Technology invasion - does it help your health and well being?

It seems that many today have a constant need to share every little detail of their lives, every mundane event that happens - where they are, who they are with, what they are doing, what they are about to do and even, if you are really lucky, they will update you on the outcome of it all.  It seems that if the technology is there to do something, then the process is a given...I wonder when we might stop and consider where that process might end up - which genie will we wish we had never let out of the bottle?

It is not so much the idea of sharing everything we choose to, but the fact that it 'softens up' any resistance to anyone else sharing data about us or wanting data about us..after all if we don't want our own privacy and happy to share all we do constantly, then we can become immune to others wanting to know and share our data.

If you put your life out there to be viewed then you can hardly complain when others want to view it.

We seem to just accept that we are the most observed nation on the planet through CCTV.  I don't feel any safer for it, it would still be foolish to walk down a dark alley in the early hours on your own, after all that is not where the camera is likely to be...it will more than likely be in the shopping arcades or commercial areas, protecting businesses not people...that's a 'by-chance'

Put the right rhetoric with it and many people feel that why worry about it.....as many say 'if you are not doing something you shouldn't, then you have no need to worry'   Well that's true and if we are all living with reasonable laws that are protective, yet not draconian or crushing to what the general view of freedom is, may be that view is safe. If the situation changes and you find what were once normal,harmless activities such as gathering with friends becomes seen as subversive, then the once 'helpful' technology may not be quite all that is seemed.

I read yesterday of the warning that voice controlled televisions could be listening into your conversations...well i guess they are or how would they know when you ask them to change channel etc....so who might be accessing that?  But why worry anyway?   If you are of the belief that if you are not doing anything wrong, then surely it doesn't matter who listens to your conversations - many constantly share with the world anyway via Facebook or twitter.

So if the tv comes with a little camera, that's ok too I guess - after all...'if you are not doing anything wrong.....' etc

Is it all good for our health?....governments and the media generating fear is certainly not, newspapers creating division. The adverts encouraging people to inform on others.....'Tell the inland revenue if you suspect someone of tax fraud' we are told...what else will we accept that we should 'inform on'  I'm all for paying taxes, (may be we should all keep informing on those big corporations that avoid it) Adverts constantly reminding you of the statistics of you getting cancer.....well worth remembering here that where the thoughts go your body might just follow.

So what data are we happy to share and how much privacy are we happy to give up, either imposed or voluntarily?  being mindful to where the steps are taking us, not fearful, not paranoid, after all that can be the effect of the methods employed now, but being the intelligent questioning beings we are.

The CEO of google defends the lack of privacy on the internet....sharing the right data with the right people.....he claims sharing your medical records with the right research doctors would save 100,000 lives this year....all anonymously of course... 100.000 lives...well who wouldn't want to be part of that?   That is quite a high number and how did he arrive at anything like that. Stating figures without explanation....Trying borrowing money on that basis.

Sharing the right data...absolutely...what might that be then and who might really be benefiting - Hopefully you but who else?

Someone once said if you want to be a millionaire, you ask a millionaire how he did it...in terms of health, there is also mileage in asking those who rarely go to the doctor...those whose medical records are a bit thin on the ground.  What did they do or are doing that keeps from the doctors surgery.

May be we will all grow tired of the constant sharing of artificial data and go back to meeting face to face and being in the moment with the people you are with and not constantly sharing info on ourselves, then we might just start to expect others to observe our privacy again. Living a life with ability to find some quiet space, away from technology could well benefit your health on many levels.  For hundreds of years people managed it. For many of us, we grew up without it and the world still functioned.....may be we perhaps could ask the question....just because we can...do we need to?

Technology is a great thing and sharing is of course fine, may be we could all just question a little more where it might be leading so we avoid heading off on a journey to a destination we can't return from.

CiCHealths Newsletter - Feb

Hi Everyone

We were very pleased to have hosted the event with Patrick Kingsley earlier last year and the turn out was fantastic. Last November, it was a pleasure to invite Patricia Peat from Cancer Options down for our joint event with Mary and Sue at the Cambridge Cancer Centre, David Raynor Building. She delivered 2 amazing talks to packed audiences for both sessions and I would urge any therapist to try and attend a talk from her - the generosity of the information shared is superb and helps in being a good resource of knowledge for any clients going through this illness.

As yet we have not decided exactly what we might offer this year.  There is a distinct lack of accredited therapy courses in our area now with CRC no longer offering them, and I am in the midst of writing one on reflexology and one on aromatherapy, so that is taking some of my time.  I have a CKT course starting at the end of March and if you are interested in taking this, then just let me know. I am also in the process of developing an addition to the Indian Head Massage course and when that's ready will let you know.

