Up Close and Personal
The monthly overview by CTM Founder, Phillip Day

The Simple Changes tour of the UK is now at an end. Many thanks to all who took part and brought others along, I had a great time and hope you did too!

Summer hols are here and I won't say I don't need 'em, Samantha too, but the world turns, so a slightly later but bumper EClub is here this time around, and some great news.

Europe continues to get into a pickle. They want their own navy (surprise), Margaret Beckett wants more EU secrecy (surprise), and in Britain, unrelated to the EU, Torquay's palm trees are in for the chop because some idiot thinks they're as dangerous as tigers (nasty surprise).

On the health side, mammograms may cause breast cancer - official. MMR whistleblower Andrew Wakefield enters his darkest hour as his peers attempt to hang, draw and quarter him. The Trans-Tasman Therapeutic Goods Administration looks like losing a wheel - the latest on that saga. A little bit from me on the dangers of pork, soy and other bits. The establishment comes under increasing pressure to go large on the benefits of real food. And a priceless clip from CCHR featuring psychiatrists admitting they have no tests to diagnose mental illness, nor can they even cure it!

On the tour side, I'm doing a Simple Changes presentation at the Radisson in Malta on 17th August 2006 (details will be on the web-site, if they're not already). Ireland Simple Changes kicks off at the beginning of September in Dublin (see left-hand column of EClub for details). Australia and New Zealand Simple Changes commences at the beginning of October. The schedule for this too will be posted shortly and tickets available from the beginning of August.

That's it. I'm off with my bucket and spade, having done far too much work stuff already. Remember what I said about ensuring you get four weeks consecutive leave this summer, especially if you've turned into a snappy, old horse. Above all, have fun. Don't mention the football.

Phillip

'Betrayal' by Beckett as Britain
Backtracks on EU Transparency
by David Rennie in Brussels

The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, is braced for an embarrassing row today as she tries to block moves for greater openness in EU decision-making.

Some EU ambassadors and members of the European Parliament have expressed shock at Mrs Beckett's drive to keep television cameras out of the ministerial debates that decide large swathes of EU law, with one senior MEP accusing Britain of "betrayal".

When Britain held the rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of last year, Tony Blair endorsed calls for greater transparency in meetings of the Council of Ministers, most of whose debates are currently held behind closed doors.

Similar calls for transparency were enshrined in the now stalled EU constitution. The idea was revived last autumn by pro-European Liberal Democratic MEPs whose aim was to improve the image of the EU among ordinary voters.

The UK presidency pushed other nations to agree to explore how to achieve greater openness - a call taken up by Austria, which took over the presidency from Britain. However, Mrs Beckett believes that the written proposals now being touted by the Austrians go too far, and will lead to politically sensitive negotiations being carried out in corridors or telephone calls between ministers, while the ministerial meetings themselves will be used only to rubber-stamp done deals.

British officials denied charges that the UK's position amounted to a U-turn, and noted that Mrs Beckett was consulted on the transparency initiative during the UK presidency and expressed grave doubts. "Her position hasn't changed," said one official.

Mrs Beckett will lead the charge against the Austrian plans. However, it may prove a lonely day for the new Foreign Secretary. "It's very difficult for any minister to say, 'I want more meetings in secret'," said an EU diplomat.
The Daily Telegraph, 11th June 2006

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: Beckett is at the heart of Blair's political correctness machinery and introducing extremist, minority legislation Britain and Europe doesn't need and most people don't want is her standard stock in trade. Which is why she wants to do it in secret, where there's less change of her being dragged out into the street and dangled alongside the Union Jack.

Folks, in case you haven't worked it out, Margaret Beckett loathes everything Britain used to stand for and, like the rest of her apparatchiks, wants to change everything. And until the British get off their fat backsides and start doing something about the treason and constant kow-towing to Europe in their midst, expect far more of the same.

Further Resources
Fed up with the EU and political correctness?

The Real Face of the European Union by Phillip Day, video documentary (PAL format only)
Ten Minutes to Midnight by Phillip Day

Click here to purchase or review any of the above.
Click here for telephone sales around the world.

Beware the Man-Eating Palm Trees
by Richard Littlejohn

"It's a bit like keeping tigers - they are beautiful to look at but you wouldn't want them wandering the streets."

That was the Torbay councillor Colin Charlwood talking, not about lions or crocodiles, but palm trees. He was defending the Council's decision to declare the English Riviera's famous palm trees a danger to the public.

Cllr Charlwood, a Liberal Democrat (now there's a surprise), explained: "What if one of those leaves caught a child in the eye for example?"

If you require any further evidence that those responsible for the "health and safety" racket are in the collective grip of advanced mental illness just consider that opening sentence. "It's a bit like keeping tigers." No it isn't, not even a little bit. Palm trees are not likely to roam the streets of Torbay attacking innocent holiday makers. Neither are tigers for that matter. You don't get a lot of tigers in Devon.

Perhaps Cllr Charlwood would care to consult the animal-tamer Roy Horn, of the famous Las Vegas double-act Seigfried and Roy, on the relative risks of tigers and palm trees.

Despite all the palm trees in Vegas, there is no recorded incident of anyone being savaged by or being hospitalised by a frond related injury. It was a tiger which mauled Roy, almost killing him.

Why do we allow these deranged "health and safety" obsessives to rule our lives?

Cllr Charlwood clearly belongs in a padded cell wearing a jacket which does up at the back, along with the rest of the "health and safety" nazis.

After all, you wouldn't want them wandering the streets.
Daily Mail, 13th June 2006

Cameron's Revolution Comment

The big story is being missed. David Cameron is being truly revolutionary. He plans to give the EU something it has never had before: an Official Opposition.

Journalists find it hard to write the words "Conservative" and "Europe" in the same sentence without adding the word "divisions". So, predictably enough, Mr Cameron's determination to remove his MEPs from the Euro-fanatical European People's Party (EPP) grouping in the European Parliament has largely been reported as a revival of an old quarrel about his party's European orientation. A supposedly arcane issue is now interesting, in other words, only to the extent that it involves rows or broken pledges.

But it is worth asking why, if the issue is so abstruse, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy and the other leaders of Old Europe are determined to thwart Mr Cameron. The answer is that they fear losing their ideological monopoly. At present, every major alliance of European parties - Socialists, Greens, Liberals, Christian Democrats - supports Euro-federalism. Once Mr Cameron breaks the cartel and creates a bloc positing a different EU, the aim of ever-closer union will cease to be inevitable and become just one among a series of competing ideas. That is what the Euro-zealots fear; that is the prize within Mr Cameron's grasp. It is not only Mr. Cameron's integrity, or his party's credibility that is at stake: it is the future of Europe.
The Sunday Telegraph, 11th June 2000

EU Fishing Leads to Africans' Flight
by Christopher Booker

The BBC last week excitably reported that nine EU countries have offered ships and planes to Spain, to help stem the flood of West Africans prepared to risk their lives crossing in fragile wooden boats to the Canary Islands.

