Herbal Health

KASHA (BUCKWHEAT) AND FISH

Here’s a tasty and wholesome meal that’s easy to prepare.

2 cups kasha

6 ozs. low-fat fish

garlic powder

white pepper

lemon juice

curry powder

Cook the kasha. Steam fish (see page 69). When fish and kasha are ready, fork-cut fish into small pieces and mix with kasha. Season with garlic powder, white pepper and lemon juice, and/or curry powder. If you prefer, use rice, barley or other whole grains.

Serves 2.

1
banana
2
apricots
1/4
Fresh cantaloupe
1
papaya
1
peach
1
lemon
1 cup
low-fat yogurt
3 cups
unsweetened, unfiltered apple juice
Peel and chop the banana, apple, apricots, cantaloupe, papaya and peach. Squeeze juice from the lemon into a cup and discard rind. Place all ingredients in blender and blend until thick and

MIDDLE EAST RICE OR MILLET

2 cups brown rice or millet

2 tbls. sesame seeds

2 tbls. .raisins

1 tbl. lemon juice

Cook brown rice or millet. Add other ingredients, mix and serve.

Serves 2.

YOGURT MILLET OR RICE

2 cups brown rice or millet

2 cups plain yogurt

2 tbls. fresh ginger, finely chopped

1/2 sweet red pepper, diced

1 tsp. celery seeds

Cook brown rice or millet. Add other ingredients, mix and serve.

Serves 2.

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Beta carotene/vitamin A is also great for your health in general. Vitamin A has long been known for its ability to protect the skin and linings (mucous membranes) of the respiratory, digestive and urinary tracts. The first line of defense against invading organisms and environmental poisons, these are very important parts of your “doctor within.”

Without sufficient vitamin A, your immune system suffers. Some important parts of your immune system (thymus and lymphoid tissue) shrink, and the total number of vital, immune-system soldiers (T-cells and B-cells) decreases, further crippling your ability to fight off disease. Because surgery normally depresses a person’s immune system, I advise my patients facing surgery to boost their immune system by eating lots of beta-carotene-rich foods well before their operation.

Various studies have shown that vitamin A is especially helpful in protecting the lungs and airways. For example, the lining of the respiratory tract is destroyed in laboratory animals exposed to noxious gases. But if the animals are pretreated with vitamin A, the lining grows back.

Notice the large amounts of beta carotene in carrots, spinach and sweet potatoes. You also get healthy doses of potassium and vitamin C in raw spinach.

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If you’ve recently started to take a newly prescribed medication, it may be the culprit. Antihistamines such as Benadryl, over-the-counter painkillers such as Motrin or Tylenol, and medications used to treat depression, like Elavil, are other drugs that can cause your mouth to suddenly turn dry. Some medications such as over-the-counter diet pills, diuretics like Diyzide, and any antispasmodic such as Levsin can also cause dry mouth. If this is the case, the dryness will disappear once the medication is stopped or switched. If you are undergoing radiation or chemotherapy, these treatments can also alter the salivary glands: the former by damaging them, the latter by altering the saliva’s makeup.

If you can’t change your medication or if your dry mouth persists, you can help alleviate the symptoms by drinking liquids while you eat as well as by sipping water frequently during the day. Some people have found that chewing gum or sucking on mints helps. Others have found some relief by using artificial saliva drops, such as Salagen tablets, which are available over-the-counter.

If you have a stone in the salivary duct, your physician will either remove it with surgery or attempt to push it out with his fingers and treat the pain and residual swelling.

If none of these treatment methods works, your doctor might prescribe the medication pilocarpine for you to take, 5 milligrams three times a day; this medication will stimulate your salivary glands.

Tips and Precautions

Many people experience dry mouth when they’re under stress. Simple anxiety and stage fright can also cause your mouth to become dry. If you consistently wake up with a dry mouth, it’s probably due to sleeping with your mouth open; the best thing to do is to keep a glass of water on your nightstand so you can take a sip when you wake up.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

Though most midlife adults don’t have to worry about having their nose broken unless they box or play football, a broken nose can be more common in the elderly than in prizefighters, since the cartilage can weaken and become extremely thin and brittle with age. Frequent falls also make people 65 and over more susceptible to breaking or fracturing their noses.

