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ГАРМОНИЯ СЕКСУАЛЬНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ-HARMONY OF SEXUAL RELATIONSОсновные сексуальные проблемы и пути их решения |
Vitamin C is another vitamin which is seriously involved in heart disease.
The foremost authority on vitamin C in the world, Dr. W. J. McCormick, has shown that the deficiency of vitamin C is one of the causes of coronary thrombosis. Vitamin C deficiency causes ruptures in the blood vessel walls with resultant bleeding which leads to the development of the clot and consequent heart attack. Clinical studies of the vitamin C level in coronary patients showed that 81 percent of them had a subnormal level of vitamin C in their blood.
Russian scientists have found that vitamin C has the ability to drastically lower the amount of cholesterol in the blood. A sharp decline of the cholesterol level—up to 50 percent—was noticed within a 24-hour period after administering ascorbic acid, or vitamin C.
This evidence may suffice to impress upon you that your diet should contain plenty of vitamin C. It strengthens the walls of blood vessels and capillaries, as well as all the connective tissues of the body. It reduces the cholesterol level in the blood and in the walls of the arteries and prevents the development of atherosclerosis and heart attacks. In addition, vitamin C is the most universal of all vitamins in its prophylactic and therapeutic benefits. It is good for your gums, eyes, and skin. It protects against colds and infections, and is an effective anti-toxin. It will protect your body from the harmful effects of many poisons in food and environment and has a protective, buffering action in all conditions of stress. The average American diet is deficient in vitamin C, as has been shown in many studies and tests.
*88\58\2*
At the recent seminar on heart disease in Phoenix, Arizona, the famous heart specialist Dr. Paul Dudley White said that the key to heart disease is in the kitchen. Much heart disease begins in childhood and starts with overeating. He blamed mothers for raising a generation of prospective heart cases, and shortening the lives of their children and their husbands, by feeding them too much of the wrong foods. He particularly condemned the starchy foods of the refined carbohydrate category, such as white sugar and white flour, and too much meat, milk and milk products, as the chief fat producers and direct causes of heart troubles.
In order to understand how faulty nutrition can cause heart disease we must understand that health is a harmonious functioning of all the organs of the body, including the arteries and the heart, and is a result of living in a healthy natural environment and eating natural foods. When man’s environment and his foods are adulterated—as is the case now with processed, devitalized and poisoned foods, and polluted air and water—then an impairment in the general metabolism of the body results. Nutritional deficiencies, incomplete digestion and assimilation, glandular disturbances, malfunctions of the nervous system, autointoxication, biochemical imbalance in the tissues and blood—all these and many other physiological and degenerative changes are the result of man’s adulterated environment and faulty nutrition. Diseases of the heart and blood vessels do not develop suddenly, but rather are the end result of long-time neglect of normal body maintenance.
Faulty nutrition with too much of refined carbohydrates, white sugar and white flour, animal fats, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol, accompanied by lack of exercise, leads to obesity, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, digestive disturbances, constipation and many other conditions. Often these may be in so-called sub-clinical stages of which the individual may not be particularly aware. When these pathological changes occur, the body in self defense will attempt to cope with the adverse conditions and try to sustain life by adapting to the new situation. When blood vessels become clogged with cholesterol deposits, the heart increases blood pressure to assure an adequate blood supply through the narrowed blood vessels. When the digestive and eliminative organs and glands become affected and prematurely wear out or break down, the heart muscle will enlarge to cope with the increased amount of work and protect the whole organism from collapse. When the circulation has been so decreased due to the plugged coronary arteries that too little oxygen reaches the heart, pain occurs. This is known as angina. Thus, although we have many different forms of heart disease, they are not isolated phenomena but are related to the general health of the body. Heart disease is the result of long-time abuse in the form of poor living habits and faulty nutrition.
*81\58\2*
The following food supplements, in addition to the ones mentioned above, are used and recommended by most biologically oriented practitioners:
Brewer’s yeast (or food yeast) —about 3 tbsp. a day.
Note: never use yeast intended for baking!
