Health news blog

Variety is the spice of life. If you want to vary your breathing exercise routine, you can do the yogic walk. The advantage here is that you can combine your breathing exercise with a gentle walk. Don’t take the dog on a lead though, it will break your rhythm. The yogic walk can be done on the beach (hard sand only), through the park or on a country lane. Avoid traffic where possible as you don’t want to be drawing in fumes. It can be clone in the company of other yogic walkers. Like the standing and sitting breathing exercises, it’s not to be done after a meal. Do the yogic walk on the flat or downhill only.

1. Empty the lungs by tightening the abdomen muscles. As you commence the walk, breathe in deeply to the count of your steps. As a beginner it may pay to breathe in to the first six to eight steps. Walk and breathe slowly.

2. When the diaphragm is fully descended and your rib cage full, hold your breath for the next three steps.

3. Breathe out, using the abdomen muscles for the next six to eight steps and when your abdomen is concave, hold your breath out for three steps.

4. Commence the inhalation again and continue for the duration of the walk. Results are disappointing if you walk too quickly.

Don’t walk briskly—walk slowly and easily, letting your arms swing gently to the rhythm of your stride. As time goes by you will be easily breathing to ten, twelve, or more, steps. Don’t raise the breath-holding time frame beyond three steps. The yogic walk has the advantage of gently moving the inhaled oxygen around the body, taking it to the peripheral tissues more quickly.

Walking encourages upright posture (jogging doesn’t) by strengthening the back muscles. It draws oxygen into the major joints without straining them. It has all the advantages of vigorous exercise without placing strain on the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands can rest during a slow relaxing walk and take up lots of oxygen to prepare them for the rigours of the working day. Being a full weight-bearing exercise, walking is excellent for retaining calcium in the bones of the legs, pelvis and spine—preventing osteoporosis. Being a gentle exercise, it doesn’t fill the muscles with lactic acid (the major waste product of muscle contraction). Lactic acid irritates the muscles causing spasms, aches, pains and stiffness. It is lactic acid build-up that causes the pain experienced after a hard game, heavy workout or long run. Lactic acid needs calcium to neutralise it and facilitate its removal from the muscles and elimination from the body. This puts demands on the body’s calcium reserves and can cause calcium deficiencies which in turn can cause nervousness, irritability, lack of confidence and anxiety. Hard exercise is often a stress as most people engaging in it don’t supplement their diet with adequate calcium. Hard-chargers produce the same amount of lactic acid by being overly busy. Carbon dioxide build-up is also a muscle irritant.

Yogic walking draws more oxygen into the body than jogging, yet doesn’t raise the levels of carbon dioxide, lactic acid, adrenalin, cortisone and testosterone which cause metabolic imbalances.

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While working on your attitude, breathing and mental relaxation exercises, avoid, wherever possible, the common stresses of modern life:

• Sunburn—even on small areas of the body, like forearms, hands and nose. Always wear a sunblock.

• Crash diets and skipping meals.

• Nutritionally deficient diets (hamburgers, frozen and tinned foods, dehydrated packaged foods, take-away, fast foods).

• Strict vegetarian (vegan) diets that exclude such important protein foods as fish, eggs and cheese. .

• Dehydration—not drinking enough fluid, especially through the day.

• Shallow breathing—oxygen deficiency, carbon dioxide excess.

• Fasting—the total withholding of food from the body.

• Chills and colds.

• Chilling of the body clue to: not wearing shoes in winter; rising in the morning without putting on slippers and dressing gown; sitting next to a heater while in a draught; working, sleeping, sitting or watching TV in a draught; surfing and swimming in winter without a wetsuit; playing sports in cold southerly winds; sleeping under a fan in summer.

• Self-sabotaging attitudes. Habitually putting negative interpretations on what others say and do and on what happens to you in life.

• Physical trauma, including surgical operations. (Get a second opinion if it’s not a life-threatening emergency.)

• Over-work, lack of sleep and recreation, over-exercising.

• Pain—acute and chronic sports injuries, headache, neckache and backache from poor posture (mainly while sitting).

• Loneliness.

• Over-crowding.

• Excess noise.

• Poor posture.

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Lack of productivity is inextricably bound up with low energy levels. Tired people are less motivated, less disciplined, less conscientious and less interested than vital people. However, there’s more to it than that. Allergies, Candida infections and vitamin and mineral deficiencies can affect the brain chemistry in other ways that have far reaching effects on productivity.

