TONGUE-TIED
The plaintiff was being extremely irritating. How awkward can you get? Why wouldn’t she give her evidence?
“Speak up, please. The Court hasn’t all day. We have your written statement but we must hear you give your evidence and you must be cross-examined by Counsel.
“This really is too bad: - making those grotesque noises and poking her fingers into her mouth in that disgusting way! I suppose we’re intended to conclude that because she’s got no tongue she can’t speak. Well it won’t do. She’s prejudicing the evidence.
“Her statement says that the dentist cut off her tongue while performing a minor operation in her mouth. Well we’ve only got her word for it, and only in writing at that! The surgeon says there was no tongue in her mouth when he started to operate and of course he is an expert. I feel we ought to accept his clinical judgement on the matter. He would have noticed a tongue if one had been present.
“The heavy bleeding afterwards, despite necessitating a massive blood transfusion, could well have been spontaneous. ‘Nervy’ people often get nosebleeds, and this could well have been something of that sort.
“In view of the stubborn refusal of this lady to give evidence I sentence her to seven days’ imprisonment for contempt of court.
“Case dismissed! Costs against the plaintiff!”
© 1988 Margaret Wilde
Friday, 29 December 2006
Thursday, 28 December 2006
THE COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT - Poem by Margaret Wilde
The Complaints Department
(dedicated to the NHS Complaints Procedures)
This is the gate
Through which you must go
To get to the door
Of the passage
That leads
To the tunnel
And thence to the stairway,
The which you ascend
(As you tire),
And you find
At the top
That the hatches
Are down
And there stands in your path
A half-witted
Deaf-mute
With a gun.
© 1986 Margaret Wilde
(dedicated to the NHS Complaints Procedures)
This is the gate
Through which you must go
To get to the door
Of the passage
That leads
To the tunnel
And thence to the stairway,
The which you ascend
(As you tire),
And you find
At the top
That the hatches
Are down
And there stands in your path
A half-witted
Deaf-mute
With a gun.
© 1986 Margaret Wilde
Wednesday, 27 December 2006
So-called "self-inflicted" unhealthy 'face NHS cuts'
Self-inflicted unhealthy 'face NHS cuts'
Extract from this article:
"Obese people, those suffering from alcohol problems and smokers may not be first in line for NHS treatment if they do not make efforts to amend their unhealthy lifestyles, a newspaper report claims.The Independent warns that that those whose illnesses are 'self-inflicted' to some extent may not receive priority treatment due to the pressures their lifestyles place upon the NHS."
If obese people are to be 'punished' in this way it will be absolutely outrageous and a national scandal! - Obesity is NOT a self-inflicted disease. It is primarily an iatrogenic disease - i.e. it is caused by doctors, because for many many years doctors and other 'experts' have been giving entirely the wrong information about the causes of obesity and entirely the wrong advice about how to reduce obesity. - Obesity is NOT caused by over-eating; it is caused by fluid retention, and the most severe fluid retention tends to result from health professionals' inappropriate prescribing for steroids, HRT, tricyclic anti-depressants and certain other drugs, often in far too high a dose, and without the necessary warning to avoid eating salt or salty food while taking the drug. - See political considerations about responsibility for the high incidence of obesity - If you read the whole page you will find there are several groups responsible for the obesity 'epidemic', but they do not include obese people themselves, who are actually the victims of the medical profession et al.
Extract from this article:
"Obese people, those suffering from alcohol problems and smokers may not be first in line for NHS treatment if they do not make efforts to amend their unhealthy lifestyles, a newspaper report claims.The Independent warns that that those whose illnesses are 'self-inflicted' to some extent may not receive priority treatment due to the pressures their lifestyles place upon the NHS."
If obese people are to be 'punished' in this way it will be absolutely outrageous and a national scandal! - Obesity is NOT a self-inflicted disease. It is primarily an iatrogenic disease - i.e. it is caused by doctors, because for many many years doctors and other 'experts' have been giving entirely the wrong information about the causes of obesity and entirely the wrong advice about how to reduce obesity. - Obesity is NOT caused by over-eating; it is caused by fluid retention, and the most severe fluid retention tends to result from health professionals' inappropriate prescribing for steroids, HRT, tricyclic anti-depressants and certain other drugs, often in far too high a dose, and without the necessary warning to avoid eating salt or salty food while taking the drug. - See political considerations about responsibility for the high incidence of obesity - If you read the whole page you will find there are several groups responsible for the obesity 'epidemic', but they do not include obese people themselves, who are actually the victims of the medical profession et al.
Monday, 25 December 2006
OBESITY AND THE SALT CONNECTION - Mensa article by Margaret Wilde
Obesity and the Salt Connection
What follows is a slightly modified version of an article I wrote for the British monthly glossy magazine of Mensa, the high IQ society, of which I am a member. It was published in the December 2004 issue. Four months later, the April 2005 issue contained a letter from Joyce Barnard, who has given permission for her name to be used here. She wrote that by following the advice I had given her a few years earlier - i.e. that to lower her high blood pressure and lose weight she simply needed to eat less sodium - she had lost 5 stones in weight (70 pounds) in a year! - All she did was stop sprinkling salt onto her meals and use LoSalt instead of ordinary salt when cooking.
