THE VIRILITY SOLUTION: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE
At the suggestion of a friend who was already participating in the Vasomax study, Ron came to see me. After carefully screening him, I concurred with the urologist. For the most part, his health was excellent. He didn’t smoke, and exhibited no signs of hypertension, diabetes, prostate cancer, or Parkinson’s disease, the major ailments typically associated with ED.
I told Ron that his primary symptoms, which included slower arousal time, the need for increased stimulation to achieve an erection, and the inability to maintain an erection, were early signs of ED. He was accepted into the study and before he left that afternoon, I gave him a one-month supply of Vasomax pills, along with diaries that both he and his wife were to fill in as soon as a sexual encounter was over. I told him that a stuffy nose was a possible side effect, and that he might I eel lightheaded or a quickening pulse. He should carefully record any unusual changes he might experience.
Before he left, Ron asked me one more question: “If the pills work lor me, will I have to take them forever?”
I told him what I tell all my patients taking the new medications. Reactions vary from patient to patient, depending on the nature of their particular erectile problems. But if it turned out that Ron did need them indelmitely, I didn’t foresee a problem. “I ook at it this way,” I said. “The help you need is available to you. Just take that little white pill—and live the most satisfying life you can.”
Like so many men whom I’ve treated, Ron now regards his sex life as pre- and post-Vasomax. In the old era, he and his wife would try to have sex once or twice a week, with a lot of uncertainty on Ron’s part. Post-Vasomax, they quickly rediscovered the joys of spontaneous sex. Ron’s fear of inadequacy vanished. And gone forever was the very unpleasant option of having to inject himself.
Ron summed up his experience in a way I’ll always remember. “When I left your office after taking Vasomax for the first time, Amy and I went to dinner. I started to feel differently. I became acutely aware of how lovely she looked, and, all of a sudden, my emotional response to her was matched by a really powerful physical urge. I was overcome with desire for her. In fact, we skipped dessert in the restaurant—and had it at home, if you know what I mean.”
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Men’s Health
THE VIAGRA TESTS
The tests on Viagra (sildenafil) were no different. In the first human trial of the drug, a dozen men in England who were experiencing ED took it three times a day for a week. The results were extremely encouraging but researchers had to pose some realistic questions: Does anyone really want to take a pill three times daily? And who could afford such a costly treatment?
Another short trial was begun. This time, the dozen men took a single dose every day. Remarkably, ten of them showed positive results, and the researchers concluded that the drug was “a well-tolerated and efficacious oral therapy and represents a new class of peripherally acting drugs for the treatment of this condition.”
Phase II drug trials spread beyond the west of England to other parts of the United Kingdom, as well as France and Sweden. In one study, forty-two men, between the ages of thirty-four and seventy, all of whom had experienced ED for at least three years, were divided into two groups. Half took Viagra in 25, 50, or 75 mg doses daily while the others received a placebo. Later, the two groups switched pills. After twenty-eight days, more than 90 percent of the men reported significantly improved sexual performance. This was confirmed by the answers they provided on detailed sexual activity questionnaires. Not only were they filled out by the men taking part in the study, they were answered by their partners as well. It turned out that the men who experienced profound improvement had been taking Viagra.
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Men’s Health
THE VIRILITY SOLUTION: MEDICATIONS
Many times, ED is a side effect of taking a drug. The most common offenders are prescription drugs for high blood pressure, heart ailments, and allergies. Medications used to combat depression, especially the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, can also be the culprits.
Frequently, if a man is taking more than one medication, the damaging effects are cumulative. For example, I have seen cases where a patient is taking a drug for his depression, and, while he is experiencing some difficulty maintaining an erection, he can still have sex. However, if a second medication, say for hypertension, is added, his sexual performance will be severely impaired. A complete loss of erectile function can result.
The men in these predicaments have sex lives held hostage by the very medications that can save them. It’s an ironic and frustrating situation to be in. I have seen men blame themselves, or their partners, when they weren’t even aware that their problems had a physiological cause.
