Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories - and/or taking too little exercise? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Here is an extract from the UK Government's official statistics on page http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1329:

"The prevalence of obesity in England has increased markedly among both adults and children since the mid 1990s. In 2002 it was similar for both sexes; the rate for boys and girls was 17 per cent and for adults was 23 per cent. In 1995 the equivalent figures were 10 per cent for boys and 12 per cent for girls, 15 per cent for men and 18 per cent for women.

There is no evidence that the average calorific intake or consumption of foods rich in fat and added sugar has increased in the UK since the mid 1980s. Men aged 19 to 64 in 2000/01 reported a daily energy intake of approximately 2,323 kcal (a reduction of 6 per cent since 1986/87). Women in the same age groups reported 1,642 kcal, a reduction of 3 per cent.

Reductions over the same period were also observed in the contribution of total fat to total energy intake (from 38 to 34 per cent in men and from 39 to 34 per cent in women) and saturated fat (from 15 to 13 per cent in men and from 17 to 13 per cent in women)."

So people are eating significantly FEWER calories and LESS fat, yet obesity has INCREASED MASSIVELY!!!

Surely the logical deduction from those facts is not that obesity increases because of eating more calories! - So where is the evidence for the constant insistence by medical 'experts' that obesity is caused by over-eating and will be reduced by eating less? - Answer: - THERE ISN'T ANY!!!

The research evidence is that when obese people try to lose weight by following the 'expert' advice they usually GAIN weight...)o:

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and calorie intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

Now before you engage in the conditioned reaction of attributing the solution to this apparent paradox as being the exercise factor, I invite you read about research on this:

'Exercise has 'little effect on childhood weight' - reported HERE in the Guardian. According to the findings of research carried out by Glasgow University, getting four-year-olds to engage in three extra 30 minute sessions of exercise a week had no effect on whether they were obese or not. "Despite rigorous implementation, we found no significant effect of the intervention on physical activity, sedentary behaviour or body mass index," concluded the researchers.

More than 500 nursery school children were recruited for the study, which compared children who exercised three times a week with children left to their own devices.

DESPITE THEIR OWN FINDINGS, the researchers deny that this research means that exercise is completely ineffective in preventing obesity! - They say that "the problem of overweight children needs to be addressed on several fronts at the same time, not just through exercise."

So the researchers are so conditioned by the calorie explanation of obesity (for which there is no supporting evidence) that they deny the results of their own research! Their conclusion is therefore not science; it is mere conjecture...)o:

Here is an extract from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html:

"When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body."

Alternative medicines 'need stricter regulation' - UK - Surely you must mean Conventional Prescribed Medicines need stricter regulation?

Alternative medicines 'need stricter regulation' - Permit me a cynical laugh here!

OVERWHELMINGLY PATIENTS IN BRITAIN ARE IN DANGER FROM CONVENTIONAL PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS, RATHER THAN FROM ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS.

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 5 - Dr Mo Mowlam

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 5 - Dr Mo Mowlam

Mo Mowlam was an extremely popular British MP and served in Tony Blair's government. She died in 2005, aged 55, and here is one of the obituaries to her - Mo Mowlam's political obituary

The article refers to her "steroids-induced weight gain" - but although the steroids she took because of a brain tumour certainly resulted in the massive weight gain that visually changed a beautiful woman into a fat caricature of her former self, this disfiguring weight gain could have been avoided/lessened by a very low salt/sodium diet, because it is not steroids per se which cause the weight gain, it is steroids PLUS SODIUM. - Steroids plus sodium/salt resulted in massive fluid retention. - If only she had been warned not to eat salt or food containing salt while taking the steroid medication she would not have become obese as she did, and would not have suffered the many problems that the obesity entailed. - I did write to her on the matter but I fear my letter and my later email may never have been read by her, government ministers being such busy people.

For further information see http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

Lose weight and benefit your health in countless other ways by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! -
How to Lose weight!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 4 - Jerry Lewis

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 4 - Jerry Lewis

Comedian Has Stopped Taking Steroids That Added To His Weight

It's weird, isn't it? - and shocking - that even famous people like Jerry Lewis are not told that when taking prednisolone (prescribed to Jerry Lewis for pulmonary fibrosis) it is dangerous to eat salt or food containing salt. - This is because prednisolone, and many other drugs, cause sodium retention and water retention, and therefore weight gain and often morbid obesity, because of massive fluid retention.

