HEALTH WARNING! DON'T READ THIS!
I recommend you don't attempt a reading of this in one go! It is ridiculously long, and my intention is to split it into smaller parts, take out the excess research and graphs and make it much more personal. It comes, after all, from a very personal and emotional place. It comes from a deep love and feeling of sorrow at seeing my dearly-loved father suffering a difficult illness, and also from my conviction that countless people's suffering in our society is avoidable.
There. You've been warned.
"LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE, AND MEDICINE BE THY FOOD."
Hippocrates
I am what you might call a 'non-churchgoing Christian'. I didn't particularly like my experience of the Church early on, and I certainly didn't appreciate being strong-armed into being 'good' by threats of a fiery hereafter. I decided to find out whether I was capable of loving without the threats. I wanted to know if I was capable of something beyond the faux 'goodness' I'd been encouraged to cultivate. I wanted to be more than just 'nice'. My 'niceness', after all, was proving itself to be a self-preserving facade. And, to my horror, I'd seen that when I was pushed or stressed I could be as rash and as destructive as any other rascal not in the Jesus club.
I wanted to understand why, in spite of good intentions, and established moral rectitude, I was capable of really selfish (one might say 'bad') behaviour. Was I truly 'fallen', 'sinful' in my very nature? What was this thing called love? Why did my 'love' only extend to those who were easy to love?
So for quite a long time I've been seeking to live my life honestly, and sincerely, always trying to be conscious of my tendencies, and examining through this my simple understanding of Christ's teachings regarding love. Which is jolly difficult, I must say! But when I think about my life, my ideals and my aspirations, I do start from one basic but important tenet:
I inhabit a body, and all my experience, wisdom, growth and potential love for others can only come through the proper function of this body. I am certainly not much good without it!
We have been told that the body is the 'temple of the soul'. If we happen to be one of those who takes seriously the concept of a 'soul', I think we probably see it as the 'divine' part of ourselves.
The body? Not so much.
But a temple is holy, is divine! It is where God is to be found, or at least to be communicated with. It is hallowed ground, devoted to worship and thanksgiving. We fill our churches with flowers and incense and we lower our voices instinctively, with respect and awe.
Do we respect and treat our bodies, these ostensible 'temples', with the same reverence?
I am sorry to say that, for a long time, I didn't. I felt very ambivalent about my body, perhaps having absorbed an idea of its sinfulness from my early church 'mentors'.
I spent most of my youth and early adult years grappling with this shame and with the dislike I felt for my body. So I am glad that, in conceiving a child fairly late in life, experiencing pregnancy and going through (and recovering from) a life-saving Caesarian section towards the end of that pregnancy, a strong focus and a growing wonder at my body's capabilities started to come about.
To feel a living being growing and moving inside my own was ridiculously exciting, and simply miraculous! How on earth was this possible?
I had a challenging pregnancy and a dangerous birth, and yet I was forever changed when, emerging from that hastily-applied general anaesthetic and having had the cup of tea necessary for me to literally focus, I gazed upon the face of my child. Instantaneously an adoration and an unexpectedly powerful protectiveness filled and illuminated me, just as though some stagehand had pulled down a mighty switch backstage.
After a few days' hospital post-birth recovery, we said a nervous goodbye to the reassuring staff, and took this tiny, vulnerable object of devotion home. We were now on our own!
This is where things got interesting!
This leads me to the crux of this piece of writing. I have, in effect, come to the conviction that, if we do not possess optimum physical (and therefore mental) health, then it is wrong and futile to then impose spiritual principles or morals upon those who are physiologically at a horrible disadvantage. And I would include the majority of western civilisation in that provocative statement.
I've had nearly twenty-seven years to think about this. I believe physical is spiritual.
HERE IS WHY.
Not long before our (unplanned) pregnancy we had become acquainted with the idea of the 'native' way of nurturing. And we'd liked the idea! And so we did not have a cot or nursery waiting for us at home. Just the bed! Somewhat nervously, we placed our baby down between us, and we all slept. Waking up in the morning, with our little one between us, was bliss. There had been no crying, no disturbance in the night. There had only been a little snuffling sound, alerting me to my baby's need for milk. I'd gathered him in to give him what he needed. Then we'd slept again.
'
The Continuum Concept' by Jean Liedloff (Da Capo Press, 1986) (buy here) was a particular book that had intrigued us. It had pointed us to a 'different' way of approaching our nurturing and family life. Instead of following the expected 'Western' practices, we joined others practicing 'attachment parenting' in co-sleeping, constant holding, and feeding on demand, rather than leaving the baby to cry alone in a dark room at night and imposing scheduled feeding times.
Here is Liedloff, sitting with some of the Yequana children in the Brazilian rainforest, looking for all the world like a young Jane Goodall. Two extraordinary anthropologists in my estimation.
I was fascinated by Liedloff's conclusions. Having observed the nurturing thenative children received, and their peaceful and problem-free behaviour, she came to feel that Western childrearing practices can adversely affect the growing child's development, that the baby's brain development may be compromised by going against our 'native' instincts.
Parenting and nurturing practices in the West actually started to change around 250 years ago due to the influence of churchmen and economists (with an emphasis on 'independence' training, necessitating physical distancing of children from parents) with an accompanying range of new behavioural problems arising. Did you know, tantrums were unknown until then?
Before that, we basically did it the 'native' way.
I found some seminal books which supported Liedloff's thesis. 'Three in a Bed: The Benefits of Sleeping with your Baby', by Deborah Jackson (Bloomsbury 2012) (buy here), and 'The Family Bed' by Tine Thevenin (Penguin 1986) (buy here), outlined significant brain research which made sense to me and which enabled me, with confidence, to follow my instincts.