Cod liver oil, plain, not fortified—1 tsp. a day.
Raw wheat germ—2 to 3 tbsp. a day.
Lecithin (granules or liquid) —1 tbsp. a day.
Whey, tablets or powder (for better intestinal hygiene).
In addition, such natural foods as honey, soybeans, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, raw nuts, yogurt, black molasses, and cold-pressed vegetable oils should be used to make a well balanced and nutritious diet.
Parenthetically, for the best effect and the fullest biological value, all vitamins and minerals and other food supplements should always be taken with meals. Because many vitamins are water soluble, and when taken in large doses may be readily lost in urine, it is advisable that the daily dose should be evenly divided between three meals, rather than taken all at one time.
*73\58\2*
In Finland, the steam bath, or sauna, is an historic tradition. For over a thousand years the sauna has been an important part of Finnish life and Finnish culture, cherished by every Finnish man.
woman and child. The sauna is credited for much of the rugged vitality and endurance—the sisu—of the Finnish people.
In a country of less than 5 million people, there are an estimated 700,000 steam bath facilities—one sauna for every 7 people! Most Finnish saunas are in separate buildings specially constructed for this purpose. Every farm has its own sauna, usually built on the shore of a lake or river. Most family houses in the city have saunas built on the lot, usually in the back yard.
Finnish sauna bathing starts with loyly, which is the Finnish word for steam Water is thrown over hot stones, hot steam fills the room and raises the temperature. The bather can sit on a low or high bench, depending on the temperature he prefers. The usual temperature for a Finnish sauna is about 212° F, sometimes even higher. For the uninitiated I would not advise temperatures higher than 180-190° F.
In order to further increase the effect of heat and stimulate sweating, the Finns use birch brooms, vihta. Fresh birch branches with leaves are tied together to form a short broom. They are used fresh in summer or dried in winter. The dried broom is dipped in warm water and regains the same shape as the fresh one. Bathers hit themselves all over with these birch brooms. It may seem odd and eccentric to the uninitiated, but you have to try it for yourself to appreciate the fantastic delight and unbelievable pleasure the sauna with a birch broom can give.
After hot loyly, bathers usually jump into the nearby lake or river, or in winter they run out and roll in soft snow. What an exhilarating and delightful experience! Then they return to the sauna and warm up again, either by sitting up on the benches or taking more loyly with the brooms. Following this they wash themselves with warm water and soap and finish by throwing a bucket of cold water over themselves. In modern saunas, of course, there are showers and even swimming pools.
Finally, the bathers take a long relaxing rest on the benches in the dressing room and allow the wide-open pores to close, perspiration to cease, and the body to return slowly to normal temperature.
Therapeutic properties of sauna
In addition to the prophylactic and therapeutic benefits of an artificially raised fever, which a prolonged steam bath always accomplishes, the sauna bath is specifically conducive to profuse therapeutic sweating. Many toxins, accumulated in the system as a result of metabolic wastes and sluggish elimination, are thrown out of the body with perspiration. The skin is our largest eliminative organ, «the third kidney.» The skin should eliminate 30 percent of the body wastes by way of perspiration. Hundreds of thousands of tiny sweat glands act not only as the regulators of body temperature, but also as small kidneys, detoxifying organs, ready to cleanse the blood and free the system from health-threatening poisons. When the kidneys, cannot eliminate the normal quantities of urine due to overwork or a weakened condition, the body tries to eliminate such wastes by way of the skin. Uric acid, a normal compound of urine, is found in large amounts in the perspiration. The chemical analysis of sweat shows that it has almost the same constituents as urine.
The American conception of the sauna seems to be that it is helpful in reducing weight by eliminating several pounds of water through sweating. But the benefits of the sauna are far beyond mere reducing. You not only lose water by sweating in the sauna, but sweating also cleans your body of toxins, wastes and impurities.
Thus, the prophylactic value of a steam bath for normally healthy people wishing to stay healthy and prevent illness, is easy to realize. However, the therapeutic value of sauna is just as great as the prophylactic.
