VEGETARIAN DIETS AND NATURAL FOODS

VEGETARIAN DIETS 

There are three types. The strictest excludes all animal products as well  animal flesh and organs. The second allows use of such animal produce milk, cheese, and eggs. The mildest allows fish and shellfish in.

Some people adhere to them and may be lean, but there is no scientifically discernible special virtue in vegetarian diets. There are vegetarians who attribute their long life and healthy old age to their diet, but there are equally healthy old people who credit daily meat eating. One possible hazard in vegetarian diets, particularly the strictest, may be lack of sufficient protein. We learned recently of a 78-year-old physician-patient who developed a huge enlargement of the liver, estimated to weigh 15 pounds instead of the usual 3. Biopsy showed cirrhosis.

 He had never used alcohol but from the age of 10 had never eaten meat and had reduced other sources of the complete proteins (see page 49). Specialists in liver disease who were called in finally concluded that the many years of a diet inadequate in rich, complete proteins had caused damage to the liver. The prescription: beefsteaks, filet mignonette, roast beef. The patient is having the time of his life at meals.

NATURAL FOODS 

Many health food and natural food stores in the country offer a wide range of "unprocessed" or "organic" foods. The foods, for the most part, are good and nutritious. They often cost more than foods available at regular food stores and supermarkets. Claims made in their behalf are that they are grown in soil that has not been impoverished and they are not spoiled by processing. As arguing against the idea, that generally available foods are grown in poor soil. nutritionists’ note that commercial agriculture in this country treats soil as a precious commodity and keeps it rich through crop rotation and fertilization.

Even if soils were widely impoverished, they add, this would not necessarily mean that foods grown in them would be nutritionally inferior. Infertile soil may lead to reduced yield per acre but no inferiority in the makeup of the plant grown. Many nutritionists also observe that the nutritive value of a given crop, such as corn or wheat, is influenced more by the kind of seed planted than by the fertility of the soil. 

Thus, corn can be bred to contain more niacin or more starch, tomatoes to contain more vitamin A or vitamin C, through development of new strains and seeds. As for food processing, leading nutritionists argue that commercially canned and frozen foods-in terms of practical nutrition if not of taste -are not inferior to fresh. 

Penicillin overdose side effects! How to avoid it?

A Special Word about Medicine Taking of many people that if a little is good, more is better. With potent agents, excessive dosage can produce real trouble. Similarly, under dosage can cause problems. Inadequate antibiotic dos- age, for example, carries its own risk. One common example is the patient with a "strep" throat who takes penicillin, improves, stops treatment, then gets the sore throat back again.

Once more, he takes some penicillin but not the full prescribed amount. Again the sore throat dis- appears only to recur after a short time. And so a disease that can be eradicated by continued administration of penicillin for eight to ten days is converted into one that drags on with repeated remissions and relapses. Physicians have, in fact, long suspected that many failures of anti- biotic treatment stem simply from failure of patients to keep taking medication as prescribed. A recent study uncovered disturbing evidence that many parents may be risking their children's health by failing to make certain they take their medication as long as necessary.

Actually, in acute "strep" infections, penicillin treatment for 10 days is considered essential to prevent rheumatic fever. Yet in a follow-up of 59 children for whom a 10-day course of penicillin had been prescribed, investigators found that 56 percent of the youngsters had stopped taking the drug by the third day, 71 percent by the sixth day, and 82 percent by the ninth day. When a doctor prescribes medication, the first thing to do is to get the prescription filled immediately. The value may be lessened, or even lost completely, if you delay.

Then follow directions of the doctor to the letter. If you are not certain you understand them, ask him for clarification-even for instructions in writing as to exactly what you are to do. Take all the medicine pre- scribed, not some amount you arbitrarily settle on. Don't decide, if you begin to feel better, that you can stop or reduce dosage. Sometimes, illnesses require several prescriptions. Very much worth noting here is an old principle taught to nurses: read every label three times. You can use that principle to advantage at home. 

