Common Sense about Health

Peter is a physician of rare integrity and moral courage, who has never hesitated to set out his views and enter into controversies where necessary, while at the same time providing exemplary avenues for the cultivation of real health rather than the management of disease - the focus of much modern medicine. He was inspired by the Peckham Experiment in community health of the late 1930s as well as other pioneers in natural health. Here he sets out his own philosophy of health as well as resources and a variety of recommended approaches. He explains his four axioms: the relationship between essence and substance or principle and form, wholes and wholeness, affinity, relationship and order, and health and creation. From this he derives an overall dynamic of the creation of larger wholes as critical to health. The reverse of this is the emergence of unease, disease then disorder and a state of diminished vitality. Providing the enabling conditions for the creation and maintenance of health is therefore his main aim, which he has achieved through the Templegarth Club and Good HealthKeeping (www.goodhealthkeeping.co.uk). The book then covers a number of resources for health, including sunlight, air, water, food, cleansing, and also adventure, purpose, belief and sleep. Then the final section summarises the contributions of various traditions of medicine, including homeopathic, anthroposophical and Chinese, along with the role of water treatments and manipulative therapies. This is full of good practical advice, and I commend Peter's approach as a refreshingly frank distillation of his views and experience.