The therapeutic property of sauna is attributed to the following facts:
Overheating with loyly stimulates and speeds up the metabolic processes and inhibits the growth of virus or bacteria.
The vital organs and glands are stimulated to increased activity.
The body’s healing and restorative capacity is accelerated.
The eliminative, detoxifying and cleansing capacity of the skin is dramatically increased by the stimulating action of the sweat glands.
The body is thoroughly cleansed and rejuvenated inside and out.
Many authorities attribute the phenomenal therapeutic properties of sauna to the Finnish custom of jumping into cold water or snow during bathing. The sudden changes in temperature are known to stimulate adrenal glands; the effect of the alternate hot and cold bath is likened to a cortisone injection.
*64\58\2*
American readers need no introduction to juices. The United States can take credit for the popularization of juice both as a food and as a drink. Juices of countless kinds and descriptions form a major part of the food processing industry. Just walk to any supermarket and you will see whole departments of long shelves full of various brands of juices and drinks. You’ll find juices in gallon jars, in tin cans, in glass bottles, and in waxed cartons. You may have your juice fresh, frozen, canned, concentrated, mixed, reconstituted, synthetic, sugar-added, natural, colored—have your pick! You can buy it at your favorite food store, get it from the automatic dispenser, buy it at the corner drug store or garage, or have it delivered to your doorstep each morning by your milkman. Almost all Americans drink juice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We are, without question, the biggest juice drinkers in the world!
Although the popularity of juice is based on the premise that it is good for your health—and for this reason many a mother forces orange juice down the
throats of her kids each morning—it does not seem to have been doing any good for the health of the American people. It seems that we are much sicker now than a generation or two back, prior to the juice drinking fad. milkman. Almost all Americans drink juice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We are, without question, the biggest juice drinkers in the world!
Although the popularity of juice is based on the premise that it is good for your health—and for this reason many a mother forces orange juice down the The explanation of this paradox is simple. The kind of juices most Americans drink not only lack health-giving properties, but may, in addition, be hazardous to health. Because of extensive processing, heating, chemical treatments, synthetic artificial colorings and flavorings, sugar or artificial sweeteners, and additions of many toxic preservatives, the juices or the so-called juice drinks you buy at your supermarket today bear no resemblance to the juices which were originally meant to be health-giving beverages—fresh, Taw, natural juices. Just read the labels on the cans and you’ll see what I mean!
So let’s make this thing clear once and for all: the only juices which can be considered as health-giving, or conducive to good health and well-being, and can be recommended for the therapeutic use in the healing of disease or as a preventive measure in maintaining good health, are fresh, raw, natural juices, prepared immediately before drinking from fresh fruits, berries, vegetables, and green plants. Such juices you won’t find at the usual kind of supermarket.
*55\58\2*
When I recently met Dr. Karl-Otto Aly, a prominent Swedish doctor, upon his return from a lecture tour in the United States and asked, «What was the one most memorable impression of this trip,» he said:
«The American high-protein craze! Not only the general public, but even the so-called health enthusiasts are so thoroughly brainwashed on the question of protein in their diet that, to my mind, this factor alone may be held to a great degree responsible for the deplorable state of health of the American people—in addition, of course, to the American over-processed, chemicalized and devitalized foods.»
Dr. Aly told me that after his lectures people would come to the stage and look closely at his face to see if he didn’t have rouge on it. They just couldn’t believe that a man could look so healthy and robust without eating meat. They kept asking him, «But where do you get your proteins?»
The absolute maxim of any respectable American health system is its high-protein requirement. Yet, practically all the top men in the European health field are unanimous in their endorsement of a low-protein diet, particularly a low-animal-protein diet, as the diet most conducive to good health and long life! Empirical evidence in support of low-protein as against high-protein intake is equally impressive.
*47\58\2*
Perhaps of all natural living waters salt sea water has the greatest curative power.
We all have experienced the invigorating effect of a few days or weeks by the seashore. The reasons are obvious: It has been shown that minerals are absorbed through the skin and also through the inhaled mineral-rich air by the seashore.