'Emotional Intelligence; Why it can matter more than IQ'' by Daniel Goleman (Bantam Books, 1995) (buy here), and 'A General Theory of Love', by Lewis, Amini and Lannon (Random House, 2000) (buy here) joined the others on my bedside table.
It's complicated, the world of brain research. I persisted, though, and I believe I gained an adequate enough grasp of the importance of good brain development for a child growing to balanced adulthood.
The book 'Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin', by Ashley Montagu, (William Morrow Paperbacks, 1971) (buy here) explained that, because of the evolutionary adaptation of the female pelvis, the now-upright woman had to give birth before the baby's head (and therefore the brain inside) become dangerously big.
When I came to understand that, at full-term, a baby's brain development is far from complete, it made utter sense that a baby would need conditions as close as possible to those of the womb after birth.
The brain, though! The HQ, enabling rationality, intellect, decision-making, emotion, creativity, survival, life!
THE BRAIN AND NURTURE
We have a triune brain. It comprises the primal 'reptilian' brain, the limbic brain and the neocortex. We need all three parts of the brain to function together, efficiently and optimally, if we are to thrive during our time on earth.
Good nurturing is key to enabling the three parts of the brain to work together efficiently. Problems arise when neglectful and avoidable stress is experienced by the baby. If this happens consistently then the three parts of the brain will not wire together efficiently. A resultant 'short-circuiting' will happen at future times of stress. This means that the 'survival' part of the brain (in the limbic brain) will take precedence, and reasoning (coming from the neocortex) becomes temporarily impossible. Thus our sense of mortification at a temporary bout of temper (or road rage!).
The brain can be the engine of extraordinary and complex intellect, ideas and creativity. At its optimum, and with ethical balance, it is capable of miraculous and transcendent feats.
Joseph Chilton Pearce even proposed that the next evolutionary stage of mankind could be ‘Homo Spiritus’, so convinced was he of the role of love and nurturing in bringing forth our in-built potential.
THE BRAIN AND NUTRITION
As for the role of nourishment in nurturing, there is irrefutable evidence that 'healthy' fat is one of the most essential nutrients for the forming brain (which consists of nearly 60% fat). It continues, along with other essential nutrients, to be essential throughout life.
The question is: are Western nutritional practices fulfilling this need? Why was saturated (animal) fat demonised?
Can we, as a society as a whole, be seen to be a healthy one?
With an incredible increase in, not only mental health issues, but also degenerative disease such as dementia and Parkinson's, alongside heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, we cannot but ask whether this increase has gone hand-in-hand with a decrease in the quality of our Western nutritional choices.
Genetics can account for some of this, of course. But let's not stop at genetics. Let's carry on to the comparatively new (and liberating) field of epigenetics, which highlights the influence of lifestyle and environment (external factors collectively called 'the exposome') on the turning on/off of our genes. In other words, nothing is set in stone! A family's inherited physical and emotional tendencies and habitual choices ("Oh, he takes after his father ....") can be changed to a completely different trajectory by different lifestyle and environmental choices.
So much for the brain! What about the rest?
THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
The body possesses an extraordinarily complex immune system, housed not in one place but in many. One of the largest centres of this system, housing 70% of its total, is the gut.
We know that gut health issues are increasing hugely in Western society. This may, among other things (like the over-use of antibiotics, stress, alcohol and smoking), be caused by the poor food we are increasingly consuming.
And if our gut health is compromised, then our nutritional intake and health is affected, and so is our immune system! A double whammy!
Our God-given immune system is, of course, of utmost importance, particularly when we are faced with an unforeseeable ‘pandemic’ as we did with Covid-19. In spite of some scientists and the media declaring otherwise, those with strong immune systems are less at threat than those without.
THE G-WORD
God-given? Where, if at all, does God come into this? Do you believe in God? Do I? Is my openness to the possibility of God's existence a form of wishful thinking, coming from a basic existential fear of the void, as certain atheists would have it? Am I naive to consider that there might be an intelligent, personal energy behind creation that is upwardly-directed, that is good?
I hold more of an open-minded philosophical/spiritual/biological position than a religious one. If God exists then he surely cannot be confined, by His very nature, to a mere label?
In 'The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth' by M Scott Peck (Arrow, 1978), Peck pointed to the inbuilt instinct to growth in the human being, with an accompanying downward tendency that we are challenged to resist. Perhaps the 'upward' instinct is God, is thriving, is growth, is well-being, is life itself? Does it really need a name if it leads us to a 'good' life?
Certainly I could try to stop imagining and projecting my idea of what He is like, and just be .... open. If He did then happen along, I might at least be able to perceive him without being blinded by my own pre-conceived, invented Monty Python cardboard cut-out version!
Gasp!
All I can do, maybe, is lead my life (as Jordan Peterson has suggested in his own torturous peregrinations) as though He exists. It can't be a bad way to live, can it, if God is indeed love?
I have come to think that our idea of love is actually a bit limited. It is easy to love the loveable, especially those in our family or circle of friends. But some people are really hard to love, certainly on an emotional level. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try to find understanding for a person's ways, and I can certainly find things to appreciate in him. Understanding and appreciation are qualities of love that do not depend on 'emotion' being present. To try to understand, rather than just automatically dislike, is more a 'decision' than a 'feeling'. Perhaps we can see God in action in these consciously-made decisions?
Another of the ways in which one might say that God is observable, (since, like the wind, He can only be seen through the effect of its/His presence) is through observing the upward, positive benefits to the immune system when ‘Godly’ qualities are called into play. The act of kindness, the receiving of kindness, and even the observation of acts of kindness, have been shown to boost the immune system. Appreciation and gratitude (again, 'qualities' of love), have an equally positive effect!
