Tag: Immune Function

Risperdal Children

Effects of  Risperdal on Children

A friend has just sent me the gist on an article which The New York Times published  recently: This information has been disseminated by the Alliance For Human Research Protection.

The New York Times article alerts us as to the dangers of prescribing medications to children. The side effects of many medications are little known or just not considered by the many doctors who prescribe children risperdal and other such drugs.

However, one should not have to wait for ‘scientific proof’ to work out that toxic chemicals in medications will have many negative consequences in the long run, including poor immune function and a susceptibility to disease. Find an alternative to toxic medications for the sake of your children’s health.

The recent article by Duff Wilson which appeared on the front page of the New York Times has brought a stern reality home: Toxic drugs are still being prescribed to children without any regard to the effects on the health of these children. Risperdal children are obviously at risk both psychologically and physically, as this article illustrates.

Unnecessary Toxic Medications: Many children in America are being treated unnecessarily with psychotic drugs and sleeping pills which they most surely do not need and should not be taking.  Television programmes which have been aired over the past year have given us an insight into how many parents rely on medications such as sleeping pills and other psychotic drugs so that their children will become passive and sleep much of the time.

Basically, many toxic medications are being given out to children just because the parents claim that their children are ‘unmanageable’ or have some attention deficit disorder.

Bad parenting and toxic chemicals in food such as preservatives and colourings, etc, can cause sleep deprivation and symptoms of  ‘attention deficit disorder’ and other psychosis. That is not to say that the parents of Kyle Warren were ‘bad’ parents at all – they were doing as their doctor instructed  – just that many people who give their children medications are doing so because it is an easy option because it makes a child docile, and because their doctor permits it.

Duff Wilson’s article discusses the case of an eighteen month old child, Kyle Warren,  who was prescribed  risperdal.  By the age of three, his mental condition had deteriorated, obviously because of the risperdal  medication he was taking.  At this point he was prescribed MORE toxic medications, which included sleeping pills, Prozac and a medication to treat attention deficit disorder.

How crazy is that?   This poor wee boy suffered because of  risperdal, a  drug which should never have been prescribed for him at all. And then he was prescribed MORE toxic drugs.  Prescribing prozac for children, or risperdal, or any other drug, simply should never be allowed.

Attention deficit disorder is something we may all get if we were to take risperdal every day for a year and a half, especially if we were given this from the age of only 18 months.

Luckily, this poor wee boy was rescued by doctors whose intervention saved his life.  But there are many children who are not so lucky:  Many children today are taking medications which are actually undermining their intelligence, their solcial skills, and wheir physical being.  These drugs are gradually killing children:  their lives are being shortened and devalued.

NO TOXIC MEDICATION should ever be prescribed to children.  There are alternative therapies  which can help children who are unruly or who have behavioural problems.

Some Sensible Alternatives To Toxic Medications:

Homeopathy for children is one alternative to replace those harmful drugs. Homeopathic remedies are very effective and are completely non toxic.  Of course, you need to see a professional homeopath if your child is seriously disturbed or is ill.  But there is a homeopathic remedy for EVERY ailment you can think of.  It is just a matter of finding the appropriate remedy, or remedies, which requires someone with experience to determine.

Correct Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency:  Vitamin and mineral deficiency can cause hormonal imbalance:  Hormonal imbalance  can cause sleeping and behavioural problems in children.

Avoid Chemicals in Food: Processed food must be avoided, as processed food is generally loaded with preservatives and colourings and flavourings which are very harmful to your child.  Chemicals such as preservatives, colourings and flavourings interfere with the normal  physical and mental development of your child.

If you ensure that your child NEVER has any food which has any chemicals in it of any kind, then you are going a long way to improving the health, both physically and mentally, of your child.

Preventative Medicine

Preventative Medicine is really what it should all  be about:  far better to prevent a malady of the health rather than wait for it to happen, and then have to seek  drug treatments which are expensive and which, most probably, will not cure the condition anyway.

Just how popular is ‘Preventative Medicine’?  How much do people really care about ‘Preventative Medicine’?

