This has been found to maintain circulation of the blood and prevent its ‘sludging’ or tendency to aggluturate round burned areas, and during the shocked state of the burned patient.

.No dressings are applied and a spray of 3 per cent ascorbic acid in water every two to four hours has been found to allay pain, prevent infection by bacteria and has­ten healing without the necessity of skin grafts for small areas—and the increased acceptance of grafts when they are necessary.

Klenner suggests alternate application of dressings of A & D ointment with the ascorbic acid spray as the acute stages pass.

The publication of Linus Pauling’s book Vitamin C and the Common Cold burst like a bomb on the medical establish­ment. It could not believe that such a ridiculous treatise recommending such far-fetched treatment could come from such a prestigious pen.

Had it not been proved over and over again in many studies and trials over the last 30 odd years that Vitamin C even in such large doses as 200 mg to 300 mg a day made no difference to the incidence of the common cold? The re­sults from much larger doses and intravenous ascorbates were ignored and never followed up, until Dr Irwin Stone drew Dr Linus Pauling’s attention to the remarkable results achieved by a regime of unheard of large doses of the vitamin in preventing and curing the multi-infection, the common cold.

As Linus Pauling himself, admits, it was Irwin Stone’s work that inspired him to produce the book. It has been a best seller ever since, and has changed the incidence of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in many countries — including Australia.

Despite conservative medical opinion, thousands and thousands of people now follow Pauling’s and Stone’s re­gime for preventing colds and have not suffered a severe cold since starting it.

Sceptical of its efficacy several double blind trials were set up. Professor T. R. Anderson of Toronto found to his surprise that there was a definite decrease in the incidence and severity of colds in those who were taking the Vitamin C during the winter months (1000 mg a day as a routine increasing to 4000 mg at the first onset of a cold) in com­parison with those taking dummy C tabets; and there were also 30 per cent less days off work among the real C takers.

Linus Pauling’s advice on ‘How to amerliorate a cold’ is as follows:— The regular use of Vitamin C daily in the amount that suits you best (say 1000 mg a day for most people) may suffice to keep you from catching a cold or influenza or other infection under most circumstances. But if there is an epidemic or you are with people who cough and sneeze all around you, a cold may begin to develop. It is still possible to ameliorate it by the use of Vitamin C.

‘It is wise to carry some 500 mg tablets of ascorbic acid with you at all times,’ Pauling writes. ‘At the first sign that a cold is developing, the first feeling of scratchiness of the throat; or presence of mucus in the nose or muscle pain or general malaise, begin the treatment by swallowing one or two 500 mg tablets. Continue the treatment for several hours by taking an additional tablet or two every hour.

‘If the symptoms disappear quickly after the first or second dose of ascorbic acid you may feel safe in returning to your usual regimen. If, however, the symptoms are pre­sent on the second day, the regimen should be continued with the ingestion of 4 grams to 10 grams of ascorbic acid a day’.

As the virus may be only suppressed, not eliminated, by the first large doses of ascorbic acid, it is wise to keep the vitamin regime going at least 4 grams a day in divided doses 3 or 4 days, then 3 grams a day for several days then 2 grams a day before returning to your habitual dose.

‘It is not unreasonable’, adds Pauling, ‘that because of individual variability, the suppression of the disagreeable manifestations of the common cold could be suppressed for some people by a regimen involving the daily ingestion for a few days of a smaller amount of ascorbic acid, 1 gram to 2 grams per day, and that the larger amount, 10 grams to 15 grams per day would be necessary for others’.

All in all, as Vitamin C is inexpensive and harmless it is better to over-estimate the amount needed to control the cold than to under-estimate it.

Irwin Stone, in his letters and book, sets down a regime with higher routine and treatment doses. ‘When used as directed’, he says, ‘it has been practically 100 per cent effec­tive’.

I cannot do better than give his original regime of treatment in his own words.

‘An individual continuously on the “full correction” regimen of 3 to 5 grams of ascorbic acid daily for an unstres­sed adult will have a high resistance to infectious respiratory diseases. Should the exposure to the infectious agent be unduly heavy or some other uncorrected biochemical stres­ses be imposed, the infecting virus may gain a foothold and start developing. Treatment is instituted at the very first indication of the cold starting, because it is much easier to abort an incipient cold than to try to treat an advanced case. If a known heavy exposure to the infectious agent is experi­enced, such as close contacts with a coughing and sneezing cold sufferer, then extra prophylactic doses of several grams of ascorbic acid, several times a day, may be taken, without waiting for cold symptoms to develop.

