Alternative Doctor

In their award-winning television documentary program, The Body Snatchers, National Geographic reported, “Parasites have killed more humans than all the wars in history”. [Season 1, episode 17] Parasites are probably the most diverse of all biological forms and yet, by definition, they remain implacably hostile to humans. Of the 7.8 billion acres of potential arable land on Earth, only 3.4 billion acres can be farmed; most of the rest cannot be developed because of parasites (malaria, trypanosomiasis, schistosomiasis and onchocerciasis). That’s more than half the farmable land of our planet unavailable to us, because of these critters, at a time when humans need food resources like never before. In Africa alone, an area the size of the USA cannot be farmed because of trypanosomes and many millions in South America have never had a healthy day in their lives because of this fiendish parasite. But are parasites a curse of the undeveloped Third World? Not a bit of it… Dr. Frank Nova, Chief of the Laboratory for Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute of Health, states, “In terms of numbers, there are more parasitic infections acquired in the US than in Africa.”

Music is soothing to body, mind and soul. Those of us who enjoy a certain type of music know that is so. There have also been extensive experiments showing that obnoxious music, such as heavy metal and hard rock, is damaging to living tissues. Now there is a new piece in the jigsaw. It seems that operatic music is healing and nurturing to an organism under stress and likely to experience inflammation. Classical music is good. Mice with transplanted hearts listening to soothing classical music lived TWICE AS LONG as those that were deaf or listening to pop music. Time to change the content of your iPod, I think! Masateru Uchiyama of Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, gave mice heart transplants from an unrelated donor which were therefore expected to be rejected. For a week following the operation, the mice continuously listened to Verdi’s opera La Traviata, a selection of Mozart concertos, music by Enya, or a range of single monotones. Mice exposed to opera fared best – they survived an average of 26 days, with those who listened to Mozart close behind at 20 days. Mice who listened to Enya survived for 11 days and the monotone group only seven days.

Music is soothing to body, mind and soul. Those of us who enjoy a certain type of music know that is so. There have also been extensive experiments showing that obnoxious music, such as heavy metal and hard rock, is damaging to living tissues. Now there is a new piece in the jigsaw. It seems that operatic music is healing and nurturing to an organism under stress and likely to experience inflammation. Classical music is good. Mice with transplanted hearts listening to soothing classical music lived TWICE AS LONG as those that were deaf or listening to pop music. Time to change the content of your iPod, I think! Masateru Uchiyama of Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, gave mice heart transplants from an unrelated donor which were therefore expected to be rejected. For a week following the operation, the mice continuously listened to Verdi’s opera La Traviata, a selection of Mozart concertos, music by Enya, or a range of single monotones. Mice exposed to opera fared best – they survived an average of 26 days, with those who listened to Mozart close behind at 20 days. Mice who listened to Enya survived for 11 days and the monotone group only seven days.

Yes, magic. It’s a wondrous process that has more positives than negatives. Middle age and beyond is not something most species get to live through. New ideas suggest that this vital later phase of life is precisely why human beings have ended up taking over the planet! If you are over 50, pat yourself on the back, for being Nature’s most highly evolved organism. Biologically and socially, you are streets ahead of the youngsters who hog today’s limelight! But why did evolution take us down that path? The answer is inextricably bound up with the exceptional nature of humans. We are a brilliantly adaptive species, for which the process of learning has been crucial. Today we can read books and Google information. But before the advent of writing, much less computers, skills had to be learned and it took time; decades in fact. Oftentimes, the necessary skills were not accumulated till after the age of 40. Surviving long enough to acquire these skills would be a strong evolutionary advantage, which would be selected for by Nature. These skills would be passed on to other members of the tribe and that would give them the advantage over competitors, whether the human kind of the sabre-toothed kind! We would quickly “develop” a middle age, even if we didn’t start with one. Middle age would be a valuable commodity that Nature chose for us!

Yes, magic. It’s a wondrous process that has more positives than negatives. Middle age and beyond is not something most species get to live through. New ideas suggest that this vital later phase of life is precisely why human beings have ended up taking over the planet! If you are over 50, pat yourself on the back, for being Nature’s most highly evolved organism. Biologically and socially, you are streets ahead of the youngsters who hog today’s limelight! But why did evolution take us down that path? The answer is inextricably bound up with the exceptional nature of humans. We are a brilliantly adaptive species, for which the process of learning has been crucial. Today we can read books and Google information. But before the advent of writing, much less computers, skills had to be learned and it took time; decades in fact. Oftentimes, the necessary skills were not accumulated till after the age of 40. Surviving long enough to acquire these skills would be a strong evolutionary advantage, which would be selected for by Nature. These skills would be passed on to other members of the tribe and that would give them the advantage over competitors, whether the human kind of the sabre-toothed kind! We would quickly “develop” a middle age, even if we didn’t start with one. Middle age would be a valuable commodity that Nature chose for us!