Sometimes, men will suspect that the medication mix is responsible for, or contributing to, their ED. On their own, they may decide to try lowered dosages or stop taking the drugs altogether. This very dangerous action can be deadly and must be avoided. In the case of hypertensive medication, lack of the drug may cause blood pressure to suddenly soar to-dangerously high levels. The outcome can be a stroke or a heart attack.
Right now, there are more than two hundred medications on the market that can seriously compromise creel ions and sexual performance. Unfortunately, the Food and Drug Administration, the government agency that approves all medication, doesn’t require pharmaceutical companies to reduce potential sexual side effects. But then, men rarely voice their concerns about something as personal as diminished sexual performance. Therefore, reporting erection difficulties brought about by a particular medication to a physician is a rare event. Many doctors aren’t even aware of the problem their prescriptions are causing. And, for those men who do seek help from their doctors, the frequent recommendation is for them to get’psychological counseling, which leaves them, as far as treatment for their ED is concerned, back in the middle of the twentieth century.
When it comes to avoiding certain medications because of their effect on sexual response, there is no simple answer. Not every drug will give each man who uses it trouble. If you suddenly notice that you are having erection problems where none existed before, take a good look at any and all medications that you are using.
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Men’s Health
THE VIRILITY SOLUTION: MODERN METHODESOF CURES
Penile injection therapy came about by chance. In 1980, the French physician Ronald Virag reported that during surgery on the penis, he inadvertently injected an anesthetized patient in the wrong part of the penis with papaverine, a nitrogen-containing substance derived from the opium poppy. The resulting relaxation of the smooth muscle of the penile arterial walls created an unexpected two-hour erection. The mistake by Virag set in motion serious research into the use of injectable medication for relief of ED.
At around the same time, Giles Brindley a British physiologist and research scientist, found that when the drug phenoxybenzamine was injected directly into the corpora cavernosa of the penis, an erection could be produced within a few minutes. Still, even though it was a powerful substance, phenoxybenzamine had serious side effects, including cardiac arrhythmia, nausea, and hyperventilation. Additionally, it was found to be carcinogenic in test animals.
In 1984, in Paris, a New York urologist, Dr. Adrian Zorgniotti, presented his first case studies of self-injection using a dual combination of papaverine and phentolamine. The latter drug interrupts the passage of neurotransmitters, which then causes relaxation of the smooth muscles of the penis. Two years later, Japanese researchers presented evidence that injections of prostaglandin E-l produced powerful erections. Finally, modern medicine had injectable drugs that, used either alone or in combination, were able to give a man an erection whenever he wanted one. Slowly, news of the favorable results with the injectable medication began to spread within the small international community of urologists who were treating ED. Most began utilizing all three—papaverine, phentolamine, and prostaglandin E-l—in what was referred to as “tri-mix.”
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Men’s Health
THE VIRILITY SOLUTION: FOLK MEDECINE
Folk medicine has always been applied whenever a man’s virility showed signs of waning. A seemingly endless succession of herbal potions, drugs, and mechanical devices has been employed over the centuries, from crushed rhinoceros horn and pulverized antelope, deer, and horse testicles, to parings of human nails. In times of desperation, a piece of bone was actually eased into the urethra to stiffen the penis.
The mandrake plant, a member of the nightshade family, was used extensively in medieval Europe, northern Africa, and Asia as both a painkiller and a cure for ED. It is even mentioned in the Old Testament, under the name “dudaim,” as the stimulant used by Jacob. Stemless, with bell-shaped flowers, the plant’s long and thick root, which often divides into two sections, resembles the lower male torso. It contains many alkaloids of medicinal value, making it one of the most discussed plants in medical literature, as well as the subject of myth and superstition. Alkaloids are a diverse group of nitrogen-containing substances produced by plants that have powerful effects on body function; some of the more common alkaloids include atropine, morphine, quinine, and codeine.
And then there was food. Throughout history, edibles, especially those phallic in shape, were employed as virility boosters. Asparagus, bananas, carrots, and cucumbers stood out in this category. Some indigenous tribes in coastal areas traditionally rubbed long, slender fish against their penises in the hope that they would become similarly long and hard.