‘At the first symptoms of a developing cold I take about 1.5 to 2.0 grams of ascorbic acid, dissolved in a couple of ounces of water, unsweetened or sweetened to taste. Within twenty minutes to half an hour another dose is ingested and this is repeated at twenty-minute to half-hour intervals. Usually by the third dose the virus has been effectively inactivated, and usually no further cold symptoms will ap­pear. I watch for any delayed symptoms and, if any become evident, I take further doses. If the start of this regimen is delayed and it is instituted only after the virus has spread throughout the body, the results may not be so dramatic, but ascorbic acid will nevertheless be of great benefit. Con­tinued dosages at one to two hour intervals will shorten the duration of the attack, often to a day. The great advantage of this common cold therapy is that it utilizes a normal body constituent rather than some foreign toxic material. This regime should be the subject of large-scale, long-reach clin­ical studies in order to establish its efficacy and safety, and to provide the data required by medicine for any new suggested therapy’.

A hundred per cent freedom from the cold should be our aim.
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As early as 1938 Nitzensco of Roumania showed that ascorbic acid, when mixed with cobra venom and injected into guinea pigs rendered it harmless.

Other workers in 1943 and 1947 have experimented with various doses of ascorbic acid in the treatment of snake bite. They have shown that small doses have small effect, whereas large doses will completely prevent symptoms of snake venom and the victims suffer no ill effects from the ascorbic acid itself, either at the time or when observed a week later.

Drs S. K. Sutherland and A. R. Coulter commenting in the Medical Journal of Australia (11/2/78) are greatly con­cerned that despite numerous articles and statements on the subject, there is widespread misunderstanding about the correct management of snake bite in this country, even among medical practitioners; yet Australia has the distinc­tion of having the most varied assortment of venemous creatures of almost any country in the world.

In 1963 G. F. Tranea could find records of 45 fatal cases of snake bite during the previous decade, and in 1975 Dr Sutherland recorded 45 deaths from snake bite in the 1960s — in spite of the fact that a polyvalent antivenom (against any type of snake) was available from 1962 on­wards. More recently still, during the 6 weeks before Christmas, 1977, five people died from the effects of snake bite in Australia. Previous to 1962, when the polyvalent antivenom was made, it was necessary to identify the snake before the suitable antivenom could be used with any anti­toxic effect

The dosage of the new antivenom is indicated in the instructions contained in the pack, but if after the first dose signs of the poison persist or recur, the injection should be repeated. As the amount is large, put up in 40 ml ampoules, it is best given intravenously. ^

There is, however, always a risk of anaphylactic shock or serum sickness after the antivenom, owing to the large amounts of horse serum in the injection. Doctors experi­enced in treatment of snake bite, therefore, advise the attendants to make certain there is a venomous snake bite after all, but not to be deceived by delayed symptoms, to keep the patient under observation for 24 hours and to always have ready anri-histamines and anti-shock treatment in case the serum causes severe reaction.

Their other statement is that ‘it is never too late to administer anti-venom, except when the patient is dead’, as many unconscious cases have been revived with large doses after 23 hours. However they said, ‘Never treat suspected snake bite lightly’.

The value of ascorbic acid now becomes evident. It is an effective antivenom, no matter what type of snake, or what type of poisonous bite or sting is involved. This is because it is anon-specific anti-toxin, and is essential in enabling the liver to detoxify or annul the effects of any introduced foreign substance or poison that threatens survival.’

In 1953 Dr Frederick Klenner of Reidsille, North Carolina, reported the life saving properties of Vitamin C in a number of cases if given intravenously in at least 10 gram doses — and given quickly.

In snake bite, funnel-web spider bite, stone fish or sea-wasp stings there is usually no time to find out the type of bite and nature of the toxin. Ampoules of 15 grams of sodium ascorbate powder (sterilised) are now available to be dissolved in 25 to 50 ml of distilled water or sterile normal saline — also available in ampoules. Such an anti-toxin treatment given intravenously by a doctor or skilled nurse, or intramuscularly by an ambulance attendant, could well save a life.

I predict that such a Vitamin C anti-toxin kit will soon be a necessary part of the equipment not only in doctor’s bags and the casualty departments of hospitals — especially in country areas — but also in ambulance and first aid stations as well as Surf Life Saving Clubs.

