A related topic to ghosts or apparitions, and probably more comforting, if it were not so difficult to believe, is the topic of fleshly manifestations. By that I mean the appearance in this world of entities from beyond death that appear alive and communicative with humans.

These living manifestations can be touched, feel solid and anatomically complete. Sometimes only a body part shows up, but witnesses have been very emphatic: it feels real, a hand has bones and skin and can pick up objects in this reality.

As I said, it’s almost impossible to believe—even for me—when it is perfectly credible within my own model of primary consciousness. If consciousness did truly come first, then matter and energy are created by it, along with space and time. It should be possible.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The discarnate beings involved report that it is very hard to generate enough energy to manifest a whole person. But such events have occurred, been witnessed and fully investigated before and after, to exclude any possibility of fraud and, in the end, it’s up to you whether you believe the accounts or not.

One particularly outstanding individual, capable of such manifestations, was the Icelander Indridi Indridason. He was associated with various light phenomena, levitation of objects; sometimes levitation of his own body; knocks on walls; clicking sounds; materialization of hands and forms; invisible playing of musical instruments; independent voices in the room (definitely NOT coming from Indridi’s own larynx); dematerializations and apports (physical objects which appear from nowhere).

Indridi Indridason (1883–1912) 

This amazing individual was investigated and tested by several heavyweights, including Einar Kvaran, a well-known writer and editor; Haraldur Nielsson, professor of theology at the University of Iceland; and Bjorn Jönsson, a newspaper editor and later prime minister of Iceland. Together they formed the Experimental Society, specifically to study Indridason.

His seances were documented in numerous reports and it was the practice of the society to write up what was observed in a book of minutes immediately after the event and this was signed off by a second person each time, who checked the documents for accuracy. From 1908 to 1909 Indridi’s powers were also scrutinized by a well-known skeptic Gudmundur Hannesson, an outstanding scientist who received many honors, in Iceland and abroad and who later became professor of medicine at the university of Iceland.

Gudmundur is quoted as saying “The physical phenomena are unquestionable realities”. He was no longer a skeptic.

One of the common manifestations of Indridason was direct (disembodied) voices and even singers sometimes showed up. The voices came from various parts of the room. Gudmundur reports on occasion more than one voice was heard at once. That effectively neutralizes the pathetic attempt to discredit Indridason by claiming he was somehow casting his voice (while in a near coma) and fooling the investigators present.

Erlendur Haraldsson, was professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Iceland. Earlier he had studied at the Universities of Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Freiburg. His PhD was from the University of Freiburg. He took it upon himself to re-investigate the claims surrounding Indridi Indridason and all that is written here is from his paper in Leslie Kean’s book Surviving Death (chapter 23).

Kean’s book (Three Rivers Press, New York, 2017) is an amazing compilation of investigations, events and personalities related to psychic and mediumship phenomena of all kinds. She gives an account of her personal experience in 2015 and 2016 in the presence of a modern British super-medium called Stewart Alexander.

Buckle up and hang on to your hat. This is going to be a rough ride if you don’t believe in the supernatural and contacts from beyond the grave!

Paring it down to the bare basics, as a preliminary, Leslie investigated the seance room and found nothing that could permit of any fraud. In addition, Alexander was strapped to a chair, with his wrists held tightly by the plastic cable ties used these days by police, instead of handcuffs. These could only be removed by a wirecutter, which would be heard. In addition, Stewart had glowing markers attached to the knees of his pants. There was no chance of him doing ANYTHING, never mind staging an elaborate hoax!

The lights went down. Once Stewart was in a trance, three voices manifested, one of which was a male charmer called Walter, who took control of the séance. As a “warm up” he pulled Stewart’s wrist right through the plastic tie and then pulled the plastic tie through the chair arm, all while Leslie was hanging onto Stewart’s arm! He gave Leslie the tie (still locked in a loop) as a memento, to take home.

But the séance got really interesting with the manifestation. With Stewart on one side of the table—left arm refixed by another tie—and Walter the discarnate voice, asked Leslie to place her right hand on the table. Her book shows an easy-to-grasp graphic of what followed, which I got AI to re-arrange into horizontal mode:

A mist formed at the opposite side of the table, which gradually became dense and started to spread across the table towards her. It soon took the form of a hand, moving on its own, which crept towards her. I think a lot of people, thanks to the movies, would have been terrified at this point and maybe even broken off the proceedings. But Leslie held her ground and in fact describes feeling an astonishing joy beyond her ability to describe. The spooky hand finally took hold of her own; a touch from beyond the grave!

The thing is, it felt like a normal hand. She could feel the bones, muscles and fingernails as it moved. That is the crucial difference, of course, between an apparition and a full manifestation.

Leslie was present later for a full manifestation, meaning a complete human being (Dr. Barnett) appeared to the sitters. He walked among them, spoke and touched them.

I won’t go further into this. If what I have laid before you gives comfort and security that there is life beyond death; that we survive as conscious thinking entities; then by all means explore these phenomena. Leslie Kean’s book is a great starting place. Erlendur Haraldsson wrote an account of his investigation: Indridi Indridason: The Icelandic Physical Medium. Stewart Alexander has written an autobiographical book titled An Extraordinary Journey: The Memoirs of a Physical Medium.

I admit, some people may feel baffled by the weirdness, maybe even a little scared of the implications of it all. But if you are brave and want to get rid of the fear of dying, once and for all, you need to be open to the many comforting truths out there that are simply suppressed or ignored by mainstream scientists, who “know” it is all rot (even without investigating!)

To your good health,
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor

Old man marries attractive young woman. His friends are concerned because of his age. Aren’t you afraid vigorous sex could be fatal? they ask him. If she dies, she dies, he answered philosophically.

Actually, sex can be fatal. It’s a nice way to go, some may think. Maybe. I’ll let you know (joke, don’t write me)!

For reasons that will be obvious as you read, there is only one image for this newsletter! This is a stock photo not related to the cases below

But actually what is on my mind right now is a strange and unusual way sex could do you harm. It’s rare but – Hey! – this is my newsletter and I like sharing interesting stuff with you all. Besides, it’s another kind of “I told ‘em!” — you know, one of those things where I was writing about it decades ago.

What started this meditation off was a medical report in the British Journal of Medicine of a young woman who had sex with her husband, passed out and nearly died.¹

In fact it was an allergic reaction and led to anaphylaxis, that very dangerous event of circulatory collapse that can be fatal. Fortunately she was a known allergic, in some danger, so she already had an emergency epinephrine pen (adrenalin to those of you in Europe) and gave herself a shot, which probably saved her life.

She was still in a state of semi-collapse when the ambulance arrived but the paramedics were able to stabilize her and get her to hospital, where she made a full recovery.

But allergy to what? That’s the strange part of the story: she had a known allergy to penicillin. But she had taken none. It was her husband’s medication. He had just started taking amoxycillin, they had intercourse, he ejaculated and there was enough penicillin in his semen to cause his wife to react badly!

This is something I’ve written about for decades, particularly reactions to food via semen. The husband eats a food; the wife is allergic to it; a bad reaction ensues. It’s one of the dark corners of food allergy; you know that food allergies was my wheelhouse for decades.

Indeed, I even reported a case where the wife was allergic to her husband’s actual semen. That could have been very tricky, of course. But fortunately I was using an allergy neutralization method at the time and was able to protect her sufficiently for her marriage to survive undisturbed.

Surprisingly, the top doctors have remained relatively unaware of this important risk factor and according to Cassim Akhoon, MB ChB, of King’s College Hospital in London, who was the lead author of the report in the BMJ, this effect is not something allergy specialists are mindful of, nor counselling people on when they’re being given a diagnosis of a drug allergy.

There is so little awareness of this phenomenon that the young woman patient  expressed concern that the paramedics, nurse, and physician at the emergency department did not believe her when she told them she had not personally taken any penicillin, when she had a known allergy to it. “This was incredibly frustrating to have to explain multiple times and not feeling believed,” she said.

I personally never had the semen assayed for content in any of my cases (mostly food anyway, wouldn’t be practical). But there was an interesting case in 1989 in which a penicillin-sensitive woman suffered an immediate allergic reaction while her husband was receiving intravenous mezlocillin at home. The investigators demonstrated 42 micrograms of mezlocillin per millilitre of semen, providing direct evidence that his treatment had introduced the antibiotic into his seminal fluid.²

In 2019 a 31-year-old woman in Spain developed widespread hives, vomiting, breathlessness and wheezing following sexual activity involving vaginal intercourse and oral sex. She had a history of penicillin allergy but had taken no medication herself. Her partner was taking amoxicillin–clavulanic acid and ibuprofen for an ear infection; his last doses were approximately four hours before sex. She required adrenaline and other emergency treatment and recovered. The doctors suspected amoxicillin transferred in semen. However, the drug was not measured in semen, and she did not attend subsequent allergy testing, so this remains a suspected mechanism rather than a laboratory-confirmed one.

