With Lincoln fast approaching with have an interview with one of the exhibitors who will be at the show. Simon and Gill are the forces behind Bronze Nutrition. We have asked them a couple of questions to introduce themselves and their products. I've loved this interview and would like to say thank you to Simon and Gill for taking the time to indulge us! They are going to be at Lincoln this weekend and you can find them online at www.bronzeagenutrition.com
To start with could you tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Bronze Nutrition grew out of the ashes of a dying business we ran in the late 80’s and 90’s called Bronze Age Sunbed Hire. In 1982 home hire of sunbeds was unheard of and we began in uncharted waters with a novelty business. When I say we, that is myself Simon and my wife and long-term partner Gill. We date back to before Rod Stewart’s first album in the early 70’s.
In those days it was home television hire that was in vogue. By the mid-90’s, home sunbed hire had come into and gone out of fashion, seen the cowboys come and go, and the loss of all of our parents to major illnesses, which sadly today, are more common than ever. Gill’s chronic asthma had worsened over 10 years or more despite the best medication available to the point that she was admitted to a Spanish hospital during our holiday there in 1996, with a life threatening acute attack which she survived but it was a close call.
As we arrived home, synchronicity stepped in , in the form of a Sunday newspaper article from a friend about a supplement called ‘MSM’(A.K.A organic sulphur ) derived from wood-pulp in the paper-making process which was supposed to reduce inflammation throughout the body and had been found to reduce lung inflammation in some cases of asthma. Of course we had to try it and so predictably called into Holland & Barrett for some tablets.
Five weeks later and Gill was no better, or so she thought until she ran out of tablets and it suddenly flared up again. The contrast was so obvious that within a couple of years we were sourcing the purest MSM we could find from America for several friends and family members with arthritis and other joint problems. Lame old dogs were taking their owners for a fast walk and creating mayhem with their antics dashing up and down stairs!! It was the convincer for me . . . and I went madly into researching other supplements. Increasing warnings in the media about sun causing skin cancer put paid to the dying remnants of the old sunbed business and we seemed forced to let go and move on into the unknown once again.
We have arrived at a place today, some 15 years later, with a self-sustaining business in ‘natural health’, two online shops and a phone that rings at all times of the day or night. The name Bronze Age Nutrition confuses many people but we have stuck with it. In 2007 we moved on from standing at village halls and one-day mind/body/ spirit events to the two-day weekend-format exhibitions with BSSK and some other show organisers.
This was the start of a very steep learning curve and they have transformed our life and views in a very big way. Regrettably, I have been a less-than-perfect advertisement for our products and our credibility, suffering chronically with a heart problem (atrial fibrillation (AF)and more recently with a stroke. It took me about 4 years of endless trouble with the AF and little in the way of a remedy from traditional medicine, before I finally bumped into the real cause of this problem and where lay the likely road to recovery. It was only when I had finally beaten this problem into the past and regained my previous fitness that I was struck down with quite a bad stroke at the same time that BBC journalist Andrew Mar also fell victim to one. He was also very fit at the time, but has come back to work in recent weeks and is looking better than I am although the doctors say I have recovered well from what could well have proved fatal for someone else. And as for ‘maybe never walking again’ well red rags and bulls*** to that!
We are very careful to point out to customers that we are merely self-taught and do not have qualifications as such. I myself failed to gain the necessary 3 A’s at A- level in chemistry, physics and biology which I needed back in the 70’s to study medicine at St. Andrews and several other Universities. This was a big disappointment to my parents and to my school after getting 9 good O-level grades without (apparent) effort. Gill trained as a teacher (infant-junior) and from my perspective is qualified with honours in the University of life, having dealt with serious illness and personal trauma in heroic fashion for the last 40-odd years. Her asthma has now gone and she is out running every morning.
We make no claims of being able to cure, treat or diagnose illness; indeed, it is illegal for anyone other than a trained doctor to treat any illness of a medical nature. What we do is to research the very latest naturopathic and clinical work of the worlds most innovative natural doctors, mostly Americans. We try to bring this knowledge into perspective for other people. We encourage people to be pro-active with their health and do their own research with some scepticism. It is very often that individual lifestyle choices can impinge significantly on our health, something we don’t appreciate until later in life.
We find that most people are very hungry for information that they can relate to easily and in an instinctive way. For me there is nothing more fulfilling than seeing that spark of recognition in someone’s eyes as they make an intuitive connection between their life and something I have said.
From the point of view of being a complete novice about your products, what products would you recommend as a good place to start.
Our two most popular products are indeed the MSM organic sulphur, a simple twice-daily fruit drink, great for arthritis. And a very mild oral iodine supplement which is much loved by women who are no longer teenagers and know it – great for improved mental acuity, energy and digestion. We have a magnesium product for the feet which helps with sleep quality and/or night cramps.
The first port of call with any health problem should always be your doctor, although many people are reluctant to do this nowadays, citing long appointment waits or negative past experiences as reasons.
The best place to start as always is at home and this applies to any illness as well as those without specific health issues. Your body evolved through nature and is programmed to use natural foods rather than our modern-day nutritionally hollow processed foods. You probably know that an apple is better for you than an apple pie and that to much sugar or sweet stuff is not good. Similarly, too much carbohydrate can cause problems, and also alcohol, and smoking. Stress takes its toll, too but many people adapt to stress to the extent that they become unaware of it. The best natural health practitioners are now focusing on the digestive tract as a place to begin healing because, as Hippocrates said nearly two and a half millenia back “...all disease begins in the gut....” Most likely he did not understand why this was, but recent scientific work has uncovered a myriad of important health functions pereformed by our individual ‘microbiome’ in the gut. Microbiome refers to the incredibly complex and diverse community of good and bad bacteria which live in the digestive tract and perform an astoundingly diverse range of functions which keep us feeling great and protecting us from all kinds of baddies in the environment. Generations of cumulative damage to this community, which is passed on at birth, most likely accounts for the ever increasing incidence of chronic physical illness and mental problems too. Thankfully, this trend is reversible and this is the leading edge of naturopathic efforts today – a quiet revolution is under way and it is a very long game, looking forward to maybe 3 or 4 generations away when our bodies can follow the blueprint of health that we were all born with and live into old age in vibrant health. “Dream on”, I hear you mutter, but it’s good to be sceptical – how else do we get out of this mess of ill-health, certainly not by being conservative. The tide has to change.
The best place for a novice to start is by going to an MBS fair and asking as many stand-holders as possible if they can tell you anything about ‘such-and-such an ailment’. This will get you a range of opinion all the way from traditional to Chinese and then you must learn to separate the wheat from chaff. Try to be aware of any commercial motive in the reply, instead, feel for the person’s connection with you and their energy pattern. Do you feel comfortable?
On your website there is a lot of information on the benefits for certain ailments, are they beneficial for general health, (without having any health problems).
If you are not getting what your body wants in food, then supplements may not be the answer. Talking to as many people as possible will allow you to develop your own philosophy to follow rather than adhering to another person’s dogma; it must feel right for you. It is interesting that the USA is seeing big sales of specialist therapeutic UVB sunbeds as news spreads that Vitamin D your body makes while using them is now seen as being good for you, especially for your bones and immune system. Or just get enough sun to redden the skin!!It feels like a huge U-turn on the subject. . . . .
Supplements are not meant to be substitutes for food. As the saying goes – let your food be your medicine and vice-versa.
Drink enough water to make you go to the bathroom regularly and get your beauty sleep. surround your self with good friends and young and be the bearer of good news.
Everthing in moderation except fun!
