People with spinal cord injuries have found some other skills particularly helpful for establishing romantic relationships. In a study of sexuality in women with spinal cord injuries, assertiveness was most often mentioned as a useful social skill. Being outgoing and taking the first step in conversations, smiling and making good eye contact were recommended. Communication about your feelings is part of being assertive. The physical limitations of your injury might make spontaneous physical contact difficult. You may need to say that you have a romantic interest or that you’d like to kiss your partner. Sometimes it’s unclear whether you are being included in social activities as a friend or as a potential lover. Don’t be afraid to ask “Is this a date?” and to clarify your own intentions.

For many people with spinal cord injury, presenting a good physical appearance is an important factor in attracting potential partners. Clothes and hairstyles that flatter your best features and are fashionable and appropriate to the social situation make a good first impression. Colorful ties or jewelry that express your individual style can attract positive attention and help counteract the tendency of others to see the wheelchair first.

Getting out to the same social events and situations that you enjoyed before your injury is the best way to meet people. You can still go to parties, restaurants, bars, classes, meetings, and so on, as long as they are accessible. You can participate, perhaps with modifications, in most activities. If you liked ballroom or nightclub dancing, you can dance in your wheelchair. You can participate in wheelchair sports, hiking, or camping activities, attend lectures or college courses, join book clubs or political campaigns – in short, engage in whatever interests you and brings you in contact with other people.

But what if you can’t get out as often as you’d like, because of transportation problems, inaccessibility of the places you’d like to go, or periods of physical illness? Many people have found computer chat rooms and virtual cafes a great way to connect with others. Sometimes people meet on the Internet and eventually exchange phone numbers and even arrange meetings that turn into real relationships. (Of course, you should apply the same cautions about first meetings that you would for any blind date: meet in a public place with other people around and don’t give out your address until you are comfortable with the new person.) You can also consider using computer dating services and dating services set up specifically for people with disabilities.

Many singles, both able-bodied and disabled, meet through personal ads in local newspapers. These provide initial anonymity and the opportunity to screen a potential date through letters and phone calls before deciding whether to meet. They also give you control over when and how you reveal that you have a spinal cord injury. You can wait until you’ve established some rapport, or you can disclose your disability immediately and weed out callers for whom this is a reason not to meet you. In either case, placing or answering personal ads can be a good way to make contact when your opportunities are limited. You can decide whether to advertise in publications directed at other physically disabled people or in community or city newspapers with general readership. It’s often a good idea to advertise in a publication that represents your interests or peer group, such as age-related, religion-related, or hobby-related magazines.

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Children, like adults, ultimately need to accept their epilepsy if they are to be happy and productive citizens. They need to realize that epilepsy is only one part of their life, and for most not the dominant part. People should be defined by the kind of person they are, not a condition they have.

Perhaps most important to a child’s acceptance of epilepsy is a feeling of self-esteem. For any child to achieve his full potential, he must feel good about himself and able to achieve.

One aspect of self-esteem is a child’s feeling of control over his epilepsy and his life. This is why the child should participate in his treatment. Certainly the older child must know why he is taking medicine. A parent who tells his child that he’s taking medication because, “It’s good for you” or “It’s a vitamin and will make you stronger” has not accepted his child’s epilepsy and is not allowing the child to accept it either. Also, we encourage parents to let the child, from almost any age, be responsible for taking his own medication. The younger child will require supervision. The older child and adolescent can supervise himself, or learn to, and, in doing so, control and “own” his epilepsy. It is a first step toward achieving control and ownership of his life.

An individual is known by what he can do, not by what he can’t do. If you focus on your child’s limitations and wish for things that are not realistic, your child is likely to become a failure in your eyes and in his own and fail to achieve his potential. Recognizing your child’s potential for achievement is a first step in helping him to recognize his own capabilities. Rewarding achievement is far more productive than focusing on failure.

