Bisphosphonates alert! - Adverse side-effects of prescribed drugs.

Information on Bisphosphonates
(marketed as Actonel, Actonel+Ca, Aredia, Boniva, Didronel, Fosamax, Fosamax+D, Reclast, Skelid, and Zometa)

Extract:

"FDA ALERT [1/7/2008] - FDA is highlighting the possibility of severe and sometimes incapacitating bone, joint, and/or muscle (musculoskeletal) pain in patients taking bisphosphonates. Although severe musculoskeletal pain is included in the prescribing information for all bisphosphonates, the association between bisphosphonates and severe musculoskeletal pain may be overlooked by healthcare professionals, delaying diagnosis, prolonging pain and/or impairment, and necessitating the use of analgesics.

The severe musculoskeletal pain may occur within days, months, or years after starting a bisphosphonate. Some patients have reported complete relief of symptoms after discontinuing the bisphosphonate, whereas others have reported slow or incomplete resolution. The risk factors for and incidence of severe musculoskeletal pain associated with bisphosphonates are unknown."

Ban salt pot from table, says cancer expert, Martin Wiseman, a medical and scientific advisor for the World Cancer Research Fund.

Ban salt pot from table, says cancer expert

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Prof Wiseman said: "Because salt is added by food manufacturers, there is too much of it in our food before it even reaches our dinner table. By adding extra salt to a meal, you are only making things worse."

Salt is linked to higher blood pressure, which increases the risk of strokes, heart disease and stomach cancer.

Reducing salt intakes could save 23,450 lives a year in Britain."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Some prescription drugs can cause breast tenderness. This is because of fluid retention. You need to cut down on salt intake.

Here are some of the drugs that can cause breast pain/tenderness/enlargement:

Birth control pills (oral contraceptives)
Corticosteroids, such as prednisone
Hormone therapy, such as HRT
Tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline

The pain/tenderness/enlargement/weight gain is because the blood vessels have swollen with excess sodium and water. - Reducing salt/sodium intake will reduce or remedy this problem. - See:

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

The cost of living is so much higher if you have very little.

Poor pay more to live on the breadline

Extract from the Guardian:

"While the rich are getting richer, Britain's poor are paying the price. A new report from Save the Children, Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, has concluded: "Just as wealth generates wealth, so poverty begets poverty." According to the charity: "There is no margin for error on very low incomes. You balance everything tightly but as soon as you're hit with an emergency, you're in trouble."

The report comes hard on the heels of a chilling warning from Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose, who last week highlighted what he said was a widening gulf between rich and poor. "I have never seen such a polarised UK economy. The rich are so very, very rich. The West End can't get enough diamonds. But the poor are getting poorer."

With the credit crunch snapping at our heels, more people are expected to face severe difficulties this year."

Many elderly denied care in their own homes

Many elderly denied care in their own homes

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The drastic tightening of rules affecting which elderly people qualify for state-funded care in their own homes has left hundreds of thousands bereft of help and in dire straits, a report published on Tuesday is expected to say.

The report, by the care watchdog, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, comes as dozens of councils in England start to "pay by the minute" for care which elderly people receive in their own homes.

The CSCI will highlight an appalling lack of provision for the elderly and say that while many services are improving, others are absent or do not rise much above national minimum standards."

"Seven in 10 councils in England have been forced to "ration" services since Labour came to power.

Most town halls now provide services - including meals-on-wheels, trips to day centres and home visits from social workers - only to pensioners with "substantial" or "critical" needs.

Lack of funding means many councils help only those who are seriously ill or incapacitated. In some cases, pensioners have had to sell their homes to help pay for private care, or ask their families to pick up the bill."

Child health fears over high salt levels in sweet foods

Child health fears over high salt levels in sweet foods

Extract from the Guardian:

"Many sweet foods popular with children contain potentially dangerous levels of salt which are putting their health at risk, a campaign group warns today.

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) said new research had found salt in desserts, sweet drinks and snacks of which parents were likely to be unaware.

Cash is calling on parents to check labels carefully and stop buying very salty foods for their children. The charity also urges manufacturers to lower the amount of salt they put into children's foods and to provide clear salt labelling to help parents make informed choices.

Eating too much salt is linked with high blood pressure, which increases the risk of strokes and heart disease.

Cash's research into food products on sale this month found that an Asda rolypoly fresh 114g pudding had 1.1g of salt - 55% of the recommended daily maximum for under-threes and 36% for four- to six-year-olds. A Heinz tinned treacle sponge pudding had 0.8g of salt per quarter of a tin - 40% of the average daily maximum for a child aged one to three and 27% for a child aged four to six.

