Men often have a rough time when their wives are suffering from the miseries. They get nagged for nothing, or plunged into depression, or bullied, or even physically attacked. Many say their wives are like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Some just hang on until the black mood is over, wishing they knew what to do about it; some get out of the way and spend more time at work or the pub, others move out because they just can’t take any more.

If your mood swings are coming between you and your partner there are some positive steps you can take to make life easier during the months while relaxation is beginning to take effect. The first is to talk everything over as freely and honestly as you can. Unlike some bosses, your husband won’t sack you if you’re honest. Marriage, after all, is a job for life if you want it to be. So talk and talk, and listen. Make sure he knows how you feel, but equally important, listen to what he has to say, so that you really understand the effect you’re having on him. Between you, you’ll probably come up with all sorts of solutions. And although honesty like this can be very painful, in the long run it can also pull you closer together. But make sure you start the talking in the weeks after your period!

Secondly, let him help you in any way he can. His housekeeping may not be as thorough as yours but accept it lovingly. I have known husbands who got their heads bitten off because they tried to help. They were very downcast and demoralized, because they had meant so well. Accepting gifts is as much of an art as offering them. And it is an art that you will find well worth cultivating.

Thirdly, don’t forget about sex. Making love can be a great help at period time, apart from being a great pleasure. There is no reason why you cannot make love during a period. Some women who suffer from the cramps find that the pain turns them off completely. Others say that if they have a strong climax it seems to speed their period up. They loose blood freely and less painfully immediately afterwards. Some find that masturbating until they reach a climax has the same effect. Women who suffer from the miseries often find that once their periods have begun and they’ve returned to normal, they are turned on very easily and thoroughly enjoy love-making. Many women want to make amends for the bad time they have been giving their partners while they were feeling depressed or irritable. One of the odd things is that many women who nag their husbands, or even hit them, as if they hated them, actually feel very receptive and could easily be turned on if only they weren’t being so discouraging with all that violence. It’s very difficult for even the most loving man to handle a situation like that. But if he understands the cause and knows the right mixture of tact, tolerance, persuasion and affection, or whatever else it takes, and the couple do make love, this will often trigger the period to start. That in itself will stop all the difficulties of the past few days. It’s really no wonder that women have a reputation for being perverse and irrational.

*63\177\2*

Living in the moment — being one with what’s happening to you right at this minute – is very difficult. It is important to appreciate where we are at and what blessings we have.

An example of this could be when we are at the hairdresser’s and our minds are racing ahead to what we will do when we leave. We should stay right in the present and enjoy the sensation of being pampered.

While we can all complain about our lives in some way, we should step back a little and realise how lucky we are to be living at peace. In our part of the world, beautiful gardens and parks surround us. The sun shines most of the time and we have freedom to discuss the political events of the day without getting thrown into jail. We have access to the church of our choice.

There is so much that we have to be thankful for, let’s not talk constantly about what is wrong. The media doesn’t help by highlighting gloom and doom. We do have choices: we can decide not to watch or read what distresses us.

We also have the education to voice our opinions in a letter to those whom we feel should know. Whether we decide to use it or not, we have that power. Many people get depressed and dismayed at the state of the world and feel helpless to change anything. There will never be a perfect world, for if there was, we would lose our opportunity to do good.

On a more personal level we can easily become discontented with our lot,’We don’t have enough money.” Our teenage children are behaving badly towards us.’ ‘Our partner takes us for granted.. The gripes go on and on. It is up to us to do our best and recognise our opportunities to make a difference in our world – a smile, a letter, a telephone call, a loving communication.

Clinically the answer is to find the cause of the discontent. This problem is approached by collecting a total history to search for clues. I would check the chi energy as fire deficiency also indicates unhappiness. Vitamin B complex supplement would help as people who do not have sufficient vital energy show discontent. See your therapist for a check up.

