Are You Drinking Too Much?

One in 10 people who drink will become an alcoholic. While moderate drinking yields health benefits, problem drinking wrecks lives. If you have trouble with alcohol, you should not drink at all, states the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. Check yourself for the following signs that you may or could develop a problem with alcohol.

•     Heredity. If your mother or father had a drinking problem, your risk is fourfold.

•     Drinking mom than two. The national government and other experts draw the line at two drinks a day for men. Drink more than that and you put yourself at higher risk for developing a problem.

•     High tolerance. If you drink excessively without really feeling any ill effects, you also may have a drinking problem.

•     Secret drinking. If you’re sneaking drinks, won’t talk about your drinking, feel loss of control, or have blackouts, you need help with your drinking.

The cancer connection

Though heavy drinkers have higher risks for cancers in areas like the mouth, esophagus, and liver, people who drink less – six or fewer drinks a week-show no increased risk. And those who drink moderately may actually lessen their risk for lung, prostate, and other cancers, say scientists.

Researchers in Chicago found that one particularly potent wine compound, resveratrol, not only fought cancer at several stages but also actually seemed to reverse it. In a similar study, researchers from the University of California, Davis, found that when they fed dehydrated wine solids to mice who had been genetically altered to develop cancer, those who ate the wine feed took approximately 40 percent longer to develop tumors than the mice who didn’t eat the wine solids. “The antioxidant properties of the phenolic compounds like catechin and quercetin may play a major role in this cancer prevention,” says researcher Susan E. Ebeler, Ph.D., of the University of California, Davis. “But we need more research to know for sure.”

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Screening specific groups of people who are either totally without symptoms or who have symptoms that prompt a search for disease in its earliest stages has been a part of preventive medicine in the UK for about seventy years, since the regular examination of schoolchildren was first introduced on a national basis. Shortly afterwards-during World War I-pre-natal care for mothers and the medical examination of young babies were recommended and soon became commonplace. In 1943 mass X-ray screening for tuberculosis started nationally. The idea behind this was not only to find people with the disease and treat them but to remove them from contact with others, so limiting the spread of the disease. Today, the importance of infectious diseases has lessened and most screening programmes are on the lookout for degenerative or potentially chronic conditions. But why should people want to be screened for diseases they don’t have?

Perhaps the most widespread form of general health screening in the adult population is the insurance medical for a job, a mortgage or a life-insurance policy. Naturally the insurance company wants to try to reduce the odds in this gamble. Put simply, the policy-holder is betting the company that he or she will die and that it will have to pay up. The company, on the other hand, is betting that the policyholder will live-at least until all the premiums are paid. This kind of screening protects the insurance company and ensures that they win more ‘bets’ than they lose. It does nothing for the health of the individual.

The second reason for screening is to protect other people in the community. The control of infectious diseases and the health screening of people who work dangerous machinery are two good examples. Again the main intention is not to protect the individual screened.

In the USA, and to a lesser extent in other westernized countries, screening has become a fashionable alternative to personal health services. Millions of people every year go through a broad batch of screening tests and procedures instead of seeing a doctor. Abnormal results then ensure that they get to see a doctor. People in the US have been brought up to think of the ‘annual physical’ as an essential part of preventive health care but the mood of experts is changing on this. It is now thought that healthy young people (under 40) need only have a thorough medical check-up every five years-not yearly as was recommended in 1947 by the American Medical Association. The concept of even a five-yearly checkup from this age is alien to most British people. After the age of 40 more frequent checks are recommended in the US.

The fourth reason for screening someone is to obtain a ‘healthy’ baseline of data so that should anything go wrong with the person in the future better clinical judgments will be made. The best example of this kind of screening is an electrocardiogram on a middle-aged man.

The final reason for screening an apparently healthy population is to detect conditions that are not apparent and which the medical profession can hope to influence in a positive way. But screening large populations is very expensive and time-consuming, and has an effect on the people being screened, so it behoves us to ask some tough questions before deciding to spend vast amounts of money and other resources on what is at first sight unquestionably a ‘good thing’.

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Carla Tuckerton lost and regained the same 15 to 20 pounds for about 15 years. She finally unloaded them for good after discovering natural foods.

Carla, a 44-year-old consultant from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, never seemed to have a problem losing weight when she wanted to. “I just kept close tabs on the number of calories that I consumed, and when I reached my goal weight, I resumed my normal eating habits,” she explains.

