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Show choosing pharmaceutical products. - Denise M. Ney, RD, senior dietitian, General Gener-al Clinical Research Center, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Q. Would the pneumonia vaccine (Pnenmovaz), be helpful in children over the age of 2, who have repeated middle ear infections? W.S, Columbus, Ohio A. The newly released pneumococcal vaccine (Pneumovaz) is a polyvalent vaccine against several serotypes to the pneumo-coccus pneumo-coccus organism. There have been some suggestions that this may be useful as a preventive immunization against pneumococcal otitis media in those children with recurrent middle ear infections. infec-tions. The Pneumovax vaccine vac-cine is currently under clinical clini-cal investigation to test this possibility. However, my guess is that while the vaccine may establish es-tablish protection against pneumococcal otitis media, the child who receives this vaccine will continue to have recurrent middle ear infection secondary to other bacterial organisms. This line of thinking seems reasonable in that the underlying under-lying etiology for recurrent otitis media is dependent on an allergic predisposition, the short eustachian tube in some children, eustachian tube dysfunction, or frequent upper respiratory infections in preschool children. These predisposing factors will not be altered by the vaccine. Nevertheless, at this time we can only await clinical trials of the new vaccine. At the present time, I would not consider the pneumococ:al vaccine to be an appropriate measure in the child with recurrent re-current otitis media. Dr. Martin Stein, assistant professor pro-fessor off pediatrics at the University of California San Diego, School of Medicine. Questions may be submitted submit-ted to the University of California, Cali-fornia, San Diego School of Medicine, Copley News Service, Ser-vice, in care of this newspaper. newspa-per. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. en-velope. All questions will be answered. " I Natural used when trying herbal remedies as is used when I remedies' not necessarily safe Copley News Service Q. b there any kind of diet that will help alleviate hemorrhoids? he-morrhoids? I have heard that garlic and a product called Co'linsonia Root Powder Pow-der can help. I have followed the "natural "natu-ral health" way of life for 30 years, and I would like to learn of any natural remedies remed-ies that would help me avoid the surgery my doctor has recommended. L.C, Los Angeles, Calif. A. Hemorrhoids are varicose vari-cose dilations of blood vessels ves-sels located internally or externally around the anal sphincter.They are often a problem during pregnancy or after prolonged use of enemas, and if severe, require re-quire medical attention. A dietary regime to treat constipation is often effective effec-tive in preventing the hemorrhoids he-morrhoids from getting progressively pro-gressively worse. A diet incorporating in-corporating plenty of water and bulk in the form of dietary fiber is often recommended. recom-mended. The use of high-fiber diet need not require extensive dietary changes or special foods. By eating whole grain breads and cereals and raw fruits and vegetables several times daily, the intake of fiber can be raised 100 percent per-cent above the typical American diet In addition, there are many high-fiber cereal products now availale at most supermarkets which can help to add extra fiber to the diet Collinsonia Canadisis, also known as Hardrock, Ston-eroot Ston-eroot and Heal-All, is a member of the mint family and has long been used for its medicinal properties. An average five-grain dose is claimed to be a gentle tonic that has diuretic and diaphoretic dia-phoretic effects. Although many herbal books recommend recom-mend Collinsonia Root Powder Pow-der to be taken orally as a remedy for hemorrhoids, this would be unwise because be-cause of its diuretic effect if hard stools or constipation were a problem. Instead, extra water should be taken throughout the day to keep stools soft ' Garlic is another age-old remedy often recommended as a general cleansing agent Garlic bulb extract contains a powerful bactericidal compound known as allicin which was used by Hippocrates Hippo-crates as a treatment for tumors. tu-mors. Garlic may be of benefit ben-efit to some people to aid in digestion and prevent constipation. consti-pation. Garlic can be taken in the form of fresh garlic extract capsules or Kyolic tablets (an odorless garlic). Five drops of fresh garlic juice mixed with water is considered a normal dose. Although few have been tested, herbal remedies have been used by many people for years. Chances are that in the future more will be learned regarding the various vari-ous components found in plants and how they react in the human body. It must be stressed, however, that just because herbs are "natural" does not mean they are necessarily nec-essarily safe to ingest freely. The same caution should be |