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Coping With Anxiety

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Anxiety is a feeling of intense worry or distress in the absence of obvious danger. It is a state of inner turmoil accompanied by churning thoughts, nervousness, poor concentration, feelings of dread and loss of control. It is related to, but different from, fear, which is a response to a real or perceived immediate threat.

Anxiety comes in two main forms:

  1. A short-term state, a response to a challenging situation, which can be acute.
  2. A long-term, chronic condition, part of one’s psychological makeup. An anxiety disorder such as this can have a profound effect on our quality of life.

Types of anxiety

There are six major types of anxiety disorders:

  • If constant worries and fears distract you from your day-to-day activities you may be suffering from generalised anxiety disorder. Sufferers feel anxious nearly all of the time without necessarily knowing why. Generalized anxiety disorder often shows up as physical symptoms like insomnia, indigestion and fatigue.
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorders are characterized by unwanted thoughts or behaviours that seem impossible to control, such as a recurring worry that you forgot to lock the house before going out or left the oven on. Sufferers may also have uncontrollable compulsions, such as repeatedly washing their hands.
  • Anxiety attacks, characterized by recurrent, unexpected panic feeligs which may also be accompanied by a fear of being in places where escape or help would be difficult such as open spaces like shopping centres or confined spaces such as lifts and underground trains.
  • Phobias are unrealistic or exaggerated fears of specific objects, activities or situations that in reality present little or no threat. Common phobias include fear of animals, birds and spiders, fear of flying and fear of heights. Sufferers go to extreme lengths to avoid the feared object or situation which unfortunately only strengthens the phobia.
  • Social anxiety disorder is a debilitating fear of being seen negatively by others. It includes extreme shyness and stage fright. In severe cases, social situations are avoided altogether which can exacerbate the problem.
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder is an extreme anxiety disorder that can occur after a traumatic or life-threatening event. Symptoms include flashbacks or nightmares, withdrawing from others, startling easily, and avoiding situations that remind us of the event.

Anxiety disorders are partly genetic, but also due to mental disorders such as bipolar condition, depression and certain personality disorders. Drug use and withdrawal from certain drugs can also cause anxiety.

Physical symptoms of anxiety disorders

Anxiety is a result of the body’s natural response to danger, the fight-or-flight response to perceived threats. It can cause a wide range of physical symptoms, hence anxiety sufferers often mistake their disorder for a medical illness before their anxiety disorder is discovered. Common physical symptoms of anxiety include:

  • Breathing problems
  • Digestive problems
  • Dizziness
  • Fatigue
  • Frequent urination
  • Headaches
  • Racing heart
  • Insomnia
  • Muscle tension
  • Palpitations
  • Sweating
  • Tremors and tics

Mental symptoms of anxiety disorders

  • Constantly tense, fearful, worried or jittery.
  • Avoidance of situations and activities because they cause anxiety.
  • Recurring irrational fears that won’t go away.
  • Compulsive behaviours.
  • Feelings that danger and disaster are imminent.
  • A need to do things in a certain way or order.
  • Recurring thoughts that interfere with daily activities such as work or family life.
  • Mental vagueness/blank mind.

Emotional symptoms of anxiety disorders

  • Anticipating the worst.
  • Poor concentration.
  • Constant feelings of apprehension or dread.
  • Shyness and social awkwardness.
  • Self doubt.

Remedies for Excessive Anxiety

There is no universal cure for anxiety. Sometimes it can be relieved with medication, therapy or a combination of the two, but it is doubtful that either permanently removes the root cause.

Practical lifestyle changes

  1. Whenever you find yourself worrying about something, write it on a piece of paper and put it in a ‘worry box’. On the last day of each month, open the box. You will find that most of your worries never happened and many were not as bad as you imagined.
  2.  Keep active. When you’re busy, your mind has less opportunity to focus on your worries. Often whatever is worrying you resolves itself while your attention is on other things.
  3.  Deep relaxation has enormous benefits. Use relaxation time to ‘visualize’ yourself coping with anxiety-inducing situations. Mindfulness, thought stopping, relaxation and mental calmness can help break the anxiety cycle.
  4.  Take regular exercise. Exercise is a great antidote to anxiety especially if taken in a natural setting. Spend at least twenty minutes per session.
  5.  Slow, deep breathing – focus your attention on your breath and take at least ten slow, long, rhythmic breaths whenever you feel anxiety coming on.
  6.  Eat well. Choose a healthy diet and keep your blood sugar levels up. And never avoid breakfast.
  7.  Daily meditation (minimum morning and evening sessions of twenty minutes each) had enormous benefits for anxiety disorders.
  8.  Live one day at a time. Concentrate on what you can do If you’re clear about your long-term goals and do the best you can each day, the future will take care of itself.

Natural remedies

  1. Omega 3 oils (mainly found in nut and seed oils, fish oils and eggs) are extremely beneficial for anxiety.
  2.  So are ingested herbs such as chamomile, green tea, hops, valerian, lemon balm and passionflower, and the calming scent of lavender.
  3.  There are various over-the-counter products which usually contain a combination of the above and claim to relieve worry, stress and irritability and help to promote natural sleep. For further information visit your pharmacy or health food store.

Medication

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the UK has recently advised doctors to consider counselling before prescribing drugs for anxiety sufferers. Only one in three find relief from their symptoms through drugs.