Some 9,000 have already made it this year, while at least 1,500 have died in the attempt. EU governments are concerned because, once the Africans have reached Spanish soil, they are free after 40 days to settle anywhere in the EU, including Britain.

What the BBC predictably failed to explain was the major cause of this human disaster, one of the real scandals of our time. This is the devastation being wreaked along the west coast of Africa by hundreds of large foreign trawlers, which are destroying the livelihoods and often the lives of local fishermen.

Conspicuous among these are Spanish and Portuguese boats, allowed into these waters under the so-called "Third World fisheries agreements" negotiated by the EU, for which EU taxpayers have shelled out more than £2 billion (some £250 million contributed by Britain) to the governments of countries such as Mali, Senegal and Mauritania. Most of this money, as has been well documented, goes to a small ruling class of politicians and officials.

The African fishermen cannot compete. Thousands have died, simply because their tiny craft are run down by the foreign trawlers pillaging the same fishing grounds - hence their desperation to escape to Europe.

Czechs and Balances
by Christopher Booker

Last week, in the beautiful city of Prague, I had a remarkable experience. In front of several hundred people, I sat next to the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, at a seminar to launch a Czech edition of The Great Deception: Can The European Union Survive?, the 600-page history of "the European project" which Dr Richard North and I published last year, and which, thanks to President Klaus, has now been translated into Czech.

The other speakers were the rector of Brno University and a Czech MEP, interspersed with penetrating and humorous comments from the president himself, who is now alone among all the EU's leaders as a trenchantly outspoken Eurosceptic.

As an academic economist and an admirer of Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher, Professor Klaus founded the Civic Democrat party (ODS) which, in advance of yesterday's elections, was being tipped to form the new Czech government. Prof Klaus was prime minister from 1993 to 1997, and in 2003 he succeeded Vaclav Havel as president.

Looking out on that crowded hall, I wondered what other European head of state would hold twice-monthly public seminars, at which anyone is free to join in serious discussion of political issues.

As I told the audience, it represented a genuine spirit of democracy that could not be more alien to the statist "European project", or to most of that political class which is only too happy to keep it in being. The Czechs escaped such a system 16 years ago, which is why they are not too keen to see it re-established.
The Sunday Telegraph, 4th June 2006

Full Steam Ahead: Brussels Draws up Plan for 'EU Navy'
by Justin Stares in Brussels

The European Commission has drawn up plans to set up a European coastguard, which critics fear is a back-door attempt by Brussels to create an EU navy with its own powers to stop and search shipping.

Plans to upgrade the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) into a fully-fledged coastguard are buried in a document revising European Union (EU) transport policy that is due to be published next month.

They come on the back of other "empire building" moves by Brussels, including a planned EU army, a common foreign policy and diplomatic service, and a European-wide policy on energy.

The commission says a European coastguard would help to enforce maritime legislation. It would have the authority to intercept shipping across all of Europe's traditional maritime borders, which could require that crews be armed - and raises questions of national sovereignty over coastal waters.

Lloyd's List, the daily newspaper which covers the maritime industry, accused the commission of attempting to build up a navy by stealth in a leading article last week. "The concept of a European coastguard has a federalist charm about it that causes eyes to brighten instantly among gatherings of Europhiles, tired of endless discussions about fish or agriculture," the newspaper said. "In a way, it is a European navy, by the back door."

Julian Brazier, the shadow shipping minister, said: "This is very worrying news. It seems the empire-building ambitions of Brussels know no bounds. The drift towards an EU navy must be stopped." Mr Brazier has tabled a parliamentary question demanding to know the Government's position on the EU coastguard plans.

"The plan would be a betrayal of the maritime history of our country and the tens of thousands of men and women currently involved in our maritime sector," he said. The commission document is written in French and entitled Préparer la Mobilité de Demain (Preparing Tomorrow's Mobility). In it, the commission says it believes the time has come to consider the "concept of a European coastguard". Such a body would improve passenger safety at sea and environmental protection legislation, it says.

Its main role initially would be to avert maritime pollution disasters, such as the oil slick that devastated French and Spanish Atlantic coasts in 2002, when the aged Prestige tanker snapped in half. The coastguard would be easy to implement, the commission notes, because the EU can "from today call on the support of the safety agencies", including EMSA.

The Lisbon-based agency came to life two years ago as a technical body to help the commission to draw up maritime legislation. But its remit and staffing levels have increased rapidly since then. It controls a small fleet of ships and has a staff of around 120 - more than twice the number originally envisaged.

The European parliament has long supported forming an EU coastguard, claiming that the principle of the coastguard is already accepted by all EU governments, including Britain. The Council of Ministers, the institution that represents governments in Brussels, last year agreed to a feasibility study on its creation. Until now, however, it has not been official EU policy.

Critics say a European coastguard would be more complicated to set up than a European army because national coastguards today have varying functions, both military and civil.

Willem de Ruiter, the executive director of EMSA, says talk of the agency becoming a fully-fledged coastguard was "far-fetched and unrealistic".

He said: "Many people don't understand what they mean when they say 'coastguard'. Are they talking about military operations or civil operations, or both?"
The Daily Telegraph, 21st May 2006

DOES PSYCHIATRY HAVE THE ANSWERS? This five-minute film from the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) will surprise you.

MMR and a Doctor Only Doing His Duty
Editorial Comment

Nobody has complained to the General Medical Council about Dr Andrew Wakefield. Nobody has suggested that he said or wrote anything dishonest when he believed he had discovered a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

Yet the GMC has taken it upon itself to charge him with serious professional misconduct, threatening to strike him off, and, in doing so, destroy his livelihood.

His research was 'inadequately founded', say the charges. He failed to obtain ethical committee approval before publishing, acquired funding improperly and subjected children to 'unnecessary and invasive investigations'.

In short, the council is throwing the book at him. Why?

The case has the whiff about it of a medieval inquisition, called to defend the orthodoxy of the establishment against the heresy of an independent mind.

Dr Wakefield's 'crime' was to open an important debate that remains unresolved. Eight years on, he is by no means alone among doctors in believing that he may have been on to something. The trouble is we just don't know.

Even Tony Blair, though publicly committed to the triple vaccine, seems to have private doubts. What else would explain why he has refused to tell MPs if his son Leo has been given it?

After all, he has never been above dragging his family into the spotlight, when it suits his political purposes.

The GMC's real beef against Dr Wakefield is that immunisation rates fell - and cases of measles, mumps and rubella rose - after his article appeared. But that is hardly his fault. It is the fault of a Government that refused to heed parents' fears, and failed to offer separate vaccines on the NHS, even though the cost implications were marginal.

