- Email: [email protected]
Food for thought
Food for thought B. W. DURRANT, LRCP, MRCS, LDS, RCS, MRCPSYCH, DPM
Food and masked allergy Although Randolph I and others identified masked food allergy as far back as the 1950s, it is only in recent years, perhaps largely due to the initial work of Mackarness, 2 and more recently of Rippere 3 in this country that the multiplicity of symptoms caused by masked food allergy has been realized. Some authorities still question the phenomena altogether. Tables 4 and 5 show a list of symptoms, all of which have been noted in patients subsequently shown to be allergic to specific foods (it is not hard to see the undoubted similarity between alleged "neurotic" symptoms, symptoms of vitamin B deficiencies, those from masked food allergy, and the many symptoms detailed by Hahnemann under his miasm "psora"). Our role as therapists however should not only embrace the suffering of here and now, but seek to prevent suffering for the future. In this respect, de-natured food has yet another significance. Surgeon Commander Cleave 4 and Denis Burkitt 5 amongst others haste looked at the role of dietary sugar and fibre, and epidemiological studies have shown the high incidence of western diseases in societies eating a low fibre diet as compared to the rarity of these very illnesses in societies or communities eating natural "whole", unrefined, foods. Burkitt ~ relates our mashy, pappy, fibreless diet with high carbohydrate content to diverticular disease, gall stones, piles, varicose veins, dental caries, coronary heart disease, and arthritis. Indeed, here is a rich source of preventive medicine, if not for this generation then at least for those still to come. Let us remember the present avid craving for carbohydrates (each person on average consumes 4-5 oz of sugar per head per day!), the lurid TV commercials for this or that sweetmeat, and let us point out the value of wholesome, unadulterated, unrefined foods to provide roughage containing the essential vitamins and minerals. Let us seek to do away with chemicalized, artificial foods (satisfying maybe to the pockets of food companies and our jaded palates, but disastrous to the internal metabolism). Already the value of minerals and trace elements has been realized, yet "refining" (better called "destruction") of man's food, e.g. white sugar, leaves nothing but pure calories, all but devoid of any other food or nutrient at all (Table 3). There are also major differences in minerals in white as compared to brown bread. One must emphasize that minerals must be taken in the diet and cannot be synthesized. Furthermore because of the "rain forest effect" (total interContinued from page 51 of January number (Br Hom J 1985; 74:47-51.
Volume 74, Number 2, April 1985
119
TABLE 4 The Allergy Problem FOODS MENTIONED AS CAUSING SYMPTOMS Frequency
Food
52 34 32 31 29 28 24 23 22 21 18 17 16 14 13 12 11 9
Wheat and wheat products Cows' milk Food additives and contaminants Cheese Coffee, alcohol Chocolate Citrus Corn Egg, cane sugar Oats, tea Rye Rice Apple, banana Barley Fish Butter, pork, tomato Yoghurt, cream, onion Chicken, peanut Grape/raisin, brassicas, yeast Ice-cream, beef, pork products, shellfish, potato Beetroot/sugar, soya, confectionary, MSG, carrot, fruit drinks, honey Millet, lamb, mushroom, pear, plum, currant, peach, nuts, runner beans, food combinations, instant foods. Gluten, smoked foods, lettuce, glucose, parsnip, broad beans, tinned foods, garlic. Buckwheat, turkey, animal fats, vegetable oils, strawberries, red and green peppers, jam, cake mixes. Margarine, corned beef, starch, shortbread, melon, baked beans, cherries, "beans", decaffeinated coffee, pineapple. Lactose, fruit seeds, peppercorns, coriander, mustard, curry, fructose, swede, butter beans, turnip, celery, cucumber, courgette, spinach, vinegar, barley water, protein-free flour, gluten-free flour, foods with large amounts of calcium, coca cola, dried fruits, parsley, tapioca, gooseberry, apricot, radish, watercress, lentil, avocado, chicory, dried beans, coconut, jerusalem artichoke, Bovril, Camp coffee, Marmite, Horlicks, Lucozade, Worcester sauce, Perrier water.