Treatment

If you think you’ve broken or fractured your nose, see your doctor. If you attempt to let it heal by itself, the cartilage may fuse incorrectly, which may lead to breathing problems later on because of an obstruction.

Your doctor will treat your fracture by first setting the cartilage into place and then inserting a special packing material into your nose to support the cartilage as it heals. The packing will stay in place for about a week or so and won’t interfere with your breathing.

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The human ear is sensitive to an amazing range of sounds. From a ticking watch—which clocks in at a safe 20 decibels—to a dangerous 140-decibel shotgun blast, not much escapes the healthy ear.

But as we age the years of lawn mowers and loud music take their toll. Men and women are usually in their 40s and 50s when they first become aware that their hearing is not what it used to be. Typically, they first notice a loss when they can no longer hear some of the higher frequencies, such as a whistle or the notes of a flute. Gradual hearing loss is the result of slow damage to the nerves of the inner ear, which sends sounds to the brain and helps you maintain your sense of balance. It can also occur because the bones of the middle ear become less flexible; the middle ear is responsible for conducting sound to the inner ear. The eardrum can also thicken with age, which can interfere with the quality of your hearing.

Fortunately, most ear conditions are easily treated. Modern technology has provided us with small, unobtrusive hearing aids, a tremendous advance from the clunky appliances of just a few years ago. With these advances, preventing further hearing loss is easy.

As we age the nose also changes, though it’s usually one of the parts we’re least concerned with. Over the years the nose loses cartilage, which may cause the tip of the nose to fall, but gravity’s cumulative effects can also play a part. Though for most people the thinning cartilage brings only slight physical changes, in some the fall is so pronounced that the nose narrows and lengthens considerably. This can result in nasal obstruction, which makes it difficult to breathe. This loss of cartilage is a major reason why older people may snore more or breathe through their mouths when they sleep.

The mucus membranes in the nose also become thinner with age. Often the nose produces less mucus, which makes the nose feel drier. In addition, the sense of smell decreases with age, since the olfactory nerves become less effective after the age of 60.

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If you think you might have glaucoma, it’s important to act quickly, since once the blood flow to the optic nerve starts to slow down, your vision may be permanently affected. Prompt treatment will save much of the optic nerve and thus your vision. Your doctor will prescribe special eye-drops and medication such as Betoptic and Pilocarpine, which will open the drainage channel and decrease the amount of aqueous humor your eye produces. This will allow the aqueous humor to drain as well as decrease the pressure on the vitreous humor, and your vision will return almost immediately. In order to prevent future problems caused by glaucoma, these medications will probably become part of your daily routine for the rest of your life. The good news is that your eyesight will probably stay the same.

In rare instances, medication will not be effective in reducing the pressure on the optic nerve. If this is the case, you will probably be advised to undergo a surgical procedure that will permanently improve the drainage from the eye. The operation will consist of making a small cut that will increase the size of the drainage channel. This is usually done with laser surgery or by inserting a small tube through which the fluid can drain. Either procedure will ensure that your vision is saved.

Tips and Precautions

Once you’ve been diagnosed with glaucoma, you’ll need regular eye checkups at least once a year. This is especially true if you are over 60 or if you have diabetes or hypertension.

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Description and Possible Medical Problems

As you know by now, although getting older generally means you don’t have as much muscle tone as you once did, it usually is a gradual process and doesn’t tend to affect the body in any harmful way. The muscles that control the eye, like the rest of the body, also gradually lose some of their strength with age. This includes the muscles that control the movement of the eyeballs and help the lenses to focus, as well as the muscles of both the upper and lower eyelids.

When the upper lid starts to lose its muscle tone, it will gradually begin to droop, but this does not usually happen until a person is in her 70s. When the lower lid loses muscle tone, it can begin to turn outward from the eye, a condition called ectropion. It may also sag inward, which can cause the lashes to rub against and irritate the eye. This condition is called entropion. While aging is usually a factor in the development of these conditions because of the naturally diminished muscle tone, they can also be caused by lupus erythematosus, a disease of the connective tissue (see “Rash on the Face” in Chapter 9 for more information about this disease).

