[Lets see if this gets published]

Not so far http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/336/7651/1023-a#194677

Use Your Loaf!  
Jayne LM Donegan,
GP & Homoeopath
London NW4 1SH
Send response to journal:
Re: Use Your Loaf!
 
It is somewhat naïve on the part of Dr Beard to assume that Dr Allinson who was correct about whole foods, fruit, vegetables and avoidance of smoking and alcohol in contravention of medical opinion of his day, should be wrong about vaccination.
He was certainly a practitioner ahead of his time, when his contemporaries were treating people with mercurials, arsenicals and promoting smoking; indeed a Wellcome diary of the 1930's promotes the smoking of menthol cigarettes for the relief of asthma!
The fin de siécle British medical establishment of Dr Allinson' time is no different from the fin de siécle British medical establishment of today and their attempts to remove from the medical register those who question the blind administration of pharmaceutical products from womb to tomb with scant regard for their efficacy and adverse effects, for example Dr Peter Mansfield, Dr Andrew Wakefield, and myself . Thankfully for me, after a three week hearing, a GMC panel found that my evidence, which an Appeal Judge had thrown out of court with the jingoistic label of 'Junk Science', “had not failed to be independent, objective and unbiased” and completely exonerated me of all charges of serious professional misconduct.
What is most surprising is that Dr Beard, as a medical historian, should make such an untenable comment.
Anyone with even a slight acquaintance with disease figures of the 19th and 20th century, would know, for instance, that 99% of the people who used to die from whooping cough had stopped dying before the vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, as with the introduction of the measles vaccine in the UK in 1968 – when the death rate continued to drop despite an only 30% initial uptake of vaccine, and how the enforcement of the compulsory smallpox vaccination law in 1867, when the death rate was already falling, was accompanied by an increase in the death rate from 100 to 400 deaths per million population.
Perhaps, as Dr Beard is lucky enough to be studying at Oxford, he could avail himself of some of the archived journals and textbooks and read what prominent men of science, medical officers for health and doctors wrote about vaccination and its sequelae, that never made it into today's textbooks, where infant vaccines containing mercury were still being promoted as late as autumn 2004.
Happy reading!
Competing interests: Promoter of healthy eating and living
BMJ  2008;336:1023 (3 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39562.446528.59

Views & Reviews

Medical Classics

A System of Hygienic Medicine (1886) and The Advantages of Wholemeal Bread (1889)

John A S Beard, GP trainee and MSc student in history of science, technology, and medicine, Oxford
johnbeard@doctors.org.uk
Thomas Allinson (1858-1918) was a late Victorian doctor whose health maintaining beliefs included the promotion of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and the avoidance of smoking and alcohol. While predominantly accepted in the present day, his views were often controversial to the fin de siècle British medical establishment and he was ultimately removed from the medical register.
Born in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, Allinson trained in Edinburgh, and received the LRCP and LRCS in 1879. He gained diverse medical experience as a police surgeon, ship’s doctor, and Poor Law practitioner, but the mainstay of his practice was conducted at a surgery in the west end of London. A voluminous scholar, Allinson wrote 13 books and more than a thousand articles on health related issues. Best known was his 1886 A System of Hygienic Medicine, in which he emphasised his central belief in the maintenance of good health over the treatment of disease.
Allinson, a passionate vegetarian, advocated a strict regimen of nutritious food, fresh air, and exercise while avoiding tea, coffee, tobacco, salt, and meat. Drugs, including the popular opiates, were vociferously criticised. Arguably his most strongly held belief formed the title of his 1889 work The Advantages of Wholemeal Bread. Allinson viewed stone ground wholemeal flour as an ingredient of the utmost nutritional value and encouraged the general public to make wholemeal bread a regular dietary constituent. He opposed the use of bread whitening agents such as alum and ammonia.
Critics may highlight the conflicting interest of Allinson’s Natural Food Company, which was established to promote and supply wholemeal bread and flour. Yet the passion with which Allinson championed wholemeal foods would seem to have transcended profit concerns. Furthermore, Allinson’s convictions preceded the company’s foundation by several years.
Orthodox medical opinion was at variance with a number of Allinson’s views, particularly on smoking, which was moderately encouraged, and the use of medicines. Dr Allinson’s disputes with the medical profession culminated, in 1892, with his being charged with "infamous conduct" and struck off the medical register. The General Medical Council adjudged that he had contravened professional standards through his criticism of colleagues’ therapeutic practices and his use of advertisement for monetary gain. Three years later he was prosecuted and fined for the unsanctioned use of his LRCP title.
It may be argued that Dr Allinson was a man ahead of his time. In many ways this is true, for his dietary advice and abstemious approach to alcohol and smoking resonate more strongly in the present day. However, not all of his views—notably his opposition to childhood vaccination—remain credible. Furthermore, much of his philosophy can be found in the regimen texts of Hippocratic authors—knowledge present for more than two millennia. None the less, the resolute manner in which Allinson maintained his health beliefs, often in the face of criticism, remains a relevant message.
Today Allinson is best known for the bread with "nowt taken out," which continues to bear his name.

