Management

Fever in itself is rarely harmful. A high temperature may make the child feel uncomfortable — the child may experience chills or shivering when the temperature is rising, and may perspire when it is falling. Sometimes the child may become mildly dehydrated if his fluid intake is not enough to replace the increased loss due to the fever. Very occasionally convulsions may be associated with a fever, but although these can be frightening for parents, they rarely have any long-term consequences.

Generally children handle fever well. A fever may come on slowly, and rise over a few days, or else it may rise very quickly. The height of a fever, and how quickly it comes on, are usually not indicators of the severity of the illness. A fever will run its course whether or not it is treated. The fever is one of the ways the body has of fighting infection, and the temperature will return to normal when the infection or other cause of the fever has completely gone.

The fever should only be treated if you feel it is making the child uncomfortable and irritable. An elevated temperature does not always need to be treated. Remember, however, that in children under the age of 12 months fever may be an indication of a more significant illness, and you should seek medical advice.

Here are some ways that a child with a fever can be made more comfortable:

1. Dress the child in light clothing.

2. Give the child small quantities of clear fluids such as water, weak tea, or diluted soda water or lemonade to drink at frequent intervals. (Do not give the child lemonade if he has gastroenteritis and has diarrhoea — in this case it must be diluted. Do not worry if he is not very hungry. The most important thing is to make sure that the fluid intake is adequate in order to avoid dehydration.

3. Give paracetamol in the correct and recommended dose – this can be given every 3-4 hours if necessary. Avoid giving aspirin to young children.

Cooling measures such as cool baths, sponging, use of fans, etc. should be avoided. They do not help reduce the fever, and may actually make the child more uncomfortable.

When to see your doctor Seek medical attention if your child:

• looks sicker than previously;

• has difficulty breathing;

• becomes drowsy;

• refuses to drink;

• complains of a stiff neck, persistent headache or light hurting the eyes;

• vomits persistently;

• does not improve in 48 hours;

• if you are worried for any other reason.

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X-rays are specialised forms of photographs in which we can see various parts of the body such as the bones, the heart and lungs, and the bowels. They can help in the diagnosis of a large variety of conditions including broken or dislocated bones and pneumonia, and they can show up swallowed objects such as coins.

X-rays cause no pain or discomfort, but the large machinery may be frightening for young children, so it may be a good idea for you to stay with your child during the procedure. X-rays release small amounts of radiation, so make sure the staff provide both you and your child with protective lead aprons, especially around the genital area.

If you are pregnant, you should not allow yourself to be exposed to X-rays as they can be harmful to the developing foetus. The level of exposure to radiation from one X-ray is very small; it is the cumulative effect of many X-rays over time that can be dangerous. Your doctor will only order an X-ray for your child after careful consideration, and weighing up the risks and benefits of the procedure.

Sometimes your doctor will recommend that your child have a certain specialised X-ray using more involved techniques. This may involve the injection of some opaque dye into a small vein (for example in an intravenous pyelogram, or IVP, to diagnose problems of the kidney and urinary system), or drinking a solution of barium, to diagnose certain bowel disorders. These procedures may be a little more threatening for a child, and you should stay with him throughout. The staff are usually trained in working with children, and try to make the whole procedure as relaxed as possible. If your child is too distressed for the staff to perform the test, discuss with your doctor the possibility of mildly sedating him beforehand.

On the whole, X-rays are a great aid to accurate diagnosis in many circumstances. If you have any doubts or hesitations about allowing your child to have an X-ray, you should discuss these with your doctor.

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All of us become aware of pelvic sensations earlier than we to recall without extensive and very open self-examination back to your sexual development and you will remember throbbing, sensations of warmth or tingling in the genital area. Depending on what, how, and by whom you were then been and role-modeled, you learned that such sensations were wonderful forerunners of a future of intimacy and fulfillment as an that these were the devil’s own work that had to be controlled as somehow separate from you. Do you recall how you resolve issues? Were you able to personalize these sexual sensations healthy new dimension of the emerging you, or did you o try to cast them out, group them with the other, somehow adult secrets?

School Age: A Sexual Self or Shameful Stage

Once we entered school, we discovered by the universal pee sex-education system that everybody else had sexual feeling even those members of the “other gender.” We learned to sexual feelings as private signs of our membership in our o1 culture, or we learned that we were different, did not fit, i sexual feelings were not normal or like everyone else’s. Sha the lesson, shame for what we felt and even who we were, 1 at this phase of the cycle the sexual feelings are becoming o the self-image. Those early boy-group, girl-group, and gender-group discussions and explorations and adult read them did much to forge our sexual and personal self-worth.

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But we should not require newer methods of treatment for this old disease. We should be looking to prevent it, because the knowledge to do so is available. What has been lacking is the will to apply this knowledge. There are many sections of the population who have been too apathetic to use the control measures which could eradicate hydatids as a human health problem.

At the same time, by reducing its incidence in sheep, cattle and pigs, it could save the waste which occurs when organs or whole carcasses have to be rejected at abattoirs.

The presence of many tapeworms within the gut of a dog does not seem to influence its health.

