CONTENTS
1) Editorial
2) From Our Members
3) Feature: Cancer, Proof and a Plan for Healing
4) Issue Updates
--Global Poultry Industry is the Root of Bird Flu Crisis
--Biotech Giant Revises Pledge on Sterile Seed Technology as Global Alliance Calls for a Ban
--Ontario Can Phase Out Coal and Nuclear
--Fuel Speed Ahead: The Future of Clean Fuel
5) Media Watch
--Nigeria of the North: Oil Sands Frenzy Threatens Alberta Environment
--Canadian Wheat Board Agrees that Further Research on GM Wheat Useful
--More Voices Joining Chorus for GMO Wheat
--The WTO and Europe’s Moratorium on GMOs
--New EU Report Considers Coexistence of GM and non-GM Crops and Seeds
--Farmers, Others Sue USDA over Monsanto GMO Alfalfa
--Monsanto Says it Has no Plans for Commercialization of Terminator Technology
--EPA Board: Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
--California Bill Would Bar Toxins in Cell Phones and iPods
--Development May Spread Old Pesticides
--Organic Diets Could Help Lower Children’s Exposure to Two Common Pesticides
--Korean Soldiers and Vietnamese Soldiers Sue Dow and Monsanto for --Poisoning Them with Herbicide Agent Orange
--Playing with the Numbers of Cancer Statistics
--Playing with the Number of Cancer Statistics, Cont’d
--World Lawmakers Set Up Global Warming Monitor Group
--Conspiracy, Bias, or Just Plain Stupidity, by Dr. Michael Murray, MD
--McDonald’s Sued over Ingredients in Fries
--Advocates Threaten Laws to Curb Food Marketing
--Proposed Canada Food Guide Called “Obesogenic”
--ADHD: Eli Lilly’s Straterra, Swedish Test Disastrous
--The Supplements/Bird Flu Debate: Selenium
--Carpet Diem: Umbra on Carpeting
--Study: Supplements Fail to Ease Arthritis
--Alternative Remedies Fail Government Tests
--Gum Disease: Prevention and Natural Treatments
--Natural Remedies for Morning Sickness
6) Calendar of Events
--Breakthrough in the Quest to Cure Cancer, Mar 2, Salt Spring Island
--Stress: A Roadblock on the Path to Wellness, Mar 18, Vancouver
--Greens Can Save Your Life, Mar 25, Vancouver
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1) Editorial
Hello HANS Members & Friends;
Last week I enjoyed a delicious luncheon at Seasons Restaurant at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. The occasion was to honor the retirement of well-loved Dr. Roger Rogers of the Center for Integrated Healing in Vancouver, a ground-breaking cancer clinic that combines complementary and conventional therapies. I can’t think of a more beautiful location to pay tribute to such an outstanding human being.
For three hours, attendees listened to speeches from grateful patients and staff, from colleagues and the supportive Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation. One of the things that struck me was the words everyone used to describe Dr. Rogers. I started writing them down in the column of my notes. Kind, gentle, loving, courageous, warrior, restful, peaceful--probably more than 300 positive descriptors.
This is definitely a human to celebrate. Not only have I known Dr. Rogers for close to 30 years, but others at HANS have, too. He very gently, with a loving smile and hand, has warmed his way into creative solutions for some world problems. I think he must have learned at a very early age how to be loved and give love, and through this great start, he has fostered change and been an inspiration, showing us how to overcome obstacles without raising a voice or threatening an action.
Perhaps no more notable example exists than his experience facing the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons. He had to explain himself and his innovative cancer treatment experience to a large opposition. I can see it now. I can see him in my mind’s eye smiling at all of these potentially hostile colleagues. I can see him being gentle with them, explaining things, not getting angry. Loving them.
And that’s why I join other British Columbians and Canadians in saying thank you Dr. Rogers for being an inspiration and for being a part of Health Action Network Society for all these years.
Very warm regards,
Lorna Hancock
Founding Member & Director
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2) From Our Members
JS says: The last issue of Health Action mentioned the film “We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom,” but I didn’t see any notice of where it will be screening, or if it’s available on video. Could you tell me how I would be able to see the film? I am so happy that someone is standing up for alternative views and methods of health care. Keep up the good work.
Sorry about that, JS! This documentary by Kevin Miller and narrated by Dame Judi Dench discusses regulatory issues such as free trade and CODEX and is available for purchase at http://www.welltv.com/.>
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3) Cancer: Proof And A Plan For Healing
by Sandra Tonn, RHN
The Centre for Integrated Healing in Vancouver is changing the paradigm of cancer care. This reality is life saving in many cases, and life changing in most. People deemed dying by conventional medicine’s standards are more alive than they’ve ever been before, and it’s not because they chose complementary medicine over conventional. It’s because they were supported with a new, integrated approach - a bridge between two seemingly separate worlds.
