FAB CONFERENCE - Feeding Young Minds, 3 October 2008, Oxford
Food and Behaviour Research

Omega-3 for Behaviour, Learning and Mood: Science, policy and practice

Nutrition is as important for our mental health and performance as it is for our physical fitness - the amount and type of fat in our diets is a key influence on both.

Infants and children are particularly vulnerable; the effects of early malnourishment can last a lifetime. Evidence shows that ‘getting the fats right’ can help at any age.

Omega-3 deficiencies are linked with many different behaviour, learning and mental health problems – but most people still don’t know which omega-3 really matter or how to ensure an adequate intake.

Leading international experts in this field will bring you the latest scientific evidence, clearly explaining its implications for policy and practice as well as for anyone seeking to improve their own health through diet.

Find out what positive changes you can make at home and at work. Learn how you could help influence policy in the UK, and have your own questions answered.
Do pregnant mothers and babies consume enough omega-3? What are the implications if they don’t? Is current dietary advice appropriate?
Can omega-3 really help combat depression and anti-social behaviour, or reduce symptoms of ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism? Can they improve mood or boost learning more generally? How would we know and what are the practical implications?
How can our omega-3 dietary requirements be met? Are there enough fish in the sea, and what about vegetarian sources? What can we all do to help?

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Education professionals in schools, colleges and universities
Early childhood education and care professionals, family support professionals
Local authority social services directors and social workers
Local authority catering managers
Public health directors, NHS childcare co-ordinators, health visitors and GPs
Child psychiatrists and psychologists and other clinical and therapeutic professionals
Violence and crime prevention professionals
Professional bodies and Royal Colleges
Policy-makers, researchers and academics
Voluntary organizations and Charities
Parents and carers

SPEAKERS
Dr Alex Richardson Founder director of FAB Research; Visiting Research Scientist at Universities of Oxford and Bristol; Author of ‘They Are What You Feed Them’
Professor Michael Crawford Director, Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, London Metropolitan University
Professor John Stein Professor of Neurophysiology, University of Oxford; Chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust
Dr Joseph Hibbeln Lead Clinical Investigator, Unit of Nutrition in Psychiatry; Nat Inst of Health, USA; Commander in the US Public Health Service
Professor Malcolm Peet Consultant Psychiatrist, Doncaster and South Humber Healthcare NHS Trust, Professor Associate, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield
Dr Paul Montgomery Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention, University of Oxford; Director of FAB Research
Professor Jack Winkler Professor of Nutrition Policy, London Metropolitan University, Director of Nutrition Policy Unit; Director of Food & Health Research

For more information: See www.fabresearch.org or contact Fiona O'Fee and Karen Philip Tel: 01463 258837 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Caroline Walker Trust
Public health nutrition – Challenges for the 21st  century

Tuesday 25 November 2008 at Kensington Town Hall

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Trust they are holding a one day conference designed to appeal to policy makers, practitioners, health professionals, students and supporters of the Trust

The aim of the day is to cover aspects of public health nutrition to:

Provide a platform for a timely reminder of the importance of promoting a wide range of public health nutrition issues and improving nutritional provision amongst vulnerable groups

Summarise key public health issues that need to be tackled

Highlight key areas for intervention at local and national level

The conference themes will focus on nutrition from pregnancy, through early years to old age, with particular emphasis on vulnerable groups, and provides an opportunity to receive an updated summary of all CWT recommendations.

For details of the full programme and booking details (£175 per person - no VAT) see www.cwt.org.uk/events.html

PDF files of previous Caroline Walker Trust lectures are available for free/donation from www.cwt.org.uk/lectures.html


The McCarrison Society AGM
The McCarrison Society AGM will be held early October or late November at a date to be confirmed.

 

HEALING THE GERSON WAY: Defeating Cancer and other Chronic Diseases.
by
Charlotte Gerson with Beata Bishop.

448 pp. Published in 2007 by Totality Books, 316 Mid Valley Centre #230, Carmel, California, CA 93923. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: +1-831-625 3565
www.healingthegersonway.com

Available in UK for £18.00 (inc p&p) from: The Gerson
    Support Group, P. O. B.  406, Esher, Surrey KT10 9UL.

Charlotte Gerson, daughter of the late Dr Max Gerson, has carried on her father’s work: Beata Bishop has long been associated with ‘the Gersons’. A living testimony to Dr Gerson’s teachings, and a living legend in herself, Beata cured herself from a nasty melanoma with his advice. She has been fit and well for 25 years since and is a practising psychotherapist, author, broadcaster and lecturer, often on the Gerson therapy.

This remarkable collaboration celebrates 60 years since the Gerson therapy began attracting attention with the publication of Gerson’s now famous book “A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 cases” (includes application to other chronic diseases).

