Of Cats (and Dogs) and Women (and Men): Violent Behaviors - Causes and Solutions

I have never heard/read so many people having troubles "dealing with" what is going around them; there are a lot of 'crazy' things going on and it seems to have seeped into every crack in the complex framework of America (and beyond). I've gotten good reaction so far in my half-joking suggestion that I create an area of my business that's for people who want to just throw in the towel and eat, drink, and be as merry as possible for as short a time as possible because it's so difficult to be on planet Earth right now. It's similar to daydreaming about going to a fabulous resort on an expensive getaway when you can't afford it -- we all have to find our coping strategies and I'm hearing a LOT of us half joking and perhaps half seriously saying 'I'm about to give up fighting the tide!'

"My Cat From Hell" and similar television shows about dog difficulties are highly watched, and I found it interesting that a former coworker of mine, who was 'outside the box' with her own business and doing on-call/PRN work where I worked full time, had put it on Facebook that her young dog had developed some problematic behaviors. The responses -- when I look around my Facebook, of people who have had to go 'to the mat' related to medical problems or veterinary problems, both on the mind/mental and body/physical side of things, is staggering.

I was referred to Jackson Galaxy, star of My Cat From Hell, when I worked my way around and up the holistic veterinary information chain: even with a referral from a long-time referral DVM, he was 'too busy' to do private consults; Animal Planet's show is keeping him busy. Lots of crazy cats out there, apparently. And crazy cat ladies (and gentlemen, there are equal numbers, women just get the bad rap on that one.) I became one, crazy for my cat who sadly, went crazy in early adulthood. Today would be her fourth birthday, and hence, this topic today. More about that, below, if you're interested. 

What I learned in this article I'm setting up here, is that orthomolecular psychiatrist Abran Hoffer, MD treated schizophrenia and pellegra, a disorder that became common in the early 1900s (when my grandparents were children), with niacin. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD treats patients with schizophrenia in her practice and believes it is actually pellegra. Combine this with what I recently reported on when studying the work of William Davis, MD in video and the book or cookbook on his 'WheatBelly' brand, related to some cases of schizophrenia being cured by eliminating gluten and changing the diet, and a 50% reduction in days hospitalized in the psychiatric unit before being stabilized enough for discharge, it naturally leads to the obvious question: What did they replace the calories from gluten/wheat with in the studies. Did those foods also contribute to healing and it wasn't simply removing the gluten? 

Does this 'hit home' for you in some way? From my schoolmates growing up, when you get people together sharing what is going on in their families over the three-or-so generations ("how are your parents, how are your kids, how are you?" it bring is "home" how what you see reported in the news and in medical literature is accurate. "Things are just crazy." It's a mix of things in the two 'categories', which ultimately don't have that much separation when you start reading information like what's at this topic by Dr. Onusic I'm suggesting you go to, read and study/learn from.

Suicide, homocide, schizophrenias, mood disorders, personality disorders, cancers, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, behavioral disorders, substance abuse, eye problems, gum or oral health problems, progressive neurological disorders, autism, endocrine disorders .... 'you name it, we've got it!' I learned about nine years ago that the area we came from is well-known in environmental health research as being a known 'hot spot' for illnesses, but I am sad to say, when I lived in western Colorado, another known region for environmental illness, the people who I met were and are a mix that have moved here or grew up here, and I see the same thing. And this is in the area made famous by the creator of South Park; Trey Parker is a decade younger. 

But when I recently picked up on so many verbalizing, jokingly and seriously, not being able to effectively 'deal with' the craziness overall, including in their pets' lives as their human guardians, and in light of my own story in 2012 and early 2013 with my cat teacher, I started seeing the correlations.  

I use the word 'crazy' with all due respect, at Lumigrate we give equal footing to mind, body, spirit: it is the whole of a person which is "well or healthy" and the whole which, little by little, or with big burdens, or 'loads', tips from chronic wellness to chronic illness. Many people are teetering and are unaware how, if they don't change something to unburden their body/mind/spirit, they'll tip too, or it can also be compared to an elevator slowing to struggle being overloaded and finally breaking down. Please refer to the mind/head and mind/body forums of Lumigrate for more information from our perspective on the mental and behavioral health component of wellness/illness.

