This Sept 2010 Issue 174 of Positive Health PH Online publishes
significant information regarding important health issues.
The groundbreaking feature How
Heavy Metals Affect Neurotransmitters Production and Balance by
Manuela Malaguti Boyle ND and Geoff Beaty DN MNHAA details the worrying rapid increase in
incidence of neurotoxic or immune reactive conditions such as autism,
schizophrenia, ADD, dyslexia and learning disabilities. The authors have
done a great service to the entire community concerned about the toxic
effects of heavy metals, including mercury, cadmium, lead, aluminium,
and tin. This article is extensively referenced to the published
scientific literature.
"Much of the developmental effects of mercury and other
toxic metals are due to prenatal and neonatal exposures damage to the
developing endocrine system. A recent study found that prenatal Hg
exposure is correlated with lower scores in neurodevelopmental
screening, but more so in the linguistic pathway. Prenatal and neonatal
toxic metal exposure to mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, and
aluminium have been documented in medical publications and medical texts
to cause common and widespread neurological and psychological effects,
including depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, social
deficits, other mood disorders, schizophrenia, anorexia, cognitive
impairments, ADHD, autism, seizures, etc. Children with autism had
significantly higher levels of mercury in baby teeth, but similar levels
of lead and similar levels of zinc.[2, 5] Children with autism also had
significantly higher usage of oral antibiotics during their first 12
months of life. Baby teeth are a good measure of cumulative exposure to
toxic metals during foetal development and early infancy."
Vivienne Bradshaw-Black's Expert Column Immune
Health and Efficiency discusses numerous factors which affect and
assault the immune system, particularly in children.
"This innately superb protection mechanism can become
inefficient and not up to scratch, or become over-zealous and confused,
turning on cells with a 'self' label (auto-immune conditions). This is
an abnormal condition; something causes this confusion. A matter for
great concern is when cells are invaded with toxic materials, and the
cell and the toxins, as a unit, are labelled 'non-self'."
Anne McIntyre's Expert Column in PH Online Sept Issue 174 -
Helpful
Herbs Following Surgery discusses herbs which have helped her
recovery from recent surgery:
"I have recently had to undergo knee surgery which involved a
half knee replacement. I thought I would take this opportunity to share
information with others who may have to have surgery of one kind or
another about some of the herbs I found helpful in my healing
process...One of the mixtures I prescribed for myself included Gotu
kola, meadowsweet, comfrey leaf and sariva."
In Part I of Neurolinguistic
Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Depression Nancy Blake describes
Representational Systems and Eye Accessing Cues which can be of
assistance:
"Think about the severely depressed person you might see,
just walking down the street. Looking down. Muttering. Now look at your
depressed client, sitting curled over, looking down. Ask her how she
feels and she will say "depressed". Ask her what she is saying to
herself, and you can be sure her response will be self-critical. The
answer to the question "how are you doing that" addressed to a depressed
person, is "thinking very self-critical thoughts - and believing them -
then feeling bad".
"Now ask your client (or yourself, if it is you
who are depressed) to sit up straight, and direct their gaze to a point
near the ceiling, and try to feel depressed without letting the
direction of their gaze drop. There will be a great deal of surprise
when it is discovered that it isn't actually possible."
The attitude of many people who have either never heard of
nor used non-drug treatment approaches is that to them only the doctor's
drug prescriptions constitute real medicine. This is somewhat
reminiscent of spiritual endeavours of people belonging to an
organization and who refer to the rest of the world as the 'outside
world', as though the world consisted of 'inside' and 'outside'. There
is only one world - conventional and complementary medicines are merely
different treatment approaches
In her Expert Column Natural
Childbirth: Maternal Expectations Versus the Reality Denise Tiran
MSc RM RGN ADM PGCA, who works with both Conventional and Complementary
Medicine states that:
"Complementary therapies may be used, either singly or in
combination, to ease pain, anxiety and fear, to facilitate progress and
to prevent or manage complications. Any therapy which assists in
relaxing the mother, thereby reducing cortisol levels, will influence
release of oxytocin, the hormone required to regulate conception,
pregnancy, birth and lactation. Research has shown that using
complementary therapies to aid wellbeing during pregnancy, and in
labour, facilitates women to tackle the demands of childbirth, leads to
greater maternal satisfaction, a reduction in the incidence of both
short- and long term sequelae of childbearing and, consequently, safer
and more cost effective maternity services."
As with each issue, the Editorial features, Research
Updates, Letters and Brief Takes and Short Features provide information
by and about international leading authors, clinicians and events. We
have been developing PH Online so that visitors will, in the near
future, arrive at their own country's 'landing page', which will overlay
the main PH Online site, and provide facilities to save your own
Favourite Articles list and book reviews and view advertisements
promoting courses, books, products in your own country. Chicken or egg -
which comes first: the overlay landing page or the country-specific
advertisements? Watch this space.
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