A patient complained to me about her husband’s snoring. Apparently it was very loud and disturbed her sleep. She would toss and turn, getting more and more annoyed while he slept on blissfully. I told her to turn the irritating situation into a positive one. ‘Think how lucky you are to have him safely alongside you,’ I said. ‘His snoring is part of him, along with his loving and his caring for you.’ So she bought herself a pair of earplugs for really noisy nights, but most times she just ’switches herself off’ and goes to sleep first.

*124\19\2*

This is a controversial topic and taking it must be an individual’s choice. The rule we follow is ‘nature knows best’. Any interference with the natural law can have adverse consequences which some women experience.

The use of hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women’s symptoms should be questioned. All the alternative therapies have answers which can be used to dispel menopausal problems. Hormone level imbalances are effectively treated using acupuncture and homoeopathy to relieve hot flushes and calm emotional distress. It is natural to cease having menses when child bearing time has passed, yet one of my patients, a sixty-five-year-old woman taking HRT, was still experiencing monthly periods!

Medical practitioners, who are prescribing HRT for prevention of osteoporosis and heart disease, say that if a woman, genetically predisposed to cancer, discovers it within months of starting this therapy, she would have developed cancer eventually anyway, and that it’s just as well they identified it now while they are observing the patient!

We are all genetically individual and so should investigate our family background first to discover whether or not we have a family weakness that requires HRT. Are soft bones and fractures in your family? Read Germaine Greer’s book The Change. Make choices but let them be informed ones! Be responsible for making your choice.

Moira’s story-It is now three years since I discovered the lump. The lump that every woman dreads – the lump that turned out to be breast cancer requiring a full mastectomy of my left breast.

Born with sloping shoulders, I have had a constant battle with bra

straps that slip. It was one of those times when I unobtrusively slid my hand inside my shirt to pull up the wretched thing that I felt a slight thickening about the size of a ten cent coin.

I prodded and poked a bit more. And again in the shower the next morning and the next. If it hasn’t gone in a week I’ll go to the doctor. It hadn’t and I went.

My local GP wasn’t too worried at the time and neither was I. It had only been about six weeks since I had visited my gynaecologist for my regular breast examination and found nothing unusual at all. ‘Menopausal thickening’, said my GP. ‘Of course’, said I. ‘Better have a mammogram and make sure though.’ Yes, indeed.

The result shocked us both. These things happen to other people, don’t they? Not to me. No, no, no. There had been a mistake. No mistake. The diagnosis was confirmed. I cried. My husband cried with me.

I ranted and raved at that gynaecologist. Not for missing the lump with his fingers — but for not sending me for a mammogram earlier. I had been visiting him and prior to that two of his colleagues since I was twenty five. Every six months without fail.

I had had regular pap smears, but no mammogram. This despite the fact that I was what is generally considered a high risk. I had taken the contraceptive pill almost from the day it hit the marketplace and continued to do so for something like twelve years. My mother had died of cancer. I had never been pregnant and I had been on oestrogen replacement therapy for five years.

Admittedly, these fatherly, charming, rather patronising gentlemen had chopped and changed brands and dosage to find the one that best suited me, but not once had any of them even discussed the relationship of my history to breast cancer.

Why didn’t I know and why didn’t I ask?

I really believed it would never happen to me. Like thousands of women I trusted the doctors to look after me. That they didn’t is unforgivable. But I now know we are all responsible for our own lives. And it is quite unrealistic to expect anyone else to take on that responsibility. So I will never quite forgive myself either.

As of today I have had no recurrence of the cancer, although the worry is always there. Post mastectomy trauma is very real and frightening. Like a lot of women I suffer from lymphoedema (swelling) of the arm on the affected side. My medical advisors have suggested ‘putting up with it’, sleeping with my arm tied up to a standard lamp, or the permanent wearing of an elastic sleeve from shoulder to fingers to reduce the swelling. My natural therapist reduces it when necessary by acupuncture and massage. I bless the day I found her.

Scars resulting from mastectomy operations are acupunctured to release the energy interference then the swelling in the arm drains. General vitality is also restored.