Many years ago I gained a great deal of weight because of taking HRT prescribed by my GPs, mainly on the advice of an endocrinologist. - I did not realise at the time that the weight gain was because of the medication.
I became desperately ill and exhausted and had very high blood pressure for which I took Atenolol, a beta-blocker. I was so fat I could barely walk. Yet I was not overeating. My feet, hands and breasts were exquisitely painful and very red and swollen. I was unable to use my hands for many tasks. I needed a larger size in shoes. My face and neck became beetroot red and very swollen. I developed acne and eczema. I suffered from breathlessness.
Having never sprinkled salt on my food in my life, and never used it in cooking, in 1997 I became aware that there was a lot of salt in bread and cheese and breakfast cereals. Because of the connection between hypertension and salt intake I altered my eating to reduce, and eventually to exclude, all avoidable sodium. This lowered my blood pressure and I no longer needed to take Atenolol.
More spectacularly, and very unexpectedly to me, eating less salt reduced my weight by 51 pounds! - This was nothing to do with calories, fat or sugar. - The weight I lost was clearly water, which I worked out was held in my body by the salt - held in my veins, which had become massively distended and painful since I had embarked on the HRT.
I worked out that it was the oestrogen that had caused the sodium and water retention and this was confirmed when I looked in the British National Formulary for the side-effects of oestrogen. I then realised that oestrogen was a steroid, though it is not normally thought of in that category, and that the sodium and water retention came about because certain steroids and certain other prescribed drugs relax/weaken the walls of the blood vessels so that they take in excess salt and the water which accompanies it. I realised that I was a 'steroid victim'.
For many years I have been providing a free telephone helpline for people in pain in my area and for the last five years have been advising all callers to reduce their salt intake, particularly when they were obese. Their weight loss, too, has been dramatic and swift. One Mensa member whom I helped lost about a stone in a month just by eating less salt. Her dog, too, lost weight when she stopped salting his food!
I firmly believe that the massive rise in the incidence of obesity, especially child obesity, is due to the prevalence of salt in modern diets, mainly from manufactured foods, and that calorie counting and advice about reducing fat and sugar intake and increasing exercise are counter-productive.
But salt causes obesity only in vulnerable people, i.e.
People whose veins are weak because of immaturity (babies, children),
People whose veins are weak because of steroids or HRT or amitriptyline or certain other prescribed drugs, too readily prescribed, often in very high dose,
People whose natural oestrogen levels are higher than normal (e.g. pregnant women).
People whose blood vessel walls have been weakened by 'slimming' – i.e. eating insufficient food.
Inactivity does not cause obesity. Obesity causes inactivity.
In 2001 I wrote to MPs, to medical people, to journalists, to nutritionists and others, explaining that salt sensitivity is what causes obesity, and urging that the facts be made known, particularly to steroid victims. The powerful and influential people to whom I wrote have taken no action to give publicity to the life-saving message. The public is not being told the truth about weight gain and weight loss. The best, the healthiest, the safest way to lose weight is to concentrate on eating less salt (and more potassium).
An Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Oxford, Professor Sir Richard Doll, wrote back to me in August 2001 that I was right about steroids causing weight gain because of salt and water retention and that weight can be lost by eating less salt or by taking diuretics. Sadly he seems to be the only medic who knows this! - A book on salt, written by experts on hypertension and brought out in a blaze of publicity a few years ago makes no mention of steroid victims and specifically states, among other errors, that HRT does not cause a salt problem.
A person who gains weight has a higher calorie requirement. There are two reasons for this. Having to carry a greater mass around and service a more massive body uses more calories. And having a bigger surface area means greater heat loss, since heat lost is proportional to surface area. - A greater calorie requirement results in greater appetite/hunger, so, really, overweight people need to eat more than people of normal weight. If the overweight eat insufficient calories (ie if they 'diet') they may lose weight, but it is at the cost of being hungry. There has never been the slightest evidence that the practice of fewer calories in and more calories out by way of exercise reduces obesity! - It is often confidently stated that fat will be lost by doing this. - Sadly, what is more often lost is lean tissue, usually an irreversible adverse effect.
The result of the misunderstanding of the cause of obesity is the well-known fact that over 95% of dieters actually gain weight in the long term! - They cannot be expected to go hungry all the time. - Nor would staying hungry all the time benefit them. - With insufficient calories for the body's needs, the body feeds on itself. - The skin becomes thinner; the bones become less dense; there is some hair loss, etc.
Contrast this with the right way to lose weight - by eating less sodium. - Eating less sodium releases some of the excess water held in the blood stream. This lowers the blood pressure and, significantly, lowers the weight. - Weighing less results in a lower calorie requirement so very gradually less food is eaten and this becomes a virtuous circle because less food eaten results in lower sodium intake.
In societies in which no salt is eaten (what some might describe as undeveloped or uncivilised societies) there is no obesity and no hypertension.
The cavemen and women who were our ancestors lived for millennia without added salt. Our bodies evolved on a low sodium and high potassium intake. The modern diet has reversed this to high sodium and low potassium. The intake of salt has massively increased in recent years - as has the incidence of obesity.