Sea water is extremely rich in beneficial minerals. One to two teaspoons a day can be used internally as a mineral supplement. Make every effort to spend your holiday by the sea. In addition to providing the usual benefits of cold water bathing, salt water and salt air will recharge your system with health-restoring and rejuvenating minerals.
If you are not fortunate enough to live near the ocean, here is an easy do-it-yourself salt water bath which you can enjoy right in your own bathtub.
Three or four pounds of sea salt is dissolved in a tub half-full of cool water. Enjoy salt water swimming by rubbing yourself briskly, then drying yourself warm with coarse towels. If sea salt is not available (health food stores are the most likely places to find it), the following ingredients can be substituted for it:
3,5lb. common salt
0,5 lb. magnesium chloride
0,5 lb. Epsom salts
*39\58\2*
Once upon a time (until about 25-30 years ago) the United States had many well-known and well-frequented spas. Dr. Kellog’s Battle Creek Spa was one of the most familiar ones. Many others were active in Florida, near Chicago and on the West Coast. Most of them were operated by Europeans who migrated from Western Europe and brought with them the experience of similar watering places in the old country. Millions of people visited these spas, took baths or «cures,» and relieved themselves of aches and pains, of arthritis and high blood pressure, of depression and eczema.
But with the advent of the chemical takeover of medicine these spas have now almost completely disappeared from the American scene. An average American wouldn’t think of «tampering» with his health by going to a water cure spa or taking a mineral bath—any more than he would try to improve his health by eating organically grown foods. These things are strictly for the «health nuts»!
*31\58\2*
The young doctor who saved the life of a dying patient with raw foods was a Swiss, Dr. Max Bircher-Benner, who was later to become known in modern text books on nutrition as «a classic in dietetics.» He initiated a new school of medical thinking, and during 40 years of practical application and experiments in his clinic in Zurich, proved to his skeptical and conservative colleagues that there are powerful, curative and health-promoting factors in fresh raw foods.<неиAt the time when vitamins and enzymes were yet undiscovered, Dr. Bircher-Benner found that raw foods contained a higher order and quality of nutritive energy, or sun energy, and a life-sustaining and curative power, which were lost in foods subjected to physical and chemical changes such as processing or heating.<неиThis assumption was confirmed 40 years later by several scientific investigations. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Schroedinger, of Dublin, confirmed that raw foods contain «the life maintaining» power. Professor Eppinger, of the University of Vienna, showed that raw food raises the «micro-electric potentials» in living cells.
*23/58/2*
The classic form of fasting is a pure water fast—the abstinence of all foods or drinks with the exception of pure water. However, the most common fasting method in Europe now is a so-called juice fasting. All European practitioners whom I talked with in various clinics, including the champion of therapeutic fasting in modern times, Dr. Otto H. F. Buchinger, Jr., use fresh juices of fruits and vegetables and vegetable broths and herb teas during fasting.
The medical justification of juice fasting is that freshly pressed vegetable and fruit juices will aid the patient in his recovery from disease. This is attributed to the following physiological facts:
Raw juices, as well as freshly made vegetable broths, are rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements and enzymes.
They, are extremely beneficial in normalizing the bodily processes, supplying needed elements for the body’s own healing activity and thus speeding up the recovery.
Raw juices and vegetable broths provide an alkaline surplus which is extremely important for the proper acid-alkaline balance, since blood and tissues contain large amounts of acids during fasting.
*15\58\2*
In Sweden fasting is used not only in the hospitals and clinics by medical practitioners, but also by thousands of health enthusiasts around the country as a positive health measure to improve health and prevent disease.
Here are a few headlines from the clippings of Swedish magazines and newspapers lying on my table:
«Fast for better spring condition!»
«Fast this summer to keep in shape!»
«Eleven fasting vikings walk from Gothenburg to Stockholm (300 miles) without food!»
«Without food for 143 days!»
Every spring and summer several groups of Swedish health enthusiasts and hundreds of individuals fast for one, two or more weeks. This is done not for the cure of any particular pathological condition, but as a kind of spring cleaning to purify their bodies from the toxins and the waste matter accumulated during long winter months of sedentary life and the lack of fresh foods. In addition, many Swedes take a regular Fasting Cure at the various biological clinics in the country under expert supervision.