THERE'S MORE!
In a church, a place of peace, we are flooded with light, with colour, from the stained glass windows. Did the early Church fathers, and their architects, know how light and colour, not to speak of certain acoustics and chants, have beneficial effects upon our bodies, our minds, our neurological systems, and our very immune systems? Perhaps!
GREGORIAN CHANT: 285 Hz FREQUENCY TISSUE HEALING CELL REGENERATION
"285hz frequency helps to return cells into its original form. It reduces the pain, enhances immune system, and rapidly heals your damaged tissue.
"In the Solfeggio scale, the frequency of 285 Hz is said to be directly connected to our genetic blueprint for optimal health and physical well-being. It is known to promote the healing of damaged tissue and other physical wounds, as well as on internal organs.
"The 285Hz vibrations are supposed to support the body in its cellular regeneration, encouraging it to heal itself in the event of an injury and also enhance the immune system as a whole.
Solfeggio frequencies form part of an ancient scale that was rediscovered in the early 70’s. They are a tone sequence of special tonal frequencies. Originally used in Gregorian chants for centuries, they recently were brought to everybody’s attention for their healing powers."
FEAR AND IMMUNE FUNCTION
We know that fear and anxiety can compromise our immune systems, not to mention our thinking, our stability.
A person fortunate enough to have a brain well-wired by good & loving nurturing, and well-formed by good nutrition, is less likely to react adversely to fear and stress when times become difficult, and therefore will have a chance to make better, more measured and more positive choices.
A neglected and abused child, conversely, can be seen as avoidably but nevertheless physiologically geared to stress, fear, instability, violence and crime. His nutritional needs, particularly for his growing brain, may have been inadequately met. His neurological development, through emotional neglect, would have been compromised from the very start of his life. Rage is a more likely response for him in stressful situations than a slower, more rational response.
In that physiological reality, morals for him are nothing but words, concepts. You cannot blame an unattended kettle for boiling over and scalding the cat if you yourself lit the flame under the kettle and then left the kitchen.
As the Sufi poet Hafiz said, morals can be seen as learning wheels on a bicycle, no longer necessary when true love and its according stability and balance has been established.
TO BE FULLY HUMAN
Do we know what it actually is to be fully, optimally human? We are very willing to use the rather dismissive "Oh, it's human nature" when discussing human behaviour (good and bad). But all our psychological models (starting with Freud) have been based on the tendencies of humans already skewed and damaged by the upbringing and societal programming of that era. Freud's 19th century patients were, surely, the product of the most unenlightened and punitive society imaginable? How, then, could he have come up with psychological models based on the behaviour of damaged people? Did Freud feel a frisson of schadenfreude in presuming to pronounce on the human condition?
So, who really knows what true human nature is? We are all skewed in one way or another!
The word Human was first recorded in the mid 13th century, and owes its existence to the Middle French humain, 'of or belonging to man'. That word, in turn, comes from the Latin humanus, thought to be a hybrid relative of homo, meaning 'man,' and humus, meaning 'earth.' "Thus, a human, unlike birds, planes, or even divine spirits up above, is a man firmly rooted to the earth."
It seems that we have the equipment to have a chance of living a 'good' life, and to be a 'good' human being. But for that equipment to work, we have two main requirements. Firstly, secure and complete love and nurturing, leading to a properly wired neurological system. Secondly, a well-nourished and therefore healthy brain, body and immune system. The necessity for nurturing and nutrition go hand in hand.
And I think it can be inferred that these are physically and spiritually key. A well-intentioned 'religious' or 'spiritually inclined' person doesn't necessarily or inevitably lead a good life or behave well. Jung, I think, was on the right track with his concept of the 'shadow' self.
THRIVING vs EXISTING
I thrived on the fresh simple food (meat, fish, vegetables, milk, butter, lard, eggs), my mother cooked for our family. My health and energy began to decline when, in my mid-twenties, I took on a vegetarian approach, with all its manufactured margarine, soya milk, pasta, starchy rice and so on.
I also lost many nutrients by not eating meat and fish.
My sudden change to vegetarianism may also explain the very negative change in my libido. Which is a swine, because I loved my libido!
KETO? I NEVER DIET!
My long-term vegetarian husband had had gut problems alongside depressive issues for most of our time together, and we, after some research, decided upon a ketogenic approach to our food.
Very soon, without setting out do so, I lost most of my abdominal fat. More than that, though, I found myself suffering less tiredness, body pain and brain fog. My asthma too started to improve.
And my husband's issues are resolving!
So what is, and why did we choose, a ketogenic diet?
'It is a very low carb, high fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low carb diets.
'It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called 'ketosis'.
'When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. . It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain.
'Ketogenic diets can cause significant reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels (and thus inflammation). This, along with the increased ketones, has specific health benefits against diabetes, heart disease, cancer, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease.'
Sourced from:
KETO: A PROPER HUMAN DIET?
A 'proper human diet', containing a high proportion of ‘good’ fats, and with greatly reduced carbohydrates, can, according to Dr Ken Berry MD (watch here), address many metabolic problems caused by insulin resistance and, thus, inflammation.
The 'proper human diet' is nutrient dense; full of fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. This diet is satiating; containing healthy fat, healthy protein and non-starchy vegetables.
Dr Berry, a family physician who practices in Tennessee in the United States, has a mission to help the increasing number of people suffering inflammation-based metabolic illness. He encourages us to follow this 'proper human diet'. He says, "This is, by definition, uninflammatory".
It is the diet based on that eaten by our ancestors, and it is evolutionarily appropriate. This is a diet that has been around for more than 15,000 years (at which point it mainly comprised fatty red meat and seasonal fruits and berries). We have been farming grains for only 12,000 years, more or less. At a certain point around then, a dramatic 'event' wiped out many species of animal, requiring man to begin farming in order to survive.