By Thomas Allinson
sdavies@bmj.com (sent electronically)
Sharon Davies
Letters Editor BMJ 9th May 2008

 
BMJ, London WC1H 9JR
Dear Sharon Davies,
Re 'Use your loaf' submitted 7th May 2008 as rapid response to :
Medical Classics: A System of Hygienic Medicine (1886) and The Advantages of Wholemeal Bread (1889)
John A S Beard BMJ  2008;336:1023, doi:10.1136/bmj.39562.446528.59


 
I see that you have not posted my response to this article. This is, of course, perfectly within your absolute discretion as stated in the guidelines.
The rapid response section of the BMJ was one of the jewels in Richards Smith's crown, allowing wider dissemination of science, the immediate correction and retraction of inaccuracies, and the non stiffling of original thought. He described it in 2002 as, 'Twenty thousand conversations' and said:
“We publish just about anything that isn't libellous or doesn't breach patient confidentiality.” i
How things have changed.
Step down Richard Smith and enter Fiona Godlee as editor. The crack down was swift and decisive. As Smith said in his editorial, co-written with Tony Delamothe,
“ Not everyone is as enthusiastic about rapid responses as we are. “
How true.
Dr Godlee's views regarding the much touted health benefits of vaccination are crystal clear, as she said in her editorial, 'Think Mumps' in 2005,
“Evidence that a vaccine works and is safe should be universal.”ii
This certainly drives her editorial policy: whatever does not fit this agenda is rejected, unless it is by her co-author Tom Jefferson who is given space to write about the ineffectiveness of 'flu jabs, but that doesn't jeopardise the universal childhood vaccination program at the moment. I wonder how much space he will be allowed once this vaccine has been added to the schedule.
The cope Report of 2003, to which Richard Smith contributed, under the heading, 'Conflict of interest' states:
Editors should have systems for managing the conflicts of interest of themselves, their staff, authors, and reviewers.”iii

 
What systems does Fiona Goodlee have for managing hers?

 
This censorship and stifling of non mainstream thought leads to the opposite of the democratisation of science and medicine that Richard Smith envisioned and strove for.
The behaviour of the editorial board of the BMJ today is a living example of what has happened in journals and textbooks for centuries and is the reason why the good doctor Beard, as a GP trainee and MSc student in history of science, technology, and medicine at Oxford, has never been exposed to the information that would allow him to broaden his views, as well as Dr Godlee's similar lack of knowledge.
It will certainly further the course of medical science no end that you have allowed the publication of a response to the above article stating that Allinson's Wholemeal Bread, as currently on the supermarket shelves in the UK:
differs little in consistency and flavour to any other mass- produced, mass-market, sliced and wrapped loaf. More like coffee-coloured Mother's Pride than real wholemeal bread.iv


 
- hardly Richard Smith's brave new world, but he would have published it anyway, as well as mine.


 
Yours Sincerely


 
Dr Jayne LM Donegan
MB BS DRCOG DCH DFFP MRCGP MFHom
cc fgodlee@bmj.com
Fiona Godlee Editor BMJ
tdelamothe@bmj.com
Tony Delamothe Deputy Editor BMJ
References:
 
i Delamothe T, Smith R Twenty thousand conversations BMJ 2002;324:1171-1172 ( 18 May )
ii Godlee F Think mumps BMJ  2005;330 (14 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7500.0-f
iiiShroter S A Survey of Editors Conflicts of interest COPE 2003 www.publicationethics.org.uk/reports/2003/2003pdf11.pdf
ivRogers DJ Allinson's Wholemeal Bread http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/336/7651/1023-a#194677


Dr Jayne L.M. Donegan
MBBS DRCOG DFFP DCH MRCGP MFHom
GP & Homoeopath
121 Sunny Gardens Road
London NW4 1SH UK
F/T 0044 (0)20 8632 1634
www.jayne-donegan.co.uk/