Positive Health Online

Given that 2014 is the 20^th anniversary year since the launch of Positive Health PH Online, there is much to contemplate regarding progress or lack thereof with respect of the integration of Complementary / Alternative / Natural Medicine into Conventional Medicine, i.e. my original objective for Positive Health PH Online  - achieving an Integrated Medicine system.

Back in 1997 I gave a talk at an Exhibition held at Olympia in which I illustrated the two-solitudes of the Orthodox and Complementary Medicine worlds and put forward an Integrated Medicine Healthcare system.

In this PH Online Issue 214 Lorinda Weatherall presents and discusses a guide to Integrative Healing discussing the differentiation of CAM therapies:

www.positivehealth.com/article/integrated-medicine/integrative-healing-practical-guide-to-professionalism

In looking at the present system of medical care as practised in the NHS in the UK and medicine as practised in much of Western Europe and the USA,  it appears to me that today there still remains a disappointing division between natural and orthodox (drug-based) medicine care.

Weight Management - Obesity Epidemic

The quest for quick fixes regarding weight management in the rise of the ‘obesity epidemic’ has never been keener. Over the past 20 years we have witnessed fingers of blame pointing to various culprits, including fat, cholesterol; more latterly sugar. This Issue 214 publishes 2 editorial features - Obesity and Eating Issues by Lorraine McReight DHyp MAPHP MNCH MNSHP MCThA CNHC and Weight Loss Winners and Dieting Downfalls: Hormonally Speaking by Alyssa Burns PhD MSc FRSH MIHPE  - discussing psychological and hormonal factors underlying obesity, both valid and underpinned by extensive research:

www.positivehealth.com/article/hypnosis/obesity-and-eating-issues

www.positivehealth.com/article/weight-loss/weight-loss-winners-and-dieting-downfalls-hormonally-speaking

Treatment Approaches to Cancer

With regard to diverse treatment approaches to cancer, particularly natural treatments for cancer, I have been re-reading Nutrition and Life-style Guidelines for People with Cancer - Consensus Statement based on a National Nutritional Seminar held in Bristol on 20 July 1992 by Goodman, MacLaren and Barker [1] of which I was the lead author, noting its relevance today as much as in 1992.

“Given that in certain cancers the long range morbidity and mortality statistics of people treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy are no better than those not treated in these ways, there was considerable concern among many of the Seminar participants about the damage to the immune and organ systems, provoked by such aggressive treatments. There was also serious concern about secondary and tertiary cancers provoked by radiation treatments in the first instance.  It was felt that if people are to be subjected to treatments which in themselves may provoke new cancers or other serious conditions, they should be informed of the level of risk and encouraged to choose what they see as the best option.”[1]

Positive Health PH Online has, over the past two decades, published numerous serious articles exploring a spectrum of alternative cancer treatments. In this Issue 214 is published two such editorial features: Cancer Control through Pathology-Based Homeopathic Medicine by Dr Tasos Vartholomaios MD PhD MFHom:

“Appropriate Clinical Homeopathic treatment of Cancer case, as ‘complementary medicine’ to conventional oncologic treatment, may successfully apply to and help essential health needs of cancer patients for:

• Evidence-based Holistic Medicine;
• Personalized Medicine for individual health problems, while patients are under conventional treatment or after it;
• Natural reduction of chemotherapy and radiation side effects;
• Enhancement of immune system activities and defence mechanisms;
• Individualized and patient-centred holistic approach;
• Improved quality of life;
• Natural remedies that do not interfere with any possible effectiveness of conventional medicine in cancer care;
• Protection from cancer recurrence;
• Improvement of overall prognosis.”

www.positivehealth.com/article/cancer/cancer-control-through-pathology-based-homeopathic-medicine

and Cancer Target - Cellular Respiration by Mike Menkes:

"Otto Warburg, in 1924, suggested that malignant and tumour cell growths are caused by the fact that tumour cells generate energy (adenosine triphosphate - ATP) by the oxygen-deprived breakdown of glucose (glycolysis), known as the Warburg Effect. Glycolysis is the first step in all cellular respiration.

"Normal cells generate energy mainly from the oxygen-present breakdown of pyruvate within the mitochondria. Pyruvate is the end stage of glycolysis, in contrast to cancer cells...

"Paul Gerhardt Seeger MD spent six decades working in cancer clinics and research in Germany. Dr Seeger discovered that cancer results from the inactivation or destruction of the most important enzyme of the respiratory chain, cytochrome oxidase (cytochrome a/a3).

"Cytochrome a/a3 is a critical mitochondrial enzyme responsible for processing over 90% of oxygen. Inhibition or destruction of cytochrome a/a3 leads to a lower number of mitochondria as well as lower ATP (energy) levels.

"This led to Seeger’s conclusion, supported by many other researchers: proliferation of tumour cells result from destruction of the respiratory chain which drives ATP-energy production...

“Since Dr Seeger’s discovery, a number of experiments and practice with cancer patients by many doctors, have accumulated enough experience (endorsed by hundreds of scientific papers) to demonstrate that cancer treatment can be approached by intensifying cellular respiration in mitochondria. Increased mitochondrial use of oxygen increases ATP production and stimulates apoptosis - tumour destruction."

www.positivehealth.com/article/cancer/cancer-target-cellular-respiration

Cancer Research UK recently reported results demonstrating that >50% of cancer patients now survive 10 years or longer. The full complexity of these statistics reveals the considerable disparity in survival and mortality prognosis in different types of cancers, depending upon the stage of diagnosis and type of cancer, amongst other factors.

www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/cancerstats/survival/?utm_source=CancerStatsNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CancerStatsNews_April14

Cancer currently affects perhaps 1 in 3 people in the UK and USA; oncologists concur that the best outcomes are arrived at through: 1. Prevention and 2. Early Diagnosis. Hence the above-quoted extract from the 1994 Consensus Statement: “in certain cancers the long range morbidity and mortality statistics of people treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy are no better than those not treated in these ways, there was considerable concern among many of the Seminar participants about the damage to the immune and organ systems, provoked by such aggressive treatments.”[1] appears to be as true today as it was 20 years ago.

The publication of serious features and book reviews exploring natural treatment approaches to cancer continues in forthcoming issues of Positive Health PH Online.

References

1. Nutrition and Life-style Guidelines for People with Cancer - Consensus Statement based on a National Nutritional Seminar held in Bristol on 20 July 1992

Sandra Goodman PhD, John MacLaren and Walter Barker PhD

Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. Vol 4 No. 2: Pages 199-214. 1994.

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/ref/10.3109/13590849409034555