*7\58\2*
Ingredients:
one part Epsom salts.
eight parts fine white sugar.
just enough water to barely dissolve the above.
Mix all three ingredients together and heat to boiling. Have a small container of cold water beside the saucepan and put a drop of the hot mixture into the water from time to time. Continue to boil until the test drop will form a firm ball when dropped in the water. When the mixture reaches the stage where the ball is easily made, it is ready. Remove from heat and pour onto a greased plate or wax paper. Allow to cool slightly. Pull into ropes and cut into pieces before it gets too hard to be manageable. When this whole procedure is done correctly, it will produce a tough, hard candy lozenge.
How To Use The Lozenge.
Choose a time for this treatment when you have two to three hours to spend outdoors in the garden or on a long hike through the woods. Take a piece of the candy and work it around in the mouth. It will dissolve, filling your mouth with saliva. Do not swallow this. Neither white sugar nor Epsom salts are good in anyone’s stomach. Spit the mixture out; then, have another piece of the candy. Repeat this over and over for about three hours. After the last piece, wash the mouth out thoroughly with water. This will remove what is left of the sugar and the salts.
What is happening is this: The sugar activates the mucous membranes causing them to pour forth copiously. The Epsom salts, long recognized for their drawing power, take the toxins out with the saliva and thus get right to the root of the infection, with cleansing power.
For this treatment to be effective, it is essential that the prescribed amount of time be spent upon it. Natural treatments always take longer than taking a pill, but they are much better for the body and effect a much more permanent change in the end. Considerable relief should be experienced from this first treatment, but if you find that the cleansing has not been complete, then follow it with second and third treatments, as necessary.
Case History
As a fruitage of many years of bad eating habits, one man had developed quite a catarrhal condition. He became interested in the practice of healthful living and found much improvement in his health and vitality as a result. But the catarrh persisted. He tried to overcome it by fasting, fruit regimens and restricting himself to very simple dieting, but all without success.
Then he became acquainted with the Epsom salts cure and determined to give it a try. For over three hours one day while working in the garden, he sucked on the lozenges and, as fast as the saliva filled his mouth, he buried it along the rows of vegetables. He found that he did not need to continuously have the candy in his mouth for the process to continue. Once the saliva had been set going, it continued to leak into his mouth, and he only needed to add further candy at quite long intervals.
For the first time in many years, he experienced relief from his ailment, and what wonderful relief it was! However, after several weeks, there was a slight recurrence of the trouble. He had another session with the lozenges, which he now kept in an airtight jar. This time it was much shorter, lasting only about an hour or a little more. This apparently removed the last residues of the catarrhal infection, for in the intervening sixteen years he has had no further trouble with it.
It will be found that there is only a very slightly unpleasant taste as the sugar is so strong, and no one should have any difficulty with it from this point of view.
*37\62\2*
For the application of heat to an injury that is beginning to grow old and where swelling is pronounced, steam is very good. The method is as follows. Take some form of steam-generating equipment, such as an electric kettle, electric fry pan, or an electric jug. In all cases, leave the lids on or just pushed a little to one side or use the spout or vent for the steam escape. Place this a couple of feet below the injured part and form a tent with a blanket or heavy covering that covers both the injured part and the kettle. One article of furniture that lends itself well to this form of tent is a wooden chair. Place the kettle or steam utensil so that the steam rises and strikes against the bottom of the chair. Have the patient rest his leg or arm on the chair seat and envelop the whole with a blanket.
The steam will circulate around the injury, thoroughly heating and sweating it. The kettle will need to be regulated by turning it on and off; otherwise, the heat becomes too intense and the patient may be scalded. Every 5 or 10 minutes, bathe the area with ice water, or simply wrap a cloth saturated with ice water around the part.
