Positive Health Online

John Spottiswoode's thought-provoking feature Cancer Causes and Mechanisms: Hypothesis (see pages 29-34) offers many fascinating insights regarding his central hypothesis that various cancers appear to be caused by Autonomic Nervous System imbalances. Specifically, that solid tumours, such as breast, colon, lung, etc. appear to occur mainly in individuals with an overly active sympathetic nervous system, and the converse, that blood-based cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, occur in patients with an overly developed parasympathetic nervous system. The arguments presented are based upon clinical and epidemiological research evidence and cover a multitude of important factors of interest to us all, such as how particular cancers develop and evade the immune system.

John is particularly interested in funding and commissioning research to further investigate these aspects of cancer causes and mechanisms, and invites medical practitioners and researchers to contact him to further these goals. A most fascinating and worthy project indeed!

Vivienne Bradshaw-Black analyzes crucial issues regarding the food we eat, including its quality, environmental soundness, i.e. non-toxic and nutritional potency or deficiency (see page 26). She discusses the many key 'scares' affecting our lives today, including mass farming, deficient soil quality, the use of pesticides, irradiation, catastrophes such as BSE, CJD and the state of factory-farmed animals.

The dismal quality of foods consumed by many of the UK's school children has been brought home to us in the riveting and graphically presented series Jamie's School Dinners (Channel 4 on Wednesday evenings). In this program, we have witnessed children who think rhubarb is onion, who don't know what leeks look like, or even potatoes, while happily consuming chips, pizzas, burgers and turkey twizzlers. One mother portrayed admitted that she had never seen an avocado, while one of the dinner ladies at the dinner ladies army camp at Aldershot confessed that she had never eaten any kind of bean before – not even runner or string beans.

Hospital Consultants on this programme have shown us (via Jamie Oliver) X-rays of children with colons impacted with faeces; children with diets consisting of a fizzy drink for breakfast, a chocolate bar for lunch and fast food for dinner. The majority of children presented with healthier meals rebelled at first, labelling it disgusting, and chucking it in the bin. One little chap, upon visiting Jamie Oliver's house, refused to even taste a raspberry, saying he didn't eat fruit. This same lad couldn't even be bribed (with hundreds of pounds) into eating a delicious chicken with ginger wrap. As the series has progressed, the situation with the children has improved, with the majority learning to love the deliciousness of real, healthy food, including salad, fresh meat and vegetarian meals, fruit and vegetables. Who knows what the ultimate result will be when Jamie Oliver will now be taking over an entire borough (Greenwich) with the help of hundreds of dinner ladies.

I have often been highly critical of the media for pursuing its agenda of gaining audience share and relishing the rubbishing of much about complementary medicine. The media has been excoriatingly derisive regarding nutrition, particularly vicious recently in its emotive WatchDog programmes devoted to condemning cancer nutritional regimes, including Gerson. The media probably recorded this series on the back of Jamie Oliver's popularity, not realizing that what they were achieving was possibly the most shocking exposé of children's horrendous eating habits! The media have, probably unintentionally, performed a sterling service to the entire nation by showing us the result of allowing the future health of our children to be ruled by the corporate food industry.

This is 2005, even more dystopian than 1984?

In fact, proof of the far-reaching benefits of diet and nutritional supplements regarding superior cognitive functions is featured in a Research Update by Whalley et al from Department of Mental Health, Royal Cornhill Hospital in Aberdeen (see page 35). Researchers conducted an observational study of individuals born in 1936, whose mental ability was tested in 1947, and were followed up in 2000-2001 for cognition, diet, food supplement use and heart disease risk factors. As you can read in this study, the results showed significantly higher cognitive function in food supplement users than nonusers. Also, total erythrocyte n-3 fatty acids and the ratio of docosahexaenoic acid to arachidonic acid was associated with better superior cognitive function in later life. In other words, optimization of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids may improve our cognitive functions as we age.

As far as I am concerned, this all points to the importance of supporting the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), who are challenging the legality of the EU Supplement Directive which may severely limit our access to many valuable food supplements. Please support the ANH – www.alliance-natural-health.org