Lifestyle Choices

Treatment of skin lumps

Cryotherapy

The destruction of skin tumors by bringing the temperature well below freezing point is called cryosurgery. Liquid nitrogen is the most popular refrigerant (temperature in the flask -196°C). It is applied to the skin either on a cotton swab or as a spray through a nozzle from a flask. The use of liquid nitrogen for the treatment of warts is described elsewhere. Other uses are treating seborrheic warts, actinic keratoses (see under sun-induced skin changes) and occasionally small basal cell cancers. (more…)

Marriage is a merger of two different individuals. These differences are perfectly natural, some of them arising from powerful substances produced in the human body. The presence of these chemicals brings on profound changes in form and behavior, especially in the female, while in the male there may be little change from day to day. The woman is never quite the same from one day to the next. Every month she passes through what is known as her menstrual cycle. This is brought about by the ebb and flow of the chemical hormones in her blood stream. This results in a wide variation of feelings toward herself, her husband, and those around her. (more…)

Go to the seaside to bury yourself under the sand and gather salt. Salt is necessary for the balance, in volume and osmotic pressure, of the extracellular fluids. Everyone must have his daily dose of it. In therapeutic treatment, by strengthening the action of other elements, unrefined sea salt combats a number of deficiencies that cause humoral, glandular, and nervous imbalances.

The natural magnesium contained in sea salt is a precious remedy. Iodine in its natural state acts favorably on the thyroid gland. Bromine soothes the serves without weakening the nervous system. Salt, intermediate between earth and sea water, also contains traces of catalytic elements, such as gold, copper, nickel, and cobalt, as well as particles of clay. It goes very well with treatment by clay. Like clay, it attracts and absorbs sickness and is a pole that attracts substances with negative radiation. (more…)

It is no doubt one of the oldest arts in the world. From the health standpoint it is second only to the choice of food. All through history the story has been the same. The leading nations of the world have always been those that were well fed. Napoleon’s famous remark to the effect that “an army marches on its stomach” is certainly true today. Good food, well prepared, is the main source of energy by which we live.

At the same time there is an element of danger in this art of cooking. Too much luxurious food can destroy the human race. Overeating is a frequent cause of illness. So are poor methods of cooking. Foods must not only be well prepared, but the important nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, must also be preserved. The tastiest foods have little value if these are missing. (more…)

A great many of my patients do not really know what stress actually is. They think that it’s an outside force causing them to feel tense. But that’s not stress — that’s a stressor. Stress is a person’s negative reaction to a stressor.

For the most part, people have a negative reaction to stressors when they feel that their stressors are greater than their ability to deal with them. When they feel like this, they see their stressors as threats. On the other hand, if they think they can handle their stressors, they usually see them as challenges and generally enjoy grappling with them.

If you now feel as if your life is full of threats, instead of challenges, you are experiencing stress. If your degree of stress is severe, it’s going to be quite difficult for you to live a balanced, healthy lifestyle free from compulsion, including the compulsion to overeat. (more…)

THE DRAWER WITH THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING and what to put in it

Filing is a word that makes most women look mutinous, but it’s not only a good idea, but in home emergencies absolutely essential. Don’t be frightened by the idea of filing. The verb only means putting things in a sensible place where you can find them quickly and easily. Four years of my filing fit into a suitcase.

Know your limitations and don’t plan a filing system that is better than you are, as you won’t stick to it and you will find that even more depressing than doing it.

What follows sounds amazingly neat and tidy, but it isn’t. Most of my key work seems to be on the front of old envelopes (backs already used for key work). If I stopped to type or write them out they would never get done; it’s easier to shove any old scrap of paper into its correct place in the system than to have it lying around. (more…)

Women hate being efficient in the home. Lists and routines simply do not fit into the pink-check-gingham.. and-lace mental picture of the soap opera mother, which so many of us were brought up to be. When you become a working mother with any luck you will get twice as much out of life, but you can’t run your house as if you weren’t working. A working mother has to work faster and more efficiently in the home. She has to be twice as reliable outside it because people expect her not to be.

