As a bit of a speed freak in former times, it really surprises me how much I have slowed down in recent years despite owning ever faster cars. Am I becoming senile I often wonder, or is it simply that my speed on the road is more in harmony with my reduced pace of life? No longer do I feel the urge to maintain pace with ladies on a mission, white van men and Audis and BMWs speeding lawlessly Lord knows where. And yet it seems like only yesterday that I was so outraged by the imposition of a temporay blanket 70mph limit in Britain, subsequently made permanent, that I felt obliged to take every opportunity (funds permitting) to travel to Europe to exploit the maximum speed of my motor. This was 1967, and I recall that shortly afterwards I incurred the one and only speeding fine of my motoring career to date, but not for exceeding the new limit.

Britain’s first conviction for speeding based on a radar trap had only been a few years before and such devious devices were not that common, and so I was absolutely flabbergasted to be detected doing 32 in a 30 area in Andoversford of all unlikely places. Relieved of £3, it obviously taught me a powerful lesson but was I miffed, because the road was derestricted six weeks later! 

For my father however, a keen participant in motor sport, it must have been extremely difficult to control his enthusiasm, for it was not until  1931 that Britain’s blanket 20mph limit was abolished, without an upper limit. Bear in mind that even my diminutive 1926 cyclecar is capable of more than 70mph. Still he had a good run for his money for the next 36 years.

My grandfather, a pioneer of early motoring, on the other hand deduced that it was a tad quicker by horse if he wished to remain within the law.

Let us suppose for a moment that a motorist before the introduction of the Light Locomotives Act in 1896 wished to comply strictly with the law. These are the conditions he must observe: (1) At least three men shall be employed to drive such a locomotive (i.e. any vehicle propelled by any power except animal). Also a man must walk in front. (2) Observe a 3mph speed limit. (3) Pay £10 licence fee for each county in which he drove. (4) Refrain from crossing bridges unless they bore a notice permitting it. There were further regulations on these lines, all of which were swept away by the 1896 Act, which was much more reasonable and raised the speed limit to 12mph. All the same, this was still pretty slow compared with a horse.

As I write, I have before me a splendid 19th Century print which depicts a nattily attired gent hacking along the North Road on a finely turned out cob. Underneath the picture is written: Trotted Twenty two miles in One hour and sixteen minutes on the North Road.That’s an average speed of 17.4mph!

Why, you may rightly ask, am I regaling you with tales of speed limits and a bygone age? Simply, I have just been carved up, whilst travelling at the legal limit, in a most aggressive manner by a young lady in a hot hatch with a massage couch in the back and full display advertising in the rear window! I may be a slow old buffer, but there is no need for such crude gesticulations. Calmdowndear, and switch on the in-car diffuser. Hopefully she is reading this!

Aspects of Asparagus.
I don’t know about you, but I have never been that keen on asparagus(Asparagus officinalis L.) despite being told that it was good for me. Jan, however, does like this slender-stemmed perennial, with its long fronds of delicate needle-like leaves and bell-shaped yellow-green flowers that produce small bright red berries.

Whilst it is an attractive garden ornamental, it is cultivated primarily for the delicious young shoots (or spears) that push through the ground in Spring. Male and female plants are available. The females produce the berries, but the male plants are higher yielding. To judge from ancient Egyptian tomb drawings, asparagus was probably cultivated as long ago as 4000BC. Highly esteemed as a vegetable by the Greeks and Romans, Pliny mentions a species that grew near Ravenna of which three heads could weigh a pound, and the 1st century Greek physician Dioscorides recommended a decoction of asparagus root to improve urine flow and to treat kidney problems, jaundice and sciatica. He also recomended holding the chewed root against aching teeth.

Asparagus contains steroidal glycosides, bitter glycosides, flavonoids and the strong diuretic asparagine, making asparagus useful for a variety of urinary problems, including cystitis. It is also considered useful in the treatment of rheumatic conditions, helping to hasten the “flushing” of waste products accumulated in the joints out of the body in the urine.

The strong odour in the urine after eating asparagus is an interesting phenomenon because, while it is unheard of in China, 100% of the French have been estimated to experience such an odour and about 50% of adults in the United States notice the same effect. This situation is an excellent example of genetic variability in liver detoxification function.

All of which brings me to an iteresting item kindly sent me recently by Barbara Everett about “Asparagus and Cancer”.

Prompted by an article sent to SueTate by her sister, their mother, who is on chemo pills for third stage lung cancer in the pleural area, has been pureeing full-stalk canned asparagus and taking 4tablespoonsin the morning and 4 tablespoons later in the day. She has been doing this for a month or so and her cancer cell count has gone down from 386 to 125.