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Blood pressure above the normal is hypertensive disease, now one of the chief causes of death. The cause of hypertensive disease is not known positively, but contributing causes are the stresses and strains of modern life, the effect of psychic and emotional activities of the brain, the results of infections and poisonings and, conceivably, glandular and structural causes. A constant high blood pressure may be associated with headaches and a variety of pains. Such common symptoms as ringing in the ears have been attributed to high blood pressure. The danger from an exceedingly high blood pressure lies in the possible breaking of a blood vessel, particularly in the brain, which results in apoplexy or stroke. Overweight is considered by insurance companies to be a frequent associate of high blood pressure. A high salt diet has perhaps not been incriminated but a low salt diet is believed to be helpful in cases of high blood pressure. People suffering from high blood pressure should not indulge in exercises such as running or lifting heavy weights or in any type of activity which produces shortness of breath. Mild exercise and massage tend to produce relaxation. Emotional excitement, particularly anger, is to be avoided. Suitable sedative drugs may be prescribed to control excessive excitement. Up to the age of fifty, the blood pressure rises slowly from 120 with the heart contracted and 80 with the heart relaxed, to 130 with the heart contracted and 85 with the heart relaxed. The blood pressure may be higher in older people. Extensive studies have shown that higher blood pressures, even up to 160 or 165, may be carried without harm by some people. Actually, the exact relationship of high blood pressure to the length of life and the aging process has not been fully established. Many new drugs are now available for use in high blood pressure, including Diuril, Guanethidine and Alpha-Dopa.

*13/318/5*

About 1,4 million Americans suffer from insulin-dependent diabetes. The problem is usually discovered when the condition is very serious. It often begins quite suddenly. The person may feel fine, and then, with hardly any warning, falls so seriously ill that emergency hospitalization may be necessary.

At first, a person may overlook some of the symptoms of diabetes or think they are due to something else. Reaching for that extra bottle of Coke, one might think, “It certainly is hot today!” A person with a sudden need to urinate more than usual might pass it off with the thought, “I shouldn’t have had that extra glass of milk before bedtime.” If a child suddenly begins wetting the bed, parents are more likely to wonder about emotional problems than to suspect diabetes. Taken together, though, these symptoms spell out a very clear warning. Since each of us has about one chance in five of developing diabetes at some time in life, it is a warning we should all learn to read.

Who Gets Type I Diabetes?

Although Type I diabetes usually first appears in children, teens, or young adults, it can occur in tiny babies or in middle-aged or older adults. It strikes both sexes and is found equally among males and females. It is rare among Asians, Africans, and Native Americans.

What causes diabetes? Why can’t the body handle the sugars it needs to provide energy? What other effects does the disease produce? Before examining what goes wrong in the body of someone with diabetes, we need to know something about how the healthy body works.

The Factory Inside Us

Your body is a miniature chemical factory. While you sit reading this book, countless numbers of tiny production lines are busily turning out the chemicals you need to breathe, read, turn the page, and think.

Like any factory, the body needs fuel and raw materials. The foods we eat supply them. Starches, such as those found in potatoes and bread, are digested into sugars, which can pass easily through the walls of the digestive tract into the bloodstream, and then into the body cells. (Both starches and sugars belong to the group of foodstuffs called carbohydrates.) Proteins, the main ingredients in meat and fish, are digested into smaller units called amino acids. Fats and oils are broken down into their component parts, called fatty acids and glycerol.

All three types of foodstuffs—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—can be used as fuel by the body. But if there is enough sugar available, the body will generally use that as fuel in preference to proteins and fats. Proteins are the main building materials of the body; they form the bulk of muscles and skin. The brain, nerves, and other body tissues contain large amounts of fats.

Generally the body uses what food it needs and stores any extras. Sugars are stored in the liver and muscles in the form of a starch called glycogen. Proteins may be changed into sugars or fats for storage, or may be broken down and sent out of the body in the urine. Fats are stored in “fat depots” in various parts of the body, for example, the belly and buttocks. If food does not contain enough materials to support all the body’s activities, the body will live off its reserves, drawing out sugar from the glycogen in the liver and muscles, then taking fat from the fat depots, and, if necessary, even pulling proteins out of the muscles.

