alternative doctor letter from serendipity #40

letter from serendipity header (tropical island)

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby's Total Health Newsletter #40. Week ending Feb 28th, 2010
Please feel free to forward this to friends who might be interested in reading it.

doc's portrait

Menu:

This week's Quote

Is There Something To Astrology?
Sweet Stuff Has A Bitter Taste
Nearly 2 Million Views On YouTube Can't Be Wrong
Positive People Have Less Heart Disease
Credit Cards; A Danger To Your Financial Health
What's In A Word?

Please also read this important blog:

http://alternative-doctor.com/blog/islam-and-the-threat-to-world-peace/

Use your BACK browser button to return to the menu at any time.

full index of past issues of Letter From Serendipity

I do not spam and do not sell, share or lend email addresses.

click the image or click here for more info

This Week's Quote:

"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries."

Anne Herbert (see item 4.)

1. Is There Something To Astrology?

Could the movement of stars and planets really affect our lives down here on Earth?

The thought came to mind (not for the first time) when I read data from a new book called "Analyzing Seasonal Data". I'm a big fan of data mining and number crunching, as you will know from my Renegade Guru writings.

An Australian researcher analyzed the birthdays of Australian Football League (AFL) players and found that many were born in the early months of the year, while far fewer were born in the later months. At first thought, you might think that means people born under the zodiac signs Aquarius, Pisces or Aries are more likely to be athletic.

But wait a moment! The Australian school year begins in January. If you were born in January, you have almost 12 months' growth ahead of your classmates born late in the year. You'd be taller and that would suit you better in athletics, right?

Sort of. I can't see any reason it wouldn't straighten out later in life, when people are not competing with their school peers.

But the findings are similar to other studies that concluded that being born near the start of the school year makes you more likely to become a pro ice hockey, football, volleyball or basketball player. It could mean smaller children get disheartened when competing and play less sport.

Moreover, research in the UK shows those born at the start of the school year also do better academically and have more confidence.

Well, both the previous paragraphs applied to me at school. I was an academic wimp and shy of sports. It all changed when I got a university scholarship to med school and joined the judo team!

Anway, back to atrology. You know I wouldn't be writing this stuff if I didn't have something up my sleeve. And you'd be right!

Reading this research and the effect of calendar put me in mind of good material I had read years ago from Lyall Watson (I got to meet Lyall's ex; she lived on luxury barge on the canal just outside my London apartment in Little Venice. But I never met the man himself, despite being a big fan. He was into commentating sumo from Tokyo at that time and never home!)

Lyall's paradigm bending book was "Supernature". I hope you have all read it.

He startled me into awareness when he pointed out that solar flares and sun spots markedly affect health down here on Earth: accidents increase, and so do admissions to psychiatric hospital. I knew that already but had never joined the dots! Isn't that a heavenly body affecting our lives? Sure it is.

But what about the planets? Maybe some Sun's energy gets reflected back, off the planets?

If you've read my book Virtual Medicine, you'll know I quoted the work of Harold Saxton Burr, Professor of Anatomy at Yale University School of Medicine. He showed that if you bored holes in trees and took electrical readings, you could follow the influence of the planets, by variations in the trees' life energy fields.

Another step forward.

To quote Watson: "Astrology is based upon the fundamental premise that celestial phenomena affect life and events here on Earth. No scientist, and certainly no biologist familar with the latest work on weather and natural rhythms, can deny that this premise is proved".

But Watson also quoted some remarkable research from France that got me thinking. In 1950 Michel Gauquelin investigated 578 members of the French Academy of Medicine and found that an unusually large number had been born when Mars and Saturn were at their zenith. Being a good scientist, he decided to repeat his work. He took another sample of 508 famous physicians and got exactly the same result. This is odds of 10 million to one!

Later Gauquelin found that famous doctors and scientists tended to be born as Mars was rising, while artists, painters and musicians were seldom born at this time.

To make sure it was not the French who are peculiar (the British have always argued this is the case), Gauquelin did similar work in Italy, Germany, Holland and Belgium. In over 25,000 individuals studied, scientists and doctors were positively linked to Mars and Saturn; soldiers, politicians and team athletes were linked with Jupiter. Writers, artists and musicians avoided Mars and Saturn; while doctors and scientists were negative on Jupiter.

I would say there is something to the astrology thing, despite the fact that narrow minded scientists scoff.

Of course the popular newspaper columns are a sham; there can be no universal predictions of events, whatever claims are made.

2. Hospital Infections Kill 48,000 Each Year

Have you purchased my report on antibiotic alternatives in the case of crisis? You should. You need to. More and more information like this study is pouring out of hosptials and universities. These are the LAST DAYS OF ANTIBIOTICS. (purchase link below)

According to an up-to-the-minute study published in the prestigious British Medical Journal (Feb 2010), 48,000 people a year in American hospitals alone die of infections they caught while in the hospital. That's a conservative estimate, the new study finds, and does not take account of the millions worldwide.

Antibiotics did not help...

It is important to note that these aren't infections people would have caught anyway. These deaths are the result of mistakes, the study says.

Hospital acquired infections actually kill three times more Americans than HIV does. Again, just add a few noughts for the rest of the world combined.

Most of the infections come from using catheters and ventilators with poor hygeine technique. Some of the microbes causing the infections have been around for years; others are scary new bugs such as the MRSA staph. Of course antibiotics did not save these unlucky patients. That's the take-home: antibiotics don't work anymore. People are dying; a LOT of people are dying and it's getting worse almost by the month.

Only last December another study announced that a new strain of MRSA had emerged, which was 5 times more deadly and killed 50% of those who contracted it. If you are not just a little worried, you don't understand what is going on.