Thousands of ex-cancer sufferers are further testimony to Gerson’s therapeutic techniques, without mentioning the many more who rid themselves of other chronic diseases from his method. It is truly said that it is ‘the most up-to-date and fully documented and detailed ‘how to’ book on the Gerson therapy’.

As well containing detailed instructions and explanations for ‘self-healers’, it describes how our environment and particularly our nutritional environment has become corrupted - depleted and polluted by the industrialism of agriculture and the multi-billon dollar ‘Pharmaceutical and Food Process-Industry’.

As a result, our soils, our food and our health now regularly experience the ‘diseases of civilization’ that we have come to know only too well over the last 100 years. For many of these diseases, chronic and acute, the armoury of ‘modern’ medicine has few real weapons. Merciful indeed as these are when they work, they often only ‘prolong’ life, without approaching the root cause without which restoring natural bountiful health is not possible. The Gerson way can achieve this.

The story begins with Gerson’s own research on himself and his early success at curing his migraines. This story is grippingly related. His earliest work with cancer patients was rudely interrupted by the nascent fascist movement in Germany in the 1930’s. These were happily resumed once safe on American soil, where his successes began to irritate the bullish medical profession - necessitating another move of his clinic to Mexico where it currently blossoms under the watchful eye of Charlotte, her daughter Margaret and the many devoted helpers, particularly Beata Bishop.

Chapters on the body’s defence mechanisms, how they are attacked by the above-mentioned environment and food, details of the diseases of civilisation and restoring the body’s defences complete the first part. Part 2 contains explicit instructions and explanation (10 chapters) for anyone thinking of or embarking on this invigorating routine. This section describes the most up-to-date techniques, adjustments and improvements to the therapy as it has evolved over 6 decades. Pain control without drugs resorts to time honoured naturopathic remedies, some of which are millennia old with an excellent track record.

Part 3 contains essential ideas from the perspective of psychology. A mind poisoned by body illness can be helped to healing by creating positive visions in the mind which, as shown by such luminaries as Candice Peart, imprints itself not only on the mind, but on the genes. This is an important branch of epigenetics which the McCarrison Society has been waking up to particularly since the stunning work of Simon House and colleagues, Marcus Pembury, Barry Keverne and significant others whose research has been disseminated within our Society and publications. It is heart-warming to realise that Beata’s psycho-oncology is a perfect partner with the above pioneers.

Case-histories invariably attract fascination, these being no exception, containing a medley of chronic diseases as well as cancer which have been turned round and natural health restored. Usually fatal types of cancer such as that of the pancreas have been healed; bone, prostate and lung cancers have also been successfully treated.

The book has been written in an authoritative manner with an eye to realistic explanations and warnings on the pitfalls and sheer dedication and hard work that must of necessity involve persistence, as well as having the necessary pieces of equipment such as a quality juicer that does not destroy enzymes in the strictly organic fruits and vegetables used in profusion.

The last section contains some 90 pages of the most delicious sounding recipes, which come as a huge relief after the fatty meaty diet many of us have been gorging on for ages.

It’s pointed out that for less life-threatening chronic states the regime can be adjusted to varying amounts. The results of 3 pints of freshly extracted juice a day, and simple but delicious menus would probably be enough to make most feel brighter and lighter. But for those with a threatening disease here is now step-by-step guidance for a daily journey to restored health.

It is also pointed out that the Gerson therapy is not for everyone: there are certain carcinomas that do not respond. Those seeking alternative routes may be helped by looking at research results from Tahitian noni juice, or Frequensea - a preparation based on marine phytoplankton mixed with land-based herb essences such as rose and frankincense. These should be taken in accordance with instructions from an experienced practitioner. Information on Frequensea can be obtained via Catherine Faulke This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and information on Tahitian noni juice from Bjorn Svanberg This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

DM


NUTRITION AND MENTAL HEALTH: A HANDBOOK
An essential guide to the relationship between diet and mental health
Edited by Martina Watts

Published by Pavilion (2008) £19.95,184pp
ISBN: 978 84196 245 0.

This book has only just been received, and will be reviewed in edition 42/3.

Meanwhile the papers contained within this compilation, edited by Martina Watts contain names many members will be acquainted with, such as Drs David Thomas, Alexander Richardson, Abram Hoffer on Orthomolecular medicine for schizophrenia, sports nutritionist Anthony Haynes, Kate Neil, not to forget mentioning the foreword from our Chairman.

The rise in mental health problems has been described as an epidemic. Depression has increased twenty-fold since 1945 and is predicted by the World Health Organisation to be the second highest cause of the global disease burden by 2020. WHO also predict that childhood mental disorders will rise by 50% by 2020.