There are a wide range of anti-anxiety prescription drugs, including benzodiazepines, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s), Selective Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRI’s) and Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MOI’s).

Beta blockers, used for the treatment of high blood pressure and a racing heart, can be effective for short term anxiety, for instance if you were anxious over a driving test or examination.

Although these normally take several weeks to ‘kick in’, doctors are reluctant to prescribe medication for more than a few weeks as users can become addicted. They also have side effects ranging from drowsiness, dry mouth, blurred vision and memory problems to sexual dysfunction, weight gain, gastric upset, disrupted sleep and nightmares. Also, abruptly stopping the medication can cause withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating and shaking. If in doubt, always consult a doctor.

Psychotherapy

Drug companies spend huge sums trying to convince us that depression and anxiety are biological illnesses and can only effectively be treated with drugs, but independent research often shows that psychotherapy can relieve symptoms more quickly and is more likely to prevent a relapse.

Among the approaches used are:

Behavioural therapy

This uses two main approaches:

  1. Desensitization – exposing the client to progressively more stressful events. In theory the anxiety subsides.
  2. The ‘extinction’ technique – based on the notion that if you put the client in anxiety provoking situations often enough, they eventually learn that there’s nothing to be worried about. Sadly it only works 25-30% of the time.

CBT

The most common form of psychotherapy is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT assumes that changing maladaptive thinking leads to changes in feelings and behaviour. CBT has been shown to be at least as effective as drugs for the treatment of anxiety.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis can be used to expose unconscious causes of anxiety and reprogram the subconscious to make you more relaxed and less anxious. It can also address specific fears and phobias. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) can also address anxiety disorders and phobias.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis can involve years of analysing childhood experiences and has a poor track record of relieving anxiety.

Self-help

We all know that worrying about a problem never solved it, but consciously trying to control anxiety or panic through rational thought alone can make matters worse. What we focus on tends to amplify, so trying to think our way out of anxiety can lead to more anxiety provoking thoughts, which only increase the symptoms.

Electronic Bioenergetic Devices

Various electronic devices have been developed in the past half century which use low frequency, short duration, low intensity magnetic pulses to stimulate body tissues. TENS devices (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), for instance, use electric currents to stimulate the nerves for therapeutic purposes. The Scenar – ‘Self-Controlled Energy Neuro Adaptive Regulation,’ originally developed for the Russian space programme, is a hand held biofeedback device which aims to teach the body to heal itself by activating the immune system. While TENS and Scenar have proved effective for pain relief in clinical studies and avoid the problems associated with drugs, it is doubtful that either can help with anxiety.

The most advanced device on the market is the AcuPearl. AcuPearl has been developed by an international team of scientists whose expertise extends from traditional healing methods to the latest research in the body’s connective tissue matrix communication.

AcuPearl comes in various configurations, two of which, the AcuPearl G-Balance and C-Balance, are  is specifically designed to aid with stress, anxiety and sleep patterns.

AcuPearls delivers therapeutic effects in a safe way using (1) Low frequency pulsed output of the magnetic and light spectrums; the rate and duration of the pulses is an important factor in the AcuPearl technology; (2) Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field therapy (pemf) which uses low frequency, short duration, low intensity magnetic pulses to stimulate body tissues; and (3) A propriety method called Adaptive Resonance, developed specifically for AcuPearl, which produces resonant interference patterns within the magnetic and light fields that are continually adapted as the device is in use.

G-balance (2)   geabdbff

The Calm/Relax setting works with acute and chronic stress and anxiety, offering a general calming and relaxing effect; the Revitalise program aims to help re-establish a sense of vitality when feeling depleted as a result of prolonged emotional stress and the Sleep setting help to re-establish good sleep patterns for people experiencing sleep disorders due to emotional stress and anxiety.

These AcuPearls can be worn as pendants or on the wrist, or simply kept in a pocket. Their effect can be enhanced by applying them to acupuncture points, making them the 21st Century equivalent of a 5,000 year old proven therapy.

Scientific advance is an ever unfolding process, and although there’s still an awful lot to discover, there are more and more options for anxiety sufferers.  Perhaps the best approach in chronic cases is a multi-faceted approach incorporating natural remedies, lifestyle changes, talking therapies and pemf.

See also www.feelinggoodallthetime.com/anxiety

© David Lawrence Preston, 17.6.2016

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Nothing in this article is intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult a doctor if you have any health concerns that may require diagnosis or treatment. Any statements made concerning products and services represent the opinion of the author alone and do not constitute an endorsement of any product or service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘The only difference between most drugs and poisons is the dose’

Posted on by David Lawrence Preston
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‘If you push the understanding of the physiological basis of medicine far enough, you’ll come to a point where you can no longer defend it scientifically, that you must take it on faith.’

Dr Mehmet Oz

Few people realise how new drugs are ‘invented’. Many come about by accident by trial and error. Many are discovered by accident. A good example is Viagra. Viagra was invented for angina, a heart condition. In tests, researchers noticed a strange side effect. Marketing people quickly realised they had a saleable product on their hands, completely unrelated to its original purpose!

The effects of drugs are not selective. Often the makers don’t know what a drug will do until they trial it. Side effects often come to notice only when a drug is launched onto the market (e.g. thalidomide).

The truth is, there is no such thing as a totally safe medicine, or one we know everything about. By their very nature they are designed to interrupt and change a biological process. The question is – what risks are we willing to take?