Today is the 30th August 2010, and there are only 11 searches recorded for the day in Google’s search engine for ‘Preventative Medicine’, which is nothing really, considering that there are 177 searches for ‘warfarin’ and 177 for ‘side effects of warfarin’.  Imagine that – 177 people in a day looking up the side effects of warfarin, and only a portion of that – only 11 people all over the world, looking up ‘Preventative Medicine’.

Warfarin in my opinion, is one of the worst modern drugs. It is dished out to people willy nilly, and once you begin taking it, it seems you are on it for life.  I don’t know of ANYONE who has taken warfarin just  for a while until they get better.  Warfarin is a blood thinner.

Now – Calcium Ascorbate is a  natural blood thinner.  So is Garlic a natural blood thinner.  So is Ginger.  So is Cayenne Pepper.  So is grapefruit a natural blood thinner. There are many foods which thin the blood naturally, without having to take Warfarin for life.

One of the bad things about taking Warfarin is that you have to avoid all the naturally occuring blood thinners like grapefruit and other high vitamin C foods. This is not good for the liver or the gall bladder – or anything else, I should imagine.

I know somebody who began taking Warfarin in his early 30’s and has been taking it for almost 40 years.  He has recently had his gall bladder  removed because of cancer, and is now waiting for a liver operation to remove some of the liver, because there is now cancer in his liver.   There was still time  before the last operation for an alternative treatment, if only he had realized, however now that he has entered the cycle of operations which remove  vital organs, or parts of them, his vitality is decreasing rapidly, and so alternative cures would have a hard job revitalizing this man’s body. Also, he has taken Warfarin for so long now that he cannot imagine being able to live at all without it.  He believes his life depends on it.

Why is this?  Why are people not so tuned in to thinking about preventative medicine?

I quote from the 2005  ‘Touch For Health:  The Complete Manual’, written by John Thie, the founder of ‘Touch For Health’,  and his son Matthew Thie.  It is published by DeVorss and Co,  P.O. Box 1389, Camarillo CA 93011-1389:

  • page v of the Introduction reads “…..The Touch for Health book and educational program was my way of providing some simple tools and processes that each of us can use to regain a role and authority in our own care.
  • Today, more than 30 years later, things have by and large gotten worse.  While awareness of these problems has increased, and there is a resurgence of traditional and alternative approaches to healthcare, drug companies have become more aggressive in their advertising, manipulative of research, whether public or private, and there is ever greater emphasis on “conditions” requiring long-term and even life-long medication.  Our profit driven, high-tech medicine, arguably the most advanced crisis care ever developed, has become costly and dangerous, while simpler preventative measures seem to have fallen by the wayside.
  • In fact, the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.”

These authors give some alarming statistics on the practices of modern American orthodox medcicine. They claim that:

  • “Tens of millions of people unnecessarily take antibiotics, 9 million people are unnecessarily hospitalized, 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed, 2.2 million people have adverse drug reactions to prescribed medicines, and 783,936 deaths are caused by conventional medicine each year.

The fact is, that most disease can be prevented.  There are a wide range of alternative health practitioners who can advise on methods to prevent disease becomoing established, and whose methods are effective in treating even more serious disease.  However, preventative medicine is really the key.

The idea is to increase body vitality so that the immune system is strong and your powers of  resistance to disease are working optimally.

Yoga exercise which teaches good breathing,  meditation exercises such as yoga nidra, good diet, positive thinking  including Reiki healing, the Power of Prayer and Spiritual healing, and Music therapy,  are so important in helping to prevent disease.  Acupressure techniques, including  DoIn, Tsubo, Shiatsu, Qi Gong, and the more modern Touch For Health, are all ways in which your Prana, or vital energy can be maximized, and so they are all helpful in restoring health and preventing  disease.

Visiting an Ayurvedic health practitioner, or a Chinese or Tibetan herbalist, or a homeopath are some of the alternatives which can improve the vitality and immunity and prevent a serious disease from setting in.

Our health practitioners, ideally, should recognize the symptoms of a disease early in the piece so that remedial action can be taken, the vitality improved, and a natural recovery is assisted.