While we are on the subject of past exploits, I have an update for you all. In my book Diet Wise, I told the case of Cliff (his real name). He is case #2 in the book and I included his story, because at the time of completing the book, I received an e-mail from him. Cliff had been surfing the Internet and found my website and written to me, full of the delights of life and exploring the new technology. He was by then 88 years old. Cliff first came to see me in 1985, when he was 69 years old, with a tale of woe. All his life he had been sick and debilitated. He suffered frequently from what lay people called “bilious attacks” in those days: headaches and vomiting. Nowadays we would call them migraine attacks or “abdominal migraine” when the stomach is so upset. Cliff’s condition was so bad that on the train ride to the honeymoon destination, he had needed to lie down with his head resting on the lap of his new bride (no, he was not drunk, but certainly reacting to food at the wedding feast, as we shall see). In 1953 he underwent a partial gastrectomy, on the recommendation of a local professor who had diagnosed a stomach ulcer. It didn’t work. Twenty-one years later he was subjected to a vagotomy (severing the important vagus nerve to the gut). Again the procedure didn’t work – wrong diagnosis and wrong therapy. By the time Cliff consulted me, he was so weakened that he had difficulty shaving. He would lather up and then have to rest; then shave a little and would need another rest; and so on. He was a very sick old man and felt ready to die.

While we are on the subject of past exploits, I have an update for you all. In my book Diet Wise, I told the case of Cliff (his real name). He is case #2 in the book and I included his story, because at the time of completing the book, I received an e-mail from him. Cliff had been surfing the Internet and found my website and written to me, full of the delights of life and exploring the new technology. He was by then 88 years old. Cliff first came to see me in 1985, when he was 69 years old, with a tale of woe. All his life he had been sick and debilitated. He suffered frequently from what lay people called “bilious attacks” in those days: headaches and vomiting. Nowadays we would call them migraine attacks or “abdominal migraine” when the stomach is so upset. Cliff’s condition was so bad that on the train ride to the honeymoon destination, he had needed to lie down with his head resting on the lap of his new bride (no, he was not drunk, but certainly reacting to food at the wedding feast, as we shall see). In 1953 he underwent a partial gastrectomy, on the recommendation of a local professor who had diagnosed a stomach ulcer. It didn’t work. Twenty-one years later he was subjected to a vagotomy (severing the important vagus nerve to the gut). Again the procedure didn’t work – wrong diagnosis and wrong therapy. By the time Cliff consulted me, he was so weakened that he had difficulty shaving. He would lather up and then have to rest; then shave a little and would need another rest; and so on. He was a very sick old man and felt ready to die.

Here’s a note from a dear friend in England. She is heavy on the sarcasm! For those of you who don’t know me yet, I was a leading pioneer back in the early 1980s, showing how foods can make people seriously ill. Some of the extraordinary cases and moving stories were featured in the press […]

Here’s a note from a dear friend in England. She is heavy on the sarcasm! For those of you who don’t know me yet, I was a leading pioneer back in the early 1980s, showing how foods can make people seriously ill. Some of the extraordinary cases and moving stories were featured in the press […] The post 40 Years In The Making appeared first on Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby.

Chocolate, we know, is good for us. But even the fatty, sticky, sugary sort? Yes, apparently! According to Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and her colleagues, who detailed their findings in a research letter published in the March 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. A recent study showed that frequent chocolate consumption was associated with lower body mass index (BMI), even when adjusting for calorie intake, saturated fat intake, and mood.

Chocolate, we know, is good for us. But even the fatty, sticky, sugary sort? Yes, apparently! According to Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and her colleagues, who detailed their findings in a research letter published in the March 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. A recent study showed that frequent chocolate consumption was associated with lower body mass index (BMI), even when adjusting for calorie intake, saturated fat intake, and mood.

It might sound like an odd question: of course orgasm is sexual, you say. But it may not be as clear cut as you think. An interesting study I spotted in a special issue of the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy showed that women could have orgasms, just from exercising. Not very sexy but sounds like good fun! This type of orgasm I’m talking about is sometimes referred to as a “coregasm” because of its association with exercises that involve core abdominal muscles. According to study author Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, the most common activity associated with exercise-induced orgasm were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, biking/spinning and weight lifting. The findings are based on the results of online surveys completed by 124 women between the ages of 18 and 63, who reported experiencing exercise-induced orgasms and 246 women who experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure. Most of the women were married or in a relationship and about 69 percent were heterosexual. The excitement was not just a one-off either; about 40 percent of the women who had experienced exercise-induced orgasms and exercise-induced sexual pleasure had done so on more than 10 occasions. Most of the women were not fantasizing. So what works? I knew you’d be asking that!