Have You Got Your Statins Yet?

Recently we had yet another story on Statins and how millions more need to take them.

Is this really right?  Surely the question should be why do doctors believe more are at risk from heart problems?  What is going on to get to that stage?  and How can we reverse that?

The tests can be devised to show what they like, the range that indicates the so called need for statins can be set to 'sell' more drugs.   I think we need to stop being naive about the behind the scenes health decisions that get taken on our behalf and then applied to us.  Flawed studies, as the clips below will show.

The number of people that get blood tests and take the pills not knowing what the tests were for or what the pills are doing is frightening, yet the same people know exactly what the mechanic did for their car and what the problem was.  They will even give you a print out along with the bill.

May be we should start getting that print out from our Dr's.  A big rumpus at the moment about our medical data being shared with 'others'  Isn't it time it was shared with us!  Why don't we have access to our own medical records online or held within our hands...I digress....

How committed to good health is our government?  Why would they rather pay expensive drug costs for Statins rather than look at some of the major culprits of heart health and deal with it at cause?

Who pulls the government strings...we know there is no money in good health for certain companies, but our health is not part of a corporations profits and neither should our government be using our health in its corporation dealings.

Isn't it time that the government slapped a tax on high sugar foods and encouraged lower prices on veggie.  But if you go into any supermarket...the offers are rarely on vegetables, but the 2 for 1's are on biscuits, cereals, processed foods, high sugar foods.  What would the big suppliers of this food do,such as Nestle, if governments slapped higher taxes on this type of food.

Every budget sees a little more go on cigarettes and alcohol, but not enough to make them really prohibitive, just enough to take a bit more tax revenue from them.  The odd logic is to add a little more tax to help the NHS cope with the effects of them.....ugh!!!  So it's ok to have a sick population then and keep them just a little under optimum health...why?  remember no money in health for certain organisations....did we vote in a corporation or a government?....I digress again, but it is all linked.

We all know these are contributing factors in heart health.

Take the money that is being ploughed into drugs and plough into promoting health and helping people make good choices. Support the healthy food options with that money. Offering drugs like statins does nothing to alter the mindset.

We all need to eat...make the better choices cheaper.

The heart health story has laid all the blame on Cholesterol...cholesterol is only doing its job, if we have healthy arteries, cholesterol isn't needed to plug the gaps and cause plague in the arteries.

I have blogged on cholesterol and statins before but the best I've seen on this are contained in the links below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAq7Sxyp-JQ    Dr Sinatra   Integrative Cardiologist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdvtp40QmIY    Cholesterol – Johnny Bowden

Then just for balance, here is the BBC report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26132758

If nothing else, it will hopefully show how poor the science is in the tests we get. But also it might even start the right questions being asked when you are in the Dr's.

If a nurse or Dr tells you that you are a ticking time bomb if you don't take the statins....that is fear based medicine and that i'm going to write about later...the nocebo effect!  but it's amazing what people will do or take if a man or woman in a uniform or white coat tells you that you should and back that up with fear.....don't die of fright!

Where is this road leading?

The End of America -  not just America!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqRyUQzokYs


“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—

because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

― Martin Niemöller


Is this the way citizens should be living in 2014

Substance then style or is it just style over substance?

Life does present with some odd experiences.

For 2 hours a week I teach at a local further education college - trust me, you do this for the love of it and not for the finances!  As any teacher will tell you, the amount of time spent preparing and then marking is almost as great as the time in the room.  Well yesterday the faculty I work in had been selected for a teaching inspection....and so I found one of these designated chaps in my class.

I have to say it really must be up there as one of the biggest waste of time of one person we currently operate. There sits this person with his notebook in hand, tapping away as I'm trying to deliver the lesson. It takes no account of what went before and absolutely no account of my true knowledge of the subject.

He observed a lesson on a subject he knew nothing about and watched a demo on a subject he knew even less and watched the students practise a routine that to be honest he also wouldn't have a clue if I had taught them correctly or not.

I could have stood up and delivered a lecture that was a complete load of rubbish, taught a routine that I made up in my head as I went along and 'winged it' through out - but as long as I had done it in the preferred style of the moment with the focus on the current craze/fad of teaching methods with plenty of change in pace and student involvement that's ok.

I'm not one for convention and would rather respond to the needs of the group as we go along. That is something you can only do when you are confident in the subject knowledge and that what you are teaching is current/relevant and meets the need.  If some one had come along and randomly asked me questions on my subject to see that I hopefully knew what I was talking about and perhaps went around the room and asked students about their learning experience in the classroom, even testing the knowledge that by now the teaching should have given them - surely that would be a better test of teaching skills and abilities.