Think what an uproar there would be today if it was discovered that Dr Wakefield had kept his suspicions to himself and a link had subsequently been proven. He had a duty to speak out - and now he is being made to suffer for it.

His treatment by the GMC is utterly unjust. If this preposterous body had existed 200 years ago, defending the prevailing wisdom against new ideas, doctors would still be treating illnesses by slitting their patients' veins.
The Daily Mail, 13th June 2006

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: Andrew Wakefield is precisely what the drug industry doesn't want, someone with the serious conviction to highlight irregularities and demand further investigation. Steve Ransom has done an excellent book, Wake up to Health in the 21st Century, which covers this and many other vaccine scandals. You'll be pleased to hear there is a sensible alternative to injecting yourself with toxic material. Eat right, live right and allow the immune system to build itself the way it was designed to do. And yes, you could get measles. For your information, it is rarely fatal unless you are malnourished or have an impaired immune system. By the way, what's seldom discussed is the number of people getting the disease even after having the jab - Steve Ransom discusses this too.

Click here to purchase or review any of the above.
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Avoid Pork
And shellfish, hydrogenated fats and unfermented soy!
by Phillip Day

There are foods that really shouldn't be foods. Pork is a major mischief-maker and homotoxin, unpopular though this may be to mention. In a study entitled 'The Adverse Influence of Pork Consumption on Health', Professor Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg states as follows:

'The fact that pork causes stress and gives rise to poisoning is known. It is obvious that this does not only apply to preparations of fresh pork such as cold cuts, knuckles, feet, ribs and cutlets, etc., but also to cured meats (ham, bacon, etc.) and to smoked meats prepared for sausages.

Consumption of freshly killed pork products causes acute responses, such as inflammations of the appendix and gall bladder, biliary colics, acute intestinal catarrh, gastroenteritis with typhoid and paratyphoid symptoms, as well as acute eczema, carbuncles, sudoriparous abscesses, and others. These symptoms can be observed after consuming sausage meats (including salami which contains pieces of bacon in the form of fat).

The consumption of pork is particularly dangerous in the tropical regions. This, for example, is shown in parts of Africa where both the Islamic and Western civilizations live in neighboring territories under the same climatic conditions. The same conditions apply to various races in the Himalayas where the Hunsa (Bircher) live. The Islamic population does not consume pork and is healthy, working to a considerable age as porters for numerous expeditions.

The races of the Western civilizations living on the other side of the valley do not observe the Islamic rules of behavior and eating, and suffer from all of the common illnesses. In other words, the population which observes the Islamic laws is healthy, while those who follow the habits of western civilization manifest all the typical diseases which come with the consumption of pork. Reference must be made to the founders of the great cultures, who have also fundamentally influenced Western culture. Moses, the prophet, and Mohammed, for example, recognized the prohibitions imposed by nature and based their laws on them.'

A master butcher, if they're truthful, will tell you when they cut pork carcasses they often find maggots, worms and tumours. As Reckeweg intimates, the Jews also proscribed the consumption of pork as part of Levitican law, not for symbolic or religious reasons, but on sanitary grounds. Dr Ted Broer at www.healthmasters.com also warns pork products are packed with nitrites, which can cause high blood urea and dikitopiprazines, leading to brain tumours and leukaemia.

Avoid Shellfish
They are the scavengers of the sea, which collect toxins (mercury from pollutants especially) and pass them on consumers. The same goes for filter-feeders like oysters, whelks, mussels, etc. Studies show shellfish can contain parasites and drug-resistant bacteria. Farmed beasties are far worse.

'[Consumption of] some exotic animals… can lead to severe nerve problems and gastrointestinal disorders, a new British study has recently cautioned. "People should exercise caution whenever confronted with a plate of exotic shellfish or large tropical fish," one of the researchers said. Toxins in moray eels, puffer fish, and a variety of shellfish have been linked to a number of health problems among travellers and coastal inhabitants throughout Asia.'

So lay off the puffer fish.

Avoid Partially and Fully Hydrogenated Fats
Researchers Mary Enig and Sally Fallon write:

'[Hydrogenation] is the process that turns polyunsaturates, normally liquid at room temperature, into fats that are solid at room temperature -i.e. margarine and shortening. To produce them, manufacturers begin with the cheapest oils - soy, corn, cottonseed or canola, already rancid from the extraction process - and mix them with tiny metal particles-usually nickel oxide.

The oil with its nickel catalyst is then subjected to hydrogen gas in a high-pressure, high-temperature reactor. Next, soap-like emulsifiers and starch are squeezed into the mixture to give it a better consistency; the oil is yet again subjected to high temperatures when it is steam-cleaned.

This removes its unpleasant odour. Margarine's natural colour, an unappetizing grey, is removed by bleach. Dyes and strong flavours must then be added to make it resemble butter. Finally, the mixture is compressed and packaged in blocks or tubs and sold as a health food.

Partially hydrogenated margarines and shortenings are even worse for you than the highly refined vegetable oils from which they are made because of chemical changes that occur during the hydrogenation process. Under high temperatures, the nickel catalyst causes the hydrogen atoms to change position on the fatty acid chain….

The cause of heart disease is not animal fats and cholesterol but rather a number of factors inherent in modern diets, including excess consumption of vegetables oils and hydrogenated fats; excess consumption of refined carbohydrates in the form of sugar and white flour; mineral deficiencies, particularly low levels of protective magnesium and iodine; deficiencies of vitamins, particularly of vitamin C, needed for the integrity of the blood vessel walls, and of antioxidants like selenium and vitamin E, which protect us from free radicals; and, finally, the disappearance of antimicrobial fats from the food supply, namely, animal fats and tropical oils.'

They are, of course, talking of the problems with fake butters, margarine, and a whole host of modern 'conveniences', which are not really food at all. Better the full fat butter in meager amounts, though if you are lactose intolerant or exhibiting stomach and digestion problems, you'd do well to steer clear completely.

Avoid Unfermented Soy
I'm not going to enhance my popularity here by having a go at soy, but a spade's a spade, and there are some problems. Sean McNary Carson writes:

As the soy industry lobbied the Food and Drug Administration for a cardiovascular health claim for soy protein, two senior FDA scientists, Daniel Sheehan and Daniel Doerge - both specialists in estrogen research - wrote a letter vigorously opposing such a claim. In fact, they suggested a warning might be more appropriate. Their concern? Two isoflavones found in soy, genistein and daidzen, the same two promoted by the industry for everything from menopause relief to cancer protection, were said to "demonstrate toxicity in estrogen sensitive tissues and in the thyroid."