Drugs are mass produced. They take little account of individual differences. No-one knows precisely what a drug will do to an individual until they take it. Sometimes (e.g. Viagra) the effects are completely unexpected.

Modern medicine

Shortcomings of drugs

The Hippocratic Oath compels doctors to do no harm. If this were taken seriously, how many pharmaceutical medicines could be prescribed? A few? Ore the majority? Many drugs are unpredictable and highly toxic. What if every doctor knew of alternatives which work just as well or better?

Actually, most doctors are aware of their shortcomings. One said that the only difference between most drugs and poisons is the dose. Their shortcomings include:

  • Affordability – many people in the world’s richest countries can’t afford them; many poorer countries can’t afford them either. Some, like Hungary, are funding research into alternatives because they cannot afford them and don’t want to be held hostage by the multinational drug companies.
  • Tolerance – with any drug, you build up tolerance. The more you take, the more you need to get the same effect.
  • Side effects – read the information leaflet that comes with any prescribed drug, and you will see a long (and sometime shocking) list of its possible side effects. E.g. Paroxetine, a SSRI, has been blamed for causing chronic hepatitis, seizures, suicidal tendencies and abnormal bleeding. Thalidomide (its dramatic effects when first prescribed half a century ago are well-known). Seroxat is estimated to raise the suicide rate by a factor of eight among those who take it, and for this reason is no longer prescribed in several countries including the UK. Indeed, between 2002 and 2010, eight drugs were withdrawn in the UK due to harmful side effects, including Seroxat, Vioxx, Ribonaband and Celebrex. Sometimes the authorities show a marked reluctance to take a product off the market even after it has been suspected of being dangerous. For example, a drug claimed to relieve diabetes, Avandia, was still on the market three years after it was shown to kill 19% of those who took it![1]
  • Addiction – there is no difference in effect between addiction to illegal drugs like heroin or cocaine and addiction to prescribed drugs such as painkillers. The only difference is that the latter are easily available from any pharmacist over the counter. One – codeine – is an opiate, coming from the same family as heroin!
  • Suppressing ST symptoms using drugs can cause LT illness. Symptoms have a purpose – to bring our attention to a deeper problem.
  • Drugs can distort diagnoses. When a drug comes out to address a particular condition, suddenly many more people come forward claiming to have that condition.

Pharmacological drugs do have a role to play. Sometimes they are all we have, and sometimes they offer a quality of life that would be impossible to some without them (e.g. many sufferers of serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder).

BUT RATHER THAN CONSIDERING THEM THE NORM, SHOULDN’T WE BE LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES AS A FIRST RESPONSE?

©David Lawrence Preston, 18.5.2016

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[1] Source: What Doctors Don’t Tell You, e-bulletin, 2nd March 2010, www.wddty.com

Traditionally, healing substances have come from nature

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Humans have always ingested substances for healing and good health. Some of these improve the digestion process, such as prunes and high fibre products. But there are others too. Many foods have healing properties, e.g. honey and lemon for colds, garlic as an antiseptic, an apple a day…. Then there are herbs, valued for their healing properties in almost every society around the world. In some cultures, they even eat soil for healing!

What do these all have in common? They all change the body’s chemistry. And we all know how powerful changes in our biochemistry can be.

Medical biochemists (including most Western doctors) see illness primarily as an unhealthy change in our biochemistry. For them, healing is about finding where the body chemistry is out of kilter and correcting it by introducing some substance whose chemical properties bring about the healing.

Nowadays its usually drugs, but traditionally, healing substances have come from nature. Herbs, for instance, can be taken in their natural state, made into tinctures, tablets etc or smoked.

Natural healing substances

Salad

Water’s healing properties too have long been recognised. One should drink sufficient to maintain the body’s healthy functioning. A useful guide is 1/30 of ones body weight in kg expressed in litres. For instance, a 60 kg person 2 litres of water a day and a 75 kg person 2½ litres. Fruit juices and herb teas count, but not animal milk, carbonated drinks or beer.

Diet too is vital. Diet has a huge impact on health; a change of diet can restore health. The Greek philosopher Hippocrates wisely advised us to let our food be our medicine and our medicine be our food, advice that should never be ignored. That’s why many people take supplements to ensure they get the right amount of vitamins and minerals.

Food with high water content, grown outdoors in sunlight, is healthiest. Our system is designed to bring light to the organs. When observed under the microscope, light, natural wholefoods are seen to emit more light than processed foods.

Healthy diets also eliminate or at least minimise hidden toxins (chemical preservatives, colourings, refined starches and sugars, heavy metals, flavourings, etc.). Toxins, especially heavy metals, block biochemical functions. They are stored mainly in fat cells and can be tackled through detox regimes.

Also many people have to watch their diet due to food allergies (a modern ailment?).

Pharmaceutical Drugs

Today we take our healing doses in concentrated form – i.e. drugs. Drugs are the conventional healing method in the West. Indeed, they are synonymous with modern medicine. They come to us thanks to the same industrial chemical conglomerates and the same type of thinking that brings us pesticides, chemical fertilisers, weedkillers and genetically modified tomatoes.

Originally most drugs were simply highly concentrated forms of plant essences and other natural substances. Only recently have synthetic drugs been developed in laboratories and unleashed on the world. Biochemists try to isolate the active chemical ingredients in substances known to have healing properties and turn them into pills, liquids etc. to be ingested, rubbed on or injected. These include hormones. So pervasive has this approach become that drugs have become synonymous with mainstream western medicine.