It’s important to bear in mind that an allergy to a drug carried in semen is different from allergy to seminal proteins themselves. The 2019 report discusses both, along with earlier reports involving penicillin, a heavy anti-psychotic medicine thioridazine and even a chemo agent transfer, vinblastine.³

My concern in all this is that what is actually happening will get missed in most cases. The majority of doctors have never been opened up to this possibility and, if you don’t think about it, you won’t find it!

I am supposing it would be quite rare when a patient is brought in collapsed that the medics would ask: “Have you had sex in the last few hours?”

Of course my clever readers will realize it is something that affects women primarily. But my curiosity was raised and I searched. I could only find one case of a man affected by drugs his wife was taking…

A 37-year-old man presented with a 7-day history of a lesion on his willy! His medical history was unremarkable, and he denied taking any medications in the last 8 months. His only sexual partner, his wife, was healthy apart from the occasional self-medication using diclofenac for pain.

Complete blood workup and routine urinalysis revealed no abnormalities. HIV antibodies, venereal disease, and immunoglobulins G and M against human herpes simplex viruses were all negative.

Drug intake history showed no recent medications, but he did report that his wife had just begun a course of diclofenac for her neck pains. His eruption occurred 2 days after sexual contact with his wife. Thus, a clinical diagnosis of a drug eruption after sexual contact with a partner on diclofenac was made.⁴

The same mechanism could conceivably affect a drug-allergic homosexual man exposed to his partner’s semen, although I could not locate a published case documenting this.

To your health,Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor

References

1. Akhoon C, et al “Systemic Anaphylaxis Following Intravaginal Exposure to Amoxicillin Transferred in Seminal Fluid” BMJ Case Reports; DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2025-271777
2. Arch Intern Med. 1989 Jul;149(7):1603-4.
3. “Anaphylaxis Probably Induced by Transfer of Amoxicillin via Oral Sex.” BMJ Case Reports. 2019;12(3):e227398
4. Maatouk, I., Moutran, R., Fahed, M., & Helou, J. (2014). A “Sexually Transmitted” Fixed Drug Reaction. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 41(10), 626–627. https://doi.org/10.1097/OLQ.0000000000000173

A quick quiz. Which of these is the greediest eater in your body?

Your brain is about 2% of your body weight. Yet it burns about 20% of your energy. It’s a small car with the fuel bill of a truck.

And when the fuel runs short, the brain complains first. The word that sits on the tip of your tongue and won’t come. The film you watched last Tuesday whose title has simply vanished. Reading the same paragraph three times and taking in none of it.

Most people put this down to age. I don’t buy it! A good deal of it is an energy problem. And you can do something about an energy problem.

So here are three ways to feed that hungry brain. You’ll know the first two, though I’ll give each one a twist. The third almost nobody knows about. It doesn’t go in your mouth at all.

First, Where Does the Brain Get Its Energy?

From mitochondria. These are tiny power plants, thousands of them packed into most of your cells, and brain cells are especially well stocked. They take the food you eat and the oxygen you breathe and turn them into ATP, the body’s gasoline.

Feed the power plants and you feed the brain. Starve them and you get the fog.

Hold on to that picture. Everything below comes back to it.

Way #1: Food (Put the Right Fuel In, Keep the Bandits Out)

I’ll be brief, because you know the basics. Three that earn their place:

Oily fish: salmon, sardines, mackerel. Your brain is built largely of fat, and the omega-3 called DHA is one of its main building blocks. Twice a week.

Dark berries: blueberries above all. Your power plants throw off free radicals as exhaust, and berry pigments help mop them up.

Eggs: the yolk carries choline, the raw material for acetylcholine, the messenger your brain uses to lay down memories.

(And yes, a square of dark chocolate. Good news at last!)

Now the twist. What you take OUT can matter as much as what you put in.

Back in the 1980s and 90s I was known as something of a king of “brain allergies.” Case after case of fog, low moods and worse traced back to everyday foods. Often perfectly wholesome ones. Wheat. Milk. Even eggs, which I praised a moment ago. That’s the maddening part: one person’s brain food is another person’s bandit.

I call them bandit foods because they quietly rob you of energy and clarity, and brain fog is one of the commonest signs. Here’s a clue from forty years of detective work: the culprit is often the food you would hate most to give up. My short book Bandit Foods shows you how to catch yours.

Way #2: Supplements (Spark Plugs for the Power Plants)

Two I’d put at the top of any brain list.

CoQ10: your mitochondria cannot make energy without it. The trouble is, your body makes less of it as you age. Worse, statin drugs block the very pathway your body uses to make CoQ10. So the pill meant to protect your heart may be draining your brain’s batteries. I’ve written about statins and memory before, and I’ll keep at it until somebody listens! If you’re on a statin, ask about CoQ10.

Lion’s Mane mushroom: a shaggy white thing that looks like a lion’s mane, or an old man’s beard, depending on your mood. Japanese researchers found compounds in it that stimulate nerve growth factor, a protein brain cells need to grow and repair. In a small Japanese trial, 30 older adults, aged 50 to 80, whose memory had slipped enough to earn a diagnosis, took it or a dummy tablet for 16 weeks. The Lion’s Mane group’s scores on a thinking test rose steadily while they took it. Four weeks after they stopped, the scores had dropped back down.

Remember that last detail. It comes up again.

Supplements support the machinery. But no capsule can do what comes next.

Way #3: Light (The One Almost Nobody Knows About)

Here’s the bit I love.

Your mitochondria are built to absorb light. Only a narrow band of it, mind you: red and near-infrared. Go shorter and you reach ultraviolet, which harms cells. Go much longer, out to radio waves, and it passes straight through without doing a thing. Inside that narrow window, light nudges the power plants to make more energy.

This autumn I spent the best part of two hours with Dr. Lew Lim, the man who developed light therapy through the nose in the mid-1990s and went on to found Vielight. More than 40 brain studies have now used his devices. I asked him whether we could say, in one line, that this light stimulates and revives tired mitochondria. His answer: “Yeah, based on all the research done.”

His devices use 810 nanometres, which he called “just about the most researched wavelength.”

The hard part is getting the light IN. Through the skull it has to fight past hair, scalp, bone and a layer of fluid, and most of it scatters on the way. So Dr. Lim went in through the nose. (Up the nose, yes. I only promised it wouldn’t go in your mouth!) When he first started, people found the idea, in his words, “kind of goofy and strange.” Then his team measured it. Just above the roof of your nose sits the thinnest bone in your skull, and the light reaches the brain about 20 times more efficiently that way.

Vielight’s own video shows a live brain scan from a study by Baycrest and the University of Toronto. The light goes in through the nose, and within three to six minutes the whole brain responds, on both sides. Watching it is quite something!

One warning, because this is where keen people go wrong. With light, MORE can set you back. A little coaxes the cell along. Too much floods it with free radicals faster than your body can clear them. That’s why the Neuro headset switches itself off after 20 minutes. I told Dr. Lim I hoped nobody would be daft enough to use it two or three or four times a day. Ever the fair-minded scientist, he reminded me that some people handle it perfectly well. We’re all different.

That goes for rhythm, too. The Neuro pulses its light, either at a calm 10 beats a second (Alpha) or a sharp 40 (Gamma). One professional hockey player couldn’t tolerate Gamma and did well on Alpha.

And remember the Lion’s Mane trial, where the benefit faded once people stopped? Dr. Lim told me a story with the same shape. A group of retired football players did well over six weeks of sessions in a clinic. When the sessions stopped, they began to slide back almost at once. Given a device to use at home, they recovered to where they had been.

Brain care is like brushing your teeth. You keep doing it.

How to Feed Your Brain, Starting This Week

1. Notice when your brain runs low. The time of day the words go, the slump after lunch. That’s your energy bill showing.
2. Eat for your brain. Oily fish twice a week, berries or an egg most days.
3. Hunt one bandit. Pick the food you’d hate most to give up and drop it completely for two weeks. Notice how your head feels.
4. Ask about CoQ10. Especially if you’re over 60 or on a statin. Talk to whoever prescribed it.
5. Give your power plants light. One 20-minute session, sitting down, two to seven times a week.

If number five is new to you (and for most people it is), hear it from the man himself. Dr. Lim is refreshingly careful: he tells you what the studies show and stops there. Start with the few minutes where he explains why the nose works. If you’re hooked, the rest of our conversation is chaptered, so you can jump to whatever you care about.