Treatment

Because the eye is more exposed when the lower eyelid sags, it’s more at risk for damage to the cornea. In addition, because the lower lid is slack, the tears that are normally held against the eye have nowhere to go and run out of the eye, which may make it seem as though the affected eye is watering excessively. A sagging eyelid is also more prone to infections.

Fortunately, a sagging lower eyelid is easy to treat. When ectropion or entropion is a by-product of the aging process, your doctor can perform a simple operation under local anesthesia that will return your eyelid to its normal appearance. If it is caused by lupus erythematosus, treating the disease (see “Rash on the Face” in Chapter 9) will help reverse the sagging. In either case, it’s a good idea to see your doctor as soon as you notice that your lower eyelid is beginning to droop.

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A diet which is severely deficient in essential vitamins can lead to skin disorders which can dramatically affect a person’s appearance. On the other hand, nutritionists insist that a well-balanced diet with plenty of nutrients can produce a smoother, healthier, younger-looking skin.

Both vitamin A and zinc play important roles in assuring normal, healthy skin. While vitamin A helps to replenish skin cells, keeping the skin supple and preventing dryness, zinc helps the skin repair itself. To get more zinc in your diet, you can utilize these food sources: beef, seafood, eggs, milk, whole-grain cereals and breads, and legumes.

Dark green leafy vegetables have plenty of beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. Other good food sources of vitamin A include carrots, cantaloupes, winter squash, sweet potatoes, sweet red peppers, apricots, and mangoes.

Another nutrient, vitamin C, aids in improving the blood supply to the skin. It also helps in forming collagen, the protein which gives the skin a smooth appearance. Good food sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits and juices, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, snow peas, broccoli, watermelons, honeydew melons, and tomatoes.

The nutrients obtained from the vitamin B complex help to prevent scaling and cracking of the skin. There are a number of food sources for B-complex vitamins including organ meats, peas, potatoes, fish, green leafy vegetables (the darker the leaves the more nutritional value), fruits, nuts, whole-grain products, cheese, tuna, dairy products, beef, poultry, oysters, mushrooms, and yeast.

As an antioxidant, vitamin E may help to protect skin cells against the damage of abnormal oxidation. It also helps in the process of healing the skin. Good food sources of vitamin E include dried beans, margarine, vegetable oils, and green leafy vegetables.

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Patients who suffer from severe allergies or diabetes may not have to face the needle much longer.ln a study at Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center in Baltimore, researchers discovered that a liquid form of ragweed was easily swallowed by test subjects, and that it also produced the same protective antibodies as allergy shots.

New diabetes research may also lead to less painful alternatives to a needle injection. At Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Israel, scientists are testing a new insulin pill. Early reports indicate that the new pill can withstand harsh stomach acid and that it also effectively boosts insulin levels.

In other research at the Diabetes Research Laboratories in Oxford, England, an insulin solution taken from a pen-size nasal sprayer tested as more effective than pre-meal injections. And, a new battery-powered device which would allow diabetics to shine infrared light through their fingers rather than pricking themselves to measure blood-sugar levels is awaiting approval by the FDA. Key: Always ask if there is an alternative to a shot

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ARE PROBABLY MISSING

The “Missing Ingredient” in most weight loss attempts is regular exercises. It has been proven conclusively that even moderate physical activity improves health, and reduces stress. Even doing things around the house can be helpful. Lawn-mowing, although not as regular an activity as cycling usually is, burns just as many calories, and routine gardening uses almost as many calories as moderate swimming. Regardless of what you do—ordinary physical labor or extensive aerobic workouts—performing some regular physical activity is important to your general health and well being.

Regular exercise benefits every part of your body, helping it to perform more efficiently. If you get regular exercise you are likely to have lower levels of cholesterol in your blood and you are less likely to develop hypertension or heart disease. But just as important, you need regular exercise to give you vitality and a sense of physical well-being, which leads to your being more relaxed and secure. Regular exercise will improve the quality of your sleep and your ability to deal with stress.

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