ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY: HOW IMMUNOTHERAPY WORKS
The key “immune” players in allergic reactions are IgE antibodies, mast cells, basophil cells, and the chemicals released from these cells, called mediators. It is on these antibodies, cells, and mediators that immunotherapy exerts its effects.
Before immunotherapy, IgE antibodies (the allergy antibodies) increase in number after a season of exposure to the pollen(s) to which you are allergic. After immunotherapy, the level of these antibodies decreases and no longer or only slightly increases after a season of exposure. The general trend is for the IgE antibody level to decrease during your course of immunotherapy. Before immunotherapy, your mast cells and basophil cells bind with the IgE antibodies and release chemicals whenever these antibodies react with something to which you are allergic. After immunotherapy, there is a decreased release of chemical mediators from these cells after exposure to an allergen. Decreased release means fewer symptoms for you.
We all have the ability to make antibodies to anything that invades our body: food, viruses, bacteria, and airborne allergens. We all make a certain amount of IgG antibody to airborne allergens. Immunotherapy causes us to make much more IgG antibody to the allergens in our shots. In theory this antibody functions as a “blocking antibody.” Ideally, there should be so much more of IgG than IgE antibody that when an airborne allergen invades your system, it binds with IgG rather than IgE. Since the binding of IgG and allergen does not set off an allergic reaction, fewer chemicals are released into your nasal tissue and you suffer fewer symptoms.
Immunotherapy works through a combination of these effects, rather than via a single effect.
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NOTES FOR ARTHRITIS TREATMENT
1. If arthritis patient uses aspirin, cortisone, prednisone, or ACTH (the usual drugs prescribed by doctors for pain) he should take extra amounts of vitamin С (massive doses up to 5,000 mg. a day) because all the above-mentioned drugs significantly lower blood and tissue level of vitamin C, as shown in clinical studies.
2. If arthritis patient has been taking cortisone or other corticosteroid drugs for a prolonged period (over a period of several years), such drugs cannot be withdrawn abruptly, but only gradually, and always under the supervision of a doctor. Such patients, even when they are put on a fast, should continue with medication, possibly on a reduced dosage.
3. The following poultice for swollen joints has been used with good results: take 2 tbsp. mullein, 3 tbsp. granulated slippery elm bark, 1 tbsp. lobelia, 1 tsp. cayenne (red pepper powder). Mix ingredients in a bowl and add hot water to make a paste. Spread the paste on a cloth and cover the swollen joints with the poultice. Wrap the cloth with a plastic sheet and then with a dry towel. Leave for 1/2 to 1 hour, or less if burning sensation becomes unbearable.
4. Castor oil packs are excellent for affected joints which are not in an inflamed condition (after the acute inflammation has subsided). The castor oil pack is made in the following manner: pour 3 to 4 tbsp. of castor oil in a pan and heat oil until it starts to simmer. Dip a flannel cloth into the oil until all the cloth is saturated. Place the cloth on the affected area and cover with a plastic sheet larger than the cloth, then cover with a thin towel and place an electric heating pad over it. Cover the whole pack with a large towel or blanket. Keep on for 1/2-1 hour. Peanut oil can be used if castor oil is not available.
5. Mustard plasters on affected joints (not in an inflammatory condition) is an old time-proven remedy.
6. Excellent treatment for bursitis: peanut oil packs, as above, plus 2 tbsp. of peanut oil daily, internally. Diet: the same as above for arthritis.
7. There have been numerous reports by former arthritis patients who claim that they have cured their arthritis by drinking’2-3 tablespoons of sea water each day (or water from the Salt Lake).
8. It has been found in studies by Dr. Barton-Wright, et al., in England, that arthritis patients show always low blood levels of pantothenic acid. This could be due to dietary deficiencies, absorption difficulties or patient’s inordinately high requirement of this vitamin. Clinical tests with intramuscular injections of pantothenic acid, in combination with sebacic acid and cysteine, were “remarkably success-M”.
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THE PROCESS PARADIGM IN PSYCHIATRY: PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES OF PROCESS THEORY
Change happens through or is associated with the unfolding of patterns. This means, for example, that a man who is constantly moody or a woman who tends to fall into a cool nastiness towards others will not necessarily change through insight into dream material alone. Empirical knowledge indicates that insight is most effective when it follows experience; it is then likely to coincide with change.
In the analytical paradigm, for example, the man will dream about his moodiness or the woman about her coldness and this dream material will be discussed, interpreted and related to present or past situations. In the process paradigm, the dreamer will be encouraged to become aware of aspects of himself which are close to and distant from awareness (namely primary and secondary processes), and to follow their process of unravelling.
For example, someone dreams about an explosion and has a stomach ache. If this stomach ache is experienced as something trying to break out, it is a relatively constant occurrence in process work that the stomach ache will turn out to mirror the dream, showing the individual that a part of him is trying to explode. By experiencing this more completely, either through visualizing it, hearing it, feeling it, acting it out, noticing it in relationships or synchronicities, consciousness and change happen simultaneously.