Moreover, "adverse effects in humans occur in several tissues and, apparently, by several distinct mechanisms." Sheehan also quoted a landmark study (Cassidy, et al. 1994), showing that as little as 45 mg of isoflavones could alter the length of a pre-menopausal woman's menstrual cycle. The scientists were particularly concerned about the effects of these two plant estrogens on foetuses and young infants, because "development is recognised as the most sensitive life stage for estrogen toxicity."

Today, hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) is widespread. How much of this is down to soy consumption, no-one's yet put a figure on it. While the Amazon rainforests are being decimated to provide soil for hundreds of square miles of soy, the public continues believing the bean is the 'food of the ancients', even citing the longevity of certain Asian cultures to justify it as a health food. The reality is, what they term 'soy' is not even the same stuff these cultures are using. Carson again:

'Oddly, nowhere in industry promotion does anyone differentiate between traditional, painstakingly prepared "Asian" soy foods and the modern, processed items that Fallon calls "imitation food." And therein lies the rub. Modern soy protein foods in no way resemble the traditional Asian soy foods, and may contain carcinogens like nitrates, lysinoalanine, as well as a number of anti-nutrients which are only significantly degraded by fermentation or other traditional processing.

So, while Asians were using limited to moderate amounts of painstakingly prepared soy foods - the alleged benefits of which are still controversial - Americans, especially vegetarians, are consuming more soy products and isoflavones than any culture in human history, and as one researcher put it, "entering a great unknown."

New Zealand-based www.soyonlineservice.co.nz introduces us to the dark side of the bean:

'Have you ever wondered about soy? It's promoted as the miracle food that will feed the world while at the same time prevent and cure all manner of diseases. But what if all you've read about soy is nothing but a multi-million dollar marketing strategy based on scanty facts, half-truths and lies? How could anyone get away with that?

The soy industry is one of the world's most wealthy and powerful and one that will steamroller anyone who dares suggest there may be problems. When we first questioned the safety of soy, a representative of Protein Technologies told us they had: "...teams of lawyers to crush dissenters, could buy scientists to give evidence, owned television channels and newspapers, could divert medical schools and even influence governments..." A boast, which has proven all too true. You'll be shocked to learn that much of what you've read about soy is nothing but a con.'

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food is a book out by Dr Kaayla Daniel, in it, you'll learn soy is not a health food it's touted to be, nor the answer to world hunger, nor even a disease-preventive panacea. In fact, soy has not even been proven safe. Dr Daniel explains how -

Soy impedes the sexual maturation of boys (p. 335)
Soy accelerates the sexual maturation of girls (p. 339)
In newborns, the hormonal effects of soy may be irreversible (p. 333)
The average daily dose of soy estrogens in soy formula (38mg) is higher than the amounts that cause thyroid problems and endocrine disruption in adults (p. 334)

Please check out this book and the following sites if you need to know more:

www.soyonlineservice.co.nz
http://thedoctorwithin.com/index_fr.php?page=articles/magic_bean.php
www.mercola.com
www.campaignfortruth.com

Depressed Men Suffer in Silence, Says Research

Men who suffer from depression or anxiety are much less likely than women to seek medical help, because of pressure to keep up a macho front, health campaigners have claimed.

Health services should be made more "male friendly" to stop men turning to alcohol, binge-eating or smoking to deal with their problems, they said.

Research found that 51 per cent of British men feel down, stressed, depressed or anxious at least once a month, while more than one in five (21 per cent) feel that way every day or a few times a week.

The study, released to coincide with National Men's Health Week, discovered that 66 per cent of the 1,212 men questioned had experienced depression or anxiety at some point in their lives.

A third of all men would be too embarrassed or ashamed to seek help for a mental health problem, while 17 per cent of those who had experienced it said they suffered in silence.

The most common causes of anxiety and depression were work (48 per cent of sufferers said it was a factor), financial worries (44 per cent), fast-paced living (27 per cent) and relationship problems (25 per cent).

Peter Baker, chief executive of the charity Men's Health Forum, which runs the week, said the findings were worrying. He added: "There is a feeling that if you are man you have to be strong and macho and cope with whatever life throws at you. But this research proves that for many men common mental health problems are impacting on their lives. We're particularly concerned to find that one man in three with stress, depression or anxiety says that feeling embarrassed or ashamed would stop him seeking help, while one man in 10 would try and cover up a mental health problem. Of those who have felt down, just a third visited a doctor for help compared to almost half of women. We want health professionals to make their services more male-friendly so that men feel they have somewhere to turn. Our research proves there really is a lot of work to be done to de-stigmatise mental health problems for men in particular, as they still feel that 'big boys don't cry'."
The Daily Telegraph, 12th June 2006

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: Between 25-42% of people suffering from depression are known, somewhat ridiculously, as 'atypical' depressives. Studies show chromium picolinate is worth trying for these , and I would advocate beneficial dietary changes and include a basic supplement program and minerals, vitamins and Omega 3 (fish oils). In the ABC's of Disease, I cover depression in a special chapter and cite research into the other causes, i.e. stress, the hamster wheel going around too fast, lack of goals and direction, etc. I am completely against diagnosing mental illness and entering the purview of baleful psychiatry (see The Mind Game).

Husband, Wife and Even Family Dog Defy Odds to Survive Cancer

Businessman Bruce Wade and his wife Jan could be forgiven for thinking they have been dealt more than their fair share of misery in the last four years.

Mr Wade, 57, had a rare cancer and was given six months to live. Mrs Wade, 50, underwent a mastectomy after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then their beloved boxer dog William was diagnosed with cancer too.

But against the odds, all three have beaten the disease and survived.

Now the family that fought back from the edge of the abyss is closer than ever, want to share the holistic secrets of their miraculous recoveries and hope their triumph over tragedy will offer a beacon of hope to others in despair.

Mrs Wade, of Wickhambrook, Suffolk, said: "You can get all bitter and twisted and think to yourself, Oh My God. How can one family have such hard luck. But you have to philosophical and take positive steps to deal with it. You have to take each day as it comes. The fact that we and William are still here today makes us more appreciative of everything. It makes you realise you are not invincible and that you have to make the most of every day. I think it has made us a stronger couple."

Mr Wade, who runs a property maintenance company, fell ill and became jaundiced on a business trip in America with his wife. After returning home, he was diagnosed with cancer of the bile ducts, the tubes connecting the liver and gall bladder to the small intestine.

He underwent surgery to remove his bile duct, spleen and half his liver at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in July 2002 but doctors could not remove all the tumour.

Mrs Wade said: "They basically told us there was nothing more they could do and we should go away and enjoy ourselves for the three to six months he had left. That was when we hit rock bottom. Everything looked absolutely black and we couldn't see a way to turn."

But Mr Wade amazed doctors by overcoming the disease after attending a course at Bristol Cancer Health Centre that taught him to adopt a healthy vegan diet and meditate to give his body the best chance of fighting back.