Max was a classic example of allergy-based low productivity. Just recently married he felt under great pressure to do well at work and to achieve the promotions and pay increases needed to provide his intended family with the standard of living he desired for them. Max was employed to take orders over the phone for a medium-sized manufacturing firm. He was doing reasonably well until his marriage after which he started making mistakes. These simple mistakes frustrated him greatly and distracted his attention which led to more mistakes. He described to me with pain how he knew he was taking clown the orders incorrectly but couldn’t seem to do anything about it. His mind was in a muddle. He wrote numbers down backwards and out of sequence. He wrote down messages and orders out of context.

Max’s employers had told him to shape up or ship out. I phoned Max’s employer requesting a four week stay of dismissal on the promise that I would have Max fully functional in four weeks. The employer agreed. Max went for allergy tests immediately (we didn’t have time to do the mandatory six to eight weeks on the Metabolism-Balancing Program first). He went onto the Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program plus Formula Six and the other supplements. Within four weeks, much to his employer’s relief and his joy, he had stopped making mistakes. He had acquired energy, good concentration and memory, clarity of thought, mental acuity and a capacity to organise himself he didn’t think possible. Job security became assured and promotion a probability.

Max is a good example of how stress can exacerbate allergies. While he was plodding along as a single guy without too many responsibilities he was coping reasonably well. The moment the demands of marriage were upon him he couldn’t cope. Many people experience this. They’re unaware of their allergies until greater demands to perform are put on them. Max was lucky he gleaned this through marriage. Had he won a promotion the increased mental demands of the new job could well have triggered his mistake-making symptoms and he probably would’ve lost the job and suffered a significant blow to his self-confidence and self-esteem.

This happens to a lot of people and naturally enough they blame the job as they’re unaware of their underlying allergies. Those who are aware they have allergies don’t make the connection between their asthma or eczema, or conjunctivitis or sinusitis or acne and their inability to cope with the job. The stress of the new promotion often leads them into drinking, ‘to relax’. Whereas alcohol affords some short-term relaxation it soon begins to undermine their performance further. Alcohol burns up precious B vitamins and mineral zinc in the brain, the very nutrients that are essential for effective thought integration. Furthermore alcohol and marijuana (even worse) reduce memory, concentration, organisation skills and the ability to think and plan ahead. They do this via the toxic effect they have on brain cells.

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On vitamins only (Formula Six)—no anti-allergy treatment yet. Like Sophie, Vimila is still on the program and, like Sophie, had made similar strides forward. However at the end of the twelfth

week which coincided with the end of term her mother reported that she had slipped back to being tired, disorganised and lacking concentration. Yet she hadn’t stopped taking the vitamins. Careful questioning revealed that Vimila was feeling so confident, energetic and well within herself she not only applied herself more vigorously to her schoolwork but took on too many extra-curricula activities—swimming, piano and flute—and literally burnt herself out in one term. The symptoms that were originally caused by allergies and vitamin and mineral deficiency were now being perpetuated by fatigue.

Although Vimila suffers from night sweats (classic allergy symptom) I can’t send her for allergy tests until her energy levels are back up to where they were. Low energy means low resistance which means she’ll show up allergic to more things.

It’s most important that new found energy not be spent as soon as it is attained. Many people, children and adults alike, make the mistake of burning up their new found energy as quickly as they get it. This temptation must be resisted otherwise the treatment program will fail. To achieve long-term good health we must build up an energy reserve. Energy is the currency of life, just as money is the currency of business. To have a healthy business you must keep some money in the bank. To have a healthy body you must keep some energy in reserve. Don’t be an energy spendthrift.

Because my particular program was designed to help kids improve their lot in life it was not structured as an analytical measure of intelligence. There were no control groups to provide a comparison because I felt no slow learning, under-achieving child should be denied help and used as a guinea pig to prove or disprove some intellectual theory. Because of this it can be argued that my study is not a scientific measure of the link between diet and intelligence and I accept that. What it did prove though is the link between diet, and improved performance on all levels and I’m happy to say all those young people on the program who were once headed for a life of under-achievement and all the spin-off frustrations and emotional problems that accompany it are now able to realise their full potential. Such an opportunity is the birthright of everyone and it’s such a pity that modern day diet and living habits are denying so many this basic rights.

It would seem however that in addition to raising our ability to perform, vitamin and mineral supplementation can also raise our intelligence per se. In the 23 January 1988 issue of the Lancet (one of the leading British medical journals) the results of a double blind study (using placebos) of the link between vitamin/mineral supplements and intelligence can be found.

