Positive Health Online

Seeking Asthma and Epilepsy Patients for New Biolight Treatment

A new treatment that shows very promising results with many chronic conditions including severe asthma and epilepsy is based upon findings arising from electro-acupuncture (sometimes known as the Vega test) and giving herbs, homeopathic remedies and nutritional supplements through tiny electromagnetic fields, light, sound and colour. This is based upon a form of treatment that has been used effectively for many years and involves the addition of light, sound and colour.

Very sensitive equipment is used to pick up the resonant frequency of the remedies chosen, as recent research at a number of universities has shown to take place. The patient is then simultaneously bathed in light, immersed in sound and lies in a tiny electromagnetic field all carrying these remedies. At the same time the recipient is surrounded by light in a selection of primary colours to support the process.

Under this treatment, a small sample of patients suffering from severe asthma were able to discontinue almost all medication, and experienced a very large reduction in symptoms. (Any change in medication should be done only under supervision of the patient's GP). Another sample of subjects diagnosed with epilepsy showed a near complete remission of all symptoms, and the longest running patient has now had no fits for 3 years.

To continue to monitor these life changing improvements in ailments previously accepted as incurable, the Biolight Clinic would very much like to hear from anyone suffering from these two conditions. For further information contact Simon Goodrich on Tel: 020-8673 5283; Mob: 07768 096784; gioia.fabbri@linklaters.com

Aromatherapy Consortium Seeks Lay Members

The Aromatherapy Consortium is currently developing the structures for regulation of the aromatherapy profession. We are seeking anyone interested in becoming a lay member of our group. We meet about 4 times a year in London and travelling expenses will be reimbursed. This is open to anyone who is not qualified in aromatherapy nor has any business interests in aromatherapy or aromatherapy products. The lay members are there to give an outside opinion on policies as they are developed and would suit anyone who is interested in aromatherapy and would like to make a contribution to this very important work.

Please contact Carole Preen on Tel: 0870 7743477; info@aromatherapy-regulation.org.uk or write to the Aromatherapy Consortium, PO Box 6522, Desborough, Kettering, Northants NN14 2YX. Full details of our work including minutes of meetings can be found on our website at www.aromatherapy-regulation,org.uk

Carole Preen
AC Administrator Channel 4 Seeks New Complementary Practitioners

Ricochet South, makers of Channel 4's No Going Back are currently producing an exciting second series of Risking It All, the series that follows people about to embark on a new business. We are interested in finding someone who is perhaps starting up a yoga studio, aromatherapy clinic, reflexology or alternative therapy clinic.

As with our first series of Risking It All we are looking for new businesses to follow from the initial set up for a 6 month period (not new businesses that have already started trading). There needs to be at least a month's worth of work (refurbishment / organising / marketing etc) to be done before the business is up and running. Ideally we are looking for people who are starting their initial plans anytime from now until the end of September with a view to opening by the end of this year/early next year. We need people who have never run their own business before and ideally are going for a complete career change. There has to be at least 2 partners involved and a significant amount of financial risk involved.

All our contributors from our No Going Back and first Risking It All series have received fantastic feedback and enjoyed significant boosts to their businesses as a result of being involved in our programmes.

Further Information
Please contact Lisa Winter on Tel: 01273 648396; lisa.winter@ricochet.co.uk www.ricochet.co.uk

Symposium re Brain Function and Dysfunction

David Marsh

The benefits of correcting our modern diet were in the spotlight at an international Symposium at the Royal Society on Friday 14th May: Brain Function and Dysfunction.

Food-related ill health costs the NHS nearly three times as much as smoking related ill health. Now scientists present the most powerful evidence yet that neuro-psychiatric disorders relate to inappropriate nutrition, costing 25% of NHS funds and 25% of national working capacity. If psychiatric disorders are included in the cost of food-related disease, then the cost of food-related disease rises to about two thirds of the cost to the nation of ill health.

Dr Letten Saugstad, whose Letten Foundation generously sponsored this event, explained the physiological differences between mental disorders arising from early puberty or late puberty. Lack of discernment and drug treatment in children and young adults, often meant an inappropriate prescription. Supplying marine oils was more effective in reducing the basic problem, and without side-effects.

The Role of DHA upon Visual and Neural Systems

Dr Holm Holmsen of the University of Bergen, revealed the role of the cell membrane lipids in treatment of psychiatric disorder in which docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) played a pivotal role in receptor function. Michael Crawford of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition (IBCHN), London Metropolitan University had been responsible for organizing the event. His evidence provided for a plausible quantum function of DHA which might explain its extreme conservation in visual and neural signalling systems over millions of years of dramatic evolutionary change. Deficiency of DHA was shown in 1972 to result in loss of visual and neural function, whilst in 1973 severe behavioural abnormalities were reported in a primate due to deficiency of DHA with excess of dietary linoleic acid. This experiment in fact models what is happening today in the twist in human diets: in the last 50 years there has been a loss of omega 3 and a marked rise in omega 6 fatty acids due to the rise in use of linoleic acid rich oils and cereals in human and animal feeds.

Dr Alex Leaf of Harvard University, Boston, then discussed the implications of DHA and other omega 3 fatty acids to signalling in the brain and heart. The striking prevention of sudden death from arrhythmia was now proven in three clinical trials and can be explained by Alex's work on the signalling in the heart and brain cells.