He carried on having scans every three months until all trace of his tumours disappeared. Now he is having scans once a year.

Describing the moment when he was told he had months to live, Mr Wade said: "Your first reaction is disbelief. I just want people in similar situations to know there is a glimmer of hope."
Daily Mail, 15th June 2006

Further Resources
Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth by Phillip Day

Great News on Cancer in the 21st Century by Steven Ransom

Click here to purchase or review any of the above.
Click here for telephone sales around the world.

Doctors Call for a 'Fat Tax' on Coke and Pepsi

Doctors will this week declare war on America's soft drinks industry by calling for a tax to combat the nation's obesity epidemic.

Delegates at the powerful American Medical Association's annual conference will demand a levy on the sweeteners put in sugary drinks to pay for a massive public health education campaign.

They will also call for the amount of salt added to burgers and processed foods to be halved.

The moves come as U.S. doctors - like their British counterparts - are becoming increasingly alarmed at the growing number of deaths linked to obesity. The resolution will put doctors on a collision course with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, plus the likes of McDonald's and Burger King.

Sales of soft drinks in 'fat tax' U.S. schools are in decline ahead of the introduction of guidelines allowing only healthier low-calorie drinks, plus milk and certain fruit juices, over the next two years. But the medical association wants to go further. Delegates at its Chicago conference are gunning in particular for high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener which is added to everything from ketchup to cola.

One American politician labelled it the 'crack of sweeteners' because it is so widespread.

Some U.S. cities and states already levy taxes on soft drinks or junk foods that raise £500million a year, said Michael Jacobsen, director of the Centre for Science and the Public Interest, an independent health watchdog. But earmarking tax revenue for programmes promoting better diet would be a first, he added.

American doctors are seeing the same alarming trends as those in Britain where obesity is considered to be a 'ticking timebomb of epidemic proportions'. More than 30,000 Britons die each year because of obesity. In England, 47 per cent of men and 33 per cent of women are overweight, with around a fifth being obese. The problem costs the Health Service £500million in consultations, drugs and other therapies.

Life insurance companies are considering increased premiums for overweight clients because so many are dying prematurely from heart disease and cancer. Cancer Research UK has warned that obesity will soon cause more cancers than smoking.

Just as alarming is the rapid growth in childhood obesity. Among six-year-olds, one in ten is classed as obese, rising to one in five among 15-year-olds. The Government has warned that the current generation of schoolchildren could be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.
The Daily Mail, 12th June 2006

Fish Oil Supplements Considered for Schoolchildren
by Sean Poulter

Benefits: Fish oil supplements are considered by some to boost concentration

Children may be given food supplements at school to improve their behaviour and studying performance. A daily shot of Omega 3 fish oil would be supplied to pupils as young as five.

Ministers are considering the move amid growing concern about the poor diets of many of the nation's youngsters.

It will bring back memories of the 1950s and 1940s when cod liver oil was given free to young children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.

But the suggestion of mass medication for pupils will be highly controversial. Many parents already give their children Omega 3 following reports - supported by a Daily Mail trial - that it can greatly improve concentration, learning power and behaviour.

Some teachers advise parents of unruly children to give them Omega 3 and the associated Omega 6. But the supplements are expensive and large numbers of families cannot afford them.

The Education Department has now asked the Food Standards Agency to provide a definitive opinion on the benefits of daily Omega 3 supplements for children. Education Secretary Alan Johnson said yesterday: 'The Agency is conducting a systematic review of research looking at the effect of nutrition and diet on performance and behaviour of children in schools. This includes investigating studies that have used Omega 3 and 6 fish oil supplements in schools. The Government is committed to ensuring children are provided with the healthy food and nutrients they require, not just to aid their physical health but to ensure they can study hard and behave well."

There is mounting evidence that many children do not get a properly balanced mixed diet and certainly do not eat enough oily fish, which is the best source of Omega 3. But scientists warned last night that supplements would not solve the wider problem. Professor Michael Crawford, one the UK's leading experts, said: "It is a proven fact that Omega 3 improves brain development. It is one of the fundamental building blocks of human and animal life. I would support giving a supplement of something like cod liver oil. We did it during the last war, for goodness sake, and it did us the power of good. It is only a sticking plaster, however. The much better alternative is eating a good mix of foods, coupled with teaching children and the general population about nutrition and diet."

Professor Crawford is director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University. He said:"We are in danger of creating generations who rely on pharmaceutical companies to be fed pills when what people really need is good food. Far better than supplements is eating fish and seafood, because they not only contain Omega 3 but also a wealth of trace elements which are important for the brain and body. If you just have the fish oil, you are only doing half the job."

Professor Crawford said it would be far more effective to ensure that pregnant women have the important fatty acids. He said: "Evidence from Norway, where women were given supplements during pregnancy, found the children were better off in terms of IQ at four years of age."

In the past, children were given free school milk, which is a natural source of Omega 3, vitamins and minerals. But the scheme was controversially scrapped by Margaret Thatcher when she was Education Secretary in 1971.

Fish oil was given out during the Second World War when food shortages and rationing triggered fears about the health of the nation. It was stopped with the end of rationing in 1954.

Omega 3 and 6 can be given in a number of forms, including capsules and fortified food. Schools could offer children a shot of fortified milk or fruit juice or give them organic milk, which is generally higher in Omega 3.

Not all experts are convinced by the claims for Omega 3, however. The Joint Health Claims Initiative, a committee of food industry representatives, academics and consumer groups, has ruled there is insufficient evidence to assert that it improves brainpower.

The body has argued that manufacturers of fortified foods should not make claims for improved intelligence and better behaviour.

This brought it into conflict with Lord Robert Winston over his endorsement of St Ivel Advance 'clever milk' which claims that 'Omega 3 may enhance a child's concentration and learning'.

Mass medication by the State has recently become an issue over proposals to add folic acid to bread and flour. Government experts say that would prevent hundreds of babies a year from developing neural-tube defects such as spina bifida in the womb. The Food Standards Agency is considering the idea.
The Daily Mail, 12th June 2006

Everyday Vitamin Pill Stops Cancer
by Victoria Fletcher

A simple vitamin pill could stop cancer cells forming and help the body to repair itself.

Folic acid may even force cells which are beginning to mutate into cancer to shrink back. Experts believe the discovery could be vital in helping to understand how to prevent people at risk of cancer from suffering the disease.

Simply eating a balanced diet rich in leafy greens, beans, fish and eggs can reduce this risk immediately according to new research. High doses of folic acid, three times a day, had a dramatic impact on the damaged cells which can grow into a tumour.

