Pharmacy blog, health and medicine news

Petadolor is not as fast-acting as many chemical medicines, but its harmlessness no doubt offsets this small disadvantage. In approximately 50 per cent of patients who take it the pain-killing effect is relatively fast, but in 30 per cent it is slower, taking about an hour to counteract menstrual cramps and migraine. In approximately 10 per cent of patients, especially cancer patients, it begins to work only after about three days, but then the effect is stronger than that of morphine. About 10 per cent of all patients respond very little or not at all to the remedy. It may be, however, that in time a greater concentration of the active substances will bring relief to these people too.

Since Petadolor is able to ease cramps and spasms, it helps to calm and tone the nerves. Faster results are obtained when Petadolor tablets are dissolved on the tongue, because in this way the active elements are dissolved by the saliva and absorbed via the mucous membrane.

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Is it a good thing to get rid of foot sweat? Or is perspiration a natural process through which the body disposes of toxins that it could not otherwise eliminate? This second assumption seems to be correct, or else so many unpleasant consequences could not have resulted when sufferers tried to suppress perspiration of the feet.

Just recently I received a letter from a woman in Zurich telling me that while her husband was doing military service his foot sweat was suppressed and as a result he developed a skin disease. Foot sweat is often suppressed by people in military service, but this is no cure; rather, it can be detrimental in as far as the effects will be either a skin disorder or some other problem. For example, I have never found a person suffering from any form of lung trouble to be plagued by excessively sweaty feet. Specialists in lung diseases with whom I have discussed this phenomenon have confirmed my observation. Hence the logical conclusion that the direct and deliberate suppression of foot perspiration or some other excretory body function, can mark the beginning of lung problems or may be connected with them. If you want to get rid of the troubles incurred there will be no other way but once again to induce the feet to sweat. You may wonder how this can be done. Well, the suggestion below is simple enough, but carrying it out successfully is quite another matter.

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Visitors to oriental countries cannot help but notice the many, mainly young, Buddhist monks clad in orange robes and with their heads shaved. They are to be seen everywhere. Without even thinking you will compare them to the ordinary people with their beautiful dark hair. You will be convinced that hair is indeed an adornment. We in the West like blond, brown and black hair; even auburn or red hair can be very appealing. Women with auburn hair were considered especially beautiful in ancient Greece. But when we compare the thick bluish-black hair of the Indians in the Americas and India, and other peoples, it is not easy to say whether it is because of mere admiration or a little envy that we consider their bountiful hair so desirable. The inhabitants of those lands do not yet see any need to spend money on preserving their beautiful locks. Baldness is a peculiarity predominant among white people. It must be an acquired characteristic, for baldness simply cannot have been the Creator’s original purpose; it is presumably a consequence of civilisation.

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I could quote many examples to prove that there are a number of possibilities leading to cancer.

Once a farmer from Emmental came to consult me about a large tumour he had. First I asked him what he himself thought might have caused the problem. Without much hesitation he told me that he had always tended to eat too much pork and smoked meat. As smoked meat is indeed carcinogenic because it contains tar, the patient was perhaps correct in his assumption. Moreover, many a gardener and farmer may not even realise that most of the sprays they use, especially those containing derivatives of tar, can cause cancer.

Years ago it was nothing short of a celebration if a person went to a fashionable coffee-house in order to enjoy some cake baked with 100 per cent natural ingredients. During the Second World War many food items were not available, or at least were in short supply. It was then that substitutes began to be introduced, and since it is often easier to use essences and the like, substitutes continued to be preferred. Using artificial products instead of natural ones has become more and more prevalent today. But few people stop to think that when they eat a cassata or any other icecream made with artificial colours and flavours, they are actually

ingesting carcinogenic substances. The chance of adding carcinogenic agents is ever-present wherever chemicals are mixed in food to improve its flavour, aroma and colour. Today there are enough dangers around that can lead to sickness that we do not even know about. Knowing this fact should deter us from exposing ourselves to damage by things we do know about and so could avoid.