The ingestion of excess sugar along grain-based carbohydrates creates insulin resistance and thus chronic inflammation. As well as an increase in such processed carbohydrates in our diets, Berry mentions fruit and fruit juices too. He tells us that we have cross-bred our fruit over the past few hundred years until they are now basically sacs of sugar. And by eating a good balance of non-starchy vegetables with 'good' fat we do not lose nutrients by reducing our intake of fruit or juices.
"Dr Ken Berry .....has made it his mission to turn the tide on the epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes, chronic inflammation and dementia." Karen Martel, Transformational Nutrition (watch here)
TAKE ME TO THE RED BARN!
These measures can be seen as radical ‘first aid’ for bodies which, instead of being treated as temples, have long been treated as convenient depositories for the food we now choose, unconscious or unaware of its nutritional value, and sometimes to fulfil and quell our need for comfort and our taste addictions.
Do we live to eat, or eat to live? Metabolic illness is becoming an epidemic, and it seems that our food choices are at the bottom of this.
When did this really obvious decline in our collective health begin? I remember, after visiting Canada in 1972 (and availing myself of the glorious and cheap takeaway burgers at The Red Barn in Toronto) being extra aware of the introduction to the UK of North American cultural icons and values: TV shows and movies, but fast food in particular.
Alongside this was the growing economic need, together with socio-political demands, that both parents should work, with childcare required and accordingly provided, and convenience foods produced alongside that.
It became clear from then on that new problems were developing: the new generation of ‘latchkey children’ (https://socialinfection.org/three-symptoms-latchkey-children-carry-through-life/), declining family unity (with more ready, processed meals, often eaten at different times), increasing rates of divorce, increasing obesity and metabolic disease, and declining mental health in young people. Depression, increasing incidence of suicide, eating disorders and, now, gender dysphoria, are conditions barely or never heard of even in our parents’ youth.
Alongside this our spiritual foundation has become very shaky: churches have been emptying for years and Christian principles increasingly abandoned. This, alongside industrial and economic change and the cracks in family structure mentioned above, seems to have been accompanied by an according decline in civility, behaviour, mental and physical health.
So much of this can be put down to changing social and spiritual mores and to varying degrees of neglect. Much difficult behaviour can be explained purely by early failure in nurturing.
But with the accompanying decline of nutritional standards, it seems more than likely that much depression and many mental health issues, as well as physical ills, could also be explained by the quite simple nutritional deficiencies many millions must be suffering.
A person's journey into physical and mental health starts with the mother's diet and lifestyle before and during gestation. After birth, breastfeeding is natural and ideal.
A mother’s breast milk contains, among many other things, sialic acid (important for cognitive function) and the amino acid called tryptophan, the lack of which can prime a child for future depression.
If breastfeeding is either not possible or consciously chosen, there comes the introduction of formula milk, with its lack of important saturated fats, added vegetable oils, and sugar.
The following study 'Comparing Infant Formulas with Human Milk', gives the following insight into future health factors as implied in the above paragraph:
COMPARING INFANT FORMULAS WITH HUMAN MILK
PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGES OF BREASTFEEDING
Breastfed infants have different growth characteristics compared with formula-fed infants. They grow at slightly different rates and have a different body composition (Butte et al., 1990; Heinig et al., 1993) and may have a lower risk for later obesity (Gillman et al., 2001; Singhal et al., 2002). (These characteristics are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 6.) Given the great interest in the effect of early nutrition on metabolic setpoints that may affect the child's risk for adult diseases (e.g., the early origins of chronic disease hypothesis) (Barker et al., 2002) and the increasing incidence of early insulin resistance, obesity, and type II diabetes in teenagers, future
research should concentrate on whether breastfeeding is protective. (my emphasis)
Many vegan mothers, or mothers who must avoid cow's milk products, may give their babies soy formula. Here's one. Look at the proportions. of sugar and oils!
This unnatural replacement food is then followed by the foods often recommended for weaning (fruit, cereals, rice etc).
Here, especially in manufactured baby foods, there are more sugars and carbohydrates than protein, 'good' fat and the necessary vitamins and minerals essential for growth.
AN S-WORD (a warning)
You won't like this video. It's The Carb Addiction Doc, telling us in no uncertain terms that manufactured baby food is SHIT. Watch here.
And, of course, the diet of countless children continues to be unbalanced and inadequate.
And so we have a generation of children and young people struggling in an unprecedented way with obesity and early-onset Type 2 diabetes, not to mention depression and mental issues.
Countless young children are being given a horribly sub-par diet, A report by Public Health England published in June 2019 said that around one in five toddlers are overweight or obese in England and one in eight have visible tooth decay.
Moreover, children are experiencing more and more stress, with early separation from their parents and the demands of unenlightened early education contributing much to this.
Antidepressants are being prescribed to children as young as four years old. Really?
I find this knowledge hard to bear. And that is because I fully believe that the difficulties leading to such prescriptions are actually a completely appropriate response to completely inappropriate circumstances.
Just as grief treated by antidepressants is an inappropriate response to a natural feeling of loss, so such natural feelings experienced by children should be allowed, and understood, and their lives adjusted accordingly. Children's feelings, shouted via their behaviour, surely should not be muted by medication? Children need to be heard and responded to.
But even on a purely physiological level, on-going depression or behavioural issues may well be alleviated by a simple dietary adjustment. Perhaps these children are already being primed for metabolic illness and long-term mental health problems?
Certainly it appears that more serious mental illness, from depression to bipolar and schizophrenia, may be alleviated or eliminated if the fundamentals of that person’s diet (aka their fuel, their building blocks) are looked to.
