hopeless and helpless when it comes to dealing with chronic, complex disease – which now includes the modern triad of fatigue, anxiety and depression. Our challenge, as ever, is getting our expertise acknowledged and publicised.

Patrick Holford and foodforthebrain.org are behind a big promotional effort to get the general public to realise that Alzheimer’s is preventable (page 7). Dementia is the UK’s biggest health and social care crisis, says the Alzheimer’s Society, with 1 in 3 people born in the UK today likely to be diagnosed with dementia in their lifetime. Alzheimer’s is like cancer, with billions poured into research thanks partly to thousands of well-meaning fund-raisers producing little (cancer) or no (Alzheimer’s) results. If a small charity like Food for the Brain can mobilise dozens of world experts to get behind an Alzheimer’s Prevention Day on May 15, why can’t our schools, professional bodies and suppliers combine in a national campaign to highlight the power of nutritional therapy, naturopathy and functional medicine?

About cancer…

Cancer research and treatment is one of those topics that you just “can’t” criticise. So I’ll throw in some support for my statement above, courtesy of Prof Karol Sikora – oncologist of 50 years and ex-director of the WHO Cancer Programme. The UK has some of the worst cancer survival rates in the developed world, he said in a recent post on twitter/x. The UK ranks as low as 28th out of 33 countries for five-year survival rates in common cancers such as those of the stomach and the lungs.

“Our rates for pancreatic liver and oesophageal cancer are little better at respectively, 26th, 21st and 16th place”, he says. “On average, just 16% of UK patients live for five years with these cancers, despite the fact we spend as much per head on cancer treatment as other developed nations”.

As for Big Pharma…

Prof Peter Gøtzsche makes clear in a sensational, evidence-based article in this issue (page 18) that prescription drugs are just behind dementia, heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of death in Europe and the US. He shows that we are suffering a true pandemic of killer pharmaceuticals.

“If such a hugely lethal pandemic had been caused by a microorganism, we would have done everything we could to get it under control. The tragedy is that we could easily get our drug pandemic under control, but when our politicians act, they usually make matters worse. They have been so heavily lobbied by the drug industry that drug regulation has become much more permissive than it was in the past”.

Statistics on drug deaths are routinely covered up or simply “not required” to be reported. Yes, gloomy, bad news, but it makes what we do all the more important. So stay inspired!

New for you this month

I’ve been bothered that herbal medicine appears too infrequently in IHCAN. To be fair, this is partly because of a lack of relevant research. But herbal medicine deserves a more regular spot, especially as so many of the supplements we use include plant extracts, so I’m delighted to welcome  the “apothecary forager” Ruthie Weaver, who from this issue onwards will be highlighting the power of phytotherapy with reviews and clinical tales.

And it’s welcome back to a new-look “new releases” section. We’ve teamed up with The Natural Dispensary to give you a heads-up on what new products are coming your way each month.

World-class CPD and a big expo: June’s IHCAN Summit

Yes we do say it ourselves, but you won’t find presentations this information- and inspiration-rich anywhere else.

Forget the dry academics and the doctors who are just discovering there’s a microbiome (40+ years after I featured it in JAM – the grandfather of IHCAN), at the June Summit you’ll experience Leo Pruimboom, Tom O’Bryan, Malcom Kendrick and Beverley Sarstedt …and we can guarantee that you won’t be the same again! (See page 16.)