Antidepressants Blog

Hot-and-cold shower

Biological clinics attach great importance to alternating hot and cold baths. Such baths stimulate all the body functions, but particularly the adrenal and other endocrine glands, and reactivate their functions. They are excellent means of revitalizing skin activity and improving circulation.

The procedure is as follows. First, take a warm shower for about 3 to 5 minutes, to warm up the body. Then switch rapidly to cold water – as cold as it comes – for about 10-15 seconds. Switch back to warm water for 3 to 5 minutes. Make three changes, always finishing with cold. After the shower, warm yourself up by rubbing with a coarse bath towel and follow with dry brush massage

Kneippsitzbath

There are three kinds of sitz baths: hot sitz bath, cold sitz bath and alternating hot-and-cold sitz bath.

The hot sitz bath is beneficial for relieving pain and inflammation in the reproductive organs and other organs of the pelvic region. The water should be as hot as can be borne comfortably and the duration of the bath should be 10 to 15 minutes.

The cold sitz bath has a stimulating and invigorating effect on the reproductive organs and the spine. It is popularly called a “youth bath,” because of its rejuvenative effect as the result of increasing blood circulation to the vital centers. The temperature of the water should be 50-65 degrees F, and the duration of the bath from 3 to 5 minutes. After the bath, rub yourself warm with a coarse bath towel.

The alternate hot-and-cold sitz bath has great therapeutic value in most internal disorders. Not only organs and glands of the pelvic region are stimulated and revitalized, but practically all body functions are beneficially affected. This bath is especially beneficial for all who have lowered vitality.

For the alternate hot-and-cold sitz bath, two tubs are required: one containing hot and the other cold water. For a do-it-yourself sitz bath, some large metal or plastic household tubs (like a baby bath, for example) can be used. The temperature of the hot water is about 98-100 degrees, and the cold water is about 50-65 degrees. Sit in hot water first for 5 minutes, then switch to cold water for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat twice.

For hot or cold sitz bath, you can use the regular bath tub in your home. Fill the bath tub with water about 8 inches high or a little less than half-full. Sit in the tub with your knees drawn up (use a little box or stool) so that only the “sitz” is covered by the water. If a cold sitz bath is given to a patient in very weak condition, it is advisable to place his feet in a small tub or pan filled with warm water.

A sitz bath can be taken 2 or 3 times a week.

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When a physician or a nurse injects a few drops of measles vaccine into a child, the particles in that liquid set off an incredible chain of events within the child’s body. At the end of that sequence, the child is immune to any live, disease-causing measles virus.

The vaccine triggers the child’s immune system. And what a marvel that system is. Millions of microscopic blood cells, each smaller than a dust particle, swing into action. They create chemicals designed specifically to knock out the measles virus. They marshal the aid of scavenger cells to chew up the attackers.

Scientists have learned how immunity works and how it fights invading bacteria, viruses, parasites, and pieces of these called antigens. Or how it sometimes turns against the body itself, causing diseases like arthritis, rheumatic fever, perhaps even diabetes. Or how it safeguards you from cancer.

Measles, influenza, and polio no longer kill much of the world, thanks to vaccines. New medications and treatments are coming from research in medicine, chemistry, and genetic engineering.

Scientists today feel overwhelmingly that they have passed the threshold of major discoveries. The way is open to find the causes of cancer and a dozen other diseases, how to treat them, and possibly how to prevent them.

“We are dealing with an unparalleled explosion of information on cancer biology,” says Dr. Steven Rosenberg, chief of the surgery branch of the National Cancer Institute.

Sara Brooks, 4, of Sacramento, California, owes her life to this new knowledge. She inherited a defective immune system and had no protection against invading germs from the day she was born. Doctors kept Sara alive for 5 months in a little three-sided box with air filters. Her parents, Steve and Sheryl Brooks, could not touch or cuddle her. A single stray germ could have killed her.

“Sara was pretty sick for a while,” says her mother, “but now the doctors consider her cured. We call her a miracle baby.”

Dr. Morton J. Cowan of the University of California at San Francisco gave Sara a defect-free immune system by transplanting bone marrow from her father into her body. His healthy bone marrow contained all the cells Sara needed.

Bone marrow transplantation also has been successful in fighting leukemia. It replaces the diseased immune system by producing healthy red cells and platelets and the immune system’s white cells. This transplanting occurs after the leukemia is blasted with X rays and chemicals that destroy both the cancer and the patient’s bone marrow.

In this same way, bone marrow transplants have helped several workers who received deadly doses of radiation at the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. The radiation had destroyed their immune systems.

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