Reference Material

Introduction

Even before I started my training to become a UK GP in the 1990’s the idea of, in some shape or form, becoming a GP specialising in knowledge about what was then called ‘fringe medicine’ loomed large in my subconscious.
This was no doubt the reason I compulsively collected a large amount of information that came my way relating to the subject. And I never threw it away.

As any GP will be aware, the magazines Pulse, GP and Doctor are magazines circulated free to GPs, and inform us of the issues of the day, the medico- politics of the day, the clinical issues of the day and keep us up to date within the profession.
As a member of the BMA, I also automatically received the BMJ.

The 400 + odd articles listed here, mostly taken from the above mentioned magazines are part of a larger collection, that I have.
They are arranged in no particular subject or chronological order.
I have decided to put this list on my website as it gives a flavour of where I’m coming from. This is relevant to potential clients and to GPs who may feel confident to register no objection to a client seeking my opinion.
When looking through the list, the letter S refers to size. So S~1 means the article has a written content of approximately one A4 page of writing. S~3, or S~4 would refer to fairly substantial articles.

Acknowledgements

In this introduction I wish to pay homage to 5 individuals who have made the work of doctors such as myself possible.

The first is Dr Patrick Pietroni FRCGP MRCP DCH who founded the Marylebone Health Centre in the 1980’s which was the first of its kind. I vividly recall him giving a talk in about 1985 at Kingston Hospital Postgraduate Centre on ‘Is Alternative Medicine alternative?’.The centre was totally packed out. I was working in the hospital as an ENT registrar at the time. I have his book, The Greening of Medicine.1990.

The second is Dr George Lewith MA, DM, MRCP, MRCGP who appears to have spent his entire working life researching and writing on the integration of Complementary Therapies with mainstream medicine. His book Complementary Medicine: an integrated approach ( 1996) which he co-authored with Dr Julian Kenyon MD, MB, ChB and Dr Peter Lewis BMed Sci, BM BS, MRCGP, DRCOG, FAMAS ,has been something of a bible to me.

The third is Prof Edzard Ernst MD PhD FMed Sci, FSB, FRCP, FRCPEd, formerly professor of the Dept of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter.
His vast academic research has given many definitive answers, which have shaped GP and UK Government thinking.

The fourth is Dr Adrian White BM BCh, DRCOG, who was associated with Prof Ernst’s Department and helped compile The Comp Med Bulletin which again, has been a kind of bible to GPs in this area.

The fifth is Dr Tanvir Jamil BSc BM, MRCGP author of Complementary Medicine- A Practical Guide 1997. This is again a useful GP reference work.

The present situation

Whereas there was great enthusiasm and interest in the GP community in the 1980’s and 90’s, a combination of Prof Ernst’s findings about the possibility of regulating Complementary Therapy, medico-legal issues of GPs getting involved in this area, and the new GP contract in 2005 which sent GP workload spiralling caused this whole subject to fall off a cliff. New articles on Complementary therapies, which had been plentiful before, virtually disappeared after this date. And it has stayed in limbo since then. There are now only a handful of GMC registered UK doctors involved in this field- all close to retirement age. GMC revalidation is an issue here. Once they retire there will be none left.
Now aged 61, I consider myself retired with my consulting practice being my hobby in retirement. Philosophically, looking back I can see how practical General Practice has changed over the decades. Small practices are, from what I can see, no longer financially viable in the longer term and will close with larger practices becoming even larger by absorbing their lists. Most small practices up and down the UK operate from premises privately owned by the GPs. As they retire many will decide to cash in on their assets, close shop and sell. I suspect that by 2025 most of these will disappear from use as NHS premises. This will have profound implications for the type of personal doctor-patient relationship and the continuity of care that patients in my day were used to. But then the practice of medicine has always faced continual change and has always adapted. This needs to be seen over a decade at a time. Think of it like this: what was medical practice like in the 1960’s, the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s and we will soon be at the end of this decade.
Whereas the ‘art’ of medicine remains pretty much the same, the ‘science’ changes as time goes on. When I started in general practice, offering menopausal women HRT was ‘de rigeur’. Its different now. Today large numbers of people, including myself, take a statin. In 10 years time I wouldn’t be surprised if statins turn out to be no magic bullet at all. Dr Mehmet Oz, a famous television US doctor was being interviewed by Time Magazine. He was asked about the best advice he’d ever been given. He replied recalling an aged Professor of Medicine at Harvard, who was his mentor and told him: ‘Son, remember that when you’re done practicing, half of the things we are teaching you now will have proved to have been wrong’.

My Reference List

I have some 420 items listed here, which are individually numbered and stored in box files in my home. As a means of reference this is how I classify them:
A. articles on allergy, child allergy, immunity,etc
B. articles on back pain, muculoskeletal pain, pain management, migraine, etc.
C. articles on Chest Medicine, Cancer and also upper respiratory conditions such as Hay Fever.
D. articles on Dermatology
E) articles on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
F. articles on Female issues.
G. articles on Gut conditions including ‘candidiasis’
H. articles on Mental Health related conditions
J. articles on Herbal Medicine, diet, supplements, etc.
T. articles on Therapies and trainings of various sorts
M. Miscellaneous category which don’t easily fall into any of the above.

This is it:
Allergy, immunity,etc
41 43c 55 57 58 62 72 89 103 109 110 115 152 156 192 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 252 263 265 266 279 290 296 298 307 315 318 319 329 353 397 398 399.
Back Pain, Musculoskeletal, pain management etc
6 9 14 17 34 35 36 52 53 54 91 95 108 124 132 133 134 136 146 151 155 157 161 162 166 168 172 174 176 177 181 211 212 214 219 220 222 224 225 245 246 259 270 276 300 305 317 336 344 346 347 366 370 376 379 396 405 410 416 417.
Chest Medicine, Hay Fever, Cancer
101 130 160 183 197 200 268 282 311 322 339 402 403 412 415.
Dermatology
77 94 102 127 138 147 148 175 236 256 289 297 338 404 408.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
5 10 79 80 90 92 93 96 158 186 196 242 281 292 301 308 309 324 384 409.
Female conditions
16 20 45 46 87 107 120 143 153 171 178 198 199 221 253 258 275 285 294 303 369 385 386 387 389 407 414.
Gut conditions and ‘candidiasis’
30 56 60 69 73 81 83 84 97 119 145 170 180 193 194 203 239 240 248 249 257 273 295 312 313 314 334 337 374 375 393 401.
Mental Health
18 42 86 99 116 125 149 150 179 188 271 331 377 378 388 392 400 413 418.
Herbal Medicine, diet, supplements, etc.
16 22 23 26 27 31 33 39 59 65 70 75 78 98 106 114 121 129 131 135 137 140 144 154 185 201 202 204 205 206 207 208 233 234 235 241 250 255 272 274 277 278 287 288 293 299 304 320 321 323 325 326 332 335 340 342 371 372 390 391 406 421.
Therapies and trainings
15 19 21 24 25 43a,b 51 67 71 74 76 82 88 100 105 113 117 118 122 123 139 141 167 182 187 189 190 209 215 216 217 218 286 327 328 343 345 350 351 352 356 380 394 395 419 420.
Miscellaneous
8 11 28 37 40 44 47 48 49 50 61 63 64 66 85 104 111 112 126 128 142 159 163 164 165 169 173 184 191 195 210 238 243 244 247 260 262 283 284 291 302 306 310 316 330 333 341 349 354 355 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 367 368 373 381 382 383 411.