Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby's Total Health Newsletter #48. Week ending May 2nd, 2010 Please feel free to forward this to friends who might be interested in reading it.
"Doctors go to great lengths to disguise the fact that they arepractising a black art rather than a science. The medical profession hascreated a 'pseudoscience' of mammoth proportions and today's doctorsrely on a vast variety of instruments and tests and pieces of equipment with which to explain and dignify their interventions."
Dr. Vernon Coleman
1. Read This And Weep?
What does this say about ourselves, dear people? Here's a story sent to me by my good friend Dr. Robbie O'Dwyer from Vancouver Island.
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world today. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the metro station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?
[Let me tell you this: I know everything about this piece, every note, I've heard it and felt my heart flutter hundreds of times, and would have fallen on my face in front of him, happily missing my train, and the next dozen or so, if I'd been there!]
But PLEASE, if you have time and if you only ever listen to classical music ONCE this year, let this piece be it. It's my #1 favorite power piece. It was written by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685- 1750).
It is for solo violin (no accompaniment) and nothing like it has ever been written, before or since. It is so intricate and the cascading torrent of notes so overwhelming at times that, if you close your eyes, you can hear a whole orchestra. Yet it's just 4 strings, one bow and one man.
Here's Bell explaining his art...
And I have no hesitation describing this music as healing and blessed.
The Chaconne in D minor, in its entirely, is about 20 minutes. If I have fired up your enthusiasm, grab some more here: Hilary Hahn plays the first 9 minutes. You should be able to find part 2 in the same screen, alongside.
2.
How Ridiculous Does Nutriphobia Get?
Most doctors are not only ignorant of nutrition; they are against it. They have "nutriphobia". It's not new; despite all the amazing advances in isolating vitamins and essential fatty acids etc in the first half of the 20th century, doctors, bless 'em, went on teaching patients it was unimportant; that a "balanced diet" gives you all the nutrition you need.
A few years ago I picked up an old text on anti-aging; it was published by Macmillan for the British Open University, entitled To The Good Long Life by Morton Pruner (a prune is a jackass in the UK, which may be significant!).
On page 77 I found an absolute howler: According to him books, magazines, and advertisements in all the media spread the gospel of wild
ideas about nutrition (no mention of the wild ideas about polypharmacy that are spread by all the media!)
Pruner goes on to quote a certain Dr Schroeder*, who has this to say: "Quackery in nutrition and health food stores thrive in areas in which retired people with average incomes live..." Is he blaming retired people? Let's read on... According to Schroeder, in every widespread fad there is "usually a grain of truth and an enormous amount of chaff." He then turns his "expertise" on to a list of health food specialties:
Vegetable juices (no benefit), single so-called vitamins such as rutin and lecithin (unnecessary), unsaturated fatty acids (better in oils), bioflavonoids (unnecessary).. and on this idiot ploughs, oblivious of his own buff ignorance and stupidity. First consideration should be given to "what people like to eat, not what they should eat", says this master nutritionist.
Well, it was some decades ago, admittedly. Kids today know more about plant nutraceuticals than this fool.
When I got onto the next page and the section attacking the efficacy of vitamin E and claiming there is no science that shows it has any value, you can guess what I did with the book! I don't think Morton the Prune came anywhere near fulfilling his obligation in the title he chose.
[*Henry A Schroeder of Dartmouth Medical School]
3. The Most Fiery Painful Parasite Will Soon Be Gone From Earth?
Guinea worm may be the second disease ever totally eradicated by Man. Smallpox was the first.
Those of you who read my report "Absolutely Disgusting" about parasites will know I gave a brief mention of the Guinea worm; it isn't something that troubles us in the West but this terrifying monster truly lives up to its name: Dranunculus or "little dragon". It is almost certainly the "fiery serpent" of Bible fame.
Guinea worm gets into the human body from infected water and can grow up to a metre in length. When it is time to escape and release eggs, it secretes an acid which burns a hole in the tissues and the skin. It is agonizing for the victim. The skin and muscles feel like they are on fire.
Death is a common accompaniment, depending where the worms lodge in the body. One host may have several worms.
There is no vaccination and no cure. The only way to get rid of the beast is to wind it slowly round a stick, over a period of a few days, gradually drawing it out of the tissues, without breaking it. Historians believe that the medical symbol of a "serpent" wound round a staff actually depicts this ancient cure: the so-called Staff of Aesculapius".
