Science Based Wellness

Why am I setting up this website?

What benefit will you get from following this website?

Let me tackle these questions in order.

Why am I setting up this website?

Is it because I want to make money out of it?

If any reader can think of some way I could make money from this site let me know. I cannot think of any way of running this site at a profit. I would if I could.

My number one reason for setting up this website is to have fun.

What did you expect me to say? That I was filled with an evangelistic desire to bring wellness to the masses? That I was an altruist wanting to help people I’ve never met lead healthy lives?

Wellness interests me. I enjoy researching and writing about scientific and public policy issues and wellness is both a scientific and public policy issue. My number one goal in setting up this website is to enjoy myself.

What benefit will you get from following this website?

This is the more important question. Never mind what benefit I get from running this site. What benefit will you get from following it?

Firstly, I hope you will find it entertaining and interesting. I hope you will have at least as much fun checking in from time to time as I’m having running it.

Secondly, I hope this site will help you make informed choices about your own wellness.

What do I mean by “informed” choices?

I mean choices based on hard scientific data. Choices based on evidence.

Here is my promise to you

Every item on this website will be backed up by evidence. I shall always provide sources and references to reputable scientists or scientific journals. Wherever possible I shall provide links to my sources.

So, no fad diets that will, allegedly, enable you to shed pounds effortlessly. No marvellous exercise machines that give you an amazing body for only ten minutes effort per day. No 12 easy steps to solve all your life’s problems. That sort of thing, as we all know deep down, is the stuff of charlatanry.

Just evidence based information to help you make informed choices about your own wellness.

One thing I shall not do is nag, chide or prescribe. Along with the philosopher George Santyana, I believe that:

“A man may not always eat and drink what is good for him; but it is better for him and less ignominious to die of the gout freely than to have a censor officially appointed over his diet, who after all could not render him immortal.”

I want to help you make informed choices. The choices you actually make are none of my business. Live your life as you wish but be aware of the consequences of your actions.

PS: Santyana probably never had gout. Lady Mary Montague, an 18th century English lady of letters is reputed to have said, “People wish their enemies dead–but I do not. I say, give them the gout,…”

I have never suffered from gout but I am told it is excruciatingly painful.