Editorial Issue 151
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The work of Dr Stephen Mannion, profiled by Dr (Lord) Robert Winston on Super Doctors, aired Thursday 4 September on BBC1 Television is totally inspiring...

Editorial Issue 150
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Hardly a week goes by without the print and broadcast media taking a swipe at Complementary Medicine, as if these techniques are completely bogus. PH was originally founded to refute these spurious denigrations.

Editorial Issue 149
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It is indeed shocking these days to witness the spectacle of breathtaking spin and mendacity emanating from leaders of nations – Zimbabwe, Sudan, Burma, China, even the USA and the UK,  spinning their version of  events, political, religious and humanitarian disasters, in front of international organizations and televised around the world.

Editorial Issue 148
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Recently, the negative media coverage regarding the so-called worthlessness or even fraudulence of Complementary Medicine has been growing into an almost deafening crescendo.

Editorial Issue 147
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In all the years since Positive Health (PH) has been established, one key area which has never ceased to astonish me has been the vastly differing areas of perception regarding diverse complementary disciplines among the enormously varied community of health professionals.

Editorial Issue 146
by Sandra Goodman PhD

At a time that we face a crisis in nutritional health and malnourishment in much of the population due to inadequate nutrition for hospital patients, junk foot diet habits and diminishing soil fertility, there is a concerted effort internationally from EU Directives, CODEX, and medical research scientists to severely restrict the availability and potency of nutritional supplements.

Editorial Issue 145
by Sandra Goodman PhD

When I look at the Research Updates in this issue of Positive Health (PH) (please see pages 30-33), I see the tremendous progress made in the quality and nature of research investigations over the past 15
years since the launch of PH in 1994. Today there are vital and well-informed studies critiquing the methodology of researching Complementary Medicine compared with ‘conventional’ drug-based
medical trials (see Fonnebo et al, page 30). Also, more than 75% of medical students at Georgetown University School of Medicine feel that “complementary and alternative medicine should be included in
the curriculum”.

Editorial Issue 144
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I was shocked when Martin Walker met me in Bristol in 1992 to discuss the Germanium debacle with me. During the mid to late 1980s, I had been researching organic germanium’s immune-enhancing properties with the objective of funding a pilot clinical trial to test organic germanium’s potential therapeutic efficacy for HIV/AIDs. I had published a number of research papers in peer-reviewed journals, submitted grant proposals to funding bodies including The Welcome Trust and had written a book published by Thorsons in 1988 entitled Germanium the Health and Life Enhancer.[1]

Editorial Issue 143
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I am reminded again and again that the terms which we all use frequently to delineate ourselves from orthodox medicine, are wholly inadequate. These include the alphabet soup comprised of Alternative Medicine, Complementary Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), Holistic Medicine, Natural Medicine. Even my current favourite Integrated Medicine is also in danger of becoming a hackneyed cliché. These terms are all correct, yet when put into the semantic mix, have become a bit of a nightmare.

Editorial Issue 142
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The notion that the individual, i.e. you or I, can make a difference to the world, has become familiar, yet sacred within the spiritual as well as the broader mainstream world.

Editorial Issue 141
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Continuing on from my Economics and Budget discourse from the previous month (Issue 140, Oct ‘07), I have been further exercising my brain about the arbitrary nature of our current economic paradigm and how this compares to the mechanistic/ wholistic dichotomy in healthcare.

Editorial Issue 140
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The extent to which all endeavours have now been reduced to an Accountant-like bottom line mentality is breathtaking and despicable.

Editorial Issue 139
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Today it is more difficult than ever to be fully informed regarding medical, lifestyle and scientific matters unless you are permanently hooked up with the electronic equivalent of an intravenous drip.

Editorial Issue 138
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Am I a naïve imbecile or what? Just as more detailed research is being published and accumulated regarding the importance of diet and nutrition in disease prevention and treatment, there appears to be a greater effort and focus in closing down health stores and quality and innovative nutritional supplements. Not to mention the increased litigation and prosecution of practitioners who recommend specific nutritional supplements, under the Kafkaesque laws classifying a supplement as a food or a drug.

Editorial Issue 137
by Sandra Goodman PhD

This July Issue of Positive Health (PH) has an overall healing theme, with lucid and inspiring features about Meditation (Chronicles of Samadhi), Reiki (Angelic Reiki – A New Healing for Our Time?) and Hypnosis in Childbirth (The Benefits of Self-Hypnosis in Childbirth).

Editorial Issue 136
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I direct all Positive Health (PH) readers to the Regulation Concerns letter on page 46 of this June Issue. This is an important communiqué, signed by A Concerned Professional; I can attest that the author of this letter is a senior professional whom I have known for over 15 years.

Editorial Issue 135
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I received an email from a Canadian relative who had previously contacted me two years ago, seeking information for her husband struggling with prostate cancer.

Editorial Issue 134
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Sylvia Baker’s comments about how the Editorial in the March Issue (see letters page 52) had struck a cord in her and her friends have been rolling around in my mind all month.

Editorial Issue 133
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I don’t usually relish reading Editorials in specialist journals or magazines where the Editor is pontificating upon subjects outside the remit of their publication, and that is why, in Positive Health, I almost always stick to topics immediately pertinent to Complementary Medicine.

Editorial Issue 132
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Over the past 15 years of producing Positive Health (PH), it has never ceased to amaze me how health professionals view the world and filter health evidence from such unbelievably variant agendas.