8
7 6 5
dependence of minerals, vitamins, amino acids, etc.), the lack of even one element out of the total could markedly affect the functioning or utilization of the rest. Increasing notice is being taken of the "trace" elements. As an example, an association has been discovered between the levels of selenium in the soil of different areas, and the incidence there of arthritis, cancer and heart disease. Epidemiological studies have shown that of 24 countries, Finland and the U S A (both low in soil selenium) have four to five times the incidence of heart disease, compared to countries with higher levels of this element, such as Yugoslavia. It is pertinent too, to note that another refined food, white or polished rice, has fifteen times less selenium in it than whole grain brown rice, whilst white bread has half as much selenium content than brown bread. 120
The British Homceopathic Journal
TABLE 5 The Allergy Problem FREQUENCY
WITH
WHICH
TYPES
OF SYMPTOMS
WERE
REPORTED
BY SURVEY
RESFOND'ENTS
Frequency
Symptom type
47
Migraine and headache
45
Respiratory
44 41 31 30 29 27 25 24 23 22
Abdominal Skin lesions Energy loss
21 20 19 18 12 11 10
Vasomotor
9 8 7
Frequency 5
Symptom type Menstrual difficulties
Insomnia Weakness 4
Prostration Addictive behaviour Foul taste in mouth Psychotic symptoms Depersonalization-derealization
Skin sensations Nausea and vomiting
3
Mood swings
Cardiovascular depression Aggression and irritability Eyes
2
Oedema and bloating Bowel Mental dullness and confusion
Malaise Joints and muscles Clouded consciousness Anxiety
Neuralgia Bruising
Nightmares Extreme hunger and thirst Chinese Restaurant Syndrome Shock 1
Enuresis Obsessions
Obesity
Hyperactivity
"Hysterics"
Genitourinary Tension Hypersomnia Speech and reading difficulties Weepiness Social withdrawal Ears and hearing
Photophobia Broken nails Arthritic nodules Travel sickness Nasal polyps
Phobia Swollen glands Behaviour problems
Other environmental factors However close a dynamic relationship there is between foodstuffs and our living metabolism, we must also rely on other essential elements of our environment, namely, air and water. These can all too readily be contaminated by "Acid Rain", carbon dioxide, lead from petrol fumes, fluoride, and "run-off" of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers into rivers from over-drenched fields subject to intensive farming techniques. It is now not difficult to see how threatening to health our environment has become! One lesser known hazard of our environment is the biological effect of positive and negative ions in the atmosphere. It is here, in the context of homoeopathic practice, that these finds are of such interest. Certainly all hom0eopathic practitioners, and many a lay person, will be aware of those amongst us who react markedly to weather. "It is going to rain, my rheumatism is bad", or "It seems so oppressive, I think it is going to storm", are two commonly heard remarks and social comments. In addition, the physical and psychological effects of certain dry hot winds, called reasonably enough "witches' winds", have been noted by Volume 74, Number 2, April 1985
121
Suleman 6 in Israel and Krueger 7 in California. These winds, the Foehn in central Europe, the Sharav in Israel, the Santa Aria in California and the Mistral in France, are well recognized as causing increased irritability, anxiety and depression of mood. Road traffic accidents and crimes are more common at the times of these winds, and those especially sensitive may also note increased headaches, lethargy and a general feeling of ill health with a loss of libido at such times (Soyka & EdmundsS). Apart from such research, Dr Tyler 9 in her Drug Pictures quotes a Dr Lindsay of Paraguay, who noted the very same features in that country, finding that N u x v o m . was particularly useful therapeutically in such cases, as one might reasonably have expected. In essence, these winds are now known to be heavily charged with positive i o n s - - a s indeed is the atmosphere before a storm! Contrariwise, the freshness of the atmosphere after a storm, and the attraction to rivers, fountains, and running water we all experience, is due to the greater preponderance there of negative ions. Interesting, too, in this respect is the complaint of workers in modern offices of headaches, lethargy, poor concentration and lack of appetite, all symptoms which could be so readily designated as "neurotic" in nature. It has been found that in such offices the man-made fibres in carpets and soft furnishings and the ducted hot air central heating, all lead to an atmosphere heavily charged with positive ions. The obvious treatment has likewise confirmed the biological effects of these ions: the symptoms are cleared by installing negative ionizers in the work situation. Before leaving the area of environmental hazards, one further condition is worth noting. Modem society is surrounded by noise, even apart from specific noisy industrial