Holistic Feathers

“I’m livid! I’m banging my fists in FURY on my desk this Sunday morning in London UK at the constant harassment of Dr Sarah Myhill, MB BS, by the wretched General Medical Council (GMC) quango. This most excellent doctor is a lifeline support for many thousands of patients, particularly those suffering from the much misunderstood illness of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) whom she treats with respect, compassion, kindness, understanding and consummate professionalism.

No patient has ever complained about Dr Myhill. Yet certain pig-sick jealous doctors skulking disreputably in the shadows seem to be making it their shoddy life’s work to do Dr Myhill harm without any just cause by making anonymous complaints about her. This latest assault is a GMC Interim Orders Panel that is trying to rip Dr Myhill’s medical licence off her whilst refusing to allow her to defend herself. She is to be presumed guilty without trial. This goes completely contrary to the law in Britain and represents stunning injustice.

I’ve had enough of this. Many thousands of us have. So to this end I am today using the enormous power and reach of the One Click health advocacy pressure group to help this good doctor by launching the Support Dr Myhill Campaign. Do you think it’s wrong for her to be persecuted like this by this awful GMC quango? Do you like the work of One Click and frequently read the information published on our website? Then please get involved to help Dr Myhill.

For the many thousands of doctors that read One Click, please remember that this could happen to you too. Any time. For those based in the UK, you are actually personally paying for this GMC obscenity. Do something about it.

Take a look at Dr Myhill’s website at www.drmyhill.co.uk and see what she does. Click on the link HERE to see what the GMC has been trying to do to Dr Myhill for years. Read Dr Myhill’s Open Letter to us all (see below). Let your fingers do the walking. Rain emails down at the GMC address provided below in such quantity that the GMC servers collapse. Ring them up. Fax them. Please help to orchestrate such a protest cacophony that the GMC never dares to hassle Dr Myhill on such spurious and risible grounds again.

I personally will be attending Dr Myhill’s Interim Orders Panel Hearing in London to provide support on 29th April (full details below) and I suggest that all of you who can, do the same. Remember that this is the good doctor who broke her neck in a riding accident a few years ago. So steadfast was she and so concerned for the welfare of her patients that she was back at work after just two weeks, so great is her dedication to her patients. It is time for us to pay this dedication back.

Please give the GMC such a bloody nose that they never try to pull a stunt like this again. Please help Dr Myhill by joining hands across the world to protect this doctor that cares and has done so much good for so many.

ACT NOW!
Thank you.
Jane Bryant
The One Click Group

Please read Sarah’s Open letter about her GMC hearing April 2010 and SUPPORT AND HELP HER NOW http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Open_letter_about_my_GMC_hearing_April_2010 – by

Emailing the GMC on pbridge@gmc-uk.org
Telephoning Mr Paul Bridge on 0161 923 6417
Faxing Mr Adam Elliott on 0207 189 5177
Post to Mr Paul Bridge, General Medical Council, 3 Hardman St, Manchester M3 3AW quoting Case Reference: PB/C1-314994282

To say:
- That you find the website a helpful source of information;
- That your health will be put at risk if you are unable to avail yourself of her services as a doctor;
- Request to attend a future Fitness to Practice Hearing to give evidence that you have been helped by information from her website.
- Please ask the GMC to acknowledge your concerns and send a copy also to Sarah office@drmyhill.co.uk.

Please do everything you can to attend Sarah’s Interim orders Panel at It will be in London at 10:30 on Thursday 29 April 2010 at the offices of the General Medical Council, Regent’s Place, 350 Euston Road, London NW1 3JN.

If you are nor sure what to write to the GMC, perhaps you would find it easier to adapt the following letter that Amanda (Galathea) wrote – use your own words.

“Dear Sir

Case Reference: PB/C1-314994282

I understand that you have ordered Dr Sarah Myhill to attend an Interim Orders Panel, with a view to revoking her licence to practice, on the grounds that there is a “potential risk to public safety” due to the content of her web site. I understand that there are no specific allegations, and that no one has actually been harmed as a direct result of the website.

The whole point of the internet and web sites is that people can write whatever they please, without being subject to censorship, people visiting a site are then expected to use their own judgment with regard to the information on it.

I have used Dr Myhill’s website many many times as a reference tool, and have found he information to be clear, concise and unbiased. If I lived in the locality of Dr Myhill, I would have no hesitation in signing up with her for my health care.

Unless there is a specific case, please do not needlessly stop Dr Myhill from practicing or giving information.

If there is a specific issue with the web site, I would have thought it prudent for the GMC to inform the public as a matter of urgency.

