|
|
|||
| Three Conferences Report: |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Three Conferences Report The most startling conclusion was that we know the causes of most diseases, how to prevent virtually all of those, and can effectively treat, arrest, ease and even cure them. So, what’s going on? The consensus was that mind and body are an indivisible unity made sick by an increasingly dead and toxic diet, a poisoned environment, and psychological trauma. Astonishingly, body and soul appear to have a near infinite capacity to heal, if treated with the respect Nature deserves. Esther Sternberg is the Chief of the Neuroendocrine Immunology Section of the US National Institutes of Health and the author of the beautiful exposition of the science which connects health and emotions, The Balance Within (2000). At the U of T conference she presented a magisterial overview of the communication between the central nervous system and the immune system in the process of illness-causing physical and emotional stress. She said, that while the variability in resistance to stress is genetically set at 35%, “the other 65% is entirely environmentally determined” and thus open to intelligent control or reckless disregard. “We need to change our physical environment to meet the body’s demands,” she said. She told of the Volvo company replacing the assembly line with small worker groups in charge of the entire car building process, installing openable windows, live plants and brightly painted socializing areas in all their factories, thereby reducing stress everywhere and – naturally – increasing productivity. Management did this when learning of the high incidence of heart disease, hypertension, stroke and depression among workers in traditional car plants. Providing historical context, Dr. E. Leyton pointed to the dramatic dietary and environmental changes our bodies must handle, mostly in the last 50 years. This is 0.003% of the last two million years of human evolution. It is hardly surprising, that not only our metabolism is in shock, but our very genetic code is under stress, as it tries to build cells and tissues from flawed or missing raw materials. Providing US government research data, Dr. Leyton showed how our depleted soils, pre-ripe harvesting, transportation and processing methods all conspire to deplete our food of all those essential nutrients we have taken for granted for the past few million years. A hunter-gatherer in Australia and Africa enjoys the nutrient and fiber density, enormous vitamin C intake, and basic exercise our culture no longer provides. It is well documented that those “primitives” don’t develop cancer and chronic illness until they switch to the Western life style. Nutrition expert, Dr. T. Barnard supported these observations from his own work adding a quote from a medical researcher (speaking about our fast dead-food culture), “When you pass through those Golden Arches, you are on your way to the Pearly Gates.” The obstacles blocking health are (1) an outdated medical model desperately in need of systems and complexity thinking, (2) an economy based on the notion that greed is good, and (3) the body’s tendency to defend against physical and mental assaults by adapting temporarily through addiction until it can no longer hold off the collapse into disease. The obvious solution to these three interlinked obstacles is zero tolerance for poisons, the precautionary principle as a universal social value, the acknowledged human right of patient freedom of choice in medicine, and legal protection from harassment for innovative doctors. These conferences contributed greatly towards focusing on this vision, the creation of a map for action, and the establishment of solid facts - all prerequisite for such an achievement, even if it takes another century to be realized. The Politics of Health Two such victimized doctors spoke at these conferences: environmental medicine physician Dr. Jozef Krop (12 years in disciplinary harassment) and nutritional and geriatric medicine specialist Dr. Tom Barnard (recently accused by the CPSO of suggesting patients eat healthier foods). MPP Kwinter observed, “The CPSO does things that require some sort of surveillance because they are doing things that make no sense.” Indeed! In spite of the Kwinter Bill being law, international pain expert Dr. Frank Adams of Kingston was prosecuted without patient mishap or complaint and in the face of immense public protest. He was forced to leave Canada in March. Last month, Dr. S. Kooner of Windsor, “guilty” of extraordinary success in the treatment of asthma mostly without using drugs, was declared to have fallen below the standard of medical practice. The CPSO wants to revoke his license – yet, no patient was harmed or complained. Both doctors have huge public support. Their cases will now necessitate testing the Kwinter Bill in court. Dr. Heather Boon, a U of T pharmacology faculty member and co-author of a textbook on medicinal herbs, described in her presentation on the safety and efficacy of neuroactive herbs (e.g. St. John’s Wort, Ginko Biloba etc.), how mainstream research all too frequently alters protocols and dosages (in plain English: cheats) and then misrepresents their effects by inappropriately interpreting the results in a linear fashion. Of course, herbs are not patentable. Internationally renowned researcher, Dr. Garth Nicholson, Director of the California based Institute of Molecular Medicine, told how military hospital labs deliberately employed destructive techniques to his Gulf War veteran patient samples. They knew that the biologically active substances they would otherwise have found were actually US patented biological warfare bugs - a secret more important to protect than to assist in the cure of their afflicted citizens. It is now generally acknowledged that pesticides cause cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Back in 1979 a US presidential committee advised against their widespread use because bugs and people share the same nervous system enzymes – but industry won out. Autism researcher Dr. B. Rimland, reported how every effort was made by mainstream medicine to downplay and even falsify the facts showing that the triple vaccine for mumps, measles and rubella, introduced in 1978, triggered the horrendous increase in childhood autism. Prior to the MMR vaccine 4-5 children per 10,000 births were autistic; now it is 1 in 150 kids, a 1,000% increase. The FDA knowingly allowed the industry to use up its mercury-contaminated stocks. A huge class action suit has begun and is fought by the same lawyers who brought down Big Tobacco. Even though detection methods have vastly improved, the cancer rate has steadily increased, mortality has remained the same, and the 5-year post-diagnosis survival rate has remained unchanged. Yet, the non-toxic treatment methods with nutritional and orthomolecular protocols developed by