situations. Few of us can get away from traffic noise, many are subjected to intensive aircraft noise, and most of us meet the ubiquitous noise of "piped music" flooding the atmosphere of shops, restaurants or similar establishments. The younger generation carry transmitters, worn it seems almost day and night, and enshroud themselves in a cocoon of cacophony--perhaps to escape the world outside? It cannot be anything but conducive to increased tensions. Conversation can be inhibited or difficult. There is a recognized loss of hearing acuity in those subject to such chronic aural barrage, and concentration and efficiency is gradually eroded. One cannot but feel that such long-term stimulation maintains a plateau of excitation in the CNS such that further stimulation is soon called for in an ever increasing crescendo. No wonder irritability and tension states abound, alcohol abuse increases, and tranquillizers are one of the commonest drugs prescribed! Finally to return full circle to our dynamic picture of man as intimately, inseparately linked to all around him, what of the work of Michel Gauchelin 1~and others? If we accept the interaction of rain, sun, soil, chlorophyll, plants and mammals as one glorious balanced ecological whole, can we not accept a likely interaction as between nebuli and planets, suns and stars with their electrical/magnetic forces, gravitational pulls, and radioactivity? Could not these self-same forces act upon man himself, especially at a developing undifferentiated 122
The British Homceopathic Journal
stage of his development, say as an embryo? We seek to understand our universe by discerning laws, detecting patterns in structure and behaviour or defining common characteristics such that we can classify, contrast and compare. The constitutional types of homaeopathic prescribing and the physical and psychological typing of Sheldon are two obvious examples. Why should not individuals born at the same time in relation to the movement of stars and planets, share qualities and characteristics common to each other--all being influenced at that time by as yet unrecognized forces in our universe? In summary
This has been a broad review of subtle forces and influences inimical to health yet scantily recognized in our environment. The subtlety of their influence, their ubiquitous nature, and their protean, albeit similar, clinical presentation, is a challenge to any diagnostic skill. Their recognition, and the simple alterations in diet and working conditions, or, in the longer term, preventive arenas, changes in farming policy, social mores and ecological husbandry, might lead to far healthier living without resort to antidepressants, tranquillizers, extensive surgery, and ever more costly disease-orientated services. Homaeopathic remedies may indeed "cut across" such symptoms, but one would question whether this is good practice or likely to produce lasting recovery, when an underlying deficiency or sub-clinical "toxin" is essentially to blame? These very forces may be so readily overlooked. Lastly, it must be of considerable interest to realize the correspondence between the masked clinical effects of positive and negative ions and the equally potent effects of highly diluted homoeopathic remedies. In respect of the enormous potency of such subtle and refined influences, it is significant to recall that Hahnemann experimented with the smelling of remedies--surely, physiologically speaking, a most delicate way of introducing a pharmacological agent into any living organism, to say nothing of the close relationship between our "smell brain", the rhinencephalon, or limbic system, and the hypothalamus, in terms of our emotional responses. " C e a s e not to think of the Universe as one living Being, possessed of a single Substance and a single
Soul; and how all things trace back to its single sentience; and how it does all things by a single impulse; and how all existing things are joint causes of all things that come into existence; and how inter-twined in the fabric is the thread and how closelywoventhe web" MARCUS A U R E L I U S REFERENCES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Randolph TG. Concepts of food allergy important in specific diagnosis. Journal ofA Ilergy 1950; 21 "471-7. Mackarness R. Not all in the Mind. London: Pan Books. 1976. Rippere V. The Allerg.v Problem. Northamptonshire England: Thorsons Publishers Ltd. 1983. Cleave TL. The Saccharine Disease. Bristol: John Wright. 1974. Burkitt D. Don't forget fibre in your diet. London: Martin Dunitz. 1979. Sulman FG. Effects of hot dry desert winds (Sharav, Hamsin) on metabolism of Hormones. Journal of the Medical Association of lsrael. Krueger AP. Are Negative Air Ions Good For You? The New Scientist 1973. June 14. Sovka F, Edmunds A. The Ion Effect. New York: Bantam Books. 1977. Tyler ML. Homceopathic Drug Pictures. Bradford: Health Science Press. 1942. Gauaelin M. Cosmic Influences in Human Behaviour. London: Garnstone Press. 1974.