Professor Graham MacGregor, Cash's chairman, said research showed children with high-salt diets had higher blood pressure, which was putting their health at risk in the longer term. "We want to see all manufacturers doing everything they can to reduce the salt they put in children's food," he said. "If they really cannot reduce the salt content in food eaten by children to reasonable levels perhaps they should consider ceasing production?""

It is high time manufacturers stopped ladling salt into food. And it's high time Professor MacGregor informed the public that obesity is caused by sodium retention and water retention and that obesity is most safely and speedily reduced by cutting down on salt intake.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

People with diabetes may be advised to eliminate caffeine from their diet in order to manage blood sugar levels better.

Warning to diabetics who drink tea and coffee

Extract from the Telegraph:

"The study, conducted by Dr James Lane from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, is the first to track the impact of caffeine consumption as patients go about their normal lives.

Researchers monitored 10 regular coffee drinkers with established type 2 diabetes who were managing their disease through diet and exercise but with no extra insulin.

The patients were fitted with a tiny monitor which continuously tracked their glucose levels over a 72-hour period. Each took capsules containing caffeine equal to four cups of coffee on one day, and identical capsules containing a placebo on another.

All were free to eat whatever they liked. Researchers found that when the participants consumed caffeine, their average daily sugar levels went up eight per cent.

Caffeine also exaggerated the rise in glucose after meals, increasing by nine per cent after breakfast, 15 per cent after lunch and 26 per cent after dinner.

The findings, which appear in the February issue of Diabetes Care, add more weight to a growing body of research which suggests eliminating caffeine from the diet might be a good way to manage blood sugar levels."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Tongue-tied babies and how they and their breastfeeding mothers can be helped

Breastfeeding: The kindest cut of all

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Babies who have tongue-tie are born with a very short lingual frenulum, the piece of skin that joins the tongue to the bottom of the mouth. In my son's case, the tip of his tongue was anchored so firmly he couldn't move it at all, even when he cried. It looked extremely painful but I was assured it wasn't.

As the child gets older, this lack of movement can cause problems with speech and eating. In the short term it can cause severe problems with breastfeeding. It did for me. Having breastfed my daughter perfectly happily, I came to dread "the boy with the barbed-wire gums" latching on - or rather, failing to latch on. I got mastitis, he got hungry. We were both miserable."

"Prevailing medical opinion says, as my midwife did, that tongue-tie will usually right itself by the end of the baby's first year as the tongue grows. If the baby still has a problem after that, a paediatric surgeon might consider a frenulotomy - a procedure that divides the frenulum from the base of the mouth. Others will not perform surgery unless the child develops speech problems and has not responded to speech therapy. By that time, the child will require a general anaesthetic for the procedure.

However, some doctors believe in a more pro-active attitude, including Shailesh Patel, consultant paediatric surgeon at King's College Hospital in south London. "My view is that these cases are emergencies," he says. "If someone is referred to me, I try to fit them into my clinic that week. I believe that if a mother has to wait even another week, she will give up breast?feeding because it is too awful to carry on."

Given that Britain has one of the lowest rates of breast-feeding in Europe - only 21 per cent of babies are breastfed until six months, the age recommended by the World Health Organisation - you can see why he's so determined."

"The trouble is that attitudes towards treating tongue-tie appear to be lagging behind those towards breastfeeding. However, Mr Griffiths, something of a pioneer in the field, is optimistic. "Ten years ago, other paediatricians said I was doing dangerous things to babies," he says. "Now some of them are doing divisions themselves. We have done 10,000 procedures with only one case of mild infection and not one baby has had to have treatment for bleeding.

"We're training one lactation consultant every fortnight, from different parts of the country, to carry out division. After all, it's a really simple procedure - a few seconds of work resulting in a happy mother and baby.""

Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say British doctors

Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors

You couldn't make it up, could you?

Extracts from the Sunday Telegraph:

"Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Have your say: Should lifestyle play a role in deciding who gets NHS treatment? Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone. "The findings of a survey conducted by Doctor magazine sparked a fierce row last night, with the British Medical Association and campaign groups describing the recommendations from family and hospital doctors as "out­rageous" and "disgraceful"." Health care is not free. - We all pay for it in our taxes.

Sandwiches often contain more salt and more calories than a Big Mac

Sandwiches with more calories than Big Mac

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Leading sandwich chains are selling products that frequently contain more calories, salt and fat than a Big Mac – and failing to inform their customers.

