Positive Health Online

As we publish Positive Health PH Online Issue 266 with stellar features spanning the huge array of health conditions – encompassing Mental-Emotional-Spiritual, Nutritional and Herbal Medicine to Bodywork – I feel simultaneously pride at this collection of invaluable information, as well as an incessant, unceasing unsolvable ennui, wondering where COVID-19 is taking us.

The Orthomolecular Medicine News Service OMNS published on 13 Oct Vitamin C Cuts COVID Deaths by Two-Thirds – Commentary by Patrick Holford which is published as a Letter to the Editor in Issue 266.

“The world’s first randomized placebo controlled trial designed to test high dose intravenous vitamin C for treatment of COVID-19 has reduced mortality in the most critically ill patients by two thirds. [1]”

Like many PH Online readers I suppose, and despite past histories of pandemics, I somehow felt at the beginning of COVID-19 – March/April  2020 that we would be over the worst of it and would be able to resume more-or-less life as usual by this time – Oct 2020. However, as events, medical research and discoveries have unfolded throughout the past 6 months, there have been two almost completely distinct narratives – the medical-pharmaceutical; and  critical opponents to the medical-pharmaceutical paradigm; many views and voices of the latter critical view has been largely absent from the mainstream media.

A third strand –announcing progress with clinical results using Natural Treatment Approaches  – has been silenced and virtually absent from the mainstream and broadcast media; these are being monitored and mentioned within Positive Health PH Online. Here are links to a selection of articles / postings, several of which are published in the Letters to the Editor Issue 266.

• Vitamin C Cuts COVID Deaths by Two-Thirds Comment by Patrick Holford OMNS
• Oxford scientists: the only 'circuit break' we need is from bad data by Carl Heneghan dailymail.co.uk
• Counting COVID-19 'Cases' is Misleading Everybody – Lockdown Sceptics by Professor Norman Fenton, Dr Scott McLachlan, Professor Martin Neil and Dr Magda Osman Republished from lockdownsceptics.org
• Why your Positive Test Result is Likely Wrong by Rob Verkerk PhD Founder, Executive & Scientific Director Alliance Natural Health Int’l; Republished from anhinternational.org
• Viral Cultures for COVID-19 Infectivity Assessment. Systematic Review by Tom Jefferson, Elizabeth Spencer, Jon Brassey, Carl Heneghan. Preprint from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.04.20167932
• No, 90% Of Coronavirus Tests Are Not 'False Positives' And This Is Why by Chris York huffingtonpost.co.uk
• Chief Science Officer for Pfizer Says "Second Wave" Faked on False-Positive COVID Tests, "Pandemic is Over" by Dr Mike Yeadon. hubpages.com
• Lies, Damned Lies and Health Statistics – the Deadly Danger of False Positives – Lockdown Sceptics by Dr Michael Yeadon. lockdownsceptics.org
• How We Can Fix this Pandemic in a Month (Revised Edition) by Commentary by Damien Downing MBBS MRSB Republished from orthomolecular.activehosted.com
• Dr. Zelenko Discusses COVID-19 Outpatient Management. Interview with Dr Mobeen Syed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhLD1P5nH30 

During the past six months of the Coronavirus Pandemic PH Online has published authoritative and clinically effective research and articles regarding the role of nutritional supplements for COVID-19. Here are links.

• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-265
• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-264
• http://www.positivehealth.com/issue/issue-263-June-2020
• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/environmental/viruses-mutate-more-readily-in-selenium-deficient-surroundings
• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-263
• http://www.positivehealth.com/issue/issue-262-may-2020
• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/chinese-oriental-medicine/integration-of-traditional-chinese-medicine-for-coronavirus-covid-19
• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-262
• http://www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-261

Articles in Issue 266 which address Mental / Emotional / Spiritual issues include: Is Your Life Falling Apart?, Anxiety Symptoms and Causes; How Hypnotherapy can Help, A Balanced Way; Daoist Tips for 21st Century Living – Surviving Self-Isolation, MS Awareness – It’s Okay to Ask About Disability, The Merchants of Happiness and The Ten Laws of Ancestral Living for Optimum Health in a Modern World.