Drs. Gonzales, Gerson, Hoffer, Pauling, Clark, Issels and others have been attacked for decades as quackery. Dr. Gonzales almost got kicked out of medical school for publishing a paper in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. Dr. B. Berkson, an expert on Alpha Lipoic Acid was asked to monitor the death of some liver cancer patients while still an intern in the 60s. He contacted the National Institutes of Health and learned that in Czechoslovakia and the former USSR, liver cancer was often being cured with Alpha Lipoic Acid. He had it flown in, gave it to the dying patients, and they went home healthy two weeks later. When the next liver-diseased patient came up, he was specifically told by his chief not to use Alpha Lipoic Acid! He did anyway and cured him and nearly got fired. His internationally published research is mostly supported and advanced by European universities. He provided breath-taking case histories of successful treatments also of macular degeneration, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. In Russia, Alpha Lipoic Acid is used as first-line treatment in hospitals for strokes and heart attacks. His book is highly recommended. One of the U of T conference organizers, Dr. Linda Rapson, is among the early pioneers who brought acupuncture to Canada almost three decades ago. She developed worldwide-accepted protocols for its spectacularly successful use in pain management in spinal chord injury victims at the Lyndhurst Center in Toronto. At the conference, she observed that progress in medicine can only occur when the patient is in control and doctors and patient work as a team. Amen! New Vision Dr.Lynn Marshall, Director of the Environmental Health Clinic at Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital (WCH), and her colleagues formulated detailed and up-to-date guidelines on how to diagnose and treat environmentally induced illness for the College of Family Physicians. Dr. R. Bray, also at WCH, pulled no punches when calling for the full and proper labeling of water. She advised following the lead of other countries and ban neurotoxic artificial sweeteners, institute zero tolerance on thyroid damaging food colorings, asthma triggering sulfites, neurotoxic MSG, and heavy metals. Dr. J. Molot, President of the Canadian Society for Environmental Medicine, provided the details on the development of the North American 1999 Consensus Definition in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Medical School, now internationally accepted and published in the Archives of Environmental Health (May 1999 vol 54/3). This is no empty gesture: at the NIH environmental illness expert Dr. Claudia Miller has been put in charge of an entire new division mandated to research this field. It’s no longer all in your head, but becoming part of the medical textbooks - and not of the psychiatric ones either. Dr. G. Heuser of UCLA provided the PET scan evidence for environmental illness showing how toxic chemicals and correct treatment effect the brain. His research into the pathophysiology of environmental illness and practical help are accessible through on www.toxgun.com. The Ottawa conference hosted several of these internationally respected experts who had a few days earlier been invited to address the National Defense Department of Canada on environmental illness. Since the military establishments of the world are among the worst polluters, this was amazing. The big brass sat and listened, no questions or comments were allowed. Time will tell what effect this will have. Professor D. Davis of U of T outlined the way complementary medicine is now being integrated into the teaching of medical students, starting in the undergraduate years. We are catching up with the Renaissance, Dr. Sternberg observes: four hundred years ago over the entrance of Padua’s famous university was written “Universa Universit Patavina Libertas” (Here in Padua all are free to study all). How pressingly important such measures have become is brought home by the study on the socio-economic impact of our toxic environment commissioned by the EI Society of Canada. One in 8 Canadian adults is affected; one in 50 can’t work because of environmental illness. This causes an annual loss of $10 billion in productivity and $ 1 billion in taxes. Of those affected about 60% become homeless or end in suicide, thereby causing an additional burden on social services. In the State of Utah the legal system has caught on that juvenile delinquency has a lot to do with toxins in food, air and water, Dr. J. Ross reported in Ottawa. Judges now regularly offer repeat offenders the choice between jail or medical detoxification while placed under probation. The results have been so dramatic that judges have started to order detoxification even for first time offenders. Hard Truths Dr. Barnard’s lecture provided important information on essential fatty acids, enzymes, nutrition, and prevention of disease. Gynecologist Dr. A. Pettle’s immense knowledge of the interaction between hormones, diet, and psyche may put you at last on the path to recovery from migraines, PMS, depression, and obesity. Having suffered much from clueless gynecologists until I discovered their alternatives, I muttered passionately, “Yes! Right on!” as I listened to him. Equally excellent was Dr. B. Bronson’s presentation on her research into the brain chemistry of women and the importance of understanding why pharmaceutical hormone products are so dangerous and natural products preferable. For those battling with Gulf War Syndrome, and some of the terrible autoimmune diseases, great news is found in the presentation by Dr. Nicolson. Dr. J. Krop showed a fantastic, non-simulated movie tracking the actual destruction of nerves by mercury vapor as it arises from dental fillings. It is available on the internet through the University of Calgary. He provided the details on the protocol for mercury amalgam removal. A most exciting section of the U of T conference dealt with the interface of spirituality, near-death experiences, and the biology and treatment of post-traumatic stress (PTSD). Dr. A. Newberg, who researches the biology of religious experience, and Dr. Y. Kason, a near-death experience researcher, announced that in the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, religious experience is no longer listed as a disease! The spontaneous image this brought to mind was a huge, uproarious chorus of laughter arising from Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Chunag Tzu and all the saints of history. The presentation and workshop by Dr. J. Young on EMDR in treatment of PTSD provided me with the deep satisfaction a writer sometimes is granted: Dr. Young became an EMDR therapist after reading an article on it written by my EMDR practicing physician husband and me in 1997. What is Complementary? |
|||
|
|
|||
| Sources and Resources: |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||