In 1986 the WHO declared war against this hideous creature and is now close to eradicating it for good. From 4 million cases across 20 countries across Asia and Africa, we are down to just 3,142. It could be extinct by 2012.
Success has come from changing peoples' drinking habits and controlling the water flea which transfers the infection from contaminated wells to people. Humans are the only host, so once it's gone, it's gone forever. The problem is that the less of it there is around, the harder and more costly it becomes to trace and remove the final few cases.
Almost the entire world's problem with Guinea worm is now confined to southern Sudan, where civil war has been raging constantly since independence in 1956. Guinea worm staff come under constant fire. Makoy Samuel Yibi (I presume the real Makoy!), head of the Sudan worm eradication team, said: "We have the right team and the materials to succeed. All we need is peace".
To learn all about the parasites which affect us in the West, you must get a copy of my comprehensive but greusome report: "Absolutely Disgusting". It will tell you all about the identification and treatment of parasites. Click here: Human Parasites
Make a note and be there! This is primarily for people within the US and Canada.
I'll be introducing some pretty remarkable anti-aging and anti-disease products from a company called Univera. Some of the amazing recoveries have appeared on YouTube. Check out this short video, for instance:
Here's another example: an 84 year old guy with Alzheimer's, taken off his drugs and left to die. He recovered somewhat, just due to the stopping of his medications, as I can see it. But then he started a Univera (formerly Oasis) product called "Ageless Xtra" and next thing you know, he's taking flying lessons at the age of 84!
Having come to live in Reno Nevada, the geographical feature called the Donner Pass has become quite an influence in my life. There are really only 2 driving routes out of the city: the 9 hour drive south to California and the 3- 4 hour I-80 over the Donner summit into mid-California (Sacramento, San Francisco, Big Sur, etc.)
Most people will not be familiar with how this 7,000 ft. high pass over the Sierra Nevada got its name. The Donner family were Western pioneers in the days before California had even become a US state (it still belonged to Mexico).
Tragically they got trapped in a severe blizzard in the winter of 1846-1847. Several people died. The Donner Pass is one of the snowiest places in the United States, with an average of 415 inches of snow a year (35 ft.)!
Ironically, the party was only one day from safety. The first snowflakes fell as they almost reached the top of the pass. Within hours the blizzard was so intense they were driven back down the eastern side. The party were soon overwhelmed by one of the worst-ever years of snowfall recorded for the pass and forced to over-winter in dire conditions, with almost no food. Of the 81 emigrants, only 47 survived to reach California; some of them were alleged to have resorted to cannibalism to survive.
Now a scientific survey of remains from the campsite at Alder Creek has been able to counter the rumors by stating there is no proof whatever of cannibalism. Examination of bones excavated from a hearth at the campsite found no human remains. The bones in the hearth came from cattle, deer, horses and dogs.
Newspapers were primarily responsible for promoting the allegations of cannibalism, which were fiercely denied by the Donner Party survivors.
The study findings were presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Albuquerque, N.M. and will be published in the July issue of the journal American Antiquity.
Just to close by telling you how severe this pass can be, even in modern times, on January 13, 1952, another group became stranded about 17 miles west of Donner pass at Yuba Pass. Southern Pacific's passenger train “City of San Francisco” was en route westbound through the gap when a raging blizzard slowed the train to a halt. The passengers and crew were stranded for six days until help could arrive.
6. What's In A Word?
Step Mother/Father
Vivien asks me some tough words. She wanted me to tell her the origin of this term and I didn't know. But I did know where to find out!
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary it comes from the Old English (that's when you see O. E. in a doctionary):
OE steop means connotations of "loss." It shows up in other OE words like steopcild "orphan," which we would now recognize as stepchild. OE stēopmōdor is pretty easy to recognize too, as in wikd steopmoder (that's a joke, by the way!)
You may have heard the curious expression "beaten like a red-headed stepchild" or "feeling as ignored as
a red-headed stepchild." It seems to have given a problem to lexicologists (now there's a meaty word: it means dictionary buffs; a lexicon is a dictionary).
To me it's easy: step kids were not popular; red-heads were not popular; so put the two together and you have a real formula for feeling out of it or being treated badly.
So, that's all for this week!
Be well; find the sacred in all you do, otherwise don't do it!
Prof.
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