‘Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried.’ (Henry David Thoreau)

Hard-chargers, as the name implies, are always on the go—busy, busy, busy. Some of them are impetuous; some of them have half a dozen projects going at once; many set high goals with unrealistic time frames for their achievement and all of them take on more than they can cope with. Because of this and because they are not quitters, they are always in a hurry. This lifestyle of perpetual rushing leads to bad habits.

Bad habit number one is frequent skipping of meals, particularly lunch which leads to a drop in energy and performance (hypoglycaemia) by mid-afternoon.

Bad habit number two is not drinking enough fluids through the day. This leads to dehydration and contributes to a drop in performance. Hard-chargers are too busy to drink, and by not drinking, don’t have to make those time-wasting trips to the toilet, which they claim reduces their productivity. They practice thirst denial so often they no longer experience the subtle message of thirst, only the overt, serious ones.

Bad habit number three is shallow breathing. People who rush, automatically tense all the muscles in their body. Tense muscles don’t expand through their full range of movement. This includes the muscles that facilitate breathing, giving rise to short, shallow breaths that don’t take in much oxygen. A lack of oxygen causes muscles to tense and a vicious cycle is born. Lack of oxygen means the brain and nerves function below par giving rise to tiredness, irritability and anxiety. Hard-chargers tend to perch themselves on the end of chairs and hunch forward over desks, typewriters, computers. This posture further tenses the body and cramps the chest and diaphragm muscles, aggravating shallow breathing.

Because of these bad habits, the hard-charger is always performing below his or her full capacity. The great irony is that the maximising of one’s potential, which is so important to so many hard-chargers, is seldom ever realised by them as they are in too much of a hurry to achieve it. Being of the non-quitter type, they continue to push themselves despite the fatigue and many other symptoms that dog them. The very practice of pushing themselves further lowers their energy and performance levels, giving rise to mistake making and the need to repeat work.

I always remind my hard-charging patients of Aesop’s fable about the hare and the tortoise and I always get them to tell me who won the race. Even with this technique, it’s not easy to get through to the hard-chargers as they are all convinced they are coping and don’t see their lifestyle and attitude as a problem. Their definition of coping is ‘being on their feet and mobile’. They don’t recognise that a body which is racked with chronic fatigue, aches, joint pains, allergies, skin rashes, bloated stomach, constipation, headaches or slow wound healing, is a body that is not coping. So long as they can force themselves out of bed in the morning, they think they are coping and all those symptoms they have, well, they are caused by something else and they will just have to drop in on the doctor or naturopath and pick up a pill or a diet to fix it.

Because we humans are such profound creatures of habit, it’s quite easy to understand the hard-charger’s point of view. They are so used to being stressed they see it as normal. This fact really hit home to me one night while watching a documentary on the Soviet gulags. One of the former inmates had returned to his particular Siberian gulag with a BBC cameraman and was recounting the horrors and privations of living in the abysmally subhuman conditions. I became quite distressed as more of this man’s experiences were being revealed and then became amazed when he finished off by saying, ‘Ah but we got used to it, humans can get used to anything.’ That said it all for me; the penny finally dropped. It’s no wonder hard-chargers argue that they are not stressed even when they are not responding to the Anti-Allergy Program they are so assiduously sticking to.

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• Go on the Metabolism-Balancing Program. (Make sure you are drinking the required amount of fluid each day.)

• Reduce your work, exercise and socialising load.

• Get plenty of sleep and recreation.

• Do the deep breathing and mental relaxation exercises.

• Pamper yourself with regular warm baths and massages.

• Take time out to listen to music.

• Take time out to laugh. Read humorous books, watch comedies on TV or at the movies.

• Recent research has shown that watching nature documentaries on TV lowers stress hormone, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Reading animal stories does the same thing. Many of my highly stressed patients have received great benefits from reading the All Creatures Great and Small series of books about the adventures of the Yorkshire vet, James Herriot, and the interesting characters (both animal and human) he encounters on a daily basis. Read before bed for a restful sleep.

• Don’t drive the car above the speed limit. Speeding will rev you up and keep you revved up for the rest of the day as you tend to move quickly at all other activities after speeding. It is when we speed that we discover the idiots on the road who get us uptight. When we slow down it’s amazing how they disappear.

• Don’t perch yourself on the edge of chairs. This tightens all your muscles from the lower back to the top of the neck. Sit back, use the backrest whether at home or work.