SOURCE: BMJ, published online Feb. 4, 2010

Get yourself a copy of "How To Survive In A World Without Antibiotics"

3. I've Written before About The Benefits Of Siesta

A study some years ago showed regular napping or afetrbnoon siesta protects against heart disease and prolongs life.

Now a new study shown it will keep you sharper too!

SUNDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Want to ace that next test? Try taking a mid-afternoon siesta.

While the findings are preliminary, new research raises the prospect that sleep, specifically a lengthy afternoon nap, prepares the brain to remember things. Think of it as similar to rebooting a computer to get it to work more smoothly.

"Sleep is not just for the body. It's very much for the brain," said study author Matthew Walker, an assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Walker and colleagues divided 39 young adults into two groups. At noon, all the participants took part in a memory exercise that required them to remember faces and link them with names. Then the researchers took part in another memory exercise at 6 p.m., after 20 had napped for 100 minutes during the break.

Those who remained awake performed about 10% worse on the tests than those who napped, Walker said.

There's one more twist: People's ability to learn declines about 10% between noon and 6 p.m. normally, but the nappers were able to negate that decline.

The structure of the study suggests that a phase of non-dreaming sleep that the nappers went through is boosting memory, he said.

"This is further evidence that sleep plays a critical role in the processing of memories," he said. "It provides more evidence that it's not just important to sleep after learning, but you need it before learning to prepare the brain for laying down information."

But it's important to sleep long enough to give the brain an opportunity to go through various cycles of sleep, he said. Using electroencephalogram tests to track electrical activity in the brain, the researchers determined that memory-refreshing seems to occur between deep sleep and the dream state, called rapid eye movement or REM.

"The brain's ability to soak up information is not always stable," Walker said. "It seems as though the brain's capacity may be a little like a sponge. It may get waterlogged with continued learning throughout the day."

Jessica Payne, an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the study findings "really add to something we already know about why sleep is important."

One message from the research, she said, is that sleep can be valuable for "students and for people who are struggling with their memory because they're aging."

Other recent research has suggested that sleep can help you think more creatively, have better long-term memory and preserve important memories.

The study findings were scheduled to be presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

4.The Miracle Plant From Thailand

I had so many computer gremlins last week that I believe still many people haven't been able to click on the working link for this.

Recently I interviewed Dr. Sandy Schwartz about the plant pharmaceutical Pueraria mirifica. It comes from Thailand and we jokingly call it HRT (herbal remedy from Thailand).

This plant has profound estrogenic properties that are 3,000 more potent the soy isoflavones etc. It actually protects against breast cancer (a disease almost unknown in the 2 provinces where this grows). But exciting new science from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland, has shown that in a test tube environment, it actually REVERSED breast cancer and cells went into remission.

Not only that but it has other powerful benefits, like stopping menopausal hot flashes, improving bone density, thickening and darkening hair, plus restoring sexual vitality in women (good news for the guys!)

Men can take it too, it will help protect the prostate. Overall, Pueraria will do good things in attaching to estrogen receptors but WITHOUT the problems of estrogen: notably heart disease, stroke and breast cancer.

It truly is a miracle. Listen to me grill Dr. Sandy at this web link:

http://www.askdoctorkeith.com/pueraria_mirifica.htm

5. Credit Cards; A Danger To Your Financial Health

We all have a right to financial health, as well as physicial health. The government, of course, is a major disease with its erosion of personal wealth, like a cancer. Credit cards too eat away and erode your health, like parasites.

So it's pretty shocking to realize you have been the subject of fraud.

Last night my wife Vivien, who is very psychic, had a sudden urge to log onto my business account. Something was making her uneasy. Sure enough, there was payment after payment going out of my account, in cities hundreds of miles away!

I rang the bank and stopped the card, pointing out there was only one card, which was at that moment in my hand, and suggested they involve the police. Fortunately, the damage was limited, thanks to Viv's highly-tuned intuition; we got onto it straight away.

I knew at once what had happened. On route through Reno airport last Friday I had drawn cash at one of those stand-alone ATMs. It had been the target of one of those tricky, thin, electronic readers they slide into the slot and which copy your keystrokes and the transaction you make.

All the robbers have to do it put the electronic information from MY card onto some free gift card and start spending - my money and my name.

I would advize anyone not to use those commercial stand-alone ATMs. They are getting too dangerous. Just plan ahead, so you don't need cash at 5.00 am in the morning, like me! I've learned my lesson.

6. What's In A Word?

Obstreperous

Not a word used everyday. But still far from dead.

It means: Noisily and stubbornly defiant; aggressively boisterous; resistant to control; unruly

From the Latin obstreperus, obstrepere to clamor against, from ob- against + strepere to make a noise.

I beieve the British slang word "stroppy" is a derivative of this. Stroppy: Easily offended or annoyed; ill-tempered or belligerent. [Ooops. better do belligerent next week!]

So, that's all for this week!

Be well; find the sacred in all you do, otherwise don't do it!

Prof.

I do not spam and do not sell or lend email addresses. Unsubscribing is easy.

Disclaimer

All content within this information letter is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech laws in all the civilized world. The information herein is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind.

In no event shall Professor Scott-Mumby be liable for any consequential damages arising out of any use of, or reliance on any content or materials contained herein, neither shall Professor Scott-Mumby be liable for any content of any external internet sites listed and services listed.

Always consult your own licensed medical practitioner if you are in any way concerned about your health. You must satisfy yourself of the validity of the professional qualifications of any health care provider you contact as a result of this newsletter.