Volume 74, Number 2, April 1985
123
Food and masked allergy Although Randolph I and others identified masked food allergy as far back as the 1950s, it is only in recent years, perhaps largely due to the initial work of Mackarness, 2 and more recently of Rippere 3 in this country that the multiplicity of symptoms caused by masked food allergy has been realized. Some authorities still question the phenomena altogether. Tables 4 and 5 show a list of symptoms, all of which have been noted in patients subsequently shown to be allergic to specific foods (it is not hard to see the undoubted similarity between alleged "neurotic" symptoms, symptoms of vitamin B deficiencies, those from masked food allergy, and the many symptoms detailed by Hahnemann under his miasm "psora"). Our role as therapists however should not only embrace the suffering of here and now, but seek to prevent suffering for the future. In this respect, de-natured food has yet another significance. Surgeon Commander Cleave 4 and Denis Burkitt 5 amongst others haste looked at the role of dietary sugar and fibre, and epidemiological studies have shown the high incidence of western diseases in societies eating a low fibre diet as compared to the rarity of these very illnesses in societies or communities eating natural "whole", unrefined, foods. Burkitt ~ relates our mashy, pappy, fibreless diet with high carbohydrate content to diverticular disease, gall stones, piles, varicose veins, dental caries, coronary heart disease, and arthritis. Indeed, here is a rich source of preventive medicine, if not for this generation then at least for those still to come. Let us remember the present avid craving for carbohydrates (each person on average consumes 4-5 oz of sugar per head per day!), the lurid TV commercials for this or that sweetmeat, and let us point out the value of wholesome, unadulterated, unrefined foods to provide roughage containing the essential vitamins and minerals. Let us seek to do away with chemicalized, artificial foods (satisfying maybe to the pockets of food companies and our jaded palates, but disastrous to the internal metabolism). Already the value of minerals and trace elements has been realized, yet "refining" (better called "destruction") of man's food, e.g. white sugar, leaves nothing but pure calories, all but devoid of any other food or nutrient at all (Table 3). There are also major differences in minerals in white as compared to brown bread. One must emphasize that minerals must be taken in the diet and cannot be synthesized. Furthermore because of the "rain forest effect" (total interContinued from page 51 of January number (Br Hom J 1985; 74:47-51.
Volume 74, Number 2, April 1985
119
TABLE 4 The Allergy Problem FOODS MENTIONED AS CAUSING SYMPTOMS Frequency
Food
52 34 32 31 29 28 24 23 22 21 18 17 16 14 13 12 11 9
Wheat and wheat products Cows' milk Food additives and contaminants Cheese Coffee, alcohol Chocolate Citrus Corn Egg, cane sugar Oats, tea Rye Rice Apple, banana Barley Fish Butter, pork, tomato Yoghurt, cream, onion Chicken, peanut Grape/raisin, brassicas, yeast Ice-cream, beef, pork products, shellfish, potato Beetroot/sugar, soya, confectionary, MSG, carrot, fruit drinks, honey Millet, lamb, mushroom, pear, plum, currant, peach, nuts, runner beans, food combinations, instant foods. Gluten, smoked foods, lettuce, glucose, parsnip, broad beans, tinned foods, garlic. Buckwheat, turkey, animal fats, vegetable oils, strawberries, red and green peppers, jam, cake mixes. Margarine, corned beef, starch, shortbread, melon, baked beans, cherries, "beans", decaffeinated coffee, pineapple. Lactose, fruit seeds, peppercorns, coriander, mustard, curry, fructose, swede, butter beans, turnip, celery, cucumber, courgette, spinach, vinegar, barley water, protein-free flour, gluten-free flour, foods with large amounts of calcium, coca cola, dried fruits, parsley, tapioca, gooseberry, apricot, radish, watercress, lentil, avocado, chicory, dried beans, coconut, jerusalem artichoke, Bovril, Camp coffee, Marmite, Horlicks, Lucozade, Worcester sauce, Perrier water.