The role of nutrition is fundamental to human well-being but it is often overlooked when treating people with mental health problems. Yet there is growing concern that the consumption of processed food and addictive substances, along with other environmental factors, can influence mood and may be involved in triggering addictions and anti-social behaviour. This handbook explains the science behind nutrition and its effects on mental health in a clear, accessible way.

There is a great gap in the market for formalised educational literature covering the role of nutritional science and its application in the care and treatment of mental health problems. Plenty of evidence supports the important role of nutrition in this area, but there remains a lack of guidelines to action.

This handbook explores:

the complex and dynamic relationship between mental health, diet and nutrition
how mental health and mental illness related factors, dietary factors and other social, biological and environmental factors interact to affect mental well-being.

Leading health practitioners have contributed their own valuable insights, experiences and nutritional strategies to create an informed, up-to-date and fully referenced resource. The Nutrition and Mental Health handbook offers all those working in the mental health sector advice and support on using nutritional approaches to improve the lives of people who are experiencing mental health problems.

Chapters include:
Modern diets: a recipe for madness
Mental health and mineral depletion
The influence of chemical additives on children’s behaviour
The effect of food intolerance and allergy on mood and behaviour
Blood sugar blues
Omega-3 fatty acids for behaviour, learning and mood
Nutritional approaches to the management of eating disorders
Eat yourself happy – nutritional therapy in practice

It is presented in a clear, understandable format, with a glossary and summary chapter, designed to be useful for those with little previous nutritional knowledge, as well as more experienced practitioners, carers and health care practitioners.

The Nutrition and Mental Health handbook contains vital information for: carers, trainers, managers and professionals working within mental health both in social and health care fields within the public, private and voluntary sectors.

 

The Guardian reports that a British trawler has been filmed taking a boatload of endangered fish from Norwegian waters and dumping 5 tonnes back dead in the UK zone of the North Sea. The incident has sparked an international row and renewed calls for a reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy.
 
It is illegal to discard fish in Norwegian waters, but boats are forced to do so in European Union waters if they have caught the wrong species of fish or fish that are too small. Last year the EU estimated that between 40% and 60% of all fish caught by trawlers in the North Sea are discarded.
 
Environmentalists branded the system a "disgrace", whilst Norwegian Fisheries Minister Helga Pederson said that she would be pressing for a review, calling it "a massive waste of food and potential income".

Thanks to Catherine Wilson and Open Europe.

Adopting just two aspects of the Mediterranean diet can cut the risk of developing cancer by 12 per cent – research published in the British Journal of Cancer reveals¹.

Consuming more good fats – like those found in olive oil – than bad fats – like those found in chips, biscuits and cakes – had the greatest effect, reducing cancer risk by nine per cent. It also showed that making any two changes to your diet, such as eating more peas, beans and lentils and less meat could cut cancer risk by 12 per cent.

These findings help show how making a few simple changes to our diet over time can reduce the risk of cancer.

In the largest study in a Mediterranean population to look at cancer risk in relation to diet, researchers monitored the detailed dietary records of over 26,000 Greek men and women, over a period of eight years.

Lead author Dr Dimitrios Trichopoulos, professor of cancer prevention and epidemiology at Harvard University, said: “Our results show just how important diet is in cancer risk”.

The nine food group measures are:
high monounsaturated to saturated fat intake
high consumption of fruits
high consumption of vegetables
high consumption of legumes (peas, beans, lentils)
high consumption of cereals
moderate-to-high consumption of fish
low consumption of meat products
low-to-moderate consumption of milk and dairy products
moderate consumption of ethanol, mostly in the form of wine at meals

If a person's diet was higher than the average Greek population's in a good food group, they scored one. If their diet was lower than average in a bad food group, they scored one.
Other risk factors, such as smoking and BMI, were controlled for in this study.

Our diet influences our risk of many cancers, including cancers of the bowel, stomach, mouth, foodpipe and breast. While you can reduce your cancer risk by eating a healthy, balanced diet that is high in fibre, fruit and vegetables, and low in red and processed meat and saturated fat, currently less than a quarter of people in the UK aged 19-64 eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.

The BJC is owned by the charity Cancer Research UK. For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, call 020 7009 8820 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org

1 Conformity to traditional Mediterranean diet and cancer incidence: the Greek EPIC cohort. British Journal of Cancer. 2008. 99⁽¹⁾.

 

Dear Dr. Michael A. Crawford,

It was a great privilege for me to attend the ceremony held in the premises
of the Ministry of Fisheries on the occasion of presentation of the Gold
Medal Award to H.E the Ambassador of the Great Britain in Muscat who
received the Award from the Minister of the Fisheries wealth on your behalf.

