If you’re game for some really sideways health, listen up.

A word of warning first for the fainthearted: if the whole concept of “channelling” freaks you out, turn away now.

Seth is what is described as a “non-physical personality essence” who was channelled by Jane Roberts in her New York apartment in years up to her death in 1984.

The extraordinary thing about Seth is how all-seeing, all-knowing and apparently all-understanding he was on so many subjects and aspects of life, death and … yes … health.

The Way Toward Health makes the following very familiar points to supporters of sideways treatments:

1. Why medicine and therapy often perpetuate illness.
2. How the practice of naming diseases can work against us.
3. The influence of religion in creating disease.
4. How children’s health is influenced by parents’ beliefs.
5. Humour as an effective factor in healing.

There’s not much there that any self-respecting alternative therapist would disagree with, except, perhaps, the use of the word “therapy”.

If this rings your bell, the book is available at Amazon and other good bookstores.

Have you considered the Nordic diet?

The wholesome and delicious Nordic Diet

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have launched an expensive programme to identify and test products from northern climes that could be part of a new healthy, Nordic diet.

Research by Elling Bere of Agder University in Norway, has indicated that native berries, such as blueberries, cowberries and cloudberries contain as much unsaturated healthy fat as fish per unit of energy.

He also determined that they were rich in antioxidants, which reduce the levels of harmful free-radicals in cells. Free radicals are known to cause heart disease, stroke and cancer.

It’s believed foods from the north could soon be replacing the Mediterranean diet currently top of nutritionists’ list for a long, vigorous life.

Instead of olive oil, citrus fruit, tomatoes and pasta, we could soon be shopping for elk, rapeseed oil, cowberries and cloudberries.

It has to be said, though, that the Danish authorities are not exactly neutral in promoting their own products. Whether European and American consumers will abandon their pizzas and Nicoise salads for soused herring remains to be seen.

However, it has been said that although foods of the south are low in saturated fats, the Med diet produces a lot of plump and overweight people.

Traditional Nordic diets are high in in fish like, salmon, trout, cod and herring, all rich in unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. The leaner qualities of northern foods, such as elk and reindeer, promote leaner people over time.

Another pointer in favour of Nordic foods is that they are more convenient to produce in colder climates, like Britain, than alternatives from the Mediterranean.

Things are looking up for the northern lifestyle.

In a counter-intuitive article in the New York Times, which quotes researchers in Germany and Boston, exercise and antioxidants don’t mix. “If you exercise to improve your metabolism and prevent diabetes, you may want to avoid antioxidants like vitamins C and E.”

Dr. Michael Ristow, a nutritionist at the University of Jena in Germany, said, “If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants. … antioxidants in general cause certain effects that inhibit otherwise positive effects of exercise, dieting and other interventions.”

It seems that exercise encourages muscle cells to metabolize glucose by combining carbon atoms with oxygen. In the process, highly reactive oxygen molecules are released which then attack various parts of the body damaging the tissues.

The Jena team found that in the group taking antioxidant vitamins, like vitamins C and E, there was no improvement in insulin sensitivity and almost no activation of the body’s natural defence mechanism against oxidative damage.

Once again, what we thought was done and dusted has been called into question by more research.

However, the advice does not apply to fruits and vegetables, Ristow said, even though they are high in antioxidants, it may be that other substances they contain outweigh any negative effect.

Andrew Shao of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association of dietary supplement makers, said, “I wouldn’t change recommendations for anyone based on one study. This is one small piece of the puzzle.”

The amount of oxidative damage increases with age, and according to one theory of aging it is a major cause of the body’s decline.

The findings appear in this week’s issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

John Evans

There are a lot of articles around about the causes of type-2 (late onset) diabetes.

Missing the obvious fact it’s almost always about the balance between diet and exercise, a variety of factors are adduced for this tiresome disease.

Did you know that both lack of and too much sleep can tip you over the edge? Either option can make you far more likely to develop diabetes, according to researchers at the Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada. The results are published in the journal, Sleep Medicine.

Optimum sleeping times are seven to eight hours a night, they say. If you undershoot or exceed that, you are two and a half times more likely to suffer blood sugar abnormalities.

Researcher Angelo Tremblay says, “The risk remains significant even after a statistical adjustment for body mass index and waist circumference. … It is clear the recommendation to seek an optimal sleep duration seems to be appropriate, but for some individuals it is easier to say than do.”

One factor that isn’t mentioned is the differences between individuals. Such research often assumes that everyone’s reaction to stress is identical. It isn’t.