sweating palms late in life

Question
Your previous advice for an underweight boy was very helpful. I am female, 57 years old, studied and lived macrobiotically for years. Studied anthroposophy also so your perspective is appreciated. After that period I spent the last 10-15 years in overwork, fuled by caffeine, sometimes relaxed by alcohol. I am now underweight with no appetite. Although your advice about what to eat for the young boy has my mouth watering. I continue to 'live in my head' and am very active in writing, architectural design and community development. Putting 110% into those activities. With mixed results which is frustrating, but keep at it. Very hard to relax. Prescription for that was a failure. (anti-anxiety) Just in the past 6 months am experiencing excessive sweating, especially of hands and feet. This is a new development. Menopause has passed a while ago, not sure it is related to hormones exactly. Your advice about supplements understood, but an health food store anti-stress formula was giving me relief for a while, now not no sure.

Just reading your profile and advice has been a big help. Not easy to find counsel such as yours.

Thanks so much.

Answer
Dear Marsha,

I don't know if it has occurred to you, but my first reaction was that you were describing the symptoms and conditions, all related to a (past) nervous breakdown, but also to preliminary stage diabetes - or glucose intolerance. A second option sprang to mind with hyper-thyroidism. Naturally, I am not going to try to diagnose your condition, but I hope you have considered, or will consider these options, especially if you have other symptoms too; markedly for diabetes: greater thirst than normal (+ increased urination), fatigue - especially after eating-, any distorted vision, and poor circulation (feeling cold, numb extremities). Both for diabetes and  hyperthyroidism there may be weight-loss (inspite of eating),  and insomnia, and for hyperthyroidism the additional signs of hairloss, and shortness of breath with palpitations, amongst many others.

Both disorders are due to a similar imbalance and manifest with malfunctions in the endocrinal system affecting hormone production (insulin or thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3)). These in turn affect metabolic functions. Notably in diabetes the pancreas will be worn out. In both cases the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, the sixth chakra (third eye), are strained. In Anthroposophical terms: we are dealing here, regardless of a diagnosable illness, with a chronically displaced Ego, and an astral body run thorougly ragged. Your etheric force no longer is supported by these forces and cannot properly process your nutrition, which sets up a vicious cycle only a curative diet will ammend. It will aim towards increasing creativity and joy: think colour but also a few bitter pills (brings down astral and Ego into digestive system). Those deft at psycholo-analysing, masking, compensating or repressing will go longer without physical signs, but in the end symptoms (like weight loss and sweating) will begin to betray how the neglected needs of the soul are the root cause for serious ailments such as diabetes and thyroid disorders.

To illustrate the subtlety of this: the loss of appetite indicates how much you have divorced your self from the life-force.You are literally less ensouled. If this absence of soul persists you will start to live a joyless life, till you become miserable and depressed. On a more physical level, hunger is stimulated by an astrality (hormones) that says "yes! I do," to life, wedding the inner world thus to the outer (providing both cosmic and earthly nutrition). But in your case, your innerworld is exhausted and no longer beckons much to life, after finding little replenishment from nutritious, vivifying, solar energy-packed meals for too long. It has been enslaved too long by the jailor of the head.

Sweat belongs to the water household and involves etheric processes, but as an exudative function it is regulated by the astral. Too much heat in the liver would also cause pressure-cooker stress, but this generally occurs with excessive etheric, which does not sound the problem in your case. However as the major organ in the metabolic system, if at the end of the line, it will struggle with unsaturated fat, starch and coffee and alcohol when the other main glandular organs are running on empty.  Excessive sweating often accompanies nervous exhaustion, as  a picture for the energy of cleansing. Your soul is trying to "purge" itself of stuff (Karma; characteristics); it may need to learn to let go of a willfulness to change what cannot be changed (destiny or other people's Karma outside your control). It is trying to go with the flow.

Nervous exhaustion (due to chronic over-work and unprocessed emotion) is the final manifestation of deeper soul issues; it is, of course, the result of "living too much in the head". The nerve-sense system has been given ever greater domination, till this electric energy shattered the etheric web and fragmented your Ego-sheath causing it to withdraw ever deeper into the last warm hearth in the dome of the head. In the lower pole great holes appeared where energy has leaked out. By using supplements, and "self-medication" of caffeine and alcohol,  you are currently plugging these holes with wads of paper. It's just a question of time before the whole construct comes tumbling down. You need to reorganise from the foundations up and start by bringing back the captain of your ship: the Ego-organisation (or I, Higher Self).

