“He almost died!” “He stopped breathing and turned blue.” “He swallowed his tongue!” “I almost had a heart attack, I was so upset.” “I just screamed!” “I called the ambulance, but it took them forever to get here.” “I didn’t know what to do!”

Remember, more than two-thirds of children (and adults) who have one big seizure never have another one. If your child does have another what you should do is to stay calm!

“Easy for you to say,” you reply. “You’ve seen a lot of these things. I thought my child was going to die. How can I do nothing? He’s my child!”

Certainly, staying calm is the most difficult thing to do. It is easy for the physician or the nurse to recommend, but it’s not easy to do, not even for doctors and nurses. Perhaps the most frightening thing about a big seizure is that there is little the observer or parent can do—or should do.

The stiffness at the start of a “big” tonic-clonic seizure is called the tonic phase (see page 64). This is when all of the body’s muscles are contracting together. The child arches his back, and since the muscles of the chest are contracted as well, the child is essentially holding his breath. He does turn somewhat blue. In a sense, he has stopped breathing. But this phase will end! The child will not die; his heart has not stopped; you do not need to do CPR. The body has a protective mechanism built in to prevent damage. If the oxygen gets low enough, the body will usually stop the seizure long before the decreased oxygen can permanently damage brain cells.

There is nothing you can do during this tonic phase to get rid of the stiffness or to make your child breathe. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation will not work since the patient’s chest will not expand.

*48\208\8*

Forty-six-year-old Tony Paolo thought at first that he had the flu. He had been leading an active life, but now he felt tired all the time. He found that he had to go to the bathroom much more often than usual, and he couldn’t seem to quench his thirst, no matter how much fluid he drank. He lost twelve pounds, and his vision started blurring. When he consulted a doctor, tests quickly showed that he had diabetes.

Among the fourteen million Americans with diabetes, only about 10 percent have IDDM (Type I diabetes). The far more common forms of non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM) or Type II diabetes usually strike people after the age of thirty-five or forty—and they strike mainly people who are overweight. More than 12.5 million Americans have Type II diabetes, and as many as half of them don’t even know they have it.

Non-insulin-dependent diabetes can go on for years before it is detected. Many people first discover they have diabetes when a routine medical checkup shows sugar in the urine. They may have such mild cases that there have been no symptoms at all.

When symptoms do appear, they may be similar to those of Type I diabetes—excessive urination, extreme thirst and hunger, for example. A person with Type II diabetes may also have frequent infections and find that cuts and bruises are slow to heal. Blurred vision is another common symptom, (Fluctuations in the blood sugar level may affect the flow of fluid into and out of the eyeballs, causing them to swell or contract and thus change the way images are focused on the retina.)

*17\268\2*

Like most other B-complex vitamins, pyridoxine is not stored in the human body to any great extent. But even so, a deficiency in this vitamin is extremely rare. It has the following uses:

Pyridoxine has a marked effect on the immune system. Its deficiency inhibits the formation of antibodies, decreases the number of T cells, and decreases the ability of the immune system to reject foreign tissues like transplants and to destroy cancer cells.

It is important in the formation of certain proteins and in the use of fats in the body.

Pyridoxine is essential for the proper function of the nervous system.

It is needed for the formation of red blood cells and for healthy gums and teeth.

More than the normal amount of pyridoxine is required by women who are using oral contraceptives containing estrogen.

Vitamin B12 has been known for over fifty years. Information on this vitamin includes the following:

It is needed to make hemoglobin and other parts of the red blood cell.

B12 is required for healthy nervous tissue and normal growth.

A deficiency causes anemia and mental changes.

Many alcoholics develop vitamin B12 deficiency.

*31\360\2*

Vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels) is a rare complication of RA which generally affects individuals who have high levels of rheumatoid factor in their blood (the presence and level of rheumatoid factor can be detected by a blood test). Blood vessels may become inflamed when an excessive number of antibodies is being produced by the Plasma cells in the blood. The antibodies stick to each other and form complexes, and these floating immune complexes sometimes deposit themselves on the blood vessel wall, causing inflammation within the blood vessel and limiting the flow of blood.

