«The job. How can you complain about not having enough to do? It seems too stupid for words. But that’s what it is. Just plain bored. Sounds silly. Instead of just sitting and doing nothing, I get irritable. Irritable with myself. Irritable with the people around me. Irritable with a society that lands me in a job like this. Worse than all that, I bring the irritability home with me to my wife and kids. Snap at them. Then I feel guilty. Then more on edge than ever. »

They laugh about the civil service. Joke about it. But there is often that glimmer of truth in the things we laugh about most readily.

Man. As a species we have survived. We have survived because we have learned to assert ourselves against an inhospitable environment. If we graduate into a changed environment of continuing calm and ease, we are left without the normal challenges of life to which we have become accustomed over countless generations. It demands that we adjust to a new way of living in which our innate assertiveness has no external outlet. We seem to be lost. Our brain is alerted, but there is no outlet for mental or physical activity. And we experience this deprivation as boredom.

Other interests and hobbies are a help. Not much to do at work and our mind can run on enjoying the challenge of our hobby. The same applies when our work is mainly repetitive, requiring little mental effort on our part.

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Large areas of eczema should be treated with baths. Colloidal baths are used for acute eczema. They may consist of:

Bran: Very hot water is allowed to run into a tub over a cheesecloth bag containing one to three pounds of wheat bran. The tub is filled with water, and the bag is squeezed occasionally to introduce the bran into the water.

Cornstarch: One pound of cornstarch is stirred into a tub full of water.

Oatmeal: Two cups of boiled oatmeal are put into a cheesecloth bag, and then the bag is used as a washcloth on the skin.

Tar baths which are helpful in sub-acute eczema are made with three ounces of a solution of crude coal tar, N.F., put into a full tub of water. Sodium bicarbonate baths are soothing for very irritated and itchy skin. One cup of sodium bicarbonate to a tub of water is used. Magnesium sulfate baths may be used, one cup to a tub of water, for acutely inflamed skin which is oozing.

Failure in the treatment of eczema may be caused by a bacterial or a fungal infection, a concomitant contact dermatitis, seborrhea, an endocrine disturbance, an immunological disorder, a situation of stress, or a drug eruption that takes place at the same time as the eczema.

Tranquilizers are a radical part of the treatment of any form of eczema. Atarax or Vistaril are generally chosen in syrup form to be given by mouth in teaspoonfuls three or four times daily for a period of three to four months.

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Scientists used to think that adult illnesses (like heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes and obesity) were either the direct result of what we have inherited through our genes or were due to unhealthy living patterns. Current research, however, suggests instead that we are programmed to be susceptible to these illnesses depending on what we were exposed to in the womb. This concept – that the diseases of adult life could be connected to conditions in the womb – is called foetal programming.

The research by Professor David Barker mentioned earlier (which showed the link between our birth weight and the possibility of heart problems) is just one aspect of this programming. It seems that whatever conditions in the womb stunt the baby’s growth also increases their risk of cardiovascular disease. Scientists are now taking this research further by looking at other traits which may be influenced in the womb, such as high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, breast cancer, mental illness and intelligence.

This new science of foetal programming is even causing a rethink of genetic influences. For instance, it has always been thought that identical twins are more likely to share a similar characteristic because this characteristic was controlled by their genes. But identical twins also share the same conditions in the womb so could other factors be at work?

Recent research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, monitored the daughters born to those women who were pregnant during the Dutch famine of 1944 – 45.They found that those women whose mothers were malnourished during the early stages of pregnancy because of the famine had a significantly greater chance of being obese at the age of 50. If the mothers had been starved after the first four months of their pregnancy there was no difference in the Body Mass Index for these daughters, compared with an average cross-section of similar age. The researchers concluded that the obesity developed as a result of permanent changes ‘fixed’ in the womb, rather than as the result of the usual lifestyle factors.

Further findings from this research also suggest that the children of the women who were pregnant during the famine have a greater risk of developing late-onset diabetes.

Professor Barker is suggesting that, because different issues in the foetus have different critical periods of development, the timing of an effect on a woman is crucial. The converse is also true. If we nourish the baby in the womb as healthily as possible we can lessen the risk of the child developing future illnesses.

This does not mean that we have no control over our health as adults. But it may put us more at risk of developing a certain problem like heart disease later on in life, requiring us to be more careful about our diet, exercise etc. But, more importantly, this research shows that certain adult illnesses could be prevented if we concentrated on making the environment in the womb as healthy as possible.

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What is it?

A condition in which an individual becomes ‘hooked’ on sugar-containing foods so that life without them becomes a misery or virtually impossible. Sugar addiction is worth worrying about because it makes people fat (with all the resultant health risks this entails) and causes tooth decay. It may also, via its action on insulin metabolism, have something to do with the causation of diabetes.

What causes it?