Scientists call the sum total of all the chemical reactions that go on in the body metabolism. Chemicals called hormones act on each other and on the cells of the body to control the body’s metabolism. Hormones are produced by the body’s endocrine glands, which send their secretions directly into the bloodstream to coordinate many activities in the body.

*11\268\2*

“What about a seizure that lasts more than twenty minutes? Will it recur?”

Only one in ten febrile seizures lasts more than twenty minutes, and most of those prolonged seizures are the initial seizure only. A child who has had a prolonged first febrile seizure is no more likely to have a prolonged second seizure than if the first seizure were short.

“Can’t these seizures be prevented?”

Certain medications can markedly decrease the chance of another febrile seizure, but there are risks as well as benefits. You will have to weigh the risks of the medicine and the benefits of avoiding another febrile seizure against the risks of having another seizure.

Phenobarbital is the most effective medication for preventing recurrence of febrile seizures, although ineffective when the child already has the fever. If it is given on a daily basis in sufficient quantities, there will be a marked decrease in the chance of another seizure. The amount of phenobarbital in the blood should be checked periodically to be sure that there is enough.

*35\208\8*

Lung cancer

Eighty percent of lung cancer deaths are attributable to smoking. There is some evidence that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables that contain p-carotene could be protective in smokers.

Colorectal cancer

A high-fat diet that includes a large amount of red meat increases risk, as does a diet low in dietary fibre. Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables with other sources of dietary fibre – cereals and pulses – might be protective. There is limited evidence that some fibre supplements are useful preventive agents.

Breast cancer

Some studies suggest that a high-fat diet is a risk factor but others show that the amount of fat in the diet is irrelevant. There could be a link with high alcohol consumption but results of such studies are again variable. Obesity is probably more important because rapid growth rate in young girls results in early menarche – an accepted risk factor. Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables has been shown to be protective in several studies.

Prostate cancer

A high-fat diet high in red meat seems to increase risk; a high-fat diet seems to raise the risk of cancer developing more quickly.

Pancreatic cancer

Diets high in fat and high intake of alcohol increase risk; eating lots of fruits and vegetables decreases risk. Smoking is a major risk factor.

Lymphomas and leukemias

There is no known link between diet and risk.

Liver cancer

High intake of alcohol is a risk factor.

Cancers of the female reproductive system

High-fat diet is a risk factor. Fruits and vegetables decrease risk.

Cancers of the nasopharynx, oesophagus and stomach

There is a positive association between salted and smoked foods and cancer here. Aflatoxins and alcohol also increase the risk. Fruits and vegetables are protective.

Brain cancers

There is no known link between diet and risk.

Urinary tract, including kidney

Obesity seems to be a risk factor and fruits and vegetables might be protective.

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Cancer is a term greatly feared by the general population. It more correctly refers to a disease process where development is thought to be the multi-step, both reversible and irreversible; some of the reversible steps may be influenced by dietary factors which can also limit the multi-step process from progressing and thereby protect against the development of clinical cancer.

Various studies have shown that the environment contributes to 80-90% of human cancer. The environment is broadly defined to include a wide range of lifestyle factors including diet, social and cultural practices and it has also been shown that one-third of the human cancer is directly related to some dietary component.

Influence of Diet on Carcinogenesis

Diet may influence human carcinogenesis in six general ways:

1. Diet provides the carcinogens or their immediate precursors.

2. Diet facilitates or inhibits the endogenous production of carcinogens.

3. The modification of carcinogens by metabolic activation or inactivation could be affected by other dietary components.

4. Increasing or impeding the delivery of carcinogens to their site of action may be influenced by dietary changes.

5. Diet may alter the susceptibility of tissues to cancer induction or growth by dietary effects on tissue metabolism.

6. Diet may alter the body’s capacity to eliminate transformed cells.

Identifying the risk factors for cancer prevention is the first step.

*1/356/5*

Excessive use of cortisone, taken orally or by injection, can lead to many body disturbances. For example, it can affect menopause.

A large segment of arthritics are women in the forty- to fifty-year-old bracket. When they are in the menopausal stage, they must be doubly careful in using synthetic cortisone. Because the drug can cause accentuated flushing and high blood pressure.