Yours sincerely”

SIGN YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS AND SEND A COPY TO DR MYHILL
________________________________________________

There are still some places available if you would like to attend our annual Spring Dinner and Meeting at The Alma Inn on Saturday 24th April at 12.00noon. Come and meet Dr Peatfield, Dr Skinner and Dr Mantzourani and other members of the TPA Internet Forum. This is a great social occasion. Read details here http://www.tpa-uk.org.uk/alma_meeting.pdf. The only changes to these details is that instead of ordering your meal direct from Michelle at the Alma Inn, you must now order through Lilian lilian15@ntlworld.com – and please place your order BEFORE Tuesday 21st April. Please let me know if you would like to attend and how many people you will be bringing with you. sheila@tpauk.com

Sheila

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Turmeric is the Anti-Aging, Anti-Oxidant, Anti-Inflammatory Super Spice
Monday, April 12, 2010 by Paul Fassa, citizen journalist, Natural News

Curcumin’s anti-inflammatory properties have been known in Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicines for thousands of years. It is the active ingredient of turmeric, which is a component of the curry preparations used daily in Indian and other South Asian cuisines. Since those cuisines have infiltrated the west, modern science has also been investigating the health benefits of turmeric and curcumin.

Curcumin/Turmeric Health Benefits

Don’t confuse curry powder with turmeric. Turmeric is the substance that gives curry its yellowish color, while curcumin is the active ingredient of turmeric that offers the health benefits known in earlier medical traditions and that is being discovered now in western nutritional medicine. Curcumin comprises five percent of turmeric.

Curcumin is both an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. Epidemiological studies of people who have a high dietary intake of turmeric show a lower incidence of cancer among them.

Dr. Russell Blaylock included curcumin extract supplements in his post vaccination first aid kit to minimize the possibility of inflammation and cytokine storm from a vaccination. Curcumin has proven even better for relieving arthritis pains and stiffness than expensive pharmaceuticals, without side effects. It has also been proven to protect the liver and gallbladder.

Many other tests with curcumin extracts have been documented with in vitro (petri dish/test tube) and in vivo (living organisms) trials that show how amyloid plaque, considered a cause of Alzheimer’s, is suppressed by curcumin. There have also been many trials, mostly in vitro, that indicate curcumin helps impede cancer cells’ growth.

Curcumin extracts have been used as an adjunct with orthodox cancer treatments to reduce dosages of toxic cancer drugs.

Curcumin is considered non-toxic. Up to six grams of curcumin daily for extreme cases, such as cancer, has shown no toxic side effects. Since only five percent of turmeric is curcumin, this allows for consuming a good deal of turmeric.

How to Take Curcumin

Curcumin as part of turmeric powder is very beneficial as a daily regimen if taken properly. The problem with curcumin is similar to that of resveratrol: The stomach won’t let it pass through to the small intestines enough to appear significantly in blood serum, where it has to be for cellular nourishment.

That’s easily resolved with turmeric by combining it with fats. Cold pressed oils, coconut oil, organic butter, ghee, raw milk, and organic cottage cheese are optimum choices. It has also been discovered that heat helps absorption without decomposing the curcumin in turmeric. Some users mix turmeric in warm milk. After all, curry involves cooking with some sort of fat.

The curcumin extract capsules, used for extreme conditions or by those who can afford the convenience, pose the same absorption problems with a different set of solutions. This extract is usually in capsules. Enteric coating needs to be used to keep the capsule intact in the stomach yet to allow it to break down in the small intestines, allowing for immediate absorption into the blood.

Enteric coatings are used commonly by Big Pharma, but not by natural supplement providers. So you need to look for that on the label or you’re wasting your money and time.

Some curcumin extract providers insert piperine, an extract of black pepper, to help absorb the curcumin. But curcumin supplements using piperine can cause problems with pharmaceutical medications. So if you are on pharmaceuticals, avoid curcumin extracts with piperine.

Unless your situation warrants higher supplementation, consuming turmeric at one to three teaspoons full per day with fats to get the curcumin into your bloodstream provides an inexpensive, safe,* and efficacious anti-inflammatory, anti-aging boost to your health.

*Those afflicted with hepatitis or gallbladder stones need to use caution

Discovered at (c) Natural News ~ where you can also find full links to this article for further research purposes

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Article discovered via The Fresh Network Blog … to read the full article (20 ways!) please visit The Fresh Network Blog

After 12 years following the raw food lifestyle, I have found myself delightfully doing the backstroke downstream in the river of health, while most around me are swimming upstream and telling me I’m going the wrong direction!

