• 25 OCT 12
    • 0

    The Swedish Government report: “Trotthet & vark” by Robert Olin

    Background to the report:

    The report “Trotthet & vark” was written by Robert Olin, MD and Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine on behalf of a Parliamentary Commission appointed by the Swedish government. It was published in October of 1999. I have a copy of the 2002 update which is 121 pages in length. With the current smart meter health crisis I consider that a full English translation is called for. Note that the report critically examines the psychosomatic controversy (the nosebo effect).

    The Olin report was commissioned as a result of ongoing research carried out by several organisations, including the Karolinska Institute, The Swedish National Institute of Occupational Health, the Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industry, Lule College and Institute of Technology, Lund University and the Orebro Medical Centre in Sweden. The report represents the high point of organised Swedish research into both chemical and electromagnetic impacts on health before the whole research effort was squashed by the conservative Swedish government for economic reasons. Read all about this unfortunate event in Silencing inconvenient research in Sweden: The death of the No-Risk and Healthy Office projects

    In 2006 I was sent a copy of Olin”s report and Per Segerbach from Sweden sent me some brief translations from the report as follows:

    From the back page of the book:

    “In medical care, the research community and among decision makers the attitude versus the “new diagnoses” have often been blocked by out-of-date views and prejudices.”

    From the Summary chapter of the book:

    . . .”But it is also true that living conditions for people in a highly developed country like Sweden, have changed considerably during the last century, compared to earlier centuries. The “exploding” technical development all the way from phone and radio use into the current “communication society” as well as the multitude of new chemical products and physical technologies, for most people leads to very different living conditions.” This document is founded on the belief that for many “new diagnoses” the common symptoms (see below) have existed for a long time, but that the conditions have become more visible, e.g. due to the above mentioned changes in the society. In addition, it is likely that the true occurrence have increased, which may hypothetically depend on the dramatic increase over the last decades in daily sensory stimulus and chemical and physiological environmental influence.”

    “The document presents in brief, a number of “new diagnoses” and in chapter 14 especially, symptoms that are more or less common, namely tiredness, sleep disorders, vegetative and neuro-cognitive symptoms. Pain and disturbed “psychological equilibrium” as well as symptoms from mucus are also common.”

    . . . “In the same chapter an overall hypothesis about the biological mechanism is discussed that might explain the majority of the “new diagnosis” -conditions “” but naturally not all, because in a minority of the cases it is likely to be purely psychological circumstances or somatic diseases that are the cause of the symptoms.”

    “The document critically reviews the role and position of psychiatry in the treatment and attitudes towards the patients suffering from “new diagosis” -disorders.”

    The hypothesis relates to and enlarges the theory/hypothesis that the Swedish research group Rönnbäck-Hansson formulated regarding defects/damage in the astrogliacell membrane caused by disturbances in the transport through the membrane of e.g. the important energy- and signal substance glutamate.”

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