What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ August - September 2020

A s many states and countries are beginning to emerge from lockdown, media outlets around the world continue to dwell on the numbers: the total number of cases and deaths; the R numbers and whether individual countries have brought infection rates down to acceptable levels; a nation’s total stockpile of test kits and personal protective equipment; the number of businesses kitting out with all the new protective gear; the fresh totals of the unemployed and firms going to the wall as a result of the virus. And, largely based on these numbers, we’ve all made the automatic assumption that we’re going to suffer a second peak, and so must rush to put in place track-and-trace and immunity passports, and fast-track anything that might turn out to be the miracle drug or…

Dr Damien Downing, a specialist in allergy, environment and nutrition, is current president of the British Society for Ecological Medicine, on the editorial board of Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Chief Medical Advisor of cancer charity Yes to Life (www.yestolife.org.uk), and author of numerous books including The Vitamin Cure for Allergies. Dr Michel Odent, a French-trained surgeon and obstetrician, is a pioneer of the natural birth movement, emphasizing home and water birth. Founder of the Primal Health Research Centre in the UK, he has written some 50 scientific papers and 11 books. Dr Sarah Myhill has worked in the UK National Health Service and private practice since 1981. Honorary Secretary of the British Society for Ecological Medicine for 17 years, she is a frequent lecturer and author of Sustainable Medicine and Diagnosis and…

Spread the word Every issue of WDDTY contains an amazing amount of useful health information, so it would be good if more of us readers could share this around. After I’ve read it, I always lend my copy to a friend, and I tell others by email about some of the useful facts it contains. However, it’s hard to know how to get more people to know about this publication. I’ve kept all my copies over the years for future reference, and I’d hate to think of people throwing their copy away. It could perhaps be left in waiting rooms, etc., but then you have lost the copy yourself. Has anyone got any tips on what they do to let others know about WDDTY and the amazing wealth of ground-breaking information it provides? A. Wills,…

Walking up to 12,000 steps a day reduces your risk of a premature death and lowers your blood pressure. And it’s all to do with the number of steps you take, and not the speed and intensity of your walking, two new studies have found. Although the standard step rate seems set at 10,000—and some researchers have seen little benefit beyond walking 8,000 steps a day—new research suggests that 12,000 is the optimum for increasing your chances of a long and healthy life. Looking at 4,800 people whose daily walking was monitored for seven days, and whose health was assessed around 12 years later, the researchers found that those walking 10,000 steps a day had a 51 percent lower risk of premature death compared to participants who walked only 4,000 steps…

Our DNA isn’t an instruction book, new research suggests. Instead, it’s just a list of ingredients our cells will use every so often. The real drivers that determine our health are found in the molecules that regulate a cell’s DNA, says Antony Jose, associate professor of cell biology at the University of Maryland. “DNA cannot be seen as the ‘blueprint for life.’ It is at best an overlapping and potentially scrambled list of ingredients that is used differently by different cells at different times,” he said. One good example is the color of our eyes, which is not determined by our DNA but by the cells associated with eye colour. Biologists have been unable to explain, from reading DNA code, how we get our eye shape or why we even have eyes…

It’s never too late to adopt a healthier lifestyle—and it can still have a big impact on your health in later years. Women who take up a better diet in their fifties reduce their risk of a stroke 20 years later, a new study has found. The risk falls by as much as 30 percent, say researchers at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who tracked the health and lifestyles of nearly 60,000 women for around 26 years. The average age of the women was 52 at the start of the study, and they were urged to adopt healthier lifestyles, such as giving up smoking, exercising and eating a better diet, including more fish, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables and eliminating processed meats. During the…