Is it all in the mind?
The question of psychological response, the ‘placebo effect’, needs dealing with fairly comprehensively because it always crops up with new medical treatments. Yes, some of the results described could be due to psychological influence; but in such cases they would be unlikely to last for more than a few weeks at the most. The proper answer to the question heading this paragraph is therefore, no. The beneficial effects produced by mussel extract are not of a psychological origin. That some psychosomatic influence may help the working of the treatment, any treatment in fact, is not doubted. Psychosomatic therapy in the form of a placebo is used by medical practitioners quite frequently where it is thought that this type of therapy will help a patient.
A placebo is a substance used in medicine (primarily in trial work) that does not have any pharmacological effect on the disorder. It is often in the form of a sugar pill or coloured water. The idea is that in a trial, some patients are administered a pharmacologically active substance and some a placebo which looks like the active substance but which is known to have no effect. A comparison of the patient’s progress on active and placebo then gives an ‘objective’ assessment of the effect of the active substance and rules out psychosomatic response.
Where the placebo is used in general practice it is done as a straight psychological treatment. The patient believing that the pills or liquid are something which will help the ailment, can be influenced into feeling and becoming better. This effect of psychosomatic influence is well known and is valuable.
The reasons that the definite statement can be made that the treatment with mussel extract is not psychological in effect are several. First, the results would not be lasting. With such a painful condition as arthritis a psychosomatic or placebo effect would probably wear off after four to six weeks at the very most. With the extract treatment the results are long lasting. Second, animals are unlikely to respond to a psychological stimulus, especially when they do not even know in most cases that they are receiving any medication. Animals respond very well to mussel extract. Finally, clinical studies are carried out in a way that is designed to eliminate as far as possible any emotional influences of the trial patients. In clinical studies the extract demonstrates excellent results.
Can this substance be obtained from other shellfish?
Naturally, the discovery of the anti-arthritic effect of an extract from the New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel led to the theory that other types of mussels or shellfish may also possess the same property. This does not seem to be the case, however, and apparently only this one species of mussel can lay claim to these particular therapeutic powers. This should not surprise us. Some species of marine organisms, similar in many ways, differ because of geographical distribution; sometimes the same species growing in waters of the same ocean, but in different regions, can vary in certain characteristics. One obvious influence is the diet to which a particular group is exposed: another is environment, including, of course, the composition of the water.
Therefore, it may not only be that other species of mussels do not posses this particular activity, but possibly even the same species grown in other areas may not do so. This last factor has not yet been established, but it is not an unreasonable assumption.
*19/48/5*
The process of treatment begins at the first moment of contact. Because such contact usually comes by phone, treatment can start before the doctor and the patient have even met face-to-face.
As a doctor, I try to plant the seeds of success during those first, critical moments. If I create an atmosphere of trust, of caring, then there’s hope. If my tone is judgmental or threatening, then the process may be doomed.
The next step is to meet with those involved. If the patient herself asked for help, then the first appointment is with her; when the parents make the call, I may ask to see them first. In other cases it may be best to see everyone at the same time.
The initial evaluation may take one or more meetings. However, if the situation is life-threatening and the patient needs to be hospitalized, I don’t wait.
Every situation is different. If in your search for help you don’t feel the caregiver is responding to your needs, discuss the problem with him or her. If you are still not satisfied, keep looking.
The Initial Assessment
I perform a complete assessment of the problem before the patient and I agree on a plan for treatment. Too many professionals say, in effect, “Welcome to our facility, here’s how we’ll treat you, now tell me all about your problem.”
Typically I start by asking, “How may I help?” Patients often seem surprised that I play the role, not of adversary, but of collaborator on a joint project-as indeed I am.
The patient’s initial response is most revealing. Here are some examples drawn from recent cases:
“You can’t help me. My parents are the ones with the problem.” This comment is typical of anorexics, who feel they aren’t sick at all and have come just to get people “off their backs.”
“My father called me fat, so I started losing weight.” People with low self-esteem are very sensitive to such remarks. One fifteen-year-old patient, inspired by the Olympics, demonstrated a gift for gymnastics. When her coach said she might do better if she “lost a little weight,” she began to diet. Unfortunately, she focused on weight loss at the expense of everything else. If starvation had been an Olympic event, she would have qualified for a medal.