Depending on the size and location of the blood vessels involved, vasculitis can be a relatively minor problem or a more significant one. When small blood vessels leading to the skin are involved (particularly the skin in the lower legs), skin ulcers may develop. Splinter-like lesions around and under the fingernails may result when small blood vessels in that area are affected. These ulcers and lesions generally require only meticulous skin care (in addition to treatment of the underlying arthritis) to prevent secondary infection of the skin. Gently washing several times a day with a mild antiseptic soap (such as pHisoDerm) and then thoroughly rinsing and drying the skin and applying sterile bandages is usually effective for this. Occasionally the advice and services of a plastic surgeon or dermatologist are useful.

When the blood vessels leading to the nerves are affected, numbness on weakness may result (this condition is known as a neuropathy). Mori rarely, vasculitis involves the larger blood vessels that lead to internal organs. When nerves or internal organs are affected by vasculitis, very strong medications, including corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide, are used to treat the condition and prevent damage to nerves and organs.

*26/209/5*

When Cindy K. came to the Carbohydrate Addict’s Center, she told us she was ready to give up on dieting. She had tried to follow to the letter the various dietary instructions she had been given in the past, yet despite her attempts to do “everything right” (as she put it), she had been unable to lose weight and keep it off.

“It’s like something is working against me,” she told us. “I’ll go along determined that this is the time that I’ll do it and bingo! before I know it, I’m eating again. I just don’t know what happens.

“I really want to stick to it, but I just find myself eating. At this point, I just don’t care.”

She was angry and frustrated—and unsuccessful in her dieting attempts.

Cindy took the Carbohydrate Addict’s Test and talked a good deal about herself and her dieting. It was obvious that her problem wasn’t that she just gave up on her diets. It wasn’t a lack of willpower. Her problem was that the foods she had been taught were “diet” foods were making her addiction worse.

Cindy, along with hundreds of other people we have treated, had been taught to believe that fruit was a free or safe food. It was, she had been told, a good diet food, and she ate it several times a day. For some dieters, fruit is a perfectly appropriate, low-calorie snack. For the carbohydrate addict, however, fruit is frequently T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

This is why.

Carbohydrate addiction is characterized by a reaction to an entire class of food. This food group is, of course, the carbohydrates, which include breads, starches, sweets, most snack foods—and all fruits, which contain the natural sugar fructose.

When you throw a rubber ball against a hard surface, it bounces back, right? When the carbohydrate addict consumes food rich in carbohydrates, simple or complex, his or her appetite will also “bounce back.” And each bounce goes ever higher and higher. The comparison is a bit simplistic, but one cookie will produce the desire for another. Or two or three or a good many more.

The food doesn’t have to be a personal favorite of the carbohydrate addict, and may even be one that the dieter was eating while trying to avoid more “fattening” foods. Many carbohydrate addicts reach for fruit instead of candy, thinking that fruit is okay. Although apples and oranges and the rest are traditionally regarded as essentially harmless to the dieter, in the carbohydrate addict a small serving of fruit— even a few grapes—can set off a biochemical chain reaction that produces a strong and recurring desire to eat.

So there was Cindy, dutifully following one dietary regimen after another, all of them promising to help her lose her a few pounds. Unknown to her, her very body chemistry was busily undermining her hopes and her plans. She could force herself to skip her morning Danish, replacing it with an innocent piece of fruit, say an orange. But that orange would cause too much insulin to be produced, and an increase in hunger would result. A piece of fruit would often produce the desire for another; eventually, her desire broadened, and Cindy’s fruit fantasies gave way to carbohydrate snacks, foods high in starches and sweets.

We put Cindy on the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet. She reported to us within days that she felt as if she had been freed. “I never knew dieting could be like this. I can’t believe it. It’s so easy. And all of these years I thought I was ‘being good.’ I was eating the wrong foods! No wonder I was hungry.

“It’s wonderful. It doesn’t even feel like dieting. I just didn’t realize I was different. I treated myself like every other dieter. And I’m not.”

Cindy’s carbohydrate addiction is not unique. In fact, she was so happy with the diet that she brought her brother to see us. Alan is a very large man, a weight lifter who stands over six and one-half feet tall. He weighed better than 300 pounds. But he admitted to cowering before an uncontrollable compulsion to eat huge quantities of carbohydrates.

