What Doctor's Don't Tell You Newsletter

What Doctors Don't Tell You, the monthly newsletter advising readers on the dangers of and the evidence for better alternatives to mainstream medicine, was born in the front room on the top floor of a house in a residential street in Islington, North London. Eleven years later this newsletter has grown into the busy publishing company Wallace Press, which produces two newsletters, one magazine and a vast array of books.

The owners and editors, Bryan Hubbard and Lynne McTaggart, have their house back (which they share with their daughters Caitlin and Anya) and the company has recently moved to Wimbledon.

"Outrage is now the passion that powers the company," says McTaggart. "I am livid every time I open my post. Each morning I wade through piles of letters containing heart-rending stories of personal catastrophe—children who have been killed, or husbands and wives mutilated or incapacitated through medicine. Whenever we study their cases we usually discover that the dangers of the treatments given to them were well known. Their doctors just hadn't bothered communicating this vital information to them."

For all those who were involved in the first What Doctors Don't Tell newsletter, it is hard to believe that so many people were disillusioned with mainstream medical practice and were searching for an alternative—"a voice in the silence", as the Times has called it. What Doctors Don't Tell You attracted almost 1000 subscribers in the first year and has since gained a further 20,000 subscribers while the other two publications, Proof! and Natural Parent have gained almost 10,000 subscribers.

The idea germinated in the mid 1980's, when McTaggart, an award-winning journalist from the U.S., fell ill with a mysterious disease. She turned to the medical profession for help, but could not find a doctor who could identify, let alone cure, her illness. As a result, she decided to take her life into her own hands, and heal herself. One year later, after researching medical journals and homeopathy, McTaggart identified a toxic yeast in her body (Candida albicans). After working in partnership with a knowledgeable homeopathic doctor, she followed a dietary regime which strengthened her immune system and brought her back to health.

McTaggart's journalist husband and business partner Bryan Hubbard became so bored with hearing about his wife's medical findings that by the end of the 1980's he was suggesting that she start her own newsletter on the true risks of medical practices so that she could tell the world instead. It was Hubbard who came up with the title What Doctors Don't Tell You, even though McTaggart was convinced it would not work.

And the world was ready to listen. The name has stuck and the newsletter has been very successful and not just in this country. What Doctors Don't Tell You is also published around the. McTaggart's own book of the same name, published in 1996, has sold 20,000 copies in the UK alone and has just been translated into German. McTaggart also writes a regular column for The Ecologist magazine.

The first WDDTY handbook was published in 1992 and warns parents of the dangers of vaccinations. Now called The Vaccination Bible, it has been updated several times and is a WDDTY best seller. When it first came out the bible was considered radical, even revolutionary; now, as the book says, "the American government has admitted that there is no such thing as a safe vaccine." The medical fraternity has been forced to accept that mainstream medicine can be dangerous and that there may be safer alternatives. Moreover, the book has been welcomed by thousands of anxious parents debating whether or not to have their children vaccinated.

All in all, 25 books have been written, edited and sold under the What Doctors Don't Tell You banner, on core subjects such as cancer, asthma and eczma, the menopause and dental care. Books such as the Better Diet Book and the Guide to Womens' Health (there is also a Guide to Mens' Health) teach others what McTaggart herself discovered about diet many years before. The Radical Home Doctor and the Alternative First Aid teach people how to cure minor ailments at home with alternative medicine. New books on arthritis and allergies are in the pipeline.

The Cancer Handbook was updated in October 2000 and offers hope to millions of sufferers when mainstream medicine may have given up. Like the WDDTY newsletter, the books inform readers in plain language what doctors themselves are actually reading in medical journals and offer alternatives that medicine has not yet considered. And it is a further irony, that thousands of doctors themselves read What Doctors Don't Tell You.

Leading the way in proving that alternative treatment is not "quackery" is the quarterly sister journal Proof! launched in Autumn 1996. This newsletter which publishes scientific studies of alternative therapies gained many thousand subscribers in its first year.

McTaggart says of her publications, "the roles are the reverse of what many people think: we debate with fact against an establishment which argues with emotion." The medical fraternity might not like or agree with some of the findings, but it cannot argue with the method of research, the controlled double-blind placebo comparative trials and the factual reports published on alternative medicine.

There have been many recent changes within the Wallace Press stable. In October1997 the monthly newsletter Mother Knows Best was relaunched as Natural Parent magazine featuring articles as revolutionary as home schooling and the importance of being ill. Parents have welcomed it as a refreshing change from other parenting magazines.

Complimenting the magazine on alternative ways of caring for children are the books, My Learning Child, My Spiritual Child and My Healthy Child.

As Hubbard says, "Natural Parent questions the "norms" of society. It is a thought-provoking magazine for parents who want to delve a little deeper into issues than they get in the current media." Environmental concerns are high on the agenda and there is a large health section with nutrition and homeopathic columns.

Hubbard and McTaggart are co-editors of the newsletters and magazines, researching and writing much of the material themselves. The couple have managed to marry creativity with business. McTaggart has the passion for telling the world her news, while Hubbard is the creative force and business brain behind the company.

WDDTY also organises conferences which are open to the public. The philosophy is one of empowerment—making the public aware of the dangers of conventional medicine, offering alternative treatments so that people are not helpless and stand up to their doctors. The public can learn to take control of their own destiny by finding a cure that works for their body and their particular lifestyle.

Not only are there the most highly respected doctors of medicine from around the world speaking at the conferences, but ordinary survivors stand on the podium and passionately tell the audience that through changing their lifestyle, diet and mental attitude, they might rid their bodies of cancer.

There are not only harrowing letters arriving in the Hubbard/McTaggart post bag each morning, but also many rewarding letters such as this one from BB in Glasgow:

"I want to express how important and invaluable WDDTY has become in my family's life an in the lives of so many of the people I know. I have used the information to guide me in making a host of positive decisions towards a healthier and more wholesome lifestyle. It is so satisfying to read well researched, down to earth information which we can consider and adapt as we feel appropriate."

What Doctors Don't Tell You is as important to the health profession as it is to the public at large, despite the fact that many in the medical fraternity are diametrically opposed to the opinions and beliefs of the editorial board (presently 25 alternative practitioners sit as health advisers responding to reader enquiries). However, think of all the thousands of doctors out there who do not read the journal and who are missing out on important information which could cure patients.

US$89.00 [Lynne McTaggart]