“/ look in the mirror and I get scared. I want to find some peace inside.” Some patients know they are hurting themselves and want help in stopping. Especially in anorexia, the more distress the patient feels, the more motivated she is to get treatment.
Follow the Leader
In conversation I follow my patient’s lead. Following someone’s concerns, hopes, and resistances is more productive than a mechanical, by-the-numbers interrogation.
Sometimes when I ask, “How can I help?” she replies, “You can’t help. I don’t want to be here.” I may then say, “Well, someone is concerned enough to insist that you come here. Maybe we need to look at what’s going on in your life that makes you feel you need to starve yourself almost to the point of death.” Or she may say, “I don’t think you can help-nothing has worked so far.” I might then ask, “What have you previously tried?” and explore why other efforts have failed. And because words mean different things to different people, I would explore what she means by certain terms. Does “desperate,” for example, mean “confused” or “suicidal”?
Many times, the most telling clues come from something a patient avoids saying, or hesitates over. If a patient tells me something is none of my business, I’ll respect that. But later, when we’ve established a higher level of trust, I may ask again.
Trust is crucial. It takes time to build trust, to demonstrate concern and show that my intention is to heal, not to harm. When I show a patient that I accept her feelings as valid-although I don’t necessarily accept her way of dealing with those feelings-I send the message that the patient herself is worthwhile.
*53/35/5*
Karen Uhlenhuth never needed a calendar to know what month it was. She could tell by the number on her scale.
“It never failed,” says the 42-year-old writer from Kansas City, Missouri. “In mid to late November, I’d start gaining—usually about 10 pounds, 15 at the most. Then in April, I’d start losing.”
While Karen came to expect these seasonal ups and downs, she didn’t welcome them. Eventually, she made up her mind that they had to stop.
“It was fall 1996,” she recalls. “Winter was approaching, and I could feel the pounds creeping on again. I started thinking about how I never felt as well in the winter as I did in the summer, and I blamed the extra weight.” On the spot, she resolved to maintain her “summer weight”—142 pounds on her 5-foot-8′/2-inch frame— throughout the year.
A vegetarian and healthy eater, Karen knew her problem was a her activity level. “I’m a compulsive gardener,” she says. “In the spring and summer, I’d work outside until nightfall. But I couldn’t do that in fall and winter.” Likewise, she’d run 5 miles two or three times a week in nice weather. But once the temperatures dropped, she’d pack up her running shoes.
Karen realized that she had to stay active year-round. So she began changing activities with the seasons. When the weather put an end to gardening and running outdoors, she moved her exercise indoors, swimming at the local YMCA and working out on a cross-country ski machine at home. “It took some effort on my part,” she says. “There were days when I got home from work and all I wanted to do was eat dinner and lie on the couch. But I’d remind myself that if I didn’t want to gain weight, I had to move.
For Karen, staying active year-round made all the difference. She hasn’t noticed any seasonal fluctuations in her weight since 1996, when she launched her fall and winter fitness program. To this day, she maintains her weight at a healthy 142 pounds.
“I try to stay active, even though it’s much harder during the winter,” Karen says. “I just tell myself that as soon as spring comes around, I’ll be outdoors, doing all of the activities that I love.”
WINNING ACTION
Keep moving, no matter what the season. It’s a fact that we humans tend to be less active during the fall and winter months, when the temperature drops and the weather turns nasty. Just like bears, we want to hibernate. Don’t let your fitness program falter at this time of year. Invest in some home exercise equipment or join a health club. If there’s a college in your area, find out whether its gym facilities are open to the public. Or take up an outdoor activity such as cross-country skiing, ice-skating, or snowshoeing, all of which are wonderful winter fat-and-calorie burners.
*107\89\8*
You’ve looked at the various aspects of the Immune For Life program. Now it’s time to take a look at yourself. How immune are you? Is your diet full of the Super Foods that give your “doctor within” the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients needed to fight illness and distress? Or are you eating the Standard American Diet that causes so much disease and death? Is your mind filled with positive, happy thoughts? Or are you a stress seeker or a stress phobic? Are you a regular and vigorous exerciser, or do you lie down whenever the urge to exercise comes over you?