Since doing my own experiment I’ve discovered more and more scientific data detailing increases in intelligence by up to 35 points after supplementation with vitamins and minerals. I’ve also discovered many excellent books describing the link, between allergies behaviour and learning.

Despite the stunning improvements in schoolwork and exam results a change of diet can bring, it is not a panacea. Hard work is always needed. There’s no substitute for it. Tutoring always has been and always will be a principal component of learning. I recommend the programs in this book as an adjunct to, not an alternative to, remedial tutoring. Sophie’s case is a good example of what dietary change and remedial tutoring can achieve. Sophie was being tutored by the Linda Mood Method, a remedial tutoring method for children who’ve grown up with auditory problems and aren’t able to pronounce their words properly. She amazed everybody by completing the twelve month course in four months. In the words of her tutor ’she was a model student’.

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Allergies can cause muscles to go into spasm. A muscle spasm (often referred to as a cramp) causes the muscle fibres to contract and remain in a contracted state. Muscles can remain in spasm for as long as an allergenic substance (food, chemical, drink, pollen, mould) is irritating them. The walls of all the arteries are made up of three layers of circular muscles and if they spasm (cramp) the shortening of their fibres causes the circumference of the artery to reduce. This causes the circumference of the hollow centre (called the lumen) of the artery to reduce. Because there’s no concomitant reduction in the volume of the blood passing through the artery the narrowing of its hollow centre compresses the blood, thus raising the blood pressure in the artery.

Removing the offending allergens from the diet and environment sees an immediate relaxation (expansion) of the tight artery muscles and an increase in the size of the hollow. The blood pressure drops accordingly.

Blood pressure can return to normal quickly and dramatically when allergies are treated, which is why you must always treat them under a doctor’s supervision. If you’re on blood-pressure-lowering drugs the pressure can come down too quickly and even drop below normal if your doctor isn’t monitoring your progress and reducing the drugs appropriately.

Don’t take yourself off blood pressure drugs because artery muscle spasm may not be the only cause of your blood pressure problem. There may be atheromas, kidney problems, carbon dioxide excess and/or hardened arteries as well. If these exist you won’t improve as quickly as I’ve indicated. It’ll take longer and you’ll need to keep taking the drugs, weaning yourself off them slowly as you improve.

The heart is a muscle and is as prone to spasm as any other muscle. Some cases of diagnosed angina are the result of the cramping pain of a heart muscle in spasm. Removing the allergens sees the disappearance of the pain as well as the return of a strong regular heartbeat. People with allergy-based high blood pressure usually have headaches as well. The tendency to focus their allergies into the muscles sees these people with tight back, neck and scalp muscles. Tension in these particular muscle groups produces tension headaches that can endure for prolonged periods of time. The recurrence of tension headaches in allergenic people occurs often if their allergies are not treated by the methods outlined in this book.

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Neurokinin can so effectively inflame the skin it can lead you to believe the program isn’t working when in fact it is. Looking at your skin complaint can, if you let it, get you so upset and angry that the skin immediately reddens and can stay inflamed for as long as you allow yourself to remain angry. Even dwelling on your skin without even looking at it can perpetuate the reddening to the point that you feel the program simply isn’t working for you and you give up on it. Don’t fall into this trap. Be on your guard against it.

Similarly, if your skin oscillates randomly between good and bad despite sticking strictly to the program don’t automatically assume you have suddenly developed an allergy to something in the diet and begin to eliminate food on a trial and error basis. Take a look at your attitude: Are you getting angry, frustrated or embarrassed about your skin?

Neurokinin is as powerful as histamine at inflaming the skin. One has only to look at the skin of those who do not have skin complaints to see evidence of this. The ruddiness of the angry person and the hot, prickly blush of the embarrassed person are the results of neurokinin. When this redness is added to the existing redness of histamine-based eczema, psoriasis, acne, hives, rosacea, these conditions are perpetuated long after the Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program has removed all histamine from the skin.

The use of anti-inflammatory drugs (cortisone creams, Roaccutane, even antihistamines) can reduce the inflammation while the programs are working and, in so doing, reduce the stress that causes the release of the neurokinin. Don’t let neurokinin beat you. Don’t let it trick you into giving up your program.

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• Consult a competent beauty therapist, one who specialises in skin care rather than cosmetician work. She will advise you on what cleansers, toners and moisturisers are best for you. Inform her of the allergies you have (for example, yeast, tomato, etc.) and make sure these substances are not included in the skin preparations you use. The products she recommends will have the correct pH balance for your skin.