I submit that the universal 'slimming' advice - to eat fewer calories/less fat/sugar - is a major cause of obesity. - All that is normally necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium. This is a drug-free, cost-free course of action. There are no hunger pangs and no adverse side-effects. It requires no visits to the doctor or to the gym and it WILL work.
Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! -Try it! My website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ provides more details and advice. (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
Margaret Wilde
Anyone is welcome to copy this article in whole or in part, provided only that it is always attributed to me, Margaret Wilde, that the information is provided free, and that my web-site address http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ is always included.
If you wish to get in touch with me, you can email me from my website.
What follows is a slightly modified version of an article I wrote for the British monthly glossy magazine of Mensa, the high IQ society, of which I am a member. It was published in the December 2004 issue. Four months later, the April 2005 issue contained a letter from Joyce Barnard, who has given permission for her name to be used here. She wrote that by following the advice I had given her a few years earlier - i.e. that to lower her high blood pressure and lose weight she simply needed to eat less sodium - she had lost 5 stones in weight (70 pounds) in a year! - All she did was stop sprinkling salt onto her meals and use LoSalt instead of ordinary salt when cooking.
Many years ago I gained a great deal of weight because of taking HRT prescribed by my GPs, mainly on the advice of an endocrinologist. - I did not realise at the time that the weight gain was because of the medication.
I became desperately ill and exhausted and had very high blood pressure for which I took Atenolol, a beta-blocker. I was so fat I could barely walk. Yet I was not overeating. My feet, hands and breasts were exquisitely painful and very red and swollen. I was unable to use my hands for many tasks. I needed a larger size in shoes. My face and neck became beetroot red and very swollen. I developed acne and eczema. I suffered from breathlessness.
Having never sprinkled salt on my food in my life, and never used it in cooking, in 1997 I became aware that there was a lot of salt in bread and cheese and breakfast cereals. Because of the connection between hypertension and salt intake I altered my eating to reduce, and eventually to exclude, all avoidable sodium. This lowered my blood pressure and I no longer needed to take Atenolol.
More spectacularly, and very unexpectedly to me, eating less salt reduced my weight by 51 pounds! - This was nothing to do with calories, fat or sugar. - The weight I lost was clearly water, which I worked out was held in my body by the salt - held in my veins, which had become massively distended and painful since I had embarked on the HRT.
I worked out that it was the oestrogen that had caused the sodium and water retention and this was confirmed when I looked in the British National Formulary for the side-effects of oestrogen. I then realised that oestrogen was a steroid, though it is not normally thought of in that category, and that the sodium and water retention came about because certain steroids and certain other prescribed drugs relax/weaken the walls of the blood vessels so that they take in excess salt and the water which accompanies it. I realised that I was a 'steroid victim'.
For many years I have been providing a free telephone helpline for people in pain in my area and for the last five years have been advising all callers to reduce their salt intake, particularly when they were obese. Their weight loss, too, has been dramatic and swift. One Mensa member whom I helped lost about a stone in a month just by eating less salt. Her dog, too, lost weight when she stopped salting his food!
I firmly believe that the massive rise in the incidence of obesity, especially child obesity, is due to the prevalence of salt in modern diets, mainly from manufactured foods, and that calorie counting and advice about reducing fat and sugar intake and increasing exercise are counter-productive.
But salt causes obesity only in vulnerable people, i.e.
People whose veins are weak because of immaturity (babies, children),
People whose veins are weak because of steroids or HRT or amitriptyline or certain other prescribed drugs, too readily prescribed, often in very high dose,
People whose natural oestrogen levels are higher than normal (e.g. pregnant women).
People whose blood vessel walls have been weakened by 'slimming' – i.e. eating insufficient food.
Inactivity does not cause obesity. Obesity causes inactivity.
In 2001 I wrote to MPs, to medical people, to journalists, to nutritionists and others, explaining that salt sensitivity is what causes obesity, and urging that the facts be made known, particularly to steroid victims. The powerful and influential people to whom I wrote have taken no action to give publicity to the life-saving message. The public is not being told the truth about weight gain and weight loss. The best, the healthiest, the safest way to lose weight is to concentrate on eating less salt (and more potassium).
An Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Oxford, Professor Sir Richard Doll, wrote back to me in August 2001 that I was right about steroids causing weight gain because of salt and water retention and that weight can be lost by eating less salt or by taking diuretics. Sadly he seems to be the only medic who knows this! - A book on salt, written by experts on hypertension and brought out in a blaze of publicity a few years ago makes no mention of steroid victims and specifically states, among other errors, that HRT does not cause a salt problem.
A person who gains weight has a higher calorie requirement. There are two reasons for this. Having to carry a greater mass around and service a more massive body uses more calories. And having a bigger surface area means greater heat loss, since heat lost is proportional to surface area. - A greater calorie requirement results in greater appetite/hunger, so, really, overweight people need to eat more than people of normal weight. If the overweight eat insufficient calories (ie if they 'diet') they may lose weight, but it is at the cost of being hungry. There has never been the slightest evidence that the practice of fewer calories in and more calories out by way of exercise reduces obesity! - It is often confidently stated that fat will be lost by doing this. - Sadly, what is more often lost is lean tissue, usually an irreversible adverse effect.
