PH Online's 17th year of publication since 1994. Everyone who knows
and is in contact with me will agree that as each issue is worked and
slaved on (there is truly a huge amount of material in each issue), I
will invariably state that this is a great issue. Of course I would say
that, wouldn't I, since guess who commissions the features, selects the
Research Updates, publishes the letters, book reviews and so on? So
perhaps that is as it should be.
Here we are on the cusp of another New Year - 2011 - which will make it
Positive Health
I get to look back to issues from previous years, particularly when, out
of the blue, I am emailed with a request from a practitioner or
publisher to reprint a particular article sometimes from one of the
first issues of PH Online. It is at these times that I realize how
relevant is the content on PH Online - even 10-15 years later. Some
3,000 articles, many thousands of research updates - and still in date
and useful.
However, nothing makes one more humble in the face of life's curve
balls, and health or illness more real, than to be suddenly afflicted
with a condition which doesn't respond to usual remedies, and which
causes life to become a misery with no certainty regarding the
resolution of symptoms.
We are not speaking here of life threatening conditions like heart
attack, stroke, cancer and the like. Rather, more mundane excruciatingly
niggling, annoying complaints such as itching, restless legs, shingles
post herpetic nerve pain and tmj pain. Or, as happened to one of PH
Online's Expert Columnists, a practitioner fell and injured her shoulder
and had to cease working as a practitioner for several months while
undergoing physiotherapy and bodywork to heal her injury.
It doesn't help either that, as a practitioner, one is an 'expert',
knowledgeable and veritably fully read on the condition, its causes,
multiple treatment options and inevitable prognoses.
That is why I think it so important to attempt to include the widest
ranging articles, research, case studies, book reviews and letters, as
well as the promotional Brief Takes and Short Features, because despite
the fact that we are in the 21st century, the cure and solution to many
of life's health problems are simply not available.
This issue publishes features across a wide spectrum of subjects -
Naturopathy - Living Medicine,
NLP for Depression,
Presenting the Case for Complementary Medicine,
Home Birth Choices for Expectant Mothers,
Chronic Fatigue - Immune Modulation,
Cellular Nourishment,
Mercury Toxicity,
Phytomedicine for Herpes Zoster (Shingles),
Causal Healing and
Gentle and Natural Birth Induction. The authors of these features are, without exception, practitioners of long clinical experience.
As is usual, there are also nuggets of gold within the Research Updates, including the review under Cancer from Sun
et al
from Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China, regarding berberine - an
alkaloid in medical plants used in traditional Chinese Medicine.
www.positivehealth.com/research-list.php?subjectid=49
"Natural products represent a rich reservoir of potential small chemical
molecules exhibiting antiproliferation and anticancer properties. An
example is berberine, a protoberberine alkaloid widely distributed in
medical plants used in traditional Chinese prescriptions.
"Recent advances have shown that berberine exerts anticancer activities both in vitro and in vivo through different mechanisms.
"Berberine shows inhibitory effects on the proliferation and
reproduction of certain tumourigenic microorganisms and viruses, such as
Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis B virus. Transcriptional regulation
of some oncogene and carcinogenesis-related gene expression and
interaction with both DNA and RNA are also well documented. Besides,
berberine is a broad spectrum enzyme inhibitor, which affects
N-acetyltransferase, cyclooxygenase-2, and topoisomerase activities and
gene/protein expression. These actions, together with the regulation of
reactive oxygen species production, mitochondrial transmembrane
potential, and nuclear factor-kappaB activation might underlie its
antiproliferative and proapoptotic effects.
"More importantly, the suppression of tumour growth and metastasis, the
beneficial application in combined medication, and the improvement of
multidrug resistance both in vivo and in vitro clearly show its potential as an alternative medicine for tumour chemotherapy." www.positivehealth.com/research-list.php?subjectid=49
The Letters page contains an invaluable resource - courtesy of Orthomolecular Medicine News Service This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- regarding the use of Vitamin C for Nutritional physicians, including a
vast wisdom clinical expertise from the most experienced clinicians
worldwide, as well as a resource bibliography with web links to die for.
Keep this handy in case you need to take it to your or your patient's
doctor:
www.positivehealth.com/article-view.php?articleid=2947
Much new is around the corner; 2011 is the year that PH Online will
finally be attempting to achieve a global network, enabling
practitioners and organizations within each country to have their own
platform to promote books, courses and products. The structure is almost
in place, with a brand-new look website; what is required is to locate
and forge relationships with interested people in each country who are
interested in this bold and potentially highly lucrative enterprise. If
we can achieve this global network of international agents, then maybe I
can have my first holiday since 1989.