How these Leaflets can Help You
I wrote these leaflets hoping they would give the best and most up-to-date information to patients. They also proved useful in busy surgeries where there isn't always enough time to explain everything. I wish I'd known this information earlier in my career, as I would have been more useful to more patients and for that reason I think this information might be of interest to doctors who are looking for new ideas.
Here are some ways I think the leaflets can help.
1) Infections
It can make a huge difference if you can avoid infections or recover from them quickly. Vitamin C is an outstanding remedy, but only if used at a high enough dose (for an illness of any severity we are talking 10 to 40 grams daily). It can make a profound difference (see leaflet on Vitamin C). Vitamin C really comes into its own in severe infections and here it can be lifesaving, as recent research has shown. In sepsis cases, in intensive care units, giving high doses of Vitamin C intravenously improved survival over four-fold. Sadly it is rarely used in this situation. A major advantage of Vitamin C is that it is just as effective against viruses as it is against bacteria.
For serious infections it is crucial to get medical help as soon as possible but there are other remedies which can help and be an important adjunct to treatment (see the leaflet on severe and resistant infections). There are remedies that will help with the common problem of recurrent urinary infections (see leaflet). There are also leaflets on recurrent sinusitis and Boosting the immunity. (The latter was the leaflet I gave out most often along with that on metabolic syndrome).
Preventing infections is just as important and here Vitamin D has huge benefits here (see blogs on Covid 19). See the leaflet Boosting Immunity for ways to reduce your risk.
2) Cancer
It is rare for doctors to give cancer patients information on food and few doctors are aware of the extensive medical literature that now exists on this subject. For example, mushrooms have some of the strongest cancer-fighting properties of any food. Chris Woolams, of CancerActive, notes that four Nobel prizes have been won on this topic alone, demonstrating how they strengthen the immune system, allowing it to recognize rogue cells more easily, and enhance communication between cells (see the leaflet on food and cancer). Many other foods have known anti-cancer properties.
Few people know that those with low levels of Vitamin D (the majority of people in the UK have low levels) can have a two to five fold increased risk of breast and colon cancer (see leaflet on cancer and breast cancer risks). Low levels double the risk of many other cancers. One of the simplest steps you can make to reduce your risk of cancer is to supplement with Vitamin D.
Also see the leaflet Useful Books on Cancer, many of these written by people who survived cancer against the odds. These books are packed with useful information. There are also leaflets on specific cancers, preventing breast and preventing bowel cancer, a more general one: cancer (summarizing some of the information in these books). For anyone who has cancer I was strongly recommend looking at the Canceractive website which is packed with useful information, all from the scientific literature. They also have a Canceracive Community where there are many interviews with people who have recovered from stage 3 and 4 cancer (there is a charge for this part of the website).
3) Diet can have a Major Impact in Chronic Disease
Many are awakening to the fact that diet is a powerful tool to treat many serious chronic diseases. The successful diets of Dr Michael Mosley and Dr David Unwin for diabetes are examples of how recent research findings can be used to produce a highly effective dietary regime that can improve and often reverse diabetes (see below). This contrasts with the poor results seen with many diabetic drugs. (See the diabetes leaflet for information on this and other strategies that can help diabetes).
However diabetes is by no means the only serious disease that can be helped or even reversed by diet. Nearly all auto-immune diseases get commoner further away from the equator (and hence less sunshine). Nearly all these diseases benefit from Vitamin D (see leaflets on Vitamin D and SLE)
Both patients and doctors have used the paleo-ketogenic diet in various forms for many serious chronic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis (see separate leaflets on these conditions). As we have so few effective treatments for chronic disease I think this is important knowledge.
4) Heart Disease
In my opinion, most doctors underestimate the effect of lifestyle changes and overestimate the benefits of drugs. However lifestyle remedies typically trump drugs in their effectiveness. There is a short leaflet called Heart Disease (not in alphabetical order) which sums up the key lifestyle changes to make. Also see more detailed leaflet “Food, Lifestyle and the Heart” and “Food, Heart and Cholesterol” for more information. For those with heart failure, cardiomyopathy, irregular heart beats and other heart conditions there is leaflet Nutrition and the Heart based on the work of American cardiologist Dr Steven Sinatra and also one on Atrial fibrillation.
Did you know that one sugary drink daily can increase mortality from heart disease by 50% and diet drinks also increase mortality (easily undermining the benefit you could get from a whole concoction of cardiac drugs). Many now know that the Mediterranean diet can improve mortality (by 75%) but few know that just drinking 5 or more glasses of water daily can improve mortality from heart disease by 50-70%. Several other simple dietary interventions can also improve mortality by 30-50% (see leaflets). No drug has ever been shown to have benefits of anything like this magnitude.
