Positive Health Online

Being a Writer or Editor, at least for myself, generally means being attached to a desk, computer and telephone / email, not going out and conversing with the great and the good. It is of course impossible to split oneself in two, one half going out to survey the progress of clinicians in the wider world, the other half chained to the desk, doing one's extremely labour intensive job of publishing or writing. Were it only possible. There is, after all, only one 'oneself' - pity that cloning oneself, or having a real other self isn't feasible.

Practitioners and many other professionals have similar dilemmas, unless they have stopped seeing patients and devote their time to teaching and lecturing.  When I listen to interviews of famous authors describing their aloneness and solitude, writing in their attic rooms or sheds in the garden, I feel that I am not alone in feeling this separation from all the goings on in the outside world.

For the past ten years or so since the serious advent of emails and the internet, the amount of information and emails which bombard Editors is truly staggering. These include promotional press releases, synopses for articles and case studies, suggestions for book reviews, not counting books arriving, often unsolicited, from well-meaning publishers wanting to have their books reviewed. Or unsolicited gifts from PR companies promoting their clients.

When PH had large offices with all the staff employed in central Bristol, the set-up was like publishers have been portrayed in various media and still are for some of the print media. However, with the progress of technology, outsourcing, moving away, PH is run, like many other specialist publishers, with people working around the UK and around the globe, communicating via email, internet, skype. We have employed internet engineers from India, Serbia, USA, Brazil. Our advertising sales executive lives in Portsmouth, our designer in Bristol, my partner Mike and I live in Ramsgate, and authors for PH come from around the world - UK, USA, India, Australia.

Many PH Online visitors will have noticed the flags of several nations - UK, USA, Canada, India and Spain on the Home Page. These flags are meant to be the gateway or portal to the particular edition for that country. The architecture of the PH Online website was recently upgraded so that within each particular country, it is possible to display advertisements promoting courses, events products and practitioners within each country, either nationally, or locally within each state or region. Hence the USA site has adverts targeted to Americans, the India site to people living in India and so on. At the moment there are several USA adverts; the objective is to build an international network for selling advertising on PH Online - interested parties are welcome to get in touch. The technology presently exists to differentiate the Editorial and promotional features for various countries, and is being developed to streamline and improve the entry of visitors into the various country sites.

For all PH Online visitors who have ever been involved in the gestation, growth and fruition of substantive projects, they will recognize the stages of growth and seeming stagnation, until things gel and come together when it all works. When the international advertising / promotional network is in place, this will truly reflect the global nature of the PH Online site, with international authors, research and books. It will also enable authors, colleges, companies and practitioners to promote their events at a more local audience, if appropriate and provide a sustainable model for PH Online to provide free access to its specialist and precious archive.

Although it is difficult to notice the small increments of progress in the acceptance of Complementary / Alternative / Integrative approaches to health over the long period of publication of Positive Health PH Online (16 years), the Editorial features and Research Updates published in this July Issue 172 display both an exciting originality of conception, as well as a maturity confirming the coming-of-age of the application of diverse disciplines to clinical practice. In particular, I refer readers to Andrew Richardson's article What if Depression were a REM-Sleep Disorder? which tantalizingly explores the interface between dreaming, over-stimulation, fatigue and depression, to Dr Rajendra Sharma's Vitamins and Minerals - Discussion on the Benefits of Natural Food State Supplements and to Dr Richard Fuller's Immunotherapy Treatment for Cancer.  

Other authoritative and valuable features include: Chinese Herbal Remedies for Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia and Psychosis, Complementary Therapies in Pregnancy: Recognizing and Dealing with Complications, Family Experience of Living with Alzheimer's Disease, What is Thai Yoga Massage and the Alexander Barrie System of Pelvic Correction™ 

So, although Complementary / Alternative / Integrated Medicine continues to be under onslaught by factions within the Medical and Pharmaceutical lobbies and onerous EU legislation, there appears to be tangible progress in its acceptance and validation by the global community of practitioners and people internationally - and they are the ones who matter.