The clitoris is the master-key to unlock the female orgasm. The male partner must be well aware of its location and thoroughly familiar with its anatomy. It is situated just above the vaginal opening and below the mons area and consists of a body and the glans. The smaller-than-pea-size glans is packed with nerves and is so highly sensitive that most women cannot be it being touched directly by the finger.

The two small lips unite above to form a hood or prepuce to cover the glans. During the Excitement Phase, the first change is enlargement of the clitoris and swelling of the clitoral glans due to engorgement of blood vessels inside it; in some women it doubles in size. The size of the clitoral glans like that of the penis bears no relationship to orgasmic responsiveness. The clitoral response during the Excitement Phase is prompt if the area around the mons and the clitoral shaft are directly tickled with the finger. The response takes longer if only kissing or caressing of the breasts is resorted to.

*103\262\8*

Calories are a standard measure or description of the amount of energy contained in all types of food. Calories come from the nutrients fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Too many calories in your diet supply too much energy. If your body does not need the energy right away, it is stored as body fat. It takes approximately 3,500 excess calories to gain a pound. Excess body fat aggravates conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and it puts extra stress on your heart.

High-fat foods are high in calories because fat is the most concentrated source of energy. There are 9 calories in each gram of fat but only 4 calories in each gram of protein or carbohydrate. (For comparison, a paperclip weighs about a gram.) Thus, small amounts of fat provide many more calories than other kinds of foods. It is easy to overeat fatty foods. Carbohydrates tend to be bulkier; therefore, you are more/likely to feel full, even though the calorie content is less.

Another factor may indicate why fatty foods are so “fattening.” When you eat too much fat, it is easy for your body to convert those extra calorie into excess body fat. Excess calories from protein and carbohydrate can be stored as body fat, too, but four body may burn more calories in this conversion process than it does when converting fat calories into body fat.

Think of what you are getting with the calories you take in. Some foods, such as sugar and alcohol, provide calories but few other nutrients. These foods are often described as sources of “empty” calories. The ideal diet contains the right amount of calories and emphasizes foods that provide the> most nutrients.

*287\252\8*

When a woman reaches menopause, somewhere around the age of fifty, her menstrual cycles cease, her production of the hormone oestrogen declines, and a series of distressing physical and emotional symptoms usually occurs. Among these are hot flushes (sudden flushes or waves of heat and drenching sweat over the upper body), depression, vaginal dryness, urinary incontinence, increased risk of heart attack, and progressive bone deterioration.

Unfortunately, many doctors consider menopause a disease, instead of a natural process, and quickly prescribe oestrogen (or related hormones) to treat change-of-life discomforts. But though hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which employs such drugs as chlorotrianisene, conjugated oestrogens, estropipate, and ethinyl estradiol among others, is effective in treating moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms, such as hot flushes and the drying of vaginal mucous membranes, there is no evidence that it is effective in treating nervous symptoms or depression or in preventing heart attacks. And it has been found to be only “probably” effective in treating oestrogen-deficiency-induced osteoporosis (bone deterioration), and then only when used with other therapeutic measures. On the other hand, there is evidence that these oestrogens can increase the risk of endometrial cancer! Additionally, women who’ve been on oestrogen therapy often find that it only delays symptoms, such as hot flushes, which then seem to reappear when the drug is discontinued.

*18/137/5*

In order to get a clear conception of perseverance in Flower Remedies remember that:

OAK REMEDY stands for a person who has the qualities of a great fighter—endurance, steadfastness, strength and common sense. He goes on persevering towards his goal, over-taxing his physical and mental endurance till the breaking point and never admits defeat. He considers work as a duty, as a commitment. It is quite often unrelated to his vocation in life.

ELM REMEDY stands for a person who has all the qualities of holding the most responsible positions in society or in his profession. It is only when he temporarily feels overwhelmed by the burden of work in his vocation in life that he requires this remedy.

GORSE is the exact opposite of OAK. GORSE surrenders in the face of difficulties and loses all hope whereas OAK never gives up, and continues efforts to overcome difficulties. In a long-drawn illness when a patient is resolutely persisting with varied treatments, OAK REMEDY is found useful in providing added power to persevere and the patient overcomes any negative feeling in the path of recovery.

*152\308\8*

The treatment of status epilepticus is a task for skilled physicians, not for parents. But we’re sure that you would like to know what the physicians are doing and why. First, they will take your child into a special place in the emergency room to make sure that he is breathing properly. They may give him oxygen by mask, suction saliva out of the throat, and observe him for a few minutes to see the seizures. While they are observing, they will draw some blood to check for infection and to check for the level of blood sugar and other chemicals in the body that could be out of balance and causing seizures. If your child has previously had seizures and is taking medicine, the physicians will want to check the blood for the level of the anticonvulsants. They may also check for any drugs or medications taken accidentally. They will start an intravenous line (IV) to introduce fluids and so that they can give anticonvulsant medications into the vein if necessary. Intravenous is the best way to give medications when a child is continuing to have seizures, because it is the most rapid way to get the medicine to the brain to stop the seizures. All of these things should take place in the first several minutes after arrival in the emergency room.