Editorial Issue 131
by Sandra Goodman PhD

By the time this January ‘07 issue of Positive Health is published a few days prior to Christmas, we will all, hopefully, be having at least a bit of a rest over the holiday season. Or, at least those of us who are fortunate enough to be healthy rather than ill, and don’t have to work over the entire period.

Editorial Issue 130
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There are a number of tangible threats which put at risk many vital products and practices of Complementary Medicine. These include:

Editorial Issue 129
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Fast Food, Obesity and Ill Health (see page 26), Living with Multiple Sclerosis and Treatment Approaches (see page19), The Holistic and Environmentally Friendly Home (see page 34), Yoga, Dietary and Lifestyle Approaches for Prostate Problems (see page 45); these features  epitomize some of the most important paradigm challenges of our modern world – i.e. that there may be considerable knowledge, even clinical research validating effective treatment approaches, but that changing our collective dietary, medical treatment and lifestyle habits is a huge slog.

Editorial Issue 128
by Sandra Goodman PhD

One of my current pet hates is the over-riding obsession in our culture with cheapness, value for money, buy-one-get-one-free mentality. This paradigm pervades our entire lifestyle, affecting our options and choices regarding food, education, music, clothes, even healthcare.

Editorial Issue 127
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I have long been discovering that much that I had once been taught about science or health is incorrect, or that the information was presented with a biased agenda.

Editorial Issue 126
by Sandra Goodman PhD

A longitudinal investigation of 143,325 individuals, initiated in 1992 by the American Cancer Society and followed up in 1997, 1999 and 2001, examined whether people exposed to pesticides had a higher risk of Parkinson's Disease (PD) than those not exposed. The team, led by Professor Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health, published their findings in Annals on Neurology.[1] This research has found that individuals exposed to pesticides had a 70% higher incidence of PD than people not exposed (rr = 1.7; p = 0.002). The relative risk for pesticide exposure was similar in farmers and non farmers, i.e. people who were exposed as a result of pesticides in the garden or in their homes.

Editorial Issue 125
by Sandra Goodman PhD

My father died at the end of 2005, just prior to the New Year. The immediate cause of his death was the inability of his diabetic leg ulcers to heal; these had become infected and gangrenous. The medical team were unable to fight the infection with intravenous antibiotics, and the family and medical team decided, upon medical and quality of life grounds, that amputation was not an option.

Editorial Issue 124
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In the Research Updates of this issue (see page 38 under Antioxidants), K Landmark from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway has published a review of the literature regarding the relationship of vitamins C and E and the development of Alzheimer's disease. The results of this literature review (several observational studies and two controlled clinical trials) indicated that vitamins C and E from both food and supplement sources, may have beneficial effects upon the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Editorial Issue 123
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The media disparages Complementary Medicine almost as quackery and voodoo witchcraft; snide comments in the print and broadcast media are prone to insinuation and scaremongering, portraying complementary approaches and practitioners as practically off-the-wall and definitely unqualified.

Editorial Issue 122
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Please read the inspiring story (see pages 42-43) of how David Longman's daughter Louise (now aged 21) was successfully treated and cured of a benign vascular tumour which had blighted her life since birth. The technique used was Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), which applies a photosensitising agent which is applied and absorbed into the tumour. When the agent (Foscan in this instance) is activated by the correct wavelength of light, this converts oxygen molecules into singlet oxygen, which destroys the targeted cells. There is no heat used or generated, so that any healthy cells which may have been destroyed can regrow, with little or no scar tissue.

Editorial Issue 121
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There is a huge volume of published material in all fields of Complementary Medicine. Such is the volume, that finding a place to house all the books and journals which PH receives on a daily basis is a huge problem. Literally behind my desk and work station are two eternally large piles of books, awaiting commissioning and review; the piles diminish slightly every time I have a blitz and send out books for review, but they fill up again in no time.

Editorial Issue 120
by Sandra Goodman PhD

My partner suffered 7 hours of violent vomiting, following food poisoning after eating a meat pie purchased from our local Supermarket. Their response was pathetically customer service reassurances that they take these incidents seriously, despite my several telephone calls, even when I returned the offending product for microbiological inspection. This was infuriating, in view of threats these days from pathological organisms – E. coli, MRSA, C. difficile, the H5N1 strain of avian flu. More on this another time.

Editorial Issue 119
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Unbelievably, I was recently emailed a Press Release with the heading "Millions at Risk from Vitamins Overdose". I thought that someone was deliberately winding me up; however, the Norwich Union Healthcare's Health of the Nation Index, researched from 250 practising GPs across the UK, cited the following incredible results:

Editorial Issue 118
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The Headlines report that perhaps as many as one million 'mistakes' occur within the NHS and that 2000 patients die every year from a variety of errors, ranging from falls, errors in medication, equipment defects and patient accidents. These figures exclude hospital-acquired infections, from which it has been estimated that as many as 20,000 patients may die each year; 10,000 from MRSA.

Editorial Issue 117
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As can be gleaned from a number of features, book reviews and letters within this issue, cancer is hardly the good news it is sometimes presented as in the Media. In the words of Beata Bishop, herself a survivor of more then 20 years of malignant melanoma, having been given a prognosis of 6 weeks to live "…A life-threatening illness, such as cancer, pushes the patient into a narrow, grim, body-centred existence, where all interest and care are focused onto the endangered body and its symptoms. The diagnosis itself unleashes terror and a sense of helplessness." (See The Role of the Transpersonal Dimension in Life-Threatening Illness pages 15-17.)

