Simple Changes Tour
Next week, Phillip Day in Australia
Have you got your tickets yet?

Up Close and Personal

Hi All,

Coming at you from a hotel room overlooking the picturesque Waikato River in Hamilton, New Zealand. The tour's proceeding well, the jetlag's over and there's lots to tell you this month.

Firstly, CTM celebrates its eighth birthday. Just to remind why we're here. Citizen consumer advocacy conducted responsibly provides a much needed, independent check-and-balance system for the institutions which govern us - a role the media appears to have repudiated. As time passes, power structures become more remote and unaccountable. Citizens are cowed into thinking they can't talk about illness without being a doctor, or comment on diet without some degree in nutrition. From mammograms to GM, from aspartame to the War on Terror, take care less you voice an opinion out of whack with the orthodoxy or your heresy trial awaits. Most politicians, institutions and media brand the public thick and unqualified - as evidenced by the peculiar language they adopt whenever they're addressing us. Such institutional patronization is ever the stumbling block to real progress it was eight years ago when, after losing members of my own family to medical incompetence, I decided some form of voluntary, independent representation of the public was necessary.

What a nerve I struck. Parents began writing of vaccination blackmail, their children denied access to schooling unless they complied. Forced cancer medication for infants, even if it killed them. Incarceration of the public 'diagnosed' with fake psychiatric disorders. Fluoridation poisoning. Vaccine damage. Lethal AIDS treatments. Mammograms causing breast cancer. Tobacco. Vioxx. Death by doctoring. Mobile phone masts in everyone's backyard regardless of the consequences. Well, it's been eight years. Naturally our determination at CTM has provoked our fair share of fiery darts, but we've shot a few back too. And some things have changed. And some things have not.

More citizens are aware of the issues today, despite most not being covered in the newspapers, and long may it continue. Personal empowerment is of course the Waterloo for risible diktats and political correctness. On that note, I am proud to announce my Simple Changes book is now out, so grab a copy today (authors live to say that!). You don't have to be a qualified psychiatrist to unmask psychiatry, nor have a degree in sports medicine to know exercise is good for you. I've been featuring excerpts from the book for the last few EClubs, so if you can't afford all 316 pages because the insurance industry embezzled your pension fund, wait a year or two and keep reading these bulletins and you'll get the whole lot for free!

Simple Changes, your 100 ways to a happier, healthier life.

From the 1st October, Credence is also stocking three new titles from other authors which have inspired me greatly:

Remotely Controlled by Dr Aric Sigman
TV and what it has done to us (this appalled me, and I'm not usually appalled any more), all the more poignant because most people can't do without it. Dr Sigman delivers the most definitive broadside yet into television and its institutional sponsors. By the time you are seventy-five, you will almost certainly have spent more than twelve years of your life staring at this ghastly contraption. In many families, television has a greater hold over the children than their parents do. Using the latest evidence, Sigman exposes how watching too much television slows the body's metabolic rate, stunts the development of young brains, may permanently hinder children's educational progress, increases the likelihood of children developing ADHD, is a leading cause of half of all violence-related crime, makes you stupid, lowers adult libido, and is a major cause of depression. This book is an extraordinary revelation, examining not just what we watch, but the dangers of the medium itself.

Diet Doctors, Inside and Out by Dr Wendy Denning and Vicky Edgson
Are you tired of being overweight, feeling bloated or lethargic? Do you have bad skin, flaky nails or bags under your eyes? Diet doctors Wendy Denning and Vicki Edgson teach you how to read your body's signals and make the necessary adjustments to your diet, so you'll lose weight, sleep better, live longer and feel amazing (next time you see your doctor, ask 'em why they don't tell you this). The Diet Doctors Inside and Out contains all the dietary and lifestyle advice you'll need for life-changing results, including a quick-reference picture guide to find out what your skin, tongue, nails and hair reveal about your body's well-being.

The Powerwatch Handbook by Alasdair and Jean Philips
We live in a world of unseen hazards: electrical wiring and appliances, overhead power lines, photocopiers, mobiles and cordless telephones. Research has shown long-term exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can produce tumours, fertility problems, behavioural changes and memory loss. The Powerwatch Handbook shows simple ways to reduce your exposure to high-level pollution, reduce the dangerous effects of telephones, mobiles, TV masts and other outside sources of EMFs. Easy to read and you won't need a physics degree to understand the straight-forward explanations.

Note: If these books are not yet in your Credence regional store,
order them through the Global Store instead

Right, quickly onto this month's EClub:

· Former ITN news presenter Carol Barnes relates how she beat her menopausal woes using sage (stress is also a major factor - your thoughts affect your biochemistry, remember?)
· The dangers of mobile phones (again), don't say you haven't been warned
· Exercise: is walking really enough? A report that shows we should be doing more than just walking Fifi around the cricket pitch if we want good cardiovascular health
· A previous article in which the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) scorns Dr Aric Sigman's research on the dangers of TV ('Really, is NOT watching TV very practical?').
· A gem by Dr David Wheldon on his wife's multiple sclerosis and how he rolled back the disease using antibiotics to treat her chlamydia pneumoniae (see section on MS in The ABC's of Disease).

Much, much more besides but housekeeping's at my door.

At least I hope it's housekeeping at my door -

Phillip