Dr Giovanni Almadori, who helped to carry out the new study, said folate deficiency was one of the main vitamin problems seen in many western countries. "Folate supplementation, alone or in combination with other cancer treating drugs, could effectively reduce the risk of progression," he suggested. "Our results are encouraging."

Hazel Nunn, information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "Folate is one of a number of vitamins which may help protect against cancer."

Folic acid is already known to cut the risk of children being born with birth defects, and mothers-to-be are urged to take the supplement daily during pregnancy. People with a diet low in folate, the natural B vitamin from which folic acid is made, are at greater risk of heart problems.

Previous research has suggested the vitamin helps to repair damaged cells and DNA, and could therefore fight cancer in people who have a diet low in folic acid.

The Food Standards Agency believe folic acid's role is so vital in promoting health that it is considering calling on manufacturers to add it to bread. The latest study, published in the journal Cancer, adds weight to its cancer-fighting reputation. The team from Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome gave 5mg of folic acid three times a day to patients with the early symptoms of possible cancer of the larynx.

That is more than seven times the level that experts recommend healthy people consume. The researchers found three-quarters of the patients saw the size of these lesions reduce by half, enhance the body's power of repair and fight the mutating cells. The experts said the study added to the theory that a lack of folic acid could be a risk factor for the progression of cancer.

But they warned that because they had only studied 43 people, far more work needed to be done before doctors could be told to give folic acid to people with signs of pre-cancerous cells.

In a quarter of people there was no sign of the lesion. Researchers believe that many of the patients may have been deficient in folic acid at the start of the trial. But when they were given the supplements, the folic acid helped to boost the damage Folate is vital in helping to create and maintain new cells. It is key in creating DNA and RNA, which are the building blocks that make new cells.

People who eat a balanced diet will get enough folate from leafy green vegetables like spinach or fruits such as citrus. Dried beans and pulses such as lentils also provide folate. But because many people do not eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, they can become vitamin-deficient.

Ms Nunn went on: "This small study of people with a pre-cancerous condition of the larynx adds to the evidence, but we cannot be sure that the folate supplements caused their lesions to shrink. The best way to obtain a range of potentially cancer-protective nutrients is to eat a healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of fruit and vegetables of different colours rather than taking supplements."

Several studies have linked diets low in folate with increased risk of breast, pancreatic and colon cancer. Plans are under way for a larger trial to evaluate the effectiveness of folic acid supplements.
The Daily Express, 13th June 2006

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: It's hard to get as excited as the Daily Express about this, since cancer-fighting information on the B vitamins has been around since the fifties, and the Daily Express has been repeatedly sent my work for over fifteen years. Still, how encouraging even Cancer Research UK are now openly admitting diet might have something to do with fighting cancer, not just preventing it.

FURTHER RESOURCES:
Cancer: Why We're Still Dying to Know the Truth by Phillip Day
Great News on Cancer in the 21st Century by Steven Ransom
B-17 Metabolic Therapy compiled by Phillip Day

Click here to purchase or review any of the above.
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Life in a Wheelchair Didn't Seem so Bad...

Some £20,000 worth of conventional medicine didn't cure 76-year-old Philip Knightley's back pain. Alternative therapies did, though.

Senior British scientists and medics have demanded that health chiefs stop "wasting" money on alternative treatments.

Prince Charles has hit back by calling on doctors to "abandon their conventional mindset and learn from complementary medicine". I suffered a year of misery and faced a future in a wheelchair before I realised that, for lower back pain at least, Prince Charles is absolutely right.

I had played tennis four times a week ever since I was a child. I thought I was fit. Then, just before my 76th birthday, while putting on my trousers one morning, my back went "click" and I could hardly move. The only position that was pain free was lying down in bed.

My daughter had spent six months lying on the settee in our living room battling back pain a few years before. Like 80 per cent of Western adults, my father had back pain off and on all his life. Had I passed on his genes to her?

I was determined to have a quick fix, so I by-passed my overworked GP and the NHS and went to a Harley Street specialist. He sent me off for a round of tests and body imaging. I had five X-rays, four MRIs, a CT scan, a bone scan, an ultra-sound examination, and the full range of blood tests. It all took weeks. Back in the specialist's rooms he said he was delighted to tell me that although there were signs of degenerative osteoarthritis, I was in excellent health. "If that's so, doctor," I said, "then why do I have this terrible pain in my bum?"
"I'm damned if I know, old boy," he said. "I'm damned if I know."

A surgeon suggested surgery (that's what surgeons do). "It's a 40-minute operation on the spine to relieve pressure on the nerve," he said. "We'll have you back on the court in two months."

So I checked into the London Clinic where the first thing they did was to relieve me of £13,000 towards the cost of an expected stay of seven days. If I checked out earlier, I'd get a refund. The actual operation would, of course, be extra. The consultant surgeon and his team came to get me from my luxury bedroom a few hours later. He had one last look at all the images and then announced that he did not think surgery was justified after all. "Let's try painkillers, physiotherapy and aqua-therapy," he said.

A neighbour suggested injections of pain-relieving steroids into the spine. I found someone who did this procedure at the Wellington Hospital. I had four facet joint injections and two epidurals of steroids. All they did was to stimulate my incipient cataracts (a known side effect) and I've since had to have cataracts removed from both eyes.

Two months down the road towards a wheelchair I realised I had paid out £20,000 for conventional treatment and had got nowhere. I was spending my days and nights lying on a thin mattress on a coffee table in my living room. I read American thrillers - anything else required too much concentration -watched daytime television, slept a lot and waited for the day I would wake up and the pain would be gone. Instead it got worse. A sneeze brought on a spasm of pain so intense it can only be described as exquisite.

Another two months and I had become institutionalised in my own home. The four-hourly routine of taking my painkillers and other medication regulated my day. My morale had slumped - more medication for that -and my confidence and independence had eroded. Simple tasks were beyond me. I became incapable of taking decisions and increasingly left them to my medical advisers and hard-pressed family. I was weak and emaciated. My muscles were melting away and it seemed clear I would never play tennis again. And, even worse, a lifetime in bed or in a wheelchair no longer seemed so terrible.

Then two remarkable young men entered my life. The first was a London-based osteopath called Kristian Wood. He used to be a premier league footballer but was badly injured and had to retire. A woman friend who believes in the power of positive thinking helped to heal him and then convinced him to spend his compensation money doing a five-year course in osteopathy.

Kristian came to see me on my coffee table. We agreed that conventional medicine, partly for its own convenience, had disempowered me. I had never been told enough about my condition. I had never been offered all the alternatives. Above all, no one had investigated what I had done wrong in the first place to get to where I was now.

Kristian said his approach was to encourage his patients to regain the power over their recovery that conventional medicine tended to take away from them, to put them back in control of their lives.