It might be more thought of as the 'emotional' aspect; childhood trauma, unhealthy relationships and behaviors. "Verbal violence", since this topic is about violence, is another example, is something I've witnessed increasingly, and is often talked about related to the Internet. Our exposures are simply saturated due to how pervasive technology has become, yet people who operate with little technology due to age or dislike of electronics, are reporting to me the same 'crazy' feeling going on around them that is, admittedly, affecting them. And it affects me, I've had to bunker in compared to how I used to live my life too. Self preservation. 

Related to overall violent behavior, I encourage you to take the time and use the energy to link out to this website that will cost you no money to read this entire article by  Sylvia Onusic, PhD, titled "Violent Behavior: A Solution in Plain Sight".  

The link is: www.westonaprice.org/environmental-toxins/violent-behavior-a-solution-in-plain-sight

You will find this article is part of the spring quarterly journal of 2013 for the Weston A Price Foundation. 

Weston A Price's 'claim to fame' is related to observing the physical and mental well-being of indigenous people in remote areas of the world, not yet having been reached in a way to have diet influenced by westerners, or those who had remained consuming the diets their people had for generations and centuries or longer.

 

I encourage you to read the history at their website, it's really fascinating. What really 'got me' were the photos of the people who had perfectly straight, meshing teeth and didn't need braces and their cranial development had been so 'normal' that everything 'meshed'.

 

They were reportedly very happy people, and Dr. Francis Pottenger also observed and reported these kinds of behaviors -- peaceful, harmoneous -- in well-nourished cats.  There is much about the 'native diet' of cats at the resource I've provided since doing my homework/searching with my cat's issues, and I'll provide that resource later for those interested in the feline part of this story. This is a good time to interject that Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey, the famous primatologists, were both occupational therapists by education then diverged into looking at nonhuman primates for the remainer of their careers and lives. So while my background in occupational therapy might seem it's limited to humans, it is truly about FUNCTION, and animals, human and otherwise, have more in common than they have differences.

 

So, for a long time, there have been 'alternative thinkers' to the mainstream on diet in the US (and beyond). There are references over and over when you look into the holistic providers' histories, to their wanting to stay under the radar in order to not get caught up in the problems that would befall people who went against the mainstream. Thankfully the advent of the Internet and social media in particular has created a whole new playing field for 'rabelrousers' to have more people 'miss them' if they disappear unexpectedly or unexplainably.

 

Naturally, not everyone agrees with everything these outside the box teachers and 'legeds' say: there's as much controversy within the ranks as in the mainstream. To meat or not to meat.... that is the question. One of my trusted advisors said to me offhandedly "don't ever let anyone talk you into going vegan, people do well for about a handfull of years and then things start to go awry."

Another expert I value said that the primal eating method that's gaining in popularity is bringing in scores of clients because it's too acidic. I always provide the best of the best concepts and providers I can find and hope people get the overall message: Everyone's different to some extent and there are different 'right answers', so the key to YOU being an effective manager of your health care team is to be committing yourself to time studying and activitely working at your diet (and overall lifestyle). It's a lot more 'work' than any of us were used to, typically, in the past when we'd nuke things in the microwave that came out of a box from the freezer. The kitchen is again the center hub of the home as people return to the roots of preparing nutritious foods that increasingly help and not hinder the health of themselves and their families.

And that includes nonhuman members of the family. I was about to embark on making home made raw food for my cat, having stepped to the frozen raw, after going to canned, after coming from dry without grains, after coming from who knows what she ate in the three months before she was surrendered for rehoming when the human guardian went to jail on a DUI charge while driving on a suspended license for DUI. It's actually EASIER to teach the basic concepts about how animals should be eating and then shift to the human animals' diet, as it's so much more complicated with people. 

So there are differences of opinions but there are many components with this outside the box dietary thinking which most all DO agree upon. As you know, I look for things that present diversity for people to explore but which also 'overlap' with other valid, well-known and respected philosophies. I find this particular piece that I'm suggesting people really take a serious look at, very well-done -- the author provides a long list of references noted in the text so you can look further into specific information presented that might pique your interest. The website also provides a biographical link at the VERY bottom of  the VERY long list of references and this fairly long but good overview of a huge topic about diet and behavior.

