I was thinking some morbid thoughts recently after another of my family passed. They had had such a profound influence on my life and it was with sadness that I realised I would never be able to speak to them again in this lifetime. But then I thought of all who had gone before over the generations and how few are remembered beyond perhaps a name on a family tree or an ancient picture. Only relatively few people become historical figures; the rest disappear into obscurity.
One South African scientist, I hope, will keep a prominent place in the history of medical research in this country. Born in 1913, and arriving in South Africa as a young biochemist from England, Dr Alex (ARP) Walker later joined the National Health Laboratories Services (NHLS) Nutritional Research Unit. He became known as “the pioneer who focused world attention on the possible protective effects of the traditional African diet. As early as 1947 he started to point out that eating foods rich in fibre and low in fat, animal protein and cholesterol change bowel motility and are associated with a low occurrence of atherosclerosis, appendicitis, diabetes mellitus, gallstone and certain cancers. From these observations the dietary-fibre hypothesis was later formulated.” (Dr Esté Vorster in his obituary in a 2007 SA Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Dr Walker was perhaps the most prolific South African medical researcher ever. He published close to 1 000 research articles/editorials/scientific letters in his lifetime, more than half of those after the age of 60. His last article was published just a year before his death, at the ripe old age of 94. He retired from the NHLS at age 93; such was the demand for his wealth of wisdom and clarity of thought.
As a young doctor I worked for nearly 13 years in rural Lesotho, at a mission hospital, in the late ’70s and ’80s. I concurred with his findings; I never saw a single patient with a heart attack, diabetes was uncommon as were auto-immune diseases, bowel cancer, constipation and obesity.
In this series of articles we will explore further the benefits to our health that come from our forebears. We do well to revisit that knowledge and experience.
This health column is written by Dr Dave Glass, a retired obstetrician/gynaecologist living in Somerset West for just over a year. He is also chairperson of the South African Lifestyle Medicine Association (Salma). With an MBChB, FCOG(SA) and DipIBLM, Glass has a passion for preventing and addressing the root causes of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, auto-immune diseases, obesity, dementia and cancer.
