Hoarseness in children is usually the result of inflammation of the voice box (laryngitis) or throat. This is usually due to infection with a virus. The child may also have a fever and a cough.

There is no specific treatment, but encouraging your child to speak as little as possible and to drink plenty of fluids, can ease the symptoms. Paracetamol, used according to directions, may soothe a sore throat. The voice usually returns after a few days.

MOUTH ULCERS

Cause

Mouth ulcers are tiny little breaks in the lining of the mouth or on the tongue, which are thought to be caused by a virus. They occur more frequently when your child has been ill, or fatigued, as well as during periods of stress.

Clinical features

Round, white sores are visible on the lining of the mouth or cheeks, or on the surface of the tongue and these can be quite painful, especially if salty or spicy foods are eaten. Your child may refuse food for a short while.

Treatment

Mouth ulcers usually clear up within a week without any specific treatment. If your child is distressed by the stinging pain, try applying a mouth gel to the area. These are available over the counter from the chemist.

*236\90\8*

Sometimes a newborn baby’s feet are turned inwards temporarily as a result of their cramped position in the womb. This will correct itself by the first year. If the feet can be readily moved to a normal position then your baby is unlikely to have a club foot.

Reflexes

Certain reflexes are present in the newborn. These are instinctive movements, which gradually disappear over the first few months as the nervous system matures. Startle reflex (Moro reflex) When the baby is startled by sudden noise or movement, he flings both of his arms out to the side and spreads his fingers. Stepping reflex When the newborn baby is held up and his foot is put in contact with a horizontal surface, such as the edge of a table, he lifts his feet as if trying to walk.

Grasp reflex

A newborn baby will grasp your finger with his hand and not let go. The baby’s grip is surprisingly strong. This reflex persists until the age of about 8 weeks, after which active grasping becomes more developed as hand-eye co-ordination improves.

*69\90\8*

Feeling good and having a health problem. We can thrive even when we are sick, particularly if we remember that sickness is part of health, part of the natural rhythm of life. Our health-conscious society has mistaken wellness for absence of medical problems, resulting in a defensive approach to daily living, a “preventive” life-style of running from the fear of illness. We must learn not only to live “well” even when we are sick, but to rally in the face of challenges to our system. Sex can be one of the most constructive ways of dealing with illness, yet few doctors provide prescriptions for love. In fact, most hospitals seem to go out of their way to prevent intimacy, the healing touching we all need when we are sick-

If we consider sex the sole prerogative of the “totally well,” of us are going to miss out on the most fulfilling of life’s opportunities. Sickness is affected by sex as much as it affects sex, and I hope this chapter will help in clarifying this vital life relationship As a starting point, I provide a Sexual Health Status Examination the equivalent of the annual physical exam. The problem with the physical exam is contained in the name of this procedure. It is “physical” and tends to ignore the mind/spirit/body/feeling interrelationship. It is an “exam” instead of a learning experience, a test without a lesson. Even though the word “doctor” itself derives from a root word meaning to teach, too few physicians actually teach anything at the physical examination. If a problem is found sex is seen as, according to one physician, “the last thing patients should be thinking about when they are sick.” Actually, we may be sick partly because sex is one of the last things we are thinking about.

*260\97\8*

Deadly poisons are everywhere around us, most of them as a result of human (“industrial”) activity, and we have to learn how to avoid them, at least in our food.

A poisoned body cannot control the population of various bacteria and parasites. Activity of parasites in our poisoned body can completely ruin our health.

We are not only poisoned: we have a clogged digestive system as well as a constipated mind. There is no room for coherent new ideas.

When we eliminate toxins from our body and obstacles from our mind, the body HEALS ITSELF, quickly and effortlessly.

The key to perfect health is therefore elimination of poisons from the body, purification of the mind and changing our diet to minimise the intake of poisons.

Purification of our mind (thoughts) can be as important as physical detoxification, since it is our mind at all levels which ultimately controls every function of our body.

Natural detoxification techniques include enema, fasting, exercise, sauna, oxygen therapies etc., combined with the drinking of a minimum of 2-3 litres of spring water a day.