The ceremony, which took place on Wednesday May 28 2008, was attended by the Undersecretary and the Director general of research and development. The Minister who discussed bilateral relations with H.E the Ambassador, asked the Ambassador to convey his appreciation to you and to thank you for your seminal plenary lecture contribution to the conference on Oceanic Resources as Future for the 21st Century and for your outstanding lifetime contribution to improved scientific understanding of the fundamental role of maternal nutrition on brain development.
I'm so proud that you deserved the Gold Medal which is great honour for you, your country and for all of us who know you and benefited of your knowledge
and experience. I understand the Gold Medal will be sent shortly to you through The British Ministry of Foreign Affairs in London.

Please accept my sincere congratulations.
 
Dr Izzeldin Hussein,
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

Congratulations & kindest regards from
Prof Rekia Belahsen
Training and Research Unit on Nutrition & Food Sciences, Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida, Morocco. (caption to photograph)

Pro-GM brigade at large in the food and fuel crisis

The pro-GM brigade has been losing no time in exploiting the current global food and fuel crisis and the high price of animal feed to promote GM as the solution in the mainstream media. An offensive was launched on the European Union (EU) to relax its policy on GM imports and cultivation. At present only one GM crop, a GM maize is approved for cultivation in Europe. The European Commission department of agriculture has joined forces with the biotech industry and the animal feed industry in claiming that it is the EU’s GM policy that is harming Europe’s livestock industry.

Leading the charge of the pro-GM brigade in Europe is Britain, in its role as chief ally of the largest GM exporter the United States. The UK Independent reported that, “Ministers are preparing to open the way for genetically modified crops to be grown in Britain on the grounds that they could help combat the global food crisis”. The main source quoted in the article is environment minister Phil Woolas. The night before promoting the GM agenda, the article said, Woolas held talks with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, a biotech industry PR group representing Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Dow, Pioneer (DuPont), and Syngenta. This industry lobby group is run by Lexington Communications, a PR agency intimately connected to the New Labour government. The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has fallen in line, calling on the EU to relax its rules on importing GM animal feed in order to cut spiralling food prices. In addition, a new report by the UK Cabinet Office on the food and feed crises focuses almost exclusively on the role of the EU's GMO regulations in creating delays for GM feed crop approvals.

Critics say that such scaremongering is a cynical attempt to force the EU to drop its “zero tolerance” approach to GM and GM-contaminated imports. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said at UK's National Farmers Union (NFU) conference, "I think the debate about higher prices and being able to meet the demand of people in the world for food is a perfect opportunity to make the case [for GMO crops] ... We may have a window of opportunity here and I would encourage you to exploit that."


President of European Commission at the heart of EU’s pro-GM lobby

Industry lobbyists hoping to convince Europe to go down the GM route face an uphill battle, at least as far as democracy prevails. Most EU member states and their elected representatives in the EU Parliament remain sceptical of GM crops. Votes by ministers from the member states on applications for their import or cultivation regularly oppose GM applications, but not with a sufficient majority to finally block the approval. The technical name for this type of majority decision in Eurospeak is an ‘unqualified majority’. In such cases, the decision reverts to the unelected European Commission.

The Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, is at the heart of the EU's pro-GM lobby. Reports have emerged that Barroso is trying to get member states to agree on GMOs behind closed doors, so that there are no more unqualified majorities. Barroso is also trying to find a way to lift Europe’s “zero tolerance” policy and smooth the way for the entry of GMOs into Europe. The Commission has already announced that a decision on animal feed imports and EU GM approvals and laws will be reached this summer. A group of MEPs on the agriculture and environment, public health and food safety committees has written a letter to Barroso expressing concern at “reports that the Commission is deliberately trying to find ways to avoid a co-decision process, thus excluding MEPs, the elected representatives of European citizens, from any decisions on this issue.”

The pro-GM lobby, including influential people within the European Commission, claims that Europe must open the doors to GMOs in order to solve the food and feed crisis; but there is little basis to the claim.
 

Monsanto does a complete about-turn on GMOs being needed to feed the world.

And here’s another irony. The truth about GMOs as the solution to the global food crisis is not coming from politicians but from industry itself. Previously, in the face of growing global opposition, Monsanto has long proclaimed that GM crops are vital for feeding a hungry world, while critics countered that the food is there and that distribution is the key to tackling hunger. But as opposition to biofuels is rising in Europe and even in the US on the grounds that they are not a solution to climate change and are contributing to the food crisis, Monsanto is now keen to defend the biofuels gravy-train that sent food prices sky-rocketing, and the company's spin has suddenly gone into complete reverse.

