We all know, of course, what fatigue is. Normal people experience it when they have exerted a great deal of energy. Others, however, experience fatigue on an allergic basis. In other words, their tiredness is not related to any particular exertion on their part, is unrelieved by rest or sleep, and is frequently worse in the morning.

Fatigue may also be caused by other disease states, such as chronic infection, metabolic disorders, heart ailments, anemia, dietary deficiencies, or even cancer. If none of these conditions exist, food or chemical allergy should definitely be suspected.

Physical fatigue is a minus-two symptom. It can occur at any age, but not uncommonly afflicts a younger patient than does brain-fag. It can be ruinous for any person who must perform difficult or complicated jobs.

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Busses using diesel fuel can be troublesome for passengers or those riding in other vehicles. Moving vehicles generally tend to suck in their own exhaust fumes if the windows are open. Therefore if a passenger rides in the rear of the bus, he is more likely to be exposed to these fumes than if he stays in the front of the passenger compartment. One patient with a relatively mild form of the chemical-susceptibility problem reported that he enjoyed riding in the back of the bus with the window open. He found this a stimulating experience, although he had no idea why. Afterwards, however, he noticed a feeling of depression. This appears to have been an addictionlike response to chemical fumes.

Sometimes busses follow each other in a caravan. In these cases, the exhaust of one bus is swept up into the passenger compartment of the next, especially if the wind is traveling in the same direction as the fumes.

Passengers often develop headaches and other reactions, such as nausea, during or following bus trips, without ever suspecting exhaust fumes as the cause. These effects can be cumulative, occurring after the passengers have been riding in the vehicle for a certain number of miles or minutes. In less susceptible people, the symptoms may only come on if the bus is in poor repair or if the rear windows are left open.

Often the effects of diesel fumes are subtle and go unnoticed. For instance, the fatigue associated with riding the bus downtown to go shopping is frequently out of proportion to the actual amount of activity involved. Much of this exhaustion often stems from the fumes of busses and from general traffic pollution.

In railroad stations, the diesel fumes are greatest at the entrances and exits. This is especially true of underground or covered stations in which passengers are forced to walk past a line of “purring” locomotives to reach their coach or the station exit. Some patients have become acutely ill whenever they have attempted to run such a gauntlet. Other than this, however, diesel trains actually provide less troublesome exposure than busses or automobiles, especially during rush-hour traffic. The reason for this is the rapid speed of the trains, the avoidance of traffic jams, and the relative isolation of the passenger compartment from the source of pollution.

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For the child with severe eczema, life can be misery and it is certainly worth investigating the possible role of food in the illness. The best response is usually seen in babies less than a year old. In older children, the difficulties of sticking to a diet may outweigh the benefits, although some children are very good at sticking to a. diet, once they see the benefits.

The diagnosis of food sensitivities in children with eczema can sometimes be made by a skin-prick test. Although it is not foolproof, this test can give an indication of which foods may be responsible, and this may be a useful first step. The diagnosis should be confirmed by eliminating all the suspect foods from the diet and then reintroducing them one at a time. Check that your doctor approves of this procedure before you start. Creams and other medication can be used during this procedure, to alleviate the itching. The strength of medication used should be carefully chosen to damp down the symptoms without eradicating them entirely, so that the response to foods can be assessed.

If skin-prick tests do not indicate any particular foods, then a simple form of elimination diet, avoiding the foods that are most often a problem with eczema, may be tried.

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Choose a reasonably comfortable chair. If it’s too comfortable, your relaxation will come from physical comfort rather than the discipline of your mind. You need mental discipline if you are going to be able to relax anywhere at any time. As you become more skilled at this you will be able to do it in very uncomfortable positions. The yogis of the East deliberately contort themselves into painful lotus positions while meditating so they can develop deep mental relaxation as opposed to the superficial relaxation derived from reclining comfortably.

