Positive Health Online

I get extremely irritated, in fact infuriated, at the constant derisory carping and criticism about complementary therapies appearing in the print, electronic and broadcast media.

Whether it is about homeopathy (arnica has supposedly been proven to be useless), cranial sacral therapy (that CST may be harmful to babies), nutritional supplements (God forbid that people should waste their money on supplements) or organic food (that it may be dangerous for your health?), these swipes all take the biscuit as far as I am concerned.

Tell the woman in Dr Neil Slade's Homeopathic Casebook that homeopathy is useless. She kept her colon after homeopathic treatment rather than have it surgically removed; her Consultant had told her that she would be begging him to have the surgery.

Read Dr Michel Odent's The Industrialization of Farming and Childbirth to hear this medical pioneer's scathing views of electronic foetal monitoring, routine episiotomies and Caesarean section operations and assembly-line childbirth practised by 'conventional' medicine.

Even if you are sceptical about Energy Medicine (Radionics in the IT Era), Healing (Ancient Rainbow Conscious Healing (ARCH™)) or Mind/Body Work Techniques (Trauma Release Body-Mind Processing), you can't doubt the therapeutic properties of organic food, natural cooking and detoxification techniques (Detoxification and Emotional Balancing for Optimum Health, Natural Health Holidays in Sunny Spain, and The Healing and Transformative Qualities of Natural Cooking).

Two books reviewed in this issue (Organic Cookbook by Ysanne Spevack and Eat to Beat Cancer by Dr Rosy Daniel and Jane Sen) both advocate a wide selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, protein, grains and oils, food replete with optimum nutrients so important for the maintenance and repair of a healthy immune system, vital for good health.

Last night, in a TV clip about the pros and cons of commercial genetic tests, one 'expert' was horrified that people might 'waste their money buying supplements' to prevent getting cancer or heart disease. I never hear pundits worrying that people might waste their money buying fast cars, alcohol, cigarettes, or even eating or drinking themselves into their graves, or going on manic-filled, crazed holidays. It always seems that buying supplements is the worst waste of money.

It is so easy to mock, ridicule and deride therapies, beliefs and practices which we may find strange because they are beyond our understanding. But I wonder if these experts would be so fast to make fun of complementary therapies if their loved one(s), suffering from a debilitating or life-threatening condition, was helped by one of the many range of therapies available. Perhaps they would prefer it if their loved one(s) just suffered and died. At least they wouldn't have wasted their money on buying better quality food, supplements or investing in a holistic programme to rebuild their health.

A significant research study (see Zhang et al, page 40-41) emanating from Harvard School of Public Health was studying whether the intake of antioxidant vitamins E and C and carotenoids might be associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease. This prestigious team addressed the large cohorts of men (47,331 men in the Health Professionals; Follow-Up Study) and women (76,890 women from the Nurses' Health Study). The results demonstrated that although neither intake of total vitamin E or C or vitamin C or E supplements were associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease; however the risk of Parkinson's disease was significantly reduced in men and women with high intake of dietary vitamin E from foods only. Consumption of nuts was also associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's.

How and why these foods may be responsible for the reduced risk of Parkinson's will obviously need to be discovered through further research, but surely anything as simple as consuming high amounts of vitamin E from foods would be a priceless objective, representing infinite savings in human misery, not to speak of the cost of hospitalization for this dreadful condition.

We need to be strong, insightful and not influenced or deterred from our natural healthcare choices from bullying and smart ass critics, eager to achieve a cheap laugh or a throw-away line. Our health is far too precious. Such critics deserve to be scorned, rebutted but not ignored.