Her oncologist says she does not need to see him again for three months.

The article, entitled ‘Asparagus for cancer’, first appeared in Cancer News Journal in December 1979. The author, a biochemist who had specialized in the relation of diet to health for over 50 years, had some years before learned of the discovery of Richard R. Vensal that asparagus might cure cancer. Since then, the author worked with him on his project and they accumulated a number of favourable case histories that are enumerated  in the article. Although the evidence is most compelling, this resurrected article has most recently attracted the attention of The Skeptics Society Forum, as is so often the case, and has been quite severely rubbished. Google Richard R. Vensal D.D.S. and let me know what you think.

Nonetheless, according to American National Cancer Institutes, this member of the lily family is the richest source of dietary glutathione (26mg). True, avocado (31mg) and watermelon (28mg) contain higher levels per 100g of solid volume weight but are far less nutrient dense sources. A 100 gram serving of avocado is more than two pounds, and a comparable amount of watermelon is far beyond a true serving size. A one hundred gram serving of asparagus is about five healthy spears.

Glutathione, a tripeptide containing cysteine, occurs in high (millimolar) concentrations in most cells of the body and plays many roles. It serves as a detoxifying agent, assists amino acid transport, quenches free radicals, and helps regulate the internal redox environment cells. As a substrate for glutathione peroxidases, glutathione plays a key role in antioxidant defences.

In addition, glutathione reacts directly with singlet oxygen, hydroxyl radicals and superoxide radicals to form oxidized glutathione (GSSG). Glutathione reductases regenerate reduced glutathione (GSH) and the ratio of GSH/GSSG is normally >100:1. Together with ascorbate, GSH participates in the regeneration of vitamin E, which emphasizes the cooperation of antioxidants. Oxidative stress decreases this ratio and activates transcription factors and increases production of interleukin 1 and tumour necrosis factor (TNF). Depletion of intracellular glutathione is associated with immunodeficiency.

It is reported that higher blood levels of glutathione correlate with higher degrees of health in elderly subjects. Whether glutathione concentrations predict ageing and whether low glutathione is a cause of ageing remain to be determined. There is evidence that dietary glutathione is absorbed and can increase plasma glutathione concentrations in humans.

Fresh, canned and frozen asparagus preparations are being tested in human primary and cancer cell cultures to assess asparagus and, as might be expected, according to information from various asparagus growing organizations this relative to the onion, leek and garlic may be the ultimate food to keep the body’s protective, regulatory and immune systems functioning.

Asparagus is also a rich source of thebioflavonoid rutin. Most of the clinical research on rutin and crude bioflavonoid complexes occurred before 1970, since when research has used a standardized mixture of rutinosides known as hydroxyethylrutosides. Impressive clinical results have been obtained with them in the treatment of capillary permeability, excessive bruisability, haemorrhoids, and varicose veins. Thus, could asparagus be a logical wholefood source of rutin for haemorrhoid and varicose vein sufferers?

Finally, I’m told that a 150 gram serving of asparagus provides 60% of the recommended daily allowance of folicacid, a nutritionally essential precursor of a large family of compounds collectively known as folates.

Although widely distributed in nature, folic acid is thought to be the most common hypovitaminosis of humans, particularly indigenous populations. Deficiency is common during pregnancy (20% of women with otherwise normal pregnancies have been shown to have low folate levels),lactation, early infancy, and adolescence; and in those taking a wide range of anti- tumour, antimalarial, antibacterial, anticonvulsive, and contraceptive drugs.

Biochemical enzyme defects and nutritional deficiencies are receiving increasing attention for their role in causing neural tube defects (NTD)

as well as other negative pregnancy outcomes, including spontaneous      abortion, placental abruption (infarct), pre-term delivery, and low infant birth weight. It has been firmly established that a low dietary intake of folic acid increases the risk for delivery of a child with a NTD, and that periconceptional folic acid supplementation reduces the occurrence of NTD. Research also indicates that supplemental folic acid intake results in increased infant birth weight and improved Apgar scores, along with decreased incidence of foetal growth retardation and maternal infections.

I don’t know if asparagus is a potential cure for cancer, but it certainly seems to have quite a lot else going for it.  In fact I am tempted to eat more myself, if only in the vain hope that it might reduce the ageing process!

A frightening warning!
The other week the European Court of Justice passed judgment on a case referred to it by a Danish regional court which had prosecuted a journalist, Frede Damgaard, after he had simply recorded known facts about a rose hip product on his website. The regional court made Mr. Damgaard a criminal because he breached European medicinal law which prevents anyone making a claim for a product’s capacity to prevent or treat disease - unless of course it has been licensed as a drug.