Men and women of any age being treated with cortisone must be particularly careful to avoid falls or accidents, because of the great danger of breaking bones. Synthetic cortisone has a withdrawing effect on calcium and phosphorus and tends to leave bones in a brittle condition.

Cortisone has become so popular—yet is still so potentially dangerous if used excessively—that we are going to print the following chart for your protection. Before you rush quantities of cortisone drugs into your system, read this list of dangers.

POSSIBLE COMPLICATIONS FROM THE EXCESSIVE USE OF CORTISONE

Too much cortisone can cause the following bodily conditions:

Increased swelling of hands, legs, etc., due to electrolyte imbalance.

Carbohydrate imbalance, leading to diabetes.

Ballooning of the face, make the patient “moon-faced.”

Growth of hair in the wrong places (causing moustaches on women, etc.).

Acne, skin blemishes.

Additional excessive weight, make you obese.

Mental depression, nervousness, moodiness.

Elevation of your blood pressure.

Blood clotting disturbances.

Abnormally fast heart beat.

Haemorrhages of the gastro-intestinal tract.

Menstruation to be decreased, delayed, or completely eliminated.

Softening of the bones; danger of fractures.

Reactivation of peptic ulcers.

Development of larger tonsils.

Slowing down of your adrenal glands.

Reduction of the action of your thyroid gland.

Insomnia.

For the reasons shown above, we now know that we do not want large quantities of cortisone poured into our bodies. In arthritis, it is the quality of the cortisone which counts.

What, then, can improve the cortisone? What, in our bloodstream, can stimulate the adrenal glands into producing a higher quality natural cortisone?

We know that cortisone is secreted from the outer bark or layers of the adrenals. We also know that it takes steroid substances to activate these glands.

Vitamin D is a steroid substance. The only kind of vitamin D which can do the stimulating job is found in cod-liver oil.

The Whole Answer in Plain Words

We maintain that an arthritic who takes his cod-liver oil correctly can make his own cortisone. By emulsifying his cod-liver oil with orange juice, he can send oil bubbles containing steroid vitamin D to his adrenal glands and stimulate the glands into producing higher quality natural cortisone.

Without this better grade of hormone in your connective tissue, your tissue fluids gel and stiffen instead of functioning normally. And why is the quality of your cortisone not up to par? Because, for all these years, the stimulative effect of vitamin D and iodised oil has been missing from your bloodstream!

Final Conclusions about “Wonder Drugs”

Before ending this chapter about cortisone, here are a few words to the wise about two other commercially manufactured products.

You may have heard a good deal about ACTH. It deserves some consideration. ACTH is another hormone which can benefit only those with rheumatoid arthritis. Again, victims of osteo-arthritis are forgotten. ACTH is made from the pituitary gland. It can temporarily stimulate the adrenal glands into producing more cortisone.

Dr. E. F. Rosenberg of the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago skilfully sums up the action of ACTH on the adrenal glands. He believes that ACTH causes cortisone to be produced through its stimulus of the adrenal enzymes, using ascorbic acid and cholesterol as raw materials.

In the cod-liver oil and orange juice mixture we have a parallel. Orange juice contains ascorbic acid. The oil globule, a sterol, takes on an adhering film of ascorbic acid. When the two, as a unit, reach the adrenal glands, they can stimulate the glands into making better-grade cortisone.

HYDRO-CORTISONE is still another drug being prescribed these days for arthritics. When injected directly into the joint, it has been found capable of anti-inflammatory effect. Temporary effect.

Pioneering in this field is Dr. J. L. Hollander of Philadelphia. He recently edited a valuable book, Comroe’s Arthritis and Allied Conditions.

Dr. Hollander believes that these injections of hydro-cortisone serve as a lubricating oil to the joint, by diffusing the ingredients of the hormone into the cells of joint linings.

Be it in the use of cortisone, hydro-cortisone, ACTH, or any other drug, medical records are now proving that they are all temporary aids. For lasting results, we will have to depend on our own adrenal glands and their ability to make better-grade natural cortisone.

