Dr Econs, Medical Director – A biographic note

Dr Econs studied Medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, London, where he obtained his medical degree in 1976. After a number of hospital appointments he entered general practice in Walton-on-Thames in 1979. A keen volleyball player, represented the discipline in the British Olympic Association Medical Subcommittee until 1994, held a number of other honorary appointments and served in the committee of the newly incepted local NHS Primary Care Group.

His interest in diet and other environmental factors affecting human health was sparked in the early eighties when two of his patients with rheumatoid arthritis and chronic fatigue claimed they were “cured” by means of simple dietary changes recommended separately by two of his colleagues. This lead him to research the area of environmental influences on human health; he learnt, developed and applied in his NHS practice some of the methods used in Clinical Allergy along with services offering preventative and nutritional measures for asthma, eczema, hay fever and other common medical problems, some not obviously associated with immune dysfunction.

In the mid-eighties he became a member of the British Society of Ecological Medicine (BSEM) then known as Brit Soc of Allergy Environmental & Nutritional Medicine and he incorporated safe methods of desensitisation for allergies, not responding to popular medications. This society is affiliated to the Institute of Biology, runs a two year post-graduate modular course and some of its members are recognised by the General Medical Council as medical specialists.

For years, respiratory allergy, paediatric, ear/nose & throat and gastro-intestinal problems were treated with advice on diet and other life style changes, which resulted in a significant reduction of referrals to hospital departments and a reduction of long-term prescriptions such as analgesics, anti-inflammatories, anti-depressants, inhaled steroids and ulcer-healing drugs. On the basis of this model, he has advocated that substantial savings can be made for the local and national health economy, if these were to adopt methodology, involving an environmentally oriented approach for many chronic medical conditions, instead of focusing on the current symptom-control.

Since 1992 his practice has supported people suffering with various types of allergy and other immune problems. He retired from his NHS practice in 2001 to take over two independent clinics in Yorkshire and Oxford due to the retirement of colleagues specialising in the same field, while continuing to operate from premises in Weybridge, Surrey. Through the years, he has participated in a number of clinical trials, lectured in post-graduate centres and has contributed to medical journals, popular magazines and radio programmes on topics varying from food intolerance in obesity to the role of volatile organic compounds in human health.

Case studies, clinical audits & research (published or waiting publication)

Diet & Cancer 1998 – a systemic review on reducing the risk of cancer with dietary changes.
Several epidemiological studies from different countries show that a diet rich in vitamins/anti-oxidants and low in protein and free radicals correlates to reduced incidence of various types of cancer.

Obesity & Diet 2001 – Review of dietary & lifestyle factors promoting obesity (expert report).

Magnesium and recurrent back pain 1994 – A proportion of otherwise healthy people with chronic or intermittent back pain showed a reduction of painful episodes while taking oral magnesium supplements.

Combined contraceptive pill and carcinogenesis (letter BMJ 1998) – Oestrogens in the combined pill and hormone replacement are known to increase the risk of a number of cancers in women. It is argued that instead of waiting for the cancer to occur and then discontinue the pill, it may be more prudent to use alternative forms of contraception.

Dietary & nutritional changes to enhance female fertility 1996 – A study of 21 women with previous sub-fertility who were recommended simple dietary changes resulting in successful pregnancies.

Spontaneous conception in a previously infertile woman 1993 – A 23 year old woman who had been told by a gynaecology department that she could not conceive due to endometriosis, conceived 2 weeks after she started on a yeast free/low-risk foods diet (recommended for irritable bowel).

Reversal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with a combination of dietetic modification and enzyme potentiated desensitisation 1995 – A 41 year old male smoker with severe “irreversible” asthma on long term course of oral steroids became symptom-free 6 months after starting on a low-risk-food diet and received immunotherapy with the enzyme potentiated method.

A case of Guillain-Barre Syndrome caused by Type B (delayed/non-atopic) food allergy 2002 – A 69 retired pharmacist noticed a complete clearance of his neuropathy-type symptoms when he followed a 3 day fast required in preparation for barium study of the bowel. Through a process of elimination and challenge a few foods were identified which had caused severe lower-limb numbness

Drug-free Normalisation of Hypertension and Hypercholesterolaemia 2006 – Blood pressure readings and previously raised cholesterol returned to normal after 3 months on a low carbohydrate diet combined with high doses of antioxidants in a 56 year old man.

Food Intolerance as a cause of Obesity 2006 – A series of 120 patients with weight problems or clinical obesity experienced weight significant loss without caloric restriction while on a low-risk-foods diet.

Reversal of supra-ventricular tachy-arrhythmia in an 83 year old woman 2005 – A combination of dietary changes and high dose micro-nutrients including magnesium reverses a tachy-arrhythmia, which has been poorly controlled with a combination of anti-arrhythmic medications.

Recurrent episodes of severe migraine with secondary hyperemesis and haematemesis responds to food and caffeine avoidance - An 87 year old Caucasian woman with frequent episodes of vomiting and migraine, attributed to labyrinthitis, experienced a spontaneous clearance of her symptoms within 48 hours of being sick. The episodes became rare since she kept off (caffeinated) coffee.

Chronic irritable bowel (diarrhoea) resolves on eradication of protozoan parasites 2004 (Article in the Times) - A woman with severe irritable bowel and blastocystis hominis confirmed in an amoebic culture responded to a combination of antibiotics (the clinics have treated such parasites in several hundred patients with IBS since 1995.