Antidepressants Blog

You are what you eat, in the sense that food is the raw material with which your body—and your “doctor within’—work. Like any craftsperson, your “doctor within” needs the right tools and materials to do a good job. These include complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fiber and water. Adequate supplies of protein, plus a small amount of fat, are also necessary.

Most of us eat the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.), which is loaded with fat, protein and simple carbohydrates (sugars), but sadly lacking in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Eating the S.A.D. deprives your “doctor within” of many of the tools needed to build health. At the same time, eating the S.A.D. forces your body to work overtime trying to deal with the mounds of sugar and globs of fat filling your stomach.

Unwrap a stick of butter. Squeeze it in your fist. Rub that butter between your two hands, spreading it all over your hands and fingers. That’s about as much fat as there is in the food the typical person eats in a day. Feel that fat on your hands. It’s thick and gooey. Imagine that much fat in your arteries, turning your bloodstream into a swamp.

As if that weren’t enough, the S.A.D, with its quantities of meat and processed foods, is filled with chemical additives that can hamper—and eventually overcome—your “doctor within.” Despite the claims of the food industry, the additives we consume have not been properly tested. Many, in fact, have never really been tested at all: “Grandfather” clauses in the law exempted them from the more stringent requirements. Furthermore, we don’t know what happens when the chemicals get together inside your body. Chemical A in your ice cream may be relatively harmless by itself. So might Chemical B in your fast-food French fries. But what happens when the two chemicals meet in your bloodstream or liver? Do they ignore each other? Do they combine? Does A convert B into a more dangerous form? We don’t always know what happens. The untold numbers of combinations that can result from eating additive-laden foods have not been studied.

The S.A.D. contributes directly to much of the heart disease we suffer, as well as to strokes, diabetes, arthritis and even cancer. And to the extent that the fatty, sugary, nutrient-poor S.A.D disrupts your “doctor within,” it contributes indirectly to many other problems. To be blunt, the S.A.D. is a killer. And its one and only target is you.

I had known Joan for many years, since my days at Los Angeles County Hospital. Even back then she had a great love for food. She ate juicy hamburgers, steak sandwiches dripping with fat, milk shakes, sausage-and-mustard sandwiches, corned-beef sandwiches and pie for dessert. As we grew older, her weight grew. Although she was never grotesquely fat, there was almost twice as much of her as there should have been. “More of me to love,” she said with a smile.

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So far, we have only looked at attitudes to food intolerance in terms of beliefs and preconceived ideas, which will undoubtedly seem odd to anyone with a scientific turn of mind. In theory, medical beliefs should be secondary to the scientific evidence, for or against, although in reality they rarely are. Dr David Atherton of the Institute of Child Health in London, who specializes in treating eczema, writes: ‘I am often asked by sceptical colleagues whether I “believe in all this food business”? It is a sad reflection on current medical practice that such an important question as the relationship between a patient’s diet and their disease should be relegated to one of belief or disbelief.’

In the next section we will consider the scientific evidence, but as we do so the importance of prejudice will again become evident. Even in the most scientific studies of this subject, it seems that the beliefs of the experimenters can influence the outcome. In general, those who ‘believe’ in food intolerance tend to get positive results, while the disbelievers usually get negative results. The conclusions you draw from this will, of course, be influenced by what you believe! But, as we hope to show, there are simple explanations for these apparently contradictory findings.

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The importance of the bran and germ of the rice grain was drastically demonstrated when people in the Orient began to copy those in the West by refining their staple food, their rice. A disease known as beriberi became rife among them and after all the known medicines had been thrown into the combat against the disease without success, a colonial doctor, Dr Eijkman, as well as other researchers, discovered that rice bran alone was able to cure the scourge. This definitely established the fact that beriberi was a deficiency disease, an avitaminosis, not an infectious disease as had been thought previously.

Fortunately, our Western diet is much more varied than that of the Oriental nations and such pronounced deficiencies rarely occur. If our diet lacks one substance or another, the deficiency can usually be compensated for, at least partly, by the substances contained in other foods we eat. However, it is only a partial compensation and we still often suffer from an imbalance in our food intake, as will be discussed in a later section. Many people in the Orient suffered the sad consequences of beriberi, but as soon as they began to take food supplements or returned to their former way of preparing whole rice, their health was restored.

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Of course, I do not wish to say that such lactic acid preparations are a panacea, a cure-all, but they have certainly brought the treatment of cancer a step further along the road. Because Molkosan has a fairly high percentage of natural lactic acid, it is of immense value in a cancer diet. As a drink, diluted with mineral water, it is both prophylactic and curative in its effect. Dr Kuhl also recommends raw sauerkraut for this purpose, because of its

lactic acid content.

