If you tune in to WESU on Wednesday afternoons, you are liable to hear a friendly male voice say, “Tired of your friends calling you a health nut? Make some new ones.”
That voice belongs to Jim Mascia of “Living Naturally with Jim and Rosemary,” a health advice show that occupies WESU’s Wednesday 4-to-5-p.m. timeslot.
Jim and Rosemary—a married, middle-aged couple that lives in the Middletown area—recently broadcasted their 91st episode. During the episode, they pitched an almond, fruit and veggie diet as a better alternative to Statens (a cholesterol-reducing drug), pointed to a link between low-fat milk and prostate cancer, and mentioned an Israeli study that found a connection between cell phone use and mouth cancer.
While both Jim and Rosemary are currently retired, he previously worked as an electrical engineer and she previously worked as a nurse. In addition to these professions, the couple also ran a wellness clinic—an endeavor that helped to prepare them for the WESU program.
On air, Jim espoused a rather simple premise: “The less you do to things, the [healthier] they are.”
And by “things,” Jim didn’t only mean food—he was also talking about light. The couple favors natural radiation, noting that common appliances such as microwaves can be potentially harmful. Jim even suggested that they should not be used at all.
“Just get rid of them,” he said.
Going further in their denunciation of artificial illumination, the Mascias noted that fluorescent light can, at least temporarily, weaken muscles.
Jim and Rosemary promote both natural light and exposure to the sun, suggesting that skin cancer is actually caused by a nutrition deficiency, as opposed to excessive sun exposure, as is popularly believed. They speculate that this commonly held belief about sun exposure is actually a ploy by companies who manufacture sunscreen.
“[The sunscreen manufacturers] are trying to sell sunscreen,” the Mascias said.
The Mascias also pointed to work by Dr. John Nash Ott, a pioneer in the field of time-lapse photography. Ott’s published work suggests that exposing the eyes and the skin to unfiltered sunlight can actually cure arthritis.
In addition to challenging Western medicine’s views on radiation and light, the Mascias also criticize the medical profession as a whole.
“[We] see a big difference between the medical model, which feeds the ’sickness industry,’ and the health model, which facilitates people to be independent in taking care of themselves,” they said.
Jim explained that some prescription drugs are so unhealthy that marijuana may as well be classified as a prescription drug itself.
“It’s possible some of those prescription drugs are worse than marijuana,” he said.
Rosemary, who lectured at various medical schools during her days as a nurse, noted that these experiences made her no more partial to medical professionals.
“You’d think medical students would be smart…sorry,” she said.
The couple asserts that many members of the medical profession lack a sense of the interconnectedness of the body and a certain holistic awareness.
“The average grandmother has more knowledge about nutrition than the average doctor,” Jim said.
For those who want to learn more, the Mascias lead three educational seminars on holistic medicine each year. Admission is free. The next seminar will be held at the Choate school in Wallingford, Conn. For details, contact the Mascias at natural@wesufm.org.
Leave a Reply