• Russian Choice Immune is a probiotic that originated as a fermented milk product in Eastern Europe. Technically speaking, it’s “a preparation of cell-wall fragments made from a specific strain of Lactobacillus rhamnosus. . . . Such probiotic bacteria are known to stimulate both the innate and adaptive immune systems. . . .” The bottom line is that it supports the immune system and the gastrointestinal system.
• Olive leaves have been used medicinally for centuries to treat fever, malaria, colds, and fungal infections. Modern research shows that a bitter constituent of olive leaves called oleuropein has antibacterial, antiviral, and antiprotozoal effects. Research at the pharmaceutical company Upjohn found that elenolic acid, another chemical found in olive leaves, stopped certain cold viruses dead in their tracks. The best way to take olive leaf as a supplement is as an extract in capsule or liquid form.
• Elderberries have a long history of use by American Indians, who used it primarily for the treatment of infections. Elderberries contain anti-inflammatory bioflavonoids that have been shown in test tube studies to inhibit viral growth. Specifically, elderberry flavonoids can stifle the activity of a protein needed by the flu virus to multiply and spread. It’s no surprise that elderberry is especially effective against viral infections such as the flu and the common cold. In one study, a patented elderberry extract was given to flu patients. They showed significant improvement in symptoms, including muscle aches, respiratory symptoms, and fever, in the space of only 24 hours.
Bladder Infections. For bladder or urinary tract infections, drink 4 ounces of unsweetened cranberry juice or take 1 capsule of cranberry concentrate three times a day along with grapefruit seed extract.
Ear Infections. For recurrent ear infections:
• Eliminate sugar.
• Identify and eliminate food allergens.
• Take vitamin C to tolerance.
• Take vitamin A, 10,000 to 15,000 IU a day for up to two weeks.
• Chew xylitol gum.
Recent studies have found that antibiotics make little to no difference in the course that children’s ear infections take. Many children have had multiple courses of antibiotics for recurrent ear infections before they’ve passed through toddlerhood, and this just sets children up for weakened immunity and more infections. Watchful waiting and allowing the infection to resolve naturally—along with children’s echinacea, a multivitamin, vitamin C, and a no-sugar, no-refined-carbohydrate diet—may stop the cycle of repeat infections in children.
A study published in the British Medical Journal looked at the effects of a course of probiotic therapy for the prevention of recurrent ear infections. The researchers recruited 130 children from ages 6 months to 6 years, all of whom were suffering from ear infections and had a history of recurrent otitis media. They gave all the children 10 days’ worth of antibiotics. Once the antibiotic therapy was over, half the kids got a probiotic nasal spray for 10 days, while the other half got a placebo. A second course of probiotics and placebos was given two months later. Over the three months of the study, 42 percent of the probiotic group avoided getting another ear infection, while only 22 percent of the placebo group avoided another ear infection.
In Great Britain and Europe, the sweetener xylitol is being used with great success to treat ear infections, often in the form of chewing gum. Xylitol has antibacterial properties that work specifically against the pathogens that cause ear infections.
Internal Fungal Infections. Candida is a common fungus that grows out of control in many people, thanks to too many antibiotics and too much sugar. Your best strategy for fighting a fungal infection is to boost your body’s natural resources as much as possible, so that your own “good” bacteria can fight off the candida.
It’s extremely important to eliminate sugar from your diet if you’re fighting a candida infection, and it helps to eliminate or cut back on fermented foods such as beer, wine, vinegar, aged cheeses, and anything made with yeast.
If you suspect you have a serious candida overgrowth in your intestines, read the book Optimal Wellness by Ralph Golan, M.D. (Ballantine Books, 1995). He covers the subject in detail and gives an excellent protocol to follow for bringing candida under control.
Grapefruit seed extract, garlic oil, and oregano oil are all very effective antifungals. It’s certainly worth giving them a try before taking a potent antifungal drug. Be sure to take probiotics to enhance your body’s production of its own “good” bacteria.