During this time the medical team also will take a brief history, searching for reasons for the status. They will be particularly concerned about any current illness, because meningitis or encephalitis, which could be a cause of the seizures, would require prompt treatment. The medical staff will want to know from you if the child has ever had seizures before, if there possibly has been an injury to the head, and things like that. Anything that you could think of that might have led the child to have a seizure at this particular time could be of help to the physicians.

If the seizures have been continuing more than fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes, the physicians will want to give medication to stop them. Various medications may be used, but drugs like diazepam (Valium) or lorazepam (Ativan), quick-acting effective anticonvulsants, are used initially. Unfortunately, although they work quickly, they often do not continue to work over a long period of time, and when they wear off— in ten to twenty minutes, or longer in the case of lorazepam—another seizure may occur. Therefore, the physician usually will give an additional drug, such as phenytoin (Dilantin), which works less quickly than the other but lasts longer.

*132\208\8*

Depending on your plan the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet includes two to four meals a day, one to three low in carbohydrates, in addition to a Reward Meal.

Which meals should be Low-Carbohydrate Meals? Many of our most successful dieters choose breakfast and lunch as their Low-Carbohydrate Meals, but the choice is yours. If you are following Plan A, you may have your Low-Carbohydrate Snack at midday or in the evening. In deciding which meal is to be your Reward Meal, keep m mind that you should try to maintain the same schedule each day, eating the Low-Carbohydrate and Reward Meals in the same sequence. On special occasions, you may want to make a switch; we’ll talk more about that later. In general, however, you should try to keep the same meals as the Low-Carbohydrate Meals as often as possible.

How much should I eat? Though quantities are not limited at your Reward Meal, at Low-Carbohydrate Meals your portions should be of average size. “Average portions” are what you might get at a restaurant—about four to six ounces of meat, fish, or poultry; or two to three ounces of cheese; and one and one-half to two cups of salad or vegetables with two to three tablespoons of salad dressing or a pat or

Which meals should be Low-Carbohydrate Meals? Many of our most successful dieters choose breakfast and lunch as their Low-Carbohydrate Meals, but the choice is yours. If you are following Plan A, you may have your Low-Carbohydrate Snack at midday or in the evening. In deciding which meal is to be your Reward Meal, keep in mind that you should try to maintain the same schedule each day, eating the Low-Carbohydrate and Reward Meals in the same sequence. On special occasions, you may want to make a switch; we’ll talk more about that later. In general, however, you should try to keep the same meals as the Low-Carbohydrate Meals as often as possible.

How much should I eat? Though quantities are not limited at your Reward Meal, at Low-Carbohydrate Meals your portions should be of average size. “Average portions” are what you might get at a restaurant—about four to six ounces of meat, fish, or poultry; or two to three ounces of cheese; and one and one-half to two cups of salad or vegetables with two to three tablespoons of salad dressing or a pat or two of butter or margarine. Low-Carbohydrate Snacks are equal to about half the quantity of Low-Carbohydrate Meals. You need not weigh nor measure. Portion sizes are given to help you gauge what an “average portion” is.

How should my food be cooked? Low-carbohydrate foods may be broiled, boiled, saut?ed, baked, poached, roasted, or even fried. However, no breading or batter should be used. In keeping with the recommendations of researchers concerned with preventing heart disease, we recommend you use polyunsaturated oils or olive oil if you saut? your food.

Which foods are low in carbohydrates? Your Low-Carbohydrate Meals or Snacks should be chosen from the list of foods that follows. These foods enable you to balance your insulin levels, reduce your hunger, and lose weight.

If a food is not listed here, don’t eat it during your Low-Carbohydrate Meals or Snacks. Eating carbohydrate-rich foods during your Low-Carbohydrate Meals or Snacks can set off an addictive reaction— which can undo the entire eating and weight-loss program.

When in doubt, save the food for the Reward Meal. Eat it then, without worry.

*30\236\2*

In 1925 Henry Souttar, a surgeon whose invention, ‘Souttar’s Eyeless Needle’, is still in use in operating theatres around the world, carried out the first successful mitral stenosis (blockage of the mitral valve) operation on a patient called Lily Hine, who had been given a mere six months to live. It was an extraordinary operation, and it illustrated a feature of surgery that has often struck me as fundamental: the need for thinking quickly ‘on your feet’ and adapting to the circumstances of the moment.

Souttar had begun the operation with the intention of opening up the blocked valve with a surgical instrument, just as Cutler had done. But, during the course of the operation, he changed his mind and instead used his index finger, passing it through the valve orifice, where it met with no resistance: the blockage was cleared. Souttar then began to sew up the incisions he had made. Suddenly a snag occurred. The suturing gave way and he had to work fantastically fast in order to complete the proceedings within a reasonable space of time. In total, the operation had lasted one hour – not lengthy by today’s standards, perhaps, but it was a long time in 1925.

With this successful operation Souttar had fully justified a prediction he had earlier made in the British Medical Journal:

Incisions can be made in its [the heart's] chamber, portions of its structure can be excised and internal manipulations carried out without the slightest interference in its action and there is ample evidence that wounds of the heart heal as readily as those in any other region.