I want to prepare you for some things you can expect over the long term when you truly become clean and healthy, inside and out. Your body will not function quite as it used to, nor will it function like the body of the “average” person. You will react differently to foods, medications and lifestyle choices. It will not be possible to compare you in any arena to the average Joe because you’ll no longer be average.

1. Doctors and you
Doctors won’t know quite what to do with you. For instance, one of my readers wrote:

“I had my white blood cells tested about three weeks ago, and my result was 2.9. The normal range is 4.1 to 5.6. My doctor ordered a repeat of test. Knowing my raw food diet was responsible for the test results, I ate some bread and cooked vegetables the afternoon before my next test. Next morning the result was 4.2! I was happy I’ve proven to myself one more time how sensitive our bodies are to the quality of food we eat. Can you imagine my delight, when several days later in your book Quantum Eating I read that you experienced the same thing?”

Here’s the explanation… Cooked food sets off an immune response that raw foods do not. That the blood of most cooked food eaters is infiltrated with white blood cells means that the body is fighting back, sending immune-cell soldiers into battle against infection. But with most folks on a raw food diet, there’s little or no infection – hence few soldiers.

In the hospital or in the doctor’s office, the parameters you will be measured by aren’t normal – they are more aptly termed average. They are derived by experimenting on people who eat cooked foods. The healthier you become, the more you will find yourself – quite literally – off the charts!

2. Sleep
You will need less sleep. I sleep only five or six hours a night. Cooked food is damaging, so we need more time to recover. If your body is abused either by cooked foods or by stress, it needs more sleep to heal. The absolute opposite is true if you are healthy. Remove the cause of illness, and you reduce the needed healing time. Sleep is like a recovery room. The more you hurt yourself, the more time you need to spend there in order to recover. After being on a 100% raw lifestyle for over 12 years and experimenting with different raw foods and quantities, I feel confident in saying that nothing influences your sleeping needs more than the amount and quality of food you eat.

3. Supplements
It always amazes me when people go raw, get more nutrients in one day than they had in a month on their former cooked diet, and then ask: Am I getting enough nutrients?

What nutrients are in the food does matter. But what matters more is whether your body is cleansed and efficient enough to absorb what you are getting. Don’t just load your body with more and more nutrients and calories. Instead, clean it. Make it more efficient at getting those nutrients. I eat fewer calories than ever before, after following a raw foods lifestyle for many years. My body now gets more nutrients from less food. Yours can, too.

There are, however, situations when short-term supplementing of a particular nutrient can be helpful or even necessary, if you are deficient. If you are not energetic, you are not healthy, and taking a pill is not going to change anything permanently. I am discovering: no supplementation is needed for the healthy body to feel great! (Okay – one exception: B12. But this is a topic for another article.)

4. Water, water, everywhere
Many health-conscious people are plagued with the question: Which type of water is the best to drink? After all, if we’re to be drinking the proverbial eight glasses of water per day, shouldn’t we drink the best? Should it be spring water or distilled water? Or maybe ionized water or silver water? When I am asked this question, I honestly say: I have no idea. Nor do I think it will become a topic of my research. Why? After 12 years following the 100% raw food lifestyle, I have no need for free water. I don’t drink water. Am I dehydrated? Not at all.

How can I do it? I do not eat anything from which water has been removed. I no longer consume dehydrated or concentrated foods. I get all the hydration I need from my daily juices, smoothies, melons and other foods with high water content. In my book Quantum Eating I use the analogy of dried prunes. If you place them in water, will they ever look like fresh, plump plums again? Is a soaked prune really hydrated? It’s the same with a person who eats cooked food and drinks lots and lots of bottled water. All that drinking swells you up without really giving you the dewy look of youth you desire. I believe that the best biologically active water comes from nature’s own vessels – fruits and vegetables.

However, if you are still transitioning, you must, I repeat, you must find out what is the best water to drink and drink lots of it.

Buy the Spring issue of Get Fresh! magazine to read the rest of the article and discover what Tonya has to say about the changes you can expect in the following areas when you go raw:

* Cleansing
* Sun exposure
* Calorie requirements
* Metabolism
* Cravings and binges
* Freedom from diseases
* Avoiding middle-age spread
* Muscle cramps
* Recovery time
* Peaceful mealtimes
* Skin
* Skincare
* Spontaneous bliss
* Finding your destiny
* Peace of mind

(c) Tonya Zavasta

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(NaturalNews) The Organic Consumers Association has long fought against what it calls “organic cheater brands” – personal care products that use the name “organic” in the product name or brand, yet are not truly organic products at all. This year at the Expo West Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, California, the OCA staged a very visible public protest to expose what it calls “sham poo products” that are “organic cheaters.”