Removal of dental amalgams is strongly recommended.

The two most important elements of our diet are: pure water and pure air.

It is not possible to attain and maintain the state of perfect health without paying great attention to diet and minimising the intake of poisons into our body.

Studying various diseases and cures for each of them is a waste of time. Such approach concentrates on symptoms, disregarding the cause.

Rather then applying a separate remedy to each disease, it is possible to cure ALL diseases. Normalising weight, curing cancer, getting rid of allergies, infections, acne, arthritis, tobacco, alcohol and other addictions, stopping and even partially reversing the ageing process etc., all is possible in the ONE simple process, described in this book. It is easy and nearly effortless. Anyone can do it.

There are no miracles. Performing so called “miracles” is just using the knowledge. You do not need to believe. You need to know.

Hoping is not enough. We have plenty to learn. (The best way to learn is to learn to listen to your own higher mind first).

Curing other people does not really help them. Much better is to inform them so they could heal themselves.

Warning : the side effect of the restoration of the perfect health is gaining the access to the unlimited potential of your mind.

You have a choice.

*50\96\8*

Tuberculosis and syphillis were once common causes of iritis. Other venereal diseases such as gonorrhoea, or NSU, non-specific urethritis, can be the cause.

Any acute infectious disease, bacterial or viral, may be the cause of an iritis. And this inflammation is also commonly associated with several of the rheumatic disorders, such as ankylosing spondylitis which involves the spine, or rheumatoid arthritis.

Some of the autoimmune diseases, of connective tissue, which are closely related to the rheumatic disorders, may also be the cause.

The back of the iris lies against the capsule of the lens, which focuses the light waves on the retina, the layer of light sensitive nerves lying on the back wall of the eye.

With the inflammation there is an outpouring of a sticky fluid, which can cause the iris to stick to the front of the lens.

*465/71/1*

In asthma, there is an oversensitivity of the bronchial tubes and, in allergic individuals, a generalised hypersensitivity to certain foreign proteins or allergens. These may be animal fur, grass pollens, the house dust mite, sometimes chemicals eaten or breathed or even food.

Many things can trigger off the asthma. They are believed to stimulate mast cells in the lining of the bronchial tubes and these cells release chemicals like histamine which cause the muscle constriction, the swelling of the lining and the excess production of mucus.

These are infection, allergy, emotion, exercise or combinations of them all.

Asthma usually starts in childhood and it is then an accurate diagnosis should be made.

If asthma is the diagnosis, then how severe it is and how often it comes are important, because these things will influence the treatment.

Children may wheeze with any chest infection but asthma is the commonest cause of recurrent wheezing.

*210/71/1*

Treatment of common warts on the hands and fingers, according to the Resident and Staff Physician (26:58), need not be traumatic to be effective. Even applications of relatively mild lotions, such as salicylic acid, may disturb the walls of the wart cells sufficiently to let some wart virus escape into the patient’s bloodstream. This boosts production of antibodies against the virus which eventually attack the warts and destroy them.

So, if you have warts on your fingers, it is better to let your own body deal with them. If you rush to have them burned off, your immunity never gets stimulated and they may quickly come back again.

*195\143\2*

Possible symptoms: Headaches, pounding heartbeat, shortness of breath during exercise, flushed face.

Home care: High blood pressure must be diagnosed and treated by a doctor.

Precautions

-    Your child should have regular checkups, and the doctor should measure the child’s blood pressure during each examination.

-    High blood pressure can be dangerous if left untreated.

Although it has been known for decades that high blood pressure (hypertension) occurs in infants and children as well as in adults, many people are not aware of this fact. A baby’s normal blood pressure at birth is about 80/40 systolic pressure over diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the pressure the heart pumps out with; diastolic pressure is the pressure required to fill the heart with blood. The blood pressure then rises gradually until, by the time the child is a teenager, it is about 120/80. If the blood pressure is substantially higher than that, a child is considered to have high blood pressure.