But the wayward Danish court’s decision has now been turned into a European precedent. Despite the sensible, much more balanced approach adopted by the Advocate General in the case, who argued strongly for the need to maintain freedom of the press, the judges responsible for the final ruling decided to ignore much of this advice. The Court has ruled that a journalist - or in fact any third party - that writes (or even speaks) about the ability of a natural health product to prevent or treat disease is in breach of the law, assuming the product isn’t a licensed drug. That person - like Frede Damgaard - could be made a criminal. And with this ruling, how many journalists will continue to act freely when reporting on natural products used by millions....?

My thanks to Brian Godfrey for bringing this extract from the Alliance of Natural Health website to my attention.

Scepticism.
Medicine has come a long way since the days of blood-letting - so why are we more sceptical than ever?

As AndrewJacks, the FT’spharmaceutical correspondent, points out in a recent book review, we now live in an age where scientific testing of drugs is standard, and sophisticated interventions are supported by rigorous clinical trials. Yet, as a number of recent books highlight, many people across the world still seek unproven alternative therapies. So why, in this modern age, is there still mistrust of doctors - and why is the alternative health industry so resilient?

As DruinBurch, a British doctor and surgeon, writes in his Taking the Medicine: “Doctors, for most of human history, have killed their patients far more often than they have saved them.” Although there is a large scientific component in medicine, the treatment of disease is not merely a science. In the late 19th century, Burch argues, chemicals developed from dyes were used to treat disease but doctors and pharmaceutical companies alike were too complacent and ignored long-term risks. Faith in the personal success story was replaced by a “mistaken optimism in the power of chemists to correctly predict effects on the human body”.   

In 1898, for example, Bayer of Germany launched a new medicine to relieve the symptoms of respiratory illnesses, with little concern - and no willingness to test - for possible addiction. The drug was based on morphine; they branded it Heroin.

But Burch overstates the collective harm that doctors have done. For centuries they administered plant extracts such as, for example, aspirin for headaches and artemisinin for malaria - which are now part of the modern, western pharmacopoeia.

For Burch, the real hero of modern medicine is the randomised clinical trial, with its domination of rigorous testing over individual instincts, which helped pave the way for modern evidence-based medicine, at a time when scientific advances in medical understanding and drug development were helping undermine belief in alternative therapies in the west.

However, as the Financial Times correspondent points out, if we believe in scientific testing, how do we explain medicine’s most elusive cure: the placebo effect? Studies consistently find that the health of about 20 per cent of people who are given inert drugs in clinical trials improve relative to those given no treatment at all. The body really does have natural healing powers, though not everyone reacts in the same way - and these powers can’t simply be employed on demand.

Where there is a gap in the scientific explanation and in practitioner credibility, there will always be those who rush to fill the space. Why?

Popular science writer Rose Shapiro tackles the question in her book Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All.

She argues that the revival of alternative practitioners coincides with the questioning of authority of the youth culture of the 1960s, hippy-inspired“holism” combined with a drive for individual responsibilty in health promotion on the part of government and others, and a generalised hunger for “extremewellness”.

All the same, in addition, the pharmaceutical industry’s public reputation has suffered, whether from selective clinical trials, excessive marketing or safety scandals - including the effects of Thalidomide in the 1950s and Vioxx this decade. In other words, the pharmaceuticals industry has shot itself in the foot.

Nevertheless, Shapiro reaches the same conclusions as those of Simon Singh and Edzard Ernstin Trick or Treatment? There is an array of unproven but often highly profitable alternative remedies that exploit faith in the natural world and scepticism about doctors. Such practices are part of a global alternative medicine industry generating £40 billion per year. Yet, as Singh and Ernst argue, while such unproven “natural” and “traditional” remedies may seem harmless they may also take lives: through the directly negative effects of “teatments”; by interaction with drugs that would otherwise work; or by neglect of proven treatments, which may prolong pain and reduce the likelihood of survival of cancer or Aids patients. Like it or not, more research and regulation is needed.

Should you be in search of some summer reading, all these books can be obtained from FT Bookshop at less than the cover price. Rose Shapiro’s is probably the most readable, and the cheapest at only £7.19 for 304 pages. Finally, were it not for Mr. Jack’s outstanding and very balanced review not a word of this would have been written - my sincere thanks.