*110\19\2*

Constipation is one of the western world’s greatest worries. Uncorrected back sprains can be a major cause. Too much sitting, not enough exercise for our stomach muscles, insufficient fibre and fluid in the foods we eat, coupled with too much dairy and animal fats in our diet, do all contribute to the problem.

Don’t be embarrassed, it’s better to learn the rules of a healthy bowel than to suffer bowel cancer. Also realise that waste that is not cleared at least once daily will affect your kidneys, liver, skin, lungs (bad breath?) and swell your abdomen. You’ve heard of toxic headaches, haven’t you?

Too much sitting can inhibit the peristaltic action of the intestines. Years ago your mother painstakingly worked to start a lifelong habit of good bowel function for you, so don’t ignore nature’s signals and introduce a problem that she solved all those years ago!

You must become conscious once again of nature’s nudge that NOW is the time for an evacuation. Sitting on it won’t help get you started. If the call constantly comes when you’re on the bus or train, then you have to bounce out of bed half-an-hour earlier to do your exercises.

It can be a problem at school where children are given limited time and few toilets to accommodate their needs and they are punished for being late back into class. Then if there’s an ‘accident’, a lifelong embarrassment with emotional overtones is underway.

Don’t weaken the bowel with laxatives. It’s much harder to handle once the problem becomes chronic. Best to find the cause. Many an upset toilet routine is simply corrected by adjusting the lower back. This injury can happen after a fall. The nerve supply to the bowel must always be free to stimulate or inhibit the

function of the organ is controls.

A good start to the day is to drink a glass of water (add a squeeze of lemon if you don’t like plain water).This stimulates the peristaltic action of the bowel so that, half-an-hour later when you’ve prepared your breakfast, you will be prompted to pass a motion. After the water, perhaps you could go for that quick walk round the block. By then the breakfast cereal with oatbran has soaked long enough.

Aloe vera helps clear sticky faeces. Cheese constipates some people, as do other dairy products. Fruit is wonderful to clear constipation, as it is full of fluid and fibre. Soak prunes overnight and enjoy this pleasant tasting medicine. The real trouble occurs when you have tried every laxative in the shop and the internal muscles have lost their tone. Even exercise sometimes won’t get you functioning normally.

If you ignore constipation the consequences can be anything from piles (haemorrhoids) to diverticulitis, varicose veins, appendicitis, and possibly cancer if it is in the family. So it is worth chewing more figs, apricots and prunes and increasing your water intake.

When it comes to acupuncture the earth meridian can be deficient in chi energy, and needs stimulating. This is a simple process and along with a correct diet and exercise regime, it won’t take long before all is as it should be. The needles will also relax you and warm your arms and legs with energy.

Homoeopathically nux vomica helps the office worker who can’t relax and is full of business lunches. Perhaps alcohol intake is dehydrating you? Reduced fat yoghurt is the dairy food that will help this problem.

The B complex vitamins are important for those suffering the effects of stress. Lactobacillis acidophilus tablets are also needed after antibiotics have been taken. Chewing fibrous vegetables like carrots and celery is recommended.

Professional treatments like colonic irrigation are the saviour of many adults with a chronic bowel problem. Impacted bowels respond immediately to this gentle and simple technique. It is nothing like the irritating, soapy hospital enema. I have recommended the use of this treatment for more than thirty years. The machine, attached to you by a slender disposable tube, feeds warm water into the lower rectum to wash the inside of our lower bowel safely.

Nothing could be simpler. Overuse of any therapy is not to be recommended, but several colonic irrigations when needed and professionally advised, will not upset the electrolyte balance which is the main fear. This is the therapy I advise for immediate relief of skin rashes, gall bladder congestion, toxic headaches and sinusitis. Experiencing the inner cleanliness after a washout is as good for the body as confession is for the soul.

