Friday, April 30, 2010

From my 3rd floor window on a sunny Friday

There’s sweetness in the morning air
Now that spring is really here
And flowers of red and gold
Bless the gardens that are near

The tulips open with the dawn
And spread their petals to the sun
It is a glorious thing to see
and bees buzz by, it is such fun

Across the street the trees are red
And branches of forsythia yellow
The orioles hide and whistle loud
While doves parade in gray so mellow

deep in the shadows of the trees
green spines come shooting up
The lilies of the valley grow
Soon smells to fill a loving cup

How rich we are to be alive
And witness this our human hive

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Hahnemann's early life in his own words.

This is an excerpt from The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann by Thomas Lindsley Bradford, M. D. It is clear on reading this how special Hahnemann is. His early life is a marvel for the education he received from people who recognized his abilities. The moral and ethical underpinnings of his role models guided him all his life.

August 30, 1791

I was born April 10, 1755, in the Electorate of Saxony, one of the most beautiful parts of Germany. This circumstance, as I grew up to manhood, doubtless contributed a great deal to my veneration for the beauties of nature. My father, Christian Gottfried Hahnemann, together with my mother, Johanna Christiana, born Spiess, for a pastime taught me to read and write. My father died four years ago (1787.) Without being deeply versed in science (he was a designer in a porcelain manufactory in his native place, and is the author of a brief treatise on painting in water colors) he had the soundest ideas of what may be considered good and worthy, and he implanted them deeply on my mind.

To live and to act without pretence or show was his most noteworthy precept, and his example was even more impressive than his words. He was always present, though often unobserved, in body and soul wherever any good was to be done. In his acts he discriminated with the utmost nicety between the noble and the ignoble, and he did it with a justness which was highly creditable to his tender feelings. In this respect, too, he was my preceptor. He seemed to have ideas of the first principles of creation, of the dignity of humanity, and of its ennobling destiny, that were not in the least inconsistent with his manner of acting. This gave direction to my moral training. To speak of my mental training, I spent several years in the public school of Meissen so as to go thence, in my sixteenth year, to the private school (Fiirstenschule), in the same place, and four years thereafter to attend the University of Leipsic. There was nothing noteworthy respecting me at school, except that Master Muller, my teacher in ancient languages and German composition, who besides living a great deal for the world and me, was rector of the Meissen private school, and scarcely has had his equal in industry and honesty, loved me as his own child and allowed me liberties in the way of study, which I am thankful for to this day, and which had a perceptible influence upon my subsequent studies. In my twelfth year he entrusted to me to impart to others the rudiments of the Greek language. Moreover, in his private classes with his boarders and myself, he listened attentively and lovingly to my critical exposition of the old writers, and often preferred my meaning to his own. I was often overtaxed and became ill from study, and was the only one who was excused from lessons at times unsuitable for me, and who was permitted to hand in written exercises or other work performed subsequently, and to read foreign treatises on the lessons. I had free access to him at all times of the day, and in many respects was given the preference in public to many others; and, nevertheless, which is very strange, my fellow pupils loved me. All this together speaks volumes in praise of a Saxony private school.

Here I was less solicitous about reading than about digesting what was read, and was careful to read little, but to read correctly and to classify it in my mind before reading further. My father did not wish me to study at all; he repeatedly took me from the public school for a whole year, so that I might pursue some other business more suited to his income. My teachers prevented this by not accepting any pay for my schooling during the last eight years, and they entreated him to leave me with them and thus indulge my propensity for learning. He did not resist their entreaty, but could do nothing more for me. On Easter, 1775, he let me go to Leipsic, taking with me twenty thalers for my support. This was the last money received from his hand. He had several other children to educate from his scanty income, enough to excuse any seeming negligence in the best of fathers.

By giving instruction in German and French to a rich young Greek from Jassy, in Moldavia, as well as by translating English books, I supported myself for the time, intending to leave Leipsic after a stay of two years.

I can conscientiously bear testimony that I endeavored to practice in Leipsic also, the rule of my father, never to be a passive listener or learner. I did not forget here, however, to procure for my body, by outdoor exercise, that sprightliness and vigor by which alone continued mental exertion can be successfully endured.