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Men’s Health
AN A-Z OF EMOTIONAL PAIN: PAIN
Pain reminds you that you’re alive by bringing you down to a conscious level. Your body is screaming for help. It puts you on notice that your physical structure has been ignored too long.
There is an emotional element to all pain. The emotional pain may be too much for you to handle so your physical body takes the overload. We believe that you are laid flat on your back in order to make you look up!
If our lives are going in the wrong direction, destiny gives us a ‘tap on the shoulder’. It may only be gentle like a small accident which makes up stop and think: ‘Where am I going?’; ‘Is that where I want to be?’
If we ignore this tap, then the reminder becomes a much more painful experience when we are forced to take notice. There are many people who will tell you how a serious accident completely changed their lives. Intense pain prompted them to reassess their priorities in life. It’s a fact that we are sometimes forced to suffer before learning life’s lessons.
An example of this is Cry of the Damaged Man by Tony Moore. This is the story of a doctor who learnt from a very painful accident. For the first time he became the patient and his story of this experience is poignant.
We don’t have to hurt. By listening to our emotions, we learn to recognise the pitfalls awaiting us. Test yourself while doing a job. What is your overriding emotion? Is it anger or resentment that you have to do the task, or thankfulness that you have the capacity/intelligence/good luck to be asked to do it?
Pleasure is the opposite of pain. Finding how to handle one is often the path by which we find the other. Release resistance to pain, don’t run away from it, size it up. Pain can drive people to suicide, so it is important to diagnose the cause.
Therapies recommended for emotional pain come from the homoeopathic repertoire. A very detailed picture of the whole person’s background, the general and specific symptoms and knowledge of the chronic or acute situation must be thoroughly detailed before classical remedies can be prescribed. This is a
challenging and rewarding task when you involve yourself with this 200-year-old therapy. Homoeopathics recommended for pain cover pages of the repertoire. The dosage is also exacting as the more diluted the remedy, the more effective the treatment. Emotional pain is treated with the high dilutions of 200x or greater.
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Pain Relief
AN A-Z OF EMOTIONAL PAIN: ACUPUNCTURE
Acupuncture is used to balance the energies of the body, by first diagnosing and then treating from the twelve pulses in the wrist. Acupuncturists talk in terms of earth, metal, fire, water and wood. Not enough fire energy can cause depression, while too much can cause excessive laughter (have you ever been driven insane by someone’s inability to stop laughing long after the joke is over), or giggling? This can bring on an asthma attack (I know because it used to happen to me as a child).Then again, not enough wood can cause tears and an excess of wood will bring forth anger.
Here’s a short list of emotions affected by each element:
Wood aggression, anger, irritability, restlessness, instability.
Fire joy, happiness, hysteria, excessive laughter, sadness (lack of fire energy
minimises our joy etc).
Earth sympathy, concern, worry, tension, depression.
Metal crying, grief, sorrow, negativity, parsimony.
Water groaning, reverence, awe, wonder, fear, alarm, timidity (again, appreciate the need for correct energy balance).
Too much or too little of these emotions can cause problems. Acupuncture is a simple means of correcting energy flow. By balancing these important energy levels we can ease emotional tensions almost instantly – just a few small needles quickly and expertly inserted. It’s so much better than drug dependency.
Susan’s story-Susan came to my clinic, very tense and shaken. She was teary and couldn’t sit down while she relayed her story to me. She had had a fight with her husband followed by a minor car accident. I gave her drops for shock and lay her down, then checked the pulses in her wrist to see how her body was coping. Stress, in my opinion, was the only real problem, and I quickly inserted acupuncture needles in the correct positions. Very soon after that she calmed down and her heartbeat returned to normal. I was quite comfortable that a day’s rest was all she would need — if her husband didn’t abuse her over the cost of fixing the car.
Homoeopathy takes in the total picture of the suffering person’s family history, the past health history, trauma in their life, medications masking illnesses or reducing immunity, sensitivity to weather, movement, heat and cold, sleep patterns, food preferences and so much more. These details give the homoeopath an overall idea of the type of patient you are, and the special picture you represent.
