Only 5% of the hundreds of individuals I have tested in the last few years for vitamin D status actually have adequate vitamin D levels. This is even after a foreign holiday in the sun.  This alarming statistic means that 95% of those individuals do not have adequate means to overcome chronic infections, optimise their bone health or potentially keep cancers at bay.  I would expect that my clinical experience is typical of the rest of the UK. Why is there such an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency?  What can be done to improve this and the health of the nation? 

“Tonsils are the great curse of the body. They can appear normal. But on laboratory examination they are all found to be grossly infected in all cancer patients.” Dr Josef Issels (1907 - 1998).

Dr Josef Issels was a German physician and oncologist who started a hospital in Germany for ‘incurable’ cancer patients. It became the most successful cancer hospital in Germany. In a survey of adult cancer patients at his clinic, Dr Issels found that 98% of them had between two and ten dead teeth. The pathogens and toxins from dead (root canal-treated) teeth drain directly into the tonsils. Dr Issels routinely advocated tonsillectomy for his cancer patients. Prior to incorporating tonsillectomy in his cancer protocols, 44% of patients who did not survive, died of a heart attack. After tonsillectomy became routine, this number dropped to 5%. Read on to find out why the tonsils play such a pivotal role in disease and recovery.

“Tonsils are the great curse of the body. They can appear normal. But on laboratory examination they are all found to be grossly infected in all cancer patients.” Dr Josef Issels (1907 - 1998).

Dr Josef Issels was a German physician and oncologist who started a hospital in Germany for ‘incurable’ cancer patients. It became the most successful cancer hospital in Germany. In a survey of adult cancer patients at his clinic, Dr Issels found that 98% of them had between two and ten dead teeth. The pathogens and toxins from dead (root canal-treated) teeth drain directly into the tonsils. Dr Issels routinely advocated tonsillectomy for his cancer patients. Prior to incorporating tonsillectomy in his cancer protocols, 44% of patients who did not survive, died of a heart attack. After tonsillectomy became routine, this number dropped to 5%. Read on to find out why the tonsils play such a pivotal role in disease and recovery.

The Paleo-Ketogenic Diet and its stricter cousin, the Carnivore Diet have gained great popularity in recent years. This is largely due to the endorsements of Functional Medicine doctors and nutritionists that the Paleo-Ketogenic is the correct evolutionary diet and by people sharing the information online.  Both diets can certainly help patients feel better by cutting out the inflammatory processed foods of the Standard Western Diet. However, strict Paleo or Carnivore approaches may not suit all patients. Read on to find out why.

Most people spend more on their holidays than their health.  That’s ok as long as your health is fine. But it doesn’t really make sense if you are struggling with a condition that is affecting your ability to enjoy life. There is a saying that if you lose your health, you lose everything.   But if it’s a choice between holiday and health - which one are you going to choose? I guess it depends on your considerations and how much you are suffering.

A low-grade chronic health condition can fester away for years before becoming life-disrupting. When symptoms reach a certain level, this can prompt the sufferer to seek help. In Functional Medicine, we know that unless the root causes of a condition are identified and addressed, the condition will persist, no matter what the treatments given. Lab test results, not guesswork, should form the basis of the treatment plan that acts as a the roadmap to get the person out of the ditch and back onto the roadway to good health.  In entrenched chronic conditions, that journey can be challenging, requiring motivation and persistence to reach the goal. Why do some patients never complete their treatment plan but fall by the wayside or back into the ditch? Here are seven main reasons I have observed in clinical practice why patients go adrift.

It is estimated that millions of people worldwide are suffering from Long Covid, or PASC (post-acute sequelae of Sars-CoV-2 infection) as it is now known. There are now over 200 symptoms associated with Long Covid and sufferers are experiencing them for months and years.  Brain fog, anxiety and chronic fatigue are among the most common.  Long Covid has woken the NHS up to the fact that chronic infections can exist.  Chronic infectious conditions like those triggering ME and Chronic Fatigue have often been wrongly dismissed as psychiatric illnesses, ‘it’s all in your mind, dear, just take an antidepressant and try some graded exercise!’  So, if Long Covid can no longer be dismissed in this way, it has done some good.  However, is the NHS equipped to deal with it? More to the point, does it have the right lab tests to identify Long Covid or the right tools to address it?

A tragic news story about a young woman who died at home caught my attention this week. The assistant coroner for Exeter, Plymouth, South Devon and Torbay reported that a young woman aged 27 from Exeter died from natural causes “because of severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).” This struck a chord with me because I see patients all the time with varying degrees of chronic fatigue and ME. I have also had and recovered from ME myself. Therefore, I know something can be done about this potentially life-destroying condition.  This article outlines what can and should be done for CFS/ME patients.