Drawing on decades of research, Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer, in his book Brain Energy, (BenBella Books, November 2020) (buy here) "outlines a revolutionary new understanding that for the first time unites our existing knowledge about mental illness within a single framework: Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain. "
The book reveals:
Why classifying mental disorders as “separate” conditions is misleading
The clear connections between mental illness and disorders linked to metabolism, including diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, pain disorders, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy
The link between metabolism and every factor known to play a role in mental health, including genetics, inflammation, hormones, neurotransmitters, sleep, stress, and trauma
The evidence that current mental health treatments, including both medications and therapies, likely work by affecting metabolism
New treatments available today that readers can use to promote long-term healing
Dr Palmer has, alongside guidance towards better sleep and more exercise, utilised the ketogenic diet, with the accompanying elimination of inflammatory 'vegetable' oils, to immense effect.
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS (a bit challenging, this one)
Our reliance on the NHS and our invariable demand for pharmaceutical solutions leads us even further into a morass of avoidable difficulty. With our self-reliance and sense of self-responsibility noticeably eroded over the last six to seven decades (and with such an exaggerated spotlight in the media on mortal illnesses), we seem to find ourselves in a place of learned helplessness. And with iatrogenesis (doctor-made illness) being the fifth leading cause of death, we surrender our bodily autonomy at our literal peril!
Journal of Family Medicine and Family Care
Iatrogenesis: A Review on nature, extent and distribution of healthcare hazards.
ABSTRACT
"Modern medicine is given overarching importance in tackling disease in the human body than environmental determinants, although most of the literature confirms that the determinants of disease are there in the environment. Yet in modern times what is being emphasised is a highly limited and reductionist approach of curing ailments in the human body only, which is one of the desired interventions but is full of other side effects and risks leading to iatrogenic reactions. Most of the literature establishes that modern medicine is one of the major threats to world health....
".... In his prestigious work named “Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis - The Expropriation of Health” , Ivan Illich opines that iatrogenesis is structural because it undermines people's agency and competence to deal with their own disease. He also classified iatrogenesis as social and cultural. According to him, social iatrogenesis results from the medicalisation of life and cultural medicalisation is the destruction of traditional ways of dealing with and making sense of death, pain, and sickness....
"The WHO assesses that almost 50% of the medicine prescribed and sold is inappropriate and 50% of patients take these drugs incorrectly (WHO. The Safety of Medicines in Public Health Programmes: Pharmacovigilance an Essential Tool. Geneva: Uppsala Monitoring Centre; 2006.). (my emphasis) . There are issues of prescribing and delivering correct therapy to the patients. Another challenge faced by healthcare system is accurate and timely diagnosis of the ailment ..."
DID THE MEDICAL SYSTEM KILL MY MUM?
It is very hard to observe loved ones suffering side effects from a prescribed drug, only to see them being prescribed another drug to counteract those side effects. This happened to my mother the evening of the night she suddenly died. I will never get over the shock and pain of that; and I will of course never know for sure if this was 'the final straw'. However, I have questions.
My mother suffered quite severe rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease, and for many years she only just managed to function on a cocktail of quite powerful drugs. She died at the age of 74 after being given a drug to stop her vomiting. Nobody thought to question why she was vomiting. She was, I was told, actually vomiting thick yellow mucus, which is something I gather the stomach produces to protect itself from an overload of inappropriate toxins. Nausea and vomiting can be seen as an uncomfortable but essential response when too much mucus has built up. But no. More chemicals were added to her poor stomach to stop this natural process.
The autopsy then revealed an enlarged heart. This can be caused by an overload of toxic chemicals.
Was her suffering inevitable? Did an over-reliance by the doctor on pharmaceuticals create the conditions for her death?
Could a change in diet have helped her?
Twelve years later, I am still curious AND furious.
It seems that there is increasing ill health and suffering in our elders, in particular in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases, and which is causing more and more pharmaceutical interventions, not to mention the need for full-time care, whether at home or in care/nursing homes.
SPEAKING OF OUR ELDERS AND CARE HOMES ....
We saw, through the two torturous years of lockdown, how our elders suffered. Care homes in particular became a very necessary focus.
Throughout the lockdown our precious and vulnerable elders were isolated, through a policy of 'well-meaning' Government protection. Many were shamefully neglected. Many died of sheer loneliness.
BUT ... and please take this in ... this policy revealed the absolutely parlous state of many of our care homes and the staggering neglect suffered by the elderly. This fills me with almost unbearable sorrow and horror.
The British Medical Journal
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3132
News
Covid-19: Neglect was one of biggest killers in care homes during pandemic, report finds
BMJ2021; 375doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n3132
(Published 22 December 2021)
"The pandemic has disproportionately affected people living in care homes, who accounted for an estimated 30% of all deaths from covid-19 across 25 countries despite making up only 1% of the world’s population, a report has estimated.1
The analysis was carried out by Collateral Global, a research group that says it is dedicated to reporting on the effects of governments’ mandatory covid-19 mitigation measures. The report said the pandemic had exacerbated long running problems in the care sector, such as chronic underfunding, poor structural organisation, staff undertraining, underskilling, and underequipping, and a “lack of humanity in dealing with the most vulnerable members of society.”
“Neglect, thirst, and hunger were—and possibly still are—the biggest killers,” the group said. They also said that care home residents faced barriers in access to emergency treatments during the pandemic."
