I hope no one is offended by the Smilefor you! I found this quote via the PainSupport Site(http://www.painsupport.org.uk) andthought you might all like to share itslevity!

On to this Newsletter. We are going tobe telling you about some more of thealternative therapies which are out therefrom our members perspective alongwith other stories which I hope willinterest you all. At the back of this issueis something called a Gift Aid Form.This is ONLY relevant for the UK and willallow any of you who make a donationto give us permission to claim back thetax on the same. This is a significantamount of money that we are losing inrevenue each year and I do hope youwill feel able to sign and return the formto us. As with all information held byourselves it is completely confidentialand protected under the terms of theData Protection Act.

We mention also some information froma book called Herbs Against Cancer asthis was found in a major Women'smagazine.

As always, the information in thisNewsletter does not necessarily formthe basis of our opinion at the Networkand ANY change of lifestyle must bediscussed with your GP or Consultant.

December 2001

HOLIDAY INSURANCE A continuing problemwe all face is HolidayInsurance. We havementioned others before buthere is one we have not toldyou about before fromRachael: Hi Just thought I'd letyou know I managed to getholiday travel insurance tocover pancreatitis from ABCextras travel insurance.The address is

Holiday Services,1 Charnwood Drive,Ripley,DerbyDE5 3TB.Tel: 01773 747426. I didn't need adoctors certificate, but I didneed a verbal okfrom the GP that I was fit totravel. It would cover me forpancreatitis if I got inwhen on holiday - I didn'tneed it it turns out, but I didget acute pancreatitis

a week after returning home.Best wishesRachael One other is FREESPIRIT who can be contactedon 01483 255888.

The Pancreatitis Supporters Network

Alternative Medicine

1

Contents

Holiday Insurancepage 1

Coxsackie Viruspage 2

Great Fun Runpage 3

Contact/Letterspage 4

Gift Aidpage 5

Pau d’arco for Cancer

QUESTION:

We heard about this herb throughStyle Magazine and the question andansewer went like this:

Can you tell us anything about a herbcalled paud’arco? My sister has beendiagnosed with a large bowel tumourthat is inoperable as it is attached tothe pancreas. We have heard of onecase, overseas, where a tumour likethis disappeared when the persontook this herb. Can you recommend asupplier and tell us how to use it?

ANSWER:

Pau d’arco is a Brazilian herb, alsoknown as lapacho, and since it iscommon to find products containingvery little of the active ingredient, youare right to take care about where yousource it from.

To learn more about this and otheranticancer herbs, read Herbs AgainstCancer by Ralph Moss (EquinoxPress £15,25 and available from theNutriCentre bookshop on 020 74360422). If you decide to go ahead,order your pau d’arco from the samecompany. Forty ready-made teabagsfrom Wisdom Herbs costs £5.99. Theloose, dried herb costs £4.99 for 50gfrom Rio Trading (01273 570987).

To make the tea, add twotablespoons of the bark to three cupsof water and simmer for 20 minutes.Your sister should aim at three cupsper day.

Concerns about the toxicity of thisherb have been raised, so your sistershould consider working with aqualified naturopath who will monitorher reaction. To find one see theabove.

To find a Naturopath contact theBritish Naturopathic Association on01458 840072.

Before following any medical ordietary advice in this column, pleaseconsult your GP if you suffer from anyhealth problems or special conditions,or are in doubt as to its suitability.

HomeopathicTreatment for theCoxsackie Virus.

This article was submitted by MrsR Heard and she would like tohear from others who have hadexperience of this Virus. Her fulladdress is given at the end of thisarticle.

I felt I should advise you of myprogress over the last sevenmonths after starting treatment forthe coxsakie virus, so that youcan inform other pancreaticsufferers who may benefit as well.A brief summary of my medicalhistory is as follows:

My pancreatitis began in October1995 following gall bladderproblems. After three weeks inhospital I was told I hadpancreatitis. I had acute pain,vomiting and generally feelingextremely unwell.

Since then and until I started

homeopathy treatment I spentvarying amounts of time inhospital. My social life has beenextremely limited. Although Imanaged to work part time myfamily did all the housework asevery activity required great effortand I felt so weak. I weighedunder eight stone much of thetime.