It is, indeed, a great pleasure to see how the experiences and observations we began to report on in our magazine and books many years ago are now being confirmed as facts.

Once you are familiar with the many good effects of whey concentrate you will appreciate it and stop wondering why, in the past, even high-ranking personages did not consider it beneath their dignity to take ‘whey cures’ for the benefit of their health.

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Later on, I made the acquaintance of Dr Devrient in Berlin, who was so enthusiastic about the Schlenz method that he published a book explaining these baths, as well as sauna baths, as used in practice. He made reference to the practical experiences with these baths recorded by his colleagues Dr Wilhelm Winsch and Dr Walenski. Whenever Dr Devrient stood in for another colleague, Dr Keller-Hoerschelmann, he came into contact with Swiss folk medicine. He himself was an ardent advocate of natural therapy methods and holistic medicine. It was obvious, then, that he also approved of hydrotherapy and, of course, the Schlenz method. Professor Lampert employed the same method with great success; in fact, it is known that he cured over a hundred cases of typhoid fever during World War II, without losing a single one of his patients.

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A sulphurous essential oil is responsible for the onion’s good effect on the skin and scalp, especially in cases of dandruff and loss of hair.

In homoeopathy Allium ñåðà is the best remedy for a running cold. It is often enough just to leave half an onion on the bedside table so that the odour can be inhaled through the night. Every morning and evening cut the dried part away. If this does not effect a cure, it will still bring great relief and help towards a speedy recovery.

For colic and wind in the umbilical region, and for infants and small children who have bladder cramps along with reddish, smarting urine, Allium ñåðà is a harmless and reliable remedy. If you do not have extract of Allium ñåðà in your medicine chest, cut a thin slice of onion, dip it into a glass of warm water for a few seconds then remove it and take a sip of the water every hour. You will be astonished at the prompt relief this will bring.

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Aconitum is the best first aid in cases of inflammations that tend to become febrile. In infectious diseases, especially when the skin is hot and dry, Aconitum in the third and fourth decimal potency (3x or 4x) has a rapid and highly beneficial effect. It diverts the toxins from the blood and the tissues to the skin and encourages perspiration. A rush of blood to the head (hot flushes), such as many women experience during the change of life, is best dealt with by Aconitum Wx; for even better results this should be taken together with Ovarium 3x. It is helpful to take Aconitum 4x in alternation with Belladonna 4x at the onset of an acute illness when fever, a feeling of unrest, hot flushes, palpitations, uneasiness and a state of anxiety are present. When perspiration breaks out and the patient has calmed down, the treatment with Aconitum can be stopped and only Belladonna 4x or some other indicated remedy need be taken.

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For other women intercourse is an important part of comfort and closeness, both valuing and being valued. There are also those women with strong feminist views who wish to prove themselves unaffected by childbirth. The sense that the body has been irrevocably changed by the birth of the baby can be particularly strong in those women who were ambivalent about the pregnancy, and in whom the sense of self-worth is connected to their being able to compete with men in a man’s world. They may be unable to accept the changes that have come as a result of acknowledging their womanhood. Pain or difficulty with intercourse, or lack of sexual arousal may fuel their anger and resentment and be a potent cause of psychosexual problems in the future.

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Mr. A. had been a stud and was proud of it. He had moved down from London and spent some time teaching the locals a few lessons. Now after settling into married life he is running a garage and car hire business and is well known in the local community for giving a helping hand. In the past girls had fallen into three categories; some who were seen as fair game; some who would be avoided; and some who were in need of his protection. He was asked how he used to decide about contraception? ‘Often you cannot decide if you are carried away.’ The doctor asked, ‘Did you treat them all the same? You seem a gentle chap to me.’ After a pause he flushed. ‘It was the quiet ones I worried about – sometimes. The ones you could hurt. I always used condoms with them, because in a way you felt they shouldn’t be doing it. If you had met them somewhere else they were the ones you could marry.’

So although young men out hunting may at times not carry contraception, when they do it may be to protect themselves against physical and perhaps emotional dangers, or occasionally to protect their quarry.

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An increasing number of women work outside the home and put off childbearing until a suitable time in their career. After many years of contraception they may feel a sense of panic as the biological clock ticks on. Some women in their lates 20s or early 30s may discontinue the Pill, sometimes just to reassure themselves by seeing their own menstrual cycles, but sometimes pregnancy results. Another group of women may go through a spell of being careless about contraception. After a while they begin to worry about the fact they have not fallen pregnant, even though they did not particularly want a baby. Confirmation of the pregnancy in both cases may bring relief and even a fleeting moment of joy until the woman examines the reality of her situation and realizes that she feels unable to cope with a baby.

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