In certain areas where electricity is not available, the steam can be generated by using a primus or other pressure fuel stove. Simply stand the primus on the floor with the kettle on top of the flame. Mount a plastic or metal pipe on the spout from which the steam will pour and insert the pipe into the tent. The pipe will need to be a little higher where it enters the tent than the level of the spout. Plastic waterpipe is ideal for the purpose.
Hamstrings, bruises, strains, sprains, and even the damaged tissues around broken bones can be very successfully treated in this way. In fact, before a broken bone is delivered to the doctor for setting, a thorough course of hot and cold treatments should be given to clear away pain, swelling and congestion.
*28\62\2*
At this point it would be well to explain another related treatment in this line, the castor oil pack. It is one thing to have an acid stomach and intestines, but when this situation becomes chronic and the glands and tissues round about the stomach area become clogged and break down because the system is becoming over-acid throughout, sterner measures need to be taken. Castor oil is a harsh laxative and should not be used internally. However, when used externally it penetrates through the skin to underlying tissues and breaks up the congestion being felt in the glands and tissues of the intestines. This congestion is then taken away through the eliminative organs. The quicker you can get rid of this loosened poison, the better, so periodic enemas would be beneficial, or better still, colonic irrigations.
How to make the pack:
Use a towel or an old sheet torn into a square about the size of a towel. Lay this on the table or bed. In the middle of this, or perhaps just slightly above center, fold a plastic bag large enough to cover the abdomen. (Plastic liners for small litter containers are fine for this if you cut off the sealed end so they will lie flat.) On top of this place a piece of thick cloth or a double thickness of sheeting. Warm the castor oil by placing the bottle in a pan of warm water for a few minutes until it becomes free-flowing. Pour this over the cloth on top of the plastic until it is evenly distributed.
Pick up this pack and place it, oiled side in, around the patient’s abdomen, securing it comfortably behind with a pin. He may feel a little over-burdened or frustrated for the first few minutes, but he should just relax and let it do its work. It will not be long until he will feel comfortable enough to drop off to sleep. In the morning just remove the pack and wipe over the skin with soap and water. Wear the oil pack on the abdomen for 3 nights in a row, then go without it for 3 nights. This pattern (3 on, 3 off) is repeated until 15 nights have been completed in this manner.
Castor oil is also useful in the case of painful hemorrhoids (piles). Take a piece of cotton (cotton wool) and dip it in castor oil. Insert this into the rectum. If the piles are protruding, lie down and gently encourage them back into the rectum with the cotton wool dipped in castor oil. Leave the cotton wool in place all night. If very painful piles are experienced, then a fresh piece with castor oil needs to be used about every two hours. However, it will not take long to ease the pain and shrink the piles.
Although castor oil should not be used as a laxative, olive oil is excellent for this purpose. One to two teaspoons taken 15 to 20 minutes before breakfast will relieve constipation and will also promote healing to the mucous membranes lining the digestive tract. For those who have inflamed, irritated stomachs, it is better than any drug. If you find this hard to take first thing in the morning, try it at noon before the mid-day meal, or in the evening before retiring.
*18\62\2*
This little boy started to go down with a fever in the morning and was sponged with cool water on and off through the day. In the late afternoon the temperature began to rise again, so an Epsom salts bath was tried. He went to sleep after that until seven p.m., when he awoke with a raging fever. The temperature taken from the arm pit registered 102° F. The wet pack was suggested. The child’s parents tried a slightly different variation of this treatment, but we record it here to show that the particular method is not as important as the general compliance with principle. For the sake of recognition, we will call it a cold compress. This will reduce a fever in the same way as the wet sheet, but only part of the body is covered at one time. Just like the wet sheet pack, in the cold compress the cloth must be removed as soon as it warms up and replaced with another cold cloth.
These parents understood the principle and worked at it in their own way for their child. First they placed him on a blanket; then they took a wet tea towel, folded it in four, and placed this down the front of his body. Next, a hot water bottle was put at his feet, and he was then wrapped up in the blanket. To quiet his fears, the parents assured him that they were doing all they could to relieve his troubles and sang hymns to help calm him. He soon responded to this soothing influence and allowed them to work away on him. It took three applications of the wet towel before his temperature dropped to 100° F. After the third application to the front, they rolled him over onto his stomach and applied the wet towel to his back. This time it did not take so long to bring the temperature down, and he was soon cool all over. He was relaxed, and it was easy to see that he had relief at last. The temperature did not rise again. He slept well that night and was soon over his problem.