In February 1977 my gall bladderwas removed, as it was verydiseased. The pancreatitiscontinued, but no one was ableto suggest a way to preventfurther attacks. However, I havealways received extremelygood treatment whilst inhospital. I only consumed verysmall amounts of alcohol beforethe attacks and I am now tee totaland on a very low fat diet.

I have also been refered toManchester Royal Infirmary forAntox treatment. Following DrBraganza’s retirement, Dr Makincarried out further tests toascertain what was causing my

problem, but these did nid notcome up with anything positive.Dr Makin wanted to wait for newequipment to carry out a new test,in the meantime I did try Antoxbut it did not seem to help.

My new consultant at BedfordHospital, Dr Harvey discussed mycase with Addenbrooks Hospital,Cambridge where the newequipment was already available,but they agreed this new testwould not add to what wasalready known. Surgery hasbeen suggested by Dr Makin, butDr Harvey said this couldaggavate the condition long termand make me worse. Dr Harveyinvestigated further possibleassistance that the NHS couldoffer but apologised that he couldnot find any.

In early 2000 my husband’s workcolleague suggested I see aComplementary MedicineSpecialist that she highlyrecommended. NatashaLinderman has a clinic in Bedfordand I attach a leaflet for your

The Pancreatitis Supporters Network

Alternative Therapies

2

information.. I had to wait a fewmonths before my firstappointmment. I was amazed ather knowledge and the electro-acupuncture diagnosis techniqueshe uses.

Natasha explained that mymedical problems over manyyears had been caused by acoxsackie virus. Over recentyears it had attacked my digestivesystem as well as my pancreas.My liver, spleen and kidneys hadalso been affected. I was givenhomeopathic treatment for thevirus and other toxins andgradually began to feel better inmyself and put on weight (I knowweigh over 10 stones). Thecoxsackie virus was removed inNovember 2000..

Often the pain was severe, butNatasha informed me this wasdue to the pancreas repairingitself and I had further treatmentsto aid this. I cannot stressenough the differencetreatment has made both to meand my family. I still attendhospital appointments anduse conventional pain killersetc. My experience showsthat these Specialists need towork alongside our hospitals,as in Germany etc. In order

to deal with viruses thatconventional medicine cannotseem to cope with.

Christmas 2000 was the bestI had felt for six years.Unfortunately, when Ireturned to work I caught achest infection which upsetmy pancreas. However,Natasha was able to givetreatments for the infectionasnd the coxsakie virus,which reappeared after theinfection. I am nowrecovering a good deal fasterthan after my previousattacks and Natasha is verypleased with my overallprogress. She has indicatedthat she recommends regularcheck ups for the next year tokeep things under control.Then yearly or twice yearly tomonitor the situation.

Please let me know if yourequire any further details. Ishould be interested to knowpleases whether you havehad further reports about thecoxsakie virus causingpancreatitis.

Article from:

Mrs Ruth Heard11 Emerton WayWoottonBedfordshireMK43 9DS

Ms Natasha Lindeman can befound at:The Tree of Life Clinic ofBiological andComplementary Medicineand they are based at:

Flexible Health and FitnessClubPlalace ChambersSilver StreetBedfordMK40 1SY

Telephone:01234 211144‘Phone - in time Weekdays8:30 - 9:00am.

Tree of Life Clinics werefounded by AndrianLindeman a qualifiedHeilpraktiker/Naturopath/Homeopath/Electro-acupuncturist.

3The Pancreatitis Supporters Network

Alternative Therapies

else is interested in helping andeither having a go or even spon-soring Jacqueline next year thenlet us know here at the Network. We can send you outsponsorship forms for you to getthe signature's and then whenshe completes the race we willsend you a letter confirming this. You then collect themoney owing and send it on to ushere at the Network. We will sendyou a letter of receipt which youcan show to your sponsors thatwe have received the money.

Great Fun Run] What can we say but a BIGthank you to Miss Jacqueline ALangford who completed the GreatFun Run in memory of DorothyMorton. She raised an incredible£420!!, The photograph showsJacqueline ready to go with herrunner’s number on her shirt. Shealso have T-Shirts with our nameprinted up as well so all around ajolly good effort for the Network. Jacqueline is going to doanother one next year and if anyone

Merry Christmas to you ALL!

Eventually got around to wishingyou greetings at this festive timeof the year!

Some information for you all.