During this stay in Leipsic I attended lectures only at such hours as seemed best suited to me, although Herr Bergrath Porner, of Meissen, had the kindness to furnish me with free tickets to the lectures of all the medical professors. So I read by myself, unweariedly of course, but always only of the best that was procurable, and only so much as I could digest. My fondness for practicing medicine, as there is no medical school at Leipzig, led me to go to Vienna at my own expense. But a malicious trick which was played upon me and which robbed me of my public reputation acquired in Leipsic (repentance demands atonement, and I say nothing about names and circumstances) was answerable for my being compelled to leave Vienna after a sojourn of three-fourths of a year. During these nine months I had had for my support only sixty-eight florins and twelve kreutzers. To the hospital of Brothers of Charity, in the Leopoldstadt, and to the great practical genius of the Prince’s family physician, named Von Quarin, I am indebted for my calling as a physician. I had his friendship, and I might also say his love, and I was the only one of my age whom he took with him to visit his private patients. He respected, loved and instructed me as if I had been the first of his pupils, and even more than this, and he did all without expecting to receive any compensation from me.

My last crumbs of subsistence were just about to vanish when the Governor of Transylvania, Baron von Bruckenthal, invited me under honorable conditions to go with him to Hermanstadt as family physician and custodian of his important library. Here I had the opportunity to learn several other languages necessary to me, and to acquire some collateral knowledge that was pertinent and still seemed to be lacking in me.

I arranged and catalogued his matchless collection of ancient coins as well as his vast library, practiced medicine in this populous city for a year and nine months and then departed, although very unwillingly, from these honorable people to receive at Erlangen the degree of doctor of medicine, which I was then able to do from my own attainments. To the Privy Councillor, Delius, and Councillors Isenflamm, Schreber and Wendt, I am indebted for many favors and much instruction.

Councillor Schreber taught me what I still lacked in Botany.

On August 10, 1779, I defended my dissertation, and, thereupon, received the honorable title of doctor of medicine.

The instinctive love of a Swiss for his rugged Alps cannot be more irresistible than that of a native of Saxony for his fatherland.

I went thither to begin my career as a practicing physician in the mining town of Hettstadt, in Mansfield county. Here it was impossible to develop either inwardly or outwardly, and I left the place for Dessau in the spring of 1781, after a sojourn of nine months. Here I found a better and more cultured society. Chemistry occupied my leisure hours and short trips made to improve my knowledge of mining and smelting filled up the yet quite large dormer windows in my mind.

Towards the close of the year 1791, I received an insignificant call as physician to Gommern, near Magdeburg. The size of the town being considerable, I looked for a better reception and business than I found in the two years and three-fourths which I passed in this place.

There had lived as yet no physician in this little place to which I had removed, and the people had no idea concerning such a person.

Now I began for the first time to taste the innocent joys of home along with the delights of business in the companionship of the partner of my life, who was the step-daughter of Herr Haseler, an apothecary in Dessau, and whom I married immediately after entering upon the duties of this position. Dresden was the next place of my sojourn.

I played no brilliant role here, probably because I did not wish to do so. However, I lacked here neither friends nor instruction. The venerable Doctor Wagner, the town physician, who was a pattern of unswerving uprightness, honored me with his intimate friendship, showed me clearly what legal duties belonged to the physician (for he was master in his art), and for a year delivered over to me on account of his illness, with the magistrate’s consent, all of his patients (in the town hospitals), a wide field for a friend of humanity. Moreover, the Superintendent of the Electoral Library, Councillor Adelung, became very fond of me and, together with the Librarian, Dossdorf, contributed a great deal towards making my sojourn interesting and agreeable. Four years thus elapsed, more speedily to me in the bosom of my increasing family, than to the unexpected heir to great riches, and I went about the time of Michaelmas, 1789, to Leipsic, in order to be nearer to the fountain of science. Here I quietly witness the Providence which Destiny assigns to each of my days, the number of which lies in her hand.

Four daughters and one son, together with my wife, constitute the spice of my life. In the year 1791 the Leipsic Economical Society, and on the second of August of the same year the Electoral Mayence Academy of Science, elected me a fellow member.

Excerpted from: The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann by Thomas Lindsley Bradford, M. D.

Monday, April 19, 2010

There are serious people objecting to Healthcare fraud.