Modern medicine, on the other hand, tends to define a disease which people get stuck with, along with the expensive drug which people believe is necessary.

Most people have a reverence and respect for the doctor’s word. The doctor, backed up by the drug company who is making the profit, tells them that they must take a certain drug for a certain condition, and that they will need to keep taking that drug for goodness knows how long.   People  usually don’t know any better,  so they accept treatment without question, and the drug companies like it this way.

Some people like it this way too, as it means they do not have to DO anything about their condition if they believe that a medicine-drug is all that they have to take to manage their disease.  Disease, unless you are unlucky from birth or some unusual  freak event,  often  comes at us  through our own  poor lifestyle choices –  bad living,  poor nutrition and negative thinking.

However, the biggest causes of disease in our modern society are:

Environmental toxins, medical drugs,  poisons and preservatives in our food, and electromagnetic radiation from modern technology such as cell phones and living close to excessively high power sources:  these  all lead to disease.  This is really why alternative therapies  such as detox diets which help you to detoxify chemicals from your body,  and foods and methods which improve your vitality and immune function, are so important in preventing disease.

The authors of ‘Touch For Health’ refer people to the article entitled “Death By Medicine” at www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.html

 

Health Benefits of Garlic

Garlic is an age-old food condiment and medicine. It has been used for thousands of years in the Middle East,  Egypt,  India, and China.  Soldiers in the ancient world were given garlic to build strength and courage. 

In traditional Chinese Medicine, it is known as ‘the penicillin in the earth’, because of its healing properties. By the time of the second world war, garlic’s  popularity as a medicine was recognized  even by the British Government, who sent a shipment of garlic to the infantry to help heal the soldiers wounds.

The health benefits of garlic work best when the garlic is used raw, altough garlic used in cooking still has a beneficial effect on the health, starting with improving the digestion. 

Some of the Health Benefits of Garlic are that:

  • Garlic has a warming effect on the constitution.
  • It encourages the production of digestive juices, thus it aids digestion.
  • It is used as a medicine to avert colds, flu, and other viruses.
  • It improves the immune system.
  •  It has been used in the past to treat whooping cough, and other chest and lung afflictions.  In these cases, garlic would be taken internally, and also, warm-to-hot poultices of  linen soaked in a strong infusion of garlic would have been applied to the chest, covered with warm blankets,  and replaced every half an hour or so.
  • It helps to combat diarrhea
  • It contains protein, fats, and carbohydrate.
  • It helps the blood sugar metabolism to function normally:
  • This is partly due to the fact that garlic is high in Zinc, which helps to regulate sugar levels.
  • Zinc and other minerals in Garlic help encourage hair growth.
  • It helps to lower cholesterol and the blood pressure, which means:
  • It is useful in helping to prevent heart disease
  • Garlic is a natural antiseptic and antibiotic.
  • It helps to eradicate intestinal worms and other parasites.
  • When given to dogs, along with Vitamin B,  it is supposed to be helpful in deterring fleas.
  • Garlic has been used to treat insect stings and bites.  It has even been used to treat snake bite in some parts of the world.  I have read of a remedy which involved adding one’s own saliva to crushed garlic, and applying  this to snake bite –  though I would dare to try it on my snake bite only if there was no hospital nearby.

Causes of Memory Loss

How To Reverse Memory Loss

Toxic Chemicals, Alcohol, Marijuana, Microwaves, Toxic Dentures, And Some Medications Can Cause Candida

Candida Can Cause Memory Loss:  Too often people say that the cause of memory loss is a genetic thing, especially when it is related to Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.  But while we accept that some people have a propensity for afflictions of the brain, and memory loss, as with cancer and other degenerative diseases, much can be done, in my experience, to avoid or avert these conditions in most people, even when there is a genetic weakness.

Candida Infection

A weakened immune system can result in candida, which can cause memory loss.

It is easy to cure candida: The main thing is to starve it of the foods it thrives on, and avoid all those environmental contaminants which encourage it. Periods of detoxification, as in fasting on raw foods, castor oil occasionally, an alkaline diet, avoidance of all toxic herbicides, pesticides and other substances, and a healthy environment is the way to recover your health and naturally improve your memory.