So now one waits for the feedback....In all honesty, the only feed back that matters to me, is that from the students.....Have they enjoyed it, did they get what they needed and expected, has it expanded their thoughts and knowledge and are they confident with their new skills.   These should be ongoing questions throughout a course, a constant dialogue. Not whether one has ticked the boxes for this years methods/standardisations.


Had the joy of attending a great workshop on Matrix Energetics at the weekend....really enthusiastic trainer, followed no teaching rules at all, yet we all came away with a great experience and all took from it what we needed.

One little moment struck my love of irony.....The trainer wanted a volunteer and asked people to raise their hands if they were someone who had issues about putting themselves first....The irony of it I love.   Should he perhaps have picked someone who kept their hands down as they didn't want to put themselves first and ignore those whose hands shot up, as they clearly did.  Tricky one and delightfully ironic.

February News Letter from the CHI

With January nearly gone and hopefully all tax returns done and out of mind, the last of the wintry months lies ahead. It comes in with the Chinese Year of the Horse, the wood horse to be exact and that can be a tricky one.  

May be not quite through the storm yet...It can be a year of sticking to principles, but that can mean conflict and difficulty in negotiations. It brings energy but fuels the flames. A good year for farming, education (good or bad for Michael Gove??) and the media it seems.

But we may get a few more volcanic eruptions and probably not all from volcanoes. So if you like a fast victory or an unexpected adventure, this could be the year for you. What ever else, it usually brings a year of extremes and not a year for secrecy - great for all those 'whistleblowers'   So a good deal of cooking on Saturday for guests here, to bring in the new year with abundance.  I have to say i prefer the Chinese one, the food is more important and as you know - I'm a foodie.

Daisy the beagle/lab cross that sits here next to me, is looking forward to some lighter evenings....she'll be back to her 3 walks a day then.....at the moment carrying a little xmas weight i think.

I had the pleasure of going along to the College of Natural Medicine on Monday to hear Dr Jayne Donegan talk about vaccinations.   So much pro and against gets written about this but this speaker had gone back to 'source' for her evidence.  She had trawled the dusty ledgers that contained the facts of the history of illness both prior and post vaccines and not just taken the word of others.  Partly as she had been asked to take on the case of a parent who didn't want their child vaccinated opposing the view of the other parent, that did.....such a hot potato,but she took it on and it cost her a lot of bad press and no support from the over bearing GMC. 

In her talk, she took  us through her own experience of going from a pro vaccine GP to one that could find no evidence that matched the claims of the drug companies or government speak and in fact, evidence to the contrary.

Unless parents have access to the facts, how can any parent make an informed choice.

When you look at the decline rates of illnesses, they were massively on the decline when vaccines were introduced, due to better living standards and improved environmental conditions. There are many factors that come into play.

A quote i like from Tedd Koren, a chiropractor in the US, and very anti vaccine - he says 'the figures can't lie, but a liar can figure'  which probably accounts for a lot of skewed data then, when money and health meet and not just health!

It was a packed room and I don't think anyone could have left with any doubt, just what her view was or the struggle that she has faced with the powerful GMC in holding that view.

Very often when you talk with parents on vaccines, they come to the same point of being worried about not giving it just in case...but when you listen to the evidence - the concern must surely be in the having of them. 

The 'herd immunity' theory is always the one rolled out by medical practitioners, but Dr Donegan took great delight in reiterating the irony of this, in that it requires the non vaccinated to have the vaccines to protect the vaccinated where the vaccine hasn't worked.

Well i wouldn't want to be selfish, but not quite prepared to take a shot of formaldehyde, aluminium,  animal cells,human cells (that are not my own),  msg, etc etc just in case the vaccine hasn't worked in another.  If that is anyone, please accept my apologies, but I'm not doing it :)))

Still it would seem that the concern over autism from the MMR could be a thing of the past, if the autism vaccine is successful......

Very hard to ascertain causation for many events in health, the variables are vast, despite the 'gold standard, double blind trials' but odd that the rise in cases of autism and ADHD correspond with the increase in the vaccine schedule - a vaccine for the vaccine then.....excellently ironic!

With the UK vaccine schedule currently at 28 before the age of 3.5yrs, and many given as 5:1 and 3:1,  it is shuddering what we are setting our children up for.

If these were not administered as multiple vaccines, a parent would be taking a child to the nurse for a vaccine every 6 weeks.....that might become more questionable.