The result of the misunderstanding of the cause of obesity is the well-known fact that over 95% of dieters actually gain weight in the long term! - They cannot be expected to go hungry all the time. - Nor would staying hungry all the time benefit them. - With insufficient calories for the body's needs, the body feeds on itself. - The skin becomes thinner; the bones become less dense; there is some hair loss, etc.
Contrast this with the right way to lose weight - by eating less sodium. - Eating less sodium releases some of the excess water held in the blood stream. This lowers the blood pressure and, significantly, lowers the weight. - Weighing less results in a lower calorie requirement so very gradually less food is eaten and this becomes a virtuous circle because less food eaten results in lower sodium intake.
In societies in which no salt is eaten (what some might describe as undeveloped or uncivilised societies) there is no obesity and no hypertension.
The cavemen and women who were our ancestors lived for millennia without added salt. Our bodies evolved on a low sodium and high potassium intake. The modern diet has reversed this to high sodium and low potassium. The intake of salt has massively increased in recent years - as has the incidence of obesity.
I submit that the universal 'slimming' advice - to eat fewer calories/less fat/sugar - is a major cause of obesity. - All that is normally necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium. This is a drug-free, cost-free course of action. There are no hunger pangs and no adverse side-effects. It requires no visits to the doctor or to the gym and it WILL work.
Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! -Try it! My website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ provides more details and advice. (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
Margaret Wilde
Anyone is welcome to copy this article in whole or in part, provided only that it is always attributed to me, Margaret Wilde, that the information is provided free, and that my web-site address http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ is always included.
If you wish to get in touch with me, you can email me from my website.
Friday, 22 December 2006
Psychological treatments 'help back pain'
Psychological treatments 'help back pain'
The review lead author is Dr Robert Kerns, of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Extract:
"Receiving psychological treatments could help ease the pain of people with back problems, a new review has found.Such treatments can also improve depression and "health-related quality of life", according to the review, published in the January issue of the journal Health Psychology."
This may well be true, but a far more effective way to reduce depression and many pains, including some back pain, is to eat less salt/sodium. - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html - Lowering salt intake costs nothing...(o: and has many other benefits too.
The review lead author is Dr Robert Kerns, of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Extract:
"Receiving psychological treatments could help ease the pain of people with back problems, a new review has found.Such treatments can also improve depression and "health-related quality of life", according to the review, published in the January issue of the journal Health Psychology."
This may well be true, but a far more effective way to reduce depression and many pains, including some back pain, is to eat less salt/sodium. - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html - Lowering salt intake costs nothing...(o: and has many other benefits too.
Junk food ad restrictions 'absurd'
Junk food ad restrictions 'absurd'
Extracts from this report:
"Recent restrictions proposed for the advertising of junk food have been condemned by Hamish Pringle, the director general of the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA).
The restrictions were proposed by the regulator Ofcom and cover food judged to be inordinately high in salt and fat content.
If the proposals are taken up, such foods will not be allowed to be advertised during shows directed at children under 16 years old."
Hamish Pringle, the director general of the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), speaking on BBC Radio Five Live's Wake Up to Money, said, "The idea that teenagers need protecting from junk food advertisements is "rather absurd"."
He is wrong! - Children are one of the groups vulnerable to salt, and as far as possible they should be protected from unnecessary salt intake. - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/vulnerable_groups.html
Extracts from this report:
"Recent restrictions proposed for the advertising of junk food have been condemned by Hamish Pringle, the director general of the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA).
The restrictions were proposed by the regulator Ofcom and cover food judged to be inordinately high in salt and fat content.
If the proposals are taken up, such foods will not be allowed to be advertised during shows directed at children under 16 years old."
Hamish Pringle, the director general of the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA), speaking on BBC Radio Five Live's Wake Up to Money, said, "The idea that teenagers need protecting from junk food advertisements is "rather absurd"."
He is wrong! - Children are one of the groups vulnerable to salt, and as far as possible they should be protected from unnecessary salt intake. - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/vulnerable_groups.html
Tuesday, 19 December 2006
There has been a climb-down re. NHS computer files records/database
The Government has backed down on plans to put details of patients' records on a national computer system, and agreed to proceed "with caution" with a limited list of medical information.
Good!
Good!
Monday, 18 December 2006
Here is more about Helen Wilkinson and about the Big Opt Out
There is more about Helen Wilkinson and about the Big Opt Out from the national database of personal medical records on this page:
NHS Confidentiality
and on this page: Opt out letter is a template opt out letter to send to your GP.
NHS Confidentiality
and on this page: Opt out letter is a template opt out letter to send to your GP.
Sunday, 17 December 2006
ID database to NHS records & The woman falsely labelled alcoholic by the NHS - Helen Wilkinson
The Government's intended ID database to NHS records stikes me as sinister with its potential for intrusive health-surveillance. And the potential for error and abuse is great. There is no opt-out mechanism for patients on the grounds of concerns about civil liberties.
