Season's Greetings!

For as long as I can remember this has been used as a salutation in the run up to Christmas. It is a respectful way of spreading warmth to one’s fellow man regardless of their religious beliefs. Although it would seem strange to use the expression at other times of the year, the sentiment of spreading goodwill is valid all year round. In fact it is a fundamental component of healthy living to develop favourable, stress-free relationships in every sector of our lives. Since Stress is a major cause of illness we need to develop strategies for continuously detoxifying ourselves both physically and psychologically. Modern day stress seldom has the protective intention that ensured our survival throughout history. The story is told of how the guns fell silent in the trenches during WW1 on Christmas Eve. For a couple of hours the madness and mayhem of war stopped as the combatants recognised their common humanity. What a shame they needed an excuse to give pause to the killing. Such events are notable for their rarity. There has been no comparable account from the wars in Vietnam, DRC, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Aleppo or any of the scores of conflicts raging continuously across the world. In his challenging book ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’, Dr Malcolm Kendrick shows that the stress of displacement is a much stronger indicator of heart disease than cholesterol. So quite apart from the immediate danger from a stray bullet, the stresses of forced evacuation pose a long term threat to public health. So what’s to be done? It may feel futile to protest against wars in far-off places over which we have no control. Nonetheless, it is important to register our opposition and to avoid conflagration. Each of us however has the ability to bring calm to our own mind. When Ghandi said “Be the change you want to see in the world” it was an invitation to take peace into our own hearts where Steven Covey used to say ‘Is within our locus of control’. Each of us has a place of calm within which is constantly available to us. When we collectively learn to meditate peacefully we will give birth to a new reality for humanity. Our salvation will be born and it will be a Very Happy Christmas indeed.

Don't Throw the Jesus out With the Bathwater

Over the last two decades, and probably longer, the Christian churches have been rocked by tales of sexual misconduct and paedophilia. Also, the corporal punishment that passed for discipline in church run schools in the last century would today result in job loss if not imprisonment. Society at large has largely cast off the deference and respect in which clerics were formerly held. In the main these changes were inevitable. The pillars of the community sometimes turned out to be both fallible and friable and the court of public opinion quickly passed judgement. Fast forward to December 2017 as we look forward to holidays and, for Christians, the birth of Christ. It is a time when families gather to exchange gifts and share meals. Children eagerly await the arrival of Santa Claus and shopkeepers cash in on the annual bonanza. Indeed, commercialism has replaced the reverence with which we once prepared for quiet, joyful renewal in our lives and the awakening to the possibilities that peace could bring to humanity. It’s as though the support group has stolen the show from the main act. For as long as man has walked the earth he has pondered on his place in the universe. And for just as long others have sought to provide the answers, and profit from the effort, through ‘Tinsel Religion’. But all the great religious movements of the world share an understanding that we are One and live at our best when sharing the bounty of this beautiful planet and protecting it as careful custodians for future generations. ‘Bigger Picture Thinking’ demands that we set aside petty differences and allow ourselves to be ‘born again’ into the world we want to live in; a world of peace, love and harmony full of the awe and wonder with which we view a new born infant. So for all their failings, church institutions have at their core a priceless truth and one which every generation appreciates. Our need to live in a spirit of goodwill has never been more urgent because we’re trading cross-border insults as if Armageddon is ok. It’s not! Let’s get back to the purity of the message that is Christmas. Let’s look beyond the ‘Bells and Smells’, tinsel, fragrances and over-indulgences that have been encouraged by those who would distract us from awakening to the power and opportunity God has given us. Certainly we need to wash away institutionalised corruption and demand accountability from our leaders – both religious and secular. But infinitely more important is to protect the knowing that perfect innocence can be born in each of us in every moment and to nurture our highest potential.Not only our health, but our survival as a species depends upon it.