I hope this paragraph from the beginning is a leading indicator of what you'll find if you go and read the topic about violence, after reminding us of the tripling in homocides in those under 18 from 1984-1994 in the US, and our having a massive SEVEN TIMES the overall rate of homocide than other developed countries on Earth. So many are asking 'why' and 

"Modern commentators are blind to the solution, a solution that is in plain sight: clearly defining good nutrition and putting back into the mouths of our children, starting before they are even conceived ... because food is information and that information directly affects the emotions, the nervous system, the brain and behavior."

 

And I will take this a step further, and say for our pets. I have been researching what was going on, and then what 'went on' with my "Greatest 10# Teacher", my cat "SpoildeyCat". Her name was actually 'Amber' and she was born four years ago. This is her 'baby picture', she was the only female with six brothers who allegedly were pretty much like this always: more rambunctious and less tentative and 'nervous'. But she wasn't a 'scaredycat', she just was nervous and then wanted to take on whatever it was that was concerning and didn't run and hide and not come out again.

 

Retreat she would. Quit -- never. Even with her blissfully ideal euthanazation in the spring of this year (2013), she was up for the trip to the 'lady who is going to tell us what we need to do about this problem we have', as I'd think and verbalize to her to maintain the 'calm', and was up for being taken out of the cage and handled, for the last time of her short life. I felt it was easier for her to transfer to the table and security of her beloved 'funmobile'/cage while the medication kicked in before the final injection which stopped her heart.

 

There was something about taking a kitten from five months of age to being euthanized and looking into so many things that are on this list, below, from this article that makes it somehow easier to see than the complexities of a human life. She didn't go to college and 'party hearty', she didn't have 40 vaccinations as a young adult would have had, she had four at the most. She didn't go to the movies and eat popcorn and candy as a child, and drink soda pop. She ate cat food and drank water.

 

What kind that was for the first part of her life, I don't know, but I do know what she had after she came to live with me, and I noticed the changes in her over the months and years. Much improved with her behaviors based on the things I tried with her, but ultimately a few disorders were 'tripped' somewhere along the line, things she had genes for just as we all have, for various things. I was able to see so many similarities and hoped that I was able to learn from it and have it not only impact my future wellness, but others who might be utilizing Lumigrate as part of their wellness information.  

 

Her mother was not my cat, nor did I know the original owner, and to add to it, she was not fully grown herself when she had this litter of kittens, I was told. So is it possible she was nutritionally stressed simply because of her still growing and having 'whatever' for food intake? Apparently she was a happy, pleasant cat and a very good mother. She was a calico; they apparently had many similar behavior that fall in the usual realm of calico and tortie behavior. I had to dig into information about torties and their 'tortitude' early on, and unfortunately I attributed too many things to it being normal for that breed as they are a little genetically more 'primal' is how I was thinking of it. My cat grew into the best hunter I've seen, and had zero opportunities at my house for hunting. She was just 'wired' a bit more like you'd see a cat in the wild and not the lazing pets I've had in the past. 

 

 (She loved deep pressure, not petting, and I wonder if this brother/littermate somehow knew what she needed to 'organize' her senses and calm her down'. Cute, cute, cute! I'm appreciative of having the 'birth guardians' take photos of the kittens and share this one with me'. Giving credit where photo credit is due! Thank you!) 

 

I didn't even know about this precious little kitty until she was five months old and the first adoptive family, who took her at two months, hadn't worked out for no fault of her own. Unless the chaos of having a kitten, and a hyperactive kitten no less, added to a dog, two children and two adults in a second floor apartment was somewhat to do with the family literally falling apart in the three months she was with them.

 

She was hyperactive, she needed to chew and climb incessantly, and she about drove me crazy for the first six months. I'm an occupational therapist, so my nature and profession I'm a problem-solver, and I was constantly looking for, and making, possible solutions. It was a good challenge and I trusted this had come my way for a reason, to teach me something or some-things.

 

I was definitely reminded of my OT roots, which at university in OT school included extensive training in applied neurology and sensory integration, as well as human development. But back in the 1990s they didn't teach anything about nutrition and the brain, nutrition and behavior, but I'd learned this on my own through my personal health challenges which were neurologic in nature to some extent and had perplexed neurologists at their onset, which was when I was in OT school.

