Positive Health Online

Publishing Issue 250 is veritably a landmark milestone – 25 years and 250 issues of Positive Health PH Online. However, the recent past has not been a particularly joyous period: we have published Tribute Obituaries for the past three issues of Positive Health PH Online, including the present Issue 250.

• Issue 248 to Kate Arnold, my partner’s youngest daughter who died, aged 45 of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. The Coroner’s Report was released (26 Sept) and her funeral took place on 10 October. Although the Coroner’s Report mentioned causes of death, it didn’t address the clinical sequence of events which transpired during the short 2-week period between diagnosis, commencement of chemotherapy and her death;
• Issue 249 to Dr Peter Fisher MBBChir FRCP FFHom who died aged 67, from a cycling accident in High Holborn, London on 15 Aug 2018;
• Issue 250 Tribute Obituary Leon Chaitow ND DO died aged 80 following a period of failing health. Leon was a respected Osteopath, Bodywork Practitioner and Editor of Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapy (JBMT). He was an author and expert columnist with Positive Health magazine PH Online; his articles and columns are listed available from his Author Profile Page.

As has been a hallmark of PH Online, the articles in Issue 250 span a wide spectrum of topics and disciplines with several featuring a Mental Health theme. These include: A New Star(t) - Journey to Mental Health with the Help of Rainbow Tai Chi, Support and Care for Postnatal Depression, Dogs, Mental Health, and the Ways They Can Help Our Minds and Health Benefits of Gaming. The recent past and present has not been the most joyous period, as is observed in the poignant article Notes on Hope and Hopelessness by Musician and Bodyworker David Lauterstein LMT MTI Cert. ZB who reflects that:

“…Now the 21^st century has spawned what may be a new variant of hopelessness. Environmental degradation makes one concerned about the simple survival of future generations of humans.  Over-population and crushing poverty are causing people to rush in unprecedented numbers across borders out of desperation.  We put poisons in our food – I believe it was Margaret Atwood who said, when asked if an alien came down and had surprises about humanity, they’d first say, “They put poisons in their food!” The over-emphasis of university studies in technology, science, math and lack of similar enthusiasm and support for the humanities. The kind of immediacy facilitated by the Internet and social media is sadly paralleled by the distance it seems to bring to personal relationships.”

The changing nature of our cultural and social norms of gender and sexual identity is discussed in A Strong and Sexual Being and psychospiritual articles relating to our awareness feature in What You Sow in your Mind You Reap and The Empath Realization. Clinically informative articles about improvement to our health and wellbeing feature in Benefits of Breath Analysis and Breath Coaching, 4 Traditional Indian Home Remedies For The Skin, Hair And Nails, How To Follow An Ayurvedic Diet For Weight Loss, What are the Benefits of Raw Neem Honey, Is Stress the Reason behind your Weight Gain, How I Cured Myself of Fibromyalgia – and How You Can Too, How Yoga can Prevent Arthritis and How to Integrate Cycling into your Everyday Life.

Editorial features which dispute the conventional pharmaceutical-led medical model and which rebut what is often stated by conventional organizations include Fake Blow to CAM Use for Cancer by Robert Verkerk BSc MSc PhD FACN and Comparing Benefits of Vaccine Use to Vaccine Risks by JB Handley whose thoroughly researched, forensically argumentative and blunt book How to End the Autism Epidemic I am currently reading with the intent to review in PH Online. The recently published book Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illnesses by Dr Thomas Cowan has been reviewed by June Sayer DHom (Med) MARH MRHom DNTh DIridol FNTP.

The mood from the UK and Europe is currently fraught - totally embroiled in BREXIT and the European Union (EU), while the international community is subsumed by devastating wars, nefarious deeds across the Middle East, the actions of Russia, trade wars between the US and China, or the migrant crisis engulfing vast several continents.

Sombre events detailing corruption and nefariousness within the governance of international medical organizations are also reported on in this Issue 250, including:

• Resignation Letter 14 Sept from Peter C Gøtzsche , Professor, Director, MD, DrMedSci, MSc

“I regret to inform you that I have been expelled from membership in the Cochrane Collaboration by the favourable vote of 6 of the 13 members of the Governing Board.  No clear reasoned justification has been given for my expulsion aside from accusing me of causing “disrepute” for the organization.

“This is the first time in 25 years that a member has been excluded from membership of Cochrane. This unprecedented action taken by a minority of the Governing Board is disproportionate and damaging to Cochrane, as well as to public health interests.  

“As a result of this decision, and a number of broader issues concerning the inadequate governance of Cochrane, in accordance with its principles and objectives, four other members of the Board have resigned.  As a result, the Cochrane Collaboration has entered an unchartered territory of crisis and lack of strategic direction.  A recovery from this dire situation would call for the dissolution of the present board, new elections and a broad-based participatory debate about the future strategy and governance of the organization.  In just 24 hours the Cochrane Governing Board of thirteen members has lost five of its members, four of which are centre directors and key members of the organization in different countries.”

• Top Official at Memorial Sloan Kettering Resigns

“Dr José Baselga resigned from the board of drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb, which he served on since March.

“Dr José Baselga, the chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, resigned on Thursday amid reports that he had failed to disclose millions of dollars in payments from health care companies in dozens of research articles.

“The revelations about Baselga’s disclosure lapses, reported by The New York Times and ProPublica last weekend, have rocked Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the nation’s leading cancer centers, in recent days. Its top executives scrambled to contain the fallout, including urgent meetings of physician leaders and the executive committee of its board of directors.”

In addition to the superlative selection of articles are Research Updates, other Letters to the Editor, Short Features and Brief Takes and this Editorial, all of which make Issue 250 not only a worthy milestone issue but also promise an illustrious and portentous future for Positive Health PH Online well into the 21^st Century.