The National Consumer Council, the Government's consumer watchdog, called on shops to provide better information to its customers, some of whom are consuming two-thirds of their daily recommended salt and saturated fat intake with just one sandwich.

Greggs, the country's largest chain of sandwich shops, not only fails to provide any information in-store, the company does not give out any details on its website, leaving customers in the dark that a £1.95 chicken sandwich contains 3.6 grams of salt – two-thirds of the 6 grams doctors say is the maximum adults should consume in a day.

Both Eat and Pret a Manger, which pride themselves on selling gourmet lunches full of fresh ingredients, do not give out information in their shops, either on packaging or in a leaflet.

Customers have to go to the company's websites to find details.

In contrast, McDonald's – following a major revamp in recent years – prints full details on every burger box and bag of chips."

"Marks & Spencer's Oakham chicken and pancetta caesar sandwich contains more salt and saturated fat than a portion of chips combined with a Big Mac burger from McDonald's.

Many of Tesco's sandwiches, such as its red cheddar and tomato, contain more than half the recommended daily amount of saturated fat – linked to heart disease and considered by doctors to be the most unhealthy form of fat."

It is important for information about salt content to be provided, since so many people are sensitive to salt and need to restrict their salt intake. - In my opinion, information about calories is not important, because excess weight and all its attendant illnesses - hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, impaired liver and kidney function, premature aging, etc. are caused by fluid retention and not by eating too many calories. Obesity/Overweight is easily reduced by avoiding salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Eating extra dairy calcium reduces fat retention. - Read the evidence.

Interesting facts you may not be aware of about calcium and fat retention:

Women in particular tend to be short of calcium because people often tell them to cut down on dairy foods to lose weight or to reduce fat intake. But it is not necessary or desirable to cut down on milk. (Best to cut down on cheese though, or better still cut it out, because it contains a lot of salt.) Cutting down on milk will not make you slim. - AND more calcium WILL help you to lose excess weight - because extra calcium in the diet reduces fat retention....(o: - Danish research shows that eating extra dairy calcium, as in low fat yoghurt, increases, in a perfectly natural and safe, healthy way, the amount of fat lost in the faeces. It was shown on a BBC2 programme last year. - BBC webpage about calcium from The Truth About Food series of programmes - Note: it does not require you to eat less or reduce calorie intake - only to EAT MORE CALCIUM. - If you do try the low fat yoghurt, make sure it's the ordinary low fat yoghurt, not the extremely low fat stuff,, 'cos that's always crammed with iffy chemicals...)o: If you don't like yoghurt, get some supplement tablets containing a mixture of calcium and magnesium (also necessary to reduce fluid retention and depression) from your local health food store and take them in accordance with the instructions on the pack. They will help with any night cramps that are disturbing you too. - And make sure you have enough vitamin D because vitamin D is necessary to metabolise the calcium.

Prescription drugs, especially steroids, HRT, some birth control pills and antidepressants, are a major cause of salt sensitivity/sodium retention/water retention and therefore a major cause of obesity, insomnia, avoidable pain, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. so if you possibly can, it is best to avoid prescribed drugs. - And MIND, the respected mental health charity, found that a walk in the country was more successful than antidepressants at relieving depression, and of course there are no bad side-effects to a walk in the country.

The way to reduce fluid retention is to eat less salt and salty food - or better still, cut it out completely. - Your body will still have enough sodium, because every scrap or food and every drop of water contains a little salt, and that is all the salt your body needs. And eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables because they help to rid the body of excess sodium and excess fluid.

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/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

See FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...(o:

The government has abandoned plans to impose a pre-9pm ban on junk food TV advertising

Plans for junk food ad ban dropped

Extract from the Guardian:

"In a major victory for the advertising industry and commercial broadcasters, it is thought that the Department of Health has lost the battle to introduce a pre-watershed ban following a series of discussions with other government departments, notably the culture minister, James Purnell, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

Many industry observers had expected that the new obesity strategy, to be launched tomorrow by the health secretary, Alan Johnson, and the public health minister, Dawn Primarolo, would drastically extend the TV restrictions Ofcom brought in last year.

Ofcom has stated that such a ban would have a "disproportionate" effect on the industry, costing as much as £211m in TV ad revenue.

But campaign groups are now convinced that they have lost the battle on the pre-watershed ban.

"It sounds as if the advertising and food industries owe the Department for Culture, Media and Sport a large pat on the back," said Richard Watts, the coordinator of the Children's Food Campaign.

"Our understanding is that the Department of Health supported some very tough restrictions on junk food advertising and marketing, but lost the Whitehall battle to keep them in the obesity strategy.""