 

My entire career from internships to today has been enhanced and also challenged by my wanting to have nutrition be central to any patient's care, and 'they system' wasn't yet approaching things integrating nutrition. So I essentially had a feline to experiment on, and saw how diet affected her behaviors. AND making too drastic changes too fast created adverse symptoms which didn't mean I was doing something overall that was bad, I was just not doing it in the right fashion. And this was helpful in applying to my own life as a human and as an advisor to others. I was also reminded of the need for "Eat, play, love". Body, mind, spirit. It is applicable to ALL.

 

After eating, she would need to play, play, play and then she would  sweetly curl up and sleep, initially it had to be right with me always, but as she got more secure about being in our home, she would go to the other rooms and sleep or watch out the windows -- she had an active mind that needed lots of 'engaging' through the senses of sight, sound, and sniff (vision, audition and olfaction). Never once did I see a typical 'bad' behavior that you hear of with cats, like not using the litterbox or spraying, nor the common physical problems like urinary tract and digestive tract problems.

 

She was very clean about her fur and I'd take her outside on a leash and she'd roll in the dirt or on the concrete of the driveways and I presumed there was something she knew just 'needed' from that. In retrospect, I've now wondered if there might not have been contaminants in the dirt. So overall she was healthy! She was two, full grown, 10#, and settling into being one of my favorite cats of all time, and off my "I have to live with her for 20 years?" list. By the end of her life she had become my favorite of all time, probably because in the past I had more animals around me and they also didn't have quite so many things to teach me as she did; she had body, mind and spirit 'wisdom' to communicate, lessons and challenges we teamed up on. 

 

Something tripped in her shortly after a very dramatic event with a large dog off leash and not well attended by the owner's friend taking it on a walk near our home, mental stress perhaps adding to the previous nutritional stress and mental stress of her past, and a rare genetic, neurologic disorder was 'tripped' in her about 2 months after our close encounter of the dog kind.

 

Then when a neighbor got a puppy that was outside tethered a lot every day and barked at people and cars, that was now something she took in as potentially life-threatening and 'concerning' and instead of that time being enjoyable, relaxing time watching birdies or other innocuous or pleasurable things, she was having that time focused on 'concerns' - it might be similar to when a person puts on the television news channels for increased time each day.

 

New neighbors moved in right next door with children, bikes, activities that came very close to our house and I thought it was great she had more to watch, she liked kids. She liked dogs. She liked people (usually, some she had to learn to like she was afraid of men always at first, again, not sure what happened in those formative 3 months in the first adoptive home). One day in March, shortly after I'd prepared the topic at the link provided at the bottom about vaccine plans/rights/injuries, a cable TV worker was approaching that house for a routine service call and I heard my little cat growl.

 

Growl... at a person not coming anywhere near out home. I was concerned, and a few days later, about midnight, I was, again, rushed by her, hackles up, looking like a 20# racoon trying to get you away from her den, and that started the ten days of intensive learning and ultimately leading to her euthanazation. And posthumously, I am continuing to dig for the truth, the answers and provide information for others. That's just what I do, and what Lumigrate has always been about, for people first, now our animals we guardian. 

 

Unfortunately I didn't think to have a lead level taken on her, and by the time three different disorders were increasingly causing symptoms, one of which was very rare and lead to confusion about who was who in the house and was dangerous to me and anyone else. 

 

Initially I looked at the obvious, I had inherited a cat that also potentially had psychological trauma. So I worked 'with that' as best I could. It was reported she had fallen or jumped from the balcony, meaning a significant risk of her having injured her brain or other parts of her body. So I took that into consideration, but she seemed 'fine'.

 

Until I got her home and she settled in and got comfortable. She jumped and ran and played and chewed, not on firm things but on squishy things but eventually 'outgrew' all that, including the climbing. I did as any good therapist would with a child with sensory stimulation needs and her brain apparently got what it needed -- between the activities and good nutrition, and presumably love and security.

 

Therefore, this particular article was of interest to me since it also talks about nutrition and cats -- it became very clear to me that there were a lot of similarities between my history (brain injury, sensitive to foods and toxins) and SpoileyCat's. 

 

I started calling her SpoildeyCat rather than Amber publicly because she was 'seeming' spoiled -- she had such nutritional preferences. And not for the better foods that cost more, she had a 'thing' for Newman's Own and for the chicken and salmon, though I rotated in the turkey and chicken as well as many other brands that were, in theory and by label/ingredients, better. 