8
7 6 5
dependence of minerals, vitamins, amino acids, etc.), the lack of even one element out of the total could markedly affect the functioning or utilization of the rest. Increasing notice is being taken of the "trace" elements. As an example, an association has been discovered between the levels of selenium in the soil of different areas, and the incidence there of arthritis, cancer and heart disease. Epidemiological studies have shown that of 24 countries, Finland and the U S A (both low in soil selenium) have four to five times the incidence of heart disease, compared to countries with higher levels of this element, such as Yugoslavia. It is pertinent too, to note that another refined food, white or polished rice, has fifteen times less selenium in it than whole grain brown rice, whilst white bread has half as much selenium content than brown bread. 120
The British Homceopathic Journal
TABLE 5 The Allergy Problem FREQUENCY
WITH
WHICH
TYPES
OF SYMPTOMS
WERE
REPORTED
BY SURVEY
RESFOND'ENTS
Frequency
Symptom type
47
Migraine and headache
45
Respiratory
44 41 31 30 29 27 25 24 23 22
Abdominal Skin lesions Energy loss
21 20 19 18 12 11 10
Vasomotor
9 8 7
Frequency 5
Symptom type Menstrual difficulties
Insomnia Weakness 4
Prostration Addictive behaviour Foul taste in mouth Psychotic symptoms Depersonalization-derealization
Skin sensations Nausea and vomiting
3
Mood swings
Cardiovascular depression Aggression and irritability Eyes
2
Oedema and bloating Bowel Mental dullness and confusion
Malaise Joints and muscles Clouded consciousness Anxiety
Neuralgia Bruising
Nightmares Extreme hunger and thirst Chinese Restaurant Syndrome Shock 1
Enuresis Obsessions
Obesity
Hyperactivity
"Hysterics"
Genitourinary Tension Hypersomnia Speech and reading difficulties Weepiness Social withdrawal Ears and hearing
Photophobia Broken nails Arthritic nodules Travel sickness Nasal polyps
Phobia Swollen glands Behaviour problems
Other environmental factors However close a dynamic relationship there is between foodstuffs and our living metabolism, we must also rely on other essential elements of our environment, namely, air and water. These can all too readily be contaminated by "Acid Rain", carbon dioxide, lead from petrol fumes, fluoride, and "run-off" of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers into rivers from over-drenched fields subject to intensive farming techniques. It is now not difficult to see how threatening to health our environment has become! One lesser known hazard of our environment is the biological effect of positive and negative ions in the atmosphere. It is here, in the context of homoeopathic practice, that these finds are of such interest. Certainly all hom0eopathic practitioners, and many a lay person, will be aware of those amongst us who react markedly to weather. "It is going to rain, my rheumatism is bad", or "It seems so oppressive, I think it is going to storm", are two commonly heard remarks and social comments. In addition, the physical and psychological effects of certain dry hot winds, called reasonably enough "witches' winds", have been noted by Volume 74, Number 2, April 1985
121
Suleman 6 in Israel and Krueger 7 in California. These winds, the Foehn in central Europe, the Sharav in Israel, the Santa Aria in California and the Mistral in France, are well recognized as causing increased irritability, anxiety and depression of mood. Road traffic accidents and crimes are more common at the times of these winds, and those especially sensitive may also note increased headaches, lethargy and a general feeling of ill health with a loss of libido at such times (Soyka & EdmundsS). Apart from such research, Dr Tyler 9 in her Drug Pictures quotes a Dr Lindsay of Paraguay, who noted the very same features in that country, finding that N u x v o m . was particularly useful therapeutically in such cases, as one might reasonably have expected. In essence, these winds are now known to be heavily charged with positive i o n s - - a s indeed is the atmosphere before a storm! Contrariwise, the freshness of the atmosphere after a storm, and the attraction to rivers, fountains, and running water we all experience, is due to the greater preponderance there of negative ions. Interesting, too, in this respect is the complaint of workers in modern offices of headaches, lethargy, poor concentration and lack of appetite, all symptoms which could be so readily designated as "neurotic" in nature. It has been found that in such offices the man-made fibres in carpets and soft furnishings and the ducted hot air central heating, all lead to an atmosphere heavily charged with positive ions. The obvious treatment has likewise confirmed the biological effects of these ions: the symptoms are cleared by installing negative ionizers in the work situation. Before leaving the area of environmental hazards, one further condition is worth noting. Modem society is surrounded by noise, even apart from specific noisy industrial situations. Few of us can