Why is nutrition considered 'alternative medicine'?

Watched the first of this BBC series last night on I-player.

It looks at the range of private medicine on offer in Harley Street. It was interesting watching the doctors justifying working privately (some of them worked in the NHS and all of them were trained there). I have no problem with private medicine per se - it's that the standards are so much higher but it's not available for all. The same problem with private education of course.

My main issue though was with the fact that despite mentioning the large numbers of alternative practitioners who work in Harley street the programme failed to highlight any of them and instead focussed on the same narrow 'conventional' medical treatment plans including a lot of high tech chemotherapy and surgical interventions. And all were male interestingly.

It's the same old same old as far as I'm concerned.. no mention of what any of these people could do to help their treatment with lifestyle and diet changes, no mention of stress or inflammation as contributors to the conditions shown.  All seemed to believe in the magic bullet approach. One woman, who had underdone chemo and a lumpectomy was told 'that's all the cancer out of your body - you are now cancer-free!' Which of course was very emotional for her as she'd gone through months of hell with losing her hair and all the worry and fear of cancer. It seems churlish to point out that there is always cancer in your body, but a healthy immune system keeps it in check. There was no attempt to give her any advice on nutritional changes she could make to make sure it stayed that way. And her family's response was quite dysfunctional - as a student psychologist  I looked on in incredulity as they seemed to depend on her to stay well, clinging on to the notion of her survival like it was their life that was at stake. There's a story in that family of previous trauma for sure..

One lad came from Kuwait to be told he had a pituitary tumour that was threatening to take away his sight. No comment on the fact he was obese and needed to look at the role of excess weight in causing cancer. Surgery was the only thing on offer.

It was all so depressing.. I DO have a lot of respect for the skill of the surgeons and the wonderful technology that we now have at our disposal (if we have the money it seems). Also,  I understand people want to have their pain taken away. But our approach now in the west is so disempowering of the individual. It takes away everything that we can do to help ourselves. And it makes vast profits for the biomedical industry it supports.

Why oh why is something as basic as nutrition considered alternative? It makes no sense to me.
Just yesterday I was advising a client on dietary changes she can make to help her acid reflux. Very common in women, particularly over the age of 50 as the hydrochloric acid in your stomach decreases which opens up the valve to the oesophagus causing reflux, amongst other things. The problem usually isn't too much acid as you will be told by the doctor. It's the opposite. I recommend this article to read on the subject by the reliably good and evidence-based Doctor Mercola. So, you end up being prescribed drugs that reduce your HCl further and... hey presto.. it get's worse.. It beggars belief really. Anyhow if any of you out there in bloggerville are interested then please see my links and my website (and social media links). I try to keep it positive, but sometimes.. Grrrrr...
There I've finished now.

Day 4 of the Detox

Wow what a 24 hours this has been.
Had a fantastic talk last night on spiritual healing from a woman, marie, who was paralysed from the neck down in a car accident and decided to not give up but heal herself. Her story was not only mesmerising but very profound. Her advice to us was to simply 'enjoy what is' and trust that 'all is well'. These sayings might sound trite out of context to her story but they certainly resonated with me. I had been having a really difficult day, trying to get to grips with the stresses of being 'outside' my normal life and still maintain all the business development that needs to be done. Instead of being on retreat it has felt like being on the defensive. I have to remind myself I am doing the best I can with the tools that I have. Dawn has also been feeling a bit low with all the stuff going on in her life too so the emotional side of the detox has been very revealing.

Today we had an incredible sound healing workshop - with a gong and various Himalayan Crystal bowls. Surprisingly effective way of sending you into a meditative space. A guy turned up later who, my first impressions were - 'he's not on a raw food diet' - as he was quite overweight and looked rather sick. It then transpired that he was a stage 4 cancer survivor who should, by all measures, be dead. He has lost 3 stone in 5 weeks of solid green juicing, he is suffering greatly but says the reason he is still here is because of the juicing and sheer willpower to survive. Before meeting Rian and changing his diet he was on 24 pills a day; antihypertensives, blood sugar regulators, anti-ulcer medication, pills for his eczema, etc, etc. His oncologist and GP keep ringing him to pressurise him to take chemotherapy. He had the radiotherapy but it apparently caused such damage to his internal organs that when he was operated on to repair his prostate the surgeon could do nothing as all his organs had 'fused'. His wife who also came explained that she since she has been raw fooding to keep him company she has stopped all her medications too. This is the story we need to publish. I KNOW the medical establishment refuses to believe that cancer and other diseases can be treated nutritionally but here is the proof if ever I needed it.

I remember thinking when my sister in law was diagnosed with bowel cancer 2 and a half years ago that I felt she was lucky being put into a clinical trial for the latest chemotherapy drug because it could prolong her life for 6 months or so. She endured absolute agony for the last 6 months and still died. If I'd known then what I know now I would have strongly recommend she try the juicing instead. It is incredibly powerful.

It saddens me that the truth is so suppressed and the lie of 'scientists will find the cure for cancer' is still perpetuated by the medical/pharmacological establishment (of which I have been a part). It's just the cancer industry unfortunately, that firstly sells us the food products that give us cancer and then attempts to make more money out of us by selling us cancer 'treatment' which may or may not give us remission (notice it is not a 'cure' but a treatment - the risks of it returning are high even after treatment as the conditions which allow cancer to thrive are still present unless the sufferer makes changes to their lives). This method which I have seen working has been documented in many establishments throughout the world - most noticeably by Charlotte Gerson and the Gerson therapy she developed with her father. But it is derided and forced to be an 'underground' treatment (they cannot operate their centre in the US as it is banned). What do they do that is so terrible. They treat cancer in exactly the way I am learning here. They juice, they give enemas, they detoxify, they educate and enlighten. This, really is the only way.

