The need for big picture medicine

For all the incredible developments that have occurred through specialisation and reductionist approaches in medicine, it’s now time to step back and look at the big picture of what’s happening.

When you do this you quickly see how over-reliance on drugs and putting each medical specialism into discrete silos has created a biomedical model that’s failing badly when it comes to its biggest challenges.

We had a fantastic opportunity this last Sunday and Monday to stay with the big picture at the Balens Forum and CPD Conference at Birmingham’s NEC. You can find out more about it in our lead story.

In our second piece this week, you’ll see what happens where a big picture cancer researcher gets to when looking back on 40 years of his own and others’ research on the most common childhood cancer. Even more interesting when it looks like our super-hygienic, sterile lives might not be protecting our kids, but rather dramatically increasing their risk if they are genetically predisposed….

In this week’s news you’ll see that US government research has now confirmed what Prof Séralini and others have known since 2012: that adjuvants in Monsanto’s Roundup are even more toxic than the active ingredient glyphosate itself. You’ll recall that the registration studies of Roundup, that allowed both Roundup and its many clones to become the most widely used pesticide in the world, focused only on glyphosate.

Let’s make sure we all keep looking at the big picture – before it’s too late.

In health, naturally and sustainably

Rob Verkerk, PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director