Of course, normal for Carla meant plenty of ice cream, chocolate, and high-fat frozen foods. Given her love of junk food, even she wasn’t terribly surprised when the pounds returned. “My weight fluctuated between 125 and 145 for years,” she says.

Then, during one of her self-styled diets, Carla noticed that she wasn’t feeling especially well. She got a lot of headaches, and she felt tired, nervous, and irritable. “When I started thinking about it, I realized that I always felt that way when I was dieting,” she says.

Suspicious that some food was causing her symptoms, Carla grabbed a pen and paper and wrote down everything that she had eaten in the previous 3 to 4 days. “When I looked over my list, I was appalled,” she recalls. “Almost everything on it contained artificial sweeteners or loads of salt or was terribly processed. I was practically living on frozen dinners, diet sodas, and sugar-free gelatin. No \ wonder I felt so lousy.”

On the spot, Carla swore off anything that contained artificial ingredients or was overly processed. She made time to cook her own ideals. She bought her fish and chicken from a farmers market near her home and shopped for fruits and vegetables labeled “organically grown.” Discouraged by the number of additives in many commercially prepared baked goods, she began making her own breads, rolls, and muffins. Spring water replaced colas, and she drank her tea unsweetened.

The changes paid off almost right away. “I felt better than I had in a long time,” Carla says. And there was another, unexpected benefit: “I don’t know why, but I seemed to lose weight more easily after switching to natural foods,” she adds.

Sure enough, in less than 6 months, Carla managed to get rid of the extra weight that she had been carrying around for years. Her weight dropped to 125 pounds—and stayed there.

Five years later, Carla hasn’t gained back an ounce, a feat that she attributes to her commitment to natural foods. “I feel that I’m a much healthier person now than I was back then,” she says. “I’ve been able to keep my weight where it belongs by eating foods that are naturally nutritious and good for me, instead of relying on foods made with artificial ingredients that make me sick. I feel great.”

W INNING ACTION

Try a natural approach to weight loss. There’s no scientific proof that switching from highly processed, additive-laden foods to fresh, natural foods can help you lose weight faster. Still, Carla may be on to something. Re-

search has shown that people tend to overindulge in low-fat and fat-free processed foods. The trouble is that even though these foods have little or no fat, they are loaded with calories. On the other hand, fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are naturally low in fat as well as calories. You can eat more of them without worrying about weight gain. Besides, going natural may make you feel better and healthier—and may even help you live longer!

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This form of filtration is only available in plumbed-in units. It uses a membrane with microscopic holes in it that only water molecules can get through. Tap water is held in one chamber and water molecules slowly seep out into the other. It removes the vast majority of organic pollutants (but see below), and takes out fluoride, lead, aluminium and other metals, unlike the activated carbon filters.

Unfortunately the process is very slow (even the best filters only produce 5 gallons a day) and uses up large amounts of tap water to produce a relatively small amount of filtered water (up to 10 gallons per filtered gallon). Many of the natural minerals in the water are removed at the same time, leaving a product with an indifferent taste. Without minerals, water loses its characteristic flavour, and since we probably need certain amounts of minerals in our water, this highly purified water may not even be very healthy.

More worryingly, a few molecules can get through the membrane along with the water, including some chlorinated compounds which are known to be injurious. These tend to concentrate in the filtered water, making the original problem worse. This difficulty is easily overcome, however, by combining the reverse osmosis unit with an activated carbon filter. Systems of this type produce a water of very high purity, which may be needed by some patients with severe chemical sensitivities. However, the problem of low mineral content has still to be overcome, and anyone drinking this sort of water constantly may need a mineral supplement. Expense and slow filtering speed are the other main drawbacks to this type of system.

Some doctors report that patients with extreme sensitivity to chemicals react to water that has been in contact with plastic, because minute quantities of material leach out of the plastic into the water. This is unlikely to be true except for a tiny minority of highly sensitive patients. Where such problems are suspected, reverse osmosis units in non-leaching plastic or stainless steel housing are a possible solution. The former are available in Britain, but stainless steel units are only sold in the USA, and the cost of importing one is likely to be very high. Check that plastics really are the source of the problem before pursuing this option. Drinking mineral water in glass bottles for a while should provide a good test. If you are s’till having problems on this type of water, write to the manufacturer to check that the water is not stored in plastic before bottling. Always bear in mind that it could be something other than water causing your symptoms.