Hear Dr. Lim explain why the nose works

It’s never too late. Start right now.

To your health,

Prof. Keith

Related reading: Statins and memory loss · The anti-aging benefits of CoQ10

Sources

1. Dr. Lew Lim in conversation with Prof. Keith, “Light and the Brain” webinar, October 29, 2026 (alternative-doctor.com/neuro4). Brain energy 7:28; why the nose 8:49; light, not heat 12:20; mitochondria and 810 nm 19:35; through the skull 22:21; when people stopped 28:26; can you overdo it? 1:20:33.
2. Vielight explainer video shown in the webinar (Baycrest Health Sciences and University of Toronto fMRI study, intranasal 810 nm).
3. Mori K, et al. Improving effects of the mushroom Yamabushitake (Hericium erinaceus) on mild cognitive impairment: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Phytotherapy Research. 2009;23(3):367-372.
4. Kawagishi H, et al. Hericenones C, D and E, stimulators of nerve growth factor (NGF)-synthesis, from the mushroom Hericium erinaceum. Tetrahedron Letters. 1991;32(35):4561-4564.
5. Hamblin MR. Mechanisms and applications of the anti-inflammatory effects of photobiomodulation. AIMS Biophysics. 2017;4(3):337-361.
6. Scott-Mumby K. Can You Really Prevent Dementia? The Surprising Truth. Mother Whale Inc, 2025.

The first I ever heard of this was back in med school during Victorian times (NO! It’s just a joke. I’m not that old). We had a presentation for residents and medical students by Dr Denis Parsons Burkitt (1911–1993). This is the man for whom Burkitt’s lymphoma is named. This is a common and aggressive childhood tumor of the jaw and abdomen. In the late 1950s, by mapping its geographic spread across equatorial Africa, he proved that the cancer’s distribution matched regions with high rainfall and malaria. Burkitt’s research led to the discovery of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), making it the first human cancer proven to have a viral cause. 

Nowadays EBV is implicated in a whole range of nasty tumors. I should worry, because I had a severe infection with EBV when I was in my teens. I got hepatitis so bad, I turned bright yellow (jaundice, of course).

Today it is estimated that about 2.3 million new cancer cases are caused by infections, including gastric cancer, cervical cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, leukemias and lymphomas, and nasopharyngeal cancer, which accounted for 12% of all cancer cases worldwide (figures for 2024).

Helicobacter pylori, human papillomavirus, hepatitis B virus, Epstein-Barr virus, and hepatitis C virus accounted for nearly all cancers caused by infections.

Among the 12 commonest carcinogenic infectious agents, the largest numbers of cancer cases were attributable to:

• Helicobacter pylori: 760,000 cases

• Human papillomavirus (HPV): 750,000 cases

• Hepatitis B virus (HBV): 360,000 cases

• Epstein-Barr virus (EBV): 260,000 cases

• Hepatitis C virus (HCV): 160,000 cases

By contrast Kaposi’s sarcoma, the plague of HIV infections, clocks up only 35,000 cases

The Mechanism

But why? You might have noticed that all the infectious agents but one (Helicobacter) are viruses. Most cancers attributable to H. pylori were non-cardia (lower end) gastric cancers (700,000 cases). 

This is no surprise. We don’t know much about viruses (astonishingly little, actually) but we do know they are bad news! They insert their DNA into a healthy cell and force it to start churning out their own DNA (some viruses it’s RNA), so we get more viruses. The full mechanism is still not fully understood.

But even the layman can figure out that messing with DNA can have consequences and one of those consequences is cancer.

According to Harriet Rumgay, PhD, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, and colleagues: “Our findings underscore the importance of accelerating control of infectious agents to achieve cancer prevention goals.”

Testing and treatment for H. pylori, Hep B, Hep C, and HIV; and the adoption of cervical screening programs. That’s a big problem, in my view, because of the many false positives and unnecessary actions which can, in themselves, be damaging to young women.

The challenge lies in the infections that currently have no effective prevention tools, of which EBV is the most notable.

So it’s a familiar old message coming over the airwaves again: reduce transmission, such as safe injection practices, condom use, and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.

A major priority would be the development of a safe and effective vaccine against EBV, which causes several cancers and has also been linked to multiple sclerosis.

Given regional variations in infection prevalence, healthcare infrastructure, vaccination coverage, and screening and treatment, “there is no single prevention strategy that will work equally well everywhere,” Rumgay said. “As a result, prevention strategies need to be tailored to local infection and disease patterns and healthcare needs, while ensuring equitable access to effective interventions.”

What Can We Do For Ourselves?

First, a reassuring distinction: you do not catch cancer by hugging someone who has it, sharing their company or holding their hand. Some infections that increase cancer risk can pass between people. The cancer itself does not ordinarily pass with them. Please keep up the hugs.

Some of the most useful preventive measures begin with a test rather than a shopping basket full of remedies.

Hepatitis B and C can remain silent for years. Feeling well does not necessarily mean that your liver has no unwelcome lodgers. If you have never been screened, ask your practitioner about testing: US recommendations include at least one screening for both infections in adulthood, with further testing when exposure risks continue.

And a positive result is an opportunity to act. Modern oral treatments cure more than 95% of hepatitis C infections, usually within eight to twelve weeks. Hepatitis B treatment generally suppresses rather than eliminates the virus, but appropriate treatment and monitoring can reduce liver complications and cancer risk. That is prevention with some real muscle behind it.

Although it is a bacterium rather than a virus, Helicobacter pylori deserves particular attention here. Ask whether testing is appropriate if you have a history of stomach ulcers, persistent indigestion, a family history of stomach cancer or an infected adult in your household. Breath and stool tests can identify active infection. If treatment is needed, arrange the follow-up test to confirm that it worked. Feeling better and getting rid of the organism are not necessarily the same thing.

Match your precautions to the infection.

Viruses have different travel arrangements. Advice that helps prevent a respiratory infection will not necessarily protect against a blood-borne virus.

For hepatitis B and C, never share needles or equipment used for injecting drugs. Choose reputable tattooing and piercing establishments with proper sterilization practices. Keep razors and toothbrushes personal: microscopic traces of blood can matter.

Condoms reduce the transmission of several sexually transmitted infections, although they cannot completely prevent HPV because uncovered skin can carry the virus. People with ongoing HIV exposure risk can also ask about preventive medication, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Tablets can reduce the risk of HIV from sex by about 99% when taken consistently, and by at least 74% for injection drug use. 

EBV spreads mainly through saliva. Avoid sharing drinks, toothbrushes and utensils, particularly with someone who has glandular fever. But keep this in perspective: 90% of adults already have antibodies indicating present or past EBV infection. Most never develop an EBV-associated cancer. Having had glandular fever is not a death sentence hanging over your head. 

Give your defenses decent working conditions.

Sleep deserves more respect than it gets. In a study in which volunteers were exposed to a common-cold virus, shorter sleep measured beforehand was associated with a greater likelihood of developing a cold. That does not prove that sleep prevents infection-related cancer, but it is a useful reminder that our defenses need their nightly maintenance.

Eat varied, nourishing food, get adequate protein, move regularly and address nutritional deficiencies when they are present. There is a difference between correcting a shortage and assuming that ever-larger doses must produce ever-greater protection. Your immune system needs supplies; it does not need to be shouted at.

There’s my Liquid Gold Multivitamin and Mineral Formula, which will do just fine!

Cervical screening also deserves a place in prevention. Yes, unnecessary testing and treatment can cause harm, which is why appropriate intervals and careful interpretation matter. But a positive HPV test is not a cancer diagnosis, and many abnormalities need watching and waiting rather than immediate treatment. The aim is to identify significant precancerous changes while avoiding unnecessary intervention.

We need neither panic nor passivity. Discover what can be discovered, treat what can be treated, reduce avoidable exposure and give the body the care it needs.

Then get on with enjoying your life. That, after all, is what we are protecting.

To Your Good Health,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

References

Primary Source: Rumgay H, et al “Global burden of cancer attributable to infections in 2024: a worldwide incidence analysis” Lancet Oncol 2026; DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(26)00307-4.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Clinical Screening and Diagnosis for Hepatitis C; Clinical Care of Hepatitis C. Accessed October 22, 2026. 

American College of Gastroenterology. ACG Guideline Highlights: Treatment of Helicobacter pylori Infection.2024. Testing indications and confirmation of eradication. 

National Cancer Institute. Infectious Agents. Accessed October 22, 2026. Cancer-associated infections, transmission and prevention. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). May 9, 2024. 