Woman falsely labelled alcoholic by the NHS - Helen Wilkinson
Extract from the article:
"...millions of patients will inevitably have mistakes in their computerised records which will in the future be read by more people than in the past. The government has not yet delivered on a promise that patients will be able to check their records on the internet for mistakes."
See also Warning over privacy of 50m patient files
and What can patients do? - Extract from this article:
"Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, believes that patients do have legal rights over their medical records: "Write and insist that you are not put on the NHS data spine," Prof Anderson says. "If enough people boycott having centralised NHS records, with a bit of luck the service will be abandoned.""
And there follows a model letter to send - copy each to the Secretary of state for Health and to your GP - if you wish to register your objection to having your medical details on this intended database.
Our Government has an abysmal record with regard to grand IT schemes...)o: - They tend not to work, they tend not to be secure and they tend to contain many errors. - Apart from which considerations, they are monumentally expensive!
Woman falsely labelled alcoholic by the NHS - Helen Wilkinson
Extract from the article:
"...millions of patients will inevitably have mistakes in their computerised records which will in the future be read by more people than in the past. The government has not yet delivered on a promise that patients will be able to check their records on the internet for mistakes."
See also Warning over privacy of 50m patient files
and What can patients do? - Extract from this article:
"Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, believes that patients do have legal rights over their medical records: "Write and insist that you are not put on the NHS data spine," Prof Anderson says. "If enough people boycott having centralised NHS records, with a bit of luck the service will be abandoned.""
And there follows a model letter to send - copy each to the Secretary of state for Health and to your GP - if you wish to register your objection to having your medical details on this intended database.
Our Government has an abysmal record with regard to grand IT schemes...)o: - They tend not to work, they tend not to be secure and they tend to contain many errors. - Apart from which considerations, they are monumentally expensive!
Friday, 15 December 2006
Obesity 'could bankrupt' NHS
Obesity 'could bankrupt' NHS a report has claimed.
The report, published in the British Medical Journal, said that obesity causes diseases like diabetes, liver disease, back pain and high blood pressure.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Professor Naveed Sattar said: "Once your body mass index goes above 25, which is effectively being overweight, and not even at the level of obesity, risks do increase."We need to start thinking in real terms what will really generally work and what generally is the cause."
Well I certainly agree that they "need to start thinking in real terms what will really generally work and what generally is the cause" - but sadly I know that they won't...)o: - They will carry on plugging the same harmful message they have plugged for decades, namely eat less and exercise more. They carry on, regardless of the clear fact that this advice DOES NOT WORK and is counter-productive. - This is because obesity is NOT caused by over-eating and inactivity. It is caused by fluid retention in vulnerable groups of people. It can be reduced rapidly by eating less salt/sodium and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. - It is important NOT to restrict calories.
I quote again from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html :
"It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the many other serious health problems attendant on these...
Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate 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."
The report, published in the British Medical Journal, said that obesity causes diseases like diabetes, liver disease, back pain and high blood pressure.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Professor Naveed Sattar said: "Once your body mass index goes above 25, which is effectively being overweight, and not even at the level of obesity, risks do increase."We need to start thinking in real terms what will really generally work and what generally is the cause."
Well I certainly agree that they "need to start thinking in real terms what will really generally work and what generally is the cause" - but sadly I know that they won't...)o: - They will carry on plugging the same harmful message they have plugged for decades, namely eat less and exercise more. They carry on, regardless of the clear fact that this advice DOES NOT WORK and is counter-productive. - This is because obesity is NOT caused by over-eating and inactivity. It is caused by fluid retention in vulnerable groups of people. It can be reduced rapidly by eating less salt/sodium and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. - It is important NOT to restrict calories.
I quote again from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html :
"It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the many other serious health problems attendant on these...
Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate 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."
Thursday, 14 December 2006
Steroid-free medication 'better for kidney transplants'. - This was not news to me. - Steroids are VERY HARMFUL unless salt intake is minimised.
Steroid-free medication 'better for kidney transplants'
Here is an extract from the report:
"Usually kidney transplant patients take steroids regularly as part of their anti-rejection medication after the transplant, but steroids can have side-effects like obesity and bone disease."
See my post: here
Here is an extract from the report:
"Usually kidney transplant patients take steroids regularly as part of their anti-rejection medication after the transplant, but steroids can have side-effects like obesity and bone disease."
See my post: here
Reduced calorie diet 'may cause osteoporosis'. - This is not news to me. I have been linking 'slimming' with a host of health problems for years now.
Reduced calorie diet 'may cause osteoporosis'.
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html
Restricting calories is extremely hazardous. It can cause MANY grave health problems. And I am not referring only to 'drastic' slimming. - Eating fewer calories than the body requires is always likely to cause harm. Here is an extract from my website:
"Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate 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 Finnish 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."
