In addition to their photograph albums, all families have their treasured memorabilia - such as little pairs of shoes, first party dresses, tiny pairs of trousers - to remind parents of the progress of their family through the years. To ours are now added five pairs of eclipse glasses.
Last year, the Wilson Kids - all now in their 20s and seasoned globetrotters - decided to accompany the Ancient Parents to the latter's favourite holiday haunt, Lake Garda in northern Italy. For those who do not know them, the Wilson Kids are not easily overlooked in a crowd - dancing
Ceroc at midnight by the pool to the applause of the young German guests; the only table to cheer when a waiter dropped a pile of plates; drinking the pool bar out of brandy when everyone else was drinking cocktails. A memorable holiday ended with the viewing of the eclipse in an idyllic setting by the lake with a completely clear sky.
Unlike in previous years, there were very few British or French holidaymakers in the resort, Limone sul Garda; they were mostly Germans. Readers may recall that a large number of the French eclipse glasses were withdrawn from sale as they were deemed to be unsafe. We discovered that the Germans had, apparently, no eclipse glasses at all on sale in their country, and this has an important bearing on our story.
The spectacle began for us at a lakeside café with whoops of joy from the Wilson Kids - "It's started!" This attracted the waiters and a large number of other holidaymakers, all of whom had a look through our glasses, which seemed to be the only ones in the entire village. Vicki, the eldest Wilson Kid, bought two postcards, produced a safety pin from her purse and, in true Blue Peter style, proceeded to make a pinhole camera. This produced a tiny, but very sharp and clear image of the crescent sun. Other people rushed to do the same: the local Tabacci did a roaring trade in postcards and the safety pin was passed from hand to hand. The spectacle of the eclipse was unforgettable, with 95 per cent totality, a marked drop in temperature and the light around the lake turning a weird, rather alien purple. Hopefully, lots of other holidaymakers also enjoyed it through sharing our glasses and we like to think that we had made it possible for it to be unforgettable for them, too.
Our eclipse glasses cost £1 each and, had we realised beforehand that none of the German holidaymakers had any, we could have taken a stock to sell at a good profit. We could probably have hired out the ones we had, at 3,000 lira a look, had we been really mean. Wilson Plc obviously missed out on a valuable marketing opportunity! However, the whole episode did set us thinking. What commodity, other than a pair of eclipse glasses, has a low value for a long time, an inestimable value for less than two hours and whose value then falls to nothing immediately afterwards? Could this have a bearing on health and health care in general, and perhaps pharmacy, in particular?
An article's value is the price that someone is prepared to pay for it. Why else would a painting change hands for many thousands of pounds, when the frame may have cost £40, the canvas £10, about £30 worth of artists' quality oil paints used up, and perhaps a new brush or two purchased? It is because the purchaser desires the finished painting, which is worth considerably more than the sum of the values of the individual components.
Do we, either individually or a society, value our health in this way? Is health, indeed, more than the sum of a set of bodily organs which are working reasonably well? Have we, as a society, done ourselves a disservice in having a National Health Service which has little to do with actual health and could more appropriately be called a national disease service? We seem to be obsessed with our "health" and yet, as a nation, we are probably more unhealthy than at any time since the NHS began. Yes, we appear to have banished the dreaded infectious diseases such as scarlet fever and polio. We are making inroads into other areas of disease, such as cancer, thanks to the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry, and patients with cataract need no longer fear blindness.
One of the problems, I believe, is that not only do we sometimes "medicalise" even trivial symptoms but, as a society, we tend to look for a medical cause (and cure) for what are basically social problems.
A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal1 indicates that patients' diary studies have shown that as few as one in 40 symptoms ever get to a medical consultation. However, for such conditions as sore throat, which are usually self-limiting and can be treated perfectly adequately by a purchase from one's community pharmacist, the prescribing of antibiotics "medicalises" the condition in the mind of the patient so that further episodes result in a demand for antibiotics.2,3 A similar effect was found in relation to lower respiratory tract illnesses.4,5 Thus, something which again may be self-limiting becomes a "medically treatable" condition. We have one of the highest levels of obesity in Europe and it is still rising. What is to be done?
Many and varied have been the theories as to why, including everyone becoming "couch potatoes" and spending their time watching videos or playing computer games. However, this cannot be the whole story, by any means. Obviously, we have not yet got the health promotion message over to the general public, particularly about appropriate eating. The recent "five a day" campaign seems to have died out - it was probably not exciting enough for the politicians. However, the fact remains that one of the most important sources of good health - affordable supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables - is often not easily accessible to some of the poorer members of our society.
We should remember that "health" comes not from a bottle of medicine but is a state of mind backed up by what one eats. I referred to this in a previous article (PJ, October 30, 1999, p711) and received some flak for it. However, if obesity is also to be "medicalised" - as it certainly has been - then are we to rely solely on pills to solve the problem? No. Your friendly, local community pharmacy is, or should be, the most appropriate place for good quality advice on nutrition.
Many people's perception of their health is not unlike our eclipse glasses. People regard it as being of little value, until there is a problem, such as illness. Then it becomes of considerable value, until the problem is solved, after which "health" is again regarded as being of little value - until the next time. Only if this cycle can be broken will the population truly enjoy good health.
John Wilson is a pharmacist based in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, who has retired and now works part-time (e-mail john@ginadog.demon.uk)