And they work! Sometimes and for some people. With or without side effects. Some of the time.

Modern medicine

But isn’t it better to stick to natural methods wherever possible?

©David Lawrence Preston, 16.5.2016

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The Only Difference is the Dose

Posted on by David Lawrence Preston
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Humans have always ingested substances they believe to bring health. E.g. many foods are believed to heal, such as prunes for constipation, honey and lemon for colds, garlic as an antiseptic, and so on. Then there are herbs, valued for their efficacious effects everywhere. In some cultures, they even eat soil for its healing properties.

What do all these substances have in common?  They all change the body’s chemistry, and we know how powerful changes in our biochemistry can be. Even procedures that appear as mechanical as an organ transplant have biochemical components, hence the need for transplant recipients to take anti-rejection drugs.

Is illness primarily a change in our biochemistry? Is there nothing more to healing than of finding where the body’s chemistry is out of kilter and correcting it? That’s what many people believe.

Salad

 

Healing substances traditionally came from nature

Take herbs for example – they can be taken in their natural state, or made into tinctures and tablets, or smoked. Water’s healing properties have also long been recognised, and dietary therapy is a major plank of traditional Chinese medicine.  The Greek physician Hippocrates advised two thousand years ago to let our food be our medicine and our medicine be our food.

However, we now take our healing doses in stronger form. Originally most drugs were simply highly concentrated forms of plant and other natural essences, but nowadays most drugs are developed from chemical concoctions in laboratories. Biochemists try to isolate the active chemical ingredients in substances known to have healing properties and turn them into pills, powders and liquids etc. So pervasive is this approach that drugs have become synonymous with mainstream medicine.  And they do work – to some degree, at least!

How drugs are developed

But few people realise how new drugs are ‘invented’. Mostly it’s a trial and error process, and some, like Viagra, are discovered by accident. Viagra was intended as a treatment for angina, but researchers noticed a strange side effect (!!). Marketing people quickly realised they had a profitable product on their hands. It’s not unusual for manufacturers to discover what a drug will do only when they trial it, and side effects may not come to notice until the drug is launched onto the market.

The truth is, there is no such thing as a totally safe drug. By their very nature they are designed to alter a biological process. The question is – what risks are we willing to take in our pursuit of a ‘cure’?

Shortcomings of drugs

If the Hippocratic Oath – to do no harm – were taken seriously, many pharmaceutical medicines would never be prescribed, because they are unpredictable and often highly toxic. Most doctors are aware of their shortcomings. One told me that the only difference between most drugs and poisons is the dose!

Sometimes the authorities are reluctant to take a product off the market even after it has been suspected of being dangerous. For example, a drug claimed to relieve diabetes, Avandia, was still on the market three years after it was shown to kill 19% of those who took it![1]

Shortcomings include:

  1. Cost. Most of the world’s population can’t afford them; some countries, like Hungary and Cuba, fund research into alternatives simply because they don’t want to be held hostage by the multinational drug companies.
  2. Tolerance – with any drug, you build up tolerance. The more you take, the more you need to get the same effect/‘benefits’.
  3. Side effects. Read the information leaflet that comes with any prescribed drug, and you will find a long (and sometime shocking) list of its possible side effects. For example, Seroxat (Paroxetine) has been blamed for causing chronic hepatitis, seizures, suicidal tendencies and abnormal bleeding and is also believed to raise the suicide rate by a factor of eight!!!
  4. Modern medicine assumes that we all function the same, hence individual differences are not taken into account. No-one knows for sure what a drug will do to an individual until they take it.
  5. Addiction. There is no difference in effect between addiction to street drugs like heroin and addiction to, say, painkillers, the only difference is that the latter are easily available.
  6. Suppressing short-term symptoms using drugs can cause long-term illness.
  7. Drugs also distort diagnoses. When a new drug is announced to address a particular condition, suddenly more people seek treatment claiming to have that condition.

Antidepressants

Over 80% of prescriptions for anti-depressants are for SSRI’s – Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors, the best known of which are Paroxetine and Fluoxetine (Prozac).

They are based on a theory first proposed in 1967, that people become depressed because they are low in serotonin, a neurotransmitter which acts on the peripheral and central nervous system. However, this theory has never been proved. One expert, Dr Jeffrey Lacasse from Florida State University[2], states ‘There is not a single peer-reviewed article that can be accurately cited to support claims of serotonin deficiency in any mental disorder.’

Until the 1990s, research (mostly financed by the pharmaceutical companies) showed that antidepressants helped about three quarters of people with depression, which reinforced the belief that they were safe and effective. But then a seminal study in 1998[3] showed that, yes, they lift depression in most patients, but are no more than effective than placebos.

There are alternatives. Psychotherapy works well for moderate and severe depression, and  a combination of psychotherapy and a short course of antidepressants works even better. But except in cases of very severe chronic depression, the largest part of the drugs’ effect comes from the fact that patients expect to be helped by them, and not from any direct chemical action on the brain.

The debate continues, and sadly in the public consciousness, the pharmaceutical companies with their huge advertising and public relations budgets are probably winning.

