Couples in the clinic were asked to become reacquainted with each other, to meet as if they were meeting for the first time. Using the Marital Intimacy Quotient, as a guide, try the following activity.

Meet as a whole family, kids included. An attention span of ten minutes is all that is required. Sit down once every other day for a week for eleven periods and discuss each of the eleven items. The entire family should know that Mom and Dad are beginning a program for strengthening their marriage and that everyone’s help is required, that everyone is an important part of the marital system.

The meetings are an excellent first step on the way to super marital sex and toward meaningful sex education for you children. Tape-record these brief sessions and listen to them at the end of this book. You may want to rescore yourself then, and you may be surprised to see the changes.

The couple you met at the beginning of this chapter was one of the thousand couples who went through the entire super marital sex program in my clinic. I met them again recently, and you will meet them again at the end of this book. I was visiting a patient on the cardiology unit and saw them standing hand in hand outside one of the hospital rooms.

“How have you been?” I asked.

“We’ve been just fine,” answered the husband. “We were visiting my uncle downstairs. We came up here to look at the sp0 where we got our second chance.”

I hope you won’t wait until the type of crisis this couple experienced before you take a second chance to pay attention to óîur marriage and begin to enhance the intimacy of your own relation ship.

*25\97\8*

The fully expanded lung is covered by a thin membrane called the pleura.

The inside of the chest wall is also covered with the same membrane and, between the two layers of pleura is a thin film of liquid which enables the two surfaces to glide smoothly over each other as the person breathes.

Pleurisy is inflammation of these pleural membranes.

In pneumothorax, air enters this potential cavity between the two pleural layers and air pressure causes the underlying lung to collapse.

In the past, an artificial pneumothorax was created in some cases of tuberculosis so as to collapse and rest the lung.

A pneumothorax may occur from a penetrating wound of the chest or it may arise spontaneously, usually as the result of rupture of a small bleb, or blister-like projection, on the lung surface.

This bulla or bleb is usually a small congenital abnormality. Rupture usually occurs in the teens or early twenties, and men suffer from it five times as commonly as women.

*533/71/1*

These bypass channels can be used on one or all three arteries.

There is no doubt that this type of operation can produce substantial benefits for the patient and can improve the quality of his life. Although results seem to indicate that this procedure can prolong life in those with coronary artery disease, there has not been sufficient time to prove it.

The main reason for surgery is severe angina that interferes with the reasonable quality of life and stops him from carrying out normal daily activities.

Operation is also considered in unstable angina. There are several states, coronary insufficiency, crescendo angina and Prinzmetal angina, where the condition appears to worsen over several days and may end in a complete block of the artery. Urgent operation is considered to prevent this catastrophe.

As a result of myocardial infarction, several structural complications may develop within the heart and affect the valves, the dividing septum or the wall of the chambers of the heart. Operation may be necessary to repair this damage and it may be opportune to carry out bypass surgery at the same time.

*277/71/1*

When circumcision is carried out as a necessary part of religious or cultural practice, the reasons against the operation may no longer apply.

For those parents who have gone ahead and had their sons circumcised, let me reassure them there is no evidence to indicate that this will cause any later physical or mental trauma.

If you do decide not to have your next son circumcised, then do not be concerned with what effect this will have on him when he discovers he is shaped differently from his brothers and his father. The new generation is more likely to have retained their foreskins and he should be in the majority at school.

There are some indications for removing the prepuce in children — recurrent infection under the foreskin, narrowing of the opening and inability to retract it in the older child.

Circumcision may be necessary in the adult, particularly in the elderly, if a tight foreskin is retracted and then compresses the shaft of the penis.

*26/71/1*

Cancer cells have escaped the normal mechanisms by which the body controls growth and differentiation. Remember in the example of the broken leg, the cells grow and differentiate in an orderly fashion to repair the broken bone and soft tissues. Once this is done, they stop growing.

Not so with cancer cells. For a start, their multiplication has no purpose— it is not in order to replace or repair. The cells do not differentiate into useful cells. They keep growing to the detriment of the body and regardless of its normal control mechanisms. Unlike normal body cells we can think of cancer cells as uncooperative, disobedient, and independent.

Once cancer cells develop the ability to override the body’s normal controls over growth and differentiation, there is another quite different natural system which may destroy them. This is the immune system. It consists of a complicated series of different types of white blood cells which fight together to rid the body of unwanted invaders like bacteria, viruses and so on. The cells of the immune system are also able to recognise that cancer cells are undesirable, even though they actually are part of the body and not foreign invaders. Thus the immune system has some ability to destroy cancer cells. This ability is stronger for some types of cancer than others.

*34/40/1*

This has many causes, and is not only experienced by women. The level of sexual interest starts to fall, and then continuous to decline, in men and women in their middle years. While some women undoubtedly find HRT of tremendous benefit to their sexual lives, others find it little or no help at all. It is difficult to distinguish which symptoms in women are caused by lower levels of oestrogen, and which are just the effects of ageing.