Dying of neglect: the other Covid care home scandal
Out of sight, the elderly have remained out of mind during this crisis
From magazine issue: 6 June 2020
"The Covid-19 crisis has placed extra demands on care homes, many of which were already inadequately staffed after years of underfunding. Across Europe, as in Britain, outsourcing to private contractors (in many cases private equity firms) led to cost-cutting. During the pandemic, many carers became immersed in attempts to prevent the spread of infection. Contact between carers and residents was reduced, often as a result of the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). Less contact means less care and, therefore, more deaths ....
"..... It has taken a global pandemic to realise what has been going on in care homes: underfunded, under-resourced and understaffed, many were destined to fail. Simple restoration of fluids, nutrition, a little oxygen therapy and good supportive care can often save the lives of the frailest and most vulnerable. But with medical attention focused on slowing the spread of Covid-19 in the community at large, care home residents were denied basic care. Lockdown did nothing to impede deaths in the place where they were most likely to happen.
"Out of sight, the elderly have remained out of mind. Many homes were already not fit for purpose. The extra confinement which came with the Covid-19 panic has proved deadly. For the sake of a drink, in many cases, the elderly have died in their droves. We will, next time, learn lessons about what not to do. But we can help by being honest with ourselves about a scandal that is still ongoing."
THIS IS AN URGENT WAKE-UP CALL
Those of us who already baulked at the practice of giving over the care of our precious parents to institutions were vindicated by being brought face to face with horrifyingly impersonal and systematic indifference displayed towards those who, not only contributed over decades to our society, but who gave us life. They were the ones who sacrificed, worked, and struggled to give and enable us our better lives.
I quote again this passage from The Spectator article shown above to emphasise the serious inhumanity older people are facing:
""..... It has taken a global pandemic to realise what has been going on in care homes: underfunded, under-resourced and understaffed, many were destined to fail .... many homes were already not fit for purpose."
Vulnerable now, old and infirm people depend (much like our children) upon the responsiveness and goodwill of those given responsibility for their lives. Has our easy trust in these (profit-driven) institutions been misplaced?
We know that our care homes range in quality. We know that the care given can be nothing other than standardised. How many care homes think it worthwhile to offer food that may enhance their residents' mental and physical well-being? Can a resident suffering dementia ever hope to be given individualised care, individualised nutrition to bring even some improvement to their health? I am not sure.
My questions are open, because I have only just become acquainted with the world of the 'care home'. If you want to make me cry, ask me about the day I delivered my father to a local home for the respite fortnight he'd seen advertised on a brochure delivered in the post. He needed a break after two years at home during lockdown, he was too infirm to travel now and he rather liked the description of food provided by the "5 star chef".
It is a world I hope never to encounter again.
THE WAY AHEAD?
My raison d'etre for writing this piece is that I believe we might re-think our assumptions, our convenient acquiescence to the 'expected' ways in which our children begin their lives and our parents end them.
Are tantrums natural, inevitable?
Should children really be suffering more and more from obesity, type-2 diabetes and depression?
Is it inevitable that poor health comes with age?
Are there other solutions to poor health than those provided by the pharmaceutical industry?
Are our diets conducive to good, long-lasting health?
Can we learn from communities in which strong family values, good health and longevity are the norm?
The questions are many and complex, with some being too difficult to answer as things stand.
Complex they may be, and difficult, but in the meantime more and more children of older parents are being required to pick up some horribly difficult pieces. With a father and three aunties all facing a painful deterioration through dementia, I feel great and unutterable sadness. Imagine millions of other adult children feeling the same sadness, doing their best but facing terrible choices, and witnessing heartbreaking suffering in those they love best!
Can we extricate ourselves from this disaster now, or do we have to wait for ground-roots reform in every single institution we rely on? Education, healthcare, elder care? All have been found desperately wanting with the spotlight of Covid-19 focussed upon them.
NO, WE DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT
When my father was diagnosed with dementia with Lewy Bodies, and when we were informed by his doctor of the untreatable deterioration he could expect, my horror and sorrow impelled me to research this disease. Surely there was something we could do?
Here is what I found.
NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE CHANGE AS MEDICINE
Pioneering scientists and nutritionists (many in the field of Functional Medicine, like Dr Dale Bredesen, below) are discovering that degenerative diseases (like dementia and Parkinson’s) are likely to be, in fact, metabolic illnesses, with many explorable and effective routes (one being diet) to address and alleviate the root causes and thus the symptoms.
Nutritionist Amy Berger MS CNS NTP has written a book called 'The Alzheimer's Antidote: Using a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet to Fight Alzheimer's Disease, Memory Loss and Cognitive Decline'. (Chelsea Green Publishing, March 2017) (buy here)
"Amy Berger’s research shows that Alzheimer’s results from a fuel shortage in the brain: As neurons become unable to harness energy from glucose, they atrophy and die, leading to classic symptoms like memory loss and behavioural changes .... The Alzheimer’s Antidote shows us that cognitive decline is not inevitable, but if it does occur, we don’t have to sit idly by and wait helplessly while it progresses and worsens. Amy Berger empowers loved ones and caregivers of Alzheimer’s sufferers, and offers hope and light against this otherwise unnavigable labyrinth of darkness." (publisher)
Here she talks to Ken Berry about her book and her research:
A simple summary is that a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (keto) diet encourages the liver to produce ketones, which the brain can utilise as an alternative fuel to glucose (which the brain cannot use). At the same time, inflammation caused by high-blood sugar and the resultant insulin-resistance (and which is seen as instrumental in causing metabolic disease such as dementia and Parkinson's) is reduced when following this dietary programme.
For those who cannot convert to a ketogenic diet, exogenous ketones, via coconut oil and MCT oil, can bring temporary improvement in cognitive function. Dr Mary Newport helped her husband, and since then many others, with the addition of coconut oil to his diet (watch here).
