What Really Works: The Insider’s Guide to Complementary Health

It can also, apparently, do wonders for your sex life. ‘Water is essential for life but so is breath,’ Andrews reminds us. ‘There are many different techniques for breathing and learning to breathe like a dolphin can not only help you become more passionate and sexual, it will also heal your body, mind and spirit.’

For the release of tension and stress, Andrews recommends you simply imitate the spouting breath the dolphin uses as it surfaces from the deep.

Keeping Lungs Healthy

Once you have improved the quality of your breathing, you can begin to investigate how diet and supplements can help keep strong lungs healthy. As well as vitamin C, another of the nutrients that is key to protecting all the membrane surfaces inside the body is vitamin A, which stimulates the immune system and which can be used in high doses – 30,000-100,000 international units (iu) – for no more than five days to beat a cold. For prevention, though, take just 10,000 iu a day.

An alkalizing nutrient which accelerates healing, vitamin A also has soothing properties that will ease an irritated throat. This is because it works to rebuild the mucosal lining of the lungs, promotes the lubrication of tissues and strengthens epithelial cells. Good food sources include carrots, dark leafy greens and sweet potatoes. In Ayurvedic medicine, pungent foods such as onions, garlic, leeks, ginger and chilli peppers are often used to help decongest the lungs.

How Minerals and Fish Oils Can Help

Minerals now being investigated by scientists who want to work out how nutrition can help prevent respiratory problems, especially asthma, include magnesium, selenium, sodium, copper, zinc and manganese. There is now a well-established link between a high sodium diet and an increase in asthma attacks. One of the jobs sodium does in the body is to help maintain nerve and muscle function. When there is a dietary sodium overload, the lungs of asthmatics have been shown to become supersensitive to the allergens that can trigger an attack. What researchers have also found is that a low sodium diet can improve healthy bronchial activity 1.5 times in men. (The same has not yet been shown with women, but then there are still only a small number of these studies.)

Magnesium is closely linked with sodium in the body. Raise the levels of one and the other will drop to compensate. In acute asthma, clinicians have found magnesium, which is destroyed by processing foods, has a dramatic effect; the scientific literature is now starting to catch up with this experiential evidence. For example, when a patient is admitted to casualty in the throes of an asthmatic attack, there is no difference in recovery rates when either magnesium or ventalin are given. In other words, this mineral can confer the same brochodilatory benefits as the normal prescription drug.

Blood serum levels of selenium, a powerful antioxidant which is believed to help protect the lungs, have been found to be low in asthmatics and, according to new research, taking paracetamol can decrease levels of another natural antioxidant called glutathione, which protects the lungs.

Researchers who compared aspirin and paracetamol in 664 asthmatics against it’s use in 910 people with no asthma found that those who took paracetamol every week were 80% more likely to have asthma than those who never touched it. They concluded that the paracetamol acts in some way to decrease levels of glutathione, resulting in less protection for the lungs. If you have any kind of breathing difficulties, then alcohol, which is a bronchcoconstrictor, will also be unhelpful.

A less well-known but highly promising mineral that can help keep lungs healthy is germanium, which not only helps deliver more oxygen to the body’s tissues but actually works to generate oxygen production inside the cells. It boosts the immune system, which supports lung function, helps the body get rid of debilitating toxins and is now being used in cancer therapy, since if there is one thing cancer cells hate it is a rich supply of oxygen. They need an anaerobic, or oxygen-free, environment to multiply, which means germanium has the potential to starve a malignancy to death.

You can find germanium in garlic, chlorella and the immune-boosting Reishi and Maitake mushrooms, but if you decide to investigate a more reliable supplement source, practitioners say you must make sure you buy the purest form, which is called germanium bis-carboxyethyl sesquioxide-132 (thankfully shortened to Ge-132.) Cheaper versions may be tempting, but less pure forms have caused two fatalities and have been linked with kidney damage. As a result, germanium has been voluntarily withdrawn in the UK. You can, though, find it in cosmetics including face creams and bath oils (see Resources); it is also available in homoeopathic form.

