The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7155 p30
July 7, 2001

Fat and lazy
Royal weed
Essential study

Fat and lazy

A report produced by the Institute for the Study of Aging and the International Longevity Center in the United States has recently discussed the decline of “cognitive vitality” with advancing age. A commentary on the report, published in JAMA for May 16 states that the document emphasises the importance for continuing health of both mental and physical activity.

To seek a pharmacological aid for failing powers is no solution. What is needed in advancing age is continued recourse to walking, reading, studying or practising music, and steps aimed at reducing stress and depression when they become troublesome. The popular saying “use it or lose it” applies to the human body and mind.

There is an age-old notion that people should be advised to “take things easy” as they advance in years. In fact, this idea may be harmful when too cautiously observed. True, there is no point in undertaking strenuous hobbies in retirement unless they come easily, but the continuance of reasonable health does depend upon staying as active in both body and mind as possible. Intellectual stimulation protects an individual against cognitive decline. Physical activity improves the blood supply to the brain. Contact with friends and neighbours promotes an active existence where stress is reduced to a minimum. Further steps to avoid stress may take the form of meditation and deliberate relaxation of muscles. Sound sleep should be assured, and a balanced diet maintained, both of these helped by exercise.

The other great health problem of our day is the escalating incidence of obesity, which also impinges on ageing. In the United Kingdom, 9 per cent of girls aged six are obese and 21.5 per cent are overweight. For boys the figures are 11.7 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively, perhaps reflecting exercise patterns. By the age of 15, obesity is evident in half the children, irrespective of sex. The increase in its incidence over the past 15 years is such that genetic factors cannot be held responsible, but adverse changes in lifestyle, including faulty diet and lack of physical activity, must be.

Interestingly, a move has been made to encourage children to walk to school with their parents where possible. A 10- to 15-minute walk every morning is advantageous to children and parent alike, instead of the customary transport by car. Apart from the health benefit, this would save money and reduce traffic congestion. Children arriving at school in this way have been found to start the day’s work with added zest.

Of course, such a change means revising family programmes where a parent often has to rush breakfast, speed a child to school, and then rush off to work somewhere. The idea needs to be sold to business economists, whose fixed idea is still that “time is money”. It is not, and to lead a life of haste and stress is no way to ensure health and a ripe old age.

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Royal weed

I recently came across a report of the use of hemp agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) in domestic applications for septic wounds and facial boils. I was intrigued by the enthusiasm which a user, who had found the herb worked wonders, showed for this rather insignificant plant, which has rather less repute than other traditional remedies.

Pliny the Elder was rather dismissive of hemp agrimony, although he drew pleasure from observing that what he called “eupatoria” had the prestige of being named from Eupator, the surname of the king of Pontus, Mithradates VI, who came to the throne about 120BC. Pliny wrote: “The root is useless, but the seed taken in wine is a sovereign remedy in cases of dysentery... For vitiligo of all kinds they recommend the application of flies with root of eupatoria, or the white part of hens’ dung kept in old oil in a horn box, or bats’ blood, or hedgehogs’ gall in water.”

Dioscorides in his herbal was more enthusiastic: “The leaves of this being applied when they are beaten small with old swine’s grease, do heal ye difficult cicatrizings of ulcers, but ye seed, and ye herb being drank with wine do help ye dysentericall and serpent-bitten.”

In later accounts, Robert James in his Pharmacopoeia Universalis of 1747 called the plant “hepatic and vulnerary and is principally used in a cachexy, catarrh and cough; it is likewise efficacious in a stoppage of the urine and menses”. And John Hill in his Family Herbal of 1772 wrote: “The fresh gathered root, boiled in ale, is used in some places as a purge; it operates strongly but without any ill effect, and dropsies are said to have been cured by it singly.”

In Holland a traditional use was for jaundice with swollen feet. And the country folk used to lay the leaves upon bread in the belief that it would prevent this becoming mouldy.

Although hemp agrimony, with its rather untidy pink and white fluffy blooms, is fairly common in damp pastures in summer, it is reputed that goats are the only grazing animals that will consume it. Possibly the aromatic volatile oil discourages other animals, and there are few plants that a goat will not devour with relish.

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Essential study

At the risk of being thought to advocate an even more stultifying syllabus than is currently suffered by youngsters, I have come to the conclusion that the study of ecology is one that should be promoted from the earliest educational stages in schools. The name was first coined in 1866 by Ernst Haekel, who talked of ökologie. The study arose naturally from that of biology, involving natural history, the interaction of plants and animals in their natural surroundings, and eventually the effects of human activities upon the living environment.

In its ultimate extension, ecology impinges upon another neglected study, that of holism, or the concept that events and materials do not exist in glorious independence of one another, but must be viewed as an entity if we are to understand them and live with them. In the present world of global economics and global politics, we are taught to pay attention to one thing at a time, to the exclusion of anything else that might interact with it. This is, ultimately, the folly that could bring the world into a far sorrier state than it already is.

We see on every side that leaders of nations and industries are blissfully ignorant of what their activities are doing to the universe. The president of the United States has recently been singled out for a disregard for long-term effects when looking for quick profits. He is not alone. Vast industries, not least the pharmaceutical industry and associated chemical industry, press on regardless when tempted by fast results and greater power. Such an attitude must, I feel, be counteracted, and where better than in our schools. Children are brought up with the notion that they go to school and college to pass examinations to fit them for a narrow and specific job, usually in an industrial context. We must restore the concept that education is a drawing out of inborn talent, and a means of equipping us to see how things interact with each other, including the human race and the face of the earth. Ecology is therefore an essential piece of any educational curriculum. Perhaps we might find a more attractive title for it.

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