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Have prescribed drugs/medications harmed you?

Have a look at these pages:

vulnerable groups

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Fat people will be offered cash incentives to lose weight and take regular exercise under a radical Government strategy to tackle the obesity epidemic

Obesity crisis: get paid to lose weight

Extracts from Telegraph report:

"Fat people will be offered cash incentives to lose weight and take regular exercise under a radical Government strategy announced yesterday to tackle the obesity epidemic.

Leader: Battle of the bulge Your view: Should fat people be paid to lose weight? Employers will be encouraged to set up competitions with money, vouchers and other rewards for people who give up junk food in favour of healthy eating and living. Those losing the most weight would earn the biggest prizes. Ministers believe that by giving people incentives to do something about their weight now, it will help avoid larger costs associated with treating cancer, heart disease and diabetes caused by obesity. Similar schemes have worked well in America and British medical insurance companies already offer discounts for people who go to the gym regularly. Experts say that most of the population will be obese by 2050 unless urgent action is taken and the associated rise in ill health would cost the NHS £50 billion a year. The Government wants Britain to be the first major nation to reverse the rising tide of obesity and said it would focus on reducing within 12 years the proportion of children who are overweight back to the 2000 level of 26 per cent. At present, 30 per cent of children are obese or overweight." "The Government is investing £372 million over three years to implement the strategy and annual progress reports will be published. Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said the incentives scheme smacked of "desperation". There was little evidence that payments would work and it would be difficult to check whether people were regularly taking exercise. A recent analysis of nine research studies which used financial incentives found there was no effect on weight after 12 months. Aberdeen University's Health Services Research Unit said eating more fruit and vegetables was more effective than paying for weight loss." The trouble with offering cash incentives to lose weight is that it will encourage people to eat less food/diet, and dieting does not reduce weight; dieting usually causes weight gain and is very harmful to health. The best way to reduce obesity is to tell the truth about how it is caused and how to reduce it safely. - Dieting (reducing calorie intake) does not reduce obesity because obesity is not caused by overeating. Obesity is caused by fluid retention in people who are vulnerable/sensitive to salt. These people can lose weight easily and fast by avoiding salt and salty food. - They can lose excess weight even more rapidly by eating plenty of fruit and vegetables because these foods contain a lot of potassium,and potassium helps to remove excess salt from the body - i.e. potassium displaces sodium in the body. - See vulnerable groups

Doctors 'must own up to blunders' says Steve Walker, chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA)

Doctors 'must own up to blunders'

Extract from The Observer:

"Doctors have been told to own up and apologise if they make mistakes, in a bid to reduce the £613m in compensation paid each year to victims of blunders such as wrong diagnoses, botched surgery and delays during childbirth.

A new culture of honesty and openness should see such patients receive a personal apology from the doctor concerned and a detailed explanation of what went wrong, a senior official said.

Steve Walker, chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA), said that patients and their families can feel hugely frustrated when hospitals are reluctant to acknowledge and explain cases of negligence. He believes that a more candid and speedy response could reduce the £613m paid out in damages each year. He made his comments in the week that Leslie Ash was awarded £5m in damages after contracting MSSA, a variant of the MRSA superbug.

Negligence lawyers say that the main reason a number of victims take legal action is to obtain more information.

'The message to doctors is: if you're aware of an error, or a shortfall in what's been delivered, you should feel free, indeed you should feel under an obligation, to tell your patients and to apologise and to explain, either verbally or in writing, even if the patient is likely to sue,' he told The Observer. 'The explanation bit is really important to many, many claimants. It doesn't matter if it heads off a claim or encourages a claim, people as human beings and patients are entitled to this and they should be getting it."

I think the culture of lying, evasion and cover-up of clinical negligence by doctors, along with collusion by the Department of Health and the Health Authorities, and partiality from the criminal justice system, has been allowed to go on too long for any meaningful change to come about without employing legal sanctions...)o: - And the uselessness of the GMC and similar bodies in protecting patient safety, rather than doctors' reputations, is well-known and notorious... - Routinely, when patients or their relatives complain about clinical negligence they are given further distress rather than a scrap of help or any sincere words of regret, apology or explanation.

I watched Jamie Oliver's Channel 4 show: "Eat to Save Your Life" last night and found it, like the curate's egg, 'good in parts'...

I admire Jamie Oliver's campaigning, and in this programme he was right to draw attention to the poor quality and undesirable ingredients of much processed food and ready meals, and right to urge people to eat wholefoods and to cook from fresh ingredients.

