OUR current public health policy is a disaster.

There is an obesity epidemic. Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) has doubled in the past 15 years. If current trends continue it is likely there will be five million cases by the year 2025 in the UK.

A recent article in the Lancet states quite bluntly current strategies to control cancer are demonstrably not working. Despite all the resources poured into research, treatment and care, it is obvious the standards of health are deteriorating.

There are three fundamental problems: There is far too much emphasis on curing diseases once they have been diagnosed and nothing like enough devoted to prevention. Unfortunately, this means that for many people it is too late because the damage has already been done.

Many of the current strategies for coping with diseases and other conditions are ineffective.

In the UK, it has been estimated 12,000 deaths occur in hospitals due to medical errors, which is more than six times the number that die in road traffic accidents.

Some of these deficiencies can be illustrated by considering T2D, which currently costs the NHS about £10 billion per year and accounts for about 90 per cent of all cases. Once T2D has been diagnosed, the vast majority will be offered the official NHS advice, which is the disease is not curable, it will certainly get worse and treatment with drugs is almost inevitable.

In fact, there is now overwhelming evidence T2D can be cured. T2D is caused by excessive glucose in the blood. The origin of this is sugar and carbohydrate-containing foods, such as bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, in the diet. So it is not rocket science to work out the solution is to reduce substantially the consumption of these foods and replace them with foods such as butter, meat and cheese which have a high content of fat. There are literally hundreds of individuals who have conquered T2D in this way.

Therefore, it is absolutely appalling many patients with T2D are being advised to lower their fat intake and to increase their consumption of carbohydrate-containing foods. As some of the more astute patients have discovered, the effect of implementing this advice is to increase the blood sugar levels. In other words, the condition is being made worse!

A radical change in strategy would mean improved health for a huge number of people and billions of pounds would be saved. By contrast, if we stick with the current approach, it is inevitable things will continue to deteriorate and the costs will keep going up.

The NHS spends about £15 billion on drugs every year. Many of these are have little or no benefit to patients, and there are some that have adverse side effects that outweigh the benefits. A study in Israel found by drastically reducing the number of drugs used to treat elderly patients, the life expectancy was doubled.

The European Society of Medical Oncologists has concluded many modern cancer drugs are of very little benefit to patients and that more and more medicines have been going on to the market with lower and lower levels of benefit.

The hard reality is the manufacturers of drugs and other medical procedures have been unbelievably successful in persuading governments to purchase their products, even if the benefits are marginal or non-existent, and in some cases may actually be harmful to patients.

Putting more money into the NHS is definitely not the answer. Anyone who advocate this strategy, such as Andy Brown – More money for NHS (Craven Herald, June 25) – is simply playing into the hands of those companies who wish to maintain the status quo. If we carry on regardless, we will end up like the USA, which has a very poor national record of public health, despite the huge expenditure.

I sincerely hope more people will understand and appreciate we need a totally new approach. How many more have to suffer and die prematurely before effective action is taken?

VERNER WHEELOCK, Glusburn.

I WRITE regarding the cyclist who hurled abuse at a driver who was then fined – Court fines driver for going after a cyclist (Craven Herald, June 25).

As ex-police road safety experts, we challenge Highway Code rules 114 and 115 and advise all drivers on dark roads to light up the road with full beam. Obviously, the more we see the better driving decisions we will make.

We tell drivers that, if a slower lead vehicle is failing to light up the road fully, they are not only a danger to themselves but to following drivers, too. So, before attempting to pass these vehicles, drivers must light up the road with main beam, before commencing the pass, to see as much of the road as possible before committing to the overtake. Doing so once passing has commenced is far too late and often fatal.

Bearing in mind the Highway Code rule is only about comfort and etiquette, whereas lighting up a road is about good driving and safety, we know where the priority should be.

Following and passing a cyclist on a dark road demands exactly the same priority and, given the space needed to pass a cyclist, seeing what’s ahead is equally important. But did the cyclist in this case have mirrors? If not, how was main beam considered an aggressive act by a court anyway?

The driver did safely pass the cyclist, evidenced by the fact no accident occurred – a point completely lost on the magistrates – albeit not to the perception of the cyclist, who then hurled abuse at the driver.

So the driver responded by approaching the cyclist, as a cyclist himself, to explain. The whole thing was nothing more than a cyclist-instigated, handbags at dawn, so how on earth did the police and courts get involved in this? As I see it, a cyclist instigated a confrontation with another road user who, just by the evidence, had done everything right, yet the court convicted and fined the driver. I hope he appeals.

KEITH PEAT, driversunion.com , Sutton on Sea.

CONGRATULATIONS to Skipton Police for having a ‘get tough’ campaign against shoplifters – Police get ‘tough’ on town’s thieves (Craven Herald, June 25).

Pardon me for being old fashioned, but shouldn’t the police be doing this sort of thing against all criminal activities all the time as a matter of course, and not just having the occasional bouts of enthusiasm to make the headlines?

IAN KENWORTHY Main Street, Farnhill.