It is unfortunate that so few people attach any importance to leaving nature natural. Nevertheless, we should take care and do everything in our power to eat and drink nothing but natural food and drinks that will do us no harm.

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Then the great need for a cure seemed to have found its answer in the discovery of cortisone, a hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex. It was acclaimed as the wonder cure. Such enthusiasm about a new remedy is frequent, but when it does not justify the faith placed in it it is quickly forgotten. The reasoning behind the use of cortisone was a theory put forward by a Canadian scientist named Selye. He maintained that the cause of arthritis was to be found in the normal defence mechanism of the body and that cortisone prevents this mechanism from becoming active, in other words, it paralyses it. According to him, this should cure the disease.

When cortisone is administered, the pains and inflammation immediately disappear, but the patient is not really cured, because as soon as its action has been exhausted and if no further dose is given, the old symptoms return. So the duration of the illness is not at all affected by the drug.

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Why should we subject ourselves to any dangers at all? Natural antibiotics are unlikely to have an adverse effect on the intestinal flora; neither will their regular use make germs more resistant to them. For this reason salads made from watercress, gardencress and nasturtiums are heartily recommended for healthy people as well as for the sick, and especially for cancer patients. Eat them regularly and put them in sandwiches too. Try adding some finely grated horseradish to carrot salad, or the juices can be extracted and taken in small quantities. I also recommend the seasoning salt Trocomare because it contains these plants. Use it as a seasoning for sandwiches and salads, and sprinkle it on hot vegetables and soups after cooking in order to avoid destroying its vitamins and minerals. When your health has been restored and you can once more think of skiing or mountaineering, do not forget to look for the lichen Usnea. You will find it on the bark of larch trees at an elevation of over 1,000 m (3,000 feet). Chew it while you enjoy your hiking.

Another plant which has the same potent effect is Petasites officinalis, the common butterbur. This plant is of special importance to cancer patients. Butterbur is a relatively rare plant, usually found near streams in mountain valleys. As it is too strong to be used in salads or as a herb, if you want to avail yourself of its medicinal value, you will have to take a Petasites preparation.

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I have made equally important observations, with even better results, in connection with another plant. Known by the names larch moss or beard moss {Usnea barbata), it is a lichen that grows on larch trees and its properties had not previously been analysed when I first became interested in it. During my skiing trips I would always chew some of this lichen. I noticed that deer and chamois enjoyed it too, because where there was deep snow the Usnea within the animals’ reach had always been nibbled off. Closer investigation has now shown that Usnea and certain other lichens are high in carbohydrates and therefore of considerable nutritive value. The animals seem to know this and make good use of the plant as food and, incidentally, of its antibiotic properties which make them resistant to disease. There is no doubt that Usnea clears up catarrh. I have seen this confirmed repeatedly. On occasions, after starting out on a tour, I would feel the onset of a sore throat and runny nose. As I went along I would chew Usnea and by the time I arrived home again my cold would have disappeared. Such valuable experience urged me to investigate this lichen more closely, and I now use the extract in the prophylactic medicine Usneasan.

Observations confirm that if you have a tendency to catarrh or colds, your resistance will be considerably improved by taking this remedy regularly. So why take the risk of using manufactured antibiotics which may inflict unwanted side effects? Why not use the cultivated and wild mountain plants, whose harmless but effective medicinal properties are always present in the right composition and proportions according to the laws of nature?

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My earlier experiments had shown that the extract from the nasturtium plant was effective in killing insect pests such as aphids and others when sprayed on them. I became convinced that nasturtiums contain a very strong substance, and my assumption has since been proved by scientific research. However, there is still the question in my mind as to whether nasturtiums actually contain other substances which may have an even greater effect than their known antibiotic properties. The lethal effect on insect pests may be due to some other potent substance which science has not yet discovered. It is not only nasturtiums that yield such valuable results; the common watercress has a similar effect, as has been proved by experiments I have made over many years, especially with the cress that grows along the course of the mountain streams in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland. Eat this cress regularly and you will soon notice an improvement in your resistance to colds, catarrh and other infectious diseases.

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