In light of all this, our family are exploring an initial path of nutritional adjustment, all the while ensuring that, whether his dementia can be reversed or stabilised or not, my father’s overall health will be as good as it can possibly be.
PROTON PUMP INHIBITORS: A WARNING!
In many ways, we are working in the dark. How can we ever really know, in spite of our research, what has caused my father's quite distressing condition?
He also suffers from osteoporosis, diagnosed in early 2020, and it is possible that this, and his dementia, may have been caused by the over-prescription of Omeprazole. Omeprazole belongs to a class of drug called Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs), prescribed for those with reflux/stomach/digestion problems. This type of drug literally inhibits the production of stomach acid, and research suggests that reduced stomach acid compromises the absorption of vital nutrients.
DEMENTIA
My father was prescribed this PPI following a stomach ulcer procedure. It was, as far as I can gather, seen as a preventative measure. Its use should have been reviewed after a period of weeks. He continued taking it for years. It is possible, then, that as a result of this he is in fact suffering from the effects of nutritional deficiencies.
Essential nutrients may have been lacking for those important years.
Particularly vitamin B12.
A US nurse, Sally Pacholok, wrote a book, Could it be B12? (Linden Publishing, 2011). Her hospital experience showed that a vitamin B12 deficiency can 'mimic' the symptoms of conditions like dementia.
A feature-length film, based on the book, was made (watch here).
This was certainly food for thought! There surely could be nothing lost in checking for such a deficiency? A nutritionist we consulted agreed that, among other incredibly important vitamins and minerals, a supplement of Vitamin B12 might go towards replacing its possible loss, thereby enabling my father's brain and neurological system to take advantage of it if it still can.
OSTEOPOROSIS
It is known too that a side effect of Omeprazole, particularly if over-used, can be osteoporosis. Whether or not this is the case (we will never be able to prove this in either case), we are seeking to add to my father’s diet powerfully nutritious foods such as home-made bone broth, which will add collagen and minerals to his system and therefore maybe alleviate to some extent his osteoporosis.
OUR REMEDIAL APPROACH
This is basically a two-pronged approach:
trying as much as possible to cook foods that enable an alternative fuel to glucose (i.e.
ketones) to be utilised by the brain, with inflammatory foods, like sugar, wheat and
vegetable oils being reduced or eliminated
and
ensuring that nutrient deficiencies are addressed.
EARLY PREVENTION?
There are up to thirty or more factors which may contribute to the development of dementias according to Dr Bredesen, nutrition being but one. These include environmental factors such as mold and heavy metals, and well as stress and problematic sleep. Realistically it may be hard, in my father's case, to test for and cover all these of factors.
It may be too late to make any difference at all.
But the more information I, my family and friends, and you, my readers, have at our disposal to help us re-think and explore our own choices in life, the better. I believe passionately in prevention, hard though it sometimes is to break lifetime habits and (let's be frank) overcome quite strong cognitive dissonance in ourselves.
Time will tell whether any of the measures we can take will stabilise or bring improvement to my father's two conditions. His general health will surely, though, be enhanced by reducing processed and toxically inflammatory foods and oils and re-introducing fresh and whole foods to his diet.
AN A-WORD!
Here's an A-word! It is a word I had never encountered before my father became ill. It is 'autophagy'. And it strikes me that it is an important word to understand if we want to pursue better health for ourselves and those we love.
Yoshinori Ohsumi wins Nobel prize in medicine for work on autophagy
Japanese cell biologist is named 2016 laureate for his discoveries on how the body’s cells break down and recycle their own components (read here)
Autophagy, simply put, is the process by which the body ‘hoovers up’ dead or failing cells, doing what is basically a ‘deep-clean’ housekeeping job. It also enables the recycling of cells and enables new growth.
Our over-consumption of unsuitable foods can compromise this process.
Efficient autophagy can be stimulated by intermittent fasting. If you eat nothing after your evening meal, and then just delay breakfast for a few hours (call it late brunch or early lunch) then you have activated autophagy! Sixteen hours is the optimum period of fasting to do so.
I very rarely feel a need to eat on getting up in any case. In fact, I have often eaten purely because of habit or because I thought I ought to. Nowadays I do not forget that it was, in fact, the commercially-minded and sugar-loving Mr Kellogg who, via his PR boys, convinced us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
Tea, coffee or water (or a wee pinch of sea salt) can keep you going in the meantime. And my gosh you will enjoy your brunch/lunch!
If I find I am hungry for breakfast, I abandon the fast and go the European way, with cheese and cold meat, or live plain yoghurt and blueberries. These, like all berries, contain the least sugar of all fruits.
You can do a longer fast if you want to. Extended fasting has well-documented health benefits. I don't want to. But that's me.
Intermittent fasting can be supported by an accompanying change in the choosing and preparing of one’s food. Even just one simple change, the elimination of seed and vegetable oils, will ensure that at least some of the resultingly toxic free radicals will not be there to be cleaned up.
And so intermittent fasting can be seen as a tool to maintain a clean and shining temple, a smoothly-running engine, alongside a diet designed for optimum health.
Symptoms are, after all, the body's cries for help. If your car's red emergency light came on on your dashboard, would you rush to take the bulb out, or would you lift the bonnet and try and fix the problem?
GENETICS AND CERVANTES
As I said earlier, I have three aunties and one precious father diagnosed with forms of dementia. Another of their sisters and their mother, my grandmother, died with this disease. We could fairly conclude then that, with five female members experiencing dementia, other females in the family may also be genetically predisposed to developing it.
As mentioned earlier, the field of epigenetics highlights the influence of lifestyle and environment on the turning on/off of our genes. We have, with this knowledge, the chance to address, right now, relevant lifestyle and environmental factors in our lives. This may be more powerful than we have ever realised. I personally, as one of those female family members, am going full tilt (like Don Quixote with his windmills) to avoid the avoidable.