Marine Diet Effects upon Eyesight

Dr Anna Gislen from the University of Lund, Sweden then showed a film of the shell-fish diving Moken children, of SE Asia, and their remarkable underwater vision. When diving in the sea, they powerfully constrict their pupils, while their marine diet optimises acuity. Several studies have shown how eye and brain acuity as well as mental development indices, correlate with quality of the omega 3 nutrition during pre-and early post-natal development in pregnancy, and with breast-feeding. Throughout life, nutrition continues to affect cognitive powers, even reducing decline in old age.

Effects of Lack of Fish Diet upon Depression

Dr Pauline Emmett from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, discussed evidence on levels of depression in women which were higher among those who ate no fish compared with those who ate more than 336g/week. She said that the likelihood of having matured, 'adult' stereovision at 3.5 years was significantly greater in children whose mothers had eaten oily fish compared with those who did not. Dr Bernard Gesch of the Department of Physiology, Oxford University, described his randomized, placebo controlled studies in prisons, in which male behaviour was beneficially affected. Those consuming supplements (vitamins, minerals and marine oils) showed a 37% reduction in the most serious offences, notably violence.

Dr W Emanuel Severus of the University of Munich, reviewed the evidence from the clinical trials demonstrating beneficial effects of omega 3 fatty acids in the treatment of bi-polar and other psychiatric disorders in a session chaired by Professor Phil Cowan, Psychiatry, Oxford University. Severus emphasised the evidential link between the clinical trials and the early experiments in primates which modelled the changes in human dietary fats in recent time.

Populations in Transition

The evidence from populations in transition from their traditional to Westernized diets was then discussed. Dr Laurie Chan from the Northern Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, described the traditional diet of Inuits in the Canadian Arctic and its benefits for health. However, there is now a rising incidence of obesity, diabetes and suicides, associated with the transition from traditional wild foods to modern foods flown in to the Arctic homelands. A dangerous shift away from marine towards seed-oils, particularly rapid in the Arctic, has suddenly impacted on young Inuits. Their communities previously enjoyed good health, free of modern hazards until subjected to modern food marketing. Added to this is the tendency of pollutants to concentrate towards the poles. Yet Japan, with its less arduous means of maintaining a marine diet, is among those countries enjoying a marked freedom from the new health hazards, as described by Dr Susumo Ando from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

Yiqun Wang from the IBCHN, in collaboration with Professor Junshi Chen of Food Safety Institute, Beijing, then described the benefits of the coastal compared to the inland diet to good health and the prevention of chronic disease in China. He reported on the Westernization of food bringing with it sharp increases in obesity and diabetes. From the chair of this session, Sir Kenneth Stuart, previous chief medical advisor to the Commonwealth of Nations, drew attention to the impact of non-communicable diseases worldwide. They are now responsible for more deaths than the sum total of all deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and all other infectious diseases.

The penultimate session dealt with prevention. Mary Rutherford described work at Imperial College London as opening the door to understanding how to prevent brain disorder through addressing the needs of the mother and foetus.

Pollution's Effects Upon Marine Life

Torger Børresen from SeaFoodPlus, in Denmark warned about the effects of pollution on the marine food chain. Yet, despite some reports, lack of marine oils is a higher risk than that of toxins through fish, which is lower than through some other universal foods. If marine fats are to play a role in the human diet for the prevention of psychiatric disorders and vascular disease, then new ways need to be found to develop a sustainable production system from the oceans, lakes and rivers. However, Torger was optimistic about the role aquaculture would play in the future, with the proviso that the system could be managed to retain its rich omega 3 quality. Our choice of food that will reach our brain – particularly the food for the mother that will reach the brain of the child within her, or at her breast, is of paramount importance.

Failure of Food and Nutrition Policies

The final session dealt with the dominant health costs of food related disorders. Although heart disease was the number one in cost, Mike Rayner of the British Heart Foundation told the conference that psychiatric disorders came a close second. He also stated that the Government, top down, health education programmes of the last forty years had been a failure. New ideas are urgently needed to combat the pressures being exerted on consumers. This presentation was followed by a robust challenge to present food and nutrition policies by Jack Winkler of Food and Health Research, London. He echoed the Lancet's editorial (March 6th 2004) titled "The Catastrophic Failure of Health Policy". That failure was in large part due to a catastrophic failure of food and nutrition policy to serve the interests of the human blood vessels, heart and brain.

This Symposium powerfully made clear the vulnerability of our brain to abuse of ecology and food-chain. If we are to reverse the current disastrous trend, and reduce the huge burden of food-related ill-health, and national costs, we have to embark on a mega educational program, particularly for school children to A level but especially from pre-school age, which has been a major target for junk food advertising. We also will need effective environmental control and restoration of freshwater, estuarine and marine food chains, free form pollution. Moreover, a change in food policy will be needed to reflect the needs of the unique human brain.

Further Information

Michael Crawford: Tel: 0207 973 4869; michael@macrawf.demon.co.uk
David Marsh: Tel: 0208 741 1998; david@plasticheredity.co.uk Tel: 023-9283 8592; shhouse@ntlworld.com