I recently joined a group of people with cancer at the centre for its two-day introductory program to learn about this approach. It was an enlightening and inspiring introduction to a reality in which patients have more to do with their healing than their oncolcogists. Part way through the first day of my attendance, I realized I was sitting in on history in the making.
“The cure for cancer will be a multi-factoral approach," says Hal Gunn, MD, resident physician and co-director of the centre. He, along with alternative cancer therapy pioneer Dr. Roger Rogers, has designed a new model for cancer treatment. According to this evolved perspective, which is based on a whole-person approach to healing, the patient plays a fundamental role in recovery.
Cancer does not develop overnight. Decisions about how to treat it, in the majority of cases, need not be made overnight, either. At the centre, we learned that the foundation of recovery involves a number of elements including emotional connection with others, healthful diet, rest, vitamins, complementary therapies and, yes, conventional medical therapies.
“It’s all an alternative - including surgery,” says Philip Wood, integrative bodyworker, counsellor and facilitator of the introductory program.
Many in attendance shared their anger and frustration about experiences with their medical doctors and oncologists. One man, a young lawyer who was obviously suffering from the effects of his cancer, voiced anger at the injustice. He said he had understood from his family doctor that complementary medicine was a waste of time. “No doctor, nurse, the cancer agency, no one told me to seek any outside remedy.” The reality of the gap between conventional and complementary cancer treatment became intimately apparent when his own sister, whom he loves dearly, and a doctor, advised against complementary therapies.
The lawyer, along with many in the room, admitted that until recently he thought he couldn’t do anything about his cancer and that his life was in his doctor’s hands. He now considers himself in control and his naturopath as the one who truly sees the big picture, which includes conventional medicine.
Others in attendance reported many unsettling stories and accounts of death sentences. But with a grace that included sincere warmth, caring and professionalism, Dr. Gunn, who spends a noteworthy three hours visiting with patients, defended those in conventional medicine, explaining that they are not trained or experienced in these areas and that the current model for cancer treatment is outdated. He and all the staff at the Centre for Integrated Healing work with the best intentions and open hearts to embrace, include and build ties with the conventional medical world. They speak highly of the support and co-operation they receive from many who are also eager to build the bridge, including the BC Cancer Agency.
Dr. Gunn encouraged all in attendance to step outside the old belief system and look at a new one. “It’s a more human, common-sense approach to cancer care,” he says. The old model only treats the tumour. However, the tumour is only a small part of a person. So while chemotherapy, radiation and surgery can play a role, one should treat a person as a whole. “There is growing evidence that the new model is scientifically a more valid model of cancer care.” Emotional support, meditation, a healthful diet, exercise, stress reduction and immune enhancement, among many other options, are essential for true healing. A patient may find one or a variety of these options are required for recovery, depending on his or her needs, beliefs and situation.
“The human body is an incredible healing machine,” says Dr. Rogers. With the new model for treatment, the patient is both a participant and the director of the healing program. The new model allows for hope no matter what the diagnosis is. Indeed, many of those in the room, hoping to find their way past cancer to true health, have arrived at the centre because they’ve heard stories, first-hand in many cases, about others who have been helped, guided and are now living a life that’s better, fuller and more authentic than before. “There’s nothing more powerful to the immune system than living a life fully, the way you want to live it,” informs Dr. Gunn.
The expert and specialized team of professionals at the centre believe the first step to recovery is the will to live. One of the many hundreds of inspirational stories that have been born out of the centre is that of Jack Fun. Diagnosed with cancer and given three months to live, Jack is alive and well four years later. After going through a time of depression and confusion, Jack says, “I decided that I did not have to accept this.” After learning about his rights and options, he chose five treatments of radiation, but did not like the way he felt afterwards and declined chemotherapy. Jack took advantage of support groups, started to meditate and run, changed his diet and followed a vitamin and supplement program along with a natural therapy to stimulate his immune system. He reduced the stress in his life and today proudly announces that he has no pain. He feels cancer was a gift because of his current health and happiness.
“Stories are important as evidence,” Gunn says. But he is quick to back them up with the latest studies and statistics, knowing that people need evidence to defend their choices to those who may be opposed.
The new model of complementary and conventional medicine requires a new way of thinking, but those at the centre are hopeful that eventually it will be the norm. I’m certain that if it does, the Centre for Integrated Healing will have had a lot to do with this change. The first-hand proof I witnessed at the centre is, in my mind, more scientific than the stacks of studies and statistics available, and more logical and exciting than anything I’ve ever seen in a conventional doctor’s office, laboratory or operating room.