This serious condition (people tend to sigh under it passively) requires serious treatment (not just a lighter work load or a short break), since it can prevent somatic pathologies from really taking chronical root, when treated in its early stages. The good news is that your honest vigilance and self-knowledge is keen to reclaim a firm and steady stand in life. If no manifest pathology can be found (make sure you have a simple blood test for T3/T4 hormone levels and diabetes - or get DIY kit for the latter) you can take the bodily signals as "wake up" calls. If you let this path towards cold and mineralising processes go unchecked (warmth being expressed ever more to the periphery) you will develop sclerotic diseases or muscular/nervous atrophy, if not diabetes and thyroid complaints. For this reason, I am very inspired to suggest a diet for diabetics - who in Anthroposophical medicine not seldom manage to avoid all insulin injections by early intervention and sticking dilligently to it.

If you should discover you are leaning towards actual diabetes, you will want to take extra measures (more frequent, smaller meals, extra caution with fruit, sweetners, and types of carbohydrates) and begin with a more recuperative diet with specific fasts (apple/oat) and remedies (birch, herbal tea mix)  that "reset" your sugar-levels to neutral before you begin on a regime for life.

For now, pending the outcome of any medical tests, you can start to encourage a budding desire to partake of life again by letting go of bad habits, excessive mental demands and adopting a strict regime with an Ego-boosting diet, relaxation, and plenty of stimulating exercise. Try to do something fun and luxurious too: treat yourself and try some pleasant body-work therapy (massage, something with music).

Exercise is not for nothing always prescribed with diabetes, since it activates the "Will" (metabolic limb pole) and distracts from the overbearing head pole with its "Thinking" element. It needs to be invigorating exercise, such as robust nature walks, rowing, dancing, swimming, aikido, or anything non-competitive, using all four limbs in harmonious motion. For a combination of exercise, therapy, and relaxation it is very recommendable to take up Hatha yoga (or Tai Chi) - a small group of medatitive minds can be healing too. Curative eurhythmy tends to book instant success with nervous disorders. As does massage with essential oils. In any case, pamper yourself with lavender baths in the evening; and wash with rosemary in the mornings after stretching and doing some deep breathing for a few minutes, to welcome and invite the tentative Ego body down deeper into your body. It will be timid and want to stay in its "head-nest", though! Persevere, but with gentle loving kindness towards yourself. No 110%! That is 10% too much over the mark of perfection and a waste of energy.

Especially spring is a tough time for you - if you live in a place with marked seasons, especially, but in any case, spring forces you to strengthen your own iron-building system. For this you need to eat the right foods (not containing iron especially, but stimulating the assimilation of iron) and detox your liver and kidney system (3-4 weeks birch elixer, no sugar; artichoke elixer; 1 litre nettle tea daily). Pulling down the cosmic energies is the task at hand now, and hydrotherapy, and painting-colour therapy, above all, can help with this (the type where you wash transparent veils of watercolour with broad brushes). Music can play an uplifting role. Sounding bowl therapy is  effective chakra work. It would be well worthwhile practicing one form of meditation or another. There are some alternatives to Steiner's methods which work for the less disciplined mind: tapes/cd with zen buddhist chanting; Stuart Wilde's methods are practical, humour-tinted and simple; Buddhist mantras can work well too. Mandala colouring can be fun, too, especially if you pretend to be a novice at art and put your mind on child-like non-thinking. All these can make for pleasant outings, away from what you are used to and closing the door on your normal brain activity for a while. Otherwise hug a tree, take up gardening, work with animals, of take up a craft, but big, bold actions like furniture making are preferable to quilting. Woodchopping would be ideal!

Now that we have established that your poor diet and mental pressures, lifestyle choices/necessities and habits are simply paving a way for glandular imbalances, digestive disorders and ultimately sclerotic diseases (coronary/vascular or mental/nervous), you have to admit that the first things that have to be chucked is coffee (prods the astral up into the brain and irritates the pancreas) and alcohol (lames the Ego, burdens the liver). The damage they have already caused (as pretty deeply engraved habits, you will find, once you give them up) can only be filled in slowly by a fresh, regular and varied diet. This will take a lot of time. So be prepared to really go through this recuperative phase for an extended period (at least a year before you are anywhere nearing the edge of the woods). If you can't go "cold turkey" then only drink coffee after a meal and before 3 pm. And only have one to two units of red wine once a week, max. But cutting down can be harder than giving up all together, mind....