I’m going to ask you to do some interesting work in this chapter. You’ll find three quizzes that contain the same kinds of questions I ask my patients. Taking the quizzes will teach you a lot about outlook on life, exercise and nutrition, as I see it. Your scores will be used to determine which of the four Nutri-Prevention supplement programs may be right for you. And at the end of the chapter you’ll find a list of immune-system laboratory tests that you should consider having performed by your physician to measure certain indicators of the immune system.
Answer all the questions honestly. No one but you needs to see what you write. Sure, you can fix it so you have better scores. But that won’t change what’s happening inside your body. The point is to learn about yourself. You can only do that if you answer the questions honestly.
After you’ve been on the Immune For Life program for about two months, take the three quizzes again. You’ll be surprised at how much higher you score, and how much better you feel.
*155\80\8*
Begin by tensing and relaxing your eyes, mouth, neck, arms, trunk and legs. To help my patients remember the sequence, I write this sentence on a card and give it to them: Every Muscle Needs A Total Loosening.
Every = eyes A = arms
Muscle = mouth Total = trunk Needs = neck Loosening = legs
Every Muscle Needs A Total Loosening: Memorize this sentence.
Every = Eyes
Begin by closing your eyes. Hold them clenched shut, as tightly as you can. Clench them still tighter. Hold the muscles taut while you count: one thousand … two thousand … three thousand … four thousand . .. five thousand … six thousand
… seven thousand … eight thousand … nine thousand
… ten thousand. Count slowly.
Relax your eye muscles.
Now take a slow, deep breath in through your nose. Hold it. Then let it slowly out through your mouth, very slowly, taking at least five seconds to let it all out.
Take another slow breath. Fill your lungs. Feel your diaphragm pulling down to open the lungs wide. In your mind’s eye, see your diaphragm dropping down as your lungs fill.
Now repeat. Squeeze your eyes tightly shut. Hold your eyes closed tightly while you count, slowly: one thousand … two thousand … three thousand … four thousand … five thousand … six thousand … seven thousand … eight thousand … nine thousand … ten thousand.
Slowly relax your muscles, and slowly open your eyes.
Take a deep breath in through your nose … a nice, deep breath. Feel your diaphragm pulling down to open your lungs wide. In your mind’s eye, see your diaphragm dropping down as your lungs fill.
Hold the breath for a moment. Now let it out through your mouth, very slowly, taking at least five seconds to empty your lungs.
Take another big breath, and fill up your lungs.
Hold it for a moment. Now let it out very slowly. Take five seconds or more to blow it all out.
The muscles around your eyes don’t feel tired anymore. They feel good.
*113\80\8*
BEVERLY HILLS COLESLAW
4 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
3/4 cup celery, thinly sliced
3/4 cup fresh pineapple, thinly sliced
2/3 cup scallions, thinly sliced
1 small” sweet red pepper, thinly sliced
Mix ingredients and serve. Serves 4 to 6.
CAROTENE SALAD
4 large carrots, grated 1 cup spinach, shredded 1/4 cup watercress
1 scallion, chopped
3 oranges, peeled, and diced 1/2 cup radishes, sliced
Combine ingredients, mix and serve. Serves 4 to 6.
EASTERN SALAD
1 cup ripe tomaotes, chopped
1 cup green apple, diced
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup green pepper, seeded, diced 2 tsps. hot green chili pepper, seeded, finely chopped 6 tbls. vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbl. dried mint leaves, pulverized
Combine all vegetables and apple in a bowl. Add vinegar, mint, mix and serve.
Serves 4 to 6.
*70\80\8*
Complex carbohydrates, or “CCs” for short, are wonderful immune builders. Imagine a table covered with bowls of steaming hot, whole-wheat pasta dishes, brown rice and other grains, fresh-baked whole-grain breads and rolls, and all kinds of vegetables. There are lots of CCs in these foods.