Dr Farhad Dalal’s article The Merchants of Happiness is wickedly subversive; his book The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami - Managerialism, Politics and the Corruptions of Science, reviewed in PH Online is a tour de force.

“Finally, let me return to the offer of free hugs that I touched on at the beginning of this piece. Happiness researchers have noticed that happy people have more physical contact than unhappy ones. They think that they can reverse engineer this correlation; they think that increased physical contact will lead to a state of happiness. This is akin to noticing that happy dogs wag their tails, and then presuming that teaching unhappy dogs to wag their tails will make them happy.

“The offer of free hugs is born out of exactly this kind of error. A hug is no abstraction. I do not feel better for hugging anonymous strangers; when I hug, it is an expression of tenderness towards another; it is a form of giving. Instrumentalized hugs are in the service of making myself feel better, and so it is a form of taking.

“CBT is not entirely without virtue, and in a sense the problem is not with CBT itself, but the hype that surrounds it and the use it is put to further specific ideological, professional and political agendas. In its original avatar, the scope of CBT was limited. Its technology was developed to help people recover from phobias, obsessive behaviours, and the like. In this it succeeds very well, and in these areas it is very often the ‘treatment of choice’. Problems became apparent when CBT’s ambitions expanded to colonize all forms of psychological suffering and its claim that it is the only answer to that suffering.”

Articles providing information about Complementary & Alternative, Herbal and  Nutritional Medicine include: Can Complementary & Alternative Medicine Help Fight Covid-19, Using Herbal Medicine, Why Hydration Is the Key to Spine Health; How to Keep your Back Hydrated and Healthy, Colloidal Silver – Master Antimicrobial, Antifungal and Antiviral Agent.

David Marsh’s article Colloidal Silver – Master Antimicrobial, Antifungal and Antiviral Agent narrates the historical clinical, scientific and especially antiviral aspects of Silver and laments the lack of definitive research recognized by the pharmaceutical and medical world.

“Over decades there has been much anecdotal evidence surrounding silver, but it remains anecdotal as insufficient trials have been done – or if research has been done it’s been scorned,  particularly by the big pharmaceutical companies and various medical establishments.

“Silver is not regarded as one of the essential trace elements. However, medical studies have suggested that if the amount of silver present in a person falls below 0.001 of their bodyweight, their immune system may become impaired. The mere presence of Colloidal Silver near any virus, fungus or bacterium (one-celled disease causing pathogens) will immediately cripple their oxygen-metabolising enzyme, or chemical lung, which suffocates and dies usually within six minutes.” Chap 2; The Colloidal Silver Hand Book, David Hooper, Hydrodynamicist, 2008.”

Bodywork approaches include authoritative features: Craniosacral Therapy in the Time of Fear, Chiropractic From the Feet Up - How Your Feet Impact Your Whole Body and Treating Long-Term Back Pain.

Jonathan Lawrence’s article Craniosacral Therapy in the Time of Fear eloquently encapsulates some of the most cutting edge issues about our situation with Covid-19.

“Fear in the right context can be very useful. It motivates us to take action to keep us and our loved ones safe. Fear can also be disabling and in a chronic state can impinge on our health and well-being. We are currently living with a great deal of fear some of which may be justified and some not.

“We live in time akin to being at war fearing for our lives and those we love. Albeit with an invisible enemy. We fear for our jobs and we fear for the future. We are subject to unprecedented  restrictions on how we behave, who we can see and what we can express on social media. The reason? a pandemic. Moreover, a pandemic that that like the previous ones, SARS-Cov-1, MERS and swine flu looks to have been over exaggerated by the modellers informing Government policy.

“Thus, fear is engendered aided by government action aimed at scaring the public into compliance; ostensibly to limit the spread of the disease. However, the actions have been so extreme that there are many who fear loss of livelihood such as those running small businesses especially in the catering and leisure industries. Therefore, it is not surprising that patients are presenting with symptoms caused by or exacerbated by fear.”

Much substance to reflect upon with PH Online Issue 266 – I wish that all our readers stay safe, remain sane so that when we come out the other side of this pandemic we will be not only alive but rejuvenated.