But the nutritionist on the programme gave the usual misinformation that reducing calorie intake is the way to reduce or prevent obesity. - There is not a shred of evidence to support this claim. - It is categorically untrue. - As far as food intake is concerned, to reduce or prevent obesity it is chiefly necessary to minimise sodium/salt intake and to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. This is because obesity is caused by fluid retention, not by overeating. It is also necessary to avoid dieting; dieting is a major cause of weight gain and ill-health...)o:

Prescription drugs were not mentioned at all in the programme, and yet they are overwhelmingly the cause of the most severe cases of morbid obesity. - People need to be warned to avoid prescription drugs as far as they possibly can. They cause far more harm than good...)o:

You can read about fluid retention, and about fat retention, and about pharmaceutical junk and the harm it does, and about salt sensitivity and the groups of people vulnerable to salt - and much more - on my website. - And I'm not selling anything...(o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

A critical view of the drug companies

The Truth About the Drug Companies

Read about the many benefits of having enough vitamin D.

Vitamin D Council

Extract:

"Current research indicates vitamin D deficiency plays a role in causing seventeen varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, and periodontal disease.

This does not mean that vitamin D deficiency is the only cause of these diseases, or that you will not get them if you take vitamin D. What it does mean is that vitamin D, and the many ways in which it affects a person's health, can no longer be overlooked by the health care industry nor by individuals striving to achieve and maintain a greater state of health."

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

One in five GPs puts drug reps above advisers

One in five GPs put drug reps above advisers

Extract from the Guardian:

"GPs should be made to declare the gifts they receive from drug firms, following revelations that one in five is more influenced by drug reps than official advisers when prescribing, MPs say today.

A report from the public accounts committee says the NHS spends about £200m a year more than it should on expensive medicines when there are cheaper generic versions available.

Edward Leigh, the committee's chairman, said the pharmaceutical industry spent £850m every year marketing its products to GPs. "It's hard to doubt that the blandishments of the pharmaceutical industry are having an effect. But GPs must concentrate more on following official guidelines, increasing prescribing of generic drugs where appropriate."

A survey by the National Audit Office revealed the extent of the influence on GPs by drug reps.

New drugs are protected by patent for up to 20 years so the maker can recoup research and development costs. But after that generics manufacturers can make cheap copies, giving the NHS the chance to save money. Yet firms frequently produce new, allegedly better, drug versions, and the slight changes bring them further patent protection, keeping the price up."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

"In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating" sounds a jolly sensible book. - Three cheers for rationality!

This link is to a Guardian extract from Michael Pollan's book "In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating" - link

Well worth reading, in my opinion.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

I watched Channel 4's Dispatches: The Truth About Your Food programme last night and it contained the usual untrue claims about food calories...)o;

The format of the programme was mainly about how when people eat in restaurants and the like, they eat more calories than they think, and the high calorie intake was blamed for the increase in obesity in the UK. Assertions like these are untrue and are not supported by any evidence. - All the evidence, in fact, is to the contrary, viz: for overweight/obese people, dieting (i.e. eating fewer calories than the body requires, in order to lose excess weight) almost always results in weight GAIN, not weight loss. - This is because obesity is caused not by overeating, but by fluid retention.

Overweight/obese people can easily and swiftly lose weight by giving up dieting and instead concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food. This reduces the fluid retention.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Doctors in UK have never had it so good - and their threat to quit the NHS over reform plans will not be carried through - says medical student.

GPs are crying wolf

Extract from Guardian article:

"Of course the exodus from the profession will not happen. Doctors are happy to talk about thousands of people walking out in protest as long as it does not actually include them. They know when they have it good. They know that outside of London a secure job that pays more than £35,000 a year and provides a degree of respect and social standing is hard to come by.

Many senior figures within NHS management and the Department of Health have said that there are some senior doctors are refusing to attend internal and external management meetings and negotiations unless they are being paid to attend - on top of their salaries, at GMC rates that is about £100 an hour. Is it any wonder doctors are being left out of negotiations? This is scandalous and downright cheeky.

They may talk about their colleagues in law or banking earning many times the salary they do and yet they do not leave their jobs and retrain. I've lost of the number of medical students in their final year who've spoken to me of going to work in the City and the fabulous salaries they could command.

Do you know what - not one of them has taken a job anywhere but medicine. They knew and I know that if they went into my old City firm with the sheer arrogance they display as medical students they would have their bollocks chewed off by lunchtime.

I'm fed up with hearing that morale is at an all-time low when everywhere I go I see contented doctors who are happy to teach students and treat patients. They have made peace with the fact that they did not become bankers or lawyers and are happy to get on with it."