I said thank you and good luck to those in the group. They were not teary or dying people. They were people with information to read, decisions to make, practitioner appointments to attend, new friends and new hope. Their relief and determination were apparent. With true guidance and vision, they were beginning a road to recovery by choosing a bridge of integration.
Reprinted with author permission from alive Magazine #239, September 2002. Sandra Tonn is a registered holistic nutritionist, natural health journalist and health educator based in Vancouver, BC. Visit www.sandratonn.com.
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4) ISSUE UPDATES
Global Poultry Industry is the Root of Bird Flu Crisis
PRESS RELEASE – Feb 26, 2006
Small-scale poultry farming and wild birds are being unfairly blamed for the bird flu crisis now affecting large parts of the world. A new report from GRAIN shows how the transnational poultry industry is the root of the problem and must be the focus of efforts to control the virus.
The spread of industrial poultry production and trade networks has created ideal conditions for the emergence and transmission of lethal viruses like the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Once inside densely populated factory farms, viruses can rapidly become lethal and amplify. Air thick with viral load from infected farms is carried for kilometres, while integrated trade networks spread the disease through many carriers: live birds, day-old-chicks, meat, feathers, hatching eggs, eggs, chicken manure and animal feed.
“Everyone is focused on migratory birds and backyard chickens as the problem,” says Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN, an international NGO that promotes the sustainable management and agricultural biodiversity. “But these animals are not effective vectors of highly pathogenic bird flu. The virus kills them, but is unlikely to be spread by them.”
For example, in Malaysia, the mortality rate from H5N1 among village chicken is only five per cent, indicating that the virus has a hard time spreading among small scale chicken flocks. H5N1 outbreaks in Laos, which is surrounded by infected countries, have only occurred in the nation’s few factory farms, which are supplied by Thai hatcheries. The only cases of bird flu in backyard poultry, which account for over 90 per cent of Laos’ production, occurred next to the factory farms.
“The evidence we see over and over again, from the Netherlands in 2003 to Japan in 2004 to Egypt in 2006, is that lethal bird flu breaks out in large scale industrial chicken farms and then spreads,” Kuyek explains.
The Nigerian outbreak earlier this year began at a single factory farm, owned by a Cabinet minister, distant from hotspots for migratory birds but known for importing unregulated hatchable eggs. In India, local authorities say that H5N1 emerged and spread from a factory farm owned by the country’s largest poultry company, Venkateshwara Hatcheries.
A burning question is why governments and international agencies are doing nothing to investigate how the factory farms and their byproducts, such as animal feed and manure, spread the virus. Instead, they are using the crisis as an opportunity to further industrialize the poultry sector. Initiatives are multiplying to ban outdoor poultry, squeeze out small producers and restock farms with genetically-modified chickens. The web of complicity with an industry engaged in a string of denials and cover-ups seems complete.
“Farmers are losing their livelihoods, native chickens are being wiped out and some experts say that we’re on the verge of a human pandemic that could kill millions of people,” Kuyek concludes. “When will governments realise that to protect poultry and people from bird flu, we need to protect them from the global poultry industry?”
The full briefing, “Fowl play: The poultry industry’s central role in the bird flu crisis”, is available at http://www.grain.org/go/birdflu.
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Biotech Giant Revises Pledge on Sterile Seed Technology as Global Alliance Calls for a Ban
PRESS RELEASE – Feb 21, 2006
Monsanto, the world’s largest seed and agro-biotech company, made a public promise in 1999 not to commercialize ‘Terminator Technology’ – plants genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds. Now Monsanto says it may develop or use the so-called ‘suicide seeds’ after all. The revised pledge from Monsanto now suggests that it would use Terminator seeds in non-food crops and does not rule out other uses of Terminator in the future.
Monsanto’s modified stance comes to light as the biotech and seed industry confront peasant and farmer movements, Indigenous peoples and their allies in an escalating battle at the United Nations over the future of Terminator.
More at the Ban Terminator website: http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/news_updat....
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Ontario Can Phase Out Coal and Nuclear
ACTION ALERT – Feb 18, 2006
The Ontario government may go ahead with an ambitious and reckless plan to invest a minimum $40 billion to build new nuclear power plants in the province. A decision is imminent.
The Sierra Club of Canada opposes nuclear power because it causes ongoing environmental damage and presents a risk of catastrophic accidents. There are less risky and less damaging sustainable ways of meeting the electricity needs of consumers and industry. In fact, nuclear power is the most expensive and least reliable option.
Say NO to nuclear power in Ontario at http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/getinvolved/item.s....
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Fuel Speed Ahead: The Future of Clean Fuel
Gas prices have gone up, up, and away... and although they’re settling down for now, it won’t be long before they go back up. If there’s a silver lining to triple-digit gas prices, it’s that Canadians are thinking about alternatives. Unfortunately, we still live in a car-dominated society and vehicles that run on fossil fuels aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon.