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Vegetables

Celery, fennel and celeriac

Avocado pears Lettuce

Swede (can be eaten raw, grated, in salads, as well as cooked)

Watercress Spinach Alfalfa sprouts

Okra (also called bhindi, or ladies’ fingers) Asparagus

Meat and fish

Turkey

Duck

Goose

Rabbit

Pheasant or other game Lamb

Fish (except smoked fish and shellfish)

Fruit

Gooseberries

Blackcurrants

Redcurrants

Bananas

Pears

Kiwi fruit

Mangoes

Pomegranates

Lychees

Passion fruit

Guavas

Starchy foods

Rice

Millet

Buckwheat

Turnips

Parsnips

Yams

Sweet potatoes Plantains Wild rice

Tapioca Sago

Chestnuts

Chickpeas (also a good source of protein) Pumpkin

Oils

Olive oil Sunflower oil Safflower oil Rapeseed oil

Coconut oil and creamed coconut

Snacks

Pumpkin seeds Macadamia nuts Pistachio nuts Cashew nuts Brazil nuts Pine nuts

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The more allergens a baby is exposed to during the first year of life, the more likely it is to develop allergies. The first three months are much the most crucial. Airborne allergens are just as important as food allergens for the high-risk child, and reducing exposure to the main ones may help your child to escape the miseries of asthma or rhinitis in later years.

The major domestic allergens are house-dust mite, moulds, and particles of animal skin. Suggestions for eliminating these are given on pp66-8. If the child has not shown eczema or any other allergic symptoms by its first birthday, then pets can probably be allowed into the house again, but watch the child for symptoms and bear in mind that these can take some time to develop.

The other major airborne allergen is pollen, which is best avoided by planning the time of birth (if you can!). A baby born between September and February has the best chance of escaping hay-fever, while one born in March or April runs the greatest risk. If one or both parents is a hay-fever sufferer this particular form of family planning may be worthwhile.

Apart from allergens, there are various non-specific irritants that can make allergies more likely. Tobacco smoke is one and industrial air pollution another. A study in Sweden found that asthma and hay-fever were more common in children living near a paper factory than those living in an unin-dustrialized area. Children whose parents smoked showed more allergic problems, and so did those whose houses were built on badly drained land. The researchers concluded that these houses had more moulds growing in them. The highest risk of asthma and hay-fever was in children who were exposed to the mould allergen and to both forms of pollution – factory fumes and tobacco smoke.

Infections of the throat and chest can sometimes trigger off allergic reactions. Exactly why this should happen is not known, but there is evidence that viruses can have various unexpected effects on immune cells in the area. One effect may be to make IgE production more likely. All babies get colds and coughs, of course, and there is no point in worrying about this too much. But if there is a way of reducing exposure to infections then try to do so. For children with very high IgE levels, keeping them away from creches and playgroups until three years of age may be advisable – many infections are picked up at such gatherings. There needs to be quite a severe risk of allergy to make this worthwhile however, and the benefits to mother and child of attending such groups will usually outweigh the risk.

Any severe form of stress can also trigger allergies in the susceptible child. Serious illness or surgery during the first year of life is one such stress, and unnecessary surgery is best postponed.

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This is a typical day in the life of a hyperactive child, as described by an exhausted mother to Dr Doris Rapp, a paediatrician working in Buffalo, New York: ‘In the morning Matthew was stuffy and tired. He was cranky and would get upset over homework not done, cry, call himself stupid, and pester his sister. When he arrived home from school, he immediately took off shoes and did somersaults throughout the house. He thumped and jumped about the house, or would lie and watch television with his hands and feet tapping and banging away constantly. At dinner he rapped his fork and knife on the plate, picked up and handled things on the table, turned the salt shaker upside down, kicked the-table and his sister, and intermittently, throughout the meal, jumped up to do somersaults in the living room. After supper he would try to do his homework. He would get upset because he forgot some books and say-he was stupid. Hed write two or three words, rip up the sheet because of an error and do this about five or six times. He’d cry, get upset again, and the next morning either lose or forget his homework. At bedtime he would say that his muscles and belly had ached all day (a problem since his early years) and it would take an hour and a half to get to sleep. He’d roll and toss all night with bad dreams and talking. During the day he talked constantly about anything and would not listen. He never ate more than half a meal, never had an appetite. His nose was usually stuffy.

The proper name for Matthew’s condition is the hyperkinetic syndrome – although hyperactivity is often used as a diagnostic label, it is actually just one aspect of that syndrome. Other terms used for this collection of symptoms are minimal brain dysfunction and attention deficit disorder.