• It is preferable not to wash the affected areas with soap and water. Soap has an alkaline pH which neutralises the skin’s natural acid pH. The acid pH exists to keep viral, fungal and bacterial colonies on the skin as small as possible, thus reducing skin infections. If the use of soap and water is absolutely unavoidable you must dab a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water on your skin straight after to restore the natural acidity. Don’t dab the mixture on broken pimples.

• Use cortisone cream on eczema while the program is taking effect. Keeping the inflammation down this way will reduce stress and neurokinin. As time passes you’ll find you’re using less of it less frequently and eventually not at all.

• If after all of this your skin is still not 100 per cent better see a Chinese herbalist. Make sure you find a good one. Phone my office for a referral if you can’t. Chinese herbs get the best results when the body is well nourished on vitamin/mineral supplements, is candida-free and allergy desensitised by the Anti Candida/Anti-Allergy Program. Using the herbs too early can cause allergic reactions in those sensitive to grasses and see a return of the skin complaint after discontinuation of the herbs.

Toddlers, who are too young to go on restrictive diets, are the exception. Keep them on the herbs and a broad spectrum of foods until they’re old enough (age four up) and big enough to go on the Anti-candida/Anti-allergy program.

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This relates to the basic law of physics regarding the expansion and contraction of materials due to heat and cold. Because asthma is primarily the result of muscles that are in a state of sustained contraction it makes sense that body warmth is necessary for the expansion needed to effect their release. My experience with treating asthma is that even though the allergens that initially caused the contraction have been removed from the diet and ambient air, the muscles will not let go if any part of the body is cold.

This chilling of the body factor is something that many of my asthma patients have never taken seriously. Most of them were victims of a perennial summer mentality that makes them wear shorts, open neck shirts and get around in bare feet all winter. These people are usually avid fresh air buffs who make good use of breezes to air-condition their homes in summer. What they fail to realise is that comfort-bringing summer breezes become disease-bringing draughts in winter. Because, in most parts of Australia, summer can be so long (up to seven months during good years) they fall into the comfortable habit of wearing less and less and leaving doors and windows open all year round.

I’ve had asthma patients arrive in my office for their first consultation dressed in shorts, shirt and thongs in the middle of July, complaining that it’s a cold day! In fairness to them it’s usually one of those brilliantly sunny winter days that we often get. Unfortunately those sunny days usually have a cold southwesterly wind blowing off the Snowy Mountains. In sheltered pockets out of the wind the temperature can be as high as 21-22°C. Walking around the corner can bring you face to face with the cold south-westerly whose chill factor can suddenly reduce the ambient air temperature to 8-9°C. If the full force of this southwesterly is caught on bare neck and chest (open neck shirt) it will immediately chill it—and the muscles of the windpipe—sending them into spasm. This is despite the fact that the rest of the body may be sufficiently warm, which it would be if a cardigan was being worn.

Another thing that asthma sufferers have in common is that they tend to wear cardigans rather than crew or polo neck jumpers. Although heavy woollen cardigans may well raise their body temperatures to a comfortable level they do nothing to prevent local chilling of the neck, chest and windpipe muscles. Crew or polo neck jumpers and scarves are a must for asthma sufferers. Without them they just don’t get better. They must be worn all winter long whether it’s windy or not as southerlies can spring up at any time and without warning. The belief that one can’t stand things up around one’s neck has to be vehemently disputed, and then changed.

Gymnasiums are notorious for draughts. Don’t work out at aerobics or weights unless you’re wearing a crew or polo neck sweater, cotton in summer, wool in winter. Perspiring in a draught gives asthma attacks if the perspiration is not absorbed from the skin by a sweater.

Other erroneous beliefs that must be disputed and changed are:

1. I can’t sleep without the bedroom window open.’ All my former asthma patients have learned to sleep with it closed during winter. Open windows cause significant chilling when our body temperature drops during sleep. Cold air coming into the room at this time causes your body temperature to drop just that little bit more and when the temperature drops that extra degree the body’s resistance also drops. When this happens the bacteria and viruses that live naturally inside you (particularly the nose and throat area) gain the upper hand. They are able to multiply and infect you. That is why colds are called colds. This chilling effect also causes muscular contraction, that is, asthma. Chills cause colds and coughs at night, and colds and coughs cause asthma. Even if your bedroom window is open only a little bit, enough cold air can enter the room in a six to eight hour period to cause the chilling of the body. This is especially so if the sleep is restless and the blankets are being thrown off. This restlessness could be caused by dust mites in the mattress and pillow or by having a warm bath or shower before bed. The latter causes a rise in body temperature, enough to kick the blankets off and predispose yourself to chills. Night sweats—a symptom of allergy—can also cause this.