Editorial Issue 116
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It is generally only through the sobering experience of personal or family illness and the ensuing medical treatments for that condition that we discover the truly pervasive and possibly devastating influence that prevailing medical opinion can exert upon our lives.

Editorial Issue 115
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I have been ruminating about Karin Leonard’s inspiring and highly practical feature Seven Principles for Life-Balance, which is totally in accord with the way that we ought to lead our lives: a balance of our work, family and leisure pursuits. My thoughts, however, wandered subsequently to my perception that this ideal isn’t remotely the way my life has been. There have been periods where each part of my life has received its fair allotment; however, most periods in my life have been exceedingly intense, focussed upon one or perhaps two main endeavours.

Editorial Issue 114
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The ruling about the EU Food Supplement Directive (FSD) at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 12th July has, thankfully, not resulted in the Armageddon scenario previously feared by all who believe in the freedom of choice to optimize our health using nutritional and herbal supplements.

Editorial Issue 113
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It has been awhile since I have been riveted by a genuinely exciting, inspiring scientific tale of discovery that clinically alleviates symptoms of long-sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) – CFS/ME.

Editorial Issue 112
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The freedom to improve our health and treat numerous conditions using nutritional and herbal medicines is constantly under threat. Positive Health has widely publicized the campaigns being conducted by the Alliance for Natural Health to oppose the EU Nutritional and Herbal Supplement Directives. In the May issue we reported an apparent reprieve for the repeal of hundreds of nutritional and herbal products on the 'Positive list'; the final decision will be rendered on 1 August.

Editorial Issue 111
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I have been extremely apprehensive about what the best voting options would be at the general election on 5 May regarding the EU Supplement and Herbal Medicines Directive.

Editorial Issue 110
by Sandra Goodman PhD

John Spottiswoode's thought-provoking feature Cancer Causes and Mechanisms: Hypothesis (see pages 29-34) offers many fascinating insights regarding his central hypothesis that various cancers appear to be caused by Autonomic Nervous System imbalances. Specifically, that solid tumours, such as breast, colon, lung, etc. appear to occur mainly in individuals with an overly active sympathetic nervous system, and the converse, that blood-based cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, occur in patients with an overly developed parasympathetic nervous system. The arguments presented are based upon clinical and epidemiological research evidence and cover a multitude of important factors of interest to us all, such as how particular cancers develop and evade the immune system.

Editorial Issue 109
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It is sometimes hard to know whether matters are progressing or not with Complementary Medicine. There are times when one almost despairs. Take the case of Jennifer Worth (see page 29) who had previously sorted out an extremely aggressive case of eczema with an Elimination Diet and Enzyme Potentiated Desensitization (EPD), as recounted in Issue 81 October 2002, and who, following an illness after New Year's Day in 2004, couldn't shift the most horrendous illness despite trying every type of treatment around. Finally, what worked for her was yet another round of her elimination diet and further EPD treatment from an allergy specialist.

Editorial Issue 108
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Dr Robert Atkins, who tragically died last year after falling on the pavement and hitting his head, has been the subject of innumerable, inaccurate and sometimes ignorant swipes, both for his Atkins diet, as well as his personal life.

Editorial Issue 107
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The other night on Newsnight I viewed a most innovative treatment by a Chinese doctor for degenerative neurological conditions including spinal cord injury, paralysis, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and Parkinson's Disease.

Editorial Issue 106
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As you may already have heard, Here's Health, the longest lived magazine in the UK about Complementary Medicine, ceased publication; the November 2004 issue was the last. This information was conveyed to its readers via a cover letter stating that fewer people had been buying the magazine and the publishers (EMAP) had no choice but to close it.

Editorial Issue 105
by Sandra Goodman PhD

This past week I was exceedingly saddened to view BBC Watchdog (Monday 4 October) which attacked the nutritional and diet therapy of the Nutritional Cancer Therapy Trust, which is based somewhat upon the Gerson regimen and also uses nutritional supplements.

Editorial Issue 104
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Since reading Vaccination: A Guide for Making Personal Choices (reviewed on page 61), I have continued to be impressed by the stunning clarity of this little book. Author Dr Hans-Peter Studer and Editor Dr Geoffrey Douch have succeeded in presenting one of the most complex and contentious health topics of today – the subject of vaccination – in a highly informative, factually accurate, yet unpatronizing and unbiased manner.

Editorial Issue 103
by Sandra Goodman PhD

A Research Update in this issue by Sherry et al (see page 42) relates the successful treatment in Sydney Australia of an intractable MRSA infection of the lower tibia of a 49-year old Australian man using a complex antimicrobial phytochemical preparation called Polytoxinol™ (PT) antimicrobial. The ingredients of this medication are Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Clove, Thyme as well as BHT (Butylated Hydroxy Toluene), Triclosan (0.3%) and 95 undenatured ethanol (69.7%).

Editorial Issue 102
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The media and medical establishment climate we live in defies belief! According to research widely reported in the UK, more than 10,000 people in the UK, die every year from adverse reactions to drugs such as aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. Also, going into hospital puts patients at significant risk of adverse reactions to drugs administered, not to mention the potentially fatal risk of contracting a dreaded MRSA infection from the hospital ward.

Editorial Issue 101
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I sense that as practitioners and/or consumers of complementary medicine, we currently find ourselves in strained circumstances, sometimes with conflicting allegiances. This, I feel, is somewhat of a reflection, in part, of the rather sombre and foreboding canvas of events unfolding internationally, which is sorely testing our sense of control in our lives.