Taking drugs can become a habit or a fad. Almost to the point of just trying to do “something” so you can say you’re fighting your arthritis.

*53\146\2*

Once when I was talking with Al Sanders on one of his “Vox Pop” radio broadcasts, he quoted something from Ashleigh Brilliant that I often say: “My life is a performance for which I was never given any chance to rehearse.”* Then he asked, Why do you say that?”

I told him this: “Suddenly life has happened. I didn’t have any chance to prepare for the four tragedies that hit our family over a period of nine years. But I believe that when I talk to you now, I have credentials because I’ve been in the pits. I’ve been through the tragedies, but now I’ve got a lot of joy. I want to inject that joy and humor and hope into the people who are listening.”

Every day is so precious, we have no time to waste. Some days may bring pain, but we always have a choice between misery and joy. The secret is to live one day at a time and to make the right choices as you go along. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a wise thinker, and one of the best pieces of advice he ever gave the world was this:

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

Л few weeks ago I was chatting on the phone with Dr. WaIter Martin about some problems I was having getting books sent to Canada where I was to speak at a Bible conference. I had been in his Bible class for years, and he had written I he introduction to my first book, Where Does a Mother Go to Resign? Over the years his tapes have also been such an encouragement to me. He gave me some pointers about how to solve the book-shipment problem, and then, since I knew he had diabetes, I shared with him that I, too, had been diagnosed as having diabetes. When I joked about our probably never having to end up in a rest home, he laughed and said, “That being the case, perhaps I should sell my interest in a rest home hack East.” We laughed some more, and I told him about this very book, which I was in the process of writing.

Ten days after our phone conversation, Dr. Walter Martin was singing praises around the throne of God. A sudden, unexplained heart attack and he was gone! Life is so fragile for all of us. How important to make decisions that count for eternity! Eternity is waiting for all of us, but if we can accept the pain that comes in this life and choose to react positively, we can avoid misery. We always have the option to choose JOY!

*7\316\2*

Pathogens enter the body in several ways. They may be transmitted by direct contact between infected persons, such as during sexual relations, kissing, or touching, or by indirect contact, such as by touching an object the infected person has had contact with. The hands are probably the greatest source of infectious disease transmission. For example, you may touch the handle of a drinking fountain that was just touched by a person whose hands were contaminated by a recent sneeze or failure to wash after using the toilet. Laundromats, where people’s bacteria-laden soiled clothes are set on tables, machines, and chairs, could cause infection. You may also autoinoculate yourself, or transmit a pathogen from one part of your body to another. For example, you may touch a sore on your lip that is teeming with viral herpes and then transmit the virus to your eye when you subsequently scratch your itchy eyelid.

Pathogens are also transmitted by airborne contact, either through inhaling the droplet spray from a sneeze or breathing in air that carries a particular pathogen, or you may become the victim of food-borne injection if you eat something contaminated by microorganisms. Recent episodes of food poisoning from salmonella bacteria found in certain foods and E. coli bacteria found in undercooked beef have raised concerns about the safety of the U.S. food supply and forced many food handlers to make sure that their burgers and chicken are cooked to the proper organism-killing temperatures. Recently introduced labels cautioning consumers to cook meats thoroughly, to wash utensils, and to take other food-handling precautions are the direct result of these concerns.

Your best friend may be the source of animal-home pathogens. Dogs as well as cats, livestock, and wild animals can spread numerous diseases through their bites or feces or by carrying infected insects into living areas and transmitting diseases either directly or indirectly. Although interspecies transmission of diseases (diseases passed from humans to animals and vice versa) is rare, it does occur. Water-borne diseases are transmitted directly from drinking water and indirectly from foods washed or sprayed with water containing their pathogens. These pathogens can also invade your body if you wade or swim in contaminated streams, lakes, and reservoirs. Pathogens may also be transmitted via mosquitoes, ticks, and other hosts that carry disease. They may spread disease through sucking or biting. Mothers may also transmit diseases perinatally to an infant in the womb or as the baby passes through the vagina during birth.

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