Colonic irrigations are also recommended at the start of a fast, and to help you give up cigarettes or coffee without suffering reactions. The headaches and nausea that hit when you go off your addictions can be cleared in an hour after a colonic. Why suffer?

*96\19\2*

Naturopaths will look for the answer in the iris as an indication of where to start first.

An acupuncturist will feel the pulses. If the blood is ‘hot’ then we acupuncture the large intestine point in the elbow crease to cool the blood. If the nervous system is stressed, we calm it down.

A special diet is devised that is without caffeinated products or any of the common foods that can cause hives if the bowel is seen to be toxic. An immediate colonic irrigation is recommended for this condition especially if you haven’t been able to sleep because of the itch. Unless you have bowel adhesions where it would be contra-indicated, the only thing you suffer with a colonic irrigation is boredom. It’s a slow, gentle process that takes an hour. Contrary to what many believe, it is not at all messy and is extremely effective for stopping the re-absorption of toxic material via the bowel.

Find out your food intolerances and eliminate them from your diet.

When I was younger I was allergic to eggs, milk, wheat and tomatoes. As an adult, coffee is my allergen. My skin would come up in great itchy welts which run up one leg and then one side of my body, then across the stomach and down the other side. The hives take exactly forty-eight hours to traverse my generous shape, and when they arrive at the foot of the opposite leg, I know that the caffeine in my system is definitely on its way out. I can’t stand the itch, it drives me crazy. An enema is the quickest solution and it only takes fifteen minutes. 1 never deliberately drink coffee, but sometimes I’m caught when it is used as a flavouring agent.

Homoeopathically, we recommend:

Sulphur for skin hot and burning. Dry scalp.

Calc carb for unhealthy skin. Slow healing.

Calc phos for the chronic skin case.

Rhus tox for intense itching. Better moving.

Urtica urens for itch of chicken pox. Hives.

You don’t have to remember it all, the homoeopath will know how to work out your specific needs. (Homoeopathics even cure your dog’s summer itch!)

Urtica and nettle ointments are good to rub on hives. Apple cider vinegar applied to the skin can be quite soothing. Remember alfalfa, nettle and golden seal herbal teas are beneficial.

*81\19\2*

Pain from engorged breasts is best treated homoeopathically with Phytolacca. Warmed compresses of cabbage leaves are very soothing and gentle stroking massage movements to drain the milk off are most effective.

Prevention is better, and less painful than cure. Allow the baby to suckle as soon as possible after the birth. Put the babe to the breast frequently in the next few days till the feeding pattern is set. All right, next time!

Heating the muscles between the shoulder blades, while breastfeeding, helps the milk to flow better. You can do that with a hot water bottle but professionally it is achieved by using moxibustion. Chiropractors don’t hesitate to adjust this area if there is trouble with breastfeeding, as it helps so much.

Not enough milk? Try taking homoeopathic calc. phos. For too much milk or when you want to stop breastfeeding, take Pulsatilla. Any other problems, please contact your homoeopath immediately before the problem escalates.

*65\19\2*

First, your doctor will take down your history. The first sign of a brain tumour is not usually a headache but rather, neurological features such as paralysis, altered vision or speech, vomiting, or altered levels of consciousness. Often these problems are intermittent, rather than constant. Pituitary gland problems usually show up as changes in the menstrual cycle, abnormal growth, or sometimes diabetes.

Other things that point to tumours are the existence of a previous cancer which is known to spread to the brain or bones, and a history of wasting or loss of weight, especially if coupled with a continuing sense of weakness or malaise. These are all symptoms which can point towards a tumour of the head or neck. On the other hand, as you will immediately recognise, most of these symptoms can occur completely separately from a brain tumour, and it is unlikely that your doctor will be able to diagnose a brain tumour without doing a lot of complex tests.

The first thing your doctor will do is to arrange for a blood test to check the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR). This is a broad method of working out whether there is anything odd going on in the body, and simply measures the speed with which the red cells in the blood sink to the bottom of a tube of blood. Although a raised ESR means there’s something abnormal going on, a normal ESR doesn’t necessarily exclude a malignancy, unfortunately.

