STRESSES AND CHANGES IN A CHILD’S LIFE: TEMPERAMENT
All parents will know that no two children are alike in terms of their temperament and personality. Often parents will say that the differences are noticeable from birth; in other children they become more noticeable over time. The term temperament is now used to describe these individual differences. Temperament is believed to be intrinsic but also to be modified by the environment.
A child’s temperament is like a filter through which he experiences and interacts with the environment. It is the behavioural style of the child. Babies with a difficult temperament are more likely to be reported as having colic, sleep problems, and excessive crying, and as they grow older more likely to have temper tantrums and a slower school adjustment. Children with an easy temperament are less demanding of their parents, and generally easier to manage. They settle quickly into a predictable routine, are easily adaptable, and far more easy going. There are also those who have a slow-to-warm-up temperament. They may be somewhat difficult initially because they do not adapt easily to change, and take some time to get used to things.
It is not the child’s temperament alone which is important, but rather, the interaction of his temperament characteristics with the child-rearing style of his parents which determines whether there will be difficulties. A baby or child with a difficult temperament may make some parents anxious and insecure about their parenting. They may blame themselves for the fact that the child seems quite difficult to manage. Other parents may be able to be more accommodating of their child’s temperament. They will be more flexible in their parenting style, so that consequences of the child’s difficult temperament are minimised.
Similarly a child who has a slow-to-warm-up temperament also needs the understanding of parents. He will tend to hold back from new and unfamiliar situations, and react by crying or hanging onto the parents. Sensitive parents and teachers will be aware of this, and not push the child until he is ready.
As parents, you will achieve the best results by modifying your child-rearing style to take into account your child’s individual temperament characteristics. It follows then that there is no single way to approach children, whether it be feeding, toilet training, discipline, or any other area of functioning. Each child must be treated as an individual.
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DEFINITIONS OF SOME EXPRESSIONS YOUR DOCTOR MAY USE - POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF PAINKILLERS (DOSE)
If the dose you start with does not relieve your pain completely, you should gradually increase it either until it does or until you feel that the cost of the better pain relief outweighs the benefit. Possible side effects of painkillers include nausea, constipation, heavy sweating, drowsiness, lightheadedness, difficulty in concentrating, hallucinations, confusion and dizziness. Except for constipation, all of these are worst just after starting a new painkiller or increasing your dose. They tend to clear up by themselves, so it is usually worth persevering for a few days before deciding that a particular painkiller doesn’t suit you.
If, even then, you cannot find a dose that relieves your pain without unpleasant side effects, you should stop taking it altogether and change to a different painkiller. The alternative would be to add a second painkiller while continuing to take unsatisfactory doses of the first. If you do this, you are likely to finish up With much more troublesome side effects for the same degree of pain relief. It is better to find the single painkiller that suits you best and take effective doses of that.
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WARTS - DESCRIPTION
Warts are one of those common conditions we all know about but few understand.
Over the centuries many fancy stories were believed about the cause and also the treatment of this common and obvious blemish.
Some people even believe warts are caused by handling frogs and toads.
There are many variations of warts but it is now believed they all are caused by the same thing but vary because of different environmental factors surrounding their growth.
Warts are caused by a virus and are infectious.
The common wart (verruca vulgaris) is a dry, rough, raised and usually irregular lump on the skin.
It may be single, or more commonly multiple.
These warts are particularly common on the hands and around the knees of children but no age is exempt.
The warts may last for years or only for months. They come and they may go.
All forms of different treatments have been used and success claimed for them all.
Some people apply urine, saliva or thistle juice to warts and claim these and many other means are effective ways of dealing with them.
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FEET - BUNION
Bunions are thought to develop because we squeeze our feet into shoes which are too narrow for the forefoot. Coupled with this may be an inherited tendency for the first metatarsal or long bone of the foot to splay medially or inwards.
The first deformity is a hallux valgus. The joint of the great toe (hallux) is forced laterally, or outward, so that the toe turns inward, crowding the other toes.
An exostosis, or bony projection, develops on the medial or inner side of the head of the metatarsal, where it forms the big toe joint.
The bunion is a small bursa or fluid sac which forms on the medial side of the joint over the projecting bone. It may become inflamed or infected. The second toe gets crowded out and may over or under-ride the first toe.
