Sports injuries are mainly caused by contact with another person, an object, or through overuse of muscles. Obviously, not all such risks can be avoided – you can’t foresee a collision on the pitch or a fall on the track – but they can be minimised.
Getting the body ready for exercise is just as important whether you play sport every day or once a month. It’s particularly important for older people and those not used to exercising. If you are unused to exercise, a visit to your doctor before you start is always a good idea. Gently warm up for five to ten minutes to improve muscle flexibility. Before going on an energetic sporting holiday, such as skiing, start your exercise programme about six weeks beforehand. It’s also important to ease your body back down after activity, first with mild physical exercise, then gentle stretching exercises to help prevent muscle stiffness. Changing into warm clothing stops the body getting chilled.
Clothes and equipment should be chosen with care: shoes must fit properly and be correct for the purpose; clothes should be appropriate, and your racket, bike or clubs should be of the right size for your height and weight.
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Viral and bacterial infections can cause pneumonia, a condition in which one or both lungs become inflamed. Bacterial pneumonia is generally regarded as more serious than viral pneumonia, although both can be very dangerous to the young and the elderly. Viral pneumonia is often the result of chickenpox or measles.
A cough and shortness of breath are the first symptoms of pneumonia, accompanied by fever and sweating. Acute lobar pneumonia, which affects only one lobe of one lung, causes a dry cough. The sufferer may cough up blood. In the case of bronchopneumonia, usually affecting both lungs, there are sudden chest pains and the sufferer coughs up yellow, green, or brown sputum, sometimes containing blood.
Pneumonia can be a serious condition and a doctor should be consulted if it is suspected. However, some complementary therapies prescribed by qualified practitioners can be helpful. Herbal expectorants can be used to loosen the phlegm, including mullein and thyme. Echinacea, garlic and large doses of Vitamin C and Vitamin A may be recommended to boost the immune system against infection. Fruit or vegetable juice fasts may be recommended, followed by diets which exclude foods which increase mucus production such as dairy products and sweet foods.
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Some chemical compounds are so powerful that they will cause seizures in most of those exposed. War gas which has actually been used in some units to induce seizures in those with severe depression as an alternative to electroconvulsive therapy. In this case the seizure is the required effect, but in all other instances seizures complicating drug therapy are very much an unwanted effect.
Antidepressant drugs of the tricyclic group, including amitryptiline (for example, Tryptizol, Saroten, Domical) and nortryptyline (for example, Allegron, Aventyl) are amongst those which clearly lower the convulsive threshold and precipitate seizures. Other offenders include phenothiazines, isoniazid, and high doses of penicillin. Excessive doses of insulin precipitate seizures through hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). Any of these drugs may precipitate a first seizure or exacerbate established epilepsy.
Other drugs may precipitate seizures in those with epilepsy on anti-epileptic medication by interfering with the metabolism of these drugs.
Finally, it should be remembered that withdrawal of some drugs, particularly barbiturates, may precipitate seizures.
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The worn-out cliche, “the balanced diet,” has been so misused and abused that it no longer has much meaning. The term optimum diet would better signify a diet so well planned and chosen as to assure optimum health.
What is a balanced diet? Is it a diet made up of “four basic foods” as you were taught in grade school? Or is it the “seven basics” as it is sometimes advised? Whichever it is, meat has always been considered the most basic food. We have all been brainwashed for years with the pseudoscientific slogan “high protein—low carbohydrate.” We believe that we should eat as much protein as possible. We are living in an era of the high-protein cult!
When I recently met Dr.
Karl-Otto Aly, M.D., the prominent Swedish doctor, upon his return from an extensive lecture tour in the United States and asked him, ‘What is singularly the most memorable impression of your trip?” he had an immediate answer:
“The American high-protein craze! Not only the general public, but even so-called health enthusiasts are so thoroughly brainwashed on the question of protein in their diet, that, to my mind, this point alone may be held responsible to a great degree for the deplorable state of health of the American people.”
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Two lesser known but at times extremely successful methods of easing pain also worth considering are:
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS).
This method works somewhat on the same principle that makes pain diminish when you rub an injured area. However, instead of rubbing the painful spot, the TENS unit – a small battery-powered electronic unit you can clip to your belt or carry in a pocket – sends small electrical impulses to conductive pads placed near where it hurts. The electrical impulses are transmitted through the pads to the local nerve endings and reduce the capacity of the nerves to transmit pain signals to the receptors in the brain, so effectively reducing your perception of the pain. Note, however, that although TENS treatment can lessen pain it does not cure the underlying condition responsible for it.
While TENS units are potentially available for loan to suitable patients under the NHS, they are usually in very short supply. You can, however, also buy a unit yourself (no prescription is needed) and one well-established supplier of these is Dezac Ltd, 54 Bath Road, Cheltenham, Glos GL53 7HG (Tel: 01242 583502), whose Rio TENS unit offers both variable intensity control and six different treatment programmes.