Tim’s story–Tim was brought to me for help with his attitude to school and life generally. I shook his hand and noticed that his grip was soft and clammy. He was a sandy-headed, freckle-faced boy, a little overweight (though that is not a problem in a growing boy who is about to shoot upwards and has no emotional problems). His mother told me that he was always forgetting things and could become very obstinate when he liked. He was quite well when he first woke up but by the end of the day everything seemed an effort. He often complained that his head was hot and developed a cold easily if he was caught in a weather change.
After taking a comprehensive case history, and checking his spine for structural misalignment, I decided to use homoeopathy, especially as he said he freaked out at the idea of needles! So we agreed on some drops under the tongue.
To a homoeopath, the diagnosis was obvious. Inability to absorb calcium in the young will often present these symptoms and more. Calcarea carbonica is a constitutional remedy par excellence and works very well indeed, especially with children. One dose a day for a week showed gradual improvement in his overall health and very definitely in his emotional attitude. We decreased the drops until one dose per week was all he required.
Each case, however, is unique and the homoeopath must work out the appropriate remedy. Totally different homoeopathic medication may be required by each patient even though they have similar symptoms.
When it comes to nutrition, vitamins are well known for the: importance they have in emotional health, especially the B complex ones. Deficiency of these vitamins may be brought on through stress of any kind, such as poor nutrition, overwork, smoking, insomnia. Special times of need, such as breastfeeding, or after surgery, accidents and trauma will soon upset the delicate vitamin balance.
While I was listening to a patient one day, I noticed that he was nervously wiping and hiding his mouth with his hands. It was an unconscious movement, and although it first annoyed me because it prevented me from hearing what he was saying, I realised I was seeing first hand a vitamin B deficiency. It became clear that he was suffering work stress which wasn’t being recognised. I advised a course of vitamin B complex with each meal for at least a month. Eventually his nervous symptoms disappeared and he could talk to me with confidence. He learnt that vitamin tablets would benefit him and his family whenever they suffered stress.
There is a wonderful world of Bach, and now Bush, Flower remedies which do wonders for emotional stress, pain and their associated problems.
Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936), a Welsh pathologist, bacteriologist, homoeopath and herbalist, was the first to derive these remedies from flower extracts. He treated the mental states which govern our physical wellbeing by using simple flower dilutions. They are available from any naturopath and are totally safe, being correctly distilled and professionally prepared.
There are thirty-eight Bach Flower remedies. The first twelve represent the emotions of: fear, mental torture/worry, terror, indecision, indifference/boredom, overconcern/anxiety, weakness, self distrust, impatience, over-enthusiasm, pride/aloofness.
Here, in alphabetical order, is a list of the flowers whose extracts immediately treat emotional symptoms: aspen, beech, centaury, cerato, cherry-plum,
chestnut-bud, chicory, clematis, crab-apple, elm, gentian, gorse, heather, holly, honeysuckle, hornbeam, impatiens, larch, mimulus, mustard, oak, olive, pine,
red-chestnut, rock-rose, rock-water, scleranthus, star-of-Bethlehem, sweet chestnut, vervain, vine, walnut, water-violet, white-chestnut, wild-oat, wild-rose, willow. A special five of these blended together form the well-known Rescue Remedy.
My own story-A little while ago I desperately needed a holiday. I feel a fool telling you this but, having finally organised a few days off, I couldn’t make up my mind what to do with them. Should I go to the beach and breathe in the salt air and bask in the sunshine? Should I head for the Blue Mountains and walk up and down the country trails? Should I book in to a five star hotel and indulge myself with theatre? I couldn’t decide. Should I stay home and ignore the telephone and catch up on the filing?
I drove myself crazy trying to make up my mind. I actually packed a bag and got into the car not knowing where I was going. An hour on the road and I was back home! Finally I woke up to myself and took a dose of scleranthus for indecision. Within three minutes I knew I had to stay put and book in to see my dentist, chiropodist, hairdresser, beautician and masseuse and indulge myself with treatments I deserved and needed!