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COMMON VITAMINS: CHOLINE
In: General health · Tagged with: General health
COMMON VITAMINS: PANTOTHENIC ACID
In: General health · Tagged with: General health
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO HAVE AN EPILEPTIC SEIZURE: AFTER THE SEIZURE
In: Diabetes · Tagged with: Diabetes
MAINTAINING GOOD DIABETIC CONTROL: REMINDERS ON EQUIPMENT AND MORE
In: Diabetes · Tagged with: Diabetes
YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH: CYSTIC FIBROSIS
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder which occurs in approximately 1 in every 2500 births. Children with the disease have excessive amounts of salt in their sweat, and produce thick mucus which blocks the pancreas and the lungs. This leads to many long-term problems, including repeated chest infections, poor growth (failure to thrive), and occasionally diabetes. A specific test called a sweat test is diagnostic of cystic fibrosis. Treatment is always in a specialist unit, and is aimed towards preventing deterioration in the child’s condition. Although many children are now surviving to adulthood, their lifespans are considerably shortened. Parents who have a child with cystic fibrosis have a one in four chance of having another affected child. Genetic counselling is advisable. Antenatal diagnosis is now available via chorionic villus biopsy.
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In: General health · Tagged with: General health
SEXUALITY, ILLNESS, AND HEALTH: FERTILITY AND SEXUALITY- SOME OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS
Here are some of the recommendations I give to the couples after consultation with their referring doctor.
1. It is not true that “just when someone adopts, they get pregnant.” There are many such stories, but statistics do not bear them out. Nonetheless, a necessary first step in solving a fertility problem is to discuss together what options you will or will not accept. Would you adopt if necessary? What age, gender, race and health-status child would you consider? Why do we want à child anyway? Don’t fid1 for me simplistic “just adopt and you’ll get pregnant” or “just relax and take a vacation” ploys. Fertility, all of loving and life, is much more complex than that.
2. Do you want a child or a baby? Babies sound nice and have millions of effective press agents, but they bring with them bundles of problems, too. Talk over the fact that parenting is an approximately seventy-year phase of development during which you will try to help someone become more mature than you are. Do you want t° he parents together, or are there individual ambivalences that may need talking out, perhaps with a counselor or clergyperson? Learning to cooperate and share parenting and the continuing development of parenting goals and expectations is one of the most intimate parts of marriage. It is a form of sharing available only within a relationship committed to nurturing the lives of persons growing within and from that relationship.
3. Don’t panic. No matter what you hear, almost half of the couples in the United States have some trouble with fertility. Anxiety and fear won’t help, so remember the perspective of your relationship. You have somebody already. You are just trying to add to the group.
4. It’s not your fault or his fault or their fault. We just don’t know enough about fertility to blame anybody anyway, and there are women getting pregnant every day who were told they were never going to have a child. Think of this issue as a systems issue, not an individual issue.
5. Just as in parenting, you must not personalize the problem. When parents take the credit or diminish their self-worth because of their children, they experience family problems. If you are trying to have a child to prove something, such as your masculinity or femininity, you are probably getting in your own way.
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In: General health · Tagged with: General health
YOUR MARITAL HEALTH/WHY HUSBANDS DON’T HAVE ORGASM: THE FRICTION FALLACY
Just put your first two fingers against your thumb and move your hand up and down and everyone will know what you mean. That is how men come.
TEENAGER
The early perspectives of sexuality asserted that men experience orgasm by thrusting, resulting in friction to the outer third of the penile shaft, which in turn resulted in “orgasm” and an “organ” emphasis. Men grow up believing and learning that there is one way to “come” and that is to have friction applied to the penis in a steady rhythm. This belief is one of the reasons that men learn to be the “do-it-to-ers” rather than receivers. For men, movement is sex.
A key to learning super marital sex is for men to learn to be still. While women were liberated when “even nice women moved their hips during sex,” men will be liberated when they learn that they can be still, that orgasm and psychasm can be received, not just achieved.
One of the most difficult assignments for husbands in the super marital sex program was to try to hold their pelvis still, not by effort but by surrender, while their wife stimulated their genitals. It took a while, but when the husbands learned this technique, they were amazed at the range of sensations that resulted. “I have never in my life felt anything like it. It actually happened to me without me trying to make it happen. What a trip!” This husband was like many others who reported a new freedom of choice in sexual interactions when they discovered the F and R areas and choices beyond friction and movement.
Masters and Johnson state that male sexual response is exclusively in the glans or end of the penis and the shaft of the penis. This is not the case. The Hite Report in 1980 and my own data indicate that men also masturbate by gently stroking their scrotum and that the penis is the “main place” only if that is the lesson that is repeated throughout life and the design of the love map.
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In: General health · Tagged with: General health