Last Friday was an eye opener to say the least.  A couple contacted our website for some advice as one of them had been refused a scan here because they had first initiated treatment for a cancer in Germany 7 years ago.   The couple lived here,paid there NHS contributions here for many many years of working life, but when a different cancer came back and a scan here was all that was required, it had been met with a 'no' The treatment will be paid for again from their own pocket, in Germany, as they far outclass us in treatment of people with cancer it seems, with innovative approaches, much like Lord Saatchi had called for here. But to save the couple the trouble of going just for a scan they were asked to get it done here....Having made some enquiries, it seems a GP or consultant has no duty of care to treat anyone....Whose money pays their wages????

Nice to see we have good cooperation with the medics across Europe....The EU it seems is designed for efficiency in business across its members but not with the medical services from here. Wouldn't it be great to see cooperation on health across the EU, we might all have better access to more innovative treatments for cancer than we have here in the UK. 

So not great news to pass back to them and one can only hope they eventually find a compassionate consultant with a sense of reason.

Patrick Kingsley, renowned doctor and contributor to the magazine 'What Doctors Don't Tell You'  will be our speaker in April. 

Currently we have him booked to speak on Tuesday 8th April  -  details to follow, but pop it in your diary, or in those scary i-phone diary things that people have. 

A man of immense knowledge and if anyone saw the edition on cancer of WDDTY, you will see how fantastic he was at treating the Editor of the magazine, Lynne McTaggart's mother in law when she was told she had an breast cancer that was past treatment and to go away and put her affairs in order...well luckily they took her to see Patrick and results were so amazing.....her ordering of her affairs could wait.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuW7e1yCVvc

The link above is worth a little viewing - skip along to about 1hr,23mins and watch just what happened in real time to the 3" cancer tumour in the bladder as 3 people chanted over it in a 'medicine less' hospital in China....It will take just 2mins 40secs of your time.   Quantum healing in action!

Here's to a good February 

Complementary Health Institute 

Complementary Health Institute - January Newsletter

What a beautiful sunny day it has been and a great way to start back to work. Despite it being a busy one, i managed a lovely long walk with Daisy first thing, and if that dogs tummy gets any nearer the ground, it won't just be wet paws that need contending with.

It of course is the time of year where plans for the coming one start to formulate in the mind and thoughts to where one might be at the end of it all - who knows where the wind will take a person....Look what happened to Mary Poppins & Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz!    Yep...too much xmas TV. 

There are some events coming up that you might be interested in.

The first is this Saturday morning

If any of you attended the Philosophy talks in the delightful Grantchester Orchard Tea Gardens last year, then you will know that they are well worth coming along to.

This Saturday, January 4th. The talk begins at a new time of 10.30 and goes through until 12.30.  It is free to attend

The speaker is John De Val and the subject is 'Procrastination'  'Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Is that wise advice? Is procrastination the 'thief of time' or can it be a useful art?  - Is the basis of the talk.

Now given the procrastination I've managed to achieve the last 2 weeks, i'm hoping it's the latter. So providing John hasn't procrastinated too much - he'll be delivering what will be a great talk I'm sure

The College of Natural Medicine in London also has some events that are note worthy.

The first is on Monday 27th January from 6.30-8.30  The talk is 'Vaccinations - The Questions'

It is with Dr Jayne Donegan, who is a GP and Homeopath.  It is £10 and you would need to book.

We are hoping to ask Jayne to speak at a meeting here in Cambridge this year.

She has another talk booked at CNM  which is on Monday 2nd June, again 6.30 - 8.30 and same cost.

The title of this one is 'The Disease of the Vaccination'  MMR - Which is better?

Jayne will be looking at the normal course of Mumps, Measles and Rubella and what parents fear most about these illnesses. She will look at what the vaccine does and take a look at the 'Germ theory of disease'

The pitfalls verses the holistic model of disease.

Jayne will also cover the basic strategies which help parents to cope with any acute childhood illness and infection.

This is very apt, as Thierry Clerc, Maddy and myself have plans to bring together something very similar this year. - we'll keep you posted.

For those of you who are interested in detoxification, cleansing and elimination - and after all, after the xmas wotnots....who isn't!

The CNM have a talk by Dr Brian Clements, director of the Hippocratic Health Institute in Florida. Dr Clements will talk on the workings of the elimination system, lymph, liver, colon, blood, lungs, kidneys and skin, and will cover what one experiences in a detox program.

He has pioneered clinical research and training in how to prevent disease and enhance longevity plus maintain vitality.

So 3 great talks there. for full details go to www.info@naturopathy-uk.com  or call 01342 410 505.

Maddy and I also have some speakers lined up for you, a little closer to home.  Both talks will be at the Trumpington Pavillion

Our first is on Tuesday 11th February and starts at 7.45.  Philosophy teacher and speaker, Michael Snow, will be giving us a talk entitled 'Complementary Philosophy - an antidote to thinking'   (bring it on I say - I'm sure thinking is much over rated!)