get away from traffic noise, many are subjected to intensive aircraft noise, and most of us meet the ubiquitous noise of "piped music" flooding the atmosphere of shops, restaurants or similar establishments. The younger generation carry transmitters, worn it seems almost day and night, and enshroud themselves in a cocoon of cacophony--perhaps to escape the world outside? It cannot be anything but conducive to increased tensions. Conversation can be inhibited or difficult. There is a recognized loss of hearing acuity in those subject to such chronic aural barrage, and concentration and efficiency is gradually eroded. One cannot but feel that such long-term stimulation maintains a plateau of excitation in the CNS such that further stimulation is soon called for in an ever increasing crescendo. No wonder irritability and tension states abound, alcohol abuse increases, and tranquillizers are one of the commonest drugs prescribed! Finally to return full circle to our dynamic picture of man as intimately, inseparately linked to all around him, what of the work of Michel Gauchelin 1~and others? If we accept the interaction of rain, sun, soil, chlorophyll, plants and mammals as one glorious balanced ecological whole, can we not accept a likely interaction as between nebuli and planets, suns and stars with their electrical/magnetic forces, gravitational pulls, and radioactivity? Could not these self-same forces act upon man himself, especially at a developing undifferentiated 122
The British Homceopathic Journal
stage of his development, say as an embryo? We seek to understand our universe by discerning laws, detecting patterns in structure and behaviour or defining common characteristics such that we can classify, contrast and compare. The constitutional types of homaeopathic prescribing and the physical and psychological typing of Sheldon are two obvious examples. Why should not individuals born at the same time in relation to the movement of stars and planets, share qualities and characteristics common to each other--all being influenced at that time by as yet unrecognized forces in our universe? In summary
This has been a broad review of subtle forces and influences inimical to health yet scantily recognized in our environment. The subtlety of their influence, their ubiquitous nature, and their protean, albeit similar, clinical presentation, is a challenge to any diagnostic skill. Their recognition, and the simple alterations in diet and working conditions, or, in the longer term, preventive arenas, changes in farming policy, social mores and ecological husbandry, might lead to far healthier living without resort to antidepressants, tranquillizers, extensive surgery, and ever more costly disease-orientated services. Homaeopathic remedies may indeed "cut across" such symptoms, but one would question whether this is good practice or likely to produce lasting recovery, when an underlying deficiency or sub-clinical "toxin" is essentially to blame? These very forces may be so readily overlooked. Lastly, it must be of considerable interest to realize the correspondence between the masked clinical effects of positive and negative ions and the equally potent effects of highly diluted homoeopathic remedies. In respect of the enormous potency of such subtle and refined influences, it is significant to recall that Hahnemann experimented with the smelling of remedies--surely, physiologically speaking, a most delicate way of introducing a pharmacological agent into any living organism, to say nothing of the close relationship between our "smell brain", the rhinencephalon, or limbic system, and the hypothalamus, in terms of our emotional responses. " C e a s e not to think of the Universe as one living Being, possessed of a single Substance and a single
Soul; and how all things trace back to its single sentience; and how it does all things by a single impulse; and how all existing things are joint causes of all things that come into existence; and how inter-twined in the fabric is the thread and how closelywoventhe web" MARCUS A U R E L I U S REFERENCES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Randolph TG. Concepts of food allergy important in specific diagnosis. Journal ofA Ilergy 1950; 21 "471-7. Mackarness R. Not all in the Mind. London: Pan Books. 1976. Rippere V. The Allerg.v Problem. Northamptonshire England: Thorsons Publishers Ltd. 1983. Cleave TL. The Saccharine Disease. Bristol: John Wright. 1974. Burkitt D. Don't forget fibre in your diet. London: Martin Dunitz. 1979. Sulman FG. Effects of hot dry desert winds (Sharav, Hamsin) on metabolism of Hormones. Journal of the Medical Association of lsrael. Krueger AP. Are Negative Air Ions Good For You? The New Scientist 1973. June 14. Sovka F, Edmunds A. The Ion Effect. New York: Bantam Books. 1977. Tyler ML. Homceopathic Drug Pictures. Bradford: Health Science Press. 1942. Gauaelin M. Cosmic Influences in Human Behaviour. London: Garnstone Press. 1974.
Volume 74, Number 2, April 1985
123