The protest was part of the OCA’s Coming Clean Campaign which continues to expose dishonest or misleading products in the skin care industry. Due in large part to the OCA’s efforts, Whole Foods now says it will enforce honest labeling by taking a closer look at the word “organic” on personal care products (Organic Consumers).

I was present at the protest, where I spoke with some of the participants and captured some video footage of the action. You can watch the full video right now on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BaO_fnQTnI

What really happened at the protest
The protest was largely peaceful, and even though police did search the protestors – a violation of their 4th Amendment rights – they did not make any arrests. New Hope Media, the company that organizes the Expo West trade show each year, dispatched staffers to act as human shields to visually block the protest signs by standing in front of them. I attempted to get some of the New Hope Media personnel to explain why they were standing in front of the signs, asking them if they were attempting to block the signs, and they told me that they actually had no intention of blocking anything, that they were just “standing here” for no particular reason. (Yeah, right …)

They couldn’t say, of course, that the “organic cheater” brands whose signs they were blocking also happened to be some of the largest paying exhibitors at the show, and these show organizers were no doubt attempting to shield these companies from being publicly shamed. That act alone raises the all-important question: Why is New Hope Media protecting organic cheater brands?

There’s something you need to know about the Expo West trade show: That show has an on-duty FDA officer who runs around the show threatening companies that make truthful health claims on their product labels. New Hope Media is apparently quite content with an FDA tyrant running around the show threatening people for telling the truth, but when the Organic Consumers Association tries to expose the truth about organic cheater brands, New Hope Media places itself in the position of defending the cheaters!

Why is it illegal to tell the truth at Expo West, but it’s perfectly fine for some companies to lie to consumers through misleading product names… and New Hope Media will actually go to bat for those cheaters by sending people onto the street to disrupt a public protest that exposes the lies!

I find this all quite fascinating. Expo West is a terrific trade show with lots of really great companies sharing their health products, but it does seem that New Hope Media is eroding its own credibility by going to bat for organic cheater brands. Instead of defending organic cheater brands, the company might do itself a favor by requiring them to have honest labels before they can exhibit at the show!

Watch the video yourself to see the signs being blocked by New Hope Media employees (the guys in the suits):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BaO_fnQTnI

How the products really scored
The OCA has published an online spreadsheet detailing the test results of many personal care products to show their “Skin Deep Hazard Rating” – a score that indicates the presence of potentially hazardous or toxic chemicals in product formulations. A score of 7 or higher is considered bad enough to earn that product a “don’t buy this” rating. A score of 2 or lower is considered very good.

If you want to find out who these companies are, just visit Natural News to read the rest of the article … we were shocked when we read it!!

(c) Mike Adams, The Health Ranger
Article discovered at Natural News

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I have always admired and been fascinated by the principles of yoga, although finding the right yoga class for me has always been difficult – not just because of health issues (so even a 10 minute workout can leave me bed-bound, at my worst) but always the secret fear that everyone in the class will be beautifully lithe and laugh at my pudgy little chops, toppling over with the sun-salutations.

Yes, I know that classes aren’t like that … and I’ve met some wonderful teachers, but now I am fully on the path to recovering my health, I really wanted to learn more about yoga and find a class that is just perfect for me at this time in my life.

I couldn’t resist the Yoga Style Quiz from the Yoga Journal site.  What would it come up with, I wondered to myself?

After a few searching questions, I was surprised to find that Kundalini Yoga is apparently my style (and there was me thinking Restorative Yoga would do me forever more!):

The style of yoga that best suits you is:

Kundalini Yoga

You look for an uplifting blend of spiritual and the physical practice. Kundalini Yoga incorporates postures, dynamic breathing techniques, and chanting mantras such as Sat nam (meaning “I am truth”). Practitioners concentrate on awakening the energy at the base of the spine and drawing it upward through each of the seven chakras. The goal is to build physical vitality and increase consciousness or connection with the Divine.

Which is really quite spooky, as all of the classes I have been attracted to over recent months have all been led by Kundalini yoga teachers!!  If you’d like to find out more about Kundalini yoga, please click here:  Kundalini Yoga

Go 0n – take the short quiz and find out what your yoga style is!!

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(NaturalNews) Originally native to southern Mexico and now cultivated in many tropical countries (including Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Vietnam and Sri Lanka), the papaya plant has been touted by traditional healers for centuries as a source of powerful medicine. Not only is papaya fruit delicious and loaded with vitamins and phytochemicals, but other parts of the plant have been used historically to treat health problems, too. Now University of Florida (UF) researcher Dr. Nam Dang and his colleagues in Japan have announced new evidence that the papaya fights cancer cells. In fact, they discovered that an extract made from dried papaya leaves produced a dramatic anti-cancer effect against a broad range of tumors grown in the laboratory — including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas.