Obesity is not caused by eating to excess or by insufficient exercise. There has never been a scrap of reproducible scientific research or evidence to support the theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity, nor that calorie deficit reduces obesity. The theory and the advice it spawns should be abandoned forthwith. They cause great harm and suffering. When people whose blood vessels are weaker than the norm eat salt, the result is weight gain and obesity (because of excess sodium and water held in the blood vessels). This condition is sometimes called sodium retention. If these people reduce their salt intake they lose some of the excess sodium and water, and so lose weight, and if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables they lose weight faster, because the potassium in the fruit and vegetables displaces some of the excess sodium from the body.
So - all that is normally necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium, and, preferably, eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
'SLIMMING'/DIETING/RESTRICTING CALORIE INTAKE IS MOST DANGEROUS FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE OBESE AND IT IS CATASTROPHICALLY HARMFUL FOR STEROID VICTIMS - THAT IS, PEOPLE WHO HAVE RAPIDLY GAINED A GREAT DEAL OF WEIGHT BECAUSE OF TAKING PRESCRIBED STEROIDS, HRT, AMITRIPTYLINE OR CERTAIN OTHER PRESCRIBED DRUGS.
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html and
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html
Restricting calories is extremely hazardous. It can cause MANY grave health problems. And I am not referring only to 'drastic' slimming. - Eating fewer calories than the body requires is always likely to cause harm. Here is an extract from my website:
"Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate 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 Finnish 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."
Obesity is not caused by eating to excess or by insufficient exercise. There has never been a scrap of reproducible scientific research or evidence to support the theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity, nor that calorie deficit reduces obesity. The theory and the advice it spawns should be abandoned forthwith. They cause great harm and suffering. When people whose blood vessels are weaker than the norm eat salt, the result is weight gain and obesity (because of excess sodium and water held in the blood vessels). This condition is sometimes called sodium retention. If these people reduce their salt intake they lose some of the excess sodium and water, and so lose weight, and if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables they lose weight faster, because the potassium in the fruit and vegetables displaces some of the excess sodium from the body.
So - all that is normally necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium, and, preferably, eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
'SLIMMING'/DIETING/RESTRICTING CALORIE INTAKE IS MOST DANGEROUS FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE OBESE AND IT IS CATASTROPHICALLY HARMFUL FOR STEROID VICTIMS - THAT IS, PEOPLE WHO HAVE RAPIDLY GAINED A GREAT DEAL OF WEIGHT BECAUSE OF TAKING PRESCRIBED STEROIDS, HRT, AMITRIPTYLINE OR CERTAIN OTHER PRESCRIBED DRUGS.
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html and
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
IT expert raises concerns about NHS IT project - UK
IT expert raises concerns about NHS IT project
Some extracts from the report:
"Professor Martyn Thomas of Oxford said that glitches in booking appointments for patients in some hospitals using the system were not fully addressed before the next phase of the scheme was embarked on."
"The IT project is so big, that if it went completely wrong, it poses the danger of "wrecking the NHS", Professor Thomas added."
"The man in charge of the project, 42-year-old Richard Granger, failed his computer studies course at Bristol University, it recently emerged."
What a colossal, risky, grandiose waste of time and public money this unnecessary and largely unwanted exercise in folly is!
Some extracts from the report:
"Professor Martyn Thomas of Oxford said that glitches in booking appointments for patients in some hospitals using the system were not fully addressed before the next phase of the scheme was embarked on."
"The IT project is so big, that if it went completely wrong, it poses the danger of "wrecking the NHS", Professor Thomas added."
"The man in charge of the project, 42-year-old Richard Granger, failed his computer studies course at Bristol University, it recently emerged."
What a colossal, risky, grandiose waste of time and public money this unnecessary and largely unwanted exercise in folly is!
Monday, 11 December 2006
Silkwood, the film. The Moral Imperative.
I watched the film, Silkwood, on DVD this evening.
A recurring phrase in the film was "the moral imperative." - This took me back many years to when I was studying Kant's moral philosophy and trying to get a hold on the exact meaning of the Categorical Imperative he urged on us. I found his philosophy quite hard to understand at the time, though I believe I'd got it pretty well sorted by the time I wrote a long essay about it. - Unfortunately, after it had been marked, it - my only copy - was lost in the post...)o: - Even now, 30 years later, I still feel a bit sad about that.
Meryl Streep played Karen Silkwood in this true story of how Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant, was intentionally contaminated with plutonium - and possibly murdered - to prevent her from exposing blatant safety violations at the plant. The plant was closed down a year after her death. She had gradually come to realise that some of the workers were getting contaminated - dangerously so - and that the company and the company doctors and other personnel were giving false reassurances and falsifying radiation readings and other data. - To her it became - fortunately for other workers in the plant - a moral imperative to discover as much as she could about this corporate negligence, collect what evidence she could, and to try to warn others about it in order to safeguard them from harm and to put a stop to the negligence. - Like all too many actual or potential whistle-blowers, she was cruelly and unjustly punished.
The film drew me in and resonated with me on many counts. - In recent weeks in Britain, our news media have been reporting facts about the death of a former Russian spy, who is believed to have been murdered by being poisoned with polonium 210. It is proving difficult for the police properly to investigate the murder because of high level non-co-operation by Russian personnel.