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The air we breathe contains oxygen. Oxygen is the spark of life. Just as a fire can’t burn without oxygen our cells can’t produce heat and energy without oxygen. Oxygen is extracted from the air we breathe by the lungs. It passes into the blood vessels that surround the lungs and is carried to all the cells of the body by the blood. Most of the oxygen is carried by the red blood cells, though some of it is carried by the water in the blood. A deficiency of water means reduced oxygen delivery by the blood. So important is oxygen, that even where optimum water, protein, vitamin and mineral intake exists, ill health will still exist if there’s an oxygen deficiency. Under-breathing is epidemic among adults.

The mechanics of breathing determine oxygen supply. Shallow chest breathing gives rise to oxygen deficiencies, as there are very few blood vessels surrounding the upper lobes of the lungs. Most of the blood vessels surround the lower lobes of the lung. Deep, abdominal breathing is the answer to optimum oxygen levels.

Unfortunately most people breathe shallowly. Tight clothing and a lifetime spent rushing, sitting hunched over desks doing paperwork, studying, working computers and getting stressed out produces the bad habits of shallow breathing. Babies don’t chest breathe. Neither do drunks. They’re both so relaxed they breathe easily and deeply and their tummies rise and fall to the rhythm of this breathing. Shallow chest breathing is a bad habit we develop as we move towards adulthood. It’s a habit that can be easily unlearnt by practising the deep breathing exercises detailed in the chapter on stress and by slowing down.

These exercises are an integral part of the programs in this book and must be practised daily if the programs and increased fluid intake are to be of significant benefit to you.

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As with any disease there are a number of factors contributing to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). CFS sufferers have one or more of the following factors afflicting them:

1. Stress

2. Lack of water and oxygen in the cells

3. An under-active thyroid gland.

4. Lack of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, protein or carbohydrate in the diet.

5. Candida yeast infection.

6. Allergy.

7. Crummy jobs and crummy relationships that are so unfulfilling they’re significantly enervating.

8. Viral infections, hepatitis, glandular fever, AIDS.

9. Tropical and Third-World gut infections like Bali belly, Delhi belly, giardia (blocks absorption of nutrients) or hookworm (causes anaemia). Don’t holiday in the tropics, the Third World, Melanesia or Polynesia (Hawaii is OK as are the islands of the Barrier Reef).

There is no doubt however that Candida yeast infection and allergy are the most common causes.

Whereas it’s true that viruses are the great energy suckers of the body it is invariably allergy and Candida infections that allow them to multiply to energy-sucking proportions.

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Not all slow learning and bad behaviour is the result of hearing that’s distorted by glue ear. I’ve treated many young people for behavioural and learning problems who didn’t have it, yet these kids were suffering from the same low resistance allergy and Candida problems as their glue ear counterparts.

It’s because we’re all biochemically unique and express our allergies, Candida infections and lowered resistance (vitamin and mineral deficiency) in different ways. In the case of glue ear sufferers the tissue targeted by the allergy or infection is the mucous membrane of the nose and throat. In those who have learning disorders but no behavioural or hearing problems the areas of the brain that facilitate learning are affected. In those cases where behaviour is bad but learning and hearing are not affected only those areas of the brain that govern the way we emote, act and react are affected. Sometimes the nose, throat, behavioural and learning centres of the brain are affected simultaneously.

The exact biochemical processes have not as yet been detailed. What is known is that in the case of allergies, Candida and viral and bacterial infections the target tissue is inflamed. Inflamed tissues anywhere in the body always function abnormally and often unpredictably. In the case of glue ear the mucous membranes of the nose become inflamed and function abnormally by producing more of their protective mucus covering than is needed.

Instead of the mucus draining forward (as it normally does) to give the predictable symptoms of a runny or stuffy nose that makes colds and allergies easy to diagnose, it drains backwards down the eustacian tube giving rise to a clutch of seemingly unrelated symptoms. The affected tissues in the brain also function abnormally.

In the case of learning and behavioural disorders the picture is further complicated by the fact that vitamin and mineral deficiencies often exist, affecting the production of special brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. These are vital for thought integration, physical co-ordination, verbal articulation and elevated mood.

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• Be patient. It takes up to twelve months to remove all excess copper and iron from arthritic joints and to completely repair tissue damage. However, you’ll be progressing all the time and should feel significantly better in five or six months. If you are one of those people who get dramatic results in the first month or so make sure you continue with the program. To break it will only see the problem return.

