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.

Oral health is a window into the general health of the patient. The medical literature from the last hundred years clearly shows that toxins and infections in the mouth infect and sicken the whole body. It is well known in dentistry and medicine that periodontal disease is a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease. In no other bone in the body is the potential for trauma and infections as great as in the jawbone. I have been interested in oral health throughout my professional life following a resurgence in my own health after attending to my own dental pathology many years ago. Indeed, this was the turning point to a new career.

I needed to revisit my studies on potassium, heart health and electrolytes just before Christmas when my husband suffered a low-potassium induced cardiac arrest. Fortunately, he survived as he was in A and E at the time, which is the best place to have a cardiac arrest if you are going to have one! A year earlier, he suffered a single catastrophic blood clot in the main artery to the small intestine. Since that time, his nutrition, including electrolyte balance, has been severely compromised. This Newsletter covers why potassium should be closely monitored in all cardiac patients.

Over Christmas 2023, I watched the ITV 4 part drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. This is a dramatisation of the true story of the British Post Office Scandal. It is an account of lies, deceit and miscarriage of justice worthy of a Sherlock Holmes spectacular. It follows the fight of one brave and dogged individual to uncover the truth behind the lies and cover-up of a big powerful corporation. The fight still goes on for many of the wrongly accused. Sadly, the Post Office is not the only corporation that covers up its mistakes to the detriment of the ordinary man, woman and child. I am sure you can think of a few more. The one I want to highlight in this Newsletter is the Scandal of Mould in Social Housing in Britain.

I would like to thank everybody who has used the Good Health Clinic during 2023. I look forward to continuing to help you with your health journey in 2024.