 

And in a way, I was 'spoiling her' by also giving her what she was seeming to crave. She wanted spinach leaves, raw. That was strongest when I got her and even at her second birthday, we gave her spinach as her 'cake' and present.

 

She caught onto the 'entertainment' of my taking my supplements and she always loved to sniff 'everything'... and she wanted my fish oil capsules and my gelcaps that were bone builders SO BADLY she'd hold my hand all the way up to my mouth with both front paws, being so careful to not dig her claws in but almost desperately 'saying': Please, mom, can I have that? 

 

Since she started acting 'oddly' when I cleaned up her diet and had her on a good raw frozen food that was the 'ideal' available for me to purchase in the city I live, per my very good local pet supply store owner, I'd go back to giving her the Newman's, and hence "SpoildeyCat" as a nickname. I had so many questions and understand what it's like to be scrambling trying to find a condensed batch of information that will answer a lot of questions. It's a lot to figure out whether it's a family member of the human variety or pets such as cats and dogs and other animals. 

 

This article covered a lot of the 'ground' I was looking into related to things I was concerned about for her, and for when things erupted in the US related to the Newtown, Connecticut situation at the hand controlled by a brain of a young man named Adam, who I found a deplorable lack of compassion and questioning for. You'll find that I posted something related to foods and behavior the weekend/Saturday in December after that tragic event made the news and impacted people as it did.  "I don't know what to think" one of the first people I saw after learning of the situation said, awestruck.

 

My concern was people would villify someone with Asperger's and not go to the underlying 'why'. This article brings more angles to it in addition to the nutrition, which we also have in our topic here by Dr Spurlock on Load Theory. This simply gives more indepth information on the areas this PhD is an expert in. 

 

WHAT IF the schools, the parents, the doctors and medical providers such as dentists somehow inadvertently were contributing to his body getting 'loaded' with this that was a burden, or wasn't giving him this that would be good for his body and mind? There's a section in this article about school slayings and psychotropic drugs. 

 

I think it warrants attention for anyone who has someone around them, human or animal such as a pet, who is acting differently, badly, problematically, or is otherwise concerning. There is also a section on aspartame and school lunches. 

 

Here are some 'words' and topics this relatively short article, for all the ground it covers, includes:

 

• Heavy metals: Lead, copper, mercury
• Toxic environmental burden (and includes information from studies on infants which are staggering due to their short time on Earth)
• Food sensitivities, this includes information on gluten and the various sensitivities:
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids:
• Trans Fats:
• Fat soluble vitamins: Vitamin A, D3, K2. The nervous system and brain needs specific nutrients to function properly. Fats are prevalant in diets of native people (and other animals, I might add). "Today, due to disastrous dietary advise, most people avoid the dietary sources of these critical nutrients. They are found in egg yolk, butter, organ meats, meat fats, fish eggs, oily fish and fish liver oil, as well as some fermented foods such as saurkraut.
• "There is overwhelming evidence that nutritional deficiency can lead to aggression and violent behavior" Dr Onusik writes in the article (again, please follow the link to the source, this is just my summary and 'teaser'.)  Many of us have lived through the 'fat phobia' that was taught to many unsuspecting consumers, who bought up fat-free and low-fat products. During pregnancy, the children who are gestating/'baking in the oven' may be set up for abnormal patterns later in life. I had lunch in 2012 with a well-educated woman and mother who was very 'set' in her ways from those old days when she learned about nutrition in the 'fat phobia' timeframe. I was shocked, I thought everyone had gotten the memo about good fats and bad fats and in between fats. Clearly there is more work to do! The information is out there, it's up to YOU! to put it on your priority list to learn and do differently. It can be done, all of us who have done it have had to tackle the difficulties of changing shopping, cooking, serving our families and selves.
• Vitamin A deficiency in animals has shown problems with spatial learning and memory. It may lead to dopamine receptor hypo-activity (low=hypo), and the typical symptoms seen in schizophrenia. (Apathy, lack of insight, flat affect and then delusions and hallucinations. Remember, things are not all not there or all there, black/white, think a continuum and shades of grey. Studies in the US of teens in school who were identified as having the early signs of schizophrenia who were intervened on with simple dietary supplementation with fish oil and family behavioral education cut the incidence in half of the students having full 'scizophrenic breaks' later. This was reported in Time. Epigenetic studies have been as well, and in National Geographic in recent years. This information is all over the place out there, increasingly, keep your radar up for it! Again, it's YOU! the consumer who has to put it on your priority list to learn and do!)
• Water soluble vitamins:
• Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol): Depression. Panic. Anxiety. Serotonin ("The molecule of willpower." Decreased serotonin can lead to difficulties creating and following through on plans.) Sunshine (in the eyes on the skin related to sunglasses and sunscreen interferening with nature) 
• thiamine (vitamin B1), beriberi which affects the hypothalamus and is the seat of impulse control. Deficiency symptoms are depression, irritability, aggression, confusion, and memory problems, and in more marginal cases, sensitivity to criticism.
• niacin - present in many foods, high in fish, meats (very high in liver organs and bacon). Niacin and B3 deficiency in it's extreme form results in pellegra, which was common in the early 20th century. B3 was added to processed grain products and reduced the overt symptoms and cases of pellegra. "However, subclinical symptoms of pellegra are widespread" the article states. Anxiety, hyperactivity, depression, fatigue, headaches, insomnia and hallucination. These are symptoms of many other things that fall in the mental and physical health realms of allopathic medicine and are included holistically in the integrative medicine approach of mind/body/spirit wholeness we promote at Lumigrate. Functional medicine, where you strive to find the underlying cause of something and correct that in addition to or instead of addressing symptoms, is also our foundational belief at Lumigrate with our information. Hence this is of great value to many of our users/guests/followers/consumers.  
• Amino Acids:
• Serotonin:
• Depression
• Essential Fatty Acids
• Minerals:
• ALA, DHA, Choline
• Zinc
• Vaccinations**
• Pesticides, including the history from the 1800s to the 1950s or 60s of a particular pesticide I have been looking closely at due to my own rising lead levels when mercury and cadmium both decreased as expected with my previous detoxification efforts. 
• Arsenic and the brain
• ADD/ADHD
• ... and more ... go see it for yourself. 

