Book Reviews

|||How Macrobiotics Brought me from Cancer to Radiant Health

Whatever your opinions regarding the efficacy of various dietary regimes for cancer – Gerson, Macrobiotics, Vries – you are obliged to stand up and take due notice when a woman, diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer and given two months to live, survives and indeed flourishes and blossoms back to full health by following the Macrobiotic philosophical and dietary regime, taught and supervised by expert Michio Kushi himself.

I am not a psychotherapist, and yet have been spellbound by Dr Yalom's (Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University) masterful storytelling ability.

Born in Washington, DC of parents who immigrated from Russia after the first world war, Dr Yalom lived in an inner city ghetto, where he read voraciously and entered medical school to become a psychiatrist. As he says on his internet site – www.yalom.com "Psychiatry proved (and proves to this day) endlessly intriguing, and I have approached all of my patients with a sense of wonderment at the story that will unfold. I believe that a different therapy must be constructed for each patient because each has a unique story. As the years pass, this attitude moves me farther and farther from the center of professional psychiatry, which is now so fiercely driven by economic forces in precisely opposite directions – namely accurate de-individualizing (symptom-based) diagnosis and uniform, protocol-driven, brief therapy for all."

This is an extraordinary, highly sinister and bizarre tale, about the discovery by a reputable, indeed famous, scientist of the therapeutic properties of organic silica for a multitude of serious health conditions. Here was one of France's foremost scientists, expert on the electron scanning microscope, who during the 1980s applied his considerable expertise to forensic science and police investigations, becoming one of France's most adept solver of crimes.

This book was recommended to me by the Osteopath to my partner, who had been suffering intermittent neck and shoulder shooting pains, which appear to be related to posture and exercise regime. I thought that I had been well informed about carpal tunnel syndrome and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), which play such a major role in injuries afflicting bodyworkers, massage therapists, not to mention all of us who use computer keyboards everyday.

Symbolic Modelling in a nutshell

Symbolic Modelling is a method for facilitating individuals to become familiar with the symbolic domain of their experience so that they discover new ways of perceiving themselves and their world. It uses Clean Language to facilitate them to attend to their metaphoric expressions so that they create a model of their symbolic mindbody perceptions. This model exists as a living, breathing, four-dimensional world within and around them.

Living Proof - A Medical Mutiny

In Spring 1994, 54-year old Michael Gearin-Tosh was diagnosed with incurable multiple myeloma (cancer of the blood and immune system). The survival prognosis cited was bleak – anywhere from a few months to 2-3 years. Because the treatment offered – chemotherapy (Melphalan) was not a cure, and perhaps due to Mr Gearin-Tosh's pedantic and rather obstinate nature, he refused cytotoxic treatment, adopted an extremely vigorous nutritional approach, composed of the Gerson therapy, plus additional supplements, acupuncture and visualization, and is still alive today, eight years later.

Why do general practitioners (GPs) seem so open to complementary therapies? The nature of family medicine is a clue: GPs deal mostly with acute disease, which would get better on its own, and with a great deal of chronic degenerative disease like arthritis and heart failure. True, they witness some (but not a great deal of) catastrophic disease like cancer and coronaries, but far more long-term relapsing disorders: asthma, digestive or skin problems; conditions where tissues are sound yet organs malfunction, often because of a 'stress-related' component.

Gayle Macdonald has produced an exceptional treasure store of valuable information. Her book will certainly be joining my book reference shelf.

Medicine Hands provides an authoritative, compassionate and medically invaluable reference about cancer and bodywork which is unique to my experience. The seven comprehensive Appendices alone make the book extremely informative, providing extensive lists and explanations regarding Medical Terminology and Vocabulary, Abbreviations, Types of Cancers, Organisations, Publications, Patient Data and Evaluation Forms, Types of Bodywork and the Benefits of Bodywork for Cancer Patients.

Parsley: Like a Multi-vitamin

Nutritionally: the culinary multi-vitamin; a nutrient powerhouse. Contains high levels of beta carotene, vitamin B12, chlorophyll, calcium, more vitamin C than citrus fruits, and just about all other known nutrients.

The Editor of this substantive, weighty, yet inspiring book, Jennifer Barraclough, deserves congratulations in putting together an incredibly diverse groups of contributors, including Rosy Daniel, Tony and Ann Neate, George Lewith and Julian Kenyon, Heather Goodare, Sally Baldwin, Michael Baum, Beata Bishop, Catherine Zollman and myself, not to mention a cast of numerous other specialists from many varied disciplines.

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