I agree with the writer of the article. Most British doctors are arrogant and overpaid, and would be unwelcome in any other workplace. In my opinion most do their patients far more harm than good because of their reckless over-prescribing of powerful pharmaceutical drugs/junk, the adverse side-effects of which they know too little, if anything.


Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

If you are overweight, you will NOT lose weight by cutting down on calories! - You WILL lose weight by eating less salt/sodium...

Forget about calories! - How to Lose weight!

A slimming drug for pet dogs! - What foolishness! - They just need to eat only food that does not contain added salt.

Dog weight-loss pill approved by vets

Extract from the Telegraph:

"A new slimming drug to help tackle Britain's growing dog obesity crisis has been approved for use by British vets.

The liquid drug, called Sentrol, has already been used successfully in the United States and experts believe it will help cut the increasing number of overweight pets in Britain.

Vets believe up to 40 per cent of Britain's estimated nine million dogs are grossly overweight, compared with only around 10 per cent in the 1970s.

However, the RSPCA has criticised the new drug, claiming the best way to keep a dog slim is through a healthy diet and regular exercise."

This is sheer folly. - Obesity in pets - dogs, cats, rabbits, for instance - is caused by giving them food containing added salt, e.g. the leftovers of the owner's meal (or ready meal).

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.

How to Lose weight!

Are you being harmed by the drugs your doctor prescribes for you?

See Overdosing doctors
and prescribed steroids and prescribed HRT and amitriptyline, etc

A new, more vicious MRSA strain threatens Britain

'Flesh-eating' MRSA strain threatens Britain

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Spread by contact among people, the bug can cause boils as large as tennis balls, blood poisoning or a necrotising condition which eats away at a person's lungs.

Resistant to most front-line antibiotic drugs, the new strain is a far more vicious form of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), which is commonly found in hospitals.

It is copying the HIV virus by targeting mainly gay men in the US, but is also prevalent among injecting drug users and players of contact sports such as wrestling or American football.

Although only two cases of the lethal strain - which is a new form of a recently identified MRSA strain known as USA300 - have been recorded in the UK, experts fear it may only be a matter of time before it becomes established in Britain."

"Professor Mark Enright, from Imperial College and St Mary's Hospital, London, Britain's leading authority on MRSA, said: "It's quite surprising that the figures are so high. "The main reservoir for this infection is gay men, drug users, and those involved in contact sports, like wrestling. Having lots of sexual partners and making skin contact with a large number of different people helps the infection to spread.

"In the US it is already moving into the wider community, which is very worrying.""

You can boost your general resistance to infection by avoiding salt and salty food and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. See Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions

Give your body and mind a real tonic! - Improve your health by eating less salt and salty food!- You will feel so much better...(o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

A junior doctor's thoughts about incapacity benefit

Incapacity benefit should be for those who really need it, says Max Pemberton

Max Pemberton is a junior doctor who writes articles for the Telegraph.

Extract:

"One summer, before graduating, I sat for a week studying in my bedroom. It was swelteringly hot and I had to keep the window open. But I was incessantly interrupted by the neighbours' banter outside.

Laughing, joking, playing football, having rows; their entire social life was being played out in front of me. And then as I battled with the intricacies of the kidney, it occurred to me: I had the education, but wasn't I being the stupid one?

I was studying while they sunbathed, so I could be a doctor and heal them when they developed skin cancer, and I would pay taxes to ensure that they could continue their lifestyle. Outrageous!

What was even more galling was that their apparent illnesses didn't hinder their lives - they weren't incapacitated at all. I watched the sons, both of whom were around my age, as they kicked a ball around. Was this the best cure for their depression?

I can see the appeal - if it's possible to live for free, not having to work, then why not do it? But perhaps making people get a job would mean that they weren't so depressed. Have they not just fallen into a vicious circle?

In my work, I see people battling crippling, disabling illnesses who deserve help from the state, people who are unable to work and whose lives are blighted by their conditions.

Further restrictions on benefit applications that would make it more difficult for people to receive long-term sickness benefit might mean that a proportion of those who really deserved it were excluded, and that would be a tragedy. But can we continue to support legions of people for whom state assistance has become a lifestyle rather than a necessity?

Official figures last week showed that half a million people under the age of 35 are now claiming incapacity benefit, more than those claiming unemployment benefit."

Kissing, shaking hands and infection transmission...

