Important message from Down Under

Meleni and I arrived in Sydney shortly after we sent last week’s missive. To be honest, it’s been a whirlwind, with a very tough schedule with us managing a stand on behalf of ANH-Intl while also presenting twice and engaging in multiple meetings in between at the Australasian Association of Lifestyle Medicine’s second annual conference.

The Ozzies, it could be said, are getting themselves together. To every action is an equal and opposite reaction – and one of the factors that has triggered a national and international coming together of clinicians including doctors is the challenges they’re facing from skeptics, some of these having been barbed or even vicious. Lifestyle Medicine is an unassailable concept. David Katz MD, widely regarded as the US’s leading lifestyle medicine expert, spoke to those of us 450 or so assembled in Manly, Sydney via a video link. He told us that lifestyle medicine can deliver an 80% reduction in the risk of chronic diseases and that no other medicine could do that. With over 25 years of experience behind him, Dr Katz argues, excepting minor details, we know most of what is needed to deal with the epidemic of chronic disease. We just struggle to agree how we should get there.

We offer you two reports from the conference. One is the basis of my own presentation from last Sunday in a section on healthcare sustainability, one of the major planks of our work at ANH-Intl.  The other is a synopsis that Meleni has created for your benefit, that pulls together findings from two speakers in particular about the crucial and fascinating role of our non-human partnering microorganisms in controlling our mood. Upset your microbiota at your own peril; it’s so much better for us and those around us to feed our bugs with foods (not drugs) that help build rather than erode the friendship.

Check our snippets for weekly news on dietary risks, glyphosate, flu vaccines and antibiotic use in childbirth.

In health, naturally and sustainably, from Down Under

 

Rob Verkerk, PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director