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If you came directly
to this site you may not know who I am.
Here's a Bio which
is a bit less formal than the typical resumé (CV).
Prof Keith Scott-Mumby MB ChB, MD, PhD, FRCP (MA)
I scored good marks in my secondary education and was awarded
a State Scholarship to university. I did exceptionally well
at medical school and was awarded a top anatomy prize as
“prosector”. I also represented the Manchester Medical School
in a nationwide pathology competition (came second in the
nation).
At this time (1967) I won a major international poetry
competition, run by The Guardian newspaper (one of Britain’s
finest). The first prize was a trip round the world and
early literary recognition. My poetry began being published
internationally and especially in Japan.
I qualified in 1970, double degrees, Batchelor of Medicine
and Batchelor of Surgery (MB ChB), which is the British
equivalent of the American MD. I did the mandatory internships
and a further year of vocational training in general practise
(family medicine or primary care) in the Manchester area.
However I soon departed into alternative healing interests
and did not further my promising mainstream academic career.
There were too many unanswered questions in the science
of the day. This was little more than a decade into the
drug revolution in medicine but it was already apparent
that drugs would not deliver the promise inherent in the
marketing hype surrounding them.
For several years I studied alternative psychology and
nutrition. The big paradigm shift in my life came with explorations
into the phenomenon of food allergy. We had been taught
academically that food allergy is exceptionally rare (fish,
nuts and so on). The least investigation into the facts
shows that it is actually very common indeed. It’s just
that the diversity of symptoms was not being recognized
by doctors at large. Suddenly patients began recovering
from chronic afflictions, like eczema, asthma, migraine,
arthritis. I was gripped.
I opened one of the world’s first alternative allergy clinics
in Manchester The Food and Environmental Allergy Clinic.
We called the specialty “clinical ecology”, since it dealt
with many aspects of human health in interactions with the
environment. Within years we had branches in Harley St,
Dublin, Glasgow and occasionally caravans to Stockholm in
Sweden, when the demand was sufficient.
I was one of the founding members of a society in Britain
then known as the Society for Clinical Ecology. Membership
was confined to fully trained medical doctors, although
nurses and nutritionists, etc, were admitted as associates.
In time so many unqualified people used the term “clinical
ecologist” that the society name was altered to the British
Society for Allergy, Environmental and Nutritional Medicine.
(BSAENM). This has always been closely affiliated with the
sister body The American Academy of Environmental Medicine
(www.aaem.com).
For 20 years been a member of the prestigious Royal Society
of Medicine in London (elected-only membership).
Publication of my first book, The Food Allergy Plan, led
to many media interviews. I did radio broadcasts all round
the world, including many to the USA, via phone. There were
phone-ins etc. At peak periods we were handling over a thousand
enquiries a week and my nurses were exhausted! The book
became a on-fiction best-seller in the UK for a time. A
version was published by CRCS publishers in Nevada.
I became something of a media event when newspapers , radio
and television discovered the wealth of fascinating human
stories coming out of my clinic. People were healed of all
kinds of diseases once thought to be “for life” (like arthritis).
One woman escaped from her wheelchair, after discovering
she was allergic to a common food she ate every day, and
was photographed by the press on top of a mountain she had
climbed (not only that but she was first up there, apparently!).
Another woman was allergic to her husband’s semen. A young
girl who became drunk (like alcohol) led to me being interviewed
on television by Alan Titchmarsh (later of Ground Force
fame here in the USA).
After the publication of my second book (ALLERGIES: WHAT
EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW) I was interviewed by Nancy Wise for
the BBC World Service and she did not believe my point that
allergies were very common indeed. She sent a roving microphone
out onto the streets of London and was astonished when 18
out of 20 people randomly stopped admitted they had some
kind of food intolerance. You only have to ask the right
questions.
These early years were controversial. That always happens
with new advances in thinking and science. In the early
1980s, I was called a quack by certain hard-core orthodox
doctors in my home town. Food allergy was called “Mumby-Jumbo”
at the local city hospital. Yet by the end of the 80s, physicians
were beginning to sneak either themselves or their wives
into my clinic as patients. By the end of the 90s even the
senior specialists were turning up as patients too. Eventually
the tide turned and my former critics were being interviewed
and admitting that what I had said over a decade before
was true. It was gratifying that in 1994 the UK Government
Health Officer released an official communiqué, stating
that chemicals in traffic fumes could sensitize individuals
to allergens; I had been saying it for years and been scoffed
at. By the end of the 1990s, matters had moved on to the
point where the National Health Service (the UK government
social medicine system) were buying my anti-allergy prescription
formulas for patients. To have gone from quack to “official”
in less than 20 years is fast progress in medical science!