For the constant corruption of your system (mainly by NOT eating properly) there are most probably issues, also, with weak kidney-radiation, which propells (from a dynamic point of view) the anabolic system. Bit by bit we really need to consider the whole metabolic system to be in quite a shambles, and so cannot leave any aspect of your life unturned: the whole you needs to cooperate on this call.

All your "head-living" has cooled down your metabolic system, and irritated your nerve-sense system. As shown before: it will be as much of a supportive measure to think differently as it is to eat differently. Connecting to nature (giving head-based wisdom room to grow) and breathing (strengthening middle region to reconnec the two poles) are both very quintessential. Sometimes it can help to reinspire the Ego with imagery from the past, by appreciating the aesthetics (art/music/literature) of ancient cultures (Greek, Egyptian, Persian, Indian).

Try taking specifically "spiritual" time out as a curative measure. Lie or sit down 20-30 minutes a day, in complete rest to practice making the mind blank(especially when you don't have time, or feel like it really! This "anarchy" might intrigue the Ego for a sneak preview).  You could use meditation cd's to help you, if it is very hard to do. Try not to nod off. It is important to do this routinely, for at least 6 weeks, without much variation (if any). It does not really matter what you do during those minutes, but stick at a form of disciplined relaxation that has no other purpose or set goal. Discover how you might love it or not like it much. Observe how each day you may be different and accept what you cannot change. Watch the healing energies bring about change, however, as you become ever more equinanimous for just keeping at it, already. This is an exercise in faith, which seems to be missing from your life and causing your soul distress. This is a form of religion: personal religion aligning you to your own, individual, spiritual powers for healing. Learning to access these is largely the meaning of life. It will show you why the gods love you and they need you to love them back. You could consider your real life is just beginning to happen at 57. Sounds like a good age for it (8th 7 year phase is in dedication to the life-spirit, after all).

Now back to the bit you really wrote to me for: diet.
Although you frequently hear that diabetes in people over 40 is linked to obesity, this is because the poor diet and irregular life-style that often causes obesity. Cholesterol levels are also altered in both diabetes and hyperthyroidism, which for diabetes is often linked to high trans-fat intake, but in both cases the catabolic, awakening forces necessary for regulating cholesterol levels have been used up by astral strain.You also hear that shock and prolongued trauma can trigger off diabetes, and usually precede thyroid problems (common after pregnancy/pre-eclampsia), again pointing to the role the Ego plays: exhausted by mental processing, it has nothing left with which to manage the astral processes of elimination and exudation. As a result, glandular functions are impaired, but also detoxification can be drawn to a halt: excessive sweating may be a sign that elimination is not occurring as desired; possibly because the debris is difficult to solve (and flush out) in the first place.

With glycose intolerance, or pre-diabetes, the Ego body has lost its ability to incarnate deeply enough. This effects protein processing and it is therefore necessary to have a low-protein diet. If you ask your organism to process protein while it is weak, you will be unable to transform this alien substance into human-type building blocks and demineralise the food. Then there is the risk of becoming too "salt-like" (artiosclerosis accompanies advanced diabetes generally). Only bone (+hair/nails)  may be mineral. Sugar is also a mineral. If the Ego is not infused in the blood stream, such products will remain "toxic"to the human organism.

Your diet will have to be largely vegetarian.  You must derive half your energy from carbohydrates (200-240 g - conversion table available through me). You must take care with fruit and honey, however beneficial both are to the incarnation and life-processes. Use dark, raw honey in tiny amounts as a medicine (thyme, buckwheat, heather, pine, manuka, jungle, or runny wild flower). The energy of honey is all about assimilation and transformation within the realm of warmth.  Fruit is a great source of life, light (vitamins) and minerals, stimulating the etheric/metabolic system. Berries specifically. But grapes, bananas, cherries, plums, peaches, and dried fruit are too sweet.