Next, your doctor is likely to get an X-ray, though this doesn’t give anything like as much extra information as you might think. Secondary deposits of cancer in the skull bones usually show up clearly, as punched-out areas where bone has been replaced by non-bony, malignant tissue. In addition, the X-ray will also show the shape and size of the cavity of the hollow in the bones, under the brain, where the pituitary gland sits. Tumours of the pituitary often alter the shape of this cavity.

On the other hand, simple X-rays are often unhelpful in spotting tumours of the brain itself; sometimes areas of the tumour will show up as white flecks on the X-ray, but because the consistency of a tumour is very much like the consistency of the brain itself, simple X-rays can’t show the difference between the two.

If the symptoms point towards a tumour of the pituitary, then your doctor will measure the levels of various hormones in the blood.

Much more sophisticated tests are now available for example, a CAT scan (Computer Assisted Tomography).

MRI scans are amazing in their ability to show up detail in soft tissues. X-rays can’t do this easily – most soft tissues in the body look exactly alike to X-ray. MRI scans are being used more and more to find the cause of problems deep within the body, without needing to stick in tubes, or perform operations to look around.

Finally, the doctor can organise an Electro-encephalogram (EEC) to measure the electrical activity of the brain. This can sometimes help to localise the site of a problem.

Although brain tumours are not common, they are not that rare, either. They are, unfortunately, extremely difficult to detect in their early stages. Often, the first inkling of a brain tumour is through some odd neurological event. Perhaps you have a stroke-like attack that goes away after a couple of days, though this is more likely due to a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA). Perhaps there is an attack of epilepsy occurring in someone who has never had epilepsy before; a first migraine occurring after the age of fifty may also be the first inkling of a brain tumour. As a general rule, any migraine which starts after the age of fifty should be treated with suspicion, and fits starting in adult life ought to be thoroughly investigated.

But even by this time it may be too late to save the patient. By the time a malignant tumour has progressed to the point where it is causing fits, paralysis or migraines it has often become incurable.

But all is not gloom – some types of brain tumour can be successfully treated. Let’s run through the list:

Benign tumours are relatively easy to treat. Simply removing them relieves the pressure on the brain and, provided the abnormal tissues have been completely removed (which is usually not too difficult to achieve), they are unlikely to re-grow again.

Malignant tumours affect two main groups of people: – children, and the elderly. Because children don’t usually get strokes or episodes of abnormal consciousness, it’s often possible to spot a brain tumour earlier in a child than in an elderly person. And the earlier the diagnosis, the more chance there is of doing something about it. Even so, by the time a malignant brain tumour is producing symptoms it may already be too late.

*70\20\2*

The importance of a head injury is not whether the patient has been knocked out, nor even whether the skull has been fractured in the process, but whether or not the injury has caused damage to, or pressure on the brain. This pressure can come from a number of sources, such as bleeding – either into the brain or underneath the skull – which presses on the brain, or else from a depressed fracture where the bones themselves are pressing directly on the brain.

All other considerations are secondary. To be honest, after a head injury, it really doesn’t matter if the patient has sustained a fractured skull – the bones of the skull are just like other bones of the body, and will heal. A hairline crack or fracture is really of little importance (other than that it causes pain), as long as there is no bleeding underneath, or swelling of the brain substance.

This can’t be emphasised enough. All too often, people imagine that it’s the concussion that we should look out for, or the fractured skull that is so important. That isn’t the case. The only reason for admitting a patient to hospital after concussion or a fractured skull is that a blow big enough to cause concussion is hard enough to rip nerves and blood vessels within the brain or cause swelling of the brain itself; and where there is a fractured skull there may also be treacherous and unseen underlying bleeding. So the patient” is admitted, and observed carefully for the next twenty-four hours, to spot any signs of progressive internal injury.

