Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
www.pharmpress.com/fact
Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2006; 11: 89–90
Mike Cummings is medical director of the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) and an honorary clinical specialist at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. His work is divided among lecturing, editing, politics and clinical practice. He studied medicine at Leeds and worked in a number of hospital jobs in Yorkshire and Lancashire before being commissioned as a medical officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF). His primary interest in sports medicine developed into an interest in musculoskeletal medicine and muscle pain. He came across acupuncture by chance whilst serving in the RAF, and was forced to consider that the syringe containing local anaesthetic and steroid that he had been using so often in clinical practice may not be required beyond the needle insertion. On leaving the RAF after 6½ years he took over an established acupuncture practice with the intention of converting it to a clinic for musculoskeletal medicine, but instead it converted him into an acupuncturist! He was invited to pilot the BMAS accreditation system and subsequently started to work within the organisation, which is a charitable body primarily involved in the education of health professionals in Western medical acupuncture. He started to work full time for the BMAS as medical director in 2000.
Being a rather orthodox and conformist physician in the complementary medicine world has had its challenges and surprises, but Mike is really enjoying the work, although he doesn’t get to ski, surf or skydive as much as he did when he was in the RAF.
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Q Which forms of CAM would you refuse to use?
MC: Those in which the risks outweigh the benefits from a reductionist scientist’s perspective.
Q What is the most important virtue for a scientist?
MC: Honesty and an appropriate level of humility.
Q If you had not entered your current profession, what would you have liked to do?
MC: Astrophysics.
Q What do you take when you have a cold?
MC: Mostly placebos, and I reduce my peak aerobic output to about 50% of my VO2 max.
Q What is your greatest extravagance?
MC: Good wine.
Q What do you value most in a friend?
MC: Reliability.
Q If you had a motto what would it be?
MC: Life is too short to drink cheap wine!
Q On what occasion would you lie?
MC: Initially I thought it would be out of consideration of the feelings of another, but it is probably always indirectly to protect my genes, i.e. self-interest; but I don’t do it often – honest guv!
Q What makes you lose your patience?
MC: Incompetence in others … but not in myself … it seems unfair, but that’s just how it is.
Q What is your greatest temptation?
MC: Sex, power and money – I guess pretty much the same as the rest of the population! Or were you expecting me to say something benign like chocolate? Perhaps I should go for a combination – chocolate money, strong dark (powerful) chocolate or something else.
Q What is the most treasured possession in your life?
MC: I am pretty careful about my possessions, but I don’t really treasure any of them. Clearly I treasure the cherubs (my kids) but I don’t consider them as possessions – they are free radicals!
Q How do you keep fit?
MC: Running for coffee at Ealing Broadway.
Q What is your favourite food?
MC: Grilled Edam on wholemeal pitta bread with pepper or chillies. This is my favourite high-convenience food – it can be prepared, eaten and washed up in about 10 min. I really like squid in all forms, but particularly shallow fried in olive oil and garlic until the edges are burnt.
Q What is your favourite type of music?
MC: I guess I am fairly eclectic since I enjoy listening to Tchaikovsky at one extreme and AC/DC at the other. I enjoy many other genres in addition to classical or rock, but I really struggle to appreciate rap.
Q Why do you think people like you?
MC: Because I am comfortable in my skin.
Q What was the most embarrassing moment in your life?
MC: Congratulating a woman for being pregnant when she wasn’t. It was the third time I had made this mistake – you’d think I’d have learned from the first two!