We have been fund raising thisyear to purchase more x-pain2000 machines and we arepleased to say we weresuccessful and have ten of theseunits to loan out. Some of thesehave already gone and anyoneinterested should let us know assoon as possible.

For those of you who have a unitcan you let us know the serialnumber on the unit. This isusually printed on the inside ofthe battery compartment. We

need to check out where all theseunits are. We shall be sending ablanket letter/survey to all of youwho have had a machine in thepast to let us know how youfound it.

There is no wish to upset anyonewhose, wife, husband, daughter,son etc. who has died since weloaned a machine to you. Wehave to get this information forour records. These werecorrupted in our major crash aswere the backups, a real disasterday that one!

Also we want to find out if any ofthese are lying around not beingused or being kept as a ‘just incase’!

Finally, this does help us with our

fund-raising if we can quotesome of your comments on theuse fullness of these devices.

Anyone wishing to purchase amachine direct can contactAdvanced Pain Management atthe following address

Advanced Pain Management LtdSuite 2, Saturn CentreChallenge WayBlackburnLancashireBB1 5QB

Telephone 01254 661431Fax/answerphone:01254 611429Customer Support and AdviceLine: 01254 611430

CONTACT PLEASE!

We have received this e-mail askingfor anyone with a whipples to get incontact. First the e-mail:

I had a ‘whipples’ operation forpancreatic cancer during July 2000.A course of chemotherapy andradiotherapy during December 2000and January 2001. I have been takingpancreatic enzyme supplements,Creon since June 2001 and have

found this beneficial.

I am now trying to contact otherpeople who have been through asimilar operation who would bewilling to talk about how they arecoping with the discomfort after theoperation.

Please contact:(For those of you on the internetcontact Jean at:malcolm.gay@ntlworld.com)

The rest of us can contact Jean by‘snail mail! At the following address:

Mrs Jean Gay50 Tamworth RoadHerdfordSG13 7DN

4The Pancreatitis Supporters Network

Alternative Therapies

PO Box 8938, Birmingham, West Midlands, B13 9FWTel: (123) 456 7890, Mobile: (123) 456 7895,

psnjimarmour@cs.com http://www.pancreatitis.org.uk

We Offer a ‘Holistic Approach

LETTERSI was diagnosed when I was 20 andput ona low fat diet. I am now 40and whilst I can control the pan-creas I am beginning to get stiffankles, knees and wrists. Firststarted about two years ago. Veryslowly it is getting worse, the doc-tor sent me for an xray and said Ididn't have arthritis in the wrist.However I can feel significant stiff-ening now and pain. Is there alink? Could the low fat be responsi-ble. Can anyone suggest any help?Helen

Have you had your computertraining?Just to finish of with anothersmile!Don't feel stupid about using yourcomputer - read on This is an excerptfrom a Wall Street Journal article:

1. Compaq is considering changing thecommand "Press Any Key" to "PressReturn Key" because of the flood ofcalls asking where the Any Key is.

2. AST technical support had a callercomplaining that her mouse was hardto control with the dust cover on. Thecover turned out to be the plasticbag the mouse was packaged in!

Dear Jim. I have good news for you. Myson was operated on 20th June 2001 andhis gall-bladder was removed successfullyby a local specialist surgeon. He is now back to school andclaiming his top position in his class, evenafter being out of class for a month. Jimyou may not know but you helped me, mywife and family a lot by giving us the in-formation on this disease. Thanks for the good work youand your organisation are doing. GodBless you abundantly. Keep up the goodwork. With Kind Regards P M

How you can help the Network financially

Your donations will help us to continue our work at the Net-work by allowing us to collect the tax paid on your dona-tions, which until last April we were unable to do. It is ONLYfor those members who are resident in the UK and STILLpaying tax, this includes tax on savings. To clarify thatstatement:

Your donation must be made out of UK Taxed Income, and/or Cap-ital Gains Tax at least equal to the tax that the Charity reclaims onyour declarations in the tax year (currently 28p for each £1 yougive).

Please complete the Sections below:I would like the Charity (The Pancreatitis Supporters Network) totreat all donations I have made since April 6th 2000 and all otherdonations I make from the date of this declaration and until I notifyyou otherwise as Gift Aid Donations.

Details of Donor:

Title...............Forename............................................. Surname..............................................

Address.....................................................................................................................................

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Post Code................................................................... Date......................................................

Signed..........................................................................