5) Mental Health
We are seeing an epidemic of mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression. The leaflets give some useful strategies that can be help (power of the mind). Several studies how fruit and vegetables enhance mood in those with or without mental health issues and what is more surprising is the more eaten the greater the benefit. Those eating a healthy diet were four times more likely to go into remission (recover). Eating ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) increases the risk of depression and the more you eat the greater the risk of depression (at present UPFs make up 55% of our diet). There are also separate leaflets on nutritional approaches for depression, anxiety and nutritional approaches for schizophrenia.
In my experience nutrition rarely gets a mention in mental health but it can make a profound difference and is as effective if not more effective than drugs or psychotherapy. As an example, zinc deficiency can stop SSRI anti-depressant drugs working, (as zinc is essential for the conversion 5HTP into serotonin).
6) Mild Hypertension
Large numbers of people take drugs for mild hypertension (between 140-159 systolic and 90-99 diastolic) and yet this may not be necessary. Several studies have shown no benefit in treating people with mild hypertension (see leaflet on mild hypertension) providing they have no other medical conditions. This is important to know as side-effects from treatment can be significant. And there are dangers of overtreatment: some people given blood pressure medication end up with a systolic pressure of below 130. This increases mortality by 30%.A major cause of hypertension is metabolic syndrome which can be diagnosed with a simple blood test but is rarely looked for. It can be treated effectively with diet (see leaflet on metabolic syndrome).
7) A treatment for Alzheimer’s does Exist
No drugs exist that can reverse Alzheimer’s disease and is widely believed that drug companies have given up their search for an effective drug for this disease. However a new approach, the Bredesen protocol, has been successful in several hundred cases of early Alzheimer’s. This is a major breakthrough, because as Dr Bredesen notes, everybody knows a cancer survivor but no one has heard of an Alzheimer’s survivor. (See the leaflet on Alzheimer’s disease).
Although it is early days this is the first time Alzheimer’s disease has ever been reversed. As we are witnessing with so many chronic diseases today successful treatment involves changing a range of critical lifestyle factors rather than using a drug.
Nutrition has a major role in prevention, notable using B vitamins and Omega 3 fats. (see New Ideas in Dementia leaflet)
8) Women's Health
This includes a range of problems including premenstrual tension (PMT), heavy periods, menstrual cramps, benign breast lumps, breast pain and the menopause. Often these are poorly treated with mainstream medicine But ecological medicine has many helpful answers here, most notable in painful breast lumps (fibrocystic breast disease) and PMT (see Women's Health leaflet).
9) Minor Skin Tumours
As people get older they commonly develop skin tumours such as actinic keratoses and basal cell carcinomas (BCC). These are rarely serious. In the case of BCCs they need a minor operation. Few people know that these can often be treated with simple remedies when small - see leaflet on skin tumours (this is towards the end and not in alphabetical order and not to be confused with leaflet on sebaceous cysts).
10) Osteoporosis
Standard treatment is combinations of calcium and Vitamin D such as Adcal D3. This combination gives too much calcium and not nearly enough Vitamin D. In addition, patients are often given bisphosphonates which have some of the most serious adverse effects of any drugs. However there is another way. What naturally builds bone is Vitamin K2. This is now markedly decreasing in our food supply (but can be supplemented). Not only does it build bone but it has another bonus. It is the only substance that takes calcium out of our arteries. Other nutrients are also needed for bone-building. See the osteoporosis leaflet for more information (not in alphabetical order). Remember fluoride is an often forgotten cause of osteoporosis and acts by weakening bones (even though it increases bone density).
I would like to add two further observations:
The Danger of Drugs is often Underestimated
In my experience doctors frequently underestimate the danger of drugs. I can understand why this is because we give them out all the time and get a bit blasé about them. But drugs can be dangerous and many are overused.
There is a pattern I have noticed during my career. Drugs become very popular when they first come into use. Then they are then given out by the bucket load. Two or three decades later we realise, much to everyone’s surprise, that they were lot more dangerous than we first thought. Examples are anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and benzodiazepines, such as diazepam. There are many more.
At one practice, we often joked that every patient came out of hospital on a PPI, (drugs that block stomach acid, examples being omeprazole and lansoprazole). However a paper in the British Medical Journal in 2018 showed PPIs increased mortality by 25%. (Compare this with smoking which increases mortality from all cancers by 25%). (see leaflet on Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) The guidelines suggest they should only be used for 8 weeks but they are often used for very much longer. There is a leaflet on PPIs.