The mechanism for this is that the muscles in the walls of the blood vessels are 'relaxed' by the drugs. - Sodium from ingested salt goes into the blood stream, along with the water it attracts to itself. - Normally any excess sodium and water then leave the bloodstream via the kidneys and the bladder and are excreted in the urine. - But when the blood vessels are relaxed they cannot withstand the incursions of any excess sodium. So the sodium and its accompanying water dilate the blood vessels, which become weakened and overstretched and the walls become thinner. - The blood becomes diluted by the added salt and water. - And the person becomes heavier - obviously. - Water is heavy...)o:

Now that I have explained this, you can see that the obesity caused cannot be addressed or lessened by eating fewer calories or taking vigorous exercise. - The problem is sodium and water, not fat. - How then to reduce the overweight?

Well, reducing the dose of the drugs can lessen the relaxation of the blood vessel walls and so they become less dilated and some of the excess fluid leaves the blood stream and is excreted. - This is obviously the main reason Jerry Lewis was able to lose 58 pounds of the weight gain. And the changes he has made to his diet may very well have included reducing his salt/sodium intake and this also would result in some of the excess water being shed from his bloodstream.

But the blood vessels almost certainly will have been permanently weakened by having been overstretched for so long. And his skin also will have been weakened and overstretched, probably permanently, by the excess water he has been carrying in his body since starting to take the steroids. ~It is unlikely that whatever he does now he will ever return to his former weight. He will always be overweight and carrying excess water in his bloodstream, and he also really needs to minimise his sodium intake for the rest of his life. He will always now be what is called 'sensitive to salt'.

All of this steroid-induced obesity and its attendant ill-health like hypertension and breathlessness could have been AVOIDED ENTIRELY if, when he was given the prescription, he had been told that the drugs cause sodium retention and consequent water retention and that therefore while taking the drugs he needed to avoid eating any salt or food containing any salt at all - because his kidneys would not excrete it as formerly they had.

I suspect that Elvis Presley probably had the same misfortune - drug prescriptions of powerful steroid-type drugs without the vital warning not to eat salt or food containing salt while taking the medication.

You can look up the side-effects in medical reference books and see for yourself that prednisolone causes sodium and water retention. - Why don't doctors bother to do this? - Why don't they get struck off for not doing it? - Why are they allowed to prescribe dangerous drugs without giving necessary information and warnings?

You can read more about obesity and the salt connection on my website. - Try my Mensa article!

Lose weight and benefit your health in countless other ways by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! -
How to Lose weight!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Thousands of hospital staff in Britain fail to wash hands correctly - UK

So numbers of cases of MHSA are still increasing...)o: See Thousands of hospital staff fail to wash hands correctly

Extracts from the article:

"A study has discovered that 88 per cent of hospital staff are not following government orders to wash their hands before and after contact with patients.

Researchers who followed teams of doctors and nurses for a week, found that even when dealing with patients infected with the deadly superbug, 84 per cent were not washing their hands correctly.

Health staff carrying out wound care, such as changing bandages, failed to follow hand-washing guidelines on 86 per cent of occasions, while a quarter of staff did not wash their hands after contact with human waste.The failure of staff to follow hand-washing guidelines is hampering the multi-million pound fight to combat MRSA, which is blamed for the deaths of as many as 5,000 patients each year."

(MRSA stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. MRSA occurs most commonly in people who are already in hospital. People who are more prone to it are those who are very ill, or have wounds or open sores such as bed-sores or burns. The wounds or sores may become infected with MRSA and the infection is then difficult to treat. Infections which start in the skin may spread to cause more serious infections. Also, urinary catheters and tubes going into veins or parts of the body ('drips' etc) are sometimes contaminated by MRSA and can lead to urine or blood infection.)

Puerperal fever (or childbed fever) was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal, with mortality at 10%-35%. It was largely caused by the failure of doctors to wash their hands before dealing with patients. - That was more than a century ago! - Isn't it time that health professionals learnt the importance of effective hand-washing before dealing with their patients, and accepted personal responsibility for what could be the literally grave consequences to their patients when they fail to do it? - Surely this poor hygiene is medical negligence?

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 3.

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 3.

'Jay' had always been slim and smart. He went with pain and other symptoms to his GP in 2000. The GP recognised the seriousness of the signs and symptoms and arranged a prompt appointment with a specialist, who confirmed that it was cancer of the colon. 'Jay' was treated with both radiotherapy and chemotherapy and also had a resection. The excellent treatment he received must, I suppose, have saved his life. He is still alive and the cancer is in remission.

