparts who have all the symptoms of full-blown glue ear and receive help these kids/ adults struggle through life never reaching their full potential and never really knowing why.

As parents, uncles, aunts, friends, teachers and godparents its our duty to keep our eyes open for these kids and to get them into treatment as soon as possible. Often the only give-away signs are below average intellectual performance at school (comprehension, maths, writing, English) associated with one or more of the following:

• dark rings under the eyes;

• below average physical co-ordination;

• below average ball-handling skills (they are the last to be chosen when picking sides for football, netball, cricket);

• the habit of rubbing the nose with the palm of the hand (nasal salute);

• complaining of an itchy nose (as opposed to a runny or stuffy nose);

• the tendency to fatigue easily (wants to lie down or sit and watch TV after school; often tired on waking);

• a transverse ridge or crease in the nose (due to constant nasal saluting);

• shy, quiet, daydreamy personality; seems to be in his/her own world; appears switched off and doesn’t always respond when called or spoken to; has trouble getting started on things; gives up easily (introverts); <

• aggressive, stroppy personality; low frustration tolerance; can’t concentrate; loud; won’t listen; often ignores (extroverts).

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The metabolic imbalances that result from these deficiencies lead to a structural weakness in the soft tissues of the joints (cartilage, capsule, ligaments and blood vessels).

Structural weakness of tissue leads to the regular leaking of blood into the joint, so that even moderate use causes bleeding. Regular bleeding into the joint causes the levels of iron to build up in the joint, while at the same time the levels in the blood drop, predisposing you to anaemia.

Deficiencies in the mineral zinc cause the blood levels of copper to rise, the excess of which also spills into the arthritic joints. Copper and iron excesses cause as much joint irritation as allergens, acetaldehyde from Candida infections and the nightshades.

The minerals zinc and manganese displace excess copper and iron in the joints while at the same time normalising their levels in the blood. Taking a high dosage multi-vitamin and mineral tablet has other advantages:

• The full spectrum of vitamins and minerals increases the effect of zinc and manganese.

• Structural damage in the joint is repaired.

• Structural weakness in the joints is overcome.

• 100 mg of vitamin B3 and 1000 mg of vitamin C taken three times per clay with meals will increase joint mobility, decrease stiffness and relieve joint deformity and pain, according to Dr William Kaufman, who pioneered this treatment in 1941.

• Fish oils (cod liver, halibut, etc.) are not only rich in the vitamins A and D needed to repair damaged joints, they have a natural anti-inflammatory component that helps relieve joint pain.

*96\18\9*

The fact is that most people hold themselves and their own well-being at the centre of their attention. They are the centre of their own little universe and most expect to be the centre of other people’s attention and universe as well, which is one reason conflicts arise in human relationships. This attitude is held by all those who worry about the opinions others hold about their skin. They are so self-centred they automatically assume that everyone else is noticing and thinking about them when, in fact, they’re not.

These people tend to be outer rather than inner centred, meaning their focus in life is on their studies, hobbies, sports, friends, work, pets, family, art, music, nature, science or whatever outside interest they have, rather than on themselves and how others perceive them. Their waking hours and a good measure of their sleeping hours are taken up with thinking about all those interesting things they are involved in and/or the pursuit of their own particular goal which, in their case, is not attention seeking.

This attitude to life shows on their face and skin. They are of healthy colour with relaxed facial muscles, an easy relaxed smile and clear skin. The attention seekers, conversely, tend to be more uptight, highly strung and, if they are the dramatic type as well, possessed of acne, eczema, rosacea or psoriasis.

Anyone can learn to be more self-contained, self-reliant and independent of the opinions of others by regularly talking themselves out of it and by forcibly stopping their attention-seeking habits (boasting, pouting, comparing ourselves with others, ranting, raving are all attention-seeking habits). To help this process along it pays to get some interests (studies, hobbies or sports) to focus on.

If you are suffering from eczema or psoriasis it pays to use the cortisone cream while the program and change of attitude are taking effect. It is easier to get yourself off centre stage if you’re not having to look at a complaining skin each day. While the inflammation is down, your anxiety levels are down and while they are down the neurokinin levels are down.

If you have acne talk to your doctor about taking the drug Roaccutane while your program and change of attitude are taking effect. Roaccutane helps to shrink over-excited sebaceous glands and is very effective at reducing acne.

Some women find the pill helps. The oestrogen negates the acne-producing testosterone that the stress of looking at acne has put in their blood each day. The pill only works if it’s low in progesterone and Candida infections have to be contained by ninety days on the Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program.

By using the drugs and program together you are enjoying the best of what medicine and naturopathy have to offer and that is the way it should be. As the program and change of thinking begin to take effect you can begin to wean yourself off the drugs (under your doctor’s supervision). For eczema, psoriasis, rosacea and acne sufferers this tends to be an automatic thing as you will find your skin is flaring up less and less and without realising it, the time span between cream applications is getting greater and greater.

The deep breathing exercises are excellent for quietening down the skin, especially for the dramatic types who tend to over-react to all of life’s little antagonisms in a fiery and vociferous way. The dramatic types tend to awfulise life situations more vigorously than others and must learn to moderate their reactions. They blow things out of all proportion, making mountains out of mole hills and creating storms in teacups. Nothing flares up the skin quicker than dramatic over-reaction to life’s events or the things others say and do. And although dramatic types tend to flare up and forget quickly, the neurokinin lingers in the skin for some time after.

The smouldering resenters are at the other end of the spectrum. They are just as intense as the dramatic type but keep everything inside and just fume and boil quietly. A skin complaint is usually the only evidence of their inner turmoil. Learning to be more philosophical about life and the things people say and do is the big challenge for smouldering resenters. Learning to forgive will quieten their skin down more quickly than anything.

Shy people can experience a flare-up of their skin complaint because shy people embarrass easily and blush when they do so. Embarrassment is the inability to retaliate or find an appropriate answer to a challenge be it real or imagined. Assertiveness classes are the answer for the easily embarrassed as well as making a concerted effort to expand their vocabulary and learn to use it. Joining a debating society has done wonders for many of my formerly shy patients. It was the practice of debating that took the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw from an inarticulate introvert to the very articulate and entertaining extrovert he came to be. Doing the things we fear is the best way of overcoming our fear and embarrassment.

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