Globalisation and Metastasis

Growing up in a rural town in the 60s I remember the excitement that came with the arrival of the first supermarket. Back then 600 square feet was large. I was oblivious to the effects that it had on local trade and the new times it heralded. But by today’s standards it was totally benign. The mantra ‘Big is Beautiful’ felt like common sense to me throughout my time in industry. How else could an organisation achieve competitive economies of scale? Without skipping a beat I went on to teach such attitudes as a cornerstone of strategic marketing. There was an acceptable Darwinian inevitability about it. Big fish eat little fish; that’s how the world works – Right? Today I’m a lot more circumspect. What happens when the little fish run out? Following on the work of Otto Warburg, researcher Tomas Seyfried explores cancer as a metabolic disease. One of its principal characteristics is that cancer cells show defective mitochondrial respiration. In other words, they are unable to generate all the energy they need through normal means and instead start to burn glucose through a very inefficient fermentation process. The result is that they develop an insatiable appetite for blood sugar, which starves supply from other cells. As the disease progresses, and spreads through the body, victims typically become emaciated as their tumours grow until this unsustainable situation causes death. Along the way ‘heroic efforts’ are made to fight off the illness and oncologists use every weapon at their disposal to kill the tumours before they kill the patient. It seldom works, certainly not in the long term. Researchers have found the DNA of cancer cells to be damaged and have invested billions trying to uncover the nature of mutation so that drugs can be developed to attack them. It’s very similar to the now discredited practice of outlawing cholesterol as the cause of heart disease just because it shows up on autopsy in coronary arteries ‘at the scene of the crime’. In both cases we are distracted from the truth; we pointlessly medicate symptoms rather than curing the cause. Seyfried has shown that cancer cells can be starved by switching to a Ketogenic diet. Ordinary cells can burn glucose or ketones whereas cancer cells just need copious amounts of glucose. When there are only ketones about (from healthy dietary fats) the cancer cells are severely stressed. Similarly, when people choose to do their shopping in the local high street, small businesses get a turn, custom is appreciated and communities thrive. The out of town malls, with their high maintenance costs and international brands suffer from reduced footfall and may eventually prove unviable. While redundancies are painful, cancer surgery generally is, workers can be more easily reabsorbed into buoyant local economies. To me the economic equivalent of ketone bodies is goodwill and co-operation. Megastore operations need much more cash flowing to keep their shareholders happy. Goodwill is too vague an entry for the quarterly balance sheet. Every dollar spent at Walmart is a dollar lost to Mom & Pop operations and the communities they serve. In the same way that we can maintain good physical health by eating intelligently - avoiding sugar and white flour products, we can maintain vibrant local economies and communities by ‘spending your money where you make it’ and avoiding the temptation of ‘low hanging fruit’ - exploitatively low priced clothing and white goods. Take the time to cultivate relationships with the artisans and vendors that have fed us well for eons. An added bonus is cleaner air when we walk to the shops instead of clogging the roads with Chelsea tractors and our lungs with diesel particulates. Time for a new mantra. What about ‘Less is More’?

The Little Guys

It’s astonishing to consider that bacterial cells in and on our bodies outnumber our human cells 10:1 We have a symbiotic existence with these little friends. Without them our immune system is weakened and we are unable to properly digest our food. Our microbiome is so important that it can be considered an organ in itself. Why then have we waged war on it for decades with antibiotics, most of which are unnecessary and which encourage the development of superbugs? I’m actually a strong believer in antibiotics. Some years ago, suffering from a very serious infection, they saved my life. However, antibiotics are ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ to the gut microbiome. Not only will they dispose of pathological bacteria but they indiscriminately destroy all bacteria including those we depend on for our survival. Having strong and effective antibiotics is crucial in modern medicine but our careless overuse has undermined their effectiveness. Antibiotic resistant bugs pose a real and present danger to humanity. By extension, there is a similar threat to civil society. Although we’re not yet in the habit of lobbing nuclear bombs around the world, we have lived with the insanity of this threat for over 70 years. Instead we choose ‘proportional responses’ for military interventions which only kill hundreds of thousands of people. We console ourselves that this is preferable to annihilation but to the indiscriminate Bagdad bomb victim, or the target of a drone strike, dead is dead. Human life is lost, mankind is diminished and hatreds fester. There has to be a better way! I live in a beautiful town at the foot of the Mourne mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. This is a rural community; our roads seem to have as many slow moving tractors as cars. We have no large industrial employers; ‘our eggs are spread across many baskets’. The town, and surrounding lands, are populated with hardy folk with a rich appreciation of community. Our pace of life is slow. We make time for others, especially at times of bereavement. The supportive web of the community is healing after many years of hurt from our troubled past. At one level it is idyllic yet, as with any society, there are problems. Still, it is natural for small communities to address their own issues. Strong societies rely on having a moral compass to guide ethical business practice and a legal framework based on equality. When we create such an environment, peace breaks out. If given a chance it could also occur in Aleppo and Bagdad without the carnage inflicted by proxy wars. It’s in our rush for the quick-fix that our problems often lie. Instead of curing medical problems we have chosen to manage sickness. We have even spawned entire industries to ‘fight fires rather than preventing them’. In doing so we have created work opportunities for thousands while sacrificing the lives of millions. Our medical system considers the human body as a collection of parts, each with their own complexities and corresponding specialist consultants. We apply quick-fix treatments to individual symptoms in isolation from the environment that caused the illness. But we will only cure disease when we treat the whole person and create an environment for the body to heal itself. Instead of respect for diversity within a framework of equality and justice, many parts of the world suffer an imposed uniformity under a ruling elite, more equal than the others, and from whom justice is meted out by bomb or bullet. Our geopolitical system considers humanity as a collection of sects, each with their own observances, priests and despots. We apply quick-fix solutions like ‘Boots on the ground’, no fly zones, ‘shock and awe’ etc. But even among the most sorely oppressed peoples there are likely to be ten times as many innocents as combatants and they alone hold the power to rebuild their communities. Let’s honour the place of these little friends. In the last analysis, in their work for peace and justice these little guys are really the big guys.