The study, recently published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, not only showed that papaya has a direct anti-tumor effect on a variety of malignancies, but it also documented for the first time that papaya leaf extract increases the production of key signaling molecules called Th1-type cytokines. That’s important because this regulation of the immune system raises the strong possibility that the use of papaya could help the body’s own immune system to overcome cancers. In addition, it suggests papaya could be helpful in treating or preventing other health problems such as inflammation and autoimmune diseases.

The research team found that papaya’s anti-cancer effects were strongest when cancer cells received larger doses of the papaya leaf extract — yet, unlike many mainstream cancer therapies, there were no toxic effects at all on normal cells. In a statement to the media, Dr. Dang pointed out that the ability of papaya extract to stop cancer without toxicity is consistent with reports from indigenous populations in Australia and in his native Vietnam.

“Based on what I have seen and heard in a clinical setting, nobody who takes this extract experiences demonstrable toxicity; it seems like you could take it for a long time — as long as it is effective,” stated Dr. Dang, who is a professor of medicine and the medical director of the UF Shands Cancer Center Clinical Trials Office.

In all, the UF scientists exposed 10 different types of cancer cell cultures to four strengths of papaya leaf extract. When they measured the effect of the extract after 24 hours, the papaya had slowed the growth of tumors in all the cultures.

What exactly does papaya do to halt malignancies? To find out, the researchers focused on a T-lymphoma cancer cell line. They discovered that at least one of the mechanisms that makes papaya extract a potent anti-cancer weapon is the natural compound’s ability to cause malignant cells — but not normal ones — to die.

The researchers hope to follow up these experiments by eventually testing the papaya cancer treatment in animal and human studies. Up next for Dr. Dang and his colleagues: they’ve applied to patent a process to distill the papaya extract through the University of Tokyo and they are working to identify all the specific compounds in the papaya extract that are active against cancer cells. To this end, Dr. Dang has partnered with Hendrik Luesch, a UF Shands Cancer Center professor of medicinal chemistry who is an expert in the identification and use of natural products for medical purposes. Dr. Luesch recently discovered yet another natural cancer fighter — a coral reef compound that blocks cancer cell growth in cell lines.

Discovered at (c) Natural News
Written by S.L.Baker

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“… “Suckers” reveals how alternative medicine can jeopardise the health of those it claims to treat, leaches resources from treatments of proven efficacy and is largely unaccountable and unregulated. In short, it is an industry that preys on human vulnerability and makes fools of us all. “Suckers” is a calling to account of a social and intellectual fraud; a bracing, funny and popular take on a global delusion.”

So says the write-up on Amazon.co.uk for Rose Shapiro’s “expose” on CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) and as soon as I spied this in my local library, it was a foregone conclusion I would have to read it.

Not for me the willing “blindness” which takes hold of some, keen to try out the latest therapies on the say-so of some fantastic marketing; as a natural beauty therapist, having trained originally as a holistic massage therapist, for me it is really important that I can experience the benefits of treatments that I offer, so that I can truly – hands on heart – give a brutally honest opinion.

The consumer’s sense of responsibility of Self seems to have dwindled over the past few years and yes, I too have trotted along to an “alternative” practitioner and hoped they would offer a magic prescription of some kind to banish my aches and pains, achieving miracles that my doctor has not been able to produce. So I celebrate what some would consider as a ‘character assassination’ of a broad spectrum of CAM treatments and therapies, as to my mind anything that gets us – as individuals – thinking and making rational decisions on all the knowledge we can find, has to be a good thing.

It has to be said that a fair proportion of Rose’s points left me reading with eyebrows raised … yet it also highlighted just how dangerous some therapies are. On page 148, I cried while reading how vulnerable patients had DIED from ‘chiropractic strokes’ after visiting chiropractors for what seems, in the scheme of things, relatively minor complaints.

Relatively few CAM treatments escape unscathed: acupuncture, TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), Chinese herbal medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, colour therapy, Vega testing, kinesiology and chiropractors are of notable mention. I really have no desire to give away the secrets of this book but do get hold of a copy and enjoy the read; it will either confirm to you that CAM is a load of rubbish or have you spitting feathers over how facts have been portrayed in relation to your preferred CAM treatment or health issue!

If you are really into expanding your mind and feel on shaky ground while considering how effective CAM treatments are in practice, then we highly recommend Dr Candace Pert’s “Molecules of Emotion”:

For more comments on Rose Shapiro’s “Suckers” book then you may be interested in this article from The Times:  Suckers

Happy reading and do let us know what you thought of Suckers, too!

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