Longer life? It's easy when you know how

"It is thought that 90 per cent of disease is related to our lifestyle. With a simple change in the way we live our lives, we could have a massive impact on our health and on the NHS," says Dr Espinet, who doesn't look as if he has spent many late nights clubbing.

Busy NHS hospital consultants don't normally hold press conferences to announce their lecture tours, but there is nothing ordinary about the non-drinking, non-smoking North-East specialist who advocates positive thinking, teetotalism and eaating as many vegetables as you can.

He is hoping that up to 8,000 people will be prepared to shell out £15 per ticket in April to hear him hold forth on 'The Secrets of a Healthier and Longer Life Revealed'.

Illustrated with slides and including a talk on "How To Live 12 Years Longer and Grow Younger", the event at Newcastle Telewest Arena on April 22, starting at 7.30pm, is planned to be the first of a nationwide lecture tour for the charismatic consultant.

He is no stranger to entertaining and informing crowds, previously lecturing to audiences in the West Indies, Spain, India and the US.

Born and educated on the West Indian island of Trinidad, Dr Espinet studied agricultural science and soil chemistry - becoming a lecturer at the University of the West Indies - before deciding to study medicine.

He has an extensive CV. Apart from his main job as an NHS anaesthetist, he also works in intensive care and chronic pain control.

His interest in cardiac work means that he will shortly move over to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle where he will join the expanding team of heart specialists as a cardiac anaesthetist.

That is impressive enough, but it's only half the story. Dr Espinet's interest in nutrition, which led him to embrace complementary health as well as mainstream medicine, began when he was a student in Trinidad and has blossomed as his medical career has progressed.

"It struck me that we spend far more time looking at nutrition for animals than we do for humans," says Dr Espinet, who is a consultant anaesthetist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead. "We were treating cats better than children. Even today, cat foods have up to 40 different nutrients in them compared to about 12 in baby food."

As his medical career blossomed, he continued to broaden his outlook by training in herbal medicine, homeopathy, medical microscopy, acupuncture and clinical nutrition.

Even though the cold war between conventional medicine and complementary medicine is now visibly thawing, Dr Espinet says there is a still a gulf.

"There are two opposed camps. Doctors say complementary medicine people are quacks and complementary medicine people say doctors are killing people. I have done the training so I can see both sides. I can see the good in both."

He is encouraged that, finally, the official policy coming out of the Department of Health, stressing the importance of health promotion and people helping themselves by changing the way they live, co-incides with his own views.

"It is perfectly true that many diseases can be prevented by simply changing life-style. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes are largely life-style related. If you stop smoking, reduce drinking, take exercise and eat more sensibly, you can improve your health," says Dr Espinet, who lives in Cramlington, Northumberland.

But how do you persuade people to make that change? For Dr Espinet, that is where modern medicine often falls down and that is why he feels he may be able to sway some people through his seminars.

"We already know what we should avoid to stay healthy, but some people choose to ignore that. They are like the man who falls from a 15-storey building and says 'so far, so good' just before he hits the ground."

While much of what he says would be welcomed by most NHS health promotion specialists - more fruit, more vegetables, more exercise, stopping smoking - he takes a hard, and possibly unpopular, line on alcohol.

"I don't accept the idea that red wine is good for you. You could get the same anti-oxidants from drinking grape-juice," says Dr Espinet, who is married with two children. "All alcohol is toxic. If you know something is a poison you should avoid it."

Being aware of potential health hazards is half the battle in the quest to stay healthy and relatively young, though Dr Espinet admits that some of the most dedicated smokers and drinkers are doctors. "The laws of health are a fact and they should not be broken. I simply want to show people a better way to live," he says.

He knows from first-hand experience that some individuals are far more vulnerable to health hazards than others - although no one can break the rules and stay healthy.

"I had to remove the lung of a 15-year- old boy who developed emphysema after smoking for just six months. He had the lung of a 60-year-old man and that was due to his genes," he says. "In many respects, life is like Russian roulette. Genetics load the gun, but lifestyle is the trigger."

One novel aspect of his seminar is interest in theories about the vital importance of blood to our health. He plans to invite members of the audience to donate a drop of their blood which can then be analysed under a microscope. The result will be projected onto a big screen.

"I will be giving demonstrations of how to interpret a person's state of health by examining a drop of blood under a microscope." Being a pessimist, I declined to give a drop of my blood, but Dr Espinet persuaded two of the Telewest Arena's staff to co-operate.

"The shape of the blood cells tells you a lot about the health of a patient," he says, watching as a succession of wobbling circles move unsteadily across the screen. "A nice, regular, round shape is good. If they stick together, if there is a lot of clotting, that tells us someone would be prone to heart disease."

He points to larger, white blood cells which are part of the body's defence system. "If they are sluggish it indicates that the immune system is not working very well."

So-called "ghost" cells are a further indication of a possible protein deficiency, indicating possible difficulties in absorbing nutrition properly.

"You know, we produce 65 billion cells every day and one per cent is always cancerous. What protects us is the ability of the white blood cells to kill them off, along with bacteria and viruses," he says.

Even dried blood can yield useful information. The presence of a network of spidery lines indicates that the liver is working well. "You can tell the level of mineral absorption from dried blood. You can see if the liver is under stress," says Dr Espinet.

One shock was the presence of black dots, evidence of animal parasites which indicated that both volunteers kept pets.

"It is a very good indication of whether someone lives with animals," says Dr Espinet, who has just set up his own web-site at www.drespinet.com

Apart from diet and exercise, Dr Espinet believes there is much we can do to mould our health just by the way we think.

"You have to get rid of negative emotions like hatred, revenge and sadness. You have to try to live a happy life. Send out love because what goes around comes around," he beams.

l Tickets for Health Quest 2002: The Secrets of a Healthier and Longer Life Revealed, £15, are available from the Telewest Arena Box Office on 0870 707 8000, from the telewestarena.co.uk website and from a variety of outlets, including Darlington Tourist Information Centre.