I seek in this blog to obey the moral imperative to protect others from harm, to tell the truth about the causes of obesity and salt sensitivity, to inform people of the safest and most reliable way to become less obese (namely to stop restricting calories and simply eat less salt and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables) and to expose corporate, professional and individual wrong-doing/negligence that results in great and needless suffering for millions of people throughout the world.
If anything in my blog or in my website has helped you, or 'spoken to you', then I urge you to tell others about my blog and my website. - Let that be a moral imperative for you. If you have a website or blog then please put a link to mine so that more people have the chance of being helped and having their suffering lessened/relieved/prevented.
Most of my readers realise the truth of what I write. Most medical websites have sponsors or banners or adverts or sell stuff. My blog and my website do not. I myself pay any costs of my website. I do not make money out of visitors to my website and blog. I am not in the pocket of any drug companies or food manufacturers or retailers. I am not a consultant to the 'slimming' industry. You can trust me that what I say/write is the truth as accurately as I can deduce, ascertain and understand it, having spent many years doing just that. I want to save others from the suffering I have endured and do endure.
Visit my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and in particular http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html
Read my Mensa article
A recurring phrase in the film was "the moral imperative." - This took me back many years to when I was studying Kant's moral philosophy and trying to get a hold on the exact meaning of the Categorical Imperative he urged on us. I found his philosophy quite hard to understand at the time, though I believe I'd got it pretty well sorted by the time I wrote a long essay about it. - Unfortunately, after it had been marked, it - my only copy - was lost in the post...)o: - Even now, 30 years later, I still feel a bit sad about that.
Meryl Streep played Karen Silkwood in this true story of how Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant, was intentionally contaminated with plutonium - and possibly murdered - to prevent her from exposing blatant safety violations at the plant. The plant was closed down a year after her death. She had gradually come to realise that some of the workers were getting contaminated - dangerously so - and that the company and the company doctors and other personnel were giving false reassurances and falsifying radiation readings and other data. - To her it became - fortunately for other workers in the plant - a moral imperative to discover as much as she could about this corporate negligence, collect what evidence she could, and to try to warn others about it in order to safeguard them from harm and to put a stop to the negligence. - Like all too many actual or potential whistle-blowers, she was cruelly and unjustly punished.
The film drew me in and resonated with me on many counts. - In recent weeks in Britain, our news media have been reporting facts about the death of a former Russian spy, who is believed to have been murdered by being poisoned with polonium 210. It is proving difficult for the police properly to investigate the murder because of high level non-co-operation by Russian personnel.
I seek in this blog to obey the moral imperative to protect others from harm, to tell the truth about the causes of obesity and salt sensitivity, to inform people of the safest and most reliable way to become less obese (namely to stop restricting calories and simply eat less salt and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables) and to expose corporate, professional and individual wrong-doing/negligence that results in great and needless suffering for millions of people throughout the world.
If anything in my blog or in my website has helped you, or 'spoken to you', then I urge you to tell others about my blog and my website. - Let that be a moral imperative for you. If you have a website or blog then please put a link to mine so that more people have the chance of being helped and having their suffering lessened/relieved/prevented.
Most of my readers realise the truth of what I write. Most medical websites have sponsors or banners or adverts or sell stuff. My blog and my website do not. I myself pay any costs of my website. I do not make money out of visitors to my website and blog. I am not in the pocket of any drug companies or food manufacturers or retailers. I am not a consultant to the 'slimming' industry. You can trust me that what I say/write is the truth as accurately as I can deduce, ascertain and understand it, having spent many years doing just that. I want to save others from the suffering I have endured and do endure.
Visit my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and in particular http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html
Read my Mensa article
Saturday, 9 December 2006
Chemical firm (Monsanto) 'paid cancer pioneer' (Sir Richard Doll)
I exchanged letters with Sir Richard in the summer of 2001, when I wrote to him about my findings about obesity and the salt connection. He was the only person of the dozens to whom I wrote that summer (MPs, medics, journalists, scientists,etc) who had the kindness and courtesy to read my letter carefully and to reply to it helpfully. - He agreed with me that weight gain when taking steroids or HRT is caused by sodium and water retention and that the way to lose water gained is to reduce salt intake or take diuretics. I had hoped that he would tell other doctors about this in order to save many more people from becoming obese/morbidly obese steroid victims, but sadly he did not do this, and the vital information continues not to be given.
There is a report here that seems to damage Sir Richard's reputation.
Extract from the report:
"Sir Richard, who first definitively linked smoking to lung cancer, conducted much of his research while in the pay of chemical companies.
The American Journal of Industrial Medicine says that Swedish researchers have found that Sir Richard, who also co-wrote a famous paper minimising the role of chemicals in causing cancer, failed to disclose that he was being paid at the time by the chemical company Monsanto.
From 1970 to 1990, Sir Richard, who died last year, was paid up to £1,000 a day as a consultant by Monsanto, now associated with GM crops rather than chemicals."
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html
There is a report here that seems to damage Sir Richard's reputation.
Extract from the report:
"Sir Richard, who first definitively linked smoking to lung cancer, conducted much of his research while in the pay of chemical companies.