The application of ice to the site of intramuscular in­jections both before and for a while after the injection will allay the discomfort of the large amount of injected mat­erial. Bruising

A deficiency of Vitamin C results in easy bruising as the collagen joining together the cells lining the capillary walls becomes soft and permeable, allowing blood to seep out between them.

Such a deficiency can occur with severe infections, causing little blood marks or peteechine under the skin. Patches of bruising under the skin are common in the elderly, whose diet is only too often deficient in the vitamin.

Drs Woodhill and Nobile carried out many studies on the food in institutions and hospitals for the elderly, even that purveyed by ‘Meals on Wheels’. They found that how­ever good it may have been when delivered, it contained practically no Vitamin C by the time it reached their plates.

‘I bruise so easily’, they complain. ‘The lightest knock on my arm or hand, and a bruise comes up’.

Tablets of 500 mg Vitamin C sucked or chewed after meals will quickly dispel these bruises, though they often leave a brown mark behind due to destroyed red cells.

The bruises caused by much harder knocks on the football field were shown to disperse more rapidly than usual when the footballers took at least 1000 mg of Vitamin C daily throughout the football season. Dr Glen Dettman tried out this experiment with the Essendon Football Team several years ago — 1000 mg of the vitamin was then con­sidered a terrific dose.

Not only was bruising quickly alleviated in the team, but other injuries healed quicker than usual and the players felt a great sense of energy and well being, and an endurance which was reflected in their play.
*20/21/7*
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Man is the only animal that likes to take medicine but he brings the average very high. Arguments about this fact are usually of the all or none type. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes is frequently credited with saying, “If the whole materia medica could be sunk to the bottom of the sea it would be all the better for mankind – and all the worse for the fishes.” Dr. Holmes liked to give out smart sayings, but he was a clear thinker and an able physician and actually he carefully modified his statement. Before sinking the drugs he excluded opium and anesthetics and specifics: such things as quinine for malaria and mercury for syphilis and iodine for lack of thyroid secretion. Then he was willing to drop overboard most of the other things which could be useful but more often were harmful. At the present time he would not so dispose of antibiotics, although there is more and more evidence that as they are now they cause much trouble. Unfortunately a large proportion of the populace are not like Dr. Samuel Johnson, who said that he could be abstemious, but resemble him closely in their inability to be temperate.

One cardinal rule in taking drugs is that any, active enough to help out the body, are powerful enough to injure it. A poison is usually a comparatively large dose of a substance which in proper doses is helpful. Few things in nature have been more of a blessing to man than opium. Yet you all know that the normal person can be killed by it or ruined if he habituates himself to taking it in large doses. In some states cyanide gas is used to execute criminals. In small amounts cyanides are pleasing and harmless flavorings; almond, for instance.

A drug may have varying effects on different people. De Quincey said that opium stimulated him and I have seen that he was right. Barbiturates, which are delightfully quieting for most people, may at times cause a delirium, especial in the elderly.   This change may develop fairly quickly in one who over a period of years has taken them infrequently but always with soothing effect. We get fairly well acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of the drugs which we have lived with for some time, but we never can be perfectly sure of the idiosyncrasies of the patients on whom they are used.  The allergic reactions are examples of this. With the present-day enthusiasm for treatment and the extravagant publicity which every new drug and treatment gets as soon as it is announced, it is more and more necessary to counsel caution.

Fortunately some useful drugs cause, with large or long continued doses, such unpleasant symptoms that they have to be discontinued before they do serious harm. Digitalis, so valuable in certain heart conditions, irritates the stomach at times, causing nausea and vomiting, so that the patient cannot continue taking it any longer. Ipecac’s value is dependent on the nausea and vomiting it produces and must have been used much in the days when puking and purging were standard procedures. Many of you have doubtless experienced an excessive flow of saliva when you were nauseated. This increase of fluid is what makes ipecac in small amounts valuable as a cough medicine. The fluid increase occurs in the lungs, diluting the sticky secretions there and making them easier to cough up. I have a physician friend who has long had the foolish habit of tasting medicines. He sat at his desk one day advising mothers and occasionally sampling a bottle of syrup of ipecac. Later as he drove across the city he noticed that he was taking deep yawns. At his first place of call he leaned over to listen to a baby’s chest and suddenly all went black. You see, ipecac causes not only nausea, salivation, bronchial secretions, but also anemia of the brain. As many medicines are made up of a combination of drugs it ought to be evident to you that there are possibilities of many unpleasant effects when you dose yourselves.