How to manage Infections, overdoses, side effects in modern medicine

Friendly bacteria keep under control harmful organisms that also are natives of the digestive tract. When friendly bacteria are killed off in large numbers, there is less competition for the harmful residents and they have a chance to multiply. The result may be super infection-a new and different infection that develops as a result of another's being treated. Again, the super infection is often mild and disappears once antibiotic treatment stops. 

But super infection sometimes can be severe.

What it comes down to is this: use of potent modern medications, not only antibiotics but many others, involves a calculated risk and alertness. Ideally, the physician uses them after careful consideration and upon arriving at the decision that the good to be gained outweighs any risks along the way-and uses them with caution, keeping alert to the earliest indications of any new trouble from the drugs which he may be able to overcome by change of dosage, switch of medication, addition of other medication, or when necessary discontinuance of treatment.

One of the major problems, though, has been the insistence of many patients upon willy-nilly prescription of medication. They may demand penicillin, for example, for a cold or any fever. They have the feeling that a visit to the doctor is not complete unless the doctor "gives" them something. Too often, this has put physicians on the spot; and to please patients, some have prescribed medication against their better judgment.

So far as your own health is concerned, you can do much to preserve it not just by seeking timely medical advice but by taking it-by avoiding insistence upon medications, by indicating to your physician that you are aware of the values and also limitations of medications, the need to use them wisely not indiscriminately, to use them when they are required and not otherwise.

DOSAGE PROBLEMS

A man who took double the prescribed dose of an anticoagulant-a drug that, in effect, acts to thin the blood to prevent clot formation-found himself in the hospital a few days later with severe nosebleedsand vomiting of blood.

 A woman with bronchial asthma was admitted to the hospital with heart palpitations after she had used, contrary to instructions, an isoprenaline (isoproterenol) spray repeatedly for several hours. Another patient, a 29-year-old man, who had decided to take 50 percent' more than his prescribed dose of a cortisone like drug, came- to the hospital with changed personality, considerable weight gain from fluid retention, and other effects. 

How does a preventively minded physician function? Follow 1000 posts in the series

You can expect that in working with you he will get to know you thoroughly-past medical history, family medical history, job, working habits, living habits-so he can weigh any possibility that you-as a member of a specific group based on heredity, environment, age, sex, color, personal habits-may face certain specific health hazards.

In his regular periodic examinations, he will follow your health progress in general and will be alert for the slightest early indication of anything wrong in any area of special risk for you. He may, in fact, from time to time use special tests to make certain all is going well in a special risk area.

During your visits, he will be concerned, of course, with any physical complaints and also with any mental or emotional problems (job, marital, and others), since these can affect health.

He will be interested in any changes in your habits and their possible effects, for good or ill, on your health. From time to time, he may have suggestions for an alteration, perhaps minor, of diet, exercisepattern, sleep, relaxation, etc.

As he regularly checks you, alert for earliest indications, even pre-indications, of possible trouble, he will be prepared to intervene without delay. Rather than wait, say, for obvious symptoms of diabetes to develop-especially if you belong to the group with greater than average probability of developing the disease-he will intervene to try to correct, if they appear, the very first changes that could possibly lead to diabetes.

As medicine has been practiced generally to now, it has been the patient who, in effect, has turned up after making a self-diagnosis. It has been the patient who has decided, "I think I am or may be sick or becoming sick," and then has sought help.

How it will be the preventively minded physician who increasingly will be able to tell the patient, "You are about to become sick and we are going to take a few measures in advance so you won't actually develop the sickness." 

Natural cure without medicines 1000 posts following

Medicines always cause some side effects and addiction that makes our body desperately needs medicine after once or twice taken. But Mother nature gives us many options to cure illnesses without any chemicals and medicines based on chemicals.

We will continue this blog dedicated to nature cure lovers, follow this blog for a complete solution for your health problems. Coming days will be very important to you to maintain a flawless healthier body.