During one of his spells in hospital I was speaking to him on his mobile phone and he told me he had been put onto steroids. Agitatedly I implored him not to eat salt while he was taking the steroids. Anyone who has any dealings at all with me becomes well versed in my views about salt and so he assured me he was not eating salt. - What he meant was that he was not sprinkling salt onto his food. I was unable, sadly, to persuade him not to eat bacon, etc. while he was taking the steroids. I believe things would have been even worse if he had not known from me about salt and steroids, because then he might have been adding sprinkled salt as well to what he ate. As it is, although he took steroids for only about 7 weeks, his weight went from 12 stone to 14 and a half stone - a gain of 35 pounds in 7 weeks! a lot of the added weight being on his abdomen. Of course the response to his weight gain has been for people to point out to him that he is not getting enough exercise!

He now restricts his salt intake but this only ensures that he gains no more weight. He has not been able to lose more than between half a stone and a stone by sodium restriction because he does not follow, and does not feel able to follow, as strict a regimen as I do.

So you see how quickly sodium and fluid retention can cause weight gain! - Only 7 weeks in this case.

'Jay's cancer was expertly dealt with, but what a shame that while he was in hospital - taking prescribed steroids - he was not protected from the sodium and water retention. - If only he had been served low sodium meals for those 7 weeks! - He would then not have gained the weight. - The weight gain now seems intractable because the blood vessel walls have obviously been permanently compromised/weakened/overstretched. - He has also developed the serious complication that sodium and water retention often cause, namely, diabetes...)o:

Many drugs carry warnings not to drive or operate machinery while taking them. Some warn against mixing them with alcohol. I recommend that packs of steroids and packs of HRT and certain other drugs which cause fluid retention/weight gain, be labelled WARNING: DO NOT EAT SALT, OR FOODS WHICH CONTAIN SALT, WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION. Without this warning, morbid obesity and its associated health problems - diabetes, high blood pressure, etc, etc, will be the frequent consequence...)o:

Read more on my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 2.

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 2.

A young woman, 'Dee', was brought to see me in 2000 by Marion, a friend of mine, who recognised Dee’s weight gain as similar to what mine had been.

'Dee' is less than 5 feet tall and she had always weighed 7 and a half stone (105 pounds). She told me that on Feb 1st 1999 a professor in the eye dept at one of our local teaching hospitals had put her on to 22x5mg prednisolone tablets a day for an eye problem. (Prednisolone is one of the steroids that cause sodium and water retention and it should not be prescribed without a warning about this, and the advice to minimise sodium intake while taking the medication. 'Dee' had not been given this information ot advice.) Such a high initial dose beggars belief! After 3 months on this daily dose her weight had increased by 3 stone – 40% of her body weight!!! – and like me she had stretch marks because of so rapid an increase in weight. She had been reduced to eating only one meal a day in an effort - unsuccessful - to lose weight.

When she told the professor of the weight gain and of the pain she was experiencing, his response was to look away and say something like, ‘It’s funny how women are always complaining of pain.’ - It’s not funny, actually...)o: - It’s disgraceful that women patients are treated in this way... - It is a typical example of medical sexism, to which I have referred in a previous entry in this blog. - Medical sexism is extremely damaging to women patients and it is extremely common in Britain...

After that first 3 months the tablets she had been prescribed were gradually reduced in number to one a day, which she was taking when I met her. But the reduction had not brought about any loss of weight. - The damage had been done. Fortunately Marion and I were able to tell her about salt sensitivity. - We spent 2 hours telling her. We had also to overcome the idea that fat/calories have to be reduced in order to lose weight.

Some months later 'Dee' rang me to tell me delightedly that she had lost a lot of weight by following my advice about reducing salt/sodium intake. In clothes, at any rate, she looked normal again. But of course the terrible stretch marks remain, and so does the pain, though it is less.

If you too are a steroid victim, have a look at my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and then look at some of the other pages, especially the steroids page.

You will find that the best, the safest, the fastest, the most reliable way to lose weight is to eat less salt and forget about reducing calories or struggling to do exercise when you are too fat to be comfortable doing it. - You will feel SO MUCH BETTER! - Overeating and lack of exercise are NOT what caused your obesity.

Good luck!

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 1

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 1

Michael had had damaged kidneys and had patiently lived on a very low salt diet for years while waiting for a new kidney. Then he was overjoyed at last to receive a new kidney. The doctors in the hospital told him it would now be OK for him to eat an ordinary diet, not salt-restricted. And so while still in the hospital he was given an ordinary diet. At the same time they put him onto steroids. The consequences have been dire. He put on a lot of weight and his new kidney now has impaired function. He said to me that he would never go to a doctor again in his life - that he would rather die than have any further contact with doctors.

