Just Cause and Effect

In the OECD Board Game of Snakes and Ladders, New Zealand is on a losing streak.

Since 1964 New Zealand has increasingly topped the charts on the wrong side of the  ledger, as scientific and mainstream media catalogue a rising tide of cot death, suicide, cancer, heart disease, and obesity.

Soil scientists know of the mineral deficiencies in New Zealand in general, and Southland and South Canterbury in particular; yet the links between those deficiencies and the increasing list of human ailments is fragmented across a host of different studies, in different scientific disciplines, in different countries.

Viewed together, they’re pretty compelling evidence New Zealanders are suffering from a collective case of Ill Thrift – an old veterinary diagnosis applied to farm animals that were not sick,  they simply weren’t healthy. And when they weren’t healthy, it didn’t take much to tip them up.

Sound familiar?

Just Cause and Effect – Selenium Deficiency in New Zealand is a summary of the sensibly-peer reviewed works of the doctors, scientists, researchers and thinkers from many disciplines who have been studying and publishing articles for decades.

Such evidence-based science contrasts the summary of public opinions and policy clipped from mainstream New Zealand media during the past 30 years.

Both are included here, for balance where balance is necessary, and to shine a light on the disturbing disconnect between academic and public knowledge.

If you read just one book this year, Just Cause and Effect – Selenium Deficiency in New Zealand should be it. Because it’s not rocket science, it’s all just cause and effect. Buy it here, or borrow it from your local library.