THE INTELLIGENT REVOLUTION

How Citizens, Scientists, and Even Politicians are Saying No to Healthcare Fraud

BY HELKE FERRIE
Vitality Magazine April 2010

“He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back – that’s an earthquake.”
Death of a Salesman (1949) by Arthur Miller

Saying No! is a social responsibility none of us may safely ignore. Heroes reveal the fact of oppression and demand opposition; their example helps us to build courage, but in the end each one of us must act personally.
Farmer Michael Schmidt, who was recently acquitted of all charges brought against him by Health Canada on the raw milk issue, took part in a health freedom panel at the Total Health Show in March. While there, he stated that the only way to achieve change in the current food and drug regulatory system which favours corporate interests over human rights and scientific evidence, is to say “No!” to the bureaucrats’ assumption of obedience. “It drives them crazy!”, he said. Schmidt was sharing the panel with Health Canada rebel Dr. Shiv Chopra, lawyer Shawn Buckley of the Natural Health Products Protection Association, and world-famous cancer-industry debunker Ralph Moss.
Saying No! becomes effective when one employs three tools: the uncovering of suppressed facts, the demonstration of regulations contravening mandatory procedure and current law, and the soliciting of public response to misinformation campaigns. It is this reasoned method of cutting through the BS and insisting on “informed consent” that “drives them crazy.” Complaining that the world is going to hell , or despairing over what some great cabal of crooks are going to do next merely feeds that corruption.
Over the past couple of years, public opposition to corporate agendas aiming to make people into consumers and nothing but (at great cost to health and environment) has gained momentum. Indeed, the famous Flynn Effect appears to be validated. It states that average intelligence rises with every generation in all measurable areas of cognition, language/semantics, and memory. This effect has been measured in all cultures. I am especially impressed by the intelligence that people demonstrate in the art of saying No! They trust their own judgment and ignore “experts” in droves. Here are some inspiring examples of vital significance because they are funded by governments and institutions whose focus was forced to shift by overwhelming evidence.

Patients Abandon Their Prescriptions
The University of Saskatchewan found that women, especially, have been avoiding taking their antidepressants despite the fact that the numbers of prescriptions increased: they either don’t fill them or don’t take them once filled.
Less than 1% of women who have survived estrogen-dependent breast cancer actually take their prescribed Tamoxifen, the drug that supposedly prevents recurrence of breast cancer but has a high chance of causing liver and uterine cancer instead. The National Cancer Institute in the U.S. was so astonished by this statistic, they launched a study into the reasons for this outbreak of superior female intelligence.
Not only patients are wising up. The former pundits of medical orthodoxy are announcing truths most Vitality readers have known for some time. For example, the American Cancer Society no longer supports mammograms as an effective tool for breast cancer prevention, nor PSA testing for prostate cancer screening.

Governments React to Healthcare Fraud
The European Union published the results of a multi-year mega study late last year, entitled “Healthy Living is the Best Revenge”. It showed that people who didn’t smoke, exercised moderately, ate fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts, and ate very little meat reduced their risk of diabetes by 93%, heart attacks by 81%, and the incidence of all cancers by 36%. Interestingly, around the same time President Obama called for a total ban on candy and soda in the nation’s schools in February and is considering crippling taxes for such products.
Some governments acted outright heroically: Sweden banned all uses of mercury last year, which means the rest of the EU will have no choice but to do the same soon. The vaccine industry must be in shock (what will they use as preservatives now?), and those 50% of EU dentists who still use mercury amalgam must be assessing their options nervously.
Republican Senator Charles Grassley recently disarmed the agenda of Big Pharma when he introduced a bill that would require Big Pharma to publish all payments made to doctors and researchers above $50. And he has bi-partisan support – Massachusetts pre-empted Congress and already requires publication of all payments over $5! I anticipate a disproportionately low death rate and dramatic decrease in healthcare expenditures for that State.
In January of this year, Senator Grassley exposed Glaxo SmithKline’s fraudulent “science”. Turns out that the diabetes drug Avandia is based on “no science at all” and GSK was proven to have lied to the FDA regulators and the public, killing thousands (Avandia increases the risk of heart attacks by 43% in diabetics). GSK now faces liability storms similar to those that shook Pfizer with a fine of $2.3 billion due to the fraud uncovered with regard to the painkiller Bextra, the antipsychotic drug Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and the antidepressant Lyrica. Additional revelations included Merck fabricating an entire bogus medical journal to support its disastrous anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx, and sales for Pfizer’s rival drug Celebrex were boosted by a study which reported results gathered by a renowned expert, Dr. Scott Reuben, based on no patients at all. The entire study was faked – as were this researcher’s studies on Bextra and rival company Merck’s Vioxx. This takes science fiction to quite a new level.