Your diet is the most important physical influence on your life and wellbeing.  It can keep you active and achieving your goals or it can keep you tied to a round of hospital appointments and drugs.  Finding your right diet can be as confusing as navigating your way through a thick maze due to conflicting information by vested interests of the Government, Big Food, Big Pharma, and the advertising industry.  Please read on for a 5 Step Plan that gives you a roadmap to finding the right diet for you.

Last month I attended a two day conference in Brighton run by the Klinghardt Institute with Dr Dietrich Klinghardt and special guests. It was an illuminating conference that dealt with key aspects of medicine in the post-Covid era: the role of chronic infections in chronic illness, the role of radio wave pollution in chronic illness, and the dramatic increase in neurological diseases, causes and treatment suggestions. Here are some nuggets about major issues affecting our health that I can share with you.

The legacy of Covid is one of the most important health challenges we currently have to face. Back in 2020, there was an acute form of Covid producing unpleasant symptoms. In 2024, there is a chronic form of Covid with over 200 linked symptoms.  Medical statistics suggest that a third of the population who were infected by Covid are still affected by it and are not coping well. That is a huge number.

MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) is written about a great deal on the internet. Mast cells are part of your immune system.

POTS (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome) is an abnormality in the way the autonomic nervous system (ANS) works.

Many people experience both MCAS and POTS. Read on to discover how a flare of MCAS can make POTS symptoms worse.

You can’t feel good without a well-functioning immune system. I have never seen a chronically ill patient who does not have an imbalanced immune system. The immune system is made up of different parts like the different soldiers in an army. In a previous article, I wrote about Natural Killer cells which are the first line of defence against viruses, bacteria and cancer. This article is about a common imbalance between the Th-1 and Th-2 parts of the immune army which is called Th-2 dominance.

Your best defence from viral and bacterial infections is your immune system. Natural Killer cells are part of your first line of defence against invading pathogens. In the post-Covid era, having an appropriate amount of well functioning Natural Killer cells is vital to not only keeping infection at bay but also protecting your cells against cancer.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 2022 highlighted the rising incidence of anxiety and depression in the post Covid era. Anxiety and depression are two of the most common symptoms in long-term sickness. This has a devastating effect on personal lives, families and the country’s economy. However, something can be done about it.

Some of the biggest barriers to recovery from chronic fatigue-causing illnesses are silent foci of infection. The word ‘foci’ is the plural of the word ‘focus.’ A ‘focus of infection’ is defined as a localised area of infection whose effects extend to organs and tissues in the body that are distant from the site of the original infection.The most damaging foci are found in teeth and tonsils. In previous Newsletters, I have written extensively about dental foci of infection like root canal-treated teeth, cavitations (unhealed extraction sites which are sadly, very common) and periodontal (gum) disease and their effects on the entire body. In this Newsletter, I shall discuss foci of infections in tonsils and their role in disease.

Many people’s gums bleed when they brush their teeth and they think nothing of it. Yet, this is a big red flag for gum disease, known as periodontitis. Gum disease, in all its forms, including its most advanced CAP form (Chronic Apical Periodontitis) is responsible for causing a host of systemic diseases in addition to localised infections in gums, jawbone and teeth. CAP can be found in root canal-treated and non-root canal-treated teeth. Gum disease is just as much a whole body disease as diabetes or systemic lupus. The medical literature is quite clear about it: ignore the warning signs at your peril.

The goal of a dental root canal is to relive tooth pain and preserve your smile. During root canal treatment, inflamed or infected pulp is removed and the inside of the tooth is carefully cleaned and disinfected, then filled and sealed with a rubber-like material to preserve it, much like the ancient Egyptians preserved dead bodies by mummification. The tooth is then restored with a crown or filling for protection. The tooth is now pain free and ‘saved’, your smile is preserved, but at what risk to the rest of your body and your health?

When you have a dental extraction, what do you put in its place? The choices are a plastic tooth or denture - these can be a single tooth, a partial denture or a full denture when all the teeth are replaced in the arch. You can also have a bridge. You need two sides to hold it - I make a local analogy of the Devon and Cornwall sides of the Tamar Bridge - you need both. Or you can have an implant, the majority of which are made out of titanium alloy. At one time, it was thought that titanium implants were a good solution to missing teeth. However, in recent years, scientific evidence points to a number of health issues that can arise as a result of titanium dental implants. Fortunately, there are safe alternative solutions.

The EU Parliament has recently voted to ban the use of mercury in dental amalgam fillings from the 1st January, 2025. Current rules forbid the use of mercury in treating children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women. In 2013, EU countries, including the UK, committed to the Minamata Convention, an international treaty to protect human health and the environment from the toxic damaging effects of mercury. In 1991, the World Health Organisation stated that the biggest human exposure to mercury was from amalgam fillings. This should be of concern to all health agencies and governments.