Our History
The Burghwood Clinic was founded by Dr John Mansfield and originally opened its doors in May 1982, when it has been involved in both research and the practical applications of the rapidly evolving fields of Allergy, Environmental and Nutritional Medicine. This medical facility has been recognised, since inception, as one of very few centres, offering effective management on a wide range of modern day conditions.
Dr Apelles Econs MRCS LRCP – Director & Registered Manager
Dr Apelles Econs is the Medical Director/Registered Provider at The Burghwood Clinic. He studied Medicine at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, London, where he graduated in 1976. After working in a number of hospital posts, he entered NHS general practice, where he spent 22 years as a principal, also operating as a part-time allergy specialist since 1992. During this time, he found that simple dietary changes and safe methods of desensitisation were both more clinically and cost-effective than medications used for common conditions such as chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, arthritis, eczema, asthma and many others. He has wide-ranging experience with the management of dietary problems, the treatment of intestinal parasites, the use of oral and intravenous nutrition, dealing with chemically sensitive people and the use of all the modern methods of immunotherapy including the Enzyme Potentiated method (EPD), the Low-dose method (LDI) and the more "conventional" sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). Dr Econs has been a guest allergy specialist in some radio and TV programmes such as Embarrassing Bodies and The Food Hospital, has contributed to local NHS medical primary care groups and lectured at several postgraduate medical conferences.
Dr Econs has been privileged to have mentored a number of his colleagues, some of whom have also been excelling, practicing in the same field of ecological influences on human health, in the UK and overseas.
Dr Econs is recognised by a number of health insurance companies, including Standard Life, Cigna, PruHealth, WPA, BCWA, Aviva Health, Groupama, SimplyHealth and HSA.
Dr John Mansfield, Founder (deceased 2016)
During his professional career, he gained his medical degree at Guy's Hospital, London, and has worked in both the UK and the USA. He has been working in this specialty since 1976 when he was one of the three original British pioneers. In 1978 he was a founder member of the British Society for Allergy and Environmental Medicine and became President of that society from 1992 to 1995.
Clinical Trials and Studies
In 1986 we completed two separate clinical trials in conjunction with the Department of Rheumatology at Epsom District Hospital. In these studies, the relationship of food sensitivity to classical rheumatoid arthritis was explored. The results of the second trial were published in the Lancet on the 1st February 1986 entitled 'Placebo Controlled Blind Study of Dietary Manipulation Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis. This study showed that 33 out of 44 patients with rheumatoid arthritis improved dramatically with the simple expedient of an elimination diet.
In December 1998 we had a study published in the Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine entitled 'Treatment of Equine Allergic Diseases with Allergy Neutralisation – A Field Study'. This was the first major study anywhere in the world of neutralisation in an animal model, useful as it is difficult to imagine a placebo response in a horse. It showed very major improvements, often a complete recovery, in 92% of 13 horses with urticaria and 87% of 23 horses with COPD (equine asthma).
