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Annemarie Colbin, in her book, Food and Healing, presents a chapter on altering diet to combat specific conditions. Her recommendations are based on her own experience as a student of macrobiotics and health food, and a teacher of natural healing and balanced eating. As well as her observations of those whom she treated in consultations, and the transformations of her students over the years. Despite her background in macrobiotics and vegetarianism, Annemarie isn't dogmatic about food - she recognizes that what is healing for one person, during a particular period of their life, may not be healing for others, or even for that same person at different stages of their life.

She takes as her cue the fact that regular foods have been used for their medicinal value in most traditional cultures. The underlying principle is one of restoring balance. Illness is considered a state of imbalance within the body. And like in homeopathy, she believes that remedies can cause similar symptoms to that which they cure - if the symptoms they can cure are not present, and they are taken in sufficient quantity. So, the remedy should no longer be taken once the symptoms of imbalance, the illness or condition, disappears. Otherwise, the remedy may in fact cause similar symptoms to reappear. If this is the case, the remedy should not be taken again, as the remedies are (according to this principle), causing the new symptoms. Serious medical conditions she does not rely on food cures for. She recognizes that Western medicine also has its place. But food being what it is, can also be a useful healing adjunct in those situations.

One thing that impressed her was food's ability to alter our metabolism quickly. She described this epiphany after cooking a meal for some South American friends, who were used to a diet that was high in protein and fats. When they ate the meal prepared by her, which was high in complex carbohydrates like whole grains and legumes, and low in fat, sugar (for dessert), and low in protein, they found alcohol affected them in a way it usually didn't. The same amount they normally drank, which did not make them drunk with their usual fare, got them quite tipsy on hers. She observed from this that alcohol, being expansive in nature, balanced out the highly contractive protein and fat they normally ate. These ideas, of particular foods having an expansive or contractive nature, is one that she learnt from the Oriental healing systems she studied.

This approach touches on a core difference between Western understanding of both food, and medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine's (TCM). TCM has as its conceptual underpinning, the study of relationships between things. Western approaches, to both nutrition and medicine, are based on a reductionist approach. They explore isolated nutrients, diseases that are studied under the microscope, with a symptom that then suggests possible causes, defined within a narrow and static frame. Ted Kaptchuk illustrates this when he describes how, when he was studying TCM in Macao, one of his teachers was talking about shingles. His teacher described how shingles on the face was different to shingles elsewhere, say, on the trunk. The reason behind this was that "the Chinese view demanded another perspective - seeing the relationship of the symptom to the whole body". (Kaptchuk) he goes on to say: "The question of cause and effect is always secondary to the overall pattern...The total configurations, the patterns of disharmony, provide the framework for treatment." (Kaptchuk)

References: Ted Kaptchuk, Chinese Medicine, The Web That Has No Weaver (Rider Books, London)

Annemarie Colbin, Food As Healing (Ballantine Books, New York)

If you're interested more in a TCM approach to acne, check out this article on acne natural cures versus acne treatments. Or, if you'd like to know what's good about herbal medicine, be sure to check out this article. Find out the difference between strong and gentle herbs, as well as using the whole plant extract versus just the active constituents. Rebecca Prescott publishes the website on vitamins, http://www.vitaminstohealth.com.

The Importance Of A Bird Flu Mask

Though the avian influenza virus is hosted by birds, some particular subtype might affect other mammals too, including humans. In a direct manner the virus is contacted from infected birds, mostly domestic poultry but sometimes wild birds also can infect hunters, tribal people, etc. In an indirect manner the infection can enter the human system via edibles infected with the virus, polluted water, objects, air, food, etc. by the bodily secretions or excretions of infected birds. The flu virus being airborne, the contamination in the air could be reasonably high, in cases of epidemic or pandemic proportions. Infected people carry the flu virus with them wherever they travel and spread it in air and on objects they touch via their nasal secretions and bodily discharges.

Personal Protective Equipment or PPE as they are called are equipments designed for health professionals to use if they are working in contaminated environments. Nose and mouth respirators or 'Masks' are the ones most widely used. Bird flu masks are very specific pertaining to the fact that the bird flu virus is microscopic and is not easily filtered out from the environment using conventional filters.

These masks are designed on the guidelines given by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Based on filtering efficiency, the filters used in the masks fall under 3 categories, namely Type 95, Type 99 and Type 100. The proportions of microscopic (0.3 micron wide) particles filtered out by these filters are 95%, 99% and 99.7%, respectively. Also the filters are categorized based on filter efficiency degradation and are hence labeled as, N (non-resistant to oil), R (oil resistant) and P (oil proof). Each individual mask is tested in laboratory settings before being approved for sale. But N95 ones are disposable and cannot be cleaned.

The most common ones are N-95 filtering respirators which have been approved by NIOSH (also called as Filtering Facepieces) as being effective drastically cutting down exposure risks to airborne viruses like SARS or Avian Influenza. The usage of masks is recommended to people working in high contamination situations, like health care workers attending to patients, or field workers involved in destroying the infection sources, etc.

Another set of very powerful, protective masks are Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs). They are more effective than N-95 masks in offering better protection. These are used by persons who cannot wear N-95 masks, like people with facial hair. This battery operated mask has a face piece with breathing tube and filters.

Even though any mask is not a guarantee against influenza infection, they dramatically cut down the chances of infection from airborne viruses. It remains to be said however, that the capabilities of the masks degrade over time from usage. Aerosols, if present in the working environments, degrade the filters even more. Hence, bird flu masks should not be used with 100% reliance, but only as one of the preventive tool. More so, there are guidelines that need to be adhered to while (re)using such PPE. It is hence clear that the best defense does not lie in any amount of measures taken but rather in the knowledge with which they are implemented

About the Author

Clive Jenkins recommends the
Bird Flu Helpsite which will provide you with comprehensive information on all aspects of the Bird Flu Virus. To find
articles, tips and free advice check out the site here:

http://www.birdfluhelpsite.com

I would like to know more about simple staining techniques for grade 8?

I am teaching them how to use the microscope, and that we can prepare both wet and dry slides to look at under the microscope.

You can try Gram staining simple bacteria, like the bacteria found in yogurt

You can try haemotoxylin and eosin staining cells from inside people's cheeks. Just take a toothpick, and have people brush some cells from inside their cheeks and put it on a glass slide

I would recommend you doing the staining, since these substances can be a little toxic. Then let the kids play with the glass slides with the specimens already stained

Knights stick to their ideals
NEWCASTLE chairman Robert Tew put on a defiant front before supporters and sponsors last night.

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