How HRT can help. It is not unusual for women to feel an increased sex drive after the menopause. This is often because they no longer have an underlying worry about becoming pregnant, although the majority of women now have available much more effective contraception than their mothers and grandmothers did. However, if your sex drive has taken a plunge in your menopausal years, then HRT may help. Sometimes oestrogen alone is enough, but if loss of sex drive is coupled with a severe loss of self-confidence, your doctor may suggest you try the implant form of HRT as the male hormone, testosterone, can be incorporated into it, which may help these particular problems.

*43\42\4*

Pain relief. An important guiding principle to remember is that when the wound is healed physical activity can do no harm; it can actually play an important part in the healing process. Pain is a good guide to wound healing and will usually indicate what is feasible. If you want to walk, try it. If it causes pain, take a rest. When you can walk easily, try a new activity requiring a little more physical exertion. While pain relief after surgery makes it more difficult to judge when the wound has healed, it has other important benefits. Jan was extremely reluctant to accept pain relief after her hysterectomy and wanted to do without painkillers if at all possible. The only problem with this approach was that it caused Jan to restrict her movements to minimise the pain. This resulted in the formation of a blood clot that settled in her leg. She was persuaded that pain relief would enable her to move about and this seemed to short-circuit further clot problems.

Thrombosis. Thrombosis, the formation of blood clots within a blood vessel, is one of the most dangerous complications of any type of surgery. The pelvis or leg are the most common sites of thrombosis after major abdominal surgery. If the thrombosis is swept along by the bloodstream, it can lodge in the lungs blocking the circulation and depriving the body of oxygen.

Lung complications. Lung complications such as pneumonia or lung collapse occur very rarely after a hysterectomy. If you have a bad cold in the days before you are due for your operation, let your doctor know so that a new time can be made. It is also important to stop smoking at least one week before surgery.

*58\198\4*

Barbiturates were manufactured in 1912 and were used extensively for the next 60 years as a tranquillizer to calm the anxious. In a moderate dose they can be used as a hypnotic for sleeping. In an even higher dose they can be used in general anaesthesia, knocking people out completely for surgical operation.

After many years it became apparent that a lot of people abused barbiturates, becoming addicted to them, There were serious withdrawal symptoms. People who were on high doses of these pills could not stop taking them and needed a higher and higher dose to have the same desirable effect. People who were on high doses for a long time and stopped suddenly experienced serious withdrawal symptoms. Not only could they not sleep, but also they could go into convulsion and could even develop temporary psychotic illness. These pills have a narrow safety margin, and people have overdosed either accidentally or on purpose. Remember the sad cases of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley?

*56\174\4*

Ideas have a rather different meaning for us—a different significance—according to our state of mind when the ideas are presented to us. At this moment, as you are reading this paragraph, you are in a state of mind that is relatively alert and critical. In this state of mind you read the heading “Emphasis on the feeling that it is good” and quite likely you think critically to yourself that it is a rather strange heading, a strange idea. This is natural enough in your alert state of mind. But remember that we are going to use this idea by presenting it to ourselves when we are in an extremely relaxed, unalert, uncritical, and partially regressed state of mind. In this condition the idea, which now may seem rather odd and childish, takes on a new meaning of greater simplicity, and of deeper and more profound significance which quite eludes us in our normal state of critical alertness.

When we suffer from anxiety and chronic nervous tension, it is easy to feel that nothing seems good any more. The lustre goes from life. The brightness of the day has gone.

Things that once brought us pleasure can no longer stir us. There may come a sensation of emptiness, the feeling that good has gone from us, and that we are indeed destitute. We can let ourselves relax and help ourselves along these lines:

Relaxed.

Good to relax.

Feel the relaxation all through me.

Good to feel it like that.

Really good.

Wonderful feeling.

In our regressed state it is easy to experience the feeling of relaxation as good. When we have been tense and anxious for a long period, we come to forget that things can feel good. We learn to experience the feeling again in our relaxing exercises, and soon we find that our outlook is changing, and once more things in our ordinary life begin to feel good.

*82\57\2*

It all started during the hot summer of 1957. Mrs. Guldi Deiber started to feel a dull pain in her muscles. She hoped that it was something that would pass. But the pain didn’t go away. Instead it became worse with every new day. Then, a few weeks later, she noticed that the joints of her arms and legs started to swell.

She recalled that she had similar symptoms about 20 years ago, but then the pain gradually disappeared. This time she didn’t seem to be able to shake it off; it only became worse each week. Her knees and hips were particularly painful.