Vaginal Yeast Infections. Vaginal yeast infections are an overgrowth of candida, usually caused by taking antibiotics. They cause itching and redness and a white discharge from the vagina. Yeast infections can also be caused when the pH of the vagina is altered, creating a favorable environment for candida growth. The pH of the vagina can be altered by frequent sex, because semen creates a more alkaline environment in the vagina. It can also be altered by the use of commercial douches, which in general cause a lot more unpleasant odors than they cover up.
Fortunately, vaginal yeast infections are usually easy to treat, especially when caught early. The first thing you can try is douching at least twice a day with a vinegar and water solution, ¼ cup white or apple cider vinegar to 1 quart of water. You can also use a yogurt douche for the probiotics in it, although it’s probably easier and less messy just to insert a probiotic gelatin capsule into the vagina.
To avoid future yeast infections, use a vinegar douche once a day if you are having frequent sex, and avoid using commercial douches. If you are taking antibiotics and you have a tendency to get yeast infections, take your probiotics orally and vaginally!
A recent study found that a significant proportion of the women who buy over-the-counter yeast infection remedies have misdiagnosed themselves with vaginal yeast infections when the problem is a bacterial infection such as trichomoniasis or bacterial vaginosis. Some women are right about the yeast infections but have bacterial infections in addition. Vaginal discharge that smells fishy or “off,” or a discharge that is greenish or yellowish, could indicate infection. Left untended, these types of infections can cause pregnancy complications or even infertility due to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Reestablishing the proper balance of good bacteria in the vagina will go a long way toward preventing and controlling these types of infections, as will promoting good immune function with vitamin C, zinc, and a high-potency multivitamin. Visit your ob-gyn if you are concerned about a vaginal infection.
Toenail Fungus. Toenail fungus is unsightly and uncomfortable and can cause the loss of toenails. It’s extremely difficult to get rid of, and conventional drugs used to treat it are ineffective or dangerous. The imidazole antifungal drugs can cause headaches, dizziness, rashes, digestive problems, and photosensitivity, and they interact dangerously with a long list of other drugs, including antihistamines, any drug that puts extra stress on the liver, and alcohol. Drugs that suppress stomach acid can reduce the effectiveness of antifungals. Birth control pills can be made ineffective by antifungal drugs. Many of the antifungal drugs, but especially ketoconazole (Nizoral), can cause acute liver toxicity.
The worst part is that toenail fungus often comes back after the drugs are discontinued. There must be another way, right? Well, you can beat toenail fungus naturally, but you need to be rigorous about it for months and sometimes more than a year. Going barefoot in clean areas can help, because your feet stay dry and aired out, but avoid going barefoot in gyms and other public areas. You must keep your feet clean and dry as much as possible and not wear shoes that cause your feet to sweat.
To avoid reinfecting yourself, you’ll need to douse your shoes with an over-the-counter antifungal powder to kill any lingering fungus there, and be sure to wash your socks in hot water and detergent. Also wipe down the bathroom, shower, and any other place you go barefoot with a mixture of soap and tea tree oil to kill fungus there.
Tea tree oil, garlic, and vinegar are effective antifungals. Here’s a natural strategy for banishing toenail fungus:
Every night before bed, soak your feet in a vinegar-and-water solution (1 cup per ½ gallon of water) for 10 minutes. Then soak them in a mixture of tea tree oil, and if you can stand the smell, garlic oil (6 to 8 drops of each) and warm water for half an hour. After that, thoroughly dry your feet, apply tea tree oil directly to the nails, and wear white cotton socks to bed. You will have to do this for at least three months to get rid of the fungus.
Just as with an internal fungus infection, it’s important to support your body by avoiding sugar and taking probiotics.