More of this Natural Challenge Newsletter at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/WOL/Challenge/Newsletter/.../.
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5) MEDIA WATCH
Nigeria of the North: Oil Sands Frenzy Threatens Alberta Environment
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3007
Canadian Wheat Board Agrees that Further Research on GM Wheat Useful
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
More Voices Joining Chorus for GMO Wheat
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
The WTO and Europe’s Moratorium on GMOs
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
New EU Report Considers Coexistence of GM and non-GM Crops and Seeds
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
Farmers, Others Sue USDA over Monsanto GMO Alfalfa
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/3...
Monsanto Says it Has no Plans for Commercialization of Terminator Technology
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseactio...
EPA Board: Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&e=2&u=...
California Bill Would Bar Toxins in Cell Phones and iPods
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9959
Development May Spread Old Pesticides
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9915
Organic Diets Could Help Lower Children’s Exposure to Two Common Pesticides
http://www.nutritionhorizon.com/newsmaker_article.as...
Korean Soldiers and Vietnamese Soldiers Sue Dow and Monsanto for Poisoning Them with Herbicide Agent Orange
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/orange06021...
Playing with the Numbers of Cancer Statistics
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/021906.html
Playing with the Number of Cancer Statistics, Cont’d
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/022606.html
World Lawmakers Set Up Global Warming Monitor Group
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9957
Conspiracy, Bias, or Just Plain Stupidity, by Dr. Michael Murray, MD
http://www.doctormurray.com/newsletter/4-02-2006.htm...
McDonald’s Sued over Ingredients in Fries
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&e=5&u=...
Advocates Threaten Laws to Curb Food Marketing
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&e=6&u=...
Proposed Canada Food Guide Called “Obesogenic”
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/174/5/605?etoc
ADHD: Eli Lilly’s Straterra: Swedish Test Disastrous
http://healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=8222
The Supplements/Bird Flu Debate: Selenium
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=66...
Carpet Diem: Umbra on Carpeting
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2006/02/15/carpet_pa...
Study: Supplements Fail to Ease Arthritis
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&e=2&u=...
Alternative Remedies Fail Government Tests
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&e=1&u=...
Gum Disease: Prevention and Natural Treatments
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/healthconditionsdise...
Natural Remedies for Morning Sickness
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/healthconditionsdise...
For more current stories, check out “News” at www.hans.org.
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6) Calendar of Events
Breakthrough in the Quest to Cure Cancer
Who: Professor Gerry Potter
When: March 2nd, 7 pm
Where: Hart Bradley Memorial Hall (Lions’ Club Hall), 103 Bonnet Avenue, Ganges, Salt Spring Island
Contact: Rosemarie Keough 250-653-4993
Dr. Potter is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Director of the Cancer Drug Discovery Group at the Leicester School of Pharmacy, De Montfort University, England and Founder of Nature’s Defence (UK) Ltd. Professor Potter holds 20 patents for cancer therapeutics.
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Stress: A Roadblock on the Path to Wellness
Who: 7th Annual AIMS Conference, presented by AIMS, the Alternative and Integrative Medical Society of UBC
When: March 18, 9am – 4pm
Where: UBC Forest Sciences Centre
Price: Students: $10/$15 (AIMS Members/Non-Members), public/professionals: $30/$40 (AIMS Members/Non-Members)
Contact: www.aims.ubc.ca/conference
Keynote speaker, Kenford Nedd MD, an internationally renowned speaker, practices in the field of family and behavioural medicine and treats stress related disorders in both corporate and clinical settings. He has been been featured as one of the top 10 speakers in America by the American Society of Association Executives.
Conference topics include:
The Evolution of Stress / The Effects of Stress On Health / Environmental Stress / Mindfully Eating / Women’s Health & Stress / Pre-Natal Stress / Yoga / Cranial Sacral Therapy / Massage / Laughing Therapy and more... also... Cooking demonstrations and nutritious food throughout the day!
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Greens Can Save Your Life
Who: Victoria Boutenko
When: March 25, 10am - 4:30pm
Where: Unitarian Church, 949 West 49th Ave (corner of 49th & Oak), Vancouver. Doors open 9:30am.
Price: $45 advance tix / $55 at door (incl organic lunch & dinner
Contact www.rawbc.org or 604-728-2482.
Join highly-acclaimed author and inspirational speaker Victoria Boutenko at this all-day nourishing seminar as she explores the connection between raw food and optimum health.
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Founded in 1984, Health Action Network Society is a membership-based, non-profit charitable organization dedicated to gathering and disseminating health promotion information.
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