The American Journal of Industrial Medicine says that Swedish researchers have found that Sir Richard, who also co-wrote a famous paper minimising the role of chemicals in causing cancer, failed to disclose that he was being paid at the time by the chemical company Monsanto.
From 1970 to 1990, Sir Richard, who died last year, was paid up to £1,000 a day as a consultant by Monsanto, now associated with GM crops rather than chemicals."
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
Obesity epidemic 'will cause more cancer'
'Obesity epidemic 'will cause more cancer' - My website has been giving information about the correlation between obesity and cancer for a long time. See Social and Economic Considerations
Extract from the 'Obesity epidemic 'will cause more cancer' article:
"Cancer Research UK is warning that by 2010 the UK could see as many as 12,000 cases of weight-related cancer diagnosed every year, prompting fresh concerns over the ongoing obesity epidemic."
What a shame that expert advice about obesity (i.e. to reduce calories and increase exercise) tends to increase obesity...)o: (See BMJ report about Leeds University Research) - I heard a doctor on BBC Radio 5 this lunchtime giving this advice, as doctors usually do. - The advice does not work, because obesity is not caused by overeating or laziness; it is usually caused by salt sensitivity, which inevitably results in fluid retention when more than a minimum of salt/sodium is eaten. Salt sensitivity is frequently caused by prescribed drugs - most commonly steroids. See Steroids and Salt Sensitivity
All an obese person normally needs to do to become less obese is to restrict salt/sodium intake and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Extract from the 'Obesity epidemic 'will cause more cancer' article:
"Cancer Research UK is warning that by 2010 the UK could see as many as 12,000 cases of weight-related cancer diagnosed every year, prompting fresh concerns over the ongoing obesity epidemic."
What a shame that expert advice about obesity (i.e. to reduce calories and increase exercise) tends to increase obesity...)o: (See BMJ report about Leeds University Research) - I heard a doctor on BBC Radio 5 this lunchtime giving this advice, as doctors usually do. - The advice does not work, because obesity is not caused by overeating or laziness; it is usually caused by salt sensitivity, which inevitably results in fluid retention when more than a minimum of salt/sodium is eaten. Salt sensitivity is frequently caused by prescribed drugs - most commonly steroids. See Steroids and Salt Sensitivity
All an obese person normally needs to do to become less obese is to restrict salt/sodium intake and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.
Monday, 4 December 2006
MPs want pay rise 'to £100,000 a year' - UK
MPs want pay rise 'to £100,000 a year'
Well I for one certainly am not in favour of such a high salary for MPs. - I regard most of them as self-serving parasites. - You can read about my own experience of their uselessness - and the uselessness of Government Ministers and Departments, etc. etc. - on my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - and I do urge you to read to the end of the page. - I believe you will find it worthwhile.
Well I for one certainly am not in favour of such a high salary for MPs. - I regard most of them as self-serving parasites. - You can read about my own experience of their uselessness - and the uselessness of Government Ministers and Departments, etc. etc. - on my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - and I do urge you to read to the end of the page. - I believe you will find it worthwhile.
"Pfizer suffers lethal blow to $800m 'wonder drug' trials"
Pfizer suffers lethal blow to $800m 'wonder drug' trials
Extract from the article:
"Pfizer has been forced to abruptly scrap trials of its most important new drug because too many patients taking it were dying.
Shares in the world's largest drug company plunged more than 10pc in early trading, following the news that patients in clinical trials taking Torcetrapib were more likely to die or develop serious heart problems than those taking other medicines."
Sadly, there are other drugs made by Pfizer, that do great damage to patients, but are not withdrawn and are far too often inappropriately prescribed. I am thinking in particular of prednisolone, a corticosteroid. Like other corticosteroids and like HRT, it can, and frequently does, cause sodium retention and water retention, and many, many thousands - possibly millions - of innocent patients have been harmed by taking such medications without appropriate monitoring and often in far too high a dose and for too long a period of time. The blame for this does not lie wholly the drug companies, of course. - Negligent doctors who do not check/understand the side-effects of drugs and do not monitor patients' progress while taking the medication share the responsibility for the harm done to their patients. - See Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs.
For further information about this, read examples of steroid victims and some of my other blog entries. Also see my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Extract from the article:
"Pfizer has been forced to abruptly scrap trials of its most important new drug because too many patients taking it were dying.
Shares in the world's largest drug company plunged more than 10pc in early trading, following the news that patients in clinical trials taking Torcetrapib were more likely to die or develop serious heart problems than those taking other medicines."
Sadly, there are other drugs made by Pfizer, that do great damage to patients, but are not withdrawn and are far too often inappropriately prescribed. I am thinking in particular of prednisolone, a corticosteroid. Like other corticosteroids and like HRT, it can, and frequently does, cause sodium retention and water retention, and many, many thousands - possibly millions - of innocent patients have been harmed by taking such medications without appropriate monitoring and often in far too high a dose and for too long a period of time. The blame for this does not lie wholly the drug companies, of course. - Negligent doctors who do not check/understand the side-effects of drugs and do not monitor patients' progress while taking the medication share the responsibility for the harm done to their patients. - See Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs.
For further information about this, read examples of steroid victims and some of my other blog entries. Also see my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
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