Editorial Issue 100
by Sandra Goodman PhD

How should we practise medicine? At first glance, this might seem as daft a question as How long is a piece of string? Or How do I love thee, let me count the ways. You might imagine that you would get a different sort of medicine practised by each individual medical practitioner.

Editorial Issue 99
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As professional health practitioners and serious users of complementary medicine, I imagine that the majority of Positive Health readers may not respond well to massively overblown, tabloid-like headlines laden with conspiracy, doom-laden tales of woe and catastrophe. I usually give these a fairly wide berth myself, often distrusting their exaggerated claims and lack of substantiation.

Editorial Issue 98
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I have never been comfortable with the dichotomies and schisms semantically describing various approaches to healthcare. Why do we have to continually divide and categorize types of techniques, practitioners and even beliefs by terms which are at best ambiguous and at worst, misleading: conventional medicine, traditional medicine, orthodox medicine?

Editorial Issue 97
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I have a serious issue around trusting health experts. Your life and heath, and mine, may depend upon not trusting the received wisdom of conventional experts.There are a number of salutary features in this issue providing ample food for thought regarding the risks of obeying the so-called experts.

Editorial Issue 96
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Regular readers of Positive Health know that I constantly harangue the medical establishment, government regulatory bodies and the media regarding the widespread scandalous ignorance of the majority of health professionals about published research across the numerous fields of complementary medicine.

Editorial Issue 95
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I am somewhat amazed, and exceedingly proud to announce that Positive Health is now 10 years old and about to enter its second decade of publication.

Editorial Issue 94
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Thinking 'outside of the box' is probably one of the most crucial qualities required by health practitioners. Alas, the world of medicine, and, indeed, the greater world of politics, science, law and most fields, are populated and controlled not by vanguard visionaries, eager to implement new discoveries, but by small 'c' conservative, staid, perhaps even reactionary, or even worse still, self-interested, profit-motivated and status quo-defending individuals and institutions.

Editorial Issue 93
by Sandra Goodman PhD

My blood is boiling, again. While in the shower this morning, I had been mentally formulating what I wished to say in the Editorial of this Issue.

Editorial Issue 92
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I used to think that nutritional approaches for cancer treatment were the only fields marginalized vis à vis conventional medical orthodoxy. However, it is far, far worse; all 'complementary', i.e. non-pharmaceutically oriented therapies and practices are totally ignored by the medical profession. It is as if all the scientific research, clinical experience and historical Materia Medica built up by ancient and venerable professions such as herbal medicine, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine and in more recent times homeopathy, are all for nothing. All this expertise exists in a parallel universe black hole, only to be accessed by those professionals and patients aware of the vast goodness, wisdom and efficacy brought about by natural approaches to healthcare.

Editorial Issue 91
by Sandra Goodman PhD

David Walker's story (see pages 35-38) is both an inspiring and hideous example of the ongoing criminal suppression, by (mainly US) governments, law enforcement agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and medical establishments from many countries of efficacious cancer treatments.

Editorial Issue 90
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In over nine years of publishing Positive Health, I had never before been telephoned directly by the Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency (MHRA), previously called the Medicines Control Agency (MCA). Not until yesterday, that is.

Editorial Issue 89
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Those of us who wish to protect our health and that of our families and patients are definitely on a collision course with the 'Big Brother' authorities – multinational pharmaceutical companies, globalization entities such as CODEX, the European Parliament, even UK governmental agencies such as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) which has released a report warning that people could damage their health by overdosing on high dose vitamin pills.

Editorial Issue 88
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There are few people I speak with who don't consider being afflicted and disabled by a stroke to be one of their worst nightmares. In that momentary cerebral accident, lives change forever, for the victim, their family and their carers. It is certainly one of my worst imagined nightmares – to be paralyzed, perhaps unable to speak, wash, dress, even perform basic toilet functions independently.

Editorial Issue 87
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Call me simpleminded, but my idea of optimum healthcare has always been that, depending on the severity and nature of the medical problem, the most appropriate treatment(s) should be used, on a continuum from high-tech emergency medicine to low-tech and non-invasive modalities such as healing, homeopathy, etc.

Editorial Issue 86
by Sandra Goodman PhD

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.

Editorial Issue 85
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Like many others, I used some of the so-called holiday period as an opportunity to catch up with big projects that I had been putting off due to the manic load of everyday work tasks. Thus it was that I read the exceptional book Destructive Emotions and How We Can Overcome Them – A Dialogue with The Dalai Lama (reviewed on page 56), which offers an extraordinary juxtaposition of neurobiology, brain function and meditation techniques. If there is ever going to be hope for our fractured, violent world, it surely in the end will be down to becoming aware of and eventually mastering our eruptive, destructive emotions.

Editorial Issue 84
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It is a terrible situation when the penny drops and you realize that you can't trust anyone to tell you the 'truth' about life and death health matters. This is certainly the conclusion that many of us have arrived at: Gregory Pawelski documents how his wife died from the side effects of her ovarian cancer treatments; Kit Anderson lists the toxic petrochemical pollutants present in the majority of beauty products; Dr Anthony Rees describes how his camera crew was barred from entering a CODEX meeting and told that the reason there were no press in attendance was that "the press hadn't been invited because there was really nothing of interest for them" (see Letters page 47). So much for health freedom!