I believe that there are many damaged people who would rather die than have further contact with doctors...)o:

For details of the harm done by eating salty food while taking steroids visit http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and click on the steroids link on the left of the page.

Tomato diet model dies of anorexia

Tomato diet model dies of anorexia

What a pity! - A young woman's needless, avoidable death! - If only the truth were widely known about obesity and healthy 'dieting'! - To achieve a lower weight without compromising your health, just eat as little salt/sodium as possible and also make sure you are eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and enough of all the other essential food groups - protein, healthy fat and micronutrients. - That means not using salt in cooking, not sprinkling it on your food and checking the labels on the packets/tins of food you buy to make sure they contain only a low concentration of sodium. (0.5g sodium or more per 100g food is high sodium, 0.1g sodium or less is low sodium). Essentially, you are better avoiding processed food and instead eating fresh food that you cook yourself from scratch. - THERE IS NO NEED AT ALL TO RESTRICT THE AMOUNT OF FOOD YOU EAT OR THE NUMBER OF CALORIES. - IF YOU ARE HUNGRY, EAT! - AND DON'T TRY TO DECEIVE YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY WHEN REALLY YOU ARE. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

The Overweight Dog or Cat and How To Reduce A Dog's Excess Weight.

The Overweight Dog or Cat and How To Reduce A Dog's Excess Weight.

What I read online today was, "Very simply put, if your pet is overweight it is taking in (eating) more calories than it needs." - This is not the case.

If you have an overweight pet dog or cat it is because they have been eating food containing added salt. This is bad for them. Give them unsalted food instead. They will lose weight, have more energy and live longer. - It could be that you have been feeding them some of the food you or your family eat, and this may well have had salt in it, especially if what you gave them was part of a takeaway or other convenience meal, because these meals have usually had a lot of salt added to them in the cooking. - Salt is particularly damaging to pet dogs and cats because they have a smaller body mass than people and so the salt has a proportionally bigger effect on them. - As well as causing them to become overweight, you could eventually be causing them to become diabetic...)o: - And if they are taking prescribed steroid medication for any reason, then they are at even greater risk! - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/

Lies, Distortions and Government Spin (UK) - research is used to 'prop up' policies and inconvenient evidence is often buried.

According to a damning report by MPs, research is used to 'prop up' policies and inconvenient evidence is often buried, says Roger Highfield. - The article is here.

Here is an example of manipulating evidence:

"When the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, told one newspaper this year that more women should have babies at home, she signalled her determination by saying that she had even commissioned research to support her case."
Another extract: "Ministers can also lack a certain scientific rigour. Sir John Krebs, former chairman of the Food Standards Agency, singled out the announcement in September last year by the then Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, that the Government planned to ban junk food from meals and vending machines in English schools.

This all sounds very laudable but, according to Sir John, the policy had been developed with no evidence that it would work, no scientific definition of junk food, no cost benefit analysis and no public engagement."

Well I've got news for Sir John! - The Food Standards Agency does not itself set a good example of scientific rigour. - When in the summer of 2005, I was seeking to apprise the Food Standards Agency of the true cause of obesity - namely, fluid retention, usually owing to salt sensitivity and sodium retention - the fellow who had rung me from the FSA, who emphasised to me that he was a Ph.D., told me rudely that people are fat because they are lazy and they eat too much! - That seemed to me typical of a much lower level of thought and sensitivity than Ph.D.s dealing with problems of obesity and advice about it should be displaying...)o: - There is, of course, NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER to support his contention. - That obesity is caused by over-eating and lack of exercise is an ASSUMPTION, unsupported by evidence or research. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ Eating fewer calories and taking more exercise does not reduce obesity. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of obese dieters actually lose weight, and most actually gain weight as a result of dieting.

Sir David King, the government's Chief Scientist is also quoted in today's article. He is someone else I contacted last year about obesity. He did not personally answer me, but got someone from the Department for Trade and Industry to reply to me. (The DTI is responsible for science policy.) - That reply was polite, but effectively held the same message as the FSA's ill-mannered Ph.D spokesperson. There followed some correspondence which ended with the DTI saying I should contact the FSA - with the result I have already detailed.

NHS computer chief 'failed IT course'

Currently the NHS IT project, the largest civilian IT project in the world, is over-budget, behind schedule and already rife with glitches and malfunctions. Do you think this could be connected to the fact that the NHS computer chief 'failed IT course'? (He is currently the highest paid civil servant in Britain.)

