Sylvia Baker’s comments about how the Editorial in the March Issue (see letters page 52) had struck a cord in her and her friends have been rolling around in my mind all month.

I could never understand how individuals who had previously lived together in peace could inflict savage violence and murder upon their neighbours… I don’t pretend to have a solution to the schisms ravaging across the world. The illusion that somehow knowledge and education would solve conflicts between people of differing faiths has forever been shattered…
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.

The idea of not having the only answer to complex problems, of not knowing, appears to be in awfully short supply these days. This is aptly demonstrated by an ongoing nasty spat about vitamin C versus AIDs drugs such as AZT in the Media and online between Dr Ben Goldacre (Bad Science column www.badscience.net/?p=365), and Patrick Holford (www.patrickholford.com/content.asp?id_Content=1751).

Dr Goldacre is scathing of Patrick Holford, because he cites in vitro, cellular, research by Dr Raxit Jariwalla from the Dr Rath Research Institute regarding the potential benefits of Vitamin C in HIV/AIDS. I reported on this same original in vitro research in the early 1990s for my Vitamin C book (Vitamin C: The Master Nutrient. Keats. 1991 – www.drsgoodman.com/vitamin-c-chapter10.php), and spent years attempting to conduct a clinical trial to test the potential efficacy of organic germaniun with HIV/AIDS – www.drsgoodman.com/chapter3.php).

Credible research with Vitamin C and AIDS has been published (see Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, & Toxins by Dr Thomas E Levy MD JD – www.positivehealth.com/ book-view.php?reviewid=91); however the point is that due to considerable pressure from the pharmaceutical industry during the past 20 years, as reported in Dirty Medicine by Martin Walker (www.amazon.co.uk, virtually no progress has been made regarding human clinical AIDS research other than with anti-retroviral drugs, which have considerable side effects. And speaking of which, please take 5 minutes to view former athlete Lee Evan’s video on YouTube regarding HIV tests and side effects of anti-retroviral drugs –  www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7wo2KTkaQ.

The AIDs crisis is surely not about either Vitamin C or AZT; it requires the broadest possible international cooperation and integrated approach.

Another example of polarized viewpoints are those of BCMA Chairman Terry Cullen in the March Issue 133 (Therapists to be Regulated out of Business – www.positivehealth.com/article-view.php?articleid=2071), and the strident response from Ian Cambray-Smith of The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health in this Issue’s Letters pages (see page 52).

Why does everybody have to profess to having the ultimate answer to the many complex issues befalling the country and the world today? Politicians, whether in the UK, US, India or Pakistan, or the Middle East, consider it obligatory to provide sound bytes to their constituents about whichever policies of the day are under attack This adversarial system applies to our every walk of life – Education, Foreign Affairs, Health and even Complementary Medicine.

Why can’t more individuals state the extreme sides of issues as eloquently as Jerome Burne in Drugs Versus Nutritional Medicine (see page 34)? Herein, the author describes the financial worth of many drugs and their considerable side effects for common conditions, and then discusses other potential approaches to managing these same health problems.

Jerome isn’t exactly what I would consider a neutral onlooker to these issues; however, considering the clout and the might of the pharmaceutical industries compared to the paltry size of most nutritional and herbal businesses, it is perhaps fair to use words against the considerably devious and misleading tactics of the drug companies, who are judge, jury and financiers of the medical research system.

Unless individuals are in a life-and-death critical situation, in which there may only be moments left to live, there are rarely single, correct solutions to health problems, as there are usually several ways in which to accomplish many program tasks. There is the old adage that “there are more ways than one to skin a cat”, which translates into health as a multi-faceted integrated approach to health issues. These approaches may include combinations of diet, nutrition, herbs, lifestyle, bodywork, drugs, bodymind and possibly other modalities, but the desired outcome is improved health. There doesn’t have to be one right way and there doesn’t have to be a wrong way either. These banal observations appear to be simply common sense, yet truisms.

I truly look forward to the day when a bit of common is permitted yet again to be mixed in with the obligatory expert opinions which assail us these days.