Editorial Issue 83
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The old saying 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose' is a time-honoured truism with both positive and negative attributes.

Editorial Issue 82
by Sandra Goodman PhD

"Have you seen the Breast Cancer Treatment section in this Sunday's The Observer?", my partner asked. As he handed me the 32-page supplement on 29 September, I was hoping to see a holistic approach to breast cancer treatment. However, upon turning to page 2, with full-page advert from pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology, along with statement that the Guide was produced in partnership with Dr Foster, my heart plummeted, knowing that what we had was the 'medical' version of breast cancer treatment – surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, devoid of any mention or notion of nutrition, herbal medicine, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, acupuncture or any other complementary treatments which may be helpful in either treating the cancer, or at the very least alleviating some of the very nasty symptoms and side effects inflicted by conventional medical treatments.

Editorial Issue 81
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Published Research is inspirational for me. In this issue, MacPherson et al reported that of a total of 34,407 acupuncture treatments, there were no serious adverse events reported. There were 43 significant minor adverse events such as nausea and fainting, bruising, etc. This is a huge endorsement of acupuncture as being safe. I wonder how would this compare with the same number of conventional medical treatments?

Editorial Issue 80
by Sandra Goodman PhD

When I originally started Positive Health some nine years ago, my motivation was to provide authoritative clinical and research information about complementary medicine to people who might not otherwise learn about new developments in the many natural healthcare fields.

Editorial Issue 79
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Spending as much time as I do reading research, journals and books from all areas of health, the amount of vigorous, even vicious disagreement among top experts in every field never ceases to amaze.

Editorial Issue 78
by Sandra Goodman PhD

That the Mind has a profound effect upon our health, via brain-immune modulation is not a new revelation. In fact, as per the recent review of the literature of psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI) by senior researchers Kiecolt-Glaser (see Research Updates), the history of the field of PNI goes back even further than 1939.

Editorial Issue 77
by Sandra Goodman PhD

When I recently received The British Association of Flower Essences Producers' newsletter advising that Flower Essences may come under the aegis of the Traditional Herbal Medicines Directive (THM) and that consultations are presently underway with the Medicines Control Agency (MCA), I was completely and utterly gobsmacked. Of all the utterly ludicrous scenarios, bordering on the insane, this one takes the biscuit.

Editorial Issue 76
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As individuals, it is difficult, yet vital, to remind ourselves of the absolute importance of doing our utmost to protect and nurture our own health. Especially so today, amidst the growing powers of national, European and global organizations fighting to enshrine laws supposedly designed to 'protect' us, but interpreted by the majority of Positive Health readers as attempts to strip us of our freedom to protect our health, by failing to provide the highest quality food and environment, and by restricting our access to unorthodox complementary health treatments and innovative cutting edge nutritional supplements.

Editorial Issue 75
by Sandra Goodman PhD

"Sold down the river", "ruled by Brussels", "in breach of the Maastricht Treaty", "the EU wants to deny us the right to look after our own health", "a Humanitarian rights issue", "we do have our health and that of our loved ones to protect" and "Why has information not got to the general public?"

Editorial Issue 74
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The current healthcare system is light years from being integrated, vis à vis Orthodox and Complementary disciplines. This can be exemplified by reading comments from some of the letters generated in the Sunday Times serialization of The Living Proof by Michael Gearin-Tosh (see Review), as well as the Letter by Cancer Nurse specialist Patricia Peat "…I have been completely stonewalled by the doctors and nurses in the NHS; patients receiving unbiased, truthful information are not something they have so far welcomed…"

Editorial Issue 73
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In my review of Petrene Soames' book The Essence of Self-Healing, I quipped that she has more courage than I to predict that serious illnesses such as cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's would be eradicated between the years 2030 and 2040.

Editorial Issue 72
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I have been thinking of late that everyone around me and my colleagues seems to be either getting cancer or dying of cancer. In fact, this deeply distressing state of affairs is not my imagination, but is borne out by official cancer statistics.

Editorial Issue 71
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Robert Charman (see Letters) has got it absolutely right. Looking at the recent BBC1 series Living with Cancer, Monday evenings at 10.35pm, one might get the impression that all there is in cancer treatment is "…chemo, radiotherapy and surgery. There was nothing else. It was as if all the CAM literature on approaches to cancer treatment and centres such as the BCHC didn't exist. Your excellent September issue might just as well not have been published… The Consultants live in a world of hi tech medicine and specialist journals…"

Editorial Issue 70
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Many features herein concern healing – transformation, healing with music and meditation and healing from cancer.

Editorial Issue 69
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The rampant commercial attitude of many organizations, even within charities, healthcare and spiritual pursuits, has been a continuing revelation and source of distaste for me. We have seen the social and political movements of the sixties to the nineties, a complete turnaround from mass political protest and spiritual endeavours to the me-generation and so-called market forces and globalization of today.

Editorial Issue 68
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As individuals, how we choose to support causes, complementary medicine in particular, may literally save our lives.As eloquently discussed by Dorothy Rowe Ph.D. (see page 9), we typically take on many beliefs from our parents, peers and family as we are growing up.

Editorial Issue 67
by Sandra Goodman PhD

How to find a qualified, competent complementary practitioner ought to be a straight forward enough process; however, as you can deduce from Sarah Noble's article of that title (see page 30), nothing to do with health care is ever simple.