Wholewheat grains (grits, groats, whole grain) are to form the bulk of  your diet. They are very stimulating for the build up of iron,  and keep sugar levels in balance. Especially oat and pot barely are to be recommended. Also, millet, buckwheat, spelt, wheat.
Raw muesli (soaked overnight in water) with yoghurt makes the perfect breakfast. Do not use dried fruit (and only a few of raisins if you suspect a glucose intolerance). Fresh apple would be better.  Sour milk products and goat/sheep cheese or cottage cheese are to be preferred over milk and other dairy cheese. Although a cup of warm milk with honey could be medicinal in the evening.
Curd makes an excellent source of protein. Otherwise lentils. Other pulses are rather heavy on the system and may make your Ego weary before it even properly got going.
Animal flesh and fats ought to be avoided.
Oily and white fish may be taken in moderation. Other seafood is not recommended.
Do not add salt unless absolutely indispensible (egg, bread etc).
Seaweed, kelp will provide iodine and plenty of minerals.
Jerusalem artichoke is said to be almost curative in a diabetic's diet. It patches up the pancreas. It may cause some intestinal bloatedness/wind to begin with, but this generally subsides after becoming used to it. Use when in season.

As a side track, I must add here, how we cannot only consider "eating" but must also think in terms of "meals". The liver is very sense-dependent and pre-digests with the eye and the tasting senses. Also chewing is very important to prevent sugar overloads and subsequent digestive problems. Preparation methods, also, play a role. Warming your food helps digestion, but you must work towards stoking up your OWN fire in your BELLY: which salads in all their fabulous variety offer (tons of greens, little extras, like dressings, cheese, egg and potato etc.). Mix and match root, leaf, fruit parts of the plant with seeds and nuts. Grate and peel where you can to help your digestion at first.  If at all possible, be aware that choosing bio-organic/dynamic produce will help you absorb more solar force and, at least,  not tax your system further with chemicals. The slower growth (without artificial fertilizer) can help teach your organisation to build up in the same step by natural step manner.

Microwaves are mini hells: incinerating the life-force out of food, so be cautious there. Pre-processed food, died a long time ago. Additives and preservatives strangle the goodness of fresh produce. Frozen food is robbed of etheric force, too. Take time to choose your ingredients and prepare them with love and dedication. This is also an Ego-stimulating exercise in itself. Needless to say snacking is ruinous on the metabolic system. Make meals pleasant, almost sacred! Light a candle, say a blessing, have a beautiful thought, or recite a calming verse. Again, you need to make a special effort in your case to  lead the energy out of the head down to where it will be needed most. Eat light meals in the evening. Make sure you season well, to help enthuse your appetite on a subtle level: use warming (Mediterranean or labiatae) garden herbs, parsley, corriander seeds, mustard and horseradish to help warm up the digestive processes. Roll out the red carpet for the Ego, which is attracted by such warmth.

Pay attention to right combinations of foods. Eat most of your carbs in the evening and protein earlier. You are aiming for an alkaline mix. More information is readily available on alkaline v acidic online, or I have a food list for you.
Also, artificial fertilizer changes the character of the plants (forced ether processes) which will not make a very conducive learning curve for the Ego.Try small portions of varied products even when you have no appetite. You do not need to eat one type of grain or vegetable the same for a whole week if you plan well! All your senses and systems need to be retrained, don't forget, and this takes a fairly determined and matter-of-fact approach, but you still have to make it fun (colourful, tasty, sparkling with life). Vegetables are your main rhythmic life-life line between the sun and the earth.

As previously mentioned, nettle tea provides an iron-building blueprint. Other herb teas: yarrow, sage and lemonbalm. If you go too flowery and fruity you might start to overflow with etheric energy while the Ego is still too timid to meet it at the lower pole. This would cause headaches and "hysterical" conditions (as in the homeopathic medical term, not mental typology).  Focus on bitter or earthy and woody flavours over outrightly sweet. Find the sweetness in the bitter: it really can be found!
Your staple evening cocktail or lunch apperatif is going to be beetroot or carrot juice with lactic acid.
Buttermilk or whey, or oat-water (the water you boiled whole grain oat in) or pot-barley water make other refreshing drinks. Lemon and water is great for summer, just get used to drinking it the posh French way, without any sweetner! Elderberry is more of an autumn treat.

Well, there we have a few dietary directions to go on if you feel the lower pole could do with some TLC. It may not seem like a very tender diet, but spare the rod and you spoil the child in this case....The bitter pills and sting of vinegar will make the blood scintillate in the end.

Any further queries before or after an alternative diagnosis for your pathology, do not hesitate to put them to me. The more details I have the more I can narrow down a specific diet for you and find some more useful (curative) ingredients. But the general set-up of dedication and enthusiasm must always prevail.
Many blessings.
Love Evelyn.  

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