Prather, Aric A., Denise Janicki-Deverts, Martica H. Hall, and Sheldon Cohen. “Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold.” Sleep 38, no. 9 (2015): 1353–1359. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4968. PubMed

I first hit on this singing body idea one morning in Cumbria, northern England, when I was about 40. I was walking in the mountains, had just toiled to the top of a steep section, and suddenly found myself rejoicing that I had done it and that my body enabled me to do it. Oh beloved body! Thank you, thank you! I couldn’t have done it without you!

It’s singing today, which is why I am prompted to write this. And no, it’s not an endorphin rush. It began with the first few steps. As a result, I feel lighter and my tread not as heavy!

Does your body sing to you? If not, ask it! What tune does it come up with (don’t impose your choice of song). You might get a ding dong surprise! 

If it turns out to be gloomy or discordant that probably is a clue to investigate your mental and physical health.

In any case, almost everyone is familiar with the reverse: the effect music has on our bodies, as well as our psyches. Depending on the tune and rhythm it might make you want to tap your feet, get up and dance or just swoon with delight. Different music, from different sources, has a different effect on different people.

But the physiological effect is beyond doubt; it’s been clocked and even measured. The calming and soothing effect of gentle Baroque puts us into parasympathetic mode and, let it be said, hard rock and heavy metal can be quite disturbing, leading to significant sympathetic overload. Me, I hate noise and find sound VERY stressful, so it’s important to me that music is congenial and beneficial. Not necessarily slow but congenial, restorative.

And did you know that music can be healing? Of course it can. Song has even been described as healing cancer. Very controversial, of course. It has been studied in trials where it can be shown that certain kinds of music damage and inhibit cancer cells. 

[Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2016 Jul 12;2016:6849473. doi: 10.1155/2016/6849473]

But let’s go back to your body singing its song. I have written before about a person’s shamanic song. It’s just a name; I don’t mean it necessarily has shamanic significance. It just puts me in mind of primitive tribal drumming and chant. There’s something very holistic and earthy in this!

If you are clever, you can learn a special song for yourself. The main skill you will need is the ability to recognize deep resonance within. That means you can feel your body vibrating like a string, in tune with the sound.

Then you start singing (just making sounds, really) until you recognize what “feels” right. It’s remarkable, the difference between nearly right and spot on. Once you make the exact sound of a resonating note, it will begin to amplify, a bit like turning on a microphone, though loudness itself is not really the effect being sought. It’s sameness or resonance.

It’s hard to describe but easy to teach.

What’s the point? If you achieve it, you will know. It feels like you are in tune with your surroundings, in harmony, with the whole cosmos (which is true, you are!) And I dare venture a little woo-woo philosophy, which is that your shamanic song will contribute something, however slight, to the cosmos. We are all part of the whole, of course.

Maybe this is something along the lines of what Greek philosopher Pythagoras thought in the 6th century BC. He famously talked about celestial harmonies and the music of the spheres! His followers, known as Pythagoreans, lived according to a strict code of moral conduct that included silence, vegetarianism, simplicity of dress, and the pursuit of mathematical and spiritual knowledge. Though Pythagoras left no writings of his own, his teachings were preserved by his disciples and would go on to influence many of the greatest minds of antiquity: Plato, Aristotle and probably Socrates.

What is clear is that he understood harmonies (as a mathematical proportion) and resonance.

Singing (aloud, not to yourself) can feel like gathering yourself together: emotion, breath, body, intention and spiritual presence find a shared expression. That would also fit a soul-song practice centered on embodied expression, although someone else might use “soul song” for music heard inwardly.

Then there is the emotional force: courage, tenderness, joy, longing, release—or a feeling too particular to name. The song matters because of what awakens in the singer. A listener might hear a simple melody while its owner feels a profound recognition and renewed capacity to act.

Soul Song

Similar but not the same is what people sometimes call a “soul song”. I do not mean the black singers movement (R&B or soul). That’s a cultural movement. “soul song” is very personal and unique.

Somebody else can be singing it. It still captures a person’s core identity, emotional history, or a distinct chapter of who they are.

What a Soul Song Does…

• Unlocks Memories: Certain melodies bypass casual listening and instantly pull a person back to a specific time, place, or past version of themselves.
• Mirrors Emotion: It gives voice to internal feelings—whether deep heartbreak, healing, or quiet joy—that regular words struggle to express.
• Reflects Identity: Much like a personal anthem, it resonates with an individual’s unique rhythm and lived experiences

I would place the difference mainly in emphasis. Soul song suggests “This expresses who I am at depth.” My shamanic power song suggests “Singing this brings my power into expression.” Those can readily be two aspects of the same experience. Recognizing yourself more deeply can itself be empowering.

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

Science has begun to wake up to the fact that junk food is bad for health, a message I was writing a full 45 years ago!

Of course the idea is being fought furiously by Big Food and Big Pharma, who don’t want anyone to recognize the connection between eating crappie foods and falling into the medical system as a permanent victim, to be milked financially.

TV drug ads repeatedly show people with serious conditions, on dangerous meds, eating junk and smiling. It’s a clear subliminal message that what you eat is not important; those holistic boobies are trying to subvert your diet but they are wrong.

I’m reporting here on a vast study carried out by a Chinese team, in which they analyzed the diets and health histories of 8.8 million people worldwide, showing clearly ultraprocessed foods cause harm. But the shills and apologists for the food industry made sure the phrase “It’s not been proven that avoiding ultraprocessed foods is beneficial to health,” was included.

[https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/dietnutrition/123118]

Up to that point their specious (clever, self-serving) arguments centered around the fact that “there is no definition of what ultraprocessed means…” (therefore it cannot be a problem kind of thinking).

True, there is as yet no formal definition of ultraprocessed food, but it is commonly accepted to indicate products that undergo extensive industrial processing and contain multiple additives. These foods tend to have lower nutritional value and high energy, which delays the feeling of fullness and may increase eating rate and overall food intake. 

By one estimate, ultraprocessed foods account for more than half the calories consumed in the U.S. diet. In fact 57.9% of Americans’ calorie intake came from ultraprocessed foods in a nationally representative study published in BMJ Open in 2016, using dietary data from 2009–2010 (in 2026 it will be far worse).

Today I can report that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., prioritizing nutrition in his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, has had the FDA complete its work on the federal government’s first-ever definition of ultraprocessed food; and it has reportedly submitted the definition to the White House for further review.

I have not seen this proposed definition.

The study I took interest in was a meta-analysis covering 51 prospective cohort studies and over 8.8 million participants, in which there emerged a clear dose-dependent link between ultraprocessed food consumption and bad health outcomes, such as significantly higher risks of cardiovascular events, cancer, mortality, and metabolic syndrome (overweight, obesity and diabetes, sometimes called diabesity).

Dose-dependent means the more you eat of ultraprocessed foods, the worse your health outcomes. In fact the researchers were able to quantify it quite neatly. For each 100 g of these foods eaten daily was associated with significantly higher risks of:

• Cardiovascular events (up by 14%)

• Cancer (up by 4%)

• All-cause mortality (up by 3%)

• Metabolic syndrome (MetS)/diabetes (up by 2%)

That 100 g can represent a large store-bought cookie, about four servings of potato chips, two 50g bars of chocolate-coated candy bars, or roughly two hot dogs. So if you consume 300 g of processed foods daily, that means cardiovascular events up by 42%, cancer up by 12%, etc.

The research group, led by Xiao Liu, MD, PhD, of Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, and Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, in Family Medicine and Community Health, concluded that, “Consuming UPFs [ultraprocessed foods] was associated with higher risks of multiple chronic diseases and all-cause mortality with low or moderate evidence. Reducing dietary intake of UPFs may therefore be relevant for chronic disease prevention.”

“[P]rimary care practitioners may advise gradual reduction of UPFs intake towards approximately 10%-20% of total daily energy intake, while considering which UPF subtypes are most strongly associated with adverse outcomes. Replacing UPFs with minimally processed alternatives, rather than restriction alone, may provide a more sustainable and patient-centered approach,” the authors suggested.

Why not reduce it to 0% of total energy intake?

The pharma-based journal reporting the story (MedPage TODAY) was tricky and manipulative in its wording and announced that, “While there are plenty of studies indicating that diets high in ultraprocessed foods are associated with health harms, the idea that these foods directly cause chronic illness is unproven…”

Another apologist who tried to negate the findings and muddy the waters was statistician Adam Jacobs, PhD, MSc, from Ergomed in Guildford, England. 

“People who consume low amounts of UPF are generally more affluent than those who consume more UPF, and we know that poverty is one of the strongest predictors of poor health. So it is possible that UPF consumption is simply a marker for poverty, rather than being harmful per se.” 