Only by learning deep mental relaxation can you calm yourself in difficult circumstances. Sit down, close your eyes or, if you prefer, fix your gaze on a distant point across the room and hold it for the duration of the exercise. Do this in an unhurried way, with pauses after each presentation, to give the idea time to register its effect in the brain. Say to yourself mentally: ‘I feel relaxed—so relaxed. It’s so good to feel so relaxed—my whole body feels relaxed—so heavy—so easy and so relaxed.’

When you begin to feel relaxed switch your attention to one area of the body and concentrate on relaxing it by visualising it and feeling it relax. It pays to start with the legs and work your way up through the body to the face. Mentally concentrate on one muscle group at a time, noting its presence and then feeling it let go. In the early stages this visualisation can be helped if you physically tense, hold and then relax the muscle in time to the mental commands: ‘My right leg feels relaxed—I can feel the muscles let go—my leg is feeling heavy now—so heavy and relaxed—so easy—gentle—heavy and relaxed— no tension—just relaxed—I can feel my left leg now—it feels relaxed too—I can feel the muscles in it let go.’

So it goes on. The process is repeated as you shift your attention from one group of muscles to another and gradually work your way up through the legs, torso, arms, neck and, most importantly, the muscles of the face. There is a very close relationship between the muscles of the face and the mind. When the mind is relaxed it’s mirrored in the muscles of the face. When the mind is agitated, the facial muscles tense and contort to reflect that agitation.

By the time you get up to the face you are already feeling pretty relaxed and you continue the exercise by feeling the relaxation in your face: ‘Feeling so relaxed—feeling so relaxed in my face—I feel my forehead letting go—feel my jaw letting go—I feel easy all over— feel so relaxed—I feel my eye muscles letting go—I feel my teeth separate—feel easy in the face—feel easy all through my body—feel heavy in my body—feel easy in my face.’

It is at this point that you transpose the feeling of physical relaxation onto the mind: ‘I feel so relaxed in my body—so relaxed in my face—I can feel the relaxation happening in my mind. My mind feels easy—calm—gentle—relaxed—just like my body—easy and relaxed.’ If you have any significant metabolic distortions, such as fluid retention, or high cholesterol, now is the time to work on them: ‘I feel my mind letting go—feel my body letting go—feel my tissues letting go—letting go of excess fluid—feel my kidneys letting go—letting go of excess fluid—it feels so good to be letting go—letting go of excess fluid.’

In the case of high cholesterol: ‘I feel my stress levels dropping— feel the stress hormone levels dropping—dropping—dropping—so good to feel them dropping—I feel my cholesterol levels dropping— dropping with my stress levels—dropping—dropping—dropping— so good to feel them both dropping.’

If you have a skin problem: ‘I feel my stress levels dropping—the stress hormone levels are dropping—dropping—dropping—dropping. The neurokinin levels are dropping too—dropping with the stress hormone—dropping—dropping—dropping—so good to feel the neurokinin dropping—skin is calming now—calm—easy— relaxed—quietening clown—neurokinin is dropping—skin is calming—feels good—feels calm—easy—calm—gentle—relaxed.’

Don’t feel cheated when you open your eyes and see your skin complaint is still there. It won’t disappear in one session. It takes time. It’s the cumulative effect of many sessions of menial relaxation that gives you control over your visceral functions. All you need for success is patience and persistence. IQ, education, personality type have nothing to do with it. Everyone has the ability to relax and control their stress hormone, cholesterol and neurokinin levels. Constant practice of the exercise produces longer tension and neurokinin free periods, and periods of cholesterol and metabolism balance.

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• Trouble getting off to sleep.

• Tendency to toss and turn and wake during the night.

• Waking up tired in the morning even after a good night’s sleep.

• Feeling like lying in on waking.

• Grinding of teeth while asleep.

• Waking up with a sudden start just as you are beginning to doze off.

• Sweaty palms.

• Dry mouth.

• Feeling tired and drowsy to the point of nodding off in the middle of the day if you sit down to rest or read. At work this drowsiness can come on when you sit down at lunch or tea break. Truck drivers can experience it while waiting to be loaded.

• Feeling a reduction in the intensity of your allergy symptoms while on the go—working, exercising and/or socialising—and a worsening of your allergy symptoms while resting.