My belief is that everyone should have their own Bach Flower remedy kit at home and self-medicate when necessary. Emotional states not heeded lead to more complicated body stress patterns requiring expensive therapy. Why not short circuit the process by taking responsibility for your own emotions with simple therapies?
All naturopaths, however, believe in the principle that for optimum health we should eat the foods grown in our own area as we are chemically adapted to them. Dr Bach, therefore, would have agreed with the latest development of the Bush Flower remedies for emotional problems as they are extracted from Australian flowers and developed for Australian conditions.
Symptoms addressed by these remedies include: burn-out, frustration, rigidity to change, annoyance, loathing, disgust, impatience, obsessions, pining, holding onto the past, inability to cope, worry”; resentment, bitterness, fearfulness, insecurity, lack of courage, lack of confidence, insensitivity, terror, panic, apathy and many, many more.
Some of the essences available are: banksia robur, bauhinia, billy-goat-plum, black-eyed susan, bluebell, boronia, bottle-brush, bush-fuchsia, bush-gardinia, bush-iris, cowslip-orchid, crowea, dagger-hakea, dog-rose, five-corners,
illawarra-flame-tree, flannel-flower, fringed-violet, grey-spider-flower, hibbertia, isopogon, jacaranda, kangaroo-paw, kapok bush, little-flannel flower, macro-carpa, mountain-devil, mulla-mulla, old man-banksia, pawpaw, peach-flowered tea tree, philotheca, red grevillea, red helmet, red lily, sheoak, silver princess,
slender-rice-flower, southern-cross, spinifex, sturt-desert-pea, sturt-desert-rose, sundew, sunshine wattle, tall yellow top, turkey bush, waratah, wedding bush, wild potato bush, wisteria.
These essences must be professionally prepared for consumption and government regulations ensure the strictest of standards.
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Pain Relief
AN A-Z OF LUMBAR OR PAIN AND LEG PAIN: DYSMENORRHOEA
I am feeling so much more calm and settled – it has changed my outlook and I feel more confident. I no longer worry about the date nor try to organise my life and work around my period knowing that I would be almost ‘out of action’.
My working life is much better to manage and I can face each day confidently. At home my family all say I am easier to live with and I am, without such awful pain. Now that the pain and discomfort have gone I really wonder why we put up with such unnecessary agony for ourselves and everyone around us. Treatment changed my attitude, renewed my confidence, and gave me a new life.
Painful periods are often an indication that the pelvis needs realigning. By the time menstruation commences, there has been ample opportunity for sporting sprains to have thrown the pelvis out of correct alignment.
My clinic is near an ice skating rink. I have witnessed a considerable number of falls onto the hip joint. This is one of the ways that the pelvis is sprained and if left uncorrected will, and does, result in painful periods when girls reach puberty. An adjustment corrects this pelvic strain so that the natural flow is unimpeded. If your daughter suffers from dysmenorrhoea, watch and see if she usually stands on one leg with the other knee bent. This is one indicator of a pelvic problem.
With acupuncture the needles go into the ankles and the pain and cramp stop immediately. The points between the first finger and thumb complete the combination for the acupuncture treatment.
The relief from pain is wonderful and I give the girls therapy for three weeks consecutively, then, once a month, the week before the flow. That just about solves the problem. Pain is never normal. Menstruation should be regular and painless. If not, see your chiropractor or osteopath. Find one who does acupuncture too!
Rhonda’s story or the past so many years – so many that I couldn’t begin to remember my periods have meant almost a fortnight of misery and pain.
My cycle would begin with feeling bloated and heavy, breasts swollen, headachy, cranky, irritable and generally negative for about four or five days. For the next four or so days, I would have spotting before my period would actually begin. The onset would be accompanied by a rather severe headache, lasting from a day or two at least and anything up to ten days.
