Numerous global health issues are steadily progressing which may boil over and potentially overwhelm and threaten our ability to overcome infection / diseases and maintain good health. Several of these include bacterial, viral (HIV) and parasitic (malarial) resistance to antibiotics and antiviral medicines, resulting in our inability to withstand infection, which could possibly threaten some of the miracles of modern medicine including surgical operations. Other equally devastating burgeoning epidemics include those of diabetes, obesity and cancer and their sequelae.
A BBC Radio 4 Start the Week discussion on 16 June 2014 - www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b046j8z5 - included topics about pain, HIV / AIDS and antibiotic resistance; the panel comprised a medical scientist, former politician and a historian who eloquently described the complexity of tackling such serious issues. Whereas a dire, potentially fatal health crisis such as AIDS / HIV, Ebola or SARS virus may enable the mobilization of a crisis-management team focussed on how to approach and implement strategic plans, long-range planning to attempt to prevent and overcome antibiotic resistance, drug resistance to HIV and TB and malaria appears to be fiendishly difficult for those who dictate policy. Governments are reluctant to enter the bedrooms of ordinary people, pharmaceutical companies lack financial incentives to invest in new antibiotics which may only remain effective for several years when they can develop drugs such as statins which people may take over decades.
These predictions are not new; many throughout the medical, veterinary, holistic and environmental camps have been warning about these issues for decades. Indeed, Positive Health PH Online has for 20 years been publishing authoritative articles, case studies and research across a broad spectrum regarding natural health and clinical approaches to most health conditions and environmental issues. Sometimes I despair that this body of literature is falling on deaf ears, at least among the political and professional classes. PH Online articles encompass a multiplicity of natural health approaches to infection, cancer, diabetes, obesity; in fact what strikes me as almost wholly absent from general discussions and debate across the media and professional forums is the term spectrum - the whole range of ideas, qualities, situations that are possible.
For example, there are numerous approaches to identifying substances which can kill bacteria. These include organisms such as bacteriophage or other soil organisms, anti-microbial and anti-viral herbs, herbal medicines, essential oils such as Tea Tree and anti-bacterial aroma-chemicals such as Benchmark Thyme: Benchmark Thyme is a unique blend of ethically grown (chemical and pesticide free) Thyme cultivars, carefully chosen to provide the most effective composition of anti-bacterial aroma-chemicals... There are around 350 species of Thyme (many with sub-species) and four make up Benchmark Thyme - grown and distilled in the UK - www.benchmark-thyme.com/benchmark-thyme/
A more direct approach to the problem of antibiotic resistance is to not overuse antibiotics throughout the farming and health industries internationally. This message has been sent out for decades; however apparently the majority of the human race doesn’t appear to be able to act responsibly until the apocalyptic crises arrive.
Other paradigm approaches to issues such as infection are not to attempt to obliterate the organisms, but rather to create the internal or external environment whereby the organisms don’t cause disease. These types of approaches also pertain to cancer; rather than poisoning the entire body to wipe out cancer, which will become drug-resistant and recur, more intelligent solutions involve creating the environment in the body not conducive to the proliferation of cancer cells and also discovering how to make the cancer cells commit suicide.
If I were in charge of health policy internationally, the approach I would follow would be to assemble and consult with a panel of experts encompassing the entire spectrum of knowledge from a multiplicity of approaches, even and perhaps most importantly those approaches with which I didn’t agree. I would also attempt to ensure that all school children learn about health, science and medicine so that they would grow up competent to comprehend / discuss the approach to their health treatment and not slavishly submit to the opinion of their GP / Consultant.
This Positive Health PH Online Issue 215 publishes a stellar assortment of features encompassing a truly holistic approach to health issues including mind / body / nutrition/ and environment - www.positivehealth.com/issue/issue-215-july-2014