• Wash your daily multi-vitamin and mineral supplements down with a small amount of juice or water with one level teaspoon of vitamin C powder in it. Add also, twice only per week, one drop only of Lugol’s iodine solution, using an eye dropper. The iodine is available from your chemist. As it is an old remedy, the younger pharmacists don’t usually know how to mix it up. Go to a mature age chemist. Iodine, along with vitamin C powder and the multi-vitamins and minerals will help normalise the action of the thyroid gland. This is important as thyroid gland underactivity can cause the formation of a thick jelly-like substance (mucin) in the joints. This causes the joints to swell and when they swell they become stiff and painful.

• If, after six months of sticking strictly to the program, resting and following all the other instructions in this section, your joints are not reducing in size, pain and stiffness you most likely have an under-active thyroid gland. The best way to test for this is to take your under-arm temperature first thing in the morning on waking. Put the thermometer under your arm and lie perfectly still for ten minutes. Do not sit up or move around prior to the test as this will raise your basal temperature. Shake the thermometer down the night before. On waking reach out for it without sitting up. Ladies, take your temperature on the morning of the second and third days of your period only. Body temperature varies up and down through the cycle. If you have reached menopause, start testing any time of the month and continue it over a two-day period. If your temperature is below 36.6°C you almost certainly have an under-active thyroid gland. Ask your doctor to prescribe 0.1 mg daily of Oroxine and if in six to seven weeks the joints are still not improving take another 0.1 mg per day. This will usually do the trick though sometimes it takes 0.3-0.4 mg per day. As the oroxine begins to improve the function of the gland you will be able to reduce the dosage. The standard blood tests for thyroid under-activity are no good for diagnosing arthritis or those glands that are mildly under-active.

• Keep your doctor or naturopath informed.

• Take at least one teaspoon of cod liver or halibut oil per day.

• Consult a good osteopath or chiropractor to make sure there is no fibrous tissue component to your problem and if there is follow his advice.

• Make sure your fluid intake is adequate. The synovial fluid that lubricates joints is made from water. Joints can dry up and become stiff and sore when water intake is sub-optimum.

• Do the deep breathing exercises every day. Deep breathing feeds oxygen to the joints and muscles around the joints. The joints repair themselves faster and the muscles around the joints relax, reducing joint pain and stiffness.

• Pineapples and paw contain enzymes that have a natural anti-inflammatory affect on arthritic joints. Eat plenty of these if you are not allergic to them and you have completed the first four weeks of the Anti-Candida Program.

• The green-lipped mussel is a potent anti-inflammatory and painkiller that is a specific for arthritis. It’s available as an extract in Sea Tone tablets available from your health store.

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If somebody makes a hurtful and sarcastic remark about your skin take it as a compliment because that is what it actually is. To evoke such a remark from someone means you have evoked enough interest for them to put you at the centre of their attention, which means at that point in time they consider you to be more important than they are. So bad skin notwithstanding there is something about you that is appealing. The best way to handle these situations is to keep your dignity, ignore the remark and keep away from that person. These people are attention seekers who are annoyed that they are not getting enough attention from you to boost their own ego, advance their career, justify their existence or whatever. They are not worth being around as they will sap your vitality over time. They are poor communicators. People are poor communicators for many reasons which we won’t go into. Suffice to say, it’s heavy going being around them and you just don’t need that. Poor communication is a sign of immaturity. Kids will often punch or insult someone they fancy as they lack the more sophisticated communication skills and confidence that comes with age and maturity.

Malicious gossip and rumours about you or your skin are also a tremendous compliment. You really must be an interesting person if people are going to that much trouble. Enjoy it while it lasts. Hollywood stars and starlets work over-time to keep rumours and gossip about them alive, so aware are they of its complimentary value.

If you are lucky enough to have someone question you or make a remark about your skin be careful of the way you interpret it. The majority of those who are outer centred enough to make an issue of your skin would be genuinely concerned. Don’t interpret what they say negatively, this will only incite anger and aggravate the skin. Be thankful they have taken the time to notice, hear them out, answer their questions and thank them for their advice even if you know it’s wrong. Be thankful that someone out there cares enough to actually say something to you about it. Such people are few and far between. A negative response to this type of overture indicates shyness and lack of confidence. Best you join toastmasters and/or a debating society now.

Remember: There’s an up side and a clown side to everything. The up side to having a skin problem is that you have had the issue of inordinate attention seeking brought to your notice and have been able to avoid falling into its trap forever. You have had the opportunity of recognising and removing malevolent, poor communicators from your life. You have learnt more about diet and health than you otherwise would have. The spin-off effects from this in terms of health and happiness will significantly raise your levels of well-being.

Humility will set you free. Most importantly you have embarked on this treatment regime to achieve optimum health for yourself and to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity for growth and development it offers. You have not embarked on it to win the approval of others.