Chapter 15
Drugs for Insomnia, Anxiety, and Depression and Their Natural Alternatives
In 2005, newer sleep drugs such as Ambien, Lunesta, and Rozerem were prescribed some 45 million times in the United States. It’s amazing that so many Americans are having so much trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, but let’s put that aside for now and look at rare side effects that are causing concern and conversation: sleepwalking, binge eating while asleep, and even sleep-driving.
Rosalind Cartwright, a 60-something college professor, took Ambien a few hours following some over-the-counter cold medicine. She headed to bed. At 3:30 A.M., she found herself on the floor hurting but too sleepy to do much about it, so she crawled back into her bed and fell asleep again. Cart-wright had no history of sleepwalking. When she awoke in serious pain and bleeding, a trip to the ER revealed bleeding on the brain, four pelvic fractures, three broken ribs, and a fractured left wrist. What had she done in her sleep to be injured so severely?
This side effect of new sleep drugs combined with other medicines first gained notoriety in 2006, when Rhode Island representative Patrick Kennedy crashed into a barrier near Capitol Hill and blamed it on Ambien and another medication he had used with it. Others have reported similar examples of strange activities while under the drug’s influence; over a dozen reports of sleep-driving have been made to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Laura J. Liddicoat, a forensic scientist who works at a lab in Wisconsin, reported in the New York Times that Ambien had been detected in the blood work of 53 drivers who exhibited erratic driving behavior. In Washington in 2005, Ambien played a role in 78 impaired-driver arrests. In some of these cases, drivers are doing more than weaving or running red lights: they’re driving the wrong way or slamming into other cars and objects head-on. In many instances, they don’t recognize or communicate with the officers who arrest them. One air traveler was arrested for tearing off his shirt and threatening other passengers—he remembered nothing between having taken Ambien, downing two of those airplane-sized bottles of wine, and waking up in a jail cell.
Many of the instances where Ambien and related sleep drugs cause problems have to do with its combination with alcohol or other medications. If you do decide you need to take sleep medications, don’t go near alcohol, cold medicines, tranquilizers, or any other drugs that have potential hypnotic or sedative effects. And don’t make the mistake described in several reports of Ambien-related driving mishaps: the user took the drug on the way home so that it would “kick in” by the time he or she arrived.
One woman who took a single Ambien at bedtime woke up after having had a car accident and urinating in the middle of the street. She found a half-drunk bottle of wine on her kitchen counter after returning home and did not remember having consumed it. She had done so and then gotten behind the wheel, all while mostly asleep.
Although these side effects are rare, it just doesn’t seem worth it to turn to sleep drugs when insomnia strikes. In this chapter you’ll find many effective, natural, safe ways to encourage healthy and rejuvenating sleep without medications that can be addicting or dangerous.
Popping sleeping pills can be a tactic we use to avoid dealing with the issues that are causing us to lie awake tossing and turning at night. If emotions such as worry, frustration, stress, or anger are keeping you up, do the needed spiritual, practical, or interpersonal work to help you manage and put them aside when it’s time to rest. Humans will never be free of worry—but we can learn to set it aside when we choose to do so.
Lack of sleep is one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue. Whether it’s not being able to get to sleep, or waking several times each night, or never feeling as though you’ve gotten a good night’s sleep, insomnia can take a huge toll on your quality of life. Fortunately for most people, it’s relatively easy to remedy restless nights. The most obvious sleep robbers are the most common ones: stress, lack of exercise, caffeine, and prescription drugs. Having to get up at night repeatedly to urinate can disturb sleeping patterns enough to cause problems, as any man coping with an enlarged prostate gland can tell you. For women, menopause may bring on hot flashes and night sweats that disturb sleep.
Often when people are under stress and feel helpless to do anything about it, they lie awake at night tossing and turning with repetitive “tapes” going through their heads, or they wake up very early in the morning and can’t get back to sleep. Big decisions, the illness or troubles of a loved one, major life changes, financial difficulties, and any number of the other lumps and bumps life hands out can all cause sleeplessness. Depression and anxiety will often cause sleeplessness, which creates a vicious circle of more depression and more sleeplessness.