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The fourth rule of vital nutrition is that your food should be as poison-free as possible. This is easier said than done, however, in this poisoned world of ours. And if you feel that “poisoned world” sounds rather alarmist, I will add that it is almost impossible these days in the United States and West-European countries to obtain foodstuffs that are free from poisonous residues or additives. Fruits and vegetables contain residues of various poisonous insecticides, waxes, bleaches, and artificial colorings. Fresh meats contain residues of hormones used to speed up animal growth and antibiotics to prolong meat s shelf life. Processed meats, bread, cereals, canned and processed foods are loaded with some of the nearly 1,000 different chemicals now used by the food processing industry in this country—and many of them have never been tested for their possible toxicity! Much recent research shows that the toxic effect of chemicals is multiplied by the effect of other chemical agents consumed simultaneously.
There is a growing movement in the United States to produce poison-free, organically grown foods.
They are often available in health food stores. Every effort should be made to obtain such foods. Poisons in foods are, perhaps, the greatest menace to American health today.
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Fasting is the extreme form of diet, in which you do not eat at all and you drink only pure water. Of course, fasting can only be observed only for a very limited time. Most effective fasting programs range from 1 to 6 weeks.
Fasting greatly accelerates purification and the healing processes in our body, simply because we do not input anything to the body at all, thereby freeing and unifying all body resources for the sole purpose of cleansing and healing. Note, that by taking even small quantities of food we have to use significant amount of our body resources to process and excrete it.
Never attempt fasting, without understanding and observing the method as well as precautions described below.
Note, that every ancient civilisation in the past had a tradition of fasting, at least twice a year. Our wise ancestors many thousands of years ago knew very well about the dangers of a poisoned body and incorporated this simple purification technique into their way of life. Every known religion has originated from the teachings of enlightened people, who tried to show others how to live. Of course fasting was also included in their teachings. Unfortunately, with time, fasting has become less and less strict, gradually loosing its original effectiveness and purpose.
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The second rule of vital nutrition is that your foods should be whole, complete, unrefined, and unadulterated. Whole wheat, brown rice, orange, sugar cane, and potatoes are whole foods. White bread, polished rice, orange juice, white sugar, and instant potatoes are not whole foods. They are refined, concentrated, or are fragments of the foods from which important vital nutritive factors have been removed.
Whole foods are simply foods which still contain all the nutrients which nature has put in them—all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, enzymes, etc. But 80 per cent of the foods consumed by the average American today have been tampered with in one way or another, and most of the nutrients have either been taken out of them or destroyed. White bread, white sugar, breakfast cereals, and processed oils are typical examples of such devitalized nutritionless foods.
Whole foods contain not only complete nutrition but also all the enzymes and other factors necessary for proper digestion and good assimilation of these particular foods. When certain parts are removed, the digestion and assimilation can be incomplete and nutritional deficiences may result.
Only whole foods can supply optimum nutrition for optimum health.
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Q. I suppose appendicitis is one of the most common causes for emergency surgery.
A. True, and most people are unaware that about 60 Australians die each year from this disorder, mostly from a delay in seeking medical attention. This should never happen.
Q. What are the symptoms?
A. Appendicitis commonly commences with pain around the epigastrium and navel. From 2-12 hours later, it slowly extends to the right lower side of the abdomen, the so-called iliac fossa. There may be some vomiting, increase in pain, mild fever and constipation, although often symptoms are minimum. The pain may be worse with coughing, walking or running.
Q. What treatment is advised?
A. Any symptom that could indicate appendicitis should receive prompt medical attention. Deep tenderness in the R.I.F. region is usually felt on firm pressure at the doctor’s examination. Sometimes tests are ordered, for urinary infections can often mimic a diseased appendix.
However, if there is any doubt, surgical removal is advised and this is often carried out promptly. An acute appendix may burst, causing serious symptoms. Uncomplicated cases recover well, the patient being up the next day and home a few days later. A light diet for a few days, reduced activity for a couple of weeks and the patient soon returns to normal.
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Using treatments that are extremely similar in many ways to those employed by osteopaths, chiropractic techniques are particularly successful in treating low back pain, slipped discs and sports injuries.
A well-established health care system that originated in America, chiropractic’s underlying principle is that a patient’s overall state of health will be greatly governed by how comfortably and easily the various parts of his body move, naturally paying special attention to the back and the neck.
In general, chiropractors are more likely to use more vigorous techniques than osteopaths when freeing ’stuck joints’ through manipulation.
This works broadly on the same principles as acupuncture, but the essential difference between the two is that in acupressure the various points on the patient’s body are stimulated by the practitioner’s finger or thumb instead of by the insertion of needles. One major advantage of this approach is that a patient (or a relative or friend) can perhaps be taught to perform the treatment and therefore it can be repeated as often as required at home. Most practitioners of acupuncture also offer acupressure therapy because some patients cannot face the idea of having needles stuck into them.
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