A foot with all these deformities doesn’t look good but may not, at first, be painful. Doctors are reluctant to operate for cosmetic reasons only and usually wait until the person is inconvenienced by progressing pain.
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CYSTITIS - DRINKING ANY FLUIDS
Even drinking large amounts of any fluid, usually water, will relieve the discomfort. But although the symptoms are eased, this does not mean that the condition is cured. It may, and often does, recur.
That is why it is necessary to go to a doctor if you have cystitis and for the doctor to treat it seriously.
The proper treatment involves taking a sample of urine under sterile conditions and looking at it under the microscope. A culture is set up, and any germs present are grown and matched against a number of antibiotics.
It may take three days for the results and a woman should not be expected to suffer discomfort for this length of time.
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HOW MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS IN CHEMOTHERAPY HAVE COME ABOUT - MID-1970S
In the mid-1970s, the same degree of improvement occurred in the treatment of testicular cancer. This time it was a new drug rather than a new technique (the use of high dose combinations) that was responsible for the breakthrough. A new drug called cis-platinum had been shown to be active against testicular cancer in Phase II studies. This drug, when combined with the two previously best drugs (vinblastine and bleomycin) produced complete remissions in most patients with cancer of the testes, many of whom were later shown to be cured altogether. Prior to that about one in three patients with extensive cancer of the testes experienced remissions which were only partial and temporary, cures were unusual. Again, special research techniques were not necessary to prove that the new treatment was much better than what had been used previously.
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THE G.I. FACTOR: ANSWERED QUESTIONS
Is the G.I. factor able to predict the effect of a mixed meal containing foods with very different G.I. factors?
Yes, the G.I. factor can predict the relative effects of different mixed meals containing foods with very different G.I. factors. Over fifteen studies have looked at the G.I. factors of mixed meals. Twelve of these studies showed an excellent correlation between what was expected and what was actually found. You can predict the G.I. of a mixed meal by making a few simple calculation.
The other three studies which did not show the expected correlation came from a particular group of researchers who were not using standardised methodology for working out the G.I. factor from the area under the curve. In addition, their meals were high in fat instead of carbohydrate, and this tends to reduce the impact of any one carbohydrate food.
Won’t the areas under the curve become equal (despite the different curves for a high and low G.I. food) if the testing is continued long enough?
Some people have assumed that the total area under the curve (for high and low G.I. food) will be the same if the blood sugar is simply measured for long enough. However, this is not the case because the body is able to restore normal blood sugar levels more quickly after a slowly digested food than a quickly digested one. An analogy is turning on a tap full force above a bucket with a small hole in the bottom of it. The bucket will fill up fast and empty slowly. In contrast, the same amount of water delivered as a slow trickle will empty with minimal accumulation (viz area under the curve) in the bucket.
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FAT LOSS: FIXED FACTORS
Gender. There are major differences between males and females in fat loss responses to exercise. Female fat cells are predominantly less lipolytic than those stored around the abdomen of males, and are hence less responsive to exercise. Most researchers now agree that this has a biological function in providing females with an energy reserve for reproduction. There is some suggestion that female gluteal-type fat cells may even be resistant to some types of activity, such as high intensity exercise in younger, pre-menopausal women. Studies carried out at McMaster University in Canada have also shown that, unlike males, female athletes seem to be less effective in ‘carbohydrate loading’ for long endurance events such as the marathon.4 (Carbohydrate loading is a technique whereby large amounts of carbohydrate are eaten 3-4 days before an event in order to ‘fill’ the glycogen reserves which supply immediate energy for the event. This ’suggests the capacity for glycogen storage is decreased in females and they prefer to use carbohydrate for immediate energy rather than storage.)
Differences in the hormonal environment and body composition lead to a greater fat loss response to a set exercise load in men, and a guaranteed response to almost any form of exercise in younger men. Biomechanical differences and the higher proportion of body fat in women make them more efficient at some forms of exercise, thus using significantly less energy than men for a set exercise stimulus. It has been estimated, for example, that an average-sized woman will use approximately 40 per cent less energy than an averaged-sized man in walking an equivalent distance. Swimming involves an even greater energy differential between genders because of the higher proportion of body fat and the lower centre of gravity in females (enabling them to float more effectively and maintain a more efficient body position). Research at Leeds University in England suggests that females may also eat more after exercise than men, thus making up for the extra energy used during the activity.