Modern medicine

Preventative drugs

It is in the drug companies’ interests to make us dependent on them, which is why a new generation of drugs don’t just treat the problems we have, but are marketed as preventatives for illnesses we may have one day. Statins, for example, reduce cholesterol in the blood, thus – it is claimed – reducing the risk of heart attacks, angina and strokes. These claims are based on the premise that high cholesterol is a major factor in heart attacks – yet 75% of heart attack victims have been shown to have normal levels of cholesterol!

The pharmaceutical companies recommend that statins be given to people with ‘normal’ levels of cholesterol as a preventative – hence ‘normal’ is now perceived as ‘risky.’  They want us all to take drugs as preventatives, not just those who are ill. The public increasingly accept this, believing they can have a longer, healthier life the easy way.

It seems the pharmaceutical industry has us under mass hypnosis. It dominates the medical journals and reigns unchallenged in medical schools. It spends a fortune on sales promotion and successfully challenges any approach to healing that does not serve its interests (including most forms of natural medicine).

Do drugs have their place?

Despite all this, drugs do have their place. They can bring quick relief; sometimes they are essential because they are all we have, such as anti-rejection drugs which can bring transplant patients a reasonable quality of life, and drugs for mental health conditions such as bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia which enable sufferers to live a relatively normal life.

I believe that one day most pharmaceuticals will be as redundant as leeches are today. As a society we are still to tap the full potential of the mind’s capacity to heal or take energy and informational medicine seriously. The new AcuPearl range, for instance, has shown remarkable effects for pain relief, insomnia, anxiety and depression. Can you imagine Dr Crusher using pharmaceuticals on the Starship Enterprise? I think not!

 

©David Lawrence Preston, 8.5.2016

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[1] Source: What Doctors Don’t Tell You, e-bulletin, 2nd March 2010, www.wddty.com

[2] Co author of the essay, ‘Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect Between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature,’ PLoS Med, 2005; 12: 1211-6

[3] Whose findings were reinforced by landmark research in The Journal of the American Medical Association conducted by Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein of the University of Connecticut.

Consciousness and Healing (2)

Posted on by David Lawrence Preston
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In a previous blog, I observed that the discovery long ago that we could heal ourselves was a great step forward in human evolution, and the healing methods used at each stage of our advancement are a direct result of the consciousness which prevailed at the time. Healing consciousness is about how we experience healing; our awareness of the healing process and what healing could be. It also says a great deal about our view of what a human being actually is and what it means to be human.

I have identified seven levels of consciousness in healing – the mechanic, the naturalist and the microbe carrier are the first three; in this blog I discuss the next two, the biochemist and the mind-body healer.

Level Four: the biochemist

Biochemical consciousness is the prevailing medical mindset in the West today. In the media, finding a ‘cure’ for any condition is synonymous with inventing a new drug or, more recently, manipulating the genetic makeup of the body in some way. Biochemical consciousness assumes that human beings are basically cocktails of chemicals and we function by means of chemical reactions. Some neuro- scientists think that even our thoughts are just manifestations of chemical reactions.

Healing is therefore reduced to adjusting our biochemistry like a cook adds a little more salt or spice to improve the food. Manipulating genes falls into the same category.

Biochemical consciousness encompasses not only drugs, but also anything ingested with the aim of altering the biochemistry of the body. Thus biochemical and natural consciousness overlap, since natural remedies such as herbs and dietary supplements have the same function. Once, drugs were simply extractions of the active ingredient of a natural substance; nowadays they are more likely to be artificial chemical compounds synthesised in a test tube, then tested to see if they have the desired result.

This is hit and miss  medicine par excellence – it takes no account of individual differences, its effects are indiscriminate, and the side effects are often worse than the disease it’s supposed to cure. Moreover, it is prohibitively expensive; most of the world’s population simply cannot afford it. And it is manipulated by commercial concerns often at the expense of other, more suitable modalities.

Drugs do have a place, of course. Many people enjoy a better quality of life than would be possible without them. But how often are hard-pressed doctors too quick to reach for the prescription pad when there are better, less harmful alternatives? How often are drugs merely suppressing symptoms while masking the real cause?

Those at the biochemists’ level of consciousness are still on the lower slopes of the mountain. They will never understand the higher levels unless and until a shift in their awareness takes place – but a shift towards the next level is already taking place among some health professionals. Top doctors are realising that  many of the ills that plague the so-called advanced societies are stress related – and we know that stress is mainly a result of our beliefs and ways of thinking (there’s nothing new in this – the Greek philosopher Epictetus said as much 2,500 years ago). Hence Level Five.

Level Five: the mind-body healer

We’ve always known that there’s a close connection between body and mind. No-one doubts that anxious thoughts can give rise to headaches, muscle tension, impaired performance, an upset stomach and so on.

The evidence for mind-body consciousness is strong indeed. Firstly, there’s the placebo effect – the disturbing (to allopaths) fact that in some circumstances a pill or potion with no active ingredient is as effective as the best the pharmaceutical industry can offer. The medical mainstream dismiss placebos as illusory, even unethical, whereas in reality they tell us more about the ability of humans to heal than any amount of double-blind trials.

The second is the power of suggestion. Placebos are actually a form of suggestion. So are doctors’ waiting rooms, white coats, stethoscopes and prescription pads. But suggestion is most closely associated with hypnotists placing healing ideas and images in the subconscious mind of the patient. I can personally vouch for its effectiveness when used by a trained practitioner such as myself with the right person in the right circumstances. The great Milton Erickson, the inspiration behind Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) took this to a whole new level, and while we may congratulate ourselves that this knowledge is a recent discovery, it’s actually as old as our ability to smelt iron and build pyramids.