Mrs. Deiber went to a doctor. He prescribed a drug. Several weeks of medication didn’t help. Then she visited a new doctor, he prescribed new drugs and so on—an endless cycle of visits from doctor to doctor, from one hospital to another hospital, from one toxic drug to another. When a drug caused unpleasant side effects, she was prescribed a new drug to mask the symptoms caused by the previous drug. This continued for four years. Although some of the drugs she received were able to dull temporarily her unbearable pains, her condition was growing worse.

The most horrifying experience she had with powerful drugs occurred in 1962. Her doctor prescribed a new and controversial drug called Imagon. Its effect on pain was remarkable. Fain disappeared as if by magic and happy Mrs. Deiber continued with the drug from October, 1962 to April, 1963. At this time she noticed that her eyesight was becoming impaired. Everything began to look hazy to her. She hurried to the doctor who had prescribed Imagon.

“Oh, it hurt your eyes already,” was the doctor*s comment

Damaged eyesight was the price Mrs. Deiber paid for temporary relief from pain!

Now she was referred to an eye specialist and had to go to this doctor three times a month during the summer of 1963. When the doctor finally prescribed cortisone, she became alarmed and reluctant to use such powerful drugs again-after all she already had a very bad experience with drugs before!

A good friend suggested that she try wheat germ oil for her eyes. Mrs. Deiber had already taken six cortisone tablets by that time. She discontinued using the drug and started taking six capsules of wheat germ oil each day instead, reduced later to four capsules a day. At the same time she continued to visit her eye specialist every ten days. After a few weeks on wheat germ oil the doctor noticed an improvement in her eye condition. Further improvement was registered with each visit to the doctor.

Meanwhile, her arthritis was becoming more and more unbearable. Violent pains in her joints continued day and night; and now she didn’t dare use any more pain-killing drugs. She had difficulty raising herself up from a chair without help. In the morning, her whole body was stiff and the slightest movement caused piercing pains.

At this time she met an old friend who had suffered from arthritis who just returned from the Bjorkagarden Clinic. She saw how much better her friend felt—the woman could now do all her housework with ease, she took long walks, etc. Should she try? She didn’t know what else to do. Doctors had tried everything for four years without success. She decided to try the “nature cure” at the Bjorkagarden Institute.

Mrs. Guldi Deiber came to Bjorkagarden Clinic on September 13,1963. She was tired and very depressed. In addition to excruciating pains in all her joints she had a frightful chronic headache. She felt so debilitated that she had to stay in bed much of the time.

She stayed at the clinic three weeks. The first week she was on a special diet. It was the usual diet of the clinic—but far different from the “usual” diet Mrs. Deiber was accustomed to at home. No coffee and pastry, to which Mrs. Deiber was so addicted! Instead, it was vegetable broth with flaxseed for the morning beverage; yogurt and fresh fruits for breakfast; or a choice of several cereals: brown rice, potato cereal,2 whole grain cereal, Molino.2 Lunch consisted of a big bowl of vegetable salad with oil dressing. Dinner was the same as breakfast. In between meals she drank fresh juices and herb teas.

After one week she felt better, but tiredness and pain remained. The next phase of her treatment was fasting. She lasted five days on juices and vegetable broths. After fasting she continued on the same lactovegetarian diet prescribed the week before her fast.

The results of the three week stay at Bjorkagarden could be summed up like this:

Her condition was improving steadily during all three weeks. Particularly during the fast she felt a great improvement At the time she left the clinic she was completely free from pain and felt better than any other time during the past four years. The swelling in her joints disappeared. In addition to the disappearance of the arthritis symptoms she noticed other improvements in her health. She had suffered from sciatic nerve trouble in both legs, which now totally disappeared. She lost six pounds. Her sedimentation rate went down from 33 to 15. Her blood pressure, although not too high previously, went down from 130 to 115.

Happy and healthy Mrs. Deiber returned to her home full of enthusiasm for the new, healthful way of life she had found at the Bjorkagarden Institute.

“Did you have any difficulties adapting yourself to the diet and the treatments at the clinic?” I asked her.

“No, actually it was not difficult at all. But the right attitude is important. You just can’t passively let them treat you with a doubtful wait-and-see-what-happens attitude. When I decided to try this method I also decided then and there to do it wholeheartedly and cooperate completely. I was fortunate to have enthusiastic support and encouragement from my husband Now, we both are sold on this new way of life. We will continue with lactovegetarian health foods at home. Actually, my husband always wanted to try health foods, but we didn’t know how to go about it.

“Now I have a new and clearer insight into the problems of health and disease. I know that most diseases are of our own making. I will continue with the new way of life. To go back to the old living habits would mean inviting disease back to my door,” concluded happy Mrs. Guldi Deiber, who not only recovered from a bad case of arthritis but has found a new, healthier, happier way of life!

This was in September of 1963. Three years later, in September of 1966,1 asked Mrs. Deiber if her cure was permanent. She replied that she felt fine and that her arthritis had not recurred since she left the clinic.

*39\176\2*