*9\62\2*
A medicinal herb used in Europe since ancient times, St Johns wort or hypericum has recently caused excitement among scientists with its anti-viral action against the HIV virus which causes AIDS. This proven anti-viral activity may also lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of multiple sclerosis although research into its effect on both these retroviruses is still in its early stages.
St Johns wort taken internally has a proven effect on anxiety and depression and a reputation for suppressing urination, useful knowledge for parents of bedwetting children. It is a sedative and will relieve the pain of neuralgia as well as lessen the irritability triggered by menopausal change.
St Johns wort grows well in Australia, so well in fact that it is considered a noxious weed in some states.
*58\69\2*
Anna was 78 when she was first referred to Dr Volz by a local consultant. By that time, her experiences with recurrent episodes of depression went back a quarter of a century. In the early 1980s she was treated with lithium carbonate, which was discontinued when it resulted in thyroid troubles. In the early 1990s she was treated with amitriptyline, one of the older anti-depressants, which caused her severe dry mouth and, on one occasion, an episode of fainting when she got up one night to go to the toilet. Then Prozac (20 mg per day) was tried, and even though it helped her depression to some degree, it caused unbearable sleep problems. Sometimes it would take her as long as two hours to fall asleep at night and then she would wake an average of three times during the course of the night.
When Anna consulted Dr Volz, he judged her to be moderately depressed while on Prozac, scoring 21 points on the well-known Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, on which the higher the score the more depressed the individual. Because of the severe sleep difficulties, Dr Volz decided to switch Anna to St John’s Wort. He did this without any overlap between medications, immediately discontinuing her Prozac and starting St John’s Wort (900 mg per day). Four days later Anna reported an improvement in the quality of her sleep, but her mood had deteriorated slightly and she now scored 24 on the Hamilton Rating Scale. Her dosage of St John’s Wort was increased to 1,800 mg per day. After three weeks her Rating score dropped to 20, after six weeks to 15 and after another four weeks to 10. Anna’s depression continues to improve. Once again, St John’s Wort triumphed where other medications had failed.
There are several lessons to be learned from Dr Volz and his patients. For many people, like Greta, herbal remedies are simply more acceptable than synthetic drugs. Perhaps it is because we are used to eating plants that they seem more natural than pills do. Even though we need double-blind studies, which include placebo controls, to make sure that any effects of a medication are specific and not just due to a placebo effect, it is hard not to become a believer in the anti-depressant effects of St John’s Wort when one encounters patients such as Greta. Adamantly opposed to the very idea that she was depressed and uninformed about the purported anti-depressant effects of St John’s Wort, her symptoms nevertheless responded completely, suggesting a specific effect of the herbal anti-depressant. An added advantage of St John’s Wort over the older anti-depressants is that, like the SSRIs, it does not appear to have any adverse effect on electrical conduction in the heart. For this reason, Dr Volz felt quite comfortable in using it to treat Greta’s depression even though her EKG had revealed some abnormalities in her cardiac conduction.
In Anna’s case, we see the importance of persevering with an anti-depressant treatment. After she was switched from Prozac to St John’s Wort, she initially appeared to get worse before her slow but progressive improvement over the course of the next several months. Her depression was moderately severe when she first consulted Dr Volz and had apparently been somewhat worse before she started Prozac. Nevertheless, St John’s Wort successfully turned it round, indicating once again the potency of the herbal remedy. Despite this potency, the mildness of the herbal antidepressant was apparent in the ease with which this elderly woman was able to tolerate it in dosages that are very much higher than those widely recommended for the treatment of mild-to-moderate depression. This was in marked contrast with the synthetic anti-depressants she had previously taken and on which she had developed unacceptable side-effects.
*33\75\2*