Medical Weblog

Before the days of sleep laboratories, it was believed that sleepwalking, night tenor, and children’s bed-wetting happened during dreaming. Nowadays, with the help of the sleep laboratories, we know mat these related phenomena occur in the deep sleep stages of NREM sleep, and are not features of dreams at all.

Have you ever dreamed that you got out of bed whilst asleep at night, got changed, did all the naughty things that you normally dared not do, and enjoyed yourself with whatever fantasy you had? When someone knocked on your door and complained of what you had done, you told him you were innocent for you were sleep-walking. What in fact is sleep-walking?

Sleep-walking, technically known as somnambulism, is more common in children, and is estimated to occur in 15 per cent of normal children. They may sit up in their beds or get out of bed and walk around in the bedroom, then go back to sleep. Some sleepwalkers may carry out some simple activity they do daily. Some may get dressed, open doors, open and close drawers, or use the bathroom without knowing it. Their eyes can see where they are going but they are not in focus, and their activities are poorly coordinated and primitive. If they are spoken to, they may reply in single words or just utter some murmur. They carry out simple tasks that do not require any decision or intellectual thinking. One of my patients told me his girlfriend was making a cup of coffee one night whilst sleep-walking. Sleep-walkers appear to be in a trance. However, it is definitely impossible to carry out naughty activities that you normally do not dare do. Any complicated behaviour is not performed by the sleep-walker. After they wake up the next morning, they will not remember that they have been sleep-walking. This is because sleep-walking occurs during NREM sleep, and we have no memory or thoughts during NREM sleep.

What about the mechanics of sleep-walking? Millions of years ago, mankind had a primitive brain that could do simple tasks without much thinking, including activities such as eating, walking, etc. After years of evolution, the brain attained a thinking and much more intellectual part. During NREM sleep, the thinking part is truly at rest, as shown by the EEG. However, the primitive part can still be partially awake. For some reasons unknown to us, the primitive part of the brain carries out these primitive activities automatically during sleep-walking. The sleep-walker appears to have the ability to dissociate the two parts of the brain during sleep. This ability of dissociation is important when a person is going into hypnosis. It is known that a sleep-walker can go into hypnosis much more easily than someone who does not sleep-walk.

Most children who sleep-walk gradually grow out of it. As they grow older, their sleep becomes less deep. Most sleep-walkers are not suffering from any form of serious illness in the brain. If there is a sleep-walker in your house, he should be protected from any possible injury; try to put away sharp objects and block off the stairs at night to prevent the sleep-walker from accidentally injuring himself. If he is found sleep-walking, do not try to wake him up, as he will be quite confused. Just take him back to his bed and he will continue to sleep again. Sleep-walking, in general, does not require treatment, as it generally disappears as a person gets older.

*39\174\4*

When ideas are presented to us they convey a meaning. But the same ideas may have a rather different, meaning for us according to our state of mind at the time. In our normal mental state we are alert and critical, and ideas that are presented to us carry their logical, meaning. However, when we are very relaxed, and our mind has regressed, the same ideas carry a simpler and more fundamental meaning. This is a rather hard distinction to understand until we have experienced it. And it is not a difficult thing to experience. When we are doing our mental exercises we allow various trains of thought to come to our mind while we are very relaxed and regressed. In these circumstances it comes about that we experience the ideas rather than comprehend them logically. Furthermore, we experience them in a strikingly simple fashion. This is something quite different from the way the idea affects us in our normal alert state; and it is this that allows the exercises to influence us so profoundly.

I will describe various trains of thought which can help us in this way. Remember that these are expressed in a way for our relaxed and regressed mind to use. To our alert mind some of these sequences of thought may seem childish, odd, and repetitive. This may tempt you to reject the procedure as silly. Do not do this. The ideas are not written for your alert mind to evaluate and criticize; they are written for your relaxed and regressed mind to experience. That which may seem childish in our alert state becomes filled with simple and powerful meaning when we are a little regressed.

*65\57\2*

By now it must be evident to the average reader that the biological approach to arthritis is quite different from conventional practices. As with every new concept and new approach, it takes an unprejudiced and objective attitude on the part of practitioners to be able to grasp and accept the new discoveries. It is natural to be doubtful and even skeptical of something which is contrary to common practice and the accepted line of thought. Moreover, the new biological approach seems to be so down-to-earth simple that for a technologically minded and pseudoscientifically trained, twentieth century space-oriented man it may seem too simple to be true. However, hundreds of medical doctors in Europe have given this down-to-earth, commonsense, nature-cure approach a fair trial. They were soon convinced of its extraordinary merits. Its effectiveness is proven by actual result-producing application on thousands upon thousands of successfully treated patients.

