Miracles from the vault
Author: Jenny Thompson
Publisher: Health Sciences Institute / 2017
Pages: 565
The Health Sciences Institute is dedicated, it says, to keeping its members healthy and "in the know".
It offers its members free daily health updates via email. It also offers its members the panellists' cutting-edge wisdom and keeps the members aware of alternatives to mainstream medicine. Members are thus helped and encouraged to stay healthy, drug-free and out of doctors' clinics.
There are, as we are all aware, highly controversial views of the issue with the health establishment being decidedly against and the alternative medicine supporters being doggedly for.
Yet the book warns that the information contained in it has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. It also warns that its contents may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents of this book. Instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and wellbeing. Readers who fail to consult with appropriate health authorities assume the risk of any injuries.
So what, one might ask, is the point of such a book? At the end, it is all a question of what one believes. On the one hand, there is the weight of mainstream medicine but on the other hand there are many who are sceptical about mainstream medicine and see it as a gigantic money-making enterprise and little more.
The book is divided into 10 chapters - pain, cancer, heart, asthma and COPD, anti-aging, energy and weight loss, osteoporosis, diabetes, memory, immune system and lastly vital health secrets.
Each chapter is then further subdivided into a number of sub-chapters.
Taking cancer for example the book has the following sub-chapters: breakthrough seaweed cancer treatment, astounding natural cancer killer, hybridised mushroom extract destroys cancer cells, the lactoferrin miracle, the cancer-fighting potential of Brazil's "Mushroom of God" and the overlooked "waste product" that may be the breakthrough of the century, the metal that shrinks tumours within weeks "choking" weed starves tumours by cutting off blood supply.
It also warns that mainstream cures might buy you a few months, but at what cost?
Taking one of the mainstream cures, Avastin. It might add a few more months but the possible side effects are disturbing. You may have problems with wound healing and possible infection, it can affect fertility and can also cause a serious neurological disorder.
The list of serious side effects may range from "vomit that looks like blood or coffee grounds" to completely ceasing to urinate to chest pains.
It would be rash to go beyond this point. But we also know that many people who are battling cancer are or become too feeble or timorous to challenge their doctor's advice. Others just shut down their brains.
It is difficult to persuade people to challenge the mainstream argument until perhaps it is just too late. This is also challenged by some people who argue that, if treated quickly and aggressively, most cancers can be identified and tackled.
Whatever the book says about so many illnesses, reading it explores the developments tackling so many illnesses. That, in itself, makes for riveting reading.