Heavy metal poisoning, asbestos, addiction to alcohol and other drugs, vaccinations and some medications, as well as agricultural chemicals such as RoundUp’s glyphosate, all have the potential to weaken the immune system and incline people to candida infection.

Any of these things, given enough exposure, tend to upset the functioning of the bowel flora, and kill off the very organisms which are there to help digest our food and protect us from sickness.

One incident which caused severe memory loss, and a near physical breakdown, was the poisoning which occurred after I cleared a property of asbestos and toxic ash after a fire. I began to collapse with heavy metals, formaldehyde, and asbestos dust poisoning my system. Lead is one heavy metal which is known to severely affect nervous system, brain function and memory, and combined with all the other poisons in this toxic ash, it  very nearly caused my death. I guessed that if I wasn’t to die of heavy metal poisoning, then I might die of candida.

Candida took over my digestive system to the extent that eating a grain of sugar, or a drop of fruit juice caused an immediate visible reaction in the mouth, which became white with thrush. As long as I did not eat anything which fed the organism, then I was OK. But there was very little food which was safe during this time. Raw lettuce, for instance, was no good, as there are multiple little organisms on lettuce which cause the lettuce to decompose fairly quickly. As my immune system was so incredibly weakened, I had no resistance to the yeasts on lettuce, or the sugars in sweet vegetables such as carrots, or apples, which caused immediate candida overgrowth.

It took a very long while to rid myself of the poisons which were making me ill, and to build up resistance again, but I managed a recovery with castor oil, and a diet which allowed only raw celery and tuna fish in oil, and calcium ascorbate vitamin C. I followed this regime religiously for six months, after which time I was able to eat cooked vegetables again.  After this initial healing period, I still had to follow a strict modified diet using both cooked and raw vegetables, tuna fish in oil, and continue to use castor oil for cleansing at least once a week.

Gradually, memory and physical health was restored.

 

Seven years after this, the oppressive effect of Saturn was upon me again. I suffered a period of chronic depression, probably related to the asbestos, lead, mercury poisoning, as well as my children leaving home. This time I became addicted to alcohol.  Candida loves alcohol. After three years of drinking and isolation, I had virtually no memory,  had forgotten how to speak in coherent sentences, could not recognize familiar faces or voices,  and had forgotten how to perform many simple tasks.

It was imperative that I stop drinking. I joined the local Alcoholic Anonymous group, and began to pay attention to diet, intellectual, and social factors. It took one year for the nervous tremors to stop, and several more years for memory, speech and eyesight to recover normal function.

 

It is probable that vaccinations in childhood play a part in people’s immunity being low and too readily succumbing to candida and other infections throughout life. I believe that childhood vaccinations, as well as flu vaccinations,  could also be one cause of mental deterioration and memory loss in less than old people because of their influence on the digestive and immune systems.

Childhood vaccinations could even predispose us to cancer, obesity, alcoholism, and other addictions later on in life.  See my website article: http://merrilynhope.com/link-between-vaccinations-and-obesity-new-study-suggests-bbc-22-august-2012/

My generation was the recipient of numerous nationwide school vaccinations and innocculations in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  It is no wonder, to me, that so many of my peers have died so young of cancer, and heart and breathing problems, addictions, and that most of us still living have chronic short-term memory loss.

 

Avoid Exposure To Radiation And Electromagnetic Energies:  As stated in the article entitled ‘Improve Your Eyesight Naturally, electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers, ‘smart’ electricity meters, and electricity transformers, can harm brain function very dramatically.

These vibrations and radiations affect the central nervous system, which runs on its own series of electrical impulses. The nervous system’s energy circuit is very sensitive to the stronger rays from things like cell phone towers and electricity meter boxes, and the result of prolonged exposure is that the organs suffer. The brain, eyes, ears and heart, which are all connected to the nervous system,  are especially vulnerable to these toxic energies.

 

These radiations and electromagnetic fields can also cause candida, as they have the ability to kill off the ‘good’ bacteria in the bowel, to the advantage of the ‘bad’ bacteria and other parasites.