Carbohydrates come in chains of different lengths. CCs are long chains of sugar tightly bound together. Double or single links comprise the simple carbohydrates. In terms of calories, there is no difference between CCs and simple carbohydrates. But it takes the enzymes in your stomach and intestines more time to break up the long chain CCs. This means that your “doctor within” receives a slow, steady supply of energy to work with. And because CCs are generally found in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, when you eat CCs you’re also giving your “doctor within” plenty of vitamins, minerals and fiber.
*26\80\8*
With rheumatoid arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome, we were able to present another scientific trial that failed to find any response to elimination diet. As far as we know, there has been no such trial with migraine. Paradoxically, the fact that foodstuffs already have an accepted role in the orthodox view of migraine is partly reponsible for this. Certain foods, such as chocolate, cheese, red wine and citrus fruits are well-known migraine triggers. They are thought to spark off migraine attacks because they contain chemicals known as ‘vasoactive amines’ that can have a drug-like effect on the blood vessels.
A great many migraine sufferers have benefited by avoiding these ‘trigger’ foods, but few find that their migraines clear up altogether when they avoid them. Other trigger factors, such as bright lights, television screens, or emotional scenes, still have to be avoided, and some migraines are experienced regardless of all these precautions. This is an important difference between the chocolate/cheese/red wine sort of food response and the intolerance of commonly eaten foods such as wheat and milk, diagnosed by elimination diet. When foods are identified by elimination diet and then avoided, it is common for migraines to disappear altogether – non-specific triggers such as bright lights no longer seem to be a problem. This was noticed in the Great Ormond Street study, and is commonly reported by other doctors treating migraine with elimination diets.
In the orthodox approach to migraine, getting patients to avoid specific high-risk foods such as chocolate, and then record any reduction in their attacks is a standard part of treatment. Unfortunately, as ideas about intolerance of everyday foods has filtered through, this same method has been extended to those foods. So patients who enquire if commonly eaten foods might cause their symptoms are told to omit wheat for a couple of weeks, then milk for a couple of weeks and so on. The collective experience of all those treating food intolerance is that this approach simply does not work. The majority of people, if they are sensitive to any foods, are sensitive to more than one, and it is only if all are withdrawn at the same time that any improvement is noticed. This is why a proper elimination diet is necessary to detect this sort of food sensitivity. Yet the majority of migraine specialists dismiss the idea of food intolerance as a major, fundamental cause of migraine – and they do so on the basis of having asked patients to exclude foods from their diet one at a time.
*114\180\8*
Years ago people were highly selective in the choice of intellectual nourishment for their children’s minds. Today, however, we have become spoiled with the great variety of things on offer, unfortunately not all for our good. The demand, even need, for constant saturation with ready-made entertainment suggests that we no longer appreciate what it means to relax in tranquillity and peace. Having reached this point ourselves, we cannot expect to retain an educational hold on our children, for they are good observers and covetous copiers of enjoyment, wanting the same things they see their parents indulge in. A child begins to be demanding when he notices that his parents exercise no self-control. The parents may want to be strict in determining what programmes their children can watch and for how long, yet they are frequently powerless in the face of their children’s disobedience. All these reflections have to do with education, and if we adults let ourselves be influenced by advertising and other pressures we should not expect that our children will want to be any different.
*1190/28/1*
You may wonder about the answer to this question. Well, there are various medicines that contain metals, for example Salvarsan. If this is taken, the patient will be ingesting mercury and arsenic, since both of these are ingredients of Salvarsan. There are also certain medicines for the blood that contain iron and copper.
Secondly, metallic salts are used in some old-fashioned preserving processes and, of course, in pesticides; these contain copper, lead, arsenic and so forth. In the case of pesticides the danger arises even as they are being sprayed or dusted, because they can thus be inhaled. They then settle on vegetables and fruits, posing an added danger, since it is difficult to remove the traces even by washing the produce.
It is still not fully known which of the new and frightening diseases are connected with the insidious effect of toxic metallic salts. Some of these diseases cause partial or total paralysis, confronting the doctor with an unsolvable problem and subjecting the patient to painful infirmity. Most likely this is due to poisoning through metallic salts, in addition to the influence of radiation. It is for this reason that we cannot be too careful in our efforts to ensure that we do not take into the body dangerous poisons in the form of metallic salts that undermine our health and future.
*1121/28/1*