My observation is that adversity causes personal growth. This is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in those who cure themselves of skin complaints and other allergy symptoms. These people all have one thing in common. They view their problem as a challenge rather than an affliction. Instead of bemoaning the fact that they have it, they get excited at the prospect of overcoming it. They make a project out of curing their skin complaint/allergy and work as diligently and patiently at it as they would any other project. They acknowledge the great truth that the best way out of a difficulty is through it. In my experience, the only people who fail to get well are those who give up. Those who persist will always win in the end. In the words of Honore de Balzac: ‘All human power is a compound of time and patience.’ And Benjamin Disraeli said: ‘Adversity makes a man wise. There is no education like adversity.’

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On no account attempt to treat asthma by yourself. You must always seek the guidance of a doctor or other health professional. Use only the skin sensitivity test, RAST test and cytotoxic food test to determine the specific allergens that are causing your asthma. Although you must be off all cortisone and antihistamines for seven days before the tests, you must remain on a Ventolin inhaler and any of the other non-cortisone/non-antihistamine drugs the doctor chooses to put you on. Although you must eat as wide a variety of foods as possible before the tests you are not to eat any of those you suspect would harm you. Write them down instead and give the list to your doctor or naturopath. He or she will take these foods into account while preparing your anti-allergy program.

• Keep warm. In winter always wear woollen crew and polo neck jumpers whether you perspire in them or not. Always wear shoes and socks. Don’t surf or swim in winter even in a wetsuit. In summer, dry off the moment you come out of the water. Sitting wet on the sand allows summer sea breezes to chill you. Many summer colds, ‘flu, and asthma attacks develop this way. If going out at night in winter wear a fleecy lined vest under your shirt or blouse and button it up to the neck. Wear a coat and scarf to and from the function. In summer always carry a crew neck cotton pullover with you. Most southerly busters come through in the late afternoon or early evening. Don’t jog, play tennis or train at sports such as football, karate or judo on cold nights unless you are in an adequately heated building. Study the section on colds and ‘flu and act on the advice therein.

• Start taking draughts seriously. Close all windows and doors at night and through the day if you are sitting around in winter. Maintain an even body temperature. Heat all the rooms in the house. Hop out of bed straight into warm slippers and dressing gown. Don’t hop in and out of a warm car without a pullover. Don’t be fooled by sunny days in winter, they are invariably accompanied by cold winds. Wear a beanie to football matches.

• Regularly spray a section of the carpet with dust mite spray so the kids have a dust free area to play in and the adults a dust free area for exercising. No lying face down on the carpet to read or watch TV.

• Practise daily (for ten to fifteen minutes) the deep breathing exercises described in the chapter on stress. These are imperative if the windpipe spasms are to be permanently overcome.

• I have found that the wearing of magnetic necklaces and sleeping on magnetic pillows (available from most medical supply stores) has helped many of my asthma patients achieve a better night’s sleep and experience a reduced intensity of asthma attacks.

• See your osteopath or chiropractor for heat massage and manipulation to the vertebrae between your shoulderblades. Have this treatment on a regular basis while the programs are taking effect and any time in the future that you feel you are tightening up in that area.

• A good acupuncturist is invaluable for maintenance prevention of asthma when all other healing modalities arc being adhered to. Often it can reduce an acute attack. Sitting reading or watching TV while leaning back against a hot water bottle (between the shoulderblades) is very effective. The heat stimulates acupuncture points on the back that are specifics for asthma. Use the hot water bottle every night for the time you arc on the program.

• I lot water with a couple of drops of eucalyptus oil in it provides an excellent inhalant vapour during acute attacks but must be used in addition to your doctor-prescribed medication, not in place of it and only by those not allergic to salicylates.

• You must give up smoking and live in a smoke free environment if you are to cure yourself of asthma. Other people smoking in the house means you will only experience temporary relief at best. Contrary to popular belief smoking marijuana docs not help asthma, it makes it worse.

• Although asthma is often the result of direct contact with airborne allergens such as moulds, pollens and grasses, the removal of mould and fermented foods as well as grass and pollen foods (Ryvita, porridge, muesli and bread, alfalfa, barley, herbal teas) from the program does much to reduce the sensitivity to direct contact with these substances. The vitamins and minerals taken in supplementary form strengthen the walls of the windpipe raising their resistance to airborne allergens.

• Never blow your nose on paper tissues or wipe your face or hands with paper towels. The chemicals in these products (mainly formaldehyde) are easily inhaled as are the flakes of paper. Both the chemicals and paper flakes are toxic and can perpetuate allergic read ions in the windpipe.

