A GOD-SHAPED HOLE? or AN EXAMINATION OF EVIL and FORGIVENESS By a Non-Church-going Christian "Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God." Thomas Merton Shoot a political opponent, massacre 1200 innocent civilians? Do we have here the presence of a God-shaped hole, a vacuum into which a lurking spirit of evil has, since time immemorial, been sucked? This is a question for the theologians, I suppose.   Theologians or not, I th

On looking for a caring and compassionate place in which our father could rest his dear tired bones on discharge from hospital, my sister and I alighted upon Ashgrove House Nursing Home in Purton. Purton. That rang a bell in my information-crammed (bra)inbox! Yes! There was a farm, wasn't there, a rare source of unpasteurised milk, very closeby? Yes! And so, after our first visit to inspect Ashgrove House, we veered off the winding road out of Purton onto The Hyde, a n

In Berlin, 2016 Now that he is dead, I don’t have to concern myself any more about his dementia, his health, do I?  It is over and all I can do is assure myself, whenever I feel sorrow and self-reproach, that I did  do my best. This fit, adventurous, previously healthy man was first diagnosed with osteoporosis in January 2020. This was a shock in itself, even though he was 87. But it was more horror I felt when, in March 2021, he was diagnosed with dementia with Lewy Bodie

I originally wrote a blog entitled Nutrition and the G-Word, and I was told by the site builder that it was a 36 minute read! I didn't feel it served me or the reader to have so many sub-subjects crammed together into one long piece. So I have split it up. This one is the first of eighteen smaller pieces, called Let Food be Thy Medicine. I have for now kept the longer (unedited) version just in case anyone wants it one gulp! It can be found much lower down in the blog l

Not long before our (unplanned) pregnancy we had become acquainted with the idea of 'attachment parenting' . And we'd liked it! The Continuum Concept' by Jean Liedloff (Da Capo Press, 1986) (buy here) was a particular book that had intrigued us. It had pointed us to a 'different' way of approaching our nurturing and family life. Instead of following the expected 'Western' practices, we joined others practicing 'attachment parenting' in following the Yequana people in

The brain, though! The HQ, enabling rationality, intellect, decision-making, emotion, creativity, survival, life! We have a triune brain....

God-given? Where, if at all, does God come into this? Do you believe in God? Do I? Is my openness to the possibility of God's...

Being human. Do we know what it actually is to be fully, optimally human? We are very willing to haul out the rather reductive "Oh, it's human nature" when discussing our fellow man's behaviour, good and bad. But what is true human nature? Have you ever wondered about your own deeply-suspected potential? Have you ever looked at those who have lived inspirational lives, those who have been ethically, creatively, physically and emotionally all of a piece, and wondered

I seemed to thrive on the fresh simple food (meat, fish, vegetables, milk, butter, lard, eggs), my mother cooked for our family. Looking back now, though, I realize that we also consumed an awful lot of white sugar in the form of cakes and daily desserts, as well as in our tea, coffee and cocoa! This didn't do my teeth much good (to my chagrin), but more importantly we didn't then know the affect that sugar can have on our health. Apart from my asthma, though, I felt fine

These simple but incredibly effective dietary measures can be seen as radical ‘first aid’ for bodies which, instead of being treated as...

A person's journey into physical and mental health starts with the mother's diet and lifestyle before and during gestation. After birth,...

Certainly it appears that more serious mental illness, from depression to bipolar and schizophrenia, may be alleviated or eliminated if the fundamentals of that person’s diet (aka their fuel, their building blocks ) are looked to. Drawing on decades of research, Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer, in his book Brain Energy , (BenBella Books, November 2020) (buy here) " outlines a revolutionary new understanding that for the first time unites our existing knowledge about me

(a bit challenging, this one) Our reliance on the NHS and our invariably unquestioning demand for pharmaceutical solutions leads us even...

... AND CARE HOMES We saw, through the two torturous years of lockdown, how our elders suffered. Care homes in particular became a very...

My raison d'etre for writing these essays is that I believe we might re-think our assumptions, our convenient acquiescence to the 'expected' ways in which our children begin their lives and our parents end them. Are tantrums natural, inevitable? Should children really be suffering more and more from obesity, type-2 diabetes and depression ? Is it inevitable that poor health comes with age? Are there other solutions to poor health than those provided by the pharmaceutical

My father was diagnosed with dementia with Lewy Bodies during 'lockdown' in 2021. We were informed by his doctor of the untreatable deterioration he could expect after about a year on the only available medication. This kind, dignified man might, among all the other horrors, end up incontinent, and become unable to swallow ... My horror and sorrow at this prospect impelled me to go home and research this disease. Surely there was something we could do that might stop or

AN A-WORD! Here's an A-word! It is a word I had never encountered before my father became ill. It is 'autophagy'. And it strikes me that it is an important word to understand if we want to pursue better health for ourselves and those we love. Yoshinori Ohsumi wins Nobel prize in medicine for work on autophagy Japanese cell biologist is named 2016 laureate for his discoveries on how the body’s cells break down and recycle their own components ( read here) Autophagy, sim

As I said earlier, I have three aunties and one precious father diagnosed with forms of dementia. Another of their sisters and their mother, my grandmother, died with this disease. We could fairly conclude then that, with five female members experiencing dementia, other females in the family may also be genetically predisposed to developing it. As mentioned earlier, the field of epigenetics highlights the influence of lifestyle and environment on the turning on/off of our

Not everyone can afford to consult a functional medicine practitioner or nutritionist. But there are umpteen generous and qualified professionals who are currently, via book, blog, video, lecture and interview, seeking to help us reverse some of the devastating illnesses and effects our food and health choices have led to. It seems that, with their help and in utilising our own good common sense, we are now being given the chance to at least explore a very necessary and ur

In A General Theory of Love , the authors expressed their concern that, as poor nurturing and neglect increases, and as access to knowledge, particularly technology (which is becoming increasingly toxic and addictive) continues to open up, a neglected child may become a very dangerous adult, with an 'educated' brain but with the survival part constantly switched on, rendering him very reactive to stress or perceived danger but quite without empathy. He may be a danger to