There are a number of things on this list which might jump out at you as you look and pique your interest. I encourage you to read the article because there were things that I wouldn't have normally have considered having applied so much, but I learned they are 'on the list' of this expert writer, and now on my radar screen as well. 

**Link to the topic on Lumigrate about vaccinations, which leads into the information about dogs and cats (with photos of my former therapy dog -- look for 'Benji-looking' cutie Scooter, and Amber the SpoileyCat 10# Teacher as an adult, there will be a link there for Dr Christina's website. Here's the link to that vaccine plan/rights/information we prepared this spring: www.lumigrate.com/forum/vaccinations-overall-where-do-you-stand-american-or-otherwise (which has had a LOT of reads, it's a popular topic!)

 

---

The link and information about Natasha Campbell-McBride, referred to, above, is: 

www.doctor-natasha.com/dr-natasha.php . There is MUCH at her website, please go! This is the 'About', to encourage you to go to this valuable resource:

 

Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride is a medical doctor with two postgraduate degrees: Master of Medical Sciences in Neurology and Master of Medical Sciences in Human Nutrition. She graduated as a medical doctor in Russia. After practising for five years as a Neurologist and three years as a Neurosurgeon she started a family and moved to the UK, where she got her second postgraduate degree in Human Nutrition.

 

She is well known for developing a concept of GAPS (Gut And Psychology Syndrome), which she described in her book Gut And Psychology Syndrome - Natural Treatment for Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Depression and Schizophrenia, now in its second edition. Thousands of people around the world follow the highly successful GAPS Nutritional Protocol to help themselves and their families. You can learn about GAPS on www.gaps.me

 

In her clinic, Dr Campbell-McBride works as a nutritional consultant with many patients with heart disease, high blood pressure, arrhythmia, stroke and other complications of atherosclerosis. She has become acutely aware of the existing confusion about nutrition and these conditions, which spurred an intensive study into this subject. The result of this study was her book Put Your Heart In Your Mouth! - What Really Is Heart Disease And What We Can Do To Prevent And Even Reverse It.

 

Dr Campbell-McBride is a keynote speaker at many professional conferences and seminars around the world. She frequently gives talks to health practitioners, patient groups and associations. She is a Member of The Society of Authors, and a regular contributing health editor to a number of magazines and newsletters.