Well, only a couple of days to go now - am back on raw food now and expect to leave her a few pounds lighter. Have lost 4 pounds already - 2 notches on my belt! please, dear reader don't think of this as weight loss diet. It is a life-change diet.

What a difference a day makes

I think the last blog I wrote was a couple of days ago when everything was still very raw, and 2 days later the landscape has shifted again. I had been catapaulted into the realisation that I am not immortal, that I can't take my body for granted and I have to do some real work of clearance and acceptance. I had been drawn to castor oil packing for some reason (soaking a muslin cloth with castor oil and placing it on the body with a heat pack over the top to help absorption). This is a very traditional healing technique for many aches and pains (women it's wonderful for period pain and gynae problems) but I knew nothing about it other than when I've done a liver cleanse a few times they recommend a liver pack when you go to bed to help the liver. No-one told me that castor oil might be helpful for skin cancer but I was drawn to go get the bottle and lie with some on my liver and also to apply it directly to the mole. I can't explain that but 2 days later when I went to a friend's house she lent me a book about castor oil and the second line in the book was about putting it on skin cancer lesions! Astonishing bit of sychronicity that i take for granted now that I allow these little intuitive messages that I get to be listened to... Reader, i have been juicing! i have been alkalising my body with superfoods - spirulina and hemp, cacao mixtures, lemon water and plenty of raw vegetables and no crap. There is nothing like a health problem to wake you up..

And, today I had my appointment with the specialist - a very dischevelled but jolly doctor who took a very quick look with a hand-held electron microscope (yes it's some special equipment he uses) and said 'a typical traumatised squamatous wart'. I exhaled. He didn't say basal cell carcinoma (BCC). I asked what that was - he said he saw a lot of them, particularly on women's backs around the bra strap region. He suspects it's become irritated by something and has bled into itself. The prognosis is it will probably drop off by itself in 4-6 weeks but if it doesn't to come back and he'll remove it for me. Definitely not cancerous.
He took a picture and then proceeded to show me other pictures of BCC's as a comparison (because I asked how did he know, etc). When I was able to prove I worked in health research for theUuniversity of Southampton he was happy to send me a copy of the picture and will probably use it for research purposes. We ended up having quite an interesting conversation about Vitamin D and sunlight (more on that in further blogs) as it is a particular interest of mine. Did you know for instance that Vit D is involved in preventing many cancers and people of darker skins in northern climates are particualrly likely to be deficient. Red hair and fair skin is an adaptation to low sunlight levels (hence i'm not likely to be as deficient for instance as a black person but I will burn in the sun if overexposed - and be more likely to get skin cancer as a result). Did you know black people in the US (African Americans suffer much more cancer than whites? that fact is not well known and they are largely excluded from official statistics - the US does not collect nationwide statistics for cancer - only state by state. See The Secret History of the War on Cancer, Devra Davis for details. Fascinating reading.

I left the surgery within 20 mins a new woman. I'm going to keep on with the castor oil though and the juicing. It is so easy to do once you have the ingredients - I add a banana to the superfood mix, add water and a little soya milk, ground flax seeds (I use a coffee grinder) blend with a hand-held blender and voila! instant breakfast. Tasty too (add a bit of honey or agave syrup for sweetness). No mucking about peeling and chopping fruit, etc. I think i could get quite into this. I do feel this was/is a message and I'm not about to go back to the old habits of thinking I can put anything into my body and it not matter. What we take in literally becomes our tissues so it does matter what quality materials you put in there. Make it the best you can and be the best you can be.

Had my regular massage today which is my gift to myself for ongoing health, a quick snooze (I didn't sleep that well last night!) and off to see Avatar in 3D which I found very moving. Came out of the cinema feeling quite otherwordly, decided to pop into IKEA for a quick meal (best views in Southampton particularly at night) and then home to my blog and an early night. What a difference a day makes, as the song goes. What a lesson.

Walking the talk

Hi there, this is my first blog but boy is it a big one! For the last year or so I have been up to my eyes in essays, writing and general research on the subject of health and wellbeing. Firstly I am doing a degree in Nutritional Medicine, (following the untimely death of my sister-in-law I just felt i wanted to do something to find out - why she died (of bowel cancer) and how I can prevent it happening to me or my family. I've found out stuff that you wouldn't believe - how the cancer industry works (cancer research and it's associated charities and instutitions), how much of the simple information that would help us is being kept from us by the overuse of the uncertainty principle (if it hasn't been double-blind randomised control tested then we can't be sure of it's efficacy). Now this makes sense if the intervention you are talking about is a drug but it sure as hell makes no sense at all when you are talking about dietary interventions like fish oil (omega-3) and broccoli. Yes, broccoli turns out to be a very powerful anti-cancer food, along with berries and turmeric and other things. This is info everyone should know, not just those with a diagnosis (for whom it is vital) but for those of us who wish to prevent it happening to us. Which, up until yesterday, included me. Then, I found a strange lesion on my back which wasn't there a month ago and appears to be skin cancer. So, here I am - an exponent of self-empowered healing being asked to finally 'walk my talk'. This ain't theoretical anymore...

I am, of course, gonna have it checked out by the doctor tomorrow, and will probably be referred on to the hospital. I know this because I had one 10 years ago which was removed. However, the question is, how come, given my pretty good diet, my understanding of the emotional factors that contribute to disease and all the rest that I have gleaned from my research, HOW did I get this again?? I can only think it is a message from the universe if you will, that I have more work to do. I hope I can find it within myself to take the positive from this, but right now, I have to admit I'm a little scared.
Will update when I know more, but that's all for now
Tricia x