All of this has led Dr Gilbert Gleim, a US exercise scientist, to conclude that: . . As an isolated weight loss modality . . . Exercise should not be counted on to produce desired weight reductions (in women) unless the woman is committed to many hours of exercise a day’.
Exercise prescriptions then need to take account of the greater lipolytic resistance which occurs with reduced energy balance, greater compensatory eating and the reduced muscular response
To resistance training. All of this suggests a need for a significantly greater total amount of exercise in females in order to achieve the same fat loss benefits from exercise as a man. On the more positive side, any amount of exercise in women (as well as men) has been shown to improve health profiles such as blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugars and feelings of well being, even if it doesn’t have a major impact on body fat. Older females, with a higher proportion of upper body fat, might be expected to respond more like a man, at least in the reduction of their upper body fat to a given exercise load.
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WHAT IS FAT?
Fat is a highly valuable substance which exists in some form in many plants, seeds and animals. In plants and seeds, it is mainly stored in the form of oils. In humans and animals it’s stored in body tissue known as adipose tissue, which is made up of many fat cells or adipocytes. The main types of fats in plants and animals are called triglycerides. The main function of the fat cell is as a storage reserve of these triglycerides for energy, but it also has secondary functions of providing a ‘cushion’ or protection for the organs of the body and insulating against heat loss. Before it gets into the fat cell, fat in the bloodstream also acts as a transport medium for fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K.
While triglycerides are the main type of fat used by the body, two other fats, cholesterol and phospholipids, also have important functions. Cholesterol is a waxy fat-like substance which is used for the production of certain substances such as sex hormones, and in the structure of cell membranes (cell lining). The phospholipids make up part of the structure of every cell, particularly the cell membrane. In our diet, almost all of the fat is in the form of triglycerides with only a small amount of cholesterol and phospholipids.
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THE SECRETS OF STAYING HEALTHFULLY YOUNG: THE SCIENCE OF MACROBIOTICS
A great physician, Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, who lived in Berlin about 150 years ago, wrote a book to which he gave the title Makrobiotik—”The art of prolonging human life.” Now, after 150 years, macrobiotics have become suddenly very popular in the United States. What are macrobiotics?
Hufeland’s definition of macrobiotics was “the art of living longer.” In the present technological and atomic age, macrobiotics means more than just “living longer.” It is the study and application of fundamental factors essential for optimum health and longer life free from disease. Due to improved sanitation, reduction in infant mortality and modern surgery, man’s average life expectancy has increased. But simultaneously, with the advance of technological and chemical sciences, the harmony between man and his natural health-giving environment has become disturbed. This disharmony has brought upon man a host of so-called degenerative diseases. Denatured, devitalized foods, a polluted and poisoned environment, the mental and physical stresses of the competitive world, have resulted in a gradual deterioration of health which has now reached catastrophic proportions.
It is hardly worthwhile to learn how to live a long life, if you have to live a life of miserable suffering from one agonizing disease after another. A long life would make sense only if it could be lived in vibrant health, enjoyed in the active productive pursuit of one’s most treasured interests. The fact is that very few people now really enjoy perfect health. Most are sick, semi-ill or “fictitiously healthy.” living in a chronic state of mesotrophy, or half-health. Therefore, the modern meaning of macrobiotics is “the art of living longer in good health” or, in other words, the art of living younger longer!
I have referred previously to the International Society for F-e-search on Nutrition and Vital Substances. The Scientific Counsel of this Society is composed of over 400 great scientists from 75 countries, representing doctors of medicine, bio-chemistry, nutrition, natural sciences, etc. A great many of these are Nobel Prize Winners. This most authoritative scientific forum conducts objective, scientific studies and research, and through its annual conventions disperses recommendations to various governments and their health organizations, as well as to the World Health Organization.
This Society has conducted a seven-year study of macrobiotics, or the fundamentals of healthier and longer life in our modem technological society. Its findings and conclusions in regard to macrobiotics were adopted at the Society’s 7th International Convention.
Note this: you may read any number of popular health books or listen to the subjective, personal opinions of this or that health lecturer—usually with each one of them offering a different road to glorious health and long life—and you are no wiser in the end. But here is the united consensus of a large body of responsible and respected scientists, based on the objective study and research of all available scientific data. It would be wise to listen to them.
The following resume is based on Resolution No. 25 of the International Society for Research on Nutrition and Vital Substances.
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