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(A foundation member of the US National Cancer Institute and former head of the institute's Cytochemistry Department, Dr Burk is best known for his work in cancer research for which he has received honors from France, Britain, Germany and the USSR. Formerly Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Cornell University, he has worked in cancer research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany and at the USSR Academy of Science, Moscow. Dr Burk is the recipient of the Domagk Prize for cancer research, a Knight Commander of the Medical Order of Bethlehem, and a Knight of the Mark Twain Society. He is co-author of the books Cancer, Approaches to Tumor Chemotherapy and Cell Chemistry, and author of over 250 published scientific papers.)

   Having spent most of my professional life in the field of cancer research--a field of great complexity and no little confusion--I was astonished and delighted to become acquainted with this book.

   My astonishment arises from the discovery that a layman (the author is a retired airline captain) should have gained such a comprehensive understanding of the complex biological processes which lead to the disease called cancer and to be able to describe these processes in a manner easily understandable by other laymen.

   The author describes the origins not only of cancer but of other so-called diseases of civilization and the natural measures required to avoid and control them.

   When it is considered that few medical professionals possess this knowledge, this is no mean achievement.

   The strength, integrity and happiness of a nation are directly proportional to the state of health of its citizens. In the distant past civilizations have risen, flourished and declined, their ruins covered by desert sands. Did affluence destroy them? Are we heading the same way?

   Perhaps humans are too clever for their own good. In the pursuit of Progress and pleasure they at the same time sow the seeds of their own destruction.

   Modern man must comprehend the message presented in this book that the greatest threat to his survival is not that of nuclear war, because although that threat is real, at least everyone is aware of it. The threat most dangerous to mankind comes from the destroyers active right now, subtle and unseen--the poisoning of our soil and water supplies, the denaturing of our food, the ever-increasing destruction of the environment.

   No more do people die of old age--instead, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes and so on, are today accepted as normal causes of death. Influenza, arthritis, indigestion, constipation, aches and pains and medicine, are a normal part of life. Are coronary bypasses, hysterectomies, reading glasses, hearing aids, wheelchairs, false teeth and plastic hip joints, to be considered normal too?

   On his long evolutionary journey, man has strayed onto dangerous ground. Now we are at a crossroads, and whichever way we take there will be some rough going. As ever, the fittest will survive.

   Ross Home's book is a survival manual for the trip ahead.

   Dean Burk
   July 1984

   (Dr Kalokerinos, now in general practice, was for many years health advisor to the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee in Canberra and previous to that was Medical Superintendent, Collarenebri District Hospital. He is best known for his work in preventing infant mortality and is author of the book Every Second Child [1974, Thomas Nelson].)

   TO be healthy and to live a long time is the aim of nearly every person. Unfortunately) few achieve it and the reasons why need careful consideration. Obviously, many factors are involved in the maintenance of good health.

   We could begin by listing genetic factors, physical fitness, the environment, psychology, diet and lifestyle. Deliberately I have omitted physicians, medications and hospitals because it is becoming painfully obvious to practitioners that their impact is remarkably small and has practically no beneficial effect on community health. Yet, in our modern society, the vast bulk of effort and expenditure goes towards physicians, hospitals and medications. As technology increases, demand for services increases and it is probable that, unless a brake is applied, our society could spend half its national income in a futile effort to buy health. Health cannot be bought.

   Human nature is such that the average individual is loath to work for good health. He wants a magical prescription, an operation, an all-powerful physician or some electronic marvel that will provide answers for everything. For example, most people would prefer that lung cancer had no connection with smoking and could be easily controlled by "medical science" with "miracle" drugs. A doctor who advocates sensible preventive measures usually loses such patients to another doctor with a ready prescription pad.

   Physical fitness, attention to the environment, relaxed psychology, correct diet and lifestyles are the key factors to good health. A few individuals may be genetically strong enough to ignore most of these and still remain healthy for a long time, but the average person must obey the rules--or suffer. To become a functionless mass of distorted body parts is not an accident, it results from a bad lifestyle unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, followed habitually for years.