New Research Exposes Pharma Fraud
The complex edifice of lies, which often fatally misled many desperate patients for many years, is crumbling so fast that I find it difficult to keep up with the relevant publications.
The American Journal of Psychiatry recently published the results of a huge study showing that sudden death in children increases by about 500% when taking ADHD drugs, of which Ritalin is the best-known. The researchers who undertook this study set out, explicitly, to disprove such a connection and were forced by the evidence to admit the opposite. This data caused something of a house-fire in the mansions of psychiatry: researchers Greenberg and Kirsch published bestselling books showing that a whole class of antidepressant drugs are actually not much different in their effects on depression than placebo – i.e. sugar pills. However, what they do cause is personality changes, including extreme violence and a dramatic increase in the rate of suicide, as psychiatrist Peter Breggin testified a few weeks ago before the U.S. Congress.
Last year, The New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Mayo Clinic, JAMA, the Lancet, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, and the PLoS-Medicine (open-access on-line journal), all published exhaustive re-analyses of large databases showing that the most vital information on the dangers of drugs mysteriously is missing in virtually all patient information, that 94% of all positive information on Big Pharma products comes from authors who are financially compromised, nearly 29% of all cancer studies are thus financially conflicted and unreliable, and the claims for survival in cancer therapy studies were essentially wishful thinking at best.
The proposal that caused my jaw to drop and left me (almost) speechless appeared on April 1 last year, but it is was not a joke. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn, it was authored by the editors of the world’s leading medical journals and provided a “proposal for controlling conflicts of interest”. If anybody had asked me how to accomplish such control, I would have recommended “a complete ban on pharmaceutical and medical device industry funding …”. To my astonishment, that is exactly what these editors recommended! The above is a quote from them, not from yours truly. JAMA’s list of revolutionary demands included the following: that the education of doctors “must be carefully distinguished from marketing” (who will fund medical conferences?) and that medical organizations should no longer accept money from Big Pharma at all; such “fundamental reforms” were stated as being imperative because otherwise “the public trust” is, well, down the toilet. I didn’t think I would live long enough to read something like this in JAMA.
Speaking of public trust, here is a zinger! Early in March, Dr. Poul Thorsen disappeared along with $2 million in research money. The money is nothing compared to the importance of the doctor. He published a series of studies, starting in 2003, that supposedly proved that the MMR vaccine cannot cause autism. Using the large government database of Denmark as his source, Thorsen misrepresented the data showing that Denmark supposedly experienced a 20-fold increase in autism after mercury was banned there as a vaccine preservative. Therefore, mercury could not be the cause of childhood autism. In March, new reports appeared showing Thorsen’s studies to be fraudulent; so he took off with what money was still in the cash box.

Scientists, Soldiers, and Citizens Revolt
Unlike Dr. Thorsen, one of the key researchers into the Gardasil vaccine Cevarix, Dr. Diane Harper, said No! to her employers and went public. She had worked on the development of this vaccine, which supposedly protects against cervical cancer. But then she became a whistle blower and informed the UK’s Sunday Express and the New York Times that this vaccine does nothing but possibly prevent genital warts and “will not decrease cervical cancer rates at all.” She also stated that this vaccine was being “over-marketed” and that parents of young girls should know that it carries the danger of serious side effects. Dr. Harper recalled that “Merck had lobbied every opinion leader, women’s group, medical society, politician, and went directly to the people … it created a sense of panic that says you have to have this vaccine now …”
The last place I would have expected a resounding No! to come from is the German army. In Germany, obedience to authority is a virtue. Last September, when the H1N1 hysteria gripped the world, Germany’s soldiers said “Nein, danke!” and refused the vaccine. That prompted Germany’s Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, chair of the Council of Europe’s 47-nation Sub-Committee on Health, to launch an investigation into the vaccine and the pandemic’s origins. Its findings included testimony from key researchers of the World Health Organization. The Sub-Committee ended up declaring that the “pandemic” is a “hoax” and the vaccine is a bust. Dr. Wodarg said that “people are much cleverer than the government and figured it out for themselves”, and so less than 6% of the citizens of France and Belgium, for example, took the vaccine. Even in Japan, where obedience also tends to be regarded a virtue, only a tiny minority took it.
With regard to food safety, refusal to put up with business as usual was also unexpected and dramatic. The National Cancer Institute took on the food industry, declaring that restaurant meats are high in carcinogens and that foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids “essentially reverse the risk” for prostate cancer.
The U.S. food industry voluntarily stopped the use of bovine growth hormone – a cause to which Dr. Shiv Chopra devoted most of his rebellious career at Health Canada. That long battle which he and his colleagues waged also publicized the cancer-producing effect on humans from food-producing animals given prophylactic antibiotics throughout their lives, as is the norm in industrial farming. The research supporting these findings has increased all over the world, and now this practice may soon be history because a natural substance, chitosan, appears to be a great deal better.
Monsanto was hit as hard as Big Pharma: the BBC reported on October 15, 2009, that the Supreme Court of France found Monsanto had lied all along about the safety of its flagship herbicide, the allegedly environmentally safe and harmless Roundup; the European Union classified it as “dangerous to the environment” because it is a carcinogen and environmentally unsafe.
The next blow came from an international team of researchers who proved that genetically modified corn causes damage to “the heart, the adrenal glands, the spleen,” the blood, and is toxic to the liver. This study certainly was welcome support for a chorus of No! that greeted the EU’s approval of a GM potato for certain restricted purposes; several countries announced their absolute refusal to cooperate with this EU decision.
In India last fall an eggplant war broke out, the fires of which were fanned by our very own Dr. Shiv Chopra who traveled throughout India explaining GMOs to the crowds. India has several hundred varieties of this vegetable, a staple in the Indian diet. When India approved a GMO variety, 11 States declared themselves GMO-free zones, and a dozen federal cabinet ministers expressed their unconditional refusal to cooperate. A proposed law limiting freedom of speech on GMO issues was publicly dismissed as lunacy and is now under review; although Dr. Chopra suggested it might be useful because millions of people would crowd the jails and information on the truth of GMOs would spread unchecked and then pour forth from India’s jails to rid not only that country, but possibly the world of this science fiction nightmare.
One of the greatest successes was scored by the American people who rose in protest against a bill proposed by Senator McCain that would have essentially handed over the natural supplements industry to Big Pharma and abolished the current protective legislation. Bill S. 3002 was killed on March 10th.