Anti Candida Diet Improves General Health And Memory

Important: If you feel at all unwell whilst you try this anti-candida diet, then quit the diet and go back to see your health adviser. However, it can be rather trying at the beginning of the diet, as the candida yeast will demand those sugars and foods which feed it, especially when you are starving it of these items. If you can resist the temptation to eat those foods which candida loves, then after a week or so on the diet, your candida infection should be more or less under control.

The best way to combat candida and rebuild your immune system is to starve it of all sugars for a while. This means adopting a very radical approach which involves more than being gluten-free. You need to cut out all wheat flour products – no bread,cake or pastries, as these are all converted to sugar too quickly: wheat flour, and many other flours, can cause the candida to thrive whilst your immune system is poorly functioning.  Cut out sweets, including all sweet drinks, juices, fruit and honey for a time. Dairy products are also best avoided; the lactose in milk, including soy milk, also feeds candida. All leafy greens are just great, as are most vegetables, but cut down on those potatoes and kumara, or sweet potato, and carrots for a while, as these carbohydrates are converted to sugar very quickly in the digestive system, and this gives the candida plenty to thrive on.

Brown rice is generally good; however, if your condition is chronic, then you will need to exclude all grains until you improve. Taking olive oil, rice bran oil or some other good quality cooking oil with your brown rice, and poured over your salads and cooked greens, helps slow down the process of sugar conversion in the body: it is nourishing, and inhibits the candida, because candida doesn’t like oils.  Taking garlic with your brown rice and oil also helps inhibit candida overgrowth. Use garlic and oil at every meal until you are better. Even after you are better, good oils,garlic, brown rice, salads, and cooked greens should form the bulk of the diet to avoid getting a candida imbalance which causes memory loss.

Protein and Vegetable Oils: A protein-rich diet, and the use of good quality oils such as virgin olive oil, is very effective in combating candida infection. Candida does not thrive in protein-rich diets, and vegetable oils. You must have adequate protein in the diet – candida sufferers are often on vegetarian or low-protein diets where grains are used to substitute real protein. Try to eat protein at every meal. Oily types of fish are just the very best – salmon, mullet, sardines, tuna, but free range eggs, almonds, free range chicken and beef, are all good sources. Nuts are sometimes best left until you begin to recover, but you can experiment with these after you have given yourself a week or so without, to see what their effect is. Once you have followed this anti-candida diet for a few days, you can recognize what foods are best to avoid when you try them again, as you usually get symptoms of candida fairly soon after eating them.

Avoid taking protein foods such as soy bean tofu, soy bean miso, and cheese, as these are all fermented foods which encourage candida.

Eat salad foods at every meal. Celery is very effective in helping to combat candida, as it has plenty of roughage to cleanse the bowel. It is a very alkaline food which makes for a healthy body and immune system. It also has an antiseptic effect which inhibits candida and other bacteria. Celery is a great cleanser and helps to build healthy blood, whilst being excellent for the brain. Sprouts are a great food, but you have to be careful with these as yeast begins to grow on the sprouts while they are germinating: they must be washed well – I think these are best left out until you have recovered somewhat. Lettuce must also be washed well. Avoid tomatoes for a while – they are just too sweet. Avocado is best avoided for the first few few weeks until you have strengthened your immune system, as they begin to ferment very quickly and therefore feed the candida if they are overripe.

The other thing which you must starve the candida of is any food or drink which contains YEAST. Candida is a yeast, and it gets a huge boost when you feed it things like alcohol, or vinegar, or sauces, or even vegetarian products like soy bean miso, tofu,or  soy sauce: all these are fermented. Just a taste of another yeast really sets off the candida growing again. Mushrooms need to be avoided, as the yeast on mushrooms encourages candida overgrowth in your intestines.

If you suspect that candida albicans might be the cause of your memory loss, then the above suggestions should be helpful. Remember to eat enough while you are on this diet.  There is absolutely no need to go hungry. Have a salad ready, maybe with boiled eggs or fish added to it, and some brown rice, already cooked, which you have put in the fridge. You can snack on these super healthy foods, throw a few almonds in with cooked broccoli or spinach, throw on a bit of olive oil, a taste of garlic, and you are ready to go.