Better news for Bees.
Have you ever thought how honey bees (Apis mellifera) are essential to our way of life? They are surely one of the most economically useful creatures on earth, pollinating the flowers of a third of all the crops we eat. They are also essential for setting seeds for most flowering plants, fruit and vegetables. There have been bees in Britain for about 30 million years - more than 250 bee species are native. It has been proved that honey bees have been in the United Kingdom for at least 5,000 years.

Up until 20 years ago, the scene was pretty rosy and a beekeeper’s main tasks were to prevent bees swarming, which is the natural way in which bee colonies reproduce, and to remove the honey. Then, diseases and pests began to have an impact. These include varroa mite, a debilitating parasite that weakens the bees and transmits viruses, and two species of nosema, unicellular parasites related to fungi which attack the bee’s gut, and colony collapse disorder, where worker bees die or disappear from a colony, have wreaked havoc on honey bee populations around the world.

Although colony collapse disorder is as yet unproven to have affected the UK, colonies of honey bees across Britain have been devastated by pests and diseases. Last winter a survey by the BritishBeekeeper’s Association(www.britishbee.org.uk) showed that the number of honey bee colonies had fallen by 30%, a staggering 2 billion missing bees , which cost the economy £54 million in lost pollination.

The only reason honey bees survive in this country is due to the care given by beekeepers, whose main task now is to monitor and try to control pests and diseases. However, should you find a swarm (about 25,000 bees) hanging around while scout bees search for a suitable cavity for the new nest, do contact your local environmental health department, the police or the BBKA (Tel: 02476 696679), as it vital to collect swarms and return them to the care of beekeepers because honey bees can no longer survive in the wild due to new pests and diseases.

Meanwhile, Spanish scientists may have discovered why honey bee colonies have been collapsing. They believe that the debilitating and previously unexplained condition colony collapse disorder, known as honey bee depopulation syndrome (HBDS) in Europe, is caused by infection with themicroscopic pathogen Nosema ceranae.

As previously mentioned, the condition is characterized by a sudden and mysterious absence of adult bees and a collapse of colony infrastructure. Treating the afflicted colonies with the antibiotic fumagillin, however, resulted in complete recovery, sparking hopes that the researchers, led by Mariano Higes of the Bee Pathology Laboratory in Marchamalo, have an answer to a global epidemic that has baffled bee specialists and food scientists alike.

Although Nosema ceranae, that may have originated in the Far East, is one of a family of microbes known to attack honey bees, the researchers believe this is the first time that it has been identified as the cause of HBDS. The research is published in the current issue of Environmental Microbiology Reports.

Interestingly fumagillin, an alicyclic antibiotic produced by certain strains of Aspergillus fumigatus, was formerly given to humans in the treatment of intestinal amoebiasis, but produced an unacceptably high frequency of adverse effects. Obviously bees are made of sterner stuff!     

Interesting comment.
I always look forward to your newsletters, and last month’s [No. 205] was very special, e-mailed Elizabeth Ferris, a Member of the Royal P harmaceutical Society.

Elizabeth’s husband died of extremely rare sebaceous cell carcinoma in October last year and suffered dreadfully with radiation burns in his mouth. Rinstead pastilles were the only thing that gave him any relief so Elizabeth was particularly interested in the Yale pain relief study and hopes to find out more and pass it on to the local oncology unit.

Shortly afterwards, in December, she picked up athlete’s foot at the local swimming pool. It took less than a week for neat Tea Tree to clear it, but within a few weeks she developed dermatitis over half her foot. She tried Chamomile in Stellaria cream but that was little help and so she has had to resort to 1% hydrocortisone cream. This is interesting, because I had to give up using neat Tea Tree on my ringworm for similar reasons but I have found that a little moisturising cream has cleared the problem. The placebo effect perhaps!

Many years ago, Elizabeth had the same problem and it became infected. She was all set to go to the surgery. These were in the days before she became an aromatherapist. Her foot was so sore that she would hang it out of the bed to cool. Their collie dog pup licked it all night and in the morning it was clean and pain free. It healed and never returned. As she says, let a dog lick a wound. I’ve done it countless times myself and it invariably works.

She agrees that pneumonioa must be treated with antibiotics, but a mix to relieve productive and unproductive coughs, and to give people with weak chests at the first sign of infection, is 7dropsSandalwood, 5 drops Benzoin and 3 drops Juniper Berry in 25ml carrier oil. Persistent coughing after an infection responds almost magically to a twice daily application of this, she says.     

Finally.....

I might treat myself to a little honey for tea, because this morning I had not a clue what I was going to write about. Again thanks to all, even the hard-charging aromatherapist in the VW Golf GTI!

charles@essentiallyoils.com

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