   Diet correction is where we need to begin in the search for longevity. Over the years fads have emerged. Most have good points; most are illogical in that they consider factors out of perspective. For optimum physical fitness we must go back to how "nature intended" us to eat--like our forefathers who foraged and hunted in the forests. Their diets consisted mainly of wild fruit and various plants eaten raw, with very little consumption of fat or animal protein. In other words, the diet for good health is not "high protein" but high natural carbohydrate. To replace natural carbohydrates with refined forms (such as white flour and sugar) is, of course, a disaster no matter how careful one may be in the selection of other foods. South Sea Islanders who consume great amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables and also masses of white flour and sugar demonstrate this point clearly. They suffer from degenerative diseases such as diabetes at alarming rates and their life expectancy is poor. To live almost exclusively on refined carbohydrates is a double disaster. Processed foods, artificial preservatives, sweeteners, colorings and flavorings add to the horror of bad health. One may partially correct the problem by adding certain vitamins and minerals, but full correction is not possible.

   Physical fitness is the next factor that needs consideration. Oxygen, nutritional foods and waste products cannot get into and out of cells when the circulation is sluggish. In the physically unfit, major blood vessels block, the microcirculation. in the capillaries becomes sluggish and the result is impaired cellular metabolism, the cause of degenerative diseases which include cancer.

   Fortunately, and this is a major message in this book, these changes are often reversible. Thus a person who has, for example, established heart disease, can, by correcting diet and becoming physically active, improve the circulation and "cure" the heart disease. Surely this is a better way of handling the problem than open heart surgery or coronary by-pass operations that may relieve the pain. This represents, in my own lifetime, a complete reversal of principles. In my early years, patients were forced into bed and even had their teeth washed for them. How many were killed by such "kindness" is best not thought about. One knows that if tissues are to remain healthy, or regain health, a degree of activity to stimulate the circulation is necessary.

   Although minor details may change over the years as more knowledge filters through, there is only one sure road to good health. Reading this book will illuminate that road. To argue against it will get one nowhere because, for the average individual, there is no alternative.

   Archie Kalokerinos
   July 1984

   (Formerly the Associate Professor of Surgery, University of New South Wales, and Head of the Departments of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Prince Henry Hospital and The Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney.)

   It is appropriate that this book should be written as part of a broadening endeavor to alert us to the cost in lives, ill health and dollars, of diseases which have become endemic in Western countries. Leading these degenerative conditions are atherosclerosis, the commonest form of cardiovascular disease, and cancer, which together account for the majority of deaths in these countries.

   The records show, of course, only the detected cases. A far greater number of the population carry these diseases within them, advancing unsuspected and uncontrolled.

   Mr Home has correlated the appalling incidence of the degenerative diseases, particularly cardiovascular, with multiple risk factors which have become the norm in our dietary and habitual environment. If any more salutary reminder were needed of the subtle but catastrophic effects of our environment, it would be in those studies of cardiovascular disease, such as that in Busselton, Western Australia, which have revealed that atherosclerosis is present in the majority of the population, even among children and adolescents, sometimes in an advanced state.

   As Mr Home correctly observes, traditional treatment of atherosclerosis addresses itself to the "matured" symptomatic disease and to its life-threatening complications. Relatively little expenditure is directed to the crucial issues of why it occurs in our young and how we can arrest its onset and awful progress. Obviously, traditional treatment can only be truly profitable if used in conjunction with the strongest efforts to reduce causal factors.

   It is not enough to merely recognize that economics, advertising, expediency and habit have contributed largely to a general deterioration in health and a rise in early mortality and morbidity. People need advice and direction. Clearly, conventional dietary and other advice does not go far enough to alter the metabolic disturbances which produce degenerative disease. However, the dietary regimes discussed in this book, largely empirical as they may be, appear to significantly correct these metabolic disturbances and to largely restore the proper body chemistry necessary for health. They rest on analysis of primitive diets and long-known information which finds strong correlations between dietary modification and symptomatic improvement in a great number and variety of disease processes. To include cancer amongst these degenerative diseases seems, at first, presumptuous, but there is increasing evidence that dietary factors play a crucial role in the complex area of neoplasia [cancer]. This story has not yet been told fully.

   Although these diets are at first difficult to implement and difficult to persist with, requiring a large amount of self-discipline until new tastes are acquired, there can be no doubt that the benefits are rapidly recognized and clearly not placebo in origin. The splendid companion cookbook to this volume facilitates a transition to a new, dietary way of life.

   This book accumulates a prodigious compendium of information on body chemistry, diet, disease processes, exercise and other environmental factors, as seen by a longtime student of these matters who is highly informed and who has researched his subjects widely. Of course, this has been accomplished without inhibition by customary medical attitudes or by traditional thinking and teaching. I believe that this book bridges a broad gap between what has been and is, and what should be. Mr Home is to be congratulated and admired, I believe, for filling so many gaps in conventional nutritional awareness.

   John Wright MB BS FRACS FACS