Unhealthy modern foods get alternative neede

ROB KNOWLES

CHRONIC medication may not be the answer to chronic ailments, and alternative or complementary medical techniques might be the best way to rebalance your system and get healthy again.

So said Dr Stuart Dwyer when he addressed the ladies of Club 100 at My Pond Hotel last Friday.

Dwyer, a qualified medical practitioner, became interested in complementary medicine when his children developed eczema and conventional treatment seemed to have no effect.

"Conventional medicine treats symptoms but does not always lead to a cure,” he told the 60-strong audience.

Using acupuncture – administered through needles or, more recently, lasers – Dwyer follows in the footsteps of the Chinese who discovered anatomical meridian lines running through the body around 5 000 years ago. Only in the 20^th century did western science accept the existence of these channels within the body that allow a free-flow of electromagnetic energy throughout the body.

Acupuncture is now recognised as a legitimate form of treatment, and most medical aid schemes allow patients to claim for such treatment.

"The idea is to re-balance the system when something goes out due to an injury. It is the ancient principle of Ying and Yang, that everything needs to be balanced. However, the food one eats is a very important factor in keeping the body in balance,” said Dwyer.

His talk was therefore focused on nutrition and, punctuated with a handy helping of humour, Dwyer was both informative and entertaining, leading to a whole host of questions after he had finished his presentation.

Dwyer explained that, since the earliest times humans have eaten foods grown and prepared in a natural way. However, he said, since World War II our eating habits have changed dramatically, for the worse.

"We have been taught that we should eat plenty of starch and only a little meat, but this is contrary to the way our body works,” he said.

"Processed flour, sunflower oil, sugar and salt are basic staples of a modern diet, but they are processed to such an extent that our bodies are overwhelmed. We do not need to consume so much starch in our diets as this leads to problems such as hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity, depression, hyper activity in our children and diabetes,” he said.

"Today doctors give pills to cure these illnesses, but all they do is hide the symptoms.”

Dwyer also recommends 15 minutes of sunlight per day, perhaps surprisingly, without sunscreen.

"Our bodies require sunlight in order to produce vitamin D, essential to our health and wellbeing,” Dwyer told the audience. "Sunscreens block out certain frequencies of UV (ultraviolet) light, and this prevents our bodies producing the required amount of vitamin D,” he said.