• High cholesterol and triglycerides, especially when dietary intake of both is low.

If you seem to be forever eating on the go and experiencing a bloated abdomen as a result, you are almost certainly stressed. This is perhaps the most common of all symptoms and the one that most often brings hard-charging over-achievers to the doctor or naturopath in the first place. They have invariably read a book on food allergies or Candida albicans and they have recognised digestive tract symptoms. These people, after sticking strictly to the combined Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program, are invariably no better by the end of the treatment program. They are still complaining that food is causing them to feel bloated and uncomfortable. This is because the high levels of adrenalin in their system are preventing the digestion of food. Instead it sits in their intestines and ferments giving rise to wind and distension of the abdomen.

Hard-charging, over-achiever types seldom experience dramatic improvements on any treatment regime—stress can mimic many of the symptoms of allergy and Candida yeast infection. They seldom ever notice appreciable increases in energy as they burn up their new found energy as quickly as they get it by doing more, often without being aware of it. For them, stress is a very insidious thing and they are seldom aware of how much they are stressing themselves. A frequent remark I hear from hard-chargers is: ‘No. I don’t feel any more energetic since my last appointment, but I’ve got a lot more done in the last few weeks.’

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To further aggravate the situation, zinc deficiencies develop in those who don’t drink and zinc is needed to activate the appetite and thirst centres in the brain. (Water deficiency = hydrochloric acid in the stomach deficiency = poor zinc absorption = lack of thirst = water deficiency.)

Unfortunately bad drinking habits are often learned early in life. Toddlers who appear to be forever harping on about wanting a drink are frequently misread as being attention seeking. To break this demanding habit the parent will often tell the child to be quiet as they don’t need a drink at all. Not surprisingly the child starts to believe this after a while and learns to get by on sub-optimum fluid intake. By the time they’re big enough to reach the tap or pour their own drinks from the fridge they’re well and truly in the habit of drinking less than they need.

To return to good health we must simply re-educate ourselves back into appropriate drinking habits. We must alter our lifestyle and work habits to accommodate these new drinking habits. Fortunately that doesn’t take long and drinking more soon gives you a taste for it. In the words of Pythagorus: ‘Choose what is best, habit will soon render it agreeable and easy.’

‘But all I seem to do is run to the toilet more?’ That’s fine. That’s the way it’s meant to be. Busy and lazy people just have to integrate that into their lifestyle. More regular drinking means better nourishment of cells and better flushing out of waste products, including allergens. More regular visits to the toilet means more toxins are being removed from the body. As you progress with your greater fluid intake you’ll notice your visits to the toilet will taper off a bit. This is because improved water intake (especially when combined with the improved vitamin and mineral intake from the programs in this book) raises the metabolic rate. Greater production of heat and energy results, with increased evaporation of water through the skin.

This makes the skin moist, soft and younger looking. Busy people should bear in mind that they’re going to be more productive if their metabolic rate is raised and this will more than compensate for time spent visiting the toilet. They’ll be making less mistakes and repeating less work.

But I suffer from fluid retention, surely drinking more water will make it worse? No it won’t. If anything it might help reduce it.

There are many reasons for fluid retention. One of them is a reduced fluid intake. When fluid is regularly withheld from the body it starts to panic and fearing dehydration begins to release the fluid-retaining hormones. This is an attempt on the part of the body to keep what little fluid it’s getting in the body. Building up a reserve of fluid is nature’s way of coping with the uncertainly of irregular and inadequate supplies.

When we start drinking greater quantities and more regularly the body soon gets its confidence up. Perceiving a regular and adequate intake of water the body stops secreting the fluid-retaining hormones and stored excesses of fluid are released and pass out of the body as urine.

If you retain fluid (that is, put on weight) on hot days it’s a sure sign that you’re not drinking enough. Feeling tired, cranky, and unwell on hot days is another. Headaches on hot days is a classic sign of water deficiency and a dry skin is the most obvious of all.