The talk will be an introduction to the philosophy of unity , known as “Advaita”, which is probably the oldest philosophical teaching on the planet, and which underpins much of what is offered by the great religious and spiritual traditions. It seeks to perceive that which unites human beings.  It offers an approach which is inclusive – not exclusive.  It seeks to make available the true nature of humanity, which is said to be truth, consciousness and bliss, or true happiness.”

What a great time to hear this talk as we edge ever further towards the Aquarian Age.

Michael has been studying this subject within the School of philosophy in Cambridge and its parent body for some 30 years , and tutoring groups for 20.  He holds regular workshops at the schools study centre near Saffron Walden , and on occasion tutors at the schools residential premises near Oxford.

We are looking forward to welcoming Michael in February.

Our next booked speaker is set for  Tuesday April 8th and again a 7.45 start,  We are delighted to welcome Dr Patrick Kingsley . Patrick spoke superbly at our convention on cancer in Birmingham in October 2012 and again in November the same year, at the Totnes Cancer conference.

To quote Dr Kingsley

“As a fully qualified doctor, I eventually got to the point in my practice where I felt there had to be a better way. While the drugs I prescribed were making people feel a little better, nobody was actually being cured. I didn't come into medicine to make people comfortable. I wanted to be a healer. So I started to explore ways of healing without drugs or surgery. I tested what I discovered on myself until I felt happy that I could offer this to my patients. That was 30 years ago. In that time I have seen – and treated – thousands of 'incurables'”

Dr Kingsley will be speaking on his methods and successes of treating chronic diseases without a prescription pad!

There will be plenty of time for questions at the end and to chat with Dr Kingsley.

I'm sure we are in for a treat from both our speakers, although different modalities, one and the same when it comes to a true holistic approach to health - after all, where the mind and thoughts go - the body follows.

Make a note in the diary of those that grab you attention and hopefully see you at some of them.

Have a great start to the new year and we'll keep you posted!

As we leave 2013.....

So with Christmas gone and the last of the celebrations of the year ahead of us here, what a great time to think of the year ahead and what we can take with us from the last year.

As I sit here with Daisy the beagle curled up and my lovely son opposite typing away also, studying for his first Oxford exams, It brings home to me how very lucky we are. No matter how we might think our life is tough in parts and precarious at times, we sit here in safety and with those that matter most to me in good heath.

You look around the world and see the destruction and suppression, hunger and cruelty, and it is but a stones throw from any of us. This time of year, the TV is full of appeals for money to save a child's life, to improve the health of others, to improve the life of animals, to prevent cruelty, to provide shelter etc.

It is impossible to give to all and even throwing money at these problems doesn't seem to be enough. We have these same problems decade after decade and who creates them - man himself of course.  These are not problems inflicted by an outside force, but by the very decisions taken at every turn.  If we are still facing the same problems in the 21st Century, then we really need to wake up.

All of us, I believe, have an inbuilt sense of what is right or wrong. We are never taught how to feel, so even if nurture plays a part, nature is there also and we learn a lot by how we feel. Empathy. We all know when greed and exploitation are our motive. We know when we are acting out of revenge and anger or doing an act of kindness.

Neglect of children and cruelty towards them is inexcusable. What defence can there be. It is not gifts that children need but the consistent love and protection of the very guardians/parents that have chosen to have this child.  As adults we have the advantage of knowing the difficulties children face and how scary the world can seem to them, we have been there, they are yet to be adults and what sort of adults do we hope they become? Children are not just the responsibility of parents or guardians, we are all responsible for raising the next generation. What sort of example are we?

All around is excess in possessions and this can breed greed,envy & dissatisfaction. Imagine if this was an excess of pure love, the gap wouldn't need filling with gifts and to aspire to greater love has got to be better than aspiring to have more collateral in what ever form that collateral takes.

The way a nation treats it's animals is indeed a mark of its civility. They are a test of our innate knowing of right or wrong.  I read an horrific story this morning of a couple who tied there dog upside down as a punishment. The dog was so distressed and disturbed, it had to be put down. In what mind would inflicting pain and cruelty onto any animal be considered ok? This is not just our pets of course, and after all, you don't have to have a pet, but it is also the way we treat livestock in our food supply.

Those that campaign for animal welfare do a superb job highlighting the world wide problems with the way we treat animals destined for our table. Surely the meat we want to eat we would rather had been fed well, treated well in life and at the time of death. I'm not promoting vegetarianism, but rightful respect for all life.