Public Action Makes a Difference
What can we do to further this process of truth and freedom in Canada? We can support MP Alex Atamenenko’s federal bill C-474 (via www.cban.ca) which would make it mandatory to consider the trade implications for any genetically modified food product before it gets Health Canada approval. The fact is, nobody wants to buy this stuff in Europe, so why grow it?
We can support the NHPPA, which is poised to take legal action against Health Canada for its arbitrary abuse of natural health products. Visit their website and consider their requests before you pop that next vitamin capsule. There is intelligent life on planet Earth, and you can be proof of that fact.

Resources:
www.nhppa.org and www.charterofhealthfreedom.org
www.cban.ca
www.ssristories.com
www.ageofautism.com
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org
Partial List of Sources
Ames, B. N., Low nutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging through allocation of scarce micronutrients by triage, PNAS, vol. 103 (47) Nov. 21, 2009
Ames, B.N & McCann, J. C., Vitamin K, an example of triage theory: is micronutrient inadequacy linked to diseases of aging?, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 90:889 ff, August 19, 2009
Basch, E., The Missing Voice of Patients in Drug-Safety Reporting, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 362 (10):865 ff, 2010
Benjamin, C. L. et al. Stimulating the GPR30 Estrogen Receptor with a Novel Tamoxifen Analogue Activates SF-1 and Promotes Endometrial Cell Proliferation, Cancer Research, vol. 69, July 1, 2009
Brawley, O. MD, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society on mammography and the PSA test found to be useless: New York Times, October 21, 2009
Breggin, P. MD, on the negative health effects of psychiatric drugs, including the drugs used for ADHD, go to www.breggin.com see also report in The Washington Post, June 16, 2009, article by S. Vedantam
Fanelli, D. et al. How Many Scientists Fabricate and Falsify Research? A systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Survey Data, PLoS ONE, vol. 4 (5), 2009 (open-access e-based international medical journal family)
Ford, E.S. et al. Healthy Living Is The Best Revenge: Findings from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition – Potsdam Study, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 169 (15): 1355 ff, 2009
Epstein, L. H. et al. The Influence of Taxes and Subsidies on Energy Purchased in an Experimental Purchasing Study, Psychological Science, February 2010
(For the complete list of sources, see the extended version of this article at www.vitalitymagazine.com)
Helke Ferrie is a medical science writer and publisher and can be reached at helkeferrie@gmail.com see www.kospublishing.com

Friday, April 16, 2010

Sites worth reading.