So why did the Western medical establishment ignore the mind-body connection for so long? Because of their blind reliance on the kind of science that confines itself to those things that can be observed and measured through the five physical senses (a case of limited consciousness if ever there was one). In a nutshell, you can’t see thoughts and you can’t measure their progress through the body. Hence there was no proof that the supposed causes and effects between thoughts and physical aspects were linked.

Then about thirty years ago, mainstream scientists such as Dr Candace Pert and the founders of Psycho-Neuro-Immunology (PNI) –  Hans Selye, Robert Adye, Nicholas Cohen, David Felten and others – began to discover the bodily processes by which thoughts and emotions manifested as physical changes in the body. In Germany, Dr Ryke Hamer showed how an emotional shock can affect the physical make up of the brain and result in illness (he was banned from practising in his native Germany and thrown into to jail for some of his ideas, but not this one). Now, I believe, most doctors understand that many illnesses have a psycho-somatic component and some even believe that  all illnesses are psycho-somatic in origin.

Patients who don’t realise their emotions affect the physical body will often fail to seek the right help, e.g. I once met a young man who suffered from serious eczema. He relied on creams to alleviate the condition (which was only partially successful), whereas anyone with half an ounce of awareness could see that the problem was emotionally driven.

Of course, mind-body healers work on the basis that we are shaped mainly by our thoughts and beliefs. Again, this is not a new idea: King Solomon said as much in the Hebrew Scriptures, as did the Buddha, Lao Tsu, Yeshua the Carpenter from Nazareth,  Plato, Hippocrates, numerous Roman scholars, and the great psychologist himself, William Shakespeare.

Some go further than this and say we are our thoughts, but this is far from the whole truth. If we are our thoughts, which thoughts are we talking about? The ones I’m having now? Or this morning? Or yesterday? Or long ago?

We are not our thoughts. We are not our beliefs. We are not our emotions. Something inside is not only aware of our thoughts, but is aware that we are thinking and can observe the activity of thinking; is aware that we are experiencing an emotion and can observe its effects. There is even an observer who observes ourselves observing our thinking! Experience this, and we are perhaps then we are approaching pure consciousness.

Awareness, intention, attention, imagination and belief are the keys to mind-body healing. Taken in combination, they increase the effectiveness of all forms of healing. For instance, F.W. Alexander – best known for teaching his patients to stand, sit, walk, hold their heads correctly and so on – taught his patients and students mindfulness and affirmations to accompany each healing movement.

I sum this up in my I-T-I-A Formula – intention, thinking, imagination and action. When all of these are applied to any given situation, the results can be astounding.

Mind-body consciousness is much more than just healing the body, though. The Great Teachers always said that we manifest our experience of reality through our thoughts, perceptions, beliefs, emotions and so on – and today’s leading scientists (e.g. quantum physicists) agree.  When we observe the world, all we see are billions of particles and waves moving and spinning haphazardly – what Deepak Chopra calls the ‘quantum soup.’ It is the attention and meaning we give them that brings them into form. Our minds – our consciousness – actually create the world we live in. And perhaps they create our bodies too.

© David Lawrence Preston, 7.5.2016

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Antibiotics are flooding our planet with superbugs!

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‘It is folly to attempt to escape disease by attempting to destroy or escape germs.’

Dr H M Shelton (1885-1985)

Viruses and bacteria are held responsible for most of the world’s health problems. After all, microbes are deadly, aren’t they? Is it not scientifically proven that every disease has its microbes?

The germ theory of disease, which suggests that microorganisms are the cause of disease, is rarely questioned in medical circles. But wait – it’s not that simple. Microbes are everywhere – so how come we aren’t all ill all of the time? The answer is, microbes are not always harmful. They’re not even usually harmful. Evenso, it’s convenient for the bio-chemical industry to over-emphasise the influence of microbes because it helps increase sales.

Think about it: viruses and bacteria are present in our system 100% of the time. We are literally teeming with them. But only around a hundred bacteria are potentially harmful to us.

Moreover, the same microbes affect people differently. Some get ill, most don’t. So it can’t be the microbes alone that make us ill! Something else must happen – something to do with each individual.

There is nothing new about this. In his 1928 paper, ‘The Causes Of Disease, Herbert Shelton points out that germs are a cause of disease, but they do not constitute the cause of disease. The full text is available at http://naturalhygienesociety.org/review/0801/shelton-disease-causes.html

Medical science’s response to potentially harmful microbes centres on two approaches – antibiotics and vaccines. The first kills the microbes, the second aims to strengthen the body’s immune system to it is better able to withstand the invaders.

Antibiotics

The word antibiotic came from ‘antibiosis’, a term coined in 1889 by Pasteur’s pupil Paul Vuillemin, meaning a process by which life could be used to destroy life.

Traditionally antibiotics were natural substances that were used to inhibit other organisms. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Native Americans all used moulds to treat infected wounds, although they did not understand exactly how the antibacterial properties of mould treated diseases. Honey, lard, garlic, onions, wine and vinegar are also among the many other substances traditionally used for this purpose.