Depression and Anxiety: Part of Being Human
Depression and related disorders are very common, with some 17 million Americans having the experience of depression each year. In the United States, depression is the most common cause of disability. According to predictions from the World Health Organization, it will be the most common cause of disability worldwide by the year 2020. Anxiety disorders include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social phobia, other specific phobias, and generalized anxiety disorders. They are believed to affect even more people than depression: the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 40 million Americans ages 18 and up have at least one of these anxiety disorders, and it states that most people with anxiety problems also have issues with depression.
In 2006, more antidepressants were sold than any other class of drug, with pharmaceutical companies raking in $20.6 billion. In 2007, there were more FDA warnings about the dangers of antidepressants than any other class of drug. Most of the warnings were related to suicidal thoughts in adolescents who take these drugs. How many of those prescriptions were written to treat a clear case of severe depression or anxiety, and how many were written to people who were just feeling a bit blue or a bit stressed and thought that a little dose of this or that would save them the pain of experiencing and processing difficult, uncomfortable emotions and situations? How many saw an ad for one of these drugs and decided to heed its exhortations to “just ask your doctor”?
Prescribing data aren’t specific enough to answer these questions with certainty. The most important question here is whether the drugs so widely used to medicate unhappiness are safe enough to hand out so freely, or whether they are, in fact, much less safe and effective than most people believe them to be.
Many respected experts agree that depression and anxiety are overdiagnosed and over-medicated. Although many who end up on drugs may not have really needed them, let’s make one thing clear: those of us who have never experienced a major depression or intense anxiety can never understand the experience of people who have. Any person who has ever been severely depressed or anxious has been told at some point by a well-meaning loved one or friend, “Just snap out of it!” or “Get on with your life and you’ll feel better!” or “Just relax!” or “Smile!” Depression and anxiety are both real problems for millions of people, and telling them they don’t really have a problem or that it’s something they should be able to shake off and “get over” does little good. These kinds of comments only make the person who is suffering feel more alone.
Of course, the question remains: where should the line be drawn between feeling down-and-out or worrying too much, and the existence of a mental disorder that merits the use of
medication? The psychiatric community has put a lot of time and effort into creating diagnostic criteria for depressive disorders and anxiety disorders, but making a diagnosis is far more subjective than some people might think. The diagnostic criteria for mental illnesses, all codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), have been created by committees of psychiatrists and other scientists, based on symptoms commonly seen. The DSM criteria are constantly changing; new diagnoses appear often.
No clinical test of brain chemicals exists to definitively answer the question of whether a person “has” a mental disorder or not. When we say someone has depression or anxiety, we’re insinuating that the line between sick and not-sick is solid—but it isn’t when it comes to these very common complaints. It’s really just an educated guess. That fuzzy line has led to the prescription of brain neurotransmitter-tweaking medications to millions of people who might have been able to work through their issues with natural remedies and therapy.
A person who is clinically depressed is in pain—psychological pain with feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, and sadness that often lead to suicidal ideation and, in some cases, suicide attempts, and sometimes, physical pain. The world begins to look sinister and ugly to a depressed person, and the things that once gave that person joy now do nothing to raise him or her up out of the quagmire. A depressed person might be unable to get out of bed, speak coherently, or engage in work, play, or relationships. In today’s fear-drenched world, anxiety is a fact of life for most of us; the difference for a person with an anxiety disorder is that he or she is so fearful that normal functioning becomes extremely difficult or impossible. An anxious person is very often in a state of fight-or-flight, with all the physical manifestations of a creature in danger—danger that never seems to go away. Anxiety disrupts sleep and brings on distinctly physical symptoms. The diagnosis of anxiety disorder is often first considered when a patient goes to a doctor for physical symptoms like chest pain, dizziness, or shortness of breath. People who have panic attacks often report they feel like they are dying during the attacks.
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