The health headlines today made grim reading with the predication that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer...after all that money in research we have an illness that has increased from 1:20 in the 70's to 1:3 currently and the prospect of 1;2 in the near future. If this was any other industry it would have folded by now! It is a subject very dear to my heart and I see too many people who are continually still offered the same 3 step options that have failed so many before....to be classed as a survivor, you only need to get to 5 years post treatment, if you go beyond that and die, you are technically a dead survivor, so when the adverts say more people survive cancer than ever before...i wonder what they class as a survivor....

Better still - prevention rather than cure....

Maddy and I zipped of to the first talks given by the recently formed BSIO (British Society for Integrated Oncology) on Monday.  Two great speakers, Xandria Williams and Marie Polley, both with extensive nutritional/naturapathic backgrounds.

The talk was titled ' Detecting Cancer'  in brief it looked at cancer markers in the body that might be better at showing the changes from normal cells to cancerous cells at a stage way before a tumour appears...if you had access to that information, lifestyle changes would take care of the problem and the inevitable is so less likely. This is not new as we can credit the Scottish embryologist, John Beard with this. Over 100 years ago he noted that cancer cells behaved like placenta cells and produced HCG early on in their formation. Unless someone is pregnant, there should be no HCG in their serum or urine. In a pregnant woman they would get a reading of around 20 units but a lab in America has perfected the test to detect such small amounts as 1 unit.....that would indicate a cancerous cell change but so tiny you have the ideal chance to change that back.  So 100 years back this was out there and why was that squashed?

If all that pink ribbon money went to fund a lab like that here, i would contribute to that.   This is science, it is not fools gold....this is out there now.

Lung cancer is the one that still continues to rise and especially in women. I was recently looking at a study on Vitamin E and lung cancer...early last year the press reported that Vit E could cause lung cancer....if that gets dragged up again and you have clients worried about taking Vit E....then remind them the Vit E used in that study was synthetic and derived from the petrochemical industry....pretty sure that's not going to sit well in anyone's body....Vit E must be from a natural source and when it is, studies have shown that as little as 300iu's of natural vitamin E could reduce your risk of lung cancer by 61%

The cradle to grave mentality of leaving our health care in the hands of the NHS has perhaps gone too far, the prevention of illness as best we can, must surely sit with us.

As therapists we all know that the physical and emotional are inseparable - when a client is going through any trauma in their life, encourage the increase in Vitamin C, It is cheap, easy and being proactive in their health. There is nothing like a bit of trauma or stress to eat it up faster than your food can replenish it, and without it, your immune system is compromised. I'm not keen on going through life with that system compromised in anyway. 

It has been somewhat heartening in the last few weeks, just how many clients have been given Vit D tests by their Dr's and discovered they are deficient.....This is great and Dr's doing all the right things by recommending Vit D supplementation...sadly they don't seem to know at what level that might be at, but hey...it's a start.  It has always been known that you need Vit K2 to help the Vit D do it's job properly and to make sure calcium ends up in your bones and nowhere it can cause harm, but the ratio has never been mentioned....A really recent Mercola interview finally had an expert address this - suggesting anyone taking Vit D3 (that should be all of us)  should take it in a ratio of 100-200 micrograms of K2 to every 1000iu's of Vit D   (1;5)     good sources of it comes from Brie,Gouda, Liver and Eggs.

Pro active 'doctoring' thank goodness, with so many people just handed yet another prescription, it had occurred to me that we could save the NHS a fortune, cut out the middle guy and just forward your symptoms to various drug companies and see what they recommend. May be this is the future....i jest of course?

Some of you may remember that we invited Dr Damien Downing to Cambridge to speak on Environmental medicine a year back.  He will be the next speaker for the BSIO, the venue is very accessible - being in the Holiday Inn right opposite Russell Street Tube station.  His talk will be on the Ketogenic Diet. If you are interested in knowing more on this here is the link    http://www.bsio.org.uk/event_11-05-15.php

Xandria Williams, I mentioned earlier, has recently brought out a book on the subject of her talk  Detecting Cancer - Gaining time to recover or protect from cancer

With the stats at 1:3 going to 1:2 - as therapists - not a bad time to gain a bit of knowledge in this area.  

Have a great February and if you see anything that you feel you would like to share or have a view on, let us know.

Good wishes

Sarah and on behalf of Maddy.