The ethanol boom may be pushing millions towards starvation and hundreds of millions deeper into poverty, but, says Monsanto's chief technology officer Rob Fraley, "From a production perspective, we have abundance [of food]". Fraley now says the "challenges" are in distribution and access to food because of wealth distribution; in other words, poverty.

Fraley made his pitch at the launch of a new multi-million dollar lobby group for ethanol, the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy, that Monsanto has helped set up. There could be no clearer demonstration that Monsanto's concern has never been feeding the hungry; its leading role in the ethanol lobby shows that the hungry can happily starve, just so long as it's good for the company's bottom line.

Given that industry has revealed the truth behind its biofuels agenda, is it too much to ask of Europe’s politicians that they should be equally honest about the vested interests behind the hyping of GM crops?

Claire Robinson, is an editor of GMWatch www.GMWatch.org

For more information see: www.i-sis.org.uk

The Institute of Science in Society: Science Society Sustainability

The Role of Prenatal Psychology
in Obstetrics, Neonatology, Psychology & Sociology
World Congress, Moscow, May 20-24 2007

The 17th International Congress of the
International Society of Pre- & Perinatal Psychology & Medicine (ISPPM)
&
6th All-Russia Congress of the
Russian Association for Pre- & Perinatal Development (RAPPD)

Conference Proceedings published by Academia MOCKBA


INTRODUCING A SERIES OF 5 INSTALMENTS

Professor Nina Chicherina and her team have to be congratulated on mounting such an ambitious and successful operation, a happy gathering, involving tremendous skill and hard work. Moscow’s World Congress 2007, The Prenatal Child and Society presented a powerful array of experience, and cutting-edge findings on pre- and perinatal care and primal psychotherapy. I have tried to summarise and coordinate the presentation-articles as a guide to the great Congress Books (some 200,000 words in English). Only as these important research findings are coordinated in practice, can they fully benefit forthcoming children, families and society. This means attending to inter-disciplinary balance, especially as our international society, The International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM) is creating an academic curriculum.
I hope this report may help:

1. Communication between teams working in similar fields.
2. Coordination of insights from different fields for better parenting and  
    childbearing.


The Congress revealed dark clouds of deteriorating family life, penetrated by shafts of light, as research illuminates ways of nurturing each new child in health and sanity, ways that can gradually transform society.
 
It is hard to coordinate this heterogeneous collection of overlapping texts, so my pattern is a rough one. This first instalment is on the context of conception in the environment and evolution, and on differing views of contraception, including the extraordinary relationship between contraception and Russia’s falling birth rate. The next instalment (2nd) will concern the double problem of unwanted conception and of being an unwanted child, and caring responses to each of these problems. Then will come (3rd) the science of stress and the fetus; statistical research into risks of negative imprinting, its prevention and healing, with ways of enhancing prenatal and postnatal experience. The following instalment (4th) will attend to practical care during gestation, critical timing in brain development, and sophisticated neonatal care for preterm babies. The last instalment (5th) will relate to opportunities in first-year maternal care and preschool for healing and enhancement of children’s lives. The series concludes with allusions to past and present thinking in prenatal psychology and our hopes for the children more happily nurtured and the transforming effect in society.


A. THE CONTEXT OF CONCEPTION

The prenatal period is fundamental to development of body and health. Development is dependent on materials – nutrition and respiration – for structure; and on sensations – thoughts and emotions of the mother, as she is affected by her partner and immediate environment. As nutrients integrate into his structure, information imprints on the cellular memory and genes of the new being. Christine Fauré calls on future parents not to disturb the best conditions with our violent ways, but to allow the best of our lives to surround the conception and prenatal education of each new life. Will it be love and hope or fear and anger that biochemically imprint the child and future generations?

Parents need to prepare early, since imperfections may not all be healable and may take too long. After 30 years many children who had received prenatal conscious loving attention have been observed. Physicians and teachers testify to their perfect physical, emotional, and mental development and loving and altruistic character, calm and deep concentration. Most striking has been the level of magnetic personality and natural leadership. Conception appears to be a key period, which reflects Pythagoras’s comment on the sperm as subject to immorality or violence; while Plato held that a woman should live in peace, joy, pride and prayer to imprint her child well. Socrates called for a child’s education from before conception, and to continue in formal education. ‘Only the peace that has its roots in ourselves can expand into the world … thus strong and balanced beings will be born, capable of organizing a more just and humane world, where finally peace will reign’ (Christine Fauré, France).