The value of biological treatments was scientifically tested by the Royal Free Hospital in London, England, in 1949. The experiments were made through the initiative of one of the hospital doctors who had seen a successfully treated case of arthritis. The methods used were those employed at the famous Bircher-Benner Clime in Switzerland.

Twelve patients with arthritis, all more or less hopeless cases given up by doctors as not responsive to conventional treatments, were selected to participate in the tests, which were carried out under careful scientific control. The experiment was documented on films taken during the entire duration of the tests, and a detailed report was given in a medical journal.5

The results of the experiment were very convincing. Patients who were considered hopeless cases had remarkably improved and regained the use of their deformed and formerly immobile joints.

One 55-year-old woman was so badly crippled that she could hardly move any part of her body and was permanently bedridden. After less than one year on the biological program, she left the hospital walking without help and without crutches. This case was controlled ten years later (1959) and the patient, now at the age of 65, was found in good health, able to do hard physical labor, such as digging in her garden two or three hours without rest

It is unfortunate, indeed, that it takes such a long time before new discoveries and original ideas become universally accepted and officially endorsed. Millions of sick people suffer because of unwillingness on the part of conservative practitioners to accept and use new, unconventional methods of treatment. It is my sincere hope that this book will spread the knowledge and speed the recognition of biological medicine, both among the members of the healing professions as well as the lay public, and help to free millions of arthritis sufferers from their hopelessness and agonizing existence.

*22\176\2*

The treatment of epilepsy begins with making a correct diagnosis—the diagnosis that the events are truly seizures, the diagnosis of the seizure type, and the diagnosis of the epilepsy syndrome. This is particularly important in children in whom other non-epileptic, brief disturbances may be confused with and misdiagnosed as epilepsy. The drugs which are used to prevent or control epileptic seizures (anti-epileptic drugs; anticonvulsant drugs) may have to be used for some years—even for life—and have side-effects which are occasionally serious. It is therefore important that the diagnosis of epilepsy is correct before these are prescribed.

The reason for taking drugs is to prevent further seizures or fits from occurring. The drugs will only do this if they are taken regularly, and as advised by the doctor. One common reason for people with epilepsy having further attacks is because they either do not want to take, or forget to take their medication regularly.

*54\188\2*

Here’s another “incurable” disease that usually responds well to CMO. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is often considered to be a condition in the arthritis family — an inflammatory connective tissue disorder. Unfortunately it can also involve the liver, kidneys, blood, skin rashes, and central nervous system. It is unquestionably an autoimmune disease, and after hearing so many glowing reports of CMO’s effectiveness early on, we expected it to make a major impact on this disease. Many lupus patients respond well with CMO, yet some do not. We still have not found out why that’s so, but we’re working on it. As I keep saying, we have so much more to learn about this marvellous substance.

Lupus was one of the very first diseases that gave us a clue that CMO is a general immunomodulator that could benefit autoimmune ailments other than arthritis. From the very beginning we kept hearing how it relieved so many of the painful symptoms and how it normalized even extremely high blood sedimentation rates.

One male patient in his fifties is a typical example. He suffered with debilitating fatigue, joint and muscle pains, muscular weakness, kidney pains, urinary bladder control, and sleeplessness.

For over ten years his disease became progressively worse. Conventional medications were of little help. Turning to a holistic doctor (Dr Douglas Hunt, MD) for help, he was put on CMO along with a few other nutritional supplements. CMO combined with type two collagen, manganese, proline, and vitamin injections turned his health around in just a few weeks. Melatonin took care of the sleeping problem.

His aches and pains disappeared and his energy levels improved rapidly. He regained muscle strength and control of his urinary bladder. Naturally, his outlook on life brightened considerably as well.

But, unlike overcoming arthritis, this wasn’t a one-shot deal. Continuing treatment seems to be necessary to keep him in remission. And we are finding that continuing treatment may be essential to conquering other “incurable” ailments as well. But that doesn’t necessarily mean taking CMO every day. Often just a few capsules once or twice a week are quite enough, sometimes along with conventional medications as well.

*75\142\2*

Symptoms

Child wakes screaming; confusion on awakening; frantic activity on awakening; sleepwalking.

Home care

Rouse the child slowly and gently.

Hold the child and speak soothingly and reassuringly.

If the child is sleepwalking, make sure he or she cannot fall or get hurt.

Precautions

-    Frequent nightmares indicate that the child is under excessive stress; try to identify and relieve the problem. If necessary, enlist the doctor and school personnel to help pinpoint the source of the child’s distress.

-    Be alert to the school, social, and family pressures that can cause a child to have nightmares.

-    Be Sure you know how much TV your child is watching, and that the program content is suitable.

-    A child who sleepwalks must be protected from falls and other injury.

Some experts distinguish bad dreams from nightmares and night terrors. For practical purposes, however, all three have the same cause and treatment; they differ only in degree.

