Phyllis Cilento

Cilento studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1919. She was the only woman in her graduating class.[6] She worked for a short time at the Adelaide Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London and the Marylebone Medical Mission Dispensary.[5]

Following her marriage, the couple moved to the Malay States where she worked as a "lady medical officer" in the British colonial service and supervised a women's ward in a hospital.[5]

In 1922, Cilento studied a course in public health at the University of Sydney.[5]

From 1924 to 1927, she worked in private practice in New Guinea.[5]

Cilento worked in the Hospital for Sick Children in Brisbane from 1931 to 1938, after which she moved into general practice working from a surgery attached to her home in Annerley with a special interest in the health of mothers and children, including obstetrics. In 1967, she moved to Toowong, where she continued her practice until the early 1980s.[5]

Cilento became well-known through her active advocacy of health issues for women and children. From 1928 onwards she wrote both occasional articles and regular columns for magazines and newspapers under the nom de plume of "Mother M.D." and "Medical Mother". She was particularly interested in promoting good nutrition and raising children. She expanded her outreach through books and radio, and was widely respected by women for her practical advice. She was a strong advocate of the benefit of vitamins. However, some of her advice was criticised by the medical community as she advocated for natural childbirth, contraception, the legalisation of abortion, and that fathers be present at the birth of their children.[5]

Dr. Cilento had used alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) to soften scar tissue in her patients, noting that vitamin E restored circulation to dead-looking toes. Concerned over the increasing death rate from coronary blockages, she surveyed the scientific literature on vitamin E, including studies showing its benefits in preventing blood clots. In the early 1970s, Cilento decided to travel the world to investigate vitamin E therapy. Her travels took her to Singapore, Germany, Britain and North America, where she interviewed doctors and veterinarians who used vitamin E in large doses. Taking detailed and voluminous notes, she published her findings in a three-part series in Woman's Day, an Australian woman's magazine, in November 1973 (starting 12 Nov.). "I am convinced that the claims made for alpha-tocopherol are fully justified", she concluded. She went on to detail 17 ways vitamin E works in the body — among them, its action in dilating capillaries, protecting the membrane envelopes of red blood cells, and regulating blood platelets.[8]

Observing that the Heart Foundation of Australia had refused to investigate the role of vitamin E in cardiovascular disease, Cilento wrote: "I am reminded of the many other occasions when life-saving innovations were delayed for years by the irrational conservatism of the medical Establishment… I myself was ridiculed and dismissed as a crank by a distinguished medical teacher when in 1919 I advocated vitamin D for cases of severe rickets. I was laughed at even though, at that time, the vitamin was curing starving babies in war-torn Vienna of this deforming disease. "…Once vitamin E jumps the barriers of prejudice, it may well be instrumental in saving the lives and sparing the suffering of many thousands…who will otherwise die."[9] She expanded her findings into a book, The Versatile Vitamin: Vitamin E (1976). At the age of 82, Cilento continued writing a health column for The Courier-Mail.[10] Although she published her theories extensively in the popular press, she never formally submitted her work for medical or scientific peer review.[11]

Dr Cilento was also active in medical organisations, including the inaugural president of the Queensland Medical Women's Society in 1929. She pursued her particular passion for mothers and children through the establishment in 1931 of the Mothercraft Association of Queensland in 1931, the Family Planning Association of Queensland, and her membership of Creche and Kindergarten Association of Queensland.[5]

She was also active in women's organisations, including the National Council of Women of Queensland, the Business and Professional Women's Association and the Lyceum Club.[5]