DIY Health
Dr Samways is a GP with the ability to look 'out-of-the-box' who has succeeded in gathering together the many neostressors in the 21C environment which can and do cause adverse health effects. She writes in a frank and refreshing style, staying true to medicine, yet looking at new problems and their solutions. As she writes, people are different and what affects one may not affect another - she comments on the fact that many symptoms reported are so bizarre that unless the doctor is prepared to look at further environmental factors many treatments may be ineffective.
As Somerset Maugham wrote ‘The only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you’ (The Summing Up 1938). This common sense book written by a doctor with the experience of years of general practice can be thought of as a DIY guidebook for many common health problems. She has a particular interest in allergies, candida, addictions, moulds. The latter is a subject rarely discussed yet it can lie at the root of many health problems and much sensible advice is given here for those with this sensitivity. Diet is also well addressed with much advice not involving ‘the Pill fairy’. On page 26 she uses a wonderful analogy of the human gut as a garden with the natural balance of weeds and flowers - but put in weedkillers (antibiotics) and the balance is altered. And on page 13 are two Riverbank stories, one of babies floating down the river and being rescued, the second told by a wise old priest relating to the river-of-life itself. Both are prime examples of lateral thinking, sorely needed in current health care.
Regarding electromagnetic fields as Dr Samways writes, our homes are effectively Faraday cages, with more and more electrical and electronic devices being installed. But she could, with advantage, in the next edition detail standing waves, RF 'hotspots' as quoted in WHO literature and pulsing of signals. The recent (January 2005) Stewart Report by the National Radiological Protection Board draws attention to areas of concern, not only heavy use of Mobile phones, especially by children, but also effects on the brain of pulsed fields however sourced. One very important fact is stressed - the importance of good history taking from a patient by the health professional. Indeed your reviewer, when in contact lens practice, found that a good history, when trying to establish causative factors in problem cases, was a very worthwhile time investment. But can GPs, with the heavy pressures on their time, take time for the luxury of history taking?
If your reviewer may make two small criticisms, firstly there is no index and secondly on page 61 the term 'cluster' is used regarding a Scottish fishing village and leukaemia cases. But clusters are of many types - some seven in all varying with type of illness, whether it is rare or common, how long in an area, the latency period of the diseases etc. Many local groups are gathering all illness under one heading and terming it a cluster with no awareness of the many occupational and environmental factors involved. In all this book should be in every home, whether your family is young, grown up or retired - sensible self-help is timely, vital and must surely be welcomed by the medical profession. And your own feeling of pride when you can knock that irritating symptom on the head without recourse to the 'Pill Fairy' will be worth its weight in gold!
Anne Silk is a contact lens consultant interested in the systemic effects of
non-ionising radiation.