Cheeky kiss is healthier than a handshake

Extract from the Sunday Telegraph:

"People who greet each other with handshakes are much more likely to pass on germs such as flu, cold and stomach bugs, than those who settle for a peck on the cheek, a scientific study has concluded.

More than three million Britons called in sick last week as flu and norovirus outbreaks swept through the country.

The majority will have been infected after touching someone else's hands and might have been better off kissing friends and relatives instead.

"The hands are critical in the chain of infection as they transmit infections from surfaces to people and between people," said Prof Sally Bloomfield, from the London School of Hygiene and chairman of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene, which carried out the research.

"Shaking hands is the main form of physical contact with each other but you don't know what the other person has been touching before you greet them. People avoid kissing each other when they have a cold, but in fact they are more likely to pass on an infection by shaking someone's hand.""

This information fits in with what I was told many years ago when I went as a volunteer to the Common Cold Research Centre at Harvard Hospital, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. - The virologists said the most common way of catching a cold was by shaking hands with someone who had the germs on their hands and then later, rubbing your eyes - and the germs entered your body by way of the eyes... - Ever since then I have tried to avoid rubbing my eyes...

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Army hero, Cpl Mark Wright, died because of failings of the Ministry of Defence

Army hero left to die by failings at MoD

Extract from the Sunday Telegraph:

"Last night, Bob Wright, the soldier's father, said he was furious with the Ministry of Defence, which he accused of "trying to hide the truth".

Cpl Wright, a 27-year-old paratrooper, was one of seven soldiers who became trapped in a minefield in September 2006 in Helmand, southern Afghanistan, following an operation to rescue a wounded soldier.

The report states:

• Cpl Wright died because of the non-availability of an aircraft equipped with a suitable winch

• Soldiers did not have a map of the mined area even though one was available

• Radio problems led to a communications breakdown

• Soldiers had to provide their own mine extraction kits

• The British military needs to develop its own Combat Search and Rescue capability.

At the time of the incident, the MoD made no mention of the equipment problems and claimed that Cpl Wright's injuries were so severe that he was effectively beyond medical help. But a copy of the soldier's post- mortem report, which has also been seen by this newspaper, states that the injuries were "survivable".

Last night, Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, described the findings as an appalling indictment of Labour defence policy.

"This is a catalogue of unacceptable errors," he said. "Contrary to the MoD's claims, it is clear that Cpl Wright's injuries were survivable."

Three of the soldiers who lost legs are suing the MoD for negligence. Their lawyer, Paul Harrington, who is also acting for Cpl Wright's parents, said: "There was a systemic failure by the Ministry of Defence in providing adequate resources, equipment and intelligence which led to a wholly avoidable death and serious injuries.""

I watched Look North on BBC1 this evening and heard about Lee Jardine's problem of manboobs (gynaecomastia)

The BBC has a webpage about Lee: - Man's plea for breast reduction

Gynaecomastia is one of the health problems that can be greatly reduced by eating less salt. - Lee says he is considering taking antidepressants. - I do hope he decides not to, because antidepressants often actually cause gynaecomastia and might, in Lee's case, worsen it. - Lee says he is desperate. - If you know Lee, suggest to him that he visit my website and read about how avoiding salt and salty food would help with the manboobs problem and with his problem of overweight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

How to Lose weight!

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

Safe, reliable, free obesity advice

'Munchies' drug offers hope to the obese

The Telegraph article is about taranabant, another so-called weight-loss drug.

But drugs are not necessary to lose weight when you are overweight or obese. - Nor is dieting, calorie-counting or vigorous exercise. - You will lose weight fast and safely by eating less salt and salty food. - This is because obesity is caused not by overeating but by fluid retention, and fluid retention is made worse by eating salt/sodium.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

All hens' eggs are due to be free-range within two years

All eggs to be free-range within two years

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Sainsbury's, the Co-op and Morrisons have all agreed to ban eggs from caged birds while Marks & Spencer and Waitrose already sell only free-range eggs.

All products containing egg will also use free-range varieties.

The chains will phase out battery hen eggs over the next two years, before an EU ban on battery cages due to come into effect in 2012.

Asda and Tesco have not yet followed suit, but have cut back shelf space given to battery hen eggs.

In Britain, "enriched cages", which are larger and have a perch, nest and litter, will still be legal but Germany will also ban these cages.

The move comes as the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launches a campaign to persuade consumers to demand better welfare for hens.

He examines the poultry industry in a one-off television programme, Jamie's Fowl Dinners, in which he shows a series of films and interviews explaining the brutal living conditions of battery chickens that are killed for meat.

