December snows draw the year to a close-a time when we reflect on the year’s past events and plan the year ahead. 2003 has been another powerful and interesting year in the health food industry.

As usual, the media hyped poorly designed studies that attacked the use of vitamins and minerals to treat and prevent disease whereas positive studies were mostly ignored. Health food store employees were maligned in newspapers across the country for trying to help women with breast cancer navigate the myriad of nutritional supplements-something that medical doctors should be providing in the first place. Black cohosh, red clover, and other natural treatments for menopausal symptoms were subjected to numerous attacks. Should we get depressed? Not for one minute. We are making monumental strides when it comes to acceptance of natural treatments and products. Universities across the country offer courses for medical students on alternative medicine. The Pharmacists Association is teaching its members of the uses for herbs and nutrients and potential drug interactions. Major food manufacturers and fast food providers are scrambling to make healthy changes in accordance with new food labelling laws. Scientists are more vocal regarding the dangers of prescription drugs; the inadequacies of our current medical system; and the pollutants that are killing us. More research than ever is being performed on nutrients and herbs. And the dangers of prescription drugs like hormone-replacement therapy have finally been confirmed and accepted by the establishment.

Most of the year, SARS and West Nile were headlined in local newspapers and news reports. SARS and West Nile virus brought attention to the importance of ensuring a strong, healthy immune system to protect us from infection. SARS also showed we have serious inadequacies in our ability to quell the spread of hospital-acquired infection in hospitals. Canadian hospital infections kill up to 12,000 people per year according to a survey published in the American Journal of Infection Control. A person entering hospital has a five- to 10-per-cent chance of developing an infection. 250,000 hospital patients a year endure infection in surgical wounds, blood infections, and antibiotic-resistant organisms that they pick up while in hospital. SARS exposed the poor infection-control practices in hospitals and hopefully new procedures will be adopted to protect those in hospital.

This year, the poor diagnostic procedures for women with heart disease were also exposed. Women under the age of 50 are more than twice as likely to die of heart attacks as men of the same age. Women are seven times more likely than men to be misdiagnosed as not having a heart attack and sent home from the emergency room. Less than 25 per cent of subjects in heart-related research are women. Prescription medications for heart disease have been predominantly studied in men and often these drugs do not work the same way in women. Hormone-replacement therapy, originally thought to protect women from heart disease, was found to increase the risk of stroke, heart attack, and blood clots in women. Researchers have discovered that women’s heart attack symptoms are not the same as the classic male symptoms of arm pain, heartburn, or chest-clutching pain. Women must also take some of the responsibility as surveys found that women don’t take their symptoms seriously and wait too long to seek treatment. In other words, women are often embarrassed to show up in the emergency room and trouble anyone with symptoms that aren’t classic of heart attack. Now that this information is public knowledge, changes in the way we diagnose and treat women for heart disease will occur. The February issue of alive will provide an in-depth article on women and heart disease-be sure not to miss it.

This December, let’s celebrate the successes achieved this year and get ready for an exciting 2004. Have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. Remember to eat good food and share love and laughter.

Lorna Vanderhaeghe, BSc, is the author of several books, including the best-seller, Healthy Immunity: Scientifically Proven Natural Conditions from A-Z (Wiley & Sons, 2001) and No More HRT: Menopause Treats the Cause (Quarry Books, 2002). Her latest book is Healthy Fats for Life (Quarry Health Books, 2003). She is also senior editor of alive’s Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (2002) and associate editor of alive Journal.