It took some time for this to sink in. He told me what to do. I was to stop taking painkillers. I was to get off my back and move around as much as I possibly could. He would manipulate my back to get rid of the stiffness and lack of mobility. And in between his thrice-weekly visits I was to get on with a series of exercises he would devise for me.

When he realised that, after a couple of weeks, I had not stopped the painkillers and was lax about the exercise regime - largely because of the pain involved - he suggested I should engage a personal trainer, someone to come to the house who would make me do the exercises.

Enter Chris Baker, a young trainer at a gym near my house in Notting Hill Gate. Chris had a degree in sports and exercise science. He, too, believes that a client has to take charge of his own rehabilitation and that his job is to help provide the motivation to do so. He aims to strengthen through exercise the body's core muscles - the pelvic floor, the abdominals and others - so that injuries, pain and weaknesses can be shrugged off.

"You're never too old and never too weak to exercise," he says. He told me that since I had been in bed for so long, getting me walking again would be a slow process. We devised ways of measuring how I was getting on and even set a date for my first game of tennis, some nine months ahead. Chris is incredibly fit but his major asset is his enthusiasm and his ability to encourage you: "Come on, you can do it. You can do it." And to win his praise you try and often succeed.

We began on the coffee table with little exercises aimed at reminding my brain that there were core muscles that had not been told to do anything for so long that they had forgotten how. At first it was desperately difficult. I bought a wheeled walker. Chris would carry it to the front gate, I would stagger out and we would see how far I could make it along the street. "An extra house each day," he said. "That way you can measure your progress." He also suggested some swimming.

The breakthrough came when Kristian said it would be good for me to go on holiday to Ibiza with my daughter, even if we had to drive to the airport with me lying on the back seat of her car, and even if I had to get around in Ibiza on my walker.

To my own surprise, I made it. At the villa, I floated in the pool for hours with a big rubber ring under my arms, stretching my spine. And one day, after a late Spanish lunch, I suddenly realised that I had not taken my noonday dose of painkillers and I didn't miss them. That was a year ago and I haven't taken a single painkiller since.

When I could get around the block on the walker, I gave it away and used a walking stick instead. After a couple of weeks, I threw the walking stick in the rubbish bin. By then I was deep into the workout world of bodyweight exercises, rubber bands and Swiss balls, ab crunches, lunges, squats, push-ups, the bridge, the plank, the cobra and reverse wood chops. I was also jogging around the block. My wife had banished the coffee table bed and I was leading a reasonably normal life. Some days were better than others but the trend was steadily upwards.

I flew to Australia and India last month, knees-in-the-chin class, and walked off the plane, after two 14-hour flights, laughing. Last week, right on schedule, I played my first game of tennis in a year. I will never allow myself to have back trouble again because I know how to keep it at bay. It may still be called alternative medicine, and the conventional medical establishment may dismiss it as "a waste of time". But I agree with Prince Charles, it is not. And, as I can testify, it works.
The Daily Telegraph, 29th May 2006

Mobile Phone Risk During Storms

Next time you find yourself talking on your mobile phone in the middle of a thunderstorm you may want to cut the conversation short. UK doctors have warned of the danger of lightning strikes when using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather.

In the British Medical Journal, they highlight the case of a teenager left with severe injuries after being struck by lightning when talking on her phone. The metal in the phone directs the current into the body, they say.

A 15-year-old girl was struck by lightning while talking on her phone in a large park in London during stormy weather. She has no recollection of the incident but suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated. A year later, she is in wheelchair and has severe physical difficulties as well as brain damage which has led to emotional and cognitive problems. In the ear where she was holding the phone, she has a burst eardrum and persistent hearing loss.

When a person is hit by lightning, the high resistance of human skin causes the lightning charge to flows over the body - often known as an 'external flashover'. But some of the current can flow through the body. The more that flows through, the more internal damage it causes. Conductive materials in direct contact with the skin such as liquid or metal objects increases the risk that the current will flow through the body and therefore cause internal injury.

Rare Occurrence
The doctors at Northwick Park Hospital in London who treated the girl's hearing injuries found three other cases of people being hit by lightning while talking on a mobile phone - all of whom died of their injuries - in China, Korea and Malaysia.

They said although cases were rare it was a public health issue and people needed to understand the risks.

Swinda Esprit, a doctor in the ear, nose and throat department said: "It is obvious really but we all carry mobile phones and we don't think about it. If you're struck by lightning on its own it will flash over your body but if you're holding a phone it will internalise and cause much worse injuries. Children particularly won't realise the risk. In Australia they have guidelines, and one of the things they say is not to hold mobile phones outside during storms."

Dr Esprit said mobile phone manufacturers should warn consumers of the dangers. Paul Taylor, a scientist at the Met Office, said it could also be dangerous to carry a mobile in your pocket during a storm.

"It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury. It certainly adds to the intensity of the skin damage and the article certainly amplifies that here. I would treat a mobile phone as yet another piece of metal that people tend to carry on their persons like coins and rings"
BBC News, 23rd June 2006

Lightning Facts
There are, on average, 1,800 thunderstorms in progress at any one time around the world with 100 lighting strikes every second.

A lightning bolt travels at about 14,000 mph bringing 300,000 volts of electricity to the ground in just a few milliseconds and heating up the air around it to 30,000 degrees C - five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

The chance of being hit by lightning is about one in three million.

Mammograms 'Can Increase Breast Cancer Risk'

Mammograms may increase the risk of breast cancer in women with a genetic predisposition to the disease, researchers revealed today.

A study of 1,600 women with BRCA 1 and 2 mutations, defective genes linked to breast cancer, found they were 54 per cent more likely to suffer the disease if they had ever had a chest X-ray.

For women given chest X-rays before the age of 20, the risk of developing breast cancer before their 40th birthday more than doubled.

Dr David Goldgar, who led the investigation while heading the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, said: "This is one of the first studies to demonstrate that women genetically predisposed to breast cancer may be more susceptible to low-dose ionising radiation than other women. If confirmed in prospective studies, young women who are members of families known to have BRCA 1 or BRCA 21 mutations may wish to consider alternatives to X-rays, such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)."

BRCA 1 and 2 are both genes that make proteins involved in repairing damage to DNA in breast cells.

X-rays disrupt DNA, but as long as the radiation dose is not too high, the damage is naturally repaired. Cancer cells do not have the same self-repair ability, which is why X-rays are used in radiotherapy to destroy cancer.

Dr Goldgar added: "Since BRCA proteins are integral in repairing damage to breast cells, we hypothesised that women with BRCA 1/2 mutations would be less able to repair damage caused to DNA by ionising radiation. Our findings support this hypothesis and stress the need for prospective studies."

The researchers analysed questionnaires completed by more than 1,600 women taking part in the International BRCA 1/2 Carrier Cohort Study (IBCCS) - a major European investigation of women with BRCA mutations.

