The Madness Of Prime Minister George

As speculation launched on the net about the Prime Minister’s health, and as I am certainly not disposed to be kind to him, many would have thought I would have been amongst the first to cut to the chase. But it may not be that at all, it could be quite complicated. First, the simple question, ‘ang on a bit squire, what do we know? It is said that there is a list circulated in Whitehall circles about what the PM can and cannot eat or drink. A medical man has seen this and deduced that it is consistent with someone who is on early generation anti-depressants, which have significant dietary and other side effects because recent generation ones cannot cope with the alleged condition.

What else do we know? Well the PM is getting older by the day, who isn’t? Also, he is in a very stressful job, all those idiots he has working for him. Moreover the job entails extensive travel and contact with people from across the world. Enough to put anybody’s immune system under severe strain, but this does not make him mentally ill. It might make him unpredictable, exhausted, and very grumpy, all those idiots again, but no more than I am on a bad day after dealing with the bank, the insurance company, and trying to persuade a plumber to come.

So what else can happen that entails a diet list as long as your arm, and as complicated as the list of contents on a supermarket food package cheap offer? As many people become older, all sorts of glitches can affect the body. Many begin to react to gluten, others to dairy foods, some to both. Others begin to have skin issues, and other reactions to common products, entailing visits to dermatologists and others specialists. The really unlucky can contract multiple chemical sensitivity.

Recent research had identified a brain reaction to this complaint, which apparently also occurs with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and ME, Gulf War Syndrome, US Vets Agent Orange reactions, some true Allergy, and perhaps others involving synthetic chemicals, notably fragrances. Along with fragrance issues can come severe reactions to a related chemical family, that is synthetic flavourings and flavour enhancers. As for synthetic fragrances, do not forget, they are engineered to hit the brain hard.

These synthetic chemicals in the food and around the house have become hugely stronger in recent years. So, read your food packaging lately? Wondered why the tummy rumbles after the breakfast sausages? In addition, there are some chemicals added to wines as stabilisers that do not suit some people.

Unless you are at the wrong end of some of these complaints you cannot know how much they disrupt your lives, require constant vigilance about diet, and how they add to life’s difficulties. Those in busy demanding jobs have real trouble. If the PM’s immune system is affected, and if he had had severe inflammation of the gut etc. it will take a lot of effort, and a good deal of rest to deal with it.

The real problem that many people face when they have these problems is that the doctors they deal with haven’t a clue about such complexities, they just give the problem a convenient label, often tell them it is in the mind, throw some inappropriate medication at it, and tick the boxes. In any case there are few specialists in the field and it is very difficult, often impossible, to get a referral.

So, is there anyone you know who is having problems and the pills don’t work? If so, please do not assume that it is all in the mind. Remember, for two hundred years King George III was said to be mad, now it seems that it was likely to have been porphyria. Something his doctors knew nothing about, and few modern doctors are aware of or know how to treat.