This is just specious reasoning: the reason poverty is so bad for health is that individuals in that band cannot eat good food, so they eat mainly junk (UPFs). It supports the findings and does not negate them.

“There are other possible confounding variables to consider, to do with lifestyle,” continues Jacobs. “For example, people doing shift work or with particularly stressful lives may eat more UPF. Few studies adjusted for such factors.”

Yes, Jacobs, therefore your speculation is worthless. Let’s stick to FACTS, shall we? Like the FACTS that have emerged from this very timely and welcome study.

There are also major issues with observational studies trying to measure food intake. Consumption of ultraprocessed foods had been assessed by food frequency questionnaires, 24-hour recalls, or dietary history in studies included in the meta-analysis. 

“Measuring food intake is notoriously difficult, as people are often not very good at remembering what they ate,” agreed Gunter Kuhnle, PhD, of the University of Reading in England, in a separate Science Media Centre entry. “Estimating UPF intake from these data is even more difficult for several reasons,” he continued, citing an ambiguous definition of ultraprocessed food and unclear food categories.

“There is little evidence that avoiding UPF is beneficial to health,” Kuhnle stressed. Well, not any more.

The meta-analysis covered studies with participant ages ranging from 23.9 to 77 years on average; 46.4% were men.

Consumption of UPFs was significantly associated with cardiovascular events, cancer, obesity/overweight, MetS/diabetes, depression/anxiety, digestive diseases, and all-cause mortality.

However, the evidence was deemed low-certainty for all of these except the obesity/overweight endpoint, for which the evidence was considered only moderate-certainty.

We need more studies till we get beyond the point where apologists can argue that evidence is weak, I agree. Personally I need no scientific studies whatever to conclude that food which is not food has little nutritional benefit!

“Future studies should adopt harmonized and subtype-specific UPF exposure metrics, improve dietary assessment methods, and clarify clinically meaningful intake thresholds across diverse populations,” Liu and colleagues urged.

Disclosures

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China; Natural Science Foundation in Jiangxi Province; and the Jiangxi Province Thousands of Plans.

Liu and co-authors declared no conflicts.

Jacobs said he had no conflicts.

Kuhnle is a former member of the U.K. Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment; a current member of the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes; director of a facility that provides analytical services to academic and commercial clients; has previously received research funding from Mars for work on flavanols and consultancy payments from RSM UK and EQT, paid to the University of Reading. Not one to want to antagonize his donors therefore!

I think I can sum this up by saying we all know that UPFs are counter-nutritional to the degree of being harmful but that current science is expending an awful lot of time and energy trying to prevent this simple fact from interfering with the profits of the food industry (to the ultimate benefit of Big Pharma)!

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

Source Reference: Liu X, et al “Ultra-processed food consumption and risk of multiple chronic diseases among 8,819,894 adults from 51 prospective cohorts: a dose-response meta-analysis” Fam Med Com Health 2026; DOI: 10.1136/ fmch-2026-003925.

Medpage TODAY article: https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/dietnutrition/123118

I began by explaining that the purpose is to help people relax about the one human experience everyone must eventually face. Greg introduces his work as a psychiatrist, professor, residency training director, and practising clinician. Alongside that professional background, he describes more than forty years of meditation and an interest in the Monroe Institute and the Institute of Noetic Sciences. His first experience of Transcendental Meditation came during college, when he discovered that regular practice helped him remain calm during examinations. That gave him an early understanding that we can change how we experience events rather than simply be pushed around by them.

I shared a youthful interest in Zen Buddhism, judo, and Japanese poetry, including the poetry competition that won me a trip around the world. These recollections establish the conversation as an exchange between two longtime explorers of consciousness.

The first substantial theme is whether the brain produces consciousness or receives it. Greg describes the conventional biological position: consciousness arises from brain activity and ends when that activity ceases. We both favor a broader view, in which consciousness exists beyond the brain and the brain acts as an interface or receiver. I brought up accounts of people functioning despite extensive loss of brain tissue and Karl Lashley’s attempts to locate memory in the brain (but it was not). Greg discusses models that treat consciousness as a fundamental feature of reality.

This leads into out-of-body experiences and remote viewing. I describe the experience of perceiving your body from elsewhere and ask whether consciousness might deliberately relocate its sense of presence. Greg connects this with remote viewing and discusses research associated with Dean Radin at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California. I make a point of distinguishing between obtaining information about a distant place and feeling fully present there. Throughout this section, we both see experiences beyond ordinary bodily perception as reasons to reconsider the idea that death necessarily means the disappearance of awareness.

The conversation then returns directly to dying and bereavement. I point out that those left behind can endure years of grief and distress, and perhaps deserve as much consideration as the dying person. Greg agrees, then discusses the transformation often described by people who have had near-death experiences: a profound reduction in fear, a sense of peace, and a changed understanding of life and death.

I highlighted NDE descriptions of overwhelming, unconditional, nonjudgmental love. Greg emphasizes accounts in which people report observing medical procedures from above their bodies and recalling details they apparently could not have seen from their physical position. We both interpret these accounts as support for consciousness extending beyond the body, and as potentially reassuring to people frightened of dying.

Watch the video conversation here.

Another theme is the changing relationship between consciousness, language, and the brain near death. I asked about confused or seemingly nonsensical speech which sometimes happens, alongside the striking phenomenon of sudden lucidity shortly before death. Greg suggests that these might reflect changes in how the brain accesses a wider field of consciousness. I propose that learned language depends closely on the brain, it’s a reenforced learning pattern rather than a natural gift and that speech may falter as a person’s connection with the physical body loosens.

Greg adds a thoughtful observation: language allows us to share experience, but also compresses experience into what words can contain. A deeply mystical experience may be far larger than its verbal description. I connected this with the Zen image of a finger pointing at the moon—the pointer directs attention, but cannot substitute for the experience itself.

The discussion takes a substantial detour into hearing voices and psychiatric interpretation. I questioned whether automatically dismissing a person’s experience as pathological can increase their distress. Greg introduces a Jungian account that emphasizes engaging with the person’s experienced reality. He also explores an alternative model in which some experiences might involve difficulty filtering a broader field of consciousness. I connected this with channeling and the distress of being unable to switch an enforced “connection experience” off.

This part of the conversation was exploratory: we discussed spiritual interpretations of voice-hearing, creativity, and psychological overwhelm, while criticizing psychiatry’s tendency to reduce human experience to neurotransmitters. When I mentioned a Dutch approach to engaging with voices, by talking with them as real, Greg explicitly says he has not seen the particular studies.

Reincarnation becomes the next possible source of comfort. Greg discusses Ian Stevenson’s investigations of children reporting previous lives and considers two interpretations: actual reincarnation, or access to universal information through nonlocal consciousness. He leans toward reincarnation, while acknowledging that the discussion does not establish how to distinguish between those possibilities. For our shared purpose, either interpretation suggests that human identity may extend beyond the present body.

Toward the end, I confronted Greg and asked what people can actually do. Greg’s starting recommendation is regular meditation. He describes the value of recognizing that we have bodies, thoughts, and emotions without necessarily being reducible to any of them. He also mentions Monroe Institute practices, holotropic breathwork, psychedelic experiences, and past-life regression as approaches people use to explore expanded awareness.

For further reading, he names Ian Stevenson, Dean Radin, and Stanislav Grof, and discusses the ancient Eleusinian mysteries in relation to overcoming fear of death.

Greg closes by emphasizing the difference between intellectual understanding and personal experience. Reading can open a door, but an experience that changes one’s own sense of identity can bring a deeper reassurance. The conversation ends affectionately, with our shared hope that exploring consciousness will help people approach death with greater peace, curiosity, and confidence.

That link again.

I hope you enjoy this new approach to a newsletter [not necessarily adopting it for the future]. Please let me know your thoughts,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

Health is not created by eliminating every difficulty from life. The body is not a porcelain ornament that survives best when nothing disturbs it. It is an adaptive organism, designed to be challenged, to respond, to repair and—within limits—to return stronger.

This is the essence of hormesis: a stressor that is harmful in a large or prolonged dose can stimulate beneficial adaptation when delivered in a small, controlled, intermittent dose. The response is commonly represented by a J-shaped or inverted U-shaped curve. Too little challenge leads to stagnation; an appropriate amount encourages adaptation; too much causes injury.

The stressor is not necessarily “good” in itself. What is beneficial is the organism’s resistance response to it.

Exercise provides the clearest example. A hard walk or session with weights temporarily disturbs the body. Muscle fibers experience microscopic damage; ATP demand rises; reactive oxygen species increase; calcium balance changes; inflammatory signals are released. Yet those disturbances activate repair, mitochondrial biogenesis, antioxidant defenses, glucose transport, protein synthesis and tissue remodeling. Provided there is sufficient recovery, the person becomes better equipped to withstand the next challenge.