Drugs are available which can kill the worms and repeated treatments of infected dogs, or those suspected of being infected, can reduce the risk of spread.

Most dogs are infected with tapeworm by being fed offal which contain cysts. Country dogs should never be fed on offal and any dead animals should be burned or deeply buried to prevent wild dogs or dingoes from eating an infected carcass.

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No age is immune but it is believed to be more common in children.

There may be a fever, headache, fatigue, enlargement of lymph glands and spleen and a raised red rash. The infection can be so mild as not to be noticed or it may be severe and require treatment in hospital.

Congenital infection is usually quite severe. In the past, most serious infections were in children and it was believed that the parasite affected children and adults differently. This distinction isn’t really true.

Toxoplasma gondii was first discovered in a small North African rodent, the gondi, in 1908 and human infection first recognised in 1923. It is an intracellular parasite and lives within the cells lining the gut, in some blood cells and in other tissues.

Laboratory workers have contracted the disease and so have veterinarians and those who work in abattoirs. The parasite is usually ingested but may be inhaled in dust or enter through small cuts or scratches on the skin.

The illness may involve the brain and spinal fluid and lead to major illness. The eye can be involved and the retina affected — this is the sensitive layer of nerve endings which receive the light stimulus and transmit it to the brain. Blindness can result.

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There is much’ accumulated research which shows that vitamin B also plays an important role in prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis. The B-family vitamins specifically named in this connection are choline, inositol, pyridoxine, niacin and thiamin.

A study made in Poland on 26 patients with atheromatosis showed that 15 of them had a significant decline in blood cholesterol after administration of niacin. Another test on 230 patients demonstrated that the death toll of heart patients treated with choline was two and a half times smaller than in a corresponding group of patients on conventional medication. And animal tests, conducted at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, proved that a deficiency of pyridoxine (vitamin B6) has produced in animals the same condition as human hardening of the arteries, as well as high blood pressure. Also thiamin deficiency has been found to impair the function of the heart and result in “terminal cardiac standstill.”

The best sources of all the vitamins of the B-complex are brewer’s yeast, desiccated liver, wheat germ and all the unrefined grains, seeds and nuts. Never use single synthetic B-vitamins, except under a doctor’s supervision—some of them could be toxic taken alone in large doses, or they may create a deficiency in vitamins other than the B-complex. B-vitamins are most effective when taken together in natural food supplements, such as brewer’s yeast.

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Almost one-third of all Americans are overweight! The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has found that:

“The death rate is one-third higher among those whose body weight is 20 percent above the average. The death rate from coronary artery disease (heart disease) is 50 percent greater among the overweight.”

The well-known American scientist, Dr. C. M. McCays of Cornell University, through his extensive studies has definitely proven that overeating is one of the prime causes of degenerative diseases and premature death; or, as he put it, “the thin rats bury the fat rats.”

Overeating

Everyone agrees that the cause of obesity is overeating. But what causes overeating?

Dr. T. L. Cleave, famous British scientist, has a theory which explains what makes us “civilized” people such compulsive eaters. He says that man, like animals, has an inborn instinct which guides him in his choice of the kind and the amount of foods he should eat. He can trust this instinct with absolute confidence, but only as long as he uses natural substances; that is, the foods which occur naturally in his environment and are in their natural state. This appetite instinct, however, is “confused” if your food is so over-processed, and so adulterated with artificial flavors and colorings, that it bears very little or no resemblance in either appearance or taste to the original food.

Cholesterol and heart disease

We have been reading and hearing a great deal about animal fats in connection with heart disease. We have been told that the high level of fat consumption, particularly of cholesterol-rich animal fats, is the cause of arteriosclerosis and heart disease.

Now I would be the last person to defend or justify animal fats in human nutrition. But in all fairness it must be stated that it appears as though some scientists are accusing the wrong villain in their attempt to solve the problem of heart disease. Although cholesterol deposits on the walls of the arteries are symptomatic of cardiovascular disease, more and more researchers, particularly in Europe, have become convinced that cholesterol in itself is not the villain, but that a general biochemical imbalance, impaired metabolism and the resultant inability of the system to handle cholesterol, are to blame! This view is supported by the fact that many peoples, like Eskimos, some of the North American Indians, inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha, and some tribes in Russian Siberia, consume large quantities of cholesterol-rich foods, yet they do not suffer from hardening of the arteries or heart disease at all. That is, they do not until they adopt “civilized man’s” eating habits and start to eat white sugar, white flour, canned foods, and such. There is mounting independent research which shows that cholesterol is an effect, not a cause.

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It is the opinion of biologically oriented doctors that the best therapeutic diet for arthritics is a low-protein diet, with emphasis on raw, fresh vegetables and fruits, and with the total exclusion of meat and fish. Also, salt, white sugar and white flour and everything made from them, soft drinks, coffee, tea, alcohol, and tobacco should be completely eliminated.

The value of biological treatments for arthritis was scientifically tested by the Royal Free Hospital in London, England, in 1949. 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 period of the treatments; both the films and the detailed report were published in the British Medical Journal.