Editorial Issue 66
by Sandra Goodman PhD

To badly paraphrase former US President Bill Clinton, 'It's the Evidence, Stupid!' Or, should I say, all the massive evidence regarding nutrition and cancer, which is in the public domain, freely available to anyone with access either to the internet or to library journals.

Editorial Issue 65
by Sandra Goodman PhD

We in the UK have been forced to witness with numbing incredulity the slaughter of millions of healthy livestock and other animals, due to apparent scientific incompetence and bureaucratic suppression of information as well as the refusal by the government to use available (and offered) diagnostic tests to discriminate between animals infected with foot and mouth and those immunized via vaccination. Things have progressed in the science of immunity and diagnostic testing since 1967. It is unbelievable that before our very eyes we have seen sanctioned this needless tragic carnage on such a catastrophic scale.

Editorial Issue 64
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In Issues 62 and 63, I have discussed the considerable impact that individuals, clinicians and researchers can exert upon therapeutic healthcare progress and hence upon all our lives. I left off retelling my own story of attempting to raise funds to conduct research to confirm or refute the potentially therapeutic effects of organic germanium upon AIDS.

Editorial Issue 63
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In the last issue I discussed how pivotal individual suffering and motivation can be in the development of important health treatments, particularly for chronic or intractable conditions which are not treatable using conventional approaches. I also described how influential the motivation of research clinicians often features in discovering better ways to help their patients.

Editorial Issue 62
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The origins of numerous effective therapies and treatments often arise from the desperate search for relief of sufferers of devastating illnesses. In this age of evidence-based medicine, which often is the end result of discovery and development, it would be a pity to forget that misery is often a spur for invention and innovation.

Editorial Issue 61
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The origins of numerous effective therapies and treatments often arise from the desperate search for relief of sufferers of devastating illnesses. In this age of evidence-based medicine, which often is the end result of discovery and development, it would be a pity to forget that misery is often a spur for invention and innovation.

Editorial Issue 60
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Over ten years ago, while I was researching the literature for Vitamin C – The Master Nutrient, I came across the despairing cries of doctors who, having discovered even as far back as the 1930s that heart disease can actually be reversed by vitamin C, were bemoaning the fact that this vital information hadn't been integrated into clinical practice, indeed emergency rooms.

Editorial Issue 59
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I place a great deal of importance upon the integrity and reliability of the source of critical information, particularly when it may impact upon my health and wellbeing.

Editorial Issue 58
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It has been utterly frustrating for me to witness the constantly denigrating and sometimes tragic consequences of polarization from within and without complementary medicine.

Editorial Issue 57
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Regarding scientific research and other important health information, the most difficult attributes to ferret out, but which are fundamental, underlying the information's reliability and integrity, are who is reporting the information, what is their independence or commercial links or sponsorships, and any ulterior agenda which may underlie the announced information.

Editorial Issue 56
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In a recent BBC2 documentary exploring the UK's poor cancer survival rate, members of a UK Parliamentary scientific select committee were seen visiting the USA's National Cancer Institute (NCI), as well as Finland's public health and cancer epidemiological specialists.

Editorial Issue 55
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I am continuously shocked by the colossal ignorance of health professionals regarding published research across the many disciplines of Complementary Medicine.

Editorial Issue 54
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The huge gulf which exists between natural-oriented therapies and people who follow more mainstream life practices never ceases to amaze me.

Editorial Issue 53
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As a child growing up in relatively affluent Canada during the 1950s and 60s, some of my most powerful formative influences were the frequent famines and horrors of conflict – the wars in Biafra, and the Congo, starving children in India and Pakistan. Layered on top were the ghastly polio epidemics which interceded into my childhood summers, with the spectre of iron lungs and paralysis brazen images onto my psyche. These events, together with the enormous scientific and medical advances which promised to put an end to hunger and disease, and my father's exhortations that with my brains I could significantly help mankind, hugely shaped my motivation to try to help people who were ill and starving.

Editorial Issue 52
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Editorial Issue 51
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I get really furious when so-called experts pronounce utter nonsense in an authoritative way to their captive audience on radio or television. So, imagine my reaction while listening to a recent Radio 4 call-in programme about sports injuries. A caller phoned in about an injury, said that they had heard about using certain nutritional supplements to speed the healing process, but their doctor had said that taking supplements was a complete waste of time and money. The sports therapist expert prefaced his next remark with "I am not an expert in nutrition" and then said words to the effect of "but I would completely agree with your doctor. Eating a balanced diet is all that you need. Nutritional supplements are no better than waving a magic wand at your injuries."

Editorial Issue 50
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Given the ongoing somewhat ferocious scrutiny regarding the safety of the many diverse therapies within Complementary Medicine – Aromatherapy, Nutrition, Herbal Medicine – to name a few, one would think that patients were dropping like flies, succumbing to the "dangers" of natural medicine.

Editorial Issue 49
by Sandra Goodman PhD

While there is no shortage of acceptable practitioners around, when I have a health problem to sort out, I have always found it difficult to locate that really superb therapist who hits on the "correct" approach for my particular problem at that point in time. For, despite the huge amounts of discussion currently going on within the medical and complementary communities regarding evidence based treatments, standards and training, the really crucial thing that matters is whether you, the patient, get relief from your suffering and are restored to health.

Editorial Issue 48
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I sometimes fantasise (as I know many of us do) about what it would be like to live in another era, say before electricity, the car, radio, television, or the telephone. In fact, to many centenarians alive today, the miracle of seeing something happening live on television around the world, or even picking up the telephone and speaking to someone on another continent, must seem as fantastic as flying through outer space appears to us.