Nurture for healthy childbearing has to be considered in the context of our evolution and recognition of recent diversions from our evolutionary path. Simon House drew attention to the thousands of generations in evolution over which our diet of fish and shellfish provided enough docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) to make possible our huge neocortex.
In our move away from water and hunting of wild foods, the most serious losses seem to be DHA and EPA, minerals such as iodine and zinc, and vitamins, such as folic acid and other B vitamins. Farming increased our protein, enabling a woman to produce a child a year, reducing the gap which allowed her more time to recoup levels of DHA and other key nutrients, and also reducing that valuable bonding time of 3 or 4 years between each child.

From before conception, parental nutrition and clearing toxins and diseases are vital to health, and particularly brain acuity and behaviour. Highly relevant is development of the limbic system, seat of consciousness till 3-5 years. But then activation of the powerful neocortex relegates these memories to the unconscious. After that, those limbic impulses from beyond our awareness become difficult for our conscious mind to understand and control.

Understanding nurture in terms of biochemistry and epigenetics highlights ways we can learn from our ancestors’ way of life. Some of these revelations are beginning to help us recover our wellbeing, through more physically active lives, foods akin to those of the water and the wild, better sustained affection and, the key, applying these insights to childbearing. (Simon House, Britain).
 
Healthy nutrition is key for normal fetal development. Igor Kon gave classic examples in the effects of folic acid deficiency and vitamin A excess. The usual diet of Russian women and other European populations has an excess of omega-6s while low in omega-3s. About 15 years ago the team showed that omega-3s decrease the frequency of premature birth through pre-ecclampsia, possibly connected with decreasing peroxidation. Omega-3s are especially important, as are trace elements, notably selenium also as an antioxidant, since excessive lipid peroxidation threatens brain development. Pregnant women in the Russian town of Ryazan, compared with Moscow, were shown to be low in intake and serum status of selenium and need enrichment  (Igor Kon & HM Doan, Russia). See: Dairy Products in Infant Nutrition in Russia – Current Situation by Igor Kon & Sergey Simonenko, Institute of Children Nutrition, Moscow, Russia.

Differences between Western and Eastern thought in pre- and perinatal psychology are highlighted by Grigori Brekhman. Our Western concept has traditionally been of a mother-child unit. The Eastern concept is of a complex multi-level person, in terms of: biology, energy, emotion, brain, soul, spirit and other levels. On this assumption it is on all these levels that harmonious development of the unborn child requires cooperation with his mother from the earliest. So on the basis of systems and management theory, we considered the configuration – unborn child – mother – nuclear family – extended family – society – immediate ecological environment – solar system.
 
Information transfer by wave function is universal and can operate below the conscious level. The authors have shown the mechanism of this wave interaction between mother and unborn child and believe that the same mechanisms underlie interaction between the unborn child and his external environment. Attention to the subsystems could help us generate offspring who achieve better preservation of life, intelligence, and civilization on our planet (Grigori Brekhman, NM Shilina & MV Gmoshinskaya, Russia/Israel).


B. CONTRACEPTION AND THE FALLING BIRTH RATE

Russia’s falling birth rate is due to anti-family values caused by material ambition amid economic hardship, maintains Anatoliy Antonov. Despite attempts to increase contraception, birth control is still achieved largely through abortion, which features on average seven times in a woman’s life. For every 10 live births there are 14 abortions. The way to overcome Russia’s demographic problem is for the pendulum to swing back towards ‘familism’ (Anatoliy Antonov, Russia).

9 out of 10 school-leavers in Russia have signs of body or spirit infantilism, leaving them unable to carry out role functions of mother and father appropriately. No economic or medical program can overcome our country’s demographical crisis long-term, Alexander Shepovalnikov believes. In 2007 Zarakovskij et al showed improvement in some social factors, yet 10% of married couples are infertile, every 4th pregnancy ends in a miscarriage, 70-75% of labours are problematic, and the proportion of healthy newborns is down to 5-30%. These indicators alert us mainly to deterioration of the reproductive function.

During all stages of the lifecycle, starting with the first period of prenatal development, ‘even before zygote formation’, and onwards beyond childhood, all factors need attention, with appropriate therapies, towards the creation of a functional family. This cannot be managed merely by the several relevant professions, but needs a new social program supported by the Government (Alexander Shepovalnikov, TS Koposova & LV Sokolova, Russia).

A child’s potential as a citizen relates directly to the nine months of fetal development, the cradle of a whole human life. This directly affects the person’s resource of talents for future achievements, explains Natalia Moscichova-Gitelson.

No longer merely traditional or speculative, integrated systematic studies in new science fields, applied to principles of lifecycle development in general and of the human fetal period in particular, explore stage by stage the fetus/child’s physiological and psychological development. Study of historical regional cultures of Russia and other nations contributes to development of fetal upbringing.  We take account of the views of parents-to-be: religious, national, regional; specific parental features, age, circumstances. The family is inevitably the child’s basic socialising institute, the child’s emotional and psychological atmosphere (Natalia Moscichova-Gitelson, Russia This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).