I have evolved my own system, which I slowly slip away from, but it pulls me back to reality at regular intervals, and heaven knows what I would be like without it. (more…)

If a magnet is going to work for you, it can happen within hours when quality magnets are placed over the damaged area. Normally weexpect to see improvements within 1 -7 days, when you are directly treating the site of pain.

A wristband or sufficiently strong bracelet is fine if you have hand or wrist pain, or if you want tomaximise your general healthand detox you body. You will keep it there, as it is easy to wear there. But there is little point in relaxing and promoting blood flow to your wrist if your problem is your lower back! (more…)

Long-term stress can destroy your good looks, your vitality, and eventually your health. But contrary to popular belief, that doesn’t mean there is anything intrinsically dangerous in stress. On the contrary, stress is the spice of life—the challenge just waiting to be met, the excitement of something new and unknown, the wonderful, exhilarating feeling when adrenalin flows through your body and makes you feel ready for anything. It only means that if you do not know how to move from the active, stressed state of mind and body into the passive state of psychophysical relaxation at will, then you, like most people (for few have this skill naturally), are likely to find yourself stuck in the stressed state for long periods. And if it happens often enough and lasts long enough, you can become physically or mentally ill. (more…)

It is now common knowledge that uncontrolled stress can trigger a great many diseases and disorders—insomnia, gastric ulcers, high blood pressure, asthma, and migraine, to mention just a few. But for a long time these ailments were treated like something over which we had no control. It was assumed that one could only treat their symptoms with drugs, treat the stress that triggered them off with more drugs, and hope for the best. Now, thanks to research into altered states of consciousness and work done with biofeedback, studies have shown that every human being can exercise a high level of conscious control over his nervous system. (more…)

Every woman has two kinds of energy, male and female. Male energy is like the sun—invigorating, stimulating, creative, and powerful. The male postures in yoga call forth this dynamic energy and release it.

Female energy is recuperative, calming, nurturing, and gentle. The female postures are restoring to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga attempts to release male and female energies and ultimately to fuse them in union—to integrate the person.

The first four postures are male. They are done standing and they revitalize you. The last four are female and calming. In order to achieve the best balance and effect, it is best to do them in the order in which Geoffrey recommends them. (more…)

Even more important than the food you eat is the air you breathe and the way you breathe it. They can affect how you feel emotionally and physically, how your skin looks (for cells of the skin are dependent for their metabolic processes on a constant supply of enough oxygen), how much vitality you have, and even how clearly you can think.

Because breathing is the only one of your body’s functions that can be either completely involuntary or voluntary, it can form a bridge between your conscious and unconscious functions. This makes it possible to look at your breathing to find out how you are feeling and what is happening to your body. It also means you can use breathing to change your energy level or your mood. (more…)

The Decanter

This exercise stimulates the nervous system and at the same time stills a restless or anxious mind. I like doing it after I have been working in an immobile position for a long time—for instance, when I have been at my desk writing for several hours. I do it just before I get up to move about.

Sitting comfortably in a chair with a straight back or cross-legged on the floor, imagine that your body is like a decanter, the bottom of the decanter being your pelvis and hips and the top of it your head. Pretend that you are going to fill it with energy in the form of air. (more…)

Each of us is unique, with different health issues and levels of motivation. Starting the Holford Low-GL Diet is like embarking on a personal journey to good health, so it can be helpful to take stock of your state of health before you begin, so that you can see clearly how well you are improving over the next three weeks.

If your blood sugar is out of balance or you have a history of eating bad fats’ and drinking caffeine-loaded drinks, you probably suffer from low energy levels. From the moment you start following my low-GL diet you will become more alert (more…)

Unemployment

As higher social beings, we need to feel useful to society. I don’t mean in any grand way necessarily, but we want to feel that what we do has a use at least to somebody, we want to feel needed. When you are unemployed it is difficult to avoid a feeling of uselessness that may creep over you as the weeks and months drag on. To live for a long time without a feeling of a function in life eats at the soul and can create bitterness, hopelessness and depression. This may then create a vicious circle, for when you are depressed you do not have much energy for looking for work. Even if you do, your depressed energy is going to fail you should you get an interview, since the one thing that almost any employer wants is enthusiasm. (more…)

We are built of what we eat and the balance of our diet can affect both our physical and mental well-being. Many dietary imbalances may cause some depression of mood.