The results were very convincing. Patients who had been considered hopeless cases, crippled and in many cases bedridden, improved remarkably and regained the use of their deformed and formerly immobile joints. They literally left their crutches and beds and walked. The treatments used in this experiment were those employed at the Bircher-Benner Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland—basically a raw food diet and other biological treatments, as described in this chapter.

Biological medicine is not quackery or a passing fad. It is a new, fast growing branch of medical science—truly the medical science of the future. It is as scientific as it is simple. Its philosophy is based on the fundamental principle of intelligent cooperation with nature; it sees man as a part of nature, subject to its eternal laws. It is a modern science which incorporates all the harmless and effective therapies that can be applied in the support of the body’s own healing forces in restoring health.

A biological program of treatments is not easy. There are no specific miracle remedies, no specific diets which can cure arthritis. Arthritis can be cured only by the efforts of the body’s own healing powers. With the assistance of the wide arsenal of biological treatments and with the full and willing cooperation of the patient, it can be done—it is done in European clinics every day. But in order to achieve lasting and effective results, full cooperation and a positive effort on the part of the patient are imperative.

Lars-Erik Essen, M.D., the leading pioneer of biological medicine in Sweden, said:

There is no question that arthritis, if not too advanced, can be cured. Biological methods are the only ones at present which can bring about the cure. . . . Many patients have been restored to health through the practiced application of biological medicine after all the conventional treatments have failed. Biological medicine and naturopathic methods of treatment will come to the fore more and more as the successful alternative to conventional therapy; and for the afflicted, who tried in vain conventions! therapy, they present the only choice.

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If you do not have your own sauna, what can you do and how can you use fever to stimulate and strengthen your own defenses against infections and other diseases?

Here are few things you can do:

Do not suppress or reduce, but support and sustain fever in colds and acute infections.

You can take Schlenz-bath, as I described in this chapter, in your own bathroom. If you plug the emergency outlet with some pieces of cloth or paper, you will be able to raise the water in your tub so that it will cover your whole body—but be careful not to flood your house!

Physical activity to the point of heavy perspiration is almost as beneficial, if not more so, than the overheating bath. Physical exertion may actually raise body temperature several degrees. A combination of heavy exercise or exhausting, perspiring games, with swimming in a pool or the ocean can substitute for a Finnish sauna.

Even if you don’t have a bath tub, a do-it-yourself sauna in your own bedroom can be made as follows: Wrap yourself in a heavy bath sheet. Put a plastic or rubber sheet on your bed to protect it from damage by perspiration. Take one or two hot water bottles and lie on the rubber sheet. Cover yourself with an electric blanket turned on high, leaving just a crack for breathing. Use several heavy blankets if necessary. Remain until profuse sweating occurs—half an hour or more. Finish your do-it-yourself sauna with a cold shower or rub-down.

Warning. Although a fever is a welcome, constructive symptom and is perhaps the best “medicine your body could have,” and therefore should not be suppressed or lowered, but supported and sustained, I do not want to leave you with the impression that fever should be simply ignored. Fever is a serious matter, good and beneficial, but serious nevertheless. In small babies particularly the heat-regulating mechanism is not fully developed and a sudden temperature rise may cause convulsions. The sudden rise of temperature in adults to over 103° F should be watched carefully as it may become dangerous, according to some authorities. Some other doctors believe that fevers up to 104° or 106° are not harmful in themselves.6 It is wise, however, to have an understanding doctor supervise a patient with a high fever and watch for possible dangers in the development of the disease.

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One of the greatest authorities on using raw juices for therapeutic purposes is Georg Lanyi, M.D., from Gothenburg, Sweden. Dr. Lanyi served for many years on the staff of the famous Buchinger clinic in Germany, where juice fasting is done by thousands of patients each year. He has had extensive experience with using different juices and their combinations for specific ailments. Much of the following information is taken from his illuminative article Raw Juices Instead of Drugs.2

The favorable effect of raw juices in treatment of diseases, particularly in combination with fasting, is attributed to the following physiological facts:

• Vital minerals, vitamins and trace elements present in juices are assimilated almost 100 percent from the digestive tract.

• They provide an alkaline surplus to balance the acids which are in large quantity in the blood and tissues during fasting.

These factors have a stimulating and exhilarating effect on the detoxicating, cleansing and healing processes. The amount of juices, therefore, should be carefully controlled in accordance with specific needs, just as it is with any other kind of medication. The total juice intake in 24 hours should be between a pint and a quart and a half, never more. It is advisable in most cases that one half of the daily intake is fruit juice, the other half vegetable juice.

The most effective way to use juices for therapeutic purpose is in the form of a juice fast, as described in Chapter 2 of this book.

The shortest juice fast is seven to eight days, the longest three to four weeks, and sometimes even longer. Fasting for one week is usually sufficient for prophylactic purposes; that is, when people in relatively good health fast regularly to cleanse the system of accumulated impurities and to give the digestive and other organs time to rest and thus restore their functions to peak performance—rather like the servicing and tune-up that we have on our automobiles. The length of the therapeutic juice fast should be determined by the experienced practitioner.

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