‘In our depopulation so-called family planning is the deliberate factor, introduced under various pretexts, from birth-control to AIDS-prevention and abortion-prophylaxis’, states Igor Beloborodov. Other factors include natural population movements common to European countries. The world over, family planning technologies have achieved birth rate reduction, including China, India, and Latin America, ‘and it goes on happening in rapidly dying-out Russia’. To maintain their population Russia requires 2.1 births per woman now (the current birth rate being 1.3) or a rise to 3.1 by 2025 to compensate for previous low birth rates.

An essential, though imprecise, concept is ‘maternal capital’ – for the work of reproduction, childcare, primary socialization and so on. Family life has to be reconstructed as an industrial, self-sufficient and self-provided cell of society; no longer patient and ward of the state, but a de-medicalised, self-sufficient home-and-work cell with appropriate technologies. Rather than genderless workers, non-divorcing families with several children would be preferable. Family childbearing will be favoured by the entire system, of tax, housing, services, credit, and pensions. The State should first aim for the new family-oriented form of economic activity, based on the latest knowledge and technologies, to achieve unity of work and home, devoted to family values and striving for professional realization.

Changes have begun. The joint-stock company Norilsk Nickel pays metallurgists 30k rubles (£650) pm, and also 11k (£250) to their non-working wives with children, which far exceeds any sick and maternity leaves. But the children grow in their mother’s constant care, with benefits to the future labour market and pension schemes. Even this isn’t new. In 1914 Henry Ford paid married family men twice the norm. Concludes Beloborodov: ‘We cannot suppose that thrifty Ford was mistaken!’
See: The strategy of the demographic development of Russia (2005) VN Kuznetsova & LL Rybakovsky (Igor Beloborodov, Russia).

Amid growing global awareness that our planetary health depends on population control, such an outburst against contraception may seem to us extraordinary, let alone the perception of an international motive to reduce a specific nation’s population, rather than to reduce abortions and HIV/AIDS. This is no doubt due partly to Russia’s population of 140 million now being less than half the former Soviet Union’s of 290 million at its break-up in 1991. Yet this Congress featured the acute awareness of breakdown in family life, which seems far beyond that in Western Europe, gravely reducing people’s power of reproducing at all, let alone healthily. This will become more apparent in the next (2nd) instalment, which also focuses on the double problem of the unwanted conception and of being an unwanted child, with caring responses to each of these problems.

Summaries of Presentations/Articles edited & collated by
Simon House

Food policy: inconvenient truths

On 7th July, the UK government launched Food Matters: Towards a Strategy for the 21st Century. The July meeting of the Food Ethics Council’s Business Forum discussed the report, focusing on its toughest messages for the food sector and for government.

We are very grateful to Andrew Jarvis, Deputy Director in the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit and leader of the team that produced the report, for speaking and for fielding questions. The meeting was chaired by Helen Browning OBE, Food and Farming Director of the Soil Association and chair of the Food Ethics Council. See: www.foodethicscouncil.org/ourwork/businessforum

Key points include:
The Prime Minister commissioned the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit to examine government’s approach to food policy, taking a system-wide view and considering global trends.
The Strategy Unit’s report, ‘Food Matters’, tackles four sets of challenges: economics and equity; health; food safety; and the environment.
It commits to three areas of action: supporting consumers, especially through better advice; working with industry to tackle market failures; and improving public procurement by introducing a ‘Healthier Food Mark’.
The report is probably the strongest statement from government of the range and depth of issues and challenges facing the food sector.
The state’s mandate to address these problems cannot be taken for granted, but depends on stakeholder support.
Joined up policy is easier said than done. Government does not work by command and control. Coordinating and communicating consumer advice is a first step, but not enough.
The problems we face in food are serious and we cannot afford to be distracted by red herrings. Efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, for example, should target real hotspots.
The food sector does not have all the tools to solve its own problems. It has a responsibility to support more system-wide interventions.
The food sector is awash with competing visions of a better world. ‘Food Matters’ challenges the industry and other stakeholders to focus on mechanisms and to keep an open mind.

The Telegraph and Euobserver.com report that the EU's Common Agricultural Policy could be causing more than 12,000 premature deaths every year in the EU. According to the World Health Organisation, the high level of CAP subsidies for fatty foods such as beef and milk results in far too many of these foodstuffs being produced leading to cheap prices and consequently increased consumption of saturated fats.

The above-normal intake of fatty foods causes increased risk of heart disease and strokes. The report says that the CAP "might controversially be described as 'a system designed to kill Europeans through coronary heart disease'".