• Do not clean or scrim (particularly mould in the shower recess). The formaldehyde in the cleaning agents could give you an asthma attack. Dusting and vacuuming creates airborne mould and will further exacerbate your asthma. Have someone else do it while you are not in the house.

• Do not have [lowers in the house. The pollen will cause your allergies to flare up.

Remember: Although asthma is not normally a life-threatening disease the imprudent withdrawal of asthma medication can.

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Diet is as important for the treatment of inhalant allergies as it is for food allergies. Diet raises the body’s resistance to allergies by building up the immune system. Make sure that foods pertaining to a given inhalant allergen are not consumed for ninety days. The removal of food correlates speeds the process of desensitisation to inhalant, allergens by helping to reduce overall contact with them.

Common oafs is a grass, the spores of which are frequently in the air during spring and autumn, to which many people have inhalant allergies (sinusitis, hayfever, asthma, conjunctivitis,). Sensitivity to common oats is lowered by removing all oats from the diet, and avoiding all contact with muesli, porridge, Guiness stout, oatmeal soap, oatmeal skin preparations, oat bran and oatmeal. With rye grass sensitivity avoid Ryvita, rye bread and rye flour.

Those with a sensitivity to a number of grasses and pollen do better if they stay off herbal teas, most of which are of grass and pollen origin. Although herbal teas are better for you than ordinary tea and coffee, if you’re allergic to grasses and pollens they can do more harm than tea and coffee. Rosehip and peppermint arc safe herbal leas for the grass allergic.

Sensitivities to airborne moulds, including those that live in air-conditioning systems of large offices (namely alternaria) can be lowered by staying off the foods list. If you’re allergic to the cephlasporium mould that lives in the soil you must wear a dust mask (obtainable along with your dust mile cover and dust mite spray from your chemist) while digging and weeding the garden or repotting the pot plants.

If you’re allergic to grasses, wear long pants to golf and put your dust mask on while driving, chipping, putting and playing out off the rough. Don’t attempt to walk too far with it, as it’ll restrict your breathing and fatigue you. Don’t bushwalk, cut. the lawns or ride a cycle on or near freshly cut lawns or in the bush for ninety days. If you’re an orchardist or commercial flower grower wear the dust mask while sedentary (for example, on the tractor) and try to get someone to do the heavy work for ninety days so that you’re not forced to breathe deeply and inhale airborne allergens.

The best mask to wear is the one the spray painters use. Unfortunately, it can’t be worn if physical activity is engaged in. It’s ideal for wearing around the house while someone else is cutting yours or your neighbour’s lawn. Also while sitting on a tractor, ploughing, sowing, fertilising or spraying. After ninety days of the program and avoidance of the inhalants you should be able to make contact with them again without your symptoms returning.

The best time for grass allergic people to go on the programs is winter when the pollen and spore count is at its lowest and the body is having a seasonal rest from these airborne allergens. By observing over the ninety days of winter, adequate rest, strict adherence to the program and minimal contact with the inhalants, spring should see you symptom free despite walking in the fields, digging the gardens, working in the glasshouse or cutting the lawns. Often the desensitising vaccine is also required to achieve this.

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Because allergies are such whacky and variable things it is impossible to describe a treatment that will work best for everyone. I have talked to people who became desensitised to all their inhalant allergies just by having the skin test and others who were worse on the vaccine.

If after the first week on the vaccine you are no better, stop taking it until you have thoroughly detoxified your body and built yourself up on sound, wholesome food. Then if you still have symptoms begin with the vaccine again. Take it every second day the first week and every day the following week. Be prepared to experiment. I have had patients that responded brilliantly and cleared all their symptoms when they took the vaccine every day for the first week, every second day for the second week, every third day for the third week, then went back to every day for later weeks. Different formulas work for different people. Be patient with yourself, give it time, work it out and you will get better. I have found the best results are achieved if the vaccine is not commenced until at least four to five weeks on the Anti-Allergy Program, if it is needed at all. Taking the vaccine too early in the program seems to put undue strain on the immune system and many people react adversely to it. Being off all allergenic foods for four to six weeks seems to reduce immune system strain and reactions to the vaccine become more favourable.

I have noticed cigarette and marijuana smokers lake much longer to desensitise than non-smokers do, even though they may stick strictly to the diet. Why these two drugs suppress the normal desensitising process is hard to say, but they do. Taking other drugs, including prescription ones, has the same effect.

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