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GENERAL HEALTH

Dylan Abraham, 40, of Madison, Wisconsin, was diagnosed at age 18 as having schizophrenia. “My symptoms began when I was 16,” Mr. Abraham recalls. “They started with a sense of anxiety and unease. By 18, I was having hallucinations: I saw a gold rim of light around people. I heard voices. God and Satan were talking to me, telling me that I was godlike. I thought the CIA, the FBI, and the Communists were after me. I had totally lost it. I was arrested for disorderly conduct. My mother came to get me at the jail. She hospitalized me. That was in 1974.”

The voices he heard did not exist in reality, of course. But to Mr. Abraham, those voices were quite real.

“I was totally psychotic,” he says. “It was very frightening – the most frightening thing I had ever experienced.”

With all that going on inside his skull, Mr. Abraham could not work, study, make friends, or simply sit still. The disease crashed over him in waves.

“When I went to get Dylan from the police that time back in 1974,” recalled his mother, Nancy Abraham, “had I not known that it was Dylan, I would not have recognized him. He was so ill. I had lost the son I knew.”

Those terrible times are now part of the past for Mr. Abraham, and they probably will stay there, so long as he takes his medication. In 1990, he was given Clozaril, then a new drug.

“In the last 5 years,” he says, “Clozaril has wiped out the schizophrenia in me. I study tai chi, play volleyball, go to the gym. I’m dating.”

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GENERAL HEALTH

Cause

The commonest cause of a water blister is friction, for example new shoes rubbing against the back of the heel. Blisters also characteristically appear with chickenpox. Burns, including sunburn, can also cause blistering of the skin, as can insect bites. Impetigo can be a more serious cause of blisters.

Treatment

Avoid bursting the blister as this can lead to infection. The liquid inside a blister is usually sterile, as long as the thin covering of skin is still intact. If the blister does burst, apply a small pad of foam with a hole cut in the centre, to prevent further pressure on the area, which can be quite painful. Dab with antiseptic solution twice a day, and keep the wound as clean as possible. It should dry up in a few days, and the skin will then peel. Make sure your child wears open shoes, or shoes which do not press on the blister.

When to see your doctor

• if the blister is filled with greenish fluid, or the surrounding skin is reddish as this may mean that the blister is infected;

• if your child has multiple blisters and a fever or is unwell.

Prevention

Make sure that your child wears well-fitting shoes, that are neither too tight nor too loose. If your child has new shoes, put sticking plaster such as Bandaids on the back of the heels for the first week until he ‘breaks in’ the shoes.

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Make sure that your baby’s furniture is chosen according to safety guidelines. Your local Child Safety Centre will be able to give you advice about what to look for and suggest brands. Consumer protection and advisory organisations and consumer publications may also be a good source of advice.

Car safety

The baby must be transported in a bassinet in a baby car restraint which conforms to Australian design and safety standards. A baby will be ready for a car seat when he weighs 9 kg and can hold his head up well.

Animals

Keep animals away from babies as much as possible. We do not wish to encourage you to give away your pets, rather, take greater care when they are around the baby. The change in composition of the household may upset some pets, and babies can easily annoy a pet with their actions.

Falls

Do not leave your baby alone on the change table; he can easily roll right off. Pad sharp edges of furniture, as babies fall frequently when learning to walk. Install barriers at the top and bottom of stairs.

Scalds

Be careful when bathing your baby. In the bath, always run the cold water first. Babies will readily pull the cord of an electric jug or kettle, or the edge of a tablecloth. Use place mats instead of a tablecloth, and use curly cords on electrical appliances. Never nurse your baby if you are smoking, or drinking a hot drink.

Burns

Keep your baby out of the sun — he has very sensitive skin and will burn easily, even on an overcast day. Fires and heaters pose a particular danger. Choose close fitting nightwear, and check the label to make sure it is fire resistant. Install smoke detectors in your house.

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You have taken several tests already. Review those tests as a couple. Remember that the scores are not the issue. The process of learning and discussion is the key point.

Six Sex Drawings

Add to your tests, tapes, medical examination results, and the seven super marital sex opportunities a couples’ drawing test. Doing and sharing the drawings was fun for the couples and led them to interesting insights. Each of you should buy a small pack of crayons. Draw, in color, yourself and your partner separately and then draw one picture of yourself and your partner together. Claims of lack of artistic ability are not accepted because this is not an art test. Anything you draw will give you some ideas about how you see yourselves, each other, and the relationship. Here are some questions to help you learn from your six drawings.