Sometimes I would work on trying to concentrate with my head pounding and my eyes burning. When it got really bad I would go and lie down on the bathroom tiles. I think I have almost lived on period pain pills for the past ten years or so and I really wonder what they do to your body.
My period would then last for five to seven days with a rather heavy flow and at least two ‘fioodings’ in that time. On the first day I would usually have to spend a couple of hours with a hot water bottle to ease the pain.
I had to get up and change through the night for at least four nights or if I did sleep through, there would be a big ‘clean up’ session. Then it would finish with another headache before a few final days of spotting to end it all.
Then I went to my natural therapist for treatment for a painful shoulder. In conversation I mentioned my headaches and painful periods and it was suggested I try acupuncture with chiropractic.
I had treatment a couple of times and almost instantly felt better. After only two treatments, my headaches have disappeared completely (which is so wonderful that no-one could really believe it).
My periods last only a week now and the flow has settled down considerably. There is only slight discomfort at the beginning with some pain, but certainly not enough to complain about.
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Pain Relief
AN A-Z OF LUMBAR OR PAIN AND LEG PAIN: SHORT LEG SYNDROME
AND HOW TO LIFT CORRECTLY
There are true short legs which occur from difficult fractures in the pelvis or leg bones, or where polio or some such disease has affected growth. Then there is the ‘apparent’ short leg which occurs through muscle cramp, or, more usually, distortion of the pelvis due to injury. These latter problems can be – and
are – corrected by our work every day.
One mistake made is when people self-diagnose and put in heel-lifts without the chiropractor’s expert opinion on their necessity. Over a two-year period, the resulting tilt to the pelvis creates a spinal rotation. Then we have to unwind the painful situation. Please check with a chiropractor first.
How to lift correctly:
First centre yourself.
Face the object squarely.
Drop if possible to a squat for low lifts.
Use all your body in the motion.
Hold the object close to your body.
Rise using your arms, trunk and legs.
Lift the object front on.
Turn your feet, not your spine, before you lower the object.
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Pain Relief
AN A-Z OF DORSAL AND THORACIC PAIN: HEART DISEASE
It has been known for years but the very latest confirmation is a report from the University of Texas Medical Center in Dallas that says, ‘Hardening of the arteries, a major factor in death from heart disease, appears to nearly stop in patients who increase their intake of vitamin C and E and beta carotene.’ They found these vitamins reduced damage caused to artery walls by cholesterol without any side effects!
We know, too, that reducing animal fats in our diet is an important correction of our eating pattern for heart trouble. Also it is thought that ‘bad’ cholesterol is mainly caused by stress and the effects of animal fats.
Foods known to decrease unwanted cholesterol are garlic, fish, barley, oats, gooseberries, mushrooms and prunes. Don’t forget the bad effects of stress on the heart. Walking daily is the safest exercise.
The damage done to our bodies through impure air, water and food, leaves us with the real need to help clean out our systems with increased vitamin intake. Vitamin C is the great cleanser of toxic metals in the bloodstream. Homoeopathic plumbago clears out the lead.
Chelation Therapy is a process to bind and eliminate heavy metals. Certain metal ions and other chemical substances (EDTA) are introduced intravenously to clean out toxic metals and plaque which accumulates in the blood vessels. (Chelation is described thoroughly in Alternative Medicine by Diane Wiesner.) It must be done by a medical practitioner involved in nutritional solutions to health problems.
Scars resulting from heart operations interfere with energy flow and need to be acupunctured, especially when the patient is not doing much exercise. Acupuncture quickly relieves tension and nausea.
If the patient has had scars from other operations, then the accumulated energy blockage is more severe and the patient will have divergent symptoms that also need to be relieved by correcting the energy flow. Insomnia and depression are two of these. Often there is a sense of pressure around the chest, or a feeling that the legs are bursting out of their skin. Tiredness and heavy limbs annoy, together with an internal stress that doesn’t ever let you relax.
You can’t blame the surgeon for these side effects. He has done his job well. After all he’s saved your life, but now it’s our turn to balance the chi vitality. It is a simple acupuncture procedure nothing at all to fear.
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Pain Relief