Too Big To Walk! - Gary Baines, Alice Duxbury, Jack Gordy, Stacey Pinnock, Hayley Rentall, Jane Thompson Smith, Adam Van Gogh and Vincent Youngman

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week Channel 4 TV Too Big To Walk showed an hour each evening of episodes in a 500 mile walk embarked upon by 8 severely obese adults - 4 men and 4 women - Gary Baines, Alice Duxbury, Jack Gordy, Stacey Pinnock, Hayley Rentall, Jane Thompson Smith, Adam Van Gogh and Vincent Youngman - in the hope of losing excess weight and becoming fitter. - It was a gruelling and at times somewhat dangerous walk, especially for such heavy, unfit people, and in my opinion the organisers/makers of the programme pressed the subjects to levels of endurance that were not unlike torture. - I consider it to have been an unwise, ill-considered and risky enterprise, despite the fact that weight was lost and the four who finished the walk were justly proud of themselves and their self-confidence and happiness had improved.

The hard walking caused severe foot problems and great pain for several of the walkers and some of them had to give up the walk because of the damage it was doing to them.

Strenuous, pain-laden exercise like this is completely unnecessary for weight loss. - If only those walkers - and all other obese people - had the correct information, i.e. that all that is necessary to lose weight is to reduce salt/sodium intake and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables! - They could all of them have lost a stone/14 pounds in a month by making a serious effort to eat less salt. - They could have done this without taking exercise at all and without restricting calories or going hungry. - If they had carried on in this way they could then, if they felt like it, have gone on some nice long walks without the terrible strain on their feet/knees/muscles/heart that it was to walk when severely obese. The exercise would then have been more enjoyable and beneficial.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or
adverts - just helpful information.)

UK Hospital kitchens found 'lacking in hygiene'

UK Hospital kitchens found 'lacking in hygiene' - The report is here. - It makes scary reading! Here is an extract:

"Consumer group Which? has uncovered low standards of hygiene in many hospitals, including evidence of cockroaches, mice and dirty cooking utensils, it has been reported.

Hygiene inspection reports from 50 hospitals across the country which have been inspected by Which?, show problems such as cockroach infestations, lack of soap, lack of hot water and poor refrigeration."

As ever, the Department of Health defends the indefensible: "A Department of Health spokesperson said that over 96 per cent of trusts were meeting the "core standards" on hospital food."

UK Hospitals fail to report spread of new superbug 'more dangerous than MRSA'

UK Hospitals fail to report spread of new superbug 'more dangerous than MRSA' - Report is here and here are extracts:

"The shambolic state of infection control on wards is exposed in a survey by the Patients' Association. It found only about a quarter of trusts are gathering data on Clostridium difficile (C. diff), the bacterium that experts say poses more of a risk to public health than MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)."

"The findings from 500 infection-control nurses and managers follow mounting concern over the threat to patients' health from C. diff, which can cause severe illness and death in those with weakened immune systems, particularly the elderly.

The bacterium, which spreads easily through unhygienic and filthy wards, is the major cause of infectious diarrhoea, but it can also cause high temperatures and severe inflammation, and comes with a death rate of about five per cent."

"Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association, said: "Collection of data about this very dangerous infection is haphazard to say the least, and we are not getting the true picture. How can patients have confidence in their hospitals if the real threat posed by C. diff is being played down?"

Dr Mark Enright, a microbiologist at Imperial College London, said that the government agency's monitoring scheme was flawed because a new and more dangerous strain of C. diff had emerged in the past year or so, striking patients aged 40 and over."

The Department of Health retains its usual complacency. - "A Department of Health spokesman said clean, safe care was not an "optional extra" for the NHS, adding: "Infection control should be a core activity for trusts.""

Hospital kitchens that fail the hygiene test

Hospital kitchens that fail the hygiene test: - here is the report. - Here are extracts from the report:

"Dirty equipment, cockroach infestations and instances of food not being properly refrigerated featured in the review of hygiene reports produced over the past three years for 50 NHS and private hospitals...

...only 18 per cent of NHS patients were very satisfied with the quality of the food provided, compared with 57 per cent of private patients. In addition, 29 per cent of NHS patients were still hungry after meals, compared with four per cent of private patients."

Pretty disgusting, isn't it? - But the Dept of Health can always be relied upon for a complacent response to criticism:

"A spokesman for the Department of Health said yesterday that the independent Healthcare Commission last month found that 96 per cent of trusts were meeting core standards on hospital food."