Integrated Cancer Treatment today is a total misnomer. Physicians are prevented from proposing or administering any treatments other than surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in view of the stranglehold of the 1939 Cancer Act, and in a de facto catch-22 situation, because these are the only treatments acknowledged and recognized by the medical profession and the law, these same treatments are the only approaches for which evidence is recognized.

Welcome to 2013 and the Feb Issue 203 of Positive Health PH Online - our 19^th year of publication!!  www.positivehealth.com/issue/issue-203-february-2013

I say this every issue that there are a selection of superb and thought-provoking editorial features which are highly original and informative. However it is true for Feb Issue 203 and you should require no further prompting to immerse yourself in these pearls of wisdom:

It seems unbelievable that here we are with Issue 200 of Positive Health PH Online. The launch of PH was inspired by a suggestion from my partner and co-director Mike Howell while I was building the Cancer and Nutrition database for the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in 1993.

My heart is always cheered when I read research investigating the mode of anti-cancer action of a natural substance so was very interested in the research update by Shitaba et al from Osaka Health Science University, Osaka Japan regarding the antitumour growth and antimetastatic activities of alpha-mangostin, from the mangosteen fruit, which has a long history of medicinal use in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine.

As we are poised on the brink of moving into the new year 2013, this Issue 202 of Positive Health PH Online similarly bridges many of the gaps which certain forces believe to separate complementary / alternative medicine from conventional / orthodox healthcare. As long time, devoted readers of PH Online realize, I do not subscribe to the notion that various techniques / disciplines of healthcare constitute separate worldviews of medicine. I have long been an advocate of the vision that healthcare is multi-faceted and that there are a multitude of various disciplines and techniques, practised by different practitioners. Hence, I don’t see the sense of considering that osteopathic practitioners are alternative, but that physiotherapists are conventional, or that nutritionists are alternative but dieticians are orthodox.

We are all groaning from the sheer weight of available information about every aspect of health, in technical and popular media.  I spend just about my entire life reading, researching, trawling and publishing about health and medical issues. Moreover, the vital importance of having not only the facts, but also the who and where one can pursue the appropriate course of treatment is invariably brought home when a person you know is suffering from a particular illness or condition.