BLOOD SUGAR

If you take in too few calories, as you may during a fast or aperiod of dieting, you may feel tired, lethargic and low. This is because your level of blood sugar has decreased — energy, well-being and clear thinking require an adequate level of sugar in the blood so that the brain, muscles and other organs can help themselves to as much immediate energy as they require from moment to moment. The brain and nerves are completely dependent on blood sugar since they cannot get energy from other foods in the blood, such as protein. (more…)

Preventive Drugs

If you are prone to recurring bouts of severe depression (darkgrey, black or white) and you have chosen and been prescribed a preventive course of medication with either lithium or tricyclic anti-depressants, it is important to be conscientious with your tablet-taking. If you find yourself forgetting or stopping because you resist being on the tablets in the first place, you are probably in need of clarification. It is a good idea to discuss with your doctor the risks of not taking the medication compared to the nuisance and/or side-effects of taking it, and then to make your own decision. That way there is no outsider to resist and it really is up to you which way you choose.

Warning Sign

• Losing a little confidence, trusting yourself less and depending on others more
• Having less power of concentration than you usually have
• Being more indecisive than usual
• Having less initiative than usual; having more difficulty in getting started at anything
• Not having as much pleasure as usual, either at home or at work
• Undervaluing yourself
• Being more self-critical than usual
• Feeling a bit tired, listless, and slower
• Having less energy than usual
• Feeling disinterested, bored or unsatisfied
• Experiencing sensations less intensely than you usually do
• Feeling more distant from other people, especially those normally close to you

(more…)

This is a very personal and private matter, and everyone has their own way of following their own path. Some of the most spiritual people would never talk about “spirit” or even necessarily understand intellectualization about the spirit (see the limited questionnaire on spiritual energy, page 192). Some people who would consider themselves very religious are obedient to the external authority of a church, but miss the essence of the spirit, while others use their religion as a form through which a certain kind of spiritual contact can be made. By “spirit” I do not mean anything hushed or holy, I mean the power of life, the life-force. The spirit is earthed to the mundane, for as the Chinese proverb says: “Man with head in clouds cannot have feet on ground unless very big man.” You can feel your spirit on a mountain, in a movement of music, doing exercises, having sex, preparing a meal, when you are alone, or in a moment of human contact. There is no prescribed road to the spirit. (more…)

Your sexual energy declines when you are depressed, and conversely, those who limit their sexual energy tend to limit the sparkle available to them. Although some people choose to put their sexual drive into other energies and pursuits, the commonest limitations are unconscious.

Unconscious Limitations

Deep allegiances are often very powerful in the sexual field. Your parents may never have made or expressed a single judgment on sex but you will inevitably have picked up a sense of what was permissible and what was not by their attitudes to their own bodies and their possible difficulties, embarrassment or silence on the subject of sex.

The effect of centuries of sexual inhibition and a judgmental attitude to the animal energy that is part of us has been to separate sexual energy from mental, physical, emotional and spiritual energy. Sexual energy, sometimes coupled with aggressive energy, has been seen as the “dark side” — an unfortunate devilish need which taints the purity of mental and spiritual pursuits. (more…)

The brain emits various electrical patterns at various times of the day. When you are awake and in a busy thinking state, your brain emits what is known as beta waves. As you go through the various stages of sleep, your brain emits different electrical patterns as follows:

1. Eyes barely move, muscle activity slows and you drift in and out of slumber. You can easily be woken at this stage. Often you are in alpha state (the same state as when meditating) just before falling asleep.

2. Eye movements almost stop, brain waves become slower. You will need to be prodded to be woken.

3. This is considered one of the stages of deep sleep. Extremely slow brain waves called delta waves can be measured in this phase.

4. No eye movements at all, muscles are relaxed, blood pressure is at its lowest and heart and breathing rate are at their slowest. This is the stage when the body repairs itself with the aid of hormones.

5. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) occurs approximately 70-90 minutes after you fall asleep and recurs throughout the night. Breathing becomes more rapid, irregular and shallow. The heart rate increases and blood pressure rises. Brain waves break up and begin to look like those measured when you are awake. However, while your brain is very active, your body does not move at all in this phase.