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Dehydration raises stress levels, particularly in children. If you are unsure whether your child is under-drinking at school, organise for him/her to take a 0.5-1 L (depending on the size of the child) bottle of water or fruit juice to school, with strict instructions to drink it all. I’ve found that teachers are very co-operative and will check to see that your child alone is consuming the prescribed drink and that it’s not being passed around the group. Bottled drinks are necessary as kids get so involved with friends and games at recess that they forget to drink from the bubblers.

Remember: your child’s behaviour can be influenced by those she/he mixes with. Hyperactive and aggressive playmates can incite similar behaviour patterns in non-hyperactive, non-aggressive children. Pay close attention to who your child is mixing with.

By following the instructions in this chapter there’s every chance your child can come off Ritalin or whatever other drug is being used to treat his or her hyperactivity and slow learning.

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Because lowered resistance is the root cause of glue ear the sufferer must stay on the Metabolism-Balancing Program and supplements for the rest of his/her life with only a minimum (5 per cent or less) of junk food. Those who require the Anti-Candida/ Anti-Allergy Program to cure their glue ear will return to the Metabolism-Balancing Program when the anti-allergy treatment is completed. It goes without saying that the normal procedures for keeping the body at an even warm body temperature must be followed if any of the programs are to work.

A sub-optimum fluid intake is one reason the programs won’t work. Even borderline dehydration will keep the body’s resistance low despite faithful adherence to the Metabolism-Balancing Program and the supplements. Make sure the full measure of fluid included in the program is consumed.

If either low-grade or full-blown glue ear is not showing signs of reducing after four to six weeks on the Metabolism-Balancing Program, Formula Six and other supplements you can be sure that allergies and/or Candida infections are the principal causes. If after four to six weeks on the Metabolism-Balancing Program and supplements you are showing improvement keep the program going until the improvement level plateaus or the symptoms disappear completely.

As the case histories in this chapter reveal, most kids respond well to the Metabolism-Balancing Program and supplements alone. Those who have to progress to the full Anti-Candida/Anti-Allergy Program find that those last remaining symptoms are cleared away in ninety days. The disappearance of all the symptoms is associated with improved annunciation as well as a rapidly expanding vocabulary as hearing becomes unruffled for the first time. I’ve received many phone calls and letters from excited parents who are witnessing these changes for the first time. Some call me on talkback radio to let as many people know as possible such is their desire for others to have this rewarding experience.

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Sit down after the main meal of the day, put your feet up and listen to music, read a book, have a relaxing chat or watch some TV. Unwind, take it easy, let your food digest and give your joints a rest. Eight hours’ sleep a night isn’t enough to allow joint regeneration, you need rest and recreation as well. Recreation means exactly that—re-creation—a time to create new tissue out of old.

If you are the hard-charger, over-achiever type that always has to be doing something constructive and sees sitting around as a waste of time just remember there is nothing more constructive than making new body tissues. This principal applies equally to sufferers of skin complaints and asthma.

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Attention seekers seldom develop close, emotionally nourishing friendships and relationships because they are so busy seeking they don’t have time to give. A lack of meaningful friendships adds to their loneliness and insecurity. All human beings need some attention. Wanting too much is being greedy and greed always comes back on us in the end. How much is too much? Worrying to the point of distress about the opinions others hold of us is an indication we are wanting too much.

This begs the question: If no one else is getting upset because you have a skin complaint, why should you? The fact is, the happiest, healthiest and most relaxed people are those who realise they are not the centre of the universe, have accepted that, and are happy with less attention.

To successfully overcome the emotional stress caused by acne, eczema, psoriasis and hives, one’s attitude must be right. The big problem with skin complaints is that their visibility is a constant reminder of their existence and most owners of the skin complaints are constantly worrying about what others think when they see their skin. This in turn leads to feelings of anxiety, frustration and resentment on the part of (he owner who invariably adopts the attitude of ‘Why me? It’s not fair! Life shouldn’t treat me like this.’ Such self talk leads to feelings of anger which often progress to hostility and rage as time goes by. These emotions only exacerbate the acne, eczema, psoriasis and hives by causing the antidromic nerve impulses to pour down the sensory nerves and release neurokinin into the skin.

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