The exercise did not make the body stronger during the stressful part. The body became stronger while recovering from it.

This gives us the basic formula:

Challenge + adequate recovery = adaptation.
Challenge without recovery = breakdown.
Recovery without challenge = gradual decline.

So, What Is Hormesis?

I first wrote about this little-known effect in 1999 in my book VIRTUAL MEDICINE, which is now expanded and published as MEDICINE BEYOND.

Hormesis (from Greek hórm?sis, “rapid motion, eagerness,” from ancient Greek hormáein “to set in motion, impel, urge on”) is the term for generally favorable biological responses to very low-level exposures to toxins and other stressors. It’s a biological version of the old saw: That which does not kill me makes me stronger. See graph:

Increasing doses stimulate at first and then steadily suppress (inhibit)

Paracelsus was there first, working with micro-doses of noxious agents and obtaining significant therapeutic results.

One of the valuable areas where the concept of hormesis has been explored extensively with respect to its applicability is aging. Since the basic survival capacity of any biological system depends on its homeodynamic (homeostatic) ability, biogerontologists proposed that exposing cells and organisms to mild stress should result in the adaptive or hormetic response with various biological benefits. This idea has now gathered a large body of supportive evidence showing that repetitive mild stress exposure has anti-aging effects12.

In 1998, Edward J. Calabrese and Linda A. Baldwin at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Massachusetts, published a survey of publications, judging their worth and validity, and found over 4,000 relevant research papers. Their analysis suggests that hormesis is a reproducible and relatively common biological phenomenon, pertinent to many living species and a wide variety of tissue insults, including radiation, temperature extremes, and chemical toxins.

Strychnine And The Old-Fashioned Tonic

An example would be strychnine, a deadly poison, which was once used medicinally in minute doses as a stimulant and included in various “tonics.” It even appeared in early athletic performance experiments. Thomas Hicks, winner of the notorious 1904 Olympic marathon, was given strychnine and brandy during the race—a performance-enhancement program that makes modern sports nutrition look positively timid.

Strychnine blocks glycine receptors, particularly in the spinal cord and brainstem. Glycine normally restrains motor-neuron activity. Remove that inhibition and the nervous system becomes violently excitable, producing muscle spasms, convulsions, respiratory failure and potentially death. The difference between an apparently stimulating dose and a dangerous one is far too narrow to make strychnine a sensible modern hormetic. It is a fine historical illustration of dose-dependent effects, but a dreadful lifestyle recommendation. 

Hormesis does not give us license to consume tiny quantities of every poison. Some agents cause cumulative damage, mutations or cancer without any established beneficial range. There is no sound reason to seek hormesis from lead, mercury, asbestos, tobacco smoke or ionizing radiation. We already possess much safer ways of activating our cellular defence systems.

Why Stress Can Strengthen Us

Mild stress activates a network of ancient survival mechanisms. These include heat-shock proteins, antioxidant enzymes, DNA-repair systems, autophagy, mitochondrial renewal, immune surveillance and metabolic switching.

Autophagy is cellular housekeeping: damaged proteins and worn-out components are identified, dismantled and recycled. Exercise and temporary food deprivation can stimulate this process, although human autophagy is difficult to measure directly and extravagant claims about the exact hour when it “switches on” should be treated cautiously.

Another response is mitochondrial biogenesis—the production and improvement of the cellular machinery that generates energy. Cells exposed to manageable energy demands receive a message: We need more capacity. Muscle responds similarly to resistance. Bones respond to loading by retaining or building structure. The cardiovascular system responds to increased demand by improving delivery.

This is not confined to the body. The nervous system also needs appropriate challenge. Learning, novelty, coordination, social engagement and solving difficult problems encourage the brain to maintain its networks. A life in which nothing surprises, stretches or occasionally frustrates us may be psychologically comfortable but biologically impoverished.

The significant word is intermittent. A brief stress followed by safety and restoration can be strengthening. Continuous stress is something else. Chronic anxiety, sleep deprivation, loneliness, overwork, unremitting inflammation and relentless strenuous exercise do not reliably produce hormesis. They produce allostatic overload—the cost of having the emergency machinery switched on for too long.

The body needs punctuation. Stress is the exclamation mark; recovery is the full stop.

The Most Useful Hormetic Stressor: Muscular Work

Resistance training is probably the most valuable controlled stressor for an older adult. Muscles need to be given a reason to remain. If they are never required to push, pull, carry, rise, grip or stabilize, the body quite economically dismantles what it considers unnecessary tissue.

The exercise must be challenging enough that the final repetitions require genuine effort, while remaining technically safe. That might mean weights, resistance bands, machines, sit-to-stands, wall push-ups, stair climbing or carrying groceries. The ideal method is the one that can be progressively increased without provoking injury.

Large systematic reviews of trials in older adults show that resistance training improves strength, function and, to varying degrees, muscle mass. Even very elderly people can improve. 

Brief bursts of vigorous activity can add another useful challenge. These have acquired the rather charming name exercise snacks: perhaps 30–60 seconds of brisk stair climbing, fast walking uphill or rapid cycling, repeated a few times during the day. Observational evidence associates small amounts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity with lower cardiovascular and overall mortality, although association does not prove that the brief bursts alone caused the benefit. 

For an 81-year-old, “vigorous” should be defined personally. It means sufficiently demanding to produce heavier breathing, not an invitation to discover whether the paramedics are having a quiet afternoon. Anyone with unstable cardiovascular symptoms, unexplained breathlessness, fainting, serious arrhythmia or uncontrolled blood pressure should be assessed before experimenting with vigorous exertion.

Heat: An Ancient Stress Signal

Heat exposure is another plausible hormetic practice. Sauna temporarily raises skin and core temperature, increases heart rate and redistributes blood flow. Cells respond by increasing heat-shock proteins, which help stabilize and repair other proteins. Repeated exposure may also improve vascular function and heat tolerance.

Finnish observational studies have found that more frequent sauna use is associated with lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, and possibly lower dementia risk. These are impressive associations, but they do not prove that sauna alone caused the benefits. Sauna users may differ in exercise, income, social connection, diet and general health. Reviews nevertheless conclude that Finnish sauna bathing has one of the more substantial bodies of evidence among passive heat practices. 

A practical approach might be 10–20 minutes at a tolerable temperature, perhaps two or three times weekly, leaving immediately if dizziness, nausea, chest discomfort or unusual weakness develops. Hydration matters. Alcohol and sauna are an especially foolish partnership because of hypotension and arrhythmia risk. People with unstable heart disease, severe aortic stenosis, recurrent fainting or poorly controlled blood pressure need individual medical advice.

A hot bath may provide a gentler alternative. It does not reproduce every feature of sauna, but it can supply a modest thermal challenge and may benefit vascular function. Passive heat is especially interesting for people whose mobility limits vigorous exercise, although it should complement movement rather than replace it.

Cold can be a stressor too, however, the evidence is far less triumphant than the evangelists imply. One does not need to sit heroically in a dustbin full of ice! 

Finishing a normal shower with 20–30 seconds of cool water, gradually extended if enjoyable and well tolerated, can provide a mild challenge. Cold-water swimming should never be undertaken alone, and sudden immersion is particularly unsuitable for someone with significant heart disease, arrhythmia, uncontrolled hypertension or a history of fainting.

Cold immediately after resistance training may actually be counterproductive when muscle growth is the goal, because suppressing the acute inflammatory and signaling response may reduce part of the adaptation. 

Temporary Hunger Rather Than Constant Grazing

Food scarcity was intermittent throughout human evolution. Constant access to calories is comparatively new. Allowing a daily period without food may encourage metabolic flexibility—the ability to move between glucose and fat metabolism—and may improve insulin sensitivity or assist weight control in some people.

A moderate overnight fast of roughly 12 hours is a reasonable starting point: finish dinner at 7:30 p.m. and eat breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Some people may extend this to 13 or 14 hours, preferably by avoiding late-night food rather than sacrificing breakfast and then devouring the kitchen at noon.

Time-restricted eating studies show modest improvements in weight and some metabolic markers, but it is not magic and is not invariably superior to ordinary calorie control. In older adults, the chief concern is protecting muscle. Adequate total protein, resistance training and sufficiently substantial meals are more important than achieving an impressive fasting window. Trials suggest that time-restricted eating can preserve lean tissue when combined with resistance training and adequate nutrition, but frail or underweight people should not treat fasting as a longevity competition. 

People taking insulin or sulfonylureas, those with a history of eating disorders, pregnant women, and frail or undernourished individuals need particular caution.