Most head injuries result in simple superficial bruising; a small proportion concuss the patient. Harder blows may cause a skull fracture, though the position and angle of the blow often determines whether or not the skull will fracture. One part of the head is particularly prone to direct fracture – the temple (at the side of the head, between the eye and ear) is the most vulnerable area for fractures that are the result of a direct blow from a small object, such as a golf ball.

A simple undisplaced fracture of the skull (where the bones haven’t moved) is usually relatively unimportant. Provided there is little bleeding from the broken edges of the bone, then a crack in the skull bones can be treated much like a crack in any other bone, such as at the wrist. In fact, because the skull is such a solid, well-constructed egg shape, even if there is a crack, the edges of the bone are usually held closely together and will soon heal without needing bandaging or plaster to hold the ends of the broken bones opposite one another.

*55\20\2*

Once a stroke has occurred there is often little that can be done, at least as far as the stroke itself is concerned. The doctor will want to check to see if a part of the body is throwing off little clots – such as a damaged heart valve. If a source of clots is found it may be appropriate to thin the blood to prevent these clots forming, and later becoming lodged in the brain. In some cases, it may even be necessary to surgically remove the offending area.

At the moment, most stroke victims have to wait for the body to recover naturally, by itself. On the horizon, however, are some interesting clot-dissolving drugs, and in the future it may well be that stroke victims immediately get sent to hospital for clot-busting injections given directly into the veins, as is often done now with heart attacks.

Good post-stroke treatment can make a lot of difference to the patient’s quality of life. Much of the treatment centres around physiotherapy, leaching people to re-learn movements; speech therapy; and so on.

Because most stroke victims are elderly, all other types of headache affecting the elderly can combine to multiply their effects and cause greater headaches. For example, a patient with a stroke may also have a considerable degree of osteoarthritis of the neck, which irritates the neck further, causing even more headaches from muscular tension. As well as muscular imbalance, which aggravates the neck problem, there may also be anxiety, tension or depression as a result of worrying about the illness itself. This further knots up the neck muscles and causes yet more headaches.

Prevention of stroke is important. You’re more likely to have a stroke if you’ve had high blood pressure for a long time, – and by .that I mean many years. We now know that bringing the blood pressure down, and keeping it down, reduces the chance that you’ll suffer a stroke. This is why doctors are so keen to discover those who’ve got high blood pressure. Treating a thirty-year-old’s high blood pressure may prolong his life by years

*45\20\2*

There are no complementary treatments for meningitis. Orthodox medicine is what you need – and very quickly, too. In meningitis, delay might be fatal. Dial 999 immediately, and while waiting (and only if the patient is conscious) you might try giving him or her arnica or aconite every ten minutes until help arrives. Alternatively, sipping valerian tea while waiting will ease the pain and shock, and provide a distraction.

Try rubbing Rescue Remedy (a Bach Flower remedy) into the pulse points and behind the ears of the patient, while waiting for help. Lavender and camomile oils can be soaked in a handkerchief and pressed to the nostrils, or as a compress to the forehead. All of these therapies provide some relief from the symptoms of meningitis while you wait. Orthodox medical attention must be sought immediately.

Severe headaches following meningitis can be treated with lavender oil, in any of the popular aromatherapy forms. lavender tea with a pinch of rosemary, or as a tincture, acts as a stimulant, and strengthens the system. Some therapists recommend Royal jelly as a supplementary nutrient source.

If you suffer from anxiety following meningitis, try camomile or orange blossom tea, or vervain. Aconite, ignatia and phosphorous would be recommended by the homoeopath. Geranium lavender, melissa, neroli and rose oils can be used in a vapouriser, in the bath, or, mixed with a carrier oil, lightly massaged into the temples, shoulders and neck.

Depression may be treated with Bach flower remedies, various herbal preparations, homoeopathic medicine and many other forms of treatment, in particular art and music therapies . It is essential that you consult a registered practitioner following any severe illness, and certainly when suffering from depression of any kind.

*30\20\2*