[Recent changes in EU agricultural subsidy systems render this now technically incorrect. Current fat stock, however, is the net result of centuries of selective breeding. The production of fat-stock over many generations of livestock and poultry breeding was encouraged by past subsidies, which were understandable in the days when saturated fat, lard for instance, was a valuable energy source for fuel, light and heat. Ed]

Thanks to Hugo Robinson of Open Europe.
 

FOOD FOR THE BODY – FOOD FOR THE MIND

Striking figures published recently by the NHS reveal the importance of the knowledge of nutrition; and the alarming costs both fiscal and emotional to be endured without being armed with such knowledge.

Prescriptions for drugs to combat obesity, diabetes, alcoholism and smoking have all increased. Official NHS 2007 figures for England reveal that £8.37bn was spent on medicines in primary care last year - up by almost half in ten years. Drugs, tests, operations and other therapies administered in hospital are not included in the figures.
Figures showed more than 1.23m prescriptions were written for obesity drugs last year at a cost of £51.83m, a rise of 8.5 per cent compared to 2006.

For the first time ever, more money is being spent on treating diabetes than any other single disease. It is now one of the biggest health problems facing the UK as increasing obesity levels have caused an explosion in the type 2 form. There were more than 30 million prescriptions written for diabetes drugs at a cost £594m last year, an increase of almost seven per cent on 2006.

On top of this, millions of people are receiving medicines to control cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, which can also be helped to a certain extent by exercise and diet.
Drug treatments used to combat alcohol addiction, drug misuse and to help people quit smoking also rose to more than 5.7m prescriptions at a cost of £111.2m last year. The point that should be hammered home – particularly to GPs is that all of these diseases are affected to a smaller or larger extent by the nutritional status and lifestyle of the patient, which usually reflects their only too often dismal understanding of basic nutrition and exercise.
Drugs and alcohol addiction are to a more obscure (but nonetheless important) degree connected to nutrition, particularly brain-specific nutrients depleted by alcohol such as vitamin B1 and the EFA’s, including DHA. Ensuing depression worsens the ‘cycle’ so brain nutrients and a bright vision for the future would be the prescription.

There were over 811 million hospitalisations last year due or related to alcohol consumption. 1,200 children were admitted because of street drug use – an almost 45% increase on a decade ago. The ‘drug’ problem will not be solved without first correcting the ‘nutrition’ problem. Too many of us are over-weight and under-nourished. Drugs ease the discomfort, therefore the abuse; followed by casualties.

As mentioned above, these figures do not apply to costs of drugs administered in hospitals, so when cancer and mental illness are brought into the equation knowledge of nutrition becomes even more vital.

This issue features reviews of nutritional approaches toward the above: Beata Bishop’s excellent updating and outstanding description of Gerson therapy; and Martina Watts’ edition of expert papers regarding mental illness.

Weight problems and obesity can be mastered by practicing nutrition. The Mediterranean diet has been found to achieve weight loss naturally over 24 months (see below). Obesity invariably leads to type 2 diabetes, increase of which is sending alarm signals worldwide.

The above figures above however shrink to comparative insignificance when considering the staggering cost of mental illness, which at 2004 prices had reached 386 billion euros for all European countries. Timely then to read “Nutrition and Mental Health: a handbook” edited by Martina Watts.

And for those challenged by cancer or other seemingly intractable illness, before offering oneself to the knife or chemicals, Beata Bishop’s and Charlotte Gerson’s excellent “Healing the Gerson Way: Defeating Cancer and other Chronic Diseases”, reviewed below, may well prove profitably perused.

FOOD FOR THE MIND
Beata Bishop, besides being a practicing psychotherapist, is an author, broadcaster and lecturer. This book - an update to the 60th anniversary of the publication of Dr. Gerson’s hugely successful first book “A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 cases” (now in its umpteenth edition) - includes chapters on psycho-oncology and discusses PNI (psychoneuroimmunolgy) leading us to consider the role of the mind in physical illness, to what extent states of mind dis-ease can cause disturbance with the body; and how the reverse holds true in promoting healing.

Members are indebted to Simon House who has offered us a ‘précis’ of his exceptional Congress on Pre- and Perinatal Medicine in Russia last year. This issue contains the first of several instalments, broadly describing the ISPPN (International Society of Pre- and Perinatal Medicine) and RAPPD (Russian Association of Pre- and Perinatal Development) papers given at their conference in Moscow 2007. Collectively the Proceedings comprise some 200,000 words.

Congratulations to HRH Prince Charles for his outspoken comments of the biotech business (see below).

Congratulations also to our Chair Professor Michael Crawford on being awarded the Gold Medal Award by the Sultan of Oman (see below).

David Marsh.