As Pasteur’s Germ Theory became widely accepted, it triggered a search for more effective antibiotics. In the late 19th Century, Joseph Lister looked into the reasons why urine contaminated with mould would not allow bacteria to grow. Then two German doctors, Rudolf Emmerich and Oscar Low, grew the germs from infected bandages in a test tube and used this to kill other types of germ. This became the first antibiotic to be used in hospitals, but results were inconsistent so it was abandoned. However, the idea that the germs that could cause one disease could be the cure for another was not lost on he scientific community.

The biggest breakthrough came in 1928 when Sir Alexander Fleming noticed that colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus Aureus could be destroyed by the mould Penicillium Notatum. At the time, the importance of his discovery was not recognised. Only in the 1940’s did the use of penicillin become widespread. Seventy years on, penicillin is still one of the most widely used antibiotics.

Until the 1990s, most antibiotics did a good job at eliminating infection. They were so effective that doctors were convinced they had solved the problem of bacterial infection once and for all. But what they hadn’t reckoned on was the over-prescribing of antibiotics to treat relatively minor ailments like colds and minor inflammations which unwittingly allowed bacteria to build up their resistance. It is now widely recognised that bacteria are continually mutating and multiplying into even more deadly strains and finding ways to beat our defences.

Microbes are intelligent. They are just as capable of defending themselves when their survival is threatened as we are.

Today the over-use of antibiotics – once seen as the ultimate cure for all infections – is a major health concern. ‘Superbugs’ like MRSA are impervious to our best efforts to eliminate them and some microbiologists fear that the problem has gone beyond our control. An estimated ten thousand people a year die from a hospital-acquired infection in the UK alone, of which 70% are from MRSA. An even more deadly strain, C-difficile, is on the rise, and a new bug, PVL, has already killed several people. And that’s in spite of a highly publicised government initiative to promote cleanliness and better infection management in hospitals.

Modern medicine

The problem with antibiotics arises precisely because they are so effective. They are indiscriminate. They kill all bacteria with which they come into contact, good and bad alike. Many of the body’s functions rely on bacteria, so killing of  the good bacteria makes the body more likely to succumb to harmful bacteria.

Just as worrying, antibiotics are widely used in factory farming. Virtually all animals are given them. Then they end up in meat, which contributes to our society-wide resistance to antibiotics. This is a direct result of factory farming: when animals are free to roam in large pastures, the risk of disease is much lower, so the ‘need’ for antibiotics is dramatically reduced.

That’s not to say that antibiotics don’t have a place in modern medicine.  They have saved many lives and helped to restore many to full health. But they must be used correctly and sparingly, and anyone tasking antibiotics must be sure to replace the bacteria in the gut by taking probiotics.

The truth is, except in severe cases of infection, antibiotics make us more, not less, vulnerable to disease. Medics admit that bacterial resistance is growing faster than the ability of new antibiotics to control them. Bacteria divide rapidly and you only need one to mutate to start an epidemic.

In future, better ways of eliminating harmful microbes may be found. For example, a ten second blast of ultraviolet light correctly targeted has been shown to kill harmful bacteria. It is already being used in hospitals, and recent technological advances have made it quicker and more effective than before. Modern UV devices are as small as a mobile phone and far less messy to use than disinfectant and a cloth.

Similarly, sophisticated PEMF devices like the AcuPearl (www.feelinggoodallthetime.com) help strengthen the body’s natural rhythms and immunity at cellular level creating an environment which discourages microbes from taking hold.

Microbes exist for a reason. They share this planet with us and to eliminate them would be both impossible – and undesirable. Remedies designed merely to kill microbes are often ineffective in the long term and sometimes self-defeating since microbes fight back. That’s a hard lesson for some.

©David Lawrence Preston, 2.5.2016

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Swine Flu: ‘One of greatest medical scandals of the century’

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A few years ago the world went into panic over a new strain of influenza labelled Swine Flu. We were told that it could wipe out millions of people, that older people were at great risk and so were our children. In the UK alone, the Chief Medical Officer predicted 65,000 deaths.

In response, government health agencies around the world stockpiled billions of dollars worth of anti-flu vaccine. Urged on by the pharmaceutical industry, the UK government was persuaded to place a £1bn order for the flu vaccine by health experts, but by then it was already apparent that the forecasts for swine flu had been wildly exaggerated. By Spring 2010, fewer than three hundred people in the UK had died from the virus and the government was desperately trying to offload vast stocks of the vaccine. The effects of swine flu were no more serious that for many other strands of influenza.

In December 2009 the World Health Organisation admitted that the number of deaths from swine flu was considerably lower than first projected and forecasts were revised downwards. Fear of the global pandemic abated.

In Mexico, for instance, only seven people had died from the infection, compared with 159 as previously claimed. Around this time, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi suggested in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly[1] that swine flu was created in a military laboratory. Naturally he was widely denounced in the West, where he had long been regarded as a maverick madman, but could he have been right? Could the virus have been released into the environment deliberately? And was the risk overstated so that the multinational drug companies could sell more vaccines?

Colonel Gaddafi was not the only one to think so. In January 2010, the Head of the European Council’s Health Committee, Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, described the swine flu scare as ‘one of greatest medical scandals of century.’ He said, ‘We have had a mild flu – and a false pandemic.’ He initiated an investigation into the role of the drug companies, and how they influenced authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO).

