Traditionally, cobblers’ children are the worst
shod and a tailor’s family the most shabby. It is nonsense,
of course. Most tradesmen and professional workers look after their
family because it is by the appearance of their wives and children
that the general public judge their products and
skills...
The popular idea that doctors’ children are always poor,
thin, wheezy, snotty-nosed and neglected is a myth. Most of them
have had the best medical care available as a result of their
parents having inside knowledge about the differing abilities of
the local medical fraternity. Doctors’ children, fathers or
others (there are now more women qualifying as doctors than men),
have been brought up to expect the worst and prepare for it. In
consequence, no investigation is omitted if there is any doubt
about the diagnosis in any member of their family. One of the
secrets of successful treatment is that it must be early: too often
initial symptoms are overlooked. Once a diagnosis is made, not only
are the specialists consulted, but also every effort is made to
obtain the latest and most-effective drug.
Keeping a family looking spick and span and oozing with good
health isn’t only a matter of dad or mum having access to a
prescription pad, the right drugs locked away in the bathroom
cupboard and an address book crammed with names and addresses of
the cleverest physicians and surgeons in the area. Ensuring a
family’s fitness is equally dependent on knowing how to
prevent disease.
Treat troubles early and prevent them by encouraging everyone in
the household to take the appropriate preventive measures. This is
as important as it is to treat diseases once they have occurred.
The keys to the world of health are held in the diet and exercise
the family take. Exercise, once adult, should be regular and
steady, at least three times a week, preferably every day, but not
violent. A brisk walk for three quarters of an hour is enough for
those without obvious risk factors for heart disease; twice as much
if it can be managed is a better preventative measure if someone is
known to have diabetes, high blood pressure or a raised cholesterol
level.
Just as doctors’ knowledge of pharmacology and pharmacy
has been revolutionised in the last sixty years, so has their
understanding of diet, vitamins, trace elements and the importance
of moderate but regular, steady exercise. The older generation had
the advantage of family mealtimes with traditional fresh food. When
I was young, our food was always organic: the chemical farming
revolution came in only with the Second World War when every last
ounce of potatoes and wheat had to be squeezed out of the land.
Fish was readily available and even in the most rural districts the
fish van came round the houses two or three times a week.
Inevitably the old order changes. Now it is up to every household
to make use of the knowledge acquired by doctors during their
training. This has taught them not only of the best types of food
but the scientific reasons why it has health-giving properties. It
has also alerted them to the problems that can follow an
over-reliance on convenience foods and how the old values of the
traditional country fare can be obtained in the 21st century.
In my childhood, we always had plenty of fish. Without exception
cod was served for lunch on Fridays. We also had long-shore
herrings or bloaters (lightly smoked herrings) at least twice a
week. A relative who lived in Scotland regularly sent us salmon,
another oily fish, and in the appropriate season, our own patients
presented us with sea trout. Fish was an important part of our
diet. I was brought up to believe that there were few diseases,
ranging from arthritis to the common cold, that couldn’t be
helped by taking it. If these entrenched family views weren’t
enough to teach us about the importance of fish, our experience at
school reinforced the home lessons. Our health was preserved once
at school by being lined up before the first lesson every morning
for a spoonful of cod liver oil (wimps like me were allowed cod
liver oil and malt or halibut liver oil capsules).
My children and now my grandchildren, were born into a very
different era. We now all know that much of the value of fish is in
omega 3, an essential fatty acid. Fish oil, omega 3, is an
anti-inflammatory, hence its ability to ease arthritic pains. The
amount of it in fish, its best source in the diet, also helps to
achieve the correct omega 3 to omega 6 ratio.
It is now known that omega 3 and fish oil in general don’t
only keep grandparents’ joints more supple, but their
grandchildren’s brains in peak condition. There is good
evidence that omega 3 in pregnancy and in a child’s early
life affects intellectual development as far as the primary school
and probably beyond. Omega 3 has proved of great value in treating,
and perhaps preventing, mild cases of ADHD, hyperactivity with a
poor attention span, without resorting to drugs. There is no better
way of taking omega 3 fish oil than with Brain Boosters (see page
6). Two Brain Boosters a day will give the modern child as much
omega 3 as my herrings for breakfast. Fish oil can also provide the
recommended daily allowance of vitamin A but this shouldn’t
be overdone.
I never had any daughters but if I had, I like other doctors
would know that one of the best ways of keeping osteoporosis at bay
at the time of the menopause and later is for them to have adequate
supplies of calcium and vitamin D in adolescence. Fifty per cent of
a woman’s later bone strength is laid down in the two years
either side of the time of her first period. There is a tendency
for young girls to become food faddists in order to look like the
models who grace the pages of every magazine. They, and most young
people whose eggs haven’t come from the hens that foraged
around the house or vegetables from the garden, can make certain
that modern life isn’t depriving them of essential nutrients
by taking multi-vitamins and minerals daily.
Food supplements are not just for children but are important at
all times of life. Tomatoes, for example, provided they are ripe,
contain lycopene. This can be lifesaving as it helps prevent cancer
of the breast and prostate. A standardised lycopene capsule
contains as much lycopene as six tomatoes.
back to the top »