The role of fish oils in keeping lung function good boils down to the fact that they inhibit the synthesis of leukotrienes, which the body needs to heal wounds and injuries but which, in excess, are believed to cause inflammations in conditions ranging from asthma to arthritis and lupus. Low levels of vitamin E have also been linked with high leukotriene production, so taking a good antioxidant that includes vitamins A,C, E and selenium, plus fish oils from an unpolluted source, should help keep the lungs in good working order.

Finally, if you suffer recurring respiratory infections, a supplement called Oralmat will help, especially if the transition between climates when travelling causes problems for you. It contains extract of rye grass, which is very effective for a range of breathing complaints, including sneezing, bronchitis and asthma. One patient, who knew her attacks were being triggered by environmental pollutants whenever she travelled by plane, described the remedy, which has been tested by researchers in Melbourne, as ‘miraculous’.

As well as rye, which is said to clean and renew arteries and which is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to reduce damp, watery conditions in the body, Oralmat also contains energy-giving co-enzyme Q10, which is found in every cell in the body, and an immune-supporting substance called squalene which, in Oralmat, is taken from shark’s liver but which is also present in olive oil.

Dirty Air

The air you breathe in contains about 21% oxygen and 0.04% carbon dioxide. The air you breathe out contains a fifth less oxygen and ten times more of the waste gas, carbon dioxide. If the air you breathe in is dirty, then the inside of your lungs will be dirty too. Pollution, which is now being blamed for the dramatic increase in asthma (in some regions, as many as one in four children now suffers), has also been linked to heart conditions and lung problems. And it is not just a problem of the traffic-clogged inner cities.

In the UK, for example, families who have deliberately left those smog-filled towns to find cleaner air for their young children to breathe were shocked recently to learn that even outside urban areas, air quality has dropped sharply. The environment charity Friends of the Earth has described the findings of increased pollution in rural areas as devastating – especially since, in Britain for example, some of the worst figures recorded and analysed were sadly taken from a popular nature reserve.

In your lifetime, your lungs will filter billions of litres of air. Tiny hairs in the nose are the first line of defence, but microparticles such as benzene and hydrocarbons can slip through, and any form of exercise in a polluted environment will exacerbate the problem. Cycle in the city, for instance, and much of the air you are breathing in (at the rate of 50 litres a minute if you are cycling fast) will actually bypass the nose filters and go straight to the lungs.

The lungs do have their own protective and cleaning mechanisms, but fine particles deep inside are difficult to flush out. Once lodged in the fibres of the lungs, these pollutants have been linked to cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, general breathing difficulties and a range of other health problems. Lung cancer is now the biggest cancer killer in the United Kingdom, and pollutants – mostly tobacco but including air pollutants – are to blame for an estimated 95% of all cases.

There is no real scientific evidence that trendy pollution masks will protect you unless you are exercising vigorously, and you may laugh at those who wear them to hoover the house or jog around the block, but if you are exercising in a polluted environment then anecdotal evidence from users suggests that they can help filter out some of the worst of these particles. (For suppliers of pollution masks, see the Resources chapter.)

Easy Air Pollutants Guide

Benzene/hydrocarbons: Hydrocarbons, including benzene, are emitted by car engines, but are also present in cigarette smoke. They have been linked with cancer.

Carbon monoxide: A potentially lethal gas produced by incomplete combustion, it disables oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

Lead: Effects build up over time and may hit the central nervous system. Some research suggests it can have an adverse effect on children’s IQ.

Nitrogen oxides: Both nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide are the products of fossil-fuel combustion. Sources range from cars and lorries to power stations. Both are constituents of that horrid inner city petrochemical smog and dissolve in water to make strong acids which corrode tissues. Effects include sore throats and runny noses.

Ozone: We may worry about the holes in the earth’s atmosphere that leave us unprotected from the worst of the sun’s harmful rays, but on the ground ozone itself counts as a pollutant which forms when nitric acid from nitrogen dioxide reacts with hydrocarbons. A reaction encouraged by sunlight, the effects range from a runny nose and sore throat to lung disease.

Sulphur dioxide: A nasty, acidic gas produced when coal or oil is burnt and which is part of the winter smog cocktail. Effects of high levels, particularly in asthmatics, include coughing and a feeling of chest tightening. Bronchitis, emphysema, lung inflammation and blood clotting have also been linked to this pollutant.

