Page 1204 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994

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Dr Ian Brighthope is the president of the Australian College of Nutritional Medicine. He is one of the founding directors of the Ortho-molecular Medical Association of Australia and is the editor of the College of Nutritional Medicine journal. One of the studies he conducted, reported in the National Cancer Institute of America journal, was a study of some 30,000 people in China treated with beta carotene, vitamin E and silenium. That resulted in a 21 per cent reduction in cancer. The National Cancer Institute in the United States said:

To improve the overall health of people, people should improve their diet, fortify their diet and use supplements.

Another study Ian Brighthope referred to was a study on nutritional and dietary factors in bowel cancer. There were two groups studied. The group that underwent the dietary changes showed only a 5 per cent recurrence of the cancer, whereas the control group showed a 35 per cent recurrence of the cancer.

Avni Sali is an associate professor at Melbourne University who works out of Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. He is on the editorial board of four medical journals and is a member of 15 national and international medical societies. He spoke of one study largely concerned with stress. Those patients who received 90 minutes a week of group social support after 10 years had twice the survival rate of those who did not. During that time both groups had received the best orthodox medical treatments. In another study of longevity involved with stress reduction, at 73 retirement homes 478 residents with an average age of 81 were divided into two groups. One group were given three relaxation methods to do daily, one of which was transcendental meditation. After three months it was noted that this group had lower blood pressure and that there was a memory improvement. In the other group, after three years it was noted that 62.5 per cent of them had died, while none had died in the group involved in relaxation techniques. There had been no deaths in three years. It is interesting that the life expectancy of people who reach 60 has changed very little in the last century - from 1890 to now. The big changes, of course, have occurred with babies.

Dr William Lane has received a great deal of publicity around Australia. He is the doctor who wrote the book Sharks Don't Get Cancer, and has extensively researched the use of shark cartilage in cancer and arthritis therapy. There are over 15,000 patients currently being treated or who have been treated in the past. This work has gone on over a period of 12 years. He has a PhD in biochemistry and studied under two Nobel Prize winners. In a remarkable study in Cuba, 28 patients had terminal cancer and were given a maximum of six months to live. After his treatments, seven died of cancer, seven died of other diseases, and 14 are still alive. All of these 28 people failed to respond to orthodox medical treatment. This so impressed the Food and Drug Administration in America that, for the first time ever, they ordered human clinical trials on what is termed a natural substance. Whereas the initiation of these trials normally takes years, Professor Lane mentioned that the whole thing had been speeded up because of the FDA's concern for the benefit of this particular treatment. Shark cartilage is largely protein and, while it is unusual, it does have results.


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