1. Look at the size of the figures. Who’s bigger, smaller, fatter, skinnier?

2. What details were focused upon in the drawings? (Head, genitals, breasts, legs, arms, stomach?) Who focused on what and why?

3. What colors were chosen for which drawings and why? What do they mean to you? (Red=hot? Blue=cool? There are no correct answers; just discuss what a color meant to you.)

4. What was each figure doing?

5. What was the couple doing in the couples drawings?

6. How do the figures seem to “feel” as they appear in each drawing?

7. Write down one sentence that each figure is saying, and don’t forget the two sentences for the couples drawings.

8. On the back of one of the drawings, complete each of the following sentences:

1. To me, sex is . . .

2. What I like best about our sex is . . .

3. The characteristic of my spouse that turns me on most is . . .

4. My favorite thing to do sexually is . . .

5. The characteristic about me that I think turns my partner on most is . . .

6. What I think my spouse likes most about our sex is . . .

If you can laugh and share as you go over these drawings and your answers to the questions, you have made considerable progress already. You are now ready to focus on any problems you may want to correct in your sexual interaction.

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I love my parents. But I’ll tell you one thing. I will never understand how they stayed together.

HUSBAND

We are seldom allowed a view into the intimacy of our parents’ marriage from which we can construct a model for relating in our own marriage. Few of us have the slightest idea about our parents’ sexual interaction beyond some secret late-night bed squeaks and unclear murmurs. Short of pornographic distortions, we almost never see anyone else making love, and our ideas about our parents’ marriages are probably badly distorted.

A basic question asked of all the thousand couples was, “How do you remember you parents’ marriage?” More than half of the men and women in my sample (57 percent) had negative memories of the way in which their parents interacted. Thirty-six percent reported physical or verbal abuse in their parents’ relationships. Often, couples commented that their parents tolerated one another, just ignored each other, or “survived.”

When asked if they would like their marriage to be like their parents’, the response (58 percent) was more typically no than yes. Even those who could find something to copy stated that they may be “seeing what I wanted to see” or “what I thought might be going on but never really knew.”

How about you? What is you marital learning history? Where and how did you learn to be married?

The media marriages leave us little to go by. They are either delightfully benign “Ozzie and Harriet” or “Leave It to Beaver” styles of relating, desexualized “marrinoids” acting out life, or hot, conflicted, distressed relationships of the Archie and Edith, Ralph and Alice type, drawn together by some secret attraction that not even they understand.

You will learn in following chapters that our relating style depends to a great extent on what researcher John Money calls “love maps,” early tracings of the results of our sex rehearsal during childhood. These rehearsals too often are corrupted, censored, and distorted by a society that insists on desexualizing children, preventing them from learning to unite emotion and sex. We have learned much more about what marriage is not and should not be than what it can be.

*21\97\8*

Once thought to be mainly due to a congenital defect of a blind track or sinus in the skin, it is now mostly accepted that the condition is acquired and results from hairs pushing their way into the skin in this area. The hairs may come from the head, the back or the buttocks.

It is commoner in men and particularly dark, hairy men.

A small infection develops like a boil just above the buttocks. Antibiotics may control the infection but it usually recurs and pockets of pus may persist.

Small abscesses may be incised and drained during the acute infection.

Most cases eventually require operation, usually laying open the tracks and pockets and clearing them of pus and retained hairs. If the area is large, a skin graft may be necessary.

*529/71/1*

This irritant group is the most commonly abused. These act by stimulating the nerves in the bowel wall causing overactivity of the muscles.

Prolonged use may cause degeneration of the nerves so that they are permanently damaged, impairing the bowel function so that chronic constipation persists.

These irritant purgatives include cascara, senna, phenolphthalein and bisacodyl.

The least harmful of substances which are taken for constipation are those which produce bulk. Natural food which contains indigestable fibre is best and can hardly be regarded as medicine.

Bran is probably now the most often discussed additive to add bulk. However, there are many preparations of cellulose material prepared from a variety of natural plants which swell when mixed with water.

These substances should be taken with several glasses of water so they will swell and add bulk to the diet.

If a patient complains of constipation, the doctor must assure himself that indeed that is the correct symptom. Some people have a normal bowel action, but, because of misinformation, may believe something is wrong. As with any other symptom, a full history will often reveal the diagnosis.

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