Editorial Issue 47
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The Government has appointed a Cancer Supremo to try to prevent 100,000 cancer deaths over the next 10 years. On the news bulletins have been reports of more money, more Consultants, more student doctors available for cancer training, more operations, more drugs, more tests – you get the picture!

Editorial Issue 46
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It has been exciting to be able to review two outstanding books in this issue (please see pages 5-8), both documenting how nutrition can radically improve our health and even alleviate pain and suffering.

Editorial Issue 45
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Don't we tend to pride ourselves with being well-informed and knowledgeable? With all the high-tech gizmos, internet and network communications available, don't we congratulate ourselves with our knowledge of the most recent advances in the health and sciences?

Editorial Issue 44
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There are few subjects more emotive, and dare I say political, than food and diet. Just reflect upon the billions spent in advertising all manner of food and beverages, mainly of the non-nutritious variety – chocolate, sugary breakfast cereals, crisps, cakes, coffee, tea, alcohol, as well as beauty products such as shampoos, face creams and deodorants containing nutrients like vitamins, or herbs such as aloe vera or jojoba oil.

Editorial Issue 43
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Very recently, a lovely woman known to all of us at Positive Health arrived in tears, with the devastating news that her 46-year old daughter had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and would be having surgery to remove her breast.

Editorial Issue 42
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Where do you go to sort out your health problems? With such an incredible array of hugely diverse therapeutic approaches – from Healing, Reiki, Homoeopathy, Herbs, Nutrition, to Bodywork techniques such as Alexander, Shiatsu and Craniosacral therapy, not to mention the legion of complementary therapists for each discipline, this seemingly simple question becomes much more of a quagmire than would appear at first glance.

Editorial Issue 41
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Sadly, more often than not, it is only when we ourselves, or someone close to us, become seriously ill that we realise our own fragility and lack of certain knowledge regarding natural and effective health care approaches to healing.

Editorial Issue 40
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Penny Brohn, internationally renowned campaigner for holistic cancer treatment and co-founder of the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, died late last year following a 15-year battle with cancer. Penny Brohn's tremendous contribution in increasing awareness about the needs of cancer patients among healthcare professionals, oncologists and legions of cancer sufferers will be a lasting testament to her beautiful and valiant spirit. She will be sorely missed by her friends, family and the wider communities of Cancer and Complementary Medicine.

Editorial Issue 39
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Nothing infuriates me more than hearing some "expert" pontificating about the lack of research or lack of proof regarding the therapeutic efficacy of complementary medicine.

Editorial Issue 38
by Sandra Goodman PhD

When I was growing up, there were constant remarks from my parents and other "grown-ups" that as you got older you also became wiser and more experienced. I never had much truck for these cynical platitudes when I was young and full of idealistic world visions of honest people dedicated to the development of a better, safer and more healthy future.

Editorial Issue 37
by Sandra Goodman PhD

During my lifetime, and particularly during the past 15 years, I have been at the receiving end of frankly outrageous diagnoses from a variety of practitioners, some of them fairly high profile and well-respected within their discipline. There was the hypnotic regression by a homoeopath for a sore throat and loss of my voice, which produced the astonishing assertion that my mother had been my lover in a past life and had tried to strangle me as a baby in this lifetime!

Editorial Issue 36
by Sandra Goodman PhD

What attributes make for a good practitioner, and, perhaps, more importantly, which sort of practitioner is right for you and your particular health problem? These fundamental questions, although appearing on the surface to be simplistic and even self-evident, in my experience go right to the heart of natural and holistic health care, and may hold the key to how well your health blossoms.

Editorial Issue 35
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The concept "you are responsible for creating your reality" has been around in various guises for ages. My father would say "the way you make your bed you will lie in it", and another expression "as ye sow, so ye shall reap", dates from biblical times.

Editorial Issue 34
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Happiness and Depression have become two of the most common, everyday words we bandy about. Yet, whereas talking, writing and giving seminars about how to achieve happiness can be a highly respectable (and lucrative) occupation, even admitting to be depressed can provoke dire, even life-long consequences, denying one the access to work in certain professions, or even the right to manage your affairs.

Editorial Issue 33
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Cancer survival statistics make for sober reading, especially these days when the media are always ready to announce "breakthroughs" or "miracle cures". Most intelligent people who don't happen to be cancer epidemiologists would get the optimistic impression that cancer detection and cure rates are increasing and that mortality is decreasing.

Editorial Issue 32
by Sandra Goodman PhD

If you were at high risk of getting breast cancer what would you do? Suppose that you were in your early 30s, and a DNA test showed that you had inherited a gene with an 80% probability of getting breast cancer. Even worse, suppose that close female relatives – your mother or sister – had previously died of breast cancer. This is actually a horrifying yet very real scenario for some women today.

Editorial Issue 31
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Complementary Medicine hasn't even achieved relegation status, because it hasn't yet officially joined the healthcare system league. While healthcare priorities entail high-tech, high-cost procedures geared especially toward younger people, complementary medicine, not having gone away after being spat at for several decades, is now being kept busy, chasing its tail, by the medical establishment, and will probably be spending the next 5–10 years defining standards, and determining who will be the kingpins within each therapy.

Editorial Issue 30
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It has become an accepted fact that the causes of many cancers and other diseases are determined to a significant extent by environmental and dietary factors, including smoking, drinking, exposure to carcinogenic and mutagenic chemicals and materials.