Estimates of the prevalence of hyperactivity range from 1 per cent to 20 per cent. Boys appear to outnumber girls by about five to one, but it may be that girls with the problem are less overtly hyperactive, and tend to display more subtle symptoms, such as inattention, speech disorders and mood changes, which may not always be identified as hyperkinetic syndrome.

The aggressive, destructive behaviour that is often seen in hyperkinetics usually develops later than the other symptoms, and may be largely a response to feelings of frustration that stem from the other symptoms. Hyperactive children may ‘grow out of it’ in time, but this takes a long time and their behaviour tends to get worse before it gets better. Their inability to concentrate or order their thoughts means that they generally do not learn much at school, even though they may be quite intelligent. Some have difficulty in writing and spelling. There is evidence of criminality and psychotic behaviour in some hyperkinetics when they reach adulthood, so it is advisable to try to sort out the problem sooner rather than later.

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Another of our cultural myths is that the past is a perfect guide to what we should eat. Hence the common criticism of ideas about food intolerance: ‘Surely foods that have been eaten for thousands of years can’t cause serious health problems – if they did it would have been noticed before.’ In fact, experience shows that human beings are rather bad at identifying foods which cause non-acute, long-term illness. The rat, remember, only waits a day to see if a new food makes it ill. Like rats, we are programmed to notice short-term effects only.

The best illustration of this is the failure to identify wheat as a factor in coeliac disease until the 1940s. It took a famine in Holland at the end of World War II to remove wheat from the diet, and an observant doctor to recognize that his coeliac patients were miraculously cured. Similarly, the islanders of Guam have traditionally used the seeds of the false sago palm, a type of cycad, as food. Although they suffered from a high incidence of senile dementia, no-one made any connection between this and the cycad seeds. But in the 1950s an epidemic of dementia began, which continues to this day. Scientists have traced it back to the war years, when Guam was occupied by the Japanese, food was desperately scarce, and the islanders-had to rely heavily on false sago palm as a result. A constituent of the seeds has proved to be responsible for degeneration of the nerves and brain.

A third example comes from China, where a cancer survey showed an unusually high level of oesophageal cancer in one province (the oesophagus is the tube that leads from the mouth to the stomach). The local tradition of making pickled vegetables in huge vats which were left to mature for months proved to be the cause. The thick layer of mould that grew on the pickles was producing carcinogens (cancer-producing compounds) which seeped into the pickles. Even though the mould was scraped off before the pickles were eaten, enough carcinogens were there to give susceptible people cancer.

The moral of these stories is not that food in general can cause fatal diseases – the cycad seeds and mouldy pickles are extreme in that respect. The important lesson to be learned here is that history is sometimes a poor guide to diet.

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The alpine plant is usually richer in its constituents and medicinal value than its lowland relative. I have proved this for myself through analysis. For example, the lowland yarrow contains less essential oil and is less aromatic than the highland yarrow from the Engadine, the Lower Engadine to be exact. Mind you, it may be true that the soil and the abundant sunshine and warm atmosphere, also the greater intensity of ultraviolet rays, exert an influence on the quality of the plant.

The conclusions drawn from Professor Flueck’s experiments were arrived at with little, if any, consideration of the influence of ultraviolet radiation and this would lead one to believe that these rays are not so important in plant life, at least as far as their principal active elements are concerned. However, there are other constituents to be reckoned with, even though they are not generally considered ‘active substances’. These elements, especially the trace elements, seem to depend upon ultraviolet light to a far greater extent than the more common principal substances, although little is known about the relationship between trace elements, ultraviolet radiation and mountain climate, as Professor Flueck admitted.

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Young people often suffer from pustules all over the face and on the back. The condition may be attributable to a disturbance in the internal hormone secretions and especially associated with the sex glands. At the same time, an external bacterial infection -mainly staphylococci or streptococci – may also be diagnosed. This unpleasant condition usually provokes inhibitions and the sufferer tries to get rid of the disfiguring infection as quickly as possible. So he keeps squeezing the pustules and spots, only to spread the infection with his fingernails. The bacteria keep on spreading, the affected areas and spots growing larger and more inflamed. In time, the lesions secrete a fluid which, when dry, develops into yellowish crusty sores, of a rather unsightly appearance. In the past mercury ointments were used to combat this condition, but in modern times penicillin or sulphonamide creams have become more popular, both of them giving better results than those with a mercury or tar base.

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