In a nightmare, the mind relives the fears and anxieties the child has experienced during his or her waking hours. Occasionally a nightmare may be the result of the usual stresses your child encounters in daily life. Frequent nightmares, however, are abnormal and indicate unreasonable pressures on the child.

High fever and illness – measles, for instance – have been known to induce nightmares. When this happens, the condition resembles delirium, and it should not recur once the child is well again. If no illness is involved, a nightmare is easily identified.

*161/84/5*

•     If at all possible, breastfeed from birth on demand and give no other food or drink at all until at least 4-6 months.

•     Never allow a baby to be given sugar water. It is better to give him or her the breast, or water if absolutely necessary. This will correct any low blood sugar condition naturally.

•     Give a diet rich in complex, unrefined carbohydrates, low in fat and high in fibre, right from weaning off the breast.

•     If you are middle-aged and overweight, and therefore at risk regarding Type 2 diabetes, eat in the way outlined above and lose weight slowly but evenly. If you already have the disease, the diet may mean that you could come off all your drugs, and will also prevent further complications of diabetes occurring.

•     Take brewer’s yeast daily if you have a family history of diabetes or if you are diabetic.

•     Eat foods rich in the following:

1. Vitamin A-diabetics are especially susceptible to infections and this vitamin helps fight them.

2. Vitamin B1-increases insulin production and helps prevent diabetic nerve troubles developing.

3. Vitamin B2~ especially good for diabetics who have difficulty controlling their condition with drugs and diet.

4. Vitamin B3-insulin-dependent diabetics have a particular need for this vitamin. It prevents swings in blood sugar in Type 1 diabetics. Vitamin B3 is also an important part of the glucose-tolerance factor (see above).

5. Vitamin B6- can become low in diabetics because they lose so much in their large volumes of urine. Studies have found that diabetics often have a shortage of B6 in their blood.

6. Choline and inositol – are B-vitamins that affect fat metabolism. It has been proposed that the large, fatty liver of the diabetic is caused by the urinary loss of these vitamins. They are also useful in controlling high blood pressure and liver and gall-bladder activity, and are of great importance in diabetics.

7. Vitamin Ñ-usually low in diabetics. The therapeutic effect of insulin is increased when this vitamin is taken, and the side-effects of several drugs (including aspirin) can be reduced by taking it. Diabetics often suffer a heavy toll of infections, and vitamin Ñ is of proven value in combating infections. A daily dose of 1-2 g is not at all excessive, especially as this water-soluble vitamin is lost in the urine of diabetics in greater amounts than in normal people.

8. Magnesium-six out of the nine enzymes involved in sugar metabolism need magnesium, and a deficiency of magnesium is found in diabetic ketosis. There is also evidence linking diabetic eye disease to magnesium deficiency.

9. Manganese-diabetics have only half the manganese in their blood that healthy people have. This element is vital for insulin metabolism and the stabilization of many vitamins, including vitamin C.

10. Zinc-is one of the many substances that diabetics lose in their copious urine. Zinc is added to insulin to prolong its action. As long ago as 1938 it was found that the pancreatic tissue of diabetics contained less than 50 per cent of the zinc in the tissue of healthy control subjects.

•    Don’t smoke. This is exceptionally harmful for diabetics because it reduces vitamin Ñ by 25 mg per cigarette; releases adrenaline, which increases blood-sugar levels; and narrows the diabetic’s already damaged arteries.

•    Drink very little alcohol. Beware of these drinks containing large amounts of sugar     (Martini, brandies, liqueurs, champagne, beer and sweet wines).

•     Cut down on coffee and tea. They both stimulate the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline which, in turn, raises blood sugar.

•     Use sucrose alternatives such as fructose, sorbitol, manitol and xylitol.

•     Eat less salt. This is especially harmful to diabetics given their particular liability to develop kidney and eye problems and high blood pressure.

*4/72/5*

A shortage of different nutrients can reduce your fertility as a couple. And, more importantly, a few simple changes can dramatically improve your chances of having a healthy baby. But how would you actually know if you had a nutrient deficiency?

Most of us are short of time these days. We snatch a sandwich for lunch, often on the move, and maybe have not been eating so well over the last few years. With our food being depleted in nutrients because of the way it has been processed and the impoverishment of the soil it is grown on, the chances are that many of us are deficient in some nutrients.

It is very easy to pick up a newspaper or magazine and read how wonderful zinc or selenium is, and then go out and buy some. But this is a very random approach. It is much better to be tested so that you know you are taking the nutrients you really need. The vitamins and minerals you need for your body to function at its optimum and give you the best chance of conceiving are all dependent on each other in order to act efficiently. For instance, zinc works best when it is accompanied by adequate amounts of vitamin B6 so it is better to take a combined multivitamin and mineral supplement and then add the extra nutrients that you are deficient in.