His case was trickier than his sister’s. He had noticed on his own that bread and other starches seemed to make him hungry, so he skipped carbohydrates at breakfast and lunch. He even skipped dessert at most dinners. Yet he often felt almost uncontrollable urges to eat. “Suddenly, I’m starving. I eat anything in sight. I don’t know what gets into me. I go along fine for a while and then I can’t stop,” he reported.

We questioned Alan more thoroughly, but the source of his addiction wasn’t apparent at first. He didn’t share his sister’s love for fruit; naturally, we asked him that. We were as puzzled as he—until he dropped the answer before us in living color. It was in lemon yellow and orange orange … it was fruit juices. He drank them by the gallon, all day long. He consumed a literal stream of carbohydrates that pumped up his insulin level and produced an appetite rebound that Superman couldn’t have controlled.

We unmasked Alan and Cindy’s dietary demon—that natural fruit sugar, fructose—and limited those foods to a once-a-day satisfying intake. We introduced them to the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet. It worked for both of them and continues to work for them to this day.

*17\236\2*

Now understand that we don’t just sit there letting free radicals do their thing. Our bodies do have a natural defence system consisting of certain enzymes. One of the most powerful internal free radical fighters is an enzyme called superoxide dismutase. We have other defences, too. There are the internal compounds cysteine, glutathione and D-penicilamine. We’ve got transferrin and the protein ceruloplasmin. All of these either prevent the formation of free radicals in the first place or mop them up wherever they appear.

But it isn’t enough. Our natural defences just aren’t enough. We need help if we are not to become overrun with these destructive free radicals.

That’s where dietary antioxidants come in. We have right in our own fridge, in our local supermarket enough protection to win the free radical fight. How’s that? Food. That’s right, food, glorious food. We can eat ourselves right out of the free radical damage zone. What a terrific solution. Food. Something we all love anyway.

So what’s the catch? Sounds too good to be true? Not this time time it is true. Many of the diseases caused by free radicals can uncaused by antioxidants in our food. And what food! The colours antioxidant food! The variety! The taste! The texture! The richness! aroma! Antioxidant foods are a feast for the eyes and medicine for body.

*56\323\8*

Once you have discovered what factors tend to sabotage your weight loss efforts, you will be well on your way to successful weight control. To succeed, however, you must plan for success. By setting goals that are too far in the future or unrealistic for your current lifestyle, you will doom yourself to failure. Do not try to lose 40 pounds in two months. Try, instead, to lose a healthy 1 to 2 pounds during the first week, and stay with this slow and easy regimen. Reward yourself when you lose pounds, and if you binge and go off your nutrition plan, get right back on it the next day. Remember that you did not gain 40 pounds in eight weeks, so it is unrealistic to punish your body by trying to lose that amount of weight in such a short time.

Seek assistance from reputable sources in selecting a dietary plan that is easy to follow and includes adequate amounts of the basic nutrients. Registered dietitians, some physicians (not all physicians have strong backgrounds in nutrition), health educators and exercise physiologists with nutritional backgrounds, and other health professionals can provide reliable information. Look out for people who call themselves “nutritionists.” There is no such official designation, leaving the door open for just about anyone to call himself or herself a nutritional expert. Avoid weight loss programs that promise quick miracle results. The majority is expensive, and most people regain the weight soon after completing the program. Ask questions about the credentials of the adviser in any weight loss program, assess the nutrient value of the prescribed diet, verify that dietary guidelines are consistent with information from reliable dietary research, and analyze the suitability of the diet to your tastes, budget, and lifestyle to avoid putting yourself in a risky, expensive, or unhealthy dietary situation. Any diet that requires radical behavior changes is doomed to failure. Nutritional plans that do not ask you to sacrifice everything you enjoy and that allow you to make choices are generally the most successful.

Ultimately, the decision to practice responsible weight management is yours. To be successful, you must choose a combination of exercise and eating that fits your needs and lifestyle. Find a workable plan, stick to it, and you will succeed.

*21/277/5*