Avoiding all yeast foods and sugars will help your memory loss if candida, or sluggish bowels, is the problem. The bulk of salad foods, cooked greens and brown rice which you eat with your protein will provide good roughage to get your bowels clear of effete matter, get them functioning normally again and provide the very best nutrients to feed your body and your brain.

Calcium Ascorbate, or Ester C are the non-acidic Vitamin C types you should look for in treating candida. These are the most effective of all  available supplements which counteract candida albicans, and thus they are helpful in  restoring your memory. They also help keep an alkaline state in the body which is another  important factor in treating candida. Do not use the ordinary, sour tasting Vitamin C, as this does not help candida, but actually feeds it. Calcium ascorbate in doses of 1000mg can be taken once, or twice, or even three times a day to combat candida and help your memory grow strong. Cut the dose back after a few days, once the bowels have been cleared.

Acidophilus: This is the name of one of the beneficial bacteria in the intestines. Acidophilus helps keep the candida in check, so it is very useful in tackling the cause of your memory loss. Having a healthy amount of acidophilus in your bowel also helps you to process your food more efficiently, thus more nutrients are provided to the brain, helping to counteract memory loss. It is important to find a product which is suitable for candida sufferers, though. Make sure there are no added sugars or lactose added to the acidophilus which you buy. Otherwise it is best to do without

Epsom Salts For Magnesium:  This is very helpful in clearing out the bowel of toxins.  The extra magnesium can also boost your brain function.  Take a dose several times a week, or as needed.

Bowel Cleanse or Colonic Cleanse: It is a good idea to go to a colonic clinic to get this professionally done at first. After that, you can learn how to use an enema so that you can clean out your system regularly. This is especially important in the beginning of treatment, when toxins will be released from the liver because of the healthy change of diet you have implemented. Washing out the colon is an important measure to take in getting rid of all the gunk in your bowel: keeping the bowel clean is a priority in helping to build a good memory.

Candida does affect very many people, and most people, given the quantity of processed food which we all consume, have sluggish and clogged bowels. These things are probably the most common causes of memory loss, so the above dietary and cleansing suggestions  really are worth a try.

Some other causes of memory loss are:

Emotional exhaustion, lack of sleep, anxiety, and depression: these can all contribute to a state of memory loss. Good nutrition, such as the basic wheatless anti-candida diet outlined above, should help most people with these conditions. Also, Yoga Nidra, deep relaxation and yoga breathing are useful in minimizing these negative mental states. See the chapter at the end of the book on how to practice Yoga Nidra.

Radiation from cell phone towers, cell phone use, electrical transformers which are too close to your house, overhead power lines near your house, radio transmitters, even TV aerials above your sleeping space, can all affect your memory and your nervous system generally. Having a radio close to your head at night will interfere with your brain patterns and affect your memory: I read once that Paul Simon won’t sleep with a radio or a TV anywhere near his bedroom, even if it they are not going. He recognizes the negative effect radio and TV waves have on the brain and memory function.

Alcohol and marijuana addiction: the effect of both these drugs is well known to be deleterious to the physical health, and to the mental health. Marijuana has a potent weakening effect on memory.

 

Allergy to denture plastic or acrylic:   Many people are sensitive to  plastic materials: these materials, which are prolific in our environment, are one major cause of memory loss in my experience. Unfortunately, many people wear plastic in their mouths, in the fabric of their denture. This plastic starts to break down after a couple of years or so, and chemicals from the plastic denture are absorbed into the body. This affects the brain and is one of the probable  causes of memory loss in people who have dentures.  Also, candida yeasts and other bacteria can thrive in the denture plastic, especially when it becomes older, and these bacteria also cause  memory loss.  Read the article on Dentures which appears just before this article.

Lack of certain essential elements in the diet such as iron, B vitamins, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, Vitamin A,Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, iodine, silica, manganese, selenium to name a few of the important ones.  These are all essential to keeping a well functioning memory and a healthy brain.

 

 

 

 

 

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