Modern medicine

Wodarg claimed that many governments have sealed contracts with drug companies that are triggered when a virus is classified as pandemic. ‘In this way the producers of vaccines are sure of enormous gains without having any financial risks. They just wait until the WHO says ‘pandemic’ and activates the contracts,’ he said.[2] His comments made many health practitioners and politicians wonder what part the WHO and pharmaceutical companies had played in previous pandemic scares, such as Avian Flu and Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease (CJD-Mad Cow Disease).

Interestingly, people who had had the seasonal flu jab were more than twice as likely to get swine flu according to a study in Quebec![3] The researchers were not convinced there was a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the seasonal flu vaccine and swine flu, but suggested that our health guardians need to think more carefully about the vaccine programmes they promote.

Medical organisations – government and non-government – around the world are heavily dependent on the big pharmaceutical companies. Who knows whether these cosy bedfellows are working in our interests and what alternatives are available?

©David Lawrence Preston, 29.4.2016

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[1] 23rd September 2009

[2] Source: www.wodarg.de/english/3013320.html

[3] PLoS Medicine, 2010; 7: e10000258; doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258).

Our natural immunity

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Our natural immunity: How the body gets rid of unwelcome intruders

Science is not entirely clear why some people are prone to serious illness while others carry the same bacteria but have no ill effect. But it must have something to do with each individual’s natural defences against unwanted organisms and toxins – that is, the uniqueness of each person’s immune system.

Take the common cold or flu virus. Within a few days of succumbing to infection, a fully functioning immune system begins producing specific antibodies. White blood cells destroy the virus and eliminate infected cells to prevent further replication. In healthy individuals, within seven days or so, the situation is resolved.

However, if for some reason the body can’t get rid of harmful toxins, they infiltrate the cells and inflammation occurs. We have boils, soreness, redness etc. This is a more extreme way of dealing with intruders. If this fails, permanent cellular change may result, including cysts, tumours, and in extreme cases, cellular degeneration and cancer.

Anything the body does not recognise as harmonious to optimum functioning creates a toxic burden and can weaken the immune system. These include parasites, heavy metal toxins (e.g. lead, mercury fillings), chronic yeast infections, mould and fungi, industrial chemicals (including garden pesticides and weed-killers), gas, diesel and petrol fumes, some electro-magnetic fields, and certain undiagnosed bacterial infections in the gut.

Virtually all symptoms of illness are manifestations of the body’s attempts to rid itself of harmful toxins. Mostly the body does this unaided, but more serious situations may require treatment. Some treatments, however, such as antibiotics, steroids, anti-depressants and other mood-changers, and indeed most drugs, may have positive short term effects but in the longer term go deeper into the tissues and eventually manifest as a more destructive disease. According to some experts this is how the widespread use of pharmaceuticals in recent years has led to increased incidence of degenerative disease and cancer today.

Homotoxins – toxins which weaken the immune system – flourish especially in conditions of poor hygiene, poor nutrition, inactivity, mental and emotional stress, and where excessive radiation, electromagnetic fields and geopathic stress are present. A person experiencing several of these would require a detox to regain full health, to restore the immune system to the degree where it is capable of withstanding toxic attack.

Anything which reduces stress and toxicity and improves sanitary conditions, fitness and nutrition strengthens the immune system and improves the prospect of good health. That’s the responsibility of all of us.

©David Lawrence Preston, 7.4.2016

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The Shocking Truth About Antibiotics

Posted on by David Lawrence Preston
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Today came yet more alarming news on the growing ineffectiveness of antibiotics, especially among children. Some scientists are predicting that it won’t be long before mutating microbes are so resistant to modern antibiotics that there is a real danger of reverting to the situation in the pre-antibiotic age in the 1920s and 30s when some illnesses considered curable nowadays were usually fatal.

How has this come about?

Allopaths have two main weapons in their armoury for dealing with deadly microbes – vaccinations and antibiotics.

Vaccinations are designed to strengthen the body’s immunity against microbes. Although there is evidence of their use in the Orient two thousand years ago, their rediscovery by Edward Jenner in the 18th century bore all the hallmarks of the scientific method – observation, deduction, testing, verification and so on.

Antibiotics are intended to kill targeted bacteria stone dead, and can be very effective. But over-reliance on them causes more problems than it solves. Firstly, there’s a great deal of evidence that they weaken the natural immune system in the long term (vaccinations do too); secondly, they destroy not only the harmful bacteria, but the beneficial ones too; thirdly (and more scarily) overuse of antibiotics indirectly creates germs that are even more deadly than those they eliminate. Microbes aren’t stupid. When threatened by an antibiotic, they mutate.

Modern medicine

Over-prescription of antibiotics, especially among children, coupled with their extensive use in agriculture (especially cattle) has led to this worrying future.

Ironically, most microbes are actually good for us and a reasonable standard of hygiene coupled with a healthy immune system deals with most ‘threats’.

Moreover, commercial interests use them to scare people. Consider the swine flu scare of 2008. Fuelled by fear and panic that the world was about to be overrun by killer bugs, governments spent huge sums on anti-flu vaccines. The pharmaceutical companies reaped huge profits, and then it became clear that it was all a storm in a teacup. Many health experts believe the whole episode was nothing short of a scandal, and some even suggested a fraudulent conspiracy between pharmaceutical companies and the World Health Organisation.

The time is rapidly coming when radical new treatments will be required, approaches that stimulate the human immune system without disturbing the balance of nature.

©David Lawrence Preston, 16.3.2016

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