A Hormetic Lifestyle

An excellent week might include two or three strength sessions, several brisk walks, one or two brief vigorous intervals where medically appropriate, and regular balance work. Add sauna or a hot bath a few times weekly, an occasional cool shower, and a consistent overnight period without eating. Include novelty: take a different route, learn something difficult, talk to someone outside your usual circle, lift something moderately heavy, spend time outdoors in imperfect weather.

Then recover deliberately. Eat adequate protein and nourishing food. Sleep deeply. Alternate demanding days with easier ones. Maintain companionship, pleasure and periods of genuine calm.

The goal is not to collect stressors as if competing in the Hormetic Olympics. Heat, cold, fasting and hard exercise all draw upon overlapping recovery resources. Combining a long fast, exhausting workout, ice bath and sauna in one heroic morning may create more strain than adaptation.

A useful stressor should meet three conditions: it is brief enough to end, strong enough to provoke adaptation and followed by enough recovery to rebuild. If sleep deteriorates, resting heart rate remains elevated, performance declines, mood becomes brittle or fatigue persists, the dose has probably crossed from hormesis into harm.

Optimum health is not permanent ease. Neither is it perpetual struggle. The body does not want to be abused. But neither does it want to be treated as an invalid. Your body wants to have fun and putting it under mild pressure does that very effectively!

A little adversity tells the organism to renew itself. Too much adversity damages it. No adversity gives it permission to retire.

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

References

Keith Scott-Mumby MEDICINE BEYOND, Mother Whale, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2015, p. 161

Mattson, Mark P. “Hormesis Defined.” Ageing Research Reviews. 2008;7(1):1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2007.08.007. 

Radak, Zsolt; Chung, Hae Young; Koltai, Erika; Taylor, Albert W.; Goto, Sataro. “Exercise, Oxidative Stress and Hormesis.” Ageing Research Reviews. 2008;7(1):34–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2007.04.004. 

Laukkanen, Jari A.; Laukkanen, Tanjaniina; Kunutsor, Setor K. “Cardiovascular and Other Health Benefits of Sauna Bathing: A Review of the Evidence.” Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2018;93(8):1111–1121. 

Cain, Tara; Watters, David; Chalmers, Sarah; et al. “Effects of Cold-Water Immersion on Health and Wellbeing: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” PLOS ONE. 2025. 

Borde, Ron; Hortobágyi, Tibor; Granacher, Urs. “Dose–Response Relationships of Resistance Training in Healthy Old Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Sports Medicine. 2015;45(12):1693–1720. 

Stamatakis, Emmanuel; Ahmadi, Matthew N.; Gill, Jason M. R.; et al. “Association of Wearable Device-Measured Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity With Mortality.” Nature Medicine. 2022;28(12):2521–2529. 

I’ve said this often in my writings: that purpose (meaning) in life and belonging (social connection) are worth decades of extra living. In the reverse, if your life has no purpose or meaning, it’s not (or hardly) worth living anyway and people lacking these attributes do tend to die measurably sooner.

Now I don’t mean extension of life while troubled by sickness and disabilities. I’m talking about joyful, vibrant and zestful living, in vigorous full health, or close to full health.

That’s a standard not even acknowledged by modern industrial-scale medicine. Their self-serving definition of “health” is free of some symptom or other. What’s great for them is that you get tricked into accepting a symptom solution. But it never solves the cause, only masks the symptom. It’s a perfect business model for them because you go on paying for that masking effect for the rest of your life.

Now I’m very serious about this. Let’s take purpose first. Your purpose defines the meaning in your life; the WHY you are here and what it is you want to accomplish. Maybe you’ve never thought about this much but as the years lengthen, you need to focus more and more on what it is you should be doing.

The scientific facts are irrefutable: a recent (July 2026) huge meta-analytic study of nearly half a million subjects from the United States, Europe, and Asia, over a period of 32 years follow-up, showed those with a strong sense of purpose had around a 30% less mortality, that is death due to all causes.

[[Psychological Medicine , Volume 56 , 2026 , e214]

Now if that isn’t a new scripture, I don’t know what is! Forget obedience and reverence for the Old God; that’s not worth a nickel in terms of longevity and health. For real meaning, it comes down to your own values; not some clunky interpretations of how you are supposed to live by priests and gatekeepers, heavily enforced by threats of Hell and damnation.

So breathe easy!

My New God, as described in my bestselling book New God New World, blesses you with extra years of health and vitality, if you get it right. Much better than punishment for getting it wrong!

There is already substantial literature that links purpose in life to healthier behaviors and better health outcomes. Individuals higher in purpose in life, for example, tend to engage in more physical activity, are less likely to smoke or use other substances, and more likely to get preventative cancer screenings. Perhaps as a result, such individuals are also less likely to have chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, or dementia.

In a nutshell, individuals higher in purpose in life have longer health spans and lower risk of mortality. These days we like to keep these two measures as close as possible. Lifespan is how you long you live but “healthspan” is how many of those years are useful and disease-free!

My saying that: we Boomers want to party till our last day on earth sums it all up in a memorable trope. 100% healthspan!

So what about belonging? In fact what do we mean by “belonging”? It’s that sense of being surrounded by people like us, who process the world in the same way, and among whom we are valued as an individual. Usually we know each others names and live in the same neighborhood. We share values and calendar dates.

What is often studied is religious community and I don’t accept that as enough. It doesn’t tell us whether spiritual beliefs are important, or just the sense of belonging. But there are interesting facts to be gleaned.

Religious attendance is associated with U.S. adult mortality in a tiered fashion: People who never attend exhibit 1.87 times the risk of death in the follow-up period (nearly double) compared with people who attend more than once a week. This translates into a seven-year difference in life expectancy at age 20 between those who never attend and those who attend more than once a week.

Again, I emphasize that spirituality and religion are not the same thing. But I do recognize the shaky connection that most people hold: they think being religious is the same, or as good as, spirituality. Suffice it to say, it comprises the relationship with the sacred and the search for the transcendent, in addition to the personal search for existential issues related to the end of life, to its meaning, which may or may not lead to the development of religious practices or be linked to organized religion. 

[Koenig et al., 2012;Lucchetti et al., 2010]

But there’s something rather important hiding inside these statistics. What if the health benefits attributed to religion are not really about religion at all?

What if much of the benefit comes from belonging?

Think about the traditional church community. You don’t merely turn up to hear a sermon. People know your name. They notice when you aren’t there. They ask how you are. They know your husband, wife, children and grandchildren. They may visit you when you are sick. There are dinners, coffee mornings, choirs, charity events, celebrations, funerals and weddings. There is a rhythm of human connection.

You matter to somebody.

That last sentence is enormous.

One of the most damaging experiences a human being can have is the feeling that nobody would particularly notice if you disappeared. It doesn’t have to be dramatic loneliness. You can be surrounded by people and still feel profoundly disconnected. Conversely, you can live alone and yet feel wonderfully connected because you have friends, causes, groups, correspondence, projects and people who are delighted to hear from you.

Belonging is not the same thing as merely having people around.

It is the feeling that I have a place here.

I think this becomes increasingly important as we grow older because society has a nasty habit of gradually removing our roles. You retire and suddenly you are no longer the doctor, teacher, businessman, engineer, secretary or whatever identity carried you through much of adult life. Children grow up. They have their own families. You’re not quite the parent any more. Friends move away. Some die. The world begins, rather rudely, to suggest that perhaps your principal occupation now should be growing old.

Rubbish!

This is exactly when we should be constructing new roles.

We should be asking: Who needs me? What excites me? What am I learning? What am I contributing? Who are my people? What can I still create?

Especially that last one.

Human beings are creators. We make gardens, businesses, friendships, books, meals, jokes, families, music, inventions, communities and sometimes glorious trouble. Creation gives consciousness somewhere to go.

Retirement should never mean retirement from purpose.

Indeed, I think one of the greatest mistakes in our culture is the idea that the objective of working life is eventually to reach a point where we have nothing to do. People fantasize about endless leisure. But endless leisure can become remarkably empty. A holiday is wonderful partly because it is a holiday from something. Make the holiday permanent and by about Thursday afternoon you may begin wondering what you are supposed to do with yourself!

Purpose needn’t be grand. It doesn’t mean you need to save humanity, discover a new planet or write War and Peace.

Purpose can be wonderfully modest.

Growing the best tomatoes in Nevada can be purpose. Teaching your granddaughter to cook can be purpose. Caring for animals can be purpose. Joining a singing group can be purpose. Writing your memories can be purpose. Helping someone who is struggling can be purpose. Learning Italian at 82 can certainly be purpose, especially if you have the additional incentive of planning to flirt outrageously in Rome!

