Positive Health Online

As someone who has always strived for consensus rather than adversarial conflict, it has been my paramount goal regarding healthcare to bring together allopathic treatment with complementary/natural approaches for an Integrated Medicine model. Positive Health PH Online Issue 269 is, in my view, an embodiment of Integrated Medicine, spanning the spectrum from Mind/Body/Spirit articles:

• Mindfulness in Everyday Life – Provide Calm, Reduce Stress and Help Gain Clarity of Thought,
• Fishing For Truth n Wisdom,
• How to Help People With Dementia,
• Using Rational Emotional Behaviour Therapy (REBT) – for Managing Internal Stress,
• Medical Education Needs Booster Dose,
• Helping Business Professionals with Remote Leadership Anxieties;

Clinical Conditions:

• The Reality of Living with PCOS - Your Questions Answered,
• Hearing Loss Communication Advice During COVID-19;

Nutrition and Gut Health:

• The Miracle of Light,
• 3 Types of Probiotics & Why That Matters For Your Gut Health,
• Spotlight on Vitamin C and its Role in Perimenopause,
• Top Tips for Cooking and Eating Sustainably in 2021;

Bodywork Approaches:

• Gary Howells 80 Times Marathon Runner Shares his Secret,
• Reconnecting with the Pelvis. Advice from the Ancestors,
• How Effective is Physiotherapy to Reduce Chronic Pain?,
• Entropy is Required to Enable Humans to Live Life with Fewer Health Disorders.

I published in 2017 a detailed and historical account of my journey from PhD Molecular Biologist scientist to Editor PH Online - My Experience of Publishing Positive Health PH Online for >22 Years. In the intervening 27+ years since the launch of PH Online, the Medical and Pharmaceutical Professions have not come together with the holistic / natural/ complementary health communities. Cancer is still overwhelmingly treated with chemotherapy, rather than nutritional / herbal / lifestyle approaches.

Likewise, COVID-19 is not being treated with integrated approaches including Vitamins and Herbs despite considerable evidence of the efficacy of these approaches as detailed in  Letters to the Editor Issue 269, Issue 268, Issue 267, Issue 266 as well as a recent placebo research study published in Health Tech Digital showing fewer hospital deaths in critical Covid patients treated with vitamin C and The Hydroxychloroquine Saga told by Rick Bradford, published by Lockdown Sceptics.

There is no shortage of argument and disagreements as recently outlined in Editorial Issue 268 regarding treatment approaches to COVID-19, including a wide spectrum of views towards the virus and its isolation, the safety of vaccines – whether they constitute vaccinations or novel experimental treatment, masks and their safety or otherwise, particularly for children.

Dr Robert Verkerk PhD, ANH Founder commented about a recent article published in BMJ:

Should those questioning vaccines be prosecuted?

“Dear Editor - given the appalling degree of polarisation that is presently dismantling the fabric of society, I was surprised that Melinda Mills and Jonas Sivelä would quite so readily make assumptions about criminal behaviours given the profound scientific uncertainties around a novel disease and even more novel vaccines. Criminality is typically determined in courtrooms based on legal judgments of evidence. We have yet to see any significant case law around vaccine hesitancy or misinformation. Dissent should not be conflated with criminality, and dissent has historically catalysed the discourse that ultimately facilities the emergence of scientific consensus. Let’s not judge until we have more facts, and let’s allow the courts to create criminals, not doctors, scientists or politicians.”

https://www.anhinternational.org/news/news-alerts-week-08-2021/

Politicians and World Governments evidently haven’t progressed to a more consensual tone; in fact, the opposite is the case. Today’s worldwide levels of shrill rancour, hostility and polarization are virtually impossible to bear for peace-loving rather than aggressive war hawks. Géraldine Schwarz, author of Those Who Forget: One Family's Story; A Memoir, a History, a Warning describes her visceral feelings to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.

“This safety net unravelled the day the United States elected Donald Trump as president, a man who incarnates the opposite of the founding values of the European Union. Seemingly unable or unwilling to deal with the demanding rules of democracy, which require reflection, argument, and nuance, he has instead embraced an unexamined, authoritarian style; violent, vulgar rhetoric; and a dangerous incompetence. For many Europeans, the shock was brutal. “The End of the World as We Know It” was the headline in Der Spiegel, accompanied by an illustration of a fireball with Trump’s features, his mouth wide open, ready to swallow the earth. In the days following his election, a flurry of racist and anti-Semitic acts seized the United States….” Those Who Forget: One Family's Story; A Memoir, a History, a Warning

The UK appears to be poised to transition out of tight Covid-19 restrictions with a gradual roadmap out of lockdown. Factors contributing toward this proposed journey toward greater freedom and normality have been the development and rollout of vaccines, as well as the protracted lockdown of huge swathes affecting all of our lives  – personal contact with loved ones and family members, retail, hospitality, arts, sports,  and the business practices of many complementary health practitioners.

As we publish Positive Health PH Online Issue 269, the world eagerly awaits rescue from the chaos and uncertainly of the past year of the pandemic. I, along with all humanity, fervently wish for restoration of our health and lives, and peaceful resolution to the many widespread and ugly conflicts around the world.