Hello

I like the idea of food being my medicine, and while supplements are important, I like to maximise what I get from my meals. It's all about choices, and where possible, I'll eat foods rich in omega-3s, the vegetables that add more nutrients to my meal, and carbohydrates that have added benefits like fibre and vitamins and minerals (such as brown rice rather than potatoes).

I steer away from extreme diets and eating plans, as I believe food must be a pleasure as well as nourishing. I have over the years incorporated many of the ideas I've come across through extensive reading and discussions with Dr Brom, and Ayurvedic teachings in particular, into my daily meals.

I've been asked to include more recipes on our website, which I will do, and will be adding a 'food byte' to the newsletter each month. (See our new Food section).

In this newsletter Dr Brom discusses the serious effects of sleeping pills - although they seem to help you sleep, they in fact suppress the central nervous system and interfere with the natural rhythm of sleep. Sleep is the great restorer of the body:  depriving it of these rhythms can only have adverse effects. And of course there are alternatives that work with the body's cycles, so why not use them?

Dr Brom also discusses vitamin trials, and how to discern what's going on when vitamin research finds them 'useless'. 

Happy reading

Jeanne 

From the desk of Dr Brom 

While it is true that life expectancy has been going up continuously since the beginning of the 20^th century, it is also true that the incidence of chronic disease has also increased. Lifespan was about 45 years at the start of the 20^th century and is now about 77 years in developed countries.  However about 80% of these people older than 65 years have at least one of the following conditions: type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, abdominal obesity, cerebrovascular disease or cancer.

So we are living longer but not necessarily happier or healthier lives, and I would not be surprised if at some point we begin to see a falling of life expectancy as the increasing incidence of chronic disease begins to take its toll. This process can only be stopped if the medical profession and public begin to recognize that treating chronic diseases with drugs and surgery does not improve health, and therefore does not in the long run increase longevity. What is needed is to support health, not only treat disease.

Sleeping pills may cause early death

I am always surprised that anyone should be surprised by this kind of finding. We all know the importance of sleep. At the end of the day most of us become increasingly dysfunctional: we become irritable, mentally foggy, tired, unable to concentrate. And then surprise, surprise after a good night’s sleep we wake up refreshed and ready for the day. So what happens from the time we go to bed to when we wake up in the morning?

In an astonishing feat of alchemy, when the emotions and thinking mind are switched off, the body goes into a healing mode and really does some kind of detoxification, rebalancing and building up energy levels for the next day.

In Chinese medicine the heart is not just an organ but an ‘orb’ which includes the heart organ but also a field of ‘energy-information’.

Try standing in front of someone and find out your comfort zone with them. With some people you can stand much closer than others. There is some science to this now. The electrocardiogram (ECG) which doctors use to record the electromagnetic field of the heart can now be detected with supersensitive machines ¾ metre extending from the body.

When we stand close together then our heart energy fields are linked and communicating. What does that say about heart to heart conversations? In Chinese Medicine the heart is also the place where the spirit rests. Our feelings, which we experience in the heart area, are the sensory apparatus of the spirit/soul. These feed into the head area and are responsible for the intuition that the thinking mind relies on for inspiration and great ideas.

Try connecting more often with your feelings rather than the thoughts only. Your feelings open you to the Great Mystery. That is were the awe and magic of life can be found.

Is it  true that we don't know the cause of cancer or Parkinson's disease?
Why there is such a gap between the conventional medical model and view, and what patients seem to know intuitively?

Most patients will hear their doctor tell them that cancer, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, hypertension and numerous other diseases do not have a cause known to science.

I saw a patient recently with hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and depression who had been given four different drugs at the clinic. The clinic consultation lasted less than 15 minutes and she was asked to report back in one month. And that was that. When I asked the woman what she thought the cause of her ill health was she was able to give me some pretty good answers.

A negative finding about supplements in the headlines. The study suggests that older women taking supplements  may die sooner than those not taking supplements. When scientists start out with the idea that supplements would not reduce the risk of death, then you can be sure that this is the outcome they will find. Scientist love to talk about ‘computer smoothing’ of results, adjusting the confounding factor,  ‘data massaging’  and using statistics to support their arguments. After all this is done, one can usually bet that the results will support their contention.

What are the confounding factors, for example? In the study the women taking supplements were more likely to be non-smokers, consume a better diet and be more physically active, so this according to the authors, needed to be adjusted for. How this is done is anyone’s guess, and why people who have taken the trouble to change their lifestyle should have an arbitrary adjustment made so that these factors are removed from the equation really makes no sense anyway.

There is also the question of dosage and quality of nutrients used which was not recorded as being a confounding factor. But it could nevertheless make a big difference to outcomes. Synthetic vitamins, for example, taken long term may not have great outcomes; and using vitamins in isolation is also not a good idea.  Vitamin E for example is a family of nutrients and includes tocopherols and tocotrienols, and the synthetic variety should not be used long term.

Scientist who don’t believe in, don’t use, and have little knowledge of nutrients should not be doing this research.  Nutritional medicine has become quite sophisticated today and should be left to those scientists with a  true understanding of healthy medicine.