Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog – information on herbal medicine

Chickenpox occurs most of the year with localised epidemics.

Chickenpox, or varicella, is an acute infectious disease due to a specific virus, and is associated with a typical rash.

The same virus causes herpes zoster or shingles, which is mainly confined to those who have previously had chickenpox.

Although mainly a disorder of middle childhood it can occur in babies and is not uncommon in adults.

The incubation period is around 14 days and it spreads from person to person by direct contact, by droplet infection in coughing or sneezing or being transferred by hands and even clothes.

Its onset may be associated with a fever and aches and pains or even with respiratory symptoms such as a cough and a running nose, for a few days before the rash appears.

The typical pock marks may be the first sign.

Chickenpox may be mild and show only a few spots. Other cases are more severe and may be associated with complications. Adults tend to get a more severe reaction.

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Emergency symptoms: Apply emergency treatment immediately.

Emergency treatment:

1.    Try to find out what the child has taken, how much the child took, and when the incident occurred.

2.     Call the doctor or local poison control center for instructions.

3.     Be prepared to read the label of the substance over the telephone.

4.     Always keep syrup of ipecac in your home.

Symptoms

Depending on type of poison taken, symptoms may include a number of the following: rapid breathing, ringing in the ears, nausea, over-excitement, unconsciousness, burns on lips, mouth, and tongue, abdominal pain, vomiting, blood in vomit.

Precautions

-    Keep the phone numbers of the doctor, poison control center, and other emergency services next to your telephone.

-    Keep all poisonous substances out of the reach of children, preferably in a locked cupboard to which only you have the key.

-    Never store a dangerous substance in anything but its original container.

-    Do not keep medication in an unlabeled container.

-    Make sure all medications, not just those intended for children’s use, have child-proof caps.

-    Make sure that your children do not come into contact with dangerous substances in other people’s homes.

-    Be aware that treatment for poisoning depends on the substance taken, and that in the case of some poisons vomiting can worsen the child’s condition.

-    Never induce vomiting in a child who is not fully conscious.

In a large enough quantity, any substance, even water, can be poisonous. But some substances are more apt to be swallowed in harmful amounts, either accidentally or deliberately, than others. The most common causes of poisoning among children between the ages of one and five years are soaps, detergents, cleansers, bleachers, vitamins, iron tonics, insecticides, plants, polishes and waxes, hormones, and tranquilizers. Less common but more toxic poisons include boric acid, volatile hydrocarbons (petrol, kerosene, turpentine, naphtha, cleaning fluids), strong acids, alkalis (drain and oven cleaners), and many prescription and over-the-counter medications (including aspirin substitutes and paracetamol). Moth balls and camphor may also be dangerous.

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What is it?

A very common syndrome in which there is pain from the colon (large bowel) and an alteration in bowel habits. It is a leading cause of lost days of work and, apart from peptic ulcers, is the condition of the digestive tract most frequently seen by gastroenterologists.

The symptoms are abdominal aching or pain, diarrhea, alternating diarrhea and constipation, wind, and abdominal bloating.

What causes it?

The whole syndrome appears to be caused by increased bowel motility. This in turn can be caused by several things:

• Certain foods.

• Tea, coffee and alcohol.

• An infection with Candida yeast.

• Stress.

• Certain drugs.

• Bowel infections.

• A digestive-enzyme deficiency.

• A low-fibre diet.

Prevention

•    Many people with IBS can identify one or more foods that make their symptoms worse, and a study from Cambridge found food intolerance to be a major causative factor. The most common offending foods were wheat, corn, dairy products, coffee, tea, and citrus fruits. It is certainly worth going on to an elimination diet for a few weeks to see if the symptoms disappear. To do this you need to eat only a very few foods and to exclude all the foods listed above-and anything containing them. This usually means eating a diet composed of one meat (lamb is good), fresh vegetables and water for 2-3 weeks. If your symptoms go you can try adding in the foods listed, one by one starting from the end of the list (citrus fruits). If you get any of your symptoms back cut out that food entirely for good and go back to the simpler diet for a few days until you are normal again. Repeat the process, trying each of the foods on the list, one at a time, for a few days until you have eliminated the culprit(s), which you should then cut out from your diet permanently.

•    Cut out tea, coffee and alcohol and see if this produces a reduction in or elimination of your symptoms. Add each back in, one at a time, to identify the reaction-producing substance, as above.

•    Candida albicans, the yeast that causes thrush, can be found in about half of the whole population’s bowels. The consumption of antibiotics, any disruption of the digestive process, the consumption of a diet high in refined foods, and the use of steroid hormones, all make the growth of this yeast more likely. UK researchers have found that this overgrowth can produce symptoms exactly like IBS and that the ‘IBS’ can be cured by killing off the yeast.

•    Most studies of IBS put stress high on the list of causes. (Some doctors even think it is a purely psychosomatic disorder but this is almost certainly not so). A study of 130 patients with IBS found that one or more psychological factors played an important part in causing the condition in the first place, or in causing relapses of it, in four out of five of those studied. For men business and career worries came high on the list, and with women family problems were the main culprits.

Psychotherapy can undoubtedly prevent IBS, and some people find taking regular exercise helps. Yoga or hypnosis may be of benefit-by helping you relax. A recent Swedish trial of preventive psychotherapy found that those receiving the psychotherapy fared much better than those who were treated with medical methods alone.

•    Treatment with antibiotics can produce IBS-like symptoms, usually because they profoundly alter the large bowel’s normal bacterial and yeast population. The reactions may not occur until several weeks after the course of antibiotics has ended, hence the link between the two is difficult to make unless you know about it. People on long-term antibiotics (such as those on long-term tetracycline for acne) are especially at risk.

•     Acute infective diarrhea, such as occurs in food poisoning, can trigger the symptoms of IBS and they can persist long after the infection has gone.

•     Certain people have a shortage or absence of the specific enzymes that digest lactose in milk. Such people get symptoms of IBS when they consume milk or milk products. If milk makes your symptoms worse, prevention is easy-stop drinking and eating milk and milk products.

•     Whilst there is no doubt that a high-fibre diet seems to have a beneficial effect on many people with IBS, a few people actually only start getting IBS symptoms when they go on to a high-fibre diet. These people are wheat-sensitive and allergic to bran. Soya bran or rice bran are alternatives and are available from health-food stores.

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