Positive Health Online

As we edge toward Issue 200 of Positive Health PH Online - Issue 198 - I can report that as usual, there are events of Alternative / Complementary / Natural Medicine prompting dramatic, urgent actions, such as the current ban by the UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that Echinacea should not be taken by children under 12 years of age because of an association with a “low risk of allergic reactions”. www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-198

To reverse this ban the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM) has launched a campaign with an online petition which we encourage Positive Health PH Online readers to visit, read and sign if they agree: www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Reverse_Decison_on_Banning_Echinacea_in_Children_by_the_MHRA_and_the_IMB/?launch

Other items of interest to read in the Letters page for Issue 198 include The Stranglehold that the UK 1939 Cancer Act Exerts in Great Britain,  as well as research detailing the evidence at the molecular level explaining how chemotherapy frequently contains a sting in the tail. www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-198

 “Ever since chemotherapy was introduced into the practice of western medicine, doctors and oncologists have been trying to answer this nagging question: Why does chemotherapy seem to work at first, but then cancer tumours cells grow back even more aggressively while the body becomes resistant to chemotherapy?

“It turns out that chemotherapy damages healthy cells, causing them to secrete a protein that accelerates the growth of cancer tumours.

“This protein, dubbed “WNT16B”, is taken up by nearby cancer cells, causing them to "grow, invade, and importantly, resist subsequent therapy”, said Peter Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He's the co-author of the study that documented this phenomenon, published in Nature Medicine.

“This protein, it turns out, explains why cancer tumours grow more aggressively following chemotherapy treatments. In essence, chemotherapy turns healthy cells into WNT16B factories which churn out this ‘activator’ chemical that accelerates cancer tumour growth.

“The findings of the study were confirmed with prostate cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer tumours. This discovery that chemotherapy backfires by accelerating cancer tumour growth is being characterized as "completely unexpected" by scientists.”

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chemotherapy-backfire-boost-cancer-growth-study-164516832.html

Balancing the more strident, urgent issues of the above, are the hugely inspirational articles published in this issue, illuminating the imagination, determination and sheer possibilities that we all possess to change the direction our lives and chart new courses to a more fulfilling future. These articles include:

Self Leadership and Vision: The Power of Future Life Progression by Catherine Dixon

Living the Life You Dream: Part I: An NLP Perspective on Choosing Your Thoughts to Change Your Life by Gina Pickersgill

The Logic of Emotion by Ann Fillmore

Other Editorial features discuss how we view ourselves and our bodies within the larger societal context regarding weight loss and body image, as well as our emotional responses to infertility and professional infertility counselling:

Losing Weight is in the Mind, not the Belly by Sandra Roycroft-Davis

Body Image, Culture and Sexuality by Mark Bradley

Homeopathic Approaches to Infertility by June Sayer

Counselling for Infertilty by Vicky Allen

The nutritional and bodywork features, as always, discuss therapeutic approaches to health conditions afflicting many of us, such as food intolerances.

Spongiform Encephalopathies, Principles and Ramifications by Vivienne Bradshaw-Black

Food Intolerances: Understanding and Curing them using Natural Therapies by Christine Fadhley

Gleno-humeral Joint & Upper Extremity Examination Evaluation & Treatment by David Lintonbon

The Ayurvedic Cellulite Busting Therapy - Udvartana by Vishal Kohli

In the Research Updates, the study by Christen et all, Divisions of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA with >38,000 women, showed that regular consumption of omega-3 fatty acids and fish was correlated with a significantly decreased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). www.positivehealth.com/research/christen-and-colleagues-2

Also in the Research Updates published this month was the study by Minetti et al, Unita Operativa di Otorinolaringoiatria, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Italia. Their research demonstrated the clinical benefit of Imoviral® Junior, containing Echinacea, Beta-glucan, Vitamin C, Arabinoglactan and Zinc in the treatment of tonsillitis and upper respiratory tract infections in children. This research demonstrating clinical efficacy of Echinacea, published within the past year flies in the face of the MHRA’s ban on Echinacea for children under 12 discussed above.  www.positivehealth.com/research/minetti-and-colleagues

Just as the world of Complementary / Alternative / Natural Medicine swings / teeters between dramatic and inward-looking events, so do our personal and business lives. The majority of people I speak with are teaching courses, making and promoting health-enhancing products, treating patients, and are struggling in the recessionary climate to progress financially. As a publisher, like many businesses, we have been working hard for several years to manage the transition from print to online and master and keep up with the never-ending stream of technology. Our organization has grown, then shrunk, then become more virtual; there are, after all, limits to how much a few human beings can accomplish on their own. To finally realize the potential and need for Positive Health PH Online to become truly international and an authoritative force for a balanced type of healthcare, including the best of medical and natural disciplines,  we are now ready to meet with partners with the interest, motivation and the structural capability to assist us to grow and become a global presence.