Am I, like Don Quixote, trying to avoid thinking about the reality of death itself? It is a question I sometimes mull over. But I definitely hold out for the avoidance of unnecessary suffering!
Supposing that, by some open and loving communication, families could come together to research and address these questions? To seek to adjust any known harmful foods and to add foods and supplements they and their parents may be lacking? A push for an improvement in our general health would surely be helpful, for everyone, in any case?
If I, one partially-educated (being quite honest, I preferred thinking about boys to studying for my A levels ... ) 64 year old woman, can trust and use my native intelligence, and can take advantage of the marvels of the internet and research for myself ways in which I can help ease my father’s suffering, surely anyone can?
If I can be bothered to think beyond the ‘accepted’ ways, if I can find the courage to question, to say NO occasionally to those in ‘authority’ that used to hold me nervously in thrall, then I and my family stand a chance of alleviating and/or avoiding some of the suffering we have been told is inevitable. We are just one family. Multiply my proactive self-education and push for change by millions and much healing could happen very quickly!
I will not unquestioningly accept purely pharmaceutical solutions when clearly other, more beneficial, solutions exist. This body of ours is a miracle of engineering, of balance, of beauty. A car, with its intelligently designed and well-tuned engine, cannot endlessly drive without clean fuel, oil and water. Can we be surprised if, through neglecting our own need for the correct clean fuel and water (remember those dehydrated elders?) our bodies start to struggle and break down?
RESOURCES
Not everyone can afford to consult a functional medicine practitioner or nutritionist. But there are umpteen generous and qualified professionals, via blog and video and interview, who are currently seeking to help us reverse some of the devastating illnesses and effects our food and health choices have led to. It seems that, with their help and in utilising our own good common sense, we are now being given the chance to at least explore a very necessary and urgent remedial path.
These are all passionate and compassionate people, very awake to the commercial priorities powering the food and pharmaceutical industries. They are rightfully and fiercely concerned and are working hard to bring true health back into focus.
Here are links to some of them:
Dr Dale Bredesen
Dr Ken Berry
Dr Robert Cywes
Ivor Cummins (The Fat Emperor)
Amy Berger
Dr Eric Berg
Dr Sten Ekberg
Dr Chris Palmer
Another, Dr David Unwin (https://twitter.com/lowcarbGP) has produced a series of charts showing the truly astonishing 'teaspoon' sugar equivalent of blood sugar produced by carbohydrates. One is shown below.
Dr Steve James (https://twitter.com/drstevejames) (he who made Health Secretary Sajid Javid's visit to King's College Hospital in January 2022 a little bit sparkier) is building an on-line community called 'Health Awakening'. This aims for "self-empowered health rather than dependency on big healthcare, big food or big pharma".
The Magic Pill ... a documentary. Here is the trailer.
Here is the full documentary.
In this, one can see, among other transformations, a non-verbal autistic child start to talk and smile. All after her parents changed her diet.
A REALLY USEFUL RESET
In A General Theory of Love, the authors expressed their concern that, as poor nurturing and neglect increases and as access to knowledge, ideology and particularly technology (which is becoming increasingly toxic and addictive) continues to open up, a neglected child may become a very dangerous adult, with an 'educated' brain but with the survival part constantly switched on, rendering him very reactive to stress or perceived danger but quite without empathy.
He may be a danger to humanity if that 'educated' mind is not tempered by the emotional intelligence and concern for others that loving nurture, good nutrition, and thus a well-balanced brain, would bring.
The authors posit that new generations, raised in this way and coming to adulthood and gaining positions of influence and power, may present a very credible danger to the well-being and future of mankind.
We live on an earth which presents and has always presented obvious danger, from the early sabre-toothed tiger to today’s war-mongering hoodlums, east and west. So it is a good thing we still have an intact survival mechanism housed in our limbic brain, in spite of the fact that we do not have literal beasts at our shoulder.
But we are contemplating on-going and developing danger as man himself ‘develops’. And so we may already have other beasts to fend off, and much more deadly ones. I regard the food and pharmaceutical industries (not to mention governments openly funded by lobbyists from these industries AND who turn a blind eye to bad eating habits and a resultant deterioration in society's health) as belonging in this menagerie.
Ultimately, though, I am hopeful that the 'first aid' I have outlined here may no longer be necessary in the end because we will have come to a a natural, wise and great 'reset'. With our bodies and minds functioning well, many. of our huge and various societal issues may not only adjust naturally but may be seen, too, as temporary symptoms pointing us to simple and humane solutions. We may even find a new, more self-sufficient, way of governance!
HOMO SPIRITUS
There is a proverb: cleanliness is next to Godliness. And in a well-nurtured, well-nourished and well-maintained body, perhaps Godliness (in other words, a good life) is indeed possible. If we respect this body of ours, and treat it as we would a temple, I think we stand a chance of healing and thereby preventing some massive suffering in our society.
In so doing we may experience God as more than a label, more than a G-word, but more as well-being, positivity, wholeness, health, joy and love in our sometimes mundane but always glorious lives. We may reach the full potential that Joseph Chilton Pearce sensed was possible. Homo spiritus!
As a feisty and determined friend of mine (in advocating for her young daughter's well-being) said to me recently as she set out to challenge the system, "Knowledge is power."
We just need to have the courage, like her, to step up and use it.
PostScript
I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE BURGERS WERE THE PROBLEM!
***If sugar/carbohydrates are the problem, then is it not reasonable to suppose that the buns and not the meat patties are the culprits? Not to speak of the fries, the sugary condiments and the toxic oil in which the burgers and fries are cooked?
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