The scale doesn’t matter. The aliveness does.

Purpose means tomorrow contains something that matters.

And this is where purpose and belonging join hands. Very often our strongest purposes involve other people. We teach, help, encourage, build, entertain, comfort, organize, share and love. Purpose draws us outward and connection feeds something back.

That reciprocal flow may be one of the most powerful health tonics available to us.

We already know that social isolation and loneliness are associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, depression and premature mortality. The magnitude is large enough that loneliness is no longer something medicine can dismiss as merely an unfortunate emotional state. Social connection belongs in the health conversation alongside exercise, nutrition, sleep and the rest.

But I want to go further than simply saying, “Don’t be lonely.” We need to create belonging deliberately.

That may mean joining something. Better still, it may mean starting something.

If you cannot find your tribe, build one!

Invite six interesting people to supper once a month. Start a walking group. Form a discussion circle. Volunteer somewhere. Join a choir. Start painting with others. Find people who share your spiritual interests. Teach something you know. Learn something you don’t know.

And please don’t make the mistake of thinking friendship is something that just happens spontaneously when we are young and therefore cannot be created later in life. Friendship is partly an activity, not a passive happening. It needs tending. Somebody has to make the phone call. Somebody has to suggest lunch. Somebody has to say, “Come over Thursday.”

Why shouldn’t that somebody be you?

You don’t need identical beliefs to belong. You need mutual recognition and connecting values. Is all!

And I suspect this brings us close to the real reason that purpose and belonging affect longevity. They tell the organism that life is still happening.

There are people to love. There are things to do. There are surprises still waiting. There is something worth getting up for tomorrow morning.

The body hears that message.

I don’t mean this merely as a metaphor. Psychology and physiology are not two entirely separate kingdoms. Our emotional lives influence sleep, inflammation, hormonal signaling, immune function, cardiovascular physiology, health behaviors and innumerable other processes. A life of engagement produces a very different biological environment from a life of chronic isolation, helplessness and despair.

So perhaps we have been looking at longevity from the wrong end.

We obsess about what we should remove. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink too much. Don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. Reduce your cholesterol. Reduce your blood pressure. Reduce your weight.

Medicine loves subtraction. But perhaps longevity also requires addition.

• Add friendship.

• Add laughter.

• Add curiosity.

• Add usefulness.

• Add something you are looking forward to.

• Add people who are pleased when you walk through the door.

• Add a reason to get out of bed.

• And above all, add love.

This fits perfectly with my conception of the New God. I don’t see the Divine as some celestial accountant awarding bonus years because we have behaved ourselves. That takes us straight back to the old reward-and-punishment religious model that has failed dismally.

I see it much more naturally. Life flourishes when we participate in it. Consciousness seems to expand through relationship, creation, curiosity, service, pleasure, affection and meaning. We become more alive by being more alive.

We should probably stop using the expression “anti-aging.” Why should we be anti anything? Let’s just be pro-living! If that happens to produce extra years, excellent. I’ll take them!

Just been experimenting with some new portraits!

So Ask Yourself

What am I here for now? and Who are my people? If you have good answers to both, treasure them.

If you don’t, then perhaps you have just discovered your next great adventure. Because purpose is not something you have to find buried somewhere inside yourself, like a lost set of car keys. You can choose it. And belonging is not merely somewhere you arrive. You can create it.

Do those two things and you are no longer merely attempting to live longer. You are giving Mother Nature a very good reason to keep you around. And THAT is my kind of longevity medicine.

To your good health,Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor

Of course there were exceptions and that shortfall didn’t apply to the Okinawans, Ikarians, Hunzas or other isolated groups. But nobody counted them and their ways, until starting around maybe the 80s. Interest in natural longevity gradually expanded over the years to become the “blue zones” concept, popularized by Daniel Buettner, a National Geographic Explorer and Fellow, and Emmy-Award winning journalist. A blue zone is a territory with an extraordinary high concentration of healthy old people, notably centenarians.

A healthy Ikarian (Blue Zones) Diet

Note that I said healthy: a large population of doddery dotards would mean nothing. Just some trick of the light perhaps! But if they live far longer than most AND keep their health faculties in good working order, that’s the start of a path to discovery, surely?

Up until the twenty first century the perception of aging was that it was inevitable. We had no control over it. Attitude of mind was irrelevant. Sooner or later you began to crumble and descend into a miserable dotage of frailty, cognitive impairment, aches and pains and severe limitation of movement.

Some years ago I wrote a piece titled Do You Want To Be An Old Crock Or A Classic Car? The difference between a rust-bucket old banger that has to be sent to the crushers and a decades-older beautiful smooth-running classic car is simple and obvious: the classic car has been properly looked after. We should treat our bodies in the same way and take care of them; otherwise you will become an old crock. The conclusion is still valid and the piece continues to change reader’s perceptions.

A lot of people I talked to at the time had a blunt-force thinking attitude of “I don’t care. I don’t want to grow old and suffer. I’d rather die.” This was very unfortunate because, like it or not, people were starting to live longer and longer, but not necessarily healthily. By the time you reach 80-some and are suffering from stooped posture, aches and pains, limitation of movement, difficulty remembering, incontinence and other indignities of old age, it’s too late to have a change of heart. You have ruined your prospects of a zestful old age and must pay the price.

[Of course it’s never too late to make wise and health-giving changes and derive at least some benefit]

The point is that people get what they expect to get. If you are sold into the story that old age is an infirmity, you can expect a fairly unpleasant ride through your dotage.

And don’t listen to dismissive doctors. Most of them go on with the same old line, “Aging is inevitable. There’s nothing you can do about it. You just have to put up with it.” It’s errant nonsense. Any doctor who utters those words is criminally bad, or just plain ignorant. You want to work with a doctor who offers detailed advice about diet and nutrition, staying active, keeping inflammation at an absolute minimum and, above all, setting the right positive mental attitude. “You are what you eat” is an old, old trope in medicine but there is also a twin phrase, equally valid: you are what you think you are!

Now we Boomers (and the up-and-coming Gen-X, Millennials and Gen-Z) are well served by a positive and fun-loving approach to life. It’s been my slogan for decades that we Boomers want to go on partying till our last day on earth. That brings up an important health definition: it is to distinguish between lifespan and so-called “healthspan.” Lifespan is how long we remain alive; healthspan means how many of those years are healthy, enjoyable and trouble-free.

Ideally we want the two measures to be very close. Get rid of the idea of your “final years”, meaning the difficult troubled times as you struggle to cope. If you wake up one morning, healthy and zestful, have a great day and then go to sleep, never to wake up, that’s a great ways for it all to end, you’ll agree.

That’s the benchmark to aim for. It’s the exit I preach!

Brain Health

Now, let’s separate out the issue of brain health and talk about that. We are not a brain, there is abundant evidence for that statement but it is completely ignored by the establishment. There are individuals walking around with next to no brain (less than 1%) and yet no-one can tell there is anything amiss; memory is excellent. One case known to me went to college, got a degree and began to practice accountancy.

But our brain is still important. It’s the main biological organ for connectivity with the outside world. So we should rightly look after it and be concerned for its effective functioning. Not surprisingly, brain health is now the number one concern for elders, ahead of cardiovascular health and cancer prevention (AARP 2025 Health Priorities Survey).

Yet decades of obsession with low-fat diets has done much damage. It’s a misguided obsession with the supposed harms of saturated fat, built on false science perpetrated by Ancel Keys in the 1970s (he was being paid by the sugar industry to distract attention from the damage cause by high sugar intake). He simply faked or distorted his findings by omitting countries with a high fat intake and good health and omitting countries with a low fat intake that were overall unhealthy.

Here are 2 graphs, the first that Ancel Keys published (which looks convincing) and the second is with all the countries he studied included, which shows virtually no connection between heart disease and fat intake:

It took nearly fifty years for the facts to emerge and there are still die-hards who won’t give up their pet hypothesis that fats are bad for us. Unfortunately, our brains are around 60% fat. So for decades we have been starving our brains and the result is an epidemic of dementias. Moreover heart disease, which was supposed to be being solved by Ancel Keys’ research, has continued to rise, relentlessly. So he was well wide of the truth – but that was his aim.

The story of cholesterol runs along similar tracks. Cholesterol has been demonized to the extent that people fear it as deadly and take complex drugs, with dangerous side effects, to combat it. The aim is to get your cholesterol levels as low as is possible. Yet our brains hold 20% of the total cholesterol in your body! Fighting against cholesterol is to deprive and damage your brain!

Science gets very muddled when big business dollars get into the mix and distort the truth. Ain’t that so!

To your health,