NORTH’S HEALTH BLOG

For the foreseeable future this blog is suspended. Surviving functions have been transferred to Eye on the World.

Anthony North

There is a fear in society about mobile phones frying the brain and power cables giving us cancer. This is known as an ‘irrational’ fear. It is so named because science says there is no evidence of ill effects.

Fair enough. Whether this means there are none, or science is not good enough to find them, is not for this post. Rather, I want to suggest an area attached to the debate that, as far as I’m aware, has never been researched.

Anything electrical gives off electromagnetic radiation, or EM. Now this is funny stuff. Naturally, it can be quite impressive during a thunderstorm. Ever noticed that calmness of mind before the storm? This could well be EM actually affecting your mood.

There has been research into EM effects on the brain. One Canadian study fixed up a device that would send EM pulses into the brain. It showed a noted change in chemical levels in the body, but more than this, it affected the psychology of the subject. Not only did the person’s mood change, but various hallucinatory effects were noted.

Is our need for electronics getting to the stage that, on a social level, changes in EM could be affecting our psychology en masse? Could the rise in anger, in psychological illness, and other factors, be down to our techno-revolution?

I don’t know. Nobody does. Nobody’s looked. That’s worrying.

© Anthony North, Feb 2007

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Those who’ve read my Statement of Patternology on Eye On the World will be aware that, whilst we need specializations, the world suffers from a lack of academic discipline that looks at the whole picture of life.

To me, we need a new kind of non-specialised specialization with a working knowledge of many disciplines. Otherwise we will miss important elements of knowledge at the point where the separate disciplines meet. And nowhere is this more obvious than in health.

To most medical practitioners, there are two major areas of medical understanding – the physical and the psychological – and rarely do the two areas meet. Yet it is quite obvious that there is a large amount of cross-over between the two.

For instance, there is a suspicion that there may be a psychological factor to cancer. Certainly stress – a psychological element – can play a big part in heart conditions. And it is well known that if you sit around moping when you have a cold, it will get worse. Where the two areas do meet is in what is known as the ‘placebo effect’.

 In most illnesses, the placebo effect can have up to a 30% effect on the condition. But what do the doctors do about it? Accept that it exists. But even though they don’t know what causes the effect, they leave it at that.

The most obvious avenue to follow in the physical/psychological realm is to note that chemicals in the body can have a great effect on health. Yet we know, for certain, that emotional states can regulate the prevalence, or not, of such chemicals.

The psychological factor of illness and disease has been ignored for too long. Indeed, I find it a strange quirk of the English language that if you put a hyphen in disease you end up with ‘dis-ease.’

There is a realm of illness I would call ‘psycho-physicality’, which branches out into most areas of health. And it is about time the medical profession began to take it seriously and study the true effects on mind upon the body. Until they do so, too many people will live a poor quality of life, and many may even be dying needlessly.

© Anthony North, Feb 2007

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The Vulcan greeting from Star Trek has become almost an iconic statement in the modern world. Live long and prosper. It encapsulates the western dream – a long and successful life. But does modern living and medicine guarantee a long life?

If you believe the health gurus, it certainly does. Regular exercise, a healthy diet and quick medical intervention when required should be able to see you into a ripe and healthy old age. It looks like we might soon be too healthy to die.

The last point is certainly true. Quick medical intervention has saved many a life. A release from many dangerous occupations and unhealthy living conditions has also helped regarding our longevity. But let’s hold on a minute. How do they know we’re going to live longer?

They know because people are already living well into their eighties. But don’t you think it is a little too convenient to claim this as a success of modern living standards?

Let’s put it like this. A person of eighty today was born in 1927. There was no real understanding of healthy living then. But what he did have was a diet rich in vegetables and a lifestyle of hard physical labour.

Such a lifestyle and diet saw him through the Depression and Second World War. And it is quite likely that the diet and work also provided some benefit to off-set smoking and drinking, which he was likely to partake.

A healthy diet and exercise today is a pale imitation of the average lifestyle in the past. Five a day may be today’s mantra, but the average person of eighty could well have topped that. We will see, in fifty years time, whether today’s lifestyle will bring longevity like that of the past.

© Anthony North, Jan 2007

Pick up a newspaper or magazine, turn on the radio or TV, and it won’t be long before some medical expert tells you we’re all going to die. Coming out fast and furious are hundreds of medical surveys, all full of doom and gloom.

It appears we are infatuated with our health. One reason why could be that we seem to be living longer. Whether this is really true or not, time will tell – if we’ve survived the bugs and viruses and experts to be still around. Of course, we can’t blame the scientists – I suppose. They are paid to do this research or that, and they naturally publish their results.

The problem comes when it gets to the ratings hungry media. The best way to ‘flog’ news today is to do it sensationally, and this is what they do with otherwise sober medical reports. Taking the worst case scenario, and adding a ghoulish soundbite, they’re sure to get our attention. But from there, it’s down to you.

Once upon a time there was a concept called commonsense. Everyone used to use it and it kept us from fantasizing the worst. Today, the concept is no longer common and has no sense, so we swallow the inflated news with a sip of water and worry.

Yes, of course, we do face medical threats, and when they appear they should be reported. But we really must learn to stop panicking at every scare story the media inflates. If not, we will become a nation of hypochondriacs.

© Anthony North, Jan 2007