The most common cause of transient (temporary) high blood pressure in children is emotion -fear or worry, for example. Persistent high blood pressure can be caused by kidney disease (tumours, obstructions, infections, nephritis); adrenal and testicle tumours; defects of the heart or a major artery; overactive thyroid; medications such as steroids or ephedrine; extreme overweight; and, eating too much licorice. “Essential hypertension,” the most common cause in adults, may be hereditary and has no known cause.

*112/84/5*

What may be more disturbing is that many veterans who seemed to have escaped the worst of PTSD from the Vietnam War are just now beginning to surface with symptoms two decades later. “Many of these men and women came back from the war and completely immersed themselves in their careers, working until they were exhausted every day to numb the pain,” says Weber. “But now that they’re hitting their fifties, they can’t work like they used to and they’re losing this coping mechanism. I’m seeing lawyers, physicians, and people from all walks of life who have been extremely functional who are just now breaking down.”

Since PTSD increases your risk for suicide, it’s important that you seek treatment as soon as you notice symptoms, says Weber. “We can’t cure it, but we can make it much easier to live with.” Here’s what you should know.

Watch the triggers. If you’re diving for cover at the sound of a helicopter, that’s an obvious sign of PTSD. But some of the things that trigger the onset of the disorder are more subtle, says Mendel. “The losses you experience as you age can bring back all your old unresolved feelings of emotional trauma and trigger PTSD symptoms in the present.”

Know your strengths. “Don’t for a minute think that you’re less of a man if you’re having trouble dealing with your trauma,” says Weber. “PTSD isn’t a weakness; it’s a mental condition with physical components. And you owe it to yourself to get help for it.”

Walk the wall. A visit to the Vietnam Memorial wall can help, says Weber. “You can go and reconnect with your feelings. You can allow yourself to feel. That’s very important for men who have been disconnected from them for so long.”

Take yourself in context. “Don’t make the mistake of judging what you did in combat by current values,” says Weber. “Re-frame your actions in the realm of combat. What you did in the context of that situation was okay. You were doing your job.”

Find an open ear. You may have felt that you couldn’t talk to the people close to you because what you had seen or done seemed too horrible, says Mendel, but there is something very cathartic in finding someone who will listen. “It’s best to find someone trained in veteran counseling for that kind of discussion,” she notes, “since not just any counselor is prepared to deal with hearing the horrors of combat.”

Admit addictions. “Substance abuse and trauma go hand in hand,” says Mendel, “If you’re using alcohol or drugs to drown your pain, a group like Alcoholics Anonymous can help. But you’ll likely also need counseling to deal with the trauma you’ve been suppressing. The route of relapse in substance abuse is often a trigger of unresolved trauma. This is why counseling on the traumatic events is necessary to avoid relapse.”

Hang on. Right now, most therapists use a combination of medications to ease the symptoms of PTSD, says Weber. “But new drugs specific for the condition are being developed as we speak. We should have much better medications in the next few years.”

*123/36/5*

Here’s a prescription I give my patients: a prescription for enthusiasm. I encourage all of my patients, even those who are happy and healthy, to add this to their lives.

Enthusiasm is the extra bit of magic that makes your affirmations and visualizations even more powerful. It’s well known that thinking enthusiastically can make the most depressed person feel elated, excited and optimistic. I tell my patients to look into the mirror every morning and tell themselves that they are enthusiastic! That they walk, talk and act enthusiastically, and that they feel enthusiastic.

It’s a great prescription, and it really works. For best results, use it over and over again. Enthusiasm is nontoxic and has no harmful side effects.

If you fill this prescription in the pharmacy of your mind, and fill it correctly, you will begin to feel better. Physical problems may require other prescriptions, but we can always benefit from extra enthusiasm. You’ll be rewarded with endorphins and the other good biochemicals that make you feel happy and healthy.

Through the years, having treated thousands of patients suffering from a wide variety of diseases, I have seen what a powerful medicine the positive, determined mind can be. I can tell you that happy thoughts are a tremendous shot in the arm for your “doctor within.” Using the “Dos and Don’ts” and affirmations in this chapter, using them with vigor and enthusiasm, will go a long way toward making you the healthy, happy and successful person you deserve to be.

*154\80\8*