I made important medico-legal history in 1997. By this
time my recognition and status had risen to the level that
I was called on by a British Crown Court in Ballymena to
pronounce on food allergies in connection with a young Irish
boy who had tried to murder his step-father by strangulation.
The judge sent him to me for a report. I found that he was
made indeed made violent by certain foods, notably potato,
beef and strawberry. I was interviewed and filmed in a 25-minute
slot on Channel 4’s news program. The defendant became known
to the media world-wide as the “Irish Potato Boy”. He was
given a conditional discharge by the judge, the condition
being that he “stick to the Mumby diet recommendations”.
My pioneer work was the first time that a court anywhere
in the world came to recognize food allergy as a significant
factor in behaviour.
By 1990 the media were calling me the “Number One Allergy
Detective”, the name which finally stuck. This was in acknowledgement
of the many extraordinary allergies I discovered on individuals.
This resulted in frequent radio and TV appearances, to discuss
such matters, which intrigued the public greatly. I wrote
two further books on this theme: The Allergy Handbook and
The Complete Guide to Food Allergy and Environmental Illness.
I was interviewed and featured in major magazines, such
as Marie-Claire (in the Cosmopolitan stable), Bella, Best
and so forth. There were so many I’ve forgotten. I occasionally
did media articles under my own by-line, such as for The
Independent and the Sunday Mail.
In 1990 I came to write a very important book, concerning
a major UK controversy not unlike the fictional film “Pelican
Brief” (yes, there were real life murders too). I was hired
by prestigious old-school publishers Sidgwick and Jackson
to document the story, which I knew well, from involvement
with the principal victim of government intrigue against
him (I can say this because years later the truth I had
first outlined came to light, he was exonerated and awarded
substantial damages). It was called THE POISONED TREE, a
legal term, which accurately describes the state of twisted
police evidence at the time. So seriously was the matter
of this book taken that it was serialized by The Sunday
Times newspaper. They paid a record royalty for the rights,
more than had ever been paid for a story which was not about
a movie star or about the UK royal family. The book was
subsequently released as a paperback by Pan publishers.
By the 1990s, as I recognized expert in alternative health
matters, my name became attached to many medical breakthroughs.
I wrote articles for Positive Health journal and was featured
in the Sunday Times several times, such as with the Russian
SCENAR device. My name was used by reporters to add substance
to reports on machines like the Caduceus Lux (Country Living).
Academically, I began to lecture more, including at the
Capital University for Integrated Medicine (Washington DC).
My sixth major book was VIRTUAL MEDICINE, a scientific
exploration into the realm of alternative medicine so-called
“energy” medicine practises. It tracks the development of
many modern devices and shows how these are credible. Acupuncture
meridians, for example, had been traced using radio-active
technetium 99. Homeopathic medicines have been recorded
giving off a frequency signal, showing they are potent in
some way, despite the controversy over the dilution theory.
Of course a lot of research breakthroughs have been carried
out here in the US, which makes me very comfortable among
colleagues in this environment. Professor William Tiller,
emeritus professor at Stanford University, is notable in
this respect.
In 2005 I was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College
of Practitioners (not to be confused with the Royal College
of Physicians, London). This august body was founded in
commemoration of the ancient healing kings of Sri Lanka.
Besides a number of medical discoveries that are only now
being acknowledged by Western medicine, the ancient Sinhalese
are perhaps responsible for introducing the concept of hospitals
to the world. According to American historians Will and
Ariel Durant, King Pandukabhaya (4th century B.C.) had lying-in-homes
and hospitals built in various parts of the country. According
to the Chulavansa, King Sena II (851-885 A.C.) built the
oldest properly excavated hospital in the world, at Mihintale.
King Dutugemunu is well reputed to have built many hospitals
and put dispensaries in every village of size. King Aggabodhi
VII (766-772 AD) studied the medical plants over the whole
island of Lanka (to find out) whether they were wholesome
or harmful for the sick. This is perhaps the first recorded
instance of medical research anywhere is the world. My favourite
character, King Buddadasa (C. 3rd AD) is credited with the
saying "If you can't be the king, be a healer*."
King Buddhadasa carried out great feats of surgery on humans
and animals, including brain surgery. He constantly carried
a set of surgical instruments with him on his journeys.
Hence the title “Royal” College. I am proud to be elected
to this meritorious body in recognition of my contributions
to healing and the teaching of alternative medicine techniques.
In 2005 I was elected as professor of energy medicine at
the Capital University for Integrative Medicine in Washington.
Sadly, it has closed down.
I am at present on the faculty of the California Institute
for Human Science, a state-recognized university.
*footnote: there is a tradition
in my family that when asked as a child what I wanted to
be when I grew up, I said "I want to be the King!"
©2007, keith scott-mumby. All rights
reserved.
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