Integrative Health &
Applied Nutrition
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Integrative Health &
Applied Nutrition
magazine (IHCAN)
Editor’s note
December 2023
BMA calls for ban on “physician associates”
Did our October editorial, “The non-doctor will see you now”, strike a nerve?
Maybe, because the British Medical Association has called for an immediate ban on Physician Associates (PAs).
Prof Phil Banfield, BMA chair of council, said: “We are seeing increased instances of MAPs [Medical Associate Professionals] encroaching on the role of doctors; they are not doctors, do not have a medical degree and do not have the extensive training and depth of knowledge that doctors do” (see report, page 42).
What we said.
Our concern was also the hypocrisy of the NHS trying to ease its chronic disease crisis by throwing the public at two-year trained non-medical personnel while ignoring the specialist knowledge and degree-level and post-grad training that our nutrition practitioners have.
Pharmacists to step in
Meanwhile, the Government and NHS England want to use pharmacists as well. On January 31 the NHS launches “Pharmacy First” to provide “professional health care advice, treatments, and medicines for common illnesses from your local pharmacy, without the need for an appointment”.
They know it’s near-impossible to get a GP appointment, so here’s the answer:
…
...Read more...
Don’t even think about it! Instead “Think Pharmacy 1st”
Pharmacists will be encouraged to carry out more health checks, just like GPs used to do, and will also be cleared to prescribe drugs.
The catch here is, as anyone in the system already knows, it’s almost as difficult to get a prescription filled as it is to get a doctor to write one in the first place. So many pharmacies are closing that there are routinely long queues to get served, let alone get a check-up and a diagnosis. This is going to end in tears. In June, for example, the well-loved Boots chain announced it was closing 300 pharmacies.
Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone in government or in the NHS who has the intelligence or the leadership to do th sensible thing – and put a few quid into a ”Think Nutrition 1st” campaign. We’re all here, waiting.
But hey, dentists can do this, too!
Yes, dentists want to get in on the act.
According to a new paper in the British Dental Journal, dentists should also be able to stick you on scales, take your blood pressure and more. “Routine appointments should include BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure checks”, they say. The rationale behind this competency creep is that so many people are no longer seeing their GPs (see above) that heart problems and diabetes are not getting picked up – particularly in the middle-aged.
The Daily Mail reports that this is already happening: “It follows a successful two-year use of the strategy at a dental surgery in Cheshire for NHS and private patients, and 14 months of use by dentists in the Welsh borders, which predominantly sees NHS patients”.
What’s next? Hairdressers?
Funny you should ask. Well, back in the day we did have barber-surgeons. But now stand by for “Chair Care”. The CDC and other public health agencies are funding a New Mexico program to train and pay local hairstylists to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccines to their clients.
The Children’s Health Defence report says “The ‘Chair Care’ program trains these ‘trusted messengers’ to target New Mexico’s Hispanic, Black, Native American and conservative populations who have been shown to have the lowest vaccine uptake and highest “vaccine hesitancy”.
No, it couldn’t happen here, right?
“Silent” allergy, B12’s new role and the bacterium that triggers MS…
There are some surprises in store in our news and research pages this month. Among them a new role discovered for B12, and supplementation may “fix” colitis; researchers claim to have found a bacterium that triggers MS; and broccoli sprouts (yes, it’s the sulphoraphane) are now recommended as a “treatment” for IBD.
The BMJ has papers hitting out at inaccurate citations – up to 25% of all citations in the literature are bogus – and the problem of “cherry-picking”, which is plaguing systematic reviews and meta-analyses (page 9).
But maybe our favourite is about “silent” allergies. Turns out that we’re right to warn people off certain foods that experience tells us may do them harm – even if they have no symptoms and can’t see the point. (Read about that on page 57).
SIMON MARTIN, EDITOR
Keep up with Simon on Twitter@simoncamedit
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We’re always fully referenced
We don’t put a big emphasis on being “evidence based” in the conventional sense, mainly because the bulk of the evidence used in meta analyses and systematic reviews and to produce “guidelines” is not to be trusted. As Prof Richard David Feinman puts it, the meta-analysis is the “most dangerous” activity plaguing modern medical literature. And RCTs are of no use in assessing complex conditions that we address with multiple interventions – such as Dr Dale Bredesen’s Alzheimer’s protocol. Likewise, we highly value the hard-won clinical experience of multiple practitioners accumulated over the years and handed down over generations of evolving natural medicine practice. That said, we do put a lot of effort into referencing our features. References are online to save space, available within our members area.
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