Sainsbury's, which Oliver promotes, said it was the first major supermarket to announce a ban on battery hen eggs and was expected to end the sale of all such eggs by next year.

Morrisons also plans to stop selling eggs from caged hens by 2010. A spokesman said: "We see animal welfare as an extremely important factor when sourcing produce - that's why we have taken action on eggs.""

Ready meals are more popular than ever

Ready meals more popular than ever

Extract from the Sunday Telegraph:

"They have been criticised as unhealthy, unappetising and expensive, but ready meals are more popular than ever.

Sales of pre-prepared meals have trebled in the past decade, according to a government study which found we eat out more, down our food more quickly and vary our mealtimes.

Each person spends an average of £11.41 a week eating out, nearly a third more than 10 years ago, after allowing for inflation."

The main trouble with ready meals is that they usually contain a lot of salt/sodium and so they are harmful to people who are sensitive to salt or are overweight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Patients are left to starve on NHS wards...

Patients left to starve on NHS wards

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The number released from hospital suffering from malnutrition, nutritional anaemia, or other nutritional deficiencies has risen by 84 per cent in the decade since Labour came to power, from 74,431 in 1997 to 139,127."

"The worst area in the country for malnutrition was the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust in Greater Manchester, where 4,947 patients were discharged suffering malnourishment, followed by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, with 2,771, and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

They were among nearly 50 hospital trusts around the country that discharged more than 1,000 malnourished patients last year.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that the poor quality of hospital food is putting patients off to the extent that 13 million meals are thrown away each year, at an average cost of £2.65 each.

Last year, the health minister Ivan Lewis admitted patients were being starved on wards, with some elderly people given little more than a scoop of mashed potato for lunch.

Others were "tortured" by having meal trays placed out of reach, which they were too weak to pull towards them."

When I was in hospital (Northern General Hospital, Sheffield) for a month last summer, my main complaint about the food was the high salt content of most of the meal choices. - As a steroid victim I need to avoid eating salt and salty food, so I had to rely on friends bringing me food that I could eat.

UK's Whitehall and other Departmental waste...

Ministers waste £2billion on computer projects

Article in the Telegraph. - Extract:

"Ministers have wasted nearly £2 billion - or £33 for every man, woman and child in Britain - on scrapped computer projects over the past seven years, a survey has found.

Blunders overseen by Whitehall have included the £486 million computer upgrade at the Child Support Agency and an adult learning programme that was subjected to extensive fraud.

The Department for Work and Pensions wasted more than £1.6 billion by abandoning three schemes including a new benefit card based on outdated technology."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

I can be contacted via my website if you need my help. My help is free.

TV chefs, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, begin a campaign against the cruelty of intensive chicken production

The shameful price of cheap food

Extract from the Telegraph:

"We are living in the era of cheap food, when you can pick up a chicken in the supermarket for less than the price of a pint of beer. But there is a hidden cost: of the 850 million birds reared in Britain every year, only five per cent have had anything approaching a comfortable life. The vast majority are intensively reared, in prison-camp environments.

Now two of our most celebrated campaigning chefs, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, are about to try to change our minds, and to ensure that the 25 kilos of chicken meat we each consume a year have come from birds that were decently treated.

Starting next week, Channel 4 is devoting a season of programmes to the nation's eating habits. There will be a one-off Oliver special - Jamie's Fowl Dinners - in which he demonstrates the realities of industrial chicken production, while Fearnley-Whittingstall's aptly titled Hugh's Chicken Run will follow his attempts to set up an intensive farm - in the course of which he is reduced to tears.

The way chickens are reared provides an insight into the intensive techniques used to satisfy our demand for cut-price meat and vegetables. In this world, a bird that will feed a family of five can be raised in a mere 39 days, when before the Second World War it would have needed around 20 weeks to reach the same weight. Modern methods see 40,000 birds packed into one artificially lit barn, reeking to such an extent that if the ventilation system failed they would be gassed by their own droppings. Each bird inhabits a space smaller than a piece of A4 paper, and most will have been de-clawed and de-beaked to prevent them damaging their neighbours. To encourage them to feed continuously, they are given only one hour of darkness in each day. They will never experience natural light or see a blade of grass.

These birds are meant to fatten quickly, so exercise is undesirable. Low light levels keep them drowsy, but as they grow they become so densely packed in as to find movement impossible. Even if they had the notion to try to make it to an open door, they grow so fat that their legs often become useless. During the process of catching and transportation, tens of thousands may die, as they are packed together even more tightly than in their sheds. (Chickens need three times as much air as human beings for their size: in a lorry, they may get almost none.)"