The Threat To Your Health And How To Combat It
First Edition - published January 2006
by Dr John Millward - a review by Chris Woollams
Dr John Millward is a GP and a homeopath. He also has a very keen interest in health and wellbeing, and understands the importance of minerals in the matrix of various illnesses better than most experts.
A while back he approached me with his idea to write a book – the book that had been brewing up in him for quite a while. I think it would be fair to say that the brewing process was borne out of sheer frustration. Indeed the book tells a little of his background and how some 30 years ago GPs held their clinics for 60-90 minutes in the morning, and then undertook some home calls. They returned in the evening to repeat the process.
While it would be wrong to think of this as leisurely, it did allow him to understand the patients, know some of their family and family history and he feels it made him wiser and of more value at addressing their illness and tackling the cause of their symptoms.
But a Doctor’s life has changed. Stress, overwork, little time per patient, more chronic illness, yet per capita there is still the same ratio of doctors to patient numbers in the UK. What is going wrong?
John has several theories but the two crucial out takes I have from this book can be described as ‘problem – solution’.
Under the heading of ‘problem’, the cause for the doctor’s malaise, he focuses firmly on drugs. Drugs are to blame. Not only don’t they cure a problem, they don’t actually address the root cause, according to John. It’s the ultimate ‘cover up’. And as a result the illness never goes away, resulting in even more and more visits to see the doctor, busier doctors and more people with long-term health problems, and a greater (wasted) budget for National Health.
Certainly, from my own experiences with people asking CANCERactive for Personal Prescriptions, I have been struck by just how many people had an illness some 6 years or so before their cancer developed. Often something requiring large ongoing quantities of antibiotics or steroids, a problem with their digestion, heart, thyroid or simply stemming from being overweight. In most cases the underlying illness simply is not tackled so the patient proceeds through the next 6 years of life with the problem still festering away, plus the remnants of their drug regime sloshing around in their body. If only they had made a trip to a qualified nutritionist 6 years before!
Here John goes further. ‘The Treason Within’ he blames on the quick-fix mentality of Governments desperate to be seen to be doing something (anything) and thus their open brief to drug companies to come up with the good – any goods – that might put them in a better light. And because Doctors don’t protest about their increasing role as computer screen reading, purveyors of synthetic medicines that rarely cure, he sees the Doctors, of whom he would have expected better, as sadly part of the problem. If you are not part of the solution…………
But that is the first half of the book, and the second does tackle the ‘solution’. If your doctor cannot help you sort out your illness, then maybe Dr John and his book can. One of his key concerns is the loss of minerals, including trace elements, from our diets (and your average mass market High Street supplement doesn’t help much these days either). John goes through which minerals (or lack of them) are associated with which illnesses, and it is a record borne out of both science and experience.
There is much more to this book – unsurprisingly it has a ‘flavour’; a tone of the warm, wise old GP about it. He tells his anecdotes with a light touch, and even when he talks about the ‘Treason’ it is more with sadness than with animosity.
Gentleman John was absolutely right to get this book off his chest – there’s something for everyone in it, patients and Doctors alike. And, who knows, you just may find that the illness you have been taking medicine from your doctor for, might just be caused by a dietary shortage of minerals? And that’s why it has never gone away.
The book is available from a number of suppliers – there are copies available in the Natural Selection Shop.
BUY IT NOW ONLINE - ONLY £12.99 (plus p+p)
Comments from a Reader
"Dear Dr Millward,
I’ve just started reading your book, ’The Treason Within’ and all I can say is- bloody wonderful!
I was terminally ill ten years ago. After my left kidney was removed, four months later I had a scan which revealed a new, four centimete tumour. Homoeopathy, Tibetan medicine and Qigong saved my life and I remain well for most of the time.
I’ve written a book, It’s only a disease! How I fought terminal cancer and won. I feel very sad that people have been taught- almost been fed with their mother’s milk- that GPs are good people and implicitly to be trusted. So often the result is people being led, lamblike to the slaughter. You know this of course and being a doctor you could say what you say but it must have taken considerable courage. Although my book is quite critical of allopathic medicine I felt I had to temper my criticisms to stand a chance of finding a publisher.
Anyway, thanks for your courageous stand. We do need more like you.
Best wishes,
K M"