Another group of drugs which have caused controversy are statins (see leaflet on Statins). A recent independent report from Australia found 45% of patients developed side effects such as muscle pain, insomnia and erectile problems (though industry-funded studies of statins find few side-effects). But what worries me more is research which shows every facet of brain function depends on cholesterol and deteriorates as cholesterol drops and improves as cholesterol rises. I have seen patients initially suspected of having dementia who recovered totally after statins were stopped. .I suspect this is the tip of a very big iceberg. These drugs need to be used with great care, particularly in the elderly.
But perhaps the biggest concern is overmedication. Prescribed drugs have tripled since 2005 with no discernible benefit and with huge cost to the NHS. In fact life expectancy has been going down since 2015. There is clear link between the number of drugs people take and mortality (60% increase in mortality in those taking over 6 drugs). This is partly because of the underlying condition but it also correlates with the number of drugs used. Those taking three drugs have three times the rate of depression compared to those on one drug. My take on this is most doctors are prescribing far too many drugs.
Medical Pioneers
Patients with a disease are highly committed to finding a cure and this has led to several important breakthroughs. For instance some of the most useful advances in autism have come from doctors who have had autistic children, like Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride (see leaflet on autism). Dr Terry Wahl’s successful fight against multiple sclerosis resulted in the Wahl’s protocol (see Multiple Sclerosis leaflet) and is another example of how one person’s fight against a disease can benefit many patients with the disease. Sometimes it is a highly committed doctor that makes all the difference. Dr David Unwin has reversed over150 cases of type 2 diabetes in his general practice in Southport by pioneering a low carbohydrate diet. If all doctors did this there would be 1 million fewer diabetics in the UK. Another pioneering doctor is Dr Sarah Myhill who discovered that chronic fatigue syndrome is primarily a disease of the mitochondria and for the first time there is hope for people with this illness. Another example is Dr Dale Bredesen, a research neurologist, who found a way to reverse early Alzheimer’s disease. Dr Joseph Chandy's pioneering work showed that Vitamin B12 deficiency is far commoner than recognised and often undertreated (see leaflet Vitamin B12). Chris Woolams has, in my opinion, more knowledge about cancer and both conventional and alternative treatments than anyone else on the planet and has made this invaluable knowledge available to all on his website CancerActive. Between one in three on one in four adults in the UK develop metabolic syndrome and can lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. This is a disease of poor glucose control and the work of Jessie Inchaupse has given us new and practical ways to deal with this (see diabetes leaflet).
However the problem for patients is that, if it is not a patented drug, these discoveries get none on the publicity and fanfare that comes with pharmaceutical discoveries . Typically it can take decades for these discoveries to become accepted (if they become accepted at all) and patients need this information now not later. This is where these leaflets can help.
And there is much more: why iodine is important in thyroid disease, a remedy for ankylosing spondylitis and why B12 deficiency is often badly managed by doctors. These are just some of the topics covered.
NOT ALL IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
LEAFLETS ON AIDS, BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTROPHY, FATTY LIVER, HRT, SKIN TUMOURS, DIET DRINKS, IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME, GUT BACTERIA (THE MICROBIOME), COLIC, PROSTATE CANCER, RECURRENT SINUSITIS, MIGRAINE, ANGER MANAGEMENT, PSA, COPD, HYPOTHYROIDISM, INFERTILITY, TENDINITIS, EZETIMIBE , OSTEOPOROSIS, HAY FEVER, LAB TESTS, ZINC, DOAC ANTICOAGULANTS, ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION, GOUT AND URIC ACID, VOMITING IN PREGNANCY, OXALATES , MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY, SIBO, COPPER , SLE, PYRROLURIA and SAFER USE of MOBILES and ROUTERS CAN BE FOUND AT END OF LEAFLET PAGE
PLEASE NOTE:
The information in these leaflets is based on my own opinions which have been formed after many years of medical practice and after much research and based on the best quality information I could find.
Remember medicine is very prone to change. For instance, many drugs which were once thought to be safe are now regarded as potentially hazardous. The medical profession recommended the low fat diet for heart disease for decades although we now know this advice was incorrect. Some of this information here will eventually become outdated too.
The leaflets are not a substitute for medical advice and anyone with a serious medical condition should consult with their own doctor. Seeing other practitioners including nutritionally trained practitioners may also be of value.
I believe it is wise to find out as much information about an illness as possible. Don’t be rushed into a treatment you are uncomfortable with. There are many ways to deal with illness, not all of them widely known. There is almost always something you can do.