Suspended particles: Tiny solids found in diesel and coal smoke. The bigger bits get trapped by the body’s defences, but tiny particles penetrate the lungs. Can be carcinogenic.

PCBs/dioxins: Generated by widespread incineration of solid waste. May be carcinogenic and may also have an effect on the central nervous system.

Water (#ulink_70fb2707-9081-5a42-97e4-d3a942a64e57)

You’re not sick, You are thirsty. It is chronic water shortage that causes most of the disease in the body.

Dr F. Batmanghelidj, author of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water

Dying for a Drink?

Dehydration is being hailed as one of the biggest causes of illness in men, women and children worldwide. You don’t have to be stranded in the hot desert, parched with an agonising thirst and dragging yourself Lawrence-of-Arabia-style towards a shimmering mirage to be suffering this hidden health risk. You simply have to be one of the millions who fail to come even close to drinking the eight glasses of pure water that your body needs, each and every day to replace the water it loses, to protect itself against disease and keep all your organs in optimum working order.

One clue to the importance of water to life is the fact that it is everywhere. Three-quarters of our planet is covered in water (all but 3% of the total volume is held in the oceans). This figure is then mirrored by your own body which is also 75% water if you are an adult, and even higher, closer to 97%, for newborns. As a fully-developed human being, your 15 billion brain cells are mostly water (estimates range from 74.5-85%) and even your teeth are 10% moisture. You can survive for days without food, but just a 2% loss of the water surrounding your cells will result in a 20% drop in your energy levels.

A healthy cell absorbs nutrients from the water outside the cell, and the inner and outer water levels and contents are balanced by osmosis via the membrane of the cell. In simple terms, osmosis is the passage of a solvent (in this case, water) through a semi-permeable membrane which acts like a sieve between a less concentrated (weaker) solution to a more concentrated (stronger) one. Unless some outside force or pressure is exerted to alter the flow, osmosis continues until both solutions are the same strength.

In the body, then, the cell membranes are semi-permeable and allow water, salts, simple sugars such as glucose, and amino acids – but not whole proteins – through.

The Real Thing?

The pure genius of humble water as the key to good health first hit me when, several years ago, I chanced upon an article in a magazine called Colors, published by the Italian clothing company Benetton. In a special issue devoted to Fat, there were two photographs – one of a glass of water, the other of a darker liquid, a well-known brand of cola.

The headline was simple but carried a powerful message:

‘You’re thirsty, do you reach for the real thing?’

Which of these drinks, it asked, is the perfect nutrient to replace the eight glasses of water your body loses every day through sweating, urinating, defecating and exhaling? And which one contains the equivalent of eight cubes of sugar, makes you burp and rots your teeth? The caption explained how soft drinks are packed with so-called ‘empty calories’ – once you’ve burned up the sugar in them, there are no nutrients left – and how this trick sweetens the palate and sets up cravings in the body for high-fat, high-sugar junk foods.

About 16% of the total amount of water in your system right now is being stored in your muscles, which will become soft and flabby if you become dehydrated. When you realise that just the glands in your mouth, which work to keep it moist, use up to three pints of water per day, you can see how easily dehydration can happen.

The solution is simple enough – you need to increase the amount of fluids you are drinking. The trouble is, your preferred drinks – tea, coffee, cola drinks and even alcohol – are just not the right kinds of fluids. Alcohol, for example, is a natural diuretic. That means it forces water out of the body, causing the dehydration that is responsible for the worst hangovers (see Hangover Cures, page 162). In fact, for every alcoholic drink you take, you will lose the same volume of water from your body. Tea and coffee, too, are dehydrating.

Both the blood and the immune-supporting and cancer-fighting lymphatic system need pure, not contaminated, water to transport nutrients to cells and, just as importantly, to flush out toxins and waste.

So what should you be drinking?

According to natural health practitioners, the very best type of water for optimum health is distilled water. There are only three sources:

1 fresh organic vegetable and fruit juices.

2 water that has been distilled and purified by steam. You can buy the equipment to do this (see Resources for suppliers).