In the wake of the Lily Hine success, other valve operations were carried out during the 1920s by surgeons elsewhere. There were just a handful, though, and unfortunately all the patients died. So what might have been a flood turned out to be a mere trickle, with most of the medical establishment being reluctant to promote further operations of this type. Souttar himself was, for all his undoubted skill, never sent any more mitral-valve cases to treat, the general feeling being that such operations were still just on the fringes of the reputable.

In other words, although the tide seemed to be about to turn so far as cardiac surgery was concerned, there was no spectacular attempt by surgeons to force the pace. Heart injuries were still their principal interest. The correction of mechanical defects would have to wait more than 15 years before the next major steps could be taken: the modern assault on the diseased and malfunctioning heart.

*3/353/5*

According to Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, a New Zealand toxicologist, babies fed exclusively on soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least five birth control Pills per day Because of this evidence, both the British and New Zealai governments have issued warnings on the use of soy infant formula.

As if soy’s estrogenic effect wasn’t bad enough; there are other serious problems with soy formulas. Both soy and soy formulas initiate thyroid disease in infants. Feeding infants

soy formulas exposes them to high levels of isoflavones, which; are potent anti-thyroid agents. This poses significant risks to normal growth and development.

Lynn Goldman, MD, MPH, Professor of Environmental!; Health Science, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, has also voiced concerns. “A report published in Cancer Research found that genistein, one of the. isoflavones in soy, was more carcinogenic (dose adjusted for estrogen potency) than the synthetic estrogen DES (an estrogen routinely given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage) when exposure occurred during ‘critical periods of differentiation’, such as during infancy.

*22/165/1*

Furuncles, or boils, represent a progression of bacterial folliculitis. An abscess extends out from an infected follicle, forming a painful, red, firm nodule. Carbuncles are conglomerations of coalescing furuncles. Systemic symptoms may occur with carbuncles but not furuncles. S. aureus is the most common pathogen, but anatomically localized microflorae also play a role. For example, perianal abscesses can be caused by fecal flora and head-neck abscess may be due to anaerobes.

Furuncles and carbuncles are self-limited. With time, the lesions become fluctuant and will either point to the surface and open or be reabsorbed. Warm compresses are the mainstay of treatment. Topical antibiotics are of no use. Systemic antistaphylococcal antibiotics can be helpful in early cases before furuncles have pointed. Many clinicians reserve antibiotics for carbuncles or for patients with fever or secondary cellulitis. Once lesions have pointed and become fluctuant, incision and drainage hastens recovery. It is harmful to incise deeper lesions. Patients with recurrent furuncles or carbuncles can be treated to eradicate S. aureus carriage. This can be accomplished with nasal mupirocin ointment for 5 days or oral penicillinase-resistant penicillin for 14 days.

*113/348/5*

At this juncture it seems appropriate to add some cautionary word about the technique of self-disclosure. And make no mistake about it, we consider this to be a counseling technique. As such, it requires the same thoughtful evaluation of its usefulness as any other counseling tool. It is important to recognize that “self-disclosure” is not limited to sharing information of one’s own alcoholism. Self-disclosure in counseling or therapy refers to sharing not only the facts of one’s life, but one’s feelings and values as well. The point of contrast would be the style of the early psychoanalyst who never revealed information about himself, nor in any way presented himself as an individual to his clients. Counselors are self-disclosing when they express empathy, or when they note that the client’s concerns are those with which other clients of the counselor have also struggled. But the phrase does have special meaning in alcohol counseling. The counselor may also be a recovering alcoholic in private life. As one, he or she may have participated nonprofessionally in interventions or AA Twelfth Step calls when self-disclosure was called for and effective and also clear cut. In a professional individual counseling or group therapy session when, or indeed, if, to use self-disclosure may not be so clear-cut.

Particularly at the early stages of the client’s treatment, or in the assessment process, it may seem only natural to allay some of the client’s nervousness or resistance with the news that you, as a counselor, have been there and know just how they feel and furthermore can testify to the possibility of a happy recovery. What seems natural may, however, be totally inappropriate or even countertherapeutic. Counselors need to remember that their professionalism is important to the client, particularly in the early days of treatment. That professionalism is comforting! The patient in an intensive cardiac care unit is interested in his physician’s medical assessment of his condition, the physician’s treatment recommendations, and the probable outcome. He is in no condition to appreciate the physician’s personal story of his own heart attack.

This is not to imply that self-disclosure shouldn’t ever be used, or that it is ineffective. In the example of the physician above, if the patient were so frightened he couldn’t hear the physician’s medical assessment or, at some point, in despair and seemingly abandoning hope, the physician might decide to reassure the patient by the example of his own recovery and obvious present robust good health. But we see the technique too often used as a matter of course without proper thought given to the possible ramifications of it in a particular instance. Because we do, indeed, see it as a sometimes very powerful aid in certain cases, we recommend that great care be taken to see that it is used at the best possible time for the best possible reason—the benefit of the client. It should never be used to make the counselor feel more comfortable by getting “everything out in the open.”

*119\331\2*