The other reason for testing is that all the chemicals and other toxic substances we absorb in our daily life can collect in our systems and damage our fertility. We need to check this out too.

*58/73/5*

What is it?

Primary infertility (as opposed to secondary infertility which occurs in couples who have already had a baby but have trouble conceiving again) is present when a couple cannot conceive after a year of unprotected, unlimited intercourse. Almost one in seven of all couples in the West are infertile and the number is growing.

What causes it?

• Putting off having babies until the woman is past her peak fertility. The average couple is at peak fertility in their early twenties and most don’t start trying to have children until five to ten years after this. A woman’s eggs (ova) are all present at birth and age along with the rest of her body. By the time she is 30 some of the eggs are already of poor quality and so do not result in a fetus, or are aborted spontaneously very early. About seven or eight out of every ten conceptions in human beings end up being wasted naturally. Well over 30 per cent of women aged 40-45 are infertile and one UK study found that three-quarters of mothers having a baby when they were 30 or more had been having unprotected intercourse for two years or more before they conceived.

• VD is now a real epidemic, especially in the form of gonorrhea. Its growth is exceptionally high among teenagers. A substantial proportion of females with gonorrhea have no symptoms and by the time they know they have it their fallopian tubes have been irreparably damaged and so cannot allow an egg to pass from the ovaries to the uterus.

• Prolonged use of the Pill can delay the return of ovulation after stopping the drug in about 2 per cent of women. This is a very small proportion but the number of individuals is large because of the numbers of women on the Pill – nearly 3 million in the UK.

• The IUDs (intrauterine device currently used can delay the return of conception and older women seem to fare especially badly in this respect. Also, IUD are often associated with subclinical pelvic infections which can cause infertility in their own right.

• Abortions are followed by infections and damage to the cervix in a small number of women. These effects are very uncommon, but given the increasing numbers of women involved the numbers of individuals with such problems are building up.

• Exposure to drugs, pollutants, food additives and so on is rising and some undoubtedly play a part in the increasing toll of infertility.

• Not making love around the time of ovulation. Many infertile couples attending clinics are having intercourse only once a month and then not around ovulation time.

• Using lubricants, jellies, etc. All such creams, jellies and lubricants kill sperms, at least to some extent.

• Women who get up immediately after sex, so allowing the semen to run out. This is fine if the man has a large volume and she is very fertile but this may not be the case.

• The couple has sex problems which mean they rarely make love.

• The man’s scrotum is too hot. Sperms need to be kept at 2-3°C lower temperature than the rest of the body or they die or don’t even form properly. This is why the testes lie outside the body.

*181/72/5*

As a child develops, she passes through stages. At each stage the tasks that confront her increase in complexity. The challenges of one stage prepare her to tackle the next. The tasks of adolescence are to form an identity, to separate from the family, to develop more mature relationships outside the family, and to accept one’s growing and changing body.

Sometimes, however, family interactions combine with the fears of an eating disorder patient in a way that makes it difficult for her to face and overcome these developmental challenges. For example, when parents are overly critical of friendships outside the home, a child may limit the depth of her involvement with her friends. Later, as her friends grow and mature, she is left behind. To cope with abandonment, the girl retreats to a world focused on the things she can control -food and eating.

Family therapy identifies family problems that contribute to the child’s symptoms. Once they are identified, work begins to correct those problems and to help everyone, not just the patient, find other ways of interacting.

The key elements in any family structure, according to Minuchin, are hierarchy, subsystems, and boundaries. Hierarchy is the way tasks are assigned based on ability and maturity. In a normal hierarchy, leadership is shared jointly by the parents. Children take on roles that fit their age and development -helping around the house, caring for siblings, earning money. Subsystems are smaller units based on roles within the family: parents, spouses (not the same thing!), and siblings. Boundaries are the invisible, but very real, lines between subsystems, and between the family and the outside world. Proper boundaries allow each member the highest degree of freedom while providing safety and security. In some families, not only are boundaries between subsystems inadequate, but the boundaries between the family and the outside world are too rigid. Children can’t play with neighbors: “Not our kind, dear.” Dating is discouraged; a teenager may be told not to take a job: “We’ll give you more money, if that’s what you want.”

Minuchin’s approach to family therapy, which I have found helpful in my practice, changes these pathological interactions by firming up the boundaries between parents and child. We urge parents to take on their natural roles as family leaders and to collaborate with and support each other. We also work with all members to help the patient become more autonomous. The family members learn new ways to communicate, and pick up pointers on solving problems in more creative, effective ways. In the process, they lose the feeling of helplessness that drove them to seek help in the first place.

*102/35/5*