Optometrist and researcher Dr Sydney Bush has died in Spain at the age of 90.
A tribute to the Hull-based practitioner was published by medical author Dr Gifford-Jones last week.
He praised Dr Bush for a ‘monumental finding’ through retinal images that vitamin C and lysine could prevent and even reverse the aging of arteries.
Dr Bush caused controversy at the turn of the decade in his practice of nutritional preventative cardioretinometry, and was landed with GOC ban in 2013.
But Dr Gifford-Jones said: ‘During my 43 years of writing this column I have never devoted a memoriam to a colleague. But one is needed for Dr Sydney Bush. In part, I’ll miss his presence. But more important, his scientific discovery should have been awarded the Nobel Prize. And it could yet save millions of lives from cardiovascular disease.
‘His was the old story of the establishment refusing to accept new ideas. In fact, more to the point, it didn’t even want to listen, particularly certain medical specialties. For instance, if you were a cardiologist, would you want to be told that vitamin C and lysine, natural remedies, are more effective, less expensive, and one hundred percent safer than cholesterol-lowering drugs? Or, if you were a cardiac surgeon, to be told that taking vitamin C and lysine could decrease the number of arterial bypass operations?
Ten years ago, Dr Gifford-Jones travelled to England to interview him and spent several days at his laboratory.
Dr Bush had prescribed for patients being fitted for contact lenses 6,000 milligrams (mgs) of vitamin C, and 5,000 mgs of lysine. He then took pictures of the retina, the back part of the eye, the only area of the body where doctors can see arteries and a year later took a follow-up photo.
Dr Gifford-Jones added: ‘For 10 years I’ve written that Dr Bush deserved the Nobel Prize in Medicine. But his research has sadly collected dust in medical circles.
‘It was apparent when you hear him talk about his research, that he did not suffer fools easily. He had a habit of telling them, and medical societies they were wrong about the cause of coronary attack. I mentioned jokingly to him that he should have read the book “How to Win Friends and Influence people”.’