Editorial Issue 29
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Shakespeare may have said that music has charms to soothe the savage breast, but this savage breast is not soothed by the enormous amount of misinformation about, especially regarding the efficacy of conventional medical treatment for serious conditions such as osteoporosis, heart disease and cancer.

Editorial Issue 28
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There is a clichéd and outmoded notion that as we grow older we get more rigid in our beliefs and ways of viewing the world. As a teenager I enthusiastically embraced the slogan that you couldn't trust anyone over the age of 30. Now, I am more certain about the importance of moderation and healthy lifestyle, yet less certain about many practices and beliefs – nutritional and spiritual – I used to take on board. However, as I get older I have started to realize that the strength of my beliefs is often more down to cycles or phases I am going through, rather than a strictly linear chronological progression.

Editorial Issue 27
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Can you remember those times in your life when you have suffered a severe disappointment – when the penny finally dropped that someone close to you, or whom you trusted, had betrayed you or behaved in a way which caused devastating consequences?

Editorial Issue 25
by Sandra Goodman PhD

It seems the notion that having a positive attitude toward the therapy you are currently receiving will enhance its therapeutic effect has become a perceived truism.

Editorial Issue 24
by Sandra Goodman PhD

This issue of Positive Health carries an extended special feature regarding Nursing in Complementary Medicine, to acknowledge and honour the vanguard role that nurses are playing in taking complementary therapies and adapting them to everyday treatment and care within the NHS, midwifery and private nursing.

Editorial Issue 23
by Sandra Goodman PhD

As a child during the 1950s, the treatment for earache was the application of heated oil ear drops. In the days before the widespread use of antibiotics, having a cold meant staying in bed and putting up with the discomfort and deafness of cotton wool plugs in your ears to stop the oil from running out. Although I didn’t like the ear drops, in retrospect this low-tech treatment was less damaging to health than antibiotics fed to children today.

Editorial Issue 22
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I and others of like mind have been railing against the hopelessly divided systems of “orthodox” and “complementary” medicine for more than a decade. Now, finally, the new buzzword is ‘integrative medicine’, and not a day too soon in my opinion.

Editorial Issue 21
by Sandra Goodman PhD

I suppose that I behave like most other people when hit by a particular health problem. On the one hand, I am driven to discover the nature and diagnosis of the problem to satisfy my medical and scientific curiosity, and on the other, I secretly hope to be magically (and quickly) healed by some practitioner who could just look at me, know what is wrong and fix it painlessly. Unfortunately, I have been seeking these wonderful all-seeing, all-knowing practitioners all my life – if you ever meet one of them, please send me their details.

Editorial Issue 20
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Dreams, Visions, Goals. These are the stuff which inspire and motivate us, fire our passion and spirit and, through our conscious and unconscious actions, ultimately determine and create our reality.

Editorial Issue 19
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Deepak Chopra enunciates the self-evident yet profound truth (see interview page 27), that every diet works for some people, but that no diet works for everyone, since we are all uniquely individual.

Editorial Issue 18
by Sandra Goodman PhD

Nearly 40 years ago, a young child critically ill with meningitis, I lay close to death in a Montreal hospital. Memories of the attempts of the doctors to diminish the pain of spinal lumbar punctures ("this will feel like a mosquito prick"), my mother's despair that I wouldn't survive (her reply "oh yeah?" to a comment that I would soon be fine), and the frightening noises in the neurological ward, are crystal clear these many years later.

Editorial Issue 17
by Sandra Goodman PhD

In my days as a research scientist, I used to think that the way to broaden medical treatment methods was to do rigorous research and prove that a certain treatment or regime has a therapeutic effect upon a disease.

Editorial Issue 16
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There are a staggering array of therapies under the wide umbrella of complementary medicine and it is difficult, if not impossible for any one person to know, understand, or even relate to all of them.

Editorial Issue 15
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There is an incredible diversity of professional opinion and approach even amongst practitioners of the same complementary therapies. This applies across virtually all disciplines...

Editorial Issue 14
by Sandra Goodman PhD

The international research databases, clinicians' notes, health books and magazines abound with the excellent therapeutic progress being made with complementary therapies. To read how antioxidant vitamins are now being incorporated into the medical treatment for heart disease, cancer and pancreatitis (see pages 40-45), gives one the impression that all is hunky-dory with complementary medicine.

Editorial Issue 13
by Sandra Goodman PhD

What happens at the interface of mind and body is arguably one of the most exciting and profound areas of health and life today, as it has been through the millennia. Not by accident have ancient disciplines including Yoga, Qi Gong, and Chinese Medicine, focussed so profoundly upon both body and mind, with the recognition that unhappiness, anger, fear and shock may be at the root of many physical diseases.

Editorial Issue 12
by Sandra Goodman PhD

There are so many modalities by which people can be treated and healed. This is a central truism emerging in this issue, so elegantly put by Leon Chaitow in his column (page 19) and expressed throughout the bodywork and healing features. Dr J describes four case studies of eczema each requiring a totally different remedy, based upon each person's temperament, behaviour or physical symptoms. Even the research updates illustrate that treatments as diverse as Qigong and nutritional supplements can be effective for hypertension and heart disease.

Editorial Issue 11
by Sandra Goodman PhD

One of the many reasons that complementary medicine seems to get the short end of the stick when it comes to money, recognition and validation, is that by espousing to care for the needs and aspirations of the whole person. . .

Editorial Issue 10
by Sandra Goodman PhD