Fright

A particular type of emotion that affects everyone at some point: students, sportsmen, artists, doctors... Fright has the symptoms of acute anxiety: knotted throat and stomach, a feeling of suffocation, trembling with quaking at the knees, sweating, a strong and rapid heartbeat, blushing with red ears, nausea and even vomiting.

All these signs are bad enough by themselves, but are slight compared with the dramatic psychological turmoil that can be brought on by an exam or a sports event.

Feverishness, difficulty in concentrating, sometimes with deep despair, feeling at a complete loss, incoherence - all these factors make success dubious and can also have lasting psychological effects.

Dietary advice

• Breakfast should be regular consisting of protein, orange or other fruit juice, cereals - to avoid the well-known 'eleven o'clock low' due to hypoglycaemia.
• Lunch and dinner should be easily digestible, and overgenerous helpings, which have a disastrous effect on alertness and concentration, avoided.

Two natural foods that are useful against fright

Wheatgeram

Origin And Composition: Wheatgerm is a perfect food, the vegetable equivalent of the egg. It contains all the nutrients necessary for the growth of the plant. It is made up of the kernel. (three-quarters of the total weight) which yields flour when ground, and the husk (15 per cent of the total) which gives bran. Wheatgerm is obtained by soaking the grain in water and allowing it to germinate for two days. It contains all the constituents necessary for the plant's growth. It contains twice as much calcium, three times the magnesium and phosphorus, and many more vitamins, especially Band E, than wheat. It also contains vitamins A and C.

Properties: It helps to take care of nervous problems and is equally effective against fatigue and overwork.

Method of Use : You will find it in health food shops as flakes that can be sprinkled on salads, yoghurt, or soft cheese. Take one or two teaspoonfuls a day.

Lecithin

ORIGIN: a water and fat-soluble phospholipid that dissolves and distributes fats. Made by the liver, it is present in high concentrations in the vital organs (brain, heart, liver, kidneys). and supplies the nerve cells with beneficial unsaturated fatty acids.

Composition And Properties: because it is rich in phosphorus and amino acids, lecithin encourages the development of the nervous system and also plays a regulatory role. It is sedative, helps the memory, aids concentration, and assists sleep.

Sources: Lecithin is supplied by the diet, and is present mainly in runny egg yolk, walnuts, soya, and sunflower, safe flower or linseed oil.

Method of use: You will find it in pharmacies and health food shops, most often as soya extract. One teaspoonful to be taken twice a day.

Acupuncture

Has a useful and much appreciated sedative and restabilizing action.
Treatment schedule: weekly or twice weekly sessions, for the month preceding the event.

Relaxation methods

Relaxation is essential for learning to control the emotions and muscular tension, and reducing, channelling, and even suppressing the effects of stress.

Oligotherapy

Magnesium

This trace element is normally supplied in the diet, which should be varied and of good quality. when there is a deficiency, which is frequent in the case of magnesium, it may be taken as a supplement.

Dietary sources of magnesium

Present in almost all foods, but unfortunately particularly in those that are rich in calories, Magnesium is found mainly in citrus fruits, bananas, whole cereals (oat flakes, bran...), cocoa and chocolate, shellfish (winkles, shrimps, oysters, clams...) and oily fish, snails, figs, hard cheeses, dried fruit and nuts (almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts...). vegetables (spinach, dried haricot and green beans, split peas, soya.. .), wholemeal bread.

• Magnesium is available in many different forms and brands such as Organic Minerals (Colloidals) which contains 70+ trace minerals:
  - Available in 946ml bottles
  - Take 1-3 caps just before breakfast and/or evening meal
  - Children I teaspoon daily for each 20lbs of body weight
  Or Maximol (Ionized colloidals):
  - Available in 500ml bottles
  - Take 1/2 capful once or twice daily on an empty stomach

Possible Description: One dose of magnesium to be taken twice a day for a few days or weeks.

• You can take higher doses of magnesium during the week preceding a possibly frightening event, using Magasorb@ (Lamberts) 150mg:
  - Available in containers of 60 or 180 tablets
  - Take one to three tablets daily
• You can also use Phytisone@ (Thorne). a combination of vitamins B1, B5, B6, C. and herbs liquorice root, red ginseng, Siberian ginseng and Ashwagandha.
  - Available in containers of 60 capsules - One to two capsules twice daily

Homeopathy

Argentum nitricum, Gelsemium

- Four granules of one of these two remedies at 7c to be taken during the week preceding the event, to be sucked like sweets, two or three times a day between meals. Four granules to be taken on the day of an exam, possibly repeated on arrival at the examination centre, and even once more just before sitting it

Argentum nitricum

- Chemical origin: silver nitrate
- Homeopathic remedy for the fear regarding what is about to happen
- Characteristic signs: patient agitated, in a hurry, anxious to finish before starting.

Gelsemium sempervirens

- Vegetable origin: the root of Virginia
jasmine
- Homeopathic remedy for fright with trembling
- Specific sign: the legs feel as though they are about to give way
. You can use Spascupreel@ (Heel). which contains Gelsemium 06, Cham om ilia 03, Passiflora 02...
- Available in containers of 50 or 250 tablets
- In general, one tablet dissolved under the tongue three times daily. In acute cases one tablet to be repeated every 15 minutes
. You can also usefully add a constitutional remedy, chosen through consultation with your homeopath; in this case it will often be Argentum nitricum, Lycopodium, pulsatilla

Herbal treatment

Hawthorn, passionflower

These two plants can be prepared and made up by your herbalist, alone or combined, as a mother tincture, powder in capsules, or dried extracts.

Possible Prescription: Ask your herbalist to prepare 25 capsules of a mixture of dry extracts of hawthorn and passionflower, 150mg of each in a NO.2 capsule (the particular size of the capsule that the herbalist uses). One capsule to be taken three times a day during the week before the appointed date, two capsules morning and night on the day before, and two capsules on the morning of the event.

Hawthorn

This delicate plant, with its beautiful white and pink flowers in bud, has been celebrated by many a poet. In former times its very hard wood was made into execution blocks.
Passionflower

The passionflower, a liana from Brazil and Mexico, owes its name to a Spanish Jesuit who saw elements of Christ's Passion in the shape of its flower
. You can use a fresh whole-plant suspension: thanks to a method of cold stabilization, the suspension providesthe full therapeutic effect naturally present in the whole plant

Possible Prescription : You can ask your herbalist to prepare a 60ml bottle of fresh whole-plant suspension of hawthorn or passionflower. Half a teaspoonful to be taken in a little water, morning and night. For adults only.

• You can use Passiflora Complex (Bioforce): which contains passionflower and oats:
  - Available in bottles of 50ml
  - 20 drops twice daily in a little water