Positive Health Online

As Editor and one of the co-founders of Positive Health PH Online, you can imagine the mountains of daily emails I receive; in fact, one of my recent resolutions I am enacting, also mentioned in my most recent PH Online blog is my unsubscription from extraneous emails. It is too early to definitely report this a success; however I am tentatively noticing a dramatic decrease in email volumes.

However it is rare when an email gets my rapt attention as the first one  published in this issue’s Letters to the Editor page - there is nothing more to say, it is so blatant:

“At the World Snooker Championships, one of the finalists, Peter Ebdon, who had qualified for the Snooker Championship finals an amazing 21 times in a row, was asked to remove a logo from his tee shirt…

“…Peter Ebdon raised a firestorm by wearing a logo that said, "Gerson Therapy”. Interestingly, few of the photographs of Ebdon in any of the articles clearly showed the logo… Ebdon was moved to wear the logo after his father's death from cancer. But the explosion from the cancer, pharmaceutical and medical industry was prompt…

“"Obviously, I've upset somebody somewhere, but personally, I think it's too important for people not to know," said Ebdon, in a post-competition press conference. World Snooker officials clearly disagree, justifying their censorship by pointing to a rarely-enforced 1939 law prohibiting the advertising of any cancer therapy, or virtually any public speech about it. This law is never invoked when white-coated oncologists touting toxic chemotherapy or other possibly ineffective but immensely profitable allopathic cancer treatments take to the airwaves. In a very personal endorsement of Gerson Therapy principles, Ebdon has become a vegan since his father's death.”

I imagine that most PH Online readers are aware of this law; however it is never too late to wake up and realize the Kafkaesque world we have been living in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_Act_1939

The second letter - the proposed revision of the Medicines Act regarding licensing of homeopathic remedies, if passed without being updated and if enforced, would restrict unlicensed homeopathic medicines, currently available through specialist pharmacies, to face-to-fact prescriptions.

“Section 10 of this Act concerns licensing exemptions for pharmacists, and covers our freedom to supply a large number of different homeopathic remedies. This section has not been updated despite a public consultation last January, to which the entire homeopathic community submitted their concerns and suggestions.

“The vast majority of the 3500 remedies available from homeopathic pharmacies are unlicensed. The 60 or so remedies which are licensed are those retailed in health stores and community pharmacies and include Helios’ licensed remedies. Section 10 (4a) states that a pharmacy can supply an unlicensed remedy to you directly but you have to be physically present in the pharmacy. For the last 44 years and beyond, the specialist pharmacies have provided homeopathic medicines, to all corners of the country, by phone, post, fax and more recently e-mail and internet. This is a safe and convenient service which has continued without complaint or risk to customers for decades and it is important that access to remedies continues.

“The practical suggestion put forward was that homeopathic remedies above 6x be exempt from this face to face transaction. Time is short but there is an opportunity now to highlight this issue and effect a change by writing to your MP.”

This is still the subject of ongoing consultations; section 10 of the Act needs to be updated as mentioned above if the vast majority of the 3500 remedies can remain available to the public.

Other articles published in the June Issue 195, include features about Insurance for Health Professionals, Why Essential Fats are Good for You, We are All Coeliac - the prevalence of gluten and its widespread consequences, Weight Loss - the Mind / Body Connection, and A Sudden Death or a Long Life - factors behind marathon runners and athletes suddenly dying due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The lines between science, health research, politics and money are ever becoming more blurred.