• There is little doubt that most higher animals find sugar a pleasant taste and many of nature’s fruits, and vegetables contain sugars. Although most westerners with their sweet tooth don’t realize it, vegetables such as carrots and onions are very sweet. So it appears that it is natural for us to like sweet-tasting things.

• Upbringing is undoubtedly the prime reason why so many people in the West are sugar addicts. From the very earliest days mothers give their babies dummies filled with sugar solutions or coated in honey to suck to keep them quiet. This sort of habit sets the body’s sugar ‘thermostat’ so high that anything that is not extremely sweet is perceived as less palatable.

• A cultural acceptance of the myth that dietary rewards must involve sugar. The woman who feels low pre-menstrually or the unhappy child on the way home from school both opt for sweet, sugar-containing slugs of confectionary.

Prevention

• The best starting point is total and on-demand breastfeeding. Breast milk contains its own sugars and tastes very sweet. However, these sugars are balanced with other constituents and don’t have the harmful effects that sucrose (table sugar) has. A baby nourished in this way will not crave sugary drinks and sweets.

• Don’t have sugar on the table as your children grow up. Teach them to find sweetness elsewhere-in vegetables or fruits.

• Once you are a sugar eater and want to change your ways, keep a sugar diary for a week or two. It is very difficult to appreciate just how much sugar you actually eat unless you do this. Statistics show that sugar added to food accounts for 25 per cent of all the calories eaten by the average adult. For teenagers this figure can be as high as 50 per cent. Get used to reading labels on foods and steer away from those that are rich in sugar or have anything ending in ose, (maltose, dextrose, sucrose, etc.) on the label.

• Shop more wisely. This will mean buying few or none at all of the following: sweets and chocolates; cream-filled and iced biscuits; cakes and sweet pastries; jams, honey, marmalade and spreads; tinned fruit in syrup; sweetened yoghurts; jellies and ready-made desserts; sweet pickles; fruit sauces; tomato ketchup; and fizzy drinks and squashes containing sugar.

• Ban all sugar and sweets from the house. Feeding your craving is much more difficult if the things are not there to be eaten. In spite of all the publicity about the dangers of sugar consumption, in 1980 in the UK the use of sugars and sweeteners was up 50 per cent from 91 lb a year per person at the turn of the century to 143 lb a year.

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•     Physical exercise also has beneficial effects on the skin. In one study, twenty older women who exercised regularly on a trampoline were compared with twenty who did not take exercise. The exercisers looked younger, and had fewer wrinkles and better skin colour than the sedentary group. They also had less pronounced bags under the eyes.

Blood pressure creeps up with age in almost all westernized societies. The fact that this is not inevitable is shown by its absence in many traditional-living countries. Reducing salt intake and using relaxation exercises have been found to halt the gradual increase in blood pressure and even to reverse it. Taking plenty of calcium has also been found to help reduce blood pressure.

As we age (after the age of 25) we lose 3-5 per cent of our muscles, glands, connective tissue and internal organs every ten years. The breakdown products are passed out in the urine, and fat takes the place of the once active tissues. So unless you lose this 3-5 percent of your body weight each ten years you will get fattier and less muscular. But this is not an irreversible part of ageing. A study of two champion runners aged 70 and 71 found that they had the same amount of body fat as university students. Just dieting, however, is not enough-you have to exercise to build up lean muscle and other tissues.

•     Exercise can also be an excellent treatment for varicose veins in old age. The author of a leading book on the subject claims that old people with the condition should run, jump, jog and ‘do anything but sit still’. The pumping action of the calf muscles helps improve leg circulation, and it also helps to keep your legs elevated when rested (above heart level if possible).

•     Many elderly people have lost a lot or even all of their teeth and see this as inevitable. It isn’t. Tooth loss in middle and old age is mainly the result of gum disease. This can be totally prevented by regular brushing (from gum to tooth), the use of dental floss and regular visits to the dentist. Vitamins A and Ñ are vital too. Calcium and vitamin D are now known to help prevent the loss of bone from tooth sockets. One researcher supplemented, for a year, the diet of women with very low bone density with 750 mg calcium daily plus vitamins D and C. Within a year he found the rate of bone growth around their teeth roots had roughly doubled.

•     The brain also lives by the principle ‘Use it or lose it’. There is no doubt that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Experiments with rats have shown that those raised in ‘enriched environments’-roomy cages, with other rats and a variety of playthings had heavier, more chemically active brains than did rats raised alone in ‘impoverished’ environments.

Physical exercise can also help. In one study reaction times, short-term memory and reasoning power were all improved in a group of elderly, out-of-shape people when they were put on a four-month walking programme. The walking group improved in six out of eight areas of mental functioning; a group who did weight lifting and push-ups in one; and an idle group in none.

There are various ‘cures’ and ‘preventives’ for old age for which claims have been made over the years but none has yet withstood scientific scrutiny-even ginseng with its well-known pharmacology and the vast scientific literature on its success in other areas. At the moment all such rejuvenation and old age-preventing techniques should be regarded with suspicion.

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