2. I don’t need to wear a warm dressing gown and slippers on rising.’ This attitude will guarantee you will ‘never lose your asthma. Sudden changes of temperature even for a minute or two duration will throw the windpipe muscles into spasm. Make sure you heat the whole house at night. Going from a warm room to a cold room causes windpipe spasm. You can leave windows and doors open through the day while you are out of the house but close them when you get home. Airing your bedroom in this way will ensure plenty of fresh air for the sleeping hours. Although the bedroom window must be closed at night, the bedroom door may be left open.

Don’t sit over a heater to keep warm when you’ve got a window or a door open. Even though the front of you is warm your back is being chilled and this will give you asthma. Close all windows and doors in winter. Don’t worry, there’s ample air in the house. Use door socks as most draughts are created by the gaps under doors.

By conscientiously avoiding draughts, sudden changes of temperature and dressing warmly you will notice, as so many of my patients do, that you will not only avoid asthma attacks over winter, you won’t suffer from colds or ‘flu either.

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If you have a dust allergy you must not dust, vacuum or be in the house for at least three hours after it has been done. Get another member of your household to do this sort of housework. Keep carpets, curtains and cloth-covered furniture in your home to a minimum and discard fan heaters completely. Keep books behind a glass cover and spray the bedrooms and living rooms with dust seal about three times per year. Spray your pets with dust seal about once a month. If this doesn’t work they must always be kept outside. Don’t have ceiling fans, floor fans and air-conditioners going at home during the ninety days on the program and where possible avoid them at work. They raise a dust that never settles, as well as blowing around pollens from indoor flowers and moulds from indoor plants. You’ll not desensitise in this type of environment. They further aggravate allergies by chilling sedentary bodies. If it’s not possible to get someone else to vacuum, do it yourself with an anti-dust mask and dust with a damp cloth only.

Around 90 per cent of people with dust allergies have food allergies. Continuous contact with dust can be the sole reason for a person not overcoming their food allergies. Reducing the level of dust in the home and workplace reduces one’s sensitivity to chemicals and foods.

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For the skin, RAST and cytotoxic food tests to be accurate you need to be off vitamin supplements (especially vitamin C), cortisone and antihistamine for five to seven days before the tests. These substances will block the reaction between the testing agent and the blood and skin, giving rise to inaccurate results. If you suspect any other medication you are on might affect the tests, check with your allergist first. It pays to be off as many drugs as possible (even the pill) before the tests, though the absolute no no’s are the ones just mentioned. Other drugs will have only a minimal effect on test accuracy so don’t go off them if it’s going to stress you in other ways. On no account should you ever go on or off any drug medication without your doctor’s advice.

Seventy-two hours prior to the tests eat as wide a variety of foods as possible. The tests are more accurate if the blood has made contact with the food it’s being tested for within a three day period. Don’t eat any food you suspect will harm you. List those foods instead and take them into account when planning your personal Anti-Allergy Program. This procedure is applicable to all food tests including food elimination tests.

If your asthma symptoms flare up during this time use your-Ventolin inhaler and/or any other non-cortisone/non-antihistamine drugs as often as your doctor deems appropriate to keep the symptoms and possible discomfort of food loading at bay. If your eczema flares Lip you may use cortisone creams during this time.

It’s a waste of time taking any of these tests if you’re on marijuana, speed, heroin or any other recreational drug.

Don’t eat large quantities of each food: small amounts are quite sufficient. Use cortisone puffers (not pills) after the tests.

Having had the tests, remove from your diet those foods you are allergic to. Adhere to the Anti-Candida Program minus the foods you are allergic to. Use the Anti-Candida Program as your basis for treatment. Stick to it strictly for ninety days.

If you show up as having inhalant allergies to airborne moulds, yeast and fungi you must go off the mould foods listed at the back of the book. Some people make the mistake of thinking that because they have inhalant allergies only they don’t need to go on a diet. Inhalant allergies cannot be cured if the foods they pertain to are not avoided totally for at least ninety days.

If you show up allergic to grasses stay off the herbal teas for ninety clays and all foods pertaining to or containing that substance. For example, if you show up allergic to rye grass you must avoid all foods containing rye—rye bread, Ryvita, etc. If you are allergic to wheatgrass, then nothing containing wheat, and if you are allergic to common oats, then no porridge, oatmeal soap, muesli, oat bran or oatmeal.

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