Canadians for Health Freedom.

http://canadiansforhealthfreedom.wordpress.com/

For Canadians this is a must site. It will keep you abreast of what is happening through efforts by our present government to limit the rights of freedom of choice with regards to health care. The reporting about bill C6 is clear as to how dangerous the bill is to all Canadians. They also are doing excellent reporting on the EU probe into the Pandemic of last year and the allegations that it was rigged. The information is startling.


Homeopathy Heals

http://www.homeopathyheals.me.uk/site/

This site is following the pharmaceutical? Natural Health care fight in Britain where vasts amounts of money are going to groups to fight Homeopathy and the health care system that allows other kinds of healing to be officially recognized and paid for inside the system. It contains as well many fine articles about Homeopathy, including understanding how it works and its great successful history.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Comedy at its finest.

They Should Know Better
The conclusion of this article is that all the medical personnel who refused to take the swine flu shot should be forced to take it. I wonder if those who refused are people who actually know what a dangerous and stupid idea the swine flu shot was and how over hyped the pandemic scare was?

The writer of this article is a part of the brainwashed from my perspective.


New York Times

THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER
Published: April 13, 2010

We were disturbed to learn that health care workers shunned the swine flu vaccine in droves. Their training and skills will be essential if there is a dangerous flu outbreak. They, of all people, should know how important it is for them to get vaccinated — and that the risk of serious side effects is negligible.

Times Topics: Swine Flu (H1N1) Vaccine

The good news from a survey of health care workers conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the RAND Corporation is that 62 percent of them had received a vaccine to protect themselves against the standard seasonal flu by mid-January, a much higher percentage than in any previous season. By contrast, only 37 percent of the health care workers had received a vaccine against swine flu.

Although they were designated a high-priority group to get swine flu vaccine, many health workers remained indifferent or hostile. Luckily, the swine flu outbreak turned out to be comparatively mild — but there are no guarantees for the next time.

Medical personnel need to get vaccinated for two reasons beyond protecting themselves and their families. If they become ill, they will be unable to work at a time when their institutions most need them. And those who have direct contact with patients especially need immunization lest they spread illness and death among already vulnerable sick people. The reasons most frequently cited for ducking either vaccine were “I don’t need it” and “I may experience side effects.” Only 17 percent blamed difficulties in getting the late-arriving swine flu vaccine.

The survey found that when employers required their health care workers to get vaccinated against swine flu they got 87 percent compliance; when they recommended that workers get vaccinated, they got 43 percent compliance; and when they did neither, they got only 11 percent of their workers vaccinated.

That strengthens the case for making flu shots mandatory for all health care workers in coming years.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Famous people using Homeopathy today.

Dana Ullman, America’s leading spokesperson for homeopathy, has authored 10 books on the subject, and has taught or served on advisory boards of alternative medicine institutes at Harvard, Columbia, University of Arizona, and University of Alaska. He lives in Berkeley, CA.

Modern-day cultural heroes and their homeopathic treatment:
• Tina Turner-tuberculosis (Chapter 7: Musicians, Pages 162-163)
• Cher-recurrent pneumonia and chronic fatigue (Chapter 7: Musicians, Pages 165-166)
• David Beckham-a broken foot just prior to the 2002 World Cup (Chapter 4: Sports Superstars, Pages 89-90)
• Pete Townshend-hearing difficulties (Chapter 7: Musicians, Pages 164-165)
• Nancy Davis-(philanthropist), multiple sclerosis (Chapter 11: Corporate Leaders and Philanthropists, Pages 266-267)
• Nelly Furtado-jet lag (Chapter 7: Musicians, Page 168)
• Bill Clinton-recurrent laryngitis (Chapter 9: Politicians and Peacemakers, Page 208)
• Robin McGraw-(wife of “Dr. Phil” McGraw), hot flashes of menopause (Chapter 6: Stage, Film and Television Celebrities, Page 145)

• Jade Jagger-chronic eczema (Chapter 8: Artists and Fashionistas, Page 179)
• Catherine Zeta-Jones-sprains and strains from overexertion during the filming of Chicago (Chapter 6: Stage, Film and Television Celebrities, Pages 139-140)
• Jose Maria Olazabal-(pro golfer), rheumatoid polyarthritis (arthritis in multiple joints) (Chapter 4: Sports Superstars, Page 91)
• Pamela Anderson-hepatitis C (Chapter 6: Stage, Film and Television Celebrities, Pages 141-142)
• Norman Cousins-(author, editor), heart attack recovery (Chapter 3: Literary Greats, Pages 82-84)