Then there are those that have an eye to our environment and put themselves at risk because they care so passionately about saving the planet. The very home in which we all rely, but seem to turn a blind eye when it is being stripped of all that we need to survive. These people deserve our support and not viewed as battling hopeless causes - without their actions, we could be in a much worse state. They are not afraid to take on the corporations and neither are they doing it for their own satisfaction, but for the generations they and us are yet to meet and beyond. For an outcome they may not see materialise in their lifetime, but out of sheer love of the planet. Greenpeace of course are the biggest movement in this and we all owe them more than we might ever realise.

Exploitation on many levels leads to poverty. Stripping assets, resources, taking possession, invasion - and what for?  Exploitation at the hands of governments, corporations, and on a local scale, unscrupulous beings.

2014 I guess is not going to be the year to take your eyes of the likes of Monsanto and the likes of Bayer, GSK, Merck, as they struggle to keep the reins of power and exploitation in their hands

How to gain at the expense of others, cruelty, domination and neglect of care to those around us, whether we know them or not.

What if 2014 saw the reverse of this,  when faced with the decision of cruelty or kindness, the option was always kindness. What if tolerance over intolerance, what if mutual support triumphed over domination and what is we stopped with our constant need to have more stuff.

It is never too late to have a new paradigm. Nature has a way of winning over in the end and she doesn't care how she does it - better we work with her than against her.
If in the process of continuing to live as we do, we wipe ourselves out - she isn't going to care. Nature doesn't favour one species over another. We are all here at her tolerance.

So when a festive season comes round that has no need for appeals to mop up our disgraces to each other, that really would be one to celebrate and the quicker that time comes the better.

To quote the philosopher, Edmund Burke 1729-1797

'Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little'

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate - Find out more on vaccinations and make an informed choice.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate perhaps ought to be the question that all parents ask themselves. But many do not, many just assume that whatever the vaccine schedule for their country is, they follow it, after all, it is the medical profession that are administering it so it must be ok then?

Well in the short term the majority of children seem fine, some do not though and parents notice changes in behaviour and ability after the vaccinations. In the long term....well are we swapping harmless childhood illnesses for more chronic conditions in later life. Rises in chronic conditions and autoimmune problems could be a knock on effect of vaccination.

By-passing the natural route for immunity could be causing problems in our health in later life. Immunity from vaccination is not permanent and having childhood illnesses in childhood is far safer than having them later in life when they can give rise to more complex experiences.

Do we really need to be so afraid of childhood illnesses, after all, long before the vast amount of vaccinations our children are now subjected to, our parents had to look after us and manage our illness. The vast amount of children survived these illnesses with no problems, managing a fever, good nutrition, rest are all ways of supporting a body as it fights infection.

Isn't it odd that childhood illnesses are never given a high profile as a problem until a vaccine is there, then suddenly the media are declaring a mild childhood illness as a 'killer' disease.

Well parents have a difficult decision in the original question of vaccinate or not if they don't have the facts or the other side of the vaccine story, or perhaps don't know just what they can do if their child gets an illness.

There are 2 talks coming up which might just help. They are London UK based and will be held at the College of Natural Medicine.  Details below

http://www.naturopathy-uk.com/events/events-special-uk/

Vaccination - The Question
CNM London

Dr. Jayne Donegan

Date:	Monday 27th January 2014
Time:	6.30pm - 8.30pm (Please aim to arrive by 6.15pm)
Location:	CNM London
Tickets:	£10 per person

Dr. Jayne Donegan, GP & Homoeopath, was a former strong supporter of the UK’s Universal Childhood Vaccination Programme, but her subsequent research led her to change her opinion. In this seminar Dr Donegan will address:

• Factors key to historic decreases in deaths from childhood diseases
• Efficacy of common childhood vaccinations

• Safety risks versus benefits of modern vaccinations
• How government & pharmaceutical companies manage vaccine data
• What historical evidence tells us about protecting children’s health today

MMR – Which is better: The Disease or the Vaccine?
CNM London

Dr. Jayne Donegan

Date:	Monday 2nd June 2014
Time:	6.30pm - 8.30pm (Please aim to arrive by 6.15pm)
Location:	CNM London
Tickets:	£10 per person

GP & Homeopath, Dr Jayne Donegan will look at the normal course of Mumps, Measles and Rubella, and what parents fear most about these diseases. She will look at what the vaccine does, and take a brief look at 'Germ Theory of Disease' and its pitfalls versus the Holistic Model of Disease. She will also cover basic strategies which will help parents to cope with any acute childhood illness or infection.

There will be an opportunity for questions.

Call 01342 410 505 or email info@naturopathy-uk.com for further information.

Location Map (opens in new window)