Editor’s note –
January 2026

Let’s make orthodox medicine the new complementary therapy

Mainstream medicine has failed spectacularly at chronic disease – while claiming to be the gold standard.

Time for a sideways promotion.

The NHS waiting list just hit 7.4 million. Obesity rates keep climbing. Cancer treatments have made a dent in mortality but count 5 years as long-term survival. Alzheimer’s? Complete failure. Around 4.5 million people in England and Wales – or about 1 in 10 of us – are “off sick” and claiming illness benefits.

Orthodox medicine is brilliant at acute care. Broken leg? Heart attack? A&E please: I don’t want a homeopath.. But chronic disease? It’s been an expensive disaster, propped up by journals publishing bad science and heavily influenced by Big Pharma.

In England, 40% of adults have at least one long-term condition – conditions that nutrition and lifestyle can largely control. Yet we’re spending 40% of the NHS budget treating preventable diseases with pharmaceuticals. Included there is £1.67 billion on diabetes medications in 2023-24; a 74% increase since 2015-16 for a condition that’s treatable with food.

Research from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition tracked 23,000 people. The findings: lifestyle changes could potentially prevent 93% of diabetes cases, 81% of heart attacks, 50% of strokes, and 36% of all cancers.

Meanwhile, Type 2 diabetes – once a progressive condition requiring lifelong medication – is going into remission through nutritional intervention. Dr David Unwin’s low-carb practice has put 141 patients into drug-free type 2 diabetes remission, supported by peer-reviewed studies showing improved HbA1c and weight loss without pharmaceuticals No drugs. Food.

But 70% of UK medical students and doctors report receiving fewer than TWO HOURS of nutrition teaching during their entire medical school education. Two hours. To learn about the single most powerful intervention for preventing the diseases that consume 40% of NHS spending.

As nutrition and lifestyle factors – including exercise (another missing ingredient in medical education) drive most chronic conditions, this is like training firefighters but never mentioning water.

Diseases we’re told require lifetime medication have been shown to be reversible through nutrition and lifestyle changes. Yet orthodox medicine routinely prescribes drugs for life. Statins, antihypertensives, antiplatelets and anticoagulants; thyroid hormones; drugs for osteoporosis; corticosteroids and long acting bronchodilators; anti-depressants…and yes, even PPIs (as revealed in our November issue).   

So let’s do this. Let’s “promote” orthodox medicine out of the way.

First-line treatment for chronic disease should be nutritional therapy, naturopathy and functional medicine approaches. Orthodox medicine becomes the backup – the complementary option when diet and lifestyle intervention isn’t enough.

…