While all the women carried the mutations, not all developed breast cancer. The women were asked whether they had ever had chest X-rays, and if so, whether it was before or after the age of 20.

The findings were published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The Daily Mail, 27th June 2006

Further Information
The ideal alternative: www.meditherm.com

First Mind Over Matter, Then Matter Over Mind
By Dr James LeFanu

The human brain poses the profound philosophical question of how the "spiritual" can control the physical. Specifically how our immaterial thoughts can directly influence the very material electrical impulses of our billions of neurons and trillions of interconnections - how, at its simplest, does my desire to hammer that nail cause the necessary movement of muscles in the arm?

We are, for the most part, so preoccupied with the activities of our daily life that we have little time to reflect on how these activities happen. But occasionally something brings the conundrum into focus, such as the intriguing story in this newspaper last week of the beneficial effect of positive thinking on the behaviour of the inmates of Stafford prison.

They were, no doubt, typical of the prison population in general, which contains a disproportionate number of young men who find great difficulty in concentrating on any task for more than a few minutes. They would now be labelled as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, with all its many undesirable adverse psychological and educational consequences.

The precise nature of the defect in ADHD remains elusive, although, as is well known, the drug Ritalin can influence the balance of chemical neurotransmitters leading to a marked improvement in symptoms. But, as we learnt last week, so do a couple of daily mind exercises designed to train the patterns of thinking. Nearly 90 per cent of those taking part reported improvement in reading, writing and coordination. Thanks to modern brain scanners, it is possible to observe that these mind exercises produce changes in the physical structure of the brain.

This is particularly well shown in a study of a dozen patients affected with compulsive disorders, such as repeated hand-washing, whose scans showed markedly increased activity in the pathways leading from the primitive brain stem to the "higher" frontal cortex.

Following 12 weeks of cognitive therapy, during which they learnt to associate their intrusive thoughts with some other pleasant image, they were not only much improved, but their brain scans' appearances had returned to normal. As psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwarz suggested: "We altered the physical structure of their brain by changing the way they thought about their thoughts." It makes you think, as it were.
The Sunday Telegraph, 11th June 2006

Transtasman Drug Agency Push Set to End in Tears
by Ruth Berry

The [New Zealand] Government has renewed an offensive to create a Trans-Tasman drug agency, but is likely to have to explain an embarrassing defeat to the Australians.

The two countries have been working on the plans for the joint regulatory regime since the late 1990s and signed a treaty in 2003. The agency was supposed to be established next month but, struggling for votes, State Services Minister Annette King announced a deferral in December.

Under the new timetable the Government aims to introduce the legislation next month and establish it mid next year. In recent weeks it has embarked on a lobbying campaign of parties it hopes might come onside, including New Zealand First and the Maori Party.

Last night Health Ministry officials undertook a cross-party briefing of MPs as the Government intensifies its efforts. But unless there are significant changes to the proposed plan, the framework of which was long ago determined between the two Governments, there appears little chance of it succeeding.

The Maori Party is the only party yet to decide how to vote - but could not give the Government the numbers it needs to introduce the law.

The Greens, New Zealand First, Act, United Future and National are all opposed to the plan, with only some prepared to waver if there were significant changes. Most of the parties said as much in a select committee report written in 2004 and say "draft rules" put out for consultation last month reveal little deviation from the original proposal.

Mrs King refused to comment on the issue yesterday, other than to confirm officials were briefing MPs. The Australian Government is due to release a draft of its bill next month - which would appear to be pointless if Mrs King cannot get the support.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne confirmed yesterday that he had told a select committee last week he didn't believe the Government currently had the numbers.

National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, said the party had long made its concerns about the agency clear. These included "the compliance costs and the effects on natural products and the effect that might have on small businesses and consumer choice".

National was in Government when the agency was proposed and Mr Ryall said "we've always said it had some merit, but the devil was in the detail".

He planned to attend the briefing but said there had been "no consultation over the proposed rules and proposed legislation whatsoever. The Government has been quite irresponsible with the way it has dealt with this issue and at this stage we've seen nothing to address our concerns. Harmonising with Australia should only happen when it's of benefit to New Zealand."

Greens health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley asked when the Government was prepared to admit defeat.

It had already spent $4.8 million on developing plans for the agency, which included employing 7.5 fulltime staff, she said. A further $1 million has been set aside for it in this year's Budget.

What it's all About

*The Australia New Zealand Therapeutic Products Agency would jointly regulate prescription and over-counter medicines, medical devices and blood products and replace Medsafe.

*But critics say it would be too draconian, knocking many dietary and natural products off the market and closing businesses.

The New Zealand Herald, 21st June 2006

Further Information
New Zealand Health Trust
Alliance for Health Freedom Australia

Vegetables Much Better Than
Drugs at Building Bone Density
by Dr Joseph Mercola

The evidence continues to pour in that eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is good for your health. In this case, researchers found that both young and old age groups had improvements in bone mineral status when they ate a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Specifically, boys and girls aged 16-18 years and women aged 60-83 years had significant positive associations between spine bone mineral content and fruit intake. In boys, the association was true for neck bone mineral content as well.

Among women aged 60-83 years, a significant positive association was also found between spine bone mineral content and fruit intake. The results found that if fruit intake doubled, it would result in a 5 percent increment in spine bone mineral content.

Previous studies have also found associations between fruit and vegetable intake and positive measures of bone health.

It is not yet known how fruits and vegetables may affect the bones, though some suggest it may be the alkalizing effect of fruit and vegetable consumption on acid-base balance. Other possible mechanisms include the dietary effects of vitamin K, phytoestrogens and other unidentified dietary components they contain.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2006, Vol. 83, No. 6, 1420-1428

COMMENT: Traditional media sources have gone a long way toward convincing most people that if they want to increase their bone density they need to swallow their calcium pills along with some vitamin D. If they already have osteoporosis, then of course the next step would be one of the biphosphonate drugs like Fosamax.

More nutritionally enlightened individuals will realize that there are other micronutrients besides calcium that are useful for improving density, like boron, silicone, manganese, copper, iodine, magnesium, chromium, zinc and selenium.

But how many people would recognize that fresh vegetables have nutrients that improve bone density?

One of the best reviews I ever read on this topic was in my favorite clinical journal, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN, the same journal that this study was published in). Four years ago they had a nice review from the Framingham study on how vegetable intake affected bone density.

This journal has a great policy of allowing anyone to review all their articles over one year old for free, and you can view that study on their site for free. This is a great deal as most of us pay $100 a year to look at the current issues.

If you review the study you will find that higher intake of vegetables in children and older women had a very beneficial effect on bone density. The investigators weren't able to identify the precise mechanism on why eating more vegetables worked, but they determined very clearly that it did work.
www.mercola.com

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