I don’t usually relish reading Editorials in specialist journals or magazines where the Editor is pontificating upon subjects outside the remit of their publication, and that is why, in Positive Health, I almost always stick to topics immediately pertinent to Complementary Medicine.

However, no informed person on this planet of ours can possibly be immune from the barbarity and savagery in the many conflicts which have engulfed many continents across the world.

In the post-World War 2 decades, an overwhelming sentiment prevailed that the horrors experienced during the holocaust should never be repeated, along with the equally evangelized premise that better knowledge, education and communication would ensure that history would not repeat itself. These thoughts were somehow based on the presumption that nobody knew about the genocide which had occurred in Nazi Germany, and helped to fuel the unbridled optimism of the 1950s and 60s, in the belief that education would solve many human and social ills.

It is now the 21st century; since the holocaust of the 1940s, we have witnessed first hand, via the print, broadcast (TV and radio) and now via the internet, the genocides and ethnic cleansings in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, the Iraqi Kurds and now in Iraq itself, post-Saddam. This doesn’t account for myriad other conflicts and massacres in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the Twin Towers, Northern Ireland, the Basque region in Spain and the intractable Palestinian/ Israeli conflict.

I could never understand how individuals who had previously lived together in peace could inflict savage violence and murder upon their neighbours; however nightly we presently view horrific maiming and killing of innocent people, including children. I don’t pretend to have a solution to the schisms ravaging across the world. Part of me is still that naïve child who doesn’t expect to be hacked to death, although I now realize how desperately savage humans can be.  The illusion that somehow knowledge and education would solve conflicts between people of differing faiths has forever been shattered; no one in the world can retain our former naiveté about human nature.

The aged Israeli politician Shimon Peres, as reported from a fringe meeting at Davos last month, announced that it is useless for leaders to study history, as we don’t learn from our mistakes. Instead, Peres advised us to embrace science and technology, to solve problems such as global climate change, a much more future-oriented message than attempting to learn from the past.

In reflecting upon the darker side of humanity, I would draw readers to a review of Dr Daniel Benor’s latest book Personal Spirituality: Science, Spirit and the Eternal Soul (please see page 54). Dr Benor offers a scholarly and highly referenced review of many phenomena, and introduces his notion of a personal spirituality:

Participatory spirituality “opens us to our awareness of our interconnectedness with our higher selves, with each other and with Gaia, our planetary ecobiological system”, acknowledging that we each have a place in and a responsibility for the creation of reality.

This issue of PH features several inspiring features about severely ill individuals who, through their spirit, determination and research, managed to overcome their illnesses and flourish. These include Breast Cancer: There Must Be Another Way! (please see page 9); Recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) (see page 21); and Recovery from Severe Illness with Zeolite and Glyconutrients (please see page 40). In each of these, the patient, having looked at or even exhausted conventional treatment routes, eventually recovered using unusual approaches.

I also call your attention to some preliminary research out of Norway suggesting that a diet rich in antioxidant vitamins C and E may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia (see Landmark, page 36).

The features in the Nutrition section are especially technically informative: Acid-Base Balance: Indispensable for Our Metabolism by Dr Helga Handschuh (please see page 27) and Plant Sterols/Sterolins for Optimum Immunity by Dr Patrick JD Bouic PhD (please see page 32). For those of us whose biochemistry may be a bit rusty, I don’t apologize for their inclusion, as they are a brilliant reminder that our metabolism and immune systems are what determine our health to a large extent. We can never be reminded often enough, in my opinion, about how our bodies work, for the more knowledge and understanding we have in this regard, the easier it is to also harness  our mental, emotional and even spiritual energies to enhance our wellbeing.

It has never been necessary, in my view, to possess extraordinary spiritual or psychic powers in order for